After the path was cut off

Chapter 39 Silently Asking About Old Wounds

Mo Guyun was speechless for a moment.

He looked at the pain and hatred in his junior brother's eyes and ultimately fell silent. These cultivators, who grew up in Taoist temples, were used to being rootless and unattached, and were the least able to cope with this kind of stubbornness tied to their bloodline.

Silence filled the air in the gale, broken only by the whistling of the iron-blue hawk cutting through the wind.

After a long while, Mo Guyun finally couldn't hold back.

"In the next opening match, the East China Sea will be the main force."

"Yunmeng will become the front line sooner or later. Your Yunyin Lake faces the East Sea; once the front line is lost, it will be a dead end. At that time, the entire clan will be wiped out in the blink of an eye."

Li Wangxiang gazed at the surging sea of clouds in the distance, his voice steady.

"The war to open up the East China Sea will take at least another forty years."

"As long as you establish a solid foundation quickly enough, a crisis can turn into an opportunity."

He paused, then added softly:

"Besides, dying in the mouth of a demon beast is better than being imprisoned by an evil cultivator and becoming food for them."

"The former died a quick death, while the latter... will only make mortals utterly despair of this world. How tragic it is for kin to kill each other."

"Heh..." Mo Guyun twitched the corner of his mouth, whether in admiration or helplessness was unclear.

At this point, he knew that saying anything more would be useless.

Mo Guyun didn't want to say anything more, but Li Wangxiang still had something on his mind.

As I approached my hometown, an old story came to mind, one that I had no choice but to confront.

Back then, when the eldest senior sister Liu Wanying was ordered to eliminate Qixia Town, although the edict came from the Immortal [Shishui], the Immortal always subtly pointed to the Immortal Mansion between the lines.

There are many suspicious points behind this matter, and it is far from over.

Moreover, Qixia Town was not entirely without survivors.

【The Passing Water】Back then, the Immortal deliberately left behind a child, entrusting him to Tianzhu Peak for adoption. The three masters and disciples discussed the matter all night, arguing several times, and finally had to decide: this child must not be raised on the peak.

So the child was registered under Li Wangxiang's name, and publicly known only as his bloodline left in the mortal world. He was named Li Jingshan and secretly sent back to Baixi Town to be hidden.

I should be thirty-six years old by now.

This return to his hometown is something this child, carrying the last secret of Qixia Town, cannot avoid no matter what.

Li Wangxiang composed himself, his gaze sweeping over his senior brother's dejected profile, and casually brought up the topic:

"Senior brother, the letter from home yesterday said that Jingshan... has already reached the fourth level of Qi Refining."

Mo Guyun's wine gourd suddenly stopped, spilling wine into his collar, but he didn't even notice.

Li Wangxiang said again:

"I didn't give him any supplies, nor did I leave him any cultivation techniques, and his spiritual potential in the Central Plains was also locked. The fact that he was able to endure until this point shows that his talent is not bad."

Mo Guyun finally had nowhere to avoid it, and could only mutter a curse under his breath:

"How could he be so stupid..."

"I absolutely must cultivate immortality."

Li Wangxiang stared intently at his flustered appearance, understood what was going on, and his tone became serious.

"I plan to send him to that sacred land near Zhongzhou first."

"When the tribe migrates, someone always has to make preparations in advance."

"If you're willing, senior brother, could you teach him for me?"

He paused for a moment after saying this, then added another sentence.

"Jingshan is one of my clansmen."

"It was true in the past, it is true now, and it will be true in the future."

"He has to get out and do something eventually; he can't stay hidden forever."

A long sigh came from deep within Mo Guyun's chest. He silently reached into his robes, took out something, and handed it over.

It was a broken silver blade less than half a foot long. Though the weapon was broken, it carried his endless longing.

Li Wangxiang took the broken blade, the cold touch stirring up deep-seated memories.

He stared at the broken surface, his voice distant:

Thirty years have passed...

"The old stories of Qixia Town have long been settled. Senior Sister was born and raised there... She was already aware of this from the moment she received the imperial decree."

He slowly raised his eyes and looked at Mo Guyun.

"Do you still remember your senior's last words of advice?"

Mo Guyun closed his eyes.

"Stop talking."

Li Wangxiang, however, did not let him off the hook, repeating it word for word:

"My senior sister said—"

"Everyone in Qixia Town, including myself."

They all deserve to die.

"Let me end all of this."

Tears were already streaming down Mo Guyun's face. How could he not remember? How could he forget?

"What's the point of saying all this? What's the point of saying all this now?"

"I don't understand!"

"Junior brother, I don't understand. You and she both have hometowns, you must understand her!"

He suddenly opened his eyes, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Li Wangxiang.

"Tell me, why did he say such resolute words?"

She clearly loved her hometown deeply.

"She clearly said she would take me back to meet her parents, the house she lived in when she was a child, and the peach blossoms in Qixia Town in spring—"

"Why—"

Mo Guyun's emotions suddenly collapsed, and the emotions that had been suppressed for thirty years erupted all at once:

"If you're going to wipe out Qixia Town, why leave one survivor?"

"If only I could stay—"

"Why can't it be her?"

"Why Jingshan Park of all places?!"

Upon hearing this, even Li Wangxiang felt a tightness in his chest.

These words were too harsh and too direct, leaving him with no way to respond. He could only try to appease them:

"There must be a reason why the immortal abode kept him here."

"My senior sister's dying words were probably an acceptance of all of this."

Mo Guyun seemed not to have heard a word of it. His eyes held hatred and resentment, but no fear.

"Immortal Abode..."