Chapter 120#
Xie Zhefeng clearly felt his own heartbeat.
After he broke through to the Great Success stage and established his Dao, his swordsmanship moved even further forward. The snow lotus sword mark appeared faintly, showing signs of completion.
The elders of the sect all said that the youngest disciple of Nanhe Xianzun was truly the peerless genius of the Unfeeling path.
When he was in Langfeng City, the cultivators there called him “Young Master Xie.” After coming to Luoyue Peak, the elders called him “Little Nephew Xie” or “Junior Brother Xie.”
As the years went by, Xie Zhefeng’s cultivation grew higher. Whenever the Chu Han sword was drawn, frost and snow fell. The sword’s name became his title. The disciples of Luoyue Peak and the likes of Qin Wei and Qi Xun gradually began to call him “Xie Chuhan.” Even his senior brother would sometimes say to him: “Junior Brother is now… becoming more and more like Master.”
This version of him.
This version of him, who would have entered the Unfeeling path without regret no matter what, had actually moved with private affection.
At that time, Nanhe had not died, and the immortals had not yet fallen. Although the troubled times had lasted long, the sky wouldn’t fall and crush Xie Zhefeng and An Wuxue.
Even if they were disciples of the world’s greatest sword, they were ultimately just disciples. The responsibility they carried was not that of the entire world.
Whether it was breaking the Dao or re-cultivating, it didn’t seem like an unbearable outcome.
Xie Zhefeng didn’t know that the Unfeeling Curse was already buried in his sea of consciousness, and he didn’t remember the fluttering heart of his youth.
He thought this was his first time falling in love.
In the bamboo forest where An Wuxue often practiced his sword, he looked at the sword marks left by his senior brother and pondered for an entire night.
—If he were to break his Dao for the love in his heart, it wouldn’t be impossible.
His senior brother was like the clear wind and bright moon, the clear sky and comfortable clouds, worthy of everything in the world.
It was just breaking the Dao and re-cultivating for An Wuxue; he didn’t mind.
When Xie Zhefeng reached this conclusion, it was exactly when the sun rose in the east. The light crossed the continuous bamboo leaves, casting fragmented silhouettes.
An Wuxue walked slowly with Chunhua in hand and saw him sitting on a long stone under the bamboo.
“Junior Brother?” he called softly. “You’re here so early today?”
Xie Zhefeng dazed for a moment.
“Junior Brother? …Are you thinking about something?”
Thinking about what?
Xie Zhefeng forgot.
He seemed to be here contemplating his Dao heart.
Now that his heart was free of clutter, he must have understood.
He shook his head and said, “Nothing. Which set of sword techniques does Senior Brother want to practice today?”
“…”
…
After that, Xie Zhefeng often experienced moments like that early morning in the bamboo forest.
Every time his heart was moved, he would always forget. He would spend an entire day thinking, but in the end, the only things on his mind were sword techniques and cultivation.
Sometimes he was sitting quietly in the bamboo forest, sometimes he was playing chess with his senior brother. While playing chess, he would understand, but then he would forget it all.
From the Great Success stage to the Tribulation Crossing stage, in that short span of time, only insignificant memories remained between him and An Wuxue.
He actually didn’t understand before why his senior brother would sometimes show a look of disappointment and loneliness.
He thought his senior brother was excellent. An Wuxue would surely become the respected First Disciple of Luoyue Peak. If he achieved the immortal path, he might even become the Sword Sovereign who ruled the two realms and four seas. And as An Wuxue’s junior brother, he would join An Wuxue in slaying demons and supporting the world.
Although the world was chaotic, the years at Luoyue were not dull.
What was Senior Brother lonely about?
…
His cave dwelling was set on a floating island that was sparsely populated and cold all year round.
An Wuxue stood before the Frost Sea gate. Hearing his footsteps, he turned back to look at him.
The moment the young man turned his head, his hair moved with the frost and snow of the Frost Sea, like the spring wind falling on an ice river, brushing across his heart.
