Chapter 201 Going Home "Xiao Hai, I'm taking you home."...
The wind whistled in their ears, and the surrounding light and shadow changed rapidly. When the teleportation array was operating at its limit, the human body would experience a tearing pain. The jump with the strongest load was almost making the person in the array unable to breathe from the pain.
In the suffocating silence, Li Mengbai heard his own heart pounding violently.
Faster, faster...
We need to find her quickly.
He couldn't wait a moment longer!
Not long after Jiang Yuhuo left, Li Mengbai arrived at the Great Zhou army camp in Shannan County.
He had always known her whereabouts and that she had been expending her cultivation to conquer territories for a country that had no real connection to her.
It was utterly foolish, so foolish that he wanted to see how she would die in the end.
But what arrived before the news of her death was his memory.
If it weren't for those memories, he would never have believed that he could love someone so utterly, to the point of abandoning the family head's command, giving up the Heavenly Pillar Marrow, and even draining his own blood, which she considered dirty...
But it was also he who destroyed her body.
He has made many mistakes and cannot continue to make them; he has wasted a lot of time and cannot wait a moment longer.
Once his memories are restored, Li Mengbai's life can no longer be without Jiang Yuhuo.
But she was not in the camp, not in the Great Zhou army camp, and not in Shannan County.
He finally captured the commander of the army camp and learned that she had gone to Tianque. She told them that she was going to Tianque to find someone very important and might not be able to come back for a long time.
She's a disciple of Kunlun, so who could be important to her in Tianque?
She risked her life for this army, yet she abandoned it all so easily for one person. What did this country mean to her? What did her months of selfless dedication mean? And that merman, what right did he have?
Li Mengbai was utterly terrified. He was acutely aware that something was slipping away uncontrollably through his fingers, and the only way to stop it was to find her immediately.
There's still a chance if we find her.
He was never one to give up easily; he would do anything to get what he wanted. Coercion, bribery, feigning ignorance, begging for pity… he had a million ways to keep her, countless sweet words to whisper in her ear. But this time, he only wanted to sincerely apologize, to lay bare his true feelings to her, and to try and win her heart with his most clumsy attempt.
Within the rapidly shifting teleportation array, he silently prayed in his heart.
Jiang Yuhuo, wait for him...
...
Inside the forbidden chamber atop Tianque Peak, surging spiritual energy, carrying the breath of the mermaid pearl, was continuously channeled into the mermaid's body. Due to the intruder's persistent efforts, a faint, pale blue halo finally appeared in the darkness, ethereal like sea mist, yet still able to envelop the dying mermaid's entire body.
In the soft light, that person was finally exposed, revealing all their wounds to their loved one. Their hair was matted with congealed blood, their long, flowing, gray-blue hair was dry and frizzy, their face covered in bloodstains and streaks, and their pale face had a deathly bluish-gray tinge.
Jiang Yuhuo felt a sense of dread; if he hadn't come, he might have truly died here. Not only was he severely injured physically, but his heart seemed to be prepared to die.
And she knew nothing about it...
If her senior brother hadn't come to tell her, she might not have known anything about him even after he was gone.
A sudden surge of anger welled up within her.
The merman's half-closed eyes snapped shut in pain when she noticed another gaze fixed upon her.
He didn't want to see even the slightest hint of disgust in Jiang Yuhuo's eyes, even if it was fleeting, it would be enough to completely crush him.
Even creatures favored by heaven and earth can no longer maintain their arrogant and superior attitude when all their weaknesses are exposed. In front of Jiang Yuhuo, he even felt a trace of humility.
Would you find it ugly?
Will you find that he is actually quite ordinary?
It was only because he was the first merman he met that he received her favor back then; if it had been any other merman...
Jia Yue forced this thought out of his mind. Even now, he still couldn't tolerate someone else taking his place beside her, even if it was just in his mind.
A warm hand descended, touching his cheek, gently brushing aside the blood-clotted strands of hair, and guiding the breath of the mermaid pearl to heal his wound.
"Just because you feel indebted to me, you think you can disregard your life? Who told you to do this?" Jiang Yuhuo stroked his face with one hand and pressed the other against his tail. Although her tone was unfriendly, her movements were extremely gentle. The warmth emanating from her hands made him feel incredibly attached, so much so that even knowing he looked ugly at that moment, he couldn't help but want to get closer to her and seek more warmth from her.
The merman gently shook his head in her palm; she didn't know what that body meant to him.
That was both his compensation for her past and his hope for their future. When that body was destroyed, his past and future were destroyed at the same time. The past him could only ever be the source of her lifelong suffering, while the future him could only helplessly watch her walk towards death once again.
To save her, he was willing to gamble on the minuscule possibility of becoming a god.
Because of her obstruction, he could not kill Li Mengbai, but the deed was done, and someone had to bear the blame. So he turned the blade on himself.
Even without being called, that's the path he's bound to take.
It was just another failure.
The hand on his body suddenly tightened its grip, pinching his already healed skin as if venting its anger.
Jia Yue opened his eyes, without disgust or disappointment. He met only a pair of slightly angry yet watery eyes, and the owner of those eyes said to him, "Are you going to leave me again?"
