Chapter 26
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The atmosphere had become almost solidified in tension when suddenly Xu Shuangce uttered a “Mmm” and said, “Understood.”
Then he turned and took a step towards Yuchi Xiao.
“Sect Master Xu?” The envoy of the Immortal Alliance was puzzled, thinking he was about to leave, and exclaimed anxiously, “According to the rules of the Immortal Alliance, to prevent chaos when the leader is absent, either the Alliance leader or the Cangyang Sect Master must remain behind. You absolutely cannot leave Cangyang Mountain at this moment!”
Xu Shuangce walked towards Yuchi Xiao, saying, “I understand.”
“But Sect Master, you—”
The envoy’s voice seemed to be choked off, staring dumbfounded as Xu Shuangce drew his sword, emitting a palpable killing intent, and swiftly aimed it at Yuchi Xiao’s throat!
This time, there would be no one to stop him. Yuchi Xiao couldn’t move at all, for a moment he even had the illusion that he was already pierced through the throat by the sword.
—Am I already dead?
But then he felt the ice-cold sharp tip of the sword slowly move to the side of his face, tapping lightly a couple of times, and a trace of blood immediately flowed along the blade.
“…” Yuchi Xiao opened his eyes in pain, meeting Xu Shuangce’s mocking gaze from above.
Jingxu Spiritual Daoist Master trembled, “Se… Sect Master…”
Just then, a command token suddenly flew out from Yuchi Xiao’s sleeve, bursting into a manifestation array that covered a thousand miles. Yuchi Changsheng, the Master of the Sword Sect, appeared in the array, holding the divine sword Rakshasa Tower, and stood firmly in front of No Way Out!
“Xu…Shuang…Ce,” he said coldly.
The others were slow to react, hastily saluting, “Greetings, Sect Master of the Sword Sect!”
Yuchi Xiao felt as if he had been drained of all his strength, and blurted out, “Uncle! How are you?!”
“…” Xu Shuangce looked Yuchi Changsheng up and down, his indifferent face revealing nothing of his thoughts. After a while, amidst the tense gazes of those around, he quietly withdrew the No Way Out without any change in expression.
The tension that had been hanging in the air finally eased.
Yuchi Changsheng turned his head slightly to his nephew behind him, “Return to Yejinmen.”
“You are also trapped in the Ding Xian Ling?!”
The Master of the Sword Sect emphasized, “Return to the Yejinmen!”
However, Yuchi Xiao struggled to stand up, supporting himself with his Gouchen Sword. “I’ll go…”
With a sudden gust of wind, the Sword Sect Master abruptly turned around. The spiritual energy within the formation, already dwindling, fluctuated violently due to this movement, causing Yuchi Xiao’s pupils to widen in astonishment.
The golden armor of the Sword Sect Master was cracked everywhere, with scars covering the neck, chest, and abdomen. There was a wound over a foot long on the left arm, and the sleeves of the robe were soaked through with blood!
Only to hear him speak word by word, “Return to Yejinmen, protect yourself, and don’t come to Ding Xian Ling.”
Immediately after, the formation suddenly burst apart, countless points of light scattered in the wind, disappearing into the hazy sky.
Xu Shuangce turned around, sheathing his sword, no longer casting a glance at Yuchi Xiao. “Wen Xiuyang.”
Wen Xiuyang immediately bowed, “Here.”
“Escort him down the mountain.”
“Yes!”
Without turning his head, Xu Shuangce walked towards the direction of the Xuanji Hall in the high sky, his robes fluttering in the wind, and soon disappeared into the mountain stream.
***
The cracked mountains and the smoke gradually receded into the distance and disappeared.
The endless wind came towards him, and Xu Shuangce walked towards the continuous mountains step by step without riding his sword. The flowing clouds gathered and dispersed under his feet, and in the distance, in the silent and uninhabited mountain forest, there was actually a grand palace, faintly revealing the magnificent outline of glazed tiles and silver eaves.
Ding Ling!
The golden ring, twisted into three spirals, colliding with the scabbard of No Way Out, emitting a clear echo.
Ding Ling—
He seemed to hear the wind chimes lightly tapping in the depths of the corridor, and the heavy curtains swaying in the wind. On a spring afternoon in Chengshu Palace, a slender figure suddenly popped out from the top of the wall, peeking at him from top to bottom, thinking it was very hidden.
“…Sect Master Xu, please don’t be offended. This is the young Master brought back by our Alliance leader half a month ago. It seems that he is mentally handicapped and cannot speak…”
Xu Shuangce stopped in his tracks, reaching out a hand towards the wall.
The figure shrank suddenly, only revealing two vigilant eyes.
But Xu Shuangce didn’t move, maintaining the posture of his palm facing upwards and staring at him. After a while, he saw the pair of eyes blink, the right pupil suddenly turned crimson, then blinked again, returning to normal, full of suspicion and hesitation.
