On Kunlun Hill, the great battle was at hand.
"Magic Venerable, what is it? Have you come to watch the show?"
Black-purple demonic energy spread from the tulu beast. Seated at ease on its broad back, Ou Shinan lazily fanned himself, his voice dripping with mockery.
"Ou Shinan, for the sake of ruling the three realms, you have done countless things to harm others. You even drove blood brothers to kill each other. A cruel and vicious man like you deserves to be slain by all," Shentu Zhuojia shouted.
"It seems the Magic Venerable is not too foolish after all. Just a little too late in becoming clever. If you had found out sooner, perhaps my plan would not have succeeded. Your father and that sworn brother of yours might not have died for your stupidity."
Ou Shinan blinked arrogantly, lightly winding a strand of hair around one finger, the corners of his mouth curled in a sly smile.
Shentu Zhuojia had just started to speak when Li Luoning reached out to stop him and quietly warned, "This Ou Shinan is best at confusing people's hearts. Magic Venerable, do not lose your footing because of a few words from him."
"Aren't we here to fight? Why is no one making a move? Do I really have to waste breath before we begin?"
Ou Shinan spread his hands and looked mockingly at the group before him.
Yue Ruling was the first to lose patience. With fury in her eyes, she rushed forward. Qingyuan followed at once.
"That is right. Wasn't today always meant to end with one side dead and the other alive?"
Seeing Yue Ruling and Qingyuan charging at him, Ou Shinan only tilted his head in satisfaction. With a light gesture of his fan, the immortal soldiers behind him surged forward.
"Ou Shinan, do you really think the immortal soldiers who have followed the War God for years are willing to obey you with all their hearts?" Li Luoning demanded.
"You should worry about yourself first. What I do is none of your concern."
Stepping on a cloud, Ou Shinan slowly floated down from the tulu beast. He patted its back, and upon receiving the order, the tulu let out a roar and charged straight toward Li Luoning.
"I will take this one." Shentu Zhuojia stepped forward to meet it.
In the chaos of clashing blades and flashing swords, the powerful force of immortal and demonic arts made the surrounding mountains tremble violently. Steel met steel, and the air filled with the sharp stench of blood and choking smoke. From time to time, the roars of beasts spread across all of Kunlun Hill.
The soldiers of both sides surged like waves, eager to swallow the other whole. Arrows rained through the air, cannon fire screamed past, and amid the black and white clash, Li Luoning and Mie Xingzhe stood one before the other without moving. Opposite them, Ou Shinan also stood in silence. The two sides faced each other, and for a moment, neither had any intention of striking first.
"So tell me, will you cast away the Moonshadow Dan yourself, or shall I choose for you?"
Ou Shinan was the first to speak, his tone full of arrogance, a trace of a smile hidden beneath his cold face.
"What belongs to me is not something you can simply take because you want it," Li Luoning replied calmly.
"Heh. Perhaps you did not hear what others have said. The twin dans possess spirit of their own. They recognize blood. You may have the advantage of bloodline and can command the Moonshadow Dan, but I also have a way to make you give it up willingly and offer it to me with your own hands."
Ou Shinan laughed without restraint.
Li Luoning frowned and did not answer.
Ou Shinan's eyes gleamed with amusement.
"I was the one who let the world know where the Moonshadow Dan was. Naturally, I also know how to give these twin dans a reason to appear united, so that fewer people will covet what belongs to me."
Seeing the confusion in Li Luoning's face, Ou Shinan summoned a spell into his palm. When the glow faded, a golden cauldron appeared there.
"Perhaps Young Master Li does not know this. Your Li family did not become wealthy drug merchants because of business skill. It was because your bloodline carried a unique spiritual sensitivity to medicinal herbs and the power to refine them. Your father, Li Shen, was the one in your family whose bloodline awakened most strongly. That was why your family once possessed such great wealth."
"How do you know that?"
Li Luoning's father had indeed once mentioned that the Li bloodline could sense medicinal herbs, but at the time it had sounded no more than a joke. Only after he grew older did Li Luoning realize his father had not been lying. Yet he had never told anyone else of it.
"Have you never wondered why, after all these years, there has never been the slightest trace of your father?"
Ou Shinan's voice was soft and heavy. His eyes brimmed with sick delight. His pale, slender finger lovingly traced the pattern on the cauldron as he savored Li Luoning's expression.
