Estranged - Chapter 98

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Yun Weisi grabbed his chin.

The man was still breathing, albeit weakly.

Jiufang Changming’s eyelashes trembled. He opened his dim eyes slightly to look at Yun Weisi.

“How long before you die?” Yun Weisi asked.

Changming did not answer.

Yun Weisi had not hoped to receive an answer either, and decided to get this done with his own hands.

Yun Weisi pulled Changming into his arms, and Yun Weisi’s hand slipped under Changming’s clothes. Yun Weisi’s movements were intimate and affectionate, as if they were lovers. Changming’s body had gone soft, as if it were boneless, leaning against Yun Weisi tamely and putting up no resistance. A bystander would have never guessed what was actually going on between the two of them.

“Do you want me to end your suffering?” Yun Weisi whispered, gently and leisurely.

Changming still kept quiet.

He really had no strength left to talk. His long, raven-black hair was disheveled, covering half his face. The other half of his face was pallid, with no traces of blood in it, as if he could fall asleep at any moment and never wake up again.

Changming moved slightly, raising his head to look at Yun Weisi.

The two pairs of eyes met, both of them gazing at the depths of each other’s eyes.

From the first time they laid eyes on each other, it was as if mists and clouds had gathered in their eyes, as they simply could not understand each other.

Naturally, Yun Weisi felt that he would never be able to guess this shizun’s thoughts.

At first, Yun Weisi probably respected Changming because he himself had been in a desperate situation. Yun Weisi had been in dire straits, and Jiufang Changming had been his only sliver of hope. Then, Jiufang Changming’s kindness urged Yun Weisi to work hard despite hardships all day round. He also taught Yun Weisi not to be proud of his talent, and to never stop until Yun Weisi achieved his goal. Unbeknownst to him, this feeling had turned into a bottomless admiration, a bond that even the Sifei Sword would have failed to sever.

In the past, Yun Weisi had been doing his best to chase after Jiufang Changming, and wanted to catch up to him. Yun Weisi had longed for a day he would be finally able to walk shoulder to shoulder with Jiufang Changming, and together, break open a way through the brambles and thorns on the path of cultivation. But eventually Yun Weisi realized that Jiufang Changming would never stop to spare a glance on him. Jiufang Changming’s eyes seemed to care about every single creature in the world, except Yun Weisi.

Yun Weisi remembered every day he had spent in the boundless milky way of the Nine Layers of the Abyss, watching the sun and the moon revolve, and the stars rise and fall. His heart had hardened, and he felt neither sorrow nor joy.

At that time, he thought that Jiufang Changming had already died, and not a trace of him would ever be seen again neither in the sky nor under the ground. To keep the promise he had made to Jiufang Changming, Yun Weisi had kept guarding the Nine Layers of the Abyss. He did not know when he would be able to get rid of these shackles. But had this man ever thought of the torment Yun Weisi had gone through?

Jiufang Changming would never know how Yun Weisi had contracted the demonic qi.

Those demons had rushed at him ceaselessly, their cultivation levels advanced and their numbers sometimes so great that even Yun Weisi could not hold them back. The demonic qi had noticed his weakness and wounds, and had used the chance to penetrate his limbs and bones, flowing through his meridians and roving through the sea of his consciousness. In the end, although Yun Weisi’s exterior was still calm, his body had experienced unbearable pain, comparable to that of being torn limb by limb by five horses.

Torn limb by limb by five horses: Chinese death penalty, the fifth horse there is for the head of the sentenced

After some time, Yun Hai had appeared, so he could rest during the nights, while continuing to fulfill his promise during the painful daytime.

That was what things had been like before Jiufang Changming’s resurrection. Then, Yun Weisi had thought he would be redeemed. But the demonic qi had refused to let him go, and still tortured him endlessly all day and all night, clamoring for him to give up his Daoist Heart and become possessed. Even if Changming’s Sifei Sword had subdued the qi, it was only a temporary solution. The voice in his sea of consciousness sounded somewhat quieter, but it had never gone away completely.

Now, the voices had disappeared. Yun Weisi felt the demonic qi surge inside his body with excitement, inciting him to kill the man in front of his eyes to eliminate this barrier with his own hands.

“There’s not much time left,” Yun Weisi suddenly said a strange thing.

He himself did not know whether he was talking about Changming, or about himself.

“I’ll ask you for the last time. What will you choose now?”

Changming said slowly: “I haven’t changed my mind. What about you?”

Yun Weisi smiled: “Same.”

Changming: “You haven’t comprehended your Dao, so don’t ponder too much, Weisi. Your most troublesome shortcoming is that you’re thinking too much. It was like this in the past, and now, after becoming possessed, it’s still the same. This being the case, let me take a look at how much stronger you’ve gotten.”

If you haven’t comprehended your Dao, don’t ponder too much, Weisi: here, ‘haven’t’ is ‘wei’, ‘ponder’ is ‘si’, so the sentence explains his name

Yun Weisi: “Now, you are not worthy to fight me. Since you refuse to give me Zhou Keyi’s spiritual soul, die together with him.”

