Chapter 34#
The moment the array was fully formed, Lou Shuiming’s body and bones vanished without a trace.
An Wuxue gripped Chunhua tightly, motionless.
He thought he would be sad, perhaps even cry for the first time in a long while. But he looked down, saw Lou Shuiming’s blood staining his robes, and felt only emptiness in his heart.
He remembered that outside Lou Shuiming’s bedroom in the City Lord’s Mansion, there was a spiritual tree a hundred years old. Ten years ago, he had buried several jars of immortal wine he had personally brewed under that tree.
Although he disliked the feeling of intoxication, Qin Wei loved wine, and Lou Shuiming also often enjoyed a small drink. Waiting for their success, he would dig out the immortal wine, bring Qin Wei along, and together with Lou Shuiming and his wife, the four of them would sit around a brazier and drink it all.
By then, Zhaoshui City should have been unafraid of turbid energy under the protection of the Zhaoshui Sword Array. Amidst the myriad lights of the city, lighting a brazier and warming a few jars of wine would be a simple matter.
Now…
Now.
After the array was completed, the barrier dissipated, and he heard Qin Wei’s voice rushing to his side.
Qin Wei shook his shoulders: “What’s going on!? Why did Shuiming commit suicide? Did you just watch!???”
A barrage of questions.
And Lou Shuiming’s disciples also rushed to him, asking questions.
An Wuxue didn’t know which one to answer.
He could only say, “…An unexpected incident occurred during the array formation. There was a shortage of spiritual energy needed for the array, and Shuiming sacrificed himself to the array.”
Qin Wei’s grip on his hand loosened, and he stumbled back a few steps, only saying, “Why? A shortage of spiritual energy? Why would there be a shortage of spiritual energy?”
The reasons involved the promise he had made to Lou Shuiming.
He couldn’t answer.
But as the one who survived, he said nothing about the cause of the spiritual energy deficit in the array, nor could he explain where the missing spiritual energy had gone. In the eyes of outsiders, this was a sign of guilt.
Lou Shuiming’s disciples also came to ask him, the disciples of Luoyue Peak were also very puzzled, and the cultivators of Zhaoshui City insisted on an explanation…
He could only remain silent.
Back at Luoyue, Qin Wei sent the child to the Luoyue Blessed Land for sealing and recuperation. He didn’t even get a clear look at the jade plaque engraved with the child’s name.
He wanted to find Qin Wei, but the only response he got was the question, “Why was it him who sacrificed himself and not you?”
Qi Xun heard about it and came to see him, bringing his favorite ice cream.
He was about to speak when Qi Xun raised a hand to stop him: “About Zhaoshui, if you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t.”
Qi Xun played with his folding fan, as if casually saying, “That Qin Wei has been like this since he was a child. Whether he’s right or wrong, that scoundrel always goes all the way, never turning back until he hits a wall. Let’s not bother with him!”
He ate his ice cream bite by bite, listening to Qi Xun’s rambling.
At that time, Qi Xun would also say to him, “Ah Xue, anyway, I believe you.”
After he sent Qi Xun away, on his way back to his cave dwelling, he saw many cultivators from sects near Zhaoshui City.
They were bruised and battered.
He sent someone to inquire briefly and learned that these people had come to Xie Zhefeng for an explanation about Lou Shuiming’s sacrifice to the sword. But his junior brother, with a cold face, said nothing, drew his Chuhan Sword, and directly swept them out of the Frost-Burial Sea.
He hurried to the Frost Sea and rang the soul bell outside his junior brother’s cave dwelling.
The young Immortal Venerable walked out slowly: “Senior Brother?”
“Don’t do that again next time.”
Xie Zhefeng was startled: “Is Senior Brother referring to today’s events?”
“Junior Brother has just ascended to the throne. Although the two realms respect you as their sovereign because of your highest cultivation, they will always feel that your prestige is insufficient behind your back.” He instructed his junior brother as he always did, “Since you are in a high position, there must be a reason for every action, and a justification for every sword drawn. Be impartial and do not show favoritism.”