He feigned reproach: “Junior Brother made me wait long. The wind and snow are heavy here. If you didn’t come out, I would have had to leave covered in frost.”
An Wuxue was smiling.
But Xie Zhefeng still felt quite guilty.
How could he let his senior brother wait so long?
He didn’t hang a soul bell at the door because he was used to being alone and forgot there would be times when he was in seclusion and couldn’t receive transmissions, making his senior brother wait.
He said, “It won’t happen again.”
So he hung a soul bell at the Frost Sea gate.
He had specially placed a restriction on that soul bell, so it only recognized An Wuxue’s soul aura. No one among the disciples of Luoyue Peak could ring it.
But he didn’t tell his senior brother.
It was as if telling his senior brother about this special treatment would lay bare something he had hidden for a long time, something even he himself had forgotten.
Later, every time An Wuxue came to the Frost Sea, he would ring that soul bell.
Xie Zhefeng, no matter what he was doing, would always go to welcome the guest immediately.
As time went by, An Wuxue teased once: “Junior Brother lives so far from me, it’s a hassle to find you every time. How about I find a treasure spot next to your Burial Frost Sea and move my cave dwelling over?”
Xie Zhefeng’s heart skipped a beat.
It seemed as if some warm current flowed through his heart.
Okay.
He wanted to say.
But his mind wavered—what did he just want to say?
“Junior Brother? Junior Brother?” An Wuxue called him from the other end of the transmission. “If it’s no good, then forget it.”
His senior brother’s voice was always gentle and calm, never forcing anything.
But… is it no good?
Xie Zhefeng’s lips moved slightly, wanting to say something, but not knowing what he wanted to say.
His senior brother had clearly just said “forget it,” but hearing the silence on his end, he asked with a final shred of hope: “Is it really no good?”
Of course it’s okay!
It’s exactly what I want—
…What did he want?
The transmission was cut off.
Xie Zhefeng forgot again.
…
The world said that the Unfeeling path was a road of thorns with no regrets, and Xie Zhefeng didn’t feel much.
Except for going down the mountain to eliminate demons by order, he was always on the lonely Frost Sea that was icy all year round. The Unfeeling path was lonely and bitter, but he naturally preferred loneliness and bitterness.
This path sees all living beings without partiality, and Xie Zhefeng had always done well.
But for some reason, occasionally when he was with An Wuxue, voices would always pop up in his heart.
“You’ve moved.”
“You like him.”
“Your Dao heart is unstable, why not abandon the path?”
“…”
—That was the inner demon.
Every step in the Tribulation Crossing stage was a tribulation, and every inch was an inner demon. Xie Zhefeng only considered those as delusions he had to overcome on his cultivation path.
Fortunately, the inner demon was not yet severe, and he could easily slay it.
Through a thousand refinements, Xie Zhefeng was not only not hindered by “delusions” in his cultivation, but he also developed a sword mark that had not been seen in Luoyue Peak for ten thousand years.
The sword mark first appeared during a battle. Xie Zhefeng fought with a great demon and finally extinguished the opponent’s life with the Chu Han sword. He gained enlightenment into the supreme sword Dao, and the sword mark manifested at his brow.
Nanhe, who had just finished fighting a Muddy Immortal, landed before him, looking at the snow lotus flickering at his brow.
his master seemed to sigh, showing no joy at seeing the sword mark.
Nanhe was always without sorrow or joy, pitying only the common people.
…Was Master pitying him?
Xie Zhefeng heard Nanhe say: “…Why does it have to be you?”
Xie Zhefeng didn’t understand that sentence at the time.
Until Nanhe fell and the immortals sacrificed themselves for the array. Suddenly, there were no more long-lived immortals in the two realms and four seas. In the late stage of the Immortal Calamity, the Tribulation stage cultivators and the great demons fought, and the chaos reached its peak.
Before Nanhe fell, from among the peak Tribulation stage cultivators who were enough to guard all directions during the Immortal Calamity, he even skipped over his first disciple and appointed Xie Zhefeng as the successor to the position of Xianzun, handing the power of Luoyue Peak to him.
