Chapter 116 A Bond Forged in Life and Death
The world that had been spinning in my vision returned to normal, and the cracked stone walls filled my view, but there was no familiar warmth beside me.
The fluffy texture was replaced by a splash of warm liquid.
The sudden turn of events left Xie Baoqiong momentarily stunned.
He was stuck at the edge of the cave. Qi Gui had untied a knot in the jade pendant tied to his body with a thin rope, and half of the round jade dangled out of the cave entrance, swaying precariously. Small pebbles from the edge of the cave entrance kept rolling down from the cracks, hitting the jade pendant, and the crisp sound floated in Xie Baoqiong's ears. His gaze numbly followed the falling pebbles and caught sight of that little white shadow falling.
The shout was suppressed in his throat, but his body moved first.
The ground was covered with half-demons emerging from their cocoons, their skin still damp with slime. Their crazed eyes were fixed on the food falling from the sky. The falling blood made them even more chaotic. They were just waiting for the birds to land so they could swarm and devour them.
The monster was released, and the previous concerns disappeared. Xie Baoqiong released her spiritual power to catch the falling white bird before they could react.
Among them, the winged monsters instinctively spread their wings, shook off the remaining slime above, and leaped up, attempting to snatch back their food.
The spiritual energy sphere enveloping Xueyan narrowly avoided the attack. Xie Baoqiong's movements suddenly froze, and a sense of crisis arose spontaneously. He separated a wisp of his divine sense and probed backward. Clusters of shimmering light lit up the dark tunnel, like ghostly butterflies that had filled the narrow space at some unknown time.
Upon being discovered, the seemingly fragile creatures surged towards him like a tidal wave. Their delicate tentacles landed on his body, and the scales falling from their magnificent wings, along with the resulting gusts of wind, surrounded him. The spiritual energy they emitted seemed to be out of control, and the protection they had placed on him was easily pierced by the butterfly's sharp proboscis.
Xueyan, also enveloped by his spiritual power, plummeted once more. Her white shadow stood out starkly amidst the chaotic dance of demons below. The monsters that had been surrounding her bared their fangs and swarmed over her, their dark mass almost instantly engulfing the white figure.
His vision was obscured by the dense wings of butterflies, but he could clearly sense the thing enveloped by his spiritual power leaving him. The flapping of the overlapping butterfly wings slowed down, and he heard a sound like something shattering in his mind.
A swarm of glowing butterflies, carried by a blue stone, burst out of the cave. A powerful spiritual force emanated from him, scattering the colorful butterflies and instantly turning them to dust, revealing a young man wielding a long sword.
The boy stood against the wind, his figure slender, his black hair flowing freely behind his head and swaying in the breeze. Only the whites of his eyes were visible, and the red mole between his eyebrows gleamed with an eerie light. The long sword that originally seemed comical in his hand due to its length now appeared quite fitting.
His figure vanished from his spot in the next second, landing above the dark mass of half-demons. He slashed horizontally with his longsword, and the moment the violent spiritual energy arrived, the demons scattered.
Confused and disoriented, Xie Baoqiong fell to the ground amidst the severed limbs and broken arms, finding a patch of white amidst the dark red blood.
He instinctively moved closer, slowly raising his hand, the sharp tip of his knife pointing at the only living creature in the small patch of land.
The tip of the knife vanished abruptly when it touched the blood-stained white wings. He crouched down, picked up the fledgling bird that looked like a fallen leaf, and poured spiritual energy into its body as if it were their first meeting.
But,
It's useless.
The glaring color continued to drip from my hands.
How could a little bird have so much blood?
The sticky texture made him feel uncomfortable; his hands and heart felt stuck together. The blood in his heart couldn't flow, it was stagnant, and eventually a heat rose up and reached his eyes.
But nothing was left behind.
Stones don't shed tears.
Spiritual energy flowed continuously into the fledgling bird lying in the palm of my hand, and the white snow goose stirred:
"Chirp".
A very weak bird cry escaped from his beak.
Qi Gui lifted his eyelids, revealing round, black eyes, which were then obscured by tears: "Ah Qiong, I think I can see what you look like when you grow up..."
Her still hazy consciousness gradually returned to her with the familiar voice. Pupils slowly appeared in Xie Baoqiong's eyes, and her figure gradually shrank back to its original size.
He reached out and wiped away the water droplets that had rolled into the bird's feathers from its eyes, his voice hoarse: "Qi Gui, don't cry, or all I'll remember is the way you cry."
The fledgling in his palm twitched, the tears in its eyes hadn't completely dissipated, and its pupils were gradually dilating. It let out a few short chirps. Qi Gui, who always suppressed his emotions and expressed them with silence, suddenly expressed his feelings without restraint, and tears fell one after another:
"Ah-Qiong, it hurts so much...it hurts so much, I want to see my mother so much..."
Xie Baoqiong was not unaware of death; he had witnessed the deaths of many people, including his mother and himself. But at that time, he was not yet conscious, and death was something as foreign to him as life itself.
After descending the mountain, I witnessed the departure of Amei and "Wenmao".
But they were all different from the little bird in his palm; they wouldn't cry out in pain to him, nor would they say that there were still people they wanted to see but hadn't met yet.
