Chapter 58: The Day of Coming of Age (Two-in-One) Don’t let Shanglu know. …

(Fifty-eight)

"father?"

Li Shanglu stood there in a daze, and suddenly the wind and sand swept across his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, the figure had disappeared, as if it were an illusion.

Hearing the painful groaning of his little disciple beside him, Li Shanglu came to his senses, carried him on his shoulders and ran down the mountain.

Regardless of whether it was an illusion or not, she would not rush in to save people. Although she did have some cultivation, she did not know any magic spells, and her sword skills were terrible. Going in to save people would be tantamount to sending herself to death.

His heartbeat was extremely fast. The young disciple on his shoulder kept vomiting blood. He said in a low voice, "Don't worry about me. The Saint Girl is seriously injured and is still struggling. I'm afraid she won't be able to hold on for much longer. My internal organs are damaged and I can't survive..."

In the past, Li Shanglu would have definitely thrown him down, but now she was not powerless and could not bear to watch a life die in front of her.

Seeing she refused to give up on him, the young disciple sighed helplessly, "Please, please save the Saint. She's seriously injured and I'm afraid she won't last much longer... She's the pride of Taiyin Mountain. With her around, more demon cultivators will be slain and more lives saved."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly drew the sword from his waist and cut his throat with it. Soon, the person on his shoulder was silent.

Li Shanglu put him down tremblingly and slowly tightened his grip on the sword.

It is not her responsibility to eliminate demons and defend justice.

But Han Yu is someone she likes very much, a very dear... friend.

The clear jade pendant on her waist shook with a slight sound. It was a gift from Han Yu to her. The jade pendant was exchanged with the bracelet, which was a token of their friendship.

Only today did she realize that she had long regarded Han Yu as an important person, and Han Yu felt the same way.

Li Hanye, Shang Lu won't listen to you this time.

Anyway, I've never heard of it before, so it doesn't matter this time.

She took the sword from the young disciple, took out the short bow and put it on her back, and walked towards the mountain gate. It took Shen Changyi half a quarter of an hour to get here, and Han Yu might just need that half a quarter of an hour. She just needed to delay it for half a quarter of an hour.

Countless corpses were left along the way, and the evil aura enveloped the entire Taiyin Mountain.

Li Shanglu saw a figure lying outside the hall from afar. Her heart suddenly tightened. She hurried forward to help the person up. It was indeed Qiu Hanyu.

There was so much blood that the pure white dress was almost dyed red by the blood. Qiu Hanyu's breath was weak, and there was a shocking bloody hole on his chest.

She was almost dying from excessive blood loss.

Li Shanglu's eyes were red, and he hurriedly took out the pill he had made from his storage ring and fed it into her mouth. This pill was made with the purest and most genuine spiritual energy, and it was extremely effective, so it would be enough to keep her alive for the time being.

Qiu Hanyu slowly opened his eyes and saw her face, his expression dazed, "Run... Shanglu..."

More blood spit out of her mouth. Li Shanglu covered her mouth and said without thinking, "Do you think I want to come?"

She didn't want to come at all. She had children, a family, so many friends, and she was even about to ascend to heaven.

But she couldn't bear to see Qiu Hanyu die.

Li Shanglu covered the wound with hemostatic powder and carried Qiu Hanyu on his back, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. "We have to leave quickly. Where is the demon cultivator?"

Qiu Hanyu held her breath, tears streaming down her face. She leaned on her shoulder and sobbed, "It's... right here."

Hearing her words, Li Shanglu's expression suddenly froze and he turned around as if he had noticed something.

Not far away, Qianxu stood with his hands behind his back, a cold smile on his face.

"What a coincidence."

He took out a handkerchief, wiped the thick blood off his hands, slowly walked up to Li Shanglu, and said softly, "Li Shanglu, I was just about to look for you."

The aura of the other party was chilling, and Li Shanglu instinctively took half a step back.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Qian Xu casually threw the blood-stained handkerchief on the body of the young disciple next to him and said lightly, "There's something I can't understand. How did you escape the control of my spell back then?"

Li Shanglu had no idea what he was talking about until the other party took out a small medicine bag.

"This medicine bag is enchanted by my spell. If you touch it, your soul will be immediately controlled by me." Qian Xu looked down at her from above, his eyes darker. "But you didn't poison Shen Changyi. How did you do it?"

