Chapter 78 Youthful Spring Robes (Twenty-Four)
But before Jiang Gu could make a move, Qu Fengyu and Wu Hezhi finally caught up.
"Wei Feng!" Qu Fengyu saw Wei Feng kneeling on the ground, covered in dust and dirt, with Jiang Gu's Crimson Snow Sword still pointing at him. He was so frightened that he immediately rushed forward to shield Wei Feng, pulled him up from the ground, and looked him over anxiously. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
Wei Feng was somewhat at a loss, glanced guiltily at Jiang Gu, and shook his head.
"How can you possibly undergo tribulation alone! Without anyone protecting you, a single bolt of heavenly lightning could kill you before you could even save yourself!" Qu Fengyu smacked him on the back of the head in annoyance. "Do you know how worried we were?"
Wei Feng scratched the back of his head and grinned foolishly at her, "Auntie, I'm fine."
Qu Fengyu stared at him blankly, "What did you call me?"
“Auntie,” Wei Feng said with a grin, “I remembered you when I was undergoing my tribulation. I saw you when I was just born.”
That must have been when he was very, very young. A woman carried him as they fled. At first, he thought it was Qu Qing, but when he saw Qu Fengyu, he realized it was Qu Fengyu.
"You can still remember things from when you were born while you were undergoing tribulation?" Qu Fengyu asked in surprise.
Wei Feng nodded. "I still understand."
Wu Hezhi, who was resting by the side, couldn't help but look at Jiang Gu when he heard this.
Jiang Gu had already changed his clothes. He glanced down at the high-grade spirit pet pouch he had prepared for Chi Xue at his waist, remained silent for a moment, and then put it away.
"...It seemed like we were running for our lives back then, with tribulation lightning coming from all directions. I felt terrible." Wei Feng frowned, carefully recalling the scene that came to mind during his tribulation. "Later, I also saw Sect Master Wu and Qi Fengyuan. You two were arguing. I wanted you to hug me, but the arm I reached out was covered in ghost markings... Auntie, you actually knew what I was all along, didn't you?"
Qu Fengyu and Wu Hezhi both fell silent.
Seeing that they were silent, Wei Feng looked helplessly at Jiang Gu, like a young beast with nowhere to go. Unfortunately, Jiang Gu did not spare him any attention.
Wei Feng's heart sank. He knew his master disliked him. He smiled at Qu Fengyu and called out affectionately, "Auntie, I—"
"You've both seen Wei Feng's true form. Now that things have come to this, is there any need for you two to hide anything?" Jiang Gu's cold voice interrupted his eager yet humble attempt to curry favor, carrying a hint of murderous intent as he said, "Sect Master Wu wasn't going to live long anyway, so why don't I search his soul to take a look?"
"No!" Qu Fengyu looked at Jiang Gu warily, knowing he was capable of such a thing. "Jiang Qi, don't forget our deal."
"A deal can be voided at any time with me," Jiang Gu said expressionlessly. "You two are so devoted to each other, why don't you perish together? That would be a beautiful story."
Before he finished speaking, the Crimson Snow Sword shot straight at Wu Hezhi's brow.
"Wait!" Qu Fengyu leaped forward, sword in hand, blocking Wu Hezhi's path.
"Master!" Wei Feng was startled and grabbed Jiang Gu's wrist.
Jiang Gu looked at him coldly, "You traitor."
Wei Feng's eyes instantly reddened from his scolding, but he did not let go of her hand.
Jiang Gu had already decided to kill. He looked at Qu Fengyu and Wu Hezhi, releasing his pressure without any concealment, and sneered, "The lightning tribulation only targets living beings, but Wei Feng's soul lamp has been extinguished. I suppose you killed him once when he was born. Am I right?"
Wei Feng's hand, which was gripping his wrist, suddenly trembled. He looked at Qu Fengyu in disbelief, "...Auntie?"
Qu Fengyu closed her eyes. Wu Hezhi, who was behind her, sighed, walked out slowly, grabbed her hand holding the sword, and gently pressed it down, letting the Crimson Snow Sword be pointed at him. He smiled helplessly and said, "Young Master Jiang is exceptionally intelligent. You are right."
"Wu Hezhi!" Qu Fengyu interrupted him disapprovingly.
“Now that things have come to this, there’s nothing left to hide.” Wu Hezhi rolled up his sleeves, his face as pale as paper. He looked at Wei Feng beside Jiang Gu. “Back then, Wei Feng was killed once when he was just born. It was Wei Mingzhou, Qi Fengyuan, Qing Changxi, and I who personally did it.”
