CH 100

Chapter 100 Forever

Ye Yunlan said this, then raised his hand to sweep the ink jade to the ground.

Qiyun Jun leaned over and held his wrist. He frowned: “The things I give away don’t need to come back.”

Ye Yunlan closed his eyes, “I don’t want to listen to your reasoning. Let me go.”

Qiyun Junn stared at him. After a while, he slowly let go of his hand.

He didn’t use much strength. The most was just the strength of him holding the sword.

However, there were already deep red marks on the thin and pale wrists of the person in front of him, which was shocking to see.

“…I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Ye Yunlan retracted his hand into his sleeve. He put his other hand on it and slowly rubbed it. His eyebrows showed deep fatigue. He didn’t look at the black jade on the table but said coldly: “Sect Master, do you have any other matters?”

The tone used was to chase out guests.

Qiyun Jun seemed as if he didn’t understand, still standing in place.

His hair was white, his clothes were white, and even his eyes had an abnormal light-colored glaze. In front of Ye Yunlan, he deliberately suppressed the oppressive aura and coercion on him. He was expressionless, and he didn’t look very much like a person. Instead, he was like an exquisite doll in a puppet show in the city.

Qiyun Jun: “I remembered…something.”

Not just some, he thought.

It was a lot.

The memory of those three years in the peach valley was only a small part of his more than one hundred years of life, but it was clearer than the one hundred years he spent in his cultivation.

Since entering the dao, he practised silently at the top of Wangyun Peak.

After watching the wind and snow for so many years, he finally saw a touch of bright colors in the paleness. He couldn’t forget it from then on.

Twenty-seven years ago, during his Transcendence calamity, the Soul-Refining Sect Master attacked him, and he was seriously injured.

Ye Yunlan was the one who rescued him.

He woke up amidst the sound of rain and saw a boy wet with black hair sticking to his pale face. He was kneeling on the ground, holding a leaf and feeding him water and food.

The young boy’s eyes were extremely beautiful, and his long black eyelashes hung down like small fans. It was as if they could bend down and enter a person’s heart. It’s just that his eyes were dull as if they couldn’t see the appearance of things——the teenager couldn’t see people.

He grabbed the other party’s hand and said: “…No need.”

Because of his injury, his voice was extremely hoarse. He could hardly distinguish his original tone.

The young man still stubbornly reached out and handed the leaves to him. He said seriously: “If people don’t eat, they’ll die.”

He said: “No.”

The young man blinked suspiciously. He didn’t understand how the world could have someone who won’t die without eating. It took a long time for him to reluctantly take the leaves back, and then ask him, “Are you awake? Are you going to leave?”

He really wanted to leave.

When the Soul Refining Sect Master attacked him, his sword also seriously injured him. He didn’t know where to go. He could find him through his qi whenever. The secret method of pausing while crossing a tribulation could last at most three years. However, the secret method could only last for seven days in the rush. After seven days, the tribulation would fall, and his radius would be razed to the ground.

However.

He looked at the young boy’s wet body as if he was just a newly-hatched chick. He stared at his ignorant expression, pitch-black eyes, and the simple burrow built by messy branches and leaves in the cave. He was silent for a long time, before he asked, “What about your parents and relatives?”

The young man just shook his head.

“I have no relatives.”

Even though he said it like that, the young man’s expression couldn’t be controlled and showed a little sadness.

He was silent.

Although he’d predicted it, why on earth would someone abandon such a young and blind child in the middle of the wild mountains and wild beasts, staggering to survive?

The rain was getting heavier.

The thunder roared, and the whole cave seemed to be trembling.

The young man murmured: “The rain is really heavy.”

He whispered, “en.” He knew the secret method couldn’t be delayed anymore, and he must go out to face the tribulation, or strengthen the secret method again to drag the tribulation out until three years passed.

So he got up and took his sword.

The young man’s hearing was very good. He ran over to him, raised his head, and asked him: “You just woke up, where are you going?”

He said, “To stop the rain.”

The exhausted spiritual power in his meridians didn’t recover much, but he still raised his hand and touched the young man’s head. Spiritual power flowed through the boy’s body, drying him.

He left a mark of spiritual power in the cave.

If he wasn’t dead this time, he would come back and take the young man out of this forest and enter the wider world.

However, things didn’t always go as planned.

