Twenty miles outside Qingshui County.
The solitary graveyard was devoid of life, the woods silent, and the occasional bird or prowling wild animal involuntarily tightened one’s body, leaving a chill down one’s spine.
The torrential rain from a few days ago had turned this remote mountain path into a muddy trail, and in the southeast corner of the graveyard, there were two sizeable tombs situated on this piece of feng shui treasure land.
The two tombs looked one old and one new; the older one had so years on it, but was always well-kept with no weeds, and even the characters on the tombstone were clear and legible.
Beloved wife Qiao Qiao’s tomb.
On the newer tombstone was written: Beloved son Xue Wuwei’s tomb.
"Ah! Ahhh!"
"Why, why has it co to this! The Immortal Elixir has arrived, Qiao Qiao, open your mouth, you open your mouth, I can cure you, I said I could cure you..."
Sotis raving mad, sotis in tears, no one at this mont could imagine the imnse ntal tornt Xue Ming was going through. Particularly from the great joy in his dreams of having both wife and child, to step by step losing everything, the sense of utter despair.
That feeling was countless tis more painful than if soone was slicing his flesh off piece by piece.
"Wu Wei, who was it, who killed you, was it that little beast?"
"Damn you, Heaven, why do you take my Qiao Qiao and also take my son, you damned thieving Heaven, what is the reason! Money, what use is money!"
"You damned beast, give back my son’s life!"
Looking up, Jiang Feng could see that Xue Ming’s eyes were already bleeding tears, an otherwise untouched-by-Martial-Arts man lunging at the young man without warning.
Only to be easily dodged.
And then Xue Ming simply crashed head-first into the tombstone in front of him, and whether by coincidence or not, that tombstone happened to be his wife’s.
Blood oozing from his forehead, Xue Ming had actually woken from the illusion long ago, but under the influence of the Soul Summoning Bell, those mories he had sealed and buried deep in his heart were all dug out at this mont, almost instantly shattering his inner strength.
But the youth simply watched him calmly, tying the Soul Summoning Bell he held in his hand around his waist.
"Heaven’s punishnt can be defied, but one’s self-inflicted woes offer no escape."
These twelve brief words summarized Xue Ming’s life.
He felt sympathy for the middle-aged man’s past misfortunes, but that was no excuse for the man’s excessive indulgence of his child, letting him commit misdeeds without care.
If only you, as a father, had the heart to teach him well; if only you spent more ti at ho looking after the child, instead of chasing the impractical dream of becoming an Immortal...
None of this would have co to pass.
The youth gripped the dagger in his palm with a sowhat pale complexion, while he could drive the Soul Summoning Bell with Spiritual Energy, his realm of cultivation was indeed too low. His journey to this place was filled with stops and starts, and if it wasn’t for Xue Ming’s deeply entrenched inner demons, he might have woken before even leaving the State City.
He stood here now because he didn’t wish to wake up, at least in the first half of the dream, he was willing to trade his life to continue engulfed within it.
No longer raving mad like before, perhaps because he knew he couldn’t possibly defeat the murderer of his child, or perhaps the death of his wife and child had completely broken his heart, he simply leaned his blood-stained head against the tombstone, weeping bloody tears.
Mumbling in a faint voice like a wisp of thread.
"You’ve all gone, you’ve all left behind."
"When we married, you promised we’d die on the sa day, sa month, sa year, you promised to be with until the end..."
"Wu Wei, you also promised dad, to take good care of yourself, to beco an Immortal, to bring mom back from Heaven."
"You also promised to bring your beloved, dressed in the red robe Qiao Qiao personally sewed for you, and then co here together to visit your mom, let your mom see her future daughter-in-law."
"Dad’s been waiting, dad’s been waiting all this ti, look, I’ve prepared sothing for you, take a look, it’s the Body Tempering Pill."
"With this thing, from now on, Wu Wei, your path of cultivation will surely be smooth and unobstructed..."
Xue Ming simply took out the erald green Jade Bottle from his bosom. It was sothing he had exchanged for half of his family’s assets; he knew it was worth a city’s ransom and coveted by countless people. In the past, he would have destroyed it rather than leave it for anyone else, especially for an enemy.
But now, none of that mattered.
He was weary.
When he awoke from the illusion, the first person he saw was Jiang Feng, and he understood today was his own morial day.
There was no sympathy in his heart. Holding the short dagger, he stepped forward. From today on, the Xue family would beco a fleeting teor in the history of Qingshui County.
It wasn’t that he was cold-blooded enough to kill the enemy’s entire family. He only killed Xue Ming’s personal guard. He wasn’t so chivalrous hero, but at least he wouldn’t displace his anger onto maidservants and servants.
The strong always remain strong, the weak, only express their anger on those even weaker. With Xue Ming’s death, the tree falls and the monkeys scatter; the entire Xue family’s fate would likely be to fall apart.
Quietly advancing, he aid the tip of the dagger at the middle-aged man’s back with a very slow speed.
No fancy techniques, he just thrust it in forcefully.
The dagger pierced through skin and flesh as effortlessly as slicing tofu, skewering the heart. Throughout the process, Xue Ming did not struggle at all, not even a twitch, as if it was not a body being pierced but a corpse.
Still holding onto the tombstone, Xue Ming spoke in a faint, intermittent voice.
"Qiao Qiao."
"The things I promised you, I, I haven’t accomplished any of them."
"I couldn’t find the Immortal Elixir to save your life. The so-called Immortal Elixir from State City was just a quack’s montary whim..."
"I couldn’t protect Wu Wei thoroughly, nor could I bring a daughter-in-law to et you."
"I... couldn’t help Wu Wei step onto the path of immortals, just one more step, really just one step away."
"Even the girl from East Street, I never married her and brought her into our ho; for so many years, I never managed to bring soone back to see you..."
"Do you... regret marrying ..."
The man just gazed at the tombstone, his blood-covered face now unexpectedly gentle, as if, in his eyes, it wasn’t a tombstone but his wife who had accompanied him for many years.
Yet no matter how tender his expression was, there would be no response from the grave, until...
The youth placed his hand on his waist.
Ding Ling Ling—
The familiar sound of the wind chi rang out.
His eyes widened. Xue Ming glimpsed the last light of life. He saw them.
He saw a pair of young and naive teenagers, barely in their teens.
The boy was a bit shy and embarrassed, but still walked towards the girl step by step, then gathered his courage.
"Um, Qiao Qiao, I, I..."
All the words he had been stewing over the entire evening got stuck in his throat as soon as he truly faced the girl, forgetting what he had wanted to say.
But the girl just revealed a tender smile.
"Shall we go for a walk in front of the school?"
"I rember... there’s your favorite bun shop there. Whatever it is, Xue Lang can sit down with and take the ti to talk about it."
"Also, let’s take a look at our..."
The girl seed to suddenly rember sothing and smiled radiantly.
"Wedding clothes."
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