Volume 2 Chapter 55 / Chapter 142: The Old Hag, Acceptance of Grief
The five strands of spiritual energy collided and clashed, creating vast waves of energy that poured out like a raging tide.
Boom—
Sitting in the center of the square, Li Feng’s pure white Daoist robe was already soaked with blood around the collar.
His eyes had lost their luster, but they reflected the figure of Ye Anping.
At this moment, the bamboo hat on Ye Anping’s head was long gone, and the tied hairband had been blown open by the energy waves, looking somewhat disheveled.
However, his eyes remained as deep and resolute as ever.
Crash—
A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, hitting one of the three blood-red spheres beside Li Feng directly.
In an instant, the blood ball shattered, cries of pain erupted from within the square, and the souls of the sect cultivators trapped inside the blood ball scattered and flew towards the stars in the sky.
Feng Yudie gasped for breath, giving an approving look to Zhuang Hu who broke the blood ball, then hurried towards the next one.
However, Li Feng’s expression remained unchanged, not even glancing at Feng Yudie and Zhuang Hu. He simply raised his right hand slightly, pointing it towards the direction of Zhuang Hu, and lightly pinched.
Zhuang Hu saw his movement and instantly felt something was amiss. He hurriedly took out the golden stone bowl from before to protect himself, but before he could activate his Magical Tool, he felt as if he had been hit by a heavy object weighing ten thousand pounds on his back.
“What!?”
Although Zhuang Hu tried his best to resist, the disparity in their strength was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Boom—
A humanoid hole appeared instantly on the white jade platform.
“Cough—”
The bandages covering Zhuang Hu’s face were stained with blood, and there was no movement.
Seeing the situation on his side, Feng Yudie couldn’t care less about going over to help. She gripped the long sword in her hand tightly and, in coordination with Pei Lengxue, slashed at the blood ball in front of her from left and right.
“Ha!”
Feng Yudie shouted angrily, golden spiritual energy surged, and with all her strength, a golden sword light collided with the six sword lights swung out by Pei Lengxue, combining into one, crashing into the blood-red spiritual energy sphere.
Another two formations left to break.
However, just as the two of them were about to lend their strength to help Ye Anping, Li Feng didn’t even glance at them. He just aimed his right hand, which was targeting Zhuang Hu, towards them.
“Tsk—”
Feng Yudie didn’t know what Li Feng was up to, but she saw what happened to Zhuang Hu just now. As Li Feng’s palm closed, a force pressed her into the ground.
Seeing that she couldn’t avoid it, she immediately bumped her shoulder against Pei Lengxue’s shoulder, hoping to at least let Pei Lengxue dodge.
But unfortunately, Li Feng didn’t clench his hand into a fist like he did just now. Instead, he raised his index finger and flicked it.
Whoosh—
In an instant, a silver-white spiritual energy directly collided with Feng Yudie and Pei Lengxue.
Even though both of them immediately reacted, lowering their bodies to resist, they couldn’t withstand even a breath of the spiritual energy. They were both swept away from their original positions by this force, turning into two human cannonballs, flying towards Ye Anping like a mountain-crushing siege.
Ye Anping’s eyes shifted left, seeing his junior sister and Feng Yudie flying towards him. Although he immediately wanted to dodge, their speed was too fast.
Seeing that there was no way to dodge, he could only forcefully plunge the spiritual sword in his hand into the blood-red sphere in front of him, then let go of the sword handle to avoid injuring the two. He then straightened his arms, tensing the muscles in his shoulders to the fullest.
“Tsk—”
Bang—
Pei Lengxue and Feng Yudie crashed directly into the bends of Ye Anping’s left and right arms. Despite Ye Anping’s efforts, he couldn’t stop them directly.
Crack, crack—
Two bone-cracking sounds rang out.
“Tsk—”
Ye Anping hugged his junior sister’s waist with his left arm and embraced Feng Yudie’s abdomen with his right, forcibly pushed back more than ten zhang by the force of the two colliding against him. Finally, he leaned his heels against the wall at the edge of the square, using the force to stop the two.
“Huff— huff—”
Feng Yudie gasped for breath, trying to stand up, but found that her body was completely out of control. After struggling for a while, she could only lean on Ye Anping’s shoulder again.
“Young Master Ye, it seems like my meridians are sealed, cough— I can’t move.”
Ye Anping didn’t reply, his expression solemn as he stared ahead, looking at the spiritual sword he had plunged into the last blood ball earlier. He counted silently in his heart, three, two, one—
“Break!”
As the voice fell, swish—
A golden light suddenly appeared on the blade of the spiritual sword, penetrating ten inches deep into the interior of the blood ball and cracking its surface.
The crack spread gradually along the surface of the blood ball, eventually covering the entire surface.
Crash—
The shell shattered, and the blood-red spiritual energy inside soared into the sky.
Seeing all four formations broken, Ye Anping also breathed a sigh of relief, slowly squatting down and letting the two immobile people lean on his shoulders to rest. He said softly,
“It’s over.”
