IS Chapter 157

Chapter 157

Traveling the world also means passing through humanity.

Jinming saw the affairs of humanity. Though it was already April, it felt like the depths of winter; the land was barren, so how could mortal bodies endure? The human dynasty seemed to have been warned and was opening granaries, building shelters, and relocating people for relief, especially in the coldest and most sparsely populated northern regions. However, with such fierce winds, beyond human effort, they could only resign themselves to fate.

Jinming also heard that the dynasty’s foundations were weak.

This realm had already been emptied by war. Even after the world was pacified, only ten years had passed. How much wealth could be accumulated in ten years? They were just barely holding on. Human affairs were like being tormented in a sea of suffering, each trial more difficult than the last, each mountain higher than the previous one.

In the regions where immortal sects were located, large and small sects alike erected spiritual energy barriers to shelter ordinary people. In the southwest, the Green Mountains lit up a great formation spanning three thousand miles, welcoming all.

The Upper Purity Mountain also emptied its vast outer mountains to accommodate refugees. They claimed that to resist the harsh weather, their own spiritual meridians were already more than half depleted, but it was unknown if this was true. However, the Jack-of-all-trades said that the spiritual energy of the Upper Purity Mountain was indeed much thinner.

It was also said that there was a dilapidated Dragon God temple on the East Sea Shores, where the wind and snow were less severe for thousands of miles around, and people were flocking there. Jinming found it strange, so he flew over while Ye Zhuo was in seclusion. He dug up a treasure from their dragon clan used to control wind and snow, which had been buried underground. Judging by its condition, it had only been buried a few months ago. He silently put it back.

Occasionally, when passing through human cities and towns, he couldn’t help but look back at the desolation and suffering. But when he turned around again, he saw that the red-robed, sword-bearing figure had already walked far ahead without looking back.

Did this person feel nothing when he saw these things, and would he not even stop? Yet Jinming had heard ordinary people in the city say that the Second Palace Master Ye of the Micro-Snow Palace, with his sword and the Micro-Snow Palace disciples, had wiped out tens of thousands of demons in the Northern Territory, bringing stability to the Northern Territory and preventing the danger of demonic beasts swarming south during winter, causing rivers of blood. This was a great merit, and a living shrine should be built for him.

There were also rumors among the immortal sects that ancient immortal realms and demon caves were being opened up one by one, releasing rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The heavenly way was using this to replenish a corner, indirectly promoting the cycle of seasons, transitioning from winter to spring.

Everything left no trace on this person. Did he ever have such thoughts? Did he ever have such intentions? Jinming did not know. He couldn’t really see human affairs clearly, let alone the heart of this person called Ye Zhuo.

In the center of a secret realm, a sea of blood remained after all the demons were killed. The hideous corpses of the Heavenly Demons slowly turned over, revealing a huge ancient Buddha statue subduing demons. The Buddha-demon figure, with its immense ancient Buddhist form, held lamps in four hands and pestles in the other four. It leaned forward, bowing to the red-robed figure standing quietly below. The wind blew, lifting the lotus-like sleeves, revealing seventeen blood beads on the person’s wrist.

The ancient Buddha was murmuring something to Ye Zhuo. Jinming couldn’t understand at all, but he could tell that all kinds of inheritances from both the Buddhist and Sword Dao traditions were particularly fond of this person.

Jinming truly admired this human. Such a person should go to the heavens and myriad realms. The waters of the myriad realms were very deep, but the dragon realm was willing to escort such a person. Even if he had no relationship with Li Yuan—they would probably still be willing; that was just how the dragon clan was.

But damn it, he was so hard to serve! Jinming was completely defeated that his brother didn’t suffer Qi Deviation on this trip, and he reorganized his collections once more.

Ye Zhuo felt annoyed at the sight of gold, so he went into seclusion.

In the past few days, he had been able to sense the location of that thing. Sometimes, he could vaguely catch a glimpse of a faint outline of spiritual light in his spiritual sea; it really seemed to be a dragon.

This thing also liked to lie near his heart, having been hidden and unreachable on the back of his heart. What was wrong with it, sleeping next to his heart? Ye Zhuo directly grabbed it out.

The little beast woke up with a start. Ye Zhuo condensed his sword intent into a line, pointing it at the dragon. Any closer and it would be cut in two.

