Chapter 143#
Outside the Leaf-Watching Array.
In the Guixu Sea.
Immortal spiritual power and demonic power competed, the entire sea surface was turbulent, and heavy snow and floating ice were in close contact.
Qu Jizhi held the hand seal, and the spiritual power surrounding him was even more turbulent than the overwhelming waves.
—The array was laid in a hurry, and its coverage was extremely vast. He simply didn’t have a spiritual vein or a large number of spiritual stones to supply such a grand array.
At this moment, it was entirely supported by his own spiritual power.
His eyes were tightly closed, and his brow was deeply furrowed.
When An Wuxue found Nan He, Qu Jizhi suddenly gave a muffled groan.
Pei Qian was maintaining the barrier to prevent the struggle between Xie Zhefeng and Rong Ji from interfering with Qu Jizhi.
But just as he threw out a rune and turned back, he saw Qu Jizhi with blood on the corner of his mouth, and even blood flowing from both ears.
This…
This was clearly the posture of someone who was consuming too much and burning their own essence blood!!
Pei Qian was stunned and hurried over to Qu Jizhi’s side, shouting: “What’s going on?”
The hand seal in Qu Jizhi’s hand moved incessantly. He opened his eyes slightly and said in a deep voice: “The Head Disciple must have met Immortal Venerable Nan He.”
“Isn’t that—” Isn’t that a good thing?
Pei Qian’s voice hitched.
The Leaf-Watching Array is a karmic array, not an illusion array.
Within it are countless illusions, a thousand leaves and ten thousand flowers, which cannot be woven by the array-setter but are instead the array-setter following the karmic lines back to recreate every moment of karma based on the current place and scene.
When Qu Jizhi had previously set such a grand array at the Qu family’s home, it was fine. The Qu family originally had plenty of spiritual energy, the coverage was very small, and the karma was simple.
But for every hundred zhang this array covered, its karma became ten thousand times more complex.
Jiang Qing and Qu Wenxin collaborated to set an illusion that covered the first city of Beiming, which took an unknown amount of time and consumed the Qu family’s accumulated foundation over thousands of years, as well as the immense spiritual power Jiang Qing had gained from emptying the spiritual veins over these years.
Right now, Qu Jizhi was by himself.
And this time, the Leaf-Watching Array’s range covered the entire Langfeng City and most of the Guixu Sea, and it also directly involved the world’s number one sword of old, Immortal Venerable Nan He.
For every breath An Wuxue and Nan He conversed, the karma became even more complex, and the spiritual power consumption was immense.
If Qu Jizhi continued like this, he would inevitably sacrifice his own lifespan, and even… endanger his life.
Pei Qian only stared for a moment, and blood began to seep from even the corners of Qu Jizhi’s eyes.
“I’ll go to Langfeng City to call for help!” He turned to leave.
But Qu Jizhi called out to him: “It’s useless. It’s too late to move the spiritual veins, and ordinary cultivators don’t understand the intricacies of arrays and can’t help me.”
“Then I’ll help you.”
“If you help me, at most it will be the two of us together with shattered bone structures in exchange for my life—is there much difference between one and two people like that?”
Pei Qian said without hesitation: “It’s better than none!”
“If you dare to pour your spiritual power in,” Qu Jizhi’s voice was already increasingly weak, but his tone brooked no refusal, “I will immediately withdraw the array patterns.”
“If you withdraw the array patterns, the Leaf-Watching Array will break! What if the Head Disciple hasn’t had time to ask Immortal Venerable Nan He everything about the demon bone!?”
“I’ll help the Head Disciple set up the Leaf-Watching Array because only by breaking Jiang Qing’s game and tracing the karma can we possibly reopen the immortal path. I have never been someone who cares about the common people; don’t you know that well?”
Pei Qian took a deep breath.
“I know you want me to ascend and break the Path of Ruthlessness, but by then you’ll be dead!! Can you see if I’ve ascended or not? What’s the point of me being moved by you? You’ll be gone!!! For someone as smart as you, can’t you do the math? Are you sick?”
