Zixiao’s attitude toward Jing Ruyu was the same as it was years ago. He was silent.
Jing Ruyu said, “Sit down, and let’s talk.”
In the grove of green maples, there was a pavilion.
Jing Ruyu picked up a dry yellow maple leaf that had landed on the table, and said softly, “Time goes so fast. I heard Xie Ying has already been in closed cultivation for a hundred years?”
Zixiao thrust his machete into the ground nearby. The scar on his face was as fierce as his eyes. “What do you want to say?”
Jing Ruyu smiled. “Zixiao, Xie Ying is the head disciple of your sect. As his elder, shouldn’t you care a little more about him?”
Zixiao: “His matters aren’t for you to manage, nor me.”
Jing Ruyu: “Don’t worry, I’m not so stupid as to provoke Xie Ying. I’m just curious, that’s all.”
“This young Azurejade palace master has only been part of Desireless Sect for two hundred years. In those two centuries, he took the top place on the Bluecloud ranking and reached Soul Formation. No one is more talented than him. After he took control of the Cultivation Alliance, he prevented chaos with killing, and stood equal in power to the nine sects. But at the best time to solidify his power, he left everything behind and charged into the demonic realm alone. Tell me, what do you think Xie Ying was thinking?”
Zixiao looked down at the yellowed, curling edges of the maple leaf.
Jing Ruyu then said, “What was even more surprising was that after Xie Ying emerged from the demonic realm, he went into closed cultivation on Southmount Peak. Nobody could guess what he meant by it. It’s been a hundred years. People’s hearts are treacherous. The situation has changed, and the three families of the Violetaurum continent have begun to stir. I’m very curious as to what Xie Ying will do, faced with this mess, after he comes out of closed cultivation.”
Zixiao said, “If that’s all you wanted to say, then why not just ask him?”
Jing Ruyu laughed to herself. “Ask him?” Her fingers traced over the fine veins in the maple leaf. She shook her head, her eyes dark. “No, I don’t want to see Xie Ying.”
Zixiao said deeply, “You fear him.”
This time, for once, it was Jing Ruyu who fell silent.
Zixiao reached out and took hold of his machete, standing up.
The leaf in Jing Ruyu’s hand crumbled. She looked up and said, quite naturally, “Zixiao, don’t you feel that what Xie Ying is doing is wrong?”
Zixiao asked in return, “Aren’t you the one who has committed the worst wrong?”
Jing Ruyu laughed softly. “What did I do wrong? Of all the people I asked you to kill in those years, was there one who didn’t deserve it?”
Zixiao fell silent.
Jing Ruyu followed up sharply, “Back then, hadn’t Elder Qianqiao from Driftflower Sect committed innumerable evils?”
Zixiao looked at her deeply and said hoarsely, “Jing Ruyu, you harbor evil at heart. No matter how flawlessly you acted, no matter how well you disguised yourself, lying to yourself and lying to me, there will be a day when you are revealed for what you are.”
Jing Ruyu didn’t take him seriously. “Oh, then I’ll wait for that day.”
Zixiao faced away from her, standing at the end of the green maple grove.
Jing Ruyu suddenly stood up. “Zixiao, how about we make a trade?”
Hundreds of years had passed between them. Each of them had their calculations, and each of them took what they needed. In the end, they brushed past each other as cleanly and quickly as strangers.
Jing Ruyu said, “Some people in my sect discovered a phoenix demonseed in the Saintrest continent. Can you help me capture it? In return, how about I tell you the person who cast that illusion on you back then?”
Zixiao’s back stiffened, and he suddenly came back to himself, gripping his machete. His eyes were bloodshot, as if his anger had taken on physical form. It seemed that in the next moment, he would strike like thunder. His teeth creaked against each other. “That illusion?!”
Jing Ruyu smiled. “Yes, that illusion. The illusion that made you believe your parents and sister were demons.”
In an instant, Zixiao’s memories began to collapse. The grove of green maples rumbled, and their leaves, filled with Zixiao’s fury, became sharp as razors.
Yan Qing knew this wouldn’t go well. Standing under a tree, he was almost buried in a rain of blades. It was a good thing he had been following Xie Shiyi closely, and it seemed there was an invisible shield around then, separating them from all danger.
