Chapter 19: Me and My Enemy Father and Brother
There was a moment of silence on the top of the mountain, until the mournful and shrill cry of an autumn cicada pierced the sky, breaking it.
Chen Wenjian stood up and saluted, Chen Yun turned away, and no one looked at the sword again.
The Lord of the Sword Sealing Tower had no intention of explaining anything to them. Like a child who had obtained a favorite toy, he waved his hand and quickly walked towards the Sword Sealing Tower, leaving behind a sentence "You don't have to practice tonight" and slammed the door shut.
The wind was blowing so hard that it rustled the withered yellow grass on the ground.
Chen Yunli looked at the tower gate and said, "Since you don't have to practice tonight, let's go down the mountain to visit an old friend and stay overnight at his house."
"good."
The two exchanged glances, understanding each other tacitly.
The afterglow of dusk was like a flickering flame in the ashes of burnt firewood, quickly dimming and extinguishing.
Chen Wenjian used the magic of shrinking the earth into an inch and managed to bring Chen Yunli down the mountain just before nightfall.
As soon as he got out of the mountain pass, Chen Yunli breathed a sigh of relief. His heart was beating rapidly, and the sound of his heartbeat vibrated his eardrums, making him feel dizzy as if he was lacking oxygen.
He grabbed Chen Wenjian's wrist and asked, "Chen Wenjian, is that sword..."
"Um."
Before he could finish his question, Chen Wenjian responded in a low voice, and his heart sank instantly.
Chen Yunli pressed his thin lips into a beautiful line, the corners of his lips turning pale. "I hope Ning Bufan is alright. By the way, will Ming Shaotu still retain his sanity after returning to Wuwen Sword?"
"If the Sword Sealing Tower Master doesn't 'awaken' the sword, it will remain dormant," Chen Wenjian said. "Awakening the sword means using the sword master's blood to awaken the sword's murderous aura before it's unleashed. Swords are inherently lethal weapons; killing and drinking blood are their only ways to become stronger. Therefore, the stronger the spirit sword, the more it needs to be awakened, and once awakened, it will become even more powerful."
Chen Yunli frowned, "But the Sword Sealing Tower Master isn't the Master of the Wuwen Sword. How is he going to awaken the sword?"
"He doesn't need to awaken the sword, and his purpose in recovering the sword spirit isn't to completely repair Wu Wen." Chen Wenjian pinched his brows. The unexpected development of the situation made his expression a little solemn. "I didn't finish what I said just now. The reason I wanted to stop him from recovering the sword spirit is that once the sword spirit returns to the sword body, he will have all the materials to forge a new sword."
"Forge... a new sword?"
Yes, the Lord of the Sealing Sword Tower built the Sealing Sword Tower and accepted Chen Wenjian as his disciple, all in preparation for forging the unprecedented work he envisioned.
Forging a sword naturally requires materials, so... he wants to use the only spiritual sword in the world with a sword soul left by his ancestor as the forging material for the new sword?
What a traitor who rebelled against Tiangang!
"The Sword Sealing Tower is a sword-making furnace, and you and Wuwen Sword are the forging materials. Now that the materials are gathered, he won't start forging the sword tonight, right?" Chen Yunli suddenly thought of a horrifying possibility.
"Not so fast. Casting requires a lot of auxiliary materials, and he still needs some time to prepare." Chen Wenjian answered gently, and his calm tone was like a trickling spring, soothing Chen Yunli's anxiety.
Chen Yunli glanced at him. This man was very calm. Even though the catastrophe of life and death was imminent, apart from a little worry at the beginning, he did not show any negative emotions.
Was he so calm because he had already made preparations, or was he just pretending to be calm?
Chen Yunli thought of his future self in another storyline. He wasn't by his side then, and he was alone, yet he still managed to kill the Sword Sealing Tower Master and leave the mountain. He thought it must be the former. He just didn't know what his record was.
