V2C93

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Zhu Yan fell from the Ninth Heaven.

It was unclear how long had passed before she finally regained her senses. When she finally opened her eyes, she felt that her entire body was aching and weak, with a splitting headache pounding inside her head, like a hangover after drinking a bucket of strong wine. She knew in her heart that this was a collapse caused by the exhaustion of her spiritual energy, and she feared that it would take her a long time in order to restore it – moreover, from this moment onwards, her spiritual essence was greatly injured, and she was going to lose half of her life expectancy.

But it doesn’t matter, as long as Master is safe…

Just thinking about her Master, she suddenly came to her senses and struggled to try to sit up – that’s right, where was he? What happened to him? Why hadn’t she seen him since she arrived at Jiuyi? It couldn’t be… However, as soon as she made the first move, her whole body shattered in pain, and she couldn’t help but utter a loud cry and slump back down with a pounding head.

The moment the bridge of her nose almost hit the ground, a white shadow bounced in front of her and lifted her back to her feet.

“Master?” She exclaimed involuntarily, out of breath.

However, when she turned back, all she saw were four vermilion eyes.

She was crouched at the very bottom of Chongming’s wings, covered in thick white feathers, as warm and soft as a peaceful egg waiting to hatch. Seeing that she was still struggling to get up, the Divine Bird turned its neck around and caught her unceremoniously with his beak, before throwing down at her feet a bunch of vermilion fruits.

“Huh?” Zhu Yan picked up the elixir and muttered, “Are you alright, four-eyed bird…?”

Chongming cooed once more and twitched its wings in frustration. Only then did Zhu Yan raised her heavy head to see that she was leaning near the root of his injured wing, the blood on his feathers being barely congealed – that night, in order for her to break through to the final threshold, he had fought his way straight up to the Ninth Heaven and was wounded by the striking bolts of lightning.

“Oops!” Zhu Yan winced as she reared up and moved over, “I am so sorry, truly sorry…”

Instead of withdrawing his wings, Chongming flapped them a little, and cooed a few times as he tenderly brushed her forehead with the tips of his feathers. That was the first time in so long that Zhu Yan saw the hostility in the Divine Bird’s eyes vanishing, and she couldn’t help but choke back a sigh in her heart, “Four-eyed bird, you… have you forgiven me?”

Chongming tapped her head with its beak, and made a gurgling sound.

“Then, what about the Master? Has he… how is he doing?” She wiped the corners of her eyes and asked impatiently, “Have you seen him? Has he… truly come back to life?”

Without saying a word, the Divine Bird turned his four eyes towards her back.

“What?” Zhu Yan froze for a moment and unconsciously turned around to see.

It turned out that she had been carried to the Valley of the Kings by the Chongming Divine Bird and was now on top of the big white rock where her Master used to cultivate – there was a small stone cave underneath the rock, too deep to see the bottom, which was clearly the place where her Master used to live during his years of hard training.

“The Master is in there?” She jumped up in a flash, “Is he… any better?”

Subconsciously, she tried to run inside to check it out, and Chongming rapidly stretched his head behind her, as if he wanted to grab her by the lapels and drag her back, but he hesitated for a moment then stopped, only to let out a gurgle from his throat and retract his head, with a complex expression in his four blood-red eyes.

Zhu Yan was impatient to go inside, her heart was pounding painfully in her chest – Master he… really came back from the dead? Did the Star Soul Blood Oath really work?

Could she really make up for the colossal mistake that she had committed?

Everything was exactly the same as it used to be ten years ago: a long, narrow tunnel leading to a small stone chamber at the far end. It was as empty as a snowy cave, with dead leaves covering the ground, an old blanket and a fireplace, like a resting place for the ascetic monks.

She walked briskly inside, a million visions sweeping through her mind along the way.

At the age of eight, she was first brought here by Chongming, and when she walked in and saw her master, she was almost killed by the blow of his palm; at the age of nine, she began to follow him in the Valley of the Kings, and spent four years working on the grounds of this grotto, eating and sleeping, and enduring countless hardships; at the age of thirteen, she left the Jiuyi Mountain and never returned here ever since.