Moreover, this matter was his own choice to bear; why drag his junior brother and Luoyue into it?
His junior brother’s face was cold. After a long silence, he neither agreed nor disagreed.
He should have learned.
After all, that phrase “be impartial and do not show favoritism” ultimately applied to himself.
After that, the Zhaoshui Sword was completed, and Luoyue contacted Langfeng City by the Guixu Sea to the west, beginning to plan for the dropping of the second sword.
He returned to Zhaoshui City alone, secretly dug out those jars of fine wine from the City Lord’s Mansion, and came to the Zhaoshui Sword.
He didn’t like drinking.
He needed to be sober too often, so he didn’t like to touch such things.
But that day, he took a sip, poured a cup toward Luoyue Peak in the distant south, poured another cup toward the Zhaoshui Sword, and then drank another cup himself, repeating this cycle, drinking alone.
He got a little drunk and happened to run into Lou Shuiming’s disciples coming to pay their respects.
The other party somewhat reluctantly called out, “Chief An.”
He thought in a daze that they didn’t seem to welcome him.
So he left.
From then on, he never set foot in that place where he had spent more than ten years.
His memories of Zhaoshui City forever remained in those more than ten years of fighting with demonic cultivators, with white bones covering the roads and daily battles.
It wasn’t until he woke up in Su Xue’s body and went to the Yunjian Sect with Xie Zhefeng to investigate the extermination that he set foot in Zhaoshui City again after a thousand years.
Flower floats and bright lanterns, what a lively scene.
When Song Wu was suppressed back then, Xie Zhefeng had not yet ascended to immortality, and the Four Seas Ten Thousand Sword Array had only just begun to take shape. He couldn’t guarantee that he could kill Song Wu after opening the sword mound without affecting the array.
If he hadn’t fallen back then, he should have informed Xie Zhefeng after his ascension, letting his junior brother handle the matter.
But there were simply too many things that he hadn’t had time to inform him about back then.
He had thought that this visit to Zhaoshui was merely an accidental detour.
Even though Tribulation-stage cultivators have longer lifespans than ordinary cultivators, they are not eternal immortals. Even if no one remembered that a great demon was suppressed under the Zhaoshui Sword, as long as thousands of years passed peacefully, Song Wu would eventually rest forever in the sword mound.
So he simply pretended to forget.
He never thought it would still come to this.
Before his eyes.
Song Wu’s soul emerged within the sword array, her red robes swaying, surrounded by countless sword shadows, and turbid energy pulsed like raging fire.
The Zhaoshui Sword Array trembled as it had when it was first established over a thousand years ago.
An Wuxue used the nearly dried-up spiritual energy in Su Xue’s body, propped himself with his sword, and extended his divine sense to probe the situation of several array hearts.
Qin Wei was still staring blankly at Song Wu.
Spiritual energy dispersed around him, and his natal sword hovered before him, spinning incessantly, mirroring his current state of mind.
He turned his head again to look at An Wuxue, his voice trembling even more: “Why…? Why would it be…?”
An Wuxue did not answer.
He had already made Qin Wei send Song Buwang away and had informed Qin Wei about the Great Demon half a step into immortality. At this moment, he only wanted to find the array hearts that had been breached by turbid energy and re-stabilize the sword array.
The question “why” he had imagined answering many, many times in his heart back then, but now he no longer wanted to answer it.
There was no need to answer it either.
His heart no longer felt pain.
He only wanted to resolve the crisis in Zhaoshui.
But Qin Wei was unwilling to let it go, asking in a raspy voice, no longer as aggressive as before: “So you lied to me and the world when you said Lady Lou fought to the death against demonic cultivators and fell?”
“…”
“She fell into demonhood, and that’s why you made me send Buwang away?”
“…”
“Then Shuiming and when the sword array lacked spiritual energy back then…”
An Wuxue ignored his string of questions. Qin Wei paused: “An—Ah Xue…?”