The Sword Sovereigns of Luoyue Peak in every generation were peerless sword immortals.
Whoever held this position represented who Nanhe Xianzun believed was most likely to ascend.
At that time, Xie Zhefeng’s inner demon grew heavier. He often dreamed of the moment his senior brother stood on the Frost Sea, turning back to look at him with a smile.
He clearly shouldn’t have moved with emotion.
He also clearly didn’t remember why he was moved, or when.
But he was moved.
The emotion took root, and over time, it became an inner demon that couldn’t be gouged out.
He hurriedly took the position, and in a daze, he suddenly remembered his master’s words.
—Why did it have to be him?
If Nanhe Xianzun was still there, if he was still just the only junior brother of the First Disciple An, if he was just a cultivator who followed orders at Luoyue Peak…
He wouldn’t necessarily have to walk the Unfeeling path to the end.
He would have time to break his Dao and re-cultivate, and he would have the right and qualification to be selfish for his own private desires.
But now… it was him.
He had to walk this path to the end for the sake of the common people.
His senior brother was also among the common people.
…
Before he succeeded as Xianzun, An Wuxue gave him a set of white robes.
His senior brother told him: “I know you like white, so I specially chose white.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother.”
He returned to the Frost Sea and placed the white robes by his bed, looking at them for a long, long time.
Vaguely, he seemed to have forgotten why he only wore white. An Wuxue said he liked white… did he like white?
Was it not because someone else liked it?
His thoughts were hazy, and he gradually fell asleep.
When he woke up again, the inner demon was still there, but what he thought and worried about before sleep was completely forgotten.
A disciple sent a transmission outside the door, waiting for him to decide on major affairs of the two realms.
He was no longer the little junior brother of Luoyue Peak.
With a flick of his sleeve, Xie Zhefeng put away the white robes and pushed the door open with an indifferent expression.
…
Thereafter, as Xie Zhefeng’s cultivation grew higher, his inner demon became more and more severe.
Until under the Underworld Sea…
In the ten-thousand-fathom deep water abyss, he was not controlled by the inner demon, nor was he affected by the charm poison.
That call of “A-Xue” was his conscious word.
How joyful he was then.
So joyful that even if the price for breaking his Dao was his soul being scattered, he would have accepted it gladly.
But when he woke up again, the bodies of the shark people around had been cleaned up by someone. He lay in a giant clam shell, having forgotten what happened after he defeated the shark demon.
That was the most severe flare-up of the inner demon in his sea of consciousness before Xie Zhefeng ascended.
He didn’t even know why it flared up.
To suppress the inner demon, Xie Zhefeng went into seclusion for a full half-year.
It wasn’t until much, much later that he found out about the Northern Ming Sword Array, the death of Upguan Ran, and… the punishment of the Cangu Tower.
The moment he knew, amidst the thousand words of his inner demon, he forcibly stabilized his thoughts and rushed to his senior brother’s front.
He asked his senior brother: “Is the Cangu Tower cold? Does the frost and snow freezing your bones hurt?”
An Wuxue was stunned for a moment.
He smiled and said to his junior brother: “It’s alright.”
Xie Zhefeng knew that he had arrived too late.
The top of the tower was cold, and the frost and snow froze the bones, but the pain that was supposed to be felt had already been felt.
“Senior Brother always carries everything alone,” he said, resisting the temptation of the inner demon, suppressing the churning in his sea of consciousness, and stabilizing his tone. “In the future, if you feel pain, you must tell me.”
An Wuxue’s expression moved slightly, his eyes carrying a smile as he answered: “Okay.”
From that day on, Xie Zhefeng made a decision.
He wanted to ascend as soon as possible.
He wanted to achieve the great Dao for the common people, and also to slay the inner demon for the sake of the private affection in his heart.
Xie Zhefeng actually already had the feeling of ascending long ago.
But firstly, his inner demon had not been extinguished, and secondly, his cultivation had not yet reached the point where he was fully confident in dealing with the Ascension Tribulation, so he had never triggered the tribulation.
But since he had made this decision, he would no longer shrink back.
