Chapter 133#
The cold wind on the floating island was relentless, and the frost and snow had been falling for a thousand years. Thick white layers accumulated one after another on the continuous stretches of long pines.
The barrier isolated everything in the world, as if freezing time beneath the sky.
As An Wuxue’s consciousness drifted, he heard his Junior Brother whispering softly in his ear again.
“A-Xue.”
More than a thousand years ago, among the mountains beneath the floating island, he had heard the youth call him this, only to pretend to be angry and tap the other’s forehead, making him call him “Senior Brother.”
It was also a thousand years ago in the ten-thousand-fathom abyss of the Underworld Sea, where the sun never shone in the heart of the merman tribe. The young Immortal Venerable, with his consciousness blurred, had pulled him and called him this, causing him to hesitate and not leave.
Now…
His eyelashes trembled slightly, moisture wetted his eyes, and his pupils were covered in a shallow mist.
He said softly: “You… this—this time… don’t forget again…”
“If I forget again, then my soul shall be forever immersed in the waters of the Yellow Springs, and my withered bones shall forever suppress the Ancient Tree, never to find a good—”
An Wuxue stopped the other’s mouth.
The sun rose and the moon set.
The bright moon and the river of stars flowing west took away a day from the world. The gentle winds of the four seas blew away the chill and opened the storms of the mortal world.
In just one day.
News of the sealing of Luoyue Peak spread like wildfire.
Actually, the sealing of Luoyue Peak was not a rare event.
Previously, Xie Zhefeng had deliberately sealed the mountain for a period to lure Yun Zhou into exposing himself. If there was a major event in the immortal sects, a sealing decree was often issued.
But that kind of sealing wasn’t a complete blockade; as long as they had permission, immortal cultivators from inside and outside could still enter and exit.
This sealing was completely different—it was the first time Luoyue Peak had been completely blockaded in the thousand years since the immortal disaster!
Immortal Venerable Chuhan was unwell, and that Head Disciple of Luoyue who had returned from the dead seemed to have ordered the mountain sealed as soon as he returned to the sect, saying that the Immortal Venerable needed to go into seclusion to recover, without detailing anything else.
The mountain protection array of the world’s greatest sect was activated. Even the gentle wind of the mountain forests could not blow through the barrier, and from then on, no news could be sent out from Luoyue Peak.
Before this, both An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng had taken action because of the puppet technique.
This move indeed deterred many people, and the number of people secretly practicing the forbidden technique decreased. However, the puppets created by those who had previously practiced it were too numerous and had long since flooded the two worlds.
Before and after, there were several major disasters with sword arrays, as if a storm were brewing.
By any measure, things didn’t look good!
Some guessed that when the Immortal Venerable and the Head Disciple resisted the immortality-ascending lightning tribulation in Beiming, they had defied the Heavenly Dao and were severely injured.
Others speculated that the Immortal Venerable and the Head Disciple had disagreements over past events from a thousand years ago, resulting in both being injured and forced to temporarily seal the mountain to hide everything.
Still others guessed that returning from the dead was an impossibility made possible; for An Wuxue to return, Xie Zhefeng must have paid an immense price, possibly even defying the immortal path…
The opinions were varied, and the clouds and rain of the two worlds suddenly became heavy.
When An Wuxue woke up, his consciousness remained muddled for a long time.
Countless stray thoughts flashed through his mind.
All of them were about his Junior Brother.
The expression on his Junior Brother’s face as he softly whispered his name, the thousands of words from the inner demon in his Junior Brother’s sea of consciousness, and that snow lotus sword mark tinged with a faint red when his Junior Brother was moved…
He had once loved his Junior Brother.
He had also once let him go.
In the end, it was still…
He got up and rubbed his eyes, turning his head to see the man’s peaceful sleeping face.
He raised his hand, his fingertips landing on the man’s cheek, tracing the outline of his Junior Brother’s face bit by bit.
The sleeping person didn’t make a sound.
Last night, while their souls were merged and their spiritual powers were connected, Xie Zhefeng had transferred a great deal of immortal spiritual power to him.
Although his meridians were now somewhat swollen and aching, with abundant spiritual power flowing through them, his entire body felt comfortable, and he didn’t feel any weakness. Instead, Xie Zhefeng’s exhaustion was immense.
