Chapter 136 A Turning Point: Young Master Jiang, you've... ascended to immortality!
The lightning bolts appeared densely packed in that small space, like a spider web, and Jiang Yu became the prey trapped in the middle. His desperate struggles were seen by Xi Chuang as a waste of time and effort, which would only damage his body and require him to expend energy to repair it before it could be used by Lian Quesheng.
However, such scenes are not something you see often.
Xi Chuang chuckled. He had already made ample preparations for Lian Quesheng's side, and was just waiting for the moment when Jiang Yu successfully ascended to immortality so that he could reunite with his beloved master.
He will fall in love with himself and will never be separated from himself. This is what he wants, and he will get it.
It hurts, it hurts so much.
The pain was so intense that he couldn't straighten up. Shen Jiuxu transferred all of Jiang Yu's pain onto himself, and coupled with the injury caused by severing his own arm, he felt that his life force had become extremely weak.
The distant mountains blurred into a hazy expanse, as if he had returned to the time when he first gained sentience, when he understood nothing, had not yet met Jiang Yu, and only knew that he would become drowsy after basking in the sun all day.
But that kind of life is too boring.
Only Jiang Yu's appearance allowed him to see a new world. That afternoon, while he was sleeping in the tree, Jiang Yu's face appeared in his eyes along with the sunlight that Shen Jiuxu couldn't live without. From then on, Jiang Yu became another sun in his life.
Shen Jiuxu has left Jiang Yu and will become a withered tree. Looking at the familiar figure still in mid-air, he began to think about how to prevent this from happening.
He would do anything to save his lover. Xi Chuang stood in front of Shen Jiuxu, his body relaxed in a natural state, exuding confidence and ease, as if the lightning and bloodstains of the world had nothing to do with him.
He appeared to be an ordinary spectator, but in reality, Xi Chuang was appraising the scheme he had personally orchestrated. He even began to fantasize about his future life with Lian Quesheng in the Jade Terrace and Silver Palace, where they would no longer be master and disciple, but would have a closer and more inseparable relationship.
Boom—
Thunder roared, and everyone except those at the west window held their breath. The darkness was terrifying, and even Zhou Yongyin, who was thousands of miles away, felt his heart pounding so fast it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest.
He was filled with anxiety and didn't understand why the weather had suddenly changed when it was sunny in the morning. The chickens and ducks in his house were also clucking incessantly, something that had never happened before.
This made him very anxious. Jiang Yu and Shen Jiuxu, who had not been heard from since returning to Shen Wuke, Lian Quesheng and Xichuang, who clearly looked abnormal when they left, and the villagers at the foot of the mountain who were always silent after the restoration.
All of this seemed unsettling. Zhou Yongyin had lived for so many years, and the last time he felt panicked was when Jiang Yu's mother passed away. He was terrified of experiencing something like that again.
Even though Jiang Yu is incredibly talented and renowned, in Zhou Yongyin's heart he's still a child who needs protection. When Jiang Yu and Shen Jiuxu aren't around, Zhou Yongyin is always worried about them, wondering if they've eaten enough or if they're cold, even though he knows in his heart that they're not children anymore and that the two of them would definitely take care of themselves.
But Kexin still can't let go.
Especially today, Zhou Yongyin's right eyelid kept twitching. Jiang Yu left him a paper crane when he left, so that they could easily communicate in certain situations.
But today's paper cranes were completely devoid of their usual spirit, carrying a listless air. Zhou Yongyin sensed something was wrong. He couldn't contact Jiang Yu, but he saw the Xianchen sword that Jiang Yu had left here emitting a red light.
From a distance, it looks like blood.
"Xian Chen, can you take me to find Jiang Yu?" Zhou Yongyin knew it was conscious, and he was now desperate, hoping to see Jiang Yu and Shen Jiuxu safe and sound.
