Chapter 58 Will you keep the ring and the sword?
After leaving the Heavenly Fate Sect, Shen Zhou continued to maintain contact with Yin Zejing and Chen Xi.
Yin Zejing always said, "You should have called me along. I'll kill them for you, and then we'll leave together!"
Chen Xi did not tell him about their mothers, nor did Shen Zhou mention it.
He would only occasionally give Yin Zejing a few instructions, as if he were giving his last words.
“Chen Xi likes warm places. Don’t force her to go back to the Yin family. It’s too cold there and not suitable for her,” he said.
He took nothing with him and began a life of wandering with his new master.
Several months later, he still didn't know his master's name. Whether it was enemies or old friends, they all called him Old Li, so Shen Zhou sometimes called him Old Li as well.
Old Li is a demonic cultivator. It is said that he was once a legitimate cultivator from a prestigious sect, but later he became obsessed with becoming an immortal and tried various methods, eventually falling into demonic ways.
Such things are common in Kyushu, and Shen Zhou accepted it well. As long as he learned swordsmanship, he didn't care about anything else.
He followed Old Li, and his swordsmanship became more and more refined every day, but his cultivation stagnated and remained firmly at the peak of Qi Refining.
Chen Xi is two years younger than him and is already at the Foundation Establishment stage, not to mention Yin Zejing, who is almost at the Golden Core stage.
He didn't even dare to attempt Foundation Establishment easily, because if he failed, it would take several more years.
No matter how exceptional one's comprehension, it cannot compensate for the difference in spiritual roots. Just like a towering building, no matter how capable one is, one still needs a good foundation.
The Nine Revolutions of Heaven and Earth Technique has very strict requirements for its user; at the very least, the user must reach the Foundation Establishment stage in order for this technique to truly take effect.
The last time he met his mother, he planted an array within her body the moment she made her move. Once he completes his foundation building, the Nine Revolutions Universe Technique will be fully formed.
Regardless of when she achieves godhood or whether she succeeds, there is no need to worry anymore.
Shen Zhou had everything planned out perfectly.
He asked Chen Xi to delay his mother's ordeal, and to inform him in advance if anything unexpected happened. Chen Xi agreed and said okay.
He cultivated step by step, preparing to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
Suddenly one day, he sensed an unusual movement in the array.
The array was impacted and was rapidly weakening. This also meant that something had happened to the mother.
He dared not think about what had happened, and abandoned everything to rush towards his mother. He was too slow, so Old Li carried him, using his mind to reach the scene in a few breaths.
“Go ahead, your mother probably doesn’t like me. I’ll wait for you here,” Old Li said.
Shen Zhou didn't care what he was saying and ran forward. He saw purple lightning falling from the sky on the withered yellow field. In the middle of the ferocious lightning, his mother's figure was stained with blood, covered in wounds, and swaying precariously.
He staggered over, and saw his mother fall to the ground under the thunder, her crimson stain seemingly about to vanish at any moment.
"Mother? Mother!!"
He rushed over and lifted his mother's body, which was as fragile as a candle flickering in the wind.
His mother lay in his arms, blood streaming from her seven orifices, her face ashen, murmuring, "I have failed."
"How could this be..." Shen Zhou kept pouring magic power into her, but it was no use. Her body was like a funnel, and no matter how much magic power was poured in, it had no effect.
His mother seemed to have a great effort to open her eyes, stared at him blankly for a moment, and then said, "A-Zhou, you've grown up."
Shen Zhou was speechless; his hands and body were trembling.
The mother coughed, spitting out a mouthful of blood, her voice like a torn bellows: "All these years, I've wronged you and Chen Xi."
"No, no! I was wrong!"
Shen Zhou suddenly snapped back to his senses and tried to lift her from the ground. But he had suddenly become so weak, and his mother had become so heavy, that he was unable to get up.
He could only wipe away his tears as he continued treating her: "Mother, I know I was wrong! I didn't mean to say those things, I didn't mean to dishonor Father, I don't hate him, and I didn't mean to make you angry, I—"
“Ah Zhou,” the mother said softly.
He stopped.
The woman asked him, "Do you remember why you first took up a sword?"
"……Remember."
When he was young, his father asked him the same question, and he still remembered his answer—
"To become...a hero like my father."
The mother nodded slightly, her unfocused eyes trying to see him clearly, but all she could see was bloodshot.
She had no choice but to ask, "Have you fallen into demonic possession?"
Shen Zhou said urgently, "No, Mother, I didn't!"
He swore to God, "I really know I was wrong! I will change. I will be like you and Dad, like Chen Xi... I will be a good person. As long as you live, I will always listen to you!"
His mother leaned against him and slowly shook her head.
