Yan Tianhen didn’t say a word, but Xiuxiu, which hung on his waist, suddenly jumped out and stood on the ground, as if announcing its existence. It even waved its body proudly.
Yan Tianhen: “…”
Lin Xuanzhi: “…”
Lin Xuanzhi frowned slightly. He remembered that he personally crafted this sword for Youshan Lingyu, but questions like why did he craft this sword for him, where he crafted this sword, and what materials it was made of — those memories were all vague and he couldn’t remember .
Yan Tianhen’s foot flew up and suddenly kicked Xiuxiu away. Fuck, get out of here!
The meal has to be eaten one bite at a time, and the dishonest things he had done must be exposed little by little. Xiuxiu was kicked ten feet away; it fell into the lake and disappeared.
Withdrawing his foot contentedly, Yan Tianhen said sincerely, “Dage, back then, I didn’t dare to admit that I actually had secret troubles. Of course I wanted to tell you everything, but I… I couldn’t say it.”
Lin Xuanzhi originally wanted to pursue that further, but looking at Yan Tianhen’s pitiful eyes, there was really nothing to pursue. “You can talk now.”
Yan Tianhen: “…”
Lin Xuanzhi probably misunderstood what he meant by “couldn’t say”.
After taking a deep breath and hesitating for a moment, Yan Tianhen hardened his heart and spoke, “When I killed Dao Zu, he schemed and made me swear an oath with my heart — for as long as I live, I will never be able make the truth public, otherwise I will suffer pain akin to the eighteen layers of hell where thousands of ants eat my heart.”
Lin Xuanzhi was stunned.
Actually, there was another heavy curse that Dao Zu forced him into.
Dao Zu said, “Your Shixiong Chang Sheng will never meet a peaceful end in all his lives. This is not an oath; it’s a curse. It will come true.”
That was too vicious. How could he still dare to have any ideas after that?
“Dage, I’m very afraid of death, so I dared not tell you back then.” Yan Tianhen smiled bitterly. His face was pale and his hand pressed his heart. He stepped back half a step. His face was full of helplessness and sadness. “Even now that I’ve reincarnated, I still dare not mention the most secret matters.”
Lin Xuanzhi’s expression was confused at first, then suddenly became furious and terrified. He saw blood flowing out the corners of Yan Tianhen’s lips, burning his soul like a flame.
“Ah Hen!”
Yan Tianhen froze in bewilderment for a moment before realizing that the corner of his mouth was a bit cold. He immediately asked, “I’m not drooling, am I? I’ll go&#k2013;” He quickly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked down at the blood staining his sleeve.
Yan Tianhen, “….”
Lin Xuanzhi’s complexion paled, and even his breathing became short. He grabbed Yan Tianhen’s wrist and looked at the blood that had gotten on it. He only felt like something was piercing him severely in his heart.
Yan Tianhen patted his chest. The pain in that place made him frown suddenly. Then he sighed and said in a joking tone, “It’s good that I wasn’t drooling. I thought I was drooling at Dage’s beauty to such a shameful extent.”
As he said that, he blinked at Lin Xuanzhi a few times.
Lin Xuanzhi had an unbearable forbearance, and his every hair strand seemed to be trembling. This matter was actually related to Dao Zu.
What happened between Dao Zu and Lingyu that he didn’t know?
Why did Lingyu suddenly want to kill his Master and destroy Spirit Sect? This was a cursed oath. However, if it wasn’t a matter of utmost importance and if he hadn’t been forced into it, why would he make a cursed oath?
Whether it was the former Youshan Lingyu or the current Yan Tianhen, he was afraid that neither of them knew this — Lin Xuanzhi, the head disciple of Spirit Sect and Chang Sheng Sword Venerable, had suspicions in his heart all along, even when he ultimately killed Youshan Lingyu with his own hands.
This was the child he brought up with his own hands. He personally raised this child by his side and even taught him how to read and write. How could this child suddenly do such unimaginable things that harmed both himself and others without any reason?
He killed Youshan Lingyu because he had no other alternatives and because the circumstances forced him. The Nine Lands were at the brink of destruction that left him with no other choice, but he always believed that the Demon Emperor had secret reasons for his actions.
Lin Xuanzhi’s face was deathly pale. Huarong Sword Venerable, whose expression remained unchanged even when facing a Grandmaster whose cultivation far surpassed his own, didn’t even have the strength to lift his sword at this time.
He asked, “What exactly happened? Ah Hen, what happened between Dao Zu and you?”
Yan Tianhen was just about to speak, when he heard Lin Xuanzhi yell in anger, “You shut up!”
Yan Tianhen immediately shut up and muttered in his heart: Why are you yelling at me?
Lin Xuanzhi took a deep breath, gently eased out, put down Yan Tianhen’s hand, wiped the blood stains on the corner of Yan Tianhen’s mouth with his sleeve, and said slowly word by word, “There is no need to say any more. There is no need to mention anything. I will find the answer myself. One day, I will find out all the fine dust buried in the soil. It doesn’t matter whether Youshan Lingyu was good or evil. You — Yan Tianhen, if you dare to take even half a step away from me in this life, I’ll break your leg!”
Yan Tianhen, “….”
Breaking a leg or something sounds familiar. It seemed to be the threat that Youshan Lingyu liked to say. Times had indeed changed, and it was now his turn to see Lin Xuanzhi flip out and be terrified. Yan Tianhen nodded hurriedly and said, “Dage, please calm down. You’ll grow wrinkles if you’re not careful.”