"What do you mean?" Li Luoning's voice was colder and angrier than ever before. Beneath his wide sleeves, his fists clenched so hard the joints cracked.
"You still do not understand? Then let me be clearer. Your father's inner core was a rare treasure in this world, something perfect for filtering and refining medicine. Tell me, if I used it to refine the Moonshadow Dan, would the result not be even better? By chance, I happened to run into your honored father in Pingyan."
Every word from Ou Shinan dripped with contempt for Li Luoning. The crooked smile on his lips and the beastlike greed in his eyes remained fixed on him.
Li Luoning suddenly felt his chest tighten, and his body swayed despite himself.
"Master." Mie Xingzhe immediately stepped forward and caught him.
"You are lying. Li Minghan admitted it himself that day. He said he had killed his father first. How could it be as you say?" Mie Xingzhe shouted back.
"Heh. That day I was simply bored, so I changed my form and spoke a few ugly words to him. He could not bear it. Once he decided to raise his hand against his own father, I merely helped things along and gave him the chance to become a patricide. I was only doing him the courtesy."
Ou Shinan spoke with the air of someone describing a harmless game played on a child.
Meanwhile, Yue Ruling and Qingyuan were fighting their way through the battlefield.
Facing immortal soldiers who had once gone through life and death beside them, they could not bring themselves to kill them. As they fought, they only tried to bind as many as possible in place.
Yet for some reason, Yue Ruling kept feeling a strange numb tingling along her back that came and went. The back of her neck even burned with a faint stinging pain.
"Ruling, what is wrong?"
"I am fine. Master, be careful."
There was no time for concern on a battlefield like this. Before she could say more, the flashing blades and shadowed weapons had already forced them apart again.
Li Luoning struggled to steady himself. The Moonshadow Dan within him seemed to have understood Ou Shinan's words and was now violently restless.
Ou Shinan turned his head and glanced around at the demon and immortal soldiers.
"How long is this going to drag on?"
As soon as he spoke, he gave a slight motion with his hand. The golden cauldron in his palm changed into a bell. He shook it lightly in the wind, as if playing a delicate instrument.
"Tianmo!"
Mie Xingzhe knew that sound far too well. Every time he had heard it before, he had lost his mind. During the battle with Li Minghan, it had been this very thing that had driven him insane and caused him to kill Yun Qingyi by mistake.
The sound of the bell spread through the wind. The eyes of every immortal soldier from the Liaoyin Immortal Realm slowly changed color. The soldiers who had been bound instantly became immensely strong, broke free with ease, and, having almost completely lost their reason, began hacking wildly at whoever stood beside them.
"Senior Sister, watch out. It is Tianmo!" Mie Xingzhe caught sight of Yue Ruling not far away in the crowd and shouted a warning.
"I have said so much already. Will you hand it over yourself, or shall I come and take it?" Ou Shinan asked.
"You only hold the Chixi Dan. Do you really think that is enough to overcome my Moonshadow Dan and Nian'er's Fuguang Seal? I suggest you stop now while you still can."
Li Luoning could not understand where Ou Shinan's confidence came from. How could he truly believe he alone could stand against the combined power of master and disciple?
"Heh. Of course I know I cannot match the two of you together. That is why I would rather make you an exchange."
Ou Shinan rolled his eyes with open contempt.
As if he had expected this moment from the start, he traced a circle in the air with his finger and pointed into the distance. At once, Shentu Zhuojia's scream rang out.
Locked in battle with the tulu, Shentu Zhuojia suddenly felt a searing pain in his hand. Before he could react, the flesh of his sword hand began to blister. Small bubbles swelled up in his palm, burst one after another, then spread outward and formed again, only to burst once more. In the blink of an eye, his palm had been eaten away until the white bones beneath were clearly visible.
Faced with what had happened so suddenly, Shentu Zhuojia was stunned. But he recovered at once and, without hesitation, swung his blade and severed his own rotting hand.
"You... what kind of sorcery is this?"
His vision swam. One knee hit the ground, and cold sweat broke across his back. Weakened by pain, he had to support himself on his sword with his remaining hand.
Ou Shinan raised a brow and gave the weakened Shentu Zhuojia a disdainful glance. He drew his pale slender fingers lightly past his nose and breathed in with obvious pleasure.
"How did you like the flower I gave you before, Magic Venerable?"
The blue snowflower from that day had been refined with Ou Shinan's own special toad venom. It had been prepared precisely to restrain Shentu Zhuojia.
