Chapter 52 Death and Annihilation (Part Two) Who dares?
"There's no reason why." Wenren Xi seemed to see through Qingxing's thoughts. He lowered his hand and placed it on the side of Qingxing's neck, gently touching the bulging veins. His words paused with each movement. "I'm just bad. No one in this world deserves to live, including you and me."
Qingxing felt the restless power within her body gradually intensify with Wenren Xi's movements. The ancient, slumbering behemoth heard the murmur of the person before it and forcefully invaded her spiritual network, causing Qingxing to tremble uncontrollably.
With a series of gasps as she choked on her blood, she strained to open her mouth wide and string together the fragmented words into a sentence: "You... Duanmu's... Spirit Network..."
“It was me,” Wenren Xi admitted with a smile. “I crippled him, I created the Purple-Clad Demon, and I killed all the people who have disappeared from the Duanmu family in the past five hundred years.”
Whether it was due to the chaos of the spiritual network or some other reason, Qingxing's shoulder suddenly twitched, and a large amount of blood gushed from her mouth.
"Can't take it already?" Wenren Xi tightened his grip suddenly, and Qingxing was like a chick being pulled by the neck, about to die from his force at any moment.
Wenren Xi showed no caution whatsoever, as if he were looking at a novel toy, enjoying her struggle before death.
“He doesn’t deserve it, Qingxing, he doesn’t deserve it.” He suddenly chuckled, falling into a delirious state. “Remember the Myriad Kill Sword Domain from the inner sect test? Hmm? I said I know someone with even better swordsmanship, that person is my brother.”
His hand tightened suddenly. "My brother is dead, leaving nothing but a sword. What right does his brother have to live?"
Qingxing's face turned red from difficulty breathing. Just as she was about to suffocate, the grip on her neck suddenly disappeared—Wenren Xi let go.
She coughed violently, and a horrifying amount of blood stained her clothes, as if she were coughing up her internal organs.
Wenren Xi looked at her excitedly: "The blood of the Huisheng Clan... The reunion is over, Qingxing, the Snow Mountain restriction has been lifted, and everyone is rushing this way."
He tossed the silk thread in his hand, which taut the instant it touched Qingxing's body, piercing her skin like a needle. Qingxing groaned, feeling the thread passing through her spiritual network, forcibly connecting the fragments together.
The pain was no less than having her bones pulled out of the ground. Qingxing's consciousness sank into chaos. She remembered what Wenren Xi had reminded her before she entered the snow mountain, and she grasped at a glimmer of light in the darkness.
Red hair and golden eyes...
Wenren Xi wanted to turn her into a demon.
The moment this terrible thought arose, Qingxing, with strength she didn't know she possessed, reached out towards the broken Spirit Locking Pearl, trying to summon it back.
But just as the fragment began to emit a faint blue light, Wenren Xi walked over and crushed it with one foot.
“Don’t bother,” he said. “This is your fate, and our fate.”
destiny?
Qingxing's outstretched hand went limp on the ground. She thought blankly, "What is fate?"
Was her rebirth fate?
Is it fate that I've fallen into demonic possession through reckless talk?
Is it fate that everyone loses their lives in the trial?
Can all of this, the confusion and suffering they were forced to endure, be categorized as "fate"?
"No," Qingxing murmured softly, digging her fingers into the snow and drawing a long line.
The spiritual network was in turmoil, and all the forces were out of control. Qingxing melted away her divine consciousness, causing it to fall straight into the spiritual network to fight against the threads implanted by Wenrenxi.
"Don't bother," Wenren Xi said patiently, sensing the obstacle. "It's no use."
Qingxing braced herself with her hands and struggled to lift her upper body. Golden light appeared in her eyes, and the strands of hair that fell over her shoulders gradually turned dark red.
She stared intently at Wenren Xi with bloodshot eyes and said mockingly, "Useless? Are you referring to fate, or to you?"
