Chapter 310: Chapter 310

“When we get to heaven,” Shan Zhi added, “I’ll dote on you and love you properly. That way you won’t be… like you are now, right? …Right? Hey, what do you think of the plan, senior sister? Say something, please!”

Qi Bi didn’t answer. She was staring blankly up into the deep, endless night sky. Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes, silently soaking into the hair at her temples.

Dan Zhi panicked a little and reached out to wipe away those tears. But the second his hand left the sword hilt, a furious shout exploded from behind him: “Shan Zhi!”

From the dense forest, Ling Ji charged forward at full speed. Halfway there, he stretched out a hand, trying to restrain this senior brother who had… lost his mind. Shan Zhi froze in shock. Then he instinctively pulled his hand back and grabbed the sword hilt again.

There was not enough time to skewer both his own heart and Qi Bi’s together. With an enraged roar, he swung his sword backhanded. The strike was unmistakably meant to cut Ling Ji in half.

Ling Ji twisted aside at the last possible moment, narrowly avoiding the fatal sword qi. At the same time, he drew his own sword. Dan Zhi was already leaping forward, charging like a crazed tiger.

By now, Ling Ji’s cultivation far surpassed Danzhi’s. With just one sword strike, he forced Danzhi back, sealing off his advance. He shouted: “Senior Brother Shan Zhi! Are you still going to keep deluding yourself?!”

Shan Zhi lowered his head and charged again, raising his sword to meet him. This time, Ling Ji did not let him get close. A twist of sword qi slashed through the air. In the clear ring of steel, Shan Zhi’s grip split open, his sword flew from his hand, and he could only stand there, stunned.

Ling Ji shook his head and sheathed his own sword, then walked toward him step by step, softening his tone as much as he could.

“Senior Brother Shan, I know you just lost your head for a minute! It hasn’t gone too far yet, man, you can still fix this! And Qi Bi, Senior Sister Qi Bi will forgive you, I swear she will. All you got to do is apologize, right here, right now. Then we can all pretend this shit never happened…Right, Qi Bi? Tell him!”

Ling Ji turned to look at Qi Bi for a response. But Qi Bi no longer even had the strength to speak. She lay there without the slightest sound.

Ling Ji was about to say more when the air suddenly tightened around him. Shan Zhi’s heavy fist came crashing in. Ling Ji dodged on instinct, only to see Shan Zhi twist away and leap back, throwing himself toward Qi Bi once more. His throat tore the words apart as he cried out, “Senior Sister, let’s die together!”

Ling Ji’s face went white with shock. And he instinctively activated the treasured sword on his back. With a thought, it shot out in a flash, turning into a bone-chilling sword beam that stabbed toward Shan Zhi.

But Shan Zhi’s change was far too sudden, and he paid no heed at all to the sword light coming from behind him. Fast as Ling Ji’s flying sword was, it was still half a step too slow. Shan Zhi’s heavy punch came crashing down. The sword light struck at the last moment, knocking the blow slightly off course, but most of the force still slammed into Qi Bi’s shoulder. There was a sharp crack as the bone shattered.

Qi Bi’s body jerked violently. A pained moan escaped her lips. She had already been gravely injured. Right after that came a deafening bang; the sword qi slammed into Shan Zhi and sent him flying backward. He crashed into the water pool spread-eagled, arms and legs splayed, looking pathetic. Ling Ji rushed forward at once, shielding Qi Bi with his own body. He finally lost it and exploded: “Shan Zhi, you son of a bitch!”

Shan Zhi struggled out of the pool, an eerie smile on his face. The moment his eyes met Qi Bi’s dim, struggling eyes as she painfully turned toward him, that smile melted away like snow hit with boiling water.

“She’s… she’s not dead? Then I… no, I can’t die. I can’t die…”

The icy pool seemed to have washed all the courage out of him. He muttered words no one could understand, twisting his head away to avoid Qi Bi’s eyes as he staggered backward.

Qi Bi finally couldn’t hold it anymore. She coughed up a mouthful of blood, instantly staining half her face red. That searing splash of color hit Shan Zhi’s eyes like a red-hot needle driven straight into his skull.

He let out a miserable scream and bolted backward. After only a couple of steps, he tripped over the sword he had dropped earlier. In a panic, he snatched it up, mounted the blade, and shot into the air. He was trying to flee over the towering cliff and waterfall, as far away as he could possibly get.

Ling Ji clenched his teeth and stayed where he was. His sword turned into a streak of light and launched after him. He had already made up his mind. No matter what, he was going to stop Shan Zhi and make him face the punishment he deserved!

Shan Zhi flew on his sword and in the blink of an eye reached the edge of the cliff. But the sight before him made him freeze. A man stood atop the precipice, hands clasped behind his back, staring at him coldly. The mountain wind whipped the man’s robes, snapping loudly, as if he might ride the wind away at any moment.

“Xun… Junior Brother Xun?”

Li Xun’s gaze settled on Shan Zhi, yet it seemed to pass right through the face before him, drifting into an endless void. Whatever was contained in that look, Shan Zhi couldn’t have figured it out even if you gave him a hundred lifetimes.

There was no time to think about it anyway. The sword light controlled by Ling Ji was already streaking upward in pursuit. In his desperation, Shan Zhi hesitated for only an instant before letting out a hoarse scream and shooting higher into the air. At this point, nothing else mattered to him anymore.

Li Xun lifted his fingers slightly, hesitated for a moment, then dropped them back down. At the same time, he closed his eyes.

The mountain wind suddenly surged, turning fierce. Tiny whirlwinds formed and broke apart in midair. When the gust hit Shan Zhi, his whole body went cold and stiff. The flow of true breath that had been linked to his sword slipped out of control, and before he could rein it back in, the sword light scattered. His upward momentum stalled, then veered hard to the side. He couldn’t stop himself from drifting off course.