The sword, Xian Chen, trembled as if it had sensed something. Zhou Yongyin was pacing back and forth beside it when suddenly his feet left the ground, the whistling wind blowing his clothes, and the next moment he was in mid-air.
Jiang Yu vaguely sensed something; the spiritual energy in the air seemed denser than before, carrying a sense of coldness and desolation, much like the Jade Terrace and Silver Palace described in the novel.
Only one lightning bolt remained in the Ascension Lightning.
It was the final blow, once again bringing him to the same obsession and entanglement he had previously held. Jiang Yu had heard what Chu Jue had shouted from below, and from the moment he was being chased and beaten by the heavenly lightning, he had guessed that Xi Chuang had used some unspeakable forbidden technique on him.
But he didn't know when Xichuang did all this, nor how he did it. However, Jiang Yu would not give up the body that Shen Jiuxu had painstakingly created for him, even risking his life.
Everything else is negotiable, but when it comes to Shen Jiuxu, this body no longer belongs to him alone. The wooden sword in Jiang Yu's hand radiated warmth, and his body suddenly stopped in mid-air, out of control, just like what Shen Jiuxu had done to him in Yunshui City that day.
The fragrance of flowers filled his nostrils.
Jiang Yu felt a strong, even overwhelming, sense of unease that filled his entire being and took over his body.
He felt that Shen Jiuxu would do something.
But Jiang Yu dared not think about it. The sword in his hand trembled slightly, and the warmth gradually began to fade. The temperature dropped little by little, making him feel cold.
The sword hilt was rough, and the brown wood grain rubbed against the skin of his palm. As he touched it more closely, the unpolished spikes scratched Jiang Yu's hand. Blood mingled with the liquid remaining on the branches. Jiang Yu wanted to turn around and look at Shen Jiuxu.
His immobile body rendered him powerless to do anything. He wanted to go crazy and give Shen Jiuxu a good scolding. He knew what Shen Jiuxu was going to do, and from the moment he took this body, he was prepared.
He was prepared to ascend again, so he was willing to hurt himself to use the Rejuvenation Technique to recreate a body for Jiang Yu. Shen Jiuxu could continuously transfer his spiritual power to Jiang Yu through the connected branches and leaves, and even give his life to Jiang Yu.
The pain that suddenly disappeared was taken away by Shen Jiuxu, as was this wooden sword, which was forcibly cut off from Shen Jiuxu's body.
That's why Jiang Yu could use it so skillfully and wield it with such ease. This was because his Daoist companion, who was with him day and night, understood his sword techniques and, more importantly, his thoughts and ideas. Just by looking at his expression, she could tell what Jiang Yu was going to do.
In a corner unseen by anyone, deep in the desolate mountains, a once lush, towering tree suddenly withered and decayed for some unknown reason. Its verdant green was replaced by a withered yellowish-brown, and its thick, straight trunk swayed in the wind. Several birds flew out of their nests in fright, standing at a distance with blank expressions, not knowing what had happened.
Lightning flashed across the sky, and Shen Jiuxu's gaze was deep. He wanted to look at Jiang Yu one more time and etch him firmly into his mind.
Heaven gave him two chances. One was to bring Shen Jiuxu back from the dead, and on the first day he woke up, he bumped into his Daoist partner who had come to find him. The other was to heal Jiang Yu's injuries. On that day, in Shen Jiuxu's blurred vision, he saw Jiang Yu's bright eyes open again, as if everything was worth it.
He didn't know if heaven would favor him again. Shen Jiuxu had no hope. The pain all over his body made his consciousness begin to blur. Before the last bolt of lightning struck him, the pain came first. It was as if someone had used a sword to cut into his bones. Shen Jiuxu gritted his teeth, but blood still flowed uncontrollably from his lips.
A subtle change occurred in the spiritual energy. Xi Chuang frowned, looked at Jiang Yu in mid-air, and suddenly turned around. He saw the bloodstains at the corner of Shen Jiuxu's mouth. "It's you. What did you do?"