Trouble pulled hard on his hair, screaming with all his might. “Get away from him! Get away from him! Get away from him!” With his intuition, he felt that Xie Ying was the source of the danger.
Yan Qing couldn’t stand him. He pulled on Xie Shiyi’s sleeve and said, “Venerable Immortal.”
Xie Shiyi looked down at him apathetically.
Yan Qing raised up Trouble, carefully batted his eyes and said, “Venerable Immortal, this bird has started being violent again. He’s so scary, do you think he’ll hurt me?”
Trouble: “......”
Xie Shiyi glanced at him and lifted his sleeve. A trace of cold light flowed from his fingertip, infused with the spiritual strength of a Soul Formation cultivator. It became a cage woven from snow, trapping Trouble entirely within.
Trouble was so angry he began bashing his head against the rails.
He really didn’t know whether he should feel honored or wronged that a Soul Formation cultivator personally made a birdcage for him.
Yan Qing took the cage with a grin. “Alright, thank you, Venerable Immortal.” Silly bird, who told you to be so loud?
With this little opportunity, Yan Qing felt that the distance between him and Xie Shiyi had lessened a little. He began acting presumptuous again. Holding the birdcage made from ice crystals, he looked around and said, “Venerable Immortal, when can we get out of here?”
This time, Xie Shiyi replied to him. “Once Zixiao dies.”
Yan Qing: “Oh, okay.” After he spoke, he suddenly thought of Jing Ruyu’s words.
“But at the best time to solidify his power, he left everything behind and charged into the demonic realm alone. Tell me, what do you think Xie Ying was thinking?”
Without even thinking about it, Yan Qing suddenly spoke.
“Venerable Immortal, have you been to the demonic realm before?”
Xie Shiyi: “Yes.”
Yan Qing: “What’s the demonic realm like?”
Xie Shiyi said, “It’s no different from the upper realm.”
Yan Qing said at heart, Who are you fooling? The demonic realm, that infernal place that only has a moon all year round, is no different from the upper realm? But he still said with surprise, “Really? But in all those plays, I saw that they described the demonic realm as a place where they eat people. Are there really ghosts there?”
Xie Shiyi’s tone was calm, but he asked, “Are you afraid of ghosts?”
Yan Qing reacted instantly. “I’m afraid of them.”
Xie Shiyi no longer spoke.
Holding the cage, Yan Qing continued to search for a topic. “I’m really afraid of them. When I was a kid, and I refused to go to sleep, my great-aunt would scare me with the idea of ghosts to make me sleep earlier.”
Xie Shiyi looked up at him mildly. “When you were small, did you live with your great-aunt, or your grandmother?”
“......” Yan Qing choked. He had rattled along and blurted that out, and in that moment, he forgot the lies he told before.
Yan Qing said without thinking, “Yes. When I was one, three, five and seven years old, I slept at my great-aunt’s house, and when I was two, four and six years old I slept at my grandmother’s house.”
Xie Shiyi’s mouth twitched for an unclear reason.
Yan Qing asked, “Venerable Immortal, what did you go to the demonic realm for?”
Xie Shiyi said lightly, “To kill someone.”
Yan Qing: With the attitude you had back then, how were you going to just kill someone? You went there to massacre a city! But he praised without emotion, “Wow, you sure are the head of the righteous cultivators, Venerable Immortal. You’re the model of our generation.”
Xie Shiyi looked forward and said suddenly, “The phoenix demonseed has appeared.”
Yan Qing: “Huh?”
“Yay, it’s my turn to be on the scene!” Trouble stood up in excitement, his red eyes unblinking, full of expectation. He felt the thrill of a protagonist who was about to take center stage. But he was fated to be disappointed—because Zixiao’s memories didn’t contain him. All Zixiao’s memories held was a jade-eyed phoenix who flowed with gold and scarlet.
He looked left and right, but couldn’t find himself.
In despair, his shame turned to fury.
I’m actually an outsider in this story?!
Trouble was so angry his feathers puffed up, and he took another bite out of the bars.
This was the moment when Zixiao failed his tribulation. His nascent soul died, his dantian shattered and his vast spiritual strength surged out like water, turning into streams of violet light in the void.