Nearby.
Song Wu stopped.
She seemed somewhat unfamiliar with Zhaoshui a thousand years later, gazing at the distant houses. Her eyes, once filled with proud agility, now held only bottomless black, brimming with confusion.
She suddenly burst into laughter.
“Peak Master Qin? Chief An?”
She didn’t know that a thousand years had passed, that Qin Wei was now an Elder of Luoyue, and that An Wuxue had fallen a thousand years ago. Instead, she directly mistook Su Xue for An Wuxue, accidentally calling out the right person.
“The Chief was once so spirited and exceptionally talented. I thought you would be an Immortal Lord by now. Why has your cultivation fallen so drastically, not even reaching the Minor Success stage?”
“So you also have your moments of being a tiger fallen into a flat land?”
An Wuxue’s expression remained unchanged, his gaze deep and restrained.
When Song Wu was suppressed back then, she had already cultivated with turbid energy and fallen into demonhood, plagued by a heart-demon, half-dazed and half-mad.
She was no longer the Song Wu he and Qin Wei had known.
Whatever he said was useless.
Song Wu didn’t get his response and gave another light laugh, waving her sleeve.
Sword light flashed suddenly!
That was sword light from the sword mound, now controlled by turbid energy, heading straight for An Wuxue and Qin Wei!
Qin Wei immediately came back to his senses, acted decisively, performed a spiritual incantation, and with a twist of his sword, met Song Wu’s attack.
Turbid energy collided with spiritual energy, creating a gust of fierce wind.
The spiritual sword in An Wuxue’s hand finally couldn’t bear the burden and shattered into pieces.
He was pushed back and had already prepared for injury.
But the familiar pain he expected did not come.
The immense spiritual power of a peak Tribulation-stage cultivator landed behind him at this moment, steadily supporting him.
That spiritual power surrounded him, blocking the flying sand and the fierce wind.
He was startled, looked toward the source of the spiritual power, and met Qin Wei’s gaze.
He looked puzzled.
Qin Wei hurriedly looked away and met Song Wu’s attack again.
One of them was constrained by the array, fearing to affect the sword array and not daring to act freely. The other’s main body was still suppressed under the Zhaoshui Sword, only able to rely on her soul outside to manipulate turbid energy and twist the array.
This kind of exchange, surprisingly, was temporarily back and forth.
The barrier Qin Wei had set up earlier had timely netted the turbid energy, and there was no danger outside the Zhaoshui Sword Array.
To the southeast of the sword array, Song Buwang looked at the array patterns, which showed no problems, with a blank expression.
He muttered to himself, “There’s nothing wrong here. Why did Master make me come over…”
He listened to the sounds of the battle in the center of the sword array. For some reason, his heart felt empty, as if something was pulling at it, but he couldn’t find the source.
In the center of the sword array.
After An Wuxue stood up, he said hastily, “Thank you, Elder Qin, for your help.”
“You—”
He had no time to consider what Qin Wei was thinking. His divine sense had already swept through all the array patterns, and he understood where the sword array had been tampered with.
He shouted, “Elder Qin, the Zhaoshui Sword Array is complex and vast, with three array hearts. I just probed with my divine sense and found that the person who secretly sent the Yunjian Sect’s turbid energy to Zhaoshui City used turbid energy to open two of the array hearts, sending turbid energy into the sword mound, which gave her the opportunity to break the seal!”
He threw out two spiritual incantations, landing them on the array heart positions.
“It’s these two places. Just cut off the turbid energy, and the sword array can be re-stabilized.”
Qin Wei understood and immediately appeared beside the nearest array heart.
He wanted to cut off the source of turbid energy here!
If successful, the sword array would be stable, and Song Wu would once again be sealed away.
But she ignored this.
Her expression suddenly went blank. She stared at An Wuxue and asked him, “I’ve been out for so long… where is he?”
An Wuxue was startled.
