Chapter 115 Is My Hatred Related to the Destroyer?
The room was filled with the rich aroma of herbs. It was early autumn, and the chill had not yet set in, but the man sitting at the table was already wearing a thick fox fur coat.
The man's skin was pale, but sickly, lacking color. His face was thin, with only his eyes showing a sharp, spirited glint.
Mu Yong'an clenched his fist and placed it to his lips, coughing softly. With his other hand, he picked up the freshly brewed tea and filled the cup opposite him.
Mei Liangyu strolled over to the table and sat down. Seeing that Mu Yong'an was still coughing, she asked, "Should I ask Yan Xiaochuan to get you some medicine?"
Mu Yong'an waved his hand, indicating that it wasn't necessary, then looked up at him with a calm expression and asked, "What do you want to know today?"
Mei Liangyu placed the Wind Listening Ruler on the table, lit up its surface, and the message he had received was reflected on it.
Mu Yong'an glanced down, shook his head and smiled, "Gao Tianhao has been dead for so long, and you still can't let go of his affairs?"
Mei Liangyu wasn't doing this for Gao Tianhao, but for his junior sister, but he wouldn't say that now. He simply nodded and said, "I've decided to restore my memories."
Mu Yong'an paused in his teacup-picking motion, staring sharply at him.
Mei Liangyu said without changing his expression, "But Uncle Mu, you also know my temperament. I don't easily believe what others say. I only believe my own memory."
Mu Yong'an once told him, "There are some things I will only tell you when you decide to regain your memories."
It's up to you to choose what kind of life you want to live in the future.
Will you choose to listen to your master, forget the past, and start your life anew, or will you remember the past and inherit those grudges and entanglements?
“There are some things I can’t say too clearly, at least not in Taiyi. Some names are taboo in Taiyi; the moment they are uttered, one will be monitored from all directions.” Mu Yong’an picked up his teacup, took a sip, and after a moment of contemplation, said, “I’ll grant your request first. You want to know about things related to the Destroyer of Worlds?”
Mei Liangyu took back the Wind-Listening Ruler and asked, "Is my grudge related to the World Destroyer?"
“No,” Mu Yong’an said.
Mei Liangyu then asked, "Who was the destroyer of the world who died this time?"
“A young man named Yu Xian, from the Dan Kingdom.” Mu Yong’an tapped the table with his fingertips, which were wet with tea, and slowly slid them down the surface.
As he moved, the desktop flashed with dark blue characters, all of which were records related to Yu Xian.
Mei Liangyu crossed his arms and looked around with his eyes down.
Mu Yong'an was also looking at the text that appeared on the desktop, and said in a low voice: "After this trip to Dan Kingdom, the six kingdoms and Taiyi have decided to restart the 'Water Boat Project'."
"Over the past six hundred years, the mainland has had many attempts and disagreements in dealing with the world destroyers. At the beginning of the prophecy, it was the sage of the medical school who suggested that the five world destroyers be kept under guard to prevent the world from being destroyed."
"But in that same year, those five world destroyers caused massive casualties and burned countless people to death in Dan Kingdom, Qingyang, Nanjing, Taiyuan and Yan Kingdom for various reasons."
As Mu Yong'an explained, the words on the table transformed into tiny portraits, and the mountains, forests, and cities were engulfed in flames.
A map of the Xuan Gu Continent appeared on the desktop. Mu Yong'an pointed his wet finger at the easternmost part of the continent: "The first time, the strange fire started from here and burned to the westernmost part."
The scope of the incident was vast, and the casualties were immense. Saints, masters of the thirteenth realm, ninth-rate sorcerers, and ordinary people were all affected. If one were to count them all, the number would be enormous.
"The power of the Strange Fire is too great; it can burn away the Five Elements Qi, and thus all the Nine Schools of Arts. However, in the early days of the Xuan Gu, it did not burn the World Destroyers to death. Therefore, the World Destroyers were safe and could use the Strange Fire at will. We can only stop the spread of the Strange Fire by killing the World Destroyers," Mu Yong'an said. "The Sage of Medicine advocated cooperating with the World Destroyers to study the power of the Strange Fire together. Thus, the six kingdoms joined forces to create the 'Water Boat' to imprison World Destroyers who were willing to cooperate."
He tapped the southwest direction of the mainland, and an icon of a small boat appeared on the desktop.
"The destroyers are randomly selected; anyone can be one of them. Some people rely on the power of the strange fire to want many things, such as money and power. The six kingdoms initially advocated peaceful coexistence because they also feared the power of the strange fire and did not want to be its enemy."
