Chapter 65
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Gong Wei stretched lazily, threw on his clothes, and stepped down from the bed, the snow-white silk trailing casually behind his steps.
The grand hall was unusually quiet, and Gong Wei wondered where Xu Shuangce had disappeared to. Yawning, he lazily tied the sash around his waist and reached to push open the window, but to his surprise, the seemingly delicate window latch didn’t budge when pushed.
Stuck?
Gong Wei shrugged it off, glancing around the room, and suddenly spotted a plate of puff patry with cream on the table.
Xu Shuangce had actually taken the initiative to give him snacks; that was rare.
Gong Wei finally felt a hint of real appreciation from Xu Shuangce, feeling pleasantly surprised. He happily ate two and drank half a bowl of silver-threaded peach blossom tea before wiping his hands and stopping.
Perhaps it was because he had received too much spiritual energy from Xu Shuangce at once, and his spiritual veins were still slowly digesting it, but Gong Wei felt unusually tired. However, he felt he shouldn’t go back to sleep, so he got up and wandered around for a bit. Suddenly, he noticed various treasures displayed on the octagonal table in the outer room, including a mercury mirror framed with entwined gold threads.
The face of “Xiang Xiaoyuan” was delicate and beautiful, somewhat similar to Gong Wei’s appearance when he was young, but after this body merged with the golden core, it underwent significant changes, becoming even more similar to his past life.
When standing straight, he had grown two or three inches taller, his facial features becoming more distinct, with sharper eyes and a tighter contour. Standing in front of the mirror, he looked quiet and composed, reminiscent of his demeanor in his previous life. But when he smiled, a hint of crimson flickered in the depths of his pupils, shining with a charming and cunning light, as if he was always scheming something.
If he walked like this in the mortal markets, he might be mistaken for a luxurious young nobleman in his late teens, riding a spirited horse, leisurely and carefree, oblivious to the sorrows of the world.
Finally restoring his more accustomed appearance, Gong Wei looked left and right in the mirror, feeling quite satisfied, and took a step back. Unexpectedly, his loose robes shifted with his movement, and a vermilion mark flashed under his collarbone.
Gong Wei suddenly remembered the days before the dual cultivation. Xu Shuangce would meticulously write something on this part of his body, and when the last stroke was finished, his primordial spirit would burn with intense pain. He immediately opened his robes and looked in the mirror, only to see a vermilion blood character carved neatly below his right collarbone, near his shoulder, unmistakably spelling out “Xu”!
…
In a flash of insight, Gong Wei recognized what kind of spell this was.
Xu Shuangce had turned him into his own cultivation furnace.
And it was a bidirectional cultivation furnace!
This body, with its Yin-heavy constitution, was originally an innate cultivation furnace, but Xu Shuangce, being a grandmaster, didn’t bother with supplements; instead, he directly forged a bidirectional talisman for mutual replenishment during dual cultivation.
—Although it was called mutual replenishment, in reality, this body had nothing that Xu Shuangce could replenish. So, in essence, it was just like normal dual cultivation, where Gong Wei was taking advantage of Xu Shuangce.
But the term “bidirectional cultivation furnace” carried an additional layer of meaning: from now on, Gong Wei was locked by Xu Shuangce. He could only replenish with Xu Shuangce, and seeking others would be of no use at all!
Gong Wei rested one hand on his forehead, his eyes going black. Of course, he wasn’t someone who casually engaged in dual cultivation with just anyone; he had only gone along with it because he liked Xu Shuangce. But what kind of unreasonable behavior was it to casually meddle with someone else’s life like this?!
No wonder those days he had used every trick in the book to try to get Xu Shuangce to submit, but Xu Shuangce wouldn’t budge. At the time, he had secretly sighed at Xu Shuangce’s purity and self-restraint, only to realize later that Xu Shuangce just wanted to finish drawing the talisman!
Gong Wei took a deep breath, reminding himself three times in his mind, “Xu Shuangce likes me,” and then forcibly recalled some unsavory deeds from his past life on the Ascension Immortal Platform, cultivating a bit of shame and guilt. Finally, he silently repeated to himself three times, “Xu Shuangce likes me.”
Gong Wei, the Supreme Immortal, was always adept at adjusting his own mindset, and this series of thoughts indeed alleviated much of his frustration and indignation. He opened his eyes, took a breath, and calmly thought, “A cultivation furnace is a cultivation furnace after all; it’s not like I’m not benefiting from it too. As long as Xu Shuangce doesn’t refuse dual cultivation in the future, it’s fine. Oh yes, in the future, we mustn’t be so harsh during dual cultivation; is it really necessary to go at it all night? When Xu Shuangce comes back later, I’ll have to negotiate this with him.”
