“Master, but I’m willing to accept this.”
He Liansheng spoke these shocking words without hesitation. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he flew toward the Forbidden Mountain. The Mountain Lord roared in anger: “He Lian!”
The young man had already vanished, as if swallowed by the dark sky, leaving the Spirit Mountain disciples dumbfounded. Such an event was rare even looking back a thousand years.
Darkness surrounded them, no light visible.
Xing Shuishui raised her hand to block with separation fire, but her body had reached its limit. Too exhausted, she used her spirit blade to cut her arm. The intense pain kept her conscious for a moment.
But only for a moment.
The soil kept pressing against her. She put away her knife and resisted with bare hands. The strong feeling of suffocation left her powerless.
Was this it? How unwilling she felt – she was so close.
Xing Shuishui bit her lip. Just as she was about to lose consciousness, someone directly split the entire Forbidden Mountain with their sword. A tremendous and frenzied spiritual power crashed down, making the whole Forbidden Mountain let out a miserable scream.
Xing Shuishui raised her head, her hair flying up, but the sword intent didn’t harm her at all.
The young man crouched down and lifted her from the ground, his arm tightly holding her waist.
The Forbidden Mountain was collapsing, and he was looking at her.
Xing Shuishui weakly raised her eyes: “He Liansheng? Weren’t you going for first place? Did you win?”
He Liansheng stared at the girl’s pale face, his killing intent slightly subdued: “No.”
She sighed: “So you have days when you lose too.”
Yes, he lost. In this life, he had completely lost to her.
He calmly carried her out of the mist, telling her carelessly: “I forfeited.”
She didn’t need to ask to know the answer.
“You’re crazy…” she said.
He Liansheng was still as dismissive of everything as when they first met, telling her arrogantly: “Then let’s say I am crazy.”
Master, family, Spirit Mountain – nothing made him hesitate. He never considered consequences when acting. Such a resolute young man was always easy to fall for.
Too bad they met too late.
Xing Shuishui closed her eyes helplessly. He Liansheng looked down and saw the girl’s lips completely bloodless, her hand hanging limp, appearing somewhat broken.
“Don’t sleep, okay?” He forced himself to stay calm.
Okay.
He Liansheng held her tight. The whip wounds on his arm that had healed began seeping blood again. His tone was somewhat hoarse, showing rare viciousness: “Xing Shuishui, weren’t you always chatty? Say something to me. I won’t find you annoying anymore. Tell me which stupid thing hurt you. I’ll kill them.”
Alright, but what to say? Xing Shuishui thought: He Liansheng, don’t call me Xing Shuishui anymore, you can call me Shuishui.
She couldn’t speak it out.
His voice echoed in her ears, obsessive and morbid.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to dry persimmons? I haven’t seen any, the eaves are empty.”
“If you don’t talk, I’ll pull your hair every day until it hurts.”
Although his temper wasn’t great, his embrace was so warm. She thought: I won’t die, He Liansheng, don’t worry, I won’t die.
Don’t pull my hair.
She completely lost consciousness.
The dense fog dispersed, the sky was dark.
The young man carried his life’s greatest love out from the Forbidden Mountain, one step, two steps, each step leaving blood. The Spirit Mountain cultivators burst into an uproar.
“He Liansheng!”
The Mountain Lord rarely called his full name in such anger: “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“She’s already ruining you! She’s just a mortal! Trespassing into the Forbidden Mountain! Do you know the consequences? Have you considered she might have come with ulterior motives? Why are you still being foolish!”
But the young man placed the Peach Source Sword on her, letting her hold it with both hands, his gaze becoming much gentler.
He turned back calmly and said: “Master, but I’m willing to accept this.”
The Mountain Lord was almost angered to death.
“Unfilial disciple!”
…
Xing Shuishui fell into a coma, her head dizzy. When she woke up, she found herself not on Spirit Mountain. It was dark all around, through the window she could see ash floating in the dark sky.
This was… the Netherworld.
She instinctively looked down at her hands, she was in spirit form. Dead? Surely not.
Besides, the system wouldn’t let her die.
The room was dark. Suddenly several ghost-headed ox-faced beings appeared by the bed, pointing at her and screaming: “Your Majesty! She’s awake!”
She understood – so she was in the King of Hell’s palace!
Xing Shuishui climbed out of bed. As soon as she opened the door, she ran into the King of Hell who was pushing it open. She looked up confused and asked: “What’s going on? I remember my injuries weren’t that severe.”
The King of Hell got straight to the point: “Didn’t you ask me to look into ways to gather your sister’s soul? Never found a chance to tell you, so I took the opportunity while you were unconscious to bring you to the City of the Dead.”
Xing Shuishui trembled: “You found something?”
The King of Hell tossed her a book: “The method is inside, see for yourself. But I advise you to give up. There’s no need to risk your life for a mere possibility.”
Xing Shuishui opened the book to look. The book recorded methods lost to the human world. The King of Hell had placed restrictions on it, so she could only see one method:
Soul gathering method: Using blood relative’s body as vessel, heaven and earth’s power as guide, recite soul gathering incantation, place in deadly situation then revive, fifty percent chance of success.
She understood why he said it wasn’t worth it. Using one’s body as vessel to gather souls had a ninety percent death rate, with only half a chance of success. But for her, that was enough.
She silently memorized the soul gathering incantation: “Thank you.”
She smiled: “If you ever need help, you can come find me too.”
