Chapter 141#
An Wuxue’s pupils trembled slightly.
Snow flakes hung on his trembling eyelashes, like snow lotuses blooming in the deep sea.
Chunhua vibrated, and he gripped the sword so hard that the veins on the back of his hand bulged.
The wind and snow, laden with turbid energy, struck his body. Even with spiritual power protecting him, he still felt a bone-piercing chill.
Pei Qian gritted his teeth and said: “How is An Wuxue exactly like you? If you went to such great lengths to create the situation a thousand years ago where everyone pointed fingers at him, then what about now? Have you succeeded now?”
Qu Jizhi finally expelled the turbid energy from his wound and moved closer with his sword without a trace.
With a wary expression, he also chimed in: “What is Mr. Jiang so proud of? Your plans of a thousand years ago failed. From beginning to end, the Head Disciple never turned his sword against the common people.”
An Wuxue was silent.
He and Jiang Qing were the same?
What a joke.
He had no intention of arguing with Jiang Qing. He silently formed a hand seal and sent out a transmission talisman.
The transmission talisman, wrapped in spiritual power, broke through the strong wind and heavy snow, passed through the barrier Xie Zhefeng had set up, and headed toward the depths of the vast sea.
—It was going to find Xie Zhefeng.
Jiang Qing just watched, showing no intention of stopping it.
Being rebutted by Pei Qian and Qu Jizhi, he wasn’t angry. Instead, he nodded and said: “Well said. Actually, when you truly died back then, I was caught off guard. When you held Chunhua and fought your way out of the ambush to return to Luoyue Peak, I was still planning how to make Luoyue Peak abandon you as well. But I didn’t expect our Immortal Venerable Xie to be even more heartless than I thought.”
—When An Wuxue learned the truth about the inner demon, he had already sensed the problem with Chunhua and hadn’t used it. Jiang Qing still didn’t know the inside story behind Xie Zhefeng’s sword strike.
He still thought Xie Zhefeng had abandoned An Wuxue for the sake of public opinion.
“…I didn’t originally want you to die. If you died, wouldn’t I be unable to see your reaction to being abandoned by all living beings? I felt regretful for a long time back then, and then Xie Zhefeng successfully ascended. I could only continue to hide in the world. Later, I wanted to see if your remnant soul drifting in the world would be filled with resentment and hatred. I traced the karma to Jingji Plain, but saw something very interesting.”
Jiang Qing sneered: “Xie Zhefeng killed you with his own sword, yet he went to Jingji Plain to find your remnant soul.”
“What surprised me even more was that your remnant soul still didn’t have much resentment.”
An Wuxue said coldly: “Then I’ve disappointed you.”
He looked down at his left arm, where the puppet mark was.
“I once saved the fifth pillar of heaven. After death, I had no resentment yet my remnant soul didn’t dissipate because the fifth pillar of heaven kept my broken soul. After a thousand years, it reshaped my golden body and jade bone, giving me a new life.” These were all things he had guessed after being able to communicate with the pillar.
“And you—” He raised Chunhua, pointing the tip at Jiang Qing, “relying on calculating karma, found where I was resurrected, took me away a step ahead, placed the puppet mark, and used Yun Zhou’s hand to change my identity and send me back to Luoyue Peak.”
Jiang Qing nodded several times, his expression extremely composed.
“Xie Zhefeng has already ascended, but the secret method of the Turbid Immortals was buried by karma. I instead can only stop at the peak of the Tribulation stage. The situation has changed, and my previous plans are useless now that I want to stage a comeback. From then on, I had a new plan. But this plan relies on the fifth pillar of heaven and must wait until you come back to life.
" I could have laid my plans for longer. But in the first eight hundred years after your death, Xie Zhefeng went to Jingji Plain every year, covering the countless thorns with immortal power. This strong immortal spiritual power was absorbed by the fifth pillar of heaven to help it reshape your body faster. At that time, my strength was greatly reduced, and I couldn’t move the pillar or you, so I could only wait.
