Editor: Sahloknir

It’s over, Xu Shuangtze must have been driven into madness!

A chill went down Gong Wei’s spine and he instinctively struggled to move away, but Xu Shuangtze’s grip suddenly tightened.

His cold fingers were so strong that they hung like shackles on flesh and blood. Gong Wei winced in pain and failed to break free. Then he heard Yuchi Xiao say, “When..when did you realise..”

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Xu Shuangtze did not respond and mockingly glanced at him before he made a hand gesture. All of a sudden, Gong Wei felt an invisible force pressing against the back of his neck, as heavy as mountains and seas, causing him to bow down..

A bow to heaven and earth!

All around them were the splayed remains of the faceless guests and the guts and flesh of the?Qiongqi?carcass. The rusty smell of blood was thick under the gloomy sky, and the sight of Xu Shuangtze, dressed in blood-stained wedding attire, carrying a dead man like him here to pay respects, was simply horrifying.

Gong Wei struggled. “Xu..” and then his voice was blocked.

With a cold glance, Xu Shuangtze had cast a silencing spell.

“He knew from the very beginning.” Meng Yunfei sounded displeased.

Meng Yunfei had always been very good-tempered. In this rare moment he was so pissed off he snapped, “Lord Xu, you were awake all along, and were never caught under the Mirror Art at all!”

Xu Shuangtze was bowing towards Gong Wei. Hearing the roar from Meng Yunfei he paused, before straightening back up and replying nonchalantly, “Oh?”

With this movement, Gong Wei felt the force on the back of his neck disappear, and immediately stood up with a sigh of relief, only to see Meng Yunfei’s enraged face, “The ghost cultivator used the Thousand Dimension Mirror World artefact to travel outside of time and space, so the moment you pulled the broken lens out of its heart, you had actually subdued it. After that, you entered the illusionary realm soberly and voluntarily, the realm was not attached to a single Realm Master from the beginning, resulting in the appearance of two Lord Xu’s, one false and one real.”

“Wait, two?” Yuchi Xiao reacted and asked, “What about the other one?”

“Remember the army that disappeared within the valley the night before the wedding banquet?” Meng Yunfei said coldly, “He killed and replaced the illusion of himself then.”

Yuchi Xiao looked at Xu Shuangtze, suddenly unable to speak.

“..”

On the platform of the ancestral hall, Xu Shuangtze stood, still facing the duo, his thin lips slightly hooked.

The weather was not winter, but a bone chilling cold rose from both of them at the same time.

“It’s time to end this, Lord Xu.” Meng Yunfei raised his hand and a silver light flashed under his palm, an ancient?guqin?appeared in mid-air amidst the light, “As long as the Realm Master is unwilling to wake up, we cannot leave this village, but indulging in the illusion for a long time is likely to burn up the your golden core.”

He pressed his hands on the strings of the?guqin?and said sternly, “Unlike you, the consequences for us would be unthinkable!”

The gloomy wind blew through the deep mountain valley from all directions and it grew eerily cold, coupled with the increasing tension of the atmosphere in the ancestral hall. Xu Shuangtze’s sharply shaped eyes glanced at the two juniors, showing no sign of anger—but Gong Wei caught a glance through the gap in his veil and saw Xu Shuangtze’s thumb on the side of his sword subtly flick upwards, and his heart jumped!

“As you mentioned,” Xu Shuangtze said slowly, “that’s on you.”

Gong Wei, though he’d lost his voice, managed to force out, “Run, quick!”

Without waiting, Xu Shuangtze moved like a flash of white light and appeared in front of Meng Yunfei—a loud noise and air currents exploded at the same time.?No Way Out?was deadlocked by?Gou Chen, and Yuchi Xiao said angrily, “Lord Xu!!!”

Meng Yunfei’s?guqin?vibrated and emanated a powerful spiritual energy which attempted to pierce into Xu Shuangtze’s mind like a sharp knife, but he merely raised an eyebrow, “Shun Xian Qin.” With that, he knocked Yuchi Xiao back in a swift movement, and reached his palm towards Meng Yunfei’s skull. This movement was blocked by?Su Qing?which was drawn from his side, and Meng Yunfei barely darted out of the way in the nick of time.

The sound of?Shun Xian Qin?was like a huge turbulent wave, violently disrupting one’s state of mind. While the sword intent of?Gou Chen?was so forceful that it resisted?No Way Out?with one explosive blast after another.

The two of them together were no match for the most formidable man in the world. With life and death at stake, even when they put in their best effort, it became a tricky battle. Xu Shuangtze couldn’t help but become annoyed and his sword intent changed abruptly, like the sky collapsing into the ground. With a move, he first knocked Yuchi Xiao back, and then slashed at the?guqin!