Qu Jizhi nodded.
Pei Qian: “You—”
But he truly didn’t dare to step forward to help anymore.
Qu Jizhi meant what he said; this person was truly capable of such crazy things as letting go at any moment.
In just a few words, Qu Jizhi’s face grew increasingly pale.
The hand seal in his hand controlling the grand array moved faster and faster, and spiritual power agitating wildly in all directions, even the barrier Pei Qian had set up around them was broken by the spiritual power striking from both sides.
Qu Jizhi gave another muffled groan, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
Pei Qian shouted urgently: “Qu Jizhi!”
The other ignored him.
Pei Qian could already feel the spiritual power fluctuations around Qu Jizhi gradually weakening.
He even saw several strands of white hair suddenly appear in the other’s hair.
If this continued…
“He won’t let go.”
Qi Xun’s voice drifted from behind.
Pei Qian immediately looked toward the direction of the voice, only to see the man in red treading on the sea surface with spiritual power, passing through the violent wind and snow and the crazed spiritual energy, sweeping over.
Pei Qian’s eyes lit up: “Does Sect Master Qi have any solution?”
Qi Xun raised his eyes, looking toward Xie Zhefeng, who was blocking the Snow Demon.
His gaze finally landed on the silver-light-flowing array patterns.
He asked solemnly: “A-Xue has entered the array?”
“Jiang Qing also entered the array!”
“…So it was him.”
Qi Xun murmured.
Pei Qian was already extremely anxious, yet Qi Xun, changing his solemn expression, gave a leisurely smile.
“Sect Master Qi, don’t laugh at a time like this!!!”
Qi Xun opened his folding fan and walked to Qu Jizhi’s side.
He said, “City Lord Pei, what I’m laughing at is that the Qu Clan calculated everything but finally ended up fulfilling its own hex. The Qu family of Beiming is skilled in divination, and the hex they did for him with all their strength could not be wrong. That hex—how did you forget it?”
Pei Qian was slightly stunned.
Naturally, he could not forget.
His entire life had been turned upside down because of that one sentence.
—“A child of the Qu family, destined for a tribulation, ruthless yet emotional.”
The Qu Clan adopted him to meet the tribulation for Qu Jizhi, but in the end, it was not only useless, but also made him Qu Jizhi’s tribulation.
Qi Xun said, “He is now precisely for your sake that he refuses to let go, and he won’t let you help him. Karma has its fixed number, and the destined tribulation cannot be escaped. The Qu Clan’s efforts were in vain; this tribulation is still here.”
“Right now… this hex has come true.”
Qu Jizhi spat out several more large mouthfuls of fresh blood.
He gave Qi Xun a look, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth unconcernedly, and his blood-stained sleeve fluttered in the wind and snow.
The hand seal trembled, but he continued to add spiritual power.
Half of his black hair had already turned white.
Burning his essence blood like this, if it continued, he would be sacrificing his lifespan, and eventually even his bone structure would shatter.
But he showed no sign of fear.
“Sect Master Qi sees things clearly,” he glanced over, “but you’re right, the destined tribulation cannot be escaped. I know I’m meeting the tribulation, and I’m also clear that I won’t choose any other path.”
Pei Qian was truly exasperated: “What would happen if you let me help you? I don’t care about my cultivation or bone structure; even if they shatter and I become a mortal who lives only from morning till night, it’s no big deal.”
At this moment.
The hand seal in Qu Jizhi’s hand maintaining the array patterns suddenly lurched and was abruptly snatched by Qi Xun.
He was already increasingly weak, and suddenly having the hand seal snatched by Qi Xun with full force, he had no power to stop him at all.
“What does Sect Master Qi mean? If the array patterns are unstable, the Head Disciple won’t only fail to get an answer inside, but might also encounter danger—”
His words stopped.
He saw Qi Xun instantly inject his own spiritual power into the hand seal, and the surrounding array patterns were even more stable than when Qu Jizhi was maintaining them!
