Chapter 63 Why He Fights, Why He Dies

Kong Ming looked intently at the two people who appeared one after another, closed his eyes for a moment, and what appeared in his mind was still the black mud flowing from the saint's lips.

That's something from the abyss...

Why does the saint who was resurrected from the ancient battlefield of Soul Ruins have the blood of the Abyss flowing in his veins?

However, the snake demon showed a crazy attitude, and his heart sank. He no longer cared about anything else. He immediately picked up the Zen stick and divided into three groups with Zhuang Rong'er and Jing Huai to surround the giant python.

The snake demon's roars became louder and louder, not only affecting the disciples trapped in the underground palace, but also inspiring the thousands of demons gathered above like a horn.

Kongming chanted the mantra again, and he tapped the ground with his Zen staff. A bell made of golden light instantly stood up around him, isolating the snake demon and the three of them.

Zhuang Rong'er took advantage of the situation and moved forward. Every step she took was extremely precise. The snake bone whip in her hand lashed down fiercely, wrapping around the snake demon's vital point and sinking into the scales that were harder than steel, squeezing its skin and flesh until they were blurred.

Several dark red poisonous insects emerged from her sleeves and penetrated deep into the wounds on the snake demon's body. The snake demon became visibly stiffer.

Jing Huai's movements were not slow at all. He held a sword in his hand and slashed it diagonally, with the sword energy heading straight for the snake demon's open throat.

His sword was extremely fast, and the snake's head couldn't even keep up with his rhythm. In the blink of an eye, half of its head was chopped off, and it looked extremely bloody.

The snake demon's huge body made a tremendous sound as it struggled. Its flesh and blood intertwined with the black mist that leaked out of it, surging wildly, but was suppressed by three completely different forces.

Even if he has a thousand abilities, this demon can only be locked in place in vain!

Only one fatal blow left——

"Wait!" Kong Ming's voice was hoarse, and he hurriedly raised his voice to intercept the attacks of Zhuang Rong'er and Jing Huai.

In his haste, he even placed his Zen staff across the two sides, as if trying to protect the snake demon.

"...We have no choice but to seal it and prevent it from dying." He explained with a grim expression, "The Nightmare Queen appeared here precisely to devour the Snake Demon's monstrous resentment. Once this demon dies, it will become Nightmare Queen's nourishment, and the damage will be immeasurable..."

Jing Huai lowered his eyes and nodded.

Zhuang Rong'er mechanically withdrew her hand. There was a long bloody wound on her palm and arm. She had no idea when the cut was made.

She had absolutely no reaction to it.

In fact, she didn't hear what Kongming said at all.

All this seemed like a dream to her.

In the lifeless "stone statue" beside him, there is a remnant of Jing Huai's soul.

Different from the one she treasured in her attic, it was something else that belonged to Jing Huai.

The monk Jieying said, "The saint is resurrected," and Yan Ji said, "Jing Huai is here," and Kong Ming also regarded her as the real Jing Huai.

...Has Jing Huai really resurrected?

Just like there is a magic of resurrection in the Ruihuan Valley, are there other adventures in the world that are hard for ordinary people to imagine, which can allow this person who left the world a hundred years ago to come back again?

He and Ah Huai are different beings...

Zhuang Rong'er's mind had never been as blank as it was at this moment. It turned out that true shock would make people unable to remember anything.

She still stood there stiffly, but she was just an empty shell.

Perhaps if the so-called "Jing Huai" could speak a word, it might wake her up a little.

But no, in this isolated demon-sealed space, only a hollow and hoarse voice could be heard.

"Thank you both for your help." His already aged face seemed to have aged even further in just a few breaths. He couldn't help coughing as he spoke, like an ordinary old man in the mortal world, revealing a desolate look as if his vitality was rapidly fading. He struggled to speak, "Wait until I seal it, then I'll invite you two into the main hall for a chat..."

…

Ah Huai came to the outside of the Great Freedom Palace.

The wind and rain continued to violently beat down, and his heart became extremely cold.

Amidst the lightning and thunder, there was a man standing on the road that he had to pass through waiting for him.

