Chapter 104#
To the side, Shangguan Liaoliao waited for a moment, but An Wuxue didn’t say anything in surprise.
She sighed: “Back when the four seas were still in chaos and we were busy with the North Abyss sword array, you were always the one making arrangements and I was the one listening. I thought after so many years, I should be able to arrange everything for you… I didn’t expect you to have already seen through my plans.”
An Wuxue said calmly: “Precisely because I believe in City Lord Shangguan’s ability. The moment you sacrificed your cultivation in the sword array, I knew you must have already thought of a backup plan.”
In a place as flourishing in the immortal path as North Abyss, if Shangguan Liaoliao were to start her cultivation over, she would be unable to lead the countless immortal sects and clans.
The new City Lord needed not only a thorough understanding of the sword array and the ability to use it to protect North Abyss but also a certain level of cultivation.
Peak Tribulation-Transcending experts were rare, but late-stage was sufficient.
It was even better if this person had no attachments. There were grudges and connections between all the North Abyss sects; choosing an expert from any one of them would inevitably lead to dissent and potentially destabilize North Abyss.
The most important point was—they didn’t know if the mastermind behind the crisis was hidden among the immortal families. If they chose from them and were “lucky” enough to pick the mastermind, giving them authority over the array, it would be equivalent to handing over the safety of the two realms.
So who was left who was most suitable?
Naturally, it was Pei Qian, who had already left the Qu clan and hadn’t returned to North Abyss for many years, making it impossible for him to be the mastermind.
Pei Qian watched the two of them talk as if discussing something already set in stone. He said resentfully: “Can I refuse?”
An Wuxue said: “You can.”
Just as Pei Qian was about to take the exit provided, Shangguan Liaoliao said: “Aside from you, I indeed have another candidate.”
Wouldn’t that be even better?
Pei Qian cooperated: “Then the other fellow daoist must be a decisive genius, an upright and honorable person. I wonder which fellow daoist has this honor? Once the handover is complete, I will surely bring a generous gift to pay my respects!”
Shangguan Liaoliao said: “Qu Jizhi.”
“Good, I congratulate this Fellow Daoist Qu—ack!”
Pei Qian stopped abruptly, his face twisting. “Why him!?”
An Wuxue only then spoke: “Young Immortal Master Qu is indeed a viable option. Although he is a Qu, he has broken with Qu Wenxin this time and is leading the purge of the Qu clan; it’s unlikely he’s involved in the demon chaos. He is also from an array path family and is a renowned array genius in North Abyss. Managing the sword array would surely come easily to him.”
“But if young Immortal Master Qu becomes City Lord, not only will the North Abyss sword array follow his orders, but countless North Abyss cultivators will follow his lead as well.”
“With North Abyss’s strength, finding someone in the two realms or four seas, or forcing something, shouldn’t be difficult. At that time, young Immortal Master Qu would be the lord of the forty-nine cities. If he does something to satisfy his own selfish desires that doesn’t harm the two realms, no one would likely interfere.”
Pei Qian’s expression grew more and more dejected, as if already envisioning the horror of Qu Jizhi taking the throne.
As soon as An Wuxue finished, Pei Qian dropped his resistance, rolled up his sleeves, and said: “City Lord Shangguan, I think I am quite reliable. You should still consider me.”
Shangguan Liaoliao: “…”
She nodded. “If you are willing, I naturally won’t consider any other candidate.”
An Wuxue let out a laugh.
At this sound, Shangguan Liaoliao was stunned—it had been a long time since she had heard An Wuxue laugh like that.
Since the incident with Shangguan Ran a thousand years ago, the two of them had essentially been estranged. She had never shared a moment like this with An Wuxue since.
Whether it was his sly teasing just now or his current laughter, it was all because of the other person present, and had… nothing to do with her.
“Brother…”
“It’s getting late!” Pei Qian said hurriedly. “The First City is large, and it will take some effort to deliver all those spiritual pouches. I’ll take my leave now. You two chat…”
He hurried toward the exit but then suddenly remembered something.
“I’ve been tricked by you since I stepped inside, I almost forgot! I… I thought since you’ve been asleep for a few days, your mouth might feel a bit tasteless, so I brought you some food.”
