Chapter 209 Return "Promise me you'll come back for me."...
It turns out that Qingping had already returned to the Sea Kingdom, together with Bai Zhen and Qiandeng. He had an inside man in the Sea Kingdom who could take care of these people. Before the tribulation of lightning, Jia Yue had arranged for the merfolk of Xihua Palace to evacuate.
He knew perfectly well what the consequences of attracting lightning tribulation would be.
Jiang Yuhuo's body was still a little sore, and as he leaned against Jia Yue's chest and listened to him talk about his arrangements for Qingping and the others, his heart also felt a little sore.
He had arranged a way out for everyone, but he himself walked into a dead end.
Fortunately, she rescued him and returned to the Sea Kingdom. He then contacted those hidden forces through Qingping.
She gripped Jia Yue's collar, bit his neck, leaving two rows of shallow teeth marks, and said fiercely with furrowed brows, "Don't do this again! I don't want anything you get by risking your life for."
She couldn't bring herself to use a strong kiss, but such force only left a tingling sensation on the merman's neck, easily rekindling the desire that had just subsided. Jia Yue leaned down and kissed him deeply, pressing him down into the pile of clothes.
Seeing that the body pressing down on her was starting to harden again, Jiang Yuhuo, who was originally a little dizzy from the kiss, suddenly woke up and quickly pushed the person off her.
"This can't go on any longer!"
The sun and moon are invisible at the bottom of the sea, but she could still sense that this affair had been going on for a long time. Now that it was finally over, she absolutely couldn't risk getting herself into a mess with him again, or it would just drag on endlessly.
"Let me hold you a little longer..."
Jia Yue pressed her cheek against the top of her head, pulling her into her arms. Jiang Yuhuo didn't respond, only sighing inwardly, "So clingy."
Quite some time passed before Jia Yue released her and helped her put her clothes back on. At this moment, he reverted to his aloof and detached demeanor, almost making one forget his past obsessive and infatuated nature.
Jiang Yuhuo leaned against his chest and said, "Jiayue, I'm leaving."
His hand, which was adjusting her clothes, paused, and then he actually stripped off half of her clothes.
Jiang Yuhuo looked at him in disbelief, thinking he was about to start again, and immediately flew into a rage, pulling her clothes together and leaving his embrace.
"Gayue!"
The person who had been silent did not press forward, but his gaze lingered on her smooth back, sliding down her spine vertebra by vertebra, and asked, "Do you still carry the spiritual vein with you?"
Jiang Yuhuo suddenly remembered the ice box that her senior brother had given her. If he hadn't mentioned it, she would have almost forgotten about it. But in truth, she had been too busy taking care of herself these past few days to think about anything else.
"Since you're going back to land, reattach the spiritual veins as soon as possible. After all, they're your original spiritual veins, and you'll be much more comfortable using them than with this body. They'll also help regulate the fire element within you."
Jiang Yuhuo realized what he wanted to do; she had misunderstood...
“I’m not by your side and can’t help you activate the Mermaid Pearl in time. With the original body’s spiritual veins still there, the backlash from the fire element won’t be as strong as before… I’ll reattach it for you, otherwise I won’t feel at ease…”
Jiang Yuhuo lay back down on the couch, the spiritual vein floating behind her like a blood vessel. Jia Yue sat beside her and re-embedded the spiritual vein into her body piece by piece. Her cool fingertips landed on the last segment of her coccyx and pressed down hard. The spiritual vein disappeared without a trace, completely merging with her body.
A kiss was left at the end.
Jiang Yuhuo tensed up instantly. Whether it was due to her spiritual veins or something else, she felt a sudden heat rising from her tailbone, but then she heard Jia Yue's calm voice, "It's alright."
Okay, so she can go now.
I can't pinpoint where this feeling of sadness came from.
Jiang Yuhuo straightened her clothes and got off the bed. Just as her toes were about to touch the ground, the person behind her suddenly wrapped their arms around her waist.
“When I was taking the spiritual vein, I destroyed Li Tinghe’s physical body.” Jia Yue’s embrace was not tight, but she held him loosely in her arms, her face pressed against the back of his neck, as if she wanted to smell his scent again. “He lost his original body and two of his souls were burned by you. After the soul was split, only one soul was left. Even if you didn’t kill him, he would still die.”
Jiang Yuhuo was surprised, as this was something she had originally planned to do after returning to the mainland.
She suddenly realized why Tian Que had treated him that way; such an action was tantamount to openly breaking ties with Tian Que.
This was her revenge; it had nothing to do with him.
Jiang Yuhuo placed her hand on the hands that were restraining her waist. The merman's hands had lost their webbing, appearing long, slender, and well-proportioned with distinct knuckles, indistinguishable from human hands. Only when touching them could one realize that this softness belonged only to mermen. He had used these hands to promise her, to heal her... and now he was using these hands to keep her.
He was right. When the body dies, the soul is gone. The body is the support of the soul. Just like her now, after her original body was destroyed, she could only rely on this body to survive. But at least her soul is complete. Li Tinghe, or rather Jia Qianyang, has lost two of his three souls. He died with his soul incomplete. No matter how powerful he is, he cannot escape the fate of his soul being gone.
Jiang Yuhuo still pried open those slender, soft hands, and shook her head.
"...I still can't rest easy. He's cunning and unpredictable; I don't know what he might do next."
She wouldn't have been truly at ease until she witnessed Jia Qianyang's death with her own eyes. And what about the "Four Seals of Binding the Earth" he mentioned? Was it something he made up under duress, or was it actually true?
She had no idea.
Unfortunately, the spirit-summoning tree is now destroyed, and she has no better way to track down Jia Qianyang.