He hadn’t spoken to Song Wu for a long time, and his last memory of her was holding the sleeping infant. He didn’t know what her intention was now.
He had once thought about Song Wu’s pitiful situation.
But there were too many pitiful people in the vast two realms. He had seen too many, and eventually, he himself became the pitiful person others spoke of. So now he didn’t know whether he should pity her or not.
No matter how intelligent and kind the Lady Lou had once been, she had almost caused the sword array to fail back then, and now she could only be a great demon suppressed under the Zhaoshui Sword for a thousand years.
Qin Wei was fully focused on repairing the array. If he could stall Song Wu, it would always be good.
He asked, “Who?”
“Ha, who else could it be? Where is Lou Shuiming?”
An Wuxue’s heart felt as if it had been scraped by a sharp blade.
He blinked, clearing the dryness from his eyes, and then said, “Dead.”
“…Dead?”
Her eyes darted around. Her soul, tormented by the heart-demon for a thousand years and muddled, seemed unable to comprehend the meaning of these words.
She asked again, “Where is Wushang?”
An Wuxue remained silent.
Wushang had died young at the age of eight, and Song Wu had witnessed it herself.
Perhaps she meant to ask about Song Buwang.
But she was already mad, even confusing her two children.
He still said, “Also dead.”
Song Wu’s expression stiffened.
She was stunned for a long time.
She had been sealed in the sword mound for too long. A thousand years was not a short time for a cultivator in the mundane world, let alone being trapped in a small space, unable to die or live?
The heart-demon had almost completely taken over her sanity. She had thought of Lou Shuiming, Lou Wushang, and her second child countless times. Later, she gradually couldn’t remember clearly, only remembering that she seemed to have a well-behaved child, but didn’t know if he had grown up.
She had even been bored enough to imagine how that child would experience the world over these thousand years. Would he be raised by Lou Shuiming and become a dashing young man? Or a dissolute young fop?
That was almost her only hope during the thousand years she had been demonized and suppressed.
But An Wuxue told her, “Dead.”
Such light words.
Song Wu suddenly shook her head: “No, how could that be…”
An Wuxue stared intently at her every move.
He was actually referring to Lou Wushang, but Song Wu seemed to think Song Buwang was also dead.
What he needed now was to disturb her mind, to buy Qin Wei time to repair the array. He simply went along with the misunderstanding and said, “Why wouldn’t it be?”
Song Wu suddenly paused and looked at him.
He said slowly, one word at a time, “When the Zhaoshui Sword Array was in turmoil back then, the city was in chaos, and that child died in the confusion.”
Song Wu listened to these words with difficulty, her soul rooted to the spot, not moving.
Qin Wei was about to repair that array heart. Song Wu suddenly let out a shriek, and her soul instantly appeared before An Wuxue!
The spiritual energy Qin Wei had left to protect An Wuxue was instantly scattered. An Wuxue’s alarm bells rang loudly. He performed a hand seal with his bare hands, extended his divine sense, and met Song Wu’s attack!
Song Wu was a soul, and when two souls fought, he should not have been at a disadvantage. But Su Xue’s body was too weak to withstand a soul attack.
He rolled backward violently.
The next instant, Song Wu’s slender hand had already gripped his neck!
Qin Wei’s hand, which was supporting the sword array, trembled, and he exclaimed, “Ah Xue!”
An Wuxue feared Qin Wei would let go and come over, so he said urgently, “The array! Cough—!”
Song Wu tightened her grip slightly and asked him again, “You lied to me!! Where is Lou Shuiming? Where are my children?”
“Dead,” he said. “All dead.”
These words drained all his strength.
He was fighting a Tribulation-stage soul battle with a Fasting-stage body. His bones and blood felt as if they were being torn apart, his meridians were empty, and his whole body ached.
His vision blurred, and his hands clenched, poised to strike when Song Wu was off guard.
Qin Wei inserted his natal sword into the array heart, spiritual energy surged, instantly cutting off the turbid energy there!
