Chapter 15 Why did you leave me? Why did you turn back? And why...?
From the time Mingchen fainted to the time Fuming returned, there was enough time to drink a cup of tea.
Extremely coincidentally, Fu Ming once again missed Xiao Huaiyuan's true feelings, as if it were fate.
In the back and forth, the echo of Xiao Huaiyuan calling for his senior brother had already dissipated, leaving only silence. His overflowing emotions also suddenly turned cold, freezing the stuffy cave into the dead of winter.
The death of a clone would severely damage the main body, but Fu Ming himself didn't care, so why should he suffer?
Xiao Huaiyuan didn't want to pay attention to Fu Ming's teasing. Just like his nickname, Mu Tou, he was always very stubborn.
"..."
After the skeleton was subdued, the two remained silent. The cave was quiet, with only one or two drops of water falling occasionally.
Xiao Huaiyuan wiped the water from Fu Ming's clone's cheek, and it was at this moment that Xiao Huaiyuan realized: what he wanted was not to be satisfied just by watching Fu Ming be safe and sound from afar, but he was afraid that he would never be able to hold onto him.
Unspeakable dark thoughts grew rampant in his heart.
The underground is perpetually dark and shrouded in darkness, so Xiao Huaiyuan's upper body was swallowed by the shadow cast from the cave ceiling, while the area where his avatar was located was relatively bright.
"Mingchen's" face was the result of three hours of meticulous adjustments based on his own appearance. Now, lying softly and bonelessly in Xiao Huaiyuan's arms, it made Fu Ming feel very strange. He flicked his wrist and, sure enough, felt a sleeve full of goosebumps.
Is this how a master and apprentice should interact? He remembered that when he was an apprentice to that old man, they weren't this close.
"If you don't want to talk about it, then don't."
Fu Ming turned his head away. The stark contrast between Xiao Huaiyuan's attitude and Xiao Huaiyuan's coldness left him bewildered. In the past, whether Xiao Huaiyuan was reprimanding or chasing him, he had never ignored him like this. But then again, it made sense. He and Xiao Huaiyuan were on opposing sides, so it was pointless to exchange words.
But—this person wouldn't think he put the bones there, and come all the way here to harm him, would he?
"Senior brother."
Just when Fu Ming thought Xiao Huaiyuan was about to utter some righteous and awe-inspiring question, the second half of his sentence exceeded his expectations.
Watch out behind you!
Several streaks of light came from the blind spot of his vision, without any fluctuation of spiritual energy or any sign of demonic energy. If he hadn't been warned, he might have been hit. Fu Ming immediately did a backflip, narrowly avoiding the attacks with the instincts of his body, which had been tempered for a hundred years. His clothes fluttered, and in the flip, he recalled his Tang sword.
He was about to retract his previous prejudice when the skeleton nailed to the wall with a knife suddenly broke its own bones into several pieces and launched a sneak attack on him, proving far more intelligent than the still-living cultivators. The bone fragments varied in size, moved with lightning speed, and made no sound whatsoever, making them as practical as the Heaven-Rank hidden weapons he had just confiscated from the Changliu Mountain warehouse.
Fu Ming swung the Tang sword in a circle, slicing the bone into even smaller pieces, and then decided to take some home.
There was no other way; sword cultivators were just as poor as saber cultivators, and unfortunately, he was also a demonic cultivator, so his only source of income was robbery.
A red shadow flashed in his eyes, and his teleportation technique reached its peak.
With a series of tiny, rice-flower-like explosions, the blade energy collided with the scattered bones, exploding into strings of lively, fiery fireworks.
"Why can't it be stored in the mustard seed bag?"
"Host, you seem to have forgotten that living things can't be put in there..." the system weakly chimed in.
These skeletons have been dead for who knows how many years; can they still be considered living things?
As if in response to Fu Ming's inner voice, the skeleton stiffly raised its head and opened its mouth to utter another sharp shriek that struck the soul.
Not again?!
If we were to use a modern online game as an analogy, then Fu Ming would be a typical high-attack, low-defense, low-control, vampire-type character. To be honest, his resistance to mental attacks isn't very high.
Fortunately, the strength of his main body's soul was incomparable to that of a Foundation Establishment stage clone. Even if he were to take a direct hit on the soul, he would only be stunned for a moment.
Fu Ming immediately withdrew his defenses, channeling all his demonic energy into the tip of his blade, and slashed at the skeleton's neck.
Huh? I didn't feel any pain at all.
The Tang sword easily severed the skeleton's spine, and the shriek it emitted still echoed in the space, yet Fu Ming felt no discomfort whatsoever.
He turned around and saw Xiao Huaiyuan had erected a protective barrier around him. A horrifying bloody hole had been torn open on his shoulder, staining most of his white robe black and red, and his spiritual power was almost completely exhausted. Only his deep, dark eyes remained unchanged, lonely and cold.
"You can't even withstand the protective true energy? Junior brother, aren't you afraid I'll launch a sneak attack?"
The skeleton, with only its head still moving, was struggling. Fu Ming, without any regard for his image, squatted down and reached out to touch the skeleton's eye sockets. On the other hand, he couldn't help but provoke Xiao Huaiyuan, whose breathing was heavy, but it was clear that he was trying hard to remain calm.
"I know you didn't do this."
A suppressed, hoarse voice echoed softly behind Fu Ming's ear, and Xiao Huaiyuan seemed to have moved a little closer.
Suddenly, Fu Ming's fingers recoiled from the heat. He reached inside again and pulled out a palm-sized stone fragment. Once the fragment was removed from the body, the entire skeleton immediately disintegrated, lifeless. Fu Ming tried to collect the hard bone fragments into his mustard seed pouch; there was no resistance, indicating that the skeleton was indeed dead.
This is the stone shard we used to drive the monsters mad.
