***
Wu Guanyue put every ounce of strength she had into that slap, striking Yan Shouyi so hard that his head snapped to the side.
A vivid red handprint immediately rose on Yan Shouyi’s cheek.
His ears rang violently.
Wu Guanyue was not a cultivator. She relied on soulfire to move, and she had never systematically trained in either internal or external martial arts. Not to mention that she was seriously injured at the moment—there was no way this slap could truly harm Yan Shouyi.
And yet, Yan Shouyi felt an... overwhelmingly intense humiliation.
At that moment, he was like a dog rolling around in the mud, while this mortal girl—someone he had never even deemed worthy of a proper glance—looked down upon him from above, watching him in such... such a wretched and disgraceful state.
All of this... all of this had been within her expectations!
She had intended to turn the tables on him amid the heavenly lightning!
He had clearly reached the final step. He had clearly been only one step away from ascension...
Yet she had actually turned the tables on him?!
Yan Shouyi could not accept it. He absolutely could not accept it!
People were born into ranks, high and low. He could not accept that someone beneath him would dare climb over his head and trample upon him! Would dare scheme so carefully to kill him!!!
Just then, Wu Guanyue spoke.
She looked at Yan Shouyi coldly and said, “Do you want to live, or do you want to die?”
Yan Shouyi was instantly provoked by her attitude. He trembled with rage, yet he did not dare curse at her. In a stiff voice, he said, “What do you want?”
Wu Guanyue closed her mouth and took a step back, refusing to speak with him.
The next instant, heavenly lightning crashed down upon him!
“AAAAAAAH—!”
A miserable scream burst from Yan Shouyi’s throat!
It hurt too much—too much... From the fourth set of nine bolts onward, the pressure of every heavenly lightning strike was several times greater than before. Yan Shouyi felt as though every piece of flesh on his body was being cooked alive. When the lightning struck him, every spark that burst apart seemed poised to force open and blast apart each and every pore in his skin.
So miserable. So pathetic.
Unfortunately, the Heavenly Dao was solemn and impartial. If it decreed eighty-one bolts of heavenly lightning, then there would be exactly eighty-one bolts.
Another instant passed, and the heavenly lightning struck Yan Shouyi with unerring precision, making him writhe, howl, and roll about on the ground like a maggot.
“I want to live! I want to live! Please, use the precious jade to protect me! Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you—whatever you want, I’ll give it to you—!”
At last, Yan Shouyi could no longer endure it. He begged Wu Guanyue loudly.
At this moment, tears and mucus streamed down his face. Rather than a lofty elder of a great sect, he looked more like an old beggar pleading by the roadside. His body curled over as he repeatedly bowed and knocked his head against the ground before Wu Guanyue, begging her desperately. If Wu Guanyue told him to come lick the soles of her shoes now, he would probably do it.
Now was the time.
Wu Guanyue touched the [Pocket World] she had carefully hidden in her inventory. Wenren Ying was concealed inside it.
Wu Guanyue spoke slowly. “I want you to lift the Soul-Devouring Spell on Wenren Ying immediately. There are still many, many heavenly lightning bolts to come. If you try any tricks, don’t blame me for being merciless!”
How could Yan Shouyi dare refuse? Right now, he only wished Wu Guanyue would give him more things to do.
***
Wenren Ying felt as though he had been asleep for a very, very long time.
Even in his dreams, he had been unwilling to accept it.
Unwilling to die so inexplicably. Unwilling to leave his beloved in such a hurried way.
They... they had merely parted on an ordinary afternoon, as they always did. Yet it had become a final farewell.
He wanted to see Little Yue again. He wanted to hold Little Yue again... He wanted to be with Little Yue forever and ever.
But... he couldn’t.
He couldn’t. He would hurt Little Yue.
Even while sunk in slumber, two opposing forces continued to tear at the depths of Wenren Ying’s soul. The struggle left his spirit utterly exhausted, turning his body into a broken wooden puppet, completely unresponsive.
Until now... until now...
He felt the dreadful force binding his soul being drawn away thread by thread, and an immense sense of relief washed over him.
His eyelashes suddenly trembled faintly.
“Brother Ying—Brother Ying—!”
Someone was calling to him.
The voice was so anxious, and so familiar. The moment he heard it, his heart seemed to give a heavy thud.
Blood surged from his heart and raced through his entire body. He abruptly opened his eyes, only to discover that he was lying in someone’s arms.
A blaze of lightning split heaven and earth in an instant, crashing toward the ground.
No! Little Yue!
Wenren Ying moved almost on instinct. Like a black panther, he flipped over and sprang up, yanking Wu Guanyue beneath him. He pressed her head tightly against his chest, then curled over with his back to the sky, shielding her firmly in his embrace.
“Aaaahhhh—!”
A piercing scream finally brought his awareness fully back. Only then did he realize that he stood at the very center of a massive crater. An overwhelming pressure blanketed heaven and earth as eighty-one bolts of heavenly lightning descended in succession... Someone here was undergoing a tribulation.
The one undergoing the tribulation was...
Wenren Ying slowly, slowly raised his head, his gaze fastening upon the writhing human-shaped figure not far away.
...It was his master.
Perfected Renhua, Yan Shouyi.
Ah... he remembered now. Perfected Renhua had controlled him with the Soul-Seizing Art, forcing him to choose death, because he had ordered him to capture Little Yue... Little Yue... What had happened to Little Yue?!
Wenren Ying abruptly lowered his head to look at the young woman pinned beneath him.
A faint sound of sobbing came from his chest.
At this moment, heaven and earth were deafeningly chaotic, and those soft sobs should have been utterly drowned out. Yet Wenren Ying’s ears caught every one of them with perfect clarity.