Chen Yunli stopped worrying about him and started to worry about Ning Bufan instead.
I hope he is okay.
A moment later, the two arrived at Ning Bufan's door.
As Chen Yunli approached the door, a strong smell of blood seeped through the crack in the door and pierced his nostrils, making him shudder. Without thinking, he kicked the door open.
At this time, night was falling and the moon had not yet risen. The yard was filled with turbid and sticky darkness, flowing silently like an invisible swamp.
Ning Bufan lay quietly on the ground. Even though it was dark at night, Chen Yunli could see large patches of blood on his clothes. They were half dry and half wet, emitting a pungent smell of rust. They must have been there for some time.
Chen Yunli rushed forward, wanting to help him but not knowing where he was injured. He was afraid of touching his wound and had no idea where to start, until Chen Wenjian approached.
He tapped Chen Yunli's shoulder with two fingers and said, "Mr. Ning is not injured—to be exact, he was injured, but he was cured."
Chen Yunli was stunned.
Chen Wenjian waved his hand across the air, and six balls of spiritual fire lit up one after another under his palm, forming a circle around the three of them and dispelling the darkness.
Chen Yunli finally saw Ning Bufan's appearance at the moment. There were two holes in his clothes on his right shoulder and left arm, as if they had been pierced by two sharp weapons. The holes were almost dyed black and red by blood, and they were still wet to the touch. The skin exposed under the clothes was smooth and white, without any scars.
He was unconscious with his brows tightly furrowed. His right hand, hanging above his head, was tightly grasping an old and faded multicolored rope. He used so much force that his nails scratched his palm, and there was blood between his fingers.
The colorful light flowed in the colorful ropes, turning into colorful thin lines that gently wrapped around his palms. When he scratched his palms, the thin lines healed them for him. It was not difficult to imagine that they must have healed his wounds in the same way before.
Chen Yunli was in a complicated mood. He pinched his knuckles and tried to make him let go: "Mr. Ning, Mr. Ning? Ning Bufan! Wake up!"
His attempt ended in failure as expected. Chen Wenjian shook his head and said, "Let me do it."
Chen Yunli stepped aside, and Chen Wenjian squatted down, tapping Ning Bufan's wrist three times with the tip of his index finger. It was as if an electric current quickly passed through his meridians, bones and blood, waking him up with a sharp and short pain, and his five fingers twitched and opened.
"Shao Tu!"
Ning Bufan sat up suddenly and almost bumped into Chen Yunli who was looking over his shoulder to check the situation. Fortunately, Chen Wenjian raised his hand in time to stand between them, preventing them from verifying the hardness of each other's forehead on the spot.
"Mr. Ning, please calm down." Chen Wenjian said in a steady voice, "If you want to find your brother, you must first put away your impulsiveness and panic."
Ning Bufan rolled his eyes, and his empty gaze slowly and sluggishly fell on them, finally coming into focus.
He looked around again, dazed and almost indifferent at the six balls of spiritual fire floating in the air, which would have made him jump up with excitement in the past. Rationality gradually returned to his brain.
After realizing that Ming Shaotu might be in trouble and that the two people in front of him might know his condition and whereabouts, Ning Bufan calmed down and restrained his previous rashness.
He suppressed all his emotions deep in his heart, like a handful of cooling ashes, and slowly put on the multicolored string bracelet left by Ming Shaotu, then slowly asked, "Where is Shaotu?"
He was calm, and Chen Yunli became more worried: "Are you okay?"
"Until I know about Shao Tu's..." Ning Bufan paused, "death, I will be fine."
“…”
Chen Yunli scratched his head.
Ming Shaotu's current situation is no different from being dead. After all, if the Wuwen Sword does not awaken the sword, the sword spirit cannot awaken, and his sword master had died the moment he was born.
There is no other Heart-Casting Sect in the world that can forcibly awaken him by threatening to destroy the entire sect.
