Chapter 52 To Live with Flesh and Bones
“Brother Xu, I will leave for the Fairy City tomorrow. There is something...”
“Brother Su, if you want to say something to me, let’s come in and say.”
Xu Linghe pushed the door open. His wing room was very elegant, where spring flowers blossomed in the bamboo basket and books were neatly placed on the desk. Su Chenyang looked at the collection of cultivation methods. It seemed that the room’s master often read them, so the corners of some book pages were broken. In the entire inner hall, bamboo wares were in the majority. The master lived a simple life. The soft couch was covered with a bamboo mat as filmy as cicada’s wings. Everything looked tranquil. Su Chenyang found himself not seated well on the bamboo mat. Perhaps celestial beings got used to following their bent. Not exquisite as the bamboo mat was, it was comfortable to sit on.
“Brother Xu, do you still remember Jiang Wuyou?”
“No, I don’t.”
“How about it?” Su Chenyang took out the bell and put it on Xu Linghe’s hand.
“Yes, this is Kunlun’s sound transmission.”
“Do you still remember why you’ve given it to me?”
“No.I’ve forgotten many things after I got up.”
“You’re wrong. You just forget... Jiang Wuyou. You love each other. I don’t know what happened to you, but I know you love her. She was ruined by her face, and also gave birth to your baby. Brother Xu, if you do forget her, just take what I am saying as drunk words.”
“Baby... Impossible! How can’t I remember that? Is there someone who cleaned up my memory? Who, who did it?”
Xu Linghe’s heart suddenly ached, but he did not know who he was aching for. His heart seemed to be torn apart. The tea cup was broken into pieces, and the sound jarred the people outside. Liu Ruoshui who had been standing by at the door came in. Su Chenyang got freaked, not expecting that Xu Linghe reacted so strongly.
“What’s wrong with Brother Xu? Why did he lose control? What disease does he get?”
“Young Master Su, you’d better not meddle in Kunlun’s affairs. He is not your Brother Su. He is our Sect Master. Young Master Su, I think, you should take an early rest.”
“Girl Liu, is Brother Xu like that every night?”
“Sect Master will be fine. Young Master Su, you might as well take a rest. I will handle it here.”
Su Chenyang walked out of the room. Inside the room was well-illuminated with the candlelight. Through the cracks of the door, Su Chenyang saw Girl Liu was wiping Brother Xu’s sweat. Only with a glance, Su Chenyang could tell the affection in the girl’s eyes—the tenderness only appeared when a girl saw her sweetheart. “What will Commander in Chief do when she sees that?” thought Su Chenyang.
Su Chenyang waited for Phoenix to wake up. Last night, Xu Linghe’s mania relapsed, and Shenzong had to feel Xu Linghe’s pulse while Girl Liu was sitting up with him. When Su Chenyang came to see him, Girl Liu at the door looked displeased. “Maybe she is still angry with me for what happened before,” thought Su Chenyang.
“Girl Liu, if your Sect Master wakes up, plese tell me...”
“Young Master Su, Grandmaster is feeling Sect Master’s pulse.”
“I know. Girl Liu, I am ready to leave here.”
Su Shenyang returned to the wing room, but the woman on the bed still did not wake up. He leaned over and touched the woman’s forehead, and it was a little hot. “Is she really sick?” Su Shenyang sat on the corner of the bed, recalling that when he first met the woman in the human world, he treated her rudely. If it had not been for the woman who had risked her life to save him, Su Shenyang had already lost his life in the underground palace. At that moment, Su Shenyang only wanted to guard this woman. His hand crossed from her forehead, trying to smooth the woman’s tight eyebrows. The woman was murmuring. When Su Shenyang drew nearer, he could hear clearly that she called his name. Su Shenyang couldn’t help but laugh. “She is so cute!”
“Woman, I am here...”
“Su Chenyang.”
