Chapter 7#

“In recent years, the Immortal Venerable has actually clarified some of the charges that were wrongfully placed on the Chief’s shoulders during the chaos back then, but those are small matters after all…”

The disciple could only see An Wuxue’s slightly lowered profile and couldn’t see his expression, assuming he was frightened.

“You don’t need to worry too much. This matter is currently only being gossiped about by some people who don’t know the full story. Many elders and seniors in the sect have a vague attitude toward this matter.

Entering the demonic path and exterminating a sect—there is no evidence for these two things, so what use are those trivial matters?

As for other things…

Perhaps those were just the ‘justice’ Xie Zefeng meted out in passing after coming out of seclusion.”

The disciple continued, “Moreover, the Immortal Venerable is clear about rewards and punishments; he is not a moody person. Only once…”

An Wuxue watched the crushed frost flower melt into icy water, mixing with the blood on his palm.

He wanted to see the wound on his palm clearly, but after staring for a moment, he found his vision a bit blurry.

He blinked: “What happened?”

“Only once, it was related to Elder Qin Wei.” The disciple paused, “I forgot, you don’t know Elder Qin. Elder Qin is of the same generation as the Immortal Venerable and that Chief, and is one of the top experts in the sect.”

“Elder Qin once publicly demanded that the Immortal Venerable remove that Chief’s name from the Luoyue Peak disciple records. The Cold Sword point was aimed directly at Elder Qin’s brow, nearly severing his foundation. Elder Qin seems to still be in seclusion recovering from his injuries. Since then, no one has mentioned this matter again.”

Qin Wei.

It was a familiar name.

Qin Wei was in charge of Silu Peak among the various peaks of Luoyue. All disciples who violated regulations in Luoyue Peak had to pass through his hands.

He and Qin Wei had known each other since childhood and had once fought side by side to carry out orders to exorcise demons.

Before Nanhe’s demise, he and Xie Zefeng only had to fulfill their duties as disciples, occasionally leaving the mountains to eliminate demons.

If there was nothing to do, he would take Qi Xun to Silu Peak to find Qin Wei.

Qin Wei knew nothing about formations. Qi Xun loved to play, and since the Lihuo Sect excelled at refining tools and setting up formations, Qi Xun would often hide small, playful formations in front of Qin Wei’s cave mansion.

When An Wuxue rang the soul-bell to call Qin Wei out, Qi Xun would activate the spiritual formation, and Qin Wei would often be tripped and fall to the ground.

Once the formation was removed, Qin Wei would angrily brush the dirt off his clothes and chase Qi Xun with his sword, asking, “A-Xue, you just watched him tease me!?”

An Wuxue would laugh and say, “Qi Xun means well. You’ve seen so many of these spiritual formations, maybe you’ll learn to break them next time.”

“What if I really get stuck inside and can’t get out!!”

“Then Qi Xun and I will naturally break the formation for you. What’s there to be afraid of?”

Qi Xun echoed, “Exactly, exactly!”

“…”

Unfortunately…

Later, when the immortals perished, he acted ruthlessly, showing no mercy internally or externally.

Qin Wei gradually became dissatisfied with him, making a big deal out of any opportunity.

Since Xie Zefeng killed him, Qin Wei must have wanted to use it as an excuse to remove his name from the Luoyue Peak disciple records.

But Qin Wei didn’t understand Xie Zefeng after all.

Xie Zefeng was too ruthless.

So ruthless that he could distinguish between public and private matters, and between merit and fault.

Just because he had steadily maintained the sect’s inheritance when Luoyue Peak was faltering, assisted Xie Zefeng in securing the position of Immortal Venerable, and deterred the small fry of the two realms, Xie Zefeng would not remove his name from Luoyue Peak.

In his previous life, he indeed had many enemies and a notorious reputation.

But in all his life’s actions, he had never been ashamed of Luoyue.

“I understand,” he said, “Are there any other taboos?”

The disciple shook her head: “Luoyue is the number one sect in the cultivation world, with so many eyes from the two realms watching. How could there be so many taboos? But…”

She remembered something and lowered her voice slightly: “Besides the elders and peak masters, Elder Qin Wei has a direct disciple—you shouldn’t mention that Chief in front of him either.”