Wei Feng froze on the spot, his hands trembling even more violently. He gripped Jiang Gu's wrist tightly, his eyes filled with confusion and shock. "Why? Wei Mingzhou... isn't he my father? He even left me all the treasures in Yanghua Sect's Treasure Pavilion and Purple Mansion through a blood pact."
Even if no one liked him, even if his own mother Qu Qing wanted to kill him, he was always certain that Wei Mingzhou loved him.
Wu Hezhi shook his head and said slowly, "Back then, Yanghua Sect joined forces with Pingfeng Sect to hunt down the Merfolk. Qi Fengyuan was a Merfolk hybrid and was on good terms with Qing Changxi, the Merfolk chieftain. He tipped them off in advance so they could escape, but Qing Changxi stole his token and kidnapped Qu Qing, who was about to give birth, from Yanghua Sect, hoping to use this to threaten Wei Mingzhou into stopping."
"Mingzhou, Qi Fengyuan, and I chased him all the way to the vicinity of Mermaid Bay and found Qing Changxi's hiding place. At that time, his Iris Clan wife was incubating their Iris-Jacques cubs. We kidnapped her and the Iris-Jacques eggs, intending to exchange them with Qing Changxi." Wu Hezhi recalled the scene, his face more grim than ever before. "When we met, Qu Qing was giving birth. I have never seen such a powerful tribulation lightning in my life, nor have I ever seen anything like it..."
It was a strange, filthy, and slimy thing that had almost absorbed all of Qu Qing's cultivation. It also indiscriminately devoured all living things around it. Hundreds of lightning bolts struck down, and just when they were about to kill it, it would eat new living things. In the end, it even escaped to Mermaid Bay and attacked the mermaids and cultivators who were fighting.
“…Once entangled by those ghostly patterns, one’s Dao heart is shattered. Human cultivators have no way to avoid it. Merfolk can also blindfold themselves with dragon silk to seal their Dao heart and try to cut off those ghostly patterns with their claws, but with little effect.” Wu Hezhi frowned deeply. “Almost instantly, Merfolk Bay became a dead zone.”
"Then it set its sights on us." The shadow of that filthy and strange thing seemed to be reflected deep in his pupils, along with the terror of it approaching with the lightning tribulation. "Wei Mingzhou, Qi Fengyuan, and I had no choice but to join forces with Qing Changxi, using the power of the lightning tribulation and the corpses in Mermaid Bay to set up a deadly formation, and finally killed that thing."
A look of disgust and ruthlessness flashed in his eyes, and his gaze toward Wei Feng was very complicated. "After that thing died, we dug out a heart from it. To prevent it from coming back to life, we chopped it into mincemeat and sealed it in the stone statue at the entrance of Mermaid Bay."
Wei Feng's pupils twitched, and he subconsciously turned to look at Jiang Gu.
But Jiang Gu remained indifferent, only showing him a cold profile, unmoved.
"But Qu Qing had just given birth and was unconscious. She insisted on saving that thing and fought with Qing Changxi's wife. Then the iris egg shattered and landed on the pile of corpses. It was swallowed and its soul merged with the monster's. The monster regained its heart and was resurrected, barely taking on the shape of a human infant." Wu Hezhi's face was pale.
"Qing Changxi and his wife believed that it was their child at that time. Upon seeing the corpse, they wanted to take it away, but Wei Mingzhou and I knew it must still be that monster... The Divine Kite Shark is a spiritual creature of heaven and earth. After being devoured, the monster's strength increased greatly. Wei Mingzhou did not hesitate to self-destruct his primordial spirit, using his blood as a pact, and with the help of all the treasures in the Yanghua Sect's treasure pavilion and his own Purple Mansion, using his own Yuan Dan as a catalyst, to seal that thing. Before he died, he instructed Qi Fengyuan and me to find a way to kill it."
"But Qu Qing felt a pang of pity halfway back and handed it over to Qu Fengyu." Wu Hezhi sighed deeply. "Qu Fengyu helped the child escape the lightning tribulation, patiently persuaded Qi Fengyuan and me, and then used most of his cultivation to completely seal the last bit of monster bloodline, turning it into a normal child..."
"Wei Mingzhou died, Qu Qing was so shocked that she went mad and crazy, Qu Fengyu's Yuan Dan was damaged and he had to go into seclusion, I was seriously injured and my cultivation dropped greatly, so I took over Mingzhou as the sect master of Yanghua Sect. The child was then placed in the sect and raised under the supervision of Qi Fengyuan."
Wu Hezhi smiled bitterly, "I originally thought things would be peaceful if things continued like this, but who knew that Qing Changxi and his wife were not willing to give up. A year ago, after they came out of seclusion, they forcibly awakened the Divine Kite Shark bloodline in Wei Feng's body, which led to what happened later."
