Chapter 23
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In that almost blank silence, Gong Wei’s pupils contracted to the extreme as he saw Xu Shuangce gazing at him steadily.
“Law Flower Immortal, in his lifetime, was closest to the family of Yejinmen Sword Sect.”
“The more similar you are to his likes and dislikes during his lifetime, the higher the chances of being possessed. Do you understand?”
Blood rushed to his limbs in an instant, and Gong Wei’s tense back muscles relaxed. When he spoke again, besides hoarseness and shame, no one could detect any difference:
“Yes, disciple understands!”
Xu Shuangce nodded approvingly, but still didn’t let go. Each of his slender fingers contained unimaginable powerful spiritual energy, and he held Gong Wei’s chin not too lightly or too heavily. After a while, he suddenly changed the subject, “Do you know who Law Flower Immortal hated the most during his lifetime?”
“Disciple doesn’t know.”
A faint smirk appeared at the corner of Sect Master Xu’s mouth, but there was no trace of it in his eyes. “Naturally, it’s me.”
In all likelihood, no one in the world would think that Sect Master Xu and Grand Elder Gong weren’t each other’s most hated enemies. Gong Wei opened his mouth, but nothing came out, and he tightly closed it again.
“Master seems to have told you before, most of the children of the Yuchi family are rebellious and not worth befriending.”
Gong Wei sincerely said, “Master’s words are true.”
“Then why are you still secretly colluding behind my back?”
The term “secretly colluding” used here was really strange, and Gong Wei looked ashamed as he said, “Disciple was momentarily misguided, please punish me, Master.”
However, Xu Shuangce asked in return, “Punish?”
Gong Wei’s white satin night robe hung loosely on his shoulders, revealing his long neck and chest. Only a segment of the broken silk ribbon around his waist barely held a shape. Xu Shuangce’s gaze fell on it, and in the dim light, his expression couldn’t be discerned. After a long time, he released his grip on Gong Wei’s chin, without saying a word, and lifted the hem of his robe, slowly and carefully adjusting it for him.
Gong Wei’s tone was filled with fear, “Disciple truly knows his mistake, please, Master…”
“I find that no matter how well you promise in person, once you turn your back, you continue to do things that displease me.”
Xu Shuangce meticulously tied the broken belt of the night robe. He leaned down, the two of them extremely close, and Gong Wei could even smell the deep sandalwood breath coming from his neck. Xu Shuangce’s tone remained calm and steady, just like his actions:
“Therefore, I can only deal with you in one way, regardless of the hardships.”
“Master—”
Before the words could finish, Xu Shuangce stood up and said, “Someone!”
This word transmitted quietly, and soon footsteps were heard outside the side hall. Two disciples on night duty hurriedly arrived, they were Wen Xiuyang and Sheng Bo.
Gong Wei watched as Xu Shuangce’s sharp jaw lifted slightly, and he casually said, “Pack up his things and move them to the main hall.”
The main hall of Xuanji Hall!
That was Xu Shuangce’s own residence!
Gong Wei’s expression changed, but before he could utter a few words of not daring to disturb Master’s rest, he heard Sheng Bo blurt out: “But, Master…”
He was immediately pressed down by Wen Xiuyang.
Wen Xiuyang, the eldest disciple who had followed Xu Shuangce for the longest time and was the top among the young generation of Cangyang Sect, looked tense as he stared at the ground. “Yes.”
Although Grand Elder Gong liked to sneak into Sect Master Xu’s bedroom in his previous life, it was just for fun. He never thought he would one day live there with Sect Master Xu, and the genuine fear on his face finally emerged, “Please, Master, think twice. Disciple dare not delay Master’s meditation. I think it’s better—”
His words were once again interrupted, only to see Xu Shuangce turning back to personally pull him up from the ground. His grip was as strong as iron, but his words were completely different: “Beloved disciple, there’s no need to be surprised. With me personally taking care of you, you won’t have to worry about being possessed again. Isn’t that good?”
“But Master’s peace of mind is the greatest wish of your humble disciple. How dare I disturb Master’s rest with my lowly presence?”
“If you were truly possessed by Law Flower Immortal, then I, as your Sect Master, would not find peace.”
Gong Wei immediately bowed respectfully, “Disciple would rather die than let him succeed!”
Xu Shuangce coldly countered, “Since beloved disciple is so filial, how could I bear to see you perish?”
“Reporting to the Sect Master,” at this moment, Wen Xiuyang hurriedly approached and whispered, “Everything has been packed up properly.”
