Hearing Mie Xingzhe's scream, Li Luoning quickly flew forward and tried to pull him away from Li Minghan's control. But no matter how hard he tried, Mie Xingzhe did not move even half an inch. Li Luoning's own arm was soon wrapped in demonic fire as well, and waves of sharp pain spread through it.
Li Luoning immediately pushed the full strength of the spiritual power in his body to fight against Li Minghan's cold fire. The moment his power touched the demonic flames, a powerful blast forced all three of them apart. Having lost their balance, they were all thrown hard to the ground.
Li Minghan was clearly badly hurt. He coughed twice, climbed back to his feet, and straightened the hair that had become messy during the fight. After lightly stirring the Moon Shadow Pill inside his body, the color soon returned to his face.
"It has finally awakened."
Li Luoning only felt that the calm energy in his inner core had turned unbearably hot. Scenes of him controlling tiny flames as a child, scenes of the great fire at the Li residence, a blurry scene of being found by Muhan in the mountains, and the moment when his master sealed his memories after he entered the sect of Liao Yin.
"The seal left by the Divine Lord Liao Yin was really not easy to break. But I still have to thank the meridian method your little disciple used before. Otherwise, I would not have known where to start." Li Minghan.
Li Luoning felt warmth in his body now, it felt fully under his control. With a light flick of his fingers, his golden spell now carried a crimson fire with it. Then, all at once, he remembered his master's words from long ago.
"Luoning, sink your breath and calm your heart. Let emptiness become form. Three thousand worlds, the divine land under heaven, blazing power across a thousand li."
Li Luoning glanced sideways at Mie Xingzhe, formed a seal with both hands, and sent a spell into the back of Mie Xingzhe's neck. Floating Light Golden Seal slowly appeared between Mie Xingzhe's brows, and the five-element golden core inside him awakened as well.
"Now this is much more interesting."Li Minghan said.
At the same time, he activated the power of the Moon Shadow Pill inside his body. The short sword that had remained in the left side of his body was absorbed into him as well, and he summoned the Yunyi Maojie once more.
"How can you— Master's short sword!" Mie Xingzhe stared in disbelief.
"What is so strange about that? That bone was mine." Li Minghan replied.
After several exchanges, Li Minghan realized that he could not get even half a step closer to him. He then tried to summon the full power of the Moon Shadow Pill again for one final blow.
But the moment Li Minghan moved the demonic power inside his body, a blue light like flowing water slowly drifted out from the left side of his body. It cut off the cultivation power he was trying to gather. Li Minghan stared at that blue spell light in shock.
"It's Foster Father's power!"
Seeing that the moment had come, Li Luoning held his sword across himself, poured the power of the Chixi Pill into it, and thrust it straight at Li Minghan. The blade pierced directly into Li Minghan's chest.
Blood burst from Li Minghan's mouth. He lost his balance and was thrown back by the force of the sword, crashing down into the sinkhole. He struggled to stand after hitting the ground, but lacked the strength and collapsed again.
Watching Li Luoning walk toward him step by step, Li Minghan gave a wicked smile and glanced at the sword still stuck in his body.
"Do you really think everything ends if you kill me?" Li Minghan asked.
"So what?" Li Luoning answered in a cold voice.
Li Minghan laughed wickedly and lifted his bloodstained hand, pointing at Shentu Zhuojia.
"If I vanish from this world, he and his entire demon realm will vanish with me. Bound in life and death, sworn in blood."
The Shentu clan had always stood as Demon Sovereigns generation after generation only because their bloodline was tied to the protection of the demon realm itself. The barrier of the demon realm was linked to the blood of the Shentu clan. If there were no more people of Shentu blood left in the world, the barrier would shatter. All demon disciples would lose their demonic cultivation, and the demon people would become lambs for slaughter in all three realms, left to be bullied and trampled by anyone.
So Li Minghan had calculated it all long ago. Li Luoning would never kill him. Even if Li Minghan lost this battle, because of the Qikuo parasite inside Shentu Zhuojia, Li Luoning would still have no choice but to leave him alive.
Li Luoning had never planned to kill him in the first place. After thinking for a moment, a trace of coldness rose in his eyes. He turned to Shentu Zhuojia.
"Lord Shentu, since he still has unfinished ties with your demon clan, then I will only take back what belongs to my Li family. As for him, I will leave him for you to deal with." Li Luoning said calmly, without the slightest emotion in his eyes.
