With this shout, the fierce killing blade was summoned, and its murderous aura tainted the sky!

     Everyone’s expressions changed, and the elite disciples of Tianyin Pavilion also took a step back in fear. However, they still braced themselves and shouted, “Do not retreat! Do not make any mistakes!”

     “Such a scourge cannot be left alive! We must eradicate the source of the problem!”

     Both sides were like taut arrows on a bowstring that had to fire, and the atmosphere was very tense.

     “Attack!”

     The voice was like a drop of water falling into a pot of oil, and in an instant, there was a commotion! Spells and sharp blades slashed toward the center of the punishment platform from all directions as Chu Wanning held Huaisha in his hand, the golden light blocking the attacks. With his strength alone, he faced the cultivators, who rushed at him like a tidal wave. The sword aura and blood-red phoenix eyes intertwined, making him look like an asura.

     He protected Mo Ran with the sword, with his flesh and blood, with his life, and with all his innocence from then on.

     No one listened to his explanation, and no one was willing to give the two trapped beasts a way out. There was no hope, no salvation, no trust, and no light.

     In the end, they only had each other left.

     “Mo Ran, bear it a bit longer. I will take you away.”

     Suddenly, a powerful spell struck Chu Wanning’s arm, immediately causing blood to gush out like a fountain. The wound was deep enough to show the bone, but Chu Wanning only bit his lower lip and suddenly swung his sword—

     “Get out of the way!” the cultivators on the punishment platform exclaimed. “Get out of the way!”

     Huaisha had frightening power, and the sword slashed down with a clang. Sand and stones filled the sky, and the sword beams intersected with each other, creating several immeasurably deep slashes on the ground.

     Mu Yanli’s voice was sharp. “Chu Wanning! Do you still have the way of the heavens in your eyes?”

     “...”

     Seeing that he ignored her, Mu Yanli became even more furious and shouted, “Do you dare to openly oppose the divine heirs and defy the will of the heavens?”

     Someone in the audience shouted, “Beidou Immortal, please stop. Do you want to become a criminal of the cultivation world?”

     Under Huaisha’s explosive killing intent, no one around him could even take half a step forward.

     Chu Wanning finally turned half of his face, glanced at the cultivators of Tianyin Pavilion, and said, “...I already am.”

     After saying this, he clenched his teeth and carried the dying Mo Ran, putting the bloodied man on his shoulder, and said hoarsely, “Don’t be afraid, it’s all over. Let’s go, let’s go home… I’ll take you home.”

     However, when he looked ahead, what lay before him was a bloody path filled with bones. He had killed the cultivators of Tianyin Pavilion, and more death warriors emerged from behind the broken limbs and bodies.

     Where was home?

     They had nowhere to go but hell.

     In the end, he didn’t know how many people he had killed before he was finally able to escape. When he brought Mo Ran out to the sky on his sword, his whole body was trembling slightly. He had never taken so many innocent lives before. His body was now stained with Mo Ran’s blood and his own blood, but mainly the blood of the dead soldiers of Tianyin Pavilion.

     It was dirty.

     It was dirty to the bone and could never be washed away.

     Clouds gathered and dispersed before his eyes, and the heavens and earth were in a state of chaos.

     Where should he go?

     Mount Jiao was definitely out of the question. Mount Longxue was also no longer safe… Sisheng Peak… How could he have the face to drag Sisheng Peak down?

     “Shizun…”

     Hearing the hoarse groan in his ears, Chu Wanning suddenly turned around to see Mo Ran’s pale face, which was as white as paper. “You… take me back.”

     “What nonsense are you spouting?!”

     Mo Ran only shook his head. “You’ve already come to find me. You didn’t abandon me.” He forced himself to squeeze out a smile, even though the light in his eyes was already somewhat unfocused. “That’s enough… I have a home… that’s enough…”

     “Take me back, take me back… You still have a way out…” His voice grew softer and softer, and his eyelashes gradually drooped, but he still held Chu Wanning’s sleeves and kept murmuring, repeating, “You still have a way out…”

     “No.” Chu Wanning felt as if his heart was being stabbed by a knife. He held Mo Ran’s ice-cold hand and pulled him into his arms tightly. “I have no way out. I won’t go anywhere.”