With this decision made, Gong Wei’s mindset became much more balanced. He straightened his robes and planned to go outside the hall for a stroll, but suddenly, the corner of his eye caught sight of the mercury mirror opposite him, and his steps halted.
—The mirror seemed like water, rippling in circles, and the figure in the mirror became blurry with it.
Gong Wei turned suspiciously, his eyes narrowing sharply.
At this moment, the ripples in the mirror gradually subsided, revealing another pale and familiar face, facing directly towards the world outside the mirror.
Gong Wei’s pupils silently widened.
That face was his own from his past life on the Ascension Immortal Platform, covered in blood, with a painful expression and eyes full of despair!
Mirror technique?!
What kind of sinister trickery dared to be employed on Cangyang Mountain!
Gong Wei decisively pinched the joint of his ring finger, but it was too late; instead of blood streaks, a series of flying, glowing crimson petals seeped out of his flesh.
Everything around him quickly faded to black and white, the air sucked clean, suffocating silence enveloping his ears; an invisible claw grabbed his heart, beating faster and louder, as if it would burst out with a single breath—
Gong Wei clenched his teeth, calming down in an instant. He raised his hand without mercy and slashed towards the mirror’s surface.
But at that moment, he saw his reflection in the mirror open its mouth, hoarsely saying, “…kill Xu Shuangce…”
As if struck by a heavy hammer in his mind, Gong Wei’s hand stopped in mid-air.
His reflection in the mirror was covered in blood, his abdomen pierced through, a sword impaled in the left side of his heart. He could barely stand, but his eyes, both blood-red, pierced through time and space, through the mirror, and seemed to be staring into a distant and ominous future, filled with despair:
“…Everything can be forgotten, but remember to kill Xu Shuangce. Only by killing him can all this end…”
“Why?” Gong Wei stared at his battered reflection in the mirror. “But I like him, why would I want to kill him?”
He saw himself shaking his head, eyes filled with sadness, blood gushing out from between his teeth as he spoke, “I… will empty my mind of all gods, all thoughts, and only the instinct to kill Xu remains…”
“In this state, only the end matters, only killing Xu remains.”
Kill Xu.
Gong Wei struggled against the invading consciousness, closing his eyes and then opening them again, his eyes shining brightly as he said firmly, “Who is playing tricks with gods!”
He bit his tongue, spraying blood onto the mirror’s surface, shattering the illusion into countless fragments—
The next moment, Gong Wei abruptly woke up, sitting up in bed, realizing he was still lying there. The hall was empty and silent, the plate of snacks on the table untouched.
Was that a dream just now?
A familiar voice came from outside the layers of curtains, even more hoarse and weak than before: “I will empty my mind of all gods, all thoughts…”
An inexplicable anxiety and fear surged in Gong Wei’s heart. He suddenly felt like he had forgotten something important, but he didn’t want to admit it. With a sudden movement, he flipped off the bed and rushed out of the room, smashing the reflection of himself in the mirror into countless pieces with a single palm.
Crash!
The mercury mirror shattered, and Gong Wei exclaimed fiercely from between his teeth, “I don’t want to kill Xu Shuangce!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Gong Wei woke up in shock.
It was still a dream!
The mercury mirror that had just been shattered was restored to its original state, appearing in mid-air. His reflection in the mirror couldn’t even stand, kneeling on the ground, covered in blood, tears streaming from his crimson eyes, “In this state, only the end matters, only killing Xu remains…”
“I said I don’t want to kill Xu Shuangce!” Gong Wei was completely confused, smashing the mirror with his palm, blood splattering from his fingertips. “Shut up!”
The shards cut into his fingers, blood dripping into the air.
But before he could even feel the pain, Gong Wei woke up again, sitting up from the bed.
He couldn’t distinguish between the layers of overlapping reality and dreams anymore. His hand was perfectly fine, just like the mirror, which remained an ever-present reflection.
This time, his reflection in the mirror was on the brink of death, his crimson pupils filled with immense, helpless sorrow, each word seeming to drain the last of his strength:
“…The butterfly dies and the dream is born, the dream has an end…”
“Dream births death, dream death births life.”
These verses turned into an endless power, flooding Gong Wei’s mind, causing a roaring sound in his ears. He painfully covered his ears and fell off the bed, trying to push the window open, but the carved window remained unmoved; he then rushed to push the door, gnashing his teeth in madness as he pounded the door, as if smashing against the silent and towering mountain.
