TIC Chapter 54: I Am Who I Am

Having said that, both of them knew that this wasn’t something that could be done just like that.

There was still work to be done with the Golden Osmanthus Palace. With Lu Kuifu’s temper, he would do anything Lin Fuqing asked, but he didn’t want to make things too difficult for him.

Fang Zhiyuan held Lin Fuqing’s hand and turned to go back. After just a few steps, he noticed something and paused.

Lin Fuqing said, “Not leaving?”

“Look below.”

From their current angle, they could see what was happening at the foot of Mt. Tinghe.

The outer disciples held wooden swords and were practicing formations at a regular, practiced pace. Leading them was Shen Xiaojiang.

Fang Zhiyuan watched for a moment and said, “It’s a new formation. Did you teach it to him?”

“Yes.” Lin Fuqing gazed appreciatively at Shen Xiaojiang, who was standing at the center of the formation. “Xiaojiang is very good. His hidden spiritual root was well stimulated. It was the right choice to take him with us to the Golden Osmanthus Challenge.”

Since coming back, Lin Fuqing had begun to strengthen the Xuyun Sect’s outer disciples.

It was no exaggeration to say that the past Xuyun did not resemble an immortal sect at all. The reason why it had such a great reputation was due to the support of the sect master and the inner disciples.

However, after returning from the Golden Osmanthus Challenge, Lin Fuqing decisively made drastic changes to the sect’s rules.

Those with talent in cultivating were given the appropriate skills and weapons, fully encouraged to strive toward their fullest potential. Those with less talents were taught formations and the use of magical tools. Those with no talents were taught physical skills and given Song Youdu’s puppets for self-defense.

When natural disasters and man-made calamities occur, he won’t ask them to help repel the enemies; rather, he only asks that they protect themselves.

Although it sounded quite simple, exacting these changes had quite exhausted the Demon Lord and the Immortal Sovereign.

There was no help from Yin Changxin, and their fellow disciples were still young and could not help much. Shentu Linchun wasn’t good with these matters either.

This meant that Lin Fuqing and Fang Zhiyuan had to personally make arrangements for hundreds of outer disciples within just a little over a month.

However, unwilling to see the other tired, they each fought to take over as much work as possible, hoping to spare one another.

Often, they would agree to stop for the day and rest but would end up secretly getting up a quarter of an hour later to continue working, only to bump into one another under candlelight.

For thirty to forty days, they worked without sleep, food or drink, their efficiency exceptionally high. In the end, they both wore themselves down into exhaustion.

Fang Zhiyuan was a little better off. But for Lin Fuqing, who was used to a leisurely life, it felt as if he’d lost half of his life.

It was only within the past two days that they were able to take some time to catch their breath, allowing him to speak about the issue of the harem in his past life.

“Shi-ge.” Fang Zhiyan looked at him and unexpectedly said, “There’s no one here. Tell me the truth. Have you…ever regretted establishing the Xuyun Sect and protecting those with Yin bodies?”

This sentence was too sharp and too sudden. Lin Fuqing was momentarily stunned, then he lightly pushed him and said with a laugh, “Are you trying to piss me off to death with that question?”

Frowning, Fang Zhiyuan crossed his arms and took a few steps backward to lean against an old tree. “I’m not kidding. Shi-ge, many of these so-called outer disciples have never seen your face, and you don’t even know their names. These people are as humble as ants, and they don’t even bring you any benefits. They can only be burdens forever.”

“Back then, you did it to please yourself on impulse,” Fang Zhiyuan continued, glancing to the side. “And so you casually picked up their group of yin-bodied people, carrying them on your shoulders. Now, you can’t get rid of them. How do you feel? Weighted down? Tired?”

Lin Fuqing thought about it calmly and said, “There are gains and losses, but there’s no regret.”

Fang Zhiyuan asked in surprise, “Why? What gains did you get?”

Lin Fuqing suddenly grinned and pointed at himself. His long eyelashes fluttered, and he said, “Me.”

“What?”

Lin Fuqing raised his face, his eyes and eyebrows looking even more refined and elegant in the sunlight. His tone was full of joy when he said, “If I had watched those people on that boat die under the monk’s sword back then, I wouldn’t be myself.”

Fang Zhiyuan opened his mouth but no sounds came out.

He wasn’t certain why he’d asked that question and didn’t know what kind of answer he was expecting. In fact, he really didn’t know what he would do if Lin Fuqing said that he had regretted it.

After all, if he weren’t a star of calamity, Lin Fuqing wouldn’t have become so deeply involved with those people of yin bodies.

However, he didn’t expect to get this kind of answer. He could only mentally shake his head, thinking that his shi-ge was indeed his shi-ge.

Lin Fuqing took Fang Zhiyuan’s hand and led him back, continuing to speak as he walked, “Later, Ji Na died on the Mountain, Sea, and Stars Terrace. If I’d ignored the Holy Son’s last wish and went back with you, I also wouldn’t have been myself anymore.”

