Chapter 134#

An Wuxue’s eyes moved slightly.

He blinked his eyes slowly, his raven-feather eyelashes trembling.

“…You thought I left?”

Xie Zhefeng stiffened.

The hands encircling him seemed to tighten a bit more.

The snow lotus sword mark gradually calmed down.

“I…” Xie Zhefeng’s voice still carried lingering fear, “No, I know that many things are currently undecided, and Senior Brother would not leave the common people behind. I just… I just wasn’t thinking clearly when I first woke up. You… don’t need to pay me any mind.”

He said “don’t need to pay me any mind,” yet his gaze was fixed directly on An Wuxue, as if afraid he would disappear if he blinked.

An Wuxue’s heart seemed to soften for a moment.

He had heard the pleas of demons and seen the wails of evildoers.

Yet his heart had never softened.

How was it that after experiencing life and death for a thousand years, he was becoming more and more regressive?

He asked in a muffled voice: “Why would you think I left?”

“I woke up and didn’t see you on the Frost Sea…”

“And then?” An Wuxue met the man’s gaze, “If I wanted to leave, why didn’t I push you away yesterday?”

Xie Zhefeng was stunned.

An Wuxue gritted his teeth: “Last night when I said no more, and the Immortal Venerable insisted on doing it again, why weren’t you afraid of me leaving then?”

The man’s eyes flashed.

But the person actually only showed guilt for a fleeting moment. His eyebrows moved slightly, and his gaze landed on An Wuxue’s lips, his expression as if he were remembering something.

“What are you thinking…?” An Wuxue’s voice grew deeper.

This person was used to answering all his questions and fulfilling all his requests, so he blurted out: “When Senior Brother said no more last night—”

As expected, he wasn’t thinking about anything decent!!

An Wuxue summoned his spiritual power and struck the man back.

His Junior Brother was completely undefended against him, and was suddenly pushed back out of his embrace.

An Wuxue heard a muffled groan.

The dignified Immortal Venerable was pushed back into the bamboo behind him, bumping into it.

He hadn’t expected Xie Zhefeng to completely forego using spiritual power to protect his body. In his daze, his Junior Brother was already leaning against the long bamboo, coughing a few times with a lonely expression.

An Wuxue’s knuckles curled slightly, his expression faltering for a moment, and he stepped forward to ask him: “Did I hurt you?”

Xie Zhefeng’s face was pale as he shook his head: “It’s nothing. My behavior just now was unseemly and made Senior Brother angry…”

The man coughed a few more times.

An Wuxue felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

“Who told you to—”

His words paused, and he blinked rapidly.

Wait.

His eyes lowered, his gaze sharpening, and he said word by word: “Aren’t you currently a sword bone incarnation? How can you still be made to cough by my strike?”

Xie Zhefeng’s coughing suddenly stopped.

An Wuxue: “.”

Pretending to be pitiful again!!

As if being fooled once wasn’t enough, how could he possibly be fooled again!

And this person was so practiced at pretending to be pitiful…

Memories of his youth flooded An Wuxue’s mind, and his brow furrowed as he began to understand piece by piece.

He looked around.

The bamboo forest let through fragmented light and shadows. On the long stones not far away, there seemed to be sword marks left by disciples practicing their swordplay in recent days.

He wondered which stone was the one he and Xie Zhefeng had sat on a thousand years ago when they practiced; after a thousand years, it still lay quietly to one side.

Back then, they were also here…

“…That time you rubbed your hand raw practicing swordplay, did you not notice or was it intentional?”

“…”

“One time you were cut by sword light on your leg and sat in the bamboo forest waiting for me to find you, only then telling me you had no healing medicine, so I took you back to my dwelling to recover for a few days… Did you really have no healing medicine then?”

“…”

“Xie Chuhan!!!”

“Senior Brother,” Xie Zhefeng said pitifully, “don’t be angry, I know I was wrong…”

An Wuxue ignored him, casually summoned an ordinary spiritual sword used by disciples for practice in the bamboo forest, and rose on the sword.

Xie Zhefeng quickly followed.

Until he flew into the Frost Sea barrier and returned to the Frost Sea gate, Immortal Venerable Xie still followed silently behind him.

He looked back slightly, only to see Xie Zhefeng’s face pale, his expression tense, and a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

An Wuxue only looked back for a moment, and the man showed a look of hope.

But An Wuxue said nothing, and Xie Zhefeng still didn’t dare to step forward.