The rain was completely isolated from the man. He stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the mountain scenery. He did not look at all shabby, like a leisurely traveler.

It was clear that the area within a hundred miles around the Great Freedom Palace was shrouded in thick demonic energy, yet he was so detached deep within it.

Ah Huai looked at him deeply, with no intention of staying.

But the man's voice drowned out the thunder, and he said to him leisurely, "My friend, you are here for Zhuang Rong'er, right?"

Ah Huai saw his face clearly, and the red spot between his eyebrows was barely visible due to the rain.

He has always had a good memory.

So he could clearly know who the person in front of him was.

"There is a red mole on his forehead, a smiling face, and a laughing Buddha mask hanging around his waist. He looks like a young man who is a lay disciple of Buddhism" - when they were in Zhaixing Town, the disciples of Wuji Sect once described such a person. Zhuang Rong'er said that the person was Qinghailou.

Qinghailou, a well-known name in the world of cultivation, has appeared beside him and Zhuang Ronger many times.

But this was the first time he faced him.

This person's attitude is ambiguous, and it is difficult to tell whether he is an enemy or a friend.

His current transformed strength...can it be better than his?

Ah Huai thought for a moment and said calmly: "What do you want to tell me?"

He could feel that Zhuang Rong'er was out of danger now and most likely not seriously injured. Delaying here for a few hours would not have any impact.

Qinghailou was waiting here specifically, ignoring the cosmetic treatments he had done on the way here, and started a conversation with Zhuang Ronger. Naturally, he didn't just want to say hello to him and leave it at that.

Qing Hailou curled his lips slightly, as if looking at him carefully, or as if just passing by him to admire the moist world.

He tilted his head and pondered for a few seconds before speaking, "It's been a while since anyone has played chess with me, and tonight I'm itching to play... I've heard you're a master chess player, so why don't you challenge me to a few rounds?"

Ah Huai looked at him intently, seeing his calm expression and twirling fingers, and nodded.

He didn't ask Qing Hailou where he heard that he was "excellent at chess". He knew that the person he was describing was most likely "that person".

And everything that came out of the mouth of this legendary cultivator did not make people want to refute "I am not that person". Instead, it made Ah Huai feel an indescribable premonition in his heart.

"Then come with me." Qing Hailou smiled.

He walked towards a pavilion at the highest point of the mountain, and Ah Huai followed closely behind him.

When I got closer, I saw that the chess pieces had already been placed on the stone table in the pavilion. To be precise, it was an endgame.

The black and white pieces were arranged in a staggered manner, and the organizer calmly chose a side to sit down, raised his hand to signal Ah Huai to take a seat, and had no intention of restarting the game at all.

"Which side do you want to join?" Qinghailou asked.

Having said that, he had already taken his seat first, with the black and white pieces placed separately in front of the two of them, leaving them no room for choice.

Ah Huai sat down on the opposite side, gently picked up a white piece in front of him with his fingers, and dropped it neatly.

Qing Hailou didn't react much, but also reached out to take the black piece, which landed next to the white piece.

As the two of them interacted, black and white collided, making crisp sounds.

The pavilion seems to have isolated an independent space, where one cannot feel the wind or rain at all, as if even the heaven and earth are watching the game in silence.

The pieces from Qinghai Tower were moving faster and faster, each step was sharper and more aggressive. The black pieces were connected together like a heavy chain.

The sense of pressure brought about by this became more and more obvious, but Ah Huai remained calm. Instead, it was Qing Hailou himself who was the first to fail.

He seemed to recall some interesting experience, and the corners of his lips curled up, and he couldn't help laughing and said: "...You are much more powerful than Zhuang Rong'er."

This sentence made Ah Huai raise his head. His hands remained in place as he looked at Qinghai Tower for the first time in the entire chess game. There was inevitably some coldness in his eyes.

Qinghailou didn't seem to notice, shook his head and continued to play chess.

But after that, his speed slowed down a lot, and he had to consider every step for a long time.

Ah Huai withdrew his gaze and continued to play chess with him expressionlessly.