Before Shentu Zhuojia could answer, Li Minghan was lifted into the air by an unseen force. Li Luoning reached one clawed hand into Li Minghan's chest, twisted his fingers, and with a hard grasp ripped the Moon Shadow Pill out of Li Minghan's body. At the same time, his other hand mercilessly pulled the sword back out of Li Minghan's body.
The burning force Li Luoning had driven into him made Li Minghan suffer pain down to the bone. With one final scream, the Moon Shadow Pill was torn free.
The demonic energy that had once belonged to Li Minghan also scattered away with the loss of the Moon Shadow Pill. His limbs lost all strength, and he collapsed weakly on the ground, like a defeated vicious dog.
As Li Luoning walked past Shentu Zhuojia, he stopped and handed him a medicine bottle.
"The pill will make him not die, does not live easy, does not rot, and does not hurt."
Then he walked over to Yun Qingyi's body, gently lifted him into his arms, ignored everyone else, and drifted away without looking back.
"Master..."
Mie Xingzhe had just started to follow after him when Yue Ruling grabbed his arm and shook her head at him.
Pingyan Land, Nangzhe's residence.
"Just let me go out and look for Qingping. He has been out there alone for many days now. I am really worried about him. I promise I will come right back as soon as I find him." Hua Ruoying had pleaded with Nangzhe for several days, but he still refused to let her leave the residence.
"If Qingping wanted to leave, then naturally he does not want you to find him. And if he wants to come back, then he will know where to look for you. Since he does not want to see you, why insist on making things difficult for yourself? Besides, Wuming Demon Mountain is fighting right now. It would not be safe for you to go out alone." Nangzhe said flatly.
"Fighting? Fighting with whom?" Hua Ruoying had clearly heard nothing about it.
"Li Minghan and Li Luoning."
"I know this Li Luoning. He is Young Master Yun's master. But who is this Li Minghan?" Hua Ruoying asked.
"You have been doing things for him for so long, and you still do not know who he is?" Nangzhe found that amusing.
"I have been doing things for him?" Hua Ruoying looked confused.
"For your honored lord." Nangzhe gave her the answer directly without dragging it out.
"My lord? Wait. No wonder he has felt strange ever since the last time he came out of seclusion, and why he has been wearing a mask every day. So he was not the real lord at all. But if that person is not the real lord, then where is the real one? No, I have to go back and see." Hua Ruoying muttered to herself, then turned and started to run out.
"Your real lord has already been rescued by your brother." Nangzhe said lazily from where he sat.
Hua Ruoying had only taken two steps before she stopped. She turned around and glared at Nangzhe in anger.
"How do you know everything while I know nothing?" She strode back toward him and pointed at him as she demanded an answer.
Nangzhe had been leaning there with his eyes shut, calmly burning incense and resting. Only when he heard Hua Ruoying's footsteps drawing near did he slowly open his eyes and sit up. In one swift move, he grabbed the hand she was pointing at him with and pulled her right in front of him.
"Do you think the only reason I can stand firm in Pingyan Land is because my methods are ruthless?" Nangzhe blew lightly against Hua Ruoying's face and looked at her with open teasing.
The sudden closeness caught Hua Ruoying completely off guard. She stared blankly at Nangzhe's mask for a moment, but when she met the way he was looking at her, a chill ran down her back. She quickly pulled her hand back and stood straight again.
"I do not care. I am going out to find Qingping." Hua Ruoying said firmly.
"And what if I do not allow it?" Nangzhe was losing patience now. He had probably been too tolerant of her these days, and she seemed to have forgotten how she ought to behave with him.
"Why can you forbid me? Before, I stayed here because my lord ordered me to. But now that I know that lord was fake, why should I keep obeying his orders?" Hua Ruoying said irritably.
"Now it is I who says you are not allowed to leave." Nangzhe waved a hand, and several ghost attendants came in and seized Hua Ruoying.
"Nangzhe, let go. Let go of me. Nangzhe, what gives you the right to stop me—" Hua Ruoying shouted.
Listening to her voice fade into the distance, Nangzhe rubbed at his temple with a headache. After a brief thought, a wicked smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.
"It seems I should cut off that thing outside that still keeps pulling at your heart."
On the side of Liaoyin Immortal Realm,
after returning to Jingyun Residence, Li Luoning shut himself inside and refused to see anyone.
Mie Xingzhe had already been kneeling outside Li Luoning's door for several days. On this day, snow, something rarely seen in Liaoyin Immortal Realm, began to fall. Inside the room, Li Luoning looked out at the heavy snow beyond the window and suddenly remembered something Yun Qingyi had once asked him.
