I Am Not the God of Drama

Chapter 722

The Curtain Falls on the Red Dust

"I..."

Yao Qing looked at Su Zhiwei in front of him, subconsciously trying to avoid her gaze, but was held tightly by her pair of jade hands.

Yao Qing lowered his head, wanting to pull his hand back, but he who had run out of oil and lamps was fundamentally no match for Su Zhiwei, not even able to budge a single bit... The current him, in Su Zhiwei's eyes, wasn't an ordinary old man, but an ant-like existence.

"Why hide from me?" Su Zhiwei asked softly.

"... This appearance of mine is too ugly... So ugly I even disdain myself." Yao Qing sighed. "I didn't want you to see this appearance of mine..."

In fact, Yao Qing was quite handsome when he was young, otherwise Su Zhiwei wouldn't have been moved back then. However, three hundred years of aging hadn't affected Su Zhiwei at all, yet it had left incomparably deep marks on Yao Qing.

Now, Su Zhiwei was still the peerless beauty she was back then, standing at the pinnacle of the Domain. Yet he was just an old man with failing organs, an ugly face, and a stench of death all over his body, living his final moments in the wilderness.

In Su Zhiwei's eyes, everything about him now was so unbearable.

Just now, when Yao Qing felt that someone had approached him, he even thought of directly jumping into the river and dying, lest Su Zhiwei see his current sorry state...

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Just as Yao Qing was feeling infinitely bitter in his heart, a smear of warmth slowly covered his cheek.

Yao Qing's pupils contracted slightly.

He saw Su Zhiwei stretching out her hand, gently stroking his wrinkled face. Under the caress of that pair of white and slender jade hands, there was no disdain or disgust at all, but only endless pity and guilt.

"Ugly?" She softly asked, "Do you know who made you this ugly?"

Yao Qing was startled.

"Back then... why didn't you just let me die?" Tears silently flowed out of Su Zhiwei's eyes. She slowly pressed against Yao Qing's chest and sobbed uncontrollably,

"You didn't have to suffer these three hundred years of torment, you didn't have to grow old... Even though it's painful... I still wanted to spend my life with you back then..."

Yao Qing lowered his head, his cloudy eyes looking at the tears on Su Zhiwei's cheeks. After a long silence, he slowly reached out and wiped her tears away.

"You're a girl, I can't let you experience the pain of old age." Yao Qing forcefully squeezed out a smile. The wrinkles clustered together, appearing somewhat comical,

"Since old age is to be borne... then let me bear it alone."

Su Zhiwei's tears flowed even fiercer.

Yao Qing's palm gently stroked her hair, his eyes full of tenderness. "We've spent a whole three hundred years in Willow Town... Zhiwei, whether it's suffering or hardship, it's not a bad thing for me as long as I could stay by your side in the end.

At least, we spent three hundred years of spring, summer, autumn, and winter together. Not every couple can be like us... For me, it's enough.

But my journey ends here... For the rest of the path, you'll have to walk alone."

Yao Qing slowly closed his eyes, leaning his back against the withered willow tree, no longer moving the slightest bit.

Su Zhiwei lay trembling in Yao Qing's embrace. She didn't have Yao Qing's open-mindedness, nor his composure... These three hundred years, to Yao Qing, was him accompanying Su Zhiwei, but to Su Zhiwei, it was Yao Qing constantly sacrificing for her!

She watched helplessly as her loved one aged bit by bit over three hundred years, watched his figure grow older day by day... No matter how Yao Qing tried to hide it, the guilt in Su Zhiwei's heart accumulated day after day like a mountain!

If not for this Domain, she would have died three hundred years ago.

It was Yao Qing's three hundred years of pain that forcibly gave her life... She couldn't say whether this was good or bad, but looking at Yao Qing's current appearance, her heart was bleeding.

Under the withered willow tree, not a sound could be heard.

The aura of death completely stripped Yao Qing's soul away... Between heaven and earth, only Su Zhiwei's muffled sobs could be heard.

Swoosh!

Three consecutive streams of light suddenly cut through the sky, rapidly descending.

Bai Ye, Nine of Hearts, and Jack of Clubs steadily landed by the Gusu River. They saw Su Zhiwei lying in the Old Man's embrace from a distance, and the sound of sobs echoed over the water...

"Lord of the Red Dust." Bai Ye spoke calmly.

Su Zhiwei ignored them, just silently hugging Yao Qing.

"My condolences." Bai Ye naturally understood what had happened and calmly said, "Since you are fine, there's no need for us to act... However, his corpse, we need to take away."

As members of the Dusk Society sent out for funerals, their original target was the Lord of the Red Dust, but since the Lord of the Red Dust wasn't dead, and instead it was the Path of the Arts Yao Qing who had died, taking his corpse away wasn't completely in vain.

