MOF Chapter 91
by VolareSi Wsleep continuously wiped the rain from his face, his eyes red as he called out to Nangong Yue, “Young Master Yue, Senior Brother Xie is on the verge of death. Why don’t I take Fufeng Daozhang back and beg you to save Senior Brother Xie!”
Nangong Yue turned to glance at him, “Judging from the situation just now, there’s nothing I can do.”
The other disciples exchanged glances, seemingly doubting whether the person before them was truly Nangong Yue.
One disciple couldn’t bear it and said, “Young Master Yue, fellow disciples are like brothers, and according to reason and rules, we should save Senior Brother Xie first. A life is at stake!”
“What about the sect leader?” Another disciple spoke up, and seeing that Nangong Yue’s expression seemed to soften, Si Wsleep quickly pressed his advantage, “I’ll go ask the sect leader to come out of seclusion and beg him to save him!”
Nangong Yue frowned, not quite agreeing, “The sect leader is in seclusion, how can we disturb him?”
“But Senior Brother Xie…”
“The world is a cycle of cause and effect, and interference from others will inevitably lead to disaster. Who knows what heavenly laws Xie Yiling violated? What he’s suffering today may be his tribulation. Heaven’s will is so, and we are only on the outside, unable to enter the inner circle.”
These words left Si Wsleep astonished, his eyes filled with coolness, and his heart trembling with cold.
Nangong Yue summoned a disciple, and the two of them helped Nangong Ci back to Fufeng Pavilion.
Before leaving, Nangong Yue specifically dismissed the others, ordering them to return and stay well in the disciples’ residences, and not to act rashly.
Seeing this, Si Wsleep turned around unwillingly and jumped down. A thunderbolt struck, causing his body to flip in mid-air and fall back to the ground.
“Senior Brother Wsleep!” Nangong Ningan saw that he wanted to continue trying after getting up, and quickly pressed his shoulder, “It’s useless, you’ll only hurt yourself like this.”
Si Wsleep grabbed his wrist tightly, “Then what should I do? What should I do? Ningan, tell me what’s going on, am I dreaming…”
Nangong Ningan, seeing his distraught appearance, comforted him, “Senior Brother Wsleep, although Young Master Yue doesn’t agree with you going to find the sect leader, even if you really went, you’d only suffer some punishment. If the sect leader can really save Senior Brother Xie, what does this little punishment matter?”
“That’s right.” Si Wsleep’s eyes lit up, “I have to go find the sect leader, it doesn’t matter if I’m punished or die, saving Senior Brother Xie is the most important thing! Ningan, thank you, I’ll go first!”
Nangong Ningan watched him go towards the sect leader’s place of seclusion, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and quickly returned to the disciples’ residence.
After Si Wsleep left, a small figure walked out from the other side of the split Ascension Platform.
A Si had originally followed those disciples wearing immortal robes, but the disciples ran too fast, and he lost them without paying attention. After getting lost, he went in the general direction he remembered, but accidentally turned to the other side of the Ascension Platform.
“There’s nothing here.” A Si held up his umbrella, looking around, and only saw a broken stone platform.
His face was bitter, his body was wet and cold, and he was also hungry, with only enough strength left to hold the umbrella.
A Si rubbed his trembling arms, and the umbrella tilted, and was blown down the mountainside by the wind and rain.
“Ah, my umbrella!” A Si exclaimed in frustration, staring at the umbrella rolling all the way down, finally falling into a burning place.
A Si opened his mouth in surprise, that fire could actually burn in the rain!
But soon, his brow furrowed, and he saw something was wrong.
That fire was actually moving!
A Si’s eyes widened even more, and he couldn’t help but take a few steps forward, wanting to see more clearly. The wet, soft soil under his feet collapsed, and he stepped into the air.
There was actually no reaction at the moment of falling.
It wasn’t until the broken wall cut his skin, and the protruding stones bumped into his bones, that his consciousness was pulled back by the pain.
The distance from the Ascension Platform to the bottom of the mountain was only twenty meters, which was not very high. But A Si was a child after all, and falling off a cliff was enough to scare him out of his wits.