“Cough cough—”
Li Feng, who was sitting in the center of the field, slowly landed on the ground, then stood up with his knees, dragging his right hand to his side. With a turn of his wrist, a spiritual light burst out from his palm, condensing into a white spiritual sword.
The spiritual sword was three feet and three inches long, its blade resembling clear water with golden reliefs outlining Chi Dragon talismans, and a fiery red spiritual pearl embedded in the hilt.
Ye Anping looked at the sword in Li Feng’s hand and immediately recognized it as the Heaven Splitter Sword that had followed Li Feng for a thousand years, slaying demonic beast and demonic cultivator alike.
This sword’s quality, after enduring a thousand years of wind and frost, was even better than the Millennium-Old Mystic Stone Sword that Zhuang Hu had snatched from Xiao Yunluo back then. Both were top-grade spiritual swords crafted by a hundred renowned craftsmen under the guidance of Sima Xuanji.
Li Feng stared intently at Ye Anping’s still calm and profound deep purple eyes, taking slow steps forward.
The square fell silent, with only the sound of Li Feng’s slow footsteps echoing.
Li Feng and Ye Anping were only forty steps apart, but these forty steps felt as long as a cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
As he approached, Ye Anping gently laid the two girls in his arms on the ground and stood up, supporting himself with his knees, lifting his head slightly, and meeting Li Feng’s gaze without wavering.
Swish—
A gentle breeze blew, rustling Ye Anping’s long hair scattered behind him, and at the same time, the Heaven Splitter Sword had reached the side of his neck and stopped.
“… …”
“… …”
The two stared at each other for a long time, but neither spoke.
Finally, Li Feng couldn’t hold back anymore and opened his mouth slightly, asking, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll cut off your neck?”
“Not at all, in fact, you know in your heart that when we came before you, you had already lost.”
Li Feng looked into Ye Anping’s eyes, feeling a sense of annoyance from the gaze, as if he was being seen through.
This young man knew that he couldn’t harm them.
He knew where his weaknesses lay.
He knew his past.
… …
After a moment of silence, Li Feng withdrew the Heaven Splitter Sword resting against Ye Anping’s neck, sighed and said, “You’re just like that old hag.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
“Heh—” Li Feng chuckled lightly, then looked back into Ye Anping’s eyes, “You know, I want to hear what you have to say—”
“Well… Li Qianjin is doing well. Now Yunluo is accompanying her by her side. Don’t underestimate your daughter. Although she is blind, she can see through many things better than many cultivators without eye ailments.”
As he spoke, Ye Anping took out the jade token given by Li Feng.
“Here, it’s from your daughter.”
“… …”
Looking at the token, Li Feng raised an eyebrow, reached out to take it, and suddenly smiled bitterly, jokingly saying, “Hehe— That girl, is she tired of her old man living too long?”
“You are 1.200 years old. For a cultivator with Quadruple Spirit Roots, you’ve lived long enough.”
Li Feng pouted, sheathing the Heaven Splitter Sword behind him and retorted, “What are you talking about? I’m 1.199 years old now, I would turn 1.200 years old in seven days.”
“Isn’t that long enough?”
“Is it?”
Ye Anping shrugged ambiguously.
Then, Li Feng glanced at Feng Yudie and Pei Lengxue lying on the ground, and asked, “Kid, what’s your name?”
“Ye Anping.”
“Ye Anping, hmm…” Li Feng returned the jade token to him and said, “She’s without a family now.”
“Huh?” Ye Anping blinked. “Oh…”
“Oh what? Don’t pretend to be clueless, kid. Don’t you understand what I mean?” Li Feng handed him the token, arching an eyebrow.
Ye Anping took the token from him, bowed politely, and forcibly changed the subject, “Immortal Master Li is approaching his 1,200th birthday, and I wish you: may your blessings be as vast as the Eastern Sea and your lifespan as long as the Southern Mountains.”
Li Feng’s eyebrow twitched.
This kid’s skill at choking people up was quite extraordinary. Knowing he wouldn’t live through the night, he still wished him a long life.
Well…
He shook his head and said, “Thanks for the kind words.”
With that, Li Feng flicked his sleeve lightly, and four streams of spiritual light flew out from his sleeve, enveloping Ye Anping, Pei Lengxue, and the others. As the spiritual light dispersed, their figures disappeared from this space.
However, the next moment, a duck’s cry suddenly sounded above Li Feng’s head.
“Live to a hundred years old! Live to a hundred years old!”
A hundred years?
Li Feng’s eye twitched as he looked up, only now noticing a parrot wearing a bamboo hat circling in the densely starry sky of this dimension.
“Is this bird…?”
“Congratulations on your wealth and prosperity! Congratulations on your wealth and prosperity!”
“Old hag?”
As Li Feng uttered these three words, black and white spiritual energies suddenly collided with his chest.
Boom—
Li Feng flew up directly from where he stood, spinning fourteen times in mid-air, and crashed onto the floor made of white jade bricks, leaving a shallow trench twenty zhang long.
“Hiss—”
Li Feng sucked in a sharp breath, about to sit up from the ground when a small bare foot landed on his chest, pushing him back down.
