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After a brief silence, Ying Kai suddenly reacted and scolded, “Don’t talk nonsense! Lord Xu is one who will ascend. Why would he die?”
Although no one had successfully risen to immortality for a millennium, Ying Kai was by no means boasting. Xu Shuangtze was the first cultivator in the world to break through the Mahayana Realm.
He was also recognized as the most outstanding grandmaster, whose cultivation came closest to the ‘Divine Realm’ over the years. This was even slightly higher than Ying Kai. If even Xu Shuangtze couldn’t ascend, then Ying Kai certainly wouldn’t be able to. No cultivator in this world could.
How could anyone think Xu Shuangtze would die?
Gong Wei’s gaze turned from Ying Kai back to Xu Shuangtze. No one noticed that his gaze changed, as if his consciousness was staring into a chaotic, fragmentary vision.
…He will die. An inherent, precise, and intense awareness emerged once again from the bottom of his heart.
He has to die.
Otherwise, what is the point of my existence?
Gong Wei was wearing loose, white sleeping robes, and his expression remained unchanged. The candlelight only illuminated one half of his face, while the other was entirely hidden in the shadows.
Suddenly, Xu Shuangtze felt an odd apprehension, as if the youth in front of him did not belong to this world. Perhaps he was just a phantom cast before them from a distant place. Like a mirage, he existed but also did not exist at the same time.
“…” Xu Shuangtze watched him closely, his voice slightly quivering, “Gong Zhiyu.”
Gong Wei did not respond.
“What are you listening to, Gong Zhiyu?”
Gong Wei was jolted back to his senses.
He didn’t seem to realize that he appeared to have been listening attentively. He looked up at Xu Shuangtze and was confused for a moment. Then, he suddenly affirmed, “You would.”
Xu Shuangtze peered into his eyes, “Would what?”
“Shuangtze.” Ying Kai stood up, frightened, and tugged at him, “Let’s go, Shuangtze, Gong Wei is sleepy and confused. He didn’t mean that…”
Xu Shuangtze remained as he was and repeated, “I would what?”
Gong Wei laughed and said, “You would die.”
At this instance, it was as if an invisible boulder plunged into deep waters and a silent waterfall cascaded from the sky. Both Ying Kai and Xu Shuangtze lost their voices and movement at the same time. All that remained was a slight crackling sound in the hall.
“…”
The surroundings fell into a terrible silence. Suddenly, Ying Kai found a reason like he had discovered a light at the end of the tunnel. He pressed Gong Wei’s shoulder with one hand and asked anxiously, “Then what about me? I will die too, right?”
Perhaps Gong Wei could not react for some reason, but he looked back at him blankly for a long time before nodding, “Yes.”
“How about Changsheng?”
“Yes.”
“Changsun Chengfeng you saw earlier today…”
“Yes.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
After that, Gong Wei paused before adding, “Everyone will die.”
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“How about you?” Xu Shuangtze interrupted Ying Kai and directed the question at Gong Wei.
“Will you die, Gong Zhiyu?”
Ying Kai halted at once.
Gong Wei stared straight at Xu Shuangtze. There was no movement in his pupils, nor did he respond. It took a long while before he spoke clearly, “You have to die first.”
“…”
Xu Shuangtze stood up slowly and a particular expression formed on his face for the first time. Gong Wei sensed the slight peculiarity and widened his eyes suspiciously to observe.
The hall was terribly quiet for a moment before Ying Kai said with difficulty, “You must be too tired.”
Ying Kai didn’t know why his voice trembled. With one hand, he grabbed Xu Shuangtze’s arm and pulled him out, saying, “Gong Zhiyu, go back to sleep. You are not allowed to step out.”
Gong Wei sat in the same place, watching in astonishment as Ying Kai forcibly dragged Xu Shuangtze out of the side hall and closed the door behind them with a loud bang, the dust in the air shook, and then it became quiet again.
It was a long time before Ying Kai’s jittery voice came from a distance outside the hall, “You can’t treat him as a normal person. He is still developing his mental awareness. After all, he is still a child. This is how children speak. They say anything that comes to mind…”
The voice became softer as it got further away until it was about to trail off at the end of the corridor. Finally, Xu Shuangtze interrupted him solemnly, “Have you really never doubted, Ying Kai? Not even a little?”
Silence returned on the outside, and the answer from Ying Kai could no longer be heard.
Gong Wei gathered his awareness, tilted his head, and stared at the quiet atmosphere in the hall. A trace of scarlet light flickered in his right pupil as if he was carefully capturing and pondering over what had happened earlier. He frowned, “…is this ‘Fear’?”
He seemed to understand.
When facing death, the human heart would not feel joy but would grieve. Everyone is full of hostility towards the person or thing that brought death. That word cannot be mentioned before it comes. As long as the term is mentioned, it will evoke fear, repulsion, or even resentment.
These were not emotions that Gong Wei liked to ‘see’.
‘Well’, he thought with relief, ‘Since Xu Bai doesn’t like it, then I shall not mention it next time.’
