What if I don't want to ascend to immortality?

Chapter 26 Buy one get one free
Meng Qingtong clapped her hands and stood up, but the expression on her face did not ease as the woolen fabric disappeared.

She looked out the window with worry. The ripples on the golden light barrier had stopped, but the aura of evil was still there.

The clone of the woolen doll did not turn to ashes along with the destruction of the main body, and instead showed obvious signs of anger.

Han Jie found it amusing and laughed, "Does this thing think you don't keep your word?"

"Tch, what did I promise it? I said I'd chop up that troublesome turtle and make soup, but I didn't say the one who helped would get away with it." She stomped her foot angrily on the empty ground where the wool had evaporated. "Let me tell you, what I hate most are demons that don't even spare children. A clean piece of white paper, and they have to come and scribble all over it. I'll scatter you all one by one!"

Han Jie looked at the golden light shield that was almost up and said, "It seems that it's not necessarily a bad thing that the clone didn't perish along with it."

"Hmm?" Meng Qingtong was taken aback and quickly released her divine sense to sense the area outside the golden light barrier. "Eh? The auras... have merged."

"This Pyramid doesn't seem to be a clever or intelligent demon. It's just blinded by rage, fusing several clones in an attempt to forcibly evolve," Han Jie laughed. "It's like a forced sale with a buy-one-get-one-free offer. It seems you can't refuse the true name of the Great Magic Carpet."

"We need to go outside." Meng Qingtong assessed the situation, pushed open the window, and climbed out. "There are too many things to worry about inside. You keep an eye on Yaya and the others. I'll go check out the bottom of the magic carpet first."

Standing inside the dissipating golden light barrier, Meng Qingtong made some temporary arrangements while observing the tangled threads in mid-air.

Clearly, the energy absorbed was not enough for smooth evolution. The light from the several intertwined magic carpets flickered, and occasionally the tangled tentacles broke off and fell, disappearing into the air before they could reach the ground.

After waiting for a while, the golden light shield dissipated, and the little magic carpet, which had huddled together in a big ball, still failed to evolve successfully, and its aura seemed to have weakened a bit.

Meng Qingtong was both amused and exasperated; the top corner of that lump in her field of vision seemed to be covered with cartoon-style black lines or beads of sweat.

Han Jie burst out laughing right there at the window.

If the reward for cooperating and making concessions with Meng Qingtong is seeing the demon in such a sorry state, then this partner was truly the right choice.

Meng Qingtong walked over, and with a mocking expression, bent down to set up the array. The array diagram was drawn below the small magic carpet, with the most powerful array line pointing directly at it.

The ball formed by the little magic carpet began to writhe, its surface bulging and uneven, as if it wanted to break open from the inside but couldn't, looking like it was frustrated, helpless, and furious.

Han Jie simply rested his chin on his hand on the windowsill and began to admire the view.

The caterpillar spins its cocoon and pupates right in front of the mantis, is it because it's afraid the mantis won't enjoy the food if it doesn't taste good?
After drawing the magic circle, Meng Qingtong stood aside to rest for a while, took out her phone and played with it with one hand for a few minutes. Then she looked up, sighed, and said in an exaggerated tone, "Hurry up, I'm getting impatient."

That lump got even angrier, swelling up several bumps and looking like it was about to turn into an even bigger blob.

Both of them looked relaxed, but one was holding a talisman in his hand and the other was making hand seals, ready to cast a spell or draw his sword at any moment. Neither of them was really slacking off.

After all, in the Complete Book of Demons, the Great Magic Carpet is a monster in the first ten pages.

According to the annotations in the complete text, pages 10, 50, and 150 are the three watersheds for the level of harm.

The "Thief Rabbit" is listed as the first item on page 178, placing it in the middle of the weak category; the "Little Magic Carpet" is listed as the fourth item on page 118, and is unremarkable in the middle category; the "Two-Headed Flying Leopard" is listed as the fourth item on page 13, placing it in the upper category of the strong category.

The first ten pages of the classification lacked annotations. One can only infer, based on common sense, that the level of harm must be even higher.

Therefore, even though it is the fifth item on the tenth page, and can only be ranked last in this category, it should not be underestimated.

After a moment's thought, Han Jie moved Dahen to the front, replacing the originally prepared Ye Bei.

The woolen dumpling in mid-air suddenly trembled, then froze in place, motionless.

Without hesitation, Meng Qingtong put away her phone, took two steps back, crouched down, and bent her knees, as if she had transformed into a female leopard waiting for her prey.

With Han Jie by her side, dealing with this flawed magic carpet wouldn't be difficult for her. The challenge lay in figuring out how to outmaneuver it and obtain its true name.

More importantly, she is still unsure whether the evolved Great Magic Carpet will have its own real name, or whether it will still be called Pulu.

Crack.

A soft sound, not belonging to this world, entered Meng Qingtong and Han Jie's minds through a vibration of spiritual energy.

Meng Qingtong raised her eyes and stared at the clump of woolen fabric. She wiped the sweat from her palm with her left hand, which was not holding the talisman, on her clothes.