His fingertips moved down the man’s face bit by bit, landing on his Junior Brother’s Adam’s apple.
In his sleep, Xie Zhefeng seemed to move slightly.
The man followed his aura and leaned closer towards him.
An Wuxue knew the other wasn’t awake, yet he still felt somewhat guilty.
He hurriedly withdrew his hand and looked away, his other hand unconsciously clenching the silk quilt.
If his Junior Brother caught him doing such boring and childish things that only teenagers do, tracing the other’s face on the bed, how could he still be a Senior Brother?
After waiting for a moment and seeing no sign of Xie Zhefeng waking up, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
An Wuxue used a spiritual spell to put on his outer robe, cleansed himself, and walked out silently.
The vast Frost Sea was incredibly lonely, with only the rustling of the wind as a constant companion.
But An Wuxue sensed the aura of a living person at the edge of the Frost Sea, and also… Kunkun?
With a stir of spiritual power, in a moment, An Wuxue appeared where Kunkun was.
“Woo woo!”
Kunkun immediately flew to An Wuxue’s side.
Yun Wan was in a daze.
Suddenly seeing him, she hurried to stand up.
“Young Master Su—”
She paused abruptly. “Head Disciple…”
Before Yun Wan could bow, she was stopped by An Wuxue’s spiritual power.
An Wuxue said with a smile: “It was Kunkun who let you in, wasn’t it?”
Although he and Xie Zhefeng had sealed the Frost Burial Sea, the Frost Sea’s restrictions and barrier had never limited Kunkun.
Yun Wan looked nervous: “I originally wanted to wait outside for the Frost Sea to be unsealed, but Kunkun found me and led me in. I… I entered without the permission of the Head Disciple and the Immortal Venerable, please forgive me, Head Disciple…”
“It should be me who apologizes,” An Wuxue said.
Yun Wan was stunned.
“My Junior Brother and I returned in a hurry, and then… then we dealt with some private matters between him and me. I forgot that you were living on the Frost Sea before. Now that the Frost Sea is sealed, you have nowhere to go, but I didn’t make arrangements for you. This was my oversight; why should you take the blame?”
“Also…” An Wuxue’s eyes curved slightly, his expression calm and gentle, entirely unlike the Luoyue Head Disciple who had challenged more than half of Beiming’s immortal sects in the rumors. " I am indeed An Wuxue. But I am also Su Xue."
Yun Wan was even more dazed.
An Wuxue picked up Kunkun, turned and rose into the air, and said to Yun Wan without looking back: “Follow me.”
He led Yun Wan out of the Frost Sea barrier.
Luoyue Peak was completely sealed. The barrier formed by the mountain-sealing array isolated the mountains from the sky, and no trace of birds or beasts could be seen beneath the clouds.
Even the cultivators who usually flew between the peaks were nowhere to be seen.
The world’s greatest sect was now on high alert, jumpy at the slightest sound.
An Wuxue led Yun Wan, whose cultivation wasn’t high, and not a single person was able to discover their tracks along the way.
He just took Yun Wan to the bamboo forest where he and Xie Zhefeng had practiced swordplay since childhood.
Deep in the bamboo forest was a well-preserved small courtyard.
This was the place where An Wuxue had first settled his Junior Brother when he brought Xie Zhefeng back to Luoyue Peak.
The courtyard had a barrier set up by Xie Zhefeng, but An Wuxue carried the Luoyue disciple plaque of “Su Xue.” The plaque’s permissions were equal to the Immortal Venerable’s, so the barrier didn’t block him.
When he stopped, Yun Wan actually spoke first: “Young Master Su.”
She called him “Young Master Su.”
An Wuxue was slightly stunned and turned to look at her.
“The first time I saw you was when we were trapped in the Yunjian Sect illusion. You protected several of us juniors at the risk of exposing your strength. I only took you for some expert who was in a predicament and unwilling to reveal their strength. Now…”
Now that she knew Su Xue’s true identity, she understood that at that time, An Wuxue still bore many stigmas, and even a slight exposure of his identity could lead to disaster. Yet in the Mirror Demon’s illusion, An Wuxue still did his best to protect them.