Spiritual power on all sides flourished, and Qi Xun turned pale in the blink of an eye.
He actually didn’t hesitate at all, destroying his own bone structure and injecting his lifelong cultivation into the Leaf-Watching Array, using his own strength to support this grand array!!
Even if an ordinary immortal cultivator exhausted their cultivation, they would only lose their cultivation, which wouldn’t be very useful for the array.
But he possessed a thousand years of cultivation at the peak of the Tribulation stage, and having destroyed his own bone structure, it was like a spiritual vein bursting its banks for a short time. The Leaf-Watching Array instantly received a large amount of spiritual power support and completely regained stability!
Pei Qian supported Qu Jizhi, saying in a daze, “You… you are…”
Qi Xun gave an unconcerned light laugh.
“Young Immortal Master Qu, you’re lucky. This tribulation, I’ve blocked it for you.”
“…I have no feelings, no bond, no grievance, and no grudge with you.”
“Naturally, it has nothing to do with you. A-Xue has entered the array, and this array cannot break before he achieves his goal. You two are both at the late stage of Tribulation; even together, you might not be able to support this grand array. A thousand years ago, I drew my sword against him, and I’ve owed him ever since. I should pave the path for him to repay this debt…”
His voice hitched, and like Qu Jizhi just now, blood overflowed from his seven orifices!
Pei Qian and Qu Jizhi could even already detect that Qi Xun’s cultivation was falling below the Tribulation stage…
The man said with a smile, “I hope he can find the answer he wants. But you two, in return for me blocking this ruthless tribulation for you, promise me one thing.”
“Don’t tell A-Xue I came.”
“He doesn’t want to see me again.”
His voice fell.
Qi Xun closed his eyes, and the spiritual power in his hands poured out crazily, merging into the Leaf-Watching Array!
The wind and snow fell on his hair, but no snowflakes could be seen anymore.
—He turned white-haired in an instant.
Inside the Leaf-Watching Array.
An Wuxue and Nan He’s gazes met.
The Leaf-Watching Array’s illusion suddenly began to collapse from the distant Guixu Sea.
—The person in the array realized its falseness, and the illusion began to collapse.
An Wuxue was looking for the Immortal Venerable Nan He of over a thousand years ago who dominated the immortal sects, and the Qu Wendao who was a master of both swordsmanship and arrays.
With just one look, the other had already seen the falsehood.
Qu Jizhi had already thought of this when he laid the array, which was why he didn’t hesitate to cover most of the Guixu Sea with the Leaf-Watching Array to buy time for An Wuxue.
The illusion collapsed from all sides, but the array-setter seemed to deliberately use a large amount of spiritual power to maintain the illusion, and the speed of collapse was not fast.
From the shattering of the Guixu Sea to the City Lord’s Mansion, An Wuxue still had fifteen minutes.
He held Chunhua and walked toward Nan He step by step.
The cultivators on all sides and his younger self had not noticed his arrival; only Nan He looked at him calmly, as if this past time was only frozen for the two of them.
He heard the familiar and long-lost voice: “How long has it been?”
His voice was raspy: “Nearly… one thousand three hundred years.”
Between them lay the centuries of chaos of the Immortal Disaster and a thousand years of peace and prosperity.
Nearly one thousand three hundred years.
Nan He’s eyes shifted slightly.
He showed no surprise from beginning to end, his black eyes, as calm as an ancient well, reflecting An Wuxue’s figure, yet also only reflecting An Wuxue’s figure.
Chunhua trembled slightly.
An Wuxue heard Chunhua’s hum, yet the Chunhua in his hand was very quiet.
He saw the Chunhua in his Master’s hand.
At that time, he hadn’t reached the stage of great accomplishment, and Chunhua was still Immortal Venerable Nan He’s sidearm.
The two Chunhuas, one from the past and one from the present, mirrored each other.