“Why is that? Because Elder Qin doesn’t like it?”

“Not exactly. Senior Brother Song is the best of our generation. Normally, he would have a chance to take the position of Chief of this generation, but for some reason, the Immortal Venerable has never allowed it.”

“Other than that, there really is nothing else.”

Looking at it this way, it seemed that nothing extra had happened during these thousand years.

Xie Zefeng should just be acting cautiously, just in case.

He smiled: “Thank you, Senior Sister, for telling me.”

“It’s nothing, a small matter. Follow me, it’s very late.”

An Wuxue nodded.

But just as he took a few steps with the disciple, a vermillion figure suddenly appeared ahead.

The person sat on a branch of an ancient tree, leaning against the trunk, his long robes hanging down, looking down at the two of them with a casual expression.

The disciple was startled.

Since their previous conversation involved many matters, she was afraid the other party had heard something and quickly bowed respectfully: “Sect Master Qi.”

An Wuxue saw the vermillion-robed person’s face clearly.

He stopped abruptly.

It was Qi Xun.

His former best friend, and also the first person to draw a sword against him when he was besieged by the cultivators of ten thousand sects.

Qi Xun leaped down from the tree with a wave of his large hand: “No need to be nervous. I have no interest in eavesdropping on what you Luoyue Peak disciples say behind closed doors.

“I’m here to find Xie Chuhan. But as soon as I arrived at Frost Sea, I found a stranger I’d never seen before on this Frost Sea where even birds dare not enter. I was curious and came to take a look.”

—He walked closer slowly, staring straight at An Wuxue.

An Wuxue remained silent.

He was having a terrible day.

How did everyone he didn’t want to see show up today?

He lowered his eyes, preparing to act as if he didn’t recognize him and was restrained, but Qi Xun stood still in front of him, staring at his face, and suddenly laughed a few times.

“I knew it!” Qi Xun’s laugh didn’t sound happy at all, “I knew why Xie Chuhan suddenly changed his nature. No wonder! No wonder…”

…No wonder what?

There was another gust of wind brought by spiritual power.

Qi Xun’s laughter still echoed all around, but he had already disappeared—he must have gone to find Xie Zefeng.

The disciple looked around and found that the person had really left, then said to An Wuxue, “That was Sect Master Qi of the Lihuo Sect I just mentioned.”

“Lihuo Sect…” An Wuxue murmured, “Didn’t the whole sect perish?”

“On the day of the Lihuo Sect’s great disaster, Sect Master Qi happened not to be in the sect and was spared. After that, he rebuilt the Lihuo Sect gate. Hundreds of years have passed, and although the Lihuo Sect is not as prosperous as it was a thousand years ago, its inheritance has not been broken.”

An Wuxue’s nose felt a bit sour.

He whispered, “That’s for the best.”

The disciple didn’t suspect him.

After Qi Xun left, the disciple led An Wuxue to a vacant residence on the east side of Frost Sea, cleaned it for him with spiritual power, and set up several small spiritual formations to ward off the cold around him.

—It was much warmer than his previous residence.

Now, he had no choice but to stay in Frost Sea for the time being.

A night without dreams.

The moment An Wuxue woke up, he realized he had slept exceptionally well that night and had a vague realization of something.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he looked to his side.

Sure enough, a white, fluffy ball of something was curled up beside him.

Feeling him wake up, the white ball raised its head slightly and stretched its wings: “Wuwu.”

An Wuxue was helpless: “…Kunkun.”

“Wuwu…”

He sat up slightly against the pillow, and Kunkun snuggled into his arms.

He simply hugged Kunkun and whispered, “…It’s me.”

He didn’t expect the first object of his bold confession to be this little thing in his arms.

Frost Sea was freezing, and for the first time since he woke up, he felt warmth.

Kunkun raised its head, its round eyes staring at him for a few moments, and it made several “wuwu” sounds in a row.

It leaned forward and licked An Wuxue’s wrist, which was exposed outside his sleeping robe.

That was the way he had been intimate with Kunkun in his previous life.

He raised his hand and pressed his index finger to his lips: “Shh, but you can’t tell Xie Zefeng.”

“Wu?”