"As long as the Destroyer does not use the power of the strange fire, no disaster will occur."
Mu Yong'an then pointed to Qingyang Kingdom and said, "Lu Feixiao, the destroyer of Qingyang Kingdom; he was once the steward of the Eastern King's Mansion. Later, he burned the people of the Eastern King's Mansion to death and abducted the princess of the mansion. He then went to Baiqing Prefecture, where he abducted many young and beautiful girls. Later, he demanded that the King of Qingyang Kingdom hand over his queen, or he would burn Qingyang to ashes."
As he explained, the text and images on the table changed, and what appeared before Mei Liangyu was a map of the Xuan Gu Continent being swallowed by flames.
"Yin Qiao, the destroyer of the Yan Kingdom; she gathered believers in the Strange Fire and formed the Strange Fire Cult, killing people for money. She promulgated the Strange Fire Laws, and those who did not abide by them would be surrounded and killed by the followers of the Strange Fire Cult, whether they were ordinary people or low-level sorcerers."
"Tang Chi, the destroyer of the Zhou Kingdom; after his wife and children were brutally murdered by mountain bandits, he was chosen by a strange fire and began to take revenge on the world, slaughtering eight mountains and six cities."
"At that time, although the strange fire would not burn the world destroyer to death, it could destroy fifteen Ghost Path Sanctuaries with just one use."
Mei Liangyu stared at the map on the table, listening to Mu Yong'an recount the world destroyers in history. As each name appeared, the flames on the map grew stronger.
"There are also peaceful world destroyers, but compared to these beings that bring immense harm and leave countless people with hatred and pain, they are not enough to make people feel at ease."
"Bai Cheng, the destroyer of Taiyuan Kingdom, was the first destroyer to agree to Taiyi's request to enter the water boat and cooperate with the saints on how to seal and eliminate the strange fire."
"But at that time, people's fear and hatred of the strange fire had reached its peak. Even saints, when faced with a powerful force that could instantly burn them up and render any low-level techniques or divine techniques useless, were essentially handing their lives over to the other party."
"When the people in the water boat thought that Bai Cheng was genuinely cooperating, he killed six saints, burned the water boat almost entirely, and then fled."
Mu Yong'an looked up at Mei Liangyu and said in a low voice, "He doesn't want to cooperate; he wants to destroy the watership that imprisons the World Destroyer."
Mei Liangyu moved his eyes, his tone devoid of emotion, and said, "Isn't this just about letting different people in the world obtain the power to destroy the world, and then seeing how these different people react and how they use this power?"
"Who in the world doesn't want power? When bad things happen, when you're bullied, or when you're lying in bed bored and daydreaming, you'll think about it," Mu Yong'an tapped his forehead acupoint. "I wish I could be like that, or maybe I should become like that someday."
"The strange fire brings fear to the world and fills people with hatred for the destroyer. Everyone is afraid that one day, in a moment, they will be burned to ashes because they are not the ones who gained the power."
This is why people will feel more deeply that the world is determined by those who wield power.
Mu Yong'an pointed back at the small boat in the southwest corner, his gaze fixed on it: "Every day on the Xuan Gu Continent, people are born and people die. After those who took a conservative approach to the World Destroyer died, the continent's attitude towards the World Destroyer changed, and they began to surround and kill the World Destroyer."
"Once discovered, they will be killed without exception."
"Because of the experiences of the past two hundred years, people have no patience or trust in the destroyers. If they are soft-hearted, thousands or tens of thousands of people will die. This is how the world has always been, with the minority sacrificing for the majority."
Mei Liangyu raised an eyebrow upon hearing this: "How did you discover them, and how did you kill them?"
Mu Yong'an said, "It's thanks to the divination of the sorcerers."
Mei Liangyu suddenly thought of the divine tree seed in the Dragon Slayer Cave, and her brows furrowed slightly.
"But so far, only Qin Qi, a master of the arts, has been able to accurately predict the strange fire. He ultimately perished along with the Destroyer, and it was then that people discovered that the Destroyer could no longer control the strange fire." Mu Yong'an pointed in the direction of Zhou Kingdom and said, "The strange fire is also changing. Its power is becoming stronger and stronger, so strong that even the Destroyer cannot control it. Once used, it will burn itself. In a sense, this can be considered as curbing the Destroyer from using the power of the strange fire to commit evil without cause."
"The reason why Qin Qi wanted to kill the World Destroyer was because the Southern Jing planned to attack the Zhou Kingdom, and the mastermind behind it was the World Destroyer of Southern Jing, Ke Heng."
