52 Chapter 51

From above, it was a cave that was frozen over with crisscrossing jagged ice. It was unknown for how many years that this place had already been freezing. It was also unknown how thick the ice on the cliff was, looking past it, it naturally formed deep valleys of blue.

As I walked outside, I readjusted to my somewhat stiff body. I did not know whether this subtle stiffness was due to freezing for too long or due to being dead. However, once I manipulated the aura in my body to circulate, I realized that compared to when I was at my peak, the current me was perhaps weakened by more than half.

However, that matters not, Luo Ming Xuan had also just awakened. Perhaps he was not much better off than me, he could still even be much worse off.

Every time I took a step forward, I got more adapted to this body. The more I went forward, the longer my strides became. The long alternating black and red robe dragged on the ground, swaying gently all the way. The dragging sounds that it made also became more and more like the noises that were made when I walked past Wu E Palace in Wan Lu Sect long ago.

The surrounding jagged ice shattered my silhouette, making this time and space seem particularly chaotic. However, the more chaotic it was in the outside world, the more rationally clear my mind was in reflection.

Now that Luo Ming Xuan had awakened, golden light had swept over more than half of the land under the jurisdiction of the Celestial Realm, but no one knew where he was. I could imagine how much effort it took for Liu Su Ruo and those celestial people to hide Luo Ming Xuan away. However…

Even if they could deceive Heaven, they still could not deceive me.

It was because my seal was still in his heart. Even if they used a magical spell that utilized other people's lives to awaken Luo Ming Xuan, but my seal was still there, my power could never be removed.

I paused my footsteps and closed my eyes slightly, letting my spiritual consciousness extend outward through this unknowingly deep, frozen ice cave. As I extended outward, I gradually saw the rocky mountains and earthy soil. I saw the snowy breeze above the dense forest. I even saw that there was a frozen lake. It was a big snowy mountain with glaring sunshine, and then, the surrounding scenery receded faster and faster until it became a blur.

The only thing that was clear was the black demonic energy condensing into a thread, which linked my fingertips to the center of Luo Ming Xuan's heart.

That was the seal I left him, it was also his curse.

I abruptly opened my eyes: "I found you!" In the next moment, I utilized the Instantaneous Travel Technique. The chilliness around me instantly faded, and the light warm breeze blew across my cheek.

I was already standing in midair, and below me was Feng Mountain. The golden iridescent Ming Feng Palace still possessed the prickly gleam that made someone's eyes ache as before.

I used to think that in this lifetime, I would not have the opportunity to come to this place again. It could clearly be seen that the Will of Heaven did not follow my wish at all.

Luo Ming Xuan was currently down there. At that time, it was also the same. He was in Ming Feng Palace, preparing to marry his wife. No one would have thought that Lu Zhao Yao would break the enchantment barrier above Ming Feng Palace, charging in and destroying his everything.

Since then, Liu Su Ruo had hated me bitterly, while the celestial cultivators labeled me guilty of terrible crimes, the most malicious demoness in the world.

However, I was happy to hear it. The more vicious the curses, the more these curses proved that my defeated opponents had absolutely no power to resist.

Without a sword in my hand, I condensed my energy to form a black demonic sword that sprouted from the hollow of my palm. Clenching the hilt of the sword, I lifted it up, and with a short shout, the long sword slashed down. The demonic energy poured in, clashing and striking against the golden light of the enchantment barrier. I felt my long-lost power surging within my body. The impact of the power resembled an expert helping with my pressure points, little by little it opened every blocked meridian in my body.

As the aura in my body circulated even more smoothly and quickly, my face darkened: "Break!" The celestial sects' enchantment barrier shattered just like colored glass. It thinly scattered like a spectacle of golden snow.

From this spectacle of snow, I landed in front of Ming Feng Palace, while three people hurriedly rushed out from inside — Liu Su Ruo, the Heaven Mystery Taoist, and Tian Xuan Sect Leader.

