339
Perhaps Du Heng's plea worked, Su Zhan did not hang Du Heng upside down on the beam, he tied Du Heng to the pillar outside the hall. Xiao Xiao and Wonton were locked in a cage and placed next to him. Xiao Xiao was so angry that he cursed in the street, and his curses were mixed with the sound of sneezing: "Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!"
Du Heng couldn't move his arms and body. He listened to Xiaoxiao's series of sneezes and said distressedly: "Xiaoxiao, stop scolding and stop wasting your saliva." Xiaoxiao turned her head aggrievedly: "Chirp..."
It was all his fault. If he could control his sneezing, Du Heng wouldn't have been discovered. Du Heng consoled him, "It's not your fault. With our cultivation level, it's only a matter of time before we're discovered."
Su Zhan looked at Du Heng with a bad face: "Didn't you go to the Wanzong ruins? Why are you here?"
Du Heng sighed, "You may not believe this, but as soon as the Dingkun Sect arrived at the Wanfa Ruins, it turned dark inside. Everyone was blown away by the strong wind and scattered everywhere..." Su Zhan's sword was against Du Heng's neck, "Were you blown to Lingbao Garden by the strong wind?"
Du Heng shook his head, and he looked nervously at the long sword in front of his neck. Before the long sword got close to his neck, he felt the cold sword intent coming from his neck.
Du Heng swallowed his saliva: "That's not the case. At first, I was bounced into a small cave where I couldn't use spiritual energy. There I met Wang Muye, the leader of Tianyi Sect. He took me to find the center of the formation, but when we passed the center of the formation, he and I got separated, and I ended up here. This place is different from the Lingbao Garden I know, but I have been to the palace here before. Why is that?"
Du Heng wanted to distract Su Zhan, but Su Zhan's eyes narrowed: "You want to ask too many questions."
Seeing that his sword was about to strike Du Heng's neck, Ning Pingxi grabbed Su Zhan and said, "Old Su! Don't do that! Don't do that! Do you know who he is?!"
Su Zhan snorted: "Who else could be the disciple of Wen Qiong of Dingkun Sect who possesses the Phantom Heavenly Pearl?"
Ning Pingxi said with an unpleasant expression: "He was once an outer disciple of Medicine King Valley. He was the child I personally took from you and brought back to raise!"
Du Heng was confused: "Huh?" Su Zhan took a breath and said: "What?!"
Ning Pingxi said dryly: "He is the child I brought back from here more than 20 years ago." Su Zhan said in disbelief: "What did you say?! He is the one in the Seven Star Lotus Platform..."
Ning Pingxi nodded with difficulty: "Yes, it's him."
Du Heng cleared his throat: "Well... I am already a grasshopper in your hands. I can't run away. Can you give me an explanation? Let me know what happened?" He obviously came here to rescue Tai Shuhong, why was he inexplicably involved with the original owner?
Just when Du Heng's face was full of curiosity, a sword light appeared in the sky. The sword light cut through the silent night sky and fell straight onto the square. Jiang Shangzhou fell from the sword with a gloomy face: "It's done... Hey? Du Heng? Why are you here?"
Du Heng had never been so eager for Jiang Shangzhou's arrival. After all, Jiang Shangzhou had always been nice to him, right? Du Heng said excitedly, "Jiang Shangzhou! Please ask your second senior brother to let me go!"
Jiang Shangzhou looked at Su Zhan: "Can we talk peacefully? Don't shout for war and killing at every turn? Let him go." Su Zhan shook his head gloomily: "Do you know who he is? He is the puppet you made with the secret technique more than 20 years ago."
After hearing this, Jiang Shangzhou was dumbfounded: "Ah?"
Du Heng was finally released, and he sat on the steps in front of the palace. In front of him were three big guys standing or squatting, of course, not including Tai Shuhong who was lying in the middle of the formation.
Du Heng said: "Um... don't be silent, what happened? Who can explain it to me?"
Ning Pingxi and the other two looked at each other, and finally Jiang Shangzhou spoke up: "Let me go first. I am the youngest disciple of Wuwang Sword Master. When I started, my master was already very old. Before he passed away, he gave each of us brothers a magical treasure to carry with us, and I was assigned this one."
