Chapter 77 Pity Xiao Bumian, your childhood was so pitiful...
Mingjian was sad for a while, but quickly recovered.
The young Xiao Bumian was still asleep in a corner of the dilapidated temple. He would probably never know when the child who saved him left, nor would he know that their brief encounter was merely a chance intersection of two different times and spaces.
Mingjian recalled what the old men at the foot of the mountain had said when they went up the mountain; they said that this mountain was a strange mountain.
Later, his master seemed to have mentioned to him that this mountain was located at the border between the cultivation world and the human world. However, even if ordinary people in the human world went up the mountain, they could not see the world of cultivators on the other side of the barrier.
It is likely that Xiao Bumian did not belong to the human world, which is why their paths crossed briefly.
Mingjian stayed up all night to keep watch over Xiao.
The next day, Xiao Bumian woke up.
He was now all alone in the dilapidated mountain god temple, and the child who had promised to repay him was long gone.
As expected.
Xiao Bumian wasn't too upset. He checked his physical condition and figured the pill the child had fed him last night was probably a high-grade blood-restoring pill.
Back in the Gu family mansion, Gu Weishen and the others would feign concern and feed him a few drops of blood after each blood draw, just to ensure they could get more blood next time.
The medicine worked very well; his wounds stopped bleeding, and his strength was restored considerably.
So, supporting his still somewhat weak body, he silently stood up, dragged his heavy steps, and walked out of the dilapidated temple that had given him shelter for the night without looking back.
It was the dead of winter in the human world at that time.
At this time, apart from some instincts he was born with as a half-demon, Xiao Bumian was almost no different from a mortal. He could not use spiritual power, nor could he freely control demonic energy.
During his years of imprisonment in the Gu family mansion, he had no opportunity to learn or master any power.
Furthermore, without the Soul Flame, he couldn't control himself well and would always revert to the second form.
His alien form wasn't very attractive because Xiao Yun had removed his bone spurs.
The accompanying sword spirit said, "Ugly, I don't like it."
Xiao Bumian was a little angry. He sat by the fire, tore his companion sword spirit to pieces, and watched the black mist recombine into a small shape.
"It looks good, I like it," the sword spirit said again.
Xiao Bumian was finally happy.
That winter was incredibly cold; the mountains and forests were covered in ice and snow, and there was almost nothing to eat. He hadn't yet practiced fasting, so it wasn't long before Xiao Bumian thought he was sure to die this time.
He didn't really have much desire to survive.
The snow fell heavier and heavier, and one day, Xiao Bumian finally collapsed from exhaustion in the thick snow, the cold snow almost burying most of his face.
Looking at the boy's pale and fragile face, Mingjian couldn't help but reach out his finger and lightly poke his cheek, even though he knew Xiao Bumian felt nothing.
“Xie Hanwei,” Mingjian said softly, with a hint of barely perceptible pity, “you had such a pitiful childhood.”
She's more pitiful than him.
He still had a master, but Xiao Bumian had nothing.
Fragments of memory continued to flow slowly, and Mingjian realized that she was still trapped in Xiao Bumian's dream.
He had a strong premonition that this time, he would probably have to accompany this young man, Xiao Bumian, for a very long time.
As dusk fell, a couple who had gone hunting in the mountains encountered Xiao Bumian on their way down.
The man said, "Isn't this just a child? How did he get unconscious in this desolate wilderness?"
"Oh dear, what a tragedy! Whose child is this? Why is he dressed so lightly?" The woman's voice was filled with anxiety and worry. "Husband, don't just stand there! It's freezing cold, let's get the child down the mountain quickly! Otherwise, he'll really freeze to death!"
The man nodded, quickly transferred the heavy firewood on his back to the woman, and then carefully dug the unconscious Xiao Bumian out of the snow and carried him on his broad, warm back.
A full moon hung in the sky, its cool light shining on Xiao Bumian, causing a faint stinging pain; it was not pleasant at all.
But when he managed to open his eyes, he lay on the man's back, looking at the deep and shallow footprints left in the snow under the moonlight, and in the end said nothing, just lay there quietly.
He also didn't tell the kind couple that the child they had saved was not an ordinary human child, but a half-demon who was not tolerated by the world.
