Chapter 137#
By the time An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng hurried to Langfeng City together, heavy snow had already covered the vast earth in white.
Dark clouds filled the sky, and the sun could not be seen in the four seas.
The turbid aura was originally suppressed under the spiritual veins of various places and purified after thousands of years, but it would re-condense due to the incessant grievances in the human world over thousands of years.
However, the Langfeng Sword was controlled by the Snow Demon, and the turbid aura was drawn into the sky, drifting down.
The snow contained the turbid aura; in mild cases, it harmed the lives of mortals, and in severe cases, it led immortal cultivators into demonhood.
Almost all the experts of Luoyue Peak set out, working with various immortal sects to set up barriers to resist the wind and snow. The Beiming Sword, Zhaoshui Sword, and Mingri Sword hummed incessantly, sending out sharp sword intent to clear the area.
The wind and snow blocked the way. Xie Zhefeng used the spiritual power of an immortal to drive Chuhan, taking An Wuxue on an overnight journey, which took more than a full day.
An Wuxue stepped off the Chuhan sword and looked at Langfeng City ahead, which was shrouded in wind, snow, and fog.
The last time they passed by Langfeng, the city was quiet and peaceful, with cultivators coming and going, and no signs of change.
He and Xie Zhefeng had clearly investigated this place carefully.
Who would have thought that the final move of the person behind the scenes would fall on the Langfeng sword array, where he and Xie Zhefeng were the array masters!
A guiding talisman drifted from ahead.
It was the city-guarding cultivators who sensed fellow daoists approaching and sought them out.
The two of them were extremely anxious. After receiving the call for help, Xie Zhefeng arranged everything and brought An Wuxue here. They were silent along the way.
But when they reached Langfeng, An Wuxue suddenly stopped and grabbed Xie Zhefeng with a solemn expression.
“Senior Brother?” The man turned his head, his face pale.
For half a month, An Wuxue had been by Xie Zhefeng’s side with the help of the Soul-Nourishing Tree. Although the inner demon could not be eradicated, it had calmed down somewhat.
But now, the closer they got to Langfeng City, the more violently Xie Zhefeng’s sea of consciousness boiled, and the snow lotus sword mark on his forehead appeared and disappeared.
Although the two didn’t speak, An Wuxue had been watching Xie Zhefeng from behind and was well aware of this.
He said in a low voice: “The Snow Demon seized the Langfeng sword array using bloodline power.”
Xie Zhefeng’s dark eyes were deep, and his voice was low: “I will protect you.”
“I don’t need you to protect me,” An Wuxue said, “but we both know what it means for the Snow Demon to have seized the Langfeng Sword.”
The Snow Demon did not rely on external force to seize the Langfeng Sword.
The great demon of the Snow Demon tribe used the bloodline power of the array master, supplemented by the ability of being half-step ascended, to easily seize the sword array from the hands of the Langfeng City cultivators!
There were only two array masters of Langfeng—An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng.
One of them had a bloodline connection with the Snow Demon.
This tribe… were born demons.
An Wuxue raised his hand and lightly touched Xie Zhefeng’s forehead, stroking the flickering sword mark.
Xie Zhefeng just looked at him.
“Junior Brother,” he said, “the Snow Demon might be related to your demon bone—this is the last move of the person behind the scenes. The two worlds haven’t fallen into chaos yet because you are still that sword that is invincible in the eyes of the world. No matter how powerful the Snow Demon is or how chaotic the sword array is, if the immortal acts, they can kill all the demons in the world.
“But the person who incited the Snow Demon chaos cannot possibly not know your strength. That person certainly isn’t afraid of you acting, or even… they are deliberately inducing you to act.
“We don’t know how that person achieved this, nor do we know what that person has planned. If you are not confident in dealing with your inner demon, it’s still in time to stop here.”
“And then let Senior Brother face all the immortal cultivators in the world alone and fight the Snow Demon?”
An Wuxue laughed lightly.
“When the Snow Demon tribe was at its peak, I never feared them.”
“Then I am the same.”
An Wuxue was stunned.
