Ch133 - Deathmatch

Yin Cangshan’s sanity seemed to have returned at this moment. His eyes were red, but alert, and he moved as he talked to block the stone well. Xie Zhiwei’s brows shifted as his gaze snapped to the well.

Because he could sense the willow branch from there!

He tapped against Qingping Sword as its lotus leaves bloomed from the hilt. Its green light was thin and dense like a fine drizzle as they shot towards Yin Cangshan. With time so tight, he didn’t dare fight and only wanted to carve out a path so he could slip down the well. But Yin Cangshan wasn’t easy to deal with when he was sane. Red Lotus bloomed around him with huge petals and then wrapped him up to deflect the attacking green light. They bounced and hit the surrounding rocks and dry grass, sending debris flying into the air.

Yin Cangshan stared at him fixedly. “Xie zhenren, I have to thank your palm strike back then for waking me to my senses. I’ve already transferred him to this well, but you still managed to discover it. Truly, the affections between master and disciple are deep. But Mu He is simply a lamp with no more oil. Soon enough, the Black and White Lotus on his body will be mine.”

“Your Excellency has spoken too soon,” Xie Zhiwei was indifferent.

“Really.” Yin Cangshan was full of complacency but didn’t slack off at all. “I didn’t want to kill you originally, but you lied to me and chased all the way here, so I can only take your life. Hm? What’s that on your neck?”

Xie Zhiwei was impatient. “Stop dawdling and fight.”

He knew he couldn’t win by brute force alone when Yin Cangshan was covered with hostile qi. This spell formation was still his home turf, so even if Yin Cangshan’s spiritual energy had been severely depleted, there was little chance of winning. Under these circumstances, the classic trope of villains dying by monologuing too much didn’t apply at all. There was not enough time for Yin Cangshan to rant on and on.

“Good and straightforward,” Yin Cangshan stood unmoving but raised his hands to wave towards the sides.

The next moment, Xie Zhiwei felt the ground beneath his feet shift again. The glow of the floor intensified like warped blood, dark and scarlet. The tips of his feet began to hurt even more as cold sweat dripped down his forehead. Xie Zhiwei didn’t know whether the heat had burned his toes off, but he had no time to check. He shifted Qingping Sword until its blade was facing outward and rushed at Yin Cangshan. The latter swished his sleeves and the red light on the ground rose to form a barrier instantly in front of Xie Zhiwei.

Xie Zhiwei held his sword in one hand while gathering spiritual energy in the other and in a fit of inspired desperation, lowered his head to bite Dog.

“Mreow!” There was a miserable cry before Dog’s body shone with even more white light. Xie Zhiwei felt as if an ice blade had pierced him from neck to chest, cold enough to stab his heart. He gritted his teeth and charged with Dog and the light shielding before him until he touched the barrier.

Immediately, an opening revealed itself before the light scattered in four directions. Xie Zhiwei seized the chance to flash in front of Yin Cangshan and stab him with his sword at the same time his left hand struck with spiritual power.

Yin Cangshan never expected this and quickly dodged to the side, but was a split second too late. The sword pierced under his ribs at the same time Xie Zhiwei’s palm strike hit. There was a muffled grunt as Yin Cangshan’s face distorted. He bore the pain to pull out the sword with both hands, but only managed a bit before Xie Zhiwei turned his wrist to stab in from a different angle.

Blood spurted out of Yin Cangshan’s mouth as he raged, “You’re seeking death!”

He gave up on the sword and struck back with his palm at Xie Zhiwei too. The latter narrowed his eyes and blocked it with his hand before they were stuck in a stalemate to fight with spiritual power alone. The air around them surged, the red light in the distance tumbling like a sea to form fine ripples crescending towards Xie Zhiwei. The entire spell formation seemed to change into a huge whirlpool with Xie Zhiwei at the center.

Yin Cangshan split his lips into a leering grin. “Xie zhenren, I’ll let you see what this spell formation is like.”

“Be my guest.”

Xie Zhiwei couldn’t see the red light encroaching closer, but he did feel an increasing pressure that gave him a foreboding feeling. He increased his strength until Qingping Sword was shining with cold light. Each of the lotus leaves on its hilt opened and closed as spiritual energy flowed unceasingly into Yin Cangshan’s body.

Yin Cangshan’s expression suddenly blanched. “You…”

Qingping Sword was a soul weapon. After its spiritual energy entered his body, it naturally flowed into the inner recesses and then his divine consciousness. The Red Lotus in his divine consciousness was a nature repellant of the hostile qi and growing unstable from the exchange of powers. It seemed as if it would be snatched away by Qingping Sword at any moment.

Xie Zhiwei imposed, “Return what you stole from my disciple!”

