Chapter 139#
He seemed to fall into a state of reminiscence.
“The one who broke the sword in his youth…” An Wuxue’s tone had become certain. “It’s you.”
“It’s me, and it’s not me.”
Jiang Qing still gazed at the Chunhua in his hand.
“‘I’ died in the Underworld Sea when the sword was broken, and also died in the karmic array when the immortals fell. Our tribe was born from the raging karmic fire; as long as the soul is not extinguished, the karmic fire will burn brightly, and reincarnation will be without death. ‘I’ told Qu Wendao back then that my tribe’s demonic body was indestructible; how did he forget?”
He gave a long sigh.
Suddenly—
“Swoosh—”
A spiritual sword shot through the air!
Jiang Qing’s posture as he stroked the sword stopped abruptly, his gaze froze for a moment, and in an instant, the look of reminiscence on his face vanished completely, replaced by murderous intent!
He turned nimbly, avoiding the spiritual sword heading straight for him.
The spiritual sword missed its mark and immediately turned its blade, returning to Qu Jizhi’s hand.
At this moment, Chunhua “hummed” and suddenly flew out of Jiang Qing’s hand.
It was, after all, already An Wuxue’s life-bound sword. With An Wuxue’s divine sense summoning it, Chunhua immediately returned to his hand.
Jiang Qing showed no sign of panic. He gave a cold snort and instantly formed a hand seal.
The spiritual energy in all directions churned, and the seawater on both sides of the floating ice rose against the wind, heading straight for Qu Jizhi and Pei Qian!
Qu Jizhi’s face was as cold as water. He immediately shielded Pei Qian behind him, preparing to counterattack.
But An Wuxue stepped in front of Qu Jizhi and Pei Qian first, holding Chunhua and cutting through the rushing waves.
Only to hear Jiang Qing say: “Young Immortal Master Qu, although I have reincarnated twice and am far from what I once was, I won’t be successfully ambushed by a junior like you.”
“People make mistakes, and horses stumble. If I don’t try, how will I know?” Qu Jizhi said fearlessly.
An Wuxue turned slightly and said to Qu Jizhi: “It’s useless. Since he dares to appear here, it means that the Jiang Qing at the early stage of Tribulation we see now is not the real Jiang Qing. This might just be one of his clones.”
“As he said, as long as his soul is not extinguished, even if we kill this body, we cannot kill the real him.”
Jiang Qing glanced over and gave a light laugh, neither denying nor confirming.
The other only asked him: “The Head Disciple dares to use Chunhua again?”
“Chunhua is my life-bound sword; I’ve never been afraid to use it. When my junior brother appeared just now, you should have understood, right?
“The news of the Immortal Venerable’s seclusion to recover was just a false report we deliberately spread. As long as I didn’t touch Chunhua, you would never be able to know our true situation. That’s why you mistakenly thought it was an opportunity not to be missed and acted in haste.
“Now that you and I are standing here with our swords, there’s nothing I can’t let you know—even if you can perceive my memories through Chunhua, what do I have to fear?”
Jiang Qing sighed: “I heard of your great name during the immortal disaster; the Head Disciple is indeed a rare opponent.”
An Wuxue said solemnly: “The warning words of the youth who broke his sword are also thunderous to my ears.”
Pei Qian muttered behind Qu Jizhi: “They’re quite polite.”
Qu Jizhi: “…”
An Wuxue stood with his sword, his eyes shifting slightly, as he looked unobtrusively toward the other side of the barrier.
No matter the truth—he was more worried about his junior brother.
The Snow Demon and Xie Zhefeng were still on the other side of the barrier.
The heavy snow hadn’t stopped, and the Snow Demon wasn’t dead.
Immortal power was agitating wildly, and Xie Zhefeng was still attacking.
Jiang Qing said that the Snow Demon was his junior brother’s blood relative… was it truly so? How were things on his junior brother’s side? Why had no news come yet?
“Suxue,” Jiang Qing suddenly called him by that name, “I’ve told you, the bond between Xie Zhefeng and the Snow Demon is too deep; a result won’t be reached in a short time. Why are you so anxious?”
An Wuxue looked down at the Chunhua that was currently connected to his soul.
He suppressed all expression and said calmly: “Where is your original body? Why not reveal yourself yet? What exactly are your plans after going to all this trouble? By now, you should tell us, right?”
Jiang Qing’s intentions were unclear, and his trump cards hadn’t been revealed; he was currently in an extremely passive position.