“…The butterfly dies and the dream is born, the dream has an end…”
Countless prohibitions emerged from the floor, walls, cracks in the bricks, and gaps in the wood, densely packed with flickering golden light, reflecting in Gong Wei’s rapidly dilated eyes.
“Dream births death, dream death births life.”
“Xu Bai!!” Gong Wei tightly covered his ears, blood trickling from between his teeth, his sharp screams tearing through his throat, “Xu Shuangce! Xu Bai!!—”
“This state cannot continue,” he heard the voice filled with despair in his ears, “Even the gods are helpless.”
As the last word of the verse entered his ears, Gong Wei’s chaotic mind suddenly moved.
In the depths of his confusion, he suddenly felt a connection with the entire world, hearing from the distant horizon, where the vast expanse of the sky was exhausted and collapsed into a huge black hole in the sight of millions of people.
Boom—
At the same time, in the Asura Hall.
Ying Kai stared at the hair on his finger, his face unusually pale, but he couldn’t utter a word.
At this moment, it seemed that Xu Shuangce suddenly heard something and looked towards the direction of the forbidden hall in the distance.
Ying Kai finally managed to squeeze out a few words, “How old is he?! Do you really know what you’re doing?! Get him out immediately…”
Before he could finish the second half of his sentence, Xu Shuangce’s expression seemed to change suddenly, and he strode quickly towards the courtyard gate.
“Where are you going?!”
Ying Kai stood up in astonishment, only to see Xu Shuangce ignoring him completely, summoning No Way Out, rising on his sword and rushing towards the back mountain. Ying Kai immediately guessed what was happening, without hesitation, he grabbed the Mountain Ocean Order sword, “Rise!”
The two divine swords were equally fast, Xu Shuangce and Ying Kai flew across the sky like meteors, crossing over the first peak of Cangyang Mountain and heading straight for the forbidden hall on the back mountain. From a distance, Ying Kai saw the magnificent forbidden hall hidden in the mountains and couldn’t help but be shocked and angry. Just as he was about to move forward, a sharp qi surged from the front, it was No Way Out!
Clang!
At the critical moment, Mountain Ocean Order heavily blocked the edge of the No Way Out sword.
In a lightning-fast exchange of moves in the sky, the two grandmasters of the current era clashed for over a hundred moves, their qi splitting the void, and countless disciples on the ground looked on in shock. Another “clang!” resounded, and Xu Shuangce firmly stopped Ying Kai’s momentum.
Both men were on edge, neither giving an inch, and Xu Shuangce’s black eyes gleamed on the chilling edge of the sword. “Stop here, Ying Kai.”
Ying Kai’s seven orifices emitted smoke, “How dare you act so recklessly! Immediately bring him out to me!!”
Xu Shuangce said indifferently, “My dao companion is unwell today. Why don’t you come back another time?”
Ying Kai was incredulous at the mention of “dao companion”: “You…”
Suddenly, Xu Shuangce seemed to hear something, turned his head to look at the grand hall on the ground, his face changing.
Then he drew his sword and left without even saying goodbye, flying straight down.
Ying Kai was about to chase after him, but he saw Xu Shuangce land and wave his sleeve. The spiritual light of layers of prohibitions flashed from all sides of the vast building. Without stopping, he pushed the door and entered. Ying Kai didn’t even have time to peek inside, and the door of the hall slammed shut.
Om—
Countless prohibitions flashed again, completely sealing off the grand hall, like a magnificent prison between heaven and earth.
“Xu Bai, you!”
Ying Kai, furious, stepped forward, but almost kicked something. He lowered his head and saw a small bronze box on the ground.
It should have slipped out of Xu Shuangce’s arms during their sword clash just now. It fell among the thick fallen leaves, making no sound when it landed.
Ying Kai picked up the bronze box, intending to suppress his anger and knock on the door to return it to Xu Shuangce. Just then, a fiery red communication token slid out of his sleeve automatically, rising into the air and activating a long-distance transmission formation. Within the formation was none other than Yuchi Rui, who, as usual, wasted no words:
“The sky over Linnan is collapsing.”
Even Ying Kai, accustomed to the straightforwardness of the Sword Sect, couldn’t react in time. “What did you say?”
Yuchi Rui clasped his hands together on the handle of the Rakshasa Tower sword in front of him, his brows furrowed, and he spoke concisely, “A disciple from the Yejinmen came to report that the sky over Linnan collapsed, revealing a thousand-foot black hole.”
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)