As he spoke, Jiang Shangzhou put his hands together and put his index finger on his forehead. A little light slowly appeared between his eyebrows, and the light became brighter and brighter, and finally a lotus-shaped magic weapon with colorful spiritual light appeared between his fingers.
Jiang Shangzhou and Su Zhan looked at the magic weapon with nostalgia. Jiang Shangzhou said, "This magic weapon is called the Seven-Star Lotus Platform. It contains the sword intents of all the sword cultivators collected since the founding of the Shenxu Palace. It can be asserted that this is a magic weapon that can drive all the sword cultivators in the world crazy."
Su Zhan said: "Several other disciples also have treasures left by the master, but our magic weapons have gradually become part of the mountain protection formation over the years. The only thing left over from all these years is this seven-star lotus platform."
Seeing the Seven-Star Lotus Platform, Du Heng's mind moved. He put his hands into his sleeves, but asked calmly, "And then?"
Jiang Shangzhou said: "Unlike the magic weapons of my senior brothers, the lotus platform is also a treasure that can nourish the soul. I discovered this secret by accident. At that time, I found that all the sword intentions were rotating around the center of the lotus platform. Out of curiosity, my consciousness probed into the lotus platform. I found that there was a person deep in the lotus platform."
Du Heng looked at Jiang Shangzhou with a serious expression. For some reason, he felt that this person was related to the original owner.
Jiang Shangzhou looked at Du Heng deeply and said, "Strictly speaking, that can no longer be considered a person. He is just a soul, or a remnant soul. At that time, I thought that this might be the remnant soul of a sword cultivator attracted by the sword intent. The remnant soul is only a shadow, and it is not very active. Logically speaking, if such a remnant soul enters the lotus platform, it will be strangled by the sword intent inside in a short time. However, I found that the sword intent in the lotus platform was protecting this remnant soul."
Du Heng nodded: "Yeah, then what?"
Jiang Shangzhou said: "Master left me some teachings in the lotus platform. The first half talked about my sword practice, and the second half mentioned this remnant soul. Master said that he hoped I could protect this remnant soul until it died. Before the remnant soul died, he hoped that I would not kill it and force the lotus platform to recognize its master. I have been guarding the lotus platform for more than four thousand years..."
Su Zhan said, "Xiao Zhou entered the sect late. When he entered, the master had no intention of teaching him. Xiao Zhou and I grew up together. After he discovered the secret of the lotus platform, he told me. I didn't take it seriously at the time and just told him to follow the master's teachings. I didn't expect that I would be the first person to be interested in the lotus platform."
Su Zhan held the lotus platform gently. He said, "I entered the sect early, and together with my fellow apprentices and demon cultivators, I fought off the attacks of demon beasts..."
After the melee, many demon cultivators stayed in the human cultivator world. First, they were afraid that the demon beasts would appear again and catch the human cultivators off guard. Second, they had no control over emotions. Tai Shuhong was such a demon cultivator. He was a gentle, simple and kind Feather Clan cultivator. He was not good at swordsmanship, and his purpose of coming to the human cultivator world was just to provide logistical support for the large army.
Tai Shuhong usually practiced magic weapons in the base camp and helped treat patients evacuated from the battlefield. His hands were not even stained with blood. Su Zhan was a member of the sword cultivators fighting on the battlefield with the main force. His leg was bitten off by a monster in the battle and he temporarily retreated to the rear to recuperate.
Unexpectedly, Tai Shuhong and Su Zhan met in the rear.
That day, the monsters came suddenly, breaking through the front and rushing into the rear. In the chaos, the medical practitioners and weapon refiners in the rear were killed or injured, and the monks who were able to stand up fought desperately. It was at that time that Su Zhan saved Tai Shuhong from the monster's mouth. After the monster was repelled, Tai Shuhong took Su Zhan as a confidant and confided in him.
Tai Shuhong was not a talkative person, but he would answer any questions very simply. He would share with Su Zhan the customs and habits of the Yu tribe and what he saw and heard along the way, and Su Zhan would also tell him if there was anything interesting. After a while, the two became inseparable friends.
