When Ning Buwei woke up and found himself thrown into the Floating Sky Realm, he wasn’t surprised.
But what surprised him was that he had been thrown into the deepest part of the Floating Sky Realm, a hundred and eighty thousand miles from the entrance. Even if he used transmission arrays without rest, by the time he got out, the seasons in Li City would have changed.
When he emerged from the Floating Sky Realm, Li City had changed from spring to autumn.
Ning Buwei stood at the entrance of the Shiji Winery, yellow leaves were falling, swirling up in the wind, the signs couldn’t have been worse.
The winery owner’s surname was Jiang, a simple man with an honest face. Seeing him standing with a grim expression blocking his wine shop’s entrance, he still spoke kindly, “Does this immortal cultivator have some business here?”
Ning Buwei cleared his throat, trying hard to appear slightly more friendly, and asked him, “These past few months… has anything happened in Li City?”
Winery owner Jiang exclaimed, “To be honest with you, Li City hasn’t been peaceful lately. First, when the Yan family and Yan family were arranging a marriage, something went wrong. The entire Yan family was brutally massacred, and the Yan family’s second young master Yan Liuguang was also poisoned. The Yan family mobilized people to search the city for the murderer——”
(TL: former 晏 (yan)=peaceful, calm; delayed (Yan Jinzhou)
Latter 严 (yan) =strict, serious (Yan Liugang)
Ning Buwei interrupted him, “Did they find them?”
“They did!” Winery owner Jiang said, “But it took several months to find them. It turns out the murderer was the Yan family’s original eldest daughter Yan Jinzhou, who had practiced evil arts and became a rogue cultivator seeking revenge. The Yan family’s people happened to corner her at the Tongtian Tower. Yan Jinzhou had suffered severe injuries from something in the mortal realm, and now she’s trapped in the formation waiting to die——Hey, immortal!”
Ning Buwei flew on his sword straight toward the giant tower. Before he got close, he could feel the pressure of countless formations, countless Yan family members surrounded the tower in layers, all spiritual power attacks were directed at Yan Jinzhou who sat cross-legged in the center of the formation.
Yan Jinzhou was covered in wounds, with a pool of blood gathered beneath her, clearly at her last breath.
“Master!” Ning Buwei roared, the Suzaku Knife flew out, the ancient divine weapon with its inherent pressure directly created another formation above the various formations, resonating with the formation he had originally arranged inside the tower to track Yan Jinzhou. While everyone’s attention was drawn to him, he brought Yan Jinzhou out from within the formation.
The Yan family members pursued relentlessly. Ning Buwei carried Yan Jinzhou while running at full speed, throwing talismans behind him like they cost nothing, and unknowingly ended up in a large wine cellar on the outskirts of Li City.
Yan Jinzhou leaned against the wall, grinning at him, “You brat, you’ve actually got some skill…”
“Shut up,” Ning Buwei said coldly.
Yan Jinzhou promptly shut her mouth.
Ning Buwei looked at the blood holes in her body, continuously feeding her pills and applying blood-stopping talismans, but the bleeding only got worse.
“Don’t waste your effort, it’s useless,” Yan Jinzhou wiped the blood trickling from her mouth corner, smiling, “My meridians are all broken, and my dantian and spiritual root have been dug out. I won’t survive.”
Ning Buwei trembled, his eyes unable to focus on Yan Jinzhou’s wounds, the blood-stopping talisman in his hand hovering uncertainly.
“Hey, don’t cry,” Yan Jinzhou reached out to touch his eye corner, but ended up smearing his face with blood, “You’re all grown up now.”
“I’m not crying,” Ning Buwei said through gritted teeth. “Who did this?”
Yan Jinzhou smiled, “Of course it was the Yan family seeking revenge.”
“Tell me the truth!” Ning Buwei shouted at her, nearly breaking down, “How could a Hinayana cultivator like you have your spiritual root dug out by that bunch of trash!? Who exactly did it? What were you investigating in the mortal realm all this time? Were you investigating the Ning family’s matters!?”
Yan Jinzhou just remained silent.
“You still won’t tell me.” Ning Buwei said harshly, “I’ll find out eventually, even if I end up like you with my spiritual root dug out—”
Pa!
Ning Buwei’s head was turned to the side by the slap, but he stubbornly turned back to stare at her, his eyes red.
Yan Jinzhou sighed helplessly, softening her tone. “…Ning Buwei, I’m about to die, can you stop making me angry?”
