Chapter 54 Past Events (Part Two) Master, I love you. ...
"Run!"
"He's gone mad! Stay away from him! Don't get infected!"
"Wenren Ming, what are you still standing there for?!"
"My uncle and younger brother haven't come back yet!"
"Wang Han, where are you going?!"
Amidst the chaos in the village, Cen Luan grabbed Wang Han, who was running towards danger, and dragged her to the back of his yard by her collar.
"Wake up! He's possessed by a demon, he doesn't recognize you!" Cen Luan slapped her hand, seemingly trying to awaken her with pain.
Wang Han seemed not to understand her words, and kept struggling, knocking over all the bottles and jars around him with great force.
She kept repeating, "My son... speaks nonsense..."
Cen Luan glanced back at the raging purple flames. Helpless, she could only turn Wang Han's face and make her look at her.
Cen Luan: "I'll go get him. You go with Xiao Yuan and leave, understand?"
"That's my son!" Wang Han suddenly roared, "I'm going to find him!"
"Shut up!" Cen Luan slapped her. She was breathing heavily and said in a trembling voice, "If this continues, everyone will die. I am the clan leader, you must listen to me!"
Wang Han was stunned by the slap. She stopped moving and nodded blankly.
While she was stunned, Cen Luan knocked her unconscious.
"Fei Quan, take her and your daughter away." Cen Luan picked up Wang Han and walked towards her husband, who was holding Xiao Yuan's hand.
Fei Quan shook his head: "Wife, I have learned some magic, which can be of help."
"Your amateurish skills are only making things worse for me?" Cen Luan said impatiently, somewhat annoyed. "Get lost. No one will hit you anymore. Go as far away as you can."
Fei Quan remained unmoved.
Xiao Yuan's gaze darted between the two sides. She knew that the demonic possession of the Huisheng Clan would cause a resonance in the bloodline of the clan members, and Cen Luan, as the clan leader, had obviously been greatly affected.
Her face was pale, large drops of sweat fell from her eyes, and even her once clear pupils had become cloudy.
"Mother, me too..."
brush!
A sharp sword flew by, followed by the sound of fabric being torn. Xiao Yuan had just opened her mouth when she was splattered with bright red blood.
She heard the sound of blood flowing in her ears, and before she could react, Cen Luan pulled her and covered her eyes.
She heard her mother softly call, "...Fei Quan?"
The only response she received was the "thud" of a heavy object falling to the ground.
Xiao Yuan stared blankly into the distance, peeking through her small fingers at her father, who was lying face down on the ground.
Before the sorrow could catch up with her, another sword flew from the front, but Cen Luan caught it and crushed it in her palm.
“…Brother Ming…” Xiao Yuan called out subconsciously.
The man wielding the sword in front of them was none other than Wenren Ming.
He was no longer the gentle and refined scholar he once was; his eyes burned with a fierce purple fire, and he was clutching an arm in his drooping hand.
“He is not your brother Ming.” Cen Luan said coldly, raising her hand to flick a thin whip. After Wenren Ming was bound by bamboo and unable to move, she took Wang Han and Xiao Yuan and leaped up to the hillside.
Qingxing looked at her mother's face so close to hers, her hands trembling as she tried to touch her, but could only watch helplessly as her translucent fingertips passed through her body.
Watching all this from behind, Jiu Quchen felt as if his heart was being torn apart, and he wished he could slap himself.
Is this what Qingxing's past was like?
It turns out she once had a happy and warm home, and relatives who cared about her, but he had never cared about her before.
The Red-Haired Demon Clan is all nonsense!
They were all forced into this situation!
"Xiao Yuan, you go first." Cen Luan supported Xiao Yuan's trembling shoulders, her eyes overflowing with sorrow and reluctance. She choked out, "Mother will go save the villagers first."
With tears welling up in her eyes, Xiao Yuan shook her head repeatedly, "I won't leave, Mother, I want to stay with you, I want to stay with Father..."
Cen Luan lowered her head and swallowed her tears, then looked up at her and gently wiped the dirt off her daughter's face: "Be good, your mother won't die."
Xiao Yuan was long past the age of blindly believing adults. As if sensing the impending death of Cen Luan, she burst into tears, screaming almost hoarsely, "I don't want to! Mother! I won't..."
Thump!
Xiao Yuan's cries suddenly stopped. Cen Luan stopped the spell in his hand, muttered incantations, and drew a mark on Xiao Yuan's forehead.
As the marks gradually became clearer, Xiao Yuan's hair turned from red to black, and her facial features also changed. Although she couldn't see them, Qing Xing guessed that her eyes had also returned to a normal appearance.
"Little Kite..." After the spell was cast, Little Kite slumped against Cen Luan's shoulder with her head down. The latter patted her back and murmured softly, "Mother has placed a seal on you, so you will no longer have this memory..."
"It will prevent you from cultivating. I only hope that you stay away from the path of immortality and live a good life..."
Despite feeling a thousand regrets, Cen Luan still raised his hand to draw a magic circle and placed Xiao Yuan flat on it.
The teleportation array activated, and Xiao Yuan's surroundings lit up. Cen Luan didn't turn her head and resolutely walked towards the village covered by fire.
The fire destroyed their small home and spread all the way to this side of the hillside. Qingxing's ears were filled with people's screams and monsters' roars. She thought it was really strange. She was clearly invisible here, so why was her face still burning from the scorching heat?
