Chapter 33: The One Thing He Never Dared Confirm Part 2

Bound by a marriage contract, as comrades-in-arms, protecting the people behind them. Dying gloriously.

What would that little Zhao Lixuan have thought?

Would he think… that’s not so bad? A worthy death, and forever belonging to each other?

He couldn’t recall his mindset from back then anymore.

The wrist bones of the man in his arms were bent unnaturally. Warm blood dripped steadily, blooming dark stains on Zhao Lixuan’s collar. Onto his neck, his chest.

Then suddenly, the shattered black karmic fire barrier reignited across the sky. Jiang Chen’s blood flowed even more, but his arms hugged tighter.

“Li Xuan, don’t be afraid.”

“I’ll… protect you.”

…

…

Jiang Chen didn’t know how long he had been unconscious.

In the haze of his spiritual sea, he could clearly sense a warm immortal power slowly entering his meridians, meticulously soothing his damaged spirit veins.

His heart skipped, a mix of bitterness and softness—that was Immortal Lord Li Xuan’s aura.

The aura gently eased several spots of intense pain on his body. He wanted to open his eyes, but his body felt leaden, unable to move.

His consciousness drifted in the darkness, finally fixing on the last scene before blacking out. As the Rotten Flesh Giant Demon’s third strike crashed down, he had clearly heard the cracking of his own bones, his organs crushed and displaced by the horrific demonic pressure.

Fortunately, at the last possible moment, Immortal Capital’s High Priest Yu Changxin had arrived with reinforcements in time.

“Good thing, good thing. Our Unstained Immortal Realm’s immortal qi is far too pure—it’s like strong liquor to those Demon Clan folk.”

Vaguely, voices came from beside the bed.

“At first, it’s like pouring fuel on flames, igniting their demonic essence. But in time, it intoxicates their spirits.”

“That’s why the demonic incursion twenty years ago came like a fierce gale and sudden storm, nearly conquering the entire Unstained Immortal Realm, but ultimately couldn’t sustain it. This time, they even learned demon-summoning sorcery… Good thing that monster eventually got spiritually drunk too, or the consequences don’t bear thinking.”

The speaker was Immortal Emperor Shen Fengyu.

The situation remained dire. The Immortal Capital had suffered heavy casualties, and the Immortal Court was busy with rescues and evacuations. They still didn’t know the full strength of the invading demon army—only that numerous cities south of the Immortal Capital had fallen to the Demon Clan, all communications severed.

Fortunately, the northern immortal sects could still be reached, and Fu Xi Palace had confirmed the Demon Clan hadn’t passed through Azure Cloud Pass.

No one knew what Three Realms-subverting method the Demon Clan had used to reach the Immortal Capital directly.

But amid the misfortune, there was fortune: the Central Hub Grand Array was preserved, and Fu Xi Palace along with the northern sects were mobilizing, soon to arrive at the Immortal Capital. Then the campaign to drive out the demons and reclaim lost ground would begin.

Shen Fengyu: “Once Fu Xi Palace and the other sects arrive, channeling Azure Cloud Pass’s pure qi to balance the Immortal Capital and stabilize the Unstained Immortal Realm, we can launch a steady counteroffensive!”

In the days that followed, Jiang Chen remained in a coma.

Zhao Lixuan delivered pure qi to him daily as usual, while the major immortal sects gathered at the Immortal Capital, erecting defensive grand arrays. The counteroffensive momentum grew clearer, and the Immortal Emperor’s tone was less grave than before, somewhat relaxed.

This day, the Immortal Sovereign visited again: “This Jiang fellow still hasn’t woken? It’s been five days already—truly useless.”

Zhao Lixuan snapped, “Shut your mouth. If not for Jiang Immortal Lord risking his life that day to protect the Core Mechanism Grand Array, with his bones shattered inch by inch and tendons snapped, the entire Immortal Capital would likely have fallen by now…”

“Yes, yes, I know, I know.”

Jiang Chen strained to flutter his eyelashes. He was just a little short of opening his eyes.

He truly didn’t want to be as useless as Shen Fengyu had implied—still lying there after five whole days. Nor did he want to see Zhao Lixuan, who clearly bore wounds of his own, wasting his true essence on him day after day like this.

Even less did he like the Immortal Sovereign dropping by every so often.

Shen Fengyu was, after all, the twin brother of the Unstained Immortal Realm’s number one beauty, Shen Fengyan. How much worse could he be? Jiang Chen hadn’t looked closely that day, but he imagined the man’s looks were no less devastatingly alluring.

Though he came to see Zhao Lixuan every day, always discussing official matters.

Yet between his words lingered an unusual intimacy, a familiarity beyond the ordinary.

Different from the simple camaraderie of fellow disciples like Yu Rumu or Xia Yunjie.

Jiang Chen had endured malice since childhood, making him acutely sensitive to such details—he could clearly sense the faint hostility the Immortal Sovereign harbored toward him in every word.

So I need to wake up soon.

His fingertips… they seem like they can move now.

But just then, Shen Fengyu let out a soft sigh: “You pour true essence into him every day, tending to him like this with such devotion. You truly… hold no grudge at all?”

A moment of silence.

“Grudge for what?”

“You can play nice with others and forget the pain once the scars have healed,” Shen Fengyu said, “but Lixuan, I was there back then. I saw with my own eyes how gravely you were wounded that day!”

Jiang Chen’s fingertips froze abruptly.

A bad premonition wrapped around his heart like a dense spiderweb, strands tightening until he could scarcely breathe.