Ning Buwei’s voice trembled, “Tell me who it was, I’ll go get your dantian and spiritual root back, I’ll avenge you.”
“Avenge my ass… you brat, you can’t even beat me.” Even on the verge of death, Yan Jinzhou didn’t forget to mock him, “Don’t get involved in anything, just find a place to bury that Suzaku Knife, change your name and live a good life… wouldn’t that be nice.”
Ning Buwei’s jaw was tense, “I must seek revenge—”
“Kneel,” Yan Jinzhou’s face turned cold.
Ning Buwei looked at her once, then obediently knelt before Yan Jinzhou.
“Swear to the Heavenly Dao that you will never investigate the Ning family and my matters,” Yan Jinzhou said word by word. “If you still consider me, Yan Jinzhou, as your master, otherwise leave immediately.”
Ning Buwei knelt on the ground, and after a long while finally spoke. “Ning Buwei… swears to the Heavenly Dao, that in this life I will never again investigate the Ning family’s extermination and…Master’s matters, or may heaven strike me down with lightning, and I die a horrible death.”
Yan Jinzhou seemed slightly relieved, letting Ning Buwei transfer spiritual power to her, “That’s enough, it’ll keep me alive for another half day, any more would be a waste.”
Ning Buwei’s medicinal pills and talismans were all used up. He held his empty storage ring, like a cornered beast, “Let’s go to the Medical Immortal Valley, those medical cultivators must be able to save you… no, I’ll go find Mingsang, he must have a way…”
Yan Jinzhou nodded in agreement, “Right, the monk must have a way to save me, even if he can’t save me I want to see him one last time before I die… The Jiting Sect is very close to Li City, go bring him here.”
Ning Buwei said, “I’ll take you with me.”
Yan Jinzhou impatiently cursed him, “You damn brat, carrying me earlier almost killed me from pain, hurry up and go find someone, it’s only two hours round trip, if you take me with you what if I die on the way?”
Ning Buwei was worried, “No, I—-”
“Keep talking and I’ll die!” Yan Jinzhou weakly slapped his arm, “Hurry up and go, and lead those Yan family trash away…”
Ning Buwei hesitated for a moment, set up a circle of formations around her, then turned to leave.
“Chengfeng,” Yan Jinzhou suddenly called out to him.
Ning Buwei hastily turned to look at her.
Yan Jinzhou had used a cleaning spell to wash the blood stains from her face at some point, and gave him a very bright smile, then lazily waved at him with her arm propped on her knee.
“–Safe journey.”
Ning Buwei’s nose stung, and he rushed toward the Jiting Sect at what was probably the fastest speed of his life, only to be told Mingsang wasn’t in the sect.
Mingsang’s young disciple knew him, and also knew Yan Jinzhou, and said, “Master went to the Dark Realm two months ago, Master Yan even came specially to see him off—Hey!”
Ning Buwei finally realized he had been tricked by Yan Jinzhou again, who could always so easily play him for a fool.
When he grabbed a medical cultivator and returned, only Yan Jinzhou’s lifeless body remained in the wine cellar.
She was leaning there in a lazy posture, still wearing a smile of successful calculation on her face.
That medical cultivator fled in terror, while Ning Buwei dismantled the layers of formations protecting her, and a piece of ragged cloth floated into his hand.
On that rag was a will written with blood from a finger:
[Good disciple, please trouble yourself to bury me somewhere in the Floating Sky Realm, set up plenty of formations inside, don’t let anyone disturb my peace.
No need to observe mourning, seeing you gives me a headache.
That Yan family residence is nice, move in and guard my grave.]
Ning Buwei kowtowed three times to Yan Jinzhou’s corpse, then reached out to hold her.
Though Yan Jinzhou had stopped breathing, her body was still warm. Ning Buwei looked down at her and opened his mouth, “…Master?”
The wine cellar was completely silent, with no response.
He finally confirmed this wasn’t another of Yan Jinzhou’s jokes.
After burying her according to Yan Jinzhou’s requests, Ning Buwei returned to Li City.
Even until death, Yan Jinzhou hadn’t told him who the true culprit was, but clearly, she had gone to the mortal realm and received severe injuries, then was surrounded by the Yan family’s people at the giant tower where they used formations to drain away her last bit of vitality, otherwise she wouldn’t have lasted less than half a day.