When Void Comprehension cultivators failed their tribulation, it meant death. Zixiao sat cross-legged in the darkness, gazing at the phoenix rushing madly toward him, resisting to the end. The trace of a smile hooked up his mouth. It held scorn, and yet relief.
From the first moment that the phoenix rushed toward him, he knew that this was a trap.
This was the trap that Jing Ruyu set up in order to cause his death.
If he could return alive, he would die with Jing Ruyu!
The phoenix demonseed’s eyes were green as jade, but when it looked at Zixiao, its eyes glowed with icy scarlet light. Madness, greed and rage—all kinds of emotions gathered in them. In the end, it arched its head back and gave a long cry, lifted its wings and rushed toward him, its sharp beak taking one of Zixiao’s eyes!
Zixiao wheezed, Skyrage’s blade dripping with his blood.
Seeing blood, the phoenix’s madness grew deeper.
When their lives hung by a thread, Xie Shiyi lifted his hand and froze the scene.
Pale blue frost covered everything. The phoenix’s body stiffened in midair. It should be of the same Void Comprehension cultivation as Zixiao. At the moment, it was in quite a different state from when it was in the Serene Prison cage, on the verge of death.
In the prime of its life, the phoenix demonseed was a dozen times larger, its wings burned with the fire of nirvana and its grandeur outshone the sky.
Xie Shiyi gripped his sword Regretless, his snow-white robes floating past the turbid world.
He didn’t look at Zixiao, who was on the verge of death, but only coldly gazed at the phoenix.
Phantasms had an important characteristic—when they awoke, their eyes would turn jade-green.
They were born in the mind, and appeared in the eyes.
Xie Shiyi raised Regretless and pierced the phoenix demonseed’s eyes.
At the moment the sword pierced them, green blood gurgled out of the phoenix’s eyes.
If you said that at the beginning, Yan Qing was merely watching the show, then when the blood flowed out, he instantly stiffened, and his pupils shrank.
He felt a familiar aura.
Wait, it was…Huai Mingzi?
“Xie Shiyi, dodge!”
Yan Qing’s expression went cold, and he suddenly shouted at the other man.
***
The void was full of chaotic darkness.
Only the feathers of the phoenix flowed with glittering light, like the scarlet and gold sun breaking through the endless night.
Once green blood flowed down from the phoenix’s eyes, it followed the ice-cold blade of Regretless and landed on the ground. When it touched the ground, it bounced upward and floated into the air.
The green blood was contaminated with a thick blackness. It floated in midair, becoming a thin, sinister snake. Filled with poison, it rushed toward Xie Shiyi.
Yan Qing hadn’t expected he would see Huai Mingzi’s phantasm-commanding martial art here.
Why? Huai Mingzi had been dead for a hundred years, so why would this evil art appear in the upper realm??
The phantasm-commanding martial art controlled phantasms using blood. In that green blood lay the phantasm that had leapt out of the phoenix’s body. Huai Mingzi’s strength was measureless, and the martial art he had developed was an ancient evil art. No one knew how many years that old man had stayed at the peak of Soul Formation, and in all that time, he may have found a weakness in Xie Shiyi.
Yan Qing’s expression was serious. He suddenly reached out, the soul thread in his fingers shooting out of his sleeve, turning from a mirage to heavy shackles. Red threads wound through the air, twisting past the phoenix’s burning wings and heading straight for its eyes, about to bind the phantasm.
But he didn’t succeed.
His red threads landed in someone’s hand.
The hand was pale and icy, like jade, yet also like snow.
Yan Qing stood still.
At this moment, Regretless’s sword intent spread through the wilderness. Zixiao’s memories scattered and dissolved. Points of white starlight floated into the void; they were the true color of the darkness, revealed upon its collapse. The phoenix’s body was flowing away as well, its gold and red flames turning into a glittering stream. The dry, hot wind blew past Yan Qing’s ears, carrying with it the slight sound of burning.
Xie Shiyi could have dodged the stream of green blood that had attacked him, but for some reason, he lost focus for a moment. In his silence, he let the green blood enter his eyes. The color of the blood stained his eyelashes and spread in his eyes. He didn’t clean it away, only looking down quietly at the red thread lying in his palm.