A cold light shone from Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes, and Yan Tianhen immediately said obediently, “I’ll continue to copy the admonitions. If I don’t copy them quickly, I’m afraid I won’t have time to go to the North with Hai Shixiong.”
Lin Xuanzhi took a deep breath. “No need to copy any more.”
Yan Tianhen was stunned. “Ah?”
“I said, no need to copy any more.”
Perhaps the person who should be admonished is me, not Ah Hen.
He was the chief disciple of Spirit Sect and the leader of Taoism in the world. He had killed demons and evil spirits, leading the charge against them. He was worshipped and respected by tens of thousands of people. However, it turned out that he didn’t even know the truth. Truly laughable.
Just what kind of demon was he slaughtering, and what kind of evil spirit was he destroying? This was truly one big joke! What a good Shixiong he was.
Yan Tianhen sighed and said in a low voice, “Even if Dage wants to ask further, I can’t say it. I can only talk about this much at most. For other things, once I think about telling Dage some details, my heart would feel distressed and uncomfortable. At first, I thought it was because of panic and fear, but then I found out that… it seemed to be the shackles from the cursed oath. A cursed oath would be branded onto the soul. It’s just that after reincarnation, the mark became a little lighter, so I wouldn’t immediately die with a thousand arrows piercing my heart after revealing some secrets just now.”
“A thousand arrows piercing the heart,” Lin Xuanzhi murmured.
Yan Tianhen felt uneasy when he saw this. He took Lin Xuanzhi’s hand and immediately changed the topic, “Dage, don’t you want to ask me what happened inside the scroll’s seal?”
Lin Xuanzhi wanted to say that he was not in the mood, but Yan Tianhen had already opened his mouth, “I saw Cang Rong. Cang Rong didn’t say much. But he seemed to know some parts of the truth.”
Lin Xuanzhi suddenly paused and looked at him.
Yan Tianhen: “But I was afraid because of my guilt, so I erased all the records he left behind.” At this point, Yan Tianhen’s voice became lower and lower until it was like a mosquito buzzing–
“He asked me if I would regret it. I said no, and pridefully told him that I would never regret it in my lifetime. Then he disappeared, the seal was destroyed, and the scroll became useless.”
Finally, under Lin Xuanzhi’s increasingly pressuring gaze, Yan Tianhen closed his mouth, then quickly closed his eyes and said, “I regret it now. I regret it so much.”
After a long while, Lin Xuanzhi was so angry that he laughed. He pinched Yan Tianhen’s ears and said, “My family’s Ah Hen has truly grown up, and his wings have hardened. He has his own opinions now. Good, very good!”
Yan Tianhen saw that Lin Xuanzhi was about to leave, so he quickly hugged Lin Xuanzhi’s waist. “I’ll never do this again! I’ll always tell the truth in the future and never lie! Dage, don’t be angry!”
Lin Xuanzhi stopped walking, but did not speak.
“I’m not angry.” After a long time, Lin Xuanzhi turned around.
His voice was low and he looked at Yan Tianhen with misty eyes. He grabbed Yan Tianhen’s hand and pressed it to his heart, saying, “I am sad.”
Yan Tianhen was stunned.
He had never seen Lin Xuanzhi look so fragile and miserable.
“Dage…” Yan Tianhen was very sad. He looked at Lin Xuanzhi with a pair of crystal clear eyes. “It’s because I don’t want you to be sad that I held back from saying…..”
“No need to say any more. Go back and rest.” Lin Xuanzhi kissed Yan Tianhen’s nose. “I need to be alone for a while. Be obedient.”
Yan Tianhen was suddenly worried and upset. He stamped his feet fiercely in his mind, cursing that he shouldn’t have babbled nonsense. He shouldn’t have tried so desperately to clear his name even while risking the danger and pain from the curse’s backlash on his heart.
“Dage, I want to say that no matter what happened in the past, it has already passed. If you don’t care about the bad things I did, then you don’t need to care about… about the other stuff either.”
Yan Tianhen used to care. When he first restored his memory, he did care and even blamed the gods and others. But he was truly grateful to Lian Hua for putting him in that prison for a hundred years.
Those 100 years allowed him to think clearly — humans couldn’t immerse themselves in the pain of the past and couldn’t blame others. The important thing was to look forward and cherish every day in the present.
“Don’t need to care about it?” Lin Xuanzhi uttered a smile that even he couldn’t tell the meaning of. He looked at Yan Tianhen’s clear eyes and said, “But I do care.”
How could he not care? Why couldn’t he care?
This is the darling he loves on the cusp of his heart, and he can’t bear to have his beloved suffer even a bit of pain. “Of course I care,” Lin Xuanzhi accentuated his tone and repeated it again.
He looked at Yan Tianhen, as if seeing the Shidi who stood in front of him ten thousand years ago, who was extremely daring but also carefully told him that he liked Chang Sheng.
On that day, the pear blossoms bloomed all over the garden, the wind was full of sweet fragrance, the moon was perfectly round, the larks crowed at night, and the ground was scattered with flower petals that fell down like butterflies. Melting moonlight poured down like wine, covering the ground in a layer of silver light.
“Shixiong, I have something to tell you.”
“What I said at the Daoist Ceremony was not just to scare away those who had any designs on you… I-I really like Shixiong from the bottom of my heart. I miss you when I’m awake, I miss you when I’m asleep, I miss you when I eat, and I miss you when I breathe. Can you… Can you like me just a little bit too?”
“If Shixiong doesn’t believe me, then I’ll say it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I’ll say it again every day.”
“B-But if Shixiong doesn’t want to accept me, t-then don’t ignore me either. After all… After all, I care about Shixiong the most.”
“I care about you the most in this world.”