Pei Qian pulled a plate of ice treats, protected by spiritual energy, from his spiritual pouch and placed it on the stone table before scurrying away.
An Wuxue looked at the ice treats, reached out, and took a bite of one.
A familiar taste.
Ice treats were a favorite of people in Langfeng City and were not common in North Abyss.
But since Pei Qian had stayed in Langfeng for a while, it seemed plausible he would bring some.
The man had thought through even these small details, terrified An Wuxue would recognize them, yet he had forgotten—or failed to consider—the most critical point.
Back then, his favorite food had been the ice treats made by Xie Zhefeng himself. How could he not recognize this taste?
He had thought the man would stop after leaving the night before.
To think that while leading the Falling Moon disciples in the aftermath, Immortal Venerable Chu Han had actually sneaked away to make ice treats and have Pei Qian find an excuse to deliver them.
He looked at the treat with a bite taken out of it, hesitated for a moment, but didn’t put it down, taking another bite.
To the side, Shangguan Liaoliao waited for a long time without hearing a sound from An Wuxue.
She asked hesitantly: “…Master Su?”
An Wuxue turned his head: “Does the City Lord have anything else?”
“Xie Chuhan said you also woke up on Falling Moon Peak without knowing anything. Before that, your fragmented soul was at Thorn Stream. During those thousand years, were you… alright?”
Eating the ice treat, An Wuxue only spoke after he had finished one piece: “That is a very strange question—asking if a dead person was alright? I was exactly as any other fragmented soul would be.”
A look of heartache appeared on Shangguan Liaoliao’s face.
Before death, he was betrayed by everyone; how could a lonely soul drifting for a millennium be alright?
“Are you comfortable staying here? Back then, although… although I was very muddled,” she said cautiously, “I never touched this place, using spiritual energy to preserve the plum trees in the courtyard. When the news of your fall on Falling Moon Peak arrived, I stood outside this courtyard for a long time. I only realize now that I might have wanted to see you again back then…”
“A-Xue, I now know your good intentions. The misunderstanding is gone. Can we truly not go back to how we were? I will always treat you as my brother and do everything in my power to make up for my mistakes.”
She spoke more and more urgently, her voice growing hoarse and tinged with sobs.
“There are many years ahead. I can start my cultivation over, I can protect you. You never have to worry about me again, Brother.”
An Wuxue’s movements paused.
He had just picked up another piece of ice treat, but now he put it down.
He said: “The City Lord encountered many past events in the Guan Ye Array, didn’t you?”
He suddenly brought up the Guan Ye Array, which seemed to have no connection to what they were discussing. For a moment, Shangguan Liaoliao was confused and didn’t know how to answer.
An Wuxue continued: “I also saw much of North Abyss over the last millennium and met the you of five hundred years ago.”
Shangguan Liaoliao was stunned.
“The you of five hundred years ago saw me and asked why I did what I did. I said I was sorry, and you drew your sword, holding the blade to my throat.”
“A-Xue—!”
“I know the you in the illusion didn’t mean to kill me, just wanted to vent your anger. But you see, Liaoliao, if An Wuxue hadn’t appeared before you after you knew the truth, things between us would have been very different.”
He beckoned Kun Kun to the table and fed it a few bites of ice treat, speaking as if they were just chatting: “I truly have never understood why all of you want to go back to the past. Xie Zhefeng…”
He paused.
He thought of the Heartless Curse.
Never mind, don’t mention Xie Zhefeng.
“Qin Wei is like this, Qi Xun is like this, and you are too. You regret and want to clear the misunderstanding and settle the debt so we can act as if nothing happened. But I…”
He gave a mocking laugh. “I didn’t just go away for a millennium in a huff; I truly died. If I hadn’t received this second chance, I might have just been a demon cultivator who went astray until not a single person in this world remembered the name An Wuxue, and nothing would have changed. Or like the you I met in the five-hundred-year-old illusion; if I hadn’t appeared before you with proof and the truth, both you and Qin Wei would have only questioned how I dared to show my face.”
Shangguan Liaoliao stood completely frozen.
“Why?” An Wuxue suddenly asked.
He finally spoke the words he had kept in his heart.