“You wish!” Yin Cangshan glared at him while gnashing his teeth. His eyes suddenly gleamed sharply before he released the other hand gripping Qingping Sword to strike at Xie Zhiwei’s skull with hostile qi.

Xie Zhiwei had one hand on his weapon and the other channeling spiritual energy, so there was nothing left to block the blow. He could only turn aside to evade awkwardly. By now all of the red light from the spell formation was getting closer to him. Privately cursing the situation, Xie Zhiwei immediately increased his power until Qingping Sword locked in on Red Lotus and floated out of Yin Cangshan’s body via the blade. He quickly retracted the hand that was at stalemate with Yin Cangshan’s palm to withdraw the Red Lotus into his divine consciousness.

But following that were two consecutive strikes by Yin Cangshan himself. One landed on Xie Zhiwei’s head while the other hit his chest. He was sent flying far away. Although Golden Lotus ensured he feared no injuries, he still bled from his head wound. Meanwhile, the red light surged over to wrap up his body while the ice cold light before his chest had disappeared.

Yin Cangshan’s second, hurried strike had been blocked by Dog’s body. Today it had suffered all sorts of insults, each worse than the last. This time the culprit was even one with the snow civet beast’s most hated demon hostile qi. It released Xie Zhiwei and lunged at Yin Cangshan while spitting up blood.

Without its layer of protection, Xie Zhiwei’s skin began to sizzle beneath the embrace of hostile qi. While Golden Lotus and Red Lotus were slowly working together in his body, they couldn’t fully resist this damage. His face and entire body were breaking out in blisters from the burns.

This would be Yin Cangshan’s perfect chance to land another strike, but he had no time to care about him now. The two of them had fought with their lives and Xie Zhiwei’s sword had stabbed right through him, leaving a bloody hole in his chest. Now half his life was gone and Dog was biting his neck. His body’s hostile qi feared the ice cold moonlight of the snow civet beast more than anything else and quickly began to fall apart. The ghostly wails and howls from his mouth soon faded to nothingness as he laid there half-dead.

The opening of the well was nearly ten zhang away. Xie Zhiwei crawled up only to instantly collapse again. Although the layer of hostile qi around his body had dissipated with Yin Cangshan’s loss of mobility, the red hue of the spell formation still remained. His entire body was covered in burns and the top of his skull was cracked. Blood dripped out of the wound and flowed over half his face. He wiped some out of his eyes and took a few deep breaths before trying again. At last, he managed to hold onto some dried-out wood and stand upright. But his head was heavy while his feet were light, so his body couldn’t stop swaying. He had to use Qingping Sword to support himself in order to walk step by step towards the well.

Every footstep, every movement, all agitated the burnt flesh on his body. Xie Zhiwei couldn’t tell whether his forehead was dripping sweat or blood anymore. He saw the well opening through a haze of red and moved forward mechanically.

He knew that there was someone inside who had been waiting all alone for many days, who was in more pain than him.

At last he exhaled at a point three zhang away.

Time Remaining: 22 Minutes.

He glanced woodenly at his feet, unsure of whether Yin Cangshan was dead yet. His enemy’s face was also covered in blood and Dog was still biting the arteries in his throat without hesitation just like how it’d attacked the Demonic Sect member that once showed up at the daoist sect. It wouldn’t give up until the other expired.

Xie Zhiwei retracted his gaze and kept moving forward. Abruptly, something grabbed the hem of his robes. Although the grip wasn’t very strong, it was enough to make the current Xie Zhiwei stumble. He fell to the ground and raised his eyes incredulously.

Beyond his bloody vision, Yin Cangshan had rolled over to lunge at him. He too, was on the verge of death, but still wouldn’t give up. He pressed his entire weight against Xie Zhiwei’s body and went to choke him alive. “Even if I die…you lot won’t get out!”

Dog was infuriated by his behavior and meowed as it jumped on his back and bit the base of his neck with added force. But even that couldn’t stop him. Xie Zhiwei almost asphyxiated, but his fury was much stronger. He glanced anxiously towards the well before giving a low growl and started to hack wildly at Yin Cangshan with Qingping Sword.

Blood flowed nonstop from Yin Cangshan’s body as his gaze gradually lost focus, but the pupils remained stubbornly open even as he slowly stopped moving. Xie Zhiwei still didn’t stop—after transmigrating here for so long, this was the first time he’d made a move to kill someone and he felt extremely nervous about it.

He hacked him a few more times to make sure the other was dead before his arm dropped to his side. The well opening was close at hand, but he was no longer able to stand up and crawled the rest of the way. As soon as he reached its edge, a sharp System alert sounded in his head.

