Back then, Qi Tianchen had eyes only for the Martial Dao, only for the long and arduous road leading toward becoming an Earthly Immortal.
He had thought Xie Qingyi would always walk ahead of him, always look back to smile at him, and never disappear.
He had not known that she was already ill back then.
He had not known that every time she looked back and smiled at him, she was exhausting every ounce of her strength just to keep her pace from slowing.
He had never thought about those words again.
Until today, until this very moment, until he knelt before her grave.
Holding in his hands the saber scabbard forged with the final moments of her life.
Only then did he suddenly understand everything hidden behind those words.
She had known long ago that her time was short.
When she asked him that question, she was waiting for him to look back at her just once.
Yet he had not.
He took every one of her smiles for granted.
He took every moment of her companionship as a matter of course.
He thought she would always be there.
Always three paces behind him, where he could see her whenever he turned around.
Yet he never looked back.
Not even once.
Suiyue.
Fengri.
Shattered were the mountains, rivers, sun, and moon.
Mended was a heart broken inch by inch.
Qi Tianchen lowered his head, pressing his forehead against the terribly rough scabbard.
His shoulders shook violently as turbid tears streamed down the contours of the scabbard, seeping into hammer marks of varying depths.
“Qingyi...”
He called out her name, his voice raspy beyond measure.
At that exact instant.
Heaven and earth shifted colors.
A majestic, boundless aura erupted violently from Qi Tianchen, sending the leaves across the entire bamboo grove sweeping backward.
The cloud layers within dozens of li began to surge, as though an invisible giant hand were churning the vault of heaven.
The moonlight grew exceptionally brilliant at this moment, shining as brightly as a midday sun suspended in the sky.
A rift tore open across the sky above the bamboo grove, cascading ten thousand beams of radiant glow that illuminated all of Mount Jingshui as if it were day.
Amid the radiant glow, countless saber silhouettes could be faintly seen swirling and soaring.
That was the saber intent of every blade Qi Tianchen had forged throughout his entire life.
Now, they had all returned, merging into one with him.
Beneath the archway in front of the mountain gate.
A-Tong’s eyes went wide, his mouth agape enough to stuff an egg inside.
The eight martial artists in martial attire looked up at the sky simultaneously, unable to conceal the shock on their faces.
“Earthly Immortal...”
The Staff Grandmaster murmured, his voice trembling with disbelief.
The celestial phenomenon lasted for the duration of a full cup of tea before slowly dispersing.
When the final wisp of glow withdrew into the clouds, Qi Tianchen slowly rose to his feet.
His back was no longer hunched. Though the wrinkles on his face had not vanished, his entire demeanor had transformed completely.
It was a serenity seamlessly unified with heaven and earth, a presence that could only be possessed after crossing the martial path's ultimate threshold.
His white hair drifted gently in the night wind. When moonlight fell upon him, it seemed to be cradled by something invisible, forming a soft halo within three chi around his body.
Looking down at the saber and scabbard in his hands, he slowly slid Suiyue into Fengri.
The blade sank into the scabbard mouth, letting out a deep, lingering hum.
As the hum faded, heaven and earth fell entirely silent.
Murong Qingnü stood frozen in place, staring blankly at the gray-haired old man before her.
Qi Tianchen turned around and gave Murong Qingnü a solemn, respectful bow.
“Little Qingnü, I cannot die just yet.”
Murong Qingnü’s brows furrowed slightly.
“Qi Tianchen, are you going back on your word?!”
Before Murong Qingnü’s voice even settled, her aura unfurled like a tempestuous storm.
The pressure of a Boundless Realm Grandmaster forced the bamboo grove within dozens of zhang to bend in unison. Bamboo leaves swirled like daggers, spinning into a green vortex beneath the moonlight.
Lifting her right arm slightly, a soft sword as thin as a cicada's wing slid from her sleeve into her palm.
Reflecting the moonlight, the blade gave off a frosty, cold glint.
“Go back on my word?”
Qi Tianchen shook his head, showing no anger at being questioned.
He merely gazed calmly at the young girl who once followed behind him and Xie Qingyi, calling them “Big Brother Qi” and “Martial Aunt Xie.”
Times had changed. Now, she was the number one female Grandmaster in the Two Realms, her black hair tinged with frost.
“Little Qingnü, hear me out.”
His voice was not loud, yet every word rang distinct, solid as falling boulders.
“From the very first day this old man stepped onto the Martial Dao, my cultivation has carried Qingyi’s shadow.
The tribulations she blocked for me, the bottlenecks she helped me overcome, every single stance and strike she sparred with me...
They have long since melded into my meridians, my flesh, and my blood.
This life of mine was never truly just my own.”
He slowly raised Suiyue in his hand.
The crude and clumsy hammer marks on the scabbard glimmered faintly under the moonlight.
“I do not know how long she spent forging this scabbard.
Yet this old man can see that every time her hammer struck down, she was thinking of me.
Within those hammer marks are her smiles, her tears, and the words she never spoke in this life.”
Qi Tianchen’s voice began to tremble, yet his tone held an unprecedented certainty.
“Little Qingnü, you say this old man fears death and clings to life.
Yet do you know that living is far harder than dying?
Dying is merely the matter of a single moment. But to live means remembering day and night—remembering what she looked like, remembering how her eyes curved into crescents when she smiled, remembering the final time she looked back at me before she died.”
He took a step forward. Moonlight condensed into a soft halo within three chi around his body—a resonance of heaven and earth unique to Earthly Immortals.
“I cannot die.
If I die, no one in this world will remember her expression when she blocked a blade for me; no one will know how much strength she spent forging this scabbard; no one will carry her feelings into the years to come.
She and I can never be parted.
As long as I live, she remains in this world.
If I die...
Then truly, nothing will be left at all.”
Murong Qingnü stood frozen in place, her expression shifting from fury to dazed sorrow, and then into a far deeper grief.
Her hand trembled, the cicada-wing soft sword emitting an exceedingly faint, high tremor in the moonlight.
Yet in the end, she gritted her teeth.
“Qi Tianchen, you speak so many pretty words, but in the end, you’re just afraid of death.
Living on in her stead...
These words are nothing more than an excuse you made to ease your own conscience!”
She raised her sword abruptly, pointing the tip straight at Qi Tianchen’s throat, the sword intent erupting from the blade severing even the moonlight in two.
“Since you stand here today, do not even think about leaving alive. You must pay back Martial Aunt Xie’s life!”
Qi Tianchen did not dodge, nor did he draw his saber.
He merely stood quietly in place, looking into Murong Qingnü’s hate-filled eyes without the slightest evasion.
“Little Qingnü, I have stepped into the Earthly Immortal Realm. You cannot defeat me.”
Rate on N.U.