“Clearly I died. Whether you feel I deserved it or feel regret and guilt, those are your feelings; they cannot change anything. You ultimately cannot seek forgiveness from a dead person. But now that I am alive, I have to face your apologies and thanks, and carry your hopes of returning to the past.”
“I survived and was given a second chance—that was my opportunity. How did it end up being yours?”
He sat at the stone table, looking at the blooming red plums, not sparing Shangguan Liaoliao a single glance.
In the silence, he raised his hand and caught several petals blown by the wind.
With a wave of his hand, he let the fallen flowers drift away.
“Why?” he asked again. It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
His tone held no joy or anger, only his usual warmth, calm and steady.
But to Shangguan Liaoliao, it was a sharp edge against which there was no defense.
She cried out his name: “A-Xue…”
An Wuxue remained silent.
A long time passed.
Shangguan Liaoliao finally understood—water spilled cannot be gathered, and a broken mirror cannot be made whole.
She quietly pulled a fur garment from her spiritual pouch and placed it beside the plate of ice treats.
She said: “…This is a robe made from the fur of the Fox clan of the Far North. Back then… after you left the Ancient Tower, I heard from Qi Xun that you had developed a sensitivity to the cold. The Fox clan of the Far North lives beneath the Ancient Tree, and their fur is a heaven-sent protection against the cold. I used spiritual stones to trade for the fur they had gathered and made this robe that can withstand some of the chill.”
“On your birthday that year, I took this robe to the foot of Falling Moon Peak, wanting to give it to you. But I hesitated for a long time and eventually returned to North Abyss…”
At that time, she still resented An Wuxue.
So whether it was this courtyard he had stayed in or this fur robe she had made, they had both been sealed away for a millennium.
Now she wanted to give it to him, but An Wuxue no longer had the same body and bones.
The robe was useless now.
But she had still brought it out.
“A birthday gift from a thousand years ago should be given eventually, no matter how late. Today is your hard-won birthday after your return; I won’t stay and bother you.”
“In a few days, I will hand over the position of City Lord and the authority over the sword array to Pei Qian. Once I have helped Xie Chuhan and Brother find the clues to the crisis, I will leave North Abyss to find my own path again.”
Shangguan Liaoliao bowed with her sword, performing a grand gesture of respect.
“I truly should not ask for your forgiveness. I only hope you can be happy and live as you please. Regarding the affairs of the two realms, if you wish to involve yourself, we will do our utmost to help. If you do not, then let Xie Chuhan and us handle whatever comes.”
“A-Xue, if anyone bullies you again, you don’t need to trouble yourself with them. Just hide behind us.”
“Master Su, take care. Farewell.”
She left.
An Wuxue looked at the fur robe and ice treats on the stone table and let out a sigh.
Without turning his head, he spoke to the person who had been hiding at the courtyard gate: “One person had Pei Qian bring in treasures from the immortal families, another left a fur robe I can’t even use now. And you? Having used Pei Qian’s name to deliver a plate of ice treats isn’t enough; what else do you have to push on me?”
The man emerged reluctantly.
Xie Zhefeng had been hiding well, but having just heard every word An Wuxue said to Shangguan Liaoliao, his breathing had become unsteady. The grand Long-Life Immortal had actually been discovered.
He walked slowly to An Wuxue. “Senior Brother…”
An Wuxue’s eyes reflected the white snow, filled with light, as he turned to look at him.
Xie Zhefeng, afraid he would be angry, said hurriedly: “I didn’t mean to disturb Senior Brother. I originally intended to wait for Senior Brother to go inside so I could decorate the courtyard with these…”
As he spoke, he produced several mundane objects that held no spiritual energy.
They were several unlit decorative lanterns.
They came in various shapes: a little rabbit, a little fish, and a lotus, all things An Wuxue had liked before.
An Wuxue was slightly stunned. “You bought them?”
“I made them. I found an old shop this morning and learned how. I just… saw that you loved to buy them every time you saw them, so I thought you must like these pieces of the mortal world. Senior Brother surely won’t let anyone stay to celebrate with him, and the courtyard is lonely at night. I just made some to add some cheer. I’ll leave as soon as I’ve hung them up.”