Chapter 83
The wind and snow continued to blow on the snow-capped mountains of Cangmo, as if it had been blowing for thousands of years. No matter how the world changed, the snow-capped mountains stood there, unchanged despite the passing of wind and snow.
On the snow-capped mountain peak, the blood was gradually covered by the falling snow, like a magnificent crimson robe fading with time. But only an hour had passed.
But within that one hour, a long time had passed in the world of that unfolded scroll of memories.
It wasn't until Chu Xianyue witnessed it firsthand that little Xie Wen was taken back to Yunyin Divine Mountain by Jiang Boyu. However, their peaceful days didn't last long. Jiang Boyu was punished by Heaven for violating its laws and was struck by lightning for three days and three nights on the execution platform. In the end, he could only go into seclusion, severely injured. Before leaving, he instructed his uncle to take good care of little Xie Wen.
However, Jiang Boyu was unaware that this senior uncle had long harbored ulterior motives towards him. Jiang Boyu was inherently arrogant and conceited. He possessed extraordinary talent, but instead of concealing it, he was also quite rebellious, which had long incurred the secret wrath of many disciples in Yunyin Divine Mountain. This time, Jiang Boyu not only failed to ascend but was also severely injured by heavenly lightning and forced into seclusion.
The other disciples took this opportunity to strip Jiang Boyu of all his power. At the same time, they kicked the little bastard he had brought back out of Yunyin Divine Mountain. The thousands of steps of Yunyin Divine Mountain stretched for thousands of miles. Xiao Xie Wen was carried by Jiang Boyu's uncle with one hand like a chick. Without saying much, he kicked him down the endless downward steps like a football.
Chu Xianyue instinctively wanted to catch little Xie Wen, but once again he looked at her as a child, passing through him as if passing through a wisp of air. At that time, Xie Wen was only five or six years old. Her small body rolled messily down the thousand steps, swirling down like the wind.
Besides that, Chu Xianyue could only watch helplessly as she kowtowed until her head was bleeding and her whole body was covered in bruises.
The tumbling sound of Little Shewen spinning down the steps startled the birds on the hilltop, who scattered in all directions, their cries echoing through the sky.
Even birds could sing for her. But Chu Xianyue couldn't make her hear a single syllable. He couldn't protect Xie Wen as a child, and could only watch helplessly as she disappeared before his eyes as an adult. Never before had he felt so powerless and in so much pain.
Xiao Xiewen didn't know how long she rolled before she finally stopped. Just as she rolled down, she caught on a thorn. The thorn was deeply embedded in Xiao Xiewen's flesh and blood, pulling her down and barely stopping her.
But when she tried to stand up again, her body was covered in bruises and blood, and her clean face was filthy. Xiao Xiewen didn't have time to care about these things. She was busy removing the thorns that were deeply embedded in her flesh, but these thorns were long and poisonous. Once they tasted blood, they were unwilling to leave.
Finally, having exhausted all other options, Xiao Xiewen simply twisted the thorn in half, the remaining piece already deeply embedded in her flesh. She then continued down the mountain with that piece of thorn in her hand.
What she couldn't see was that on the other side of this time and space, a handsome immortal was squatting in front of her, trying to wipe the blood and dirt off her face, but no matter how hard he tried, it was no use, and all his efforts were in vain.
Xiao Xiewen straightened up and looked into the distance. Her eyes met Chu Xianyue's across time and space, causing Chu Xianyue's heart to skip a beat. Then, Xiao Xiewen looked away from Chu Xianyue and continued walking down the mountain.
After Xiao Xiewen left, she didn't know that someone was shedding tears for her.
Later, Chu Xianyue learned that when Xiao Xie Wen was kicked down the thousand steps and stood up again, she didn't shed a single tear or utter a word of pain, simply because she had damaged her brain. The moment she got up again, her thought was, "Why am I here?"
Chu Xianyue followed Xiao Xiewen all the way, witnessing all her joys and sorrows. After Xiao Xiewen descended the mountain, she didn't know who she was or where she should go. She could only walk aimlessly towards where there were people. Along the way, she stayed in dilapidated temples, caves, and dog kennels. However, she didn't see anyone watching her from another time and space, staying with her in dilapidated temples and caves, or guarding her by the dog kennel.
Chu Xianyue witnessed firsthand how Xiao Xiewen traveled all the way to Qingshui Town.
In this place, she stole white radishes from someone else's garden. While washing the radishes by the river, she met Shen Lizhi. She shared the radishes she had managed to steal with Shen Lizhi and sat with her until dusk. However, this time, Chu Xianyue was also sitting next to them.
One morning later, when Xiao Xie Wen was cleaning the chicken coop, he happened to meet Xiao Xie Yi Chun's eyes in a fleeting moment. Both of them had fear in their eyes.
Xie Wen was taken in and cared for by Xie Yichun in this way.
The two then depended on each other for survival, enduring hardships and wanderings together in this world.
He walked through her memories in this scroll of recollections, experiencing her joys and sorrows.
Ah Wen, oh Ah Wen, you were born into that desolate, sunless sea, suffering endless torment from a young age. At five or six, you were killed by your own father. Though it was for a new life, the feeling of death was truly real, and the pain of passing truly descended upon you. You finally got a second chance at life, but your hope was shattered soon after. When you fell down the thousand steps, when you wandered aimlessly, when everyone despised you, how much you hated yourself for not being by her side.