Slaying his emotions was not the only path he could take.
No one had walked this path before, but it had always existed in the world.
For the Unfeeling path to reach great completion, one must sense the Heavenly Dao, see the common people, and forget one’s own self.
Cut off attachments, remove cause and effect.
If one does not slay emotions, one can only slay the self.
Xie Zhefeng chose to slay the self.
While Xie Zhefeng was breaking the curse, An Wuxue went to Qu Jizhi’s residence.
He was protecting Xie Zhefeng with a barrier, so nothing major could happen. Waiting futilely by the side was just a waste of time.
He simply left Kun-kun in the courtyard to watch the barrier just in case, while he went to find Qu Jizhi to talk about things related to the sword array and the calamities.
Before leaving, Qu Jizhi asked him: “The First Disciple’s return from the dead, is it related to puppetry?”
An Wuxue gave him a meaningful look.
“Perhaps it is, perhaps not.”
“Oh?”
“I have a puppet mark on me,” An Wuxue said, “but this body of mine, I truly don’t know where it came from. I previously thought it was puppetry that revived me, but seeing how things have played out now, I don’t think so. The person causing the calamities has neither the method for Muddy Immortals to ascend nor the method for revival. Those are all just lies used by that person to manipulate chess pieces.”
An Wuxue had originally thought that the person behind the scenes had used puppetry to drag his soul back and placed it in a puppet body.
But now, after several incidents, the more that person acted, the more they reached the end of their wits, exposing many things that could be known with a bit of deduction.
That person seemed to know everything and be omnipotent, but in reality, they relied on plots and schemes, the twists of the human heart, and knowledge of the secrets of the two realms. In terms of strength, that person didn’t dare to face Xie Zhefeng head-on. Even when the Northern Ming Sword Array was in danger, they didn’t dare to appear and attack him and Upguan Liaoliao. Their cultivation was likely at the peak of the Tribulation stage, at the threshold of ascension.
With such strength, that person actually needed people.
And that person’s goal was to revitalize the demonic path. If they really had a method for revival, why only revive him? Even if that person thought he would hate the two realms because of being betrayed by everyone, in the end, it was just one person, right? With such a secret method, wouldn’t reviving the Northern Ming Immortal Lord or those Muddy Immortals that even Nanhe found troublesome be better than reviving him, an unknown variable?
He continued to Qu Jizhi: “If that person truly had a method for ascension and revival, they would have already directly ascended to compete with the Xianzun. Why hide their head and show their tail, performing such sinister acts? My return from the dead… should be unrelated to that person.”
Qu Jizhi chuckled: “Great minds think alike. Because of this, I vaguely feel something is still not right, and the First Disciple should have also noticed. No matter why the First Disciple returned from the dead, it is a fact that he did.
“After the sword array incident, both Luoyue Peak and Northern Ming City started dealing with the puppet matter. But like grass after a wildfire, puppetry has already spread.”
—Now throughout the two realms and four seas, many people have puppet technique books in their hands.
Puppetry was not like other forbidden arts that were difficult to practice and had a high cost. Any cultivator could use it. Even though Luoyue Peak had already listed puppetry as a forbidden art, it still spread rapidly.
In just a few days, Northern Ming had just destroyed many puppets, but many more appeared elsewhere.
Qu Jizhi continued: “Others might not think so clearly and might believe the revival method is just a myth. With the puppet technique first and the First Disciple’s return later, that person knew the puppet technique was useless yet spared no effort in spreading it throughout the two realms. What role the puppet technique played in this and what its relationship is with the First Disciple, I think is the key. But my talent is limited; I’ve thought about it for several days and still can’t figure out the connection.”
An Wuxue couldn’t figure it out either.
After coming out from Qu Jizhi’s residence, he was still pondering this matter.
But before he had walked a few steps, he ran into Qi Xun, who was looking for him.
An Wuxue’s brow furrowed.
Qi Xun hurriedly said: “I’m not here to bother you. I just wanted to leave you a ‘World’s End’ talisman for voice transmission.”
