Chapter 72#
Xie Zhefeng took a few steps forward.
Looking at the Senior Brother from a thousand years ago, his fears and helplessness all piled up.
He didn’t want to disturb the Senior Brother who had not yet experienced the suffering that would follow, yet he also wanted to see him once more and speak a few words with the true “An Wuxue.”
He hesitated and paused. “When Senior Brother ‘killed’ me, I could feel it. If I speak to the Senior Brother from a thousand years ago, since he’s also in this illusion, could he perceive it?”
Pei Qian had been as quiet as a quail for a long while. Hearing Xie Zhefeng’s question and getting no response, he suddenly realized, “Huh? Oh, is the Immortal Venerable asking me?”
Xie Zhefeng glanced at him. “Is there anyone else here?”
“Isn’t there also a First Seat An from a thousand years ago…”
But Xie Zhefeng had hidden the auras and movements of the two of them and the little beast. Even if the An Wuxue of a thousand years ago had high cultivation, he hadn’t yet ascended, so he naturally wouldn’t discover that others were present.
Pei Qian answered listlessly, “No, the Guan Ye Array cannot pull in such a strong karma. The reason you could feel the phantom’s death is because the emotional fluctuation at the moment of death was too intense, making the karma too strong.”
“Simple conversation and interaction won’t do that.”
Xie Zhefeng asked again, “Is the Guan Ye Array linked to the thoughts and feelings of those who enter it?”
“The Immortal Venerable is asking if the Guan Ye Array will pull up corresponding past events based on the karma and thoughts of those within it, right?”
Xie Zhefeng nodded slightly.
“Yes. After all, the origin of this array… The Immortal Venerable went to the trouble of tracking me down and bringing me back to North Abyss not because he lacked array experts, but because he anticipated that I would be useful for the matters in North Abyss, right?”
Pei Qian for once showed a look of mockery. “Exactly. This array was created by that person to imprison me. The purpose was to let the prisoner constantly wander through past things they care about and never come out. It was never just a simple time-based array. As those who have entered it, the more we think of something, the easier it is for us to enter that part of the past…”
Pei Qian paused.
They were currently in an illusion from the torrent of time a thousand years ago. At this point, Pei Qian hadn’t been born, and Jiang Qing was still a stone at the bottom of the Black Sea. The only people who could have brought them here were An Wuxue or Xie Zhefeng.
Looking at the Immortal Venerable’s reaction, it was likely that either he or First Seat An had been thinking about this memory…
Pei Qian’s expression twisted—one cannot, or at least should not, know so many things!!!
He didn’t dare speak anymore. Fortunately, Xie Zhefeng’s thoughts were completely elsewhere, and he didn’t care at all what Pei Qian had guessed.
Xie Zhefeng hesitated for another moment.
He had never faltered when drawing his sword, nor had he ever hesitated when it came to killing, yet now he felt somewhat timid even taking a few steps in an illusion.
“Whine…”
Kun Kun, however, had already flown out!
The young man sitting on the reef on the shore heard the familiar cry. He turned his head suddenly, looking quite surprised. “Kun Kun? Why have you come to North Abyss? The great demons of North Abyss have just fallen, and the sword array isn’t yet complete. Danger is everywhere. Didn’t I tell you to stay at Falling Moon Peak and wait for my return?”
He opened his arms and caught Kun Kun.
As the little creature fell into his arms, An Wuxue felt his arms sink and let out a warm, light laugh. “How did you get so heavy? And you’ve grown? Could it be that Qi Xun has been secretly feeding you?”
Kun Kun only knew how to roll around in An Wuxue’s arms.
An Wuxue was caught between laughter and tears. “What’s wrong with you?”
Xie Zhefeng’s heart ached.
Although he had no memory of the dual cultivation, he knew that after the North Abyss Sword Array was established, his Senior Brother had accepted the crime of harming a fellow cultivator for killing Shangguan Ran without cause. He was imprisoned in the Ancient Tower for a hundred days, and it was only after he came out that Kun Kun saw him again.
