The No.1 Undercover in the Immortal World-Chapter 747 - 255: All Schemes Fail Against the Heavenly Mandate
Qian Qian was startled by the appearance of the white lotuses.
However, she soon calmed herself down.
It was all Lin Yun’s fault. He never believed in her judgement, making her doubt herself.
In a battle between the divine and the mortal, how could the divine possibly lose! Hadn’t she made the correct prediction this time?
With careful sensing, one could feel that the Snow Maiden was still firmly in control at the core, while those white lotuses signified the scattering of Zhang Biyu’s Divine Soul, its power nourishing the Snow Maiden’s body.
"Don’t panic, it’s stable. The Snow Maiden is about to awaken," she said.
"Stop talking, you’re making me anxious," Lin Yun retorted.
Lin Yun once again covered Qian Qian’s mouth. Frustrated and on the verge of lashing out, she almost bit him, but then she thought better of it. She would settle her scores with Lin Yun after the Snow Maiden’s awakening. If Lin Yun didn’t offer a sincere apology, she absolutely would not forgive him.
Lin Yun’s perception was slightly weaker, but as Zhang Biyu’s Divine Soul dissipated, he too gradually became aware.
This time, Qian Qian’s judgement was indeed correct.
The aura that was vanishing was obviously Zhang Biyu’s, not the Snow Maiden’s.
Upon entering the Snow Maiden’s soul world, Zhang Biyu immediately saw the state of the Snow Maiden’s Divine Soul.
She had imagined that after battling the Snow Mountain God, the Snow Maiden would be weak, grievously wounded, and easily defeated.
However, what she saw upon entering was that the Snow Maiden was surrounded by a radiant aura, with the shadow of the turtle and serpent merging slowly into her body. A divine aura rippled out from the Snow Maiden’s Divine Soul.
In that moment, Zhang Biyu knew all her schemes had amounted to nothing.
The mutual destruction she had anticipated did not occur; instead, one party had ended up helping the other.
Now, the Snow Maiden was not battle-scarred but even stronger than before her life-and-death struggle with Xuanwu, for Xuanwu’s Divine Soul was now nourishing her.
In the end, the internal struggle among Xuanwu had not been as she had imagined, a fight to the death for a glimmer of hope. In hindsight, it was Xuanwu who had given up the fight and offered the remaining strength to the Snow Maiden.
This meant she’d have to confront not a weakened Snow Maiden or Xuanwu, but a healthy Xuanwu plus the Snow Maiden.
What was the point in fighting now!
If souls could shine, the Snow Maiden’s Divine Soul would be like the bright moon in the sky, while Zhang Biyu’s, though strong, was merely the faint glow of night grass.
In front of the Snow Maiden’s Divine Soul, she was insignificant, not even worth mentioning.
Yet, while it was easy for her to enter the Snow Maiden’s body, leaving was not so simple now.
The Snow Maiden had entered the Turtle Breathing State, sealing her vital points. One could come in to offer oneself to death, but once inside, there was no way out.
"Ha, in the end, it was all for naught," Zhang Biyu laughed bitterly.
She then remembered the prophecy by a mysterious Taoist she had met half a year ago.
The man had the appearance of an aging child with white hair, exuding an air of an immortal. Carrying a pointing banner, a tool of diviners, Zhang Biyu wanted to dispel this charlatan from deceiving others on her territory, and thus decided to teach him a lesson.
To her surprise, the old Taoist offered her a divination instead.
"Human schemes fail to surpass fate; in the bitter sea of hardship, one swims without support. Good and evil, right and wrong, hang by a thread; yet only in face of death does one have a change of heart."
Not a single line of this prophecy was pleasant to hear. Even though Zhang Biyu maintained an image of a saintly fairy outside, she was furious enough to want to beat the Taoist severely.
However, the man’s background was a mystery, and just as she was about to make her move, he vanished without a trace.
