Chapter 1209: Mountains Have No Worries
A slash in the past was equally fatal in the present. A Times.h.i.+ft magic like that was similar to the Time magic that Meng Hao already used, and yet it was far, far different.
One was the root, the other was the lilypad!
As Ji Dongyang faded away, Meng Hao’s body flickered as he changed course toward another teleportation portal. Because of Ji Dongyang and how he had obstructed Meng Hao’s path, he now had to waste even more time finding another teleportation portal to the Kunlun Society!
Almost as soon as he materialized out of that teleportation portal, he could see the Kunlun Society.
It was a cloud-wreathed Immortal mountain, boundless and majestic, filled with singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers. It was like a celestial paradise, and at first glance, nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary. However, on one of the mountain’s tallest peaks, thunder and lightning crashed. Further up above, black clouds seethed, seemingly incompatible with their surroundings.
As soon as he saw that mountain peak, Meng Hao also caught sight of a figure there who seemed to be offering sacrifices. Every flick of his sleeve would cause colors to flash, and rumbling booms to echo out.
He was an old man with whom Meng Hao was unfamiliar. However, at that man"s side was someone who Meng Hao knew well. It was... Pill Demon!
Meng Hao’s heart began to thump, and he instantly took to flight in the direction of that mountain peak. His arrival instantly attracted the attention of the disciples of the Kunlun Society. Furthermore, because of how he charged in, countless disciples flew out to intercept him, and numerous streams of divine sense converged on him.
“Let him come!” an ancient voice called out just as the numerous spell formations of the Kunlun Society were about to activate. It came from none other than the old man who was currently fighting back against the powerful vortex up above. Next to him was Pill Demon, who looked over at Meng Hao with mixed feelings, and sighed.
Meng Hao flew as fast as he could. In the blink of an eye, he had spanned the distance to appear in the air above the mountain peak, directly in front of Pill Demon and the old man.
As soon as he appeared, a tremor ran through his body because of what he saw on top of the mountain. It was... a jade coffin!
Numerous Kunlun Society disciples were arrayed around the coffin, their faces filled with grief. They sat there cross-legged, as if they were trying to come up with some sort of way... to resurrect the person in the coffin!
“You’re too late…” Pill Demon said in a quiet, hoa.r.s.e voice. “Yesterday at dawn... her physical soul dispersed.
“I asked the Patriarch to come help re-converge the spiritual links to Chu Yuyan’s soul. Unfortunately... he was unable to re-form that which has dissipated.”
Meng Hao was shaking, and his mind roared. What Pill Demon had just said almost didn’t seem to register as he stared at the coffin, and Chu Yuyan inside. She almost seemed to be sleeping.
Even now that he was here, Meng Hao felt that all of this was too sudden. It was so sudden that he couldn’t accept it. It seemed impossible.
“How could this have happened....” he murmured. Stabs of pain filled his heart as he approached the coffin. Immediately, the surrounding Kunlun Society disciples’ eyes went wide with rage.
“Screw off! You don"t qualify to come here!”
“Are you Meng Hao? The man Junior Sister Chu could never forget about is you? You don’t deserve to be standing here!”
“Heartless, unethical people like you are prohibited from defiling the corpse of Elder Sister Chu!!”
These Kunlun Society disciples were people who had developed friends.h.i.+ps with Chu Yuyan during her time in the Kunlun Society. Some were her Sisters, others were people who admired her. To see Meng Hao show up here when they were so heartbroken caused them to immediately vent their rage.
When the words. .h.i.t Meng Hao’s ears, his heart twinged with intense pain. As he stepped forward silently, a young man burst out from the crowd to stand in front of him, eyes bloodshot. Enraged, he yelled, “Are you a man or not? You knew how Chu Yuyan felt about you. You knew, and yet you heartlessly refused her! What do you think you’re doing here now? Screw the h.e.l.l off!”
The young man extended his right hand, performed an incantation gesture and pointing toward Meng Hao. A magical technique immediately materialized and shot toward Meng Hao.
His action caused other disciples to immediately make moves of their own. Meng Hao didn"t respond at all, nor did he dodge their attacks. He just kept walking forward, surrounded by booming sounds. Finally, Pill Demon shouted, “Stay your hands! Let him pa.s.s. n.o.body qualifies more than him to see Yan’er!”
His voice crashed like thunder, booming out in all directions. Chu Yuyan’s fellow disciples immediately ceased attacking. Glaring at Meng Hao, they began to file past him as they returned to their places, filled with rage and grief. As they pa.s.sed, all of them made various biting comments.
“Chu Yuyan waited for you for years, until she finally perished,” one woman said icily. “What a waste!”
“I"m not sure why the link to Junior Sister Chu’s soul suddenly dispersed. But I do know that when she returned recently she was seriously injured! She never fully recovered from those injuries. Don’t tell me you’re unaware of why they occurred!”
“Meng Hao, Meng Hao.... It won’t matter how famous you get in the Ninth Mountain and Sea, don’t you ever forget for all eternity that you owe this woman far, far too much.”