The woman cooked a bowl of ginger soup for Xiao Bumian. The spicy flavor exploded on his tongue, and Xiao Bumian's pupils contracted slightly.
It was a taste he had never had before.
It tastes awful.
He actually prefers sweet things.
But seeing the woman's concerned eyes, he didn't want to waste her kindness, so he endured the discomfort in his throat and sipped the whole bowl of ginger soup.
After that, Xiao Bumian stayed at the couple's house. The couple had no children, and seeing that Xiao Bumian didn't say anything, they assumed that he had been frozen silly because of the cold weather.
After discussing it, the two decided to keep Xiao Bumian by their side.
Xiao Bumian gradually forgot about the Gu family and how he was different from ordinary people. Only occasionally, when the moon was very big and round, and the woman who saved him asked him to go out and see how beautiful the moon was, Xiao Bumian would throw a rare childish tantrum, frowning and saying that he didn't want to go out.
"Hahaha," the woman was amused by Xiao Bumian's disgusted look and said to the man beside her with a smile, "Hanwei said she doesn't want to see it, so go see it yourself."
The man smiled and wasn't angry at all. He went into the house, took out a measuring tape, and said he wanted to measure Xiao Bumian's height to see how much he had grown this year.
Days passed by one by one.
Two years have passed in the blink of an eye.
That year, Xiao Bumian was eighteen years old.
That year, the couple died.
Xiao Bumian became a person again.
He didn't cry, and there wasn't even any obvious grief on his face; after all, he was just a heartless and loveless half-demon.
Of course, no one from the village would accuse him of being heartless anymore, saying things like the couple raised him for two years but he didn't even arrange their funeral.
Because everyone in the village died.
No one would even curse Xiao Bumian like that.
Ironically, the reason why Xiao Bumian was the only one who didn't die was because of the half-demon bloodline flowing through his veins.
Those low-level demons who were ravaging the village sensed the aura of a higher-level demon on him and, out of instinctive fear, avoided the area where he was.
The night before happened to be a full moon. Xiao Bumian was worried that he would not be able to control his half-demon form and would frighten the villagers, so he hid in the mountains in advance.
He didn't know that mortals were so fragile that even the lowest-ranking demons could easily take their lives and destroy their peaceful lives.
When he came down from the mountain the next day, the whole village was eerily silent, and the air was filled with an overwhelming stench of blood, with faint traces of reddish blood mist that had not yet completely dissipated.
The tragedy that occurred in the village alarmed the nearby cultivation sects. Upon hearing the news, villagers from several neighboring villages were filled with fear and unable to contain their curiosity, rushing over to catch a glimpse of the immortals and crowding the village entrance.
"I heard that everyone in Qingnan Village has died."
"That's right! What a tragedy... But maybe the people in their village did something heinous in the past and are now being punished, which is why those monsters are targeting their village."
The air was filled with all sorts of speculation and discussion, and the noise was incessant.
Xiao Bumian stood silently in the crowd, listening to the people around him talking one after another, his face expressionless.
Then someone in the crowd shouted, "The immortal has arrived!"
Everyone's eyes instantly turned to the sky.
The newcomer was Ji Sui, followed by Gu Guanlan and several disciples from Jianming Immortal Mountain.
The group was dressed in plain white clothes, with long swords at their waists, looking very imposing.
As they passed by Xiao Bumian, he clearly heard a disciple accompanying Gu Guanlan complaining in a low voice, using a transmission technique that only cultivators could understand.
"This is the worst luck imaginable. We have to make this special trip for a few insignificant humans. With this time, we could go to the border of the Demon Realm and kill several waves of rebellious demons."
Gu Guanlan frowned slightly and warned in a low voice, "Be careful what you say."
The disciple, however, didn't take it seriously, and his tone even carried a hint of sarcasm, "That's right! Gu Guanlan, what are you pretending to be so high and mighty for? Didn't a patrolling disciple report yesterday that there was unusual demonic energy activity in this area of the mortal realm? If you were really so kind, why didn't you immediately come down the mountain to protect these ants, instead of staying on the mountain and accepting your master's personal guidance with a clear conscience?"