The purple shadow fluttered to a stop on a dead branch covered with light snow. It tilted its head to listen as they talked, and from time to time, its bean-sized eyes flashed with complex emotions.

“Later, when I built a city to block the rampant yin qi, Shentu always mocked me for this, asking what I wanted…”

He looked up at the sky and felt the dry grass rustling under his feet. “Shentu was just a child. He didn’t have such ambitions; he just wanted to follow his own desires.”

They walked along the mountain path with winter at their foot, using the magic of traversing. From a distance, it looked like they were taking a leisurely stroll, but in fact, they were moving at a very fast speed.

Fang Zhiyuan said, “So then you defended Snow Bone City to the death, and…”

Lin Fuqing interjected, “No, I kind of regret that.”

Fang Zhiyuan raised his eyebrows and looked over, only to see Lin Fuqing frowning. He smiled bitterly. “I regret involving you so much.”

Fang Zhiyuan lifted the corners of his lips and smiled. “That’s not necessary.”

The two of them chatted leisurely, back and forth, until they returned to Lin Fuqing’s cave.

At the door, they met a little demon child who came to ask about the situation. Lin Fuqing wanted to continue chatting with Fang Zhiyuan and so he simply explained that the Dragon King came to ask a favor and sent the child away.

……..

As the hour grew darker, the purple luan folded its wings and landed on the windowsill.

Lin Fuqing took off his outer fur coat and washed his hands to prepare some food and snacks.

Meanwhile, Fang Zhiyuan lit the candlestick, and a dimly warm light suddenly flew out, directly warming people’s hearts.

They were so busy the past month, and it was only now that they could taste the sweetness of retiring to the mountains with the one they loved.

The dishes Lin Fuqing made were simple, just two bowls of thin noodles in clear soup with some chopped meat and vegetables, and two eggs each. It looked quite bland at first, but the rich aroma was enough to make one salivate.

“I’ve been so tired these past few days that even my bones felt sore, and I still have to endure anger because of you.” Lin Fuqing brought the two bowls of noodles over and scolded with a smile, “I won’t make you any delicious food, so you’ll just have to drink noodle soup to sate your hunger.”

Fang Zhiyuan calmly picked up his chopsticks. “Back then, when I was really hungry, I would have given much for just this bowl of noodle soup made by you.”

Lin Fuqing watched him eat with a smile.

His heart was so warm that it seemed to ache a little.

The deep blue Sea God Pearl slowly emerged from his hand hidden under the table. He played with it subconsciously, his eyes lowered and his mind wandering.

Fang Zhiyuan picked up a piece of noodles and meat and held it out to him. “What are you looking at? The contract is signed and it now belongs to you.”

“Master Fang, you’re quite capable.” Lin Fuqing bit the proffered noodles slowly, raising his eyes even more softly. “You even dare to capture my soul, huh?”

Fang Zhiyuan couldn’t stand the look in his eyes. He put his chopsticks on the table and snorted coldly. “Just consider it as paying you back for the blockade you set for me in Liuhua Continent.”

Lin Fuqing cursed in his heart, thinking “How can you bring that up? If I didn’t restrain you, you would probably be dead by now.”

But he also knew that if they started arguing about this kind of thing, there would be no end to it, so he brushed it off with a few vague words, turned around and waved. “Ziwei, come here.”

Ziwei was naturally unwilling to come.

Unfortunately, half of his soul was controlled by the Demon Lord, making it unable to resist Lin Fuqing orders. He could only flutter to land next to the bowl of noodles.

Lin Fuqing picked some green vegetables to feed it. “Eat.”

Fang Zhiyuan was unhappy. “I feed you, but you feed it instead?”

Lin Fuqing was puzzled. “What’s wrong with you? You want to eat this kind of vinegar?”

Fang Zhiyuan moved closer and said with a vicious smile, “As long as it’s from shi-ge, I’ll even eat chili oil.”

Ziwei collapsed and sobbed, “Chijijijijijijiji!?”

—Do you think I enjoy eating it!?

With a laugh, Lin Fuqing turned his head and stretched out his hand to gather the furry purple luan into his palm. He slowly rubbed it into a round shape, before patting down its feathers. “Yes, then let me ask you something too, Huangyang…”

“…What?” Fang Zhiyuan was somewhat stunned. His shi-ge rarely called him by his immortal name in private.

Occasionally, he would make a joke and call him Immortal Sovereign Fang or something like that.

Lin Fuqing’s smile widened and he said, “Actually, I also wanted to ask, you were the Immortal Sovereign for so many years, there must be at least a million cultivators under your protection in the five continents of the Immortal Realm, right?”

“But what happened later?” His eyes darkened imperceptibly, but the curve of his lips remained unchanged. He tapped the corner of the table with his fingers, “How many ungrateful people hunted you and I down? Those magic artifacts fell down, those swords slashed at you, and they showed no mercy…”

“So Immortal Sovereign Huangyang, did you regret it?”

Lin Fuqing narrowed his eyes slightly and smiled bewitchingly, “So many people have wronged you, don’t you want to…take revenge…or something?”

