Chapter 4
Shoutout to ethanldf for the commission!
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Without waiting for him to say it a second time, Yuchi Xiao drew his sword from its sheath, his momentum soaring, and the Taiji Bagua golden light burst forth, roaring in all directions!
Boom—
The ground of the royal mansion shook violently, and Gong Wei was pushed against the wall by the airflow, hearing Yuchi Xiao angrily say, “Next time something like this happens! Speak up directly! Are you trying to kill me?!”
Gong Wei retorted, “Before you act, observe first, okay?! You sword cultivators are too rough!”
The surrounding bricks and stones fell, but Yuchi Xiao didn’t look back. He slapped out eight talismans in succession, igniting them in the air, swiftly laying out a fierce electric net—only to find it caught nothing.
Nothing?!
Yuchi Xiao’s eyelids twitched. He saw the electric net dissipate, the sword light disappear, and besides himself and Gong Wei, there was no one else in the room. “Where’s the evil spirit?”
Gong Wei, lying on the bed, reflected the ghostly figure looming closer and closer in his pupils, unexpectedly saying, “Can’t you see it?”
This “ghostly figure” seemed to seep slowly from the air, leisurely and unobtrusively, wrapped in a cloak of smoke, with nothing under the huge hood.
—It had no face, not even a head, just a faintly glowing red light flickering in the depths of the hood.
It slowly bent down, as if carefully examining “Gong Wei’s” face. Somehow, Gong Wei felt that it seemed to be smiling, but it was definitely not a pleasant smile. Then it opened its large sleeves—
Gong Wei suddenly realized what it was trying to do. “Yuchi Xiao! Release me!”
Before the roar could land, Yuchi Xiao flew across with a horizontal slash, the sword edge passing through the ghostly figure as if it were nothing, crashing through half of the wall; bricks and stones flew like smoke and dust, and Meng Yunfei bathed in blue light, palm slamming the qin horizontally on the table, fingers plucking the melody furiously!
The killing intent poured out like a dam bursting, the ghostly figure let out a silent roar, its smoky body twisting violently, suddenly charging towards the qin cultivator. No one except Gong Wei could see it, but it happened in the blink of an eye. Meng Yunfei swept his fingers across the strings, the melody taking shape like ripples in the water, unexpectedly blocking the ghostly figure.
The “ripples” stirred up humanoid waves in the void, Meng Yunfei shouted, “Yuanju, there!”
Yuchi Xiao’s long sword “Gouchen” was already standing vertically between his brows, and with a swift movement, it glinted brightly, reflecting his sharp eyes. He murmured softly, “All swords return to the sect.”
He was indeed worthy of being the Yejinmen young master who cultivated sword arts by the time he was twenty. After being awakened, “Gouchen,” the sword spirit burst out with golden light, as if wrapping him in an indestructible suit of golden armor, slashing across with a waist-level strike, instantly reducing the dense smoke to ashes!
Yuchi Xiao stomped heavily on the ground, not even turning to ask Gong Wei, “Is it gone?!”
Gong Wei stared at the disappearing ghostly figure in the void, his pupils shrinking inch by inch. “….No, it’s still here.”
Yuchi Xiao and Meng Yunfei’s faces changed simultaneously. At the same time, all the torches in the mansion flickered, and ghostly cries echoed from all directions. A larger, clearer ghostly figure appeared in the sky, and with a clang, it drew out a shining long sword.
How could a mere evil spirit have a sword?!
The situation didn’t allow Gong Wei to think carefully. He shouted, “Yuchi Xiao!”
But by then, it was too late. Yuchi Xiao felt a tremendous killing intent rushing towards him. The instinct of life and death made him act hastily, and then—clang!!
The Gouchen Sword Art was highly aggressive, and once activated, Yuchi Xiao became like a living cannon. However, at this moment, the two swords clashed heavily, and the airflow surged wildly. Yuchi Xiao was actually swept away by the ghostly sword!
With a deafening bang, Yuchi Xiao smashed down most of the red walls of the royal mansion. Meng Yunfei rose, blue light flashing, but the ghostly figure vanished in an instant, then reappeared by the bedside, raising the ghostly sword high towards Gong Wei’s forehead—
All the changes happened in the blink of an eye.
Yuchi Xiao and Meng Yunfei rushed from different directions, but it was destined to be futile, because the ghostly sword had pierced down from the void. Three familiar seal characters on the sword hilt instantly reflected in Gong Wei’s astonished eyes.
Bai, Tai, Shou!
Gong Wei’s right eye suddenly widened, and no one noticed that it turned blood-red in an instant, while a mouthful of blood spurted from his lips.
The ghostly sword halted with a clang, the sword tip only half a hair’s breadth away from the blood-red eyeball.
