Chapter 136#
The contract spiritual talisman drifted between them.
An Wuxue didn’t take it.
Even the method to dispel the curse was available, so why was he still afraid of him casting a curse?
This dispelling method was even something he personally gave to Xie Zhefeng!
He didn’t speak.
Xie Zhefeng, however, didn’t care at all about doing something a seven-year-old child would do; he still waited for him uneasily.
The longer An Wuxue remained silent, the more suspicious the man’s expression became.
It was as if he were saying, “You aren’t really planning to cast the curse, are you?”
“…”
He wanted to tell his junior brother to take the talisman back.
But he raised his eyes and saw the man sitting cross-legged under the Soul-Nourishing Tree.
His junior brother’s face was as quiet and cold as the frost on a mountain peak or a snow lotus in the deep sea. The brilliant golden light fell upon it, as if nothing in the world could disturb the Immortal Venerable’s peace.
But he remembered the last time he saw the Soul-Nourishing Tree.
His junior brother was surrounded by immortal brew, as if drunk under the tree, saying to his back: “A-Xue, you are leaving again.”
He thought then that Xie Zhefeng was drunk.
Now that he thought about it…
Xie Zhefeng was not drunk.
He wouldn’t get drunk in the past, and now… a person who was already dead could no longer get drunk.
That night, Xie Zhefeng was entangled by his inner demon and had lost his clarity.
An Wuxue’s heart softened for a moment, and he changed his mind.
He took the contract talisman from Xie Zhefeng’s hand and accompanied his junior brother in this childish game.
“Fine, words are no proof; I will establish a contract with you as evidence. If I cast the Ruthless Curse on you, may I be struck by lightning and not die a good death—”
As he spoke, he had already dropped these words onto the talisman.
Xie Zhefeng’s expression changed abruptly. He snatched the talisman back and tore it to pieces right in front of An Wuxue.
“How can such a poisonous curse be established?”
“…?” An Wuxue didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “If I don’t break the promise, the oath won’t be fulfilled, right? You’re afraid of me casting the curse, so wouldn’t it be better if I made a poisonous oath?”
Xie Zhefeng just said: “Forget it.”
Just now he insisted on the promise, but now he refused.
An Wuxue was helpless.
He wouldn’t argue with Xie Zhefeng and only asked: “Then can you let me see your bone structure now?”
Xie Zhefeng nodded and then completely closed his eyes.
He had performed a bone extraction once, and now he had no body, so he was much more skilled at it.
In a moment, An Wuxue saw Xie Zhefeng manifest a skeletal body.
The sword bone was slowly extracted, and the two sets of bone structures sat opposite each other, standing beneath Xie Zhefeng’s soul.
This time, Xie Zhefeng did not divide his soul; the demon bone was not controlled by the soul and was very quiet.
The demon bone was completely different from the sword bone; a faint black aura lingered on it, and its pressure was intimidating.
Two bones coexisted in one body.
“Su Xue” had his Jade Bone suppressed by an ordinary bone structure, while Xie Zhefeng had his demon bone suppressed by the sword bone.
Only by separating the sword bone could the demon bone be seen.
His junior brother’s situation in this life was actually somewhat similar to his.
But they were also slightly different.
The ordinary bone structure that hid his Jade Bone was not his. After being stripped away just now, that bone structure was useless and could never return to his body.
But…
An Wuxue fixed his gaze on the sword bone and then on the demon bone.
The demon bone still had a connection with Xie Zhefeng’s soul and could not be severed.
These two sets of bones both seemed to belong to Xie Zhefeng.
An Wuxue tried to touch and purify the demon bone with spiritual power.
Xie Zhefeng’s soul immediately rolled.
His junior brother didn’t speak, but An Wuxue could see that he was in pain.
To destroy the demon bone was to kill Xie Zhefeng.
He was out of options.
Why?
Why were there two sets of bone structures in Xie Zhefeng’s body that could not be stripped away at all?
If the demon bone could not be separated and could not be destroyed without harming his life, did it mean… that in his endless lifespan, Xie Zhefeng would have to endure the pain of his inner demon at every moment?
An Wuxue was not reconciled.
Over the next few days, he and Xie Zhefeng remained in seclusion together on the Frost Sea, focusing on finding a way to deal with the demon bone.
