Chapter 88
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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Within Suicheng, flames had long surrounded the city, but there was still temporarily untouched ground outside the city walls, all thanks to the efforts of Music Saint Liu Xuzhi and his followers, who used a large amount of spiritual power to forcibly suppress and extinguish the flames. Cultivators flew back and forth, rescuing the trapped civilians in the city and placing them in temporary tents set up outside. Everyone was frantically searching for their missing loved ones, and cries echoed through the air, creating chaos.
“Where’s my daughter? Has anyone seen my daughter?!” A disheveled woman cried out in despair, his hair wild as he searched, “Darling! Mom’s here, Darling!”
Suddenly, a wailing cry approached from a distance, getting closer and closer, “Mom! Mom!”
The woman turned around, instantly overjoyed, and burst into tears as she embraced the lost little girl. The little girl, frightened, trembled violently and called out for his mother while turning his head to find someone, “It was the big brother who saved me! Thank you, big brother!”
The woman looked around gratefully but saw no sign of the big brother. “Where? Where’s the person who saved you?”
“He was wearing black clothes and was just over there!” The little girl, tears still in his eyes, said in his childish voice, “Big brother—”
Ying Kai stood quietly nearby, watching the reunited mother and daughter.
After a while, he lowered his gaze and disappeared into the crowd.
Everywhere was filled with fleeing refugees, and anxious or despairing faces were everywhere. Ying Kai moved through the crowd like a ghost, listening to the endless cries around him, his mind blank and empty.
Suddenly, sharp cries came from nearby. A middle-aged man was kneeling on the ground, continuously kowtowing, “My mother is still inside, please save my mother! She’s in the courtyard at the end of Wutong Lane in the south of the city, she’s eighty years old! She can’t get out on her own!”
But the young cultivators he kowtowed to kept backing away. Someone said, “The south of the city is already blocked by fire, we can’t get in either!”
“I beg you, accumulate merit! You can fly, you can definitely save my mother!”
Several young disciples were on the verge of tears. “It’s impossible, the fire is too big! We can’t even fly our swords in!”
The man turned a deaf ear, scrambling and crawling, rushing forward to grab people’s legs. “Please, I only have this one mother! You can’t just stand by and watch her die――”
The onlookers were in heated discussions, but Ying Kai stopped in his tracks, his pupils slightly contracting.
Finally, unable to bear it any longer, a girl dressed in the attire of a Music Saint disciple bit her lip and made up her mind, “I-I’ll give it a try! I’m light on my feet and quick with a sword, maybe there’s still time!”
The man immediately burst into tears, rushing forward and shouting incoherently about Guanyin Bodhisattva. However, the other cultivators nearby were quick to intervene, shocked: “Junior sister, absolutely not!” “The south side of the city has already been sealed off by fire, don’t you know?!” “There’s no way to rescue her! You’ll end up dying in there!”
“Nonsense, you’re all talking nonsense! You’re just standing by and watching someone die!” The man panicked, pushing and shoving the other cultivators, then kneeling down and kowtowing to the girl, “You’re different from them, you’re Guanyin Bodhisattva! Please, I beg you, I beg you!!”
The other cultivators held onto the girl tightly, refusing to let go. “You absolutely cannot go!” “Do you want to die in the fire?!”
…
The surrounding voices were clamorous, the discussions uproarious, yet Ying Kai closed his eyes, as if falling into a ludicrous and endless dream.
“Such a pity, a man’s knee should be as valuable as gold…” “But you can’t say that, the girl isn’t responsible for saving his mother!” “Exactly! What if a good girl like her dies in the fire?” “You can’t talk like that unless it’s your mother!”…
“Are none of you accumulating merit?!” By now, the man in the middle of the crowd was nearly mad, clutching the girl’s skirt tightly and refusing to let go. He shouted hoarsely at the other cultivators, “Aren’t you all supposed to become immortals and gods? Why are you just standing by and watching someone die! You’re worse than pigs and dogs!!”