Xu Shuangce’s sharp eyes swept over Gong Wei, then he turned and walked away with his hands behind his back. “Let’s go.”
The short distance of just over ten meters from the bedroom to the hall door suddenly became extremely difficult at this moment, as if it were the path from the mortal world to h*ll.
It might be fine for his fellow disciples from the same sect, with a low probability of exposing anything, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter much. But Xu Shuangce was different. Gong Wei deeply understood that if he shared food and lodgings with Xu Shuangce for more than three days, even his innermost thoughts could be seen clearly by his calm and penetrating eyes. By then, even a quick death might be a luxury.
He would rather go to the Eight Prisons of Cangyang than take a single step into the main hall of Xuanji!
As Sheng Bo passed by with a pillow and bedding taller than himself, Gong Wei took a deep breath and made a painful decision. In the split second of passing each other, he stretched out his foot and tripped.
“—-Ah!”
Sheng Bo was caught off guard, falling to the ground with a crash, the stool tumbling over, and things in his hands clattering to the ground. A deep blue book flipped and spun on the floor, hitting Xu Shuangce’s foot with a clang.
Time seemed to freeze as Xu Shuangce looked down.
“Undying Love in the Yellow Springs” – bold characters and the intimate image of Sect Master Xu and Law Flower Immortal on the cover, all bright and clear to everyone.
“…”
Silence.
Wen Xiuyang’s expression froze, and Sheng Bo, lying on the ground, almost had his eyeballs pop out.
Gong Wei fell to his knees, heartbroken and contrite.
“Master, spare me! I won’t dare anymore!!”
There was no emotional fluctuation on Xu Shuangce’s face, not even a slight shift in the meticulously carved eyebrows, eyes, and cold lips. He just stared fixedly at the cover of the book on the ground, and after a long time, he stooped to pick it up, holding it in his hand and flipping through a few pages.
“Master…”
“Where did you get this?”
Gong Wei earnestly replied, “I bought it in Linjiang.”
“Why did you buy it?”
“Disciple was momentarily misguided and went astray!”
“Why didn’t you throw it away?”
“….” Gong Wei showed a look of shame.
Xu Shuangce nodded slightly, and said calmly, “It seems like the plot is intriguing, and you couldn’t bear to throw it away.”
Sheng Bo finally closed his mouth, which had been trembling from shock, and desperately gestured for Gong Wei to kowtow and admit his mistake. But then, Xu Shuangce raised his hand and said, “Come here.”
His hand was like a beckoning flag, and Sheng Bo instinctively closed his eyes.
But in the next moment, the scene of bloodshed and corpses lying everywhere that he expected did not appear.
Xu Shuangce’s hand landed on Gong Wei’s head, giving it a pat, and he said in a gentle tone, “You’re still young and have heavy studies. It’s not surprising that you were tempted by the strange stories told by others.”
“….” Gong Wei’s plea of “Please don’t lock me up in the Cold Mountain Prison” got stuck in his throat.
“You’re too slow in memorizing, so it’s time to practice more.” Xu Shuangce paused, then handed “Undying Love in the Yellow Springs” to Gong Wei. “Starting tomorrow, you will read and memorize this book. Recite one chapter aloud every day for me to check. Remember, you need to recite it fluently, understand?”
If it was just silence before, now it was a suffocating silence akin to h*ll.
Everyone’s throats felt like they were being choked by hot stones. After a long while, Gong Wei took a deep breath, calmly exhaled, and stood still in place.
His lifetime of acting skills had reached its peak at this moment.
With a thud, Gong Wei gratefully knelt down, holding the book above his head with both hands, and earnestly proclaimed:
“I deeply appreciate Master’s kind intentions, and I will always remember them. I will surely follow Master’s instructions faithfully!!”
“Go then, beloved disciple,” Xu Shuangce said lightly.
***
Meanwhile, at Yejinmen.
“It’s almost Choushi, where is the young master going?” “Young Master!”…
The voices of the guards could be heard outside the hall, while Yuchi Rui was sitting cross-legged behind the large desk, reading a book.
The current Master of the Sword Sect, Yuchi Rui, also known as Changsheng, appeared to be in his early twenties from the outside, maintaining his peak state for many years. In terms of appearance, Yuchi Xiao bore a resemblance to him, but the Master of the Sword Sect had higher cheekbones and a narrower nose, giving him a cold and aloof demeanor that made him difficult to approach.
At this moment, he had taken off his deep gold light armor, placed it aside, and wore a long robe with eagle feathers and golden edges. The renowned divine sword, “Rakshasa Tower,” stood quietly by his side, emanating a silent but immense pressure.