Phoenix blinked, afraid that it was only a dream. Her black eyes flickered her thick eyelashes as beautiful as butterfly wings. Staring at the man in front, the woman stretched out her little hands and touched softly. When her fingers were circled by the big hands, Phoenix could feel the true warmth. “He is here. I am not dreaming!” Phoenix picked herself up and could not help but plunged into the man’s arms. Phoenix had concealed herself in the phoenix tribe for years for him, with the only hope of seeing him.
“Brother Xiaomao.”
When Phoenix called his nickname, Su Chenyang could not calm himself down any longer. It turned out that the little fool that he had been looking for was always in front of him. Su Chenyang held Phoenix in his arms. At that moment, Su Chenyang only wanted to hug her, his woman. He never thought that Phoenix was the little fool, and that the girl who had always followed him grew into a slim and graceful woman. It seemed that the Heaven had made the arrangement and sent the cute little fool to Su Chenyang himself.
“Brother Su.”
Xu Linghe saw them hugging each other when he entered the room. It seemed that what Xu Linghe guessed was right. Su Chenyang loved that girl. Xu Linghe gave a little cough, and then the atmosphere became embarrassing in the wing room.
“Ruoshui said Brother Su was going to return to the Fairy City?”
“You are Xu Linghe?”
Phoenix could not believe that she would meet Little Fox’s husband there.
“Girl is...”
“You don’t have to know me, but you just have to remember Jiang Wuyou.”
“Jiang Wuyou...”
Xu Linghe read silently. Su Chenyang interrupted the topic, afraid that Xu Linghe would go mad, because Su Chenyang was still in great trepidation at the thought of what happened last night. It was true that Xu Linghe’s loving emotion had been peeled away, but he did not forget her on the bottom of his heart. That was why he had such a reaction. Su Chenyang knew that Xu Linghe would remember Commander in Chief sooner or later, and he hoped it would come earlier.
After seeing off Su Chenyang, Xu Linghe had some doubts in his heart. “If what Su Chenyang said is true, someone must have cleaned up my memory. And the person should be nobody but Junior Uncle Grandmaster without doubt. But why did Grandmaster do that? Isn’t he afraid that I will remember the past? Is Jiang Wuyou my wife? No, I have to ask Junior Uncle Grandmaster now!” Xu Linghe walked out of the room and drove the wind to Ao Ze.
“Sect Master, good morning.”
Liu Ruoshui greeted him far away, finding that the Sect Master looked better. Last night, Liu Ruoshui was scared indeed. Sect Master held her hands and called “Wuyou”. So Liu Ruoshui could not help but think, “What is Jiang Wuyou like? She can make Sect Master hang up on her like that. Is the woman that Sect Master loves a human or a devil?” Liu Ruoshui felt bitter when thinking about what Sect Master looked like last night, hoping that the Sect Master could forget everything about Jiang Wuyou. When Xu Linghe opened the door, Grandmaster was not there.
“Where is Grandmaster?”
“He has gone to the forbidden area in Ao Ze... Sect Master, you’d better wait for a while.”
Xu Linghe only wanted to know the truth. Only the Sect Master was allowed to enter Kunlun’s forbidden area, because an evil creature was kept there, which was left by Xi Mu, the Ancient Celestial Grandmaster in Kunlun. Xi Mu was a divine spirit. Not until Xi Mu had passed away did Shenzong came to establish the sect there. But the evil creature was kept in the forbidden area. Xu Linghe was not familiar with the forbidden area. And the divine hall in front was bathed in peace and harmony. Xu Linghe strode in it. The door opened from the inside, and Shenzong sat on the ground. Xu Linghe stood and looked at Junior Uncle Grandmaster, sensing that the Grandmaster was somewhat different today. The wind on the snow mountain passed through the hall and blew the papers on the desk with a swoosh. Shenzong concentrated his spirit, not being disturbed by things outside. Xu Linghe came closer to him step by step.
“Here you come.”
“Grandmaster, I am puzzled at one thing.”
“What thing? Go ahead.”
“I was once possessed by the devil. Is it true?”
“Yes, you were lying on the bed for two months, and your souls were returning to the Nether World. I brought you back from there.”
“How was I possessed by the devil? The spiritual heart I’ve been cultivating is not eroded by Evil Spirit.”
