Chapter 100#
The newcomer was Qi Xun, and An Wuxue instinctively wanted to turn back inside.
But what Qi Xun said confused him.
Apologize?
Thank him?
He still held Chun Hua, maintaining a defensive posture, but a hint of vacancy flashed through his eyes.
Regardless of his relationship with his junior brother and Xuan Fang, they were once from the same sect. He could understand their change in attitude over the thousand years after his death, even if he was surprised.
But for these people outside the courtyard, a peaceful resolution with all debts settled would have been a clean ending.
Where did this “thanks” and “apology” come from?
Before coming out, he had prepared himself for a potential clash.
While An Wuxue was lost in thought, the man who had knelt down continued from Qi Xun’s words: “Sect Master Qi is right. I was there in the North Abyss sword array that day. My eyes were dull, and I did not recognize First Seat An. My cultivation is not as high as City Lord Shangguan’s; at the time, I could only contribute a small amount of spiritual energy to the array. When all seemed lost, I saw First Seat An enter the array in person and block two bolts of lightning.”
“After the tribulation ended, I learned many truths. I haven’t been able to eat or sleep well, and I’ve been waiting outside this courtyard for two days…”
As the voice reached his ears, An Wuxue snapped back to his senses and looked closely.
He noticed the spiritual pouch hanging from the man’s waist was embroidered with the Qi clan’s crest. Since he was in the sword array that day, he must be a Tribulation-Transcending cultivator of the Qi clan.
The Qi clan…
He had encountered their fallen ancestors in the Guan Ye Array.
So this was the karma.
He remembered this person indeed being present when they faced the ascension lightning.
It seemed that after the tribulation, Xie Zhefeng or Shangguan Liaoliao had said something.
He didn’t know, and he didn’t care.
“You are a North Abyss cultivator,” he said. “Doing your best to save the souls of the First City was your duty as a member of North Abyss. Since you have fulfilled your responsibility, you haven’t failed North Abyss. Why have you come to speak to me? What does it have to do with me?”
“The First Seat also saved North Abyss—”
“I saved innocent souls who were caught in the crossfire, not North Abyss.”
Whether it was North Abyss, Zhaoshui, Langfeng, Mingri, or those places not bordering the four seas, it made no difference.
If that was the case, there was no need for thanks.
“N-not just North Abyss…”
The Qi clan cultivator was already a bit red-faced. “There’s also the reason for the fall of my Qi clan ancestors. The clan didn’t know the truth and mistakenly treated the First Seat as the culprit until now… and, and the death of Master Shangguan, and more! The Immortal Venerable and the City Lord have already informed us…”
“Oh…” An Wuxue realized.
So this was the apology.
He said steadily: “That also seems to have nothing to do with me. I am no longer the First Seat of Falling Moon Peak. My surname is Su, and my given name is Xue.”
The man’s expression froze.
When the news of An Wuxue’s survival spread, the people of the two realms didn’t know how he had survived.
Some thought the Immortal Venerable hadn’t actually struck back then; others thought a Long-Life Immortal was omnipotent and had performed a resurrection…
But no matter what, the events at Thorn Stream could not be treated as if they never happened, and the name “An Wuxue” had indeed been dead for a millennium.
No matter what, that could not be changed.
Since An Wuxue had declared his name was Su Xue, the more the others apologized to Su Xue for things concerning An Wuxue, the more ridiculous the siege of all those years ago seemed.
The Qi clan cultivator was indeed speechless.
He remained frozen, kneeling before An Wuxue.
An Wuxue didn’t want to accept such a grand gesture of respect and waved his hand, using spiritual energy to force the man to his feet.
He thought, Should I really set up a grave for myself at Falling Moon Peak or Thorn Stream and tell every cultivator who comes looking for me—‘Whether you want to curse or praise, weep or scream, go to An Wuxue’s grave and do as you please.’
If these people loved mourning so much, they should go cry at a grave. Crying to a living person like him made it impossible to deal with them; it was truly a hassle.
Why hadn’t he done that sooner?
The cultivator he had forced up was still reluctant to leave. He said: “A thousand years ago, the North Abyss Qi clan went to Thorn Stream…”
The man paused, appearing too ashamed to continue in detail.
But mention of Thorn Stream made his meaning clear—An Wuxue had been besieged by the ten thousand sects there. At the time, his meridians were merely infected with turbid energy and he had clearly not turned demonic, yet no one believed him, only wanting him to confess his crimes.
Previously, when the truth of Zhaoshui was announced to the world, Falling Moon had explained many of the minor “crimes,” and after the North Abyss lightning, everything except for the Li Huo Sect massacre had been cleared up.
If not for this, they would likely still firmly believe today that An Wuxue had turned to the demonic path and gone astray.
