Chapter 30 â What I See In The Mirror Has Always Been You
Translator: THISBRO
Editor: Mimishijie
Proofreader: Bubbles
Originally, He Ku thought that He Huan and You Jiang would have a lot to say now that the latter was separating from the sect, but in reality, the two didnât mention the past nor settle old debts. They just distantly looked at each other.
Soon afterward, You Jiang spoke his thoughts out loud, âThe Palace Master is the worldâs Palace Master, but not the demonic factionâs Palace Master. What I want is for the demonic path to dominate the world, not some bullshit world peace. Now that the crafty rabbit has died, what use is the hunting dog? You and your shifu have single-mindedly suppressed the demonic faction for so many years, do you think he would let you go for the sake of world peace?â
He Huan was correct; You Jiang was the most promising demonic cultivator of the younger generation. He was the only one to deduce He Huanâs true intentions from the clues left behind after all these years. Even Xuanmenâs disciples were fooled by He Huanâs act, believing he had long forgotten his aspirations after falling into depravity. He believed that He Huan still had the world in his heart, and due to his certainty in his belief he had to defect. Because his dao was bound to wash the world in blood.
This situation was actually quite ironic. Xuanmen, who stood on the same side as him, wanted to end him, while the only one who believed that he wanted to protect the world was the demonic cultivator who was determined to overturn it. Thinking this, He Huanâs smile became a little mocking. His gaze towards the glass lens, however, was exceedingly clear. âYour name from when you were in the Heavenâs Library Pavillion was Jiang FengZhi?â
He originally thought You Jiang would be surprised at his words. He didnât expect the otherâs face to remain unmoved. You Jiang calmly replied, âI used to be, but now I am just You Jiang the demonic cultivator.â
When a person was truly able to accept the future, they would no longer be afraid of their past. He no longer concealed his talent in the four arts; he had completely drawn a line dividing him and his past righteous self. Such resoluteness was something He Huan never attained in his hundred years, but he didnât envy You Jiang. After all, Xuanmen was different from the Heavenâs Library Pavilion, and in the same way, Bu QingYun and Jiang FengZhi were also different. They werenât the same type of people.
Seeing He Huan hadnât responded, You Jiang was a little irritated. When all was said and done, he still had the temper of youth, always wanting to convince the people who didnât agree with him through a debate so as to prove his own correctness. Now that he met He Huanâs âwhatever makes you happyâ attitude, he didnât know how to deal with it. He could only seriously say, âIt is because I come from the Heavenâs Library Pavilion that Iâm clearer than you on just how many dirty things the righteous faction hides. The Heavenly Dao Allianceâs core has already rotted. A single Xuanmen Righteous Sect is incapable of changing anything.â
He Huan actually didnât want to debate with him either. He was used to a lonely lifestyle, needing neither another personâs recognition nor someoneâs company. He could walk his road of ascension by himself. Since he never had any expectations towards You Jiangâs loyalty, he naturally wouldnât have the anger associated with being betrayed. With such tranquility, he continued to look at them, asking the only question he had left, âWhere is Bu YaoLian?â
A mere Heavenâs Library Pavilion would not possess the necessary strength to set traps in front of the Palace of Bliss, but if You Jiang personally helped them, then it wasnât impossible to trap Bu YaoLian.
You Jiang wasnât surprised that he was able to think of such things, he answered honestly, âI trapped him inside the Lunar Valley.â
Before he saw He Huan, You Jiang had prepared many bold words in his heart. He thought that he would definitely be able to scold his delusional Palace Master into recognizing reality. Yet now that they were face to face and he saw He Huanâs calm and unrippled expression, he didnât actually know what to say.
He was sixteen when he had been forced onto the demonic path by the Heavenâs Library Pavilion. He grew up in the Palace of Bliss, and it was there that he began to consider himself a true demonic cultivator. However, the friendship he and He Huan made over the years was probably thinner than He Kuâs month of nodding acquaintance. Now that heâd left, the Little Palace Master might even be sad for quite a while, but the Palace Master probably wouldnât have even the slightest change in mood.