Song Wu’s soul wavered, and her power greatly diminished.
The Zhaoshui Sword suddenly shook more violently.
She had to release An Wuxue, stirring the surrounding turbid and spiritual energy. The surging turbid energy wildly impacted the barrier covering the area—it was about to break through the barrier!
An Wuxue’s heart tightened, and he was about to risk everything to connect with the array with his soul and recast the barrier.
The giant Zhaoshui Sword hummed again.
The barrier trembled slightly, then suddenly solidified much more, firmly containing all the chaos within the sword array.
Beneath the giant sword, a figure in plain gray robes slowly walked over.
The figure was faint, clearly not a living person.
An Wuxue and Qin Wei both looked stunned.
Song Wu turned around, looked at the figure, and was also startled.
She gave a tragic laugh: “…You really are dead.”
She seemed to suddenly lose all her strength, no longer attacking, staring blankly at the figure in plain clothes as if lost.
That was Lou Shuiming’s remnant soul.
He had committed suicide under the Zhaoshui Sword, sacrificing himself to the array. His body and bones were gone, and his soul was extinguished.
Only his last wisp of remnant soul, due to an unyielding obsession, had remained within the Zhaoshui Sword for a thousand years. Only now, as one of the array masters, could he manipulate the array patterns to block the overwhelming turbid energy.
He walked before Song Wu.
He said, “It was my fault. I am sorry to you, and I am sorry to Zhaoshui. Both publicly and privately, I am guilty of ten thousand deaths.”
These words implied too many unknown things. Qin Wei’s eyes widened, and he suddenly looked at An Wuxue.
He watched as Lou Shuiming’s remnant soul finished speaking to Song Wu, then slowly knelt toward the direction of “Su Xue.”
Lou Shuiming, like Song Wu, did not know that An Wuxue had fallen a thousand years ago. Instead, he directly mistook Su Xue for An Wuxue.
An Wuxue’s lips were tightly pressed, his Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. After a moment of silence, he opened his mouth and said in a low voice, “You don’t have to…”
You don’t have to kneel to me.
He had already received two kowtows from Lou Shuiming: once now, and once a thousand years ago during the array sacrifice.
He didn’t want to accept either kowtow.
“Back then, Junior Sister cultivated with turbid energy and fell into demonhood, stealing the spiritual power of the sword array to clear Wushang’s dead meridians. For my own selfish reasons, I pleaded with the Chief to promise to conceal the matter within the array. For a thousand years thereafter, my remnant soul was sealed within the Zhaoshui Sword. I regretted my request. I did not wish to return to heaven and earth because I wanted to see the Chief again and retract my words from back then.”
“But the Chief never returned to the Zhaoshui Sword.”
So his remnant soul was trapped within the giant sword, unable to dissipate, unable to see daylight, waiting bitterly for a thousand years.
“What Shuiming owed Zhaoshui, he repaid with his life. What he owed Junior Sister, he repaid with his life. Only what he owed the Chief is unrepayable.”
Qin Wei’s hand gripping his sword turned white from the force.
Lou Shuiming’s remnant soul spoke only a few words, yet it seemed to stir up stormy waves beneath a thousand years of still water.
He felt his eyes sting terribly. He blinked rapidly, but even his nose began to ache.
He had always believed that seeing was believing.
Even if Xie Zhefeng and Qi Xun both thought there was another truth to what happened back then, he still felt that he had experienced and witnessed it himself, and there was no partiality.
But a thousand years of firm belief could not withstand the truth revealed in a few words.
Back then, when he heard others slander An Wuxue, when he heard cultivators from various sects say that the Chief of Luoyue Peak was arbitrary and had too much killing karma, he would still draw his sword, point its tip at those who spoke falsely, and sternly rebuke them: “Ah Xue is planning for the two realms.”
At that time, he had never needed Ah Xue to explain to him and had believed that whatever Ah Xue did had a purpose.
Later…
How did it turn out like this later?