Then, the sword, covered in blood mist, suddenly burst into thick smoke, as if it were being burned by fire, spreading rapidly to the ghostly figure’s arms and whole body, instantly engulfing it completely!
Although there was no sound, everyone seemed to hear a piercing scream loud enough to rupture eardrums, then it turned into a rolling mass of thick smoke, dissipating into nothingness amidst sharp whistling.
The other two rushed through the thick smoke, and even Yuchi Xiao couldn’t conceal a trace of horror. He slapped away the spiritual veins that had held Gong Wei down. “Are you alright?!”
Meng Yunfei pressed Gong Wei’s wrist with two fingers, swiftly checking his spiritual veins with true qi, and breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re fine, no injuries. How did that evil spirit disappear?”
“…”
Gong Wei had already closed his eyes amidst their earnest gazes. When he opened them again, his right eye had returned to normal, without any trace of abnormality, but his face was as pale as death.
“I don’t know,” he gasped, his voice hoarse. “That wasn’t… that wasn’t an evil spirit, it had a sword.”
Yuchi Xiao exclaimed, “What?!”
Gong Wei tightly pursed his cold lips, but didn’t speak the name of the sword.
Northern Hope Heaven’s Wolf, Bai Tai Shou. This sword, which shook the heavens, should have disappeared after his death. No one knew where it was, let alone refining its unique sword spirit. How could it appear in the hand of a ghostly figure?
“Where’s my body?” Gong Wei couldn’t help but wonder.
Did Xu Shuangce massacre my remains at Cangyang Mountain, let blood enter the peach blossoms, and then?
Where did they take my bones?
***
In the deep night, at Cangyang Mountain.
Xu Shuangce opened his eyes, petals fluttering down like snow, covering the sky.
He exhaled slowly, as in the countless dreams he had repeated before, once again stepping into this vast peach blossom forest in front of him, hearing the voice of Ying Kai from afar:
“It’s there! Hurry, Shuangce, that thing’s about to escape!”
Don’t go over, he thought.
All the bizarre confusion was revealed in this scene, but he couldn’t stop all the tragedies from happening from the very beginning. He could only watch as his young self walked from his side towards the front:
“It’s coming!”
The grass waist-deep in the distance swayed without wind, as if the hidden prey had been startled and was desperately fleeing south. But Ying Kai was already prepared, tossing out four burning talismans, with white-golden flames rushing forward. The “prey,” in its panic, suddenly turned around, rushing towards a sparkling spring pool to the north.
Ying Kai said, “Shuangce! Don’t let it into the water!”
The two of them had been close friends since childhood, traveling down the mountain together, seeking the path of immortality. Their cooperation was seamless. As soon as Ying Kai’s voice fell, Xu Shuangce drew his sword, and in an instant, the sword qi broke through the air, water waves turning into thousands of sharp blades stabbing down, blocking it just before the prey, ignoring everything, leaped into the water.
In the nick of time, Ying Kai cast a net of translucent red light, precisely covering it, and the sounds of sharp cries from small beasts echoed by the water’s edge.
Ying Kai exclaimed, “Caught it!”
They both landed and walked towards the struggling mermaid silk net in the bushes. Ying Kai chuckled, “I’d like to see what kind of monster dares to intrude into Cangyang Mountain and steal Sect Master Xu’s peach wine. Could it be a little monkey… Hm?”
Ying Kai squatted down, his voice suddenly stopped.
Behind him came Xu Shuangce’s voice, “What’s wrong?”
“…” Ying Kai turned around, his face full of astonishment. “It’s… it’s a person.”
The “prey” in the mermaid silk net finally revealed itself as Ying Kai turned around. Xu Shuangce paused in his steps, meeting a pair of eyes filled with extreme fear.
It was a youth.
He was very young, probably only fifteen or sixteen years old, completely naked like a newborn baby, unnaturally white, curled up in the net trembling violently, fingers clutching his skinny shoulders so hard they turned blue. His wide eyes reflected the shadows of the two of them, his right eyeball a blood-like clear red, even the pupils trembling with fear.
Xu Shuangce remained silent for a long time before he heard his own voice saying, “No. It’s impossible for it to be a person.”
Ying Kai pressed his thumb against the youth’s forehead, ignoring the nonsensical wailing and struggling, closed his eyes and probed for a few breaths, then opened them in amazement, saying, “His three souls, seven spirits, and seven pulses are intact. He’s indeed human.”
Xu Shuangce stepped forward, half kneeling down, and just as he was about to reach for the youth’s forehead, the youth suddenly let out a sharp scream and tried to throw himself into the water. Ying Kai quickly grabbed him, tore off the monster-catching net, and wrapped the youth in his outer robe, asking, “What’s your name? Where are you from? Why did you run into Cangyang Sect?”