For Kun Kun, the Senior Brother at this moment was a bubble from a thousand years ago that could never be reclaimed.
—And wasn’t he the same for him?
His chest felt heavy and painful, even drowning out the pain of his split soul.
Once Kun Kun had rubbed enough, it suddenly bit An Wuxue’s sleeve and flew toward Xie Zhefeng.
An Wuxue was startled and looked in the direction Kun Kun was pulling him.
Xie Zhefeng had no choice but to reveal his true appearance on his incarnation and step out of the concealment barrier.
He couldn’t help but wonder—what did he look like back then? And what kind of expression would he show his Senior Brother?
When An Wuxue saw him, he looked shocked. His gaze flickered, and he suddenly became quite at a loss, his eyes wandering to avoid eye contact with Xie Zhefeng.
His Senior Brother stroked Kun Kun in his arms, appearing somewhat nervous.
“So it was Junior Brother who brought Kun Kun…” He lowered his head and said in a low voice, “Did you return to Falling Moon Peak?”
Xie Zhefeng walked forward slowly.
The seawater washed over the sand and rocks, soaking his hem and boots, yet he even forgot to use spiritual energy, walking toward the reef where his Senior Brother sat like an ordinary person.
He looked up at his Senior Brother on the reef.
From a distance, it had been hard to tell, but now that he was close, he could see that his Senior Brother’s hair was somewhat messy. Strands of hair clung to his forehead and temples, and the ends of his hair fluttered in the sea breeze.
From a distance, his neck only had a few red dots, but from up close, even his Adam’s apple was slightly red. His robes were draped quite loosely, and his plain white belt rose with the wind, as if it could drift into someone’s heart.
The mist of the endless Black Sea seemed to shroud him, making him appear as hazy as the fog.
Xie Zhefeng had only walked up and gazed at him when An Wuxue’s ears twitched slightly, and his earlobes quickly turned red.
It was as if… he had just been bullied by someone.
“Has Senior Brother just returned from the shark clan territory at the Black Water Abyss?”
Xie Zhefeng felt as if countless razor blades were rolling around in his throat. Every word of this sentence pained him to the core.
He had actually forgotten.
How could he have forgotten?
An Wuxue nodded slightly, then shook his head. “Not exactly… I woke up earlier than Junior Brother. It’s just… so I’ve been sitting here for two or three days.”
He kept his head down, his eyes darting as he responded to Xie Zhefeng in such a hesitant manner. But after speaking, his expression changed, and he suddenly jumped down from the reef and into the water. He grabbed both of Xie Zhefeng’s arms and looked him over carefully.
“Right, I almost forgot—did the charm toxin have any effect on you? How is your Dao heart now? Do you feel any discomfort?”
Xie Zhefeng’s Adam’s apple bobbed, not knowing how to answer.
At that time, he hadn’t felt any discomfort.
He seemed to have woken up alone in a clam shell. Because he had injured his primordial qi, he had returned directly to Falling Moon Peak and spent a long time in secluded meditation. By the time he came out, the North Abyss Sword Array was finished, but his Senior Brother was in seclusion to recover from his punishment in the Ancient Tower.
All he could say was, “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
He didn’t even dare to change his expression, afraid his Senior Brother would notice and that everything that could almost never happen in the present would vanish in the blink of an eye.
“Don’t lie to me,” An Wuxue said, grabbing his hand and placing his fingertips on his pulse to check his meridians and dantian. “The dual cultivation of love and desire is inherently contrary to the Way of Heartless. How could it not have any effect? This was my fault as your Senior Brother. Regardless, I should have stood in front of you and taken it for you—”
“Senior Brother!” Xie Zhefeng couldn’t stabilize his emotions and said urgently, “Dual cultivation is a matter between two people. I was the one poisoned by the charm toxin, not you. How could it be your fault?”
The An Wuxue of a thousand years ago had never seen Xie Zhefeng with such an expression. For a moment, he even forgot what he wanted to say.
His eyelashes trembled, and he remained silent in a daze.
Kun Kun had already flown to their side, not daring to make any noise.