When they saw me, each and every one of them were extremely startled. So startled that they could only stare foolishly at me. No one remembered to release the magical weapons in their hands. Compared to when they saw me a few years ago, my appearance had changed quite a lot.

I raised my eyebrow: "What, didn't Li Chen Lan fight with you guys at all during these past years?"

As soon as I spoke, only then did they seem to react, muttering to themselves one after another: "Lu Zhao Yao… How is it possible…" Liu Su Ruo trembled from head to toe, clenching her teeth, while staring at me. She practically had snakes of bitter resentment wanting to crawl out of her eyes, "Lu Zhao Yao!"

As she whispered my name word for word, she was the first person to release her magical weapon. The male sword went towards my chest, while the female sword flew down from the sky.

I sneered as my demonic energy moved, the black sword in my hand turned into a vine, climbing up towards the sky. Then it disrupted all the swords. I did not even bother to avoid Liu Su Ruo's oncoming attack. In order to resurrect Luo Ming Xuan, she ruined her body, so this bellowing gesture of oncoming attack was full of mistakes. When it approached me, the aura in my entire body vibrated and directly knocked her thirty feet away.

My demonic energy dragged her remaining eight female swords to totter behind me like eight tails fluttering in the sky.

In her eyes, I probably laughed so sinisterly just like a devil in Hell.

"Back at you."

Her eyes stared slightly off into space.

She was very familiar with these three words.

The first time was at her wedding, she mounted a sneak attack on me, so I threw the female sword towards her heart. The second time was at Jian Xin Sect, when I was using Zhi Yan's body, she also mounted a sneak attack like this on me, so I once again threw her sword back. While this time, without needing her to take action, I did it myself.

The demonic energy dragged the female swords and shot towards Liu Su Ruo all at once.

I wanted her life because she knew the method to resurrect Luo Ming Xuan. However, when I saw that the tips of the swords were about to pierce her skin, in this moment, a golden light flashed by, blanketing Liu Su Ruo. When the female swords knocked against the golden light, they all completely shattered into several hundred pieces of scrap iron.

As my countenance turned cold, I looked towards the side. It was an elegant gentleman dressed in white clothes that surpassed the snow. He stood on the the steps of Ming Feng Palace, looking down on me from high above:

"Lu Zhao Yao, you really have a difficult to tame demonic nature."

A difficult to tame demonic nature?

Did Luo Ming Xuan not feel any irony when he said these words?

"I cannot bear to trouble the Golden Immortal." I lightly stroked the demonic sword in my palm, allowing my blood to stain the edge of the blade. I casted the Blood Sacrifice Technique, watching the black sword getting brighter. Then I pointed my sword at Luo Ming Xuan: "This will send you back to your eternal rest."

As my silhouette moved, the black demonic sword went straight towards Luo Ming Xuan's heart. With a resounding sound, the golden light of the immortal seal in front of his body blocked the tip of the sword. The fingers on my other hand bent into a claw, and with one hook, I tore the immortal seal in front of his chest. Luo Ming Xuan's figure flashed, transiently shifted behind me, and the immortal seal in my hand rudely hit me square in the back.

I did not even turn my head and whirled the sword around to block my back. With a short shout, I knocked him away.

When I was about to turn around and fight again, suddenly off to the side, there were two celestial energies attacking me. My heart raged and exploded: "Who dares to stop me?!"

I shouted under my breath, my demonic energy seeping away. At this moment, I suddenly noticed celestial energy under my feet. Then two more celestial energies that were different from before came from another direction, changing into shackles to wrap around both of my hands.

This place still had two more people?

That was correct, on that day during the Celestial Sect Convention, there were five sects that supported Luo Ming Xuan's resurrection. Liu Su Ruo, the old man, and the brawny guy were all here, so there would be no reason why the other two would not be present either.

Just as this thought flashed through my mind, the magical array under my feet suddenly emitted a vast amount of golden light, stinging my eyes. In this instant, sounds of two rustling chains came, separately wrapping around my two ankles. The chains held my four limbs trapped.