His junior brother’s voice came with the overwhelming wind and snow: “If the Snow Demon has nothing to do with me, I should act for the two worlds. If it is related to me, then this disaster is inseparable from me, and I should act even more.”
“Senior Brother, I will not become a hidden danger for you. If it really comes to that point, you kill me.”
The strong wind howled incessantly.
The wind and snow outside Langfeng City grew heavier, and before long, it was on the hair and shoulders of both of them.
An Wuxue was about to speak.
Xie Zhefeng suddenly raised his hand and caught a bit of snow from the ends of his hair.
“You were gone for a thousand years. For the first eight hundred years, I went into seclusion to kill my inner demon, always staying in Jingji Plain or Luoyue Peak. For the last two hundred years, the inner demon was finally suppressed by me so that it dared not come out for a while. I was finally able to go out and walk around. Sometimes when I truly couldn’t find any hope, I couldn’t help but go to the human world.”
“…The human world? Is there something in the human world?”
“There are unrealistic expectations.”
An Wuxue was slightly stunned.
“The mortal world doesn’t know about immortals and doesn’t understand the mysteries of cultivation. They always make up many stories of returning from the dead and soul reincarnation. In their stories, it seems that death is not the end, and there are many chances to start over in life, death, love, and hate. After hearing enough of them, I didn’t feel so desperate anymore.”
Xie Zhefeng smiled.
“But what I want to tell you now is not those—Senior Brother has returned.”
They could already hear the song of the Snow Demon coming from the nearby Guixu Sea. There seemed to be fluctuations of spiritual power, faintly revealing that a fierce battle was in progress ahead.
There might be a disaster there that Xie Zhefeng could not escape.
In such a moment with a sword hanging over their heads.
Xie Zhefeng looked at An Wuxue standing well before him and still felt that he had been greatly favored by heaven.
He looked at the falling snow he had caught from his senior brother’s hair; he couldn’t feel the coldness of the snowflake, but felt warmth in his heart.
He said: “A mortal’s life is like an ephemera, fleeting in an instant, but like cultivators, they have many things that are not fulfilled. When young lovers cannot last, they will admire the same falling snow, watching the snow fall on their shoulders and cover their black hair, considering it a journey to white hair together.”
“At this moment, Senior Brother and I can be considered to have shared white hair. After this, there are no regrets in life or death.”
An Wuxue’s eyes reddened.
He knew why Xie Zhefeng said these words.
His junior brother was afraid that if the critical moment truly came, he wouldn’t have the heart to ignore him.
He couldn’t say any false words of comfort.
The demon bone was in Xie Zhefeng’s body, and the person behind the scenes had calculated to this step. The worst outcome… An Wuxue didn’t dare to think about it.
He hesitated for a long time and remained silent.
The guiding talisman couldn’t wait for their response and vibrated violently several times in front of them.
An Wuxue came back to his senses, composed himself, and suppressed the bitterness in his heart.
With red eyes, he gave a bitter smile.
In the next instant, An Wuxue waved his hand and tore the guiding talisman to pieces!
Xie Zhefeng was shocked: “Senior Brother?”
“This talisman came from inside Langfeng City; it was to lead us to the side of the sword array.”
An Wuxue looked ahead—the Langfeng Sword, which stood tall between heaven and earth, was completely covered by frost and fog, and could not be seen at all.
“Even without going, I can guess that the Langfeng sword array has now become an aid to the demon. The only thing the Langfeng cultivators can do now is to resist the Langfeng sword array and protect the people in the city. But the sword array has been seized by the Snow Demon, the weather has changed, and as long as the Snow Demon doesn’t die, the turbid aura won’t stop. Why are we going into Langfeng City now?”
“To listen to others ask you—which one of the Immortal Venerable and Head Disciple An comes from the Snow Demon tribe? Did the Immortal Venerable secretly hide the secret techniques of the turbid immortals back then and hide from the world for a thousand years before ascending? If you release your soul and your inner demon appears before the world, wouldn’t it be impossible to explain? Wouldn’t that be exactly what the person behind the scenes planned?”