“…”
Xu Shuangce withdrew his hand into his sleeve. With this movement, the figure behind the wall couldn’t help but poke out a bit more, but only saw the Sect Master of Cangyang Sect take out two small gold coins from his arms, thread them with a silk thread, and casually shake them, making a tinkling sound.
The young man’s eyes widened.
Ding Ling!
Ding Ling!
The sun passed through the curtains of the corridor, making the small gold coins gleam brightly and sound with each shake, the curious eyes of the youth swaying left and right with them.
Ding Ling—
Before the lingering sound could fade, a gust of wind swept by, and Xu Shuangce suddenly felt a blur before his eyes, finding his hand empty.
The silhouette of the young man slipping away was like a red cloud swirling, and in an instant, he was several zhang away. His slender fingers still clutched the two small gold coins threaded on the silk string tightly, as if afraid of losing them. With hurried steps, they jingled as he disappeared into the winding and lengthy corridor.
Only the wind remained, passing by, incessant.
“Se, Sect Master, please don’t be offended! The young Master is not in his right mind, ignorant due to his young age. It’s not intentional…” A disciple of the Chengshu Palace suddenly stopped as Xu Shuangce chuckled darkly, thinking he had misheard.
“He runs fast,” he said.
The disciple of the Chengshu Palace couldn’t discern whether he was pleased or angry, and stuttered, unable to speak.
“Not bad,” commented the Sect Master of Cangyang Sect, “Those who run fast, at least live long.”
***
Perhaps it was a coincidence, but during those years, there were suddenly many occasions where Sect Master Xu needed to attend personally at the Immortal Alliance.
The young Master picked up by the Alliance Leader grew day by day—though “growing up” was a pseudo-concept for him, because time never left a mark on Gong Wei’s body from start to finish.
He just gradually began to understand things, or rather, learned to behave more like a person.
Xu Shuangce taught him to recite scriptures, teaching him to write stroke by stroke. In the late spring of the Chengshu Palace, withered peach blossoms drifted past the window with the wind, Xu Shuangce sat at the table holding his hand, copying the “Sword Washing Collection”. Although Gong Wei sat properly, the tip of his pen was always crooked, no matter how he tried to straighten it, and he couldn’t help but turn back to touch No Way Out, asking, “What is this character?”
He rarely spoke, probably because he knew he hadn’t learned to speak properly, and his pronunciation was always off.
Xu Shuangce said, “No Way Out.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means unconquerable by ghosts and gods.”
Gong Wei didn’t understand at all, but nodded thoughtfully, then asked after a while, “Why do you all have swords?”
Xu Shuangce still held his right hand, his gaze falling on the paper, “Who else has one?”
Gong Wei said, “Senior Brother.” After a pause, he added, “Yuchi Changsheng.”
Yuchi Rui was about the same age as him. A few years ago, when they first met, they fought. Yuchi Rui made Gong Wei cry. Sobbing, Gong Wei kicked Yuchi Rui from the pavilion to the cliff below. When Ying Kai rushed over in a hurry, he only saw Yuchi Rui hanging from the cliff by tree branches, looking completely bewildered.
Xu Shuangce said indifferently, “You’ll have one when you grow up.”
Gong Wei asked, “How can I get one?”
There were only two sources of immortal swords in the Xuanmen: inheritance from elders’ relics or refinement by Masters. In Gong Wei’s case, he should have a weapon refined by Ying Kai that matched his attributes and integrated with his spiritual power. But that would inevitably have to wait a long time. Because cultivators were not allowed to have their own immortal swords until they entered the Golden Core stage.
No one had explained the concept of the Golden Core to Gong Wei, after all, he could barely speak, let alone understand the distant concept of Foundation Building.
So Xu Shuangce just said, “You’ll naturally have one when you grow up.”
Gong Wei still didn’t understand, but nodded thoughtfully again. After a while, as if suddenly making a decision, he turned back to look up at Xu Shuangce’s chin and said seriously, “Xu Bai.”
Xu Shuangce said, “You’re talking a lot today.”
Gong Wei maintained that posture, looking at him eagerly, and said earnestly, “I like only you.”
The tip of the pen suddenly stopped in mid-air, hanging there.
The room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The branches outside the window swayed, and the sound of the wind was like the tide.
After a long while, Xu Shuangce scolded in a low voice, “…Nonsense.”
Gong Wei, unwilling to back down, was about to argue, but at this moment, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the window. Immediately after, a figure leaped up and began banging on the window frantically. It was Yuchi Rui, “Gong Wei! Come help me! I’ve caught all of Ying Kai’s fish, and he’s going to beat me!!”
Gong Wei: “?!?”
His best friend was about to get beaten up. Was there anything more important in the world than this?
