Yue Ruling felt her throat burn and tighten. The familiar yet strange name was right at her lips, but no matter what, she could not call it out.
Looking at her hands soaked with his blood, she trembled as she gently touched his face, which was slowly losing its warmth. All the things from the past that she had never been able to understand suddenly became clear. She finally understood why his eyes were sometimes so complicated even when he pretended nothing was wrong. She finally remembered everything from their past life, and she finally remembered the feelings she had once had for him in the human world.
She had come to the Liaoyin Immortal Realm when she was very young, and Qingyuan had raised her all the way through. That was why others called him Master, but she called him Master-father. In her life, Qingyuan had taught her like a master and cared for her like a father. That one form of address had always meant everything.
The memories of those two lifetimes kept crossing through her mind, and the feelings from both lives shattered Yue Ruling's heart completely.
"Ah—!"
With a cry of grief that tore into the sky, she grabbed Qingyuan's armor tightly and pulled him close. She stared at his familiar face at close distance, as if only that way could speak the pain ripping through her heart.
Yue Ruling kept staring at Qingyuan, looking at the face before her that seemed only asleep. Only when there was not even the slightest warmth left in her hands did she slowly raise her dim eyes.
"Master, this time you did not keep your promise to me!"
There were still streaks of blood on Yue Ruling's pale face from the battle. Her black hair clung to both sides of her cheeks. The anger and hatred in her eyes needed no words. Even the black armor on her body gradually began to glow with spiritual power. She lowered her head slowly, her body trembling with rage. Her eyes flicked to the side. She grabbed the Cuiyun Saber from the ground, suddenly rose to her feet, and wanted to go fight Ou Shinan to the death.
"Senior Sister, watch out behind you!"
Just as Yue Ruling stood up, a sharp pain stabbed into her back. Looking down, she saw that a sword had sunk most of the way into her body. One hand caught the blade, and with a backhand slash, she took the head of the person behind her. Then, unable to hold herself up any longer, she slowly dropped to her knees.
Mie Xingzhe crossed his hands before his forehead, and when he spread them apart again, a golden bell-shaped barrier appeared in the air.
With a loud bang, it dropped down and trapped the tulu beast firmly inside.
"Senior Sister! No, no! It's okay, Master, Master! No, no, it's fine. Senior Sister! Senior Sister, don't sleep."
Mie Xingzhe crawled over to Yue Ruling in panic. Fear and grief filled his whole mind. He stammered out a few broken words and could not even form a full sentence. He could only call her name over and over. But Yue Ruling slowly lifted her hand and pointed toward Qingyuan, who was lying on the ground.
Something seemed to rise in Mie Xingzhe's throat. He cried in a hoarse voice like a child who had done wrong, repeating the same words again and again. "Senior Sister, you'll be fine! Master, save Senior Sister. Master! Senior Sister, it's okay, you'll be okay."
While calling for Li Luoning in a panic, Mie Xingzhe slowly helped Yue Ruling back to Qingyuan's side.
Her fingers weakly and gently touched the pattern on his sleeve cuff. She remembered that the first time she had seen that design, she had laughed at his rough carving.
Her hand slipped down. She quietly closed her eyes. The tear that fell from the corner of her eye could not speak for the unwillingness she carried in this life.
At last, Li Luoning broke free and flew over.
Mie Xingzhe's face was full of tears. He cried out Yue Ruling's name again and again like someone begging for mercy, and he was so shaken that he did not even know what he was saying anymore.
Li Luoning's eyes reddened. He fought hard to keep down the grief in his heart and tried to steady his breathing, but the tremble in his voice still betrayed his sorrow.
"Nian Nian" Li Luoning gently placed his hand on Mie Xingzhe's shoulder.
Only then did Mie Xingzhe slowly turn his head. He looked up in a daze. His eyes were dull and without light, and they trembled uncontrollably. When he saw who stood behind him, his emotions fell apart. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Tears spilled down again.
A tear gathered at the corner of Li Luoning's eye. He slowly raised his hand and opened his palm. Lowering his eyes, he drew out two remnants of souls from Yue Ruling and Qingyuan. They twined together and drifted down into his hand.
"Entangled feelings are hard to untie, and restless thoughts cannot cut through the vault of longing. To have known each other in this life was our fortune."
Li Luoning murmured softly, as if saying his final farewell to two old friends. He gently released the two strands of soul and watched them wrap around each other as they flew into the distance.