As soon as these words were said, the Chunzhao Sword appeared in his hand, slashing towards the neck of the man in his embrace!

Yun Weisi moved swiftly, at the speed that people could barely perceive. Cultivators below a grandmaster’s level had no chance of dodging the attack.

Changming was now like a candle flickering in the wind, which could be blown out at any moment. It seemed that it would be difficult for him to intercept the attack.

There was only a short moment left!

In a second, even if his head would not be chopped off, a deadly cut would appear on his neck, and blood would start gushing out in torrents. His spiritual power would be completely lost, and even an immortal would not be able to save him.

But Yun Weisi suddenly felt that he was holding onto thin air.

The weight had disappeared from his hands, and the sword glow swept past, which meant that the Chunzhao Sword had failed in its attack.

At the same time, Yun Weisi heard Changming’s voice from nearby.

“[All the myriad things in the world don’t wander from their purpose, and the root of the Dao is devoid of substance. Anything that perturbs itself is known to the universe. Grasses and trees cherish intentions, and their appearance is inexhaustible, going beyond the vast sky].”

This poetic speech, resembling an incantation of a Buddhist technique, dissolved Yun Weisi’s second onslaught.

The arduous situation seemed to have been resolved easily, like a feather soaring through the air.

Yun Weisi’s expression turned sterner. He had thrown away his carelessness.

Obviously, Jiufang Changming had almost been exhausted, yet he had still managed to pull off something this grandiose. Was he shining with the reflected light, or was his strength actually this unfathomable?

Shining with the reflected light: final struggle before death

…

Chunchi opened his eyes wide.

He had no time to watch Yun Weisi’s battle at all.

Because Sun Buku had firmly grasped the initiative, bringing the disturbing outcome of the battle closer.

The Wanlian Buddhist Temple had been ruling over this place for several decades, absorbing the power of worship and slowly nourishing itself to gain its monstrous influence. Chunchi was the owner of this source of power, the one taking the worship of the common people and the souls of the unjustly killed as nourishment, gradually enhancing his cultivation base. Perhaps, he had already reached the level of Xu Tiancang himself. Even though his strength had been partially distributed to the Eight Sages, he had won over the Buddhist sect, standing tall above all the creatures in the world.

Sun Buku had been living in seclusion for many years, practicing closed-door cultivation. Other people had been watching over the everyday affairs of the Qingyun School. Most of the grandmasters had perished in the Liuhe Zhutian Formation that year, major clans worked to maintain a delicate balance, while Chunchi had to set new formations for the Soul Gathering Pearl, being too busy to care about the Qingyun School. If it was not for these factors combined, he would have never let them be mentioned alongside the Wanlian Buddhist Temple as the two major sects of Buddhism.

Yet now, this completely inconspicuous and low-key Sun Buku suddenly shouted for the first time, shaking the world. As soon as he appeared, he had managed to cut off all of Chunchi’s opportunities for escape, trapping Chunchi.

Shouted for the first time, shaking the world: came out with a bang

There were also no gaps in Sun Buku’s defenses at all.

Chunchi’s heart fell. He had no room to retreat.

It was the first time he had felt fear.

What made him terrified was not the high level of Sun Buku’s cultivation, but the fact that Chunchi could perceive Xu Tiancang’s aura on his opponent.

His mind was on the verge of collapse.

A Buddhist light assaulted his senses, aiming right at his forehead.

The evil spirits and ghosts had been cleanly swept away from his body, and he felt a severe pain as his body started falling down.

What is the highest cultivation in this world?

Was it what Fozun Xu Tiancang had reached, his body becoming a Buddha’s, eternal in its gold form, with his consciousness drifting away and ceasing to exist? Or was it Immortal Luomei of the Wanjian Immortal Clan ascending, riding cranes up to the sky beneath the watchful eyes of the people, becoming a legend everyone glorified and admired?

Chunchi had been looking for an answer to this question for many years. Then, Jiang Li of the Wanjian Immortal Clan appeared, revealing to him a secret and turning his wild guess into a firm conviction. Chunchi had finally ascertained that there were no deities in this world.

The so-called unattainable transformation into an immortal or a Buddha was only an illusion, a wishful thinking on cultivators’ behalf. Rather than spending his life pursuing it, would it not be better for him to make merry while he could? He had then turned into a master of ten thousand sages, enjoying the worship of the world.

Yet now, he was witnessing Fozun Xu Tiancang reveal himself, bestowing an invincible vajra body unto Sun Buku and helping him defeat Chunchi, as if a real Buddha was punishing a fake one. It was the first time Chunchi had doubted his belief.

“Tell me—”

He gathered his strength to ask one final question.

“After all, do deities exist in this world?”

The author has something to say:

There’s a hint foreshadowing later developments in this chapter, have you noticed it?