"Never forget your father's teachings." She spoke each word with a tearful voice, "The sword in your hand must protect all living beings, all the innocent, all the weak. Do not harbor false thoughts, do not commit evil deeds, do not..."
When she said her last sentence, Shen Zhou finally broke down, yelling, "Stop talking about him!"
The woman's body was completely eroded by the lightning tribulation; her skin was like dry, cracked plaster, peeling away layer by layer.
It is irreversible and beyond redress.
Shen Zhou held her hand tightly, choking back tears as he said, "Don't you have anything you want to say to me?"
The woman's breathing gradually weakened to a whisper. Her eyes were wide open, her face covered in blood, and she seemed to have lost all hearing.
Until the very last moment, when Shen Zhou's magic was almost exhausted, she said, "Take good care of Xi'er."
"No, no..."
"Don't go!!!"
Her flesh and bones crumbled together, leaving only a broken, mangled body, her eyes wide open in death.
Shen Zhou opened his mouth wide, unable to speak, something in his eyes seemed to be collapsing, as if mountains were crumbling and the earth was splitting.
After a long while, he knelt down and pleaded, "Don't do this to me, don't do this to me."
"Please, please don't go! I've just mastered a new sword technique, one I developed myself, it's called... it's called..."
He couldn't remember.
He covered his head, recalling the painful memories.
What's your name? What's your name?
Why can't you remember?
Why did you leave me?
"Why did I take you away...?"
Dark clouds rolled by with a muffled rumble of thunder, like a mockery from the heavens. The boy looked up, his eyes bloodshot and filled with intense hatred.
A slight rustling sound came from the nearby bushes.
The girl's light and steady footsteps sounded, and Shen Zhou turned around, his peripheral vision catching a glimpse of cyan.
Chen Xi stood there, his expression unchanged.
Shen Zhou's pupils constricted sharply, reflecting her image. He said incredulously, "You were just watching her die?!"
Chen Xi said, "Yes."
"How could you... how could you...! You used to love a wooden dragonfly, and you would take it with you no matter how many times you moved. Once, when the wooden dragonfly was lost, your mother went up the mountain to look for it all night. Don't you remember?"
“I remember, so what?” Chen Xi said. “My mother didn’t abandon us. She just died to prove her faith. She just did what she had to do. My father and mother were the same. Sooner or later, I will walk the same path.”
The girl had not tied her hair up; her black hair brushed against her face in the gust of wind. A tear rolled down from under her eyelashes, gone in an instant, unnoticed by Chen Zhou, and unnoticed by her either.
She said, "I told you, the abnormal person in this family is you."
Shen Zhou shook his head frantically. He didn't blame her, but kept repeating, "I know, I know... but didn't you promise me? Didn't you say you would tell me?!"
"That was a lie."
Chen Xi took two steps closer. The wind howled, whipping her wide blue robe like fluttering leaves, but she stood motionless, her back straight as a pine tree.
"Brother, I don't understand," she said. "Why are you so sad?"
...
The streetlights were startled awake.
When she woke up, a tear remained in the corner of her eye, a tear that lingered in the memory of Chen Zhou's emotions.
Overwhelmed by immense grief, she was unable to recover for a long time.
The candlelight outside burned out, plunging the room into darkness. The moon cast shimmering shadows by the window, and the lanterns sat quietly for a while before the tears dried.
An arm appeared beside her, pulling her close, and Shen Zhou leaned in, embracing her from behind.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked in a low voice, his voice tinged with obvious weariness.
Hua Deng gently grasped his hand: "After our spiritual connection, I can see some of your memories."
She had always assumed that Shen Zhou knew about this, but judging from his reactions these past few times, he probably didn't.
That's true. He's someone who's never even seen a pig run, so of course he wouldn't know anything about this kind of thing.
Chenzhou remained silent for a short while.
He didn't ask her what she had seen. Her head rested on his chest, and even without speaking, her sadness and heartache were almost overflowing.
He patted her on the back and said casually, "It's all in the past, don't worry about it."
Hua Deng knew these weren't words of deliberate comfort. He was strong enough to remain forever calm and collected, and there would never be a time when he couldn't protect his loved ones. It's just that there were no longer any of his family members left in this world.
Hua Deng turned around, buried her face in his chest, and whispered, "I saw you crying."
Shen Zhou chuckled in the darkness.
In his entire life, he only cried once after he turned six.
He pinched the nose of the streetlight and said, "I've seen you cry too."
"Hmm?" Hua Deng looked up at him.
Shen Zhou smiled and said, "Just last night."
"You still dare to talk!"
Hua Deng immediately struck him with a hammer, leaving him with no emotion whatsoever.
The two lay down again, their fingers intertwined, and both closed their eyes.
