Chapter 16 The Heavenly Evolution Secret Realm: The floating clouds disperse, the moon rises, and the jade-like light shines over the sea…
"Do you think the disciples of the Heavenly Evolution Sect who disappeared in the secret realm are related to them?"
"Don't you think so too?"
Fu Yunyao withdrew her gaze and was about to step into the secret realm when he grabbed her sleeve.
"?" Fu Yunyao turned around in surprise. "Is there another problem?"
Fu Yusheng chuckled, took out a red string, and handed it to her. "We don't know what the situation is like in the secret realm. To ensure that we can know each other's location if we end up in different places, you should wear this."
Fu Yunyao lowered her eyes. The Thousand-Threaded Rope could connect two people who were thousands of miles apart. Even if they were separated by vast distances, they could still find each other by following the Thousand-Threaded Rope.
She did not refuse and tied it around her wrist. A touch of red hung down her fair and slender wrist, causing Fu Yusheng, who had been watching her, to smile.
He thought, "Indeed, red suits me best."
The two entered the secret realm one after the other.
After a moment of dizziness, Fu Yunyao opened her eyes.
She stood on a body of water filled with starlight, with ancient doors standing on the surface, quietly awaiting their owner's exploration.
"Descendants, this is your spiritual heartland. Behind every door lies a memory of yours, whether it be unforgettable or long abandoned, whether it be joy or sorrow. Which way you go is up to you."
A hollow female voice echoed in the air above the space, and Fu Yunyao was slightly taken aback.
The doors surrounding her slowly opened, intersecting with each other. She walked through them one by one, and ripples spread across the water as she moved.
Her gaze swept over the scene inside the doorway.
In the dimly lit forbidden area, the little girl curled up on the ground, the surrounding restrictions glowing red.
...
At the entrance to the forbidden area, she held a crabapple branch and broke the array barrier that had trapped her for ten years.
...
In the Jade Terrace Realm, the young man handed the jade pendant in his hand to her, his eyes gentle and smiling.
"That's it."
...
Inside the Kunwu Sect courtyard, a young girl with bright eyes waved enthusiastically at her.
"Yun Yao".
...
Under the moonlight, the campfire died down, and they sat in the courtyard, enjoying the same starry sky together.
...
The young man in fine clothes offered his sword, "Would you like to borrow my sword?"
...
Amidst the countless Soul-Devouring Demons, she gripped Wen Ci's natal sword and, as expected, saw several people rushing towards her with worried expressions.
Jiang Wanyin was angry that she didn't know her limits; she was injured, but she smiled.
"I know, I still have you all."
...
Fu Yunyao hesitated, lost in her own memories.
On the dueling platform, the wind whipped at her clothes, the sword's edge was covered in frost, and her sword intent was high; it was the height of their fierce battle.
Before her, Wen Ci, who had just been injured, reached out and grasped the blade of the Shadowless Sword, slowly sliding it along the blade, with drops of blood falling.
The blood that fell on the sword was slowly absorbed, and the sword hummed. He used the blood as a medium to unite the sword and his heart.
Their eyes met, and a smile crept onto his lips. "Yun Yao, watch closely, this move of mine is called—"
"Yunmeng Marsh."
The sword energy was unleashed, sending up countless flying petals.
Yunmengze, the sword technique of the former sect master of Tianyan Sect, appears to be extremely romantic with flowers flying everywhere. Only those who are in the sword energy know that the supreme sword energy contained in each petal can cause bloodshed if one is not careful.
Standing at the center of the sword energy, she could best feel its immense power. The Firefly Sword in her hand hummed continuously, trying to escape from her grasp.
Until her sword energy collided with Wen Ci's sword energy, the Flowing Firefly Sword let out a mournful cry, and its blade began to break apart inch by inch.
This sword, once the personal sword of the previous sect leader of the Tianyan Sect, began to self-destruct, unwilling to resist the sword techniques of its former master.
She was struck by the sword energy and spat out a mouthful of blood.
The sword energy from "Yunmengze" continued to approach, and a sword shadow, entirely ice-blue, appeared in front of her.
The sword energy clashed with Wen Ci's, creating a sky full of frost flowers, bringing a bone-chilling, despairing cold, as if it wanted to devour all the warmth in the world, leaving only emptiness.
"Let the dust settle." The boy's voice was clear and crisp, like spring water splashing against pebbles.
The sword shadow, imposing in its sword intent, hesitated for a moment before obediently returning to his palm.
Fu Yunyao stood to one side, looking at the sword in the hand of the young sword master in her memory.
She thought, "If you were alive, I would only receive a fraction of Chen Jian's attention in this life-threatening moment."
Fu Yunyao sighed softly, shifted her gaze, and looked at the sect leaders on the stands surrounding the competition arena.
She had wondered what could have driven Wen Ci to offer his blood as a sacrifice just for a competition. There was only one person who could have made him do that.
The leader of the Kunwu sect, Qingwu.
Fu Yunyao wanted to think further, but suddenly everything went black before her eyes, and she fell into a memory she had long forgotten.
Before she came to Yaotai Realm at the age of five, she had no name.
The old monk who raised her called her "Liao Liao".
The old monk said he found her on the border of the Demon Realm; she wasn't even a month old at the time. Warm blood soaked through her swaddling clothes, and she opened her watery eyes, held tightly in the arms of the already dead man.
Children know no sorrow; even lying amidst corpses, they can entertain themselves and play happily.
The old monk picked her up, patted her back, and gently coaxed her to sleep.
He told her, "The past is past, there's no need to recall it."