When all was said and done, management of the Palace of Bliss had completely been left up to him these past few years. If He Huan wanted to keep him, he might not have left so decisively. But looking at He Huanâs indifference, a coldness nipped at his heart. He suddenly realised the current situation was dull and uninteresting, saying, âIâve already cleared away the righteous factionâs blockade on the west. If you want to retreat to the Snowy Mountains, you can go from there. Palace Master, this is the last thing I will do for you. When we meet again, we will be enemies.â
You Jiang was committed to leaving, so naturally He Huan wouldnât try to keep him. However, he wasnât as indifferent as the other made him out to be. His gaze focused on the woman behind You Jiang and for the first time his voice wavered. âFrom the start, you and I walked different paths, I am unsurprised that this day would come. However, Xiu Niang, I never imagined that you would follow him.â
His words seldom held even a bit of emotion, but when Xiu Niang heard them her eyes reddened and she bit her lips as she looked at the handsome man on the daybed. She had followed this person for eighty years, personally watched him climb from desperation to where he was now. She approved of his aspirations and also firmly believed that he was the most impressive man in the world, but there were some things that needed to be said today.
Her red lips trembled, a few tears that had hung on her eyes finally falling. The thing she hid until now was finally revealed. âPalace Master, Feng Xieâs martial arts defied natural order, an ordinary cultivator simply couldnât catch him. Only if he provoked a Calamity Crossing cultivator would he die.â
She didnât dare to look at that personâs expression, the handkerchief in her hand clenched in a death grip. She closed her eyes and, in a single breath, finished saying, âSo⊠I gave him Xuanmenâs map and encouraged him to attack Xuanmenâs succeeding disciple. I knew that if Bu QingYun ended up in the same situation as that person, Qing XuZi would definitely make it so that there was nothing left of Feng Xie.
âThe Little Palace Master was so similar to the Bu QingYun of back then; as long as I was looking at him, I would worry that you would discover what happened that year. Itâs also good now that itâs out in the open.â
âPalace Master, this Xiu Niang canât apologize enough for what happened that year. But even if I went back in time, as long as it would kill him, I would do the same thing.â
Her voice echoed in the empty QingYun Hall. He Huan just quietly listened to her; he didnât reply and he didnât look at her, a suffocating silence enveloping the building.
After a long while, the spiritual energy of a Calamity Crossing cultivator abruptly spread out. The people within the Palace of Bliss only felt the weather suddenly change, the ground beneath them trembling as if it were also frightened.
The glass lens had already been shattered, this earthquake triggered by anger further worried the Palace of Bliss. But He Ku didnât have the room to worry about anyone else, because he saw it, a pure black energy was currently dissipating from He Huanâs body.
Once you cultivated the Technique of Bliss, you could only be happy. Any negative emotion would cause the practitionerâs cultivation to dissipate. Xiu Niangâs blade came too unexpectedly and hit the old wound He Huan hid all these years. What the righteous faction plotted to do for decades was accomplished with just a few words from her.
She⊠succeeded in hurting He Huan.
âSo it was you.â
These few words were ground out. He Huan knew that he should calm down, but today, he didnât want to be calm. He still remembered, back then, it was because he no longer had a sect, no longer had any friends, no longer had a future that he chose to explode his golden core in order to bring Feng Xie down with him.
When Feng Xieâs head hit the ground, his meridians were completely shattered, he didnât even have the strength to stay standing. It was the woman in pink laying on the daybed who had caught him as he fell. She helped him collect Feng Xieâs divine consciousness and gave him the Technique of Bliss to let him be reborn in the demonic faction. In the days where he was no different from a waste, she gave her body to all kinds of demonic cultivators in exchange for medicine to heal his meridians. It could be said that without Xiu Niang, there wouldnât be todayâs He Huan. That was why he reserved the slightest sincerity towards only her within the entire palace.
This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org
For Feng Xie to dare sneak into the Xuanmen Righteous Sect and drug Bu QingYun, he knew that there had to be something more going on back then. He suspected every sect, no matter righteous or demonic, he even held suspicions towards Bu YaoLian. Everyone except her. Yet it was the person he had never suspected who was the true culprit.
The one who let him be reborn on the demonic path as He Huan was her.
The one whoâd caused Bu QingYun to fall into hell, never to return, was also her.
So this was the truth of that event. There was no intricate arrangement, no flawless scheme, it was just the revenge of a desperate woman that destroyed Bu QingYunâs life. A disaster that swept him up along with it.