Kunkun didn’t know many past events and thought he and Xie Zefeng were the same as before.

He said, “In short, no one can know. I will find an opportunity to leave. I’ll find a way to take you with me then.”

The miasma beast’s intelligence was not high and it couldn’t understand many complications, but when it heard An Wuxue say he would find a way to take it away, the doubt in its eyes dissipated.

An Wuxue rubbed its head.

Kunkun raised its head according to his posture.

An Wuxue smiled.

He held Kunkun, tilted his head slightly, and saw the stretch of pine and cypress trees outside the half-open window.

Today was a sunny day. The sunlight spilled down, making even the Buried Frost Sea look vibrant.

The wind moved the branches and leaves that would not wither in the frost and snow, swaying back and forth.

In a brief moment.

He suddenly felt that the identity of Xue Su wasn’t bad either.

As long as he got rid of that big trouble Xie Zefeng, who cared about the cultivation world?

Being a useless person was quite good.

“Wuwu…” Kunkun rubbed against him again.

As if it had thought of something, it used its claws to pull out a golden leaf from under its wings and handed it to An Wuxue.

As soon as he took the golden leaf, his long-fatigued soul seemed to stretch out, much more relaxed than before.

Is this some kind of spiritual object beneficial to the soul?

“What is this—” Where did it come from?

Before he could finish asking, someone suddenly called him from outside: “Xue Su!”

Kunkun was startled and jumped out of the window. Its white shadow flashed by and disappeared into the pine and cypress forest behind.

An Wuxue quickly got up, put on his outer robe, tucked the golden leaf into his sleeve, and went forward to open the door.

He saw Yunzhou and Yunyao walking over one after the other.

He was stunned. Yunzhou saw his confusion and said to him, “The Immortal Venerable ordered someone to bring us up.”

After Yunzhou finished speaking, Yunyao nodded silently.

“This is the core of Luoyue. The Immortal Venerable allowed you to stay here?”

Yunzhou scratched his head: “He said it’s for us to look after you.”

“Just for that?”

Clearly, only yesterday had Xie Zefeng developed a murderous intent toward him because of Chunhua.

Yunzhou stared at his face for a while: “Otherwise?”

Xuanfang and Qi Xun had also stared at his face like the two of them.

An Wuxue said in confusion: “Am I very good-looking?”

Regardless of the past grievances between him and Xie Zefeng, with Xie Zefeng’s appearance and cultivation, if they practiced furnace cauldron dual cultivation, it would be hard to say who was benefiting from whom.

Xue Su was originally just a mortal body with extremely poor aptitude, and he wasn’t even qualified to be a furnace cauldron. What was so special about him?

He had already died once and hadn’t cared about his current appearance since he woke up, so he hadn’t looked at it either.

Could it be that Xue Su was really a stunning beauty?

Yunzhou didn’t seem to expect him to ask this: “Ah?”

“Forget it,” he was too lazy to think about things that had nothing to do with him, “Did the Immortal Venerable say anything else?”

“How should I know? I haven’t seen the Immortal Venerable. The disciple on duty at the Buried Frost Sea brought me and my senior brother here,” Yunzhou muttered. “But being on Frost Sea is good. The Immortal Venerable is back, but the mountain closure order hasn’t been lifted yet. Luoyue Peak doesn’t seem very peaceful. I heard that demonic cultivators have infiltrated. When my senior brother and I came up, we saw someone with a Soul-Nurturing Tree Spirit, thoroughly investigating the peaks.”

The essence of heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and plants all have essence. Soul-Nurturing Tree Spirit, as the name suggests, is formed from the essence of the Soul-Nurturing Tree.

The Soul-Nurturing Tree is a spiritual object that nourishes the divine soul. There is only one in heaven and earth, an extremely rare treasure. An Wuxue had only seen records of the Soul-Nurturing Tree in ancient books and had never seen it.

“Luoyue Peak has a Soul-Nurturing Tree?”

Yunyao explained: “The Soul-Nurturing Tree is on Frost Sea. It’s said that the Immortal Venerable spent a great deal of effort to find it and plant it on Frost Sea hundreds of years ago.”

An Wuxue subconsciously touched the golden leaf in his sleeve.