"You know he's cunning and treacherous, so why don't you consider that he might use his tricks on you too? If you..."
Even though Jia Qianyang, now a remnant soul, is no longer her opponent, Jia Yue does not want her to suffer any more harm.
Jiang Yuhu remained silent for a long time. She knew that Jia Yue was worried, but she didn't really care what would happen to her. As long as Jia Qianyang died, that was enough. Anyway, she was going to die anyway.
Seeing that she didn't answer, Jia Yue softened her tone and continued to ask, "Have you ever thought about what you will do after you get your revenge, and what kind of life you will live in the future?"
Suddenly jolted, Jiang Yuhuo looked up and met Jia Yue's calm gaze.
This problem stumped her. Ever since that night in Liyue Village, her life had been consumed by revenge. She had never thought about what would happen after revenge, and her current situation left her no choice but to consider it. If her resolve to take revenge wavered even slightly, she would surely fail.
Jiang Yuhu shook her head honestly, her eyes brightening for a moment before dimming again. "There's no need to think about it. I don't know if such a day will ever come."
If you don't think about it, you won't develop any attachment.
But some people insisted on questioning her heart.
What if you had it?
Jia Yue cupped her face in her hands, "Can... you include me in your future?"
Jiang Yuhu looked into his eyes, her reflection locked in the deep blue sea.
"Jiang Yuhuo, for my sake, for our future... you must protect yourself."
"Promise me you'll come back to me."
*
Shannan County.
Jiang Yuhuo had seen the corpses lying all over the city's roads while she was in the air, but only when she landed did she realize how shocking the scene was.
The city was in ruins, burned and collapsed. The roads were empty, and there was no sign of people. Only corpses and stray dogs filled this once prosperous city.
How could it have turned out like this...?
Oh no! The Golden Bough!
Jiang Yuhuo stood before the ruins, almost unrecognizable; there was no trace of its former prosperity. She discovered that several people were hiding in the cellar beneath the ruins. When she pried open the hidden cellar door, a woman wielding a kitchen knife rushed out and attacked her without warning.
His sideburns were disheveled, his expression was fierce, and he would kill anyone he saw.
Jiang Yuhu dodged aside, and in her haste, she said, "Jinzhi, it's me."
The fierce woman suddenly seemed frozen in place, the kitchen knife in her hand fell to the ground, and large tears rolled down her cheeks.
"benefactor……"
"What exactly happened here, Golden Bough?"
Jinzhi suddenly realized, "Benefactor, quickly hide! We must not let them find us."
As she spoke, she immediately pushed Jiang Yuhuo into the cellar, carefully looked around to make sure no one was there, and then cautiously locked the door tightly before recounting what had happened in the past few days.
It turns out that the Yong army has returned. This time, not only is the army even larger, but each of them is also equipped with a very powerful weapon.
A weapon capable of slaying immortals.
"...His Majesty has gone mad." Jinzhi's pale, dry lips trembled as she murmured, "He said he wanted to kill all the immortals in the world, and the soldiers all obeyed him... But immortals are actually just human beings, and they can't tell the difference... Shannan City was occupied before, so they think everyone in the city is an immortal, and they kill anyone they see..."
Tears streamed down her face as she spoke, “So many people died… They wanted military merit, but we were just ordinary people…”
Jiang Yuhuo was shocked, her temples throbbing. She had long known that Qin Yuqi despised cultivators and had always promoted a policy of suppressing gods and immortals, but she never expected that Qin Yuqi would one day be so bold as to actually take action against cultivators.
What gave him the courage to go against the immortal sects?
But now, compared to the immortals, the mortals who are mistaken for cultivators are clearly in a worse situation. Perhaps Qin Yuqi only wanted to kill the immortals, but once the order was issued, it was no longer his own will, but would be distorted and deformed in each layer of transmission.
Who are immortals? Who determines whether someone is an immortal or a mortal? Killing an immortal will bring military merit rewards, but what if you kill the wrong one...?
Once an order is issued, the line between killing immortals and killing humans will soon be blurred.
This insane massacre cannot be allowed to continue.
Jinzhi quickly grabbed Jiang Yuhuo, who was about to leave.
"...Don't go out, they'll kill you too. I saw those immortals die under their blades, unable to cast any spells...Hide, hide with us, and everything will be alright..."
Jiang Yuhuo looked into the cellar. The dark and cramped space was filled with men, women, children, and the elderly. They were all Jinzhi's relatives and employees, and there was even an infant in swaddling clothes, her child who had just been born.
They shouldn't be living in this kind of world.
Before leaving, Jiang Yuhuo cast a barrier over the cellar, completely concealing its entrance. No one, including cultivators, could find it; only those inside could exit. They could safely wait there until the city was truly at peace.
The Great Zhou army camp was still outside Shannan City.
Jiang Yuhuo walked all the way out of the city, but unfortunately she did not encounter Yong Jun as she wished.
Seeing the familiar camp, Jiang Yuhuo thought that if she hadn't heard the whole story from Jinzhi, she would almost have thought that she hadn't walked for long, so that Zhou Jun was still standing in the same place.
There is no day or night at the bottom of the sea, but in fact, nearly a month has passed since she left. After she left, Zhou Jun fought all the way to Mingzhou, but was later defeated by Yong Jun and retreated back to Shannan County.
The guards outside the camp gate were not strict, and the soldiers guarding the camp were visibly exhausted. They only stopped the black figure with halberds when it approached.
"Halt! Who are you?"
The newcomer lowered his hood.
The soldiers guarding the camp instantly brightened up, as if they had seen a savior, and excitedly shouted messages inside.
"Your Highness! It's Your Highness who has returned!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