His Master’s face had not changed for a thousand years. He clearly remembered it very well, yet looking at him in person, it felt very blurred.
the person before him was not only the Immortal Venerable Nan He who dominated the two worlds, but also the Qu Wendao who broke his sword and abandoned his path.
Familiar yet strange.
“…You haven’t become an immortal yet.”
An Wuxue gave a bitter smile.
This was his and Xie Zhefeng’s Master.
Ruthless, impartial, strict, and solemn, he only ever cared about the common people and cultivation.
When he and Xie Zhefeng had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the two worlds at the end of the Immortal Disaster, he had once missed Nan He, just as a mortal misses an elder who has passed away.
In his dreams after fighting with demons, he would also dream of his Master teaching him and his Junior Brother cultivation.
At that time, he had many things he wanted to say to this only elder of his.
Now… now he had nothing left to say.
“Master, I have come from one thousand three hundred years in the future. The Immortal Disaster ended several hundred years later. Before that, I and various immortal cultivators set up sword arrays in the cities near the four seas to replace the pillars. My Junior Brother—Xie Zhefeng…”
Nan He looked back slightly at the young figure: “I did indeed want to take him as a disciple.”
“Junior Brother took over the position of Immortal Venerable and ascended to immortality to cleanse the demons in the world.”
“I died.”
“Yes, you died.”
The Guixu Sea in the illusion had completely collapsed.
The edge of Langfeng City began to shatter.
Most people fear death; those who possess more fear death and annihilation more.
But Nan He stood at the pinnacle of the two worlds, yet he was not surprised by his own fall.
He only said calmly: “The Langfeng pillar was destroyed, and all four pillars were broken. The Heavenly Dao is incomplete. Those who do not cultivate as demons cannot ascend unless they see through the path of life and death to the extreme. This child was born with a demon bone, yet his root structure has sword intent. If he becomes a demon, he will bring chaos to the world; if he becomes an immortal, he will look down on all living beings. If he cultivates as a demon, he can have a smooth path; if he cultivates as an immortal, it will be ten steps for nine tribulations. If he succeeds despite such difficulty—even the Heavenly Dao cannot stop him.”
“But the demon bone is his nature. If he doesn’t die under the heavenly thunder, the demon bone will not be removed by it. This will be a karmic hindrance he cannot escape. Did he extract the demon bone?”
“Or… is this why you traveled back a thousand years to find me?”
Nan He really knew!
He not only knew, but except for knowing nothing about the other half of the demon bone Jiang Qing had hidden, he hadn’t missed a single thing in his predictions of future events!!!
His Master choosing the Path of Ruthlessness for Xie Zhefeng and casting the Ruthless Curse was indeed to suppress the demon bone and let Xie Zhefeng walk a completely different immortal path.
This game was being played by Jiang Qing, and also by Nan He.
The collapse on all sides was becoming faster and faster. An Wuxue hurriedly asked: “Master, only half of the demon bone is in Junior Brother; the other half is still with Rong Ji, an elder of the Snow Demon tribe. In order to retrieve the secret method of the Turbid Immortals from the karmic lines, Jiang Qing sealed Rong Ji for a thousand years, only awakening her after Junior Brother ascended. Jiang Qing is using the demon bone to force me to find the secret method of the Turbid Immortals and ascend. The demon bone and the sword bone are now in Junior Brother’s body and are his entirety; they cannot be destroyed before he dies. If the demon bone becomes one, the consequences will be unimaginable. I’d like to ask for a method to extract the bone.”
When Nan He heard the name “Jiang Qing,” his eyes, which were usually as calm as an ancient well, actually flickered slightly.
He was in a daze for a moment, and the Chunhua sword from a thousand years ago in his hand trembled slightly.
This spiritual sword was the first sword Jiang Qing gave him.
It was also the famous sword that had accompanied him on his thousands of years of immortal path.
—He thought of Jiang Qing, and his divine sense unconsciously connected with Chunhua.
An Wuxue had been trying hard to stabilize his mind just now.
He knew that the more urgent the time, the less he could afford to be flustered.