There was one thing.

One thing he had never dared confirm.

It started back in the Demon Bright, when he was lord of Drunk Moon City. A demon immortal colleague from Xiao Xue Tower had dragged him out for drinks and nostalgia, and one time after a few too many, the man had asked:

“They all say you abandoned Lixuan before coming to the Demon Bright—and that you grievously wounded him?”

No.

“Truly not? But so many people say it. They claim you injured him with the Nine Luminaries Sword Array. They say it was so severe he was covered in bloody holes, bedridden for half a year and unable to rise.”

Impossible…

But Jiang Chen clearly remembered using Xiao Xue Tower’s supreme forbidden technique, the Nine Luminaries Sword Array, only once in the Mortal Realm.

At the time, Jiang Fu—whom he still saw as a little sister—had faked a life-threatening illness to lure him to a secret realm called Moon Haze Hollow beyond the Three Realms Gate, to extend her life.

It coincided with the immortal-demon war sealing the paths, and he encountered a horde of human immortals blocking the way…

His heart had been full of worry for Jiang Fu’s safety, thinking her life hung by a thread.

He had no choice but to shield her in his arms, slaughtering gods and demons alike to press forward.

But there were simply too many human immortals obstructing him. In desperation, he unleashed the Nine Luminaries Sword Array—knowing full well it would violate sect rules and earn him expulsion from Xiao Xue Tower, yet he did it without hesitation.

He had used it.

Yet all those blocking him that day were human immortals fighting in the war. What connection did they have to a carefree scattered immortal like Zhao Lixuan?

Moreover, his eyes had run red with bloodlust by then—if Zhao Lixuan had truly stood before him, how could he not have recognized him?

Jiang Chen was certain it was impossible.

Yet that very night, he had a nightmare—Zhao Lixuan stood before him, chest pierced through by the sword array, vomiting a mouthful of blood as he stared in disbelief: “Little Jiang…”

It was a nightmare chilling to the bone, his heart plunged into an icy abyss, cold and agonizing.

He knew it was a dream, yet it felt terrifyingly real. In it, the man’s pale face was etched with grievance, the corners of his eyes reddened, yet he even laughed softly: “Little Jiang, I understand. Go on quickly. I’ll cover for you…”

That nightmare haunted his restless nights in the Demon Bright.

Later, he asked that colleague multiple times, but the man only said he’d heard it from others, and the one who’d told him was still in the Mortal Realm.

Four years later, when Jiang Chen returned to the Mortal Realm and finally tracked down that colleague, the man was evasive:

“Ah, I heard it from someone too. Can’t remember who. Probably a rumor. If you say it didn’t happen, then it didn’t.”

Afterward in the Mortal Realm, Jiang Chen asked many old acquaintances and fellow disciples.

No one ever gave him a straight answer.

The nightmare lingered.

He could only comfort himself repeatedly—that the very next day after he forcibly took Jiang Fu to Moon Haze Hollow to extend her life, Zhao Lixuan had come looking for him.

While he was aiding Jiang Fu in Moon Haze Hollow, he encountered a group of demon immortals who lent their aid. Exhausted afterward, he was dazed and weak, and they whisked him off to the demon immortal camp.

The next morning, Zhao Lixuan burst into the camp regardless of danger to find him.

Saying he didn’t want them to part.

If he’d truly been wounded by the Nine Luminaries Sword Array, how could he have risen the next day to seek him out?

Jiang Chen clung to that reassurance, but the dream grew ever more vivid.

He could see clearly how the man’s gaze upon him shifted from grievance and shock to a deadened, self-mocking despair. The settled desolation in those eyes was like icicles quenched in poison, piercing his heart and organs night after endless night.

“…”

Later still, he finally arrived in the Unstained Immortal Realm.

By chance, Yu Rumu had once mentioned that Zhao Lixuan had suffered a grave wound in the Mortal Realm for the sake of his beloved at the time.

It struck him like lightning. After pressing several times, Rumu Immortal Lord only said, “I don’t actually know the details. It might have had nothing to do with anyone else—just got caught in the chaos of war down there by accident.”

He could have dug deeper.

But he feared the truth would doom him beyond redemption. Though he knew that man no longer loved him and that he fully deserved it all, at least… he still secretly hoped he hadn’t been that sinful back then.

A long silence filled the room.

Suddenly, Zhao Lixuan chuckled lightly as if nothing had happened: “The wounds were pretty severe back then.”

“But later I thought… he probably didn’t know.”

“After all, I went to find him the next day. Took some medicine, and I looked fine.”

“He probably thought the injuries weren’t serious.”

Shen Fengyu fumed: “What nonsense are you spouting? He wounded you with the Nine Luminaries Sword Array and isn’t blind—how could he not know the extent!”

“How should I know? It doesn’t matter anymore,” Zhao Lixuan said.

“It’s in the past. Doesn’t matter.” His tone was sincere, light and breezy. “In any case, he just saved the lives of everyone in the Immortal Capital—a merit that can’t be denied. Now the Demon Clan has summoned demon beasts, and only demon immortals excel at countering them. We’ll need to rely on him going forward.”

“So naturally, I hope Jiang Immortal Lord recovers soon.”

“You should hope so even more. You’re the Immortal Sovereign—put the greater good first and rein in that temper of yours, hm?”

Jiang Chen found he couldn’t breathe.

The calmer Zhao Lixuan remained, the more his blood seemed to freeze solid. All the events of the past carved through his heart once more, word by agonizing word.