Archfiend

Chapter 109: Harvests

Xu Yangyi’s marble statuesque muscle and build were sublime, but at the moment, in her heart, Su Lianyue was likewise not of the slightest inclination. The relationship between she and Xu Yangyi was not the common type of man and woman. On the contrary, it was a bit similar to an older sister and younger brother. At least in this unusual realm, after meeting again after a few years, a trace of an odd atmosphere—yet not at all rejected—had brewed. She was Xu Yangyi’s first woman, but both of them understood; Xu Yangyi couldn’t accompany her.

The lives of ordinary people were transient. Neither of them had delved deep into the meaning of love because the end was bound to be sadness and depression. Things were better of not continuing on this topic. Nonetheless, Xu Yangyi had been moved by her sentiment and amazed by the dedication of this frail woman. Among the few he approved of, she was one of them.

She had no cultivation, no realm, and moreover no longevity. In the wake of increasing age, she would grow old and die, yet her unique style would make him remember her. Previously a one-time fleeting love, on the contrary, it had now become a kind of warm and comforting relationship. Xu Yangyi’s friends were not many, and of the fairer sex, she was the only one. There were some words he didn’t wish to say to a man and to a cultivator, as well. She was the best choice. 

A resolute man also had his own soft side. The blood hatred of his parents was a chasm he could not cross. Burying himself in Su Lianyue’s ample bosom, the killing intent in his heart, deeply concealed and surging like a tide, finally began to gently scatter little by little. 

“My privileges can only look at S-rank. Only after completing ten missions or a S-rank mission can I then upgrade my scope of authority.”

The woman’s body beneath his own passed on a delicate fragrance that could bring the mind to swoon. He felt somewhat trapped, yet recalled the beauty and tightness of this body. However, at this instant, he didn’t wish to other matters at all. A wide hand embracing her smooth back, Su Lianyue patted Xu Yangyi’s shoulder: “How many years later on will you forget me?”

No one answered. After a lengthy period of time, Xu Yangyi said muffledly: “I don’t know. I’m a heartless man.”

Su Lianyue laughed, stroking the other’s spiky hair: “Then let it be early. It’s no good for a cultivator to remember a mortal for too long.”

“Mhm.” The response was still yet this sound. Once a few more minutes passed, Xu Yangyi slightly raised his head: “I will help you find your little sister.”

“I hope so…” Su Lianyue chuckled as she looked towards the stars of the horizon, even if she herself didn’t announce whatever desire.

“Are our goals not the same?” Xu Yangyi laughed.

He was speaking of the black feather… Su Lianyue laughed gently and patted his back: “Remember. Tell her that her older sister met an early end.”

“Alright.” Xu Yangyi took her into his chest, pulling at a blanket. 

Su Lianyue yelped out in alarm: “Don’t…”

“I’m not.” Xu Yangyi hugged her warm and sweet jade body, smelling wisps of this familiar fragrance and comfortably shutting his eyes: “It’s just a hug.”

It was a night empty of dreams.

On the morning of the next day, Xu Yangyi got up amidst his bout of leisure and pleasure. Su Lianyue’s petite hand was improperly groping a certain area that should’ve not been touched. Especially since it was a place when some men’s understandable physiological phenomenon would turn straight as a rod. 

“Why does it even bigger… Have you been pent-up for a long time?” Su Lianyue’s sweet tongue was gentle against Xu Yangyi’s earlobe: “Don’t tell me you haven’t had a woman in three years.”

Xu Yangyi was stunned: “I really haven’t… so you can put a bit more into it.”

A petite hand made a loop around like it possessed its own spirituality, yet Su Lianyue laughed gently and left: “Get out of bed.”

Her voice not yet fallen, she was pulled back in. Xu Yangyi laughed as he nibbled her creamy collarbone: “You’re gonna fan the flames and just run off?”

After two hours, Su Lianyue glared daggers at Xu Yangyi who was drinking milk: “Fortunately I’m from Heavens Law, too, or else I might’ve died if I was a normal person.”

“It’s because I know you’re from Heavens Law; don’t you remember you told me I was rather restrained the first time?”

Su Lianyue gritted her teeth: “I really did think you were a man considerate of woman… I didn’t expect you would be so petty.”