After the battle, the feather tribe could go back with the main force, but Tai Shuhong stayed behind to follow Su Zhan. Su Zhan treated him as a brother and took him back to Shenxu Palace. Shenxu Palace treated demon cultivators well, and they gave Tai Shuhong a mountaintop, so he could refine weapons in peace in the cave.
For a thousand years, the friendship between these two people was so good that it made people jealous.
Until one day, Tai Shuhong got drunk and kissed Su Zhan, and Su Zhan exploded on the spot - I treat you as a brother, and you want to sleep with me? !
Su Zhan, who could not accept this, felt that his pure friendship was tainted by Tai Shuhong. From that day on, he avoided Tai Shuhong like a snake or scorpion. Whenever he heard that a human cultivator in the cultivation world was with a demon cultivator, Su Zhan would think of Tai Shuhong's kiss.
Tai Shuhong had been treating Su Zhan the same way for thousands of years. He had noticed Su Zhan's sudden indifference to him a long time ago, and he thought that Su Zhan was stuck at a bottleneck and was impatient. So he devoted himself to researching a magical instrument that could help Su Zhan pass the tribulation smoothly. For this, he often blew up the furnace, leaving himself covered in scars.
Finally, one day eight hundred years ago, when Su Zhan was in retreat, he received a talisman from Tai Shuhong. Tai Shuhong invited Su Zhan to refine a magic weapon together. He said that he would definitely be able to refine a magic weapon that would satisfy Su Zhan and guarantee that it could resist the heavenly calamity. He just needed Su Zhan's spiritual energy to balance the refining furnace.
Su Zhan ignored Tai Shuhong. He was even certain that Tai Shuhong would fail again this time. The magic weapon he made could not withstand the blow of his domineering sword. Before this, Tai Shuhong's magic weapons were all destroyed by Su Zhan in this way. He didn't want to waste his spiritual energy for a mediocre magic weapon.
Then that night, Tai Shuhong's furnace exploded, and the entire mountain was razed to the ground. Tai Shuhong's cave was reduced to ashes, and even his bones could not be found. Su Zhan went crazy from that night. He searched for Tai Shuhong's body inch by inch in the scorched earth, but he couldn't find anything except an egg that Tai Shuhong regarded as a treasure.
Then Su Zhan used all his methods to find a trace of Tai Shuhong's residual soul on the scorched earth. The residual soul needed to be nurtured. Su Zhan thought of many magical instruments that could nurture the residual soul, but he could only watch as Tai Shuhong's residual soul went from being able to speak a few words to being unable to maintain even a human form. In desperation, Su Zhan thought of the Seven-Star Lotus Platform in Jiang Shangzhou's hand.
However, there was already a soul being nurtured in the Seven-Star Lotus. If another soul was put in, the sword intent would rush up and strangle the extra soul without any explanation. Su Zhan proposed to expel the soul in the lotus and put Tai Shuhong's residual soul in to nurture.
Jiang Shangzhou was in a dilemma. On one side was his master's teachings, and on the other was his second brother who had raised him since childhood. No matter what decision he made, it would hurt the other party. However, when Su Zhan knelt down in front of Jiang Shangzhou holding the soul-raising bag, Jiang Shangzhou had no choice but to offer his Seven-Star Lotus Platform.
340
Ning Pingxi appeared at this time. Ning Pingxi was an old friend of Su Zhan. In addition, he was also a well-known medical practitioner in the world of cultivation. He saved at least 800 souls every year.
Su Zhan found Ning Pingxi and asked him to help expel the residual soul in the Seven-Star Lotus. Ning Pingxi agreed, but he asked Su Zhan to prepare a body for the expelled residual soul. He couldn't bear to watch the soul he didn't know die in front of him.
Su Zhan agreed, and he started looking for a lot of bodies, including young women who died in childbirth, young boys who drowned, humans and animals... In order to allow the remaining souls to be properly transferred to these bodies prepared for him, they built a temporary palace in the current Lingbao Garden, and engraved the Eight Directions Formation in front of the palace that could transfer souls.
