A Sword Reverses the World's Spring - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“He has always been a born liar.”

I opened my eyes.

“Out of everything that fellow said just now, only one sentence was true.”

“Can you guess which one?”

Lansheng had long since fallen asleep on my back, while I closed my eyes for a brief rest as I continued Sword-riding.

The voice came from within my sea of consciousness.

Amid a vast expanse of spring grass, lush to the point of disorder, stood a figure in plain white, as pure as a divine being carved from ice and snow, with the bearing of pine and crane.

It was clearly a miniature version of Lizhao.

Seeing that I ignored him, that cold, otherworldly face abruptly darkened.

Threads of blood-red madness even surged through his black eyes.

“That bitch.”

“That bitch has always been so good at seducing people.”

Lizhao’s voice grew sharper and shriller.

“You believe him? Chen Qingwu! I have known you for more than three years, and you would rather believe some whore you met for the first time?”

I still paid him no mind.

He exhausted every vicious word in the world to curse Lansheng. He sounded nothing like an Immortal Lord, and every bit like a malicious ghost.

In the end, he suddenly began to cry.

“Ah Wu, I was wrong. Come back, all right?”

“If you cannot bear to part with him, then bring him back too.”

“As long as you stay by my side…”

I sighed. With a turn of my thoughts, that shadow shattered and dispersed, as if it had never appeared at all.

Of course, that was not Lizhao.

It was merely a fragment of his soul that Lizhao had planted in my sea of consciousness.

The soul does not disguise or embellish. It only magnifies the darkness within a person.

So I became even more certain that Lizhao was a madman.

In truth, from the very first time we met, I knew Lizhao was different from ordinary cultivators.

It was in a treasure-hunting secret realm.

The instant one entered, the spiritual apertures connecting a person to heaven and earth were sealed, making spiritual power impossible to use.

It was indeed a troublesome rule.

But for a spiritual-power failure like me, it made no difference.

I could not retain spiritual power because my soul was unstable, and I had entered that realm precisely to seek a soul pearl.

Yet after I exhausted every last bit of strength to slay that six-tailed red fox, the crimson soul pearl slowly fell into the hand of someone behind me.

“You came too late, fellow Daoist.”

The young man stood tall and graceful, his beauty purer than snow.

The soul pearl stained his brows and eyes red, lending him a strangely bewitching air.

“I set up a formation long ago. Most of the red fox’s death can be counted as my doing.”

“Therefore, the soul pearl should belong to me.”

I let out a cold laugh.

“Everyone who enters this place loses their spiritual power. What did you use to set up a formation powerful enough for that?”

The young man looked at me and smiled warmly.

“My blood.”

Only then did I notice how excessively pale his face was.

“This soul pearl is of great use to me.”

I cupped my hands respectfully.

“I am willing to exchange other treasures for it. I only ask that you part with it.”

The young man regarded me for a long while, then asked leisurely, “And if I refuse?”

My gaze dimmed slightly.

“Then you will be my new red fox.”

A trace of astonishment flashed through his eyes. Then he burst out laughing, so hard he nearly laughed himself to tears.

He nodded to me gently.

“Then come kill me.”

Before his words had even fallen, a searing gale of force slashed down head-on.

The sword edge was razor-sharp, thrusting straight for his face.

The young man failed to dodge in time. A cut still opened across his cheek.

Bright red blood fell with a soft patter.

Yet his eyes were astonishingly bright.

“Again!”

Lizhao and I fought to a deadlock, neither able to gain the upper hand nor break away.

In more than ten years of practicing the sword, I had never encountered such a difficult opponent.

Arms, collarbone, ankles…

Every joint was pierced through, bone and blood mangled together, but I did not care in the slightest.

Because I was the first to press my sword against Lizhao’s throat.

The young man coughed up blood, yet his face remained as gentle and warm as white jade.

“A bet is a bet. This soul pearl belongs to you, miss.”

I nodded, cupped my hands, and sheathed my sword.

I had just turned to leave when I heard the young man’s voice behind me, clear as spring water striking jade.

“May I ask where you are headed, miss?”

“I have heard of a secret realm that also contains a soul pearl. It simply requires two people to enter together.”