The others joined in: “Back then, we truly… truly… truly couldn’t tell black from white!”
The Qi clan cultivator hesitated for a long while before thickening his skin and continuing: “Though the First Seat acted out of a desire to save people, for us… on the day of the lightning, most of our Qi clan, both cultivators and mortals, were in the First City. If the lightning had fallen, the Qi clan would have likely been wiped out. The First Seat had old grudges with many North Abyss sects, yet he didn’t stand by and watch. Instead, he repaid our enmity with kindness. I am truly ashamed.”
As he spoke, he prepared to kneel again. “I truly don’t know how to repay the debt of the past. If the First Seat has any orders, even if it’s my life you require—”
An Wuxue listened and once again used his spiritual energy to stop the man from kneeling.
The other’s face was flushed with shame, yet An Wuxue’s gaze shifted as if he had heard something humorous. Curving his lips, he said: “Fellow Daoist… no, not just you, all of you—I also spent many years in North Abyss a millennium ago.”
After he spoke, the crowd looked confused.
An Wuxue didn’t bother to explain. He sheathed Chun Hua, ignored Qi Xun standing to the side, and turned back to the courtyard.
“First Seat—”
Someone tried to stop him.
A gentle voice drifted back to them: “I am a bit tired. If anyone wants to settle scores for things I don’t even know about, just draw your sword; I will accompany you. If it’s anything else, I will not receive guests.”
As the voice faded, An Wuxue’s figure vanished from sight.
Though his words were devoid of sharpness, they were cold enough to prevent anyone from following.
The Qi clan cultivator remained where he was, seemingly pondering An Wuxue’s words.
Xuan Fang wouldn’t have understood before, but he could now.
He sighed and said to the Qi clan cultivator: “Sir, when the First Seat bore so much infamy, if he hadn’t saved North Abyss, would those grievances not have existed? Does he have to save North Abyss or do something extraordinary to be worthy of an apology or a sense of guilt from you all?”
“Furthermore—you just said the Qi clan participated in the siege at Thorn Stream a thousand years ago and falsely accused the First Seat of crimes he didn’t commit, and because he repaid your enmity with kindness by saving the First City, you feel ashamed and have come to apologize.”
“But a thousand years ago, did the First Seat not save North Abyss? Was the chaos in North Abyss not ended by the combined efforts of the First Seat, the Immortal Venerable, and the City Lord? Was the North Abyss sword array not established primarily by the First Seat to suppress the turbid energy here? Even if the First Seat was gifted with the golden body and jade bones and was born to save the world from collapse, what he did far exceeded what was expected by heaven’s will, didn’t it?”
“How is it that the Qi clan could strike without hesitation back then, yet find it so easy to remember the debt of the lightning tribulation now?”
“Because—”
“Because a thousand years ago, you felt it was only right. Because An Wuxue saving the world was what he was supposed to do, and as long as he didn’t do it perfectly or please everyone, he was in the wrong. But now ‘Su Xue’ has no such standard. As long as ‘Su Xue’ is wronged, people can see it. and no matter what ‘Su Xue’ does, as long as he does it, people will be grateful.”
Xuan Fang’s voice dropped as he spoke, finding it humorous himself.
If there were ten parts to a task and An Wuxue failed to do one part well, it was as if the nine parts he did do well didn’t count.
But An Wuxue had died once and become Su Xue. Now, if he did one part, he would receive thanks; if he did five, people would easily be overwhelmed with gratitude.
Others were like this, and wasn’t Xuan Fang himself the same back then?
What right did he have to judge others?
He stopped speaking, falling into a final silence.
Xuan Fang’s words cut to the quick. The Qi clan cultivator looked miserable, unable to find a single word of rebuttal.
“I…” he said dejectedly. “It truly is too late for everything…”
The others looked at each other in long silence.
The Qi clan cultivator had no way to argue, but he was consumed by guilt and truly didn’t want to leave like this.
He simply pulled out a jade plate and forced it into Xuan Fang’s hand.
“This is a command token engraved with the crest of the North Abyss Qi clan. It can be used to command Qi clan cultivators anywhere. I ask Peak Master Xuan to hand it to First Seat An and let us contribute a small effort…”
Seeing this, the others seemed to have found an opening and crowded toward Xuan Fang.
“This is my Wang clan’s manual for controlling spiritual beasts…”
“And mine…”
“Mine…”
“…”
While Xuan Fang was overwhelmed outside, An Wuxue set up a barrier inside the courtyard to block out all sound, finally returning to peace and quiet.
Just as he returned to the plum tree, a “Far Horizon” talisman arrived from afar, seemingly covered in travel-worn dust.
Before the Guan Ye Array, if An Wuxue had sensed the aura of this talisman’s owner, he would have likely crushed it with a wave of his hand.
