IS Chapter 109

This day, Yun Xiangxi led Yun Xiangzhuo toward the main hall of Illusion Sword Manor.

Actually, the manor did not celebrate ordinary people’s festivals in previous years, but in the past six years, it closed its doors and stayed away from the martial world, inevitably reducing many activities, and gradually developed a sense of festivals.

Tonight, the moon is full, and the disciples of each lineage accompany their masters, watching flowers and discussing swords, and drinking lightly under the moon. It is not noisy, but peaceful.

Two disciples of the main lineage were dancing with their swords in the square in front of the main hall. Their white-clothed figures fluttered and fell, and their swordsmanship revealed thousands of illusions, reaching a superb level. Everyone watched attentively.

Yun Xiangxi appeared in front of everyone at this moment.

After seeing who the slowly approaching figure was, the faint talking stopped for a moment.

They hadn’t seen Yun Xiangxi for a long time. The young manor master rarely participated in such sect affairs. But this didn’t prevent him from being admired and longed for by the young disciples.

The Number One Sword Under Heaven, overwhelming the current world, even people outside the sect are fascinated by him, and the disciples of this sect will only be more excited.

However, as everyone knows, Yun Xiangxi is aloof and indifferent, rejecting people thousands of miles away—this is also a consistent manifestation of the Path of Emotionlessness and cannot be considered a shortcoming.

Therefore, his appearance surprised and excited everyone, but no one showed it on their faces, but became more quiet and disciplined.

Seeing the person coming, Ling Ye’s movements paused. It seemed like she hadn’t seen Yun Xiangxi for a long time, but he still looked like he did when they first met. Moreover, even after ten or a hundred years, there would be no change.

Remaining the same even with age, that’s about right.

Gently shifting her gaze, she looked at Yun Xiangzhuo and smiled slightly.

Yun Xiangzhuo glanced at Yun Xiangxi.

Actually, Yun Xiangzhuo’s original intention was to let his father let go of him, so he could go next to his mother, but what he didn’t expect was that Yun Xiangxi led him straight towards Ling Ye.

Ling Ye had chosen a spot for herself under a cassia tree. When she was alone here, she poured her own wine and drank, and disciples would come to greet her from time to time, leisurely and freely. If she and Xiao Zhuo were together, talking would also be a pleasure.

But now that Yun Xiangxi was also here, Ling Ye could only think, had he made some mistake in his cultivation?

“Mother,” Yun Xiangzhuo said.

“Xiao Zhuo, come here.” Ling Ye pushed a plate of lotus pastries on the table to him, “Eat this.”

Yun Xiangzhuo ate slowly.

Actually, Yun Xiangzhuo didn’t like sweets very much, Yun Xiangxi could tell. But Yun Xiangzhuo didn’t refuse.

Yun Xiangxi didn’t sit with them. He just stood under the tree, neither near nor far, looking from a distance, it seemed like he was quietly protecting the two of them.

It was actually an extraordinarily peaceful scene.

Disciples frequently looked this way, and couldn’t help but whisper to each other, the young manor master and his wife seemed to be indeed a match made in heaven.

They also recalled that when the two of them became a couple for a hundred years, because the wife was from the West Sea, they built a spirit pool for her in the manor, wasn’t that also a good story?

Before long, the old manor master and his wife arrived together. The disciples gathered around to pay their respects.

Ling Ye led Yun Xiangzhuo to the old manor master, and Yun Xiangxi fell half a step behind them, going together.

The old manor master brought Yun Xiangzhuo in front of him, and also asked about Yun Xiangxi’s cultivation. Yun Xiangxi answered calmly.

Everything was done according to etiquette, without any fault. Some people greeted Yun Xiangxi, calling him “Senior Brother” or “Young Manor Master”, and some disciples saw Yun Xiangzhuo and smiled, calling him “Little Junior Brother”. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the sect gathered together, a family reunion.

