"No, you're not a monster!" Wang Meng grew agitated. "Those bullies were the monsters! They had no humanity! They deserved to die!"
Li Xinyi shook her head, looking exhausted. "I don't want to keep living in hatred."
"It's too exhausting. I want to leave."
As she spoke, she suddenly held out a slender hand. "Will you come with me?"
"Me?" Wang Meng pointed at herself. "Can I? Do you really want me to?"
Li Xinyi nodded firmly. "It's time for us to go."
Wang Meng raised a hand to wipe away her tears, then took the hand she had long wanted to hold and never let go of. "All right."
"Are you afraid? Of disappearing forever?" Li Xinyi asked.
Wang Meng slowly shook her head. "I won't be afraid anymore."
Li Xinyi turned and bowed to Jian Ran and Lu Yanting. "Thank you. It's our turn to pay the price."
As she spoke, her white dress began to burn, slowly being consumed bit by bit.
Jian Ran's impassive expression finally shifted. "You don't really have to..."
"They're..." Lu Yanting, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly lowered his voice to ask, "choosing Soul Burning?"
Something that existed only in ancient books on the supernatural and had never actually happened?
Jian Ran nodded. "Exactly what you're thinking."
The pain of burning their souls twisted Li Xinyi's and Wang Meng's expressions more and more, yet smiles of release remained on their lips.
"Please destroy the Buddha Amulet and let those souls pass on," Wang Meng said with difficulty.
Jian Ran let out a long, quiet sigh. "All right."
Dust to dust, earth to earth. Everything was fate.
So be it.
He slowly closed his eyes, letting the fire spread to the tables and chairs, and the map on the table.
Hiding