Speaking of which, Lingbao Garden is also a small cave in an ancient relic that Su Zhan and Tai Shuhong accidentally discovered. This small cave is very stable and is located near the Shenzao Peak.
Tai Shuhong liked to raise small spirit beasts, but there were often monks blowing up furnaces on his mountain, and the small spirit beasts were terrified. At that time, Su Zhan and Tai Shuhong had not yet fallen out, so Su Zhan promised Tai Shuhong that he would give him a secret place where he could raise many spirit beasts in the future.
However, after Su Zhan spent a lot of time and energy to fix the small cave, he and Tai Shuhong had unilaterally broken up. So Lingbao Garden became Su Zhan's secret base, and few people knew about it except him.
Transferring the puppet from the Seven-Star Lotus Platform to possess a dead body was a taboo in the sect, and it was considered helping others to possess a body. If the then acting sect leader Ye Wenqiu knew about this, given Ye Wenqiu's intolerant personality, Su Zhan and the others would definitely not have a good ending.
As fate would have it, the garden that was originally intended for Tai Shuhong to raise spirit beasts became a place for Su Zhan to attach souls to puppets.
In Su Zhan's mind, it should be easy for them to draw out the spirit in the lotus and give him a body. However, when it came to actually putting it into practice, it was not so easy.
When Ning Pingxi dragged the spirit out of the Seven Star Lotus, the spirit was unwilling to possess the dead body. It would rather spin around in the formation than look at the dead body in the middle of the formation. However, whether it was willing or not, it had no way to return to the Seven Star Lotus.
Because after Su Zhan pulled it out, he stuffed Tai Shuhong's residual soul into the lotus platform. It must be said that the lotus platform is an excellent magic weapon. Tai Shuhong's soul stabilized immediately after entering it.
Looking at the spirits spinning around in the field, Ning Pingxi thought that it probably didn't like these dead bodies, so he suggested preparing a puppet to try? Su Zhan thought this was a good idea, because Jiang Shangzhou was a weapon refiner who practiced both swordsmanship and magic, and the puppets he made could be indistinguishable from the real thing.
In this way, Jiang Shangzhou, who was originally waiting for his senior brother to deliver the lotus platform, now had another task. He had to refine a puppet body for the soul in the Seven-Star Lotus Platform.
Jiang Shangzhou really hated this task. The puppets he made at the beginning were quite rough and the workmanship was not very fine. Several puppets did not even have faces, and Su Zhan just lifted the puppet bodies into the formation without any burden. Not to mention, that picky spirit actually whimpered and drilled into the puppet servant.
Su Zhan thought this method was good. When the puppet broke down in the future, he could just replace it with another one. In this way, Su Zhan thought the dust had settled and the task was accomplished, but he passed the problem to Jiang Shangzhou.
The puppet with the spirit attached to it is different from an ordinary puppet. It can move and hum. Su Zhan originally wanted to leave the puppet in Lingbao Garden, since no one would find it there. However, Jiang Shangzhou and Ning Pingxi felt that it was too unfair to it, so Jiang Shangzhou kindly took the puppet back to his Shenzao Peak and placed it in his house.
During that time, the house was often in chaos. The puppet had no face but was walking around the house, which scared many servants in the house to the point of peeing. Jiang Shangzhou had no choice but to make a formation on the face of the puppet, which could replicate the original appearance of the spirit in the puppet by 70%.
In this way, the puppet had its own face and its own name. Jiang Shangzhou named it Naonao because it was always busy and always tried to sneak out of the house.
Nao Nao was very energetic, and the crude puppet could not meet Nao Nao's needs. It didn't take long for the first generation of puppets to fall apart. Jiang Shangzhou had no choice but to rush to make a second puppet. This time the puppet was more refined and looked no different from an ordinary person. Nao Nao was very satisfied, and the puppet body fell apart after being used for several years.
Every few years, Jiang Shangzhou would go to Lingbao Garden to replace Nao Nao with a new body. Nao Nao had been with him for more than two hundred years. When Jiang Shangzhou made the 50th puppet for Nao Nao, he found that Nao Nao was no longer noisy. Nao Nao had become quiet. It no longer liked to move, nor did it like to whimper.
