Chapter 51
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The sword in Fu Zhen’s hand was the long sword he often carried.
“Fu Zhen?” he couldn’t help but mutter in disbelief.
The young man lying in front of him naturally didn’t respond.
He reached out, and indeed, there were no signs of life to be found. The skin was cold, devoid of any warmth, yet the body remained supple, unlike the stiffness that usually accompanied death.
“Fu Zhen? Fu Nineteen? Senior Brother?”
Fu Nian refused to believe it. He knelt on the ground, reaching directly into the body in the stone coffin and clumsily pulling at the robes.
He remembered that the proof of identity for Senior Brother was a brand on the middle of his spine on his back.
“How is this possible…” Fu Nian stared blankly at the “Nineteen” mark on the skin, his mind a jumbled mess.
After being stunned for quite some time, Fu Nian finally covered the young man’s body with his clothes.
He and Senior Brother had gone their separate ways a long time ago, and over the years, appearances could have changed drastically. But the brand on his body was unique.
However, he distinctly remembered Senior Brother, who had changed his name from Fu Nineteen to Fu Zhen and become the new sect leader of the Distant Moon Sect. They had even spoken to each other a few days ago.
How was it possible for him to lie motionless in a coffin?
“Wake up!” Regaining his senses, Fu Nian didn’t give up shaking the person inside the stone coffin. “Senior Brother, Senior Brother, it’s me, Fu Nian. I’m sorry for keeping it from you. I’m sorry… Weren’t you perfectly fine a few days ago? Senior Brother?”
The person inside the stone coffin still kept their eyes tightly closed, showing no response.
“Let’s get out of here first.” Fu Nian said, attempting to lift the person in the coffin onto his back with one hand.
Before he could lift him onto his shoulders, a sudden gust of cold wind swept through, extinguishing the flintstone in his hand instantly.
The surroundings plunged into darkness, and Fu Nian quickly became alert. He put away the flintstone and gripped the curved blade he carried with him.
“Hah.”
Amidst the dying moans, an out-of-place light laughter suddenly rang out.
The voice came from the east.
Fu Nian hastily adjusted his position, facing east.
Just as he was preparing for a fight, his shoulder was gently tapped.
“Senior Brother!”
He thought the person on his back had awakened.
Turning his head, he was indeed met with the familiar face of Fu Zhen.
—But the heavy body on his back remained securely fastened, sleeping soundly.
“What’s the matter? Were you scared?” Fu Zhen’s tone as he spoke was very casual, as if he wasn’t surprised at all. After he finished speaking, he swept his long sword, instantly brightening the stone chamber.
With ample light, Fu Nian examined the two “Fu Zhens” for several seconds before finally placing the person on his back on the ground.
The two “Fu Zhens” looked almost identical, except for slightly uneven eyebrows. Even their clothing and swords were the same. At first glance, it was truly difficult to tell them apart.
Fu Nian looked at the “Fu Zhen” lying on the ground and then at the “Fu Zhen” standing in front of him, clutching the curved blade in his hand even tighter.
“Fu Nian, so you did come back,” hearing this long-lost name, Fu Nian maintained his combat-ready posture, not daring to relax.
“What’s going on?” Fu Nian shouted in a low voice, “Did you kill all these people? Why is there… another person lying in a coffin who looks exactly like you?”
Fu Zhen did not answer, instead, he squatted down, picked up the lifeless “Fu Zhen” from the ground, placed him back in the stone coffin, and tidied up his clothes and hair.
Seeing that he was being ignored, Fu Nian didn’t press the matter further.
He tried to remain as calm as possible and began to observe if Fu Zhen had any weaknesses he could exploit.
Although he was very perplexed by the shocking situation in front of him, his intuition told him that he might have to engage in a deadly battle with his senior brother.
Facing Senior Brother, a serious fight might be difficult to win, but making it out alive wasn’t a big issue.
“Ah Nian, put the blade down. You’ve finally agreed to remove that layer of identity and return to the Distant Moon Sect, so why create unnecessary conflicts—”
Before Fu Zhen could finish speaking, the blade hidden in Fu Nian’s sleeve was already hurled toward him.
Fu Zhen didn’t dodge and allowed the blade to pierce through his neck from behind. “Hiss—”
Fu Nian was taken aback.
Normally, when a blade was thrust into the neck like that, the person should fall immediately. How come Fu Zhen didn’t react at all?
“I told you not to resort to violence,” Fu Zhen’s tone was slightly more irritable as he reached back to remove the sharp blade embedded in his neck. He spat out a mouthful of blood and then turned to Fu Nian with some annoyance. “Just a few days ago in the capital, you were so afraid of me dying. Now you seem eager to kill me. What’s the matter?”
“First, answer my question. What’s going on? Did you kill all these people?” Fu Nian demanded.
“As you can see,” Fu Zhen replied, shrugging his shoulders casually and continuing to walk around. “Since you’re back, I’ll go prepare some wine to celebrate.”
“Fu Zhen!” Fu Nian yelled.
Hearing this shout, Fu Zhen stopped his pacing, lowered his head thoughtfully, and then suppressed a laugh as if he had found something amusing.
Fu Nian clenched the curved blade and shifted his weight to his left foot. In the instant he made his move, the Fu Zhen in front of him vanished with a swift motion.
“Whoosh—”
Sensing movement behind him, he quickly turned and launched a counterattack with his blade.
But he struck empty air.