Their words were like razor-sharp swords against which there was no possible defense. It didn’t matter how powerful his fleshly body was, he could do nothing to prevent them from piercing deep into his heart.
His insides ached, and his face was ashen as he silently walked forward. He let the people say what they wished to say as he neared the coffin and then looked down at Chu Yuyan laying inside.
She wore a long white garment, and her countenance was beautiful. Her skin was so delicate it seemed that a breeze could shatter it. If it weren’t for the fact that she was completely devoid of any color of blood, Meng Hao might think that she actually was sleeping.
However, the aura of death on her made the difference between life and death very clear. It was like the difference between Yin and Yang, boundless and infinite.
His mind was a blank as he stared down at her. He had never imagined that a day like this would come.... Back in the Nine Seas G.o.d World, something similar had happened, but in the end, Chu Yuyan didn"t die.
Now, though... Meng Hao lifted a trembling hand and placed it on Chu Yuyan’s forehead. After sending some divine sense into her, he began to shake even harder.
“Dead....” he murmured. His heart ached as he recalled an image from the past. It was a scene in which Chu Yuyan stood next to w.a.n.g Tengfei, as if they were a celestial couple. [1. Can you believe that it was in Chapter 35 that Chu Yuyan came to take w.a.n.g Tengfei away from the Reliance Sect?]
Next, he saw Chu Yuyan and himself in the volcano, after which came everything that happened in the Violet Fate Sect. Later, they saw each other again in the Southern Domain, when he and Xu Qing got married. Chu Yuyan had been there, a complex expression in her eyes. Although she wore a smile on her face, that smile only hid her silent weeping.
All of those were memories that he would keep in his mind forever.
Proud. That was Chu Yuyan. When she realized that Meng Hao hadn"t picked her, she chose to leave. She thought that she could forget, but later, when she looked back at everything that had occurred, she had realized something.
You can choose not to fall in love with me. But I... have only two choices: fall in love with you, or fall in love with you harder.
That was why, when she saw Meng Hao again in the Ninth Sea, she was actually very happy and content. No matter how she seemed on the surface, in her heart, those were wonderful times. Back then, she had wished that things could go on like they had for a bit longer. She hadn’t hoped for an eternity, only that time would slow down for just a little bit.
Therefore, when she saw Meng Hao fighting so hard in the Windswept Realm, when she heard his unyielding roar, she didn"t hesitate or even think about what to do. In a moment which wasn’t appropriate for her to make her breakthrough, she... risked her own cultivation base and even... risked the chance of being seriously injured.
At that time, she didn"t consider what consequences there might be, she only considered... how to help Meng Hao.
And so she did what she did, even though Meng Hao hadn’t spared her a second glance at the time...
“What a dummy.... Perhaps the reason he loves Xu Qing is because she"s a dummy too....” That was what Chu Yuyan thought to herself as she sighed and stepped into the vortex after the events in the Windswept Realm.
Meng Hao’s face grew more and more pale as he thought about everything. Chu Yuyan"s smile seemed to occupy all of his memories about her, and all of a sudden, Meng Hao felt as if his heart... were cracking open.
Everything that she had done caused deep regret to well up from deep inside of him.... It was a regret so profound that it ensured he would never be able to forget this woman, not for the rest of his life.
“How could this have happened...?” he murmured, coughing up some blood.
It was at this point that a cold, enraged voice echoed out like thunder from up above.
“Meng Hao, she chose you, so I wished you well.... I hoped that she would be happy and blessed....
“But how could you be so callous, so heartless!?
“If you didn"t love her, why did you have to encourage her? If you didn"t choose her, why give her hope...? Why... did you have to steal her away from me!?!?
“MENG HAO!!” The voice was filled with endless fury, fury mixed with grief. As it descended from the sky, an enormous figure appeared up above. He had stars on his forehead, and it was none other than... the man who had awoken the bloodline of the G.o.ds... w.a.n.g Tengfei!!
He roared furiously, causing colors to flash in the sky as he shot down like a meteor, heading directly toward Meng Hao. As he did, he clenched his hand into a fist which he struck out at Meng Hao"s chest. Meng Hao didn"t fight back as w.a.n.g Tengfei’s thunderous voice slammed into his ears.
Blood sprayed from Meng Hao’s mouth, and his face became even whiter. It wasn’t that he didn’t have any feelings for Chu Yuyan. However, between her and Xu Qing, he cared for Xu Qing more.
That didn’t mean that he wanted to treat Chu Yuyan coldly. Deep in his heart, he wanted her to be happy. He even wished that she could somehow forget about him, and find her own path to happiness.
It was something he had never really taken the time to think about before, about whether or not... he had been selfish. But now, looking down at Chu Yuyan’s corpse, hearing w.a.n.g Tengfei rage, Meng Hao"s heart tore apart. Within that pain, he finally realized that he truly had been selfish.
His voice nothing more than a murmur, he said, "Mountains have no worries, "til hit with snowy flurries; waters feel no woe, "til the winds do gust and blow...." [1. Here"s an alternate translation of the poem: The mountains have not a care, yet the snows whiten their hair; water feels not the world"s woe, yet its face wrinkles when winds blow]