Jiang Shangzhou was shocked to realize that the soul was damaged in the puppet! In order to make Nao Nao lively again, he pulled Su Zhan and Ning Pingxi to study together. How to make Nao Nao nurture his soul in the puppet became a problem that Jiang Shangzhou has been studying and solving for the next five hundred years.
However, the puppets Jiang Shangzhou made became more and more exquisite and perfect, but Nao Nao became more and more dull. When he made 187 puppets, he felt that Nao Nao was about to die. The spirit left by his master was about to fall apart after being tormented by him for 800 years!
After realizing this, Jiang Shangzhou was at a loss. He sought help from his demon master, who wanted to create a body that could allow his soul to grow inside, and make this body the puppet's physical body.
His demon master thought for a long time and told him a method. Using human flesh and blood as materials, adding magic and blood essence, the puppet made can grow and become stronger like a normal person. However, such a puppet needs to be soaked in medicinal liquid to stabilize the soul.
The master was afraid that Jiang Shangzhou would not be able to get the puppet right, so he and Jiang Shangzhou refined the 188th puppet together. Both of them contributed their flesh and blood, and finally they refined a baby.
When Nao Nao was replaced for the 188th time, he couldn't even move. The formation separated the thin soul and stuffed it into the baby's body. The baby's breathing and heartbeat were very weak. Jiang Shangzhou gave the prescription to Ning Pingxi, and he and Su Zhan let Ning Pingxi take the baby away.
Ning Pingxi took the baby back to Medicine King Valley and immersed him in the medicinal bath for five years. Five years later, Nao Nao's soul merged with the baby's body and made its first cry. When the baby cried, Ning Pingxi happened to be holding the medicinal herb Du Heng in his hand. He named the child after the medicinal herb.
Du Heng was already dumbfounded. He was stunned for a long time before he came back to his senses with Xiaoxiao's chirping sound. It turned out that the original owner was the remnant soul in the Seven Star Lotus! It turned out that his origin was so complicated and tortuous!
Jiang Shangzhou looked at Du Heng with red eyes: "I'm sorry for you. When I handed you over to Ning Pingxi, I thought I would never see you again in this life. I know your soul was damaged too badly. Even if you possessed a child, he would only grow up to be a fool. I didn't expect that I would see you again..."
He never expected that the first time he fell in love with someone, this person turned out to be Nao Nao, who had been with him for more than 700 years. He and his master actually fell in love with their own flesh and blood, fell in love with someone they shouldn't have fallen in love with, this was all retribution!
Su Zhan stood up at this time, clenching his fists and choking with sobs, he said: "You are so lucky, Tai Shu will definitely have the same good luck. As long as he gets a complete body, he can also live like you."
Du Heng was shocked: "You still want to take over Tai Shuhong's body and put your old lover in it?! Have you asked Tai Shuhong before doing this?"
Su Zhan strode towards the center of the formation: "I raised him this big just for this day."
Du Heng hurriedly shouted: "You don't have to do this! You can let Jiang Shangzhou use your flesh and blood to refine a puppet body like mine. Wouldn't it be the same if you let Tai Shuhong possess it?!"
Su Zhan looked at the handsome Tai Shuhong with his eyes closed on the ground. He leaned over and drew a circular symbol on Tai Shuhong's forehead with his spiritual energy: "Yes, when we refine the same puppet in the future, it will be the same if we let him possess it. I can't wait any longer. Every moment and every breath without him is torture!"
Su Zhan's eyes were red as if they were about to drip blood: "I regret it. I love him. I want him to come back to life and tell him loudly. I love him. Everything I said to him before was a lie! I want to be with him. It doesn't matter if we are the same gender or not, and it doesn't matter if he is a demon cultivator or not."
After saying this, Su Zhan retreated to the edge of the formation. Golden light appeared in his hands. As he clapped his hands on the edge of the formation, the formation was activated.
Seeing the spiritual light in the formation begin to rotate, Du Heng's heart rose to his throat. He wanted to stop Su Zhan from activating the formation, but what could his limited cultivation level do?
Seeing the red light array in the hall, Xiaoxiao's anxious voice became shrill: "Chiu——" Tai Shuhong, wake up quickly!
