Chapter 17: Fellow Daoist Meng is Dead
In his muddled consciousness, Su Huan heard someone calling him—
“Junior Brother… Fourth Junior Brother!”
“Listen, you must wake up quickly… Once… it will be too late…”
…It seemed to be Senior Sister Feng’s voice.
But wasn’t Senior Sister Feng down the mountain for training? Why would she be in the trial Secret Realm… The Secret Realm!
Su Huan snapped his eyes open.
He discovered he had been taken away from the Spirit-Inhabited Immortal Palace and was lying under a tree thick enough for two people to embrace. Rays of faint light filtered through the gaps in the leaves, hitting the grass buds and glowing luminously, like a fairyland.
“Awake?” A voice came from beside him.
He subconsciously gripped his sword and jumped up, only to see Xiao Jianming holding his sword, leaning against the tree with his eyes closed, resting.
Looking around, there was no one else.
Su Huan tightened his grip on the sword and asked, “Dashixiong, where are the others?”
Xiao Jianming kept his eyes closed, his tone indifferent. “Dead.”
The taut string in Su Huan’s mind snapped abruptly. He blurted out, “Why save only me?”
Without waiting for Xiao Jianming’s answer, he suddenly thought of his previous speculation. Staring at Xiao Jianming, his eyes couldn’t help but redden. “…It was you who saved Yin Rong.”
It was also him who betrayed the Immortal Sects.
That was why he left Fellow Daoist Nangong and the others to die. Saving him was likely just because… he still wanted to make him a forbidden plaything and drain his cultivation!
Unaware of the thousands of thoughts running through Su Huan’s mind, Xiao Jianming opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow, admitting, “So what if I did?”
Again with this attitude, tossing incredibly important matters around lightly in his hands, as if he cared for nothing in this world.
A trace of anger surfaced in Su Huan’s clear eyes. He couldn’t help but say, “You said your clan died under the blades of the Demon Race, and you passed the Path of Questioning Immortals smoothly. So why would you conspire with the demons to trap the disciples of the Immortal Sects in a death trap! Aren’t you afraid of your cultivation being ruined and suffering the torture of a thousand sores and a hundred pains brought by the curse?!”
Any disciple who walked the Path of Questioning Immortals received the blessing of the Immortal Lord, granting them a smooth path in the Dao. But in this life, they could not become close to the Demon Race; otherwise, the blessing would turn into a curse, ruining their previous cultivation and subjecting them to the agony of a thousand sores and a hundred pains for life, unable to live yet unable to die.
After speaking, Su Huan couldn’t help but close his eyes, which were wet with tears.
Originally, a smile played on Xiao Jianming’s lips, but with every sentence Su Huan spoke, the smile faded a fraction. By the end, the smile on his face had completely vanished, leaving only a face covered in ice and frost. He said, “Are you resenting me?”
He suddenly got angry, jumped down, and with a dark brow said, “Let me tell you, it doesn’t matter how others see me, but you,” the cold sword hilt pressed against Su Huan’s throat as Xiao Jianming sneered, “You can only hold gratitude towards me.”
Xiao Jianming lifted his wrist slightly, and the tip of the sword hilt pressed against the chin that was white as jade, leaving a red mark. It highlighted the redness at the corner of his eyes, making him look even more moving and pitiable, yet Xiao Jianming showed no emotion of pity: “If not for you, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”
Seeing the confused look in those clear eyes, Xiao Jianming suddenly felt it was pointless. He withdrew his sword, feeling a wave of irritation. “Forget it, why am I talking to a fool who has lost all his memories.”
Although he hadn’t betrayed the Immortal Sects and didn’t know who the real traitor was, as long as he went with the flow and incited the Immortal-Demon War, he could take the opportunity to disrupt the spiritual energy operation of the illusion. Once he seized the chance, he could easily break the illusion and get out.
If he missed this opportunity, who knew how long he would have to wait in this illusion.
He could afford to wait, but Su Huan might not.
After all, the Su Huan in reality was in imminent danger. With every moment they waited, his life force weakened. If Su Huan died, the version of him in the illusion would die too.
Precisely because of this, compared to him, Su Huan’s soul was weak and more prone to believing the people and events in the illusion deeply. Even if there were loopholes everywhere and he noticed something wrong, he would be assimilated by the illusion, unable to awaken his true memories for a long time.
Xiao Jianming saving Su Huan wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart, but because his chance to escape the illusion rested on Su Huan. If Su Huan died, he would be trapped to death in the illusion as well.
And all of this was the fault of that pig-headed stupid beast!