“Fortunately, Xie Zhefeng gave up his futile efforts at Jingji Plain nearly two hundred years ago and began to travel the four seas looking for other opportunities. Only then could I successfully carry out my scheme.
“Does Suxue want to hear my scheme?”
“Head Disciple,” Qu Jizhi said, “he’s stalling for time.”
Jiang Qing smiled: “I’m stalling for time, and you are stalling for time too. We all want to wait for news from the Snow Demon and Xie Zhefeng, right?”
An Wuxue’s heart skipped a beat.
This was exactly what he was thinking.
Something was wrong…
Jiang Qing’s real intention seemed to lie elsewhere, and he didn’t care about the Snow Demon that was currently causing worldwide turmoil.
It was truly unfavorable for him to be waiting for the other party’s move like this…
But he couldn’t act rashly now.
Qu Jizhi had already killed Jiang Qing once, but it was only an incarnation.
Jiang Qing had previously lied to them that the fetal stones were stolen; those fetal stones were probably all taken by Jiang Qing to make incarnations. The one before him might not be his true body.
Although the other party was at the peak of the Tribulation stage and half-step ascended just like him, Jiang Qing was once a Turbid Immortal. His strength was not comparable to a regular peak Tribulation stage cultivator. Facing an incarnation, he was not at all sure of being able to completely eliminate Jiang Qing’s soul.
Thousands of years ago, Qu Wendao’s breaking of the sword didn’t kill Jiang Qing, and the Karmic Array forged by the fall of the immortals over a thousand years ago couldn’t wipe him out. Where would An Wuxue have the ability to kill him in one blow?
If he couldn’t kill Jiang Qing and only destroyed his incarnation, letting his soul hide, then he would be even more passive.
Therefore, after he acquired Jiang Qing’s memories and learned the history of the past thousand years, he wasn’t in a hurry to act, nor did he command the Langfeng City cultivators and Luoyue disciples to come and help.
He was waiting for his junior brother.
—But while he was stalling Jiang Qing, Jiang Qing was actually stalling him too!
“What exactly are you trying to do?” He simply got straight to the point and said, “There’s no need for you to tell me some things, but you told me anyway. It’s impossible that you still want to chat with me at a time like this, right?”
“Oh? Can’t I? I actually do.”
An Wuxue’s hand holding the sword didn’t move.
Chunhua stood before Jiang Qing, and in just a moment, much snow had already accumulated on the blade.
With a slight stir of his spiritual power, he dispersed the surrounding cold wind and shook the snow off the blade.
“I don’t,” he said.
Decisively.
Jiang Qing was stunned, then laughed heartily.
“Good, good…”
His laughter suddenly stopped, his gaze sank, and he showed a gloomy expression.
“Actually, we didn’t have to reach this point today, but you just won’t enter the game every time. What can I do?”
An Wuxue’s eyes were dark: “…Every time?”
“Yes, every time.”
“The first time was the ten-thousand-sect ambush, where your life was cut short by Xie Zhefeng’s sword. If your remnant soul had resentment back then, we might have conspired on this game long ago. Why would I have to go this far?”
“The second time was when I placed the puppet mark on you and designed for you to be brought to Luoyue Peak by Yun Zhou.
“I knew Xie Zhefeng had searched for you for a thousand years and wouldn’t allow someone identical to you to become someone else’s furnace; he would surely keep you. And when you woke up, you would only find that you had become the furnace and substitute for your murderer.
“At that time, I was certain you would kill Xie Zhefeng at any cost, destroying the peace of Luoyue Peak and the cultivation world. But you actually didn’t—you actually put aside the life and death of your previous life for the sake of peace and prosperity, only wanting to leave quietly.”
“The third time, I wanted to destroy the Four Seas Ten Thousand Sword Array you set up and had to bring up those past events. I thought that when you saw those people’s faces after a thousand years, you’d finally regret it, wouldn’t you? How could you still not?”
