Chapter 218: My Name is Jie Luo, and I’m Dead
Feel Ireta’s heartbeat.
Qin Chu felt this wasn’t appropriate, not the action of a gentleman. Even if subtle, it was still a young woman’s body, not something he could casually touch.
But Ireta, seeing his hesitation, seemed puzzled. After a brief pause, she took his hand and placed it on her chest.
Qin Chu’s fingers twitched, almost recoiling.
This reaction had nothing to do with being a gentleman.
It was the feeling of her skin against his.
Her skin wasn’t rough, but smooth and soft, like fine silk.
But too much like silk.
Goosebumps erupted on Qin Chu’s skin, a strange, unsettling sensation.
Her skin was cold…
Not the coldness of ice, but a normal, yet lifeless cold, an indifferent cold.
It wasn’t the body temperature of a living human.
And beneath his palm, he couldn’t feel the slightest hint of a heartbeat.
This girl had no heartbeat.
Her body was already dead.
“Divine Authority,” Ireta said with a soft smile, “it’s the power of a god, after all.”
Perhaps because of the strange sense of kinship she felt towards him, she didn’t mind his touch.
“For a mortal to bear the power of a god comes at a great cost,” she continued, her voice ethereal, “I don’t know when it began…”
“Perhaps because the authority I inherited is special, from the moment it descended upon me, I had to work as the agent of Death.”
“But I’m not the true Death God.”
“The true Death God can completely erase the resentment from souls, but I can’t. I can only intercept it, allowing the pure parts of the souls to transform into energy and return to the cycle of the world. And the resentment… it clings to me.”
“At some point, people who approached me started to become weak, they would fall ill… they would be plagued by misfortune…”
“And eventually, they would die.”
Her words echoed in Qin Chu’s ears.
All those who inherited Divine Authority were destined for a tragic life.
Violet, enduring a thousand years of torment, driven to madness by loneliness and corruption.
Gaia, the same…
Qin Chu had thought that Ireta had fully integrated the power of her Divine Authority, but in some ways, her experience was even more cruel than Violet’s and Gaia’s.
She wasn’t mad, she was completely lucid.
But it was precisely this lucidity that made her watch helplessly as she harmed her family and friends… forcing her to isolate herself from the world, her slender body bearing the resentment of billions of souls for over a thousand years.
Ireta wasn’t as calm as she appeared.
Qin Chu had only felt a sliver of that resentment, and it had been almost unbearable.
He couldn’t imagine what it was like for Ireta. Perhaps she had become accustomed to it, but being accustomed to such torment was just a deeper tragedy.
“And then, at some point… my body stopped growing.”
Ireta looked down at her chest with a hint of sadness. She would never grow up.
Although she was the agent of Death, she was still a woman, a little dissatisfied with her small chest. After all, she had once been a young girl, with dreams for the future.
But as her body stopped growing, those dreams also vanished.
Although in Qin Chu’s eyes, if she could grow, she would have grown long ago.
“And then… even my breathing and heartbeat stopped.”
“I, the agent of Death, am already dead.”
Her calm words, devoid of emotion, filled Qin Chu with a deep sense of sorrow.
Ireta also seemed to feel the weight of the topic and forced a smile. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper conversation with someone. It’s thanks to you having the Seed of Life and not being driven mad.”
“I tried to find other Witches. I thought that they, also possessing Divine Authority, wouldn’t be affected by my aura of death. But they attacked me the moment they saw me, so I had to leave.”
“Thank you.”
“I came here because I sensed a powerful, tainted soul,” Ireta continued, “but you burned it to ashes.”
Qin Chu glanced at the ashes where Ronald’s body had been, a flicker of understanding in his eyes.
Ireta shook her head again. “Please don’t apologize, sir.”
“That soul was filled with evil and very powerful. It would have been troublesome for me to deal with it. You saved me the trouble.”
After a brief pause, Ireta’s dark eyes met his.
Up close, her face was even more beautiful.
Perhaps, because of her aura, people subconsciously overlooked her beauty.
But she was a truly exquisite girl, like a beautiful doll.
“Hero,” she said, suddenly changing the subject, “would you like to make a deal with me?”
“A deal? What kind of deal?”
Qin Chu was taken aback.
He didn’t think he had anything to trade with the Daughter of Death. A deal with Death? What could he offer? His life? His soul?
No one would consider a deal with Death a fortunate thing.
“You want to read the information recorded in this soul fragment, right?” Ireta asked. “If I’m not mistaken, this should be the soul crystal of the First Hero, Jie Luo.”
Qin Chu’s eyes narrowed. “But this soul fragment is empty…”
As expected, Ireta smiled. “There’s no such thing as a completely pure soul fragment. Even if the remnant soul within has vanished, it will still leave some traces behind.”
“Just because you can’t read it doesn’t mean I can’t.”
“Don’t forget whose authority I inherited.”
The authority of Death, the ability to deal with the souls of the dead.
Qin Chu’s eyes brightened. If there was any information left in the soul fragment, perhaps others couldn’t decipher it, but… the Daughter of Death might be able to.
If even she said it was empty, then he could truly give up.
“These residual traces are often hidden in the deepest, darkest corners. Without a deep understanding of souls, it’s indeed difficult to see them. I can help you decipher this fragment, but in return, you have to do me a favor,” Ireta said.
Qin Chu didn’t immediately agree. “What kind of favor?” he asked.
Although he wanted to know what was left in Jie Luo’s soul fragment, he was more worried that Ireta might ask him to do something terrible.
“I can’t tell you right now, but I can assure you, it won’t be anything cruel or unreasonable, like asking you to kill yourself or harm others,” Ireta assured him.
Qin Chu hesitated. He didn’t like this uncertainty.
But in the end, he handed her the soul fragment.
Ireta smiled and took it.
Although she didn’t need to breathe, she took a deep breath as if she did, then stared at the soul fragment in her hand. Black, thread-like strands began to grow from her lace-gloved palm, wrapping around the fragment.
It seemed to be an extension of her consciousness, these threads probing every corner of the soul fragment.
No matter how deeply hidden the traces were, they couldn’t escape her perception.
This didn’t seem to be an easy task for Ireta. Her body trembled slightly, her already pale face turning even whiter.
Black fog began to swirl around her.
The screams and wails of the dead echoed.
As the one who intercepted their resentment, Ireta bore the brunt of their malice. Whether or not this resentment actually harmed her physically, just listening to those shrill cries and venomous curses every day was enough to shatter a person’s will.
Ireta had endured this for over a thousand years.
Her willpower was probably stronger than anyone Qin Chu had ever met.
The process lasted for a long time.
Suddenly, Ireta let out a long breath. “Found it,” she said.
Qin Chu perked up. Ireta closed her eyes, seemingly using her consciousness to carefully sense everything within the soul fragment.
Then, her thin lips parted slightly.
Although it was still her voice, her aura and tone seemed to have changed, becoming someone else entirely.
Her strange demeanor made Qin Chu’s hair stand on end.
And her words made his skin crawl.
“I am Jie Luo.”
“If anyone is fortunate enough to see what I’ve left behind, then please remember this: don’t trust me, don’t trust anyone named Jie Luo.”
“Because I am dead.”
“Both body and soul!”
“They have stolen everything from me: my body, my memories, my soul…”
“If you, like me, are a visitor from another world, then leave this place. In this world, there is only indifference, ruthlessness, cruelty, deception, madness, greed, and lust…”
“This is a fucked up world…”
Ireta’s words sent a chill down Qin Chu’s spine. He felt as if insects were crawling on his skin, a profound fear gripping him, as if he were standing on the edge of a precipice, a bottomless abyss below.
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