But now…
He actually hesitated for a moment.
He wasn’t even hesitating over whether to destroy it, but rather whether to listen to it.
The person who sent the talisman seemed afraid he would destroy it. As soon as it reached him and his hesitation began, Xie Zhefeng’s deep, steady voice, tinged with concern, reached his ears: “Is Senior Brother awake? Any discomfort? How is the puppet seal? Any obstruction in your spiritual energy? Do you need anything? Is Xuan Fang taking good care of you? I am not in North Abyss, but I will return as quickly as possible…”
An Wuxue: “…”
Why didn’t I notice my junior brother was so talkative before?
He stopped hesitating and waved his hand, crushing the talisman into dust with his spiritual energy.
A light breeze came from behind, accompanied by a ripple of spiritual energy.
“Xuan Fang can block others, but he truly cannot block you.”
He didn’t turn around.
“A-Xue,” Qi Xun called him.
Beneath the sprawling plum trees, only the two of them remained. Further in was the bedroom; An Wuxue had nowhere left to retreat.
His meeting with Qi Xun was, in the end, unavoidable.
The last time he had seen Qi Xun in his previous life, the man had stood before the ten thousand sects, holding a sword and saying to him: “An Wuxue, from this day forth, our bond is severed. It is a battle to the death between us.”
And then he died.
The first time they met in this life, on the Frost Sea under the bright moon, Qi Xun had stared at his face for a long time.
He wondered what Qi Xun had been thinking when looking at “Su Xue” back then.
He finally turned around, looking at the man in red nearby, and said in a low voice: “Sect Master Qi.”
Qi Xun’s eyes grew red as he took several steps toward him.
“…Sect Master Qi?” he murmured. “It seems I am not receiving any special treatment.”
An Wuxue’s treatment of him was no different from how he had treated the cultivators outside the courtyard just now.
“…Are you here to ask about the Li Huo Sect?” An Wuxue only asked this one question.
“Do you not blame me?”
“Our bond was severed, a battle to the death,” An Wuxue said. “I fulfilled that. I don’t blame you. Not a single person from the Li Huo Sect survived; I was also very saddened. If our roles were reversed and I had suddenly learned Falling Moon Peak had met with disaster, I might not have been able to remain calm either.”
Qi Xun closed his folding fan.
“No blame to be placed, and nothing to be said—is that what you mean?”
An Wuxue remained silent.
Qi Xun continued: “After… after your death, I recalled what you said that day every single day. I often went to the hollowed-out spiritual veins to look at the Chun Hua sword marks, thinking about it many, many times. I’ve forgotten at which point I began to gradually calm down and feel that something must be wrong.”
“But I truly couldn’t see where the problem lay. I spent centuries searching for the truth, visiting many secret realms and falling for many so-called resurrection methods.”
He shrugged with a forced ease. “I truly wasted so many of my treasures.”
An Wuxue listened as if it were someone else’s story: “That’s a pity then. Sect Master Qi, I am truly a bit tired.”
Qi Xun’s movements paused, his expression stiffening slightly.
All he could say was: “Tomorrow is the fifth day of the second month.”
“…Hmm?”
“A-Xue, the fifth of the second month is your birthday.”
Only then did An Wuxue remember the date.
His birthday was actually the day his homeland met with disaster. In the beginning, he didn’t celebrate it.
But later, Xie Zhefeng had broken that obsession for him, teaching him that the more one cares, the harder it is to let go.
After that, he began to treat his birthday with a normal heart. In his youth, he would celebrate on Falling Moon Peak with Qi Xun, Qin Wei, Shangguan Liaoliao, and other old friends.
But later…
Later, there were few people by his side, and he gradually forgot to celebrate.
“…Now that you mention it, I remember—I should still say thank you for that birthday gift from a thousand years ago.”
Perhaps it was fate. During the lightning tribulation, if not for the silver lining provided by Chun Hua, the outcome would have been uncertain.
Qi Xun said wistfully: “I didn’t tell you a thousand years ago because I wanted it to be a surprise. Unfortunately, so many things happened afterward that it was gradually overshadowed…”
“At that time, you and North Abyss had essentially had a falling out. I knew you would still worry about the people of North Abyss and might return one day, so I wanted to make the North Abyss sword array recognize Chun Hua, just in case.”
“That was a gift from a millennium ago. Do you have any birthday gift you want now?”
“Qi Xun,” he finally used the man’s name. “I even have a death day now. What birthday is there to celebrate?”
The words were spoken casually, both a joke and a refusal.
But to Qi Xun, these few words seemed colder than anything said before.
Qi Xun stood stiffly by his side, both hands gripping his folding fan, yet he had even forgotten how to open it.
He was eventually seen out by An Wuxue.
The plum courtyard finally became completely quiet.