“Not long ago, that was the fourth time. I dug up a move I’d buried for hundreds of years, leading the people to think you were inseparable from the disaster. Everyone in Beiming was speculating about your resurrection, and everywhere in the two worlds were discussing your suspicion. But this time, you didn’t even wait for the sounds of doubt to rise before you broke the game.”
With every scheme Jiang Qing mentioned, An Wuxue’s face grew darker.
If he had known of this wretch’s existence during the Immortal Disaster, he would have surely chased Jiang Qing with his sword to the ends of the earth!
Not even mentioning himself, how many lives were involved in the conspiracies? And among them, how many people might not have gone astray and eventually taken the path of no return if they hadn’t been enticed…
“The Immortal Disaster began because of you, and Qu Wendao has been dead for a thousand years. Why do you still involve innocent common people now?”
“He’s dead, and I’m ‘dead’ too. I’ve been reincarnated twice and am no longer the person who was willing to be his sword for him. I’d stop just because he’s dead? How boring.”
“I naturally want the demonic path to rise again! The Immortal Disaster to return!!”
An Wuxue’s eyes were filled with intense murderous intent as he said in a low voice: “So this is your final move?”
“I must say, I was truly deceived by the Head Disciple, thinking Xie Zhefeng was indeed deeply mired in his inner demon. I originally wanted to completely destroy the Four Seas Ten Thousand Sword Array before awakening the Snow Demon…”
Jiang Qing shrugged, “But it doesn’t matter; the result is the same.”
“Suxue,” he said softly, “we will be on the same path after all.”
…What did that mean?
Pei Qian rolled his eyes: “You’re not even human.”
Qu Jizhi: “…”
An Wuxue’s sense of unease grew stronger.
Something was wrong…
Jiang Qing was trapped in the deep sea for thousands of years and fought against Qu Wendao for hundreds of years. After Qu Wendao’s death, this person continued to cause trouble in the world.
Perhaps at first, Jiang Qing spread the method of cultivating turbidity throughout the two worlds to vent his resentment and take revenge on Qu Wendao. But now that Qu Wendao has been dead for a thousand years, what Jiang Qing is doing is already merely to satisfy the obsession in his heart.
That being the case, how could Jiang Qing awaken the Snow Demon to cause trouble in the world for the sake of a single person’s thoughts, attracting Xie Zhefeng, the only Immortal in the current world, and exposing his identity and revealing the board at this time?
The thought had just arisen in his mind when his expression changed abruptly.
—The transmission talisman he sent out was shattered!
At this moment.
The wind and snow in the distance grew heavier, and the strong wind crashed into the barrier like sharp blades. In the blink of an eye, the barrier cracked like a spreading spiderweb.
Demonic and immortal power intertwined and agitated, and giant waves came with sea foam. The floating ice suddenly lurched!
Seawater, laden with the blood of countless deep-sea demons, was about to sweep over.
Jiang Qing, however, slowly closed his eyes.
He seemed to be enjoying the current upheaval, listening to the gale and snowstorm.
The song of the Snow Demon drifted over ethereally.
An Wuxue instinctively retreated two steps and raised his hand to form a seal.
Before the seal could be sent out, a white-clad figure fell with the wind, landing on the floating ice.
The floating ice immediately became stable, frost spread, and the surrounding seawater instantly climbed onto the ice, turning into a continuous layer of ice.
The giant waves paused slightly.
The Snow Demon drifted in the wind and snow, no trace of it could be seen.
An Wuxue said in shock: “Junior Brother!?”
Pei Qian was dazed, and Qu Jizhi also called out in surprise: “Immortal Venerable!?”
If the Snow Demon left the Guixu Sea, Langfeng would be overturned, and heavy snow would fall across the four seas incessantly.
The Langfeng and the aiding Beiming and Luoyue immortal cultivators had blocked it for a day, finally intercepting the Snow Demon in the vast sea.
