CHAPTER 24 In this life, you’ll live your whole life as Yunze’s favoured one, Qin Yan.

Having asked this question, Fu Changling’s heartbeat quickened.

During that time, these things didn’t cross his mind. But now that he could stop and think through everything that happened before, he inevitably felt somewhat puzzled. Qin Yan’s sword had come at a time too convenient to be true. Why did he use that precise moment to make him clear-headed and realise that Yanming’s Sword of Blooming Spring had been exactly the same as his?

It was difficult for him to not overthink when something had reared its head. Even though in the previous life, he and Qin Yan did not have any contact at this point of time; if one thought carefully, even though Qin Yan is a person of outstanding ability, it was too surreal for a seventeen year old to fight with such an impressive level of skill. After all, a cultivation base can be built behind closed doors; however, true combat skills have to be polished by repeatedly being put through the pressure of life and death situations. Most cultivators who were seventeen years old were still sheltered by their seniors. When going out to learn through experience, a senior would lead the group. They didn't have to confront life and death situations at all. But Qin Yan’s sword skills would easily make one believe that he had already been through a countless number of ups and downs in life.

With all these signs, he couldn’t help but have a ridiculous conjecture. If he could be reborn, then Qin Yan…

“Since you already know the Sword of Blooming Spring...” After inquiring, Qin Yan reached out to steep the teacup in front of him. He continued calmly, “You should also know that it has a cleansing heart and gathering concentration effect.”

Fu Changling couldn’t help but be dumbfounded hearing these words. Qin Yan’s expression looked as always. He sipped a mouthful of tea and said, “At that time, you were trapped by the heart demon. I wanted to dispel the heart demon for you.”

“Is that so?”

Fu Changling spinned the fan in his hand. He pondered deeply, then slowly started to speak, “Since you already knew beforehand that Yanming wasn’t the real Yanming, why didn’t you inform me in advance?”

“Things that I’m not certain about, I will not speak.”

Fu Changling nodded. This was indeed Qin Yan’s style. He only felt that there was something wrong with Yanming, so he just warned him about him. When he discovered that Yanming was a heart demon, he told him he was a heart demon. He would not tell him about baseless guesses.

“You won’t speak of matters you’re not certain of. Fellow Cultivator Qin is surely a cautious person. In that case,” Fu Changling raised his eyes to look at him, watching his expression, “Fellow Cultivator Qin had stated before that he came by orders of Young Master Su to save me if it were the Shangguan Manor and kill me if we happened to fall into the Hidden Realm of Xuanji. Afterwards, you also accurately pointed out the problem with the seal of the Hidden Realm of Xuanji. It’s quite a feat to generally predict the mandates of Heaven, but could Young Master Su see everything on such a meticulous level? Yet, in between all of this, didn't Fellow Cultivator Qin feel even a little bit skeptical about it? ”

As he spoke, he continued in a grave voice, “Killing me, after all, is forfeiting one human life.”

It’s been a long time since Fu Changling had his suspicions on this matter, but he didn’t think too deeply about it before. Now that he had this absurd theory, he instantly felt everything made sense.

If Qin Yan and him were both reborn, in that case, it would justify all of Qin Yan’s actions.

The reason Qin Yan came to Shangguan Manor was to save him because he already knew that he would be met with danger at the Shangguan Manor and then fall into the Hidden Realm of Xuanji and break open its seal. So, in order to prevent all this, he came to the Shangguan Manor in advance and concentrated all his thoughts and efforts in protecting him and tried to make him leave the Shangguan Manor. Everything he did at the Shangguan Manor was to prevent him from entering the Hidden Realm of Xuanji.

But in the end, they still entered the Hidden Realm of Xuanji. Perhaps this matter made Qin Yan, who intended to alter fate, feel that one cannot go against it. Therefore, he made up his mind to kill him. But due to the obstruction of the Coaxial Heart Spell or some other reasons—perhaps it was the morality in his heart or that he still retained the friendship from their previous lifetime—he ultimately chose to cooperate with him and made him promise that he wouldn’t open the Hidden Realm of Xuanji.