But at the moment Chunhua hummed, he urged anxiously: “Master?”
Jiang Qing had already chased into the Leaf-Watching Array. He could sense Chunhua, and if he had already found them, he likely knew where he was!
Jiang Qing was skilled in the way of karmic arrays; if he found this place, he likely had a way to interrupt the illusion!
There was no time.
Nan He’s mind was pulled back by his call.
“There is no way,” his Master said.
“…What?”
“If a bone structure is discarded, one can survive, but there has never been a way to extract a bone without harming one’s life. Since this child has ascended, according to what you say, the double bone structures are already his entirety. One thousand three hundred years later, when the karma has been established, the demon bone game is complete; he has no choice and no way out.”
An Wuxue’s heart sank.
How could it be…
How could it be?
Did even Nan He have no way?
Was he truly to follow Jiang Qing’s plan and, regardless of anything, let the Immortal Disaster with both immortals and demons reappear!?
“Master—”
“Wuxue.”
Nan He interrupted him.
The collapse of the illusion was already before them. His voice was as indifferent and cold as it was back then: “When I was still practicing the Path of Floating Life, I could not ascend. I asked all the senior immortals of Beiming, only to find that my heart was not aligned with the path, and I had chosen the wrong path. The half-step ascension realm was already the extreme I could reach by practicing the Path of Floating Life. If I wanted to ascend, I had no choice but to change my path.”
“I made several attempts, but none could sever the karma between me and him.”
Nan He didn’t clearly say who “him” referred to, but An Wuxue could hear it clearly.
Qu Wendao once created the Ruthless Curse to suppress the feelings in his heart, using it to try and see if he could directly change to the Path of Ruthlessness.
But the Ruthless Curse could only suppress feelings, not sever karmic entanglement. As long as the sword was there, the karma was there. That was why Qu Wendao eventually chose to break the sword and his path.
Nan He’s gaze was indifferent.
“…Before breaking my path, I once deliberately drew him away and tried to trigger the Path of Floating Life tribulation by myself.”
…What!?
Master actually thought of forcibly ascending when he was still practicing the Path of Floating Life!?
No… why was Master telling him this at this time?
“Master, it’s urgent outside…”
Nan He only shook his head.
An Wuxue was exceptionally familiar with this.
When he was learning swordplay as a child and couldn’t sit still, Nan He wouldn’t scold him, but would only shake his head like this.
The senior immortal possessed great authority. A silent shake of the head made him put away all his thoughts and listen attentively.
Just as he was doing now.
He was stunned, and instinctively lost the heart to ask further, listening quietly as Nan He continued: “The Path of Floating Life allows one to glimpse the seven emotions of heaven and earth. The moment an immortal cultivator of this path triggers the ascension lightning tribulation, they can sense the four pillars of heaven and intervene in the Heavenly Dao. At the very instant I triggered the ascension lightning tribulation, I was conceited, feeling that the Heavenly Dao was for me to change and intervene in. I wanted to see from it if I could walk the Path of Floating Life to the end. My Qu clan was skilled in divination, so I used the divination method to calculate my future karma through the pillars of heaven.”
Could an immortal cultivator of the Path of Floating Life, even if they hadn’t ascended yet, have the ability to connect with the pillars as long as they triggered the ascension lightning tribulation?
“Future karma… what did Master see?”
The illusion collapsed as far as the City Lord’s Mansion.
Behind Nan He, in the past, the younger An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng had already been swallowed by nothingness.
“I saw that in the future, demons would run rampant in the two worlds, and I had achieved the peak of the Path of Ruthlessness and ascended, leading the Luoyue experts to fight everywhere and slay demons.”
An Wuxue’s eyes widened.
Wasn’t that exactly the Immortal Disaster back then?
The illusion collapsed behind Nan He.
He spoke as if telling a story, his voice without sadness or joy: “I felt that it was an unstoppable karmic destiny, and I was destined not to achieve the peak of the Path of Floating Life. Resisting the heavenly tribulation was merely in vain. So I immediately broke my path and withdrew my intention to ascend.”