     “...”

     “I’ll stay with you.”

     If it were in the past, Mo Ran would definitely be ecstatic and elated to hear Chu Wanning say such words to him. But when he heard these words now, he was actually at a loss and didn’t know what to do. He raised his hand, but even using all his strength, he could only raise it slightly.

     A puddle of blood had already dyed his clothes red, and Mo Ran finally lost consciousness and fell into Chu Wanning’s arms.

     Chu Wanning held his increasingly weak body in his arms and couldn’t bear it any longer. He wasn’t sure whether they had left their pursuers behind and didn’t know how long it would take for them to catch up. He brought Mo Ran to a nearby hillside, his hands shaking so much that he had to try several times before he could haphazardly pull open Mo Ran’s clothes.

     —There was a bleeding hole in his heart.

     His mind was buzzing, and he didn’t even dare to take another look at Mo Ran’s face at this moment.

     He suddenly remembered that in his previous life, Mo Ran had guarded his body for two years.

     How did he feel during those two years, day and night?

     “Don’t go, Mo Ran…” Chu Wanning’s hands overlapped on top of Mo Ran’s wound, continuously transferring a flow of spiritual energy to him. The bloodstained Chu Wanning guarded the bloodstained Mo Ran like a wild beast that had been skinned by a hunter but had not yet died.

     In the aftermath of the disaster, blood flowed into blood and flesh enveloped flesh.

     “You can’t go, it’s not your fault… it was never your fault…”

     Mo Ran, Mo Ran—Mo was darkness, and Ran was light. He had been searching for light all his life but could not escape the darkness of the night. Chu Wanning finally gathered the courage to look at Mo Ran’s face. With just one glance, he was already on the verge of breaking down.

     There was no longer even a shadow of a living person on that face anymore. It was frighteningly white and covered in blood. There were even mottled scars on his brow bone—marks of being hit by rocks.

     He couldn’t hold it in any longer. He fell in front of Mo Ran and cried loudly, his heart aching.

     Was this the same youth who had once pestered him under Heaven-Piercing Tower, brightly and earnestly telling him, “Xianjun, xianjun, please pay attention to me”?

     Why… is there blood everywhere…? Why… is there no trace of anger, no trace of a smile left on his face…?

     I can’t recognize him… I can’t recognize him…

     That is, what did Mo Weiyu do wrong? His entire life, he had to suffer such pain and torment.

     Maybe it was because he had no family, no friends, and no one to rely on, so even fate had to humiliate him. He tried so hard to put on a smile in the cracks of his life, but in the end it was still regarded as a loathsome face by the world.

     Who knew that the decaying mud and dust in front of the steps would also be beautiful in the middle of April?

     “...Chu Wanning.”

     Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded coldly, not far away.

     “Are you willing to ruin your good name in order to save him?”

     Chu Wanning froze and suddenly looked up. He saw a tall figure slowly walking towards him against the sun.

     Emperor Taxian-Jun stood amidst the trees, his eyes narrowing as he looked at them carefully.

     “I thought that the most important thing in the world to you was your innocence.” He said slowly, “It’s unexpected that you would end up dirtying yourself for him.”

     He stepped closer, and the black embroidered dragon pattern shimmered in the sunlight, and the red embroidered with black and gold ripples finally stopped in front of them.

     Almost instinctively, Chu Wanning suddenly stood up. The golden light in his palm suddenly rose, and Tianwen was summoned. He stood between the Mo Ran of the past life and the Mo Ran of this life.

     Taxian-Jun’s eyes turned to the willow vine glowing with golden light, then calmly fell back on Chu Wanning.

     The man looked like he had been fished out of a sea of blood at this moment. Not even a single piece of clothing on his body was clean, and his pair of phoenix eyes were wet as he looked at him with a complicated expression.

     Taxian-Jun sneered, “Is he that important to you?”

     “...”

     Seeing that Chu Wanning didn’t answer, Taxian-Jun added coldly, “Get out of the way.”