Bang—
“Cough—”
A sharp pain shot through his back, his vision blurred momentarily, and he was forced to spit out the spiritual energy he had just inhaled. It took him a while before he looked at the owner of the small bare foot on his chest.
She was a young girl with a pair of yin-yang eyes, wearing a white feather robe, her black-and-white hair trailing on the ground behind her. The striking beauty and mature aura between her eyebrows contrasted sharply with her petite and delicate figure.
Li Feng’s lips parted slightly, he swallowed, and after examining her for a while, he asked softly, “Xuanji, why do you look like a brat?”
Sima Xuanji didn’t look away, replying, “It’s the side effect of my cultivation technique, the Mahayana Method.”
She moved her small foot away from Li Feng’s chest, took a step back, and patted her skirt.
“I’ll grow from twelve years old to fifty-two years old, then slowly revert from fifty-two to twelve, I need to repeat this 81 times. After that, I can leave the Void Return Realm and lounge around in the Divine Transformation Realm.”
“I see… So, you’re currently…”
“Fifteen years old.”
Fifteen years old… Li Feng felt a bit embarrassed. His own daughter was also fifteen, but Li Qianjin is obviously taller than Sima Xuanji by at least a head.
Moreover, compared to his daughter, Sima Xuanji is lacking in the breast department too.
Of course, he didn’t dare say that out loud.
“Are you here in person or…”
“This is just a virtual spirit, but it’s enough to teach you a lesson, old friend.”
Sima Xuanji raised her right hand and snapped her middle finger and thumb.
Snap—
In an instant, everything in the square shattered and dissipated like a mirror.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them were back in the garden of the Chi Dragon Mansion, sitting on opposite sides of the Go Board in the pavilion.
Li Feng was momentarily stunned, looking up at the sky. The blood-red giant lotus, which had previously obscured the stars and the moon, was now nowhere to be seen. The sky was clear, with the bright moon shining overhead and the stars twinkling.
It felt as if everything had returned to how it was three hours ago.
Feeling a bit disoriented, he asked, “Xuanji, is this the mortal world? Or—”
“We are in the mortal world.”
Sima Xuanji reached into the basket beside her, grabbed a handful of white Go pieces, and looked at the Go Board with the remaining game.
“Thanks to Young Master Ye, the mess you stirred up didn’t escalate to the point of no return. Let’s finish this last game together.”
Click—
“Xuanji, since you’re here, why didn’t you reveal yourself earlier? That way, I wouldn’t have caused this mess.”
“Are you regretting it now?”
Sima Xuanji raised her yin-yang eyes.
“The me you see is just a virtual spirit, with limited power. I intended to reveal myself when you were about to kill them, but I didn’t expect Ye Anping to exceed my expectations and be able to handle you so thoroughly. Considering his cultivation level, he handled the situation flawlessly.”
“How unexpected, it’s been hundreds of years since I last heard you praise someone this highly, much less a boy of all thing, make me wonder if you are planning to give Xiao Yunluo a stepfather.”
Click—
“Hm… If that boy chose to pursue this old bone, I won’t be against it, but…. That kid, Ye Anping, disclosed to the others that there is a Nascent Soul demonic cultivator who invaded the Mansion and caused this chaos, and that you are currently dealing with the demonic cultivator, intentionally leaving the part where you are the source of all of this.”
Li Feng’s eyes widened slightly, now understanding why Sima Xuanji held the kid in such high regard. He lowered his head and said, “I just…”
Sima Xuanji interrupted, “Save it. Human greed would always cloud their judgment. Over the millennia, I’ve seen too many monsters in human skin claim that the reason why they do the atrocities they do to fulfill their greed is justified, don’t place yourself amongst them.”
“… …”
Click—
Li Feng sighed softly and made his move.
Click—
“Xuanji, my daughter, she…”
“She has her own destiny. Right now…” Sima Xuanji sighed, looking up at the starry sky outside the pavilion. “Her fate has been influenced by Ye Anping’s fate. I don’t know where she will end up.”
“… …”
“Oh, Li Feng, you—”
Sima Xuanji turned her gaze back, but her words stopped abruptly.
Li Feng, who had been playing Go with her, had lost all vitality in his eyes. His right hand, which had been about to make a move, was suspended in mid-air.
Seeing this scene, a hint of melancholy flashed in Sima Xuanji’s yin-yang eyes.
In this world, yet another friend of hers, with whom she shared a thousand years of camaraderie, had departed.
Yet again, she could only witness her friends leaving, one by one.
Sima Xuanji couldn’t help but regret her past actions now. She should have made more enemies in the past.
If she had, she would probably be receiving good news of their demise continuously now, instead of the death of her friends.
“Tsk, the game isn’t finished yet…”
Sima Xuanji clicked her tongue, lifted her hand to press down Li Feng’s suspended right hand, and made the final move for him.
Click—
Then, she looked at the Go Board.
“It’s a draw.”
Standing up from the stone bench in the pavilion, Sima Xuanji gently brushed Li Feng’s eyes with spiritual energy, then walked out of the pavilion. Her figure dissipated into starlight, leaving Li Feng alone under the pavilion, as if she had never been there.
It seemed that everything that had just transpired was just an illusion.