Chapter 28#
As expected!
Xie Zhefeng was not that easy to fool.
During the trip to the Yunjian Sect, there were too many suspicious points.
Previously, when Xie Zhefeng was questioning him, Qin Wei had suddenly arrived, and Xie Zhefeng had not asked anything further.
On the way back to Zhaoshui City, neither of them spoke, making him somewhat unsure of what Xie Zhefeng was thinking. Now that the man had asked, he finally let go of his lingering heart.
He knew well that if he were truly a mortal who had become Immortal Venerable Chuhan’s furnace by chance—let alone a mortal, even a cultivator with decent talent would be overwhelmed by the favor, especially since Xie Zhefeng was even more lenient toward Su Xue than toward others.
And just now, when Qin Wei was saying those things, in his capacity, he should have been either surprised and at a loss, or terrified and afraid to listen; his reaction should definitely not have been no reaction at all.
He clearly knew what the best move for self-preservation was.
Playing the part of the obedient and submissive one, acting out the reaction a mortal should have—it wasn’t that he couldn’t learn it.
But he was unwilling.
He would rather risk leaving many suspicious points than use Su Xue’s face, which looked ninety percent like his previous life, to once again act as if he were swayed by Xie Zhefeng’s every word and action.
Through two lives of life and death, his skill in cultivating the Dao heart was, in the end, not quite there.
He stood by the door, lowering his eyes. Instead of answering, he turned the question around: “Just what is the Immortal Venerable suspecting me of?”
Xie Zhefeng was momentarily stunned.
He had been waiting for An Wuxue’s explanation, but he hadn’t expected An Wuxue to calmly throw the question back at him.
What was he suspecting?
If he suspected Su Xue had a problem, he was just a furnace at the Fasting stage; wouldn’t it be more foolproof to just kill him or hand him over to Qin Wei’s Silu Peak to be dealt with?
If there was no suspicion, then what answer did he want to know?
The Soul-Nurturing Tree Spirit had already been tested.
When he was fighting Yun Zhou, Su Xue had held the Soul-Nurturing Tree Spirit from beginning to end without any abnormality.
What else could he hope for?
Xie Zhefeng couldn’t find an answer and stood there silently, doing nothing.
An Wuxue waited for a while, and seeing no response, he knew he had made the right move.
Although he didn’t want to admit it, he had to—there was no one in this world who understood his junior brother better than he did.
He spoke again: “Since I was brought here by Yun Zhou, it’s only natural for the Immortal Venerable to doubt me. But the various events in the Yunjian Sect were seen by the Immortal Venerable together with me. Where I came from and why I was taken to Luoyue Peak by Yun Zhou are crystal clear in Yun Yao’s memory. As for the rest…”
“There are many living beings in the two realms, each different from the next. Is it truly necessary to explain if even a bit of my words or actions doesn’t conform to what the Immortal Venerable expects?”
“I’ve already said it: if the Immortal Venerable truly doubts me, just search my soul. I can’t say anything anyway.”
As he spoke, he even found it a bit amusing. “Or is it that the Immortal Venerable hopes for me to give some other answer?”
Xie Zhefeng remained silent.
The heart-demon far away on the Frost-Burial Sea was still causing trouble within his main body. Although he kept his consciousness in this incarnation, the voice of the heart-demon still couldn’t be dispersed or shrugged off.
Ever since the last trace of his senior brother’s remnant soul’s aura had vanished from the Thorny River, that heart-demon, which should have completely disappeared, had quietly revived.
In the Yunjian Sect, he had seen Yun Yao’s remnant soul dissipate with his own eyes and the Soul-Nurturing Tree Spirit prove useless. The hope of several hundred years had turned into an unreachable mirage in an instant, and the heart-demon seemed to have been nourished, becoming even more arrogant in his soul’s consciousness.
Thousands of words had been in his ears constantly, heard by no one but himself, listening to that “Senior Brother” over and over again.