“For someone as good as you, the heavens were truly blind before, but you don’t owe the cultivation world anything…”
An Wuxue understood.
His heart warmed slightly.
“Are you worried that I still have grievances against the cultivation world, yet because the situation is unstable now, I have to get involved and return to Luoyue?”
Yun Wan nodded timidly.
“Rest assured,” he said. “In my actions, I only care about whether I’m true to myself. And… maybe before I would also feel that I had to stay for the sake of all living beings, but now it’s different.”
“…How is it different?” As soon as Yun Wan asked, she hurried to cover her mouth with her hand.
Some things should not be asked.
She had misspoken.
An Wuxue didn’t answer, but instead took out a blank jade plaque.
He condensed sword intent at his fingertips and carved Yun Wan’s name onto the jade plaque.
“This is a Luoyue Peak disciple token.”
The jade plaque floated before Yun Wan.
Yun Wan suddenly knelt: “Thank you, Head Disciple.”
An Wuxue sighed, however.
“I brought you back from Yunjian Sect, and I have always treated you as my disciple and junior. I’ll tell you the truth: the sealing of Luoyue is a move I made to force the person behind the various Wanjian Arrays that have brought disaster to the four seas to act as soon as possible. But because of this, the Immortal Venerable and I do not have much time to prepare a response.
“What the future holds is still unknown. If one day I truly die—”
“Young Master Su!” Yun Wan cried out in shock.
“You don’t need to be afraid. The Immortal Venerable and I are at the forefront of the two worlds. If the sky falls, he and I will naturally be the first to die.
“I’m just putting the worst-case scenario first.
“Take this jade plaque. From now on, you are a Luoyue disciple. If anything happens to me and the Immortal Venerable, find a peak master or elder you think is suitable and join their ranks as an ordinary disciple.”
In this way, he had made arrangements for Yun Wan.
Seeing the young girl about to cry, he was at a loss for a moment and could only add: “You have the state of mind to achieve great things, but Yunjian Sect truly lacked any powerful inheritance, which limited you. From now on, as a disciple of Luoyue, I will lead you through this first step, but as for the path ahead, it all depends on you.”
Yun Wan said: “I am willing to just be an attendant by the Head Disciple’s side.”
An Wuxue shook his head: “I have never had an attendant, not a thousand years ago, and naturally not now.”
“Then you are all alone…”
All alone…?
An Wuxue stroked Kunkun’s fur in his arms and said as if to himself: “Someone is taking care of me.”
Yun Wan was slightly stunned.
An Wuxue used spiritual power to help her up, and then walked away slowly under her gaze.
Having settled Yun Wan, he was going back to the Frost Sea.
Yesterday his Junior Brother’s inner demon had caused trouble, so much so that in the end… neither of them could have predicted it, and thus a day had passed like that.
He and Xie Zhefeng still had to look at that demon bone as soon as possible.
And, concerning his own jade bone, he also had some guesses now…
With his mind full of thoughts, he walked out of the small courtyard. Before he could summon his spiritual power, he suddenly saw a white-clothed figure appear ahead.
Kunkun flew up, tilted its head, and called out: “Wu!”
Immortal Venerable Chuhan looked flustered. His white robe was luxurious and noble, but even his hairpin was a bit crooked, and his collar was disarrayed.
It was as if he hadn’t even had the heart to complete a spell for dressing himself.
An Wuxue had just seen the person: “Why aren’t you in the Frost Sea—” waiting for me to return.
In the blink of an eye, his Junior Brother swept past the heavy shadows cast by the bamboo leaves, and embraced him without a word.
The snow lotus sword mark on Xie Zhefeng’s forehead flickered, his inner demon flaring up severely. His eyes were slightly red, filled with anxiety, and there seemed to be a look of violence in them.
Like a wild beast that could lose control at any moment.
Cold breath enveloped him. The man’s breathing was disordered and hurried, and he hugged him forcefully, his spiritual power destroying the surrounding bamboo.
Yet he still defied the nature of the demon bone. Though thousands of distractions were in his heart, he still hadn’t lost control.
An Wuxue only felt a gentle breeze on his face.
He was carefully held in his Junior Brother’s arms, and heard the man say with lingering fear: “You didn’t leave, you’re still here…”