Just this heaven and earth power – where to find it? Lightning doesn’t strike every day, and one wrong move means death by lightning.
Take it one step at a time.
She wanted to return to the human world, but the King of Hell summoned a mirror and asked: “Look first before deciding whether to go back. If it really won’t work, I can find you a new body.”
The mirror showed Spirit Mountain after she fell unconscious. He Liansheng walked through blood, under the autumn sky, carrying her back to his residence.
After returning, the first thing He Liansheng did was find Li Guanxing who had been by her side. After learning of Xing Shuishui’s incident, Li Guanxing had hidden far away. When caught off guard, He Liansheng drew his sword and dragged him from the Li family ancestral hall. He explained for ages but couldn’t find Xing Shuishui’s supposed “note”. Of course He Liansheng didn’t believe him.
Because it was fake to begin with.
Xing Shuishui sighed.
The relationship between the Li and He families deteriorated due to his disrespect that day. The He family could no longer sit still. Several highly respected elders came in succession but were all turned away.
The Mountain Lord also declared that if he remained obstinate, he would no longer acknowledge him as a disciple.
He Liansheng didn’t back down. No matter how loud the outside world’s voices grew, he still stayed by her side, night after night.
Though his future was boundless, he willingly bowed for her.
“The persimmons I bought last time were too sour, so I bought more. These will be just right for drying.”
The young man played with her fallen hair strands, feeding her another pill, fiercely saying: “Once you hear this, get better quickly. Don’t let the persimmons rot.”
The gauze curtain fell, the girl on the bed looked peaceful.
She probably hadn’t heard.
A persimmon tree had appeared in the courtyard at some point. Birds stood on the golden persimmons, pecking until juice flowed. A red sun set, blood-colored sky everywhere.
Someone shouldered wind and rain waiting for one person’s return.
In an instant, Xing Shuishui heard a voice in her heart constantly calling: Wake up quickly, someone is waiting outside for you.
Without thinking, she turned and said: “I want to go back!”
Seeing her mind was made up, the King of Hell gave her a jade token to leave the City of the Dead. Xing Shuishui took the token and left, stepping into the dense fog, returning to the human world.
Her head had been dizzy for who knows how long. As Xing Shuishui gradually regained awareness, she found He Liansheng’s bed was worlds apart from the King of Hell’s palace – finally not the kind that could break your back from hardness!
She slowly opened her eyes and found several layers of blankets underneath her. She smiled helplessly. Although she knew she was sleeping in He Liansheng’s bed while in the King of Hell’s palace, actually being in an unfamiliar environment still made her nervous.
Xing Shuishui turned her head.
A luminous pearl sat by the bed, warm yellow light spilling in.
She lifted the curtain but didn’t see He Liansheng. She got out of bed and took a few casual steps – ouch, her legs were still a bit sore.
“Young miss, you’re finally awake!” The young servant guarding the door saw her and was overjoyed.
Xing Shuishui asked: “Where’s He Liansheng?”
“Young master just returned from outside, now he’s… now he seems to have gone to your room.”
She asked: “Returned from where?”
The young servant was clearly troubled, stammering: “Family… family head.”
“I see.”
She left He Liansheng’s quarters and walked toward her own room. From far away she saw the young cultivator standing in front of her room, raising his hand to hang peeled persimmons under the eaves.
Several strings were already hanging under the eaves.
The sunset shone on the strings of persimmons, as if coating them in a layer of gold.
Xing Shuishui stopped in her tracks.
He Liansheng stared absently at the persimmons under the eaves.
Xing Shuishui walked to his side.
“They’re hanging a bit crooked, could move them right toward the sun a bit.”
Hearing this voice, the young man suddenly turned around. Xing Shuishui had her hands behind her back, slightly bent over, looking up at him with rosy cheeks.
The whole world lost its color.
He asked: “When did you wake up?”
She said: “Just now.”
He asked again: “Li Guanxing said someone gave you a note leading you to the Forbidden Mountain. Who was it? Was it someone from my family?”
He Liansheng moved the persimmons slightly to the side, the young man lowering his gaze to hide the killing intent in his eyes.
Xing Shuishui paused, suddenly asking: “Do you trust me?”
He Liansheng replied: “What do you want to say?”
Xing Shuishui lowered her gaze, calmly saying: “I want to say, don’t ask about this anymore… I’m awake now anyway.”
Please.
The young man suddenly grabbed her wrist, pressing her against the wall, his tone fierce: “You almost died. Now you tell me not to ask?”
His grip was strong, she could feel his anger.
Xing Shuishui winced in pain, just managing to call He Liansheng’s name.
Suddenly there came a knock at the door, Guan Mulan’s voice drifting in: “I heard she’s awake, seems I came at the right time. I’m here on the Mountain Lord’s orders to take you both to the Discipline Hall! Did no one tell you the Forbidden Mountain is Spirit Mountain’s restricted area? Or have you been in the mortal realm so long you think Spirit Mountain has no rules?”
He Liansheng pushed open the door. Outside stood several Discipline Hall disciples, holding long swords with grave expressions, their cultivation levels not low.
He instinctively pulled Xing Shuishui behind him.
Before killing the puppet, Xing Shuishui had used techniques to share its senses, learning characteristics of its location.
She had originally planned to figure out the place upon waking and just bring back his head, but now there was another troublesome matter. The Forbidden Mountain.
How to cover it up?
She really hadn’t expected it would cause such a big commotion.
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