With a swoosh, the wind rushed by, and Xu Shuangce’s was already empty.
The next moment, Gong Wei excitedly jumped out of the window, without even looking back, the two boys, filled with excitement, disappeared in the direction of Chengshu Palace.
“…”
The room slowly returned to silence, the early cicadas chirping on the branches, gradually fading away with the wind.
Xu Shuangce didn’t move, nor did he show any expression. After a while, he slowly put down the pen, sat there, and the deep pupils reflected the quiet dust in the air.
“It’s just nonsense,” he said each word slowly from between his teeth.
That was when time seemed still very long. They all thought Gong Wei would need many more years to reach the Foundation Building stage, then the Golden Core stage, and even if he couldn’t ultimately ascend to the Immortalization Realm, he would at least have a decent immortal sword.
No one expected that just a few years later, Bai Tai Shou would suddenly emerge unexpectedly, and immediately dominate in a battle that caught everyone off guard.
Gong Wei’s life went farther than anyone imagined, but also shorter than anyone imagined.
But that was all in the future.
***
Xu Shuangce descended from the clouds with his hands behind his back, landing gracefully on the soft ground in front of the great hall.
The wide and immense silver dome reflected a pale light under the sky. It was extremely quiet around, and on the huge silver plaque above the hall door was engraved a dragon and phoenix dancing, composed of secret spells of the Cangyang Sect, intricate and difficult for outsiders to discern—
“Forbidden.”
The forbidden land of Cangyang, trespassers will be killed without mercy.
Xu Shuangce looked up at the plaque, staring at the word for a long time.
Everyone knew that the Chengshu Palace’s Grand Elder had once been the most hated person in the life of the Cangyang Sect Master.
It was twenty years ago, on that late night when Xu Shuangce had just awakened from the Illusionary World of the Thousand Mirrors Realm. He rode his sword out of Xuanji Palace, killing his way to Dai Mountain Immortal Alliance, and shattered the gates of Chengshu Palace amidst a deafening noise. The trembling Grand Elder didn’t even have time to pack up and escape overnight. He was grabbed by the back of his collar by Xu Shuangce and dragged out alive.
Although everything that happened later became increasingly convoluted and bizarre as it was passed down through the ages, at least one detail about that night was indisputable. Because at that time, all the disciples of half of the Chengshu Palace heard Sect Master Xu’s roar:
“If you dare to kill my wife, today I’ll make you pay with your life!”
“Gong Wei—!”
Gong Wei fled in panic, but Xu Shuangce chased after him relentlessly, nearly breaking his legs several times. The whole Dai Mountain was alarmed, and even Ying Kai woke up in the middle of the night and rushed over, chasing after them frantically, “Shuangce, stop! That’s not your real wife. It’s just an illusion!”
“Senior Brother, save me! Senior Brother, save me!!”
“I know you have a great prejudice against Gong Zhiyu, but this time, he did his best in the Illusionary World. He was just helping you break through, Shuangce!!”
“Help! Help me!!”
“Shuangce, stop! Someone, come quickly and restrain Sect Master Xu—”
All the turns of events happened at the same moment.
Gong Wei banged his head into the corner of the wall, with nowhere else to go, subconsciously raised his hand to block.
Then No Way Out suddenly stopped in front of his arm.
——A faint glimmer shimmered under the sword blade, which was revealed when Gong Wei raised his hand and the sleeve slipped down, exposing a very familiar golden ring on his elbow, which pierced into Xu Shuangce’s eyes.
“…”
With a cracking sound, No Way Out plunged deeply into the floor tiles, and Xu Shuangce staggered back half a step.
“I’ve been wearing it since I can remember. I’ve forgotten where it came from.” The hoarse voice of the Illusory World’s General Bai still echoed in his ears, carrying the love and admiration that only he knew in his heart, saying, “Now I want to give it to you as a token of gratitude.”
“I don’t know why, I’ve never seen your face or heard your voice, but when I first met you, I had a sense of familiarity across lifetimes.”
“It feels like I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, liking you for a long time…”
“Ah Tao, do you also feel like you’ve met me in a previous life?”
“May we meet again in the future, and may we become husband and wife.”
…
May we meet again in the future, and may we become husband and wife.
The words of the Illusionary World lingered in his ears, every scene, every word was like cruel claws, revealing the truth that had been self-deceived for many years—
How could he possibly fall in love with someone he had never seen or spoken to, even if the Illusionary World’s magic was strong?
It turned out that it had nothing to do with his strange right eye, nor with any non-human tricks.
All the past lives, all the familiarities, all the joy of reunion and the admiration that was difficult to deceive, all got their answers at this moment.