     Chu Wanning didn’t move. At this moment, his mind was in turmoil, but he still knew that the “Mo Ran” in front of him was nothing more than a sharp weapon, a body with no flesh and blood.

     The sneer on this shell’s mouth grew even crueler. “What, do you think that if you stand here like this, This Venerable One will be unable to do anything to you?”

     “...I want to take him away.”

     “Where can you go?”

     Just this one sentence was like a sharp knife entering a clam shell.

     Emperor Taxian-Jun’s eyes flashed with ridicule. “Chu Wanning, ask yourself—in this vast mortal world, apart from with This Venerable One, who is willing to take you in, where else can you go? …Take him away? Don’t be ridiculous.”

     He stopped forward as fast as lightning and suddenly grasped Chu Wanning’s jaw before leaning forward.

     “The last bit of spiritual core that remains in his body belongs to This Venerable One. You also belong to This Venerable One. You better be clear about your own position.”

     His words were answered with a sudden burst of golden light. Taxian-Jun withdrew his hand and swept back in time but still felt a burning pain on his cheek. With a casual flick of his hand, Tianwen opened a hideous wound on his ear and temple, and black blood dripped down his face.

     “...” Taxian-Jun was silent for a long time, then raised his eyes grimly, revealing neither anger nor joy. The bridge of his nose was wrinkled, and the emotions on his face were almost twisted. “Okay, very well.”

     He laughed bitterly and waved his sleeves, his black robe fluttering like clouds.

     “This Venerable One didn’t expect to be able to fight with Tianwen again after such a long time.” He raised his slender fingers and touched his cheek, wiping away the blood. Taxian-Jun’s pupils darkened as he stared at Chu Wanning’s face. “This Venerable One has missed it very much.”

     Mo Ran’s life was still hanging by a thread behind him. The longer he delayed, the more likely he would be unable to save him. Even though Chu Wanning’s mind was in a mess, he knew that he couldn’t talk with Emperor Taxian-Jun too much.

     “Tianwen, Ten Thousand Coffins!”

     Emperor Taxian-Jun cursed silently, and as soon as his toes lifted up, thousands of chasms had already appeared on the ground. Countless thick willow vines emerged from the depths of the earth and stabbed toward him. Other thin, soft vines wrapped around the unconscious Mo-zongshi, bringing him into the center and protecting him deep within the willow branches.

     Taxian-Jun looked at Chu Wanning, who was standing in the center of the formation. He was so angry that he almost laughed. “Why do you treat him so differently?”

     “Tianwen, Wind.”

     “...”

     It would be a lie to say that there was no resentment when his questioning was only met with a fiercer attack. The blade-like gale swept across the sky and engulfed everything.

     Taxian-Jun stared at the disheveled man on the ground and suddenly felt a long-lost sadness in his heart. It was in this moment of distraction that the wind blade cut into his abdomen. He felt a sudden pain and looked down to see black blood surging from the gruesome wound.

     He hurt him again…

     Whether it was in this life or the previous one, Chu Wanning had never placed him in his eyes.

     There was a sudden lump in his throat, and Taxian-Jun’s pretended calm smile abruptly tightened. He raised his hand and shouted, “Bu’gui, come!”

     Affairs of the past upon vermilion bridge in emerald green… Another year goes but still you do not return. Now, he returned, but so what? He was back, only he didn’t fight with his sword for no reason, but to take his blood and his life!

     Suddenly, he was filled with hatred.

     Bu’gui and Tianwen collided, and the two holy weapons roared like dragons.

     Two lifetimes.

     Two lifetimes had passed since the decisive battle between these two weapons. The engravings on Bu’gui’s hilt had long since been worn out, just like the past between Emperor Taxian-Jun and Beidou Immortal.

     The golden splendor and dark green light tore at each other as if they hated each other to the bone but also as if lingering around each other. In this constant flickering light, Taxian-Jun stared closely at the face in front of him.

     It was stained with blood and had a complicated expression.

     Alive.

     The violence in his heart burned with pain.

     He clenched his teeth and suddenly asked with great reluctance, “Why is it clearly me… but you still want to fight another battle with This Venerable One for him?”