Whenever Xiao Jianming thought of this, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth in anger. If not for that stupid beast acting on its own, they wouldn’t have ended up in this state. He said grumpily, “You just need to remember, don’t run to places like the Spirit-Inhabited Immortal Palace that claim lives. I can save you once, but I can’t save you a second time.”
Speaking of which, the reason this illusion changed so much was entirely because the Lingxi bloodline in him could resonate with the Heavenly Dao. Now, among these events playing out one by one, truth was mixed with falsehood, half real and half fake.
Thus, he couldn’t say clearly what would happen in the illusion.
To get out, there were only two ways. One was to fulfill his wish and obtain a heart completely biased toward him. The second was to disrupt the stable operation of spiritual energy in the illusion, hitting it while it was down and breaking it from the inside out in one fell swoop.
He had deceived Su Huan first, so Su Huan wouldn’t fall in love with him; the former was impossible. The opportunity for the latter was right in front of him.
Xiao Jianming gave a cold snort. Just as he was about to warn the fool not to mess up his plan, he inadvertently saw a tear suddenly fall from Su Huan’s eye.
He froze. I didn’t beat or scold this fool, what is there to cry about?
Su Huan’s eyes were brimming with tears. With a clang, he drew his sword and said sorrowfully, “If what Dashixiong says is true, and you truly colluded with the demons for my sake, then I would rather I had never known Dashixiong!”
As the voice fell, the gleaming sword light flashed before Xiao Jianming’s eyes!
Xiao Jianming raised his sword to block. He couldn’t help but recall that this sword technique of Su Huan’s was taught by him before he regained his memories. He laughed in anger, “You’re actually using what I taught you to deal with me? Truly biting the hand that feeds you.”
But for some reason, he couldn’t subdue Su Huan for a long time.
Could it be that this fool’s cultivation had actually improved within the illusion?
Xiao Jianming found this person extremely difficult to deal with. At times slippery as a loach, at other times striking with killer moves. The other party was full of killing intent, every move aiming for his life, yet he had to hold back his strength to prevent accidentally killing him.
Faintly, Su Huan actually gained the upper hand.
With one careless move, his face was cut.
A trace of pain came, and Xiao Jianming’s face darkened.
The offensive suddenly became fierce, actually faster and more ruthless than Su Huan.
Slap!
The sword in Su Huan’s hand was knocked flying to the ground.
At the same time, Su Huan felt a cold point and a sting of pain at his neck.
Su Huan showed no fear. “In sword arts, I am inferior to you. But in arrays and spiritual seals, you are inferior to me.”
As soon as the words fell, Xiao Jianming suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness beneath his feet. A giant vortex had appeared on the ground without him noticing!
Xiao Jianming was startled and tried to escape, but a massive suction force wrapped around his legs, swallowing him to his waist in an instant, making it impossible to break free.
Su Huan formed a seal with his fingers and chanted silently. Soon, nothing could be seen on the ground.
A breeze brushed through the silent tree canopy.
Su Huan’s eyelashes trembled lightly. He swallowed a few Spirit-Restoring Pills and strode away without hesitation.
Su Huan moved swiftly through the forest, rushing toward the Spirit-Inhabited Immortal Palace.
Alive he wanted to see the person; dead he wanted to see the corpse. He didn’t believe Fellow Daoist Nangong and the others had just died like that.
Halfway there, in the dense forest ahead, Su Huan happened to stumble upon a female cultivator fighting desperately with several demons. The cultivator seemed to have just gone through a fierce battle; her hair was disheveled, she was dripping with blood, and her body was covered in wounds, a horrible sight to behold.
The girl was soon defeated and fell to the ground with a stab wound to her abdomen. Su Huan hurriedly saved her from the demon’s blade.
Su Huan rushed over, killed all the demons, and turned to ask about the girl’s condition. But unexpectedly, just as he leaned in to help her up, he was met with a dagger hidden in the dark!
Su Huan was astonished and greatly confused. He seized the girl’s wrist, only to see a very familiar face under the messy hair—it was Meng Qinghui, Fellow Daoist Meng, who had entered the Immortal Palace with him!
“Fellow Daoist Meng, it’s me, Su Huan!” Su Huan turned sideways to dodge a strike and said hurriedly.
Unexpectedly, Meng Qinghui didn’t hold back at all, her tone weak but cold as frost: “I’m killing you Xuanji Sect dogs!”
“The majestic number one sect in the world… actually colluding with the Demon Race to trick and kill the elite disciples of the various Immortal Sects! I will definitely proclaim your evil deeds to the world!”
Su Huan was shocked. “Fellow Daoist Meng, you’ve misunderstood, I am not a traitor!”