"Ke Heng is very clever and hides himself very well. He only sends his subordinates to infiltrate the upper echelons and nobles of Nan Jing. Almost half of the people in the Nan Jing court are his people. He also persuaded the then Prince of Nan Jing to attack the Zhou Kingdom and made preparations for it, while he hid in a corner of the Nan Jing royal city, working as an inconspicuous noodle shop owner."
Mei Liangyu gazed at the two figures representing Ke Heng and Qin Qi on the table and pondered, "How does Ke Heng plan to attack the Zhou Kingdom? The six kingdoms have a vow of non-aggression."
“There is a way, otherwise how could the Yan Kingdom be divided up by the three kingdoms of Qingyang, Nanjing, and Taiyuan?” Mu Yong’an paused for a moment after saying this, then pointed to the location of Nanjing Kingdom and said, “You must remember this: because of the oath of non-war, the power of a sage will be weakened when he goes to another country, but if he is pursuing the destroyer of the world, his power will not be bound by the oath.”
"Army cavalry cannot bypass the border barrier of the oath of non-war, and military warriors cannot enter other countries to carry out large-scale war activities. However, low-level sorcerers below the Saint level can enter at will, lie in wait for a long time, and disrupt the fundamental strength and power distribution of other countries."
"Spies from the six states are everywhere, and they never stop probing each other. The low-level sorcerers who entered Yan state first began to undermine the sects and aristocratic families. They used the pretexts of winning hearts and minds, interests, and strange abilities to persuade their husbands, wives, and children to grow up in Yan state, but their blood and hearts belong to the other six states."
“Give more benefits to the higher-ups so they will cooperate with us, then exploit the common people below, incite public resentment and anger, kill the ambitious first, and then eliminate the strategists.”
"For the past hundred years, the Qingyang Kingdoms have been targeting both the Yan Kingdom's court and its sorcerers, infiltrating Yan Kingdom from the bottom up." Mu Yong'an said, pointing to Qingyang. "The Nangong family of Qingyang has used their scheming for generations over hundreds of years on the Yan Kingdom."
Mei Liangyu lowered her eyes and looked towards Qingyang's position. Her dark eyes reflected the light of the calligraphy and painting, flickering on and off.
Nangong Ming's plan to bypass the six states' oath of non-aggression and completely conquer the Yan state is almost complete.
Mu Yong'an was also looking at the location of the Yan Kingdom on the table. His sharp gaze was inconsistent with his thin and sickly body, as if all the energy in his body was contained in his eyes.
“Now, the Yan Kingdom only has one agricultural sage left, Yan Manfeng,” Mu Yong’an said. “Although he is still seriously injured, he is the symbol of hope for the Yan Kingdom. If he dies, those who still have hope for the Yan Kingdom will die with him.”
Mei Liangyu asked, "Was Yan Manfeng's injury caused by the Breath of Earth?"
“Not only that.” Mu Yong’an shook his head and coughed a few times. “The person who took the Breath Soil was his junior sister, Su Xing. No one expected that Su Xing would cooperate with Nangong Ming.”
“Nangong Ming is extremely adept at seeing through other people’s weaknesses and using that to create opportunities for himself to get everything he wants.” Mu Yong’an picked up his teacup, took a sip of water to moisten his throat, and as he spoke, some memories flashed through his mind. In the end, he just shook his head and said to Mei Liangyu, “Yan Manfeng’s injuries are incurable, and death is only a matter of time. Nangong Ming’s few acts of kindness, or rather his arrogance, are just waiting for Yan Manfeng to die on his own.”
"Even if the people of Yan kill Nangong Ming's daughter and take back the Breath Soil, they cannot save him."
Mei Liangyu thought about it carefully and felt that Nangong Ming might not be arrogant.
Yan Manfeng was the last hope of the Yan people, but in these eighteen years, instead of hastening his death, he was allowed to live on as "hope," giving others the belief that there was still a chance to turn the tide.
By sending those who have hope, strength, and a promising future to kill Nangong Sui, we are weakening the strength of the younger generation of Yan and crushing Yan's hopes little by little.
When Yan Manfeng dies, the Yan Kingdom will experience a brief outburst of anger. Nangong Ming only needs to suppress this momentary counterattack to completely crush the Yan Kingdom and make them give up the struggle.
Moreover, Qingyang wasn't the only one eyeing Yan; Nangong Ming also had to guard against Nan Jing and Taiyuan. Keeping Yan Manfeng alive was more useful than killing him.