Everything seemed to have returned to that certain year.

I had just ventured out for the first time and went to Feng Mountain to look for Luo Ming Xuan. However, because of this, I was helplessly trapped by his magical array. In the array, I screamed in agony, struggling for help, difficult to be set free.

At that time, Luo Ming Xuan had also stood coldly in the distance like this, high up on his pedestal, looking down on me as he sentenced me to my death.

As soon as I clenched my jaw, I only felt the blood and anger churning in my heart that simply could not be stopped.

"Luo Ming Xuan, do you think you can kill me?"

"When I first met you, I should've killed you." He was outside the magical array, across his immortal face was pure coldness, "I won't let you create chaos here."

"Hahaha!" I felt like I had just heard the biggest joke, even though both of my hands were trapped and I was locked up in this magical array, I still could not stop laughing: "Hahaha! Luo Ming Xuan! Did you say this backwards, instead?" I stopped and asked him:

"When I first met you, the person who should've killed you, shouldn't it be me?"

Luo Ming Xuan appeared steadily calm and did not utter a word. As the dust around me that got vibrated by my demonic energy from before faded away, as the four grandmasters of the celestial sects heard my words, they looked at each other in dismay.

As Liu Su Ruo clutched her chest, she arrived behind Luo Ming Xuan's back: "Lu Zhao Yao, this life of mine was destroyed by you. Before I thought that you were dead, so I just dropped it. Now that you've come back to life and delivered yourself to the door, I'll personally slice your flesh off your bones, and only then can it dispel my many years of hatred for you."

She said it just like that with fuming rage between her gritted teeth. While in the array, I gazed at her, still laughing unbridledly: "Come here then."

Luo Ming Xuan stopped her: "Su Ruo."

Liu Su Ruo turned her head to look at him: "Ming Xuan, the wounds on my body and almost half of my heart became demonic were all thanks to her. If I don't personally slice her, then my inner demon will be hard to get rid of."

"Oh." I laughed, "All of you, celestial sect people, aren't clean either." I moved my hand to point at Luo Su Ruo but my action was immediately prevented by one of grandmaster's shackles. I swept him a glance, "Luo Ming Xuan, a demonic person is evil, how can you not kill her first as a warning to others? It'll complete the reputation of this selfless and impartial Golden Immortal of yours."

"You slut!" When Liu Su Ruo heard that, she ignored Luo Ming Xuan's obstruction and rushed towards me with her only remaining male sword, shouting abhorrently and mournfully.

I stared at her indifferently and saw her pedaled into the magical array. Immediately, the corners of my lips quirked up: "So obedient."

The demonic energy sprung up all around my entire body, and the four celestial sect grandmasters used all of their strength to grip the shackles, as if they wanted to divide my corpse. However, even if, today, I fell into a difficult situation like this, they still could not do anything to me.

It was because I came here to risk my life, while they were reluctant to fight me with their own lives.

When Liu Su Ruo's killing attack almost came before me, just a moment before the edge of her sword stabbed into my heart, the demonic energy around my body condensed into a vine and whirled outwards, knocking the sword in her hand. I grabbed her neck and pulled her over to cover me. The demonic energy was wandering around her neck and body, which could turn into a sharp blade at any time and cut her up into pieces.

"Luo Ming Xuan." As I called out to him, I first manipulated the demonic energy to make a gash on Liu Su Ruo's neck: "I know what you want to do. You just woke up from being dormant, so your internal aura is insufficient." I laughed, "You want to preserve your strength, so you use these trash to consume my power. Then you're going to take advantage of my weakened state and try to kill me again."

I used the demonic energy to constantly lacerate Liu Su Ruo's flesh, and every time she would exchange each gash with her most malicious curses. Even the celestial sect grandmasters constantly raged and wanted me to ultimately stop. I merely looked at Luo Ming Xuan: "I don't have that much energy to waste on others. Tell them to release the shackles, remove the magical array, and then, quietly get lost. I want to kill you and you want to kill me. No other person can participate or else…"

I eagerly cut Liu Su Ruo's chin: "How about I help you kill this already demonic wife?" I ask, "Are any of you, celestial cultivators, curious about whether the heart of a person, who has become demonic, is red or not? How about I dig her heart out for all of you to see?"