Back then, Zhang Biyu thought she might have encountered an enlightened being. Although the verses made her uneasy, they weren’t enough to stop her plans. Even with the clarity of understanding them, she wouldn’t have changed her mind.
That, perhaps, explained why the old Taoist gave only the prophecy, without any explanation.
All her intricate plans were no match for Heavenly Mandate in the end.
Afloat in the sea of suffering without any support, she would ultimately drown in it.
Such an ill-fortune still contained a ray of hope – the last minute change of heart towards kindness or malice. Without making this choice, she would still be alive and well outside.
All this she only realized at the moment of her death, with no possibility of regret.
Pitiful and ridiculous.
The sleeping Snow Maiden perceived something unusual and awoke ahead of time from her Turtle Breathing State.
The Turtle Breathing State was to help her recover faster and grow stronger, and it was naturally within her power to awaken whenever she wished.
Seeing Zhang Biyu, the Snow Maiden asked, puzzled, "You? Weren’t you dead?"
Zhang Biyu: "..."
She looked into the Snow Maiden’s pure and lively eyes, which seemed to be filled with wisdom, and couldn’t help but want to hold her head.
What a silly child, whose brain did she inherit?
She had always prided herself on her intelligence, yet the daughter she bore was a fool.
But perhaps it wasn’t her fault.
The Grand Shaman had frozen the Snow Maiden for nearly a hundred years before releasing her; maybe her brain got damaged from being frozen for too long.
Zhang Biyu had intended to deceive the Snow Maiden, but seeing her so full of wisdom, she found it hard to proceed.
She could even use Qian Qian, exploiting her evident human nature to let down her guard for an instant.
Deceiving the Snow Maiden would be easy for her.
But in the end, she still couldn’t bring herself to do it.
"I was lucky, I didn’t die."
"I see, then how did you end up here?"
Zhang Biyu: "..."
This silly child, even this she had to ask.
However, Zhang Biyu still answered the Snow Maiden’s question.
"I came here to body-snatch."
Then, Zhang Biyu gave a bitter smile: "Unfortunately, I miscalculated. With the strength of your Divine Soul now, I would die upon touch, let alone body-snatch."
At this point, lies did not hold much meaning. Zhang Biyu chose to be honest.
She was ready to be killed by the Snow Maiden.
"I see... then you should leave!"
"You’re not going to kill me?"
Zhang Biyu was somewhat shocked.
The Snow Maiden nodded and said, "Aren’t you my mother? Although you never raised me, the Grand Shaman said you had it tough too, so I don’t blame you. You can go."
Zhang Biyu: "..."
So the person she had always hated was this kind of girl?
The Snow Maiden was the source of all her lifetime’s miseries, but should she really hate her? 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
The birth of the Snow Maiden was also arranged by others, from beginning to end, the Snow Maiden never harmed her, it was her who always schemed against the Snow Maiden.
What she should really hate was the Zhang Family, the Grand Shaman.
But there was nothing much to hate about the Zhang Family either; for their beliefs, to defeat the Great Demon, they sacrificed everything, which didn’t seem wrong either.
It was she, unwilling to sacrifice herself for the gods, who was the strange one. So, in the end, she became the great villain.
If that was the case, she should meet her end at the hands of the pure and kind heroine.
This was the typical ending found in the tales.
"I can’t leave."
Zhang Biyu had already given up on surviving; even if the Snow Maiden was willing to let her go, she couldn’t leave.
For a Divine Soul to take over another’s body was not a simple matter; her current body had become a prison, locking her inside.
Furthermore, the Snow Maiden’s Divine Soul was extremely powerful, attracting her own soul greatly.
But her soul was incompatible with the Snow Maiden’s body, hence it was repelled by the physical body.
These two forces were squeezing her, yet they also made it impossible for her to escape.
Now, she had only one path left: death.
Rather than dying a worthless and painful death, she might as well do right by the Snow Maiden. Considering she was willing to let her go...
