Chapter 123#

When Xie Zhefeng slew himself, he didn’t take the inner demon’s words “we’ll meet again” seriously.

He thought those were just the resentful words of an inner demon putting up its last struggle.

For the sake of a way to satisfy both sides, he risked his life and finally managed to win a slim chance at ascension.

Before triggering the ascension lightning tribulation, Xie Zhefeng had actually prepared for the total annihilation of his soul.

At that time, the Four Seas Myriad Sword Array had stabilized.

Zhaoshui City was held by An Wuxue and Lou Shuiming as array masters, Langfeng City by An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng, Northern Ming City by An Wuxue and Upguan Liaoliao, and Mingri City by An Wuxue and the Mingri City Lord of the time.

The four heavenly pillars of the four coastal cities complemented each other, cleansing the muddy energy and once again propping up the collapsing Heavenly Dao.

Muddy energy was no longer everywhere, and the demons grew weak, each hiding back into their own small corner. Even if they fought, it was only between great demons and Tribulation-stage immortal cultivators, and wouldn’t be as world-shaking as when immortals clashed.

There would be no more Muddy Immortals in the world. As long as one more long-lived immortal emerged from the cultivation world, the calamity of Muddy Immortals that had devastated both realms would come to an end.

Thus, the entire world placed high hopes on Xie Zhefeng.

Everyone felt that only this one step was left.

But only he knew that there was obsession in his heart, and an inner demon that had taken root since his youth was in his sea of consciousness. Unless the inner demon was rooted out, he could not ascend.

If he could not discard his love, he could not root out the inner demon.

He had only this one path to take.

His plan at the time was very simple.

If he failed, he wouldn’t have been able to become an immortal anyway. If he died under the lightning tribulation, his senior brother wouldn’t yet know of his feelings, and would probably only grieve for his little junior brother for a while before taking over the position of Xianzun to continue stabilizing the situation of the four seas.

Whether the world had one more Xie Zhefeng or one less Xie Chuhan didn’t really matter.

If he succeeded, he could give the world peace and his senior brother a golden age.

Xie Zhefeng thought he had succeeded.

When he regained consciousness again, he was still on the long stairs behind the Luoyue mountain gate that led to the mountainside.

The tribulation clouds had dissipated, and the realm of the immortal had been achieved.

His original body had died under the Chu Han sword along with the inner demon, struck into ashes by the final lightning bolt.

After the inner demon and the demon bone that had appeared out of nowhere were tempered by the heavenly lightning, only a clear soul remained.

His soul returned to his body, and the demon bone merged with his Sword Bone once again—at the time of the merger, his consciousness was being drawn away by the Yellow Springs water. Later, the Heavenly Dao dragged him back from the Star River path, so he didn’t see his other skeletal structure.

Peak lords, elders, and disciples seemed to crowd around to congratulate him.

Some of their expressions were exceptionally complex.

Outside the Luoyue mountain gate, there were actually countless cultivators.

Qin Wei said with utter disbelief: “Xie Chuhan, you’re actually the one who did it…?”

I’m the one who did it?

What did I do?

He only remembered splitting his soul and extracting his Sword Bone, and then…

Then what?

He stared blankly ahead.

He had just died not long ago; the body formed by the Sword Bone had shape but no feeling.

The once colorful Luoyue Peak was only black and white in his eyes; he couldn’t smell the fragrance of flowers or feel the gentle breeze.

Despite this.

Xie Zhefeng should have been happy.

But as he looked around at the bustling crowd, his soul was clearly complete, yet also empty.

Something was missing.

He had succeeded in his ascension; wouldn’t his senior brother come to congratulate him?

He opened his mouth dazed: “Senior—”

Where is Senior Brother?

Suddenly.

Xie Zhefeng’s expression froze, and his pupils trembled violently.

The memories of everything the inner demon had experienced before the final lightning bolt fell merged into his memory at this moment through his returned soul.

Senior Brother…

Senior Brother!???

Xie Zhefeng’s eyes turned red, and his whole body shook. He raised his hand tremblingly, reaching out for the black and white void before him.

Others seemed to be calling him: “Xianzun?”

Xie Zhefeng ignored them.

He even forgot that he was still severely injured and that he had already entered the immortal realm. Chu Han fell to the ground, but even its master didn’t pick it up.

Without using a shred of spiritual power, Xie Zhefeng stumbled like a mortal, trying to run toward the mountain gate.

But he had only taken a few steps.

His footsteps stopped.

His split and then merged soul, having gone through the tempering of multiple lightning strikes, was at its most fragile.

His liver and gall were split, his mind was in great shock, and his soul wavered.

Over the years, the Unfeeling Curse had actually been unconsciously suppressed by Xie Zhefeng to some extent.

At this moment, it took effect silently.

Everything related to love had just raised a colossal wave.

The curse rune flashed, and the surging waves vanished in an instant.

He forgot.

He forgot everything.