In the twenty years since the Ning family’s fall, Yan Jinzhou had been teaching him skills and protecting him, and even though this person was irresponsible and would often disappear, in his heart she had become no different from his birth parents.
Although he had sworn not to investigate the Ning family and Yan Jinzhou’s matters in the mortal realm, he didn’t want to let the Yan family go.
Now no one would look after him anymore.
So he took up the Suzaku Knife and entered the Yan family’s gate.
Though his cultivation was high, he was still young, and full of hatred, going in with the intention of dying together, he massacred the entire Yan family.
He stood alone with the Suzaku Knife amidst the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but his heart felt empty and unable to grasp anything.
Yan Jinzhou was right, revenge turned out to be a very meaningless thing.
No one would back him up after he recklessly went to provoke the Chongzheng Alliance, no one would impatiently teach him formations and talismans, and no one would chase after him daily to beat and scold him for betraying his teacher and dishonoring his ancestors.
He had killed all the Yan family people, but he no longer had a master. (TL: 严)
Severely wounded, he barely managed to hide in the Shiji Winery’s wine cellar, drinking jar after jar of pear blossom wine, his tongue bitter with pain, yet no matter how much he drank he couldn’t get drunk. Whether his eyes were closed or open, all he could see was Yan Jinzhou’s emptied dantian, and in his ears were the words of his heavy oath to the Heavenly Dao.
If not investigating meant not investigating, then he wouldn’t investigate.
Yan Jinzhou, a free and unfettered rogue cultivator, didn’t need to risk her life for the Ning family. In the end it was all because he, Ning Buwei, called her master. If he hadn’t been so stubborn with Yan Jinzhou about this, she wouldn’t have gone investigating the Ning family’s matters for him every day.
Ning Buwei threw away the jar and, supporting himself on the window, vomited violently. His entire body’s meridians were in pain, blood from his wounds flowed down his arm onto the windowsill, and uncontrollable black mist howled as it drilled into his brow.
This was a sign of Qi deviation, but he didn’t want to move.
“Father?” a tiny voice came from outside the window, followed by a dirty little head poking out.
The drunk Ning Buwei almost smashed that little head with one strike.
Ah Ling clung to the windowsill, struggling to climb up, but couldn’t manage it no matter what, nearly falling several times.
Ning Buwei frowned, reached out to pick her up, then threw her down, speaking viciously, “Get lost! Don’t come bother me!”
Ah Ling fell to the ground but didn’t cry or get angry. She patted the dust off her clothes and stood up, looking at him a bit fearfully, “Father, did you drink? You never scold me.”
Ning Buwei slammed the wine cellar window shut with a bang, took two steps forward, then blacked out and fell face-first to the ground. He kicked his legs but couldn’t get up, so he simply fell asleep right there.
When he woke up, there was a steaming chicken leg in front of him.
Ah Ling crouched in front of him and said carefully, “Father, I heard your stomach growling… I haven’t eaten it, it’s not dirty.”
Ning Buwei crawled up from the ground with a splitting headache. The smell in the entire wine cellar made him want to vomit. He staggered to his feet and walked towards the exit.
“Father!” Ah Ling followed behind him at a small run, holding the chicken leg.
Ning Buwei was severely wounded and couldn’t walk fast, and somehow couldn’t shake her off for quite a while, so he deliberately chose difficult paths to walk, going through thorns and up steep slopes, until finally the small footsteps behind him could no longer be heard.
Ning Buwei swallowed the blood in his throat, leaned against a tree and exhaled a breath of turbid air. His mind was in chaos, and he didn’t know where he should go.
Before, when Yan Jinzhou was around, he just had to follow her, and if she disappeared, he would go look for her, secretly investigating the Ning family’s matters along the way. But now Yan Jinzhou was buried in the Floating Sky Realm, and in all seventeen states, he felt there was nowhere for him to go.
The sky gradually darkened, the distant light orange clouds were slowly merging with the cold-colored sky, and the howling wind in the mountains wailed incessantly, very disturbing.
Ning Buwei didn’t know how long he had slept again when someone gently tugged at his sleeve, making him suddenly open his eyes.
Ah Ling crouched in front of him, still clutching that chicken leg, though it was now covered in grass and mud. Her forehead had somehow gotten a large cut, the blood already congealed. Seeing him awake, she smiled with delight. “Father, you’re not dead!”
Ning Buwei looked at her expressionlessly, “I’m not your Father, call me Father again and I’ll kill you.”
