CHAPTER 20 He’s been doing this his entire life once, he’s not afraid of doing it again.

Once Yanming moved, Wu Sisi naturally wouldn't stand by watching. The three sword cultivators attacked the ‘Venerable One’ head on. The ‘Venerable One’ monstrously howled on the stage, and suddenly, all the townspeople’s eyes turned blood red as they launched toward the three of them!

Everything abruptly fell into chaos. Fu Changling scampered to a corner of the sacrificial altar while it happened and quickly fished out the God’s Massacre Array. He bit his finger and dripped the blood onto the array. In the process of doing these things, he lifted his head to observe the battle currently taking place and saw that Wu Sisi was currently at the moment of fighting a heated battle with the Venerable One, luring him away from the sacrificial altar. Yanming and Qin Yan were being surrounded by common citizens, buried within the sea of people.

Fu Changling watched as the Venerable One left the sacrificial altar and instantly flipped his body onto it. He tossed the God’s Massacre Array into the air and as he stabilized his footing on the sacrificial altar, he raised the Soul-gathering Pagoda into the air with one hand while his other hand was supporting it with his golden fan as he muttered some words.

When he began muttering the incantations, the Soul-gathering Pagoda began wildly absorbing spiritual air, using his body as a vortex. All the spiritual air in the hidden realm began surging towards his body, filling him up with it.

This movement shocked the ‘Venerable One’. He turned and howled angrily. Wu Sisi’s sword imposingly struck at him and the Venerable One had no time to bother himself with Fu Changling. However, at the sound of his howl, the townspeople began turning into a different direction and made Fu Changling their target. Qin Yan unhesitantly dropped next to Fu Changling. At a swipe of his sword, he forced the townspeople into retreat and protected the perimeter surrounding Fu Changling.

Fu Changling paid no attention to his surroundings. Closing his eyes, he felt the surge of spiritual air pouring into his body as he directed them to his golden core with familiarity and compressed it. Within a split of a moment, his golden core was formed!

The moment his golden core formed, the Soul-gathering Pagoda’s spiritual air filled his golden core and from it, they were turned into spiritual energy.

The blood-coloured array below, which took the position of his feet as its center, gradually spread out. Watching him unharmed, Qin Yan leapt into the group of people and resumed the steps he needed to take from the original plan.

Fu Changling blinked his eyes open and saw Qin Yan not far off from him amid the crowd. Both their gazes met and Qin Yan nodded his head, his long sword spinning around him and suddenly bursting into a gust of wind. Qin Yan took the chance to leap away and fell onto a spot in the south. At the same time, Fu Changling raised a hand and tossed a small array into Qin Yan’s direction, just in time to thwart some of the townspeople who intended to attack Qin Yan. It was at that moment that Qin Yan behaved like a long snake-like dragon, finishing the drawing of the first small array in a short period of time.

But after that, Qin Yan didn’t stop. He instantly leapt into the direction of the west. Fu Changling was no longer worried about him; he turned his gaze onto Yanming.

Yanming didn’t have Qin Yan’s set of skills. He was surrounded by a group of people in the north. Watching how he couldn’t fend for himself, Fu Changling closed his eyes and muttered an incantation before a dozen spells shot towards Yanming’s direction and surrounded him. This allowed Yanming to take a breather. He quickly headed towards the north where he was supposed to.

The God’s Massacre had already brightened up in the west and south. Fu Changling was leaving it to slowly spread towards the remaining two directions.

Wu Sisi was holding back the Venerable One, but he could feel that something had gone wrong with the sacrificial altar. He howled and the townspeople began to aggressively surge towards Fu Changling. Even so, Fu Changling was long prepared. The defensive array below his feet could guarantee that he would not be interfered with by anything outside of its borders within a short amount of time. And so, the townspeople who tried to interfere with him were all cast backwards.

He closed both his eyes and urged the array to quickly spread. His hair billowed wildly from the surge of spiritual air coming from the core of the array. His wide sleeves fluttering wildly, but his expression was calm, as if he was standing amid wild winds and fierce waves yet unmoving.

The array spread throughout its perimeter. The Venerable One had also turned to panic. Watching as Yanming finished drawing the final small array, Fu Changling’s array speedily spread towards the two small arrays. The Venerable One finally couldn’t hold it back much longer; he grabbed Wu Sisi’s wrist with one hand and, with a howl, he shot out his sword towards Fu Changling!

The sword carried the strength of an immortalization stage cultivator as it horizontally swept at Fu Changling. Qin Yan turned around and shouted, “Fu Changling!”

Fu Changling heard his voice. He opened his eyes and it was at that moment, a body of white defended him from the front, following afterwards was a sickening, piercing crack. The long sword had pierced the other person’s chest. Fresh blood flowed down from the edge of the long sword. Fu Changling’s eyes widened and at the same time, the array below his feet had reached the final small array. It burst into light and a thousand sword glares flew out of it, hacking down the Venerable One and all the townspeople.