“…”
The youth clung tightly to the robe corner, his gaze constantly shifting between the two of them, before he finally opened his mouth with a short, meaningless sound, then clenched his teeth tightly.
“Can’t you speak? Don’t be afraid, shh.” Ying Kai kept repeating to comfort him, tentatively putting his hand on the youth’s wet short hair, patting his head patiently, and smiling, “Don’t be afraid, how long have you been hiding in the peach forest? Do you want to go out?”
Perhaps his kind smile worked, the youth’s violent trembling gradually subsided. Vigilantly looking back and forth between the two of them for a long time, he suddenly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eerie right eye had turned black like theirs.
“He’s observing us.” Xu Shuangce looked down at him from above and said softly, “He’s learning how to be human.”
It was not surprising that small monsters were born in places with abundant spiritual energy in famous mountains and rivers, but Ying Kai shook his head. “Monsters cannot develop human souls, his soul is intact. There may be some other reasons—I’ll take him back to the Immortal Alliance and have Brother Mu from the Medical Sect take a look.” He reached out to the youth and asked gently, “Can I take you out?”
This action made the just-calm youth shudder backwards, seemingly ready to run away at any moment. But Ying Kai’s smile remained unchanged, and he extended his palm upwards without any defense. After half a moment, the youth slowly, almost inch by inch, leaned over, hesitantly lifted one hand, and then glanced at Xu Shuangce.
He seemed to be waiting for something, but Xu Shuangce saw his young self just standing there, squinting slightly, and not saying a word.
The youth finally turned his head back and placed his hand in Ying Kai’s palm.
——In the instant of contact, the rare transparency of his skin suddenly disappeared, turning into an exceptionally fair but warm and real appearance. But this change was subtle and difficult to perceive. Ying Kai supported him with his hand, but found that he couldn’t stand on his own feet, so he had to carry him horizontally and walk down the mountain.
Xu Shuangce followed behind, seeing the youth looking over Ying Kai’s shoulder, tilting his head to look at him, and after a long time, the corners of his mouth moved, as if he were awkwardly imitating Ying Kai’s expression just now, cautiously revealing a pleasing smile.
That should be the first expression Gong Wei learned.
Before that, he didn’t know how to express his own wishes with expressions and language, so Xu Shuangce couldn’t be sure whether when he looked at himself by the pool, he wanted to say to him that he wanted to continue staying in Cangyang Mountain with that peach forest.
Xu Shuangce opened his eyes, and the black night flowed into the bed from layer to layer.
He sat up from the bed, walked down the nine-level green jade steps, and pushed open the heavy sleeping hall door. But none of his junior disciples could be seen. The moon halo reflected the stars, and the peach blossom forest was like snowflakes under the moonlight, falling one after another.
In the distance, the rustling of the trees, like the whispering of demons, came from the wind:
“…Our sect’s peach blossoms are really flourishing. Why do they never wither?” “Have you heard the rumors?” “What rumors?” “It’s about sixteen years ago…”
Xu Shuangce’s brows furrowed, and he looked in the direction of the sound.
“Sixteen years ago, when Grand Elder Gong died, our Sect Master went mad, traveled thousands of miles with his sword, and destroyed his body here in the forest. The blood splashed onto the branches and flower buds, so there is this strange sight of the peach blossoms blooming all year round. They say that this sea of flowers is the resentment left by Grand Elder Gong for sixteen years!”
Someone sighed softly, “Why? Two immortal sect masters, why come to this?”
The voice behind was light and thin, carrying an inexplicable sense of strangeness under the moonlight, “So many years have passed, who dares to mention the past? Who knew twenty years ago, Sect Master Xu wanted to marry a mute girl, and on the day of their wedding with candles burning high, Grand Elder Gong suddenly arrived and killed the bride with a sword!”
The forest swayed with a rustling sound, and the sound of inhaling resounded all around.
In the clearing of the forest, two disciples were facing each other, but it seemed as if countless specters were whispering with them, their voices carried by the wind to all directions: “But Sect Master Xu marrying a wife is such a big deal, no one has heard of it, right?” “Hasn’t Sect Master Xu always been in Cangyang Mountain? When did the rumor of him marrying spread?” “Why marry a mute girl?” “….”
That sharp and smug voice rang out again: “In the Xuanji Hall, there is a portrait of a woman in red clothes on the inner wall, painted by the Master himself. The Master had many obstacles in his youth, and it is said… ah!”
The noise of countless demons in the wind suddenly ceased, and the two disciples simultaneously knelt down, trembling, and said, “Sect Master!”
Xu Shuangce remained silent, his eyes under the moonlight as cold as frost, and after a long moment, he closed his eyes.