What did you do to Jiang Yu?
“He is my Daoist partner. What I do for him is none of your business. Everything I do for him is perfectly natural. But what about you? Did you get Lian Quesheng's permission for what you did? He didn't even know about it. You're still keeping it a secret from him.”
Shen Jiuxu's face grew paler and paler, completely devoid of color. The dark sky behind him reflected his face, which reminded Xichuang of the day he escaped death from his old friend's village.
He was covered in blood, and he crawled out from the dog hole in the outermost earthen wall of the old manor.
Actually, Gurenzhuang wasn't originally called this. So much time has passed that Xichuang has long forgotten what Gurenzhuang used to be called, and he's also forgotten that his father was a doctor, a very capable person in the village, who couldn't treat serious illnesses but was very skilled at treating minor ones.
Actually, his father is a very opinionated person. If he hadn't been forced to learn this profession, he probably would have quit long ago.
He didn't like studying things that could save lives; instead, he preferred to spend his days looking at all sorts of poisonous plants and had planted a whole bunch of strange-looking poisonous herbs in a water tank in his backyard.
As for an antidote, there is none.
When Xi Chuang successfully escaped from Gu Ren Zhuang, he had randomly poisoned the food of the survivors. At that time, people were so hungry that they didn't care about anything else. As long as there was something to eat, they would wolf it down. Not to mention that they were eating things they had never tasted before, so no one cared about the taste.
That same day, after leaving the village, he saw himself covered in blood in the eyes of two people he met. His face was so thin that only bones remained, and his large eyes looked terrifying.
His filthy clothes seemed worlds apart from their fine attire. He dared not look up. Only when the woman turned to fetch water to wipe his face and the man gathered firewood to start a fire to grill fish for him did he put the same poison in their water, and then hurriedly ran away.
He couldn't understand why he lived like the dirtiest mud in the ground, while others could openly express false kindness and live so happily in front of him. Xi Chuang was indignant and couldn't comprehend it.
He couldn't let it go.
That day, Xichuang's life as a human being came to a complete end. He left behind those who offered excessive sympathy and concern. The wounds he sustained from being beaten at his old friend's manor could not be healed, and he eventually died in the woods not far from those two people.
Later, his obsession became too strong, and he refused to return to the Netherworld, becoming a wandering ghost. More than ten years passed, and because he had too many thoughts and was tainted by too much blood, he could not pass the test of ascension. Instead, he was severely injured by heavenly lightning, his cultivation was scattered, and he reverted to the appearance of the child on the day of his death. In the old friend's village, he met the merciful Lian Quesheng.
"So what if you struggle? I said this body is mine, and it will always be mine." Xi Chuang pulled out the hairpin from his hair. It was a gift from Lian Quesheng, with an extremely sharp end. It was not only a symbol of the Lian family but also a mark of Lian Quesheng's apprentice.
"Since you're so eager to die for Jiang Yu, then I'll grant your wish. Once I've dealt with you, I'll have plenty of ways to deal with him." With a flick of his wrist, Xi Chuang plunged the hairpin into Shen Jiuxu's chest. At the same instant, lightning struck down, and a figure appeared in the air, standing firmly in front of Jiang Yu.
The thunder roared and lasted for a long time, as if punishing the person who had suddenly appeared and blocked its original target. It lasted so long that Xi Chuang felt his heart pounding and he was about to be unable to withstand the pressure. Then, a huge golden light appeared between heaven and earth, and the originally dark sky became bright and returned to its former clarity.
The blood and filth on the ground were covered by the falling snow. Jiang Yu felt warm, as if he were hiding in Shen Wuke's quilt in the dead of winter. He no longer felt the restraint and oppression he had just experienced, and his body felt light and agile.
"Young Master Jiang, you've... ascended to immortality!"
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Author's note: It's almost over, I'm feeling really tired and exhausted, but I'll try my best to update more.
Merry Christmas everyone! [green heart][green heart][green heart]
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