It seemed to whimper, trembling with fright, but it didn’t run away. Clearly, it had left itself an escape route.

Did it think he wouldn’t do it, or would it accept its fate if he really wanted to kill it? Ye Zhuo didn’t move, just pointed at it like that.

Finally, it tentatively rubbed against him in a flattering manner.

Ye Zhuo’s sword intent suddenly moved closer. It stopped rubbing this time, stopped crying, and its tail drooped down, looking like it was quietly waiting to die. How boring. Ye Zhuo withdrew his sword intent. Didn’t it have the guts to pounce and bite back? If it were him, he would never do that.

—When he was a child. Ye Zhuo suddenly thought.

When he was two or three, three or four years old. He couldn’t remember those times anymore, but he could try to imagine them more clearly.

—If Yun Xiangxi had wanted to kill him, what would he have done?

Killing and gouging out the heart, the former was killing, but what about the latter? Had Yun Xiangxi been killing him all those years?

What about Ling Ye? Return her flesh and blood to her. But after that day, he could never return them. Only with death could the debt be cleared.

In fact, Yun Xiangxi’s sword bone was no longer in his body. The severed meridians had been reconnected, washed and refined time and time again, recast and reshaped, no longer resembling their original state. Yun Xiangxi would also refine himself in the Immortal Realm, changing, no longer the same as in the mortal world.

But the Han Hua spiritual body was also gone. Looking back, it was all a blank, nothing to be seen.

Staring at the emptiness in front of him, Ye Zhuo didn’t know what he was looking at. Li Yuan said he had his own true heart. Did he? Where was it?

Ye Zhuo lowered his eyes. There was a constant commotion in his spiritual sea. He looked over and saw that the little dragon, having been released, was happily darting around. When he looked over, it stopped moving. After a while, it slowly floated up from the depths of the spiritual sea, with something on its head. Just like Dragon Li Yuan.

Ye Zhuo watched as it finally surfaced, using its head to push out a small, crystal-clear lotus flower, as if offering him a treasure. Ye Zhuo picked it up and manifested it outside his body. The lotus flower formed from spiritual energy was only the size of a soybean, floating in his palm. It was more solid than the flowing spiritual energy, almost able to crystallize.

Ye Zhuo frowned. He looked again into his spiritual sea, and he saw that five or six lotus flowers of different sizes had been there for a long time on the edge of his spiritual sea. Had he made them unknowingly? It was trying to offer them to him one by one?

Did it like playing with spiritual energy?

Why didn’t it condense the entire spiritual sea, so he could store even more spiritual energy in his body?

Ye Zhuo grabbed the thing and directly poured in twenty percent of his spiritual energy. Giving it only three dates and two jujubes a day; did it think it could rely on him and eat here until the end of time? That would never happen, it would have been killed long ago.

After pouring the spiritual energy into it and releasing it back, it finally quieted down, obediently digesting the spiritual energy.

Ye Zhuo placed the lotus flower on the table and ignored it. The spiritual energy dissipated, and it disappeared after a while.

He read the ancient scrolls he had taken from the secret realm. Halfway through, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. After wiping it away, he saw that the blood was dark, as if it had been stagnant for many years.

He silently looked at it for a long time.

For whom was this kind of blood shed?

For Yun Xiangxi, for Ling Ye, for Illusory Sword Manor? Or for those long-forgotten moments, when heaven and earth were unclear and his mind was confused? Or for the long-ago self that he could no longer remember clearly, and that heart.

Ye Zhuo recalled some bizarre fragments. In the mountains, he always looked up at someone and always walked towards someone. In the snow, or on the water, his fingers reached into the clear waves of the spirit pool. The warm and cool water felt like twenty-some years of time passing through him, and the sunlight on Illusion Cloud Cliff shone down, with sword lights constantly flashing and fading.

Seeing those things clearly might disturb his thoughts, but on the contrary, his state of mind became clearer. However, the boundary between human and immortal was still there. Did this realm not intend to let him in? He really wanted to cut it down. Ye Zhuo drew his sword, pushed open the door, and walked out.

In the snow-covered courtyard, someone was busy doing something. Ye Zhuo looked over and saw a golden figure. With a bang, the person closed the door, locking himself back inside.

“How inexplicable.” Jinming muttered, hearing the movement by the door.