“Zhang Mingyuan, in your dream last night, you said... ‘unfilial.’ What exactly did you mean by that?”
Hearing these words, Zhang Mingyuan froze completely.
Those eyes, which always sparkled with cunning, playfulness, or anger, seemed to be instantly covered in a thick layer of gray ink. In that single moment, they lost all their light.
All of his vibrant emotions faded away, leaving only a dead, heavy silence.
He opened his mouth, but it took a long moment before he managed to squeeze a few words from his throat.
“N-nothing...”
How could Su Jinxue not see through this?
She had tangled with him for nearly five thousand years; this was absolutely not a “nothing” look. This was clearly touching upon the heaviest, most closely guarded past buried in the depths of his soul.
Su Jinxue's heart tightened inexplicably.
She knew that some secrets, when buried in the heart for too long, would ferment into poison and completely destroy a person from within.
If he could speak of it, perhaps he would feel much better.
Yet, looking at him now, she inexplicably refrained from pressing further.
Although the karma behind the word “unfilial” sounded immense, she believed for no apparent reason that Zhang Mingyuan was definitely not a heartless or ungrateful person.
She simply paused, shifting her gaze away from him to look out the window at the boundless world of frost and snow.
Her eyes grew distant, as if piercing through time and space to recall events from an incredibly remote past.
“Zhang Mingyuan, since you do not wish to speak first, let me tell you a story...”
Her voice was flat, devoid of any emotion.
Zhang Mingyuan was startled. He looked up at her in confusion.
Su Jinxue ignored his gaze and continued on her own.
“Over five thousand three hundred years ago, in the Eastern Territory of the Xuanling Realm, there was a very foolish little girl.”
“She was once the most pampered junior sister in a small sect.”
“She had a pair of sky-blue eyes. Her master doted on her, and her senior brothers and sisters protected her.”
“She thought her days would pass peacefully like this, spending her free time from cultivation staring up at the sky.”
“She believed that under the protection of her sect, she would slowly become a powerful cultivator in the world, and then use her own strength to repay this kindness and protect those who treated her like family.”
“But one day, the sky was dyed a blood-red color. The descent of a demonic cultivator completely shattered the little girl's illusions.”
“She could no longer remember exactly what that demonic cultivator looked like. She only recalled a hideous scorpion-shaped demonic rune on his face, and the overwhelming demonic energy surrounding him that struck terror deep into her soul.”
“Terrified, she hid behind her master, while her senior brothers and sisters gathered around her. She believed her sect would protect her just as they always had.”
“But the moment the demonic cultivator spoke, he shattered all her hopes.”
“‘How is the sacrificial child this Seat demanded coming along?’”
“At that time, the little girl did not understand why a powerful demonic cultivator would come to her sect to ask such a thing. Could someone in her sect be colluding with demonic cultivators?”
“But her confusion lasted only a brief moment, until... her most respected master and all her closest fellow disciples cast their gazes upon her.”
“It was a look she had never seen before. Completely different from their past warmth and affection, it was a look reserved for objects—unfamiliar, cold, and utterly devoid of emotion... It chilled her to the bone.”
“She suddenly realized with a shock that the sacrificial child... was her.”
Squelch—
Su Jinxue's voice remained entirely calm, but Zhang Mingyuan seemed to hear the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh.
“Her most respected master used the very sword he had held her hand to teach her with, piercing her collarbone from behind.”
“Blood blossomed into a red lotus of despair on her back. She was in immense pain, but it was nothing compared to the agony in her heart.”
“Those senior brothers and sisters who had once showered her with care simply watched coldly, as if looking at a product that was finally ready for delivery.”
“Just like that, the little girl was taken by the demonic cultivator to a dark, terrifying place.”
“It was a massive altar, reeking of blood that soared to the heavens. It appeared to be used to make offerings to some slumbering, peerless demon lord.”
“There were many other sacrificial children like her there. But she seemed to be the most important one, placed right at the core of the entire sacrificial array.”