Li Yuan stood under the cassia tree, quietly watching this scene. So harmonious, like any loving sect in the world, any ordinary, mutually respectful family, everything was as peaceful and natural as the spring breeze and the autumn moon.

He looked at all of this, like looking at a dream. What was Yun Xiangzhuo thinking? With both parents present, friends and relatives enjoying themselves together, would he like such a scene?

Then what was Yun Xiangxi thinking?

Across the sea of people, Li Yuan saw Yun Xiangxi’s back. Tonight, Yun Xiangxi made him feel especially unfamiliar. A cold, aloof person suddenly seemed to have restrained all his sharpness, silent and quietly integrated into all of this.

It seemed like he really wanted to get involved in the real life of this world.

He saw a young disciple holding a mortal-style lantern in his hand: “Little Junior Brother! Do you want to release a sky lantern?”

Yun Xiangzhuo looked at Yun Xiangxi, and Yun Xiangxi nodded slightly to him.

Yun Xiangzhuo took it, and Ling Ye and he together held up the sky lantern, lighting the wick. The warm, shimmering light shone out, illuminating her face and also illuminating Yun Xiangzhuo’s eyes.

“Xiao Zhuo,” Ling Ye smiled, “Are you happy?”

Yun Xiangzhuo didn’t speak. He watched the sky lantern slowly bulge up in the warm light. It wanted to go up, away from his hands. So he let go, and the sky lantern floated up, flying towards the sky. He looked up at it, and Ling Ye took his hand.

Yun Xiangxi quietly watched their backs in the crowd.

After a while, the disciples crowded around Yun Xiangzhuo and went to the center. Ling Ye stood in place, watching Yun Xiangzhuo’s figure. After a while, she turned around. As soon as she turned around, she met Yun Xiangxi’s gaze.

So Yun Xiangxi was looking at her.

In an instant, the lights were dim, the voices of the people were far away, Ling Ye looked at Yun Xiangxi and walked towards him.

In fact, she often walked towards Yun Xiangxi like this, walking to him, or following his footsteps. In the end, she got tired and stopped, but Yun Xiangxi continued to walk forward, he would not wait for anyone.

Over the years, what exactly have you been loving? The moon in the water, the unattainable phantom, or just the delusions in your own heart?

“I’m leaving,” she said to Yun Xiangxi.

“I know,” Yun Xiangxi said.

Ling Ye felt that she should say something. But, what could be said?

Yun Xiangxi seemed to be different today. The former Yun Xiangxi would not come to the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, nor would he wait for her to turn her head in the dim night.

“What’s wrong with you?” Suddenly, she said.

Yun Xiangxi looked at her, his gaze as calm as autumn water.

Ling Ye suddenly felt the fluctuation of the surrounding aura. She looked at him in confusion, and took a step towards him: “…What are you doing?”

The old manor master of Illusion Sword Manor suddenly raised his head in the midst of the disciples: “Xiangxi?”

Under the moon, Yun Xiangzhuo suddenly turned around, and he ran towards Yun Xiangxi.

“…Xiangxi?” Ling Ye’s voice trembled slightly. She reached out her hand, seemingly wanting to grasp his wrist and check his pulse, but was blocked by the scabbard.

“Wait a moment,” Yun Xiangxi said lightly.

The old manor master had already flown down, his face anxious, but he just stood still not far away. No one had ever been able to interfere in Yun Xiangxi’s affairs.

In the almost deadlocked scene, everyone smelled an unusual aura, and all sounds disappeared.

Only Yun Xiangzhuo ran to Yun Xiangxi, and when he was about to reach him, he staggered. Yun Xiangxi bent down, steadied his shoulders, and then reached out to tidy up his slightly disheveled hair, smoothing the neckline of his clothes.

Yun Xiangzhuo widened his eyes and looked up at him.

“It’s nothing,” Yun Xiangxi said.

Nothing?

Above the main hall, that kind of aura finally reached a tangible level, dark clouds enveloped the four fields, pressing down layer by layer, like the collapse of heaven and earth, like the collapse of a jade mountain.

