CH 18

Time seemed to stagnate at this moment.

The first one to realize there was something wrong was Mu Yingyang. The face of his Shixiong, who was panting slightly in his arms just a short time ago, suddenly became radiant. He had never seen his Shixiong show such an expression, as if he had found the treasure he had been pursuing for a lifetime. Obviously, his cultivation base was exhausted and he was so weak that he might fall at any time, but at that moment he seemed to be miraculously healed. He ran so suddenly and so fast, he was obviously right next to him, but still he didn’t say a word of explanation.

The flaming red wedding dress floated past his eyes. Mu Yingyang had no time to react and instinctively stretched out his hand, but only caught a red hairband.

The scattered silky black hair fluttered in the wind along with the sleeves of the wedding dress. Xiao Yuan just ran through the lush greenery, like a burning flame, ecstatic, impatient, and did not slow down when he reached the edge of the cliff.

Unprecedented fear surged in Mu Yingyang’s heart. He rushed towards the brilliant red figure in spite of everything, trying to jump down, but was grabbed by Li Xianting by the collar and dragged back.

“Shixiong!” Mu Yingyang’s eyes rolled, and for the first time in his life he raised his hand against his master, “Let me go! Shixiong, he’s going down, I’m going to find him!”

Li Xianting set a barrier around Mu Yingyang. Mu Yingyang couldn’t get out, and no one else could get in. Then he took a long leap and jumped off the cliff.

“No, no!” Mu Yingyang seemed crazy, crashing into the barrier again and again in vain, “Let me out! I want my Shixiong, I’m going to find my Shixiong–”

His almost desperate wailing resounded through Dongguan Mountain, and Gu Louyin, who was entangled in the fight with his fellow disciples, looked towards the sound, but only saw a glimpse of the corner of a wedding dress.

He couldn’t be more familiar with that wedding dress. It was the brocade he personally selected for Xiao Yuan. There was no embroidery on it. It was pure red, just like Xiao Yuan himself.

Xiao Yuan today, wearing the wedding dress he had chosen, was even more beautiful than he had imagined, and with just one glance he could not tolerate anyone else in his eyes.

Then Xiao Yuan… Xiao Yuan disappeared. He disappeared over the edge of the cliff without any warning, and didn’t even look back at him.

Why? There was no reason, no reason at all. Half an hour ago, they were still holding the same piece of red silk – they were about to go through the ceremony.

No matter what the reason was, Xiao Yuan wanted to marry him. In order to marry him, he did not hesitate to give thirty cups of blood. Seeing that they were about to get married and about to spend their lives together, why did Xiao Yuan leave?

No… he couldn’t accept it, he couldn’t accept it. Xiao Yuan was… was he teasing him? He still remembered that when the two first met, Xiao Yuan would occasionally make harmless jokes at him, although he never smiled at him again afterwards.

Gu Louyin’s mind was blank. He forgot the sword in his hand and he also forgot that he was dealing with the three disciples of Yunjian Pavilion. He froze in place, allowing a fellow disciple who had no time to stop his sword to stab him in the chest.

“Gu Shixiong! ”

“Shidi! ”

The disciple who stabbed him was also shocked and pulled out his sword in a panic, “I’m sorry, Young Master, I didn’t mean to…”

Warm, viscous blood dripped down but he didn’t feel anything.

The cliff, Xiao Yuan was hiding under the cliff, and he was going to find him.

The blood dyed his wedding dress dark red, and he stumbled and ran towards the cliff not paying attention to anything else.

Lin Wulian and Lu Yueyao rushed to him and grabbed him from both sides.

“Shidi! ”

“Gu Shixiong, you are injured, there is a lot of blood, you’ve shed a lot of blood!”

Gu Louyin couldn’t hear the voices of the two of them. He stared straight ahead. His originally clear eyes were overfilled with intense love and hate. He looked dejected and wretched, with the persistence of a desperate man. He walked forward intently, and Lu Yueyao and Lin Wulian both failed to stop him.

Upon seeing this, the disciples next to them came up to help. Gu Louyin took two more steps forward and was finally completely stopped. He propped his body with Shuang Leng, knelt down very slowly and spit out a mouthful of blood.