“The array was activated. The little girl felt her flesh and soul being forcibly stripped away by a terrifying force. It was painful—painful to the absolute extreme.”
“But what hurt even more than this was the betrayal of her sect, those cold eyes, and her heart turning to ash, with nowhere to call home.”
At this point, Su Jinxue suddenly clenched her teeth.
An extreme chill erupted from her as the center, and the power of the Frost Law surged out, enveloping the entire Myriad Snow Palace!
In an instant, the heavy snow falling over the Myriad Snow Palace became denser and colder than ever before.
Looking at the woman before him, whose face remained as cold as an iceberg, Zhang Mingyuan felt for the first time that beneath this iceberg lay buried magma capable of melting the entire world.
Su Jinxue did not look at him, seemingly completely immersed in that memory. Her voice carried an uncontrollable tremble and hatred.
“She hated! She hated why those she regarded as her closest kin would betray her! She hated! She hated why she was so weak that she could not even control her own life and death!”
“She hated! Having been stabbed in the heart by her closest kin, why was she powerless to stab them back!”
“With the last of her strength, she swore in her heart that if she did not die today, she would return with her sword in the future to personally gouge out the hearts of her master and fellow disciples one by one, just to see if their hearts were truly black!”
“Whether the heavens heard her oath or she was simply lucky,”
“at the very moment her soul was about to leave her body, experts from a major righteous sect descended like divine soldiers. They destroyed the altar and rescued all the sacrificial children.”
“And that little girl, due to her unique skeletal structure and unparalleled constitution, was brought back to their sect and later taken in as a direct disciple by the sect master.”
“From that day on, the innocent, foolish little girl died completely.”
“The one who survived was merely an existence that lived for revenge and to become stronger.”
“She cultivated diligently day and night. Even when the hand holding her sword was rubbed bloody, and even when she was so exhausted that her mind could no longer think, she would still grip her sword tightly and swing it tirelessly, over and over again.”
“Until one day, she achieved great success in the Golden Core Stage.”
“Alone, with only her sword, she sought out her former sect...”
Su Jinxue's voice paused, and the hall fell into a dead silence.
“No one knows what exactly happened in that sect on that day.”
“All they knew was that after the girl left, everything within a hundred-mile radius turned into a pool of blood. The stench of blood soared to the sky and did not dissipate for days.”
“And the little girl's eyes seemed to have been stained by the blood of that day, changing from a clear sky-blue to... a blood-red, like a crimson sky.”
Speaking up to this point, Su Jinxue slowly turned her head.
Those blood-red eyes now clearly reflected Zhang Mingyuan's shocked face.
The owner of those eyes suddenly spoke in a very soft voice, as faint as a sigh.
“Did you know? That girl originally thought she would never have any connection with anyone else in this lifetime. She believed she would climb the Great Dao alone, with nothing but her sword.”
Zhang Mingyuan's heart clenched uncontrollably along with her words.
He seemed to see a blood-covered little girl walking alone into the distance amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
However, Su Jinxue's next words caused the atmosphere to shift abruptly.
“But in this world, there will always be an unexpected idiot who barges into someone's life in such a loud and boisterous manner, holding a broken sword with a ridiculously long name. Don't you think so, Zhang Mingyuan?”
“...”
Zhang Mingyuan was stunned.
The tragic scenes of rivers of blood were still echoing in his mind, and he was still deeply immersed in his immense sympathy and shock over Su Jinxue's past.
But the words “idiot” and “broken sword” were like two keys that instantly activated a mysterious switch inside his body.
His newly quieted emotions were instantly ignited. Grinning and bearing his teeth like a dog that had its tail stepped on, he leaped up.
“Su Jinxue! Who are you calling an idiot?! Huh?! And another thing! That is not a broken sword!”
He craned his neck, his face flushed red.
“That is called the ‘Ultimate Invincible Secret Art Thomas Flare Explosive Slash Su Jinxue’! It is specifically designed to slash you!”
Rate on N.U.
