Wen Ruqing’s eyes were sometimes unfocused and sometimes clear. When he was afraid, his body would tremble. He did not know how much time had passed. After a long while, a smile appeared on his face as he struggled to say, “So… It’s really you… You really returned…”
Blood trickled out of the corners of Wen Ruqing’s mouth and rolled down his face. His Eight Extraordinary Meridians were in a mess, making it difficult for him to speak. After he finally calmed down with great difficulty, he forced a smile again and said, “You seemed to be stronger than before…”
Lu Zhou said indifferently, “People should always strive to be better…”
Wen Ruqing’s eyes became unfocused again as he fell into a daze. He saw scenes at Grand Mystic Mountain where everyone was worshipping the Unholy One. After a while, he took a deep breath and said, “Teacher, do you know? I actually knew everything.” He caught his breath before he said again, “I’m tired. Teacher, please send me on my way. I don’t have any regrets dying in your hands.”
Wen Ruqing’s sudden change in attitude made Lu Zhou feel slightly suspicious. There were many who wished for death in the world, but the Four Supremes of the Sacred Temple were not one of them. He looked at Wen Ruqing, realizing that things were not simple. He asked, “You wish to die?”
Upon hearing these words, Wen Ruqing laughed until tears streamed down his face. Then, he struggled with great difficulty to get up before he kneeled on the ground with a loud thump, causing the marble ground to crack like a spiderweb. His face was stained with blood and tears as he kowtowed.
Bang!
As someone who had lived for a long time, Lu Zhou’s face was still expressionless when faced with Wen Ruqing’s drastic change in attitude. The human heart was hard to predict. Having experienced betrayal, his heart had grown numb and almost immovable.
Bang!
Wen Ruqing kowtowed again. Blood dripped from his forehead down his face and to the ground. At this time, he did not have his protective qi so he was no different from an ordinary person.
Lu Zhou scoffed coldly and said, “It’s too late for you to figure things out, don’t you think?”
Wen Ruqing lay on the ground as he said tremblingly, “Yes, it’s too late.” Then, he raised his head and said in a hoarse voice, “It’s too late as soon as I set foot on this path of no return. It’s too late…”
Wen Ruqing tried his best to calm his emotions before he said again, “It’s been 100,000 years. Do you know? Out of everyone in the world, I was the only one who didn’t want to repeat those lies…”
Wen Ruqing pointed at himself when he said the word ‘I’.
The lies were repeated thousands of times that even Wen Ruqing was deceived.
Wen Ruqing lowered his head and said, “I always thought you wouldn’t come back. No one in the Great Void dared to mention you. With that, I thought there would be no more you. And yet, you still returned…” He sat on the heels of his feet as he raised his head to look at Lu Zhou and asked, “Why?”
Wen Ruqing forced himself to face his former teacher.
Alas, there were too many ‘whys’ in the world, and most of them remained unanswered.
Lu Zhou said indifferently, “You can only blame yourself for the path you’ve chosen.”
“Indeed. I can only blame myself,” Wen Ruqing said. Then, his voice gradually rose as he said, “Zui Can died; Hua Zhenghong died. However, they deserved to die! And now, it’s my turn.”
Wen Ruqing raised her head to look at the sky, regaining his calm again. He closed his eyes as he said, “You can do it now.”
Lu Zhou said in a low voice, “Do you think it’s so easy to die? Tell me, where did Ming Xin go?”
Wen Ruqing shook his head calmly as he said, “Great Emperor Ming Xin has been kind to me. I can’t let him down.”
“Was I not kind to you?” Lu Zhou asked.
Boom!
The remaining seals in the sky from the Primordial Star Formation collide with each other, making a thunderous sound.
Wen Ruqing smiled faintly and pointed at the shining seals as he said, “Don’t the seals look like the stars in the night sky? Some people say that when a star falls, someone dies. Look, the stars are falling…”
Lu Zhou only looked at Wen Ruqing indifferently.
Wen Ruqing’s gaze turned determined as he said, “I’ll return everything that you gave me.”
Then, Wen Ruqing decisively struck his Dantian’s sea of Qi. It split open easily, and Primal Qi surged out into the surroundings immediately.
Lu Zhou continued to look at Wen Ruqing indifferently.
“The Grand Mystic Sword has been returned to you. Now, I’ll return my cultivation to you,” Wen Ruqing said.
The Primal Qi surged into the Primordial Star Formation, and Wen Ruqing’s Dantian’s sea of Qi dried up quickly.
Lu Zhou did not stop Wen Ruqing. He only watched calmly. In the long river time, he had witnessed too many joys and sorrows of life and death. Many of his emotions had long been whittled down by time and the vicissitudes of life, turning his heart into steel. Perhaps, the only thing that could make him waver was memories of the place where he came from and those wicked disciples of his whom he had met in his early days and disciplined.
