Chapter 1158: Bodhisattva

“You…” Qiu Shiliu felt like she had discovered something and slowly stood up after letting go.

She took out the “door” from her pocket, swallowed hard a few times, and then shouted loudly, “Ninth Sister!!”

**”I’m here.”** Bai Jiu’s reassuring voice came from the other side. **”I just finished explaining everything to Seventh Brother and the others. So, what’s the situation now…?”**

Qiu Shiliu wasted no time and pulled Little Xuanwu right in front of her, shining the “door” on her.

“Ninth Sister, what should I do with this kid?” Qiu Shiliu said irritably. “Can you see how pitiful she looks? She didn’t even resist or scream—she just wanted to eat some corncobs here. Killing a child like this is way too hard for me.”

Bai Jiu also stared at Jiang Shi’s left eye for a long time before saying, **”But she really does look like Xuanwu.”**

“No kidding?” Qiu Shiliu replied. “I’ve already prepared myself. If the final decision is that she has to die, I’ll force myself to overcome my hesitation and beat her to death right here.”

**”Is there anything strange about this Xuanwu?”** A voice that sounded like Song Qi’s chimed in.

“Strange…?”

Qiu Shiliu looked at the little girl in front of her. The situation was just too bizarre to put into words.

“Ninth Sister, the only ‘strange’ thing about this kid is that she doesn’t seem strange at all,” Qiu Shiliu explained. “She seems way too normal… The only thing that stands out is that there might be something wrong with her right eye.”

**”Right eye…?”**

Qiu Shiliu nodded and reached out to brush aside Little Xuanwu’s hair. But the usually docile girl, who hadn’t even fought back when hit, unexpectedly dodged.

“Don’t run!” Qiu Shiliu snapped. “Come here! Behave!”

Startled, Little Xuanwu stopped resisting and stood still, letting herself be handled.

Qiu Shiliu reached out and slowly pushed aside the hair covering the girl’s eye, revealing her abnormal pupil.

Two eyeballs were crammed awkwardly into a single eye socket—both horrifying and sickly.

Now that Qiu Shiliu was close enough, she noticed that both of the girl’s eyes seemed bloodshot, as if they had been injured.

**”Two eyeballs… in one eye?”** Bai Jiu’s voice came through the “door,” and she suddenly seemed to realize something. **”Could this be Xuanwu’s weakness…?”**

Qiu Shiliu frowned in thought. “Ninth Sister, I get what you’re saying… but are you sure Xuanwu placed her ‘eyes’ on her ‘child self’? Isn’t that a bit too abstract?”

**”Well…”** Bai Jiu knew her theory sounded far-fetched. **”But we’ve never found eyes on Xuanwu before… Now that I think about it, maybe we should test it on this Little Xuanwu. After all, nothing about Xuanwu is ever straightforward.”**

Qiu Shiliu froze for a moment. “Wait… Ninth Sister, are you saying… I have to gouge out this kid’s eyes right here?”

Hearing this, Little Xuanwu, who had been silent until now, took a frightened step back and broke free from Qiu Shiliu’s grip.

“Don’t blind me… Just kill me…” Little Xuanwu stammered, her voice trembling. “Why just blind me… and not kill me?”

Qiu Shiliu struggled to answer. How could she justify not just killing a suffering child but also leaving her blind to endure this wretched existence? Wouldn’t that make her no better than a beast—no better than the Celestial Dragon or Azure Dragon?

“L-Look, listen to me…” Qiu Shiliu said, torn. “Kid, even if we kill you, that eye might still work if it’s on you… So we have to blind you to stop that terrible ‘immortality.’ I—”

“Then kill me first!” Little Xuanwu raised her voice. “Kill me first! Then you can poke my dead eyes all you want, okay?”

“I…” Qiu Shiliu hesitated—this wasn’t any easier to answer.

Seeing her hesitation, Little Xuanwu stepped forward and grabbed Qiu Shiliu’s hand. “Brother…”

“I’m a *sister*, damn it,” Qiu Shiliu grumbled.

Little Xuanwu, as if she had never seen such a handsome girl who looked so much like a boy, quickly corrected herself:

“Sister, you seem like someone who isn’t afraid of anything… Kill me! The villagers are too scared of breaking the law—they’d get executed if they killed me, so no one dares to actually beat me to death. Only you can save me… Please…”

Those fractured words lingered in Qiu Shiliu’s mind, leaving her speechless for a long time.

Just how desperate did someone have to be to see death as salvation?

“Xuanwu, just what…” Qiu Shiliu sighed heavily.

Little Xuanwu tilted her head slightly and looked at Qiu Shiliu with her battered face. “Sister… who is ‘Xuanwu’?”

“You…” Qiu Shiliu nodded. “I almost forgot—you’re not called Xuanwu now. What should I call you?”

“I’m Xuanzi from Wu Family Village,” Little Xuanwu said.

“Wu Family Village… Xuanzi?” Qiu Shiliu frowned.

“So, can you kill me?” Little Xuanwu pressed. “Even if you cut out my tongue or throw me to the wolves after, it’s fine.”

Bai Jiu, listening from the other side of the “door,” hesitated. Something subtle seemed to connect in that moment.

Xuanwu was like this. Little Xuanwu was like this. There was something eerily similar about them.

**”Sixteen, I have something to ask her,”** Bai Jiu said solemnly through the “door.” **”Repeat after me—word for word.”**

“Got it.” Qiu Shiliu nodded, lifting the “door” to her ear before lowering her head and saying, “Xuanwu, I need to ask you something.”

“What…?” Little Xuanwu blinked in confusion.

“Why haven’t you killed yourself?” Qiu Shiliu relayed Bai Jiu’s exact words—the crux of the matter.

“Killed myself…?”

“Whether now or in the future, it’s the same,” Qiu Shiliu said, frowning. “You give off the vibe that you’re always looking for death, but you’ve never once tried to end it yourself. Why? If you really want to die, there are plenty of ways to do it.”

Little Xuanwu stared at Qiu Shiliu for a long time before answering slowly, “I can’t kill myself. I can only be killed.”

“Be killed…?” Qiu Shiliu clearly didn’t understand. “Isn’t that just making things harder for others? You even said it yourself—killing you would be helping you, but whoever helps you would get executed.”

“But I really can’t kill myself… My life belongs to the Bodhisattva.”

“Bodhisattva…?”