This was the ultimate sword of the mortal realm – Wuxi.
Lu Xiaochan flipped his body and landed on the Wuxi sword.
“Xiaochan!” Just as Ling Nianwu was about to step forward, Lu Xiaochan covered his eyes with his hand.
“Nianwu, you should turn around now. From here on, don’t linger, and absolutely do not look back.”
Tears flowed down through Lu Xiaochan’s fingers from Ling Nianwu’s eyes.
“You’re not planning to return, are you?”
“The Ancestral Master said that all obsessions in this world arise from nothing. Not just obsessions, but life and death are the same.”
After saying this, Lu Xiaochan pushed hard, sending Ling Nianwu down.
When Ling Nianwu opened his eyes, he found that layers of the Wuyi Sword Sea had already separated him from Lu Xiaochan.
Lu Xiaochan came before Shu Wuxi.
His posture was just like when he had watched Lu Xiaochan riding the Wuxi sword, freely roaming the Wuyi Sword Sea.
“Xiaochan, you’ve finally returned.”
Shu Wuxi’s coldness seemed to melt away, and a smile appeared on his lips.
The wind lifted his hair strands and brushed past his eyes.
Such a transcendently beautiful face – Lu Xiaochan never tired of looking at it.
“If you hadn’t come back, all those people disturbing us would have died. Including your senior brother.”
Lu Xiaochan closed his eyes, sensing with his “Spirit Discernment” technique.
The Sword Masters from Nanli and Xiyuan had already been forced by Shu Wuxi to exhaust their spiritual essence, approaching extinction.
Lu Xiaochan smiled at Shu Wuxi and reached out to embrace him.
Shu Wuxi paused briefly, then forcefully embraced Lu Xiaochan as well.
“See, how good it would have been if you had never left me, never feared me,” Shu Wuxi said, closing his eyes.
“Brother Wuxi, I don’t fear you. Before, I feared the chaos within you, but… everyone has chaos in their heart, it’s always there, neither increasing nor decreasing, never leaving nor abandoning. Trying to eliminate it is like pursuing the realm of divinity – it’s a delusional obsession. So I’m not afraid anymore. Because that’s also you.”
Shu Wuxi’s fingers intertwined with Lu Xiaochan’s hair, infinitely cherishing.
“You’ve always worried that I was attached to the colorful mortal world, its myriad colors, fretting over gains and losses…” Lu Xiaochan’s fingers traced his brows and eyes, saying with a smile, “But I only see you…coming toward me.”
Lu Xiaochan kissed Shu Wuxi’s lips.
Without any teasing or lingering, it was supremely devout.
Shu Wuxi closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of Lu Xiaochan’s lips.
Instantly, a great spell arose from nowhere. In the void, all water vapor gathered into streams, sweeping inward.
The Wuyi Sword Sea was also dragged by this force, churning as if it would tear apart heaven and earth!
Shu Wuxi suddenly opened his eyes to find the youth in his arms engulfed in flames. Countless strands of black evil energy intertwined in Shu Wuxi’s elixir sea, passing through this kiss into Lu Xiaochan’s body, then being drawn into that great spell along with Lu Xiaochan’s body.
“Ugh—ah—”
In his ears was Lu Xiaochan’s voice, pushed to the extreme of pain yet still desperately suppressed.
“Let him go quickly! He’s using his physical body to absorb the chaos within you!” Kunwu’s scream rang out.
Shu Wuxi’s eyes widened. He pushed away Lu Xiaochan in his arms, but Lu Xiaochan clutched his hand and wouldn’t let go.
Karmic flames rose up burning – the deeper Shu Wuxi’s obsession, the greater Lu Xiaochan’s pain.
“I hurt so much… if you let go… I won’t hurt anymore…”
Lu Xiaochan’s fingertips gradually left Shu Wuxi’s fingers.
Shu Wuxi wanted to grab him, but had to let him go.
Lu Xiaochan looked at him, watched him show painful, reluctant, obsessive yet forced to give up… all the expressions that humans should have.
Then, Lu Xiaochan smiled.
I can’t take away your obsession, but I can bear it for you.
“Guess how much I fancy you?”
The Wuyi Sword Sea sensed Shu Wuxi’s heart and continuously crashed forward, trying to destroy that great spell, but the spell didn’t waver at all, destroying Lu Xiaochan’s body.
“I’m willing to move mountains and level seas for you…”
These words fell gently on Shu Wuxi’s ears.
That was the ultimate healing spell of the Tailing Pavilion – the Tailing Clearance Great Spell.
If your obsession floods the heavens, I am willing to cross its boundlessness.
This was all that Shu Wuxi finally saw in his eyes – the extreme pain of karmic flames consuming the body, carrying all the past, rushed into Lu Xiaochan’s mind.
The pain of parting from a loved one, the suffering of flesh and blood being destroyed – Lu Xiaochan had experienced it all before!
As if suddenly awakening from a long dream!
All around was darkness, evil spirits surrounding, leaving no room to breathe!
Lu Xiaochan looked down at his elixir core that was about to be pulled out from his body, remembering that it had been over a thousand years since the original battle between immortals and demons!
He had originally come to Xiyuan with Shu Wuxi to watch the excitement. True Lord Faning was leading them through the void of Chongluan Palace when they were ambushed by Lord Lianyue Yuan. Through spatial exchange, Lu Xiaochan fell down, being led all the way to the deepest part of Xiyuan, the “Hopeless” land! (TL: Wuwang)
Here, he was surrounded by evil spirits, his elixir core in grave danger!