Xie Zhefeng, as the only Immortal in the current world, should have slain the demon with his sword and ended this great disaster. But not only was the Snow Demon not dead, the one retreating… was actually Xie Zhefeng!?
An Wuxue looked at his junior brother’s back, which seemed to be trembling slightly, and said anxiously: “Junior Brother, what exactly is going on?”
He was about to step forward.
The Snow Demon, drifting in the air and merging with the wind and snow, suddenly laughed loudly.
“Hahahahahahaha!!!”
Overwhelming demonic power fell!!
Immortal spiritual power followed close behind!
Xie Zhefeng swept in front of An Wuxue in the blink of an eye. The Chuhan sword’s light was overwhelming as he blocked a blow for An Wuxue, slicing off part of the Snow Demon’s body that was manifest in the wind and snow.
But at the moment he blocked the demonic power, An Wuxue saw the Chuhan sword tremble.
He stepped forward to Xie Zhefeng’s side: “You—”
His voice hitched.
Xie Zhefeng turned to look at him.
His junior brother’s snow lotus sword mark on his forehead was completely black, his eyes were red, and his dark pupils were like a deep abyss with no bottom, hiding countless violences and madness.
Immortal power lingered all around, but standing beside Xie Zhefeng, he felt the faintly emerging turbid energy of a demonic cultivator on him.
He murmured: “Your demon bone…?”
“Senior Brother,” Xie Zhefeng’s voice was low and raspy, “she is my mother. She is insane. But I… I can’t kill her.”
An Wuxue was stunned.
Not far away, Jiang Qing had finally heard enough of the wind and snow song and slowly opened his eyes, looking up at the Snow Demon drifting in the sky.
He said as if to himself: “One thousand two hundred years ago? Or one thousand three hundred years ago? It’s been too long; I can’t remember clearly. Rong Ji, an elder of the Snow Demon tribe, entered the world for cultivation, pretending to be an ordinary female immortal cultivator, and had a brief romance with Xie Zhui, the City Lord of Langfeng. I didn’t expect her to conceive a child just like that.
“Rong Ji was unwilling to give birth, but this child showed an excellent Demon Bone of the Path of Floating Life while in the womb. The sword intent in the root was dense; if he was born, he would surely be a demonic genius whose talent could rival Qu Wendao.
“The demons had been suppressed and beaten by Qu Wendao for thousands of years. Even during the Immortal Disaster, wherever Sword Venerable Nan He went, the demons of the four directions retreated, and no one dared to face his edge directly. This child’s root was too good and his talent too high; how could the Snow Demon tribe be willing to give him up?
“The leader of the Snow Demon tribe was at that time troubled by being unable to compete with Qu Wendao. The appearance of this child allowed the Snow Demon tribe to find a turning point. The tribe leader imprisoned Rong Ji, wanting to wait for the child to be born and raise him into a peerless vessel for his own soul possession and re-cultivation, seeking a higher realm.
“Rong Ji was unwilling, but she was no match for the tribe leader. she didn’t care about the child, but she hated the tribe leader to the extreme. At the time of giving birth, she herself borrowed half of the child’s demon bone and, using her soul as a sacrifice, severely wounded the tribe leader. Her soul burned, and she became a lunatic from then on. Due to a final shred of maternal bond, she sealed the turbid energy on the child and threw the child, who still had half a demon bone, in front of the Langfeng City Lord’s Mansion. Half of this child’s demon bone was gone and had not returned. Afterward, he entered the immortal path, and because of his excellent talent in the way of the sword, he naturally cultivated a sword bone that could compete with the demon bone.”
Jiang Qing admired the falling snow drifting in the Guixu Sea and smiled, “By pure coincidence, I found her when she was severely injured and hiding. I treated her wounds, provided her with turbid energy, and sealed her for a thousand years. Even Qu Wendao didn’t know that Xie Zhefeng’s demon bone was not complete—otherwise, how could the Ruthless Curse have suppressed this peerless demon bone?
