Chapter 1078: Breaking Through

Zu An snorted, directly channeled his Primordial Qi, and struck the coffin with his palm.

With a loud bang, the coffin was blasted into splinters. At the same time, a cloud of dust billowed towards him, and he couldn't tell if it was lime, ashes, or something else. He wondered if the dust was poisonous. Although Zu An was immune to all poisons, he wasn't reckless enough to sample every kind of toxin.

He used the recoil to pull back a distance. Unexpectedly, the sedan chair was already waiting behind him and instantly enveloped him. Zu An channeled his Qi throughout his body, intending to fight the Paper Bride, but to his surprise, the sedan chair was empty. He was alone inside, and everything he saw was red. The windows and the front curtain, as expected, couldn't be opened. Having gained experience, Zu An immediately activated his Primordial Chaos Scripture and burst through the sedan chair's roof, flying out.

However, he quickly froze because he found that the sedan chair and the coffin were gone, and even the small grove from before had vanished. He was now in a farmhouse with a fenced courtyard and several simple rooms. But at this moment, it was adorned with lanterns and streamers, and "囍" (double happiness) characters were pasted everywhere. Clearly, this was a wedding venue.

In the courtyard, over a dozen tables were laden with food and drink, occupied by men, women, and children of all ages. Dressed as they were, they appeared to be the villagers and neighbors. Zu An frowned, thinking that these were probably paper figures created by the Paper Bride again. Seeing that they showed no intention of attacking him, he didn't bother to act. Instead, he looked around for the true mastermind.

"The auspicious time has arrived! Please welcome the bride and groom!" a person resembling a master of ceremonies shouted with a high-pitched voice from the main hall.

A series of violent coughs erupted, so wrenching it sounded as if his lungs were being torn out. Zu An looked in the direction of the sound and saw a person dressed in groom's attire emerge. No, he wasn't walking on his own, but was being supported and guided out by two people. He was completely limp, his legs seemingly unable to bear weight. If not for the two people supporting him, he would likely collapse to the ground immediately.

"This is the groom?" Zu An frowned deeply. Though he was clearly made up for the wedding, his face was ashen like burnt joss paper, and he appeared to be on his last breath. He's practically dying, yet he's still getting married?

At this moment, whispers came from the villagers nearby:"Young Cai isn't going to make it, is he? Why are they still holding a wedding now?""Don't you know? Because of their son's illness, the Cai family bought a child bride years ago. They originally planned for the wedding a few years later. But recently, Young Cai's condition seems to have worsened, so the Cai family is holding a wedding to bring good luck, hoping it might save their son's life.""What a pity for Miss Dou. She's beautiful and hardworking, but she's marrying such a consumptive invalid. She might become a widow as soon as she enters the family.""Shh! You're here for the wedding feast, after all. If the hosts hear such unlucky talk, they'll kick you out.""What's there to be afraid of? Old Man Cai died long ago, and now the only male in the family is that sickly fellow. Who's going to hit me?"...

Just then, a gasp of surprise swept through the crowd. It turned out the bride had emerged."Even with the veil, her figure is truly splendid.""You haven't been back to the village for years, so you haven't seen her. She's the belle of the ten-mile radius.""Alas, what a shame."...

Zu An's pupils constricted as he watched the bride emerge in her grand red wedding gown. The gown she wore was identical to the Paper Bride's. Unfortunately, a red veil covered her head, concealing her face. Zu An was growing impatient and was about to rush forward and drag the Paper Bride out. But just as he was about to charge forward, the surrounding villagers cried out in alarm and held him back. "Young master, you mustn't! Only the groom can lift the bride's veil in the bridal chamber, otherwise it's bad luck!"

Zu An: "..." What kind of eyesight did these people have? Why did they mistake him for a scoundrel trying to flirt with someone else's bride?

Just as he was about to explain, a commotion suddenly erupted from the main hall. It turned out that after a violent coughing fit, the groom suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood and then collapsed stiffly to the ground. Because of the upcoming bowing ceremony, the two people had temporarily released him. Who would have thought that something would happen in such a short time? The two rushed to help him up, but their faces quickly turned pale, and they stammered, "Young Master Cai... he's gone!" Upon seeing this, Old Lady Cai immediately rushed forward and wailed, "My son!" The entire scene immediately descended into chaos.

Ultimately, the wedding turned into a funeral. All the red cloths and "囍" characters were torn down and replaced with white cloths and funeral elegies. Zu An suddenly understood. No wonder he had encountered both a wedding procession and a funeral procession in the forest earlier, and why the two groups had collided. It was referring to this situation all along.

