Until Death Do Us Part
Lu Ban had heard before that many people who were burned to death would actually lose consciousness first due to suffocation and eventually die.
However, the traces at the scene told Lu Ban that Amber retained her clearest consciousness while being burned by the flames. She did not suffocate due to lack of oxygen, but felt the flames engulfing her throughout the process.
The flames spread across her fair and tender skin, tearing it apart and gouging out the flesh inside, devouring it like a greedy monster, leaving not even the bones behind.
Lovely hair turned to ashes in the fire, dazzling clothes were burned away by the flames, slender limbs, delicate face, and eyes with the most beautiful light in the world were destroyed in the merciless Pale flames, leaving only an ugly, charred, and foul-smelling corpse, imprisoned in this deserted pavilion for decades or even centuries.
Throughout the entire process, Amber struggled, pleaded, and cried out until the very last moment, when she faced the most Affliction death.
While these things were happening, the people below were cheering, jumping for joy, celebrating, and holding the grandest celebration.
Finally, her life faded away, transforming into something purer.
This thing will protect the world for decades, centuries, until it eventually runs out of fuel and dies.
Amber's small, frail body would be smashed to pieces by the old witches, then burned again, turning into a small urn, which would be displayed on the shelves of the main hall, never to see the light of day again.
This is the truth about the Head Miko.
There was no authority above all others, no joyful life, and not even life itself.
The Head Miko is the offering made to the gods.
All of this was done by Lu Ban himself for Amber.
If Lu Ban had agreed to Amber's request and allowed her to live as an ordinary girl in a corner of the sea, she certainly wouldn't have had to suffer such inhuman torment.
If Amber had been a little less responsible, a little more timid, or a little more selfish, she could have escaped her fate and taken a completely different path, one that would at least offer her a future.
She stands here precisely because she is so perfect.
It was precisely because she was so outstanding that she met such an end.
Fate, like precisely meshing gears, propelled her to this position.
"You've gotten thinner again, Amber."
Lu Ban sighed.
The desiccated corpse Motionless, with only the flickering firelight of the longbow in its hand.
"I think you need to know this."
A faint voice came from behind Lu Ban.
He turned around and saw, in his shadow and in the flickering firelight, the black-haired, cherry-eyed priestess standing barefoot in the filthy, charred world, yet spotless.
The contrast between the two creates a strong sense of inversion, just like this exotic land, where there are exquisitely beautiful falling cherry blossoms and cruel and tragic sacrifices.
Who exactly are you?
Lu Ban asked.
He was surprisingly calm.
Calm and undisturbed, like the moonlight.
"You can call me Divine Cherry Tree, or you can call me Harmony Island -sama, or whatever else, anyway, it's all the names they gave me."
The witch answered in a flat voice, which reminded Lu Ban of Feng Yu at times.
Indifferent, calm, as if everything in the world had nothing to do with him.
"The witches tricked her into taking a drug that could temporarily steal her consciousness and power, then tied her to a pillar and lit a sacred fire. She would struggle and try to escape, but most of the witches couldn't do it. A few could get down to the second floor, but that was the end of it."
The shrine maiden spoke as if she were recounting something commonplace.
"She was too young and the drug was too strong. She tried for a long time but couldn't break free. By then, she could already see me."
"She shed tears, though those tears would be swallowed up by the pure fire in an instant. She begged me to save her. She said she didn't want to die, that she had many things she wanted to do, and that she had someone she wanted to be with forever."
"I have seen many people on their deathbeds. Some are angry, feeling cheated and accusing the world. Some are resentful and cursing everyone who helped them get here. Some are desperate and their reason has collapsed."
"She was no exception."
"She regretted it, she was angry, she was unwilling to accept it, she lost hope in everything, she began to hate everything, to accuse everything, and she harbored the deepest resentment towards this world. This kind of obsession, the will sublimated in the pure fire, is what the Divine Child needs to protect this land."
"When the strongest hope becomes the deepest despair, the power born is the best food to feed the gods, and the pollution produced is enough to smooth over everything."
"As you know, in foreign lands, only pollution can fight pollution, and only stronger pollution can fight against invading pollution."
"In this world, this pollution is called Purification Fire."
"To sacrifice one person to save the lives of the many is my duty and my destiny, and it has remained unchanged for thousands of years."
The priestess's voice was colder than the night and softer than the moonlight.
"Until the very end, she kept repeating your name, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, etched into her heart, indelible, until death silenced her voice."
"I fulfilled her wish and told you all this."
She felt neither joy nor sorrow, as if nothing in the world could stir her emotions.
Does she hate me?
Lu Ban asked.
"Because I brought her here, that's why she called my name until her death?"