The vine that was condensed by demonic energy stopped above Liu Su Ruo's heart. It penetrated slowly, little by little.

Liu Su Ruo shouted: "Lu Zhao Yao! If you want to kill me, then kill me! I've already died before! I'm not scared of you! Lu Zhao Yao, I'm not afraid of you!"

"Ah…" As I laughed softly, my expression was warm and gentle. "I'm absolutely fond of this resilient look to the end from all of you."

The vine pierced her heart and blood spew forth, Liu Su Ruo unwaveringly clenched her jaw, not uttering a sound. However, I needed her to make a sound, so I made the demonic energy gesticulate lightly on her face: "Or do you want me to peel your skin first?" As these words clearly struck the innermost part of her heart, she released a groan. The groan finally made Luo Ming Xuan open his mouth: "Stop it." He said, "Let her go. I'll remove the magical array."

Luo Ming Xuan, you certainly did not disappoint me at all. You maintained your hypocritical appearance very well.

"The shackles." My tone was indifferently cold. The golden shackles that trapped my four limbs were retracted. As the celestial sect grandmasters stared at me resentfully, I walked, step by step, out of the magical array.

Liu Su Ruo was so moved that her eyes were filled with tears: "Ming Xuan…"

As I got closer and closer to the edge of the magical array, I watched Luo Ming Xuan attentively. Finally, with one last step, I left the magical array.

"Abiding by our promises." I said, and then, urged the demonic energy to throw Liu Su Ruo away.

However, when Liu Su Ruo was thrown out, in a split second, Luo Ming Xuan's silhouette suddenly moved. The light in my eyes darkened. As he winked over, I quickly exchanged two moves with him. Nevertheless, I did not expect that at this moment, the four celestial sect grandmasters immediately threw the shackles back out again. This time, the four shackles transformed into one chain that wrapped around my waist, rigidly dragging me straight back into the magical array.

I rolled into the center of the magical array, half-kneeling on the ground to support my body. I could not stop myself from laughing: "Luo Ming Xuan, previously, you wanted to kill me because I was born to be demonic. I must be the most sinister, most evil person. I have already felt wronged for a while, but now I'm just very relieved." I stared at him with a smile on the corners of my lips, "If the Righteous Path in the entire world looks exactly like all of you, then I might as well be born evil and demonic."

"You're right, if you're part of the Righteous Path, then I'm destined to be the enemy of the Righteous Path."

As soon as my voice ended, the demonic energy surrounding my entire body shot out harshly. Since I could not get rid of these obstacles, then I would just remove every hindrance. This battle between Luo Ming Xuan and I, no one could prevent it!

In this magical array of golden light, I bit my thumb and drew a demonic array. As blood flowed in, the demonic energy went berserk and directly condensed into a hazy, black, giant dragon from within the magical array. It went on a rampage on the ground, sweeping past the magical array to fight directly with the four celestial sect grandmasters.

I shattered the shackles around my waist and once again, condensed a sword in my hand. Disregarding everything up to this point, I resolutely slashed towards Luo Ming Xuan. As the demonic energy crashed into the golden light, the power that swept out made half of Feng Ming Palace quake.

The moment when the sword and the light meld, Luo Ming Xuan said: "I used to think that I could teach you to be benevolent." In my mind, those scenes in that valley flashed by. He was badly wounded as he told me word for word that a person's birth did not decide everything, "But you still had to save the son of the Demon King and establish Wan Lu Sect. To this day, your inflexible nature is unchangeable."

"Ah."

"That's right." I disdainfully explained to him, "I'm so bad, do you have anything to be dissatisfied about?"