The golden formation changed from dots to sheets, and when all the lines turned into brilliant gold, Tai Shuhong's body floated up from the center of the formation. Su Zhan's face became distorted in the brilliant golden light, and Du Heng felt a chill in his heart. He didn't know if Tai Shuhong was conscious at the moment. If he was still awake, how would he feel when he saw Su Zhan, whom he respected like a father, doing this to him!
In a flash, a brilliant golden spiritual light descended from the sky, and a slender spiritual sword suddenly stabbed into the flowing lines of the formation. The thick murderous stone was actually broken by the long sword to create a gap about one foot long.
This gap happened to be stuck on a three-inch wide line of the formation, interrupting the flow of spiritual light. The formation flashed a few times and then dimmed. Tai Shuhong's rising body slowly landed in the center of the formation.
Su Zhan's smile froze on his face. He stared blankly at the long sword on the formation: "Junior brother..."
Ye Wenqiu descended from the sky, and his foot landed lightly on the hilt of the long sword. Ye Wenqiu, like a banished immortal, looked at Su Zhan with neither sadness nor joy: "Hmm."
Seeing Ye Wenqiu appear, Jiang Shangzhou and Ning Pingxi were stunned: "Why did Third Senior Brother Ye Taishang Elder appear!"
Du Heng breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he didn't need to take out the talisman that Ye Wenqiu gave him. He ignited it in his sleeve. Fortunately, Ye Wenqiu arrived, although Du Heng didn't know where he came from. But seeing that Ye Wenqiu showed up in time to save Tai Shuhong, Du Heng planned to fry some more dried fish for him after he went out!
341
After Ye Wenqiu appeared, the air became eerily quiet. Su Zhan sat on the ground as if all his strength had been drained away: "Brother, why are you here?"
Ye Wenqiu turned to look at Du Heng: "Thank you."
Du Heng's mouth twitched. "Ye Daxian'er, at least wait until the storm has passed before thanking me. Is he afraid that he won't die fast enough? Didn't he see that Su Zhan and Jiang Shangzhou looked at him with bloodshot eyes?"
Du Heng shrank his neck and said vaguely: "Well, this is a matter between you two brothers. Can I drag Tai Shuhong away?"
A flash of light flashed in Ye Wenqiu's hand, and Tai Shuhong suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. He turned over and sat in the center of the formation. Xiaoxiao opened the iron cage at some point, and he flew out and pounced on Tai Shuhong.
Tai Shuhong hugged Xiaoxiao subconsciously, and after touching her, he looked up at Su Zhan at the edge of the formation. There was calmness, sadness, a more secret grief, and a little inexplicable relief in his eyes.
Ye Wenqiu stretched out his hand to Jiang Shangzhou: "Master's Seven-Star Lotus Platform, let me see it." In the past few years, whenever Ye Wenqiu said this, Jiang Shangzhou always laughed it off and didn't let Ye Wenqiu see it. But today he couldn't refuse, the Seven-Star Lotus Platform was in his hand, and he had to take it out.
Jiang Shangzhou was still afraid of Ye Wenqiu, even though he usually looked careless around Ye Wenqiu. He knew that his third brother was a man of his word, so he could be vague about small matters, but he couldn't fool him when it came to big matters.
Jiang Shangzhou lowered his head and held the lotus platform in front of Ye Wenqiu with both hands. Ye Wenqiu stretched out his hands to catch the lotus platform, but as soon as he raised his hands, a ray of spiritual light came in from the side. Who is Ye Wenqiu? He is the first cultivator to achieve the state of godhood in the human cultivation world in recent years. How could he allow others to snatch away what he is about to get?
Ye Wenqiu tapped his toes lightly, and his body spun lightly on the hilt of the sword. Du Heng didn't see how he made the move, he only heard a muffled groan, and when he looked closely, he saw that Su Zhan had been kicked away by Ye Wenqiu.
Ye Wenqiu lowered his eyes and placed the lotus platform in his palm. His spiritual sense probed into the lotus platform, completely ignoring Su Zhan's desperate expression.