After leaving the Correctional Palace late that night, Xu Shuangtze did not visit the Immortal Alliance for a long time.
Ever since he spoke at the Changsun’s, Gong Wei finally advanced to the next stage—he became increasingly fluent in his ability to speak, and his pronunciation became more precise.
At the same time, he enjoyed talking more. In just a few months, Gong Wei transformed from an autistic boy to a hardcore chatterbox. One day, when he and Yuchi Rui were quibbling, Gong Wei even made his friend speechless with his words. Because of that, Yuchi Rui beat him up again.
Gong Wei could only run away grumbling in bewilderment. He then decided to report this to Lord Xu if he visited the next time.
Other than this complaint, Gong Wei also prepared a lot of things to tell Xu Shuangtze secretly. However, even before Xu Shuangtze’s visit, he encountered a significant incident.
Someone wanted to assassinate him.
In the eighteenth year of Taiyi, Ying Kai was due to pay respects to Heaven and Earth on the Ascension Platform during the early spring. Gong Wei, as his Shidi, had to add support from the side.
Halfway through the ceremony, twelve assassins broke out, drew their swords simultaneously in mid-air, and rushed towards Ying Kai!
The Ascension Platform was divided into Yin and Yang halves. Every year, Ying Kai ascended to pay respects to Heaven and Earth, while Xu Shuangtze descended to the Underground Palace to pay respects to the Ghosts and Gods. Carrying swords and weapons was not customary at the ceremony. No one thought that an assassination could be carried out at this grand event. At that moment, everyone’s first reaction was shock, and the twelve blades immediately arrived before Ying Kai’s eyes.
Just before the blades struck, Ying Kai drove his palms towards them.
A torrent of spiritual power that could easily overturn mountains and seas rushed out like a golden dragon. The intracranial golden cores within the twelve assassins were instantly crushed!
As the assassins were blasted out and collapsed to the ground, the Medical Sect Master Mu Duozhu, Artefact Sect Master Changsun Chengfeng, and others got up at the same time in the distance. But before they could fly over, the twelve assassins actually detonated automatically one after another. With the assassins’ flesh and blood as a sacrifice, a massive demonic formation was activated at the center of the Ascension Platform.
Everyone halted in their movements, except for Yuchi Rui, who reacted slightly slower and banged his head against the formation. With that, his whole body burst into blue flames. Mu Duozhu raced forwards and slapped a talisman on Yuchi Rui’s forehead as he was trembling in agony. Mu Duozhu sternly hollered, “It’s the ghost cultivator’s technique of Death-for-Life Formation. Go fetch Lord Xu! Quick!”
A death in exchange for a life. Yin and yang are secretly connected.
Suddenly, Ying Kai thought of something, and felt an ominous presence. When he turned around, he saw that a thirteenth assassin had broken out of a void and drew his sword, aiming behind him—
The fundamental goal of this assassination was not Ying Kai, but Gong Wei!
Everything happened in a flash. Ying Kai couldn’t process and instinctively flew back and grabbed the blade with his bare hands, crying, “Zhiyu, run!”
Blood gushed out from Ying Kai’s palm and was clearly reflected in Gong Wei’s pupils, which were just inches away.
Ying Kai thought the boy was stunned and stretched out his hand to nudge him. However, he was astonished to find that his body had gone numb, and his spiritual veins were now blocked. This was not good.
The blade was smeared with a fatal poison.
Mahayana-level cultivators were invulnerable to all poison except the ‘Secret Passage of Yin and Yang Chaos Mantra’ created decades ago by the Ghost Master Sect. This poison creation method began with cultivating the essence of the Yellow Springs Water, which would eventually form a Holy Pill of the Underworld. This was the only fatal poison known to seal the fate of any Mahayana Realm cultivator.
Because of Gong Wei’s photographic memory, the entire Ghost Master Sect was convicted and imprisoned. Only a few evil cultivators escaped. Ying Kai now understood the main agenda of this vendetta. He kicked the assassin in the chest and harshly yelled, “Gong Wei! What are you waiting for!”
However, no response came from behind him.
Immediately afterward, Ying Kai felt that his sleeve was being tugged at and saw Gong Wei clutching his bloodied hand. His curious eyes widened little by little as if he had seen something of interest.
It took a moment before he muttered in wonder, “…Is this blood?”
Ying Kai’s brain exploded and suddenly realized a single, critical point: This was the first time that Gong Wei had seen blood.
He lived in the Correctional Palace year-round and interacted with him, Xu Shuangtze, and Yuchi Rui. Gong Wei had never seen anyone suffer or even get injured himself. How could he have come into contact with blood?
An icy premonition suddenly welled from Ying Kai’s heart. He felt something extremely terrifying was about to happen right before him. It was a nightmare descending from nothingness. A bloodthirsty and crushing shadow that had silently settled on top of everyone’s head. But that had nothing to do with the assassination before him.
This perilous presence came from the youth behind him.