His consciousness-sea was shaking.
He was dazed for a moment.
The figure before him overlapped with the one in his memory.
An Wuxue’s brows twitched slightly—he felt the look in the other man’s eyes change as they landed on him.
He rarely looked up, staring straight into those eyes as dark as ink.
He walked forward step by step, coming to his junior brother’s side.
“Who is the Immortal Venerable looking at… through me?”
A few simple words, like a sharp sword piercing through Xie Zhefeng’s vital point. He actually seemed as if he had been exposed, immediately turning his head away.
“Since you’ve heard it all so clearly,” he said in a suppressed voice, one word at a time, “why ask?”
An Wuxue gave a soft laugh.
His goal now was to disturb Xie Zhefeng’s state of mind so that the man would stop prying.
He stood slightly on tiptoe, leaning close to Xie Zhefeng’s ear, and whispered in a tone like a murmur between intimate partners: “But the Immortal Venerable can never see him again.”
“No matter how much Su Xue resembles him, he is ultimately not him.”
Xie Zhefeng’s figure swayed.
He was clearly the one who had started the questioning, but in the end, he was also the one who was utterly defeated.
In his consciousness-sea, the heart-demon’s words fell like a torrential downpour.
“Senior… Brother…”
“You regret it. You regret it too late. You want to see him again. You even fantastically hope that a furnace at the Fasting stage from the mundane world is the senior brother who fell a thousand years ago.”
“What’s the difference between you and Yun Zhou? He deserved to die, so why are you still alive?”
“…Are you doing this to find Senior Brother back? But you can’t find him; he’s dead!!!”
“Stop deceiving yourself. Senior Brother’s remnant soul could hide from you for a thousand years even at the Thorny River. Even if he were alive, he wouldn’t want to see you! How could he possibly stay by your side?”
“…”
Xie Zhefeng’s fists gradually clenched.
His consciousness actually became somewhat blurred.
People came and went outside the inn, and the prosperity of Zhaoshui City never ceased, with the noise failing to penetrate the layers of room doors.
Inside the room, it was as silent as death.
An Wuxue couldn’t hear the stormy waves in Xie Zhefeng’s consciousness-sea, nor did he see Xie Zhefeng’s suddenly deep expression.
He turned away indifferently.
Just as he was about to open the door, the person behind him suddenly grabbed him and pulled him toward a corner.
“Immortal Venerable—!”
The man’s actions unconsciously carried spiritual power. An Wuxue was completely unable to break free, and in the blink of an eye, he was trapped in a small space.
He was suddenly startled.
“You—” He paused.
Xie Zhefeng held his shoulders, lowering his head slightly without a word. His eyes seemed dazed and muddled, not looking as if he were rational.
The other man stared fixedly at him, the force of his hands being extremely great. Grabbing his already injured shoulders made him both pained and fearful.
What did Xie Zhefeng want to do?
He struggled with all his might, but the man held him down firmly.
He called out urgently: “Xie Zhefeng!!”
This was the first time he had called the other by name.
Xie Zhefeng’s gaze seemed to tremble for a moment, and his eyes actually turned a bit red.
The man opened his mouth, and after a moment’s hesitation, he called softly: “Senior Brother…”
“I already told you I’m not—”
Before An Wuxue could finish, he saw the spiritual energy around the man fluctuate. His pupils grew even deeper, and a lotus sword mark slowly appeared between his brows.
The sword mark was linked to his main body, with only a faint layer revealed on his incarnation.
Faint wisps of black energy swirled around it, looking nothing like the pure and stainless image in his memory.
This was…
He even forgot the pain in his shoulders, staring blankly at the man’s close-at-hand face, murmuring, “Heart-demon…?”
This was the omen of a heart-demon’s flare-up.
In an instant, the strange aspects of Xie Zhefeng walking as an incarnation, the abnormality of never using his divine sense to fight, what Yun Wan had said, the “injury” Qin Wei mentioned… all the various wrong notes over the past few days were connected.