Shrill cries erupted from all around them and blood from the white-robed young man in front of Fu Changling sprayed onto his face. Those blood droplets were warm. Fu Changling looked at him, dazed, and only felt that his world had quietened down, the ticking of time slowing down.

He murmured the other person’s name, “Yanming…”

Why was he here?

Why would put himself in front of him?

Both of them had never met. They’d only met in the hidden realm and had only been with each other for a mere few days. How could he go so far to protect him?!

Why would he go so far to protect him?

He, Fu Changling, was someone who had been reborn in the first place. He was dead. Yanming was only seventeen in the prime of his years. How could he choose to block the sword in front of him? How could he be so silly, the same as his last life, going so far to throw away his life for someone, going so far to be benevolent?

As he looked at Yanming in a daze, at that moment, he felt all the hatred, all the kindness, all the emotions in his head bubble up at once.

A black vortex began swirling around him from beneath his feet. Fu Changling could not feel it. He was only looking at Yanming, shocked, as a series of pictures reeled before his eyes.

The Venerable One, who was being sealed up by the God’s Massacre Array, was being pinned down by Wu Sisi and Qin Yan. Qin Yan turned to see Fu Changling, and horrified, he shouted, “Fu Changling!”

Even so, Fu Changling could not hear him. He looked at Yanming, his eyebrows quivering. Yanming lowered his head to look at him, his face pale as he squeezed out a smile with great difficulty. Then, he reached out towards Fu Changling with a hand, whispering, “Changling…”

“Fu Changling!”

Qin Yan looked at the two people who were almost being swallowed by the black vortex. He frantically ran towards them, and it was at that moment, all the townspeople and the Venerable One appeared to have received a certain order. They all rushed towards Qin Yan.

Surrounded by a group of people, Qin Yan forced them to retreat with a swipe of his sword before another group of people washed over him.

As they thwarted him, Qin Yan fixed his gaze on Fu Changling, who was being enveloped by the black mist. His muscles tightened and cold sweat had beaded out of his entire person, as if he was recalling a very terrifying memory from the past, he couldn’t help shouting, “Fu Changling!”

No movements from the person inside the black mist came. Qin Yan stepped forward with great difficulty.

Every inch his sword went, there were people. These people seemed to feel no pain. After they were being hacked into pieces, even if they lost a limb, they would stand back up and throw themselves at him once again.

Being harassed in such a state, every step taken by Qin Yan was done with great difficulty.

“Fu Changling…”

He had grown tired calling, but he knew that he couldn’t stop.

Someone had made their way to an empty space and, while Qin Yan’s sword was jammed, they had thrown themselves onto him and bit down on his shoulder.

That bite tore apart his flesh. Qin Yan’s sword spurred around and sliced off the person who had bitten down on his shoulder as he took a step forward.

“Fu Changling…”

As if this moment had provided him with a reason to continue, a belief to cling on to, as if what this name represented was not a person, but a past, and a future.

He felt himself losing blood. His vision was blurred, but he continued to walk forward.

A normal person would not have been able to continue walking in a situation such as this.

But Qin Yan was different.

Even if there was despair in every step he took, even if every step was taken with great difficulty, and that no one who lay ahead would care. Even if he was fighting alone in a battle against an impossibly large force, he would continue to take that path.

He’s been doing this for his entire life once.

He’s not afraid of doing it again.

[1] 妹妹 lit. Little Sister

[2] 骚 technically means something like ‘friendly albeit unsolicited harassment’ but it sounds a little offensive so I chose to use bugging.

[3] 推演术 a cultivational art that takes the Classic of Changes as its basis and delivers predictions or conclusions according to the yin and yang and the five elements.

[4] 日上三竿 refers to time between 7AM-11AM

[5] 天字号 is literally ‘Sky Room’. A different method of arrangement in historical times. Referring to the Thousand Character Classic (千字文), the first sentence was 天地玄黄 (lit. Sky, Earth, Dark/Black, and Yellow). ‘Sky’ here refers to No.1

[6] 桃花 (lit. peach blossoms) but in this context, it refers to romantic relationships.

[7] 风流债 (lit. flirty debts) is referring to how Fu Changling goes around flirting too much that he gets himself entangled in too many relationships.

[8] 时辰 is two hours.

[9] 往生 in Buddhism refers to after a person had died, their souls would be going to another world to have a life wrought anew. Technically means dying except they’re ‘reborn’ in another world.

[10] 曾经沧海难为水，除却巫山不是云 is a phrase that means after seeing the best that exist, it’s difficult to find anything lesser remotely impressive.

[11] 五花大绑 tied with their hands behind their back. Visual image.

[12] 十方诛神阵 lit. Array that kills gods from all ten directions.

[13] 月拱门 looks like this.

[14] 傅郎 [Fu-lang] is sometimes like calling a lover.

[15] 圣尊千秋万福 (lit. May the Venerable One be blessed with a thousand autumns and ten thousand blessings) thousand autumns probably refers to wishing their god to live a long life.