Time passed by swiftly. After an hour, Su Lianyue dressed up tidily and stood up. She didn’t laugh, but instead gazed calmly at Xu Yangyi and eventually said: “I’m going.”

“Mhm.” Xu Yangyi gave her a ceremonial hug.

“No need to miss me.” Su Lianyue chuckled at the side of his ear: “I won’t be missing you in any case.” 

“Good bye.” She walked to the door and stopped: “If there’s nothing major later on, I won’t be seeing you any longer.”

Xu Yangyi was silent for a couple seconds and deeply nodded. This was a cruel truth. Su Lianyue would only slowly get older in age, and perhaps the next time Xu Yangyi left seclusion, she would already be wholly gray in hair. Her springtime of youth would live on in Xu Yangyi’s memories. She didn’t want to, nor was she willing, to let her first man see her when the pearl that was her age had lost its luster and yellowed. 

Rather than share circumstances together in aid, it was better to forget it each other along the path of martial conquest amidst the rivers and lakes. Perhaps in the long years and moons of Xu Yangyi’s cultivation he would recall her… This was sufficient. At the very least, it was also proof that she had once walked this world.

Xu Yangyi didn’t remain; this was Su Lianyue’s choice, her pride. He only watched her back, his gaze rising and falling. “This is a cultivator. Lonely and solitary like a Daoseeker on an endless path. Watching as each close friends and family depart, one strides to the peak of power. It’s no wonder that all cultivators are merciless, only considering benefit. Life and death viewed as indifferent, smoke and clouds pass the eyes. All that is left is myself. It is that of the fish’s fin and the bear’s paw, an everlasting question.” [1]

He sighed, yet calmed down. He understood it well. These topics had been clearly explained at Heavens Law. It was known as the heart tribulation. A cultivator HAD to overcome it. Perhaps it could be said that a cultivator who desired to stand at the world’s summit was required to survive this calamity.

I raise my blade towards the heavens and laugh. Drawing my sword to survey the four reaches, my heart is unbounded. [2]

Although it wasn’t of the same poem, at this moment, Xu Yangyi felt that these two lines were exceptionally intimate. As a cultivator, oneself rose up from among the masses, yet cast them away and transcended the impure world. The same time he seized such power was destined to be a life removed from the possibilities of ordinary people. 

How to handle and analyze one’s mentality and psyche were a good deal of Heavens Law’s teaching. Nonetheless, he hadn’t remembered a single lesson. But in any case, right now, he seemed to realize a few matters. 

The feeling Su Lianyue gave him was quite unique, similar to love, yet it was in no way romance. The emotion could be said to be a temporary haunting of hormones, yet it was mixed with an element of affection. It was complex, and he found its lost to be a pity, yet it was likely he wouldn’t stay mired for too long. Like the other, it was impossible not for him to be aware; she as well couldn’t linger for an extended period on his person.

“This… is perhaps the so-called Dao-heart, huh…” A wisp of perplexity emerged in his eyes, but it was soon replaced by resolution: “However, at the very least, before I find the mortal enemy of my parents, I will not dwell upon any person.” He was silent for ages until he said indifferently: “Well, as much as I can.” 

He sat down in the hotel room as such, taking gulps of his milk. Once another ten minutes passed, he suddenly smiled: “And I thought myself to be a callous person straight down to my core.”

“So I actually turned out not to be.” After a long time, he finally steadied his emotions. Inhaling deeply, he looked towards his finger. His harvest this time were undoubtedly tremendous. A millennium-old demon, the Red Spider Lily of Jadewave the Mosasaurus had bloomed. Its origin crystal, this core, was worth the sum of of his other possessions! If this gain still couldn’t be considered great...

He laughed as stroked the ring on his hand. All that was inside was sufficient in making up for all of his losses! Besides… at most, his damages were nothing more than that of blood, flesh, and qi. 

“3,000 low-grade spirit stones, 100 middle-grade spirit stones, and 3 high-grade spirit stones…” He was unable to resist bringing his spiritual sense to invade the storage ring once again: “A 180 bottles of all kinds of pill elixirs, 100 hundred talismans, and the most important…” He sucked in deeply, gently waving his hand. In the next second, a tattered sheepskin scroll appeared in his hand. 