The surrounding discussions erupted, and the girl, facing the gaze of everyone, her face flushed with embarrassment amidst the tug-of-war, cried out in desperation to her fellow disciples, “Just let me go! Just let me go!! I――”
Suddenly, a surge of spiritual energy struck her from the crowd, forcibly silencing her. She stood frozen in place, her body stiff, as the chaos momentarily subsided.
A cultivator exclaimed, “Immobilization technique?!”
“Don’t go,” a voice sounded in the girl’s ears, filled with indescribable fatigue and self-mockery, “They’re not worth it.”
The girl widened his eyes in surprise.
Immediately after, a figure in a black robe rose into the air amidst the bustling crowd, swiftly flying towards the south of the city to the shock of everyone present.
Exclamations arose: “Someone’s really going to save them!” “Are they out of their minds?!” ….
The man suddenly reacted, ecstatically chasing after a few steps, then fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face, kowtowing, “Immortal! I’m infinitely grateful! You must be a living immortal!!”
However, the figure in the black robe didn’t look back, not even glancing at the man, as if the tears of gratitude, anxious gazes, and boiling discussions had nothing to do with him.
He simply flew past the people, disappearing into the raging flames.
The south of the city was indeed blocked by a wall of fire. Although there were no visible flames on the streets and alleys, the distant sounds of burning approached continuously. Other than that, there was silence, the streets filled with smoke, and the residents had long fled.
Ying Kai landed in front of a small dilapidated courtyard at the end of an alley, gently pushing the wooden gate open. Creak—
The vine-covered gate opened, revealing a small and dilapidated courtyard. An old woman was sitting hunched under the window, lifting her head to look around upon hearing the sound.
Ying Kai paused.
He had expected the man’s eighty-year-old mother to be crying for help inside the house, but instead, he found the old woman sitting in the courtyard, calmly shelling beans. She wore a patched coarse cloth garment, was exceptionally clean, and her gray hair was neatly arranged. She looked up with eyes full of wrinkles.
“Young man, are you… a cultivator?” The old woman widened her eyes in surprise.
Ying Kai faced her surprised gaze and opened his mouth, but the word “yes” didn’t immediately come out.
―― He intended to say that her son had asked him to rescue her, but for some reason, the words stuck in his throat, and he looked at her without saying anything.
The old lady didn’t understand his meaning and tremblingly said, “The fire is about to reach here! Why haven’t you run away yet? If you don’t run now, you won’t be able to escape!”
“…”
Suddenly, Ying Kai’s heart stirred, and he didn’t know why, but he blurted out involuntarily, “I’m too injured to move.”
The old lady immediately became anxious, got up, went inside, and soon brought another small stool out and placed it in the courtyard. She forcefully pulled Ying Kai to sit opposite her, looking at him with concern and asked, “Are you hungry?”
Ying Kai’s gaze fell on the beans that had just been half-shelled on the ground, and he asked back, “Old lady, why aren’t you fleeing for your life? Haven’t the cultivators from Yanchuntai come to rescue people in the south of the city?”
The old lady replied with a heavy heart, continuing to shell the beans as she spoke, “They’ve come before! I heard it from inside the house. They flew in and out to rescue people from the city! But at my age, with so many young people in the neighborhood needing help, what’s the point of me joining in the fun? I just wanted to wait until those women and children had escaped before making a move! But as I waited, I didn’t see those little Daoist priests flying back anymore. I guess the fire had already completely engulfed the area, and they couldn’t fly in anymore!”
She placed a handful of shelled beans into another basin, sighed, and said, “I just thought, they shouldn’t come back anymore. It takes only half an hour for the fire to reach here. I don’t want those little Daoist cultivators to sacrifice themselves for an old woman like me. Before I left, I heard from the wife of Old Li next door that she saw my son and his family being rescued by a few little Daoist priests from the shop side—what else could trouble my heart?”
Ying Kai remained silent for a long time, picked up a handful of beans, and started shelling them slowly.
