“A bunch of adults bullying a child; how fucking shameless! Cuocuo! Come here!”
The fetus spirit couldn’t defeat so many vengeful spirits, and fear had already sprouted in its heart. Hearing that someone was going to stand up for it, it let out a strange cry and jumped onto Feng Xin’s shoulder. With longbow in hand, Feng Xin yanked the arrows from his own chest and shot round after round, overturning the lava stream with their explosive impacts. As he did so, the fetus spirit hopped and screeched on his shoulder like it was jeering and cheering.
Xie Lian saw that they had escaped danger, and he finally relaxed. But just as he was about to focus on fighting Jun Wu again, he felt his chest tighten.
Jun Wu had seized him from behind, locking him in place. “Haven’t I told you before—where do you think you learned all your moves? I know everything about you!”
If Xie Lian couldn’t fight his way out of this hold, he was going to end up dead. But any move he could come up with to break free, Jun Wu would have already thought of too!
Just then, he heard Hua Cheng call out, “Gege, don’t be afraid! You must know a move he doesn’t! A move only you can use and he can’t!”
A light turned on in Xie Lian’s mind.
Did he have such a thing?
Yes, he did!
If he couldn’t break free, then he wouldn’t!
He turned in Jun Wu’s arms to face him and locked his own arms around his opponent. “I bet you don’t know about this!” he declared, enunciating each word.
Gripping Jun Wu tightly, Xie Lian carried him to the solid rock wall and slammed him against it with enormous force!
He put all of his power into the blow. Amidst the rumbling and crashing of rocks, he heard something breaking.
The sound had come from Jun Wu. His white armor had shattered!
At the same time, Jun Wu released him with a roar of outrage. “Get lost! Get lost—all of you, get lost!”
When Xie Lian saw it, a chill went down his spine. The things he saw—the things that just made Jun Wu go mad—were faces.
Those three faces had emerged once more!
Raising his sword, Xie Lian pierced Jun Wu’s heart and nailed him to the rock wall.
Blood spurted from Jun Wu’s mouth. Xie Lian had infused as much spiritual power as he could muster into the strike, and it exploded the instant Jun Wu was stabbed. No matter how strong their healing ability was, no one could recover from that blow!
The wall collapsed. Jun Wu had been pinned to it at first, but once it crumbled, he was brought to the ground with it and sprawled in the rubble.
Yet still he hadn’t given up. His hand seized Fangxin’s hilt, and he moved to write something upon the blade—some kind of spell that they had clearly better stop. But just as Xie Lian raised his hand, the state preceptor rushed over.
“Your Highness! Let it go, let it go!”
Xie Lian stopped. He wasn’t sure which one of them the state preceptor was calling for, or whom he was begging to let go.
Jun Wu coughed out another mouthful of rage-filled blood. “Get away from me!”
The state preceptor knelt by his side. “Your Highness, let it go. Really, let it all go. Continuing this fight is pointless.”
“You don’t understand anything! Get lost!” Jun Wu yelled.
“You’re right, I don’t understand,” the state preceptor said. “It’s been so many years. You’ve been a god and you’ve been a ghost king. Everyone who deserved to be killed is dead; all you’ve ever wanted is in your grasp. So why are you doing this to yourself? What exactly do you want? What do you want to prove?”
Hearing this, confusion flashed across Jun Wu’s face. But his daze didn’t last long, and he violently gripped the state preceptor by the neck.
“Stop trying to lecture me! You have no right to lecture me!” he snarled. “No one has the right!”
Little strength remained to Jun Wu right now, so breaking free of his stranglehold would have hardly been difficult. Xie Lian was about to save his master when the state preceptor waved, signaling for him not to move.
“Oh, Your Highness,” the state preceptor continued.
Jun Wu glared at him coldly, but his hand didn’t loosen. Even if Jun Wu didn’t have sufficient strength, wringing the state preceptor’s neck was still an easy task and he was still in considerable danger. However, he just let Jun Wu choke him.
“When I set out to teach His Royal Highness, it was never my intent to nurture a version of you who had never walked the wrong path or to use him to humiliate you. He’s his own person, and you are your own,” the state preceptor said. “You were different people all along, with different paths, and that’s the most natural thing. I’ve told you that before, but you didn’t believe me. How about now?”
Jun Wu stared at him, not saying a word.
“I just genuinely really miss Your Highness,” the state preceptor said. “I miss our old Kingdom of Wuyong, I miss everyone from back then. I miss the days before we ascended. That’s all.”
“…”
“It’s been so many years,” the state preceptor added. “Just watching you makes me tired. Very tired. How about you? Aren’t you exhausted?”
As the number one martial god of the three realms, Jun Wu’s appearance and poise had always been perfect and untainted by filth. Only now, when all the light had faded from him, did Xie Lian notice that Jun Wu’s complexion was overly pale, even without those three faces. His contours were much too cold and hard, and the faint dark circles below his eyes made him appear indescribably gloomy. There was none of the gentle kindness he’d emanated when spiritual light had illuminated his form.
But even if he looked sickly, he finally looked alive.
“Your Highness, you’ve been defeated. Now set yourself free,” the state preceptor said gently.
“…Have I been defeated?” Jun Wu sounded a little lost.
The forceful wave of spiritual power had broken through the domed ceiling of the rocky cave, and scattered rays of wan sunlight peeked in. A few faint threads of rain drifted down.
As Xie Lian stood over Jun Wu, who lay sprawled on the ground, he noticed a trace of relief on his face. Like a heavy burden had finally been lifted.
He couldn’t help but wonder—deep down, perhaps Jun Wu had wished for someone to defeat him. For someone to put these relentless eons of brokenness and madness to an end.
A moment later, Jun Wu asked, “That move. What is it called?”
“…” Xie Lian raised his sleeve and wiped away the blood on the side of his face. “Shattering boulders on one’s chest.”
Jun Wu was briefly taken aback—it seemed that made him think of something. Finally, he chuckled and sighed as he closed his eyes. “Beautiful.”
He didn’t utter another word. Everyone could tell fatigue had overtaken him.
Xie Lian finally removed his hand from Fangxin’s hilt. He had no idea what to do next, so he unconsciously turned to Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng was still standing in the same spot—upon the only stretch of the Heaven-Crossing Bridge that hadn’t yet collapsed—and had been quietly waiting for him for a long time, arms crossed. Seeing that Xie Lian had turned to look at him, he met his eyes and smiled.
The state preceptor sat unmoving next to Jun Wu. “Your Highness, all of you should go now.”
He clearly didn’t intend to get up.
“Master, are you not coming?” Xie Lian asked.
The state preceptor shook his head. “I’ll keep His Highness company. After all, I didn’t stay by his side back then.”