The North Abyss sea breeze whistled continuously, and An Wuxue’s loosely tied belt was blown and tapped against Xie Zhefeng’s sleeve.
Xie Zhefeng was terrified that the Senior Brother from the past would be blown away by the sea breeze. He desperately wanted to embrace him, yet he truly didn’t dare.
“But in the end, I didn’t push you away,” An Wuxue finally spoke.
His warm, peach-blossom eyes curved into a tender smile, “It’s because I had already developed feelings for Junior Brother that went beyond those of sect mates, which led to what happened at the Black Water Abyss a few days ago.”
“…What did you say?”
“Hmm?” An Wuxue didn’t understand Xie Zhefeng’s surprise and confusion.
Xie Zhefeng suddenly felt that the breeze from the Black Sea was colder than the freezing winds of the Far North and the astral winds of the Star River Path, chilling him to the bone.
—It’s because I had already developed feelings for Junior Brother that went beyond those of sect mates.
Those words were sharper than anything his inner demons had said to shake his mental state, shattering the last of his composure.
He still couldn’t maintain his expression.
“Senior Brother…” Just as he spoke, he realized his voice was incredibly hoarse.
An Wuxue was even more stunned, feeling confused and anxious. “What’s wrong with you?”
What’s wrong?
Until today, until An Wuxue had said those words, Xie Zhefeng had only thought that he and his Senior Brother had never clearly expressed their feelings for each other.
But not only had they engaged in dual cultivation, his Senior Brother had already…
Then how had he treated his Senior Brother after their dual cultivation a thousand years ago?
In everything that followed, what his Senior Brother had suffered was more than just heartbreak.
Did his Senior Brother die under the Chu Han sword while carrying the feelings they had expressed to each other beneath the Black Water Abyss!?
He had actually…
He had actually!!!
“I just…” He struggled with all his might before he could speak again. “I just feel that I’m truly a bastard.”
His Senior Brother even wanted to take all the blame right now.
His voice was choked as he finally spoke the words he had owed An Wuxue for a thousand years: “I have also loved Senior Brother for a long time, yet I have always failed Senior Brother’s feelings. It is I who am sorry to Senior Brother.”
The An Wuxue who was a phantom of the past was momentarily stunned, and his eyes seemed to be turning slightly red.
The waves beat against the shore one by one. The time within the mirage was still during the Immortal Calamity. No spiritual beasts could be seen on the Black Sea, and the wind and clouds were trace-less, as if time itself had stopped at this moment.
A long time passed.
The world around them began to tremble, and the entire North Abyss First City began to collapse.
This was the sign that the illusion was about to break.
Xie Zhefeng almost thought he had truly returned to a thousand years ago until this moment, when he woke up from the dream.
Pei Qian, who was still within the concealment barrier, was stunned. “How did the situation get resolved? Weren’t we supposed to find City Lord Shangguan?”
A trial could be broken either by brute force or by someone within the trial realizing that everything was an illusion.
“Could it be that Mr. Jiang couldn’t find City Lord Shangguan and broke the illusion directly?”
Xie Zhefeng saw the surroundings begin to contract and felt a flicker of surprise as well.
But when he withdrew his gaze, he saw that the “An Wuxue” in front of him showed no sign of surprise.
“Senior Brother…?”
An Wuxue looked into the distance and chuckled softly.
He raised his hand and straightened Xie Zhefeng’s slightly crooked collar, then turned his head and stroked Kun Kun’s fur.
“Whine…” Kun Kun hurried to lean into his neck, burying itself in the crook of his shoulder, its cry sounding full of reluctance.
Xie Zhefeng vaguely realized the source of the illusion’s collapse.
The way his Senior Brother from the past looked at him was filled with tenderness, yet the words he spoke were sharper and colder than a frost-covered blade, slicing his burning heart piece by piece.
“Your reaction was too smooth, too wonderful. I almost fell for it myself. But Junior Brother wouldn’t say those things to me. You aren’t him, yet I wouldn’t mistake you; you are him.”
“So, I must be a fake, right?”