She listened in a daze, and in an instant, she understood everything.

In her previous life, she did not intend to put the medicine bag in, but her soul was controlled by the spell of the evil cultivator in front of her.

However, after her rebirth, her body became the soul of her previous life, so she was able to break free from his control. However, the remaining evil energy of the curse would still make her heart palpitate and ache from time to time.

Seeing Li Shanglu remain silent, Qianxu quickly lost interest. "Delaying time works for that idiot Demon Lord, but it won't work on me."

"Are you the evil cultivator who turned Xiao Huang into a puppet?" Li Shanglu suddenly asked.

Qian Xu frowned, "I've already said, I don't have time to talk nonsense with you."

Li Shanglu sneered and said, "You plan to control me again. This way, as long as I listen to you, Xiao Huang will listen to you too. Unfortunately, that trick doesn't work on me. Didn't you try it once before?"

Qianxu's face darkened, a hint of sneer escaping his lips. "Whether it works or not, we won't know until we try it. Besides... I've changed the spell this time."

Hearing this, Li Shanglu unconsciously clenched his palms and felt extremely annoyed.

How can half a minute take so long!

Seeing Qianxu walking towards her, Li Shanglu quickly raised his sword and pointed it at him.

Seeing her actions, Qian Xu smiled knowingly, "You're scared. It was really just luck that I broke free that day."

He grabbed Li Shanglu's neck, bit his fingertips, and drew a talisman on her forehead.

Li Shanglu stabbed the sword into his heart and suddenly found that his body was healing at the same extremely fast speed as Xiao Huang.

"Hey, the Lord wanted to take you back to the Demon Palace, and you should have come back with him," Qianxu said compassionately in her ear, "He used that wisp of his soul in exchange for me helping you remove the remaining curse and evil energy from your body."

Lord...Helan Jin?

Is he that kind?

Li Shanglu's mind was in a mess and his consciousness gradually became blurred. He could only vaguely hear Qiu Hanyu's sad and urgent cries.

After finishing the talisman, Li Shanglu closed his eyes as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.

When I opened my eyes again, everything around me had turned into nothingness.

"How about this spell?"

She suddenly turned around and saw Qian Xu standing behind her, smiling with ease.

"From now on, your consciousness will be forever trapped in this illusion." He walked over slowly, his expression somewhat pitiful. "Li Shanglu, I really pity you. You are still being kept in the dark by Chen Changyi until this point."

Li Shanglu frowned and looked at him.

It turned out to be an illusion. Shen Changyi said that everything in the illusion was the owner's past memory.

She had practiced with Shen Changyi in the primary illusion realm before, and as long as she had the intention to leave, she could leave easily.

Qianxu's illusion must not be as simple as the initial stage. If they had known this, they should have experienced all the illusions.

Li Shanglu couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, forcing himself to calm down, "What's the matter? He has never hidden anything from me."

Qian Xu said this because he must want to use Shen Changyi to make her collapse so that he can completely control her consciousness.

This also shows that he is not able to completely control her for the time being.

"Really?" He walked closer with a smile, his voice cold, "I'll let you see clearly in this illusion what Shen Changyi did back then, okay?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Qianxu's figure disappeared out of thin air, and then the nothingness around him dissipated like black mist, gradually turning into a familiar bedroom.

Li Shanglu took a deep breath, pinched his palms with his fingertips, and tried his best to stay awake.

*

Fangcao City.

Two days before Shen Changyi's coming-of-age ceremony.

The strange disease that had plagued him for the first half of his life was finally completely cured. Not only that, with the help of several sword manuals given to him by Lord Duheng, he became more and more advanced in swordsmanship and has now reached the stage of spiritual transformation.

Moreover, he only practiced in his spare time when he was working as a peddler in the Li family.

The day after tomorrow will be his coming of age day, when he will be twenty years old, the age to start a family and build a career.

The marriage between the Li and Chen families was arranged after Shen Changyi came of age and Li Shanglu came of age.

However, over the years, everyone tacitly agreed not to mention the marriage. Unless a matchmaker came to the house to propose marriage, they would bring up the engagement to politely decline.

When Shen Changyi passed by the bedroom, he happened to hear his parents talking about this matter.