Fu Ming held the stone fragment up to the light to examine it closely. This thing emitted a glowing blue flame when exposed to the wind, making it seem unlike any ordinary object. This fragment was larger than all the previous fragments combined, and it had several dim and ancient characters on it that he couldn't understand. They were probably some kind of lost ancient script.
"This place is right in front of the Demon Palace. The old Demon Lord must know about it, but he's dead, so there's no way to ask him."
Fu Ming muttered to himself as if no one else was around, and when he turned around, he was almost startled by Xiao Huaiyuan. He looked lost and dejected, like a lonely ghost wandering around the tomb all day long, and he didn't forget to hold Fu Ming's clone in front of him with one hand.
"Look at you, so pitiful," Fu Ming stroked his chin and looked his junior brother up and down, but there was no trace of crying on his face, which made him feel inexplicably disappointed.
"It's yours."
Fu Ming weighed the crucial stone fragment in his hand, tossed it precisely into Xiao Huaiyuan's hand, then turned and laughed as he left.
He finally got a chance to show off in front of Xiao Huaiyuan, so of course he wanted to do it properly.
The wind from the demon realm poured in through the small crack, whistling and swirling in the cave. It wasn't cold, just a little lonely.
Xiao Huaiyuan's wind leaped back through the crack, leaving only desolation in his heart.
Why did you turn back? And why did you leave me? Senior brother.
——————
"Sect Leader—"
"We're here!"
"Are you alright? Is Junior Brother Mingchen alright?"
A noisy chattering sound rang out behind Xiao Huaiyuan. The elders of Daofa Peak and several other peaks finally arrived, but Xu Yan of Wanjian Peak was nowhere to be seen.
His rationality as the head of the Tianyan Sect pulled him back from his endless thoughts. He turned around and looked around. Everyone's clothes were covered in mud, showing that they had gone through a fierce battle.
Xiao Huaiyuan tried his best to calm his violently fluctuating emotions and asked about the battle situation.
"What about the others? What happened to the berserk monster in the Tai Xuan Mountain mine?"
"Please rest assured, Senior Brother Sect Leader. Elder Xu discovered that removing the black stone fragments from the demonic beasts would calm them down. He has now led the disciples to lock the demonic beasts at several exits."
Another Wanjian Peak disciple added details about how they stopped the beast tide: "The map given by Junior Brother Mingchen was very useful. We blocked the other hidden underground river exits, which prevented even a single demon beast from escaping."
Xiao Huaiyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the tense barrier he had painstakingly maintained suddenly dissipated.
Upon seeing the sect leader's current appearance, all the disciples and elders present at the Tianyan Sect were greatly startled.
Blood gushed from the gash in his shoulder, the exposed flesh black and charred by demonic energy, resembling a muddy mess.
Xiao Huaiyuan was alright, but Ming Chen, who was curled up in his arms, was badly injured beyond recognition. His eyes were closed, and there were countless cracks and cuts on his flesh. There were hardly any good pieces of flesh left on his face and body.
Is he even alive?
"Sect Leader Uncle, let me try to see if I can stop Junior Brother Ming's injuries."
A late-stage Golden Core cultivator with a wood-elemental root volunteered to step forward. She was a rising star of the Medical Peak, having rescued countless wounded on the battlefield between immortals and demons. However, when she touched Fu Ming's pulse, she let out a surprised "Eh."
"How could this be..."
Her meridians were riddled with pits and scars from the invasion of demonic energy. She had thought Fu Ming's external injuries were already terrifying enough, but his internal injuries were even more frustrating. She glanced to the side and saw that Xiao Huaiyuan's right hand was still tightly gripping Fu Ming's wrist, continuously channeling spiritual energy to resist the erosion without ever stopping.
Even demonic cultivators who have fallen into demonic ways have to walk through the gates of hell twice, let alone Junior Brother Ming Chen, who is only at the Foundation Establishment stage and has been seriously injured. If it weren't for the sect leader's spiritual power to save his life, he probably would have died an hour ago.
She sighed and said to Xiao Huaiyuan, "I have used wood-attribute spiritual energy to protect his heart meridian, but whether he can save his life remains to be seen."
"I understand, thank you for your hard work."
"The rift to the demonic realm is below, where demonic energy has accumulated. Only by using pure spiritual power to cleanse the rift can it be closed. We need everyone's help."
Xiao Huaiyuan reverted to his usual cold and serious demeanor.
This man seemed focused on his business, but his eyes kept glancing at Ming Chen, and he didn't seem to care about his disciple's injured body. He was truly deeply in love. Oh dear, I've heard that the Xiao family is full of romantics, and now it seems that this is true.
The Daofeng Elder, who was most adept at understanding people's hearts, gently waved his folding fan, exhaling spiritual energy while observing the grand gossip.
Xu Yan, that unlucky poor bastard, really can't even catch the heat of a good show.
The long-standing fissures near the Demon Palace, the Nascent Soul stage bones buried in the magma, the stone fragments that stimulated demonic energy and induced mutations, the beast tide triggered by the stone fragments, and the continuous black gold mines buried within Mount Taixuan.
Behind all these strange phenomena, who exactly is the culprit?
What does the system want me to do with this?
Fuming Cat stood by a boulder twenty feet away from the crevice, stroking his chin in deep thought.
He stuck his Tang sword near the rift to absorb demonic energy. It must have been because Xiao Huaiyuan's reinforcements had finally arrived that the narrow, eye-like rift gradually closed, making it impossible to see anything from the immortal realm anymore.
"Ding-dong, the progress of the 'Resisting the Xuanluo Sect Beast Tide' quest is 100%, and the progress of the 'Repairing the Demon Realm Rift' quest is 100%. Rewards will be distributed shortly, please check—"
A note from the author:
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