The stacked magic carpets, which seemed to have transformed into the outer shell of a pupa, suddenly developed a noticeable crack.

Even though nothing had yet appeared from the crack, the aura emanating from it made Meng Qingtong's expression quickly turn serious.

A ring of transparent ripples emanated from the crack, appearing slow at first, but in the blink of an eye it expanded to encompass an area of ​​several hundred meters around it.

"It's the Illusionary Demon Realm. Be careful, this can weaken our mental resistance." Meng Qingtong warned as she pressed a Tranquilizing Talisman to her chest, adjusting the talisman to be passively activated.

Han Jie didn't react at all; he just watched.

The path he chose was inherently lonely. As long as the evolved Great Magic Carpet couldn't alter the abilities brought by its source, he wouldn't need to be on guard at all.

Besides, no matter how powerful the illusion is, it will all crumble on its own as long as he unleashes his Great Hatred.

She didn't plan to wait for the opponent to complete their evolution before making a move. Therefore, Meng Qingtong disdained even the most polite and courteous fighting style, which she disregarded in games.

Her waiting was simply to confirm that what was inside was no longer woolen fabric.

Since the woolen fabric couldn't possibly unleash the Illusionary Demon Realm, she didn't need to wait any longer.

She suddenly leaped into the air, waved her hand to release a talisman, and loudly chanted: "The waning moon opens!"

Before the word "open" could even be uttered, the magic carpet that heard the name of the rune had already started moving.

Countless slender tentacles swirling with gray-black mist emerged from the crack, quickly forming an umbrella-like defense to meet the incoming talisman.

The Crescent Moon Talisman primarily relies on the spiritual power contained within its core to continuously erode and damage the spirit; even among Grade B talismans, it is only considered mid-level.

Normally, illusion-type demons would have mental strength as their strength, and Han Jie couldn't help but frown slightly, feeling somewhat curious.

Immediately, his doubt turned into surprise.

The talisman that flew over was not activated upon being "opened".

The spiritual power contained within the talisman only erupted violently after it came into contact with the protective tentacles of the Great Magic Carpet.

A dark cloud suddenly appeared beneath the sky.

Within the shadows of the clouds, nine bolts of purple lightning, imbued with an aura of the underworld, lashed out like wildly dancing demonic serpents, simultaneously striking the tentacle-like umbrella of the Great Magic Carpet.

That is the Great Talisman of the First Rank, the Purple Thunder Heavenly Edict.

This talisman can inflict tremendous damage on both spirits and physical entities, but it does not involve any mental attacks.

What made Han Jie's lips curl into a smile was that this talisman could actually be used for long-range attacks. Meng Qingtong had adjusted the talisman to be activated by contact, clearly having planned this feint attack method long ago.

Once the talisman is activated through contact, it is almost impossible for it to miss.

Therefore, the Great Magic Carpet, which had poured a large amount of spiritual energy into its tentacles to protect against the Crescent Moon Symbol, took full damage from the Purple Thunder Decree.

After the lightning struck, Meng Qingtong grabbed the still-smoking magic carpet and shouted again, "Heavenly Net, activate!"

The spirit array she drew below was activated, and the crisscrossing spiritual energy instantly wove into a huge net, which rose into the air according to the array master's command, wrapping and binding the Great Magic Carpet along with the array master.

Meng Qingtong landed with the giant magic carpet, her left hand brimming with spiritual energy, and she plunged it fiercely into the crack in the outer shell. "Don't even think about running away until you hand over your true name!"

Han Jie frowned, leaped out of the window, and strode to the Heavenly Net Formation, carefully observing Meng Qingtong's expression.

If Meng Qingtong does anything slightly wrong, he doesn't care whether there are surveillance cameras or not, or whether he has obtained her real name or not; he'll just chop this bastard down with his sword first.

If he can't even save the person in front of him, what's the point of learning the Mind Sword Form?

Meng Qingtong's left hand was inside the shell formed by the remains of the little magic carpet, while she quickly raised her right hand and waved it at him, smiling as she said, "It's alright, it can still hold on for now. It was badly injured just now, so you don't need to do anything."

But only she knew how dangerous the situation inside truly was. The Great Magic Carpet was on the verge of madness, completely disregarding what the spiritual energy she had detected was intended for, and whether its true name was about to be revealed. It mobilized all its remaining spiritual energy, making a desperate gamble, using her left hand as a springboard to launch a do-or-die offensive.

Meng Qingtong is not Han Jie.

She has never actively sought out loneliness, let alone adapted to or gotten used to it.

She enjoys making friends, helping others, and pursuing like-minded people even when she knows it's impossible.

why?
Isn't it just because they're afraid of being alone?

She managed to withstand the attacks from the magic carpet with some effort, not because it wasn't a weakness of hers, but simply because she had a strong will and high resistance.

But now the attack has come from the Great Magic Carpet, which has jumped from page 118 to page 10—a level she has never dealt with before.

The most sensible thing to do at this time is to hand the battlefield over to Han Jie and put the matter of his real name aside for the time being.

But she didn't want to.