Just then, Ling Ji’s flying sword shot at him. It had been aimed at his waist and hip, but there was no time to dodge. With a sharp hum, it pierced through his chest. He let out a terrible scream and struggled violently. The sword qi burst forth on instinct, shredding his heart meridians to pieces and wiping out every last trace of life in his body.

His sword-bearing body hung motionless in the air for a moment, then dropped down. Half a breath later, there was a heavy splash. After that, there was only silence.

…

“I did so much. I did so much. This is what I deserve!”

The paper was covered in those same crooked, uneven words, painful to look at. It had been found on the desk while clearing out Shan Zhi’s residence. Li Xun had tucked it away without much thought. Now, with nothing more than a flick of his wrist, the sheet of paper, the final trace Shan Zhi left behind in this world, burst into flames out of thin air and turned to ash.

With that, the incident involving Shan Zhi faded into smoke and dust, but the aftershocks had yet to settle. Qi Bi’s grave injuries had not healed, and her spirit seemed wounded all over again. She drifted through her days in a daze, barely aware of the world around her. Ling Ji, meanwhile, had personally killed his closest friend, and since then there had not been the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

Even Shan Zhi’s master, Ming Song, could not escape blame. His failure to discipline his disciple had allowed Shan Zhi to bring about such a catastrophe. Unable to shirk responsibility, he had already requested to face the wall in seclusion, shutting himself away to repent.

As for Li Xun, the sect found that he had handled matters properly, and he was not implicated in the slightest. He simply spent two days with his fellow disciples sorting through Shan Zhi’s belongings, right up until just now.

Li Xun stared blankly at the desk, his mind filled with that single sentence. He did not want to think any deeper about it, but the emotional slump it brought left him drained of all energy.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Li Xun frowned. At a time like this, it was rare for anyone on the mountain to come visiting. When his spiritual sense brushed past the doorway, understanding dawned.

With a slight shift of thought, the door creaked open. Ying Ning, who had been waiting outside, widened her eyes and curiously patted the door panel. She said again, “Master, I’m coming in,” then stepped inside and quietly pulled the door shut behind her.

Li Xun silently praised her manners, then called out, “Come in. I’m in the study.”

Ying Ning answered softly and slipped inside, light and quiet as a little civet cat. Li Xun straightened up and smiled at the young girl. “Things have been hectic these past few days, so I haven’t gone to check on you. Have you been doing all right?”

The girl nodded obediently. “Immortal Master Ming has been really good to me. And Martial Aunt Lingqi and Martial Aunt Lingyan often help guide my studies. It’s just Martial Aunt Qi…”

Her eyes reddened around the rims. It was clear that, among them all, she was closest to Qi Bi.

Li Xun thought of how much Qi Bi had always doted on her, and then his mind drifted to Shan Zhi. He let out a quiet sigh, pulled himself together with some effort, and gave her a small smile. “You really care about Martial Aunt Qi. It’d be good if you went to see her more often. It might cheer her up a bit. By the way, what brings you here today?”

Ying Ning nodded, a tiny smile broke across her face. “Martial Aunt Lingqi and the others said I’m ready to start learning some practical techniques. They also said it would be best if you taught me, Master. They even said that when it comes to forbidden arts, your cultivation is among the very best in the entire Tongxuan Realm, so…”

Li Xun suddenly got it, but the realization also dragged up something else. His brows furrowed for a second. Then he looked at Ying Ning’s innocent, wide-eyed little face… and for some reason his mind flashed back to her twisting and moaning inside that cave. His heart gave a quick thump before he forced it down.

After thinking it over, he simply took the top three pieces from the stack of manuscripts he had already written and handed them to her.

“These three texts are the A Direct Guide to the Essentials of Forbidden Arts I just finished sorting out. They cover the basics of forbidden techniques. There’s only this one copy. You can read them, but make sure you return them as soon as possible. It would be best if you asked a few of your martial aunt to help you copy them down. When you read it, don’t try to memorize it by rote; try to understand it instead. I want to see what insights you can come up with within three days. Alright?”

Yingning was all for it, of course. She carefully rolled up the three manuscripts, her little face flushing bright red with excitement. Then she gave Li Xun another quick bow.

Li Xun patted her gently on the head and offered a few more words of encouragement before letting her go. He watched as the girl skipped away, light and cheerful like a bird taking flight. Only then did his expression slowly darken.

“Three days,” he said. “If her answer isn’t satisfactory by then… once I leave the mountain, take her away.”

This decision wasn’t easy for Li Xun at all. But that offhand judgment Yin Wanderer had dropped felt like a thorn stuck sideways in his chest. He couldn’t pull it out. That’s why he was using these three drafts to test Ying Ning one more time, to see just how much talent she had for forbidden techniques. If she couldn’t meet his standard… then this little girl’s fate was about to be rewritten yet again.

The air beside him rippled and shuddered. Yin Wanderer stepped out of the void and stood right next to the desk, smiling without saying a word. Li Xun flicked a glance at her, but in his head he was already thinking. If the young girl were to be taken away, Yin Wanderer would have no choice but to split off from him for a while. During that stretch, the two of them could easily end up millions of miles apart. And that was really risky.

But then he thought again that his grip on Yin Wanderer was so tight it was basically airtight, zero chance of anything going wrong. The moment anything felt even slightly off, he could just force her physical form to disintegrate and yank her back inside. Might as well treat this as one solid test run. Otherwise if something like this popped up again later and he had to scramble and wing it on the spot, that would be humiliating.

With his mind made up, he added one more thing: “If everything goes smoothly, I’ll send her to the Mist-Hidden Pavilion. With Shui Die Lan keeping an eye on things there, I’ll actually feel at ease about it.”