But if he really had been reborn…

Fu Changling’s heart quivered again. With the sort of resolute and decisive attitude Qin Yan had in his previous life, how could he possibly come to his rescue without holding any grudges in his heart and decide to also get along with him peacefully?

After all, back in that year, he had humiliated and tortured him in such ways...

He recalled the silhouette in the fire and his breath hitched. In a flurry, he lowered his head to take the teacup, trying to conceal his emotions. Qin Yan, who was sitting opposite of him, seemed to be unaware of it. He calmly said, “I don’t understand the art of foresight. Since it’s performed by Wenji, you may ask him.” Qin Yan met his eyes without cowering. “I trust him.”

“And if he’s wrong?”

“If he’s wrong, I’ll kill you and pay for it with my life.”

Hearing this, Fu Changling suddenly lost interest in interrogating.

He’s probably being too paranoid. It felt strange to be reborn. Him starting all over again was nothing much, but for Qin Yan to also start anew; how can there be such a coincidence?

He also didn’t want to ask further. After not speaking for a very long time, Qin Yan saw that the other remained silent. So he urged, “Is there anything else you want to ask?”

“Nothing else. I was just wondering.” Fu Changling asked one final question as his curiosity waned, “You are only seventeen this year, but your sword skills can be compared to the most powerful. It’s as if you’ve experienced life and death battles for a long time. If one isn’t aware that you are the noble disciple of the Heavenly Palace of Hongmeng...” Fu Changling lifted his eyes to look at him. “How is it possible for someone to have such skills with the sword?”

This time Qin Yan didn’t answer. He looked at him with guarded eyes.

Only then did Fu Changling manage to react. It was deemed extremely rude among cultivators to ask another person about their cultivation practices.

He smiled, lowered his head and said, “Sorry! In momentary curiosity, I lost my manners. I hope you can forgive me.”

The two people plunged into silence. Only the sound of water trickling could be heard by their ears as Fu Changling made tea.

Flowing clouds surrounded them as if the flying ship was piercing through layers of clouds. After a brief silence, Qin Yan still answered Fu Changling, “My shifu’s cultivation originally requires comprehending the sword in actual combat. I once followed shifu when he went around challenging a hundred sects with the sword.”

Challenging a hundred sects with the sword.

Back in those years, Jiang Yebai’s fame spread when he was only a young man. Presently, he was only thirty-four; but he was already one of the four great cultivators in their ascension stage in the cultivation world. Under his guidance, it was not strange for Qin Yan to have such sword skills.

Listening to his explanation, Fu Changling finally let it go.

He was unable to make out what he was feeling; he was both glad but also grieved. There was an indescribable mix of feelings in his heart that one cup of bitter tea can never soothe.

He poured tea for Qin Yan. Unwilling to ask anymore, he changed the topic, “Just now, what did Fellow Cultivator Qin want to ask me?”

“The seal in the hidden realm, you finally...”

“I re-sealed it.”

Fu Changling knew what he wanted to ask so he spoke right away. Qin Yan nodded hearing this. “Well done.”

“However, it’s useless.” Fu Changling turned to look at the floating clouds outside the window and calmly said, “With my scanty spiritual powers, the seal I placed was not strong. Someone of a higher power manipulating this incident from behind is obvious. They could decipher the array in, at most, only a few months.”

“Someone of higher power?”

Qin Yan furrowed his brows as Fu Changling nodded. He sorted his thoughts as he picked up the little fan, smoothed out the incantation engraved on its shaft. “Do you remember the incantation we saw on Yuemin’s back at the Shangguan Manor?”

Hearing Fu Changling’s words, he gave it some thought. “I have a vague impression.”

“I saw it again while deciphering the array in the Hidden Realm of Xuanji.” The array in the Hidden Realm of Xuanji flashed through Fu Changling's mind again. He felt the smooth and ice-cold surface of the little fan and continued, “If I’m not wrong, looking at the shape of the two incantations, they should not be incantations but the core of a summoning array.”

