Chapter 68#
In the phantoms of the past, the two of them appeared to have come to the sword array for a specific purpose.
As newcomers who had just been transported here by the Guan Ye Array, An Wuxue and Pei Qian had not yet fully integrated into the First City of this illusion. Consequently, Shangguan Liaoliao and Xie Zhefeng had not yet noticed them.
But it was already too late to avoid them!
An Wuxue frowned—not because of Xie Zhefeng, but because of Shangguan Liaoliao.
He truly did not want to face Shangguan Liaoliao as his past self.
Even within a mirage.
He said to Pei Qian, “Find a way to lead Shangguan Liaoliao away.”
To make other phantoms of the past realize everything was a lie required a great deal of effort.
But with Xie Zhefeng—no matter which Xie Zhefeng from whatever time or place—it shouldn’t be difficult.
Even if the current Xie Zhefeng claimed his Way of Heartless had been broken, a junior brother who could ascend to immortality through that path would always possess a bit more resilience against the world’s delusions.
Pei Qian was stunned. “You want to break this time period through the Immortal Venerable?”
“Yes. Just stall Shangguan Liaoliao. Take the opportunity to see if there’s anything strange elsewhere outside the sword array.”
With a worried look, Pei Qian whispered to him, “The reason the Guan Ye Array can trap people in the flow of time, aside from the chaotic timeline, is the connection between the person entering the array and their acquaintances in the past.”
“The connection between First Seat An and the Immortal Venerable…”
An Wuxue said helplessly, “You’ve certainly taken to that title, but I am not currently the First Seat of Falling Moon.”
“Just do what you need to do. Xie Zhefeng had his own reasons for bringing you into the North Abyss barrier; my affairs won’t involve you.”
Seeing Xie Zhefeng approaching, he spoke quickly, “And you can rest easy. Regarding Xie Zhefeng and me—I don’t know about him, but as for me, staying in the past is the very thing I’ve been trying to avoid.”
“Alright, but I have to remind you of one thing—the Guan Ye Array is just a phantom of the past; it won’t change history. However, if there happens to be an intersection with the intruder’s own past within the array, as long as the memory is strong enough, the intruder can feel what happened.”
“If anything happens between you and the Immortal Venerable before us, the real Immortal Venerable might find out.”
“I understand.”
Just as An Wuxue finished speaking, the voices of Xie Zhefeng and Shangguan Liaoliao reached his ears.
“Xie Chuhan, you’ve been in secluded cultivation for a full eight hundred years. As soon as you emerge, you start killing this person and investigating that one. And now you’ve come to the North Abyss Sword to look into the events of the past again.”
Xie Zhefeng said coldly, “Senior Brother’s killing of Shangguan Ran is suspicious.”
“I hoped so too at the time,” Shangguan Liaoliao’s voice was flat. “Regarding Ran-er’s death, An Wuxue said it was because he interfered with the sword array and had to be killed. Putting aside the fact that such a crime shouldn’t have cost Ran-er his life, the sword array was managed half by me and half by An Wuxue. What did it have to do with Ran-er? We couldn’t find any issues with the sword array back then. After eight hundred years, what could you possibly see—”
She stopped mid-sentence upon noticing people ahead.
Shangguan Liaoliao probed with her divine sense. She couldn’t see An Wuxue’s face, and since An Wuxue had long since been reborn with a completely different aura, she didn’t recognize him. She simply asked, “Who dares to trespass into the sword array?”
Xie Zhefeng stared fixedly at An Wuxue.
One moment he had been listening to Shangguan Liaoliao with a stern face; the next, his eyes turned bloodshot, and his hand trembled as he gripped the Chu Han sword.
Pei Qian didn’t waste a second. He stepped forward and bowed to Shangguan Liaoliao. “City Lord, I have observed a flaw in the sword array and have come to report it.”
“Pei Qian of the Qu family?” To think Shangguan Liaoliao already knew Pei Qian two hundred years ago.
She asked, “What is the flaw?”
“Could we speak in private?”
“Beside me is Immortal Venerable Chu Han. There is no need to hide worldly matters from him.”
Pei Qian had no choice but to say, “Actually, it’s not about the sword array, but a matter between the Qu family and me. I don’t wish…”
Shangguan Liaoliao went silent for a moment.
Hearing no reaction from Xie Zhefeng, she took it as his tacit consent. With a wave of her sleeve, she said to Pei Qian, “Follow me.”
The two of them instantly vanished from the sword array.
Only then did An Wuxue look closely at the Xie Zhefeng from two hundred years ago.
Two hundred years ago…
This was the man who had just emerged from seclusion after eradicating his inner demons?