After a moment of silence, Su Zhiwei's cold voice rang out:

"You dare."

"Yao Qing was once a member of the Dusk Society. We originally came to take away your corpse, but since you are alive, and he is a Dusk Society member... we have every right to take it."

Su Zhiwei stood up. She carried Yao Qing's corpse on her back, turned her head to look at the three people, her eyes filled with terrifying killing intent.

"Whoever wants to snatch his corpse, come try!"

An Oppressive Aura suppressed the heavens. Following Su Zhiwei's anger, terrifying power swept across the wilderness. Even Bai Ye's complexion changed drastically!

The current Su Zhiwei had broken through the shackles of old age. Even if the nine Monarchs gathered together, they probably wouldn't be her match. She alone could fight against the world... The members of the Dusk Society fundamentally had no right to act presumptuously in front of her.

"Let her go." Bai Ye lowered the brim of his hat and sighed helplessly. "Let's consider this trip a complete failure..."

The other two looked at each other and nodded as well.

A Domain composed of endless red flowers descended from the sky. Su Zhiwei carrying Yao Qing's corpse slowly walked towards the depths of the red flowers...

"Zhiwei." Yao Qing's weak voice suddenly echoed in her ears once more, "There's one more thing, I have to tell you."

Su Zhiwei was startled.

A ray of starlight from the night sky somehow fell by Su Zhiwei's side, condensing into a vague figure. That was exactly what Yao Qing looked like when he was young.

"Your soul wasn't collected by the Calamity of Mockery?" Su Zhiwei was taken aback.

"... When did that 'person' collect my soul? He didn't even come close here." Yao Qing smiled. "After my body died, my soul followed the Domain and gathered here... As for why it looks like this, I also don't know."

Su Zhiwei stared blankly at Yao Qing. The despair in her eyes suddenly turned into unprecedented ecstasy!

There was hope!

As long as the soul wasn't destroyed... as long as she still retained the "Strings", perhaps there was still a chance to resurrect Yao Qing!

"What did you want to tell me?" Su Zhiwei asked anxiously.

"It's about... those starlight."

Yao Qing pointed at his own body that was composed of starlight, and then pointed at the sky above.

When Su Zhiwei and Yao Qing were spending their time in Willow Town, because Yao Qing had already abandoned his cultivation path, he had a lot of free time every day. And his biggest hobby was sitting in the courtyard, watching the starry sky at night...

But unfortunately, under the shadow of the Gray World, the Red Dust Domain's starry sky was always covered by thick clouds. Not to mention stars, even the moonlight was a rare commodity.

Therefore, every time Yao Qing saw the stars, he would be especially excited, and even pull Su Zhiwei to watch together.

So, the two of them developed a habit. As long as there were stars appearing in the sky, they would sit in the courtyard to enjoy the coolness and look up at the starry sky... It was originally a very romantic thing, until one day, Yao Qing discovered an abnormality.

"You remember the few times we watched the stars? Sometimes one appeared, sometimes two, sometimes a whole cluster..."

Su Zhiwei nodded blankly.

"But I discovered... those aren't stars." Yao Qing's voice grew heavier,

"They are 'eyes'."

"... Eyes?"

"Yes... They are a pair of massive eyes hiding behind the universe, observing us... Watching every move in our world." Yao Qing's soul slightly trembled,

"At first, I thought it was just my illusion. But as the number of times I watched the stars increased... I grew more certain of my guess. When they appear, they are observing us... When they disappear, they are blinking.

Zhiwei, I suspect... the world we live in is not real.

It's very likely just a... Stage."

Stage?

When Su Zhiwei heard this word, she was instantly stunned in place.

For some reason, she unconsciously connected Yao Qing's words with that red umbrella "human" figure standing in front of her earlier, as well as the phrase "Detected loss of actor connection, Performance interrupted"...

"Stage... Actor... The Audience..." Su Zhiwei murmured to herself, as if recalling something.

"If that's the case... then what the 'Calamity of Mockery' brought just now, was just a small incident occurring on this Stage??"

In Su Zhiwei's mind, everything that had happened before rapidly flashed past.

Brand, the Witchcraft Association, the Realm War... The endless deaths and chaos, if all of this was truly just a play on the Stage, then who was the "Actor"?

Is it Chen Ling... or all the people in this world?

And what was the true appearance of the "Audience" observing outside this Stage?

If all this is really just a play... then what meaning do their sacrifices and resistance have?

An unprecedented sense of absurdity surged in Su Zhiwei's heart, causing her to freeze directly in place...

And that massive shadow outside the starry sky seemed to have also sensed Su Zhiwei's gaze at this moment. Under the deep starry sky, that pitch-black, massive, horrifying eye slowly blinked.

——[End of the First Act: The Curtain Falls on the Red Dust]——