It is extremely difficult to receive personal guidance from Ji Sui; countless disciples within the sect have sought it but have yet to obtain it.
Gu Guanlan, however, was always treated differently by his master, which naturally aroused dissatisfaction among some disciples who had entered the sect earlier but had not received the same attention.
Another disciple advised, "Stop arguing. There are still traces of demons in this village. If we follow these traces, we'll surely find the demon behind them."
The disciple wanted to say something more, but in the end he reluctantly shut his mouth.
Gu Guanlan thanked him softly, "Thank you, Senior Brother Shiyan."
They quieted down and walked forward.
Xiao Bumian watched their receding figures, and the crowd of onlookers began to disperse, the bustling crowd turning into a hazy and indistinct background, as if separated from him by an invisible barrier.
Ah...is that so?
Xiao Bumian's lips slowly curved into a smile.
It turns out that in the eyes of these high and mighty immortals, the lives of mortals are truly nothing more than ants.
From then on, Mingjian watched as Xiao Bumian began to cultivate the demonic techniques.
His innate talent was taken away, so compared to the immortal path which requires pure spiritual roots and a long period of accumulation, he progressed much faster in cultivating the demonic techniques that originated from his bloodline instincts.
He was originally a high-ranking demon, and unlike other half-demons with mixed bloodlines, Xiao Bumian displayed astonishing talent in demonic cultivation. Before long, he possessed enough power to begin hunting down low-ranking demons who were wreaking havoc in the mortal realm.
Mingjian accompanied Xiao Bumian through one winter after another.
His sword also became increasingly sharp.
On the night he decided to leave this world forever, Xiao Bumian returned to the Gu residence.
Gu Weishen looked at him in terror, and finally, he was so frightened that he knelt down on the ground, tears streaming down his face, and incoherently confessed his innocence, pushing all the blame and cruelty of the past onto Xiao Yun.
“It was all Xiao Yun’s doing! It was all her doing! If she hadn’t slept with that demon Xie Wuwang, how could you have been born? I… I only took a little of your blood. Your bones were taken by Xiao Yun, not me! If you want revenge, you can kill her. I only beg you to spare my life.”
Xiao Bumian chuckled upon hearing this, as if he had heard something extremely interesting, and said, "Is that so?"
At this time, Xiao Bumian's words and actions already bore the shadow of the later Hanwei Immortal Venerable. He always habitually wore a faint smile, and spoke in a soft and gentle voice, like a spring breeze, yet it could make everyone who stood where his sword was pointed feel a chill seep from their bones and tremble uncontrollably.
Gu Weishen nodded hastily, as if grasping at a lifeline, "Of course! Absolutely true! It was all her!"
Xiao Bumian turned slightly, his gaze falling on Xiao Yun, who had been kneeling silently on the ground. He bent down, leaned closer, and asked with a smile, "Mother, what do you think? Is what he said true?"
Xiao Yun had remained silent until this moment. Betrayed so ruthlessly by her closest relatives, she was filled with extreme anger, and her eyes were filled with utter despair.
She finally broke down in tears, her voice broken and filled with despair, "But...but back then...I didn't want this child at all! It was you! You said...you said you would treat him like your own flesh and blood, that my child was your child...clearly...clearly he didn't need to be born..."
"I... I don't need to be a mother to a monster..."
Mingjian floated to the side, listening to these heart-wrenching words, so anxious that he wished he could materialize and rush over to cover Xiao Bumian's ears.
Stop listening...
However, Xiao Bumian listened expressionlessly, as if the person they were talking about who shouldn't have been born and was called a monster had nothing to do with him.
He listened like a detached, even cruel, bystander as they shifted blame and lamented to each other.
He even nodded in agreement, commenting in a flat tone, "I really shouldn't have been born."
After saying that, he smiled again, "But no matter what, please give me your life."
The moment he finished speaking, the thin sword in his hand suddenly disintegrated, turning into several cold, white bone chains that, like living venomous snakes, silently coiled around Gu Weishen's neck.