Chu Xianyue watched her walk further and further away, and she left him again.
Before his tears could fall, the memory abruptly vanished, ripped from his mind. His vision blurred, not with tears, but with the wind and snow.
He blinked and found himself standing atop a snow-capped mountain.
The memory scroll beside him snapped shut like a flame being extinguished, and Chu Xianyue's consciousness returned. He was finally able to sense Xie Wen's presence again through the blood bead.
In truth, he should have known without even thinking what Jin Huaran would force Xie Wen to do. Chu Xianyue looked up at the distant horizon, where a faint black hole seemed to be opening its eyes beneath the clouds. At the same time, through the faint spiritual power of the blood bead, he sensed that Xie Wen was located next to that bottomless black hole.
Beneath the black hole, beneath the Canglan River, Jin Huaran, carrying Xie Wen, leaped into the air without hesitation before everyone below.
At that moment, time seemed to stand still.
In that instant, three or four figures leaped forward to stop them: Li Jingyuan's, Pei Xuan's, and Yun Yan's, with Chu Xianyue's shattered figure at the very front. No one knew how he had burned himself to arrive here from the snow-capped mountain peak at a speed exceeding the limits of time and space.
However, it was too late.
Even with all his might and the depletion of his entire spiritual cultivation, he could not grasp even a wisp of her garment. Chu Xianyue could only watch helplessly as she flew past him once again. Hatred and pain contorted his face, his eyes bloodshot. "Awen!"
In her fading consciousness, Xie Wen turned and saw Chu Xianyue rushing towards her. She saw that his gaze was shattered beyond repair, like ice broken by a river. She vaguely heard the crisp sound of cracking ice, and she felt that this might actually be the sound of Chu Xianyue's heart breaking. Xie Wen tried to reach out and pull him back, to tell him not to break any further. She would never be able to mend him again.
However, the moment Xie Wen reached out her hand, it was firmly gripped by another hand. Jin Huaran turned her head around, his gaze both fierce and loving. He said, "Look at me, don't look at him."
"At a time like this, you're still thinking about him?"
As he spoke, he tightened his grip on her hand. They were just an inch away from entering the center of the black hole. All that was needed was to sacrifice one member of the Feather Clan, and the black hole would open completely, the sky would reappear, and the Netherworld would be wide open. At that time, everyone would die together.
Xie Wen closed her eyes, but just before she was swallowed by the darkness, she was suddenly pushed by a force. The moment she opened her eyes, she saw him smiling as his figure fell into the endless darkness.
In that instant, Xie Wen was pushed far away by Jin Huaran. She plummeted through the air and landed in a strong embrace. Xie Wen's gaze remained fixed on the direction in which Jin Huaran disappeared into the black hole.
Her pupils trembled.
Before he left, he only said one sentence to Xie Wen.
"Live well, and in your next life, don't want to live this life without seeing the sun again."
The sound faded away, and Jin Huaran vanished completely from sight in an instant, turning into a thick mass of darkness.
*
As Jin Huaran leaped to offer the lock, his gaze completely swallowed by darkness, a fleeting recollection of his entire life began to flash through his eyes. His memories began in the deep, dark depths of the boundless sea. Even now, the feeling of his mother severing his head and ripping out his heart for the first time remained so vivid; he would never forget the sensation of his throat being slit bit by bit and his beating heart being brutally ripped out.
He still perceived everything with such clarity and awareness.
He recalled that later, his heart stopped beating again on that night at the Canglan River. First, he was stabbed by Xie Wen, and then he was surrounded by hundreds of cultivators, with hundreds of swords piercing his heart. By then, his heart had turned into a puddle of mud, and his corpse could no longer be called human.
He died three times, and all three of those deaths were for his people.
In Jin Huaran's mind, the image of himself at five or six years old resurfaced. He was lifted up by his entire clan and carried out of the Boundless Sea. He was conscious when he was completely separated from the Boundless Sea. As the light from the outside world engulfed him, he turned around and saw countless white-haired Feather Clan members pushing him and lifting him out of the hell on earth. They looked at him with hopeful eyes, and his mother's eyes were also glistening with tears.
"My son, you bear the mission of the entire clan on your shoulders. You must rescue all the clan members and prevent them from living in darkness any longer. Even if the world is in chaos and no one can live in peace."
"I don't want to live this life without seeing the light of day anymore."
As they parted, Jin Huaran also gave Xie Wen these words.
She stabbed him twice, yet he wanted her to have a better life.
Jin Huaran had indeed found a safe and peaceful place for the Feather Clan in the South China Sea. He told Xie Wen that he had long ago set up a barrier around that place, and only the Feather Clan could enter. This barrier, this safe haven, had consumed his entire life's blood and energy.
Once the power of the Heavenly Leak breaks through the confinement of the Boundless Sea, his people will be freed and can go to the South Sea to live a carefree life.
But what about the human world? He didn't care. This was something the human world owed them.
Jin Huaran instructed Xie Wen to lead the Feather Clan there.
I don't want to live this life of darkness any longer.
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