When extended, the soul thread was only a mirage. When Yan Qing retracted his hand, it disappeared.
Xie Shiyi looked at the thread vanishing in his hand, and calmly took his hand back. Among the millions of sparks filling the darkness, he looked up tranquilly.
For a moment, Yan Qing was silent. In the end, holding the cage with Trouble inside, he couldn’t help but chuckle. He chuckled for a long time.
Trouble didn’t know what his owner was laughing at.
His owner was laughing at himself for being stupid.
Yes, this was Huai Mingzi’s phantasm-commanding spell, but these were Zixiao’s memories.
If Xie Shiyi met with danger, he could simply make everything freeze as he did before.
What was he worried about?
His concern really made him into a mess.
What’s more, Xie Shiyi really had recognized him from the start. Even though he locked down the aura of his soul, it hadn’t been certain that he could hide himself from Xie Shiyi.
The strength of Xie Shiyi’s perception when it came to someone’s bearing and behavior was terrifying in the first place.
As for the act of a simpleton he had put on, even Yan Qing sometimes felt that it was pretty fake.
But after all…from the beginning, in the fine snow of the peach blossoms, everything had been enveloped in a faint ambiguity. Perhaps he had never been earnestly acting to begin with.
Yan Qing didn’t say anything, and neither did Xie Shiyi.
Afterwards, Zixiao’s physical corpse fell into the Serene Prison of Springturn Sect, but at that time, he had already left the void, so the memories in the Void Comprehension secret realm stopped at this last scene.
The blade Skyrage was left in the void, dissolving in the wake of its owner’s death.
“The sky was filled with rage, and the spirits were filled with fury. After ruthless slaughter, they left their bodies to the open plain.” At the age of eighteen, he killed his mother and father. For hundreds of years, he had hated evil with a vengeance. The passion and fire of his life were buried in the void.
The darkness collapsed, and the memories ended. Forever fixed in this secret realm was the grove of green maples before Zixiao’s cave.
Yan Qing walked over, a smile filling his eyes. He said teasingly, “Venerable Immortal, Zixiao’s dead, so we can leave now, right?”
Trouble had already been sulking and gnawing at the bars of his cage.
When he heard his owner’s careless tone, he almost spat out blood and chipped his teeth. Fuck, if you’re seeking death, don’t take me along with you!
Xie Shiyi indifferently wiped away the blood below his eyes. He glanced at him and coolly said, “Yes.”
This grove of green maples had been a continuous thread throughout Zixiao’s life, just like the scar that stretched from his cheekbone to the corner of his mouth.
The scar was his spine of steel, his fury, his slaughter; this grove of maples was his hometown, his memories, the last softness in his chaotic life.
When Yan Qing looked at this maple grove again, he remembered those two scenes in the rain.
He remembered how in the first scene, Jing Ruyu had knelt in the rain, pleading for help, her white-plum oil-paper umbrella fallen to the side. Her arched neck was pale and fragile, like a solitary bird.
Then he thought of the second day of rain, when after their argument, she had flicked her sleeves and left, only to pause her steps and fall silent for a long time. In the grove of maples, she looked back and smiled with scorn. She quietly said, “Gege, I forgive you.”
The sect leader of Driftflower Sect, one of the nine great sects, was a true master of manipulation.
Yan Qing couldn’t help but sigh. He said, “Jing Ruyu is a truly skilled actress.”
Xie Shiyi sheathed Regretless, and softly said, noncommittal, “Is that so?”
Yan Qing suddenly grew excited. Holding the cage, he pointed at himself and said, “Xie Shiyi, how’s my acting?”
Xie Shiyi only gave him a glance, his face, still that of the master of Azurejade Palace, carrying as little expression as usual. “Do you want to hear the truth?”
Yan Qing: “Sure, I’ll hear it!”
Xie Shiyi laughed softly, without much emotion. “In the last few centuries, of all the people who dared to act in front of me, you’re the clumsiest actor.”
Yan Qing: “......”
***
cela’s notes
2 hours and 6 minutes.
Thank you for the chapter!!
ReplyDeleteActing got criticize lol
ReplyDelete