      “...”

     Chu Wanning didn’t know what to say. Facing a shell, no matter what he said, it would be of no use.

     However, he didn’t know if it was because the light was too dazzling and caused him to hallucinate, but for a moment, he felt that Taxian-Jun’s eyes were filled with pain and loneliness.

     It seemed like his eyes were wet.

     “When he is hurt like this, you will suffer. What about This Venerable One?” Taxian-Jun said hoarsely. He was trying his best to be cruel, but his indignation was too strong. He wanted nothing more than to burn this indignation to ashes, but when the fire burned, the fierce flames made his eyes turn red.

     “Chu Wanning. Do you know how This Venerable One felt after being reborn to see that not even your bones were left in the Red Lotus Pavilion?”

     Chu Wanning was stunned. And Taxian-Jun, who finally couldn’t help but say this sentence, closed his eyes as the muscles on his face tensed. Resentment, humiliation, pain, and insanity made him nearly go mad. He suddenly poured all of his spiritual power into Bu’gui.

     Then there was a loud bang!

     The rocks cracked, and the earth shook. The surrounding vegetation was crushed into powder by the fierce spiritual current in an instant, and the willow vines could not withstand Bu’gui’s fury and disintegrated into ashes.

     “Nearly ten years!”

      Amidst the scattered ashes, only Taxian-Jun’s crazed eyes were clear. They were completely bloodshot.

     “Ten years, Chu Wanning. He was reborn into the past, leaving This Venerable One to be awakened at Sisheng Peak, in Wushan Palace. For ten years, This Venerable One has read letters and known of all your joys and his great achievements—what about me? What about me?!!”

     The blade suddenly fell. Sand and rocks flew, and the ground cracked into a bottomless pit.

     “I was alone from beginning to end! When he started all over again, I didn’t even have a handful of ashes!”

     When the blade slashed, Chu Wanning withdrew Tianwen and welcomed it with Huaisha.

     However, it was this killing blade that made Taxian-Jun even more ruthless. At this moment, he was like a ghost returning from hell, filled with deep resentment.

     The look in his eyes even made Chu Wanning feel uneasy.

     …Why was it that even though he was just a corpse, he could still have such strong emotions?

     “Why do you treat me like this?”

     Raging flames burned through the forest trees, and the falling leaves were ablaze with firelight, the edges scorched black and the sparks bright. The black-clad Taxian-Jun suddenly retracted his power, then swept backward, standing amidst the desolate leaves and withered plants.

     Chu Wanning didn’t know why he suddenly retreated, but he saw him close his eyes, that pair of thick lashes resting on his too-pale face. Taxian-Jun murmured:

     “Why do you treat me like this?”

     When his voice fell, the ground rumbled faintly.

     Chu Wanning’s face suddenly changed, and he immediately turned back—

     “Mo Ran!”

     Just as he was about to turn around and stand in front of the unconscious Mo Ran, he heard the bone-chilling words.

     Taxian-Jun said, “Jiangui, Ten Thousand Coffins.”

     It was earth-shattering!

     Chu Wanning’s blood turned cold. Willow vines… willow vines… Taxian-Jun and Mo Weiyu were the same person. Mo Weiyu could summon Bu’gui and Taxian-Jun could also summon Jiangui!

     Thick vines rose from the ground, breaking through and wrapping around Chu Wanning’s arms and legs. The other willow vines cut open Tianwen’s damaged vines and wrapped around Mo Ran, who was being protected by Tianwen in the depths of the willow branches.

     Seeing this, Chu Wanning’s heart burned with distress. “Stop!”

     No one paid attention to him. Emperor Taxian-Jun flew in front of Mo Ran and looked coldly into the depths of the vines at the face that was identical to his.

     His gaze shifted downwards and landed on his chest, which was already badly mutilated.

     Chu Wanning shouted, “Tianwen—!”

     But Tianwen and Jiangui were of the same level of divine martial arts. Taxian-Jun didn’t even raise his head, only stretching out his hand in the air. The re-emerging golden willow vine and the fiery red Jiangui entangled together, and for a moment, there was no way to determine the outcome.