The previous Emperor played the?Shun Xian Qin?and through it composed the?Song of the Southern Wind?to cultivate a neutral and righteous nature and to suppress hatred and evil. The music was a relic of the ancient times and had an overwhelming restraining effect on all evil intent, but it was about to be shattered into pieces by Xu Shuangtze.

With one hand on his?guqin?and the other on his sword, Meng Yunfei was forced to retreat thrice in the blink of an eye. With a?thud, his back slammed into the stone pillar of the ancestral hall, only for the inevitable debris to come crashing down on his head..

At this moment, like a falling meteor, a streak of light appeared and snatched?Su Qing?out of Meng Yunfei’s hand,?clang!

Su Qing?blocked?No Way Out?in the air, forcing Xu Shuangtze back half a step like lightning, Meng Yunfei widened his eyes, “Lotus Immortal?!”

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With each move, Gong Wei’s robes and sleeves fluttered gracefully as he locked?No Way Out, appearing like a blood-red lotus flower blooming at the edge of the sword.

It was clear that the timing was not optimal, but Yuchi Xiao went into a daze as he saw the scene in front of him. The familiarity of the movement made him remember one person—Xiang Xiaoyuan.

Immediately afterwards he realised that this was an absurd thought, how could he suddenly remember that little?Mei?demon when his looks, temperament, cultivation and status were vastly different from the Lotus Immortal?

He could not even remember having seen the little?Mei?demon with a sword, so why was he feeling a sense of déjà vu?

The tones of?Shun Xian Qin?pierced the clouds as Meng Yunfei’s spiritual power surged, and the sound of the?guqin?rolled down like millions of chains towards Xu Shuangtze’s head.

“Brother Yuchi!”

Yuchi Xiao returned to his senses and raised his sword to support Gong Wei, “Senior, watch out!”

Xu Shuangtze’s iron-walled mind finally showed a crack under the trio’s repeated attacks. This was reflected as a hundred-foot-long black cavity which split open in the sky—a corner of the illusionary realm had collapsed!

Xu Shuangtze’s brow furrowed, his face finally showing signs of clear impatience.?Clang!?The twin swords?Su Qing?and?Gou Chen?were countered, and without looking back, he conjured a spell with his left hand, and the five strings of the?guqin?were snap frozen, crackling with frost.

Before Yuchi Xiao could turn around to save Meng Yunfei, Xu Shuangtze’s left hand pressed on his skull, sending a sharp burning pain that spread throughout his body and meridians.

Xu Shuangtze said indifferently, “Behave like the guests that you are.”

With a clanging sound—Gong Wei didn’t even see how he had made his move—Su Qing?was sent flying out of his hands, smashing through two or three stone walls before plunging deep into the ground!

Slap!

The back of his neck felt cold as Xu Shuangtze’s palm pressed down on him.

Xu Shuangtze’s hand seemed to contain an immense force which Gong Wei could not even move to struggle. So together, he was forced to bow down with Xu Shuangtze in the direction of the ancestral hall.

Second bow to the ancestors!

The wind blew from behind the black cavity of the sky, sweeping across the earth, carrying with it the heavy and unmistakable stench of corpses and blood, “Don’t move,” Xu Shuangtze said faintly.

—Gong Wei was about to lift his veil, but before he could move, his arm was grabbed by Xu Shuangtze.

The thick, pungent blood of the?Qiongqi?was still flowing down the stone steps, soaking through the soles of Gong Wei’s shoes. Feeling icky and uncomfortable, Gong Wei’s frustration and irritation grew, “I’m already dead!”

Xu Shuangtze was silent for a moment before saying, “I know.”

“I have already died!”

“So what?”

Gong Wei was stunned speechless. Very well, Lord Xu is as ruthless as they say. A man who would dismember corpses to vent his anger, and the words ‘death of a person is the end of his debts’ probably does not exist in his vocabulary.

“When I entered the illusion, I knew as soon as I opened my eyes that my opponent’s mirror art had failed, because this simply wasn’t the most frightening experience of my life—even though I kept persuading myself that it was. Many people thought it was too.”

Xu Shuangtze paused, even looking surprisingly calm, “It was only after your death that I gradually admitted to myself that what I really feared most was what happened after this.”

After this?

Gong Wei’s long eyelashes blinked beneath the vermillion veil, remembering exactly what had happened after this absurd wedding.

Xu Shuangtze’s anger had swept away the entire illusionary world of the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm, and his soul then returned to reality at Cang Yang Sect. The first thing he did upon waking up was to wield?No Way Out, and charge into Dai Mountain single-handedly. He smashed the door of the Disciplinary Court in the middle of the night, and dragged the trembling Gong Wei out.

Xu Shuangtze wanted Gong Wei to pay for the death of Lady Xu with his own life. The incident shook the entire Dai Mountain community. Ying Kai, who was clueless then, hurriedly arrived and advised Xu Shuangtze to let Gong Wei go.