The immortal seal in his hand suddenly glowed. But right at this moment, the demonic dragon and the four celestial sect grandmasters below were fighting to the end. The grandmasters exhausted everything, even the demonic dragon depleted itself and faded away. For a spell, my internal aura was hollow and the demonic sword in my hand dispersed immediately. Then he blasted my chest with his palm, and I fell through midair and directly slammed into a big rock on the ground.

In the hollow depression of the big rock, I pushed myself up, wiped the blood from the corner of my lips, and sneered: "When you save people, you're good, but when I save people, I'm evil? When you establish a sect, you're right, but when I establish a sect, I'm wrong? Your beliefs are called perseverance, but my beliefs are called inflexible nature that's unchangeable. Where does your rationale hail from?" I argued with him, vying for time to readjust my internal aura.

Luo Ming Xuan's expression darkened: "Do you know why you were born to be demonic?"

I did not understand why he chose this kind of moment to raise this question. As far as I was concerned, this question was not important to me at all, but I was still happy to let him delay time for me; enemies usually die from talking too much. So I calmly regulated myself.

"You were born in a place sealed by the Demon King. When the Demon King died thousands of years ago, it was inevitable for his bloodline to survive, so he sealed his son hidden within that mountain range. In order to protect his son, the Demon King placed a sealing magical array in that place. Since then, all the villagers in the mountain range were influenced by the demonic energy and from that point on, every person was born to be demonic. They cannot leave and outsiders cannot enter. That was what the Demon King did for his son, placing a curse on the land. He ordered the villagers to guard his descendants from generation to generation." I calmly looked at Luo Ming Xuan, listening to him speak, "That place is your native land."

"A hundred years ago, I learned about the existence of this seal. In order to eliminate the Demon King's son, I went ahead to break the seal by myself. But I was gravely injured by the seal, fell off the cliff, and was saved by you. I thought that I could point you in the direction of being benevolent. But I didn't know that when you left the mountain, the first thing you did was to save him." Luo Ming Xuan said,

"I was injured by the Demon King's seal, after so many years, I still haven't completely recovered. When I found the whereabouts of the Demon King's son, I immediately summoned the Ten Great Celestial Sects to join forces and eliminate this pest. But you had injured several hundred people of the Ten Great Celestial Sects. Just to save this pest of a son, your methods were merciless. After that, you established Wan Lu Sect and slaughtered public figures of the celestial sects. Eventually that Li Chen was pushed to this current situation… This is precisely your innate tendency."

Oh, so this was actually my life experience.

So what about it?

For many generations, people before me were born with the mission to protect Mo Qing; but for many generations, people before me had never even seen the person that they were supposed to protect. While on the contrary for me, as soon as I left the mountain, on accident, I inadvertently protected his life, hanging on the line.

Luo Ming Xuan blamed this on my innate tendency.

No, I felt that this was the Will of Heaven. The Will of Heaven made me save Mo Qing. It made me protect him. Even to this day, it made me become attached to him.

As for my innate tendency, it was very simple, only eight words were needed — have vengeance, get revenge; have complaints, get retribution.

If I said I want you to be beaten to your death, then I most certainly would follow through to the end.

As soon as Luo MIng Xuan raised the long sword in his hand, Tian Fa Feng Ming Sword was finally unsheathed, and the golden light from the phoenix's feather burned people's eyes. That was Luo Ming Xuan's godly sword's energy slashing down, cleansing monsters and eliminating demons, wiping out all of the evil in the world. He still stood on his position of righteousness and disappointedly criticised me: "Being demonic, it is still evil after all."

He flew forward and the clear sound emitted from Feng Ming Sword seemed to shake the world. I hurriedly raised my sword to block, and the demonic sword before me was immediately slashed back into demonic energy by him. Using Instantaneous Travel Technique, I immediately winked, flashing over the top of the golden roof tiles of Ming Feng Palace. However, I absolutely did not even get a moment of reprieve with Luo Ming Xuan following closely behind. With all my might, I resisted one of his sword moves, but I could not block one of his slanting palms, he struck right at the center of my heart.