Jiang Qing didn’t answer.
He stood opposite An Wuxue and the other two in the wind and snow. He turned his head and looked into the distance through the curtain woven by this worldwide snowfall.
—It was the direction of Beiming.
An Wuxue remembered the day they went to the Qu clan’s gates to find Shangguan Liaoliao in the Leaf-Watching Array.
With the entire illusion on the verge of collapse, Jiang Qing stood in the ancient grounds of the Qu clan’s gates, also gazing wistfully like this.
At the time, he thought Jiang Qing was gazing at the Qu clan of the past.
Now…
Was Jiang Qing looking at the Qu clan of the past, at the distant Beiming behind the wind and snow, or at his own past that could never be reclaimed?
“Suxue, you’re asking me this because you think there’s still time and that you still have the upper hand, right?”
Jiang Qing turned back, all traces of wistfulness gone, and returned to his leisurely and free-spirited manner.
An Wuxue’s eyebrows moved slightly.
Qu Jizhi said coldly: “You’re stalling for time.”
“I am indeed stalling for time. But what can Young Immortal Master Qu do? Search my soul? You’d have to catch me first.”
An Wuxue suddenly spoke: “I might not need you to tell me to know all this.”
Jiang Qing was startled.
An Wuxue gripped the sword hilt, and his other hand instantly formed a seal on Chunhua.
The blade of Chunhua emitted a faint golden light, and sword intent rippled in all directions. Amid the humming of the sword, the spirit of the Soul-Nourishing Tree drifted out from the hilt, followed by a cluster of golden light.
—This was a memory illusion condensed by the Soul-Nourishing Tree spirit!
Jiang Qing instantly came to his senses: “You deliberately brought out Chunhua just now!?”
An Wuxue tucked away the Soul-Nourishing Tree spirit and took the light cluster into his hand.
“If I hadn’t brought it out, how would Fellow Daoist Jiang have used his divine sense to connect with Chunhua?”
A spiritual sword communicates with divine sense, and it’s not just his divine sense it communicates with.
Although he wasn’t the one who forged the sword and couldn’t perceive as directly as Jiang Qing, the moment he brought out Chunhua, he hid the Soul-Nourishing Tree spirit in its hilt.
The moment Jiang Qing’s divine sense connected with Chunhua, the Soul-Nourishing Tree spirit had already acquired Jiang Qing’s soul memories through the sword.
That was why he hadn’t immediately summoned Chunhua back when Jiang Qing was overconfidently reminiscing about the past through it.
In an instant, Jiang Qing understood everything An Wuxue had done. His previous composure vanished, his face turned grim, and he attacked with his sword without hesitation!
The blade was pointed directly at the light cluster in An Wuxue’s hand.
He wanted to destroy the memories An Wuxue had acquired!
An Wuxue raised his sword to parry the move, spiritual power colliding. However, he didn’t prolong the fight and actually retreated a few steps in the blink of an eye.
“Young Immortal Master Qu!”
Qu Jizhi immediately understood and stepped forward, blocking the path between An Wuxue and Jiang Qing.
Pei Qian also took out talismans and spiritual tools from his spiritual pouch, supporting Qu Jizhi from behind with his talisman array path.
An Wuxue took advantage of the clash between Jiang Qing and Qu Jizhi to set up a barrier, and his divine sense immediately immersed itself in the memories!
…
Jiang Qing had just been holding Chunhua, looking toward Beiming and reminiscing about the distant past.
Therefore, in his memories, the events from thousands of years ago were particularly clear.
Thousands of years ago, the secret method of cultivating turbidity hadn’t appeared, the immortal disaster hadn’t yet struck the two worlds, and the immortal cultivators of the four seas were powerful. No one knew what a “turbid immortal” was.
An Wuxue saw an elegant youth practicing swordplay by the shore of the Underworld Sea. Waves crashed against the shore, and the rocky beach was in disarray. The youth’s posture as he swung his sword was steady, and not a drop of the tide touched his body.
The youth had a face he was very familiar with, yet it was even more youthful than in his memory.
Qu Wendao.
Qu Wendao before he turned to the Path of Ruthlessness.
He saw a member of the Fetal Spirit tribe in the deep sea being attracted by the youth’s swordplay. He sat on a reef by the sea, quietly watching the youth practice.
He watched like this for several months.
Finally, the demon cultivator stepped forward and asked: “Are you worried about something?”
The youth paused in his movements and turned to look back.