An Wuxue searched through all the past records of Luoyue Peak but couldn’t find the origin of Xie Zhefeng’s demon bone.
Even if Nan He knew, he hadn’t left any clues back then.
As for the method to eradicate the demon bone and the inner demon, he had no clue at all.
Sometimes when Xie Zhefeng was sitting in meditation with his five senses closed to deal with his inner demon, An Wuxue would also sit under the Soul-Nourishing Tree, releasing his divine sense to sense the existence of the fifth pillar of heaven.
He seemed to be able to “speak” with the pillar.
A golden body and jade bone could naturally sense the Heavenly Dao, but through this pillar, he could not only feel the four directions of heaven and earth, but even vaguely perceive the karmic lines spreading around.
…Karma?
The four pillars of heaven corresponded to the world’s Heavenly Dao and ethics, and all things in the heavens. Therefore, when the pillars collapsed, the four seas were in chaos. The turbid aura condensed from all the evils, greed, and anger of the world lost its restraint and was no longer purified by the pillars. Even the spiritual veins could not suppress this turbid aura, which caused the immortal disaster to last for many years.
The fifth pillar of heaven had never been mentioned in the records, yet it could call out to him for help in the dark. An Wuxue even speculated that his resurrection was the help of the pillar.
Could it be… that this pillar governs the karmic lines of the world?
Those karmic lines appeared and disappeared. An Wuxue wanted to see them clearly, but could only see a blur.
In the end, he was only at the Tribulation Stage and had not ascended to immortality; he could not truly communicate with the Heavenly Dao.
If he could ascend to immortality…
He seemed to be able to control this hidden pillar of heaven.
Perhaps he could find the crux of everything from it.
But the path to immortality was severed, and this matter had become a deadlock.
Although ascending to immortality was the goal that every immortal cultivator flocked to, he couldn’t possibly not want to ascend, but he wouldn’t become obsessed because of it.
If destiny is not there, it is useless to force it.
An Wuxue tried several times and found the conclusion was always the same, so he stopped wasting time.
He simply continued to look for methods to separate the demon bone and suppress the inner demon.
Luoyue Peak was completely blockaded. The outside world didn’t know their situation, and they didn’t know what was happening outside.
Just like that, half a month passed with them ignoring external affairs.
On this day, the sky outside the Frost Sea was clear for thousands of miles, and the daylight was bright.
Qi Xun’s talisman came through the air, wrapping a Shadow-Borrowing Stone, and stopped outside the mountain protection array.
An Wuxue sensed the urgency of the talisman and opened the mountain protection array for the first time in half a month, letting the talisman in.
At the same time, the Thousand-Mile Talisman Qi Xun had left him vibrated.
An Wuxue brought out the images in the Shadow-Borrowing Stone and heard Qi Xun’s voice coming through the Thousand-Mile Talisman: “A-Xue, are you alright after returning to Luoyue?”
An Wuxue didn’t answer.
Qi Xun smiled bitterly: “Fine, I won’t chat with you about other things. Head Disciple An, I’ve searched the old grounds of the sect up and down again, but I still haven’t found a trace of a second person besides you. I can only use the Shadow-Borrowing Stone to record the images of the current location of the spiritual veins. You went there yourself back then and know more than I do; perhaps you can see clues that I can’t.”
An Wuxue was looking at the images projected by the Shadow-Borrowing Stone.
The Shadow-Borrowing Stone was a treasure. Unlike other spiritual tools used for recording, the recorded images could not only be seen but also the aura within them could be felt.
He looked carefully—on both sides of the empty spiritual vein were sword marks from Chunhua.
He had struck with his full strength back then. After a thousand years, the sword intent still remained within the marks.
But these sword marks…
He knew the consequences of the spiritual veins being emptied and hadn’t dug out all of them. He was extremely careful when striking, and the sword marks left by Chunhua weren’t many.
But looking at the Shadow-Borrowing Stone, why were there more than he remembered?
When he was digging the spiritual veins, he hadn’t anticipated the later events and was in a hurry to purify the fifth pillar of heaven, so he hadn’t carefully noted how many times he struck.
Now that so much time had passed, it was difficult for him to recall immediately.
Had he remembered incorrectly?
