Chapter 97

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Chapter 97: Two Sides

It was night, and the cold wind blowing in from the Frozen Sea made everyone sleeping inside the hut shiver a bit.

Luo Jinsang and Qu Xiaoxing were lying on the ground in the corner while Aji laid on the bed. Changyi was nowhere to be seen.

"Ji Yunhe."

Someone called out in her dream.

"Ji Yunhe..." The voice sounded distressed. "Qing Ji was captured. Remember your past! I'll lend you my power so you can go save her!"

Qing Ji...

Aji was in a daze and fell back into the clouds. Before she could answer, a murderous aura pierced into her chest and she instinctively resisted. But as soon as she summoned her power, the fire that had subsided inside her heart burned up again.

She immediately felt the fire of hell against her flesh and skin.

Aji opened her eyes with a jerk, her body glowing red from the poisonous flames.

Changyi had specifically instructed her not to use any power, she never thought her reaction inside a dream would make her use power in real life.

Aji felt the burning pain and rolled out of bed, intending to go out into the freezing wind for some relief. But as soon as she got on the floor, her legs went weak and she fell to her knees.

Luo Jinsang and Qu Xiaoxing woke up and opened their eyes in confusion. They soon saw Aji on the floor, panting breathlessly. Before they had time to react, a black shadow already dashed in from outside and picked her up.

"What's wrong?" Luo Jinsang asked as she watched the jiaoren carry Aji out of the hut without saying anything.

Sensing the situation was not good, Luo Jinsang immediately pulled Qu Xiaoxing up, and the two of them chased after him together.

"What's wrong?" Qu Xiaoxing also asked with a confused face. Luo Jinsang answered, "Yunhe's fire seems to have relapsed."

"Relapsed!?" Qu Xiaoxing was shocked. "Wasn't she sleeping peacefully just now? How?!"

The two of them ran outside the hut just in time to see Changyi holding Ji Yunhe at the edge of the cliff, leaping down into the Frozen Sea.

...

The sea was even colder in the middle of the night, surrounded by darkness.

Changyi cast a spell with his hand and Aji's face and body was enshrouded by a faint glow, then they soared into the depths.

Aji's world fell silent inside the magic barrier he had created for her.

No one called her Ji Yunhe, no one spoke to her about Qing Ji, and in the cold water, time traveled to a moment she had never been before.

She saw herself frozen at the bottom of the lake.

And a black capsule taken out of her body by Lin Haoqing.

"Ji Yunhe..." she murmured to herself. Then more chaotic memories flooded into Aji's mind. She saw images of her among the snowy mountains and Changyi sealing her body with ice. She felt the touch of a teardrop falling on her face. Then she saw a room with a screen, and his shadow under the candle light.

Slowly, more images appeared.

In march, a sea of flowers blooming in the Demon Valley.

Being tortured and flogged by Princess Shunde inside a dungeon.

The corpse of Lin Canglan sitting on a chair with a silent Lin Haoqing nearby.

At the end, she also saw a black iron cage with blood all over the floor, the jiaoren suspended on the wall, and his huge lotus tail...

Everything rushed into her mind at once. She heard countless people calling out the name "Ji Yunhe". Luo Jinsang, Qu Xiaoxing, Lin Haoqing, and Changyi...

They were all calling to her.

"Changyi..."

Changyi finally came to a stop. It was not because he heard Ji Yunhe's voice, but because he had reached his destination -- a shimmering seabed full of lingzhi that glowed and illuminated their surroundings.

The moment he released her into the giant cluster of lingzhi, he saw her lips move, "I remembered everything."

Ji Yunhe's voice was blocked by his barrier, but he understood her words. It stirred up a shockwave deep inside him.

His blue eyes lit up and glowed.

And Ji Yunhe's body floated down onto the seabed.

Seeing she had drifted away from himself, he immediately reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.

Ji Yunhe held on to his hand and pulled his body onto hers as she landed on top of the bed.

They looked into each other's eyes under the shimmering light, through the magic barrier.

"Big-tailed fish... I'm sorry for everything you had to go through..."

He read her silent lips.

Changyi did not expect such simple words would disturb the thousands of wounds that had festered and healed over inside him.

It was always so easy for her to drill into the deepest vulnerabilities of his heart.

But why Ji Yunhe?

He never understood it.

Why her?

Her life and death, illness and suffering, support and betrayal, remembering and forgetting... They all made him feel so much pain.

Even her silent words made him feel weak right now.

Ji Yunhe gently caressed his face, then her hand reached behind his neck and she embraced him.

This human world had been truly unkind to this big-tailed fish from the sea...

...

The capital, also late at night.

The battle had left the city in ruins. A spring rain lightly fell in the middle of the night, making everything worse.

No one cared about the civilians' woes and suffering. The Grand Master's house had been nearly demolished to the ground. He walked to his mostly collapsed study and waved his arm. A book quietly flew into his hand from the rubble.

The book was partially soaked by the rain, and he gently dabbed at the water with his white sleeve. Then he coughed violently.

His body hunched over in the rain, something rarely seen. A red umbrella suddenly opened up above him.

He turned his head and saw Shunde dressed in red with her face behind a scarf. Her bare feet stepped in the mud as she eyed him. "Master, you are injured."

The Grand Master nodded, "Mhm."

"My fault for not helping you battle the jade phoenix."

"It's good that you didn't come." The Grand Master put the book into his sleeve and coughed a couple more times. "Rest well, catching a cold would affect your health."

Her eyes flickered and her lips trembled upon hearing his words, but the Grand Master added, "It would interfere with the medicine you are taking."

Shunde's lips grew stiff and the hand holding the umbrella tightened.

The Grand Master did not look at her. "Go back. And put on your shoes." Then he proceeded to cough nonstop until a mouthful of blood splattered onto the ground. He immediately channeled some power into his hand and pressed it against his chest, closing his eyes.

Princess Shunde's gaze turned treacherous as she stared at him. "Master."

The Grand Master did not respond to her.

He was seriously injured. When concentrating on self healing, external disturbances were considered most devastating...

Shunde's face gradually turned cold.

In the spring rain, under the red umbrella, her fingertips gathered power and she struck at the back of his neck.

And sure enough, the Grand Master did not defend against her. She easily seized him and began extracting the power that she had wanted from him. His spiritual power was pure and strong, far better than her killing a hundred other demon masters.

Princess Shunde was overjoyed until she saw him slightly turn his head.

She suddenly felt afraid, and in the next instant, her power began flowing out into his body.

She wanted to pull loose, but her hand remained stuck to him until all the power she had absorbed in recent days was sucked clean. Then she was pushed away by a brutal force.

She staggered onto broken bricks and mud with her bare feet. They cut her skin and made her bleed, but the Grand Master did not give her even a single glance.

"Ruling, you want too much," he said. "Go back."

He saw through everything she had planned and did not care. Absolute power gave him absolute confidence… and control.

Shunde looked at him in the rain, her face gradually twisting. "Why not kill me?" she asked him. "I just betrayed you, I wanted your life! Why aren't you killing me?!"

The Grand Master walked away. "You know why."

Because of her face.

Even though it had been disfigured, he still obsessed over healing her and restoring her. Because of this face.

She touched the uneven skin on her cheek, and her sharp nails digged into her flesh. "I don't want this face! I am not a face! Kill me! You raised me, taught me, and gave me everything, but I betrayed you! I betrayed you! Kill me! Don't spare me because of this face..."

She collapsed to the ground, covering her bloody face and crying out in pain. "I'm not just a face, I'm more than just a face..."

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