Still kneeling on the ground, Mie Xingzhe looked tearfully at the two remnants of soul flying away. Yue Ruling's blood on his hands still seemed to hold some warmth.
Ou Shinan looked coldly at everything before him and gave a faint, satisfied snort.
"Still unwilling to give up? How many more people have to die for your Moonshadow Dan before you are done? I am running out of patience."
The way Ou Shinan looked at Li Luoning had changed from playful to impatient. The bloodthirsty, beastlike side of him was slowly surfacing along with his growing irritation.
"It seems Young Master Li has not enjoyed himself enough yet. Then would you like to see the great gift I prepared?"
Ou Shinan spread both hands downward. Countless black-purple threads hung from his fingers, and each one controlled a tiny moving shadow.
"The lives of these hundred thousand immortal soldiers depend on one thought from you alone."
His voice pressed down like a threat. Violent madness burned in his eyes, and the smile on his face made what was coming feel even more terrifying.
"You are unbearably arrogant!"
Li Luoning's angry voice rang out sharp and firm. Before the words had fully fallen, he had already summoned his sword and rushed forward, stabbing straight at Ou Shinan.
"Today I'll take your dog life and send you after my Senior Sister!" Mie Xingzhe also leaped forward beside him.
In the flashing strike of battle, something unexpected happened. Master and disciple did not last even a hundred moves against Ou Shinan.
Li Luoning slashed backward with his sword, but Ou Shinan avoided it easily. The moment Li Luoning turned, a palm strike hit him in the shoulder.
Li Luoning felt a bitter taste rise in his chest. He lost his balance, his spiritual power wavered, and in that brief moment of weakness, Ou Shinan kicked him full in the chest and sent him flying from the air.
Li Luoning crashed hard onto the ground and slid several zhang before stopping. As soon as he did, he coughed up a large mouthful of blood.
Mie Xingzhe was not faring any better. Ou Shinan casually knocked the sword from his hand with a single strike, then hit him in the back and sent him crashing down not far from Li Luoning.
"Tsk, tsk. Leaving the Moonshadow Dan in your hands is truly a waste. Even with that once-in-a-century Fuguang Seal beside you, you still cannot draw out its real strength."
Ou Shinan bent down and mocked them.
"If I am not mistaken, you never truly meant to merge yourself with the Moonshadow Dan. Your current cultivation and the power it grants reject each other. You cannot bring out its true strength at all. What is it? Fear? What exactly are you afraid of?"
Ou Shinan lazily played with the Chixi power rolling in his palm. His eyes narrowed, sharp as if he wanted to see straight through Li Luoning.
Li Luoning did have his doubts. He feared that if he truly merged with the Moonshadow Dan, he would lose control of himself and be ruled by the hatred Li Minghan had left inside it. But he also feared that if he kept refusing to use its real strength, the three realms would soon fall into Ou Shinan's hands.
He thought quietly to himself, He is right. I have always been wary of the Moonshadow Dan. Of course my spiritual power and cultivation reject each other. But if I truly merge with it, with the demonic power it once held, I may very well lose myself to it. If I do something cruel like before, that would be no better. Yet if he gets the Moonshadow Dan now, the three realms will surely drown in suffering.
Li Luoning's eyes were full of conflict. He did not know what would happen if he truly merged with the Moonshadow Dan, but he knew he had no second path left.
"Nian Nian, all my burdens have gathered before the gate of fate, and all my favored ties have drifted like mist. To have met you in this life was your Master's blessing. If the three realms are washed in blood, then let one thought alone be enough to save all living beings."
Mie Xingzhe clearly did not understand the first two lines, but he understood the meaning of the last two. He was just about to stop him when he saw the familiar, gentle smile at last return to Li Luoning's face.
"Nian Nian, if your Master truly loses his mind and does anything to harm the people of the three realms, you must kill me at once. You must not hesitate for even a moment. This Moonshadow Dan was nourished by the demonic power of the demon realm and is full of Li Minghan's hatred. I fear that I…"
Li Luoning did not finish. He summoned the Master Bond Spell into his palm and crushed it. Then he raised his hand and opened the last of his own blocked meridians, allowing the surging power of the Moonshadow Dan to flood through every channel in his body.
As that power spread through him, Li Luoning's body began to glow with a black-blue light and slowly rose from the ground.
"Master!"
Mie Xingzhe called out anxiously, but faced with what was happening before him, he had no idea what he could do.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Li Luoning opened his eyes again. Red lined the corners of them. A long marking on his forehead shone with dark blue light. He clenched his left fist, then slowly opened his fingers one by one, and an eerie smile spread across his face like a demon waking from sleep.