He forgot the past of sleeping in each other’s arms as youths, forgot the life-and-death struggle through storms, forgot the call of “A-Xue” in the abyss of the Underworld Sea.

Xie Zhefeng only remembered that he had once split his soul to slay himself, rooted out the inner demon, and undergone the ninefold lightning tribulation.

He only remembered the moment “he” held his sword and looked at his battered senior brother.

…It was him, influenced by the inner demon, who killed his senior brother!?

His mind wavered, and he rose into the air on his sword.

When Xie Zhefeng reached the foot of the Luoyue mountain gate, the ever-burning lamp beside the gate still flickered. In the disciples’ hall of the Luoyue main peak, the disciple token with the three words “An Wuxue” was shattered.

There was nothing in front of the mountain gate; An Wuxue’s soul was gone, and no trace of his body remained.

He followed the aura of An Wuxue’s remnant soul all the way to the Thorn River.

A Luoyue elder seemed to stop him and say: “The whole world knows the Xianzun has ascended, and the demons are making a last-ditch effort to cause trouble. The world is waiting for you—!”

Xie Zhefeng brushed the person aside.

His immortal spiritual energy spread out across the vast Thorn River as he searched inch by inch in the black and white world before him.

His newly-formed “body” had no sense of reality. The thorns seemed to tear through his white robe, but they didn’t draw a single drop of red.

He clearly couldn’t feel pain, but it hurt terribly.

He truly was a waste.

He thought he had planned everything perfectly, but in the end, he was influenced by the inner demon and severed his senior brother’s vitality.

He caused his senior brother’s death.

Why wasn’t it him whose soul was scattered?

There are thousands of forbidden arts in this world; why is there no way to exchange one life for another?

“Senior Brother…”

Xie Zhefeng searched the entire Thorn River.

He found nothing.

…

Later, the Chu Han sword energy rose into the sky, its piercing light falling across the world to clear out all the demons.

The Four Seas Myriad Sword Array resonated together, and under the sword mound, ten thousand swords sang in unison, like a lofty and sharp song of mourning.

An Wuxue, within the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence vision, could not see the world after the Immortal Calamity ended.

He could only follow Xie Zhefeng and watch everything he experienced.

At some point, An Wuxue’s heart had grown sour to the point of numbness.

He could only feel a hollow blankness, unable to grasp a single clear thought.

He suddenly wanted to cry.

He didn’t know if he wanted to cry for Xie Zhefeng, for himself, or for everything that happened back then.

He only knew he wanted to cry self-indulgently once.

But he was so numb he couldn’t cry.

An Wuxue dazed as he recalled that night a thousand years later, after the lightning tribulation danger at Northern Ming was resolved. In the starry night of the fifth day of the second month, the Hansang flowers in the courtyard gave off a fragrance like orchids, and blue-purple flowers covered the area under the plum tree.

His junior brother told him “I can’t find the coldest one.”

An Wuxue hadn’t thought much about it.

An immortal body is unaffected by cold or heat; he thought Xie Zhefeng just happened to be passing by Hansang Cliff and couldn’t detect the coldest one in such a short time.

But thinking about it now… an immortal is just unaffected by cold and heat, not without the sense of cold and heat.

Not being afraid of the cold doesn’t mean not knowing what cold is.

Xie Zhefeng wasn’t afraid of the chill of Hansang Cliff because an immortal’s body is unaffected by cold and heat.

But Xie Zhefeng couldn’t find the coldest one because he was a dead person who had passed away a thousand years ago and had no sense of cold or heat.

So that was it.

There were so many “so that was it"s back then.

An Wuxue stood at the edge of the Burial Frost Sea in the vision of the past, looking down at the thousands of peaks of Luoyue Peak a thousand years ago.

He never regretted the paths he took; even if his soul was destroyed, he wouldn’t regret any of his past decisions, much less want to return to the past.

But at this moment, he actually wanted to grasp this passing time of a thousand years ago, to return to the time before Nanhe fell. Back then, he hadn’t died once, and Xie Zhefeng hadn’t died once either.

But the past was destined to only be the past.

Xie Zhefeng’s life and death should be coming to an end.

Unless the past brought out by the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence was too long, for the one entering, only a blink of an eye would pass in reality.

He was going back.

There were still too many things waiting for him a thousand years later.

He finally knew the origin of that sword strike, but he had even more questions.

Why did Master place the Unfeeling Curse on his junior brother and change his path?

When Xie Zhefeng slew himself to ascend, why did a demon bone suddenly appear out of nowhere? Master had examined his skeletal structure; did he know? He had also examined Xie Zhefeng’s skeletal structure a thousand years later, but he only examined the path his junior brother was suited for and didn’t check in detail. Now that a thousand years had passed, what happened to that demon bone?

Had his junior brother’s Unfeeling Curse been completely broken?

Thinking of this, An Wuxue waited quietly for the vision to end.

But he stood by the Frost Sea and watched Xie Zhefeng return with his sword.

The young Xianzun’s face was as pale as snow, and his eyes were completely red, yet he no longer had any tears—they had all been cried out long ago.