Immediately after, his artificial limb was seized, and he was forced into a backward twist.
While turning, Fu Nian also tried to strike with his blade, but before it could reach the opponent, he heard a sharp “snap,” and his stone-made right arm was snapped off. His left wrist was seized, and the curved blade was forced to the ground.
He was twisted backward, struggling to stand upright to avoid falling to the ground. Pain radiated from his left wrist, spreading throughout his body.
Fu Nian widened his eyes, his face filled with incredulity. He still exerted force with his left hand, attempting to pick up the curved knife from the ground.
The difference between him and Fu Zhen wasn’t so great that he could be easily overpowered by the other party in just a couple of moves.
“Fu Nian, you’ve always been clever since you were a child. Why can’t you consider using the swordsmanship I taught you to deal with me?”
The voice from above his head remained slow, with a slight trace of dissatisfaction in its tone.
Hearing this statement, Fu Nian suddenly went limp, gazing blankly at the ground.
His master’s tone…
It was his master…
After a long pause, Fu Nian slowly began to recollect many details of his interactions with Fu Zhen since the beginning of this lifetime.
It turned out that he had misunderstood from the beginning.
He had even, at one point, deeply believed in cherishing this former master he had once wished to kill a thousand times, going so far as to use Chu Zhaoyi’s indulgence towards him to steal medicine for this “master” and even steal imperial edicts.
“Relax, be good. Let me see your arm.”
Fu Nian felt himself being placed on the ground, and his severed right arm was carefully examined.
He didn’t move, temporarily giving up struggling, as his mind continued to process the shock of these revelations.
So, the person lying in the coffin was the real Senior Brother?
“Relax and let me take a look at your arm,” the voice from above said.
Fu Nian felt himself being placed on the ground, and his severed right arm was carefully examined.
He didn’t move, temporarily giving up struggling and still trying to process the shock of this revelation.
So, the real Senior Brother had been lying in the coffin all this time?
“The skin around the severed area is all chafed; it looks quite nice… I thought you really didn’t want to return to the Distant Moon Sect, truly determined to serve that old fox,” Fu Zhen said with satisfaction. “But fortunately, after all these twists and turns, you’re back. At least you can call me ‘Master’ now when we meet again, otherwise, it would feel quite awkward.”
Hearing this, Fu Nian couldn’t hold back and retorted, “Master? You, the one who has killed countless people, are worthy of that title?” He gestured to the bodies hanging in the air, opened up and disemboweled, and the coffin in front of him.
After he spoke, he felt a sudden kick to his head from behind.
A “bang” echoed as his forehead collided with the stone ground.
“Why do you think you were able to return from the Underworld? It’s all thanks to these people who sacrificed their lives to be your bait, to bring you back. I’m the one who collected you from outside. The swordsmanship I taught you, the name I gave you, and now you dare to question me?”
“Absurd! I could return from the Underworld without any connection to you! If not for you, how could I have been poisoned and exposed in the wilderness?” Fu Nian could only shout loudly while being pinned down on the ground.
Indeed, he had returned because of his accumulated sins from his previous life, allowing him to return from the Underworld to decrease his sins then to enter the cycle of reincarnation. It had nothing to do with this madman.
“Without me, you wouldn’t have survived that winter. How would you have the opportunity to have artificial limbs? To possess martial arts? The gu poison was a reminder to make you change your ways. If you had returned to the Distant Moon Sect honestly after being poisoned, how could you have ended up exposed in the wilderness? “You were really something. Not only did you refuse to come back, but you also managed to find a Gu Master to create a Gu for you, using someone else as your substitute,” Fu Zhen said, his expression tinged with disgust as he spoke.
Fu Nian didn’t wait for the voice above to finish and roared, “Fu Nineteen was also brought back by you. He never betrayed you, so why is he lying motionless in the coffin? Why did you impersonate Senior Brother—?”
“Don’t howl like a mad dog for now; let’s talk calmly. Maybe I’ll be willing to tell you,” Fu Zhen said, not giving him a chance to finish. He added a bit more pressure as he spoke. Suddenly, his voice softened significantly, “Today, you’ve finally dropped the pretense and picked up the name ‘Fu Nian’ again. I’m glad. I know you have many questions and doubts right now, but don’t let them overshadow the joy of our reunion, okay?”
Madman…
Fu Nian realized that he couldn’t reason with this person and decided to stay quiet to avoid angering him further.
If this was his Senior Brother, he might have put up a fight. But the man in front of him was his master, and all of his martial arts skills came from him. He was no match for him.
“Aren’t you going to respond?”
After speaking, Fu Nian felt the foot that had been pressing down on him move away from his head.
However, his head was still buzzing, and the earlier collision with the ground had been quite painful.
The next moment, to his surprise, the man who had once been called “Master” squatted beside him and gently touched the disheveled hair that had been underfoot, patiently combing through the tangled strands.
“Don’t touch me.” Despite the ringing in his head, Fu Nian pushed away the hand on his head, feeling repulsed.
He attempted to get up, but halfway through, he realized that his artificial arm had been broken earlier, causing him to fall back to the ground.
“Did it hurt when I stepped on you earlier?” Fu Zhen’s voice was filled with distress, and his tone was caring. He ignored Fu Nian’s aversion. “Your ears are bleeding… Sorry, I got angry just now and was a bit too rough. Let me massage it for you; the pain will go away. Don’t move.” With that, he reached for Fu Nian’s head again.
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