Qu Fengyu's expression was also very ugly. "If only I had come out of seclusion sooner, I would have killed those two idiots, Qing Changxi, first."
Wei Feng's face was pale. He slowly released his grip on Jiang Gu's hand and asked blankly, "Then... what exactly am I?"
Wu Hezhi shook his head, and even Qu Fengyu fell silent.
"The only reason you've survived until now is because they couldn't kill you." Jiang Gu looked at Wei Feng expressionlessly, a hint of interest flashing in his eyes. "So you really are a filthy thing."
No wonder his primordial spirit was so filthy and disgusting.
Wei Feng felt stung by his scrutinizing gaze, and shook his head with red eyes, "No... I am a person, my name is Wei Feng, I have a father and mother, a name and a surname... I also have a master like you... I am not a dirty thing or a monster."
"Heh." Jiang Gu chuckled dismissively.
Wei Feng's eyes were brimming with tears, threatening to fall. He turned to Qu Fengyu in a panic, his eyes pleading, "Auntie, my father cared about me so much, left me so many good things, and went to great lengths to keep me alive. How could he possibly kill me? Auntie, please tell me, this isn't true, is it?"
Qu Fengyu opened her mouth, her eyes red, and turned her face away. "I'm sorry."
Wei Feng shook his head, "Auntie, you were so worried about me just now, you were even afraid that the lightning tribulation would strike me to death, but you've been so kind to me since you came to Yanghua Sect..."
"She's just worried that the lightning tribulation will break the blood pact left by Wei Mingzhou on your body, revealing your true form." Jiang Gu ruthlessly shattered his illusions.
Wei Feng looked down at his hands. "You must have lied to me. You all lied to me!"
He looked at the silent Wu Hezhi and Qu Fengyu, then at the indifferent Jiang Gu, and roared, "You've all lied to me! This must be an illusion from the tribulation! It's all fake!"
He was like a child who couldn't get what he wanted, throwing tantrums at everyone, yelling and shouting, even cursing, and then trying to run away.
Jiang Gu grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him back.
Wei Feng struggled desperately, screaming through his tears, almost hoarsely, "You're all fake! Let me go! I need to go find my master! Get away! Don't touch me!"
Jiang Gu vaguely sensed the collapse of his primordial spirit. He slapped a talisman on the back of the man's heart, then forced him to look up at him. He said coldly, "Wei Feng, calm your mind."
Wei Feng struggled to break free and bit down on his shoulder. His elongated fangs instantly pierced through flesh and blood, soaking through the snow-white fabric.
Wei Feng clung tightly, refusing to let go, sobbing in despair, but unable to shed a tear. He struggled to breathe, unable to move as Jiang Gu pressed down on the back of his neck. Finally, exhausted, he struggled to stay still, his mouth full of blood, his eyes wide open, staring at the countless corpses beneath the ice.
After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Gu finally lost his patience, grabbed his chin, forcibly pulled his fangs from his own flesh, roughly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said in an icy tone, "Have you made enough of a scene?"
Wei Feng stared straight at him, his lips still stained with his blood, his eyes switching back and forth between human and white pupils. Jiang Gu felt a rare headache coming on. He raised his hand and placed it on Wei Feng's head, forcibly gathering his constantly dissipating spirit, watching as those eyes transformed into the clear pupils of a young boy.
"What you are is not important, what matters is that you are alive." Jiang Gu released his grip and mocked, "You want to break your Dao heart before you've even established it, you really have a lot of ability."
Being alive is what matters.
With just this one sentence, the chaotic and collapsing primordial spirit was awakened.
Wei Feng stared blankly at Jiang Gu, his lips trembled, and he suddenly threw himself into Jiang Gu's arms, bursting into tears.
After his tribulation, this guy's strength became incredibly powerful. Jiang Gu struggled but couldn't break free. He said with a dark face, "Get lost."
Wei Feng's cries grew louder as he licked the wounds on Jiang Gu's shoulder that he had bitten. Before Jiang Gu could kick him away, Wei Feng's body went limp and he fainted.
Jiang Gu habitually caught the person.
Qu Fengyu and Wu Hezhi looked at each other in shock, astonished that Jiang Gu had so easily calmed Wei Feng down—just now, when Wei Feng went mad, his true form was almost revealed, and those ghostly patterns emerged from all directions.
“Young Master Jiang Qi…” Qu Fengyu hesitated before taking a step forward.
Jiang Gu looked at her coldly, his whole body filled with killing intent, "Fellow Daoist Qu, don't give him unrealistic concern."
"That idiot will take it seriously."
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