Before welcoming the catastrophe again, the Soul Refining Sect Master followed his qi. They fought against each other for half a day, and both were injured. The Soul Refining Sect Master was injured more severely than him. He used the method of blood escape to escape. Within ten years, he would be devoid of any fighting ability.

However, the Asura sword in the opponent’s hand injured him, and he couldn’t fight against the tribulation anymore. Thus, he could only forcefully use the power of his soul to reinforce the secret method, dragging the tribulation to three years later.

The power of his divine soul was over-exhausted, and his consciousness was about to fall into a coma. Only following the spiritual power mark left before, he returned to the cave where the young man was. After that, he passed out completely.

When he awoke once more, he had lost all his memories and most of his cultivation, just like a complete mortal.

He fell from the top of the mountain, high above the clouds, and fell into the dust below.

The boy caught him.

They hunted wild animals in the mountains, picked fruits, and built houses with wood and thatch.

His soul was damaged, and his heartless dao realm fell. In his eyes, everything in the world was no longer just pale wind and snow. It was filled with bright colors, trees, peach blossoms, and a young man who was even more scorching than the peach blossoms.

He liked to stroke the boy’s head and soft hair with his broad palm.

He liked to see the young man running around in front of him, plucking the wild fruit, holding it in front of him, raising his head to face him, laughing, and gently calling him “brother.”

The Tai Qing Du Er sword was used as a tree-cutting axe. Always holding the sword in his palms, he gradually became rougher due to the long-term work. The silver crown on his head was removed, and his long hair was tied behind his head. His sleeves were rolled up, and his arms were exposed for movement.

He became more and more like a man in the mountains.

An alive person.

Rather than a puppet on the snow-capped mountain that could only cultivate.

At night, he sat with his knees bent before the bonfire, turning over the wild animals he’d hunted. The night sky was shining with stars, and the milky way swept across. The young man’s eyes contained the light of the fire when he looked at him. The dark and dull eyes reflected his figure like he was the only one in the young man’s eyes in this world.

He wanted to remain in the young man’s eyes.

In the third year of being in the peach valley, his injuries gradually began to recover.

Occasionally, there were images of flying snow in the sky. He frowned, instinctively reluctant to recall.

He just wanted to stay right here.

It’s just that the secret technique could only suppress the tribulation for only three years, and the due catastrophe would eventually come as scheduled.

At the end of the third year, there was heavy rain in the peach valley.

He knew that the rain was coming for him. The young man would be in danger if he stayed here.

But where could he go if not here?

The Tai Qing Du Er sword was alive. It could sense the danger brewing in the tribulation and uttered a mute sword cry in his hand. Sword qi poured back into his body, causing the clogged spiritual veins in his body to burst open. He snorted, and the sky full of wind and snow and the peach blossoms in the Peach Blossom Valley merged into one place. He remembered all of the memories prior to crossing the catastrophe.

He was the Sect Master of Sky Sect.

He practiced sword at the age of three and entered the dao at the age of seven. He cultivated the heartless dao. His swordsmanship looked down at the world.

He was the boy’s brother.

He chopped wood to make fire and hunted in the mountains. He lived with the young boy for three years, being closer than relatives.

Who was he?

There was faint thunder brewing in the heavy rain.

He couldn’t stay here anymore.

The insights during the tribulation period were enough to analyze the young man’s blindness was due to poisoning, not something he was born with. He left a bottle of pills in the house, which could wash away the muscles and marrow and relieve all kinds of poisons. It was something he obtained many years ago in an ancient secret realm. It would be difficult to buy it with ten thousand spirit stones in the spiritual world.

He also left the black mark blood soul jade behind. This was his Sect Master’s token, with the formation he engraved on it. Even if he suffered unexpected events, it could protect the young boy from natural disasters thereafter.

After leaving the two things, he had no time to bid farewell to the boy.

He rode his sword and went a hundred miles away to welcome the three-years-late catastrophe.

Transcending the mortal calamity was the first hurdle between separating humans and immortals. The Tribulation of the Heart Demon also accompanied the Nine Thunder Tribulation.

He cultivated the ruthless dao, so the youth was his calamity. Only by silently reciting the heartless dao, forgetting the young man, and being in harmony with the dao, could he shed the world and become immortal.

——But he didn’t want to forget.

He chose to break the tribulation with force.