The moment these words came out of his mouth, Lin Fuqing could clearly feel the purple luan in his hand stiffened.

The month that Ji Na had spent with them had impacted him greatly.

He’d heard about the forbidden art of rebirth, the coming of the Immortal Calamity, and old stories of the Demon Lord and the Immortal Sovereign, and even about the outer gods.

At first, when Lin Fuqing gave him some strange orders and forced him to instruct Ziwei Pavilion to prepare for the defense against yin qi, he was angry and suspicious.

After all, Lin Fuqing was such a deep-minded, insidious, treacherous, double-faced, cruel…big devil who had a terrible love for his shidi! No matter what he did, it must be a conspiracy to subvert the three realms.

But later, he slowly realized that these were the things Lin Fuqing did after he’d killed him in his previous life.

Ji Na thought that Lin Fuqing was trying to do something for the Three Realms, and perhaps the devil also had some sense of shame in his heart.

Unfortunately, human power could not overcome God’s will.

Ji Na thought, I was right. Since the evil star didn’t die, the disaster couldn’t be avoided. This has only become clearer. Still, Lin Fuqing refused to repent even in this life. He is indeed a great devil.

But occasionally there would be a moment or two, just like ripples on a lake that had been calm for more than twenty years, that evoked a little confusion in his heart.

Perhaps, it was when he saw the Demon Lord and the Star of Calamity burning away the night lamps, trying to find a way for this group of yin-body disciples that Ziwei Pavilion had always disdained to survive.

Or perhaps, it was watching these two people leaning on each other, comforting and cherishing each other’s past scars, with white and black clothes quietly overlapping.

Even just tasting the delicious noodles felt unreal to Ji Na.

…Haha, this cruel and heartless devil could actually cook noodles by himself. It was so funny.

It seemed that since entering the purple luan’s body, his brain had become dull and he couldn’t think clearly about anything.

Good and evil, right and wrong, those principles that had once been so clear to him had now become a mess in his mind.

Ji Na thought in confusion that perhaps this was the big devil’s scheme to erode and destroy his spiritual heart little by little.

He raised his eyes and looked through the gaps between Lin Fuqing’s slender fingers. He saw the figure in black clothes reflected in the candlelight.

If he had the chance…

Would he still want to kill the person in front of him?

If he really killed this man in front of him…

A hundred years later, would he still be able to hold his head high and say, “I am still myself” without regret or guilt, just like Lin Fuqing?

He blinked and saw that the calamity star had actually relaxed his brows, his expression surprised.

Fang Zhiyuan clapped his hands and laughed with genuine amusement. “Shi-ge! What’s wrong with you? You called me Huangyang, and I thought you wanted to ask me something serious.”

Why laughed?

Why laughed at such a heavy question?

Ziwei was puzzled and his wings became more tense. Lin Fuqing stroked his forehead, making him feel uneasy for some reason.

“Wronged me…?” Fang Zhiyuan picked up his chopsticks again. He casually tapped the edge of his bowl with the pair of chopsticks and said, “There are so many people who have wronged me.”

His handsome brows slanted, and a bit of murderous aura rose out. “If I want revenge, I would have to slaughter at least half of the five continents in the immortal realm.”

Lin Fuqing touched Ziwei, who had stiffened instantly, and said, “Is that so?”

But in the next moment, Fang Zhiyuan buried his head to eat noodles again, mumbling, “…Then it’s the mortal world. It’s easier to kill there. A few slashes will leave corpses all over the ground.”

Lin Fuqing responded with an “hmm” and watched the man drink up the noodle soup gulps by gulps.

“But…” Fang Zhiyuan smiled with his chin propped up, a few strands of black hair scattered around his eyes. Suddenly, he flicked his fingers against the edge of the bowl, making a “ding” sound, and turned his dark eyes to look at him. “If I go to seek revenge, I’ll need at least a hundred years to kill all those bastards, so how can I still have the time to eat noodles made by my shi-ge?”

Lin Fuqing sighed. “You’re still the same as when you were a child, you haven’t changed at all.”

Fang Zhiyuan said, “After all, I’m destined to be a star of calamity. I cannot seek to settle scores with others as easily as others do. I have already accepted this.”

Lin Fuqing glared at him unhappily. “With that attitude, if someone came and said that he wanted to use your life in exchange for peace in the three realms, I’m afraid you would really give away your life.”

Lin Fuqing said this so easily, so naturally, so much like a joke and a friendly remark. Fang Zhiyuan had no idea of the darkness, blood, and sadness hidden in it. He just stood up happily and said, “Even if I go to die, I mustn’t let my shi-ge know. Otherwise, I’m afraid I won’t be able to die even if I had wanted to…Give me the bowl, I’ll wash it.”

Lin Fuqing passed him the bowl, releasing the purple luan, who promptly rolled over and fell straight off the table.

Fang Zhiyuan was surprised, “Shi-ge!? Did you strangle it to death?”

Lin Fuqing shrugged innocently and said, “That’s impossible. I didn’t use any strength.”

 

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