From then on, the demon cultivator became a long-time companion on the youth’s path.
One year, the supply of Wintersweet flowers fell short of demand, and the various immortal cultivators of Beiming fought over them incessantly.
The peerless genius of the Qu clan waited on the Wintersweet Cliff for seven days for the flowers to bloom. Before the eyes of many Beiming immortal cultivators, he plucked the coldest one.
Meanwhile, Jiang Qing forged Chunhua for him to verify if a fetal spirit body could become a sword. Eventually, Jiang Qing forged himself into his sword.
On the day the sword was completed, Qu Wendao gave the Wintersweet flower to Jiang Qing, and they established a contract of life and death, never to be separated.
An Wuxue saw Qu Wendao leave a mark on Jiang Qing.
That was…
A puppet mark!!!
No, it was a more exquisite puppet mark without side effects.
Xie Zhefeng had consulted many ancient books and speculated that the puppet mark was modified from ancient master-servant or spiritual tool marks.
…And so it was.
The mark was set, and the spiritual sword recognized its master. From then on, Jiang Qing became the peerless sword in Qu Wendao’s hand.
Until the sword was broken and the path abandoned, and blood surged in the Underworld Sea.
Jiang Qing never thought that Qu Wendao would truly take this step.
When the blade was broken, his soul-body’s eyes wept blood, yet he was still asking in disbelief: “Did you develop an inner demon?”
Qu Wendao said nothing.
After spending day and night together for years, the final sentiment he received was Qu Wendao sealing his five senses and perception of pain, and sealing the broken blade in the deep sea.
The demon cultivator finally understood that Qu Wendao had always been heartless.
In this world, no one could obstruct his path.
He practiced swordplay for his path.
He forged a sword for his path.
He broke the sword also for his path.
At that time, the immortal disaster hadn’t happened, and there were no so-called Thirteen Rules of Demon Slaying in the world. Demon cultivators were much weaker than immortal cultivators and all lived in sparsely populated areas.
The famous sword formed from the demon cultivator’s body was broken. The Beiming immortal sects only sighed over the pity of the Qu clan’s young master abandoning his path. No one remembered anymore that a broken sword still lay in the deep sea.
Qu Wendao abandoned his identity as the young master of the Qu clan, left Beiming, and turned to the Path of Ruthlessness.
But even he didn’t know that the indestructibility of a fetal stone lies in the eternal burning of the karmic fire and the immortality of the soul.
As long as even a single strand of the soul remains, the soul of the fetal stone tribe can recover and be reincarnated.
The waters of the Underworld Sea were cold, and beneath the abyss, the turbid aura that had accumulated since ancient times was suppressed.
That was the inner demons accumulated over generations by countless Beiming immortal cultivators.
There was also the method of cultivating turbidity to ascend to immortality, which had caused chaos in ancient times and was finally sealed at the bottom of the deep sea.
Jiang Qing couldn’t die, yet he couldn’t live either.
He was trapped in countless demonic obstacles beneath the endless deep sea, his soul recovering bit by bit.
The demonic turbid aura merged into his soul in this way, and he lived again.
But the demon cultivator who used to sit by the reef watching Qu Wendao practice swordplay was dead.
He possessed all the memories and emotions of “him” from his previous life, all the resentment and grievances, yet he was no longer “him.”
“He” was dead.
He was alive.
There was no sun at the bottom of the sea, and no one to talk to him.
His only connection to this world was when Qu Wendao held Chunhua.
So he “watched” as Qu Wendao joined Luoyue. In just a few decades, he re-cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness back to the peak of the Tribulation stage and was easily revered by Luoyue Peak and the cultivation world as the Head Disciple of the immortal sects.
Afterward, he ascended to immortality and became the supreme being, commanding all life, looked up to by all beings.
He suffered a life worse than death, while he possessed everything.
This lasted for thousands of years.
When Jiang Qing’s soul drifted out of the deep sea and landed in an ownerless fetal stone body in the Underworld Sea, the fame of Immortal Venerable Nan He was already etched into the hearts of all living beings, becoming a mountain peak that was unreachable in the eyes of the world.
He hated Nan He.
He also hated the world Nan He guarded.
Carrying the ancient method of demon cultivation he had acquired over thousands of years in the deep sea, he stepped onto the land of Beiming once again.
On that day, the secret method of cultivating turbidity and ascending to immortality was introduced into the world, and the immortal disaster that lasted for hundreds of years began in Beiming, where the immortal path flourished.