Tai Qing Du Er sword cut through the nine thunder tribulations. It cut through the disaster of the heart demon, and at the moment of Transcendence, everything in the world seemed distant. He stood on the top of the snow-capped mountain, and suddenly realized he was mistaken.

The heartless dao couldn’t tolerate love.

When he used force to break through the calamity, when he forced himself to ascend to the immortal stage and cut through the heart demon, he had also cut off the person in his heart.

The wind and snow filled the air, and the peach blossoms faded.

He stretched out his hand and tried to catch something in the air.

But he forgot what he wanted to catch.

The cost of crossing the catastrophe was extremely heavy, not to mention that he had never healed from his injury.

He rode his sword, returned to Sky Sect, and fell in Xuanhu Peak.

After that, years passed.

When he awoke, there were always peach blossoms and phantom figures in his dreams.

The heartless dao made him subconsciously not think deeply. He thought it was just an illusory demon, his lingering desire as a mortal. If he wanted to break through to Void Tracing, he must cut through his desires. So he retreated to Wangyun Peak, unable to be contaminated with mundane things, to have a perfect state of mind.

But he didn’t know that he had never really successfully passed the Tribulation.

Even if the heart demon could be cut through for that moment, it would still slowly recover.

To maintain his realm, he could only bear the wind and snow every day, cultivate alone, and no longer think about it.

He spent more than twenty years this way. Qiyun Jun lowered his eyes.

“All day long, I spent it cultivating on Wanyun Peak, watching the wind and snow, becoming enlightened to the Great Dao. Twenty years flew by in a second. But now that I think about it, I feel like it’s been too long. Unknowingly, you…have grown up to look like this.”

He stared at Ye Yunlan, from the tip of his hair to the cheek, trying to find the appearance of the boy from the past.

Ye Yunlan’s face hadn’t changed much; it just bloomed. His facial features had become clearer, but his temperament was very different from that of his youth.

When he was a teenager, he was bright and beautiful like a peach blossom. His smile was so beautiful that he wanted to pick all the stars in the sky for him as gifts. But now, he was silent like frost and snow. He had few expressions, was pale and sick, and his expression was isolated from the world.

But, he was more beautiful and compelling.

Such a fragile colored glaze, such a pure white and flawless picture. It made people want to break it but also cherish it.

After Qiyun Jun finished speaking, he repeated it again: “I remembered everything.”

Ye Yunlan listened to him state his past of more than 20 years ago, but he realized that he could not remember his own feelings that year.

He once walked to Sky Sect with hope, but Rong Ran ruined him. In the next few hundred years, he met many people and experienced many things. Then, all his past disappeared like dust and smoke. What Qi Yunjun said, everything was separated by a thick curtain, far in the distance.

Therefore, he said,

“You remembered it, so what?”

Qiyun Jun looked at his unwavering face. His sword-holding hand tightened, and he slowly said: “I owe you karma as compensation.”

Ye Yunlan was indifferent. He said: “You don’t owe me. I’ve saved your life, and you’ve healed me many times. We’ve cleared everything.”

Qi Yunjun: “This is different.”

“What’s the difference?”

Qiyun Jun’s brow furrowed, “You saved my life, I’ll protect you for a lifetime.”

Protect him for a lifetime?

This remark came out, and it only made Ye Yunlan feel ironic.

Ye Yunlan’s lips curled up in a cold arc. He said: “What if I don’t want it? Are you going to be like before and forcefully heal me?”

Qiyun Jun fell silent.

Of course, he wanted Ye Yunlan to be alive. Otherwise, he wouldn’t travel to Tianchi Mountain just to re-suppress Ye Yunlan’s injuries.

But Ye Yunlan didn’t want it.

The room was silent for a while.

Outside the door, the wind chimes jingled, and the sun shone in. The sunlight fell on them, causing the two people’s shadows to be narrow and long.

Qiyun Jun slowly lowered his body, half-kneeling in front of Ye Yunlan. He placed the Tai Qingdu Er Sword on the table. He extended his hand, pushed the black jade in front of Ye Yunlan, and said: “I just want to protect you. No matter the karma.”

The man in front of him had his eyebrows drooped and a crane cloak spread out on the ground. He didn’t appear like the Sky Sect Master high above him. The slender hand that usually held his sword was pushing that broken jade, and the dark blue veins on the back of his hand were slightly raised, stubbornly refusing to take it back.