"I'm telling you all this because once you remember, he will be your enemy." Mu Yong'an pointed to the location of the Qingyang Nangong family.
Mei Liangyu looked down.
Mu Yong'an covered his mouth and coughed a few times, dimming the light on the table. Mei Liangyu looked up at him and said, "That's all for tonight."
"It's alright. If we don't say what we have to say now, we might never have the chance again." Mu Yong'an reached out to tap the table, trying to relight the calligraphy and painting, but Mei Liangyu stopped him.
He frowned, knowing that some things couldn't be said; if he said too much, it might endanger Mu Yong'an's life.
Before Mei Liangyu could stop him and speak, Mu Yong'an laughed and said, "Don't worry, I won't die anytime soon."
As Mu Yong'an relit the calligraphy and paintings on the desktop, the fire on the Xuan Gu map subsided slightly, replaced by the gentle flow of clear water: "Heaven and earth have made it clear that water and fire cannot coexist. The greatest known weakness of the strange fire is its host, the World Destroyer. As long as the World Destroyer dies, the strange fire will cease to burn."
"When the strange fire descended upon the Xuan Gu Continent, some low-level sorcerers called for strengthening the strange abilities and techniques related to the water element of the Five Elements. However, this was of little use to the strange fire, which was capable of burning away the Qi of the Five Elements."
"After Qin Qi preemptively killed the World Destroyer Ke Heng, the traces of the World Destroyer disappeared for nearly a hundred years. It wasn't until around the fifth hundredth year that the World Destroyer began to reappear one after another."
"At this time, the attitude of the Xuan Gu Continent towards the World Destroyers was that as long as you do not reveal your identity, you will be fine; but once you reveal your identity as a World Destroyer, you will surely die."
Mei Liangyu pondered, "Because at this time, the strange fire will also burn the destroyer to death?"
Mu Yong'an nodded: "The destroyers are no longer protected by the power of the strange fire."
As he spoke, he lowered his eyes to look at the places on the map that had been burned by the strange fire, and sighed softly, "Perhaps it is not the strange fire that wants to destroy the world, but the person who possesses it."
Strange fire is simply a power beyond people's imagination and beyond their control.
Mei Liangyu said, "Perhaps it is the power of the strange fire evolving."
"The Water Boat was built by the joint organization of the six countries on an island deep in the southwest sea." Mu Yong'an said, looking at the location of the Water Boat on the map. "It was originally designed and built by your father's family, but most of your father's family died when Bai Cheng burned the Water Boat for the first time, and the once large family declined as a result."
Mei Liangyu remained calm. He had no memory of his time with his father and only heard about the past from snippets of conversation from others, which he found completely unreal.
"One hundred and twenty-three years ago, Situ Wen, a master of mechanical arts, imprisoned his younger sister, Situ Fei, in a water boat."
As Mu Yong'an spoke, the Situ family crest appeared beside the water boat: "Situ Wen, the current grandmother of the Situ family, after her younger sister Situ Fei was chosen by the strange fire, the two sisters discussed and decided to send Situ Fei to the water boat to study the strange fire."
"But not many people are willing to go to the Water Boat to study the Strange Fire together, because the Strange Fire is uncontrollable, and the rebuilt Water Boat cannot gain the trust of others, who consider it unsafe."
"In the same year, another person revealed their identity as the Destroyer of Worlds: Zhao Xiayan, a woman from the Yan Kingdom, and also the Zhao Consort of the Yan Kingdom. Situ Wen asked her to enter the water boat to study the strange fire together."
"Zhao Xiayan said that she was trapped in the Yan Kingdom's harem for the first half of her life. She finally had the power to leave, but was then imprisoned in a water boat. She did not want to live such a life, so she escaped."
Upon hearing this, Mei Liangyu's eyes darted around, and he said, "Could it be that they used something that Situ Fei researched to successfully kill Zhao Xiayan?"
Mu Yong'an glanced at him with some surprise, then nodded and said, "Aside from the divination of the Fang family, only the spiritual objects of heaven and earth can detect the identity of the World Destroyer. In the beginning, when the strange fire did not harm the World Destroyer, it was easier to kill them. As long as you were fast enough, you could kill them with one blow before they released the strange fire. At that time, most of the time it was done by assassination."
"Now that we are facing the Destroyer, both sides are in danger. We don't know when is the right time to make a move. Even if the Destroyer is still alive, it can still release its strange fire."