     Chu Wanning’s lips were blue and white, and the meridians on his hand were bulging. He tried his best to break free from Jiangui with his own flesh and blood.

     “...” Taxian-Jun finally turned his eyes and looked at him with a complicated expression. He opened and closed his thin lips, then sighed softly. “Chu Wanning. You really love him dearly.”

     As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand and stabbed towards Mo Ran’s chest!

     As long as he had one last fragment of his spiritual core, he would be able to return to normal. He himself was the real Emperor Taxian-Jun, the real Mo Weiyu, the one who had endured ten years of loneliness and deserved to get what he wanted.

     He deserved to live.

     Sha—!

     However, in the time it took for a spark to fly off a piece of flint, a golden light flashed and pierced through Emperor Taxian-Jun’s palm.

     Black blood dripped down.

     Taxian-Jun stared at his palm that was pierced by the vine, Tianwen, his face expressionless for a moment.

     Pain?

     Disappointment?

     Resentment?

     He had tasted it so many times that he had probably gotten used to it.

     The last thing he did was to slowly turn his head and look at the man who was tightly bound by Jiangui. He was still gasping for breath, but his eyes were filled with stubbornness.

     Taxian-Jun looked at him with a deep yet indifferent gaze for a while as his palm dripped with blood. Then he suddenly smiled.

     “Chu Wanning.”

     “...”

     “Why don’t you just rip my heart out?”

     Chu Wanning was trembling. Jiangui seemed to have grown thousands of tiny thorns, stabbing into every inch of his flesh. He frowned, and under his eyelashes, his phoenix eyes were filled with pain.

     Taxian-Jun looked at him and channeled his spiritual power into his palm to cut off the willow vine.

     At this moment, he suddenly wasn’t in a hurry to dig out Mo Ran’s heart. He walked step by step towards Chu Wanning.

     He walked closer and touched Chu Wanning’s pale face with his bloody hand.

     “I’m asking you.” He seemed to be downplaying it, but also seemed as if his hatred was deep as his bones as he said, “If you are so cruel, why don’t you just rip This Venerable One’s heart out?”

     “...”

     “Who is This Venerable One in your eyes…?”

     Taxian-Jun sighed softly, then closed his eyes.

     Chu Wanning would not answer him. Taxian-Jun was about to say something else, but at this moment, he suddenly noticed that the willow vines wrapped around Chu Wanning were emitting a dazzling red light. He abruptly froze and seemed to remember something before he murmured, “Interrogation?”

     Since Jiangui was the same as Tianwen, then Tianwen’s interrogation ability should be the same, even if it was Jiangui.

     Taxian-Jun’s black and purple-tinted eyes suddenly lit up. He really wanted to use Jiangui to interrogate Chu Wanning for the truth. His lips moved, but he probably hadn’t thought of what to say, so he pursed them again. After a while, he finally tried his luck. “Cough… If…”

     “This Venerable One means what if.”

     The question he wanted to ask seemed too shameful to ask, but this was such a heaven-sent opportunity that if he didn’t ask, he might regret it for the rest of his life.

     He hesitated for a long time before he finished his sentence, without looking into Chu Wanning’s eyes. “If, in the previous life… This Venerable One left early, before you…”

     The light of Jiangui was getting brighter and brighter, forcing the trapped person to reveal the truth at any time.

     Taxian-Jun raised his eyes.

     “You… would you remember This Venerable One too?”

     This man wanted to know the truth so desperately that Chu Wanning felt as if thousands of small needles were stabbing into his body, tearing his organs apart. Every needle was painfully trying to force the truth out of his heart. He trembled, and his muscles and bones were cold, his face pale.

     Taxian-Jun stared at him without blinking, his thin lips opened slightly as he thought deep in his heart.

     “Would you?”

     “I…” The pain seeped into his bone marrow and seemed to tear all of his internal organs to pieces. Chu Wanning, who had been forced into a corner, raised his eyes and glanced at Taxian-Jun dizzily.

     The handsome face in the haze was so familiar, so full of longing and even a hint of deep affection.