As Qi Xun spoke, he flicked his sleeve and sent the talisman to An Wuxue.
“I just talked to Qin Wei. He’s currently in Mingri City and said there’s no unusual movement there, everything seems fine. But the person causing trouble first moved against Zhaoshui, then Northern Ming, and Langfeng City was already investigated by you and Xie Chuhan. Only Mingri City is left.
“There’s no reason for that person to just stop here. I’m worried they have other plans and want to help share your burden. I plan to go to Mingri City first to help Qin Wei check the sword array, and then take the route through the Thorn River to the old sect grounds to see if there are any traces I missed back then.”
An Wuxue lowered his eyes and accepted the talisman.
He said calmly: “If there’s anything unusual, Sect Master Qi can send a transmission to me or the Xianzun.”
Qi Xun gave a bitter smile: “Now… you’re only willing to talk business with me.”
An Wuxue gave a long sigh and said: “Between you and me, is there any private business left?”
Qi Xun said in pain: “A-Xue…”
But An Wuxue had already turned to leave.
As they crossed paths, Qi Xun suddenly said urgently: “I have one more thing I’ve thought about for a long time that I want to tell you.”
An Wuxue didn’t stop.
“I saw that on your birthday, you let Xie Chuhan stay. Now it seems you don’t intend to completely cut ties with him. I previously felt that both he and I deserve it. I won’t speak for myself, nor will I speak for him.”
“—But your thoughts are different. I don’t want you to still have regrets. A-Xue, during the time you’ve traveled the four seas with Xie Chuhan, have you ever seen him personally use the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence?”
An Wuxue had already walked more than ten feet away and summoned Chunhua, intending to leave on his sword.
He had nothing else to say to Qi Xun.
The past cannot be returned to, and the world’s affairs have also changed. They were once best friends, but that was only in the past.
But Qi Xun mentioned Xie Zhefeng, and mentioned the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence.
His thoughts stalled, and he actually held Chunhua and stopped.
“You said… Soul-Nurturing Tree essence?”
—Xie Zhefeng indeed had never personally touched the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence!
An Wuxue had felt something was odd before, but at that time he hadn’t recovered his identity and had left too many suspicious points before Xie Zhefeng. Every time the other party asked him to use the essence, he thought they were testing him.
But thinking back now, at the time of the soul-shattered Zhao Duan, Xie Zhefeng had actually already confirmed his identity. There was no need to test anything further, yet he still let him use the essence.
Both realms knew that the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence was a treasure of heaven and earth found by the Xianzun in the last few centuries. But An Wuxue knew very well that Xie Zhefeng himself had never touched it.
Could it be… there really is some hidden reason?
With just this bit of hesitation, Qi Xun understood that he still cared.
Qi Xun said self-mockingly: “He truly is still different in your heart.”
An Wuxue remained silent.
“A-Xue, with your intelligence, it’s impossible that you never suspected him not handling the essence, right? But before you died, the essence had not appeared in the world. Everything you knew about it came from the ancient books of Luoyue Peak.
“But I was with Xie Chuhan when we searched for the Soul-Nurturing Tree. We searched through the ancient books and jade slips of the cities near the four seas and found a few words that few people knew.
“You should know that the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence can reflect a person’s life before and after death. If a soul or a dead person touches it, it will trigger the essence, right?”
“…Naturally.”
“The fact that no one has seen the Soul-Nurturing Tree in these thousands of years is also related to this.”
An Wuxue’s eyelashes trembled slightly. He felt apprehensive and also melancholic.
He had a vague premonition.
But he still asked: “…What do you mean? How… how did Xie Zhefeng find the Soul-Nurturing Tree?”
Qi Xun lightly shook the folding fan in his hand, his expression complex.
“The Soul-Nurturing Tree is a treasure of souls. It does not appear before the living. That’s why there have been no traces of it for thousands of years.”
“In this world, only the dead can pass through the bone-eroding astral winds of the Star River Ancient Path, step across the endless waters of the Yellow Springs, and see the Soul-Nurturing Tree.”