“Is the Grand Elder okay?!” “Quick, help him up and restrain Sect Master Xu!” “It’s okay, it’s okay…”
Shouts, noise, and chaos all turned into a vast white background. Xu Shuangce stared straight at Gong Wei, who was surrounded by a group of people, hiding behind a stone pillar, looking over with panic and confusion.
“Shuangce, oh Shuangce, how could you be so impulsive, so unable to distinguish between right and wrong?” Ying Kai was so angry that he spoke without restraint, constantly reprimanding him beside him. “I know you’ve always harbored prejudice against Gong Zhiyu, saying his behavior is strange and he belongs to the non-human, and that one day he will bring great disaster to the world… But for many years, he has been diligent and diligent. Apart from you, no one feels that he has any strange aspects! This time entering the Illusory World was just to help you break the killing barrier! You two have always had grievances, but it’s better to resolve grievances than to make them worse. I will never allow you to lay a hand on Gong Zhiyu again!”
“Ying Kai.” Xu Shuangce hoarsely uttered.
“How could you almost kill Gong Zhiyu, who you’ve watched grow up, just because of a ‘wife’ that doesn’t exist in the illusionary world? You’re simply… What’s wrong with you?!”
Ying Kai looked at Xu Shuangce in horror, but saw his face pale and trance-like, as if he hadn’t heard those incessant reproaches at all, just staring straight ahead at Gong Wei.
“If only I hadn’t gone to that peach forest with you that year,” he murmured.
“If only I had never met this heartless thing.”
Ying Kai’s pupils contracted suddenly, only to see Xu Shuangce cover his mouth tightly with one hand and suddenly cough up a mouthful of hot blood!
“Shuang… Shuangce!”
…
That incredibly chaotic night ended like this, with everyone comforting the terrified Gong Wei, but no one noticed Xu Shuangce’s silent departure.
His soul seemed to have detached from his body, floating high above, watching coldly as his lifeless body returned on his sword, until he reached the peak of Cangyang Mountain, where the blood in his palm had solidified into a grim and vivid shape.
“Sect Master!”
“Sect Master has returned!”
“Sect Master, what’s wrong with you?!”…
Xu Shuangce stood there like a wandering soul, his expression as cold and indifferent as usual, but his eyes were scattered.
“There should be a forbidden place here,” he suddenly said in a low voice.
The nearest Wen Xiuyang was stunned, “Sect Master, what did you say?”
“…Build a forbidden hall here.” Xu Shuangce finally let out a sigh with rust-like air, straightened his body, and said, “After it’s built, I will personally write the forbidden spells. From now on, no one is allowed to approach, and violators will be killed without mercy.”
Everyone was puzzled, but dared not ask, and hurriedly bowed, “Yes!”
The forbidden hall of the Cangyang Sect began twenty years ago, located in a remote mountain where no one treaded, and all the materials used were extremely Yin. Every brick and every wall was personally inscribed with powerful forbidden spells by Xu Shuangce.
People say that since the enmity between the Sect Master of Cangyang and the Grand Elder of the Chengshu Palace, no one knows that from that day on, Gong Wei became Xu Shuangce’s most feared nightmare.
And here, is where he prepared to lock away his own nightmare.
***
—Forbidden.
Xu Shuangce finally withdrew his gaze, lifted his foot, and walked forward, the soles of his boots making a faint sound as they tread on the thick fallen leaves.
With a creak, he pushed open the intricately carved door and stepped into the grand hall.
The twelve whalebone screen doors were wide open, the carved beams and painted rafters, the high bed and soft pillows, and the crimson gauze curtains fluttered without wind. He took off the golden ring from his wrist and gently placed it on the edge of the bed, when footsteps came from outside the hall, cautiously stopping under the window, not getting any closer. It was the disciple on duty today, “Greetings, Sect Master!”
Xu Shuangce asked, “Where is Xiang Xiaoyuan?”
The disciple seemed a little surprised, hesitated before saying, “He should still be in the Xuanji Palace.”
“Bring him here.”
“Yes!”
Xu Shuangce let out a deep breath and looked around at the familiar furnishings.
The dust floated in the dim light, the ancient shelf cast shadows on the ground, and there were several stacks of books on the green jade table. On the wall hung a set of “The Ghost Crown Prince Welcomes His Bride” sequential paintings, which had yellowed over the twenty years, but the strokes were lively and interesting, very common among the families of the Xuanmen, used to amuse children.
His gaze lingered on the eighth painting of the little fox playing the suona, not moving for a long time, as if immersed in some distant and soft memories.
“Report to Sect Master—!”
Just then, the disciple returned on his sword, walking quickly to the window, and urgently said, “I was ordered by the Sect Master to summon Junior Brother Xiang, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. I just heard from the mountain guard that Junior Brother has left the mountain, flying on his sword with Young Master Yuchi!!”
The sharp corners of Xu Shuangce’s eyebrows slowly tightened.
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