"Why... why?"
Li Haitang looked at him with an expression of pain and innocence.
"Because you are not Li Haitang."
Ning Beichen not only didn't pull out the wooden knife, but jammed it in harder, all the way to the hilt.
Drip, drip...
Blood dripped from the wound on Li Haitang's body, the sound like a clock ticking away seconds.
"You... how did you know?"
Li Haitang asked, unwillingly.
"Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, I've experienced four, there's no reason why the fifth element wouldn't appear. Also, Haitang would never speak to me in such a gentle tone. Your acting... is simply too fake!"
Ning Beichen looked at Li Haitang's face, flashed his pearly white teeth, and said triumphantly.
"You... win."
The fake Li Haitang said these words to Ning Beichen, then her body burst with a bang, scattering into a sky full of fragments and ascending to the heavens. Everything around Ning Beichen also dispersed like blown mist, and everything returned to normal.
The real Li Haitang was seen in a very strange posture, her hands raised, her body bent, as if offering a sacrifice to a deity. But to Ning Beichen's eyes, it looked more like a yoga pose.
However, after a short while, Li Haitang suddenly swayed and collapsed. Ning Beichen hurried over and caught her.
"Haitang... Haitang..."
Ning Beichen called out to her anxiously several times, unsure what had happened to her or if she had succeeded.
After a while, Li Haitang opened her eyes. Seeing Ning Beichen, she was deeply moved and said.
"Ning Beichen, thank you."
"Why are you thanking me? I didn't do anything. By the way, I encountered some very strange things before."
Ning Beichen was still bewildered and recounted the strange experiences he had.
"Ning Beichen, this is why I thank you. The illusions you encountered were actually my dreams, and the core of the Miao shaman inheritance. If you had died or failed in my dream, my inheritance would have failed."
Li Haitang explained to Ning Beichen.
"You mean, the five elements world I encountered was your dream, and the monsters that attacked me were also imagined by you?"
Ning Beichen asked in surprise.
"Almost. Actually... the monsters you encountered were a form of self-protection for me."
Li Haitang explained somewhat shyly to Ning Beichen. However, because the Miao shaman tradition was too mysterious, and Ning Beichen was not a Miao shaman, there were some things Li Haitang could not explain to him, nor could she explain them clearly.
"Then if I had been killed by those monsters in your dream, would I have died?"
Ning Beichen asked her curiously.
"No, you would have returned to reality eventually, but..."
"But what?"
"But I would have died."
Li Haitang paused and said.
"What!"
Ning Beichen was startled.
"Haitang, why didn't you tell me beforehand that something so dangerous could happen?"
"If I had accidentally been killed by those tree monsters or human-faced flowers in your dream, wouldn't you have lost your life?"
Ning Beichen said urgently.
"In the world of Miao shamans, there is no such word as death. Death is merely the beginning of another life."
Li Haitang said mystically, seeming to have no aversion to death, which Ning Beichen found impossible to understand.
To Ning Beichen, death was death, the end, gone.
Although his nickname was Ning Yanwang, he had no longing for the underworld.
"Beichen, I'm very sorry. I didn't know some things until they happened."
Li Haitang said apologetically to Ning Beichen. She didn't want it to be this way, but this was the world of Miao shamans.
"Haitang, you don't need to apologize to me. I just don't want to see anything happen to you. I want you to live well. You don't know how worried I was when I couldn't see you in your dream."
"But speaking of which, I remembered something strange. When I couldn't see you in your dream, I felt like you were everywhere. I couldn't figure it out before, but now I understand. It was your dream."
"By the way, why is your Miao shaman inheritance so strange? Did the previous Miao shamans never tell you about this?"
Ning Beichen asked her curiously.
"What each Miao shaman experiences when receiving inheritance is different. Some Miao shamans have a very simple inheritance with no danger, while others have an inheritance that is a matter of life and death."
Hearing Ning Beichen's words, and the concern for her in his voice, made Li Haitang very happy. She then explained the reason to Ning Beichen.
"So being a Miao shaman is so dangerous."
Ning Beichen said somewhat incredulously.
"What else do you think? Our Miao shamans used to sacrifice themselves for good weather."
Li Haitang said to Ning Beichen.
"Haitang, you can't do anything so foolish. If we don't have rain now, we have high-tech things. We don't need to sacrifice ourselves."
Ning Beichen became extremely nervous upon hearing this.
"Silly boy, I didn't say now."
Seeing how worried Ning Beichen was about her, Li Haitang felt very happy and sweet.
If she weren't a Miao shaman, she might have cast a spell on him, making him stay with her forever, never letting him flirt with others.
"As long as you don't, I'll tell you, Haitang, there's nothing in this world I can't solve. You must never be foolish enough to sacrifice yourself. If you have any difficulties, tell me, and I'll help you solve them."
Ning Beichen said to her, so that she wouldn't sacrifice herself one day.
"Yes, I promise you. Even if I have to sacrifice myself, I'll sacrifice you first, because I think sacrificing you would be more effective than sacrificing myself."
Li Haitang said to Ning Beichen, joking with a serious and unwavering expression.
"Li Haitang, you're too wicked. I'll punish you on behalf of heaven."
Ning Beichen embraced her, who was as fragile as a piece of armor, and began his so-called punishment.
Several hours later, Ning Beichen, sore and aching, leaned on the wall, and Li Haitang, with a flushed face, left the cave.
"You ridiculous fellow, this is the ancestral land of the Miao shamans. Doing such things here, aren't you afraid the Miao gods will blame you?"
Li Haitang gave the guy a glare, her face flushed as she said.