The two of them sat face to face, shelling green beans. The old woman chattered away, saying, “I don’t have much to do, just thought I’d cook a meal before I leave――can’t go hungry on the road, might as well be a well-fed ghost. There’s hardly anything left to eat at home, just these beans. I figured I’d cook them and have a meal!”
Ying Kai put a bean into a clean bowl and asked softly, “Don’t you want to live?”
“Even if I want to live, I can’t drag others down with me,” the old woman sighed heavily. “People, conceived for ten months, fall when the fruit is ripe; when the time comes, they leave cleanly. Isn’t it better to go quietly, following this natural law?”
She finished shelling the last bean, wiped her hands on her apron, and carried the bowl inside.
The crackling sounds around them grew louder, and the smell of burning in the air became stronger. Ying Kai watched the old woman’s back and suddenly asked, “But what if you could still live?”
The old woman paused, turning back with a puzzled look.
Ying Kai, right in front of her, slowly drew out the Mountain Ocean Order sword.
Mountain Ocean Order was too conspicuous, so he had cast a spell earlier, making it so that no one in Suicheng could notice the existence of this sword. But now he had pulled out the sword himself, and its blade emitted a cold light, reflecting in the old lady’s cloudy eyes.
“This sword can only carry one person,” Ying Kai said calmly, holding out the hilt of the sword to the old lady, “As long as you take it, it will naturally take you to the camp outside the city, where you can reunite with your family.”
The air froze for a moment. The trembling gaze of the old lady fell on the sword, and her lips moved twice.
Ying Kai’s pupils contracted severely, as if even his breath had stopped.
Immediately after, without warning, the old woman suddenly turned around and quickly stepped into the house with the bowl.
Inside, there were sounds of pots and pans clanging, and the boiling of water. Ying Kai waited for just a moment before the curtain of the house was lifted, and the old woman hurriedly emerged again. She held a small floral package in her hands, still warm, and without hesitation, she thrust it into Ying Kai’s hands and tightly grasped his hand with her elderly palms. “Aren’t you starving and unable to walk? There’s only these few beans left at home. I cooked them, hurry up and eat before you leave!” She grabbed Ying Kai’s shoulder and pushed him towards the yard, urging, “Hurry, if you wait any longer, you won’t be able to fly out!” Ying Kai stumbled, being pushed and shoved by the old woman out of the courtyard. At that moment, there was a loud “boom!” from three streets away, and flames soared into the sky, rapidly approaching this direction!
“Go! Don’t worry about anything else!” The old woman waved urgently outside. “Young man, take care! Go!”
The flames had already reached the wall and were rapidly advancing, covering the sky with black smoke.
Ying Kai stood trembling in front of the dilapidated courtyard wall, closing his eyes.
For the first time in nine thousand years, the cries and questioning, like festering ulcers, sounded in his ears once more, but they were quickly drowned out by even more urgent, louder, and clearer shouts:
“The flood is coming, how can you stand idly by?!”
“Hurry, let’s go, don’t worry about it!”
“Aren’t you supposed to become an immortal and a god? How can you ignore the cries of the common people?!”
“It’s too late, you won’t be able to fly out if you wait any longer, go!”
“Do you know that the people have been begging him for seven whole days, and he’s just concerned about his own ascension…”
Boom!!
The black flames collapsed the courtyard wall, and a raging fire dragon soared into the sky. But at that moment, the figure of the old woman emerged from the black smoke. Trembling, she carried a basin of water and, with unknown strength, protected Ying Kai behind her, desperately splashing water towards the towering wall of fire!
―― Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, the water splashes suddenly froze in mid-air.
The surging flames, the splattering sparks, the billowing black smoke… all froze in that moment, reflected in the old woman’s panicked and anxious eyes.
“Thank you.” Ying Kai turned to look at her, his eyes slightly red. “I still can’t reconcile with myself, but at least… I can reconcile with this world.”
With a flick of his sleeve, a hurricane rose from the ground, an unparalleled force spreading in all directions in a circular pattern!