As he recalled, he asked Qi Xun: “Have you been to Mingri City?”
“You want to ask me if there’s anything unusual in Mingri City, right? No, I not only looked at the Mingri Sword but also thoroughly investigated the immortal sects of Mingri City with Qin Wei—nothing unusual. Qin Wei has been guarding Mingri City, and every day’s news is calm. I think that person most likely hasn’t laid a plan in Mingri City.”
An Wuxue frowned: “It’s not right… it shouldn’t be. The crises in Zhaoshui and Beiming have been resolved. The sword arrays of these two cities have been reinforced after the turmoil, and the chaos in the cities has been disintegrated. There are no more loopholes.”
“If that person still wants to cause trouble, only Mingri and Langfeng still have a chance. There are only two ways to shake a sword array: either destroy it with external force, or use the power of the array master’s bloodline to influence it.”
Beiming was blockaded before because the array was destroyed by external force.
And the lack of spiritual power in the Zhaoshui sword array a thousand years ago was because Song Wu was Lou Shuiming’s partner and could use Lou Shuiming’s aura to interfere with the array.
Neither of these two paths would work for Langfeng City.
“Xie Zhefeng and I investigated Langfeng on our way to Beiming; there was nothing wrong.”
So it was impossible for an external force to suddenly appear and destroy the sword array.
As for the array master’s bloodline…
The array masters of other cities might have problems, but the array masters of the Langfeng sword array were he and Xie Zhefeng. How could—
“Senior Brother,” Xie Zhefeng suddenly called him from outside, “it’s snowing.”
Snowing?
The Frost Sea floated high in the air and was cold year-round with frost and snow; snowing was not unusual.
He was confused, but heard Qi Xun, who was in the old grounds of the Lihuo Sect, murmur at the other end of the transmission talisman: “It’s snowing…”
An Wuxue was stunned.
He walked out of the bedroom in a daze.
Xie Zhefeng was standing outside, looking up at the sky.
He followed his junior brother’s gaze upward.
It was snowing on the Frost Sea.
Above the barrier covering the Frost Sea, it should have been a cloudless sunny day.
But he looked past the nearby falling snow to the outside of the Luoyue Peak mountain protection array and saw thick snow falling, blocked outside by the barrier.
The two layers of snow overlapped, dense and compact. He could tell at a glance that it wasn’t the usual snow of the Frost Sea.
It was snowing near Luoyue Peak…?
Luoyue was close to Mingri City, located in the south of the two worlds. It was warm in all four seasons and wouldn’t be very cold even in deep winter.
He grew up on Luoyue and didn’t often see it snowing except for the snow on the floating island.
And—by such a coincidence, it was also snowing at the old grounds of the Lihuo Sect…?
An Wuxue vaguely felt something was wrong.
Before he could think carefully.
Almost no time had passed.
the wind and snow grew heavier, and abnormal phenomena appeared in the spiritual energy of the world, with a turbid aura faintly emerging.
Countless letters for help came at high speed. The talismans drifted against the wind and snow, crashing into the mountain protection array of Luoyue Peak!
The people hadn’t seen such a sight in a thousand years.
The disciples guarding the mountain protection array took down the help talismans, read them one by one, and knelt in panic before the gate of the Frost Sea.
“Immortal Venerable, news from various sects, Langfeng is calling for help! A half-step ascended great demon of the Snow Demon tribe has appeared in the Guixu Sea!”
The Snow Demon tribe.
This tribe was skilled in human love and was born with the unparalleled Demon Bone of the Path of Floating Life. The entire tribe had always been demonic and possessed great strength!
The disciple held the help talismans in his hands, his expression becoming more and more terrified.
But the two worlds were in crisis, and he had to grit his teeth to read the rest.
“The… the great demon of the Snow Demon tribe used… used…”
The disciple paused.
He took a deep breath and said loudly: “The great demon of the Snow Demon tribe used bloodline power to seize the Langfeng Sword. Using the power of the Langfeng sword array’s pillar, they are controlling the weather, condensing the turbid aura and dispersing it into the falling snow!”
One of the four pillars of heaven was missing, and Langfeng was filled with turbid aura.
The strong wind from the Guixu Sea brought the desolate and miserable song of the Snow Demon tribe.
The weather changed.
A worldwide snowstorm.