With the force of this one palm, I flew countless feet into the distance until I knocked against the water jar in front of the palace, and only then was I able to stop.

With one cough, a mouthful, reeking of blood, surged out violently.

Luo Ming Xuan did not pursue. He only stood far away on the rooftop, lightly spitting out three words from his mouth: "Vanquish the demon."

The place that had just been hit by Luo Ming Xuan, a sudden burst of pain rushed forth, getting even more painful with each burst. It went straight into my heart, stabbing me until weakness overtook my body.

This was bad…

I was actually struck by his Demon Vanquish Seal.

This seal would constantly rip apart the demonic energy that had accumulated in my body. If there was no stronger force to break the power of this seal, this seal would remain in my body forever, making it impossible for me to use demonic energy again.

For the former me, it was enough to break through this arrogantly, but not now, I did not have the strength nor the time…

I gritted my teeth tightly and endured the sharp pain. As soon as I raised my head, I saw that golden silhouette winked and landed before my body; Feng Ming Sword followed his cold voice and pierced into my heart: "Lu Zhao Yao, who else will come to protect you now?"

There was no one else. From the moment my maternal grandfather passed away, I was always the only one left remaining…

"There's me."

As the wind blew past my ears, a shadow naturally streaked to the side of my body.

I raised my head and faced the black robe that was sheltering my body. The breeze gently blew, making the mermaid thread fabric of his sleeve sweep across my cheek. The tip of Luo Ming Xuan's Feng Ming Sword stopped an inch away from my heart, no longer able to advance even a little. As Mo Qing's hand nonchalantly gripped Luo Ming Xuan's neck, he softly whispered in his ear:

"Lu Zhao Yao has me to protect her."

Just like that, the wind was mild and the clouds were soft, as if naturally coming from the remotest of places; and yet it was also like turbulent floods, naturally rushing forth to the bottom of my heart.

His figure was like a backbone, lifting up the crumbling sky above me. He saved me from adversity and protected me from danger. At this point, I could not help it but believe in fate.

As it turned out, it really was the Will of Heaven. There was actually someone in the world who would save me, from my body to my soul.

In the next moment, under the shocked face of Luo Ming Xuan, the demonic energy in Mo Qing's hand moved greatly. Only a "boom" could be heard, as if Luo Ming Xuan's head had just exploded. My state of mind thickened, but only a moment later, Luo Ming Xuan's silhouette appeared on the steps of Ming Feng Palace thirty feet away.

The figure in Mo Qing's hand gradually turned into a golden light and disappeared.

He wiped the blood off half of his face: "Demon King…" Without even listening to him finish his words, Mo Qing's power was so formidable that it made everything around shake unreasonably.

A huge pressure dropped down from the sky, crushing the remaining part of Ming Feng Palace. As if it was overflowing with anger, everything was destroyed together with Luo Ming Xuan, except for this place where Mo Qing and I stood.

The crushed rocks were forming mountains.

When the heaven fell and the earth rent, it was unknown where Luo Ming Xuan and the four celestial sect people had gone. In the blink of an eye, this was no longer important. Only the place where I stood with him was strangely peaceful.

I clutched my chest, feeling my violently pounding heart that had already surpassed any pain that could rip my thoracic cavity apart.

In all directions, it was so chaotic, but he turned around, slowly and gently took two steps towards me. He crouched down before me and raised his hand stained with Luo Ming Xuan's blood, as if he was wanting to touch my face but was also afraid of shattering me. Only his fingertips stopped on my cheek, like a dragonfly lightly touching the water surface. He had the power to destroy the world, and yet, he was still gentle and cautious due to fear.

Within his eyes, in this very moment, there appeared to be more than the landslides and the earthquakes that shook him to the core.

"Lu Zhao Yao."

"Mhm." I gazed straight into his eyes, "It's me."

In this vast world, extending into the universe, everything seemed to stop in this quiet, noiseless moment.

Translated by Sonrisa t.n.t