Liao Liao was often sick as a child. Once, she had a high fever that wouldn't go down. In her hazy state, she saw the old monk untie the cloth bag behind him. It was a long sword, completely black, with two characters engraved on the hilt, which should be the name of the sword.
The old monk's hand trembled slightly as he touched the longsword. He had pawned the sword that had accompanied him for half his life, thinking that human life was always important, and he could redeem the sword later.
After taking the medicine, Liao Liao's condition gradually improved.
As she grew up, she became less talkative and preferred to brandish twigs she found from who-knows-where. She seemed to have a natural talent for kendo.
The old monk finally saved enough silver to redeem the longsword, but the shopkeeper apologized and told him that one day he took the longsword on a long trip and accidentally lost it in the South China Sea.
Liao Liao knew nothing of these things, only that when the old monk returned that day, he bought her a piece of sweet cake, which was extremely unusual for him.
The old monk ultimately failed to retrieve his sword; he was about to die.
By candlelight, he tremblingly carved two words on the handle of his newly bought dagger.
Spring Returns
The old monk did not survive that night. He was a mortal, and the lifespan of a mortal is predetermined by the cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation.
Liao Liao didn't cry, but felt confused. She sat quietly by the old monk's bedside for half the night.
The next day, Liao Liao dug a pit and buried the old monk. She knelt in front of the old monk's wooden tombstone for half a day, and finally carved the two characters "Spring Returns" crookedly.
Someone pushed open the door to the old monk's dwelling. Under the dappled shadows of the branches, she squinted, her head growing increasingly dizzy.
In a daze, she heard someone say that she felt sorry for her.
She didn't know who was pitied.
When she was five years old, in the dimly lit forbidden area of Yaotai Realm, she fell into the warm embrace of a woman who called her, "Yun Yao".
At the age of fifteen, she broke through the array barrier that had been trapping her for the first time, and met the second person she had seen in ten years in the Jade Terrace Realm.
The boy was dressed in red, flamboyant and unrestrained. Even the wind seemed to favor him, gently brushing against his hair.
His light-colored eyes held a smile as he told her, "My name is Fu Yusheng."
Fuyu was born...
From that day on, she had her own full name—
Floating Clouds Jade.
The floating clouds disperse and the moon rises in the sky; the radiant light of the moon shines on the sea, mingling with the jade-like light.
"Fu Yunyao!" The urgent call rang in her ears.
She opened her eyes and saw a worried look in the eyes beneath the white fox mask.
Under the campfire in the cave, the red tassels swaying on one side are even more eye-catching.
Almost instinctively, still dazed from her memories, she reached out and stopped the red tassel from swaying.
Fu Yusheng froze, the words "Are you alright?" still stuck in his throat. The girl's gaze was clear and cold, her scent constantly falling on his mask.
Fu Yunyao blinked slowly, finally snapping out of her daze. She withdrew her hand, leaving Fu Yusheng alone with his turbulent emotions.
Where is my veiled hat?
"Huh?" Fu Yusheng responded slowly, handing her the bamboo hat that was placed to the side.
Fu Yunyao took it but didn't put it back on. The red tassel on the mask beside her seemed to sway more violently, and she was unusually curious. "You seem to prefer crimson?"
They looked at each other, the campfire illuminating her gentle features.
Fu Yusheng almost awkwardly looked away. He thought that probably no one had ever told her that the way she looked at people with such focus was truly gentle.
He calmed himself down and then spoke.
"Once, someone told me that she liked me when I wore red."
So every day after that, even if he no longer wore red, he would still add touches of red to his clothes, simply because she liked it.
Fu Yunyao couldn't understand the deep longing hidden in his tone. She looked out of the cave, where it was pitch black.
She asked the question.
"This secret realm should be the place where a powerful figure from the Heavenly Evolution Sect perished in the past. Did anything unexpected happen when you entered?"
This time, however, she received no response for a long time. Fu Yunyao found it strange and turned to look at the person leaning against the cave wall on the other side.
He gazed at her quietly, his light-colored eyes filled with moonlight, gentle and shimmering.
Demonic energy continuously surged from his body, and his stray hairs, damp with cold sweat, clung to his neck. Under his pulse, the domineering demonic energy relentlessly clashed with his spiritual meridians.
Fu Yunyao was slightly taken aback, "You..."
He parted his lips slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing. His eyes slowly closed, and he fell into boundless darkness.
In his last moments before losing consciousness, he saw the astonishment in her eyes and sighed inwardly.
Alright...
Fu Yusheng awoke in his own spiritual sea of consciousness to find a desolate and broken landscape around him, with a sword aura surging about and leaving behind a trail of frost.
Clumps of black energy swirled around the dim spiritual vein, continuing their relentless erosion.
Fu Yusheng paid no attention to any of this; the surface of the water, filled with starlight, rippled with his movements.
Deep within his consciousness, beneath countless chains, a young man in red was trapped.
Fu Yusheng approached him, and the boy under the chains slowly opened his eyes, his light-colored eyes meeting his gaze.
Fu Yusheng removed his mask, revealing a face underneath that was exactly the same as the boy in red.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Today was another day that Yu Yu got hooked.
Here's a short skit:
When Fu Yunyao first met Fu Yusheng, he was dressed in red, standing out conspicuously among the Yaotai disciples who preferred to wear plain clothes.
One day later, Fu Yusheng gave Fu Yunyao a hairpin, and he smiled and said that she looked very beautiful wearing it.
In response, she replied to him.
"You look great in red." At least you're easy to recognize.
We quite like good-looking people or things.
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