Xie Zhefeng had developed a heart-demon!???
Since when?
When did it start?
How was it born?
While he was in a daze, a look of ferocity flashed across Xie Zhefeng’s face, yet it also seemed to be forcibly suppressed by the man.
The man closed his eyes for a while and then opened them again, his gaze saturated with killing intent. When he blinked again, he looked like a lonely and aggrieved little beast, his eyes looking at him with soreness.
With the heart-demon flaring up, he was not in his right mind.
Xie Zhefeng had no idea what he was doing.
If the heart-demon were successfully suppressed, Xie Zhefeng would not remember what was happening now when he woke up.
If even the incarnation had flared up to such an extent, let alone the main body.
The man had likely been suppressing it since the Yunjian Sect, until he could no longer hold it back just now and it suddenly erupted.
Most of the people around here were mortals. Xie Zhefeng’s incarnation had the cultivation of the peak Tribulation stage; if he lost control…
Just as his heart was in his throat, Xie Zhefeng himself suddenly retreated a step, dazed as he performed a hand seal—actually using his last shred of reason to seal his own spiritual power!
An Wuxue let out a sigh of relief, yet a surge of anger rose in his heart.
If the man’s last shred of reason knew to seal his own spiritual power to prevent the heart-demon from causing chaos, then how had the heart-demon been bred in the first place?
Those plagued by heart-demons—let alone entering the Heartless Path—could not ascend to immortality even if they followed the Path of Mundane Life. Since Xie Zhefeng could ascend, this heart-demon was not from before his fall.
After his fall, as the only eternal immortal in the world and the Immortal Venerable Chuhan who ruled the two realms, anything he sought or expected was within his reach, and all living beings were at his disposal. Yet he had actually broken his Heartless Path, and the heart-demon was serious enough to limit his true body!?
Back then, he had so confidently told Yun Wan that there were millions of people in the world who could fall into demonhood, but Xie Zhefeng was the only one for whom it was impossible.
“Are you crazy, Xie Zhefeng?” he said heavily. “Do you know what the consequences would be if your heart-demon became known to those with ill intentions? What else are you dissatisfied with?”
The four seas and two realms finally had such peace and tranquility.
In his previous life, when Nan He fell, he left behind a final testament saying that Xie Zhefeng was an unprecedented sword-cultivation genius of Luoyue Peak. After the immortal disaster ended, only Xie Zhefeng had the best hope of ascending and cleansing heaven and earth. Although An Wuxue was born with a golden body and jade bones, his Dao heart and sword-cultivation were indeed not as good as Xie Zhefeng’s.
Therefore, he had exerted all his effort, preferring to swallow various bitter fruits himself, rather than risk affecting Xie Zhefeng’s Heartless Path in the slightest.
After the Dark Sea incident, since Xie Zhefeng had resolutely chosen his own path, he had been relieved despite his disappointment.
Even at the moment the Chuhan sword light pierced into his heart, he had not truly felt resentment.
As the Immortal Venerable, what Xie Zhefeng did was beyond reproach; he simply treated it as the path he himself had chosen and the cause he himself had sown.
But now…
He looked up, meeting the man’s gaze, which seemed anxious and uneasy under the influence of the heart-demon’s flare-up.
“…Is it because of me?” He gave a sardonic smile. “Then why didn’t you—”
He heard a hint of a sob in his own voice and quickly stopped speaking.
But his junior brother was even more aggrieved than he was, his eyes wet. He didn’t look at all like his usual cold-faced self carrying a sword; he was like an abandoned spiritual beast left in place, lost and helpless, pitiful and miserable.
When he was not in his right mind, he instead lost his reason and considerations. Directly treating “Su Xue” as An Wuxue, he said in a dazed and low voice, “Senior Brother… I’m sorry, I… I—”
His face showed pain, and he slowly lowered his head, leaning against An Wuxue’s other, uninjured shoulder. “I was wrong, I miss you so much…”
An Wuxue’s whole body stiffened.