The surrounding evil spirits were arrogantly fierce, continuously invading his flesh and blood as if entering unguarded territory.
Lu Xiaochan snorted coldly, imitating Shu Wuxi’s tone, saying, “How dare you!”
Whether it was the Lu Xiaochan from before or now, he was no pushover!
Why are you all so fond of trying to squeeze me!
I can’t let you take my elixir core for nothing, Brother Wuxi would be angry!
When he gets angry, the consequences are severe!
Back then, I could destroy my physical body for Shu Wuxi; now, to see him again, I can also destroy you all!
The Demon Lord commanding these evil spirits laughed sinisterly in the darkness.
“Don’t you just love it when we ‘dare’?”
Lu Xiaochan thought, you really think I can’t borrow power in the “Hopeless”?
“You’ve been here too long… haven’t seen what ‘world’s great waters’ means!”
After saying this, Lu Xiaochan pulled up the corners of his mouth, smiled proudly, and pushed open the lid of the medicine bottle at his waist. From the Tailing Zhenyuan, water surged forth.
In the darkness, endless great waters were heard, vast and mighty, pouring into the “Hopeless”!
Lu Xiaochan gripped the Wuhen Sword with both hands, spiritual energy boiling around him, forming rolling vortexes. Those evil spirits that had invaded his body let out piercing screams of desperation. The sword formation was complete – as great waters entered the formation, its power increased exponentially, continuously expanding in all directions. Evil spirits that couldn’t retreat in time were all sucked into the formation.
The Demon Lord hadn’t expected that just as Lu Xiaochan’s elixir core was almost in hand, he would suddenly form such a magnificent Rushing Rapids Sword Formation!
Originally in the Hopeless, they thought Lu Xiaochan had no power to borrow, but hadn’t expected that he carried the world’s water sources with him.
If he were in the Demon Capital now, he could potentially flood it!
The Demon Lord commanded the evil spirits to form an evil formation, continuously eroding Lu Xiaochan’s Rushing Rapids Sword Formation.
But Lu Xiaochan pointed his sword downward, infused it with spiritual energy, and slightly moved the blade. The Rushing Rapids Sword Formation suddenly changed – waves splashed out from the formation, then fell back down again.
Lu Xiaochan exhaled softly – the sword is me, I am the sword, using the sword to control water’s power.
The world’s waters, formless yet giving form to all things.
In its smallest form it can fill all the world’s crevices, in its greatest form it can collapse mountains and break peaks!
Water flowed up from within the formation against gravity, making sounds of collision, actually forming a water qilin!
The water qilin roared forth, opening its mouth to swallow large numbers of evil spirits.
The Demon Lord retreated thousands of meters, not expecting Lu Xiaochan to form the Sky-Piercing Sword Formation!
Just kidding – even if he hadn’t eaten pork, he had seen pigs run!
The Sky-Piercing Sword Formation that Brother Wuxi taught him hand by hand – perfect for practicing on you lot!
This qilin sometimes transformed into flowing water, sometimes took beast form, slaughtering the tangled evil spirits completely.
The Demon Lord gradually revealed a vicious appearance. It suddenly dove down, colliding head-on with the water qilin, breaking through it and destroying Lu Xiaochan’s Sky-Piercing Sword Formation, aiming straight for Lu Xiaochan’s face.
Sensing the Demon Lord’s attack, Lu Xiaochan looked up and saw Shu Wuxi’s phantom.
For a moment, it was like returning to a thousand years ago, when he bid him farewell.
The reluctance in Shu Wuxi’s eyes was like a brand seared into Lu Xiaochan’s heart.
I too have an obsession in my heart, willing to share long nights and remain well with you until the end of time!
“You are not him!”
Lu Xiaochan raised the Wuhen Sword, breaking through Shu Wuxi’s illusion, opening a sword formation.
What he had always been attached to was never Shu Wuxi’s transcendent beauty, nor his strength and single-mindedness.
But rather Shu Wuxi’s obsession.
He was willing to be a lake, lonely for a thousand years, waiting only for Lu Xiaochan to touch its surface like a dragonfly.
It was precisely because he treasured Shu Wuxi’s obsession that Lu Xiaochan developed the magnanimity of “to ferry one person across in order to ferry all living beings across.”
The world’s great waters were the same.
Moistening things silently, because heaven and earth are all-encompassing.
Even rushing straight ahead was just pursuing the magnanimity of heaven and earth.
Just as the Demon Lord was about to enter Lu Xiaochan’s body, Lu Xiaochan blocked with his sword horizontally, and the Demon Lord crashed into the Wuhen Sword!
In that instant, the rough sword blade made cracking sounds.
The Demon Lord laughed. “Your sword is about to break!”
Lu Xiaochan remained unmoved.
Shu Wuxi had told him that a sword was merely a bridge for feeling heaven and earth together!
Then use water as a sword!
Lu Xiaochan’s mind moved, the rapids flowed ceaselessly into the Wuhen Sword, filling all the cracks in the blade, as if becoming one with the sword!
I want to go back.
Back to his side.
“If you want to take my elixir core, let’s see if you have enough cultivation to swallow my obsession!”
Lu Xiaochan’s elixir sea surged greatly, spiritual energy fully opened, merging with water to gain momentum.
The originally empty “Hopeless” began to shake from the pressure of the explosively growing spiritual energy.
In the void, countless sword formations were born within the great waters, as if water originated here, yet also ended here.
