Ruthless Path
The Azure Realm fell into an unprecedented silence and oppression.
The once dazzling Tingxue Garden is now shrouded in an invisible sorrow and tight security. The red silk has long been removed and replaced with plain white gauze, fluttering silently in the wind, like a memorial service.
Jiu Che was placed on the cold jade bed in the deepest part of the quiet room. With the help of the fox clan's secret treasure and the immortal power that the elders took turns channeling, he barely managed to keep his heart meridian, which was forcibly held up by demonic energy but was still as fragile as a spider web. He was unconscious, his face pale to the point of being almost transparent. Only a very faint dark mark left by Qi Yuan's demonic energy between his brows indicated that unbearable past.
The clan's medical sage was helpless. The dissipation of his immortal energy triggered by the tribulation of love, coupled with the erosion of the Demon Lord's original demonic energy, had almost extinguished all his vitality. If it weren't for that wisp of pure demonic energy forcibly locking in the last trace of his vital energy in an almost paradoxical way, he would have already been annihilated.
“His Dao heart is shattered, his immortal foundation is destroyed… unless…” The Grand Elder looked at Jiu Che, who was barely breathing on the cold jade bed, his wrinkled face filled with grief and determination, “unless he cultivates the ‘Supreme Forgetfulness Chapter’.”
The "Supreme Forgetfulness of Emotions" is the highest secret manual of the Fox Clan, and also a forbidden practice. It severs the seven emotions and six desires, rebuilds the foundation of one's Dao, and uses absolute "forgetfulness of emotion" to resist the backlash of emotional tribulations. However, this method is extremely dangerous; those who have tried it throughout history have either died or gone mad, with very few succeeding. Even if one succeeds, one will become an existence devoid of joy and sorrow, cold and detached, like the embodiment of rules.
This is almost... exchanging the emotional core of "Jiu Che" for an empty shell of "life".
There was no other choice.
Within the life-and-death reversal formation jointly set up by the elders, the unconscious Jiu Che was forcibly drawn into the cultivation path of the "Supreme Forgetfulness Chapter". The vast and icy power of inheritance surged into his shattered immortal essence, like the sharpest ice blade, beginning to peel away and freeze inch by inch all the memories and emotions in his mind about "Seven Kite" and that brief, noisy time.
He lay unconscious in excruciating pain, his white undergarment soaked with cold sweat. Those vivid images—her sly smile, her bold kisses, the commotion she brought, her resolute departure at the wedding—were like drops of water thrown into a raging fire, sizzling and moaning under the burning influence of the Daoist philosophy of "forgetfulness," ultimately turning into nothingness and wisps of smoke.
I don't know how much time passed; it might have been a moment, or it might have been eternity.
On the cold jade bed, her long eyelashes finally trembled and she slowly opened them.
Those were still those clear, icy eyes, but all their former gentleness and liveliness were gone, replaced by an extreme tranquility that seemed to have seen through the world's illusions, understood all things, yet remained indifferent. Like the unyielding ice atop Mount Kunlun, they were unfathomable and chilling to the bone.
He sat up, his movements fluid and precise, showing no sign of weakness, yet also no sign of life.
"Your Highness!" The trusted attendant standing guard rushed forward excitedly, but the moment their eyes met, he froze on the spot as if doused with ice water. That gaze... was too cold.
Jiu Che's gaze swept over him indifferently, passing over the elders around him with their complex expressions, without asking any questions or showing any emotional fluctuation. He got up, stepped off the cold jade bed, and his snow-white robes fluttered without wind.
"My path is complete." He spoke, his voice still clear and melodious, yet like jade striking stone, devoid of any warmth. "From now on, call me Immortal Lord."
He was no longer Jiu Che, the second son of the fox clan.
He is the Immortal Lord Jiu Che, who has cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness and severed ties with his past life.
——
Meanwhile, deep within the Demon Palace.
Qi Yuan stood alone before the Sky-Gazing Mirror, the scene of the Azure Mist Realm vaguely reflected in the mirror, finally settling on the fluttering white gauze curtains of the Listening Snow Garden. Her demonic energy surged erratically, revealing the extreme turmoil within her heart.
Abandoning the Crystal Heart, exhausting her demonic energy, and fleeing in panic… she found a thousand reasons for her extremely un-Demon Lord-like actions—the timing was wrong, the cost was too high, she needed to reconsider…
But deep down, only one voice kept questioning me:
Is he... still alive?
The shadow guard appeared silently, knelt down and reported: "Your Majesty, we have obtained information. Fox Clan's Jiu Che... is not dead. The Fox Clan used a secret technique to help him cultivate... the Path of Ruthlessness."
The Path of Ruthlessness?
The surging demonic energy around Qi Yuan suddenly stopped.
The boy who blushed at her words, was flustered by her kiss, and said "It's good to meet you" with a pure smile... had he cultivated the path of ruthlessness?
An indescribable feeling, a mixture of pain and absurdity, gripped her heart.
She actually... drove him to this state herself.
That's fine.
She tried to twitch the corners of her mouth, attempting to reveal her usual cold sarcasm, but found her facial muscles stiff.
The Path of Ruthlessness...
If the relationship is severed, will the pain cease?
Does that also mean... he completely erased her from his life?
As this thought arose, a panic even more intense and suffocating than when she learned he was dying instantly swallowed her up like the gaping maw of an abyss.
She originally thought that she simply couldn't bear to see that pure light go out.
But now she realized that perhaps from much earlier, in the daily noise and companionship, in the involuntary indulgence and closeness, she was no longer the pure, detached hunter.
She lost a treasure that was within her grasp.
It seems... that something else, even more important, has also been lost.
Qi Yuan closed his eyes and waved away the shadow guards.
In the empty, deathly silent demon palace, only she remained, along with the blinding white reflection in the mirror.
It turns out that this game of chess, which she thought she had everything under control,
From the very beginning,
She was the one who lost the most miserably...
A person involved in the situation.
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