After a while, Hua Deng asked, "You said that part of your memories were sealed away. Now, have you seen them all?"
Shen Zhou said, "Most of them."
He was supposed to regain all his memories while breaking through the tribulation, but at that moment, he suddenly sensed the summoning of the lanterns, so he chose to abandon the tribulation. However, some of his memories did return.
Hua Deng asked, "Can you seal them away again?"
Shen Zhou said, "Not for now."
Hua Deng thought for a moment and said seriously, "Then let's forget about it."
Shen Zhou was slightly startled and opened his eyes. He found that Hua Deng had also opened his eyes at some point, propping himself up on one side, his dark eyes staring at him without blinking.
She said, "If those memories make you unhappy, then forget them and just look at me."
Shen Zhou's gaze froze, and he slowly sat up from the bed.
Hua Deng, unaware of his gaze, continued, "Even if you can only stay for three months, we will have many new memories during those three months."
"I won't make you sad no matter what."
Shen Zhou remained silent.
He stared silently at the streetlights, as if he hadn't seen them in a long time.
Hua Deng smiled and said in a lighthearted tone, "If possible, how about we get another cat or a dog?"
She said it casually, not expecting Shen Zhou to answer anything, after all, he always called these cats and dogs "beasts" and didn't seem to like them much.
However, after a brief silence, she heard Shen Zhou speak: "I used to have a dog."
After realizing what was happening, Hua Deng responded, signaling him to continue.
Shen Zhou said, "It's been a long time, I can't remember its name, but it's very cute."
“When I was six years old, my father passed away, and my mother took me and my sister away from our hometown. I gave the dog away to someone else.”
"Have you seen it before?" Hua Deng asked involuntarily.
Shen Zhou said, "For many years before, I thought I had never gone back, but now I remember."
"In the thirteenth year after I left, my mother passed away. I took her ashes back to my hometown. She said she wanted to be buried with my father."
He paused for a moment, his voice still low and calm.
"In fact, my father didn't even leave behind his ashes; there's only a cenotaph."
"After I settled her in, I went to the family where I was fostering my dog."
The city lights seemed to freeze for a moment: "And then?"
Shen Zhou leaned closer, touched her head, and whispered, "Hua Deng, my dog is dead."
She knew he wasn't just talking about the dog.
But she didn't ask any more questions, only showing a slightly angry and helpless expression: "You know how to be sad when a dog dies, but if I watch you die, don't you think about how sad I would be?"
Shen Zhou remembered the moment he gave Lie Tian to her, the look of shock and dejection that broke through her eyes.
Yes, he made her sad again.
But he still said, "Sadness is just the price of freedom."
"You can be sad for me for a day, or for a year, but if you gain the power, you will be free for all the years to come."
“…”
Hua Deng said, "I am free now."
Before Shen Zhou could say anything more, she raised their clasped hands and wrapped her other arm around him.
"I can hold you like this, hold your hand, and no one will stop me. That's enough for me."
The room remained silent for a long time; even the sound of breathing could be heard clearly.
“...Is that so?” Shen Zhou said.
“Yes,” Hua Deng replied affirmatively, “In my heart, I am free.”
Shen Zhou laughed and said, "Alright, I underestimated you."
Hua Deng said, "It's good that you know! Just don't do that again!"
Shen Zhou said, "No, there will be no more."
Hua Deng hugged him for a while, then casually asked, "So... will you stay?"
“…”
“No,” he replied. Even though he was prepared, the streetlights were still startled.
Her fingers twitched slightly as she tried to remain calm, asking, "Is what you're about to do really that important?"
She thought Shen Zhou would give her various reasons, whether true or fabricated, at least reasons that would convince her to leave.
But he actually said, "It's not that important."
The streetlights were pulled back a little to see his expression in the darkness, and as expected, nothing was revealed.
Shen Zhou still held her fingers tightly.
He said, "It's just that I have to do it."
"..." Hua Deng thought. After all, she wouldn't stay in this world for long; she would leave sooner or later after her family died, so why dwell on it? She said, "Alright then, whatever you want."
She withdrew her hand, lay down, pulled the blanket over herself, and fell asleep facing inwards.
Shen Zhou seemed to be looking at her, but she didn't notice.
My only memory is that in the middle of the night, I vaguely heard a voice ask, "What's your favorite color?"
She was fast asleep and vaguely replied, "Red, I guess."
The next morning, she woke up as usual.
Everything was as usual, except that Chen Zhou was not by his side.
She stared blankly for a while, then silently sat up.
While tidying up her clothes, she suddenly noticed something unusual on her hand. Hesitantly, she looked down and saw a ring on her left middle finger.
The red jade was like fire, lustrous and translucent, burning with a scorching red light between her fingers.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