"Minghan?"
That motion of the left hand was one of Li Minghan's own habits. No one knew it better than Shentu Zhuojia.
Without another word, Li Luoning suddenly lifted his hand and clenched it in the air. Ou Shinan was instantly trapped midair and could not move.
"The strength of ants, not even worth measuring."
Li Luoning's voice was no longer the same. A low, rough anger slid over his dry voice, and every word carried open contempt.
With just one careless lift of his hand, he threw Ou Shinan far away. Ou Shinan had to struggle hard just to steady himself.
"Boy, leaving the seal in your body is useless."
Li Luoning glanced at Mie Xingzhe lying on the ground, his tone utterly strange. He raised his hand and tried to pull the Fuguang Seal out of Mie Xingzhe's body.
Mie Xingzhe felt a powerful force drawing the spiritual power out of him little by little, but he could not move. Just as he tried to resist, faint golden light flashed at his chest.
"Huh? This is…"
Mie Xingzhe looked down in confusion. Then suddenly the feeling of being torn apart disappeared.
In battle, Li Luoning was not as vicious as Ou Shinan, but Ou Shinan was not as ruthless as Li Minghan. And when the Moonshadow Dan fully merged inside Li Luoning, it also awakened the remaining consciousness Li Minghan had left within it.
In just a little more than ten moves, the awakened power of the Moonshadow Dan helped Li Luoning force Ou Shinan flat beneath his foot.
"Heh. Hahaha. One wrong move, and the king becomes the loser. Kill me then. Kill me!"
Crushed underfoot, Ou Shinan looked up at Li Luoning's face. Blood stained his mouth, but his red-veined eyes were smiling, and madness filled his voice.
Li Luoning slowly bent down, grabbed Ou Shinan by the jaw, and lifted him off the ground inch by inch.
"It was you who killed my foster father and pushed me into murdering my own father!"
Before the words had fully fallen, one of Ou Shinan's ribs snapped with a crack.
"It was you who imprisoned my disciple and tore his flesh and bones apart!"
Li Luoning's voice turned colder, and another rib broke.
"Mm—"
Pinned and unable to move, Ou Shinan clenched his teeth and forced himself not to make a sound, as if trying to keep the last shred of dignity he had left. But the hands clawing in the air betrayed how desperately he wanted to live.
"It was you who made me raise my hand against my own blood."
This time Li Luoning shattered both of Ou Shinan's struggling arms.
"Ah!"
At last, Ou Shinan could not hold back the cry. The pain of breaking bones tore from his ruined throat.
"Master, enough. Stop."
In the end, Mie Xingzhe could not bear to watch anymore. He tried to stop him, but Li Luoning sent a spell from his eyes alone and pinned him in place.
"You betrayed allies, deceived with cruelty, cast aside trust and honor, and watched others like a hungry beast. Such a one deserves the axe and judgment."
Li Luoning's anger rose with every word.
"Heh, heh, hahaha, hahahaha!"
Powerless to fight back, Ou Shinan suddenly began to laugh like a madman.
"Li Luoning, yes, you won. But what does that change? The Moonshadow Dan has already taken over your mind. Now you are nothing but a shell for Li Minghan's inner core. Hahaha. All that immortal righteousness, yet even a pure-hearted herb fool like you cannot escape the greed in his own heart. You are about to fall into the demonic path. What right do you have to condemn me?"
Ou Shinan's wild laughter was like the last ripple of a drowning man.
Hearing those words, the small bit of reason Li Luoning still had wavered for a moment. His hand loosened, and Ou Shinan dropped back to the ground.
Li Luoning suddenly felt dizzy. He could not tell who he really was anymore. Two voices tangled together in his mind.
Kill him. Kill him and it all ends. You can rule the three realms. Let them all taste the pain you once suffered.
No. You cannot do this. Wake up. Wake up. This is not you.
Ou Shinan, fallen on the ground, looked up at Li Luoning, whose mind was clearly slipping. He knew death was already before him, but still gave a mocking smile. He spat out something glowing bright red. It rose silently into the air and turned into a dagger, then shot toward Li Luoning's back.
Li Luoning was kneeling with his back to Mie Xingzhe. He could not see Ou Shinan's small movement behind him, but from the look on Mie Xingzhe's face, he sensed danger.
"Master, watch out behind you!"