“…You don’t like me,” Gong Wei turned to stare at the assassin. His voice was both soft and suspicious.
Then he closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then sprung them open and affirmed, “No, you hate me.”
“…Gong Wei,” Ying Kai urged in his shaky voice, “Gong Wei, come back.”
But the youth had already let go of his hand and approached the assassin step by step. He was deep in thought and added, “You want me to die.”
The thirteenth assassin took a blow in the heart from Ying Kai. He spurted a mouthful of blood and got up from the ground with incredible difficulty. With his diminishing strength, a disguising spell faded, and his true identity was revealed. It was the Ghost Master Sect Leader who had escaped not too long ago.
He made countless deals with evil spirits. As a result, his entire body was embedded with terrible curses from the Ghost Wall. He was already turning into a demon as he gazed spitefully at Gong Wei, “It was you who peeked at the Secret Passage of the Yin and Yang Chaos Mantra. It was you who destroyed my life’s work… Die! Why won’t you die?!”
—Why won’t you die.
Gong Wei’s pupils were dilated, and he looked at the twelve gruesome corpses in the distance and the towering magical formation that enveloped the Ascension Platform in darkness.
—Why won’t you die?
The flames on Yuchi Rui’s body had finally been extinguished, and the Medical Sect disciples were hurriedly yelling as he curled up in pain.
Gong Wei was gasping for breath.
He saw the deep-seated resentment in the other party’s heart and that raging desire to kill consumed him. An array of negative emotions surged and enveloped him from all directions, suffocating Gong Wei for a moment. Shortly after, a fiery burning sensation seared from his right pupil all the way to his limbs.
How uncomfortable, he thought.
The exact same murderous intent climbed from the bottom of his heart, like a venomous flame rushing towards his temples.
It’s really uncomfortable.
“…I want to devour your flesh and drink your blood. I want to skin you alive,” the evil cultivator clenched his teeth and got up. He grabbed the hilt of his sword, and a treacherous sword glare was set ablaze. He roared viciously, “I want you to die—”
Before he could finish his sentence, like a menacing evil spirit, he had swung his sword. However, the blade froze.
The trembling tip was only a few centimeters away from Gong Wei’s blood-red right pupil. Yet, he could no longer move it by an inch. The youth’s pupil reflected the man’s expression, which was horrified.
“All of you have swords,” Gong Wei murmured softly, reaching out to touch the evil cultivator’s blade.
—Xu Bai had a sword, Ying Shixiong had a sword, and his buddy Yuchi Rui had a sword. Everyone at the bottom of the Ascension Platform was bearing an Immortal Sword. Even the assassin who wanted to kill him had one.
The youth finally realised how he was different from the others.
He swiftly declared, “Then I must have one.”
Gong Wei raised his right hand. The winds and clouds gathered towards his palm at once, and a crimson star flickered in the distant sky.
Immediately afterward, the star burst into light specks of blood-red, and thousands of megajoules of thunder and lightning struck down, shattering the ghost cultivator’s formation.
The Ascension Platform shook violently, causing everyone to hurriedly retreat on their swords amid the chaos of rocks falling like torrential rain. Ying Kai grabbed a sword from a dead assassin and stuck it into the ground to stabilize himself. In the deafening turmoil, he roared, “Gong Wei!
In a hurricane of spiritual power which cascaded like a waterfall, the youth took hold of the void like a hilt, inch by inch he drew out a Divine Sword from the pure energy, with Heavens and Earth as its sheath. This sword belonged to him. Everyone present saw what was carved onto the sword hilt, three characters glowing in a crimson red—
Bai Taishou.
Gong Wei gripped the sword in both hands in the next instant and mercilessly drove it through the evil cultivator’s skull!
At the last moment before death, the evil cultivator saw his own expression of utter disbelief in the youth’s blood-red pupil. He had imagined and replayed countless times how he was to piece his sword through the youth’s head and sever it from his body. He had never expected that the other party would use the exact same method to kill him.
The sword blade penetrated through the centre of the man’s eyebrows and stuck out from the back of his head. With a muffled thud, the severed head flew out several feet in the sky, and then, Gong Wei pinned the corpse heavily to the ground.
Kneeling on one knee, Gong Wei held his sword in one hand and slowly straightened up. However, the remnants of that hatred and desire to kill still clamoured within his heart, and refused to calm down.
Not enough, I must consume and skin him!
Devour his flesh and drink his blood.
Cries of exclamation sounded out from a distance as Gong Wei kept his composure. He pierced his right hand into the evil cultivator’s chest to rip out a warm, bloodied heart and held it in front of his eyes.
At the foot of the Ascension Platform, Xu Shuangtze, who was hurrying over, stopped abruptly.
He saw Gong Wei looking straight at him with a naive and casual grin. Then, the youth raised the dead man’s heart with blood still trickling down his fingers and opened his mouth to drink it.
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Sahl: Say what you will about Xu Bai, he doesn’t go around casually ‘vampiring’. Also: Ewwww. Gross, Gong Wei – at least use a cup or bowl or something…