Chapter 35 Part 2: All of you, come out and kill.
Zuoqiu Han pulled her behind him. The dark clouds in the sky grew denser, and the thunder rumbled and gathered, striking straight at Yin Shi in an instant. Yin Shi timely spun around, taking the opportunity to snatch the Myriad Phenomena Pearl from Ruan Qixi’s hand and throwing it towards Yan Jingyu.
But the surging thunder still injured his arm. He retreated to Yan Jingyu’s side. “He is only at the Formless Realm, yet he has the strength to fight me.”
Yan Jingyu held up the blood-stained pearl. Liao Chen also looked up. The pearl was wreathed in silver light, and inside, it seemed as if moonlight was flowing, just like the shimmering light in the other’s eyes back then.
Yan Jingyu stared blankly, his body slowly sliding down. He held the pearl with trembling hands, tears rolling down his face—
“It’s, it’s the Heavenly Mandate Eyes… The Zuoqiu family, it’s the Zuoqiu family, it’s the Zuoqiu family…” He sobbed uncontrollably, his whole body trembling. The crack behind Liao Chen suddenly tore open wider. Amidst the surging demonic energy, he said, word by word, “All of you, come out and kill.”
Myriad of demons surged—
He clenched his fingers forcefully and reached out to pull Yan Jingyu’s arm, his voice trembling. “Yan Qi…”
“It’s the Zuoqiu family…” he kept repeating. After a long while, he finally let out the final sound, “The Zuoqiu family, annihilated my entire clan.”
“Yan Qi…”
“It was the Zuoqiu family that annihilated my entire clan!!” He forcefully grabbed Liao Chen, pressing his glabella against his forehead. “You said last time that you could give Qi Mufang the power of the Taiqing Realm. Now, give it to me.”
His expression held a restrained madness. Liao Chen said subconsciously, “No, your soul-lamp has just absorbed the blessings. Your body can’t withstand the demonic energy…”
“Give it to me.” Yan Jingyu said, “I want to kill them with my own hands.”
“You can’t take it…”
“Give it to me! I beg you, Liao Chen, I beg you—”
“You finally…” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead tightly against Yan Jingyu’s. A vast amount of demonic energy madly poured into his spiritual platform. The soul-lamp that had just brightened was wreathed in demonic energy and became pitch black.
The wind howled.
The white banners whipped.
Amidst the crimson smoke and clouds, thunder flashed.
Yan Jingyu’s face was pale, his brow furrowed tightly. Every inch of his skin was oozing blood, every capillary was bursting, and blood was also seeping from his mouth, nose, and ears.
“You finally… reignited your soul-lamp…”
Yan Jingyu picked up the Du Fang Sword and soared into the air. Liao Chen was still staring at his own palm in a daze.
Ruan Qingwan held Ruan Qixi, and Zuoqiu Han grabbed her and fled, his voice quick. “You take Xiao Xi and go first. Go back to the sect and immediately activate the mountain-protecting formation. From the secret room behind, escape!”
“My Xiao Xi, my little Immortal Lord…”
“I didn’t expect Yan Jingyu to still be alive. Did you show him mercy back then?”
“I should have watched him die with my own eyes. But, but at that time, something seemed to be beside me. I felt very uneasy… I could only leave first…”
“The Zuoqiu family’s reputation is ruined.” Zuoqiu Han’s face was ugly. “I have the thunder-element Heavenly Soul on me. You find a place to hide first. Wait for me to come back for you.”
In the dim thunderclouds, a figure suddenly appeared. Yan Jingyu stood quietly, his whole body overflowing with demonic energy, a red mark on his glabella. There were bloody wounds all over his body, and his wrists were also bleeding. If one didn’t know that the blood was all from his own body, at a glance, he looked like a demon god who had just fought his way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Zuoqiu Han’s pupils contracted. He gritted his teeth. “So you’ve already fallen into the demonic path…”
On the high platform, Qin Zhongyou suddenly realized something. He urged his spiritual energy and flashed to Yan Jingyu’s side. “You, what is this? Quickly take off the mark…
He used his spiritual light to try and erase the mark on Yan Jingyu’s spiritual platform, but Yan Jingyu raised his hand and slashed him with his sword. Qin Zhongyou fell back, wretchedly clutching his arm. “Jingyu, be clear-headed. I can help you avenge the Zuoqiu family. You can’t consume your soul-lamp like this…”
Yan Jingyu swung his sword again, leaving an even longer mark on his body. He glared at Qin Zhongyou, his voice hoarse. “Get lost.”