As Xiao Yuan's last trace of her figure disappeared, the heavens and earth trembled, and the surrounding scenery suddenly began to distort, transforming into something like a colorful painting.
The painted image, as if weathered by millions of years of wind and frost, was blown away by the cold wind of Tianchi Lake. Qingxing stared intently at the frozen figure in the distance, determined to imprint her image in her mind.
In an instant, the world spun around, and Jiu Quchen only had time to grab Qingxing's hand before the two of them fell into nothingness once again.
Before everything disappeared, Qingxing saw Wenren Xi kneeling in the peach grove behind the hillside.
He cried out and tried to move forward, but was blocked by someone.
It was a familiar face, but it looked slightly immature compared to the one Qingxing remembered.
Clang!
Suddenly, a bell rang out from somewhere, first one, then two... The bell tolled louder and louder, until it eventually reached the point where the master and his disciple were "ambushed".
While Jiuquchen and Qingxing were still in a daze, countless fragments of lake ice reflecting five hundred years of history transformed into spiritual power and "swish" into their minds.
Images flashed through Jiu Quchen's eyes, and he was forced to accept everything from his previous lives.
He saw in the main hall that he casually pointed to Qingxing, who was holding a plate, and said he wanted to take her as his apprentice.
On New Year's Eve, he saw that he had made a lot of fragrant plum blossom-shaped steamed buns and lingered around Tingyu Garden for a long time. When he saw that sky lanterns were being released everywhere, he knocked on the door and entered.
He saw red clouds covering the horizon. The sect leader said that the gates of the Demon Realm were about to open and that all the elders were needed to provide reinforcements. The day before he was to set off, he leaped onto a big tree at the entrance of Tingyu Garden and watched Qingxing count ants for an hour.
Qingxing finally noticed him, her gaze falling on the long sword behind him, and asked curiously, "Master, are you going on a long journey?"
Jiu Qu Chen looked at her for a while, then smiled easily and said, "Mm."
Qingxing continued, "When will you return?"
Jiuquchen replied, "It might take a long time."
Qingxing nodded. The two seemed to have nothing more to say. She performed the disciple's salute and slowly walked back to her room.
This was their final conversation. Each lifetime ended with "a very long time."
...
The jumbled memories coalesced into lines, and Jiuquchen sorted them out one by one, only then realizing the origin of the inexplicable soreness in his heart.
If there is no love, how can there be an unconscious "protection"?
"...Qingxing, why didn't you tell me?" He held Qingxing tightly in the darkness, his voice dry and hoarse.
Why not tell him that they've known each other for so long?
"Master, is this how the mortal path is?" Qingxing said softly, tears staining Jiuquchen's clothes. "I used to think that I was all alone and that it was enough to just live. But after meeting you and my fellow disciples, I thought, it's enough to live with you all."
But now that her memories have returned, she looks back at everything that is both strange and familiar, and becomes greedy again.
She wanted her friends to live, she wanted her master to live, and her longing even extended to every blade of grass and every memory in the world.
Wang Yan was driven to madness by her obsession. On the day she received two mental cultivation manuals, she also chose "self-attachment" as if by fate.
Without her unwavering dedication, she wouldn't have been able to protect all of this.
And should we "abandon" it...?
From the moment she reverted to the bloodline of the Resurrected Clan, she knew what she had to give up.
"Master, I love you." Qingxing buried her head on Jiuquchen's shoulder and suddenly smiled. "You must remember me."
Jiu Qu Chen was startled by her words. He didn't notice that in this pitch-black world, Qing Xing quietly reached out and placed an array mark on his back.
"Having survived three lifetimes, it's my turn now." Qingxing slowly raised her head.
Seeing her smiling face, Jiu Quchen suddenly became alert: "What are you going to do?"
He saw Qingxing getting further and further away from him, and when he raised his hand to pull her back, he found himself as if he were nailed to the ground, unable to move at all.
He activated the spiritual net, and wisps of blue spiritual energy overflowed, surrounding him with a mist.
"Let go of me! Qingxing!" Jiuquchen grabbed Qingxing's sleeve, pulling so hard that his knuckles turned white.
Qingxing took one last look at him, then turned and walked toward the only source of light.
"Green Apricot!" Jiu Qu Chen shouted urgently, releasing his spiritual power recklessly, as if trying to drain the spiritual net dry.
"Master, I originally wanted you to hate me, but my selfish desires were too strong. Now I've changed my mind. I just want you to remember me." Qingxing's voice echoed in the darkness as she turned her back to him.
“Green apricot…” Jiu Quchen’s head throbbed with pain. He felt a deep sense of powerlessness, his hands clenched tightly in the air, unable to grasp anything.
A tear slid down his cheek, creating countless bitter ripples. He was bewildered, his gaze burning through the green apricot.
"...Qingxing, have I ever said that I only wish to...be with you in life and death?" He placed his last remaining hope in this final sentence.
"No one will die, Master." Qingxing's voice was not loud, but it was enough to penetrate the dust and flesh of the Nine Realms and reach the heart.
She said, word by word, "Master, no one will die in this life."
Jiu Qu Chen asked blankly, "...And what about you?"
Qingxing didn't speak. A flash of cyan-purple light appeared, and she disappeared into the end of the white light, extinguishing the last glimmer of light in Jiuquchen's eyes.
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