Jiang Shangzhou said anxiously: "Senior Brother Ye, I am not..." Ye Wenqiu said slowly: "You still didn't listen to the master's teachings."
Jiang Shangzhou smiled bitterly, "I joined late, and the words that Master said to me combined are not as good as what he said to you in one day. On one side is my senior brother who takes care of me, and on the other side is Master, who do you think I should listen to? I know that you have always wanted to get the lotus platform that Master left behind. Do you think I want this thing? Although I have the lotus platform, I have not let it recognize its master so far. You have already refined the spiritual treasures that Master gave you, but I can only watch mine."
Ye Wenqiu looked at Jiang Shangzhou calmly, and he handed the lotus platform to Jiang Shangzhou again. Jiang Shangzhou looked up at Ye Wenqiu in surprise: "You... didn't come here to grab the lotus platform?"
Ye Wenqiu said: "If I want the lotus platform, with Master's preference for me, do you think it will be your turn?" Jiang Shangzhou was ashamed when he heard this: "But..."
Du Heng had no time to care about the love-hate relationship between the three brothers. He hurried to the center of the formation and pulled up Tai Shuhong: "Tai Shu, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell? Can you stand up?"
Xiaoxiao also raised her head and looked at Tai Shuhong inquiringly. Tai Shuhong shook his head in confusion: "Not bad."
Tai Shuhong was not well. He didn't know what happened before he woke up. Lying in the formation, his body was asleep, but his consciousness was awake. He heard Su Zhan's plan and the conversation between Ning Pingxi and Du Heng. He could feel the warmth of Xiaoxiao's wings flapping on his face, and he could also feel that his consciousness was being dragged away, which made him panic.
Tai Shuhong looked at Su Zhan who was kicked away. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something. However, he opened his mouth but still couldn't say anything. Instead, Su Zhan coughed up a mouthful of blood and staggered from outside the square to the edge of the formation.
Ye Wenqiu's voice came: "Think carefully, have I ever asked you for the Seven-Star Lotus Platform during the years since it came into your hands? When was the first time I asked you about the Lotus Platform?"
Jiang Shangzhou thought about it seriously, and shook his head in confusion: "I don't remember much." Ye Wenqiu said: "It was after Taishu Hong's mountain was destroyed. I was afraid that Su Zhan would become a demon because of his obsession, and I was afraid that he would set his sights on the Seven-Star Lotus Platform. However, you didn't show it to me, and Su Zhan looked very calm, so I didn't ask much. It was not until these recent years that I vaguely felt that something seemed to have happened between the two of you. That's when I asked about the whereabouts of the lotus platform."
Ye Wenqiu looked at his embarrassed fellow apprentices and said, "You should know that taking someone's body is a serious crime. Even helping someone take their body is not allowed by the sect."
Su Zhan wiped the blood from his lips with a bitter smile. He whispered, "I am the elder of the Punishment Hall. No one knows the sect's rules and punishments better than me."
Ye Wenqiu said disappointedly: "Then why did you knowingly commit the crime?"
Su Zhan stared at the dazzling seven-star lotus in Jiang Shangzhou's hand with his eyes fixed on him. He laughed at himself and said, "Yes, I did it knowingly. In addition to helping others seize bodies, I also took innocent lives. I know that my sins are not light, but as long as he can survive, what does it matter if it is against the will of heaven? I made a mistake, and the way of heaven will naturally punish me, but what did he do wrong? Why did he end up with his soul torn apart?"
Tai Shuhong spoke up at this time: "The only mistake he made was to admire you."
As soon as the words fell, Su Zhan's body seemed to be struck by lightning. He looked at Tai Shuhong in astonishment: "What did you say?!"
Tai Shuhong seemed calm and said, "I broke out of my shell in the flames, and I could feel some things in the outside world from inside the shell. Do you know what really prompted me to break out of my shell? It was the powerful impact of the explosion of Tai Shuhong's refining furnace, Tai Shuhong's flesh and blood, and your tears. From the day I broke out of my shell, I knew about your love-hate relationship, but I didn't say it."
Su Zhan's voice was hoarse: "Why don't you say it?!"
Tai Shuhong said: "You wanted my body but never told me, and you treated me like a son. I think what is missed is missed after all. I thought you would look forward."