An Wuxue stopped, silent for a moment.

He sighed: “I want to talk to you about the matter of the bones. You’re staying so far away, are you no longer going to be the Immortal Venerable and want to be a gatekeeper disciple instead?”

Xie Zhefeng’s eyes lit up, and only then did he step forward a few paces, saying in a low voice: “I made Senior Brother unhappy, so I didn’t dare to be an eyesore in front of you.”

“Oh, so you’re being an eyesore behind me instead?”

Xie Zhefeng: “…”

The man pondered for a while, and instead showed a look of solemnity.

“If you truly think I’m an eyesore, I…”

He wanted to say he wouldn’t disturb his Senior Brother anymore.

But the words reached his lips and he actually couldn’t say them.

He didn’t want to not see his Senior Brother.

An Wuxue could now see through Xie Zhefeng’s convoluted thoughts at a glance. Feeling helpless, he said: “You said something wrong just now.”

Xie Zhefeng immediately became serious, and without even hearing what was wrong, he proactively admitted his mistake: “I was wrong. Tell me where I was wrong, Senior Brother, and I’ll never do it again.”

“Never do it again? I think you’re doing it right now.”

Xie Zhefeng was stunned.

“Just now in the bamboo forest, you said you believed I wouldn’t leave because many things are undecided and the great affairs of all living beings are at hand—that was wrong.”

He looked directly at Xie Zhefeng, “If I really stayed only because of that, then even if you held the Chuhan sword to my throat, or used all the tortures in the world to force me, I would not have returned to the Frost Sea with you.”

Xie Zhefeng also looked directly at him.

The Frost Sea was sealed, and no one was before the gates.

The long pines shook down frost and snow, which caught in their hair.

Suddenly.

His Junior Brother leaned in, his lips touching the corner of his mouth.

…

This kiss was restrained and gentle, long but not annoying.

It wasn’t muddled or hazy, nor was it out of control.

After experiencing life and death for a thousand years, the path ahead was still unknown.

Both of them knew that the disaster had not ended; whether it was An Wuxue’s body or Xie Zhefeng’s demon bone, both were unknown factors.

But from yesterday until now, and again at this moment, he and Xie Zhefeng tacitly set aside these matters in their hearts.

In the vast world, there were only the two of them.

After a long time.

Xie Zhefeng let him go.

An Wuxue was red from his cheeks to his neck.

Xie Zhefeng even insisted on watching him blush, his lips curling up unconsciously.

The man’s smile was actually very subtle.

But Immortal Venerable Xie usually had a face like frost and snow, so even a shallow smile was like the melting of ice and snow, instantly entering An Wuxue’s sight.

He glared at his Junior Brother.

Only then did his Junior Brother obediently withdraw his gaze.

An Wuxue reached out: “Where is that soul bell you hung before the gate earlier?”

—What was hanging on the long pine before the Frost Sea gate was still the fake An Wuxue had made before.

Xie Zhefeng handed him the worn soul bell.

An Wuxue’s eyes curved slightly, and he took it with a smile. Without using any spiritual power, he replaced the fake with his bare hands.

He wasn’t good at making direct promises.

But he could hang back this soul bell that only he could ring.

“Senior Brother…”

“In the future when the dust has settled and we return to Luoyue, if you go into seclusion, you must leave me something that can wake you up immediately, right?”

Xie Zhefeng’s eyes reddened—he understood the meaning behind those words.

Seeing that he had finally lost that earlier sense of being plagued by gains and losses, An Wuxue then said: “Where is the Soul-Nourishing Tree?”

If they were to examine their bones, their souls would leave their bodies, so it would be best to have the protection of the Soul-Nourishing Tree.

Xie Zhefeng said: “Senior Brother, follow me.”

He led An Wuxue deep into the pine forest.

An Wuxue saw the Soul-Nourishing Tree for the second time.

Golden light spilled into his eyes as he looked up at those brilliant golden leaves, feeling the soul-soothing sensation brought by the tree’s light, his heart full of complex emotions.

Last time he was here, he hadn’t known that in all of Luoyue, only he and the person before him could see the brilliant golden light.

“Senior Brother.” Xie Zhefeng turned to look at him.

The man suddenly moved both hands and formed a hand seal.

Before An Wuxue had time to be confused, he recognized what kind of incantation it was.

This incantation was not difficult, and even cultivators with a bit of cultivation could use it.