Death, whether light or heavy, he used to think that death should be like a light feather. As a stone demon, he had a long lifespan and could advance to the next stage before death, thus having an even longer lifespan. Even if he were to face death, it would be like falling into eternal sleep.
Now that this feather has landed on him, he realizes its weight is unbearable. Death is not a warm eternal sleep, but a curse that brings pain, agony, tears, and a heavy heart.
He stood up, holding the little bird that was going to another world, and faced the man who had appeared in front of him at some point.
Lin An was observing the boy's expression with great interest, a slight smile playing on his lips as he casually remarked, "How pitiful." He reached out his hand to the boy before him, enticingly asking, "How about it? Want to try the resurrection technique on him?"
To seek advice from the person in front of you is like asking a tiger for its skin.
He raised his eyes, looking directly into those eyes filled with ambition. The long sword reappeared in his hand, and he swiftly charged towards the young man who was just a step away.
The young man's figure circled behind him in the blink of an eye, and the annoying butterflies surrounded him again.
With her reason restored and her spiritual power calmed down, Xie Baoqiong could no longer easily wipe out the swarms of insects around her. So she simply gave up on the insects, cleaved an opening, and swung her long sword at Lin An, who was not far away.
The young man had just made a move when Lin An feinted and leaped toward the exit. Although he wanted to kill the young man right now, the difference in strength between him and Lin An was too great. Rather than fighting alone now, he should plan ahead and at least avoid fighting on Lin An's turf.
The butterflies followed him like shadows. He casually took out the dragon scales he had been given from his sleeve, preventing the butterflies from getting close. He then released his divine sense to explore the way and headed out of the mountain.
A powerful surge of spiritual energy rushed towards him, engulfing him like a vast ocean, and he was swept up by the wave of spiritual energy and brought to the young man's side.
Cool fingers gripped his neck and lifted him off the ground.
The spiritual energy of the longsword and dragon scales had long since separated from the boy. Lin An glanced down at the dark blue scales at his feet, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes: "You're quite likable."
He then ignored it and stepped over it, dragging the struggling boy forward.
Xie Baoqiong was once again pressed onto the familiar stone platform, but this time, his limbs were restrained, and he could not even transform back into his original form.
A shadow suddenly fell from above, followed by a cool but soft touch on his face. The young man pressed his hand firmly against his cheek, moving it down to near his eyes.
"I really want to gouge out your eyes and put them on Shuangmu's body."
The young man's fingers brushed across his eye sockets, his fingertips gently caressing the area below his pupils.
Xie Baoqiong tried to turn his head, but was held firmly in place and unable to move. He and Shuangmu were the same person. The madman's thoughts were indeed hard to understand.
"I've heard that a part of a person's soul remains in their eyes. So, let's leave your eyes and merge them with Shuangmu's body. You're too much of a troublemaker than Shuangmu."
The fact that Lin An uttered such a cruel act as gouging out eyes seemed to carry a hint of indulgence.
Looking at the distorted figure before her, Xie Baoqiong thought of Xie Zhuo, who was still with Shuangmu, and couldn't help but worry: "Why did you send Shuangmu to the capital?" His tone softened a little: "I'm about to die, I should at least be able to die knowing why."
The hand gently stroked his cheek, and the young man's tone remained affectionate: "You won't die, only Xie Baoqiong will."
The pleasant voice was like a venomous snake's tongue. The young man patted his cheek, which showed a change in expression: "Worried? Although my original intention was for Shuangmu to get rid of Xie Zhuo, children are always a bit uncontrollable. However, he still managed to get you out of the Marquis's mansion, which is not bad."
Lin An looked directly at the boy's identical face and said words of praise, but then the admiration in his eyes was overshadowed by indifference, and he raised his hand to cover the boy's entire face.
The spiritual power in his hand was precisely controlled, drilling into the boy's sea of consciousness and stirring up past memories.
Pain, intense pain instantly overwhelmed Xie Baoqiong's entire consciousness. His tense body trembled slightly, and his consciousness became hazy for a moment. It was as if someone had forcibly invaded his sea of consciousness, as if a hole had been torn in his soul. Every time his spiritual power stirred the memories inside, it was like churning the contents of his soul through the hole, until his soul was completely shattered.
It felt as if her internal organs were being violently churned and twisted, the pain never ceasing. Even though only a moment had passed, Xie Baoqiong's body had already arched over.
Just as his soul was about to crack under the youth's stirring, a feather radiating brilliant light suddenly appeared in his blurred vision. When the light fell on him, the pain that felt like maggots clinging to his bones vanished instantly.
The flames then leaped from the feathers and spread like wildfire, filling the cave with flames. Some of these flames surrounded him, separating him from Lin An.
The restraints on his body were also burned away by the flames, and he regained his freedom.
The young man used his spiritual power to block the flames, and then reached out to grab him, but the flames penetrated the spiritual power and left a burn mark on the young man's hand.
Flames surrounded Xie Baoqiong, the scorching heat gradually turning into warm flames that seeped into the boy's clothes. A few clusters of flames carried the dissipating Xueyan back to him.
Xie Baoqiong reached out to stop him, but a cluster of flames gently scorched his hand, like a gentle but not harsh reprimand from an elder.
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