With that, An Wuxue pressed his fingers together and driven spiritual power.
He did not call out Chunhua, but drove Chuhan!
The Chuhan sword hummed and fell obediently between the two of them.
His eyebrows moved slightly, and he was full of spirit, as if he had returned to his youthful, high-spirited days.
“We are going to the Guixu Sea.”
He said.
Guixu Sea.
The strong wind never stopped.
The waves surged.
The mournful and miserable song of the Snow Demon lingered everywhere, impossible to dispel.
On the endless sea water, blocks of ice floated, some large and some small, and there were also some cultivators standing on the ice.
Spiritual power and demonic power collided, causing the waves to surge and the ice to shatter. The snow lotus could withstand the bone-scraping strong wind, but could not bear such a heavy blow and many had already been destroyed.
The entire Guixu Sea was filled with floating snow lotus petals.
“Aiyo, my god!!!”
Pei Qian was knocked down by the Snow Demon’s spiritual power, tumbling in the air and almost falling into the deep sea.
Someone hurried over across the waves and stopped his fall.
The two were pushed back together by the Snow Demon’s spiritual power. The moment they landed on the ice, the ice shattered.
Pei Qian’s internal organs were severely shaken, and he vomited several mouthfuls of fresh blood.
The person who caught him beside him seemed to give a muffled groan, but didn’t let go. Instead, he made a hand seal with one hand, set up an array, and stabilized the shattered ice.
Pei Qian was stunned: “Why are you here too?”
Beiming was the place closest to Langfeng among the cities near the four seas and possessed great strength. When the snow fell, Pei Qian immediately led the experts of Beiming here, leaving Qu Jizhi to guard the Beiming sword array.
But…
Qu Jizhi was standing beside him now, raising an eyebrow and saying: “If I didn’t come, you would have fallen down just now to feed the fish.”
“You—!” Pei Qian became anxious and suddenly started coughing.
He pressed his fingers together, wanting to strike with his sword, but the spiritual power condensed at his fingertips for only a moment before suddenly dissipating.
Qu Jizhi said crossly: “If you can’t act, don’t force yourself.”
Pei Qian’s face was pale and his voice was weak: “…This Snow Demon is so hard to fight. I just fought a few rounds with everyone and it’s like this. It hurts so much.”
While he was speaking, several more immortal cultivators were knocked down by the Snow Demon!
Qu Jizhi and Pei Qian were unable to help themselves and simply didn’t have time to lend a hand.
Some had their meridians invaded by the turbid aura and lost their cultivation, falling into the water. In the blink of an eye, they were dragged into the deep sea by the demons in the water.
Before long, bubbles of bright red water rose from where they fell.
Another person was knocked down by the Snow Demon!
The person happened to land on the ice maintained by Qu Jizhi.
Pei Qian called out weakly: “Mr. Jiang.”
Jiang Qing turned his head: “Little Pei, are you alright?”
His cultivation didn’t rank high among the Tribulation immortals and he was at the rear when he acted, so he wasn’t seriously injured. He had only meditated for a few moments before coming with his sword.
“This won’t do. If this continues, we won’t be able to stop it,” he said urgently. “Did young immortal master Qu just arrive? Hurry and help everyone stop this Snow Demon. I’ll take little Pei to the shore to meditate.”
Qu Jizhi had a dark face and was still holding Pei Qian. He took a step back and said: “No need.”
Jiang Qing was stunned.
Pei Qian said anxiously: “Why are you still worrying about an injured person like me? This Snow Demon is nearly ascended and has the help of the entire Langfeng sword array. Together, we are not its match. Most of the Tribulation experts in Langfeng City have already fallen. If it gets out of the Guixu Sea, Langfeng City is finished!!”
As if to confirm Pei Qian’s words.
Before Pei Qian’s words fell, a huge wave suddenly surged ahead, and the strong wind was condensed into blades by demonic power, sweeping in with frost and snow!
At this very moment.
In the nick of time.
A sword light sharper than this strong wind, ice, and snow came through the air, piercing into the wind and snow and raising another wave!