"Master, does it never snow in Liaoyin Immortal Realm?"
Yun Qingyi's face, and that same gentle smile he had worn in life, still remained so clear in memory.
"Master, if only it could snow in Liaoyin Immortal Realm. The peach blossom grove would surely look especially beautiful covered in snow."
Yun Qingyi had smiled as he looked toward the peach blossom grove in the distance.
"Master, have you ever seen Blue Snow Flowers under snow? They must look beautiful too."
...
...
Li Luoning thought back over the old days with Yun Qingyi. His sword rested nearby. Through the window, he looked at Mie Xingzhe kneeling outside, dressed in rough plain clothes, snowflakes clinging to his hair, motionless in the freezing wind and heavy snow. Once again, Yun Qingyi's last words rose in his mind.
[He is your younger brother by blood. How can you ask me to resent him? But how can you ask me to forgive him?] Li Luoning murmured in a low, hoarse voice.
Mie Xingzhe knelt outside Li Luoning's door. He did not call out. He did not beg.
Perhaps he knelt there out of guilt. Perhaps because he could not forgive himself. Or perhaps because he only wanted to speak to his master one more time.
In truth, he did not know why anymore. He simply kept kneeling there, waiting for his master to come out.
Li Luoning's door slowly opened. The moment Mie Xingzhe heard the sound, he jerked his head up. After only a few days apart, his master had grown much thinner. His face was pale, his lips drained of all color, and his already slim frame looked even more fragile than before. The white ribbons tied beside his white jade hairpin fluttered lightly in the cold wind. The white mourning band on his forehead stood out sharply. Over his plain clothes he wore a soft ivory cloak, holding a white ink-wash paper umbrella in one hand and Yun Qingyi's old sword in the other.
"Master..."
Mie Xingzhe straightened himself in a small, humble way and had just begun to speak when the words died in his throat.
A sharp pain stabbed through his heart. His pupils shrank, and he froze there.
He had thought his master was finally willing to come out and had wanted to explain himself. But Li Luoning walked past him without a trace of feeling, as if he were not even there.
It was the first time his master had ever treated him as though he did not exist. Mie Xingzhe stood frozen in place, his eyes trembling uncontrollably, unable to believe what had just happened.
Li Luoning passed by him as though he were empty air and walked straight toward the peach blossom grove. Jingyun Residence, under the falling snow, was deathly silent. All that remained was Mie Xingzhe kneeling there, lost and at a loss, a line of cold footprints beside him, and a pearl spirea quietly pushing up through the soil near the wall.
Mie Xingzhe's eyes were bloodshot, dark circles lay beneath them, and exhaustion showed plainly on his face. His lips trembled violently, and all the pain and sorrow surging inside him had nowhere to go.
Almost out of his senses, Mie Xingzhe whispered,
"I am sorry."
His heart hurt so badly he had to squeeze his eyes shut, and a tear slipped from the corner of one eye.
"Give him some time." Yue Ruling's voice came from behind him.
Mie Xingzhe turned toward Yue Ruling with red-rimmed eyes, his face full of guilt and hurt.
"Senior Sister, I did not mean to." His voice broke with a sob he could no longer control.
Yue Ruling gave a sad sigh. "I know. No one blames you."
"But Master does blame me. His eyes just now said everything. He blames me for killing Qingyi-ge. But I truly did not mean to. I really knew nothing at the time. Why will Master not listen to my explanation? Even just one sentence would be enough."
At last Mie Xingzhe could no longer hold back the emotions he had forced down over the past several days. His voice broke apart in the middle of the falling snow, every word painfully clear. The crushing sorrow swallowed him almost in an instant. The words he wanted to say became impossible to force out. He could only lower his head and let the tears fall one by one to the ground, his shoulders shaking without control.
In the peach blossom grove,
Li Luoning used Yun Qingyi's sword to set up a grave marker for him beneath what he thought was the most beautiful peach tree there.
"Qingyi, look. It is snowing in Liaoyin Immortal Realm."
Li Luoning's voice was dry and hoarse, but it could not hide the grief and desolation cutting through him.
"You were right. The peach trees covered in snow really are beautiful."
Li Luoning set the paper umbrella beside Yun Qingyi's gravestone, as if he wanted to shield him from the falling snow. Then he turned and left. All that remained there was one sorrowful figure beneath drifting peach petals, and a right hand hidden behind his back, the fingertips streaked with blood.
On the gravestone, cleanly carved, were a few simple words:
Tomb of Yun Qingyi — Li Luoning