With this inconspicuous courtyard as the center, the surrounding walls of fire simultaneously collapsed backward, forcefully flattened in a deafening roar, and extinguished.
Then, a divine power surged forth, turning into countless brilliant arcs of light, rushing in all directions under the sky!
From Dai Mountain in the east to the capital in the west, from Yejinmen in the south to Tianmen Pass in the north… the enormous array formed by the condensed divine power advanced relentlessly, unstoppable, extinguishing the raging black flames wherever it touched, turning them into billowing smoke.
“Is this… is this a miracle?”
“The fire is out, the fire is out!”
“We’re saved!!――”
In the refugee camp outside the city of Suicheng, the tears of the young girl and her mother had not yet dried. They hugged each other tightly, dumbfounded. The crowd first paused for a moment, then erupted into ecstatic cheers, spreading quickly across the land, crying and cheering ascending into the clouds!
All over the earth, millions of charred wreckage vanished into dust under the sun, silently disappearing when the wind blew.
Outside the small alley courtyard, the old woman staggered back a half step, the small water basin in her hand clattering to the ground. Trembling, she asked, “Are you… are you a living god?”
“I’m not,” Ying Kai replied hoarsely, “I should have been just an ordinary person.”
With one hand gripping the Mountain Ocean OrderSword and the other still tightly holding the warm floral cloth bundle, his trembling hand placed it into his sleeve and gave a short, abrupt laugh. “Thank you for your beans, I’ll take them.”
The old woman widened her eyes.
In the next moment, a silver light rose from the ground, and Ying Kai soared into the sky on his sword, his magnificent aura astonishing the old woman, who took several steps back in astonishment.
At the same time, a majestic sword light descended from the sky, Xu Shuangce arriving swiftly from afar!
――Boom!
Mountain Ocean Order Sword unsheathed, it met Xu Shuang Ce’s strike with earth-shattering force!
Rushing from Yejinmen to Suicheng, spanning across the skies from north to south, even the likes of Bai Tai Shou and the No Way Out Sword could not arrive instantaneously. Xu Shuangce himself was still far away, thousands of miles apart. At this moment, there was no time for a second sword.
However, the clear and bright voice of Gong Wei, wrapped in divine power, pierced through. He shouted hoarsely, “Senior Brother――”
Ying Kai’s footsteps suddenly stiffened.
“……”
The God of the Northern Wall looked deep into the sea of clouds, where two familiar figures were rushing towards him. After a while, using a volume only he could hear, he quietly responded, “Yes, Senior Brother is here.”
Then he finally clenched his teeth, forced himself to turn around, and headed for the Heavenly Realm, crossing through the radiant Heaven’s gate after passing through the clouds!
In the next moment, Ying Kai appeared at the Northern Wall of the Heavenly Realm.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, a thunderous roar echoed through the Three Realms, and the burning golden barrier shrouded the entire Northern Wall Temple from all sides, sealing off this vast territory like a lonely island, completely isolating all the shocked discussions and movements outside the barrier.
On the ninety-nine wide steps, Ying Kai looked up at the majestic temple, as if he had finally made some kind of decision. The sharp line of his jaw protruded due to clenched teeth, and he reached out and pushed open the huge temple door.
Boom――
Several rays of light shone from the doorway, reflecting the grandeur of the temple. In front of the white jade throne, as expected, stood a figure with his back to Ying Kai, embroidered with purple red spider lily flowers on the hem of his robe. His fair hands casually held a blood sword, and he turned his head to look back, revealing a handsome face.
It was the Ghost Crown Prince.
“Did you extinguish the flames in the mortal world?” He raised his sharp eyebrows, smiling faintly at Ying Kai.
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I like this answer, with Ying Kai sorta figuring things out for himself and undoing his own actions rather than just a straight battle between the BOSS and the protagonists. But I hate the Ghost Crown Prince. He is so slimy that he makes that loony Iron Sect guy look like a decent guy….