On the surface, she could find many reasons to explain her reluctance. For example, she was stubborn, headstrong, and strong-willed, and unwilling to open the door to potentially relying on a partner. For example, if she obtained the real name, other spiritualists would understand the Great Magic Carpet better and have more ways to deal with it. For example, there were many children living in this area, and she dared not change people for fear of giving the Great Magic Carpet a chance to escape.

But in reality, she knew in her heart that the most important reason was not those.

She didn't want the Magic Carpet to clash with Han Jie.

She had experienced the magic carpet's attack, and she knew how powerful the awakened thoughts and memories could be.

She also learned about Han Jie's past.

Over 1,800 years of long time, and more than 100 years of revenge without anyone by his side... how lonely must it have been?
Beneath their keen insight into people's hearts lies a delicate and sensitive nature that makes them easily empathetic.

Therefore, as long as she was still alive after the fight, she wouldn't let Han Jie make a move.

She was naturally good at enduring pain.

Memories flooded back like a tidal wave, and they were no longer just fragments.

It was an irresistible illusion, like everything from the past, replaying itself in her mind at an extremely high speed.

Worse still, most of them are no longer true reenactments; the Great Magic Carpet is using its power to distort and warp everything, adding non-existent details and making the memories more aggressive.

The small group of orphans who ostracized her fabricated all sorts of rumors to slander her, and even the caregivers were deceived.

The girl who stole her adoption opportunity returned and swaggered around, doing everything she could to humiliate her.

The academic teacher, who was prejudiced against spiritual practitioners, not only urged her to transfer schools but also began to bully her mentally.

Her former partner, with whom she had a very unpleasant relationship, accidentally died because she didn't receive the extra pay she hadn't been given. Her death was gruesome.

The boy she rejected kept pestering her like a leech, and even calling the police didn't help.

The evil spirits she attracted not only caused trouble for her friends but also killed people.

The teacher in her early childhood education class looked down on her as an orphan who had skipped a grade, and later became jealous and targeted her at every turn.

Her classmates looked down on her choice to learn talismans and secretly burned the talisman paper she had painstakingly collected.

Her roommates not only made her go to the bathroom to exercise, but also locked the door and poured water inside.

The students in the second college disliked her flamboyant personality and once again banded together to isolate her.

After discovering that she was a good person, some people began to maliciously exploit her kindness, and their actions became increasingly outrageous.

The genius she was trying to win over became increasingly sarcastic towards her, and even began to interfere with her commission.

Even the sincere advice from some friends was twisted into sarcastic mockery.

Even her memories of meeting Han Jie were embellished, portraying her as an old man's lustful desires and a complete lack of interest in her ideals.

No matter how much Meng Qingtong tried to convince herself that most of these things were fake, there was still a small part of the truth in them.

She gritted her teeth, desperately suppressing her emotional turmoil, and her spiritual power surged recklessly around the Great Magic Carpet's body as she stubbornly waited for the moment when the battle would be decided.

She could no longer pretend to be relaxed. She could only keep waving her right hand, trying to stop Han Jie from leaving the field for the time being.

Han Jie glanced at her and placed his hand on his left breast.

He had no patience to wait any longer.

His thoughts were actually almost identical to Meng Qingtong's due to a subtle tacit understanding.

He felt he had long since grown accustomed to solitude, and the magic carpet couldn't harm him. How could he allow Meng Qingtong, an orphan, to endure such monstrous mental torment?

If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't contribute anything to the True Name thing, he would have already cleaved it in two with a single sword strike when it was still a cocoon.

Realizing he was about to draw his sword, Meng Qingtong suddenly shouted, "Wait a minute!"

Her voice was somewhat distorted and a little hoarse.

But she did hold on; she held back the tears welling up in her reddened eyes.

The real name has finally been revealed.

氍毹 (qúshū).

Finally... it can end now.

Meng Qingtong abruptly pulled back her left hand, swept her right arm across her body, and without hesitation, pressed a talisman directly onto the crack.

Another imperial edict with purple lightning.

At that distance, even she herself was affected by the nine streaks of pale purple lightning.

But precisely because of this, the carpet completely lost any possibility of escape, and along with its outer shell, it was utterly reduced to ashes under Meng Qingtong's furious and resolute gaze...

Emotional wounds are much harder to heal than physical injuries, so Han Jie was somewhat annoyed. After using his spiritual magic to remove the scorch marks on Meng Qingtong's body, he stared at her with a stern face.

She looked up at me pitifully and whispered, "I still feel unwell, can you help me?"

"explain."

"Turn around. Don't look at me so fiercely, or I won't be able to say anything."

Before Han Jie turned around, he couldn't help but hit her on the head hard.

"I'm really fine. It's just... I really want to find someone to lean on for a while. Please, just for a moment, please..."

As she spoke, she hugged Han Jie from behind, burying her face in his broad back.

Han Jie didn't speak, but his tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed with pity.

Just one more time, just one more time.

She muttered something under her breath, but Meng Qingtong stayed there for a very long time.

Until Ya Ya, worried, ran to the window and suddenly blurted out a sentence.

"Big brother, your face is so red, are you sick?"

(End of this chapter)