Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 149 Reunion with the Phantom, Embracing Each Other Through Life and Death

She couldn't speak, but tears quietly welled up in her eyes.

"You...have changed..."

Her voice was as light as the wind, or like a sigh.

He smiled, a smile so faint it was almost invisible, yet more profound than ever before.

"You haven't changed."

Qingli could no longer hold back and rushed into his arms, hugging him tightly.

Like a clueless little fox spirit, she cried her heart out in the snowy night.

Her hand, trembling, reached out and touched the empty cuff of her right arm.

Her fingertips trembled slightly, and her snow-white robes drooped down without any wind.

"Why did you go to such lengths? You lost your right arm, you burned through your lifespan, you've aged so much..."

"Shouldn't you be happier? At least, live a little longer than me."

Chu Ning looked down at her, his left hand gently stroking the top of her head, his tone calm, yet like thunder hidden in the clouds:
"When you shielded me from the bloody hand and compensated for the backlash of the frost lightning, destroying your own soul, you didn't even ask if it was worth it."

Qingli looked up, a bitter smile in her eyes:

“I am a soul, so I can be destroyed, but you are still alive.”

She reached out and cupped his weathered face in her hands. His eyebrows, beard, and bone structure were all familiar, yet they also brought her heartache.

She gently kissed his forehead and whispered:
"Don't hurt yourself like this for me anymore."

"You can take me back to my ancestral land, let me see the snow of my homeland and the monument to my ancestors in my last moments... that is enough."

Chu Ning slowly shook his head, his voice low and deep, yet as firm as a vow:

"But as long as you... are still here."

He lowered his head, gazing at the gentle yet swaying silhouette in his arms, his voice calm, yet each word thunderous:

"It's worth it."

At that moment, Qingli's body suddenly trembled.

She stared blankly up at him, her eyes still glistening with tears, but now filled with a light she had never seen before.

She cultivated for a hundred years, enduring countless hardships, before finally transforming from a spirit fox into human form.

She once thought that taking human form was for greater power, a higher realm, immortality, and to surpass all demons.

But now, she understands:

"So, the reason for taking human form was to understand love."

"So that we may have the capacity to love, and so that we may have the capacity to be loved."

She looked at Chu Ning, this once resolute and stubborn young man, who had now pulled her back from the darkness inch by inch at the cost of losing an arm, burning his life, and shortening his lifespan.

"I am a demon, and you are a human. Yet you disregarded all of this and fell in love with me."

She murmured softly, tears welling up in her eyes again, and threw herself into his arms.

They hugged each other tightly.

At that moment, no one spoke.

Chu Ning simply gazed at her quietly, his eyes like thunder and flames beneath the snow, deep, scorching, and with an almost obstinate tranquility.

He was remembering her, remembering her eyebrows, her hair, and the reflection of himself in her eyes.

He seemed to want to etch her current appearance into his soul, embed it into his lightning core, and seal it into every lightning pattern, so that he would never forget it.

It was as if this embrace could overcome countless hardships, survive countless calamities, and withstand the torrent of time.

It was as if, as long as she was in his arms, he would never grow old, nor be afraid of death.

……

But reality is cruel.

Her silhouette was like snow melting into the morning light, her hair turning into light dust inch by inch, as if heaven and earth were carving her out of Chu Ning's memory inch by inch.

He didn't cry.

But his eyes reddened. At that moment, he was like a silent child, clutching the last warmth in his memory, afraid that it would completely disappear.

Surrounded by frost flowers, the two figures seemed to be embraced by a circle of pale blue ice crystals, forming a ritual destined to wither away.

The foxfire trembled and nearly died out in the wind, its soul body like dew on fallen leaves, its faint light peeling away bit by bit.

She sensed it, and she understood.

She forced a smile, her eyes filled with reluctance, and slowly raised her head to whisper to Chu Ning:

"Don't hurt yourself like this for me anymore." "You have... brought me back to our ancestral land, and I have seen this snow."

"That's enough."

She raised her hand and gently wiped away the frost between his brows with her fingertips.

That was a strand of white hair, and also a mark of time.

Chu Ning didn't dodge, but simply looked at her quietly and whispered:
"Do not."

"Remember this—you are not returning to say goodbye."

"You're going home."

His voice trembled slightly, but was full of determination:

"wait for me."

"I will bring you back to life."

"I will not be a remnant soul, nor a foxfire."

"Instead, it is a human being who walks under the snow and revisits the world."

Qingli heard it, but was too weak to respond.

She simply closed her eyes slowly and rested her head gently on his shoulder.

Her fingertips touched his left hand one last time, the movement so light it seemed as if she were giving him her whole heart.

The next instant, her figure transformed completely into a rain of light amidst the aurora, merging into the fox-head pendant in his hand.

And that pendant finally grew cold.

The fox's eyes went out, the frost flowers withered, and the wind and snow returned, as if it had never stopped.

A drop of snow quietly melted onto his face.

Like her, the last trace of a kiss.

Chu Ning stood alone deep within the cave, silent.

But within his heart, a voice never fades:
"wait for me."

……

The last wisp of Qingli's soul light finally disappeared into the deepest part of the cave.

Chu Ning's sea of ​​consciousness returned to silence, and the snow color faded away.

He stood silently, his expression as cold as frost, his left fist clenched, his right sleeve empty, his whole being like a silent monument.

In this tranquil moment, a low, mocking laugh suddenly rang out, as if tearing a crack open from the edge of one's sea of ​​consciousness:
"Tsk tsk tsk..."

“I thought that snow fox was just your spirit beast, but I never imagined it was your ‘lover’.”

Amidst the shifting mist, the soul of Devouring Abyss reappeared, its black robe billowing, its gaze cold and sinister, like a snake's tongue licking the wind.

He wandered on the edge of his consciousness, his tone full of sarcasm and disdain, as if testing him, or perhaps stinging him:
"You, a dignified being of the Thunderous Body, entrusted with the mandate of Heaven, broke through the Five Thunders, severed your arm and burned your life, and yet..."

"Just to resurrect a... insignificant fox?"

When he said the word "fox," he deliberately emphasized it, as if he were using a sharp blade to crush Chu Ning's heart.

Chu Ning's gaze turned cold. She turned around and whispered two words:

"Shut up."

Lei Xin trembled slightly, and a corner of his sea of ​​consciousness flickered with purple light.

Tun Yuan, oblivious to the danger, continued his aggressive and flippant tone:
"What, did I hit a nerve?"

"Have you forgotten yourself? You could have become the true inheritor of the Heavenly Dao of the 'Thunder Lineage,' yet you chose to sacrifice your life for a beast..."

"Snapped!"

Before the sound faded, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted in his mind, as if the gates of heaven had been shattered, and a streak of purple-gold lightning flashed across the void, blocking the way for Tun Yuan.

Chu Ning didn't move, but merely raised her eyes, her tone as cold as ice and snow:
“If you speak ‘rudely’ again, the next thunderbolt will not be a warning.”

Tun Yuan's expression froze, and he finally realized something.

He looked up at Chu Ning's spiritual platform, where the Thunder Core Heart trembled slightly. The thunderous energy was contained, but a blurry golden pattern swirled within it, like a dragon appearing and disappearing, coldly watching him.

He took a half step back and gave a wry smile:

"Okay, okay, don't get excited, don't get excited..."

"I only said a few wrong words, I didn't expect you, Thunder Core... to have a temper."

Tun Yuan remained silent for a moment, then his gaze fell once again on the thunder heart on Chu Ning's spiritual platform.

(End of this chapter)