"Shang Lu will be coming of age the day after tomorrow. I have hinted at the engagement, but Brother Li said Shang Lu is still young and doesn't understand the relationship between men and women. Let's wait a little longer." Shen Changyi's father, Shen Kangnian, stood with his hands behind his back, looking worried.

But Chen Changyi's mother, Chen Shuo, said, "Even though I say that, I still think Shang Lu and Changyi can't be together. The two children grew up together. If they have feelings for each other, why would we need to bring them together? Shang Lu may only see Changyi as a friend. Maybe in Shang Lu's eyes, Changyi is not even a man. We should cancel the engagement as soon as possible to avoid conflicts between the two children in the future."

"Yes, but the problem is how should we tell Chang Yi? He becomes distracted when he doesn't see Shang Lu for a day. If he finds out that the engagement is broken off, I'm afraid he'll faint."

Chen Changyi listened outside the door, slowly curled his fingertips, and pushed the door open.

When Shen Kangnian saw him coming, he was a little surprised and asked, "Changyi, why are you here? Aren't you going to help uncle move medicinal herbs today?"

"We've finished moving." He pursed his lips, looked up at his parents, and seemed to be hesitant to speak.

Seeing him like this, Shen Kangnian guessed that he had heard everything. He could only cough dryly and change the subject, "Dad and Mom were discussing what character to give you. Yesterday, your uncle helped you think of two characters: Shu, which means unique among people, and He, which means harmony among the four elements. What do you think?"

Hearing this, Shen Changyi lowered his eyes and whispered, "Very good."

This child is good in every way except that he doesn't talk much and keeps everything to himself.

Father Shen and Mother Shen looked at each other, and both sighed in their hearts.

"Changyi, you're already a young man," Shen Kangnian said softly as he stepped forward to straighten his clothes. "Many things are not as simple as they were when we were little."

Shen Changyi's eyelashes trembled, and he responded slowly, "Yeah."

He should have thought that Shang Lu would not marry him.

Even if there is an engagement, it is impossible.

"It's good that you understand," Shen Kangnian stroked his head helplessly. The child who was once so small was now taller than him. "Tomorrow, there will be nothing to do. You can go to the Immortal Mountain and tell Lord Du Heng about your coming of age. He is your benefactor, just like my uncle and the others."

Shen Changyi nodded silently.

He knew what Shen Kangnian meant. His uncle's family was the benefactor of their Shen family. Even if the engagement was cancelled, they must not have any complaints.

He had no complaints at all.

There is no way to blame what is destined to happen.

As soon as the next day dawned, Shen Changyi left with his bag.

The fairy mountain where Shangjun is located is extremely far away from Fangcao City. Even if he has some cultivation skills, he will not be able to return until night.

Shen Kangnian saw him off at the door and happened to run into Li Hanye who was returning home in a hurry, followed by a doctor.

"Brother Li, what happened?"

Although the two families have a good relationship, Shen Kangnian will still politely call Li Hanye "Brother Li" every time he sees him.

Hearing his voice, Li Hanye stopped and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Shang Lu suddenly broke out in a rash for some reason. I just called the doctor back."

Although his family sells medicinal herbs, they only sell herbs from one city to another. Li Hanye himself cannot cure diseases. At most, he knows which herbs are easy to sell and how effective they are.

Hearing his words, Shen Kangnian became a little anxious and wanted to go with him to see what was happening, but Li Hanye was preoccupied with Shang Lu's illness and hurried in.

Chen Shuo walked out from behind him and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"The pokeweed has a rash. No, I have to go see it."

Just as Shen Kangnian was about to leave, Chen Shuo grabbed him and said, "Don't make trouble. Brother Li must be very busy right now. Let's go after the doctor finishes seeing the patient."

This made sense, so he had to give up.

The couple waited at the door from dawn to dusk, but the doctor did not come out. They knocked on the door anxiously several times, but no one answered.

Chen Shuo said helplessly, "Let's go back. They're probably still busy. Let's cook some food and bring some to Brother Li and the others."

Shen Kangnian sighed and followed her home.

The door had just been shut.

The next moment, the Li family's door opened.

Li Hanye and Jiang Fu respectfully saw the doctor out, their eyes full of gratitude. They stuffed a heavy amount of silver into each other's arms, "Thank you, doctor, thank you, doctor..."