Fu Changling looked at Qin Yan as he spoke, “Shangguan Manor is the sub-array and the Hidden Realm of Xuanji is the mother array. Shangguan Yuemin did not die in the hands of the wraith but she died from being used as the sacrifice of the mother array. After the mother array is unsealed, it can summon the people in the sub-array inside the mother array. However, a single hidden realm is incapable of taking in so many people. So, their original plan may have been to use the wraith to kill all the other people of the Shangguan Manor. ”

“If the wraith is under their control, it made sense that they could still kill us even if you’ve killed Shangguan Hong. ”

“Why did they go through so much trouble?” Qin Yan was somewhat puzzled. “If they want only the two of us to enter the Hidden Realm of Xuanji, wouldn’t it be enough to place the summoning array under our feet?”

Qin Yan said this in such seriousness that Fu Changling couldn’t hold in his amusement. He was sitting opposite to Qin Yan, one leg under his body and the other leg slightly bent. His hand was lightly resting on his knee, holding the folding fan as it hung by itself in mid-air.

He couldn’t help but slightly get up and move forward, coming closer to Qin Yan’s face, whispering, “Qin Yan, are you silly?”

Qin Yan lifted his eyes to look at him with his usual expression. The two were very close. The moment Qin Yan raised his eyes, Fu Changling could feel their breaths blending. Fu Changling watched in a daze as Qin Yan’s cold eyes looked at him calmly. Fu Changling couldn’t help but freeze, his gaze slightly shifting before falling on the little red smear near the corner of Qin Yan’s eyes.

The skin around the corner of his eyes seemed to be a little thin and fair by nature in contrast to the skin beneath. On a closer look, it also had a little bit of red. That red looked like the rose-tinted sky at dawn. If not for Qin Yan’s ice-cold personality concealing it, it looked somewhat garish and beautiful. Fu Changling was looking in amusement. Soon after, he heard Qin Yan’s cold voice, “What are you looking at?”

Fu Changling snapped out of it and forced himself to unobtrusively look away. He smiled, slowly withdrawing and waving his fan as he proceeded to speak, “Naturally they were hoping we wouldn’t discover this matter. If you hadn’t prevented me from breaking the seal of the Hidden Realm of Xuanji in advance, I wouldn’t have seen through these two summoning arrays in the end. Perhaps, if we had entered the Hidden Realm of Xuanji by mistake and then opened the seal of the Hidden Realm of Xuanji to save Yanming, we wouldn’t even have seen what was beneath the seal and left the Hidden Realm of Xuanji. We wouldn’t know what to do ourselves.”

Just like in the previous life.

From start to finish he hadn’t known what opening the Hidden Realm of Xuanji implied. If he had known earlier, then at least in the last moment he would’ve made up for it like now and the high level officials of Yunze would also have known of Avici’s existence. There would’ve been adequate preparations to defeat the imminent enemy.

In the present day Yunze, no one knew of Avici’s existence at all. Everyone had forgotten that distant war between Demons and Immortals that took place, still living in the beautiful dream of a flourishing age of cultivation.

Qin Yan listened to Fu Changling’s words and after absorbing them for a while, he concluded, “So, this matter was laid out by someone from behind. Back then, Shangguan Hong used Shangguan Yuemin to build an array to absorb spiritual energy, and help him continue to advance. Two years ago, a purple clothed woman damaged this array. After that, someone gave Shangguan Hong a technique to absorb the spiritual energy of other people. In exchange, or for other reasons, Shangguan Manor turned into the sub-array of a summoning array. The wraith was controlled by someone from behind the scenes to attack us and we fell into the Hidden Realm of Xuanji. Wu Sisi and Yanming both wanted to use us to open the seal of the Hidden Realm of Xuanji. In that case,” Qin Yan looked at him, “What is beneath the seal of the Hidden Realm of Xuanji? Why assign the two of us to enter the Hidden Realm of Xuanji?”

Fu Changling didn’t speak. He opened and closed the little fan.

He naturally knew what was beneath that seal of the Hidden Realm of Xuanji. But if he told Qin Yan, he would have to explain to Qin Yan how he knew these things.

He hesitated for a long time and finally, still said it, “It is the Avici.”

“Avici?”

Qin Yan repeated it once under his breath, he dropped his gaze to look at the teacup. Fu Changling swiveled his fan as he explained, “The existence of the Avici is the reason Su Wenji told you that, if I enter the hidden realm, I would lead the walking lives of Yunze to misery.”