“The Life and Death Incantation…” He frowned and scolded, “What are you doing? I don’t want you to give me this.”

The Life and Death Incantation is a yin-yang hand seal; the yin seal lands on the soul, and the yang seal can control the yin seal.

This incantation isn’t forbidden, yet it’s rarely seen because…

If the owner of the yang seal crushes it, the yin seal will also shatter—regardless of cultivation level.

This is an incantation for controlling a person’s life!

Xie Zhefeng, however, handed the condensed yang seal to him with a look of hope.

“I know you wouldn’t want it,” the man’s voice was low and raspy, “but I don’t necessarily mean for you to treat me as a servant. I understand that Senior Brother wouldn’t be willing to use this incantation to control me.”

“Then what are you doing?”

Xie Zhefeng held the hand seal that could control his life at any moment in his palm and said slowly: “I was so happy last night. Even three days ago, I wouldn’t have dared to hope for your forgiveness. I once thought that being able to see you living well in the world every day was already the heavens being kind to me. I didn’t expect to be able to return with you, to share a bed on Luoyue Peak…

“It’s all like a dream. When I woke up today and didn’t see Senior Brother by my side, I couldn’t tell if I had really had a dream and it was all just an extravagant wish in my sleep.

“I didn’t even have time to find you before the inner demon was in my sea of consciousness, telling me those… words that urged me to act willfully.”

An Wuxue lowered his eyes.

He had indeed seen it just now.

The moment Xie Zhefeng saw him, the inner demon seemed as if it could lose control at any moment.

“…I was really afraid. I was afraid you would regret it as soon as you woke up, I was afraid you still wouldn’t want to talk to me, so you’d secretly leave while I was asleep, without even leaving a word.

“I couldn’t control the fear in my heart. Just now when I swept the Frost Sea with my divine sense, I couldn’t find your figure. In that moment, I really almost lost control. Later when I continued to spread my divine sense, I found you in the bamboo forest.”

“But you still controlled it,” An Wuxue said seriously, “My Junior Brother was in seclusion for eight hundred years with a shattered soul, and yet he never let the inner demon bring disaster to the world; he is not someone who will be controlled by an inner demon. I believe in him, and I don’t need anything to control him.”

Xie Zhefeng shook his head.

“This is not to control me. This is to help me.”

An Wuxue was slightly stunned.

“I am now in the Immortal Stage, and I must sit in this Immortal Venerable’s position to stabilize the four seas and two worlds. Even if I didn’t have an inner demon, between Senior Brother and me, things are after all different from before. I still remember every word you said to me before. When you first woke up, it wasn’t that you didn’t resent me at all; it was just because you felt you weren’t my match and couldn’t kill me.

“This remains true today. If Senior Brother still has a reason to want to kill me in the future, this seal can help you. Even if you don’t, my demon bone is also a hidden danger. I can control it now, but what if I truly go mad later? Senior Brother, I also believe in myself, but I’m even more afraid of hurting you. I believe in the me of now, but I don’t dare believe in the me of the future.

“Back then, I also hadn’t expected the inner demon would use the demon bone to kill you.”

His Junior Brother looked at him devoutly.

“The yin seal of the Life and Death Incantation is on my soul, and the yang seal can control my life and death. As long as you crush the yang seal, you can completely kill me in the blink of an eye—shatter my soul.

“Senior Brother will surely be able to ascend to immortality. Even if you can’t now, in the future I will exhaust everything to help you. But before Senior Brother ascends, I hope you will accept this yang seal.”

As Xie Zhefeng spoke, he pulled An Wuxue’s wrist with his other hand and placed the yang seal in his palm.

An Wuxue didn’t push it away.

He had understood his Junior Brother’s meaning.

He silently took the yang seal into his own sea of consciousness.

Xie Zhefeng’s eyes were bright.

“Thank you, Senior Brother.”

“…You’ve given your life and death to me like this, yet you turn around and thank me?”

Xie Zhefeng looked at his Senior Brother, who was enveloped in the golden light of the Soul-Nourishing Tree, his tone slow and deep.

“Only by holding the yang seal will you not have misgivings when being with me. Between you and me, there will truly be no hierarchy.”

He smiled.

Ice and snow melted, and winter turned to spring.

“I have failed you greatly, yet you are still willing to entrust me with your love; naturally, I am very grateful.”

“Thank you, Senior Brother. Today… I am very happy.”