Qiyun Jun continued: “If you are suffering only because you don’t like to heal, I have a method able to completely solve the divine fire’s injury, and even help you renew the meridians, increasing your realm.”

At this point, he paused for a moment, then said: “Mine and your spiritual veins are of the same origin. They are innately compatible with each other. If you absorb my spiritual power, you will be able to get twice the result with half the effort. And with my cultivation, it is not impossible to deal with the divine fire.”

“You wish… to dual cultivate with me?”

Ye Yunlan’s pupils suddenly shrank. He stood up and shouted coldly: “Sect Master cultivates the heartless dao, do you know what this means?”

Qiyun Jun: “I know. Before I came here, I had already thought about it for a long time.”

Ye Yunlan: “I just saved your life in the past. Why does the Sect Master need to pay with his own dao and say such ridiculous words?”

Qiyun Jun: “It’s not ridiculous. This is the only way to save you.”

In the world, a person who could get the divine fire to acknowledge them was less than one in a million. Even Qiyun Jun couldn’t guarantee that the divine fire would recognize him, but at least with his Transcendence Realm, he would never be burned to death if the divine fire resided in his body.

Although he still didn’t understand what his feelings for Ye Yunlan were—Was it love or desire, was it like or pity—he had never had love in his life, so he couldn’t distinguish this.

He only knew that he didn’t want to watch Ye Yunlan leave.

Ye Yunlan thought it was ridiculous.

Suddenly, he felt as if he didn’t know the Qiyun Jun in front of him. The nightmare in the Buddha Pagoda and the man kneeling in front of him overlapped together. The distant memories in the Peach Blossom Valley and the gazes of thousands of gods and Buddhas on the base of the dark pagoda intertwined. Accompanied by dreams and harsh howling, he suddenly felt tight in his chest.

“Go away,” he said hoarsely, “I don’t want to hear what you say about karma, and I don’t need you to pretend to help me because of the past.”

After speaking, he couldn’t help but cough.

Blood spilled from his lips.

Qiyun Jun got up and wanted to support him, but someone was faster than him.

Shen Shu guarded Ye Yunlan in his arms. He passed his spiritual power into Ye Yunlan’s back and held his sword in front of him.

Qiyun Jun: “Get out of the way.”

Shen Shu sneered.

Many years ago, Qiyun Jun said the same thing. At that time, he was still unable to resist. He could only be pushed out of the room by the Transcendence Realm’s power. He had watched the door slowly close, the other party constraining his master in a cold sweat. He had healed his master’s wounds, powerless.

Transcendence Realm.

It was a very distant vocabulary, but after possessing the Demon Lord’s memory, it was no longer unfamiliar.

There was a strong hostility in his blood-red eyes. He said: “What are you? My master wants you to get lost, can’t you hear?”

For many years, no one had dared to be this rude to Qiyun Jun.

He was very tolerant of Ye Yunlan, but he didn’t need to tolerate Ye Yunlan’s disciple. Besides, Shen Shu had already drawn his sword against him. For a sword cultivator, drawing a sword was a provocation to fight.

He unsheathed the Tai Qing DueEr sword and lifted the cold, snowy blade to point directly at Shen Shu.

Qiyun Jun: “I want to heal him, get out of the way.”

Shen Shu: “Get lost. I’m here, we don’t need you to heal Master.”

Qiyun Jun: “What right do you have to heal him? It depends on you.” The dirty demonic energy on your body?” His eyes were extremely cold, “Sky Sect doesn’t allow half demonic cultivators to enter. If you block me again, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”

Shen Shu didn’t answer, but he heard Ye Yunlan speak in a hoarse voice.

“If you dare to hurt a single piece of his hair,” he still had bright red blood on his lips, and his narrow eyes lifted up. They were completely different from his usual fierceness. It was like a cold blade out of its sheath, “I will make you pay the price of something you would never hope to consign to.”

The person in front of him was clearly injured, weak, and had no cultivation skills. But when he spoke threats, he didn’t give people the impression that he was just a weak mortal. He could make people feel a real threat.

Qiyun Jun pursed his lips slightly.

The hand holding the sword tightened and relaxed.

In this world, no one could use threats to force him to put back his sword.

He took a slow and deep breath.

In the end, Tai Qing Du Er sword in his hand slowly dropped and retracted into its sheath.