Such a change, even the aura of heaven and earth surged. The bright moon was covered by dark clouds at some point, and the empty, mournful wind blew across Illusion Cloud Cliff.

—The cultivation and realm of Yun Xiangxi were falling layer by layer.

Previously, the crowd did not clearly perceive it, but only had a vague intuition. That was because—his previous realm was far higher than everyone else, so that even the fall could not be seen, until it fell layer by layer to the realm they could perceive—falling from the Human Immortal realm towards the Tribulation realm.

His face was so calm, his figure was still as upright as a pile of rocks and rows of pines.

He was not possessed by a demon. He was not struck by lightning. Then there was only one explanation—it was himself, scattering all the cultivation in his body.

Tribulation Transcendence peak, Tribulation Transcendence late stage, Tribulation Transcendence mid-stage, Tribulation Transcendence early stage.

Body Integration stage. Continuing to fall. Now even all the disciples present clearly felt that change.

Xiangxi Sword emitted a clear and long sword cry, and the cold aura around it was gradually dissipating. Xiangzhuo Sword sensed it and was also faintly trembling.

Yun Xiangzhuo looked at Yun Xiangxi worriedly, but he believed that his father must have his reasons for doing so.

In the silence where a pin could be heard, Yun Xiangxi’s cultivation realm finally stopped at the Golden Core stage.

He was born with a Golden Core, and now he returned to the Golden Core. His cultivation was completely scattered—what exactly was scattered? It was all the cultivation of the Path of Emotionlessness.

All the cultivation he obtained from the Path of Emotionlessness was scattered by himself. Therefore, his Path of Emotionlessness no longer existed.

Ling Ye stared blankly at Yun Xiangxi. All kinds of emotions surged into her heart.

His cultivation was scattered, he no longer seemed to be the Number One Sword Under Heaven.

The Path of Emotionlessness was also scattered, so was he now a living person with seven emotions and six desires? Could he be her husband, the father of her child?

No one would be able to decisively scatter all their cultivation after a lifetime of cultivation. He came here tonight, participated in everyone’s life, and quietly watched her and Xiangzhuo in the dim light. What was he thinking when he did all this? What made a person who watched the fire from the other side suddenly step into the fiery net of the world?

Why did he make such a choice at this time?

Ling Ye had tears in her eyes. She seemed to have a premonition of something, and reached out her hand to Yun Xiangxi, as if wanting to trace his eyebrows and eyes, and dispel the heavy mist on this person.

Yun Xiangxi took her hand.

He looked at the part where their fingertips touched, slowly closed his fingers, and slowly clasped her knuckles into his.

Ling Ye wore a pair of jade bracelets on her wrist, which made a light clinking sound when she walked. Yun Xiangxi remembered the first time he saw her, being forced to a desperate situation by a Tribulation Transcendence-stage monster, yet still not retreating, staring at it fiercely, her whole body burning with water and wood spiritual power, preparing for a desperate fight.

Even Ling Ye was a stubborn person. If she practiced swordsmanship with such a temperament, she would also have good results.

He remembered those years, Ling Ye always appeared persistently by his side. She loved to smile, wore brightly colored clothes, and always floated around him like a flowing cloud.

But when everything was as she wished, that kind of smile became less and less year by year. Was there still something she hadn’t obtained? It seemed like everything that should be given had been given.

What had he given her? Yun Xiangxi thought.

A sword, a spirit pool, a fairy palace that was exactly the same as the West Sea, the respect of a proper identity, the spirit stones and treasures belonging to him in the manor, and cultivation resources to be used at will.

And she brought Xiangzhuo to him.

In fact, Yun Xiangxi also remembered many things. When he looked into Ling Ye’s eyes, all the past scenes appeared in his mind. Without the obstruction of the Path of Emotionlessness, he looked back at those scenes, wanting to distinguish the differences.

He also remembered his father and mother, remembered the swords they taught him when he was young, remembered in the master’s door, everyone surrounded him like stars, but he rarely really looked at them.