The cold rain stung his wounds, and A Si, who was about to faint, opened his eyes with a strong desire to survive. He turned and crawled towards the fire, wanting to warm himself.
As he crawled closer, he suddenly saw familiar immortal robes.
A person was wrapped in that fire, and nearly half of their body had been burned. Moisture was lost from the body, revealing two legs and arms that were burned dry and thin.
A Si’s face was bloodless with fright, but there was a vague premonition in his heart that made him slowly approach.
Heavenly fire does not burn external objects. Apart from Xie Yiling himself, everything else on his body was unharmed.
Sword, brocade bag, and a plum blossom that he didn’t have time to send out.
“Xie, Brother Xie Ci!” With a mix of fear and grief, A Si finally burst into tears, “Brother Xie Ci! What’s wrong with you, come out quickly!”
He pounced on him, and a bolt of lightning struck in front of him, hitting the sword.
The black sword flew out and fell into the water.
One mountain was split into two, and a stream converged between the two mountains.
The torrential rain poured down, and the stream became a river, rising higher and higher. A Si understood how important the sword was to Xie Yiling, he turned his head to find the sword, and as soon as he stepped into the river, he was suddenly knocked down by the huge current and drowned in the water.
Si Wsleep sought the sect leader to come out of seclusion but received no response, so he reluctantly returned to the Ascension Platform, only to see A Si floating up and down on the river.
He immediately jumped off the cliff, preparing to be struck by lightning, but this time the lightning did not stop him.
Si Wsleep landed steadily, glanced at Xie Yiling’s incomplete corpse, and tears streamed down his face.
He turned away in pain and stepped into the river to chase A Si.
The river was turbulent, and Si Wsleep almost caught up several times, but then encountered a turn and missed again, and all the spirit talismans he sent out were ineffective.
“A Si! I’m here to save you, don’t be afraid! A Si, can you hear me, A Si!” Si Wsleep stared closely at the small figure in the water, fearing that he would disappear in the blink of an eye.
After an unknown amount of time, the rain gradually subsided. Near the waterfall, Si Wsleep finally grabbed A Si’s clothes, then wrapped his arms around his chest and pulled him out of the water.
“A Si? A Si!” Si Wsleep carried him to the shore, his fingers trembling as he touched the face in his arms, covered in water stains.
After more than a year of nourishment, this face was originally pink and jade-like, but now it was frozen purple, covered with bruises and abrasions.
He gripped A Si’s pulse tightly, pressed his hand to his heart for a long time, and finally lowered his head slowly, resting it on A Si’s small shoulder.
Tears, like warm rain, dripped into A Si’s clothes.
The rain stopped, the clouds cleared to reveal the sun, and the sun set over the mountains. The dim light sprinkled on the shimmering water, and Si Wsleep raised his stiff neck, A Si in his arms was icy to the bone.
He straightened his numb legs and walked back step by step, holding A Si.
In the twilight, his shadow was hunched over, and in just one day, the spirit of youth was gone.
When he walked back to the bottom of the mountain, the heavenly fire had gone out, leaving only a scattered pile of ashes.
Si Wsleep’s heart was as dead as ashes, and he picked up the immortal robes, brocade bag, and plum blossom beside the ashes one by one.
*
Inside Fufeng Pavilion, Nangong Yue continuously poured spiritual power into Nangong Ci, reconnecting his spiritual veins.
On the bed, Nangong Ci was sweating profusely, his eyes tightly closed, muttering to himself: “…Xie Ci, Xie Ci, brother, save Xie Ci…”
Nangong Yue glanced at him with an unchanged expression, carefully stopped his actions, and staggered back a step unsteadily.
He had lost too much spiritual power and would probably need to recuperate for a while.
“A Ling, rest well, don’t think too much.”
After speaking, he turned and left.
But Nangong Ci’s brow was still tightly furrowed, as if he was trapped in a nightmare. He struggled to open his eyes, but his body was damaged and he could not wake up.