This was the item that God Ming had Jadewave decrypt on that day. Back then, a kind of brutal aura that seemed to pass through from an ancient era caused everyone to be shocked. In their hearts, everyone understood this to be a supreme treasure. 

God Ming’s life had been reaped, and Xu Yangyi truly lacked the skill to seize the other two rings. The situation of that time had been too complicated, however, he had ordered Li Zongyuan to take aim at the middle finger, plundering this bauble. 

“The storage equipment of any cultivator will automatically lock up and collapse after the owner’s death…” He pensively fiddled around with the sheepskin scroll: “Not even to speak of this sheepskin scroll, merely this twenty-square-meter storage ring has yielded me a great profit…” All of a sudden, he faintly knitted his brows. The feeling in his hand was off… 

As a sheepskin scroll, it was too heavy. Heavy to the extent… it rendered Xu Yangyi, who was at the  middle stage of Qi Condensation and wanted to lightly toss it, incapable to the extent that he was motionless to fling it!

Xu Yangyi narrowed his gaze, unfurling the sheepskin scroll little by little. A wooden sword, like that of wood yet not wood, astonishingly appeared in the sheepskin scroll. It was approximately three inches long and as broad as two thumbs. The sword hilt was not that of a normal sword hilt, instead that of a ring. The entire body was cast in a kind of gold yet not gold, a material forging of wood yet not wood. A feel of great vicissitudes, akin to azure seas transforming into mulberry fields, assaulted the senses. However, the entire body of the sword possessed not a hair of damage, gentle like it was new. 

This sword… God Ming hadn’t given it to Jadewave to decrypt. Xu Yangyi muttered to himself for a period of time, planning on using two finger to press down on the sword from both sides. Nevertheless, he surprisingly  discovered the blade simply wouldn’t budge from either side! This wooden sword, its weight had completely exceeded his imagination!

“What the heck is this material?” He picked up a glove with fair caution, taking the sword in his hand. He then hefted it up in difficulty. “That day, Jadewave said this thing is of no minor destiny.” He mumbled to himself for a brief moment, spreading out the sheepskin scroll. 

The sheepskin scroll was not complete by any means. The surface was covered with gaps and tears. Evidently, it had been procured from different places and them finally fit together and made whole. However, even like so, it was still missing a fifth.

Xu Yangyi lit a cigarette and narrowed his eyes, looking at the drawn figure on the surface. This… was a map. A map circulated in the cultivation world absolutely held some relation to an ancient secret. Perhaps it was a certain almighty Dao sanctum or the tomb of some forerunner. The sheepskin scroll was nothing but curves and zigzags, all of bending lines. However, there were three icons that were exceptionally striking to the eyes. 

The first was a lotus. The second was a blaze that filled the sky. The third was a pavilion. 

“This is…” Xu Yangyi’s eyes suddenly saucered, and he gripped onto the sheepskin scroll with a deathly hold!

A lotus sea! This was a lotus sea! He had once gone there, but he was unaware whether it was a dream realm or a true lotus sea! He dared not to be certain, but his intuition was telling him that he HAD to take a look!

He couldn’t relinquish any object related to the Eternal Alchemy Canon. This was his greatest secret and also his greatest support! However, he had never thought that such a thing as the lotus sea would actually exist in the world!

Don’t tell me that my spiritual sense can’t enter this thing?” He looked at the ruined map with complication in his eyes: “Rather… back then, I really was in that realm?”

“No, if it was like that, then how is that gigantic fish to be explained?”

“It’s fundamentally impossible for such a massive demon to exist in the world. A thousand-meter long demon form… What realm is that?”

“But anyway, what is this map illustrating? Perhap it isn’t the lotus sea?” If it is… then where is it?”

[1] Of the Fish’s fin and the Bear’s paw. Is based on a Chinese classic by Mengzi otherwise known as Mencius. Mengzi is talking about how he wants to have one of these things, but he knows that he can’t at the same time. He remarks that for something to be gained, something must be lost. But because it is a willful choice, it makes that which is chosen even more important. 

[2] This line is a combination of two figures, Tan Sitong, an intellectual and politician of the Qing dynasty era (1865-1898) and our favorite poet Li Bai.