He was holding a book in one hand and reaching forward when the hall door was suddenly pushed open with a bang.
—Pa!
Yuchi Rui swiftly closed the book in his hand, perfectly covering the small booklet tucked inside— “Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News Special Edition: Current Sect Master’s Battle Comparisons, Yuchi Rui Changsheng’s Chapter!”—his expression unchanged as he raised his head, only to see his nephew, Yuchi Xiao, striding in.
“Reporting to Sword Sect,” Yuchi Xiao bowed respectfully and said solemnly, “This disciple has urgent matters to attend to and needs to depart immediately. I’ve come to bid farewell!”
“…”
Three question marks appeared above Yuchi Rui’s head, and after a moment of silence, he withdrew his hand reaching towards the melon seed tray and calmly nodded.
Yuchi Xiao turned to leave.
“Don’t get killed.” Just as he was about to step over the threshold of the main hall, a voice suddenly came from behind him.
Yuchi Xiao helplessly turned back, “Why do you always have to remind me of this every time I go out, Uncle?”
The Master of the Sword Sect didn’t even lift his head, just waved his hand to indicate that he could leave.
The heavy and tall hall door slammed shut again, and Yuchi Rui’s hand, flipping through the book, stopped. After a long while, he whispered softly:
“Because people die easily.”
—Twenty years ago, outside the Chengshu Palace in Dai Mountain Immortal Alliance, the flowing river water gurgled past the mossy rocks. A familiar figure stood with his back to the light, sitting cross-legged and fishing, while his laughter scattered the small fish: “Changsheng, I sneaked into Cangyang Mountain again yesterday to find Xu Shuangce. Guess what happened? That Xu guy actually issued an edict saying that Law Flower Immortal and dogs are not allowed on the mountain. It really pissed me off!”
The young Master of the Sword Sect, holding a fishing rod, calmly said, “Impossible.”
Gong Wei asked, “Why is it impossible?”
“The dog didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yuchi Changsheng!”
Yuchi Rui dodged the fishing hook, saying, “One day, that guy surnamed Xu will kill you, the dog.”
“Nonsense, even if he dies, I won’t. Do you believe that if we really fought, I might not necessarily lose to him?”
“You won’t lose. At most, you’ll be beaten to death.”
“Yuchi Changsheng!!”
…
“Are you okay?” Sixteen years ago, beneath the Ascension Immortal Platform, the towering Chengshu Palace disappeared into the boundless sea of clouds. Yuchi Rui couldn’t help but turn his head to ask, “Where’s your sword?”
The ceremony was about to begin, and Gong Wei beside him was dressed as magnificently as he was, wearing a robe with embroidered golden maple leaves on vermilion, with two glittering coins on his waistband. Perhaps because the waistband was too tight, he looked unusually tense, with cheeks as pale as snow and eyes as dark as black holes, staring straight ahead at the Ascension Immortal Platform in the distant mountain ravine.
“Gong Wei?”
“….I’m fine.” Gong Wei suddenly averted his gaze as if awakening from a dream. “I’m fine.”
Yuchi Rui narrowed his eyes and followed his gaze from earlier, only to see a figure standing proudly on the high platform in the distance—the person in charge of the main sacrifice for this Immortal Alliance event, Xu Shuangce.
“Aren’t you two supposed to be on a truce recently?” he asked suspiciously.
This question went unanswered for a long time. Yuchi Rui turned his head, only to see Gong Wei tightly gripping his sleeve with one hand, seemingly hiding something in his sleeve, with the back of his hand even showing veins bulging out from exertion.
A sudden sense of unease, coming from who knows where, surged up. Yuchi Rui lowered his voice, “Gong Zhiyu!”
Gong Wei suddenly asked, “Do you believe that some people are born to accomplish a certain task in this world?”
“What do you mean?”
“…”
Gong Wei opened his mouth under his gaze, but said nothing. Suddenly, he hurriedly smiled, “Do you think I’ll die?”
The word “death” had been tossed around between them countless times in jest, but this time, Yuchi Rui’s eyelids inexplicably twitched. “Gong Zhiyu, you…”
“I’m just kidding,” Gong Wei interrupted him abruptly.
After a moment, he smiled again, though it seemed like he was barely lifting the corners of his pale lips. He took a deep breath. “…Just kidding.”