And now, she is here once again, but it feels like it has been a lifetime since the last visit.

The more Zhu Yan stepped in, the slower she walked, and in the end she actually stopped in her tracks, suddenly having a sense of withdrawing.

Yet at a quick glance, in the deepest recesses of the cave, there was indeed a figure.

A beam of heavenly light filtered down from the chiseled stone wall above their head, enveloping the figure who was seated alone. The familiar figure was there, sitting quietly facing the wall, unaware of what he was thinking about, still in a white and immaculate robe, pure and upright, like the moon in the snow and the light on the clouds.

He heard her walking in, but didn’t turn around.

Master! It was really Master! Zhu Yan immediately recognized that familiar back, and her heart suddenly tightened, her throat became hoarse, and she couldn’t utter a word, her eyes blurred, and tears gushed out of her eyes uncontrollably.

Master… Master! Are you alright?

She wanted to shout but inexplicably hesitated, she tried to reach out her hand but retracted it, and could only stand in a daze less than a foot away behind him, her lips trembling as she finally whispered one word: “Master?”

The man turned his back on her and did not answer.

This brief moment suddenly felt as long as a lifetime.

From her perspective, she could only see his right hand resting on his knee, slightly clenched, his knuckles long and slender. He should have been aware of her arrival, yet he didn’t said a word, he was just focusing on the stone wall in front of him – the wall was still marked with the long, gory palm imprint left behind during his retreat ten years ago, still mottled and undimmed.

When she was eight years old, she used to run over to him without fear, pulling him by the lapels and inquiring earnestly – but ten years later she no longer seemed to have the same pure and passionate heart that she once carried, instead she felt that the distance between them appeared to be as wide as life and death, and she flinched suddenly.

Having made the journey from death to life, there was something that felt as being no longer the same.

“Was it the Star Soul Blood Oath?” Suddenly, a question resounded in the stone cave above her ears.

The sound of that voice was so soft, yet so familiar, as if coming from a distant past life, rumbling in his ears, causing Zhu Yan to shake violently, and her brain went blank for a moment, surprisingly completely unable to utter a word.

She forgot to answer, and the man did not turn around, but only focused on his hand, slowly clenching and releasing his grip, as if he was repeatedly confirming the fact that he was still alive on this earth, and after a long pause, in a calm tone, he asked again: “Am I still alive right now? Is it because you made use of the Star Soul Blood Oath?”

“Yes… I did!” Zhu Yan finally managed to muster up two words, and her voice faltered.

In that moment, the man in front of her turned back with a sudden jump!

Zhu Yan gave out a loud “ah” and subconsciously took a step back – yes, this was indeed her Master! It was true! Master… was finally released from the shadow of death and had returned to existence!

Yet, right now, his eyes were filled with a rare expression of anger, like a concealed thunderbolt in a dark cloud, causing her to shudder involuntarily and freeze in place. For years, she had been so afraid of him that even after walking from life to death she was still feeling exactly the same.

Zhu Yan was stunned for a moment, why would Master… be so angry?

When Shi Ying saw the fearful look in her eyes, he remained silent for a moment and spoke in a deep voice: “Did the Grand Master force you to do this?”

“No… it wasn’t!” Zhu Yan plucked up her courage and stammered a reply, “It was… me who wanted to do this! It was me who begged… and begged the Grand Master to teach it to me!”

“You begged him?” Shi Ying trembled and suddenly fell silent.

During the short silence, the air in the grotto felt distinctly stagnant, almost making it impossible to breathe. After an unknown amount of time, his clenched hands slowly loosened as he spat out only one word: “Foolish.”

Zhu Yan shuddered for a moment, only to feel as if a knife had swiftly pierced her heart, so painful that she could not help but inhale a mouthful of chilling air – all these days she was not drinking or eating, doing her absolute best, recklessly exchanging half of her life for his in return, only to receive just this simple word?

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