Wenren Xi seemed not to have expected that she could get up, or that she had not expected that she could refute her like this. In any case, she didn't react for a moment and stood there blankly.
Qingxing no longer suppressed the power that had previously hindered her cultivation and was now restless and fiery. She let it follow her divine sense to entwine the connecting threads, let it break in from the Baihui meridian, forcefully break through the five middle meridians, and finally emerge from Fenglong with golden and red intertwined spiritual power.
The meridians reversed their flow and broke through the ancient seal, and a black sprout quietly emerged beside the wood spirit root below the heart.
It grows extremely fast, becoming larger than a wood spirit root in an instant, and so black it seems capable of devouring everything.
The iris in Qingxing's eyes was completely replaced by flowing golden light, and her red hair flowed behind her, more dazzling than lava.
“What fate?” she said. “If you can’t change the past that’s already set in stone, then destroy everything in the present and let fate bear the blame.”
Qingxing raised her eyes, and the golden light pierced right through Wenren Xi:
"Senior brother, you're nothing but a coward."
Click—
She snapped her fingers, and the silk threads connecting her body instantly turned into dust, scattering across the snow.
At the same time, the sleeping monsters in the distance were lifted up by some invisible hand. Qingxing slightly raised her chin, and they exploded one after another like wine jars that could no longer tolerate the fermenting gas, with purple-red blood splattering all over the sky.
Wenren Xi stood motionless, waiting for Qingxing to walk towards him.
“I don’t believe in fate, Senior Brother.” Qingxing didn’t move, but tilted her head slightly to look at him from afar. “You want them to think I’m a demon? I’ll grant your wish.”
Click!
Before Qingxing could even lift a finger, countless dark purple thorns sprouted from Wenren Xi's feet, coiling around his legs like venomous snakes. The thorny vines secreted bubbling sap, devouring his flesh and leaving only bare bones.
They surrounded Wenren Xi like ants, only pausing briefly when they touched the willow bracelet on her wrist before destroying it even more frantically.
Before long, Wenren Xi was only left with his shoulders and above. He seemed to feel no pain and burst into laughter.
"You think they'll let you live?!"
"They're nothing but a bunch of blind scum!"
Qingxing raised her hand expressionlessly, and a thorn pierced Wenren Xi's mouth, silencing his unspoken words.
The living people were nowhere to be found; in their place were human-shaped thickets of thorns, still covered with bits of flesh and blood-stained rags.
Qingxing was in a daze for a long time. The snow had fallen heavily at some point, burying the fallen fellow disciples and the remains of demons, but deliberately avoiding that thicket of thorns, letting it grow and spread on its own in the cold wind.
"Red, the Red-haired Clan!"
Footsteps and the sound of swords being drawn came from behind her. Qingxing slowly turned around, her gaze blank.
"Where are the others?!"
"Elder! This is Xiao Liu's sword!"
"They're here! They're all dead!"
A cacophony of shock, anger, and sorrow surged forth, engulfing Qingxing. Caught in the vortex, she silently surveyed the crowd, who both wished they could tear her to pieces and yet feared her, finally fixing her gaze on the man in yellow at the forefront.
Jiu Quchen looked at her, his eyes filled with confusion.
“Disciple…” he called softly.
"She's not your disciple, she's a demon!" Ji Kun pulled him behind him, pointing his sword at Qingxing. "You audacious Crimson-Haired Clan member, harming my immortal sect's disciples! Today I am here, and I will surely bring you to your end!"
Qingxing said calmly, "You?"
Her tone was completely calm, as if everything that was happening here had nothing to do with her.
"It's us!" Ji Kun shouted.
Splash!
Everyone was encouraged by the shout, and countless swords flew into the air, pointing directly at Qingxing, as if they wanted to pierce her with holes.
Qingxing chuckled and took a step forward. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly froze.
Ahead, a yellow-clad figure fluttered in the wind, and the long hair that reached her waist caught countless snowflakes. The blue lotus hairpin at the top was spotless and securely inserted into her hair.