He didn’t want to look at Shen Shu again as if the demonic energy deposited on the opponent’s body would contaminate his eyes. He only stared at Ye Yunlan: “I told you that year. Your disciple’s body is hostile, indeterminate, and has the requirement to become a demon. Now, that is the case.”

Ye Yunlan: “I will naturally teach my disciple, so there is no need to worry the Sect Master.”

Qiyun Jun: “An evil disciple will eat their master. One case within was present the dao sect, I am just kindly reminding you.”

Ye Yunlan looked tired and stopped answering his words.

“I’m tired. If there is nothing wrong, please go back.”

Qiyun Jun: “You can’t hold back your injuries. At the latest, two months and your body will not be able to bear it. You will completely collapse.” It was why he was so anxious after seeing Ye Yunlan at the Law Enforcement Hall yesterday and came to find the other party.

Qiyun Jun spoke of the concealed thing. Ye Yunlan felt Shen Shu holding his arm tightly. He patted the back of Shen Shu’s hand comfortingly and said, “These things, I know.”

Qiyun Jun: “I won’t take back what I just said in the future. You can rest well. After thinking about it carefully, I will look for you again.”

After that, he left the black jade on the table and turned away.

Only the two master and disciple remained in the bamboo building.

Shen Shu helped Ye Yunlan go into the room to rest.

The arch-shaped carved bed was spacious. He took a soft pillow so that Ye Yunlan could lie down on the bed comfortably. He tucked the quilt for him and sat on the edge of the bed. Suddenly he said, “Master, the things that guy said of you only having two months left, is it true?”

Ye Yunlan sat quietly on the bed. He looked sideways at the window. He did not look at Shen Shu and gently said: “En.”

Shen Shu: “Master hadn’t told me about this.”

“In the secret realm, Master promised to accompany me forever. So two months, is two months what Master thought was forever?”

Ye Yunlan whispered. “Shen Shu, what I can give is already given to you.”

“Then why doesn’t Master dare to look at me?”

Shen Shu’s eyes were a little red. He suddenly reached out his hand to clasp Ye Yunlan’s chin and forced him to turn his face around. His strength was not very strong. He seemed to be still trying to restrain himself. Blood and fire were in his dark red eyes, which fell into Ye Yunlan’s pupils.

The familiar eyes made Ye Yunlan stunned for a moment, then heard Shen Shu’s hoarse voice.

“Master, am I very similar to your previous dao companion?”

Ye Yunlan opened his eyes slightly as if he didn’t quite understand what he was talking about.

Shen Shu pinched his jaw and said slowly.

“He was a demon cultivator, and I am about to fall and become a demon.”

“You said that he was naturally arrogant, strong, and domineering, but he was very good to you. I also put the respected master at the top of my heart. No one in the world can replace Master in my heart.”

“Do I look like him? Speaking of which, Master recently really likes to look at my eyes. Is it because our eyes are similar?”

“Speaking of, I’m really curious. Did he also cook for Master? Did he make tea for Master? Would he make desserts for Master?”

Shen Shu smiled and continued.

“What else did he do? Master might as well tell me; I will learn it.”

“If I’m more like him, will Master indulge me a bit more or even treat me like him? Is it possible to be him?”

“At that time, am I qualified to do what he can do to Master without Master blaming me?”

He said this and suddenly leaned forward. He kissed the red blood left on Ye Yunlan’s lips.

Little by little, he dwelled there. He sucked and kissed very meticulously until he licked the blood on Ye Yunlan’s lips clean. There was a bright glow, and the tails of his eyes were red.

Shen Shu raised his head, looked at Ye Yunlan’s angry eyes, and said softly: “What I want to do is something more extreme than this.”

The bedside shadow spread over, scrolling and stretching beside Ye Yunlan, seemingly uncontrollable. It wanted to touch him but was also afraid of scaring him, so he forcefully restrained it.

Suddenly, Shen Shu released the hand holding Ye Yunlan’s chin. He turned to hug Ye Yunlan’s thin shoulders, burying his head in his neck. He said in a low voice.

“I want to heal Master.”

“I want Master to live.”

“I want the eternity Master promised me. The true forever.”

The more he spoke, the more hoarse his voice became.

Ye Yunlan wanted to push Shen Shu away but suddenly felt a touch of dampness on the clothes on his shoulders.

He was startled.