Meng Qinghui sneered. “Before Jiang Fei died, he told me that before he fell unconscious, he saw that man named Xiao take only you away. Dare you say you aren’t partners?”
Su Huan paused, feeling unable to refute it, but still tried to explain, “I didn’t, it was Dashi… Xiao Jianming who colluded with foreign enemies, and it was he who saved Yin Rong.”
He thought Meng Qinghui wouldn’t believe him, but unexpectedly, after a few moves, Meng Qinghui actually relaxed her strength and asked him, “…Where is your Senior Brother?”
Su Huan fell silent, then said, “I killed him.”
The hand holding the dagger finally dropped. Meng Qinghui began to laugh—a desolate, ironic laugh.
She said, “Good, very good. Fellow disciples killing each other, protecting enemies… I didn’t expect this Immortal Conference to be so exciting!”
Amidst her agitation, two more lines of bloody tears flowed from under the ribbon binding her eyes, and gushing blood flowed from her abdomen.
Su Huan hurriedly infused spiritual energy to treat her wounds. “Fellow Daoist Meng, stop talking!”
Meng Qinghui held down his hand. “Don’t waste your energy. Don’t tell me you can’t see I’m dying…”
Su Huan paused, continuing to infuse spiritual energy, his fingertips trembling slightly. “You won’t die, none of you will die…”
But Meng Qinghui used all her strength to shove his hand away. “Self-deception…”
“No wonder your name is unheard of within the Four Great Sects… A person as indecisive as you will be burdened by emotions wherever you go; you won’t go far… Cough, cough, cough!”
“Listen…” Meng Qinghui coughed up a clot of blood foam. Using all her strength, she ripped the ribbon off her face, revealing eye sockets that had lost their prosthetic eyes.
“Jiang Fei has a peculiar bloodline; the pill poison of the Immortal Palace couldn’t poison him easily. He was the first to wake up and wake the others…”
“However, after we escaped, we encountered the Guardian Spirit of the Immortal Palace… It was a fruit spirit covered in green leaves, but it had Divinity Transformation stage cultivation and wasn’t restricted by the ban… To lure it away, our group split up… Therefore, I don’t know if Nangong Yi and the others are alive or dead… Wuyou, Qi Zi, Jiang Fei, who were with me… they are all dead.”
Meng Qinghui’s face held a look of loss. At the same time, a bizarre scene occurred—the flesh inside her eye sockets was slowly regenerating, and in an instant, a pair of perfectly intact eyes grew out!
Su Huan was shocked again and again, his mind shaken.
Those new eyes were even more vivid and beautiful than the previous glazed prosthetic eyes, but beautiful in a way that instilled fear.
Meng Qinghui’s fingertips touched his spiritual platform. The touch was cold, causing Su Huan to shrink back involuntarily. “Fellow Daoist Meng, you…”
“Silence.”
A stream of spiritual energy, cool as a mountain creek, flowed into his spiritual platform. At the same time, Meng Qinghui slowly recounted the story of these eyes—
“You know, I mentioned before… these eyes of mine brought me many disasters… My mother, Jiang Wu, was heartless and tried to kill me several times…”
“To avoid Jiang Wu’s pursuit, I destroyed my own eyes and borrowed the power of my uncle, Jiang Huai, to escape from Yixian…”
“Jiang Wu let me go because my eyes were destroyed, but she didn’t know these eyes of mine could regenerate… I also swore I would never use these eyes again in this life… Cough, cough!”
Su Huan looked anxious, but his body seemed imprisoned by an invisible force, unable to move. He could only watch helplessly as Meng Qinghui struggled to spit out words:
“But the key to getting out is on that Fruit Spirit… Now that I gift these eyes to you, you will be able to see where its vital point lies, and then… then kill it, escape, and tell the world about this before the demons gather their forces…”
Su Huan’s eyes reddened. Meng Qinghui smiled and gently wiped away his tears. “You are just like Wuyou, like a child… both so fond of crying.”
“My eyes aren’t given for free. I want you to do something for me… Go to Cangxuan Continent and take a message to my master. Say, say I failed Wuyou’s affection and can only repay it in the next life… Then go to Yixian and tell Jiang Wu, tell her…”
“Her own son… Jiang Fei, Jiang Fei died to save me, a life for a life…”
“She owes me nothing anymore…”
Meng Qinghui’s voice gradually faded until she breathed no more.
Su Huan sensed his body regain freedom, and his eyes underwent a change.
He couldn’t help but close his eyes, his heart aching as if cut by a knife.
A moment later, Su Huan placed Meng Qinghui into his storage bag.
He thought, If there is enough Glazed Immortal Grass, I will return the eyes to Fellow Daoist Meng.
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