This was the Xie Zhefeng from before his inner demons had resurfaced.
He heard the man’s trembling voice, calling out with extreme caution, “Senior Brother…?”
He didn’t answer but instead proactively walked toward Xie Zhefeng.
Xie Zhefeng stared at him the entire time. When he stopped, the man slowly raised his hand.
Startled, An Wuxue instinctively felt the other was about to attack. He began channeling spiritual energy into his fingers, ready to call forth Chun Hua!
But at his movement, Xie Zhefeng didn’t dare to move anymore.
The man’s hand stopped beside his cheek, as if he wanted to touch his face, but he didn’t follow through, not daring to advance even an inch.
The man hesitated for a long time, appearing as if he couldn’t believe what was before his eyes.
“Senior Brother… You… You’re still alive?” Xie Zhefeng was even becoming incoherent. “I came to the sword array to investigate the matter of Shangguan Ran. Senior Brother… Senior Brother is still willing to come find me… Senior Brother is alive… alive?”
“For the you of this time, your inner demons are gone, so what you see is real,” An Wuxue said indifferently. “I am not your hallucination.”
But you are a phantom of this place.
He didn’t say that last part.
He thought of how Xie Zhefeng had just been talking with Shangguan Liaoliao about the past…
He said as if to himself, “You came to investigate Shangguan Ran’s affair… You won’t find anything, because I really did frame him—he didn’t tamper with the sword array. I just couldn’t find any other explanation, so I could only say that.”
“The Immortal Venerable of two hundred years ago must have returned empty-handed, right?”
“…Senior Brother?”
“You came to North Abyss two hundred years ago to inquire about Shangguan Ran—so where were you when it happened?”
“After our dual cultivation at the Black Water Abyss, you returned to Falling Moon Peak alone, and I returned to the North Abyss sword array. After that, I killed Shangguan Ran. From the time I confessed and accepted my punishment until I came out of the Ancient Tower, I didn’t see you even once…”
Perhaps because the person before him was a phantom frozen two hundred years in the past rather than the real Xie Zhefeng he had to face now, he was unexpectedly less wary and anxious.
There were words he could say without burden or hesitation.
“Coming to investigate now… it’s too late,” he said to Xie Zhefeng.
This Xie Zhefeng within the two-hundred-year-old phantom seemed completely unable to understand An Wuxue’s words.
He was filled with shock, joy, sorrow, and confusion—a chaotic mix of emotions. He stood there in a daze for a long while before saying in a hoarse, pained voice, “Dual cultivation? What… what dual cultivation?”
An Wuxue fell silent.
In a thousand long years, this was the first time he had mentioned this matter in the torrent of time.
Xie Zhefeng didn’t even remember it.
“You’ve forgotten even that, yet you keep love on your lips,” he said helplessly. “Can you truly distinguish between guilt and regret versus love, hatred, and passion?”
“Forget it, why am I telling you this,” he felt he was wasting his time. “I should leave.”
Xie Zhefeng’s expression changed abruptly, becoming suddenly frantic. “Leave? Leave where? Senior Brother has returned alive, why are you suddenly leaving again?”
An Wuxue said, “Returned alive? You’re mistaken—the me of this time should only be a fragmented, lonely soul.”
He raised his eyes to meet the man’s gaze and softened his tone, as if he were guiding his junior brother through sword practice when they had first entered the sect. He said patiently, “Immortal Venerable, we are currently inside a great array. You are merely a phantom brought forth from the past by the array. I still need to regroup with the real you. Let this mirage of the past dissipate.”
He thought that saying this would be enough.
But the surroundings didn’t change at all. Instead, Xie Zhefeng’s expression shifted violently, his eyes filled with despair and urgency.
“What is Senior Brother saying? Do you hate me? Are you lying to me because you don’t want to deal with me? I finally…” There seemed to be a sob in his voice. “I finally saw Senior Brother again, how could it be a delusion?”
An Wuxue was stunned.
After all, Xie Zhefeng was in the Immortal Realm. No matter how profound the Guan Ye Array was, it couldn’t perfectly encapsulate the past Xie Zhefeng.
The one before him didn’t even possess half of the real Xie Zhefeng’s personality; it was a fake that someone familiar could recognize at a glance.
But such a fake couldn’t break free from the false illusion!?
He had only hesitated for a few moments when Xie Zhefeng, gripped by terror, stepped forward. He almost embraced him but didn’t dare to move—as if afraid that a single touch would truly make him vanish.
“Senior Brother, A-Xue—”
“Don’t call me that!”