Blood flowed from the seven orifices of the two disciples simultaneously, but they couldn’t even plead for mercy. With two muffled sounds, they fell to the ground in pain, and the thick fallen leaves under the trees were crushed by their struggles, emitting a terrifyingly faint sound.
Xu Shuangce turned and stepped over the blood-soaked crushed leaves, crossing the shimmering moonlit steps.
The jade pillars soared high, and the sleeping hall was spacious. A portrait of a woman on the wall vaguely revealed itself behind layers of veils. She had her back to the viewer, only her figure under the wedding dress could be seen, extremely graceful and slender.
Xu Shuangce stopped in his tracks, quietly gazing at her.
“Did you paint this, Xu Bai?” He heard Gong Wei’s frivolous laughter coming from the void beside him. The familiar figure slowly emerged, standing with his hands behind his back in front of the portrait, leaning in to examine it carefully for a while, then turned back with a smile.
He said, “Your painting doesn’t look like them at all. Did you do it on purpose?”
Gong Wei was very slender and always gave the impression of being about to be blown away by the wind. But every time he appeared, he was lively and vivid, as if he had never left. Every syllable with a laugh hammered at the heartstrings.
Xu Shuangce asked, “Who allowed you to go to Cangyang Mountain?”
Gong Wei turned lightly, the vermilion-colored robe embroidered with maple leaves sliding into an arc under the moonlight, like glittering wings. The next moment, he peeked out from the other side of Xu Shuangce, enthusiastically saying, “Xu Bai, Xu Bai, you are really strange. You look so cold on the surface, but so affectionate in private. Are you still mad at me?”
“…”
Gong Wei’s glass-like pupils turned, getting closer, and his right pupil slowly turned red imperceptibly. His lips almost touched Xu Shuangce’s ear as he asked, “Shall I help you paint another one? I know what they look like from the front. Do you want a frontal portrait? I…”
Xu Shuangce suddenly drew his sword, the cold light soaring.
In the blink of an eye, Gong Wei swiftly retreated, his back hitting the stone pillar of the sleeping hall with a bang. He tightly covered his right eye with his hand, blood oozing from between his fingers!
With a clang, Xu Shuangce pinned his long sword to the ground beside him, looking down at him from a high vantage point. “Gong Zhiyu.”
Helpless against the bright sword edge, Gong Wei’s profile looked pale, blood trickling down from between his fingers, flowing from his wrist into the wide sleeves.
“They all say you’re human, but I know you can’t be.” Xu Shuangce leaned down, staring at him, his voice soft but ruthless, “If you dare to use those inhuman tricks on me again, don’t blame me for not treating you like a human anymore.”
The air seemed to freeze, the stone walls of the hall reflected a cold and dim light, Xu Shuangce’s deep black eyes bottomless. Gong Wei looked up at him in astonishment, and after a long while, he suddenly smiled, letting go of his blood-stained hand. His eerie right eye had returned to normal, but there was a wound from the sword aura under his eye, a deep wound that continued to ooze blood:
“Sect Master Xu, you’ve hurt me.”
He tilted his face up, his complaint tinged with the unique tenderness of youth, the lazy trailing tone sounding like a light veil fluttering in the moonlight.
Xu Shuangce looked down at him, after countless repetitions of the dream, he already knew what would happen next. The last trace of consciousness sharply warned him to withdraw immediately, but in reality, he still stood there motionless—
A scent of spring peaches and clear air rushed towards his lips.
At that moment, Xu Shuangce suddenly sat up from the bed.
***
“Sect Master!” “Sect Master!”
Xu Shuangce pushed aside the heavy curtains and walked out of the nine-fold deep hall. The vast night sky outside was deep blue, with two or three stars sparsely scattered, and a faint fish-belly green was rising on the distant horizon.
The two hall guards, dressed in white and silver armor, completely unaware that they had just appeared in a dream, hurriedly knelt down and bowed. After a while, a deep voice came from above their heads:
“When a person wakes up from a dream, how can they distinguish whether the world they are in is real or another layer of dream?”
The two disciples were stunned, unable to help but look at each other. The one who was slightly higher in status hesitated, “Master, when people dream… they should not feel sadness or pain. If they are injured and do not feel pain, then it should be a dream.”
Before dawn, the earth was quiet, with only the mountain breeze rustling through the trees, lifting Xu Shuangce’s robe sleeves.
The two disciples stared at the blue bricks in front of them, their backs involuntarily tense. It seemed like a long, long time had passed before Xu Shuangce chuckled softly, his voice indistinguishable in emotion, faintly tinged with a mocking tone.
Want to show your support? Come donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Thank You for the chapter ❤٩(•౪•٩)