He also remembered the swordsmith. In order to obtain the cold spring for quenching the sword, they once traveled across the ocean, standing side by side on the bow of the boat in the endless waves, looking towards the horizon. There, the swordsmith told him about his childhood dreams, and about those things about the world’s number one swordsmith and the world’s number one swordsman.

Those things had passed through his world like fleeting shadows, and now, he used a pair of eyes without the Path of Emotionlessness to look back at them all.

Such a retrospective lasted for a long time, an incense stick, or a quarter of an hour.

Until the hazy mist filled Ling Ye’s eyes, and something that seemed to have died long ago in her eyes ignited a new flame.

Until the old manor master and his wife looked at each other in a daze, both seeing the disappointment in each other’s eyes. Had they made a mistake from the very beginning? What exactly did cultivating the Path of Emotionlessness to this realm bring, and what did it lose? If they really lost those things, then Illusion Sword Manor could do without the Number One Sword Under Heaven, they only wanted a Yun Xiangxi like tonight.

—Until, in Ling Ye’s tearful eyes, an unusually desolate look finally emerged.

Yun Xiangxi released her hand.

“There is no difference,” Yun Xiangxi said.

Ling Ye slowly closed her eyes, and a tear flowed from the corner of her eye.

Yes, there was no difference.

Yun Xiangxi had never changed, even when he scattered the Path of Emotionlessness, even when everything had not yet begun.

He had always been the moon in the water, the flower in the mirror.

Xiangxi Sword cried out, as if calling its master.

Yun Xiangxi’s hand released her, picked up the sword, and his fingers stroked the sword body.

There was no difference, there had never been anything in his heart. The Path of Emotionlessness was the path he was born to cultivate, and this sword was his only pursuit in his life.

That night’s clarity, the hazy gaze, the fleeting warmth, was indeed just a momentary illusion, a mental obstacle that rises and falls on the road of cultivation.

He was like this, and so was Xiangzhuo.

He looked at Yun Xiangzhuo.

When he was looking at Ling Ye, Yun Xiangzhuo had been brought to his side by the old manor master. His child stood between his parents, a scene of joy and peace in the world of human relations.

“Xiangzhuo, come here,” he said.

Yun Xiangzhuo walked to him.

“Pick up your sword,” Yun Xiangxi said.

Yun Xiangzhuo was puzzled, but looking into Yun Xiangxi’s eyes, he still pressed his fingers on the sword.

Yun Xiangxi: “What is cutting off the Three Corpses?”

“Cutting off the Corpse of Ignorance, the Corpse of Trouble, and the Corpse of Greed.”

“What is breaking the Three Attachments?”

“Breaking the Attachment to Self, Breaking the Attachment to Dharma, and Breaking the Attachment to Emptiness.”

“What is the Path of Emotionlessness?”

“Understanding the Seven Emotions, severing the Six Desires, the Dao Heart is the only one.”

“How to prove the Path of Emotionlessness?”

Yun Xiangzhuo took another step forward, blocking between Yun Xiangxi and Ling Ye.

Cutting off the Three Corpses can prove the Dao, breaking the Three Attachments can prove the Buddha, how to prove the Path of Emotionlessness?

He looked into Yun Xiangxi’s eyes and answered his question.

“Cutting off the Threads of Love.”

The ice-white Xiangzhuo Sword was unsheathed, and at that moment, he seemed to see his own eyes reflected in the spotless sword body.

Yun Xiangxi smiled.

This was the first time Yun Xiangzhuo had seen Yun Xiangxi’s smile. It turned out that when such a cold person smiled, it would only make people feel even colder.

“Xiangzhuo,” Yun Xiangxi said, “I will untie the Path of Emotionlessness for you.”

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth instantly set off a violent tornado, pouring into his body. The scattered cultivation realm was like a violent storm, sweeping across this cloudy and densely covered world.

Yun Xiangxi raised his sword.