His chest... was slightly damp.
And so was his heart, as though an endless autumn rain had fallen within it, leaving him aching and sore with grief.
“Brother Ying... sob... Brother Ying...”
Wu Guanyue cried as she called his name.
Wenren Ying reached up and stroked her tangled, disheveled hair. He opened his mouth, with countless things he wanted to say to his Little Yue.
Yet in the end, the words that came out were so simple.
“Little Yue... Little Yue is all right now... Little Yue...”
Wu Guanyue suddenly sprang up and, with a fierce little growl, sank her teeth into his shoulder!
She was like some small beast—fierce beyond measure, yet unbearably adorable. Wenren Ying could feel her burrowing into his embrace even as she bit down hard on him.
Little Yue... she must have been terrified.
Back then... he had used such a brutal method, right in front of Little Yue... It was only natural that she would be angry.
Wenren Ying said nothing. He silently endured it.
With a sharp motion, Wu Guanyue lifted her head and cried out in accusation, “Why is Brother Ying always like this?! Whenever something happens, you always think of hurting yourself!”
He was always like this—always like this!
Ever since she had met Brother Ying, he had been getting hurt, over and over and over... and in the end, he had simply tried to kill himself in front of her!
Wu Guanyue’s eyes were wide and round as she glared at him fiercely, but they were brimming with tears.
With just one blink, she began to cry again.
Wenren Ying felt as though he had swallowed a fruit both bitter and astringent. He could not utter a single word. All he could do was pull Wu Guanyue back into his arms, awkwardly stroking her back with his hand—using that touch to reassure himself as well.
He was alive. He truly was alive.
Another bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down. Wenren Ying and Wu Guanyue abruptly looked up. The Supreme White Jade hovered beside them, providing Wenren Ying with complete protection... but Yan Shouyi was left entirely exposed beneath the heavenly lightning. Half his arm was scorched black by the strike.
After this bolt of lightning had passed, tears, snot, and saliva all streamed down Yan Shouyi’s face, smearing together into a mess.
“Give me the jade! Give me the jade! ...I can no longer ascend, and there are still some soul-devouring insects left in Wenren Ying’s body. Only if I stay alive can he recover! If you still refuse to give me the jade, then I’ll perish together with him!”
Yan Shouyi still had not given up!
His eyes, now practically black holes, stared fixedly at Wu Guanyue as he delivered his final warning.
He had already realized how important Wenren Ying was to her.
So of course he could not possibly have completely undone the Soul-Devouring Art all at once. Naturally, he had kept something in reserve for himself!
He could no longer ascend... but he wanted to live... He wanted to live. He did not want to die. He did not want to die!!!
Wenren Ying felt Little Yue’s back stiffen slightly in his arms.
Now... she could not bear to hear anything suggesting that something might happen to him again.
Supreme White Jade, Eastern Splendor Blood Moon... Wu Guizhen, Wu Guanyue—souls from another world. Though he had only just awakened, the moment he saw the Supreme White Jade, he had already pieced together seven or eight parts of the truth.
Wenren Ying stroked Wu Guanyue’s back. “It’s all right. I’ll handle this.”
Wu Guanyue suddenly clenched his robes tightly, seeming extremely tense.
Wenren Ying said gently, “Don’t worry. I won’t gamble with my life again.”
Only then did Wu Guanyue slowly, slowly loosen her hold on him.
The two of them walked hand in hand toward Yan Shouyi, carrying the Supreme White Treasure Jade with them. Its jade-marrow radiance enveloped him.
Wenren Ying looked down at him from above.
And Yan Shouyi glared back at Wenren Ying, his eyes brimming with hatred.
He could no longer ascend.
His attempt to advance his cultivation had just failed. Even once the heavenly tribulation ended, he would be unable to ascend to the higher realm.
But he did not want to die.
He wanted to live—however many days he could manage, even if it was only a few more. Then... on the day he was meant to die, he would choose to take Wenren Ying with him.
Wu Guanyue had destroyed the thing he had valued most in all his life. So he would take away the person she valued most in hers.
At that thought, Yan Shouyi actually smiled.
He laughed like a madman, as though he were the most triumphant man in the world rather than a dead dog lying in a mud pit.
Wenren Ying suddenly let out a long sigh. “Master, it was you, wasn’t it?”
His words seemed to come out of nowhere, yet master and disciple both understood perfectly well what he meant.
“It was me. So what?” Yan Shouyi said. “The Eastern Splendor Blood Moon was my doing!”
Wenren Ying fell silent.
Only after a long while did he ask hoarsely, “Why? So many lives... why?”
Seeing the pain on Wenren Ying’s face, Yan Shouyi could not help feeling a surge of delight. He threw back his head and laughed. “Why does everyone always ask why? If you want to do something, you do it. What reason could there possibly be...? When you crush an anthill beneath your foot, do you care about the ant—”
His voice abruptly cut off.
Beyond the jade-marrow barrier, lightning flashed. The glare of the heavenly lightning happened to conceal the flash of Wenren Ying’s blade, allowing him to deliver the most decisive, most ruthless strike of his life—
With that single slash, he severed Yan Shouyi’s head completely. Wenren Ying flicked his wrist, struck the blade against it, and sent Yan Shouyi’s head flying like a ball.
A bolt of heavenly lightning fell with unerring precision upon Yan Shouyi’s still-unclosed eyes, reducing his head to a heap of charred earth.
Wenren Ying shook the blood from his blade and sheathed it cleanly.
Who wanted to hear about his state of mind back then, anyway...? He had only been trying to distract him, so Yan Shouyi would have no chance to take them down with him.