Zuoqiu Han took the opportunity to flee again. Yan Jingyu looked up, flew up and chased after them, and slashed straight at their backs without any regard. Zuoqiu Han pushed Ruan Qingwan and her son aside, twisted his waist and drew his sword, just in time to block his blade. Yan Jingyu stared at his face. “Why? What grudge, what enmity does the Yan family have with you?”
“It is common for treasures in the cultivation world to change hands.” Zuoqiu Han sneered. “Besides, Yan Jingyu, don’t you understand yet? The reason why people like me can rise to power is, in the end, because your Heavenly Mandate Eyes have failed.”
“The Heavenly Mandate Eyes…”
“The Heavenly Mandate Eyes are no ordinary artifact, but you have abused them for a long time. Did you often hear back then that someone told you not to always spy on fate, that sooner or later you would be punished by heaven?”
“Your Heavenly Mandate Eyes should be able to see through everything.” Liao Chen’s words echoed in his ears again. He stared at Zuoqiu Han’s face. “You mean, fate found you?”
“That’s right.” Zuoqiu Han said, “I am the one sent by the Heavenly Dao to punish you. You have spied on fate wantonly, and you have long since been targeted by fate. To say that your entire clan was killed by me, it’s better to say that you brought it upon yourself!”
“So that’s how it is.” Yan Jingyu smiled, his eyes red. “Coincidentally, I am also your heavenly punishment!”
The longsword scraped against the blocking blade with a piercing sound. Yan Jingyu spun, and slashed down again, his robes flying. Zuoqiu Han did not hesitate to activate the Heavenly Soul in his body. The thunder light at that instant sent him flying. Blood spilled from his lips. Yan Jingyu didn’t even wipe it. The moment his heels were steadied by his spiritual energy, he did not hesitate to shoot forward again. “I don’t believe that the Heavenly Dao will allow you to use my father’s Heavenly Soul to kill me—”
“A father killing his son is a matter of course!!”
Zuoqiu Han summoned the heavenly thunder again and struck him heavily. Yan Jingyu withstood the thunder light, his expression ferocious as he pounced again. “Then you can also have a taste of the thunder soul!”
The longsword, wreathed in thunder light, directly pierced through his heart. Zuoqiu Han’s whole body was immediately pierced by the thunder light. Yan Jingyu did not hesitate to pull out the sword, and with one hand, he took out the Heavenly Soul from his spiritual abode and continued forward.
The surging soul-fire was collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Yan Jingyu knew very well that he couldn’t last much longer.
Ruan Qingwan…
A nest of vipers. One slaughtered his entire clan, the other gouged out his eyes.
Yan Jingyu gathered his qi again, and his soul-lamp immediately shortened by another section. Seeing that the two were about to escape into the Zuoqiu sect, Yan Jingyu’s sword edge had already come to the back of their heads. Ruan Qingwan immediately spun around and fell heavily from the sky. She held Ruan Qixi, her gaze fixed on Yan Jingyu with hatred. “Yan Qi, I loved you so much back then, yet you slaughtered my entire clan. What’s wrong with me slaughtering yours in return?!”
Yan Jingyu’s steps paused. “What did you say…”
“Hahaha.” Ruan Qingwan, while he was in a daze, held Ruan Qixi again and fled. “Kill this demon lord!!”
The disciples of the Zuoqiu sect rushed out. Although they were a little stunned, they still rushed towards Yan Jingyu at high speed.
Yan Jingyu did not want to get entangled with them. He kicked off the ground and leaped up, chasing after Ruan Qingwan again. His mind was in a chaos. Someone came to block him. Yan Jingyu frowned slightly. The next instant, those people were suddenly sucked dry like water and flew backwards.
Yan Jingyu did not turn back. He did not know that Liao Chen was gazing at his back.
He moved forward at high speed. Behind him, Liao Chen, as if cleaning up garbage, blocked all the sect disciples who were obstructing his advance.
Ruan Qingwan placed Ruan Qixi to the side and turned to activate the formation. But Yan Jingyu’s figure arrived in an instant. He looked at Ruan Qingwan. “Who on earth are you?”
“Who am I?” Ruan Qingwan stared at him. “Do you still remember how An Ming died?”
“An Ming…” Yan Jingyu remembered the previous Asura Lord. His sword edge was pointed at him, but before he could strike, the other had already fallen down. Behind his huge body, a trembling child was revealed.
His eyelashes twitched. “You are the child who killed An Ming back then…”
“It was me!” Ruan Qingwan’s gaze was malicious. “An Ming said my parents were adulterers. He killed my parents. You came to eradicate evil, so I thought he was truly evil. I stabbed him in the back. But later I found out that the Asura Lord was my real father.”