“Would you be willing to travel with me, miss?”

It was in that secret realm that Lizhao was accidentally injured.

A wisp of his soul fell into my sea of consciousness.

“It has already separated from my body. From now on, I can neither sense nor feel it.”

The young man’s face was pale as snow, yet the corners of his eyes were flushed red.

That touch of vivid color, set against someone who was always so cool and distant, gave him a pitiful air.

“Would you mind?”

“If you don’t, then just think of it as a blade of grass, a speck of dust in your boundless sea of consciousness.”

It was precisely because that wisp of soul truly served no purpose that I never stripped it away.

But from then on, Lizhao often bled in front of me.

He was indeed very strong, but his way of fighting was far too savage, often ending in mutual destruction.

Strangely enough, whenever he coughed up blood, though his face was utterly bloodless, it only made his red lips and white teeth stand out all the more.

His brow would faintly furrow, like Xizi clutching her heart;

his eyes would glimmer, like a merperson holding back tears.

“Stop.”

Lansheng cut off my recollection, his expression complicated.

“Were you actually savoring that?”

Me: …

“Do you know? Back when Lizhao fought alongside me, his style was the most conservative and steady of all.”

“Yet with you, he changed into that kind of suicidal fighting style.”

Lansheng glanced at me and gave a cold snort.

“That just shows how much you love watching him cough up blood.”

Me: …………

I coughed lightly twice and retorted,

“But I also took very good care of him on normal days.”

“He fainted at the sight of blood. He didn’t even dare kill a chicken. Every festival, I had to personally slaughter the chickens and sheep.”

Lansheng’s expression turned odd.

“He fainted at the sight of blood?”

“He beat me into this state, and he faints at the sight of blood?”

Me: …I forgot.

“And he ate chicken with you? Hah.”

“He stopped needing food eight hundred years ago. He doesn’t even drink a mouthful of dew.”

Me: …………

I nodded solemnly in a desperate attempt to end the subject.

“It seems I did indeed misunderstand him.”

Lansheng refused to let it go.

“Before you saved me, you couldn’t have been thinking the whole time, ‘My husband is too delicate to take care of himself,’ could you?”

Me: …

Lansheng: “Ha. What a poser.”

Me: “Stop scolding…”

Lansheng: “I’m scolding him. You’re not even letting me do that?”

Me: …

Lansheng: “And you’re an idiot too!”

As he scolded me, he lazily reached for my hand.

“But the way he looks half-dead every day, like some sickly invalid, isn’t entirely an act.”

He pointed at the Spatial Ring on my ring finger.

“He gave you this ring, didn’t he?”

I nodded.

This was what Lizhao had given me when we were married.

Inside were rare treasures of heaven and earth, even several Soul Pearls he had spent years searching for.

“No wonder.”

Lansheng curved his lips into a smile.

“This Spatial Ring was forged with his heart’s blood. It must be replenished daily, and it requires a tremendous amount.”

“Only then can it keep the soul separated from the body and make it easier to roam the Great Void.”

My mind instantly roared.

Lansheng’s voice grew softer and softer.

But to my ears, it sounded like a demon from the deepest hell.

“Cultivators who send their souls roaming through the Great Void can obtain fortuitous encounters.”

“I imagine he must love you far too much to have devised a method that both allows the soul to separate and keeps your physical body safe.”

I knew some cultivators would deliberately make their souls leave their bodies, roaming the illusory realms of the Great Void in search of immortal opportunities.

But my soul was already incomplete to begin with.

Why, then, had Lizhao given this to me?

I looked at Lansheng and asked evenly,

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

Lansheng widened his eyes innocently.

“Ah Wu, I’m only afraid you might have misunderstood him.”

He wiped at tears that did not exist.

“What if he truly loves you? If you miss your chance with him, won’t your heart feel as if it’s being cut by knives, leaving you with lifelong regret?”

Me: …

“Besides, anything I’ve said can be verified by any cultivator with even a little attainment.”

The young man leaned in, his soft lips drawing close to my ear.

“But as for what that bullshit wisp of soul of his said-who can prove any of it?”