     It was like that moonlit night back then, above the tide of Feihua Island, when he and Mo Ran rode the flying sword together, when he held his hand and said, “I like you. What about you?”

     His eyes were suddenly wet.

     Chu Wanning mumbled hoarsely, in a daze, “...Me too…”

     Perhaps it was because his voice was too soft, or perhaps it was due to some other reason, but Taxian-Jun moved even closer, almost touching Chu Wanning’s already sweaty and pale face.

     “What is?”

     “Me too…” His eyelashes drooped, and when they overlapped, they were warm and blurry. “I will not… let you leave before me…”

     “...”

     “I’m sorry.” His voice was hoarse and out of tune, like a broken ocarina. “I didn’t protect you well.”

     Taxian-Jun was suddenly stunned.

     His face, which was already bloodless, became even more bleak in an instant.

     There was a rumble in his eardrums, as if thunder was rolling through him, and he couldn’t help but think of the man who fell into his arms by the Heavenly Lake on Heavenly Mountain and gently poked his forehead with his bloodstained hand.

     That man had said, “It’s this master’s fault; I won’t blame you in life or in death.”

     He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if something had cracked open inside.

     “...Wanning…” He stood there stiffly, like a wooden statue.

     He reached his hand out again, but this time he didn’t frown. He didn’t even know why, but he reached out his hand just like that, wanting to touch that face that was so similar to the one of his previous life.

     A cold, bloodstained face.

     Suddenly, a sharp whistle pierced his eardrums.

     Taxian-Jun’s fingers that were about to touch his cheek froze.

     The corpse whose eyes carried too many emotions suddenly became empty and vacant. Taxian-Jun lowered his arms. After the sharp whistle, he seemed to have lost his self-awareness. He slowly stepped back, then waved his hand and withdrew all his weapons.

     Whether it was Bu’gui from the previous life or Jiangui from this life, they all disappeared.

     Chu Wanning fell into the mud and dirt. When he looked up, he saw a man dressed in white standing in the distance. The man wore a mask, holding a jade flute in one hand and a cane in the other.

     The man stood at the edge of the forest, amidst the falling bamboo leaves. His figure was as bright as a flower, standing quietly and steering Taxian-Jun in his direction.

     “You are…?”

     “Take Mo-zongshi away.” The man sighed softly, his voice obviously distorted by the voice-changing spell. “I can’t hold on for too long. He will regain his consciousness soon.”

     “...”

     “Go quickly,” the man said. “Tianyin Pavilion and Hua Binan will catch up soon. If we are captured by them, nothing can change.”

     Chu Wanning gritted his teeth and stood up, then helped Mo Ran up. He activated the Ascending Dragon Talisman and called the dragon to carry them away.

     Before the dragon leapt up, he turned his head to look at the man standing in the depths of the bamboo forest, only to find that the man had yet to touch the ground with the cane to move forward.

     He felt a vague connection between some past events in his mind, but he couldn’t figure it out at the moment.

     “...Thank you.”

     The man just shook his head and urged, “Go quickly.”

     The paper dragon knew Chu Wanning’s heart, so it said, “This young friend is kind-hearted. My master wants to ask for your name. If fate allows, he would like to come and thank you in the future.”

     “...” The man was silent for a while before he said softly, “Me?”

     The trees rustled, and his voice sounded hollow in the midst of the noise.

     “I’m just a man who is finally free.”

     The paper dragon wanted to ask more, but Chu Wanning knew that this man would not reveal his identity. He bowed to the man, then patted the dragon and said, “Let’s go.”

     Since he had spoken, the paper dragon also understood the severity of the situation and didn’t say anything more. It suddenly soared into the sky, flew upwards, and disappeared into the white clouds without a trace.

     The wind blew, and the masked man in white stood quietly in the same place for a while. He raised his head, and when the wind died down and the surroundings returned to silence, he looked at the sky that he could no longer see and the figure that he could no longer see and said in a low voice:

     “Disciple Shi Mei respectfully sends Shizun off.” 

     The sunlight shone down and fell on his clean robes.

     “There’s a long way to go, Shizun, please take care along the way.”