“I’ve always kept this move hidden, and now, finally, it’s put to use.”
An Wuxue’s eyes widened.
His heart shook, and he opened his mouth but couldn’t speak.
The demon bone… the demon bone in his junior brother that constantly generated inner demons was actually only half!??
His thoughts were in complete disarray, yet Xie Zhefeng completely ignored his mother from whom he had been separated for a thousand years, and paid no mind to Jiang Qing’s proud laughter.
His junior brother only said in his ear, in a voice suppressed to the extreme, word by word: “For every portion of her I kill, a portion of the demon bone on her will return to me. I can’t kill her. If she perishes, the demon bone will… become one in my body.”
Xie Zhefeng’s voice stopped abruptly.
The demon bone was restless in his body, the surrounding immortal power was shaking, and the inner demon was laughing wildly in his sea of consciousness.
“Senior Brother, with the demon bone becoming complete, I can’t guarantee that it will still be me.”
An Wuxue’s breath hitched.
The Snow Demon’s song was ear-piercing, and Jiang Qing’s laughter was sharp, but neither was as helpless as this sentence from his junior brother.
If they couldn’t kill the Snow Demon, the wind and snow laden with turbid energy would only grow, and the common people of the two worlds would suffer.
If they killed the Snow Demon, his junior brother would turn into a demon in an instant. With no immortal in the world, a Turbid Immortal who has lost their reason would be enough to destroy heaven and earth.
He turned to look at Jiang Qing, his voice cold: “This is your final move.”
Jiang Qing nodded.
“If you kill the Snow Demon, then you can only watch as a Turbid Immortal descends into the world. If you kill Xie Zhefeng, then no one will be a match for the Snow Demon, and even less so for me. In any case, the trend of demons throwing the world into chaos is irreversible.
“But you are not at a dead end.
“Suxue, I’ve left a path for you.
“As long as you can ascend to immortality, you can kill the Snow Demon, kill Xie Zhefeng, and kill me too.”
Qu Jizhi looked around, forming a hand seal, wary of Jiang Qing and the Snow Demon, and said: “The four pillars of heaven have collapsed, and it’s impossible to ascend by the regular path. What exactly is Mr. Jiang trying to say?”
Xie Zhefeng was trying his best to suppress himself.
Immortal power set down a barrier again, shielding this piece of floating ice, isolating the song of the Snow Demon, and blocking the vision-obscuring wind and snow.
Jiang Qing’s voice became increasingly clear.
“The regular path cannot lead to ascension, but cultivating turbidity can. The secret method of the Turbid Immortals was merely removed from the past and future karma by Qu Wendao, so the people—including me—no longer remember this secret method.”
“But you can communicate with the fifth pillar of heaven and can retrieve the secret method from the hidden karma.
“Retrieve the secret method, cultivate turbidity to ascend, kill Xie Zhefeng, and kill the Snow Demon, and you will be the invincible Immortal in this world.”
“This is already the fifth time I’ve ‘paved the way’ for you—which path will you choose?”
Pei Qian said angrily: “If the secret method of the Turbid Immortals is retrieved from karma, wouldn’t the fall of the immortals back then become a joke!? Either the Immortal Venerable falls into demonhood, or the Head Disciple falls into demonhood, or they both do. You call this a choice?”
“Clang!”
Chunhua cut through the air, carrying the sword master’s irrepressible anger and murderous intent, and headed straight for Jiang Qing.
Jiang Qing had to raise his sword to block. He was suddenly struck back several zhang by Chunhua. Before he could stand firm, he spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood.
He watched Chunhua fly back to An Wuxue’s hand, raised his hand and casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, laughed crazily a few times, and said: “Qu Wendao and I fought for thousands of years. Even when his body died and his path vanished, he still left behind a meticulous backup plan. He’s been dead for a thousand years, yet I still lose every time.”
“Fortunately, this time, I should be the one to win, no matter what.”