He finally revealed an ugly smile with the corners of his mouth: "But what I thought was what I thought after all. Eight hundred years of living together day and night is not as good as your obsession. I want to ask you, Su Zhan, you are determined to resurrect Tai Shuhong. Is it because you love him or is it an obsession that arises after you can no longer control the situation?"
Su Zhan was stunned by Tai Shuhong's question, then he came to his senses and said loudly: "Of course I love him!"
Tai Shuhong asked, "Why didn't you talk to him properly in the past years? Did you have to make him feel sad for you?"
Su Zhan regretted it: "I can only blame myself for being too proud at the time. I didn't think it through."
Tai Shuhong shook his head in disapproval. "Those who have cultivated to the Golden Core stage and above are not fools. It's possible that you can't figure something out after a day or two of thinking about it, or you can't figure it out after thousands of years of thinking about it. I think that's not because you can't figure it out, but because you don't want to think about it, or... you don't care at all."
Su Zhan seemed to have been poked in a sore spot. He knelt on the ground with a plop: "No, I care. I have always cared about him. I love him. I really love him."
Tai Shuhong said: "When the refining furnace exploded, he was standing next to me. Although I was still an egg at that time, I knew it was him. His flesh and blood were blown apart by the refining furnace and covered my eggshell. I heard his voice, just like he usually spoke to me. I think he should not be able to speak at that time. What I heard should be his obsession. He said: What a pity..."
Tai Shuhong said: "When your tears fell on my eggshell, I heard your voice. You said: Why is it like this? Am I right?"
Su Zhan shook his head frantically: "No! It's not like that! I'm just too proud to accept him. It's not that I don't love him."
Tai Shuhong's face was calm but his eyes were red. "That's between you and him. You've already let him down once. Even if you have a thousand words to say to him, you shouldn't involve innocent people. Su Zhan, let me ask you, are all the care and love you've shown me over the years fake?"
Xiaoxiao was curled up in Taishuhong's arms. As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a drop of water hitting his back. He looked up and saw Taishuhong lowering his head and crying. Seeing Taishuhong crying, Xiaoxiao opened her mouth and started crying too: "Chiu..."
Tai Shuhong wiped his tears with the back of his hand, but he couldn't stop crying. Instead, the more he wiped, the more tears came. Tai Shuhong was a cold person by nature, and it was rare to see him so excited. He tried hard to maintain his usual aloofness, but it didn't work. He couldn't do it.
There was a huge hole in his heart that couldn't be closed no matter what he did.
Tai Shuhong choked up and asked, "He gave me the same name as him, and said he hoped I could live on with his unfulfilled wish. He let me manage the Beast Garden because I was timid and didn't want to see anyone. He comforted me, encouraged me, and praised me when I was lonely, hoping that I would be an upright and warm demon cultivator. Is all this... fake? Have I been living a lie since I was born?"
Tai Shuhong couldn't bear the grief, he tried hard to make himself look less embarrassed. But his nose was already red from crying, he asked word by word: "Just tell me, have you been lying to me all these years?"
Tai Shuhong saw all the details of his time with Su Zhan. He didn't want to use the most malicious thoughts to guess him. In his heart, Su Zhan was like a father and brother. Before he was knocked unconscious by Su Zhan, if someone told him: Tai Shuhong, Su Zhan wants your body to revive his sweetheart. Tai Shuhong would not believe it at all. In his opinion, Su Zhan was gentle and kind, who could tolerate his little flaws and was the best person in the world to him.
Before he woke up, he had always been so sure. But now that he woke up, he began to question everything in the past.
Tai Shuhong sniffed. Although he didn't talk much, he was always smart. "You named me Tai Shuhong because you hope that people around me can accept this name. When he comes back and occupies my body in the future, he can continue to live with this name. You let me take charge of the Beast Garden because there are more spirit beasts than people in the Beast Garden, and I don't need to have much contact with outsiders. Even if he and I have different personalities in the future, you can declare to the outside world that it was my practice that caused my personality to change. I prefer swordsmanship, but you insisted on letting me practice the art of refining weapons.
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