The doctor wiped his sweat with a handkerchief and lifted the medicine box on his shoulder. "Go home. The child will be fine after sleeping through the night."

Jiang Fu wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and bowed deeply to the doctor.

Shang Lu rarely got sick since he was a child, but when he got sick, it almost scared the couple to death.

After sending the doctor away, Li Hanye took Jiang Fu into his arms to comfort her, saying softly, "Don't cry, why are you so timid? The doctor said that Shang Lu will be fine when he wakes up tomorrow morning."

Jiang Fu nodded slightly, her eyes still red. "It's all your fault. I wasn't that scared at first. It was you who scared me to death by saying that Shang Lu's body was almost as red as a monkey's butt."

Li Hanye coughed lightly and covered her mouth. "Let's not talk about this anymore. Are you hungry? I'll go make you some food."

Jiang Fu glared at him resentfully, but still took his hand and followed him into the house.

When the gate was about to close, Li Hanye suddenly stopped.

He pushed Jiang Fu behind him and asked in a deep voice, "What are you doing?"

A man in black clothes stood in front of the Shen family's door, looking inside through the crack in the door. His behavior was extremely strange.

The man was still masked. Could he be a thief who came to scout the Shen family?

Hearing Li Hanye's voice, the masked man slowly turned his head and looked at him, stretched out his hand from his sleeve, and slightly curled his fingers.

With a click.

The neck is broken.

The man smiled and brought his hands together little by little, as if he was kneading something into a ball.

Li Hanye fell to the ground, and Jiang Fu still hadn't reacted. After a while, she knelt in front of him tremblingly, trying to touch Li Hanye's body that was twisted beyond recognition.

In the silent night, there were shrill cries of pain.

However, in just a moment, the cry of pain disappeared.

The door of the Shen family opened, and Shen Kangnian rushed out without even having time to put on his clothes. He saw the man in black standing at the door.

The moment their eyes met, the man grabbed his throat.

"No, you are not Zhu Xuan..."

The man's voice was very calm, as if he was a little confused. "The cultivation genius rumored here, isn't that you?"

Shen Kangnian couldn't make a sound, so the man let him go.

He fell to the ground and caught a glimpse of two unrecognizable bodies from the corner of his eye.

His breathing suddenly stopped, and Shen Kangnian staggered to Li Hanye's side in disbelief.

Li Hanye clutched the corner of his clothes tightly, spitting out blood, as if he wanted to say something.

"Don't... let... Shanglu know."

After saying this, there seemed to be reluctance in his eyes, but he completely died.

"Brother Li, Brother Li..." Shen Kangnian's pupils shrank rapidly. He kept calling out, but received no response.

He looked at the man in black and roared, "Did you kill them?"

"Now, I'm asking you." The man stretched out his hand and clasped it on the top of his head, passing a wisp of magic mist into his body. Shen Kangnian immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

There was blood between his teeth, his eyes were filled with hatred, and his voice was hoarse, "There is no Zhuo Xuan here."

The man dragged him into the Shen family's house thoughtfully, looked around, and said calmly, "Is that so? But the spiritual energy here is very strong. It does look like Zhou Xuan's hiding place."

I don't know what tricks that bastard Du Heng used to hide Zhu Xuan's fate. That trick is exactly the same as that used by Zhu Xuan's master.

Seven hundred years ago, he calculated that he would face a disaster in his life and that a human named Zhu Xuan would kill him. He wanted to kill that human before he grew up.

But he searched the entire world of immortal cultivation and couldn't find Zhu Xuan anywhere.

It was not until Zhuo Xuan ascended to heaven that he finally learned of Zhuo Xuan's hiding place through strange phenomena in heaven and earth.

It turns out that Zhu Xuan has been living in the mountains, and there is a master who is proficient in spells to help him hide his fate.

He originally thought that as long as Zhuo Xuan ascended to heaven, the destined disaster would disappear, but he didn't expect that Zhuo Xuan would come down to earth again.

"You have a son, don't you?" The man smiled. "You're just a mortal, and the spiritual energy here is so strong. I guess your son must have practiced here before, right?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the door suddenly opened.

Chen Shuo walked out, holding a knife in his hand, "Let him go, I'll tell you where Zhou Xuan is!"

Shen Kangnian opened his eyes and wanted to speak out to stop them, but the blood in his throat kept flowing up.