Not to mention that soon, that old bastard, the Lord of the Sealing Sword Tower, will melt him down to create a new spiritual sword...
All of these things were Ning Bufan's faults. Chen Yunli didn't know where to start to explain them so that he could express his madness in a more graceful way.
"Let me tell you."
His troubles and entanglements were about to turn into substantial dark clouds, with thunder and lightning, wind and rain blowing overhead.
Chen Wenjian had an inappropriate thought that he was lovable and pitiful, but he didn't show it at all on his face. He just took over the responsibility of explaining considerately.
If Chen Yunli were to talk about this matter, he would try to be as tactful as possible in order to take Ning Bufan's feelings into consideration.
But Chen Wenjian had no such consideration at all. He used the most concise and sharp words to reveal Ming Shaotu's identity and whereabouts in detail.
Ning Bufan listened quietly, his cheeks, which were pale due to blood loss, became paler as he spoke. The resentful souls outside the Sealing Sword Tower looked more human than he did, which made Chen Yunli shudder with fear.
But he still forced himself to listen to the whole thing, with a focused expression and eyes not blinking, without interrupting or asking a single question.
Ning Bufan seemed to be peeking at the unknown side of his brother through Chen Wenjian's words, corroborating them with the impression he had left in his heart in the past, and then breaking them down and reassembling them to piece together a brand new image called Wuwen Sword Soul.
"No wonder... after escaping from Huangzhou, he was determined to settle here. It turned out to be to protect the last descendant of his sword master. This descendant... was determined to skin him alive, melt his bones into new forging material, and step on his corpse to forge the next legend in the world of weapons..."
Ning Bufan repeated Chen Wenjian's words intermittently like a stuck tape. The more he spoke, the paler his face became, and his pupils became darker. He almost looked like a paper man made of black and white paper.
The dust clouds make my heart itch.
Could it be that he was driven crazy by the shock?
"Well, listen to me." Chen Yunli quickly grabbed Ning Bufan's shoulders. "Your brother is still alive—he's still alive now. He's just sealed in the sword. As long as we take him back from the Sword Sealing Tower Master, he can be awakened again..."
"Heh." Ning Bufan lowered his head, his dark hair obscuring his features. Chen Yunli could only hear his gloomy and cold voice. "With the Sword Master gone, who else can wake him up? Do you still count on me, the brother he cherishes but never truly trusted?"
"...Don't be like this." Chen Yunli sighed, "It's not that he doesn't trust you, maybe... he just doesn't want to involve you in such a dangerous situation. This colorful rope was left by him, right? It has been protecting you all along."
Ning Bufan was silent for a long time: "You are looking for me, is there anything I can do for him?"
"No, I just wanted to check on you. We were worried that the Sword Sealing Tower Master would attack you, and he did, but the bracelet Mr. Ming left behind protected you."
Chen Yunli helped him up and said, "Leave here first and find a safe place to stay. We will deal with the Sword Sealing Tower Master and bring your brother back."
Try your best—he added in his mind.
"A safe place..." Ning Bufan murmured, "Okay, I'll find a safe place to stay."
"Where do you want to go? Let us take you there." Chen Yunli breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his expression seemed to be a little more normal.
"No need. Since we need to ensure safety, it's best if only I know this place." Ning Bufan shook his head and refused, and the reason he used was difficult to refute.
Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian looked at each other, and did not force him. They just helped him pack some daily necessities, waited for him to change his bloody clothes, and then sent him out.
Ning Bufan was carrying a small bag, his thin back straight, as if the unexpected events of the night had not crushed him.
After walking a few meters, he suddenly stopped and looked back at Chen Yunli and the others. His eyes were as calm as a pool of stagnant water. "If it's inevitable, there's no need to save him."
Ning Bufan's tone was disturbing, and Chen Wenjian's eyebrows jumped. Chen Yunli was about to say something, but he waved his hand and left without looking back.
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