Gu Weishen stared wide-eyed in horror, his hands futilely scratching at the bone chain around his neck. A choking "hoarse" sound came from his throat. After struggling for a moment, his face turned from red to bluish-purple, and finally his breath stopped completely, and he collapsed softly.
After killing Gu Weishen, Xiao Bumian didn't even glance at Xiao Yun, who was slumped on the ground.
The bone chain obediently returned to his wrist, and he turned and walked steadily toward the door.
However, just as he was about to step out the door, he heard a dull thud of a sharp weapon piercing flesh behind him, accompanied by the faint sound of blood splattering.
Xiao Bumian paused, then slowly turned around.
It's Xiao Yun.
She pulled out a dagger from who-knows-where and resolutely plunged it into her heart.
Blood quickly stained her clothes, and her tears fell like broken beads, mingling with the few drops of blood splattered on her face.
She gazed at Xiao Bumian, whose face bore a resemblance to his, filled with the grief of impending death. Her lips moved with difficulty, and with her last strength, she uttered a few words:
"Please...please spare Guanlan..."
Xiao Bumian's face was half hidden in the shadows of the porch, and half illuminated by the faint sunlight outside.
He looked at his dying mother, his face devoid of any grief, instead grinning with an almost ferocious smile, and said, word by word, "I will kill him."
Xiao Yun wanted to say something more, but Xiao Bumian turned around without hesitation, took two steps forward, and his figure disappeared completely into the deepening night outside the door without a trace of lingering.
Later, Xiao Bumian went to Jianming Immortal Mountain.
He found Gu Guanlan and retrieved his bone marrow.
Gu Guanlan lay on the ground, vomiting mouthfuls of blood. He shook his head in terror, pleading, "No...no! Xiao Bumian, if Mother finds out, she will punish you. Aren't you a demon now? You're so powerful, why can't you share your innate talent with me? I just want to cultivate immortality...what did I do wrong? Give me back my innate talent...give it back to me!"
He couldn't accept this fact. He didn't want to be abandoned; if his master, Ji Sui, found out that he had lost the very foundation upon which he depended for survival, he would lose all his privileges.
His master would no longer provide him with individual guidance, and the envious and admiring gazes of the outer disciples would turn into pity and contempt.
He didn't want to; he didn't want to be an ordinary person.
Gu Guanlan thought in despair, why, why did Xiao Bumian, who was clearly a half-demon, a demon, receive all the benefits?
Xiao Bumian simply watched indifferently, then turned and left.
Gu Guanlan didn't dare tell Ji Sui about losing his foundation.
He was terrified of how others would look at him if they found out about this.
They were even more afraid of being driven off Jianming Immortal Mountain and returning to being mortals.
So even when others talked about the genius who had recently emerged in the sect, Gu Guanlan felt a chill run down his spine and didn't dare to say that Xiao Bumian was his elder brother.
Occasionally, someone would mention that the newly promoted genius disciple seemed to resemble Gu Guanlan in some ways.
But whenever Gu Guanlan heard such words, instead of feeling proud, he felt as if he had been bitten by a poisonous snake, his face turned pale, and he hurriedly made an excuse to leave in a disheveled state.
Xiao Bumian didn't kill him. This feeling of being forever imprisoned by invisible shackles made Gu Guanlan even more restless and tormented than if he were dead.
Gu Guanlan found a reason to go into seclusion for cultivation, and this seclusion lasted for a hundred years.
Over the past century, Mingjian has witnessed Xiao Bumian's astonishing rise to prominence. At the age of twenty-three, he began to cultivate Qi and officially embarked on the path of immortality; at twenty-five, he condensed his golden core, shocking the sect; and by the time he was one hundred, he had become a cultivator in the Mahayana stage, standing at the pinnacle of the cultivation world.
At this point, according to the lifespan of the demon race, Xiao Bumian was officially considered an adult.
Mingjian: "..."
Okay, he admits he's envious.
Another four hundred years have passed.
Mingjian felt that Xiao Bumian's yandere persona was consistent throughout, remaining steadfast. Outsiders revered him, praising him as upright and virtuous, possessing the bearing of an immortal, and a model of upholding the righteous path. In reality, however, this person spent every day scheming about how to kill someone, or plotting who to cause trouble for next.