No visitors, no old friends.
An Wuxue finally indulged himself, thinking neither of the puppet crisis nor the source of these repeated disasters. He just sat in the courtyard in a daze, holding Kun Kun.
He remained in a daze until nightfall, then went to sleep with Kun Kun.
That night, he slept exceptionally soundly.
The night grew thicker.
The moon was bright and the stars were few.
The tribulation cloud had not caused much of an impact on the prosperous North Abyss. In this land where the immortal path flourished, many cultivators could still be seen flying through the night sky on their swords.
Streaks of spiritual light were like intersecting meteors, carrying the joys and sorrows of the mortal world into dreams.
“…Whine? Whine?”
An Wuxue was pulled awake by Kun Kun.
He opened his eyes in a daze, only to see it was still dark. The window was cracked open, and it didn’t seem too dark outside.
Not too dark?
He didn’t think he had left any lamps in the courtyard.
Kun Kun was still urgently tugging at him, trying to pull him outside.
Immediately alert, he threw on an outer robe and pushed open the door.
Kun Kun didn’t follow, instead scurrying back to the bed and hiding under the covers.
Creak—
The night wind howled into his sleeves.
The fragrance of flowers mingled with falling snow and cold plum blossoms brushed against his cheek.
His alertness instantly turned to shock.
Standing at the door, he saw the courtyard filled with Han Sang flowers glowing with a blue light like stardust.
The small paths in the courtyard were completely covered by these Han Sang flowers, leaving not a single gap.
Plum blossoms hung beneath the bright moon, casting shadows over the flowers on the ground.
His junior brother stood among the Han Sang flowers, turning his head to look at him.
The man’s dark pupils were deeper than the night, yet they held a spark of anticipation. In that single look, it was as if he saw the junior brother of all those years ago, before he had ascended to the position of Immortal Venerable.
He had never seen such a display, and in the middle of it stood Xie Zhefeng.
“…Did the Immortal Venerable empty out Han Sang Cliff?”
Xie Zhefeng’s eyes flashed, and he actually appeared somewhat awkward.
“I heard them say that North Abyss people use Han Sang flowers to show love. The colder the frost on the flower, the deeper the affection. Thus, North Abyss people pride themselves on picking the coldest Han Sang flower. But I…”
A Long-Life Immortal feared neither cold nor heat. While this was something the world envied, standing on Han Sang Cliff, he once again felt this constitution was truly a hindrance.
He could only feel a slight chill from the petals, but could not identify the absolute coldest one.
The sword of the Immortal Venerable Chu Han could slay all the demons in the world, yet faced with a mountain of Han Sang flowers, he could only resort to the most clumsy method.
He said: “The coldest one must be in here somewhere.”
An Wuxue stood behind the sea of flowers.
His lips moved slightly, but he didn’t know what to say.
He had received many, many Han Sang flowers back then.
But he had never kept a single one.
Now, the one he had most wanted back then was hidden within this courtyard full of flowers, yet the world had long since changed.
It had been so long.
So, so long that he no longer insisted on it.
He glanced at the blue lights beneath the plum trees, avoiding Xie Zhefeng’s fixed gaze, and spoke of other things: “So you picked them all? Did the Xue clan, whose residence is next to Han Sang Cliff, not make a fuss with the Immortal Venerable?”
Xie Zhefeng looked blank.
An Wuxue had his answer—no one would dare make a fuss with the Immortal Venerable.
The man likely didn’t even know that emptying Han Sang Cliff meant taking what belonged to the Xue clan.
Just as he was about to tell Xie Zhefeng to return them to the Xue clan, Xie Zhefeng suddenly called him: “Senior Brother.”
An Wuxue blinked quickly, his long eyelashes trembling as they shook off the fine snow that had just settled on them.
The man before him lowered his head and opened his spiritual pouch.
A flash of white light made An Wuxue blink. He saw his junior brother extend both hands, palms upward, devoutly holding a snow-white lotus toward him.
“In the Guan Ye Array, you told me you liked the snow lotuses of the Sea of Guxu. But there was only the First City in the array, and I truly couldn’t obtain one. I’ve always remembered; I haven’t forgotten. After the lightning tribulation ended, while you were in a deep sleep after your breakthrough, I went to the Sea of Guxu…”
Langfeng City was to the far west, and North Abyss City was right next to the Far North. A round trip took at least two days.
The man also had to handle the aftermath in North Abyss. An Wuxue had only slept for three or four days. Calculating carefully, Xie Zhefeng had not rested for a single moment since the clouds dispersed.
“…This is a snow lotus from the deepest part of the Sea of Guxu. Buried in the deep sea, protected by the seawater and ice, it has never suffered from the astral winds. It is the brightest.”
“Senior Brother,” he said, “happy birthday.”