Qin Yan was silent, seeming to digest the details Fu Changling said. Fu Changling reached out to hold the teacup and took a sip. “In that year during the war between Demons and Immortals, the Venerate Sword Ye Lan expelled the demonic cultivators to the wild lands and later sealed them up in a place. This place is called the Avici. ”

Fu Changling said, turning his head to look outside the window.

“In order to completely seal the Avici, the Venerate Sword Ye chose a special kind of seal. It sealed all the four energy pulses connecting the Avici and Yunze. These energy pulses are originally the spiritual airs circulating in the two realms. After being sealed, Yunze’s spiritual air will not infiltrate into the Avici. Without the supply of this spiritual air, the Avici became a barren land and after some time those demonic cultivators will wither away on their own. These four seals can not only constrain Avici’s growth but also strengthen the seal on the Avici’s entrance at the same time. In other words...”

Fu Changling looked at Qin Yan. “If you want to open the Avici’s entrance, you will have to first open the seals on these four energy pulses. I guess that seal in the Hidden Realm of Xuanji is actually the seal of one of these four energy pulses. Now that they’ve opened this energy pulse, the spiritual air of Yunze can infiltrate into Avici and Avici can become stronger with its help. Sooner or later they will also open the master seal of Avici’s entrance. ”

Qin Yan listened calmly. His face didn’t show the least bit of surprise. Whether he was unaware, knew it for a long time or was accustomed to it, people couldn’t get even the slightest glimpse of his emotions.

“If it’s truly like that,” Qin Yan’s gaze fell on the long sword in front of him, “What will happen to Yunze?”

“First its spiritual air will be exhausted.”

Fu Changling sighed. He recalled Yunze in those years. “After that, some demonic cultivators from Avici will appear in Yunze and use the spiritual energy and lives of Yunze’s cultivators as nourishment, to rapidly increase their powers. There will also be a lot of cultivators from Yunze, who will abandon the right path and take the demonic path once the spiritual air of Yunze is exhausted.”

“Once their numbers increase, there’ll be a war between Demons and Immortals. We may win or we may lose; in any case, it’s the same conclusion.”

“Why do you say so?”

Qin Yan suddenly spoke. He asked this question extremely fast; and even a little bit of eagerness that did not belong to him was in it.

Fu Changling was recalling his previous life and didn’t sense this instance of abnormality. Only after a long time he said, “No matter whether you win or lose, the fate of Yunze’s spiritual air receding cannot be changed. Yunze’s great calamity is not Avici. It’s the heavenly law.”

“You don't have to!”

When he heard those words, ‘turn into ash and dust’, Fu Changling abruptly raised his voice. This loud voice seemed to have startled Qin Yan. He calmly looked at Fu Changling as Fu Changling turned his head away, looking a little flustered.

He lowered his head and squeezed the fan tightly, restraining himself from recalling how Qin Yan burned to ashes in the karmic fire in his previous life. He stood up from the main table and vomited a mouthful of blood in front of the long table.

But he couldn’t control it.

Back in those years, Qin Yan was already in his ascension stage, so the karmic fire had burned for a whole three days.

In those three days, the people who attended the ritual got fewer and fewer. Only he had continuously sat by himself on the host’s seat from start to finish, watching the entire scene of execution.

In the long years that followed, when he closed his eyes, he could recall each and every fragment. But in those years he didn’t dare to acknowledge his sentiments towards Qin Yan, so he could only console himself that these were memories of his personal enemy. But now when he truly accepted his heart: in that year, every sword that plunged into Qin Yan’s body had plunged into his heart and every cluster of fire that burned Qin Yan’s body was also scorched on his heart.

He cannot listen to Qin Yan talking about life and death. So, his hand holding the fan lightly trembled. He lifted his head and fixed his eyes on Qin Yan. “You have to remember it well.”

“This lifetime, regardless of what happens, whether it is the common people or Yunze, for kindness or your lover, you don’t have to stake your life.”

“You will live well.”

“This life...” He looked at the astonished person in front of him. He tried using his smile to conceal his emotions, but still choked with sobs when he spoke, “You’ll live your whole life as Yunze’s favoured one, Qin Yan.”