The arrangement of this endgame is very strange. It seems that the black pieces have the upper hand, but it is clearly feeding the white pieces, leaving many loopholes for a comeback.

However, if the white pieces really take advantage of those loopholes, they will fall back into the siege of the black pieces.

This game of chess was much more difficult than the one he had played against Jing Yixu's phantom in the barrier under the Starry Sea.

Ah Huai's state of mind was inevitably not as calm as he appeared.

He vaguely knew that he could not lose this round, he could only win.

…

The skylight changed several times, and a red light began to appear at the end of the distant mountains.

Qing Hailou stroked the last black piece with his fingertips. The game of chess was over, but a glimmer flickered in his eyes and he raised his head with a smile.

Ah Huai on the opposite side was still sitting quietly, his face calm and without any joy on his face. Only the thin sweat on his palms from holding each other for a long time was gently blown away by the cold wind after the early morning rain.

He won.

Only he himself knows how difficult it was to win this game.

"When I lost to Zhuang Rong'er, I owed her an answer." Qing Hailou suddenly said, "At that time, she asked me if I knew where you came from."

“…”

"I said, today I really don't know, but yesterday I might have known." Qing Hailou smiled, "Now, tomorrow has come, and I do know where you came from."

Ah Huai's breathing stagnated for half a second. He still resisted the urge to continue Qing Hailou's words, but just looked at him silently.

Fortunately, Qing Hai Lou didn't need his response. He just wanted to tell everything. After being silent for a long time, he opened his mouth again and said, "Tomorrow, you have also defeated me... I should give you an answer."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand, and the black piece that was pinched between his fingers did not fall back onto the chessboard, but instead shot straight towards Ah Huai following his sudden attack.

The movement was extremely fast, the sound of the chess piece breaking through the wind was only a moment away, and it hit Ah Huai's heart with the force of thunder.

Ah Huai's body shuddered, and he instinctively wanted to dodge, but the brocade bag he placed on his chest became scorching hot and extremely heavy, as if it no longer moved with him, but was fixed in mid-air - that was exactly what he had taken from Zhuang Rong'er's attic before leaving Cuihuan Valley.

He knew very well that Yu Huanye's secret visit to Cuihuan Valley was for this kind of thing, and even investigating his situation was just a side job.

He knows better what value this thing has...

How could he not realize that the thing in the mirror bag was the residual soul of a person.

And there is always only one answer to the question of who this person is.

He didn't need to hesitate about what choice to make at this moment. It didn't matter if he was seriously injured, but he would never let Jing Huai's remaining soul be destroyed.

Ah Huai did not dodge for this reason, but simply held the brocade bag in his hand, raised his eyes to face the black man who was attacking him, murderous aura spread out, and the sword behind him also made a buzzing sound.

At that moment, he heard Qinghailou laugh.

There was no time to distinguish the other emotions in his laughter. The moment Ah Huai crushed the black piece with a cold face, he clearly felt that the brocade bag that he had been protecting in his other palm was still broken.

The overwhelming heat went up his arm and into his chest, and then never left, lingering tightly in his heart.

His vision suddenly went dark, and a sharp pain went straight to the depths of his brain. No matter how hard he tried to endure the pain, his face turned pale and he half-knelt on the ground.

Countless fragmented images flooded into his mind—blood and fire, ancient battlefields, the rolling river, the roar of the collapsing world, and the back of himself standing on a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, fighting with all his might...

They were chaotic and swift, appearing before him one after another, and then flashing by before he could see clearly...

Ah Huai's chest heaved rapidly, his fingertips trembled, and cold sweat trickled down his temples.

An indescribable sense of familiarity surged from the bottom of my heart, as if a seal had been quietly broken.

He suddenly covered his forehead, and his disordered breathing was even mixed with some hoarse throat sounds.

Who is he, what kind of person he was, why he fought, why he died, his love and hate, blood and tears, what he couldn't pick up and what he couldn't let go... his name.

——The reward for winning the chess game is the answer he has been waiting for for a long time.

Qing Hailou quietly watched the pain and awakening of the person before him, and said in greeting with a curved lip:

"Jing Huai, long time no see."