“Situ Fei only has one chance. She told Situ Wen her guess in advance: the strange fire burns, and water is useless to block it, but it also has a priority when burning things. The five elements of heaven and earth are the things it burns first.”
The water boat on the map was enveloped in rings of flames. Mu Yong'an pointed his finger in the air, and countless tiny figures appeared, surrounding the water boat: "With enough people and enough Five Elements Qi gathered, we can slightly slow down the burning speed of the strange fire. It does indeed prioritize burning the Five Elements Qi. The massive Five Elements Qi generated in an instant will cause the burning speed of the strange fire to pause briefly; even if it's just for a moment, it's enough to kill the Destroyer in that gap."
"This experiment surprised everyone by discovering that the Destroyer might not necessarily die when burned by the strange fire."
“Situ Fei had three chances to release her strange fire, and she only died on the fourth time she released it,” Mu Yong’an said. “When we were chasing Zhao Xiayan, we also gave her the first chance to release her strange fire, and Zhao Xiayan was not completely burned to death by the strange fire.”
"Some world destroyers are burned to death when they release their strange fire, while others can release it two or three times. It is precisely because of this instability that some people believe that the world destroyers must be killed."
Mu Yong'an pointed to Taiyi: "Gao Tianhao came to Taiyi, wanting to find a way to remove the strange fire, but I think that a way to remove the strange fire does not exist. His understanding of the strange fire seems to be limited to the changes it has undergone in the last hundred years; there are some things he doesn't know, and some things we don't know."
Mei Liangyu looked at the little figure standing on the table, with Gao Tianhao's name written on it, and couldn't help but chuckle: "After he died, I even wondered if I had some connection with the strange fire, which is why he always took the initiative to greet me when he saw me."
Mu Yong'an replied, "Gao Tianhao's closeness to you is not because of the strange fire, but because you saved him before."
“Me?” Mei Liangyu raised an eyebrow.
Mu Yong'an looked down at the map and said calmly, "But Sage Chang Gen is unaware of this matter."
Mei Liangyu vaguely sensed his master's stance, which seemed somewhat opposed to his own, but he didn't dwell on it. Before regaining all his memories, he was reluctant to think about what his master had done.
"The saints who returned from their trip to Dan Kingdom seem to have made new discoveries. Therefore, they have decided to unite with the six kingdoms and announce to the outside world next month that they will give the Destroyers a chance to give up using strange fire to harm this continent and take the initiative to go to the Water Boat for cooperation."
He went to Shuizhou, where he was imprisoned for life.
Would a world destroyer want such a life?
Upon hearing this, Mei Liangyu recalled the scene when Yu Sui first learned the art of wind manipulation.
On her way back to her dormitory, the junior sister skipped and hopped, running and walking. She used her Wind Riding Technique to run ahead for a while, then deliberately turned back to look at him walking behind her.
The girl stood in the peach blossom grove, her eyes full of smiles, curiously and contentedly looking at the flowers on the trees. She finally had time to see all the scenery that she hadn't had time to see before.
Looking back now, that must have been one of the few truly happy moments in my junior's life.
It's impossible to send her to that cold, desolate place like Shuizhou to be locked up for life, or even to die there.
Mei Liangyu and Mu Yong'an talked for a long time, until dawn.
As Mei Liangyu rose to take his leave and told him to rest well, Mu Yong'an looked up at the tall figure walking towards the door and asked in a hoarse voice, "Do you know what country you are?"
Mei Liangyu paused in pushing the door open, and whispered, "I know."
“Someone will come looking for you soon,” Mu Yong’an said. “Someone from outside.”
Mei Liangyu turned to look at him.
Mu Yong'an traced a line on the table with his fingertip, and the glowing calligraphy and painting faded away. He lowered his head and said, "When you leave Taiyi, remember to take Xiao Chuan with you. When you regain all your memories, you will know who he is."
"good."
Mei Liangyu didn't ask any further questions and readily agreed.
He couldn't ask any more questions; Mu Yong'an had said enough tonight.
After Mei Liangyu left, Mu Yong'an suddenly coughed, spitting blood all over the table. He covered his mouth with his hand, but blood still couldn't be stopped from seeping out from between his fingers.
The suppressed coughing sounded as if he wanted to vomit out his heart and lungs.
The shadowy figure behind the screen transformed into a graceful silhouette, and a woman's cold, detached voice rang out: "You might as well talk to him a little more, so that neither of you will be able to leave this building alive."
Mu Yong'an said, "He won't die."
The woman sneered, "I'm not talking about Mei Liangyu, but about you and your apprentice."
[Author's Note]
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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