He took a step back, took a deep breath, and summoned Chun Hua to hang between him and Xie Zhefeng. He said through gritted teeth, “Look closely, is this not Chun Hua? Two hundred years ago, in your ’now,’ is Chun Hua not sealed away by you above the Frost Sea? Unless there are two Chun Huas in this world, how do you explain this?”
Xie Zhefeng shook his head violently. “I don’t believe it. The mountain-protecting array of Falling Moon Peak has never removed the aura of your divine soul, and the killing array above the Frost Sea specifically does not guard against you. Senior Brother must have gone to retrieve Chun Hua first before coming to see me…”
An Wuxue was slightly surprised.
He only just learned of what Xie Zhefeng had said.
No wonder… no wonder he had gone up to the Frost Sea so smoothly, only alerting Xie Zhefeng when he encountered Chun Hua. No wonder no one noticed when he stole the Soul Bell.
He was only silent for a moment, but Xie Zhefeng took it as a sign he was right. He said quickly, “Senior Brother really is angry with me. It’s all my fault… If you hate me or loathe me, you can get revenge, torture me, or kill me, anything is fine, just don’t leave—”
“You always say that.”
An Wuxue interrupted him.
Xie Zhefeng’s expression turned blank for an instant.
“I cannot kill you in reality,” An Wuxue said clearly. “Can I not even do it here?”
Xie Zhefeng didn’t understand his words but looked delighted. He grabbed Chun Hua’s blade with his bare hands and pointed the tip at his own heart.
The sharp blade instantly cut Xie Zhefeng’s palm, and blood slid down from the tip of Chun Hua.
“I have taken the wrong path and caused Senior Brother’s death. If Senior Brother is willing to kill me for revenge, it is my good fortune.”
Just then.
Pei Qian flew back from outside the sword array, shouting, “I can’t hold her off!! City Lord Shangguan is far too clever!!!”
Behind him, Shangguan Liaoliao pursued closely, her sword energy already unleashed and heading straight for Pei Qian.
She asked Pei Qian, “How did you get the cultivation of the late Tribulation-Transcending stage? Why exactly did you lead me away?”
The sword energy reached Pei Qian’s back in the blink of an eye. Pei Qian had to turn around and defend with all his might.
But his late-stage Tribulation-Transcending cultivation was completely overwhelmed by Shangguan Liaoliao’s strike. His spiritual energy dissipated, and he was sent flying, coughing up a mouthful of blood as he hit the ground.
But Shangguan Liaoliao stopped of her own accord.
She abruptly withdrew her sword, looking startled. “The aura of Chun Hua… who is using Chun Hua?”
Pei Qian shouted, “I can’t beat City Lord Shangguan! Has the situation not been resolved yet?”
With a sharp shink.
Sword energy pierced the air as the blade entered flesh.
Blood stained Xie Zhefeng’s white robes red.
Both Shangguan Liaoliao and Pei Qian were stunned.
An Wuxue held Chun Hua, pouring spiritual energy into the blade, and pierced through Xie Zhefeng’s chest!
He killed Xie Zhefeng.
He himself was stunned for a moment.
He hadn’t expected the strike to be so smooth.
Xie Zhefeng really hadn’t resisted.
The man’s hands still gripped the blade of Chun Hua, which had already pierced more than halfway through his chest. His palms had been sliced open by the blade, and the blood from his hands and chest mingled together.
His eyes were wet, his rims slightly red, as a heart-piercing pain radiated from his chest.
Yet Xie Zhefeng smiled.
When he opened his mouth, blood poured from his throat, and he choked several times.
An Wuxue heard Xie Zhefeng’s intermittent words, weakened by his state: “Senior Brother… are you… are you happy to be… willing to pierce my heart with Chun Hua?”
He slightly bowed his head, shifted his gaze, and lowered his eyes, pulling out Chun Hua without hesitation.
Blood sprayed out, staining his clothes.
He said, “You’ve misunderstood.”
Xie Zhefeng was slightly taken aback.
Around the sword array, the world began to blur.
Everything was collapsing.
An Wuxue had killed the person within the array; this time, the Life Gate was actually broken by the “impossible” method of brute force.
Amidst the collapsing world, he said softly, “I entered the Guan Ye Array to find the truth behind the North Abyss catastrophe and to save the mortals and cultivators of the First City.”
“I have no love or hatred for you. Killing you was only for the sake of the two realms.”
The collapse had already overtaken Shangguan Liaoliao as she was about to speak; An Wuxue couldn’t hear what she wanted to say.
He only saw Xie Zhefeng’s ashen, lifeless expression and those eyes, so pained that only despair remained.
The Life and Death Gates materialized before them once again.