But the murderous Xu Shuangtze listened to nothing, and Gong Wei was chased all over the hall. In a few instances, he was even forced to hide behind the doorposts like his life depended on it. This was probably the first time Gong Wei was inches from death.

He ended up hiding in a corner of the hall with his hands shakily covering his head, and in this confusion he forgot exactly what had happened, except that Xu Shuangtze’s sword came down upon his head, and that he subconsciously raised his hand in an attempt to block it.

—In that instant, the blade stopped in mid-air.

Xu Shuangtze, who was still in a rage, suddenly spat out blood, turned pale, and stood there for a moment before walking away without looking back.

So that was actually the most fearful moment in Xu Shuangtze’s life?

“..” Gong Wei stared at Xu Shuangtze from under the veil, wondering if he had heard wrong.

The one who chased him around and scared the life out of him that night was clearly Xu Shuangtze, and now Xu Shuangtze was saying that it was the most frightening experience of?his?life. Did this Big Brother have a misunderstanding of the word ‘fear’?

“Gong Wei,” Xu Shuangtze suddenly turned his head to look at him and asked softly, “why did you want to kill me sixteen years ago?”

The bridal veil was whipped up by the wind, which carried the stench of blood. The train of the wedding dress swept up in layers, like a flower blooming under the canopy of the heavens. A stark contrast of life and death.

The familiar figure turned to Xu Shuangtze, head slightly tilted, as unresponsive as a stone statue.

For a long time Xu Shuangtze exhaled, “I forgot. You’re just an illusion.”

He raised his hand and pressed the back of Gong Wei’s warm, slender neck, the force irresistible, but his voice was clear and gentle, saying, “One last bow to each other to join as husband and wife.”

Gong Wei’s body almost exploded and a shiver ran up his spine, reaching his scalp. With his soul trapped in this illusionary realm, he was powerless to resist, and he was about to be pressed down inch by inch..

Just then, the sky shook violently in the distance.

Boom!

The sky and earth was now like a goose egg being cracked at the tip of a hammer. A fissure appeared in the sky, snaking rapidly from the horizon and forming a web of dense cracks that covered the mountainsides.

Immediately afterwards, the sky tore open and formed countless huge, black cavities. Fierce winds spiralled in furiously and rays of golden lights broke through the void. In that instant, a huge sword pierced through the illusion with immense force!

Yuchi Xiao turned around and said in astonishment, “Uncle?”

The mighty sword glare cut through heaven and earth like a majestic dragon descending into the world, slicing through the four seas and splitting apart the eight deserts. The illusionary realm was destroyed!

Everyone was lifted up by a tornado of wind, and Gong Wei felt as if he had been tossed into the air by a pair of invisible giant hands. A frighteningly rapid descent soon followed.

Bang!

His soul was smashed to the ground with such strength that he was dizzy. Seeing stars, he sat in a daze for a long time before managing to get up. Only after throwing up and easing his nausea, could he make sense of the scene around him.

Everyone had returned to reality from the illusionary realm. They were surrounded by deserted inns that had been razed to the ground, with smoke rising from the ruined walls and bricks. The ancestral hall, the mountain village, the blood-red wedding dress, and the corpses all faded away like a tidal wave. And with them, the Lotus immortal’s true form faded too. Gong Wei had returned to Xiang Xiaoyuan’s body.

Not far away, in the middle of the ruins, two blades were clashing with each other with a sharp and monstrous scraping sound—the one with his back towards Gong Wei was Xu Shuangtze, the other man was dressed in an eagle-back brown arrow-sleeved robe and dark-gold armour. The man’s face was handsome and imposing, but his eyebrows were full of hostility.

It was the Sword Master, Yuchi Rui!

“Xu Shuangtze.” Yuchi Rui said in the other man’s name with gritted teeth.

From his back, it was impossible to tell what expression Xu Shuangtze had, and then he gave a short, hoarse laugh.

Only those who knew him well could hear what this laugh meant, and Gong Wei’s eyes widened in a flash.

But at that very moment, a man suddenly swooped down and said in a stern voice, “Changsheng! Stop!”

The man was dressed in a dark-blue robe, with a white cotton lining. His clothes were so plain and unassuming that ordinarily, no one would have given him a second glance. But he had an inconspicuous gold hook pinned to his belt, a silent sign of his identity, and when he spoke, his unmistakably strong and powerful aura came through.

As soon as he landed, the man sheathed his sword. The sword was a finger’s width wider than regular swords, and its ancient and heavy bronze scabbard was engraved with a pattern of mountains and clouds, so that no one could fail to recognise its mighty name—Ding Shan Hai,?the divine sword which parallels the fame of?No Way Out.

This man was none other than the Martial Sovereign Ying Kai, the Master of Immortal Alliance.