“It is time to make your selection. Please confirm your decision: will you enter Option 1 and return to your past life before the car accident?”

Xie Zhiwei’s body shook as his thoughts screeched to a halt.

The System continued to speak. “If there is no input after 10 seconds, you will be sent towards Option 1.”

Xie Zhiwei didn’t have time to react before the System began its cold, mechanical countdown.

“Ten.”

He cast a subconscious glance towards the bottom of the well, but only saw nothing but red light. Still, it seemed as if…

“Nine.”

…as if he could sense Mu He’s breathing.

“Eight.”

Xie Zhiwei’s eyes flickered as a cacophony of voices seemed to fill his ears.

“Seven.”

“The winner of this year’s Film Emperor Award goes to Xie Zhi! Congratulations, may Teacher Xie please come on stage to give a speech!”

“Teacher Xie is so handsome!”

“I’ll support Teacher Xie for a lifetime!”

‘Ahhhhh as long as it’s Teacher Xie acting, we’ll watch it!”

“Six.”

“I’m sorry Teacher Xie, you don’t fit the image of this character. Let’s work again together next time.”

“Xie Zhi hasn’t shown up for a while. He’s really past his prime.”

“His temper’s so weird, it’s a miracle he was popular for that long.”

“I stopped being a fan of Xie Zhi recently. I think XXX’s not bad either.”

“I’m really looking forward to Teacher Xie playing a bit part for my sake. Don’t worry, you don’t need to cry on the director’s bed for this.”

“Five.”

“How rich can your family be? We raised you up, but you still don’t appreciate it?”

“Xie Zhi, you white-eyed wolf! Our family worked so hard to raise you, but now you don’t recognize your relatives after becoming successful and famous!”

“You deserve it! You were a villain then and now you’re unpopular, tsk tsk, retribution.”

“Four.”

“Where is this…are you an immortal?”

“Xie zhenren, I really want to be your disciple.”

“Many thanks to shizun, disciple will remember it forever!”

“Three.”

“Disciple takes to shizun as a fish to water, I’ll die without it.”

“Would shizun be very sad if this disciple died?”

“For disciple to meet shizun in this life…is truly wonderful.”

“Two.”

Xie Zhiwei’s head whipped up. “I reject.”

The entire world seemed to quiet down even though this place was already a dead wasteland. The only sound was the System’s expressionless tone. “You have rejected the selection. Please reselect immediately or else System will default to your original choice.”

Xie Zhiwei’s eyes regained focus. “I choose Option 3.”

“The choice has been reselected for you. Are you certain?”

“Certain!”

“Success. You will now enter Option 3. From now on you will have no more System and stay forever in this world. According to prior agreement, the System is currently unbinding with you. This process will take two minutes. If needed, you may leave a final message for the Heroic Author Spirit System.”

Xie Zhiwei had never like hypocritical words and it wasn’t his style to be so fussy while unbinding a System. He was originally just going to wait until the process was over, but still clicked on the Leave a Message button after some hesitation. He looked at the System interface that had accompanied him all these days and slowly opened his mouth. “Gallant Outlaw, it’s me, Xie Zhi…and also Xie Zhiwei.”

“Actually, I don’t have much to say. I just wanted to tell you that I love acting as a profession…I can experience all sorts of different roles as long as I reach the right acting level. I can also appreciate the hearts of all people and become any person I want. That might not be a normal way of thinking, but this career used to be my entire life.”

Xie Zhiwei gave it some thought and added, “To you guys, this world is just made-up. But I think it’s very real. Though you all might not understand…right now, I’m choosing reality.”

Xie Zhiwei didn’t know whether Gallant Outlaw would get what he meant after listening to this message. But when he wanted to say a few more things, the System had already finished unbinding.

Its last words to him were, “I wish you good luck.”

Then the interface in his head went out permanently.

A slight curve graced Xie Zhiwei’s lips as he muttered to himself, “…you’re the only one I have left.”

He released the hand on the edge of the well and drifted towards the bottom. At the same time, cracks invisible to the naked eye rose in the surface of the ground with wisps of red light gushing through them. The scorched earth seemed to writhe as if something was trying to break out.

—

The author has something to say: After long consideration, I decided to deal with [the plot] this way. There’s no epic battle against the boss, just Teacher Xie’s battle with his own inner feelings. But I think Teacher Xie’s suffered enough 2333, a big celebrity fighting an evil boss or something

The Chinese commenters:

Translator’s Note: With that, the countdown is over and a new one begins…counting on and on the days and hours Xie Zhi/Zhiwei stays in this world. That it, if it doesn’t collapse and destroy itself first.

Teacher Xie, you can do it! Mu He you better not die as his last person left! R-readers, stay alive until the next chapter!