Chapter 1082: Breaking Through

Zu'an snorted coldly, immediately channeling his Primal Chaos Qi and unleashing a palm strike towards the coffin. With a loud bang, the coffin was blown into pieces, and a cloud of dust and smoke, indistinguishable as lime or ashes, billowed towards him. He wondered if the substance was poisonous. Although Zu'an was immune to all poisons, he wasn't reckless enough to test every single one.

He used the recoil to create some distance, only to find the sedan chair already waiting behind him, instantly enveloping him. Zu'an channeled his energy, intending to confront the Paper Bride, but to his surprise, the sedan chair was empty. He was alone, surrounded by red. As expected, the windows and the front curtain could not be opened. Zu'an, having learned from experience, immediately channeled the Primal Chaos Primordial Scripture and burst through the sedan's roof, flying out.

However, he paused in surprise, realizing the sedan chair, the coffin, and the small grove from before had all vanished. He was now in a rural farmhouse with a yard enclosed by a fence and a few simple rooms, which were currently adorned with lanterns, streamers, and "囍" (double happiness) characters everywhere. Clearly, this was a wedding venue. Over a dozen tables of food and wine were set up in the yard, occupied by men, women, and children whose attire suggested they were local villagers and neighbors.

Zu'an frowned, thinking these were likely more paper figures created by the Paper Bride. Seeing they had no intention of attacking him, he didn't bother to act, instead looking around for the true entity.

"The auspicious moment has arrived! Please welcome the bride and groom!" a master of ceremonies-like figure shrieked from the main hall.

A series of violent, agonizing coughs echoed, sounding as if lungs were being torn out. Zu'an looked towards the sound and saw a person dressed as a groom emerge. No, he wasn't walking on his own; he was being supported and escorted by two people. He was completely limp, his legs seemingly unable to support him. Without the two people's support, he would have likely collapsed instantly.

"This is the groom?" Zu'an frowned. Despite being made up for the wedding, his face was as pale as gold paper, and he looked incredibly frail. Getting married when he's almost dying?

At this moment, the villagers nearby began to whisper:"Young Cai is probably not going to make it, right? Why are they still getting him married now?""Don't you know? Because of their son's illness, the Cai family bought a child bride years ago, intending for them to marry in a few years. But recently, it seems Young Cai is failing, so the Cai family is holding a wedding for their son to bring him good luck, hoping to save his life.""It's a pity for Miss Dou. She's beautiful and hardworking, but she's marrying such a consumptive man. She might become a widow right after getting married.""Shush, you're here for the wedding feast after all. If the hosts hear such unlucky words, they'll kick you out.""What's there to be afraid of? Old Man Cai died long ago. The only male left is that sickly fellow. Who's going to hit me?"

Just then, gasps of surprise arose; the bride had appeared."Although her head is covered with a veil, her figure looks really good.""You haven't been back to the village in years, so you haven't seen her. She's the belle of the region.""Ah, what a pity."

Zu'an's pupils constricted slightly as he watched the bride, dressed in a crimson wedding gown, walk out. 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 prepared to rush forward to pull out the Paper Maiden. As he was about to charge forward, the surrounding villagers gasped 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 unlucky."

Zu'an was speechless. What kind of eyesight did these people have? Why did they mistake him for some wicked young master trying to tease the bride?

He was about to explain when suddenly, a commotion erupted from the main hall. It turned out that after a violent bout of coughing, the groom suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed stiffly to the ground. Because they were about to perform the bowing ceremony, the two people had temporarily let go of him, and in that short time, something unexpected happened. The two rushed to help him up, but quickly turned pale, stammering, "Young Cai... he's gone!"

Upon seeing this, Granny Cai immediately rushed forward, wailing, "My son!" The entire scene instantly became chaotic.

Ultimately, the wedding turned into a funeral. All the red cloth and "囍" characters were torn down and replaced with white cloth and "奠" (mourning) characters. Zu'an suddenly understood. No wonder he had encountered both a wedding procession and a funeral procession in the grove earlier, and why they had directly collided. This was what it meant.

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, so her appearance could finally be seen. Who else could it be but the Paper Bride! However, she looked much purer now; the timidness in her brows made it hard to connect her with the alluring Paper Bride.

Zu'an snorted coldly: "Paper Bride, what exactly are you up to? Do you think I wouldn't recognize you just because you've taken off your makeup?" He stepped forward to grab her, but the woman recoiled in fear.

Zu'an felt a ripple in the air before him, and the scene quickly changed again. Now, all the guests in the yard were gone, and the mourning strips in the room were also gone. Instead, the Paper Maiden and Granny Cai were living together, dependent on each other. Every day, they would worship the memorial tablets of her deceased father-in-law and husband on the incense altar. But for some reason, Zu'an felt that something was extremely strange, yet he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

Zu'an was about to confront the Paper Bride when 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 heirs, they set their sights on the two women. Granny Cai couldn't endure it and reluctantly submitted to Old Man Zhang. The Paper Bride, however, was resolute and consistently refused Young Master Zhang. She was intelligent and resourceful. Moreover, since Granny Cai had now become Young Master Zhang's stepmother, she fully utilized this relationship to protect herself.

Young Master Zhang was furious, then conceived a wicked plot and secretly obtained a poison. One day, Granny Cai fell ill and wanted to eat pork rib soup. The Paper Bride made it for her, and midway, Young Master Zhang secretly added the poison. He had originally planned for the Paper Bride to poison Granny Cai. This would give him leverage, and without Granny Cai's protection, she would be defenseless against him. But despite all his calculations, he didn't foresee that the bowl of soup would accidentally be drunk by Old Man Zhang, who then died on the spot from the poison.

The matter quickly escalated. Young Master Zhang, worried about being discovered, framed the Paper Bride, claiming she poisoned his father to death. Young Master Zhang bribed the county magistrate, had the Paper Bride tortured into confessing, and she was soon escorted to the execution ground. The Paper Bride, having suffered great injustice, swore 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 it was to "The Injustice to Dou E." He seemed to recall someone at the wedding calling her Miss Dou. Could this Paper Bride be Dou E? Just then, his vision blurred, and the Paper Bride, dressed in prison garb and shackles, appeared before him. Her pitiful eyes gazed at him: "Young master, do you think that Young Master Zhang deserves to die?"

"Of course, he should..." Although he was an enemy of the Paper Bride, anyone would feel sympathy after seeing her past. Zu'an was about to answer, but halfway through his words, a sudden alarm flared within him. From the beginning, he had felt something was wrong, and now he finally realized what it was. That was: in their home and even in the later courtrooms, no mirrors had appeared from beginning to end! A normal family wouldn't be without such a thing. No wonder he had felt something was off.

A terrifying suspicion immediately arose in his mind. He quickly took out the Qin King's Mirror of Truth, which he had obtained in the secret realm earlier, and held it before him. He was shocked to see that his face at that moment was identical to Young Master Zhang's!

He immediately understood and coldly sneered at the woman before him: "This must be your plan. You show your past to exploit people's sympathy and pity, inciting their righteous indignation to help you kill Young Master Zhang. But the people 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 must fulfill some rule of this world, and then you can easily eliminate us."

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

After he finished speaking, the surrounding scene shattered into fragments, returning to the ice cave. The fragile Miss Dou was gone. The alluring and cruel Paper Bride reappeared before him, her face pale and blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, clearly suffering from a backlash.

"For all these years, you are the only one who could see through the illusion," the Paper Bride said, her face filled with resentment, staring intensely at him. "Many individuals with cultivation stronger than mine have ultimately met their demise here. How exactly did you figure it out?"