“You know?” The man threw Shen Kangnian away and walked slowly towards her.

Chen Shuo held up the knife and said in a deep voice, "Zhou Xuan is not our son. He's just a guest staying at my house temporarily. You can kill him or chop him up as you please, but he's not here tonight. If you don't believe me, you can turn this place upside down!"

The man stared at her for a moment, then stepped into the room and looked around.

"I see."

His expression was calm as he turned his gaze towards Chen Shuo, a cruel smile curling his lips. "Then I'll wait here for him to come back."

"Whatever you want." Chen Shuo moved his pace, walked to Shen Kangnian and helped him up, "The person you want to kill has nothing to do with us, let him go, I will wait with you."

The man looked at her with interest and said with a smile, "That won't do. What if he goes and informs Zhou Xuan?"

Chen Shuo stared at him intently and threw the knife to Shen Kangnian, "If he dares to do that, you will kill me."

"Hmm..." The man seemed hesitant, "Then you stay and let him go."

Hearing this, Chen Shuo quickly helped Shen Kangnian up and took him to the door, "Let's go."

Shen Kangnian held her hand tightly, but heard her trembling and whispering, "You have to go."

Otherwise, Chang Yi would also die.

Shen Kangnian shook his head, hugged her in his arms, and swallowed the blood in his throat, “It’s useless… He won’t let me go.”

As expected, the man behind them clapped his hands and said with a smile, "What a tear-jerking performance! If Zhou Xuan knew how much his parents had gone to such lengths for him, he would surely be deeply moved."

He grabbed Chen Shuo's neck and threw her against the courtyard wall as if she were an ant.

"Don't worry, I will keep you alive and let Zhu Xuan see with his own eyes...how I killed his parents."

"Hmm?" The man's voice suddenly stopped. He raised his head and waved towards the door as if he had seen an old friend he hadn't seen in years. "You are Zhou Xuan, right?"

Outside the door, Shen Changyi was holding a long sword, his face shrouded in shadows and expressionless, as he stepped into the door step by step.

"What a pity you missed the show your parents performed for you just now..." Before he could finish his words, a powerful and fierce sword energy split his face.

The sword moves were so fast that they could not be seen with the naked eye. The man was horrified and used his magic energy to resist, but the long sword seemed to be able to cut through everything. No matter how many times his body condensed, it would be split apart again.

…

A whole night passed and the sky turned pale.

Shen Changyi knelt in front of Shen Kangnian and Chen Shuo with all his strength, crying silently.

He failed to kill the man.

If he had practiced harder every day and swung his sword a little more each day, perhaps he could have killed that man instead of watching him escape.

Chen Shuo raised the only arm he could move and gently wiped away the tears on his face.

"Don't cry, Changyi, it's not your fault."

Shen Changyi couldn't hear anything, and the extreme pain almost broke him down until Shen Kangnian hit him hard.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood and grabbed Shen Changyi's collar, "Go find Shanglu!"

Phytolacca...

Phytolacca...

Shen Changyi got up from the ground like a zombie and rushed into the Li family.

Li Shanglu was sleeping peacefully on the soft couch. The rash had disappeared and the high fever had subsided.

She is still alive.

Phytolacca is still alive.

Shen Changyi weakly supported his body with the blood-stained sword, tears streaming down his chin.

Shen Kangnian rushed over behind him, looked at Li Shanglu lying on the couch, held back his tears, and closed the door tightly.

"Collect the bodies of my uncle and aunt."

He knelt in front of Li Hanye and Jiang Fu, kowtowed heavily,

"Chen Changyi, you must never tell Shang Lu about this. This is... my uncle's last words. Even until the day you die, you must not tell him."

Shang Lu's parents died in their sleep due to an acute illness.

Instead, all the bones in his body were broken by the evil cultivator.

From then on, the Shen family would bear the Li family's hatred.

Shang Lu was unwilling to marry into the Shen family, so they raised her as their own daughter.

However, I am afraid that they will not live long and only these two children will be left.

Shen Kangnian covered his heart, closed his eyes, and whispered,

"Shuhe, today is your coming-of-age day. You must remember everything that happened today. Don't blame yourself, and don't resent yourself. Practice diligently until you avenge us. Don't stop for a single day."

Shen Changyi knelt beside him and kowtowed slowly.

"Chang Yi, I understand."