The waves from two directions collided. A barrier was suddenly opened on all sides, blocking that irresistible demonic power!
The Chuhan sword turned and returned, falling into Xie Zhefeng’s hand.
They landed in front of Qu Jizhi and the other two. Nearby, some immortal cultivators shouted in surprise: “Immortal Venerable! It’s the Immortal Venerable!”
Jiang Qing’s eyes also lit up: “Su Xue?”
Xie Zhefeng still had his back to the crowd, holding the Chuhan sword and looking at the vast sea ahead.
An Wuxue turned around and walked several steps to Qu Jizhi and Pei Qian.
“How is the situation?”
Pei Qian opened his mouth and choked on several gulps of wind.
“Let me speak for little Pei,” Jiang Qing hurried to interject. “We came from Beiming to aid Langfeng yesterday. At that time, the Langfeng cultivators sacrificed their lives for the trapping array to prevent the Snow Demon from entering the mortal world and held out for a day. Today they are almost unable to hold on.”
Pei Qian finally recovered somewhat: “The Snow Demon is right ahead. But the demons of this tribe are born in the wind and snow and can hide in the wind and snow. We can’t see it at all and have to disperse to intercept the wind and snow…”
They were already not the match for a great demon of such a realm and had to disperse on the Guixu Sea, so naturally, there were heavy casualties.
They had already retreated a lot.
If Xie Zhefeng hadn’t acted just now, the Snow Demon would likely have already killed Pei Qian and the others and gone ashore.
An Wuxue looked at Xie Zhefeng.
His junior brother turned his head slightly to look at him.
They only looked at each other for a moment.
In the next instant, Xie Zhefeng rose on his sword and went against the wind and snow into the vast and boundless area ahead!
The spiritual power of an immortal spread out, opening an endless barrier in the Guixu Sea, separating the immortal cultivators from the Snow Demon.
In an instant, in front of Pei Qian and the others, the wind and snow stopped, the waves dissipated, and the ice floated quietly on the sea. The snow lotus petals swayed and returned to peace.
At the other end of the barrier, Xie Zhefeng had just rushed into the thick falling snow.
His breathing was hurried, and a look of violence irrepressibly flashed in his eyes. The snow lotus sword mark on his forehead was tinged with black, his eyes were bloodshot, and they were unusually red.
His demon bone…
The demon bone seemed to be waking up!
No.
It can’t be!
He tried his best to suppress his inner demon and quickly spread his divine sense.
He must find the Snow Demon as soon as possible and kill it!
He heard the song of the Snow Demon getting closer.
The surroundings were filled with churning turbid aura.
The frost and snow hit his body, which couldn’t feel heat or cold, and left scratches on his dharma robe.
He hadn’t struck with his sword yet.
The Snow Demon did not hide.
The wind and snow in all four directions boiled at this moment, and the white snow returned against the wind and gathered in one place.
In the misty frost and fog in the distance, on the ice, a woman in white stood barefoot on the ice, appearing in the bone-scraping strong wind.
She had a face that could captivate all living beings.
The bone-scraping strong wind blew across her cheeks, yet it couldn’t bear to destroy such beauty. It only lightly brushed across that face, as if it were just a morning breeze, gentle and peaceful.
Her clothes fluttered, her expression was gentle, and her eyes were like autumn water with waves, filled with tenderness.
She walked towards Xie Zhefeng step by step.
Her bare feet stepped on the hard ice and moved across the sea as if she were walking on flat ground.
Xie Zhefeng gradually saw clearly that face that was remarkably similar to his own.
His eyes suddenly widened, and his pupils trembled.
The demon bone was restless, and his inner demon was boiling in his sea of consciousness!
The instinct merged into his blood occupied his entire mind.
Xie Zhefeng suppressed the abnormality from backfiring on himself, gave a muffled groan, and swallowed the bloody taste in his throat.
He stared fixedly ahead, and his hand holding the sword grew more forceful.
He had never seen her.
But he still blurted out without hesitation.
“…Mother.”