At this point, the bride had also changed her clothes and emerged dressed in mourning attire. This time, she wasn't wearing the red veil, and her appearance was finally clear. It was none other than the Paper Bride! However, she now looked much purer, and the timidity in her brows made it hard to associate her with the alluring Paper Bride.

Zu An snorted, "Paper Bride, what exactly are you playing at? Do you think I wouldn't recognize you without your makeup?" He stepped forward to grab her, but the woman shrank back in fear. Zu An felt a ripple in the air before his eyes, and the scene quickly changed again.

All the guests in the courtyard were gone, and the funeral cloths were also absent from the rooms. Instead, the Paper Bride and Old Lady Cai were living dependently, daily paying respects to the memorial tablets of the deceased father-in-law and husband on the altar. But for some reason, Zu An always felt something was extremely odd, but couldn't quite pinpoint it.

Just as Zu An was about to confront the Paper Bride, he saw a father and son burst in. The father and son had cruel expressions. They seemed to be surnamed Zhang and were the village bullies. Seeing that the Cai family had no male descendants, they set their sights on the two women. Old Lady Cai couldn't endure the pressure and reluctantly became Old Man Zhang's concubine. The Paper Bride, however, was resolute and always refused Young Master Zhang. She was clever and resourceful, and since Old Lady Cai was now Young Master Zhang's stepmother, she fully utilized this relationship to protect herself.

Young Master Zhang was furious and harbored ill intentions. He secretly obtained a poison. One day, Old Lady Cai fell ill and wanted pork rib soup. The Paper Bride prepared it for her, and Young Master Zhang secretly added the poison during preparation. He originally planned for the Paper Bride to poison Old Lady Cai, which would give him leverage over her. Without Old Lady Cai's protection, she, being alone, would be entirely at his mercy.

However, despite all his calculations, he didn't foresee that Old Man Zhang would accidentally drink that bowl of soup. Old Man Zhang immediately succumbed to the poison and died on the spot. The matter quickly escalated. Young Master Zhang, fearing he would be implicated, framed the Paper Bride, claiming she had poisoned his father to death. Young Master Zhang bribed the county magistrate and had the Paper Bride tortured into confession. She was then quickly escorted to the execution ground and put to death. The Paper Bride, having suffered great injustice, swore an oath to the heavens. As a result, after her death, it indeed snowed in June, followed by a three-year drought...

Witnessing these scenes, Zu An pondered how similar this was to "The Injustice to Dou E." At the wedding, he seemed to have heard someone call her Miss Dou. Could this Paper Bride be Dou E?

Just then, his vision blurred. The Paper Bride, clad in a prisoner's uniform and shackles, appeared before him. Her pitiful eyes looked at him. "Young master, do you think that Young Master Zhang deserves to die?"

"Naturally, he should..." Although he and the Paper Bride were enemies, seeing her past experiences would evoke sympathy in anyone. Zu An was about to answer, when halfway through his words, a sudden warning arose within him. Ever since the beginning, he had felt that something was amiss, and now he finally realized what it was. In their home, and even later in the magistrate's court and other places, there hadn't been a single mirror present from beginning to end! A normal household wouldn't be without such an item. No wonder he had felt a sense of discord all along.

A terrifying suspicion immediately arose in his mind. He hastily took out the Mirror of Qin Wang, which he had obtained earlier in the secret realm, and shone it before him. He found that his current appearance was identical to Young Master Zhang's! He immediately understood and said to the woman before him with a cold laugh, "This must be your plan. You display your past experiences and exploit people's sympathy and indignation to make them kill Young Master Zhang for you. But those you bring into this place unknowingly assume the identity of Young Master Zhang. Once we verbally declare that Young Master Zhang deserves to die, it fulfills some rule of this world, and then you can easily eradicate us."

No wonder the villagers at the wedding had tried to hold him back earlier, because everyone knew Young Master Zhang coveted the bride's beauty and they thought he was going to lift her veil.

After he finished speaking these words, the surrounding scenery shattered into fragments, and he was back in the ice cave. The fragile Miss Dou was gone, and the alluring and ruthless Paper Bride reappeared before him. Her face was pale, and blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, clearly having suffered a backlash.

"For all these years, you are the only one who has managed to see through my illusion." The Paper Bride stared at him with an unwilling expression. "Countless cultivators stronger than me have met their demise here. How did you figure it out?"