Xie Zhefeng had just entered the immortal realm and had killed all the great demons in the world day and night. Now he finally returned to his cave dwelling where no one was watching, and he no longer forced himself to maintain his physical form with spiritual energy.

After only taking a few steps, he manifested a set of dead bones.

On the dead bones, amidst the flowing silver light, a faint blackness could actually be seen.

After his death, Xie Zhefeng’s inner demon had taken root again.

Xie Zhefeng had already told him about this.

But…

An Wuxue looked around in confusion—why hadn’t the vision ended yet?

In the bedroom.

The Unfeeling Curse was completely broken. Xie Zhefeng remembered everything and slowly woke up.

He suddenly remembered so many forgotten past events. His heart was already in pain, and at this moment, it was even more like ten thousand ants were devouring his heart, like being cooked in intense fire.

Before he had time to consider anything.

As soon as he opened his eyes, Xie Zhefeng saw An Wuxue sitting beside him, with the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence in his hand, and the room filled with golden light.

—Senior Brother was within the memories of his life and death!!!

Xie Zhefeng hurriedly formed a seal and placed it on the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence.

The barrier was shattered by the immortal’s spiritual energy, and Kun-kun, who was outside the courtyard, rushed in.

As soon as it came in and saw the scene, and met Xie Zhefeng’s gaze, it immediately understood what he was doing. It flapped its wings and moved forward, using its soul power to help Xie Zhefeng extract the vision condensed by the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence.

Swish swish—

A gentle breeze blew in from the wide-open door.

An Wuxue abruptly retracted his divine sense.

The vision of Xie Zhefeng’s life and death clearly hadn’t ended, but he had been forcibly brought out by some external force.

The gentle breeze brushed past his cheek. He opened his eyes and saw his junior brother just finishing using a seal to contain the golden light of the Soul-Nurturing Tree essence, wrapping the golden light with spiritual energy.

Xie Zhefeng held the now-quiet Soul-Nurturing Tree essence, with the sphere of golden light floating in front of him, and suddenly met An Wuxue’s gaze.

An Wuxue was slightly dazed.

…Was it Xie Zhefeng who drew his divine sense out early?

The surroundings suddenly fell silent.

Kun-kun clawed at the edge of the bed with its paws, not daring to make a sound.

An Wuxue looked closely at Xie Zhefeng.

His junior brother seemed a bit haggard.

What he had broken was, after all, an immortal’s curse that had been rooted in his sea of consciousness for over a thousand years; it took a great toll on him.

But no matter how haggard he was now, it was nothing compared to when he dragged his dead bones back to the Frost Sea gate a thousand years ago.

His thoughts stirred slightly, and when he returned to himself, his fingertip had already touched Xie Zhefeng’s cheek.

The man instinctively raised his hand and grabbed his wrist.

An Wuxue heard the man’s breath suddenly become heavy and his whole body tense up, but the hand holding his wrist remained gentle.

“Junior Brother,” he said.

He hadn’t spoken for a long time, and when he did, his voice was a bit hoarse.

Xie Zhefeng’s eyes moved slightly.

He seemed to be nervous, at a loss, and dazed.

Endless complexity flashed in an instant, and what remained was apprehension.

An Wuxue was the first to speak, but he hesitated.

His mind was a mess. He knew too much and had too much he wanted to say, yet there was even more he didn’t know and naturally much he wanted to ask.

It was all in a jumble.

He didn’t know what he wanted to say.

At this moment, a message talisman suddenly flew into the bedroom.

The silence was broken. Kun-kun stepped forward, took the message talisman in its beak, and brought it to An Wuxue.

An Wuxue opened the message talisman.

“Suxue! Help me!”

“What’s wrong with City Lord Pei now? Have you been cornered by Qu Jizhi again?”

“…It’s about you!! The Xue family of Hansang Cliff accepted the spiritual items you gave them for the Hansang flowers before and wanted to thank you, and also to build a relationship with you. But they couldn’t see you, so they came to me. Hurry out…”

An Wuxue could hear Pei Qian’s distressed face through the message talisman.

“Accept the thanks on my behalf. I won’t go see them.”

“They’ve left,” Pei Qian said, “but they left a gift for you.”

“Oh.”

In any other situation, An Wuxue would have handled it.

But his mind was now full of a thousand thoughts, and his junior brother was sitting right in front of him. He truly had no time for such trivial matters.

He said: “Since it’s a gift, you keep it. Just have someone send it over here.”

“Su—”

An Wuxue directly cut off the message talisman.

At the other end of the message talisman, Pei Qian watched the talisman turn into dust, turned his head, and looked with a strange expression at the “gift” the Xue family had sent for First Disciple An.

Several furnaces of both genders with good looks were standing there obediently, looking at him expectantly.

Pei Qian: “…”

Is this, really, something, that, can, be, kept?

“Someone,” Pei Qian waved his hand heroically, “take them to the small courtyard where First Disciple An is staying.”