“The ascension lightning tribulation receded, and from then on, I walked the Path of Ruthlessness.”
An Wuxue’s lips moved slightly. A thousand words were in his heart, yet he didn’t know how to speak them.
Before him was the elder he had once respected most, and also the heartless Qu Wendao who had failed the demon cultivator.
Spanning a thousand years across the future, present, and past, his elder spoke a final sentence to him.
“I firmly believed that karma was fixed and could not be changed, so I gave up.”
“I only learned ’today’ that my giving up was precisely the fixed karma.”
An Wuxue’s pupils trembled slightly.
His voice fell.
At this very moment.
A wave of spiritual power came from behind An Wuxue.
At the edge of the collapsing illusion, someone entered with a sword.
The final long wind of Langfeng City blew, moving Immortal Venerable Nan He’s clothes.
Stray hairs hit his forehead. He looked toward An Wuxue, but was not looking at him.
He was looking behind An Wuxue.
In those eyes that had never held the seven emotions of the mortal world, a myriad of emotions suddenly filled them.
The long wind stopped abruptly.
The illusion collapsed.
The Qu Wendao of more than a thousand years ago vanished into annihilation, and everything turned to darkness.
The past was like that wind that could not be touched or found just now; not a trace of it could be reached anymore.
An Wuxue didn’t look back.
Jiang Qing was behind him, speaking to him as if chatting about daily life: “He really is always like that. He was like that in my memories, the Immortal Venerable of Luoyue Peak was like that, and he was like that in the illusion a thousand years ago. Tell me, if I had come a step earlier, would I have heard an ‘I’m sorry’ from him, or would the edge of the Chunhua sword have come with murderous intent?”
An Wuxue turned around.
He saw a smile on Jiang Qing’s lips, but his eyes held only sorrow.
“Oh, right,” Jiang Qing was in a daze for a moment, “I almost forgot why I’m here. I seem to be a step late and didn’t hear what he said to you—did Qu Wendao have a solution?”
He asked this as if they hadn’t yet turned against each other.
An Wuxue, however, didn’t act. In the remaining nothingness of the Leaf-Watching Array, he shook his head and said: “No.”
Jiang Qing gave a sneer: “Then what does the Head Disciple plan to do?”
An Wuxue said nothing.
The illusion was broken, and the Gate of Life and Death appeared.
But his goal in entering the Leaf-Watching Array had been achieved. Now he only needed the array-setter to sense the situation in the array and withdraw the array.
He was still thinking about what Nan He had said.
Ascension, the pillars of heaven, karma…
Jiang Qing stepped through the nothingness and walked slowly to his front.
…Looking at him again.
“Fellow Daoist Jiang,” he said, “we both know that acting here is meaningless. You can’t kill me, and I can’t kill you. If you’re truly bored, the Gate of Life and Death is ahead. You can take the opportunity before the array breaks to enter the Gate of Life and find the next illusion. Since Qu Wendao failed you, go find him in person.”
Jiang Qing shook his head slightly, saying with a smile: “What would I find him for?”
“People like to find a heartless person to interrogate because they are unwilling in their hearts and filled with confusion. But I have the upper hand now, and I have no obsession.”
“If there’s any regret, it’s not that there isn’t one—he died too early to see that in the end, I was still one move ahead of him.”
As he spoke, he took another step toward An Wuxue.
With a “swoosh.”
An Wuxue held Chunhua in a reverse grip, the blade standing between him and Jiang Qing.
Jiang Qing had no choice but to stop, sighing: “I wouldn’t act at a time like this anyway. Ah, Head Disciple, did Qu Wendao ever tell you… that you are actually very much like the him of the past?”
An Wuxue was stunned.
Master and him…?
What a joke.
“You find it absurd, don’t you?” Jiang Qing had already seen what he was thinking. “Because you have never seen the him of the past.”
The him of the past.
The Qu Wendao of the past.