Lin Wulian was very anxious. He took out a jade vial from his belt and said, “Shidi, this is a congestive hemostatic pill. Take it quickly and stop the blood first! ”

Gu Louyin didn’t move; the only thing left in his eyes was a grey, deadly spirit, with no desire to live. Lin Wulian was frightened by such a Gu Louyin. He even felt that Gu Louyin at this moment was… begging for death.

Gu Hang looked at Gu Louyin with a cold expression and said, “Take him back to Yunjian Pavilion.”

Several young disciples immediately obeyed. Not knowing whether he was powerless to resist, or whether his heart had turned to ashes, Gu Louyin opened his eyes woodenly and allowed them to take him away.

A disciple behind Gu Hang said, “Xiao Yuan felt that he was cornered, so he simply jumped off the cliff.”

“It must be so. There are so many of us, and there are elders and great masters. No matter how powerful the man in blue is, he can’t beat us alone.”

“Xiao Yuan doesn’t know how to use the sword and there is not much left of his cultivation base. If he falls from this height, he will definitely die.”

“It’s a pity, I used to think that he was very nice, and he even invited me to eat grilled fish.”

“What a pity? He almost killed Lin Shixiong, it’s not a pity he’s dead at all. It’s just that the young master must have been bewitched by him that he actually disobeyed the master for this kind of person and injured his fellow disciples…”

Gu Hang turned his face slightly, and several people quickly closed their mouths.

The grandmaster who had just been fighting with Li Xianting came up to Gu Hang’s side and asked for advice: “Master, what to do now?”

Gu Hang looked at Mu Yingyang who was still struggling inside the barrier and said, “Take this person down.”

“Yes.”

The grandmaster’s sword was stronger than the power of the barrier and when he was about to take action, a thunder suddenly sounded above them. The clear sky changed drastically, and a violent wind rose out of nowhere. Plain white robes of Yunjian Pavilion disciples swayed in the wind and several disciples with lower cultivation level were even blown back a few steps.

Dark clouds covered the sky and hid the sun, and the black sky seemed to be about to collapse, making it hard to breathe. The disciples were stunned: “What’s going on, is someone going through tribulations?”

“Looking at this sight, he must be at least a grandmaster level figure, how could he be on Dongguan Mountain to cross the tribulation.”

The young disciple might not know what was going on, but the master saw something strange and said solemnly: “This is not a tribulation but…”

Gu Hang looked at the place where Xiao Yuan fell off the cliff, his expression became a bit more serious and he said solemnly: “Formation.”

Thunder after thunder struck, and the disciples of Yunjian Pavilion let go of their swords one after another, and dozens of swords gathered together to form a huge formation that blocked the thunder.

Amidst thunder and lightning, a man came from under the cliff. The man was dressed in a blue robe, his face expressionless and his eyes that were always full of compassion and gentleness, were desolate and cold, chilling to the bone.

Mu Yingyang saw him come alone, his lips were trembling, and he said, “Shizun, where is my Shixiong? Didn’t you bring him back? Shixiong, he…”

Li Xianting didn’t say a word and looked indifferently at Gu Hang, the leader of Yunjian Pavilion.

“Shixiong, where is he!” Mu Yingyang’s voice was full of tears, “Why didn’t you bring him back…!”

The more he cried, the sadder he became, tears continued to overflow from his eyes, as he repeated the same words again and again, until finally he couldn’t cry anymore.

Gu Hang also looked back at Li Xianting and said, “Your distinguished self, your Dao is about to collapse. If you insist on fighting to death, we both will only suffer losses. Now that Xiao Yuan is dead, why don’t you and I take a step back?”

“My Dao is about to collapse?” Li Xianting lowered his head and slowly showed a gentle smile, “How could it be possible.”

Xiao Yuan was the biggest obstacle to his cultivation of ruthless Dao. Now Xiao Yuan was gone, he had become a completely ruthless person.

With a muffled boom, the powerful rush of true qi broke through the sword formation, forcing Gu Hang to summon his sword and block in front of the group of disciples. “If your distinguished self insists on doing this, then don’t blame this Gu for being merciless with his sword! ”

……

After a great battle, Dongguan Mountain was covered with pale, withered grass. When Xiao Du stepped onto this barren land, everything had returned to peace.