Jiuquchen blocked her way.
“My disciple is definitely not a demon,” Qingxing heard him say. “Anyone who wants to hurt her will have to kill me first.”
"Nine Dusts!" Ji Kun still didn't put down his sword. Veins bulged on his forehead, but he still patiently said, "Come back! Demons don't care about master-disciple relationships!"
The yellow figure seemed to have its feet firmly planted on the ground, remaining unmoved.
Ji Kun was furious: "Look at all these severed limbs! Some of them are even from your Taihua Mountain disciples!"
“She didn’t do it,” Jiu Qu Chen said firmly.
After a long standoff, Qingxing finally broke the silence.
She seemed to find it somewhat amusing, saying, "I was the one who killed him."
The five words floated lightly into everyone's ears, then struck Jiu Quchen's heart with a thud.
He turned around, wanting to pull Qingxing closer, muttering, "I know, my disciple, I know you wouldn't do this..."
Who do you think you are?!
With a wave of her hand, Qingxing pulled Jiuquchen with a powerful force and slammed him into her arms.
Qingxing gripped his neck with one hand, and even though her heart was breaking, she still slowly spoke: "Do you really know me?!"
The dust settled over Jiuqu.
Memories of taking Qingxing as his apprentice flashed through his mind one by one. He wanted to find out the secrets known only to the two of them to prove the closeness of their master-apprentice relationship.
But no matter how hard he searched, all he could see were the magical treasures he had used to stuff into Qingxing's yard without regard for her preferences, her wandering alone in various parts of Taihua Mountain, and her talking to the fruit trees out of boredom.
He didn't even know where the green apricots came from.
"I..." Jiu Quchen's heart was filled with soreness and he couldn't speak.
Qingxing ignored him and calmly looked at the crowd: "Take one step forward, and I will kill him."
“He is your master!” Xuan Ying shouted.
Qingxing pointed to the thicket of thorns behind her: "He is my fellow disciple."
"This is outrageous!" Ji Kun gasped for breath, but he couldn't figure out how to rescue Jiu Qu Chen from the Crimson-Haired Demon. He could only stand there angrily with Qing Xing.
Just then, another rumble of thunder sounded in the sky. Qingxing looked up and saw that the red clouds seemed to be brewing something, swirling around for a long time.
Bang!
A bolt of lightning struck without warning. In the nick of time, Qingxing only had time to push Jiuquchen away before she herself was struck squarely.
At the same time, the elders seized the opportunity to form a sword formation, completely surrounding her.
All around were powerful cultivators poised to unleash their power, and above them raged with the fury of the heavens. Qingxing swallowed the pain caused by the lightning, straightened her clothes to cover her dark wound, and with her five fingers together, she slammed her palm down towards the Heavenly Pool below.
"You're still forcing me," she said.
Click!
She shattered the hundred-foot-long ice block, and the Heavenly Pool began to sink around Qingxing. Before the elders could react, it was as if someone was pulling them from the ground, and the entire block of ice, along with Qingxing, fell down together.
Because of the rapid descent, the wind howled in Qingxing's ears. She let herself remain in the previous position and closed her eyes wearily.
No one expected that there was another space beneath Tianchi Lake.
Just like how no one expected Jiuquchen to jump down as well.
The lake was extremely cold, and Qingxing almost thought she was going to freeze to death, but suddenly she was embraced in someone's arms.
It was as warm as the embrace of her mother in her sealed-away memories.
“…Master?” Qingxing slowly opened her eyes and saw Jiuquchen’s face in the fragments of the Heavenly Pool in front of her.
“It’s me,” Jiu Qu Chen said gently. “Don’t be afraid.”
Swish!
They were about to fall to their end when, in an instant, the world changed. The surrounding fragments no longer reflected their images, but instead presented a scene that was both familiar and strange—Qingxing and Jiuquchen fell into the Mirror of Past Lives together.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