The youthful genius of the Path of Floating Life, who was born standing at the top of the cultivation world and never understood what a bottleneck was.
The realm that the cultivators of the two worlds spent their entire lives unable to reach was effortless for him.
He would practice swordplay on the shore of the Underworld Sea day and night, and was willing to wait lonely beside the Wintersweet Cliff for the flowers to bloom.
He would also be at a loss to the point of his cheeks turning red when kissed by the demon cultivator who accompanied him.
“Qu Nanhe is my lifelong enemy, but I do indeed miss Qu Wendao. I used to love it when you touched Chunhua because I could always see the him of the past.”
An Wuxue’s hand holding the sword didn’t move, blocking the path between him and Jiang Qing, ready to act.
Jiang Qing gazed at Chunhua and said, “That Junior Brother of yours, the little Immortal Venerable Xie, is different. He really is like Qu Nanhe, cold and ruthless, undisturbed by anything. I hate him very much.
“But I found something interesting—you always think it was you who lost your way first, you feel it was you who first moved for your Junior Brother and delayed his future. But every time I perceived your and your Junior Brother’s matters through Chunhua, I saw it clearly: he was the one in control.
“Such an interesting thing, yet you were entirely unaware. Ah, you really are like the Qu Wendao of the past. I truly couldn’t help myself,” Jiang Qing tilted his head, looking at him with raised eyebrows. “When I was hiding my identity and first met Suxue, I sometimes imitated the way Xie Zhefeng used to be with you, wanting to see your reaction and also wanting to make you let down your guard…”
An Wuxue’s gaze suddenly turned cold.
“…What a pity, I was still suspected by you.”
This void space suddenly began to shake.
—The Leaf-Watching Array was about to break and could no longer be maintained!
In an instant, Chunhua struck forward fiercely!
Jiang Qing retreated.
Amid the shattering, An Wuxue said in a deep voice: “Everyone in this world is different; no one is like anyone else. I would soften my heart because of what my Junior Brother does because it is my Junior Brother, not because of what he did.”
The Leaf-Watching Array completely collapsed.
The ethereal song of the Snow Demon reached his ears.
Jiang Qing raised his sword to block Chunhua’s sword intent. Spiritual power collided, and the wind and snow struck their faces, being sent in all directions by the spiritual power.
An Wuxue retreated several steps, and someone caught him from behind.
“Senior Brother.” Xie Zhefeng’s voice was exceptionally raspy.
His sword bone and demon bone were in conflict, his whole body in intense pain, his soul suffering as if being torn apart, and his robes were full of cuts from the frost and snow turned into blades.
But he didn’t ask if he had found a thread of life; seeing An Wuxue being sent flying by the spiritual power from his clash with Jiang Qing, he only cared about catching his Senior Brother gently.
The two landed on a piece of floating ice.
Jiang Qing landed as well.
“Since even Qu Nanhe is helpless,” the man said leisurely, “then, Head Disciple, you should make your choice, right?”
“I have indeed made my decision. Master didn’t have a method for bone extraction, but from what he said, I saw another path.”
Jiang Qing was stunned.
Not far away was the shore of the Guixu Sea, the boundary of Langfeng City.
Xie Zhefeng had blocked Rong Ji for a long time and had no further room to retreat.
The heavy snow had lasted for two days across the world, the sky was gloomy, and the sun was not visible.
Rong Ji was manifest in the wind and snow, singing gently.
“Boom—”
The sound of a muffled thunder suddenly came.
Jiang Qing showed shock.
Xie Zhefeng’s expression changed abruptly, and much of the muddled state of his eyes was startled away by this muffled thunder—he knew what this was better than anyone present!
He hurriedly looked up, only to see tribulation clouds instantly accumulating right above him and An Wuxue.
He had already ascended.
Then these tribulation clouds were…
“Senior Brother…!?”
An Wuxue had triggered the ascension lightning tribulation!
The path to ascension for immortal cultivators was severed. Triggering the lightning tribulation at this time was no different from seeking death!!