“The time has come—”
“Requesting Law Flower Immortal—”
Yuchi Rui watched as Gong Wei brushed past him, heading towards the beautiful and expansive high platform shrouded in clouds and mist. The deep red robes billowed in the wind gradually disappeared into the cold wind, leaving no trace, just like many years ago when he inexplicably appeared in this world for the first time. What followed next was like a nightmare vortex, with details and images gradually blurring, exaggerating, and becoming bizarre through countless repetitions, until a panicked shout approached from afar:
“Report to Sword Sect! There’s a disturbance on the platform!”
“Grand Elder Gong has passed away!!!”
The sharp tail of the voice seemed to come crashing down like a heavy hammer, shattering the deep winter of twenty-eight years of Taiyi, the situation of the Immortal Alliance, and even the understanding of many young cultivators of seeking immortality and enlightenment.
It was from that moment that many people realized that even if they could control the winds and rain, move the stars and planets, or even have divine insight, they would still eventually die.
Fortunes change in an instant, and the great Dao is unpredictable.
Life and death, as well as parting, all happen in the blink of an eye.
***
The Great Hall of the Yejinmen was so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping could be heard. After a while, Yuchi Rui stood up, about to reach for the “Rakshasa Tower” sword, when suddenly, in mid-air—buzz!
A transmission token on the table suddenly flew up on its own, unleashing a complex array of interlocking patterns, and a man in a deep blue cloth robe, with a golden hook at his waist, stood within it. Three ancient seal characters, “Mountain Ocean Order,” were engraved on the bronze sword handle, surprisingly, it was Ying Kai.
What urgent matter arose in the middle of the night?
Before Yuchi Rui could utter a word, Ying Kai, propped up by his sword with a clang, breathed heavily, “The Thousand Mirror Realm is undamaged.”
Yuchi Rui’s eyebrows twitched. “What do you mean?”
Then he saw Ying Kai raise his left hand, holding a small object about half the size of a palm, densely inscribed with strange runes—it was the bronze mirror shard that Xu Shuangce had forcibly taken from the heart of a ghost cultivator in Linjiang City!
“I went to the Immortal Alliance and opened the forbidden Mirror Palace. None of the mirrors in the Thousand Face Fantasy Mirror were broken, proving that this shard did not originate from the Thousand Mirror Realm.”
“…” Yuchi Rui blinked inexplicably, then pointed to the shard in his hand. “It looks the same.”
Ying Kai seemed extremely exhausted, breathing heavily. “I know. By comparing the runes, I even found the mirror to which this shard should belong. However, it’s intact, so I can only think of it as a replica. But the Thousand Mirror Realm itself is an ancient divine artifact, and it’s impossible for anyone to replicate it—”
Thud! Thud!
Thud!!
Suddenly, there were sounds from the opposite side, gradually getting louder and heavier, interrupting his words.
“What are you doing?” Yuchi Rui questioned.
Ying Kai hurriedly looked down, but he couldn’t see what was behind him through the array. All he could vaguely discern was that the surroundings were extremely dark, and the vibrations were causing the ground to shake gradually.
“…Xu Shuangce said that the ghost cultivators in Linjiang City were related to Gong Wei, and I don’t believe it. I wanted to come down to verify it myself.” Ying Kai’s throat moved up and down, as if he swallowed saliva. “But tonight seems to be an unlucky one.”
Yuchi Rui raised his sword. “Where are you?”
Thud!
Thud!!
The ground suddenly shook violently, and Ying Kai turned around, pressing his right hand on the sword hilt, and said, “If I don’t have any news in twelve hours, according to the rules of the Immortal Alliance, the head of the Cangyang Sect will temporarily assume the duties of the Alliance Leader, and the ‘Three Sects’ will assist from the sidelines.”
“Ying Kai!”
Before he could finish his sentence, Ying Kai decisively waved his hand, and the transmission array dispersed with a sound—
Ying Kai’s figure, along with the formation, turned into countless points of light and quickly disappeared. The underground palace returned to pitch darkness, and Ying Kai could only hear his own breathing amidst the thick and undispersed stench of corpses.
Thud!
As if countless heavy objects fell to the ground, closer.
Thud!!
Even closer.
Thud—
The ground suddenly shook violently, then returned to silence.
“….Junior Ying Chenyuan, unfortunately disturbed the seniors.” Ying Kai’s pupils tightened as he whispered softly, “Forgive me.”
The next moment, Mountain Ocean Order was unsheathed, and the sword light exploded, instantly illuminating countless pairs of murky and decayed eyes in the darkness—
Countless pale faces in the darkness had approached Ying Kai’s side, all staring straight at him, with their knees stiff and unable to bend, appearing densely packed when looked at from afar.
They were actually countless corpses rising from their coffins.
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