He looked at the woman in front of him and remembered the boy from back then. He said slowly, “An Ming, was your father…”
“Yes!” Ruan Qingwan said, “Not until my bloodline awakened did I know that I had half Asura blood. Those two were really adulterers. They betrayed my father!! But you, your appearance, your righteous halo outside, made me think he was a great demon lord. It was you, you made me kill my own father! You gave me a token and told me to go to the Song family, but the Song family was annihilated by Liao Chen! You said you would come to see me, but you didn’t come. I waited for you in a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, but you never came!”
“You also promised to be my master. I went to the Yan estate to find you. They saw the Asura bloodline in me at a glance and were about to kill me… Yan Jingyu, my whole life has been difficult, all because of you! If you hadn’t appeared that day, An Ming wouldn’t have blocked me behind him, and I wouldn’t have killed him to please you! Yan Jingyu, you think you’re eradicating evil and promoting good, but you can’t distinguish right from wrong. What did An Ming do wrong? On what grounds did you have to kill him?!”
“So that’s how it is…” Yan Jingyu looked at her. “Back then, I told everyone that I killed An Ming. I did it to save your life, yet you hate me so much…”
“Hahaha.” Ruan Qingwan said, “I was just a child. How could I dare to kill An Ming? Whether you admit it or not, he was killed by you.”
Yan Jingyu smiled. “So, you gouged out my Heavenly Mandate Eyes and poured bone-dissolving water on me. With that, you finally vented your anger?”
Ruan Qingwan glared at him and said slowly, “Yan Jingyu, you finally know you were wrong. You finally know you deserved it. I didn’t kill your whole family. I just took a little revenge on you. You made me so miserable. Is it wrong for me to take a little revenge on you?”
Yan Jingyu shook his head. “You’re right. I can’t distinguish right from wrong. An Ming was betrayed. So what if he killed two mortals?”
Ruan Qingwan sneered and slowly walked out. “It was all Zuoqiu Han’s doing. I just took a little revenge on the side. I’m not wrong, and Xi’er is not wrong either.”
“You taking revenge is not wrong. He was shaped by you, and he is not wrong either.”
Ruan Qingwan went to hold Ruan Qixi again, still staring at him. “Yan Jingyu, you should not meddle in other people’s business in the future. Your halo is too heavy, it always makes people unable to distinguish good from evil… A person like you should be locked in a dungeon forever and never come out to harm people again.”
She looked at that exquisite face and remembered the shadow-recording pearls she had collected from various places over the years. She had collected countless shadow-recording pearls. She thought she could really become Immortal Lord Dufang’s apprentice.
Unfortunately, the Asura bloodline had ruined everything.
She curled her lips. “You really deserve to die, Yan Jingyu. Did Zuoqiu Han tell you that the reason your Heavenly Mandate Eyes couldn’t be opened back then was because the Heavenly Dao was punishing you? It looks like the Zuoqiu family harmed your entire clan, but in fact, all of this was just the backlash from your abuse of the Heavenly Mandate Eyes.”
Yan Jingyu just smiled, his gaze even very gentle.
He could feel his soul-fire being devoured by the demonic energy.
But at this moment, he felt an unprecedented sense of relief.
Finally, someone has pointed it out. Finally, someone has pointed out that I am not a truly good person…
Finally, someone has told me that Immortal Lord Dufang has harmed many people.
When he had endured countless dark nights until dawn, when he had tried to draw in spiritual energy countless times but still failed in the end, when he had used the Soul-Flushing Pills and Meridian-Slicing Knives, which would lead to a smooth immortal path if successful and death if failed, to gamble with fate, yet still remained neither dead nor alive…
He had thought more than once of what those people had said back then: “You abuse the Heavenly Mandate Eyes, and you will be punished by heaven.”
Every time he failed, he would tell himself, this is heavenly punishment, Yan Jingyu, this is the price for your self-righteousness.
Every time he encountered a difficult obstacle, he would tell himself, this is heavenly punishment. Heaven needs you to atone for your own sins.
Even though he would sometimes remember his father’s words: “What heavenly punishment? That’s just a trick to scare children. You just stick to your own Dao and do whatever you want. If there is a heavenly punishment, your father will bear it with you.”
“That’s right, Jingyu! Senior brother will bear it with you! Don’t be afraid!”
“Senior sister will also be with you, Jingyu. Don’t be afraid—”
Every time he woke up in the middle of the night, he would stare blankly at the darkness in front of him and think, this is fine, Yan Jingyu, don’t do anything more. If you are destined not to find the one who harmed your entire clan, then that is also fate…
Don’t do anything more. Don’t harm anyone else.
Your heavenly punishment, let you bear it yourself. Don’t let others be implicated anymore.
Ruan Qingwan seemed very satisfied with his attitude. She lifted her chin. “Yan Jingyu, you should know, you will not have a good end.”