Li Luoning gave Mie Xingzhe a look, signaling him to go help.
"Well? If that stake is not large enough, I have more."
Ou Shinan had no intention of giving Li Luoning any time to speak. He had never come here to negotiate. He had come to finish them all.
He was simply enjoying the feeling of holding everyone in the palm of his hand. He lightly curled his fingers in the air, tilted his head, and looked at Li Luoning with playful amusement, like a child just before carrying out a cruel trick.
The moment Li Luoning saw that look, he understood. Panic flashed across his face as his eyes searched frantically through the melee. Very quickly, he spotted Yue Ruling in the distance, frozen in place and unable to move.
At once Li Luoning leapt forward, trying to rush to her, but Ou Shinan intercepted him with a strike of his palm.
The two fell into fierce combat without a word. Li Luoning only wanted to reach Yue Ruling as quickly as possible. In a battlefield like this, being rooted in place made her the clearest target imaginable.
Ou Shinan gave him no opening at all. He even summoned the Binding Immortal Chain and sealed the space around them with a barrier. He wanted Li Luoning to watch helplessly as everyone who had helped him one after another died before his eyes because of him.
"Ruling, watch out!"
In the middle of the fight, Li Luoning caught sight of the tulu breaking through the crowd and charging straight toward Yue Ruling. Seeing her standing there unable to move, he almost lost his voice as he shouted. The veins on his neck stood out sharply with desperation.
Hearing Li Luoning's cry, Qingyuan turned at once toward the place where Yue Ruling stood. When he saw her with her back to the tulu and no way to defend herself, he instantly cut down the immortal soldier before him and hurled himself toward her without caring for his own life.
In a flash faster than thought, Yue Ruling felt something slam hard into her back. The next moment she was thrown through the air and crashed to the ground some distance away.
Qingyuan had thrown himself in front of her just before the tulu struck, taking the fatal blow in her place. The beast's razor-sharp foreclaw sank directly into his chest. The force of its strike shattered his inner core, and when it pulled its claw free, it tore away a large piece of flesh from his heart as well.
Mie Xingzhe had only just finished settling Shentu Zhuojia when he returned and saw the scene. Pulling out his sword, he rushed straight at the tulu.
"This ends today!"
Yue Ruling, knocked to the ground, turned just in time to see Qingyuan lying not far away.
"Master!"
Her cry tore through the battlefield. She scrambled to his side and gathered him into her arms.
"Master! Master! Wake up. Look at me."
In that moment Yue Ruling looked like a lost child. The proud sharpness she always carried was gone. She could only cling to Qingyuan helplessly and call to him, while tears fell in great drops.
Hearing her voice, Qingyuan forced his eyes open.
He had taken that strike head-on. The tulu, a divine beast, had shattered his inner core with one blow. The flesh torn from his heart had also been tainted by the poison on its claws. Qingyuan knew there was no saving him now.
"Ling."
He clung to that last thread of consciousness and whispered weakly, only wanting one final look at Yue Ruling's face.
"Master, you will be all right. You are the strongest War God. Nothing will happen to you. Nothing will happen. Luoning, please save him. Save my master."
Yue Ruling broke down completely. She cried so hard her voice shattered, pleading through tears like a prayer.
Qingyuan could no longer speak. He slowly raised the Fuxi Bell, wanting to leave it to Yue Ruling as something to remember him by. But in the end, his strength failed. The bell slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground.
In that instant, all the memories sealed inside the Fuxi Bell came rushing back into Yue Ruling's mind. Every memory from the life she and Qingyuan had once shared returned before her eyes.
"I, Bai Mian, am willing to take Yo Shisan as my wife."
He had loved her. In that mortal life, he was not Qingyuan the War God, and she was not Yue Ruling the battle general.
He had once been a white rabbit, and he died protecting a white dragon. In that life, he understood love and passed through the trial of feeling.
She had once been an ordinary daughter of a wealthy family, and for the sake of the scholar she loved, she leapt from the city wall. In that life, she understood devotion and passed through the trial of resentment.
In this life, they could only live to protect the Liaoyin Immortal Realm and fight for peace among all living beings.
He had understood that all along. He simply could not let go of those memories. So he kept a little selfishness for himself, hiding everything away, wearing it on his body, carrying it in his heart.
Beneath grace that falls like rain from heaven's height,
white heads in one lifetime meet again in this one.
Since ancient days, true love has rarely found its equal.
In this life, our spirits have already held each other close.