"No."
The priestess shook her head.
"The first thing she said before calling your name was, 'I'm sorry.'"
Lu Ban remained silent.
He knew it very well.
Lu Ban knew about Momiji's situation after learning about it in the evening.
Just like the Momiji, Amber's future is also its past.
When she first arrived at the Harmony Island, Amber had already been burned to death and become Divine Child, serving as the vessel for the shrine maiden named Divine Cherry Tree to descend.
The Oldest One Head Miko did not die completely.
Her soul resides with the Divine Cherry Tree blossom in the Wa Island Grand Shrine. By offering sacrifices to shrine maidens with powerful spirituality, the Divine Cherry Tree can descend upon the shrine, using these sacrificed maidens to nourish and control the purifying fire, thus protecting Harmony Island.
This is the truth about Harmony Island.
Lu Ban didn't know who came up with such a cruel method. Not only would every Head Miko suffer inhuman torture, but even the Oldest One priestess would never have peace and would have to witness these deaths again and again for thousands of years.
This is the price the people of Harmony Island have paid to combat pollution.
This is what Lu Ban wanted to know: how to combat pollution.
"You only communicated with me to tell me these things?"
Lu Ban knew very well that every word he spoke to this witch now contained corruption.
Over this long period of time, she has come into contact with too much filth, and has become a collection of pollution herself. Perhaps she is no longer herself, but rather He, becoming a Great Being, breaking free from the chessboard of another realm, and arriving at a higher dimension.
Perhaps she was Him all along, only appearing in human form, staging a tragic song of self-gratification in this world.
"Because that's her wish."
The witch glanced at the withered corpse.
"I have witnessed the passing of countless witches, most of whom, as I just said, were filled with resentment and left a curse on the world."
"These curses, along with their tormented souls, brew within me. Every moment, I can hear their howls, wails, and sobs, filling my consciousness with the most vicious language."
"But this child, despite suffering, despite being betrayed by the world, despite being in despair, still wanted to leave hope in the very end, even if it was just for the sake of one person."
She tells you, "Live on."
Lu Ban was stunned when he heard the priestess's words.
Then he laughed.
It was an uncontrollable, maniacal laugh, like a wail. He arched his back, bent over, and air was expelled from his lungs. The feeling of suffocation, accompanied by the twitching of his facial muscles, created a hallucinatory illusion.
The laughter grew louder and louder, echoing in the quiet night, as if mocking the world, or perhaps mocking itself.
"You should leave."
The priestess seemed to have decided to end the conversation. She said this and glanced at Lu Ban again.
"I have forgotten my thoughts, and only my body remains, perhaps a relic of you."
As the shrine maiden chanted, Lu Ban felt the surrounding space distort, the world spinning around him, and the shrine maiden, Amber, the Divine Child Pavilion, the Divine Cherry Tree, Wa Island Grand Shrine all drifting away from him.
In that dazzling illusion, Lu Ban spoke to the empty void, to the Great Being high above, his voice trembling with laughter.
"She did leave hope."
A century later, the Harmony Island still exists, and in any case, that is the result of the hope left by Amber.
Not fueled by hatred and malice, but sustained by hope, her soul sat alone in the high Divine Child Pavilion for a hundred years, guarding the world that had betrayed her.
Some memories, even if they are only fleeting, can sustain a person for a very long time.
Perhaps Lu Ban didn't know how the Divine Child's arrow found its way to that cursed Song Island shrouded in Nameless Mist, an island even the Shrine Officials couldn't find.
Why did this strange island, which had gone unnoticed by the Divine Child for the previous hundred years, suddenly attract the Divine Child's attention after Lu Ban arrived?
Is there a possibility?
In this distant, ethereal, mist-shrouded world, has Amber been watching him all along?
Throughout the long, cold, and lonely years, she persevered until, in Lu Ban's past and Amber's future, the two finally met for the "first time."
Then, the Arrow of Purification arrived as scheduled.
Like a promise, it remains unchanged for thousands of years.
It's like a vow, eternally burning.
Amidst the bizarre and distorted scenes of that otherworldly realm, Lu Ban seemed to see a small figure giving him an innocent smile. In the flickering firelight, she waved her hands and called out with laughter.
I see you.
To this, Lu Ban could only respond with a smile that was a hundred years overdue, and he spoke in response.
"You saw it."
These chapters were actually written together the day before yesterday. I looked at the comments, and the normal discussions were fine, but why are some people on NGA saying that I wrote about Danmei? If I had written about that, I would be Old Cui one being roasted over the fire right now, okay?
As a writer full of positive energy, I will definitely give everyone a heartwarming ending that will make them feel the beauty of life after reading it!
Believe me!