Could it be that this golden leaf was picked from the Soul-Nurturing Tree by Kunkun and given to him?

No wonder even a single touch could soothe his divine soul.

He felt somewhat fortunate.

The Soul-Nurturing Tree can not only nourish the soul, but its essence can also investigate abnormalities in a cultivator’s divine soul, peek into the life and death of ghosts, and identify the resentment of the deceased.

He was a lonely ghost who had died once.

Xue Su was a body with a departed soul.

If he were shone upon by the Soul-Nurturing Tree Spirit, who knows what the outcome would be.

He didn’t expect that he would actually escape a disaster by being kept on Frost Sea by Xie Zefeng.

Truly, a blessing in disguise.

He gave a bitter laugh and turned back into the room.

“Hey, why are you going back into the room?”

“Tired, going to sleep.”

Yunzhou: “Didn’t you just get up??”

•

Deep in Frost Sea.

In the center of the pine forest.

Spiritual power had been surging all night.

The cold wind whipped up by the spiritual power had been circling in the vicinity, as sharp as a blade, showing that the owner of the spiritual power was on the edge of losing control.

An unstable Dao heart is a great taboo in cultivation.

No matter who stood here, they would be incredulous—this was the spiritual power of a Changsheng Immortal!

There is currently only one Changsheng Immortal in the two realms.

How could Cold Sword Venerable have an unstable Dao heart?

But standing outside was Qi Xun.

He was used to this and waited all night after finding he couldn’t get close.

Until the spiritual power dissipated, revealing the scene in the center of the pine forest.

A man dressed in white robes with a jade hairpin tying his hair sat upright on a lotus platform, silent.

The Chunhua sword floated in front of Xie Zefeng, wrapped in Xie Zefeng’s spiritual power, protected tightly, without a trace of wind or snow.

When the spiritual power flared up just now, this person had been sitting on the lotus platform, staring at this sword for who knows how long.

Now that the wind was calm and the waves were quiet, Xie Zefeng reached out and put Chunhua into his spiritual pouch.

“I was bored waiting for you just now, so I wandered around and found an interesting person. I stood on a tree and watched him walk through the corridor behind the tall pines, and I almost thought I was dreaming…” Qi Xun played with the folding fan in his hand and smiled mockingly, “I really only found out today that it turns out Cold Sword Venerable is also a person who deceives himself and others, actually keeping a look-alike fake by his side for comfort.”

Silence.

Qi Xun was deliberately talking nonsense to provoke Xie Zefeng, but this person actually didn’t react.

Xie Zefeng neither spoke nor attacked to teach him a lesson as usual.

Qi Xun looked at the other party’s back, which still seemed a bit off, and waited for a moment, still unable to get the other party to speak.

He felt it was a bit boring, so he stepped forward and said, “I’ve investigated the matter of the demonic blade. There’s a spiritual vein beneath that secret realm. It’s the same thing—the spiritual vein was destroyed, and the turbid energy suppressed beneath it emerged, corroding the spiritual objects and beasts in the secret realm.”

“The person who destroyed the spiritual vein did a very clean job, leaving no trace. I can only temporarily set up a formation to suppress the turbid energy.”

He changed the subject: “But what’s with you? Jingji Stream has the aura of Wuxue’s last wisp of soul. You go to Jingji Stream every year at this time for three days to search, why did you come back early?”

Xie Zefeng still didn’t speak.

A long time passed.

“It’s gone.”

“…What?”

“The aura of Senior Brother’s soul,” Xie Zefeng’s voice was exceptionally hoarse, “is gone.”

In this instant, Qi Xun even forgot to blink.

He blurted out: “No, how could…”

After An Wuxue’s demise, his body and soul were destroyed, and his bones were gone.

That bit of soul aura in Jingji Stream, whose source couldn’t be found, was the last trace of An Wuxue remaining in the world.

If it was gone…

Xie Zefeng stood up.

He slowly turned around, his expression like the state of no grief or joy remaining after intentional suppression, but his dark eyes, which should have been like stars, were so deep that they were unfathomable.

On his brow, the snowflake sword pattern that should have been snow-white was emitting wisps of black energy.

Qi Xun’s expression suddenly changed.

“Xie Chuhan.”

“Your inner demon has resurfaced.”