Jia Yue was suddenly jolted; he had just heard something…
Does she... want him by her side?
"I thought you would never come to see me again." Jia Yue stared blankly at Jiang Yuhuo, her hoarse voice trembling, and she choked up.
After that parting in Xidu City, she chose to stay as Ji Hongyu, thus abandoning the past, which of course included his.
Jiang Yuhuo originally thought so too, but the moment she heard the news, she realized she was wrong, and the moment she saw him, she realized she was completely wrong.
The mermaid pearl gradually dispelled the ashen, deathly aura from his face, and the horrific wounds began to heal.
Jiang Yuhuo lowered her gaze slightly, gently touching the places healed by the mermaid pearl, and stated, "Tianque has not been good to you."
A slight smile appeared on Jia Yue's lips. He raised his hand, wanting to hold her hand and tell her that as long as she was by his side, he didn't care about anyone else.
But before he could even touch Jiang Yuhuo's hand, those hands slipped under his armpits, supported his back, and pulled him up to sit up.
Jiang Yuhuo said, "I once made a promise to you as well."
They were very close; Jia Yue could reach out and touch her face. He smiled and asked, "Really? What kind of promise is it?"
Jiang Yuhuo looked up and smiled back at him, "I promised to take you back to the sea."
She spoke calmly, but Jia Yue only felt a buzzing sound in her ears...
All the noise disappeared, and everything around him became a blurry background. Only this sentence kept echoing in his mind. He could only see the person in front of him. Through her clear eyes, he could see through the years and return to that scene from back then.
In the most remote corner of the human world, weak and ignorant mortals felt pity for the mermaid boy.
Guided by the merman boy with a mix of seduction and teasing, the mortal girl assumed he was homesick. So she gripped the edge of the merman bathtub tightly with both hands and shamelessly promised, "Don't worry, Xiao Hai, I will definitely help you return to the sea!"
An ordinary person who has never left his mountain village wants to take a mermaid to the ocean she has never been to before.
Those naive and silly words were spoken with such conviction, her golden pupils burning with a flame that no one could doubt her sincerity.
It was those sincere and fearless eyes that made the merman boy fall for her step by step, his mind wavering without his awareness, his body waking up before his mind, too late but willingly.
Hearing the same words again, after many years, the merman, who had experienced countless hardships, was once again in a state of utter confusion. Like a young man, his ears burned, and he stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do, until Jiang Yuhuo pressed his forehead against his.
"Xiao Hai, I'll take you home."
...
When Li Mengbai arrived at Tianque, he did not encounter many obstacles along the way.
Tianque had clearly just experienced a major battle; many palaces were destroyed, and many injured Tianque disciples were being helped away to receive treatment. In the midst of the chaos, no one noticed that another intruder had arrived.
Li Mengbai was extremely anxious. He grabbed an injured disciple and asked him about Jiang Yuhuo's whereabouts. The disciple was unwilling to talk to this stranger, but once he was in Li Mengbai's hands, he had no reason not to speak. In no time, Li Mengbai forced him to reveal the location.
He didn't even bother to conceal his presence, rushing towards the summit of Tianque Peak. This path was truly opened up by Jiang Yuhuo, as if he were entering an empty place.
Everything went incredibly smoothly, as if even the gods were moved by his sincerity and wanted to help him win back Jiang Yuhuo.
He rushed into the forbidden room at almost top speed and saw Jiang Yuhuo.
But at the same time, he also witnessed a nightmarish scene, a profound despair he had never experienced before.
Behind the forbidden formation, Jiang Yuhuo half-embraced the merman in his arms, slightly bowing his head, closing his eyes, and pressing his forehead against the merman's forehead, as if a goddess were looking after her believer.
As her lips moved slightly, the light between their foreheads grew brighter and brighter.
Li Mengbai shouted urgently as he lunged forward, "Don't go! Don't go!"
The sound of that forbidden array could be transmitted, but the person inside the array simply closed their eyes and silently chanted, never glancing in his direction.
The next instant, a burst of light erupted, engulfing the two who had been touching. In the blink of an eye, the forbidden formation was completely empty.
Li Mengbai collapsed to his knees, his heart still pounding wildly in his chest. He hadn't even recovered from the joy and anticipation of seeing her when she was already gone.
In front of him, to save another man, she used the exile seal he had given her to save her life...
The tearing pain in his chest returned, and his heart finally belatedly understood his despair.
He's always a step too late...
That one step too late in Pinghai County that year caused them to miss each other for seven years, and now he's too late again...
When he lost his memory, he removed the tracking mark from her body. In the vastness of the world, he couldn't find her. He then personally placed the exile mark on her, taking her to a place he could never find again.
He hasn't personally said "I'm sorry" to her yet.
A strong feeling of nausea surged up, and Li Mengbai couldn't stop vomiting, but he was an immortal who had long since abstained from grains, so he couldn't vomit anything.
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Author's Note: I've finally gotten to this point, but there's one scene I've been wanting to write about, but I don't have time to do it today—I'm too slow! [crying emoji]
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