However, the advantage of this is that his cultivation speed is unbelievably fast.
He killed without any rationality, regardless of the victim's identity or the risk of injury. He killed on impulse, driven entirely by instinct and whims. This often resulted in him being severely wounded and covered in blood.
Perhaps because his soul fire is gone, his injuries sometimes become more severe and harder to heal on nights with a full moon.
One year, he casually saved a healer from the clutches of a horde of rampaging demons.
The healer's name was Ye Tanzhou. He was always furious with patients like Xiao Bumian who didn't follow medical advice, but he was helpless and could only curse and grumble while doing his best to treat him.
Fortunately, Xiao Bumian's own cultivation was strong enough that he didn't often need to ask Ye Tanzhou for help.
One day, Xiao Bumian approached Ye Tanzhou and asked him for a few pills that could quickly improve one's cultivation level.
Ye Tanzhou was quite surprised. "It's rare for you to ask me for something so readily... What are you planning to do?" He felt a vague unease in his heart.
Xiao Bumian did not answer, but simply took the pills.
Mingjian knew perfectly well that he was going to kill Ji Sui.
At that time, Ji Sui's body could not hold on for much longer.
Ji Sui was initially puzzled by his arrival, but after seeing him surrounded by demonic and spiritual energy, he remembered.
“If it weren’t for me, your mother wouldn’t have given birth to you.” Ji Sui didn’t think he had done anything wrong. “Your soul fire can suppress the thousands of demons in the Demon Cave and protect my righteous sect from the invasion of the demon race. Isn’t that a supreme merit? It’s fine if you’re not grateful to me, but why do you want to kill me?”
Xiao Bumian brandished his sword and said indifferently, "Very boring."
At this moment, Xiao Bumian was filled with weariness of everything in the world.
He thought that once he killed Ji Sui and Xie Wuwang, he would destroy everything in the world.
Ji Sui couldn't understand this murderous intent that stemmed purely from boredom. He burst into laughter, thinking that Xiao Bumian had simply gone mad.
However, he was no match for Xiao Bumian in strength, and soon he was completely defeated.
Ji Sui wasn't particularly afraid of this, after all, compared to his current dying body, he longed to obtain Gu Guanlan's young and exceptionally talented body as soon as possible.
But after killing him, Xiao Bumian also took care of the several disciples he had brought with him.
Xiao Bumian spared Gu Guanlan's last breath. When Ji Sui's remnant soul eagerly possessed Gu Guanlan's body, it was horrified to discover that Gu Guanlan's Heavenly Grade Root Bone had already vanished.
Ji Sui had never been so angry. He didn't know what method Xiao Bumian had used to create a perfect illusion for Gu Guanlan that his physical constitution was still intact, deceiving him for so many years without him ever suspecting anything!
If he had discovered earlier that Gu Guanlan was a useless piece of trash, he would never have chosen him as a vessel, and he wouldn't be so weak now because of the possession, unable to even change his body!
What a piece of trash!
Ji Sui was so angry that he almost went mad. He tore Gu Guanlan's remaining soul to shreds and threw the fragments into the alchemy furnace to burn them, in order to vent his hatred.
Xiao Bumian, Xiao Bumian!
Ji Sui gritted his teeth, knowing that one day he would kill Xiao Bumian.
On the other hand, after Ji Sui's death, Xie Wuwang, the Demon Lord, believed that the time was right and launched a large-scale attack on the Immortal Sect.
In a moment of crisis, Xiao Bumian wielded his sword and slew tens of thousands of demon lords.
Xie Wuwang looked at the immortal with the red mark on his forehead and suddenly seemed to have discovered something interesting. He smiled and said, "My blood flows in your veins."
Xiao Bumian tilted her head and smiled, "So what?"
He also killed Xie Wuwang.
Blood stained his pristine white robes, and the crimson lotus pattern on his forehead spread like a living thing, covering half his face, making him appear both eerie and holy. A pair of stark white bone chains danced silently behind him.
Fragments of memory began to crumble from the edges, turning into countless shimmering ashes that drifted down like a silent snowfall.
Mingjian raised his head and watched the scene gradually dissipate.
He knew that his memories were coming to an end.
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