He was in shock, and before he realized it, Xie Zhefeng was already gently holding him like a precious treasure, his head lowered, his forehead gently rubbing against his neck.
He hadn’t been this intimate with Xie Zhefeng for an unknown amount of time.
The man’s unique cold aura firmly surrounded him. His breathing halted, and even his bones and blood seemed frozen.
He shuddered and suddenly struggled, pushing Xie Zhefeng away with all his might.
With his spiritual power sealed, Xie Zhefeng was actually pushed back by him, knocking over the side table behind him.
An Wuxue did not hold back. As he waved his hand, his spiritual energy condensed into a thin blade, stabbing directly into Xie Zhefeng’s right arm. Blood stained his white robes, which hadn’t even become disheveled when fighting a Tribulation-stage cultivator.
An Wuxue hadn’t expected that he could truly injure Xie Zhefeng, and his movements paused.
But Xie Zhefeng only gave a muffled groan, appearing very puzzled as to why he was pushed away, and hurriedly grabbed his sleeve, saying helplessly, “Senior Brother, don’t be angry, I…”
An Wuxue instinctively took another step back.
But there was no way to retreat behind him. Beyond the wall, the bustle of the long streets of Zhaoshui City could be vaguely heard, making his heart as messy as a ball of yarn.
He looked away, his face cold as he performed a hand seal.
Chains condensed from spiritual energy extended from both sides of the bed frame, instantly binding Xie Zhefeng’s arms.
The chains bypassed the man’s injured arm and tightly constricted the wound. As Xie Zhefeng struggled, the wound tore open, and blood stained the bedding.
He seemed to be opening his mouth, yet also seemed to be murmuring to himself, his voice very light.
Watching his mouth shape, An Wuxue could only make out the two words “Senior Brother.”
If a third person were here, no one would be able to connect this man in blood-soaked white clothes with Immortal Venerable Chuhan.
An Wuxue was dazed.
He only felt a numbness in his chest, a feeling that could be called neither pain nor sourness.
Heart-demon.
It truly was ridiculous.
After the Dark Sea incident, even though he knew he had caused trouble, he still hoped for his junior brother’s reaction, but his junior brother hadn’t said a word. He knew that in his junior brother’s eyes, he couldn’t compare to the vast path to immortality, and he had never complained.
Now that he wanted nothing anymore, this man had developed a heart-demon because of him.
It was too ridiculous.
But why couldn’t he laugh out loud?
He leaned against the wall, lost in thought with a vacant gaze for a long time.
The daylight filtered through the paper window, flowing before his eyes.
He stared at that long stretch of sunlight, thinking of the silhouette of the man from a thousand years ago, hidden behind the wind and snow, never turning back.
“Since you never turned back…” he said extremely slowly, in a voice almost only he could hear, “you should have kept going and never looked back.”
He straightened his robes and turned to leave.
“Senior Brother,” the man called to him, struggling against the chains. “Don’t go… I miss you so much…”
“Don’t think about it anymore,” he said without looking back. “Just as you will forget everything now once you are awake, forget it all.”
He walked out of the guest room, closed the door, and placed a restriction on it.
The restriction isolated the sounds from inside the room, as if nothing had ever existed.
He leaned against the door in silence for a long while before turning to walk to the door of his own room.
He hadn’t even entered his room when he suddenly saw Qin Wei, who should have been clearing the turbid energy at the Yunjian Sect, coming up the stairs.
Their eyes met, and both were momentarily stunned.
Qin Wei was still not used to seeing Su Xue’s face. After looking with a complex gaze for a while, he withdrew his gaze, intending to bypass An Wuxue.
An Wuxue’s heart tightened.
Not good!
Looking at this posture, he was surely coming to find Xie Zhefeng.
But Xie Zhefeng had just been injured by him and was still tied up in the room…