She knew that with Yan Jingyu’s Dao, he would definitely let her go.
But she still hated, hated all the halos on him, hated that she had been blinded by his halos when she was young and had made a great mistake.
She knew too well that she was just one of the thousands of people he had saved. But she just had to tell him that not everyone was grateful to you—
“Yan Jingyu, you are not some Immortal Lord Dufang at all. you are just a… who pretends to be very clean.” She held Ruan Qixi and walked towards the secret room, leaving behind a cold sentence, “…executioner.”
Just as she stepped into the secret room, a sound of wind suddenly came from behind. A slight chill went down her back. She turned around in shock and stared blankly at Yan Jingyu.
She fell down in front of Yan Jingyu. Yan Jingyu looked at her quietly, calmly holding the Du Fang Sword that had flown back, and said softly, “You said I was an executioner. How dare you leave your back to me?”
“You, you…”
A large amount of blood spilled from Ruan Qingwan’s lips. She stared blankly at his gentle eyes. She couldn’t believe that the figure she had pursued in her youth would turn out like this…
He never remembered her. If she hadn’t mentioned it, he would never have remembered.
“That Immortal Lord…” She still remembered the most beautiful scene in her dreams. The other was squatting in front of her, who had not yet awakened her bloodline and was still a boy. He had asked carefully, “Will you really come to see me? Can I really, become your apprentice?”
The person reached out and stroked his head, his eyes gentle, yet he could not hide his high spirits. “Of course!”
He was serious and told him, “After I finish killing Liao Chen, I will come to find you.”
Later, she found out that he had said such things to everyone. He said that after he finished killing Liao Chen, he would go to find them. He said that after he finished killing Liao Chen, he would take them as his apprentices and train them to be as clear as the wind and bright as the moon, with profound cultivation, just like him.
He said, after he finished killing Liao Chen…
But Liao Chen could never be killed. He himself knew this very well. This was just a lie he had told them.
The only ones who foolishly believed were those naive children.
Her gaze gradually scattered.
At the very end, she saw Yan Jingyu’s figure disappear from her sight. He had finally, as she had wished, become a villain who had lost his halo.
But her expression was full of disbelief.
Yan Jingyu walked out of the secret room. With every step he took, he felt something in his body being rapidly drawn away.
The soul-fire was disturbed by the demonic energy and trembled unceasingly. Its light became dimmer and dimmer…
He knew that this was his only chance. The Du Fang Sword had transferred all its blessings to him. Perhaps Liao Chen had insisted on getting the Du Fang Sword back for him precisely because he had anticipated this.
The sword in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.
Yan Jingyu was still walking, but his vision was gradually turning dark.
He recalled if he had any regrets in his life, but he found that at this moment, he truly had no regrets at all.
He was a genius in his youth, the moon surrounded by stars. Even after a hundred years of hardship, he still had the opportunity to kill his enemy with his own hands. This heavenly punishment was finally over.
He had become friends with Liao Chen… and no longer had to be obsessed with killing him… But in the future, without him, he would surely be much more depressed.
But he, on the other hand, was finally going to be at peace…
The faces of all his clan members flashed before his eyes, like a revolving lantern. The spacious main hall of the Yan estate, the flower branches his mother had arranged on the windowsill, the hand that his father had hit, the blooming camellias in the courtyard, the chattering clan brothers and sisters passing under the eaves, and also, the several times their foreheads had touched, but with completely different expressions, Liao Chen…
I save one side, and that one side saves me even more.
The people of today do not need my saving, and I, with a smile, go to the river of stars.
A black shadow rapidly approached him, abruptly drawing out all the demonic energy from his glabella. The soul-fire that was about to be extinguished was left with only a wisp of a wick.
Liao Chen’s breathing was ragged. He picked him up in one go. But someone suddenly appeared in front of him. Qin Zhongyou said, word by word, “Leave him.”
Liao Chen’s clenched teeth were trembling. He stared at Qin Zhongyou. The latter held a heavy sword, his expression angry. “All the blessings of the Du Fang Sword were transferred to him. It was not easy for him to finally reignite his soul-lamp. Why did you give him this kind of thing…”
Liao Chen was still staring at him, his dark eyebrows, but the corners of his lips couldn’t help but rise. He couldn’t help but let out a “hehe” laugh. The pressure of the Demigod stage pressed down on the surroundings like a giant mountain, instantly crushing all solid objects.
The sky was splashed with thick ink. The Vermilion Bird’s divine form was suspended in the air, crimson and pitch black intertwined, its crimson eyes half-open, extremely sinister.
He took a step, and his figure instantly passed through Qin Zhongyou’s body.
One person walked straight, one person knelt on one knee behind him, supporting himself with his sword.
“You are not worthy.”