“Linghe, what do you want to know on earth...”
“I lost my memory and forgot the important people. Does Junior Uncle Grandmaster hope me to live such an unclear life?”
“Sect Master, the past is the past. Just forget it. Being your Grandmaster, I have the power to supervise and urge you. Can’t Sect Master weigh the importance in it?”
“Grandmaster, is my memory cleaned up by you?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have this right.”
“Do I? Without me... you would have been dead. Without me, could you become the Sect Master? Without me, you’re nothing.”
“If I have to live as ruthless and loveless a life as you do, I would rather not.”
“What are you saying... What are you saying?”
Shenzong condensed his Spirit Power and gave out a palm. This palm hit Xu Linghe on the face heavily. With the taste of blood on the mouth corners, Xu Linghe felt the pain pierced into his heart, but he resisted the sorrow and grief in his heart and looked at Shenzong perversely.
“What helps Kunlun stand tall? What can love that you call bring to you? In this place where stronger animals prey on weaker ones, only strength can talk...”
“But if there is a lack of love, what is the meaning of living?”
“Is it? Think about how your relatives in the human world treated you? I still remember what you were like at five years old. You looked less than three years old. I asked you to go with me, but your frightened look ached my heart. A boy born in a rich family was so thin. At that time, I guessed you must have suffered a lot of maltreatment, so I stayed in your backyard to observe for several days. Do you know why I brought you to come to Kunlun? You were only a five-year-old little boy, but when you were pushed into the lake by your brothers, no one was willing to save you. You were the youngest master in the Prime Minister! Without Mother, you even could not get your father’s love. Therefore, I decided to save you from the bitter sea and help you become the person who could enjoy the scenery on the peak. But now, you don’t want everything that I give to you. A person who wants to accomplish great achievements has to tolerate such loneliness. Only then can you not be tripped on the way. He’er, I am for your own good...”
“Junior Uncle Grandmaster, I understand your care and thought for me. But I am also a person with blood and flesh. If I become ruthless and loveless, will you want to see that? In the world, only Junior Uncle Grandmaster does good to me, but I still want to feel pleasure, anger, sorrow and joy as the common people do...”
“Since you refuse to realize your error, I will show you something in the forbidden area. That is what Xi Mu, the most primeval divine spirit in Kunlun, paid for her love for Emperor Jun.”
Shenzong set up the formation, and tumbling Spirit Power emerged from his body. In the floating light appeared an ancient formation map on the ground. Shenzong’s spiritual fingers moved between the eyebrows. There was a little beast among his fingers. When the little beast swirled in the ancient formation map, Xu Linghe followed Shenzong into the space.
At the foot were a pile of white bones, rolling skulls floating from the clouds. Shenzong kept moving forward. Tens of thousands of monsters’ bones passed through the body of Xu Linghe. What had happened here? White bones were all over the valley, which piled high to the clouds. In the floating light, Shenzong landed in the lakeside. Xu Linghe discovered that it was the primeval Kunlun, and at the foot, what ran in the Ruo Shui Lake was blood! The blood leaked out of the bones and flowed all the year round. Shenzong waved his spiritual fingers, and then there was another scene in front. A woman with a human face and a beast body stood on a pile of badly-mutilated persons, her hand holding the Flowing Light Sword and her inky hair flying. Her eyes revealed the imposing pose of sweeping all before one.
“He’er, this is Kunlun’s Xi Mu. This Flowing Light Sword is refined by her blood essence. Look, Kunlun’s Xi Mu has experienced your so-called love. I cleaned up your memory, only because I don’t want you to suffer the bone-crushed pain in the future.”
In the image, the woman with a human face and a beast body was nailed to the Divine Pillar. But her lover was inaccessible to compassion, who did something fiendish, though he stared at her gently. The woman’s belly was cut open, but the man smiled and reached his fingers out to strip the woman’s heart. When he held the woman’s spirit in his hands, the man smiled with happiness while deadly stillness took on the woman’s eyes. Xu Linghe knew Shenzong’s intention of doing so.