Chapter 99

"Really? Do you hope I die, Senior Brother Jiang?"

Li Chen had long expected him to leave, and with a flicker, he landed on the cloud ladder.

For someone like Jiang Mushi, who adhered strictly to the rules, he would still come down every nine days, regardless of whether Li Chen was still alive.

"Did you do it?"

Jiang Mushi paused slightly, looked around, and said hoarsely.

"I saw Senior Brother at the bottom. His cultivation broke through to the Solid Foundation Realm, and he obtained a treasure sword and flew away!"

Li Chen shrugged, avoiding the question, his meaning clear.

"Senior Brother?"

Jiang Mushi's eyes flashed with a terrifying light, but it quickly dimmed. After a long silence, he said, "Let's drink!"

"Ha ha ha, I couldn't be happier! Please!"

Li Chen laughed heartily, jumped onto the rock wall first, and gestured invitingly.

His movements were still as ghostly as ever, instantly reaching nearby, but he didn't head for the inner cave. Instead, he sat down on the side of the cliff, his gaze lowered, looking down.

"Senior Brother Jiang, please. This is good wine I got from outside, capable of nourishing the body!"

Li Chen took out several jars of wine from his storage bag, broke the mud seals, and handed them to Jiang Mushi.

Gulping, gulping!

Grabbing the wine jar, Jiang Mushi drank it down in one go, the fiery liquor going down his throat without a single frown.

Li Chen, watching with interest, drank without hesitation.

Both of their cultivation levels were high, but after drinking a twenty-pound jar of wine, especially this kind of spiritual wine, they both showed signs of slight intoxication.

Li Chen, drinking with enthusiasm, didn't notice Jiang Mushi's gradually furrowed brows and the cold sweat slowly seeping from his neck. He continued to take out more jars and drink.

"Do you want to hear a story?"

Jiang Mushi's eyelids drooped, his voice hoarse and low.

"Senior Brother Jiang, I'm all ears!"

Li Chen hugged the wine jar and burped.

"Forty years ago, a young swordsman of extraordinary talent emerged in the Xuan Yun Sect. At sixteen, he reached the True Forging Realm, young and arrogant."

It had to be said that Jiang Mushi was not a good storyteller, and his eloquence was terrible.

But Li Chen still understood the story of the arrogant swordsman, how he roamed the world with his sword, how he won the heart of a beauty, and how he avenged her by attacking the enemy sect in a fit of rage.

"Ha ha, after Ying'er died, the swordsman fell into despair and eventually turned to dust!"

After telling the story for several hours, Jiang Mushi concluded with a few words.

"Senior Brother, what about the child?"

Li Chen frowned, sensing that Jiang Mushi was telling his own story, but the ending didn't quite match what he had said.

"Dead, he died saving his father! That man doesn't deserve to be a father!"

Jiang Mushi drank another mouthful of wine, his eyes seemingly filled with tears.

"Senior Brother, what's wrong? What is it?"

Li Chen only then noticed that Jiang Mushi's arms were trembling violently, and he couldn't even hold the wine steady.

This wasn't from being drunk; it was clearly from enduring intense pain.

Reaching out and grabbing Jiang Mushi's arm, he found it frighteningly cold. Even with Li Chen's strong martial body, a layer of ice crystals instantly formed.

"Ha ha, it's just the malevolent energy entering my body, nothing serious. Besides, I was already a dead man! It's nice to have a drink with you at the end!"

Jiang Mushi slowly turned his pale face, revealing a smile that was more painful than crying.

His eyes held no resentment, no longing, only a hint of relief.

"Malevolent energy entering the body? Senior Brother, don't you have any regrets?"

Seeing the determination in Jiang Mushi's eyes, Li Chen couldn't help but ask. No matter what, he didn't want to see this person, who shared the same aura as him, die.

"Regrets? Ying'er..."

Jiang Mushi's dimming eyes suddenly brightened, and he stretched out his withered hand as if to touch something.

"Didn't Senior Sister Ying'er want you to live well?"

Li Chen shouted sternly.

"Live? What's the point of living like this? Ying'er is dead, and Monkey died for me. There's nothing left to live for, nothing left to live for..."

Jiang Mushi's face was unbearably ugly.

The greatest sorrow is the death of the heart, which was his true state at that moment.

"You dying will solve everything, but who caused your family to be destroyed, your wife and children to be separated? That person is still living well, isn't he?"

Li Chen thought of the story he had told earlier, clearly about himself, and couldn't help but blurt it out.

"Ha ha ha, trapped for thirty years, what can I use to take revenge?"

Jiang Mushi, seemingly drawing strength from somewhere, stood up abruptly and stared at the sky: "Thief of the heavens, are you happy now? I, Jiang Zhantian, refuse to accept it! Ha ha ha, I'm going to see my wife and children!"

"I see you as a coward. Your wife was taken by someone else, and you have the courage to face death, but you, a living person, can't face life?"

Li Chen stood up and shouted sternly.

"Ha ha, can't face life? What do you know? For thirty years, I've been thinking about how to survive every moment.

"But what? The heavens have repeatedly crushed my hopes, making me endure pain time and time again.

"Do you know why I pushed you off the cliff that night?"

Jiang Mushi laughed wildly, looking at Li Chen with a tragic expression.

"Could it be..."

Li Chen's eyes flashed with shock.

"Exactly, because of the Yin Cold Malevolent Energy here, I go mad every night and have to lock myself up. Do you know? That's not a life!"

Jiang Mushi swayed, his aura becoming weaker.

"The Xuan Yun Sect is so large; isn't there a solution?"

Li Chen couldn't help but ask.

"He he, there is, and it's precisely because of that solution that my son died!"

Jiang Mushi laughed tragically.

"Killed your son? What method?"

"That cultivation technique, no one can master it, no one can master it."

"Impossible, as long as it's not a nonsensical technique, someone can always master it!"

"Ha ha, in the scripture hall on the top of Nan Yun Peak, there is a technique called the 'Ninefold Pure Yang Technique.' Monkey tried to save me and was burned to death by the True Yang Fire!"

"Ninefold Pure Yang Technique? Right, True Yang Fire can suppress evil spirits and malevolent energy, naturally!"

Finally getting some useful information, Li Chen said joyfully, "Senior Brother, I practice the Pure Yang Technique; I can save you!"

"Ha ha, I know you practice the Pure Yang Technique. If it were ten years ago, no, even five years ago, I would have begged you. But now, even if you use the True Yang Fire you've cultivated with great effort, you can only save a cripple at best!"

Jiang Mushi's body began to stiffen, and a thin mist of white began to gather around him, a result of the increasing cold. Ice crystals started to form.

"No!"

Li Chen, regardless of everything else, pushed Jiang Mushi back, away from the cliff edge.

Raising his palms, a crimson-golden true qi suddenly flashed, and with a loud thud, he struck Jiang Mushi's chest.

"You... your cultivation isn't enough, it's useless!"

Jiang Mushi now only had the strength to speak, his entire body turning into an ice sculpture, but the ice crystals were an eerie greenish-black.

"How can you know unless you try? At worst, we start over; if you die, there's no hope at all!"