âHe Huan!â
He Kuâs worry-filled voice sounded by his ear. The youth had never seen He Huan like this, he was probably scared by him and hugged him tightly from behind. The spirit bodyâs coldness calmed him somewhat. He Huan slowly raised his eyes; the spirit body hugging him clearly had the same face as him, yet the energy surrounding him was impeccably pure and clean. As long as he got close, he would feel as if he was securely protected by the spiritual energy gathered by the divine sword intent. Not long ago, he was also like this.
If it wasnât for Feng Xie, he would have been like this even now.
Bu QingYun was twenty when he was at the late stage of Golden Core. Qing XuZi had said that if this continued, he would definitely be able to ascend within the century. He originally had the chance to break through the realms and see his parents one last time, but because of her, everything was ruined.
If it hadnât been for that event, how would he be forced to hold a sword as he greeted his shizun who he saw as a father now? How would he be alone in this building with no brothers or friends, no one to accompany him except his Nascent Soul? How would he have missed the opportunity to return home because he was trapped and had to recultivate with a demonic technique? How would he have lost his trust in the world and everyone in it?
Xiu Niang, you really brought me so much sufferingâŠ
The more he looked at He Ku, the more he couldnât help but remember the bits and pieces of his past, but he was no longer the boy who would fall apart when he encountered some setbacks. After living a hundred years, he should have learned his lesson. The more he hated, the better he had to live. As long as he maintained his cultivation level, he would have time to find those people in the future.
The agitated spiritual qi submerged back into his dantian as he took a deep breath and exhaled. He buried all his emotions in an instant as if he had returned to his usual look of indifference. He patted He Ku, who refused to let go of him, and even his tone had calmed. âIâm not in a great mood today, so why donât you go back into the dantian to rest? Wait for me to clear my head, Iâll be back to normal tomorrow.â
He Huan was always like this. No matter what he faced, he would always be indifferent like he didnât care about anything, as if nothing could hurt him. Even if he felt sad or despondent, he would recover his tranquility after a few cups of tea and some moon watching. It made people think that this person had very thin emotions.
Yet, He Ku knew that it wasnât that he wouldnât hurt but that he had become used to holding it in. When he got hurt he would endure it alone, and after a while, he would forget the pain and display a smile to the rest of the world. He believed that He Huan could overcome this. After tonight, people would again see the strategizing and improper Demon Lord He Huan. Nobody would know what had happened today.
However, while He Huan could deceive the rest of the world, he couldnât deceive He Ku. They were originally from the same consciousness, so as long as one felt sad or hurt, the other would be able to clearly feel just how much pain they were in. Today, He Huan was really angry and he actually forgot about the connection between the two. Just then, his suffocating sorrow vividly made it into He Kuâs heart. It was also at this time that he realized what He Huanâs smile hid every time he reminisced about the past.
He still wasnât willing to let go. He Huan looked at his stubborn face and suddenly remembered that he really was like this in the past. He would always use brute force to tackle problems, he didnât know how to be flexible, that was why he stumbled so hard. He silently sighed and relied on his decades of experience to make a smile. He patted his Nascent Soulâs hand and gently said, âSee? I told you that there wasnât anyone in this world you could trust other than yourself. I didnât do it well, donât learn from me.â
He Huan thought, I truly have been tempered. Even now I can still lift my spirits enough to comfort He Ku. However, he was also thankful that there was a He Ku to draw his attention away; at least, as long as he thought about He Kuâs situation he wouldnât have the time to review those painful memories.
Just as he was thinking about how he should lull this stubborn youth to sleep, that person buried his face into the crook of his neck. His muffled voice sounded beside his ears. âHe Huan, you told me once that the Soul Inquiry Mirror would reflect a cultivatorâs ultimate purpose or desire in life.â
He Huan wanted to tell him that it wasnât time for his soul to be inquired since his nature was still being developed. However, before he even opened his mouth, He Kuâs voice slowly sounded by his ears again. âWhat I see in the mirror⊠is you.â
This was the first time someone had said something like this to him since entering the demonic path. He hadnât yet thought about how to reply to the youth when he noticed the surrounding spiritual energy begin rushing towards their body.
Spiritual energy condensed, already forming into an immortal body. No cultivator would be unfamiliar with this situation. He Ku was actually going to form his golden core right here!