Nangong Ci mobilized his spiritual consciousness, wanting it to leave his body in place of his physical form. Suddenly, his whole body sank, falling rapidly downwards, finally landing in a pitch-black place where he could not see his fingers.
There was a faint white light ahead, and Nangong Ci slowly walked forward, wanting to see what was going on.
Suddenly, two people appeared in front of him, blocking his way.
“Where are you from, what’s your name, when, where, and how did you die?”
Nangong Ci looked carefully at the two people with blue faces and fangs, like evil spirits, and truthfully said, “I’m from Jin City, Nangong Fufeng, died on the third day of the winter month of the Funan year.”
The two people looked at him, then compared him to something that looked like a ledger in their hands, and finally said, “So you’re an immortal cultivator, you’re not dead, you should go back quickly. If you go back late, be careful that your body is taken advantage of by some wandering souls.”
He waved his hand at Nangong Ci, telling him to leave quickly.
Nangong Ci stepped forward and said, “Could you two give me a little leeway, I want to go in and find someone.”
“How can you enter the Yin Si Spring as you please?” One of them pushed him, “Don’t you hurry up and leave, don’t block the souls behind you.”
Seeing that he couldn’t reason with them, Nangong Ci said in a low voice, “Excuse me,” and shook them away, taking the opportunity to run in.
“Ouch! How dare you hit a ghost?”
“Don’t chase him, don’t chase him, it doesn’t matter if he goes in. This person, if his heart is not dead, he will never turn back.”
Nangong Ci shook off the two people, passed through the crowd of souls, and arrived at a bridge.
He waded through the black water, and just as he was about to get on the bridge, he found an invisible barrier in front of him blocking him.
Out of the corner of his eye, a familiar figure passed through the barrier and got on the bridge.
“Xie Ci?” Nangong Ci suddenly turned his head, and at the same time reached out to grab him, but touched a piece of cold hardness.
“Xie Ci! Don’t go forward!”
“Xie Ci! Xie Ci, turn around! Xie Ci!”
Nangong Ci stared intently at the wisp of soul, his voice almost hoarse, he slid down two lines of bloody tears in his eyes, begging, “Xie Ci, turn around!”
The soul stopped in the middle of the bridge. Nangong Ci’s heart beat like pearls falling to the ground, both chaotic and urgent.
He kept slapping the barrier, his palms slapped bloody, leaving blood-red handprints in the air.
“Xie Ci, can you hear me? Xie Ci, turn around, please turn around…”
The soul slowly turned back, Nangong Ci’s heart hung high, almost stopped beating.
Until the two faced each other.
“Xie Ci,” Nangong Ci looked at him tightly, “Come here, don’t go forward, come a little closer, okay? I’ll take you back, I’ll definitely take you back.”
Xie Yiling quietly looked at the sobbing Nangong Ci, and slowly raised his left hand.
Nangong Ci’s expression slowly solidified into a static despair. He saw that in Xie Yiling’s blood-stained sleeve was a severed arm.
Xie Yiling severed the ghost contract.
*
Nangong Ci woke up from a nightmare, and a bird’s cry flashed outside the window. The weather was clear, unlike the previous days of storms.
He sat blankly on the bed, for a moment unable to distinguish the year.
It wasn’t until Nangong Yue came in with a bowl of hot porridge that he slowly turned his body to look over: “Brother, where’s Xie Ci?”
Nangong Yue ignored him and said calmly, “A Ling, this is medicinal porridge that Elder Ming Nan specially took medicine to make for you, drink some?”
“I’m asking you,” Nangong Ci’s eyes suddenly became sharp, “Where’s Xie Ci?”
“You’re asking me,” Nangong Yue said, “I have no way to tell you either.”
“What do you mean no way?” Nangong Ci clenched his hands tightly, glaring at him, “Don’t you really care about his life and death at all? You brought him back to Nangui, how can you just watch him die?”
“It’s because I brought him back.” There was more indifference in Nangong Yue’s calm tone, “So I have already given him too much tolerance. A Ling, do you really think that I don’t know about Xie Yiling cultivating magic?”