Meng Chi: “It seems that the news I got is true. There was indeed a big battle here – the battle between Gu Hang and Li Xianting.”

Xiao Du looked at the scorched earth under his feet and said, “Is there any news from him?”

Meng Chi looked embarrassed and said truthfully: “It is said that Gu Hang has suffered a serious injury and is recuperating in his retreat at Yunjian Pavilion. And Gu Louyin…”

Xiao Du interrupted her: “I asked about him.”

Meng Chi sighed: “I have searched everywhere, but I have not found any news of Master Xiao. Gu Hang didn’t seem to bring him back to Yunjian Pavilion. Perhaps Li Xianting and Mu Yingyang took him away.”

Xiao Du pondered for a moment and said, “Send someone to search in the mountains to see if there are any clues.”

Meng Chi: “Yes.”

Xiao Du followed the traces left after the battle, walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down.

The abyss below the cliff was bottomless, and there was nothing to be seen except for some tangled ancient vines and strange pines. Xiao Du stared at the clouds and mist under the cliff, his eyes deep and dark, and it was impossible to say whether he felt joy or anger.

Not long after, Meng Chi came to report: “My Lord, I have found something! ”

What Meng Chi found was a farmhouse. There were lots of ‘happiness’ words posted on the doors and windows of the farmhouse. The house was neatly decorated with red silk, as if it was about to hold some happy event, but there was no one inside.

Meng Chi said, “Your Lordship, please follow me.”

Xiao Du followed her inside. Meng Chi opened the closet, and pieces of red clothes came into view, the same as those he was wearing.

Xiao Du said, “He had lived here.”

“Yes.” Meng Chi said, “I guess that Master Xiao was originally going to marry Gu Louyin here.” Unexpectedly, Yunjian Pavilion learned of this and went up the mountain to get him. It happened that Li Xianting was also there. The two sides couldn’t overcome each other, so there was this big battle.”

Xiao Du sneered, “Didn’t Li Xianting leave him alone, he gave him to me and he didn’t care about anything else.”

The room full of red was really annoying. He had always loved red, but he didn’t know why he couldn’t get used to these words of ‘happiness’. His long eyes narrowed, and the ‘happiness’ on the doors and windows suddenly shattered into powder.

“I never said I didn’t care about him.”

Meng Chi was shocked, this voice was……

Xiao Du turned around quickly, and when he saw the visitor, he curved the corners of his lips and smiled: “You are still here.”

Li Xianting’s face was extremely unsightly, his energy unstable, and he was obviously seriously injured. Xiao Du said, “It seems that you and Gu Hang are evenly matched, literally neck to neck.”

Meng Chi asked, “You dare to come back here, are you not afraid of being chased by the people of Yunjian Pavilion?”

Li Xianting looked at the red clothes in the closet and said, “I’ll pack things for Ah Yu.”

Xiao Du said, “He really is with you.”

Li Xianting said indifferently: “No.”

Xiao Du faintly had a bad premonition, but his tone was still careless: “He is not with you, where can he be?”

Li Xianting looked at Xiao Du and said word by word, “Xiao Du, Ah Yu is dead.”

Meng Chi cried out, covering her mouth with both hands, her eyes turning red.

Xiao Du stayed indifferent, as if he had just heard the news of the death of some irrelevant person. “What you said is true?”

“Yes.” Li Xianting said calmly, “He jumped off the cliff on Dongguan, wearing his favorite red clothes, without leaving a single last word.”

Meng Chi couldn’t help it anymore and cried.

Xiao Du was silent for a long time and finally sighed lightly: “It’s a pity.”

Li Xianting smiled, “Whatever the case, being brothers, you only have these three words to say? Could it be that you also cultivate ruthless Dao?”

“In any case, brother, I… I will see him off.”

Meng Chi choked and said, “My Lord.”

Xiao Du spoke extremely quickly: “I’ll just go by myself.”

Xiao Du returned to the edge of the cliff alone, looked at the bottomless abyss below the cliff again and finally couldn’t bear it anymore. A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.