Ch. 142 - Old Loli, Condolences

The five spiritual energies crisscrossed and collided in a frenzy, creating vast airwaves.

Boom---

Sitting cross-legged in the center of the square, Li Feng's pure white robe was soaked in blood at the collar.

His eyes, which had lost their sparkle, reflected Ye Anping's figure.

The bamboo hat on Ye Anping's head had long disappeared, and his hair band was blown away by the airwaves. His long hair fluttered unbridled around his head, making him look a little wild.

However, his eyes were still as deep and determined as before.

Rumble--

Another thunderbolt descended from the sky, hitting one of the three blood orbs beside Li Feng.

In a split second, the blood orb shattered, and wailing sounds broke out in the square. The souls of the cultivators contained inside fled out and rose toward the stars in the sky.

Feng Yu Die gritted her teeth and gasped, giving Liang Zhu, who had broken the blood orb, an approving look, and then hurriedly ran toward the next blood ball.

However, the expression on Li Feng's face did not change, and he did not even look at Feng Yu Die and Liang Zhu. He slowly raised his right hand, pointed it toward Liang Zhu, and lightly pinched.

When Liang Zhu saw his action, he had a very bad feeling. He quickly took out the stone bowl to protect his body. However, before he could activate the magic item, he felt that his back was hit by a huge object weighing ten thousand kilograms.

"What the hell?"

Although he tried his best to resist, the difference in cultivation was like the difference from heaven to earth.

Boom---

A human-shaped depression instantly appeared on the white jade platform.

"Cough--"

The bandage covering Liang Zhu's face was stained with a layer of blood, and he lay motionless.

Although seeing his situation, Feng Yu Die couldn't even think of going over to help. Gripping her long sword and cooperating with Pei Lianxue, she swung the sword left and right toward the blood orb in front of her.

"Break it now!!"

Feng Yu Die shouted loudly as the golden energy rose and descended, and her face turned crimson with exertion. The golden sword light and the six sword lights swung by Pei Lianxue merged into one and hit the blood orb.

Another one of the remaining two formations was broken.

However, just as they were about to rush to help Ye Anping, Li Feng, without even sparing them a glance, turned his right hand from Liang Zhu toward them.

"Tsk..."

Feng Yu Die didn't know what Li Feng wanted to do, but she also saw what happened to Liang Zhu just now. When Li Feng closed his palm, he was pressed into the ground by an invisible force.

Seeing that it was too late to dodge, she immediately bumped her shoulder into Pei Lianxue's body, thinking maybe she could at least help her avoid it.

Unfortunately, Li Feng did not make a fist like before. Instead, he raised his index finger and waved it.

Whew--

In a flash, a silver-white spiritual energy slammed into Feng Yu Die and Pei Lianxue.

Both of them reacted immediately, lowering their stance to withstand it, but to no avail. In less than one breath, they were blown away from their original position by this energy, transforming into two human cannonballs that 'shook the mountains and destroyed the city' as they flew toward Ye Anping's direction.

Ye Anping shifted his eyes to the left and saw his sister and Feng Yu Die in a collision course with him. Although he wanted to dodge, their speed was too fast.

Seeing that he couldn't avoid it, he plunged the sword in his hand into the blood orb in front of him with force and then let go of the sword hilt so as not to injure the two girls. He then straightened his arms and tensed the muscles in his shoulders as much as he could.

Boom--

Pei Lianxue and Feng Yu Die directly collided with Ye Anping's left and right arms. Although he gritted his teeth and used all his strength, he still could not stop their gained momentum.

Crack---

The sound of two bones cracking was heard.

"Tsk..."

Ye Anping caught his sister's waist with his left hand and Feng Yu Die with his right hand. As a result of the collision, he was forcefully pushed back more than ten feet. He then rested his heel on the wall at the edge of the square and managed to stop.

"Hu... hu..."

Feng Yu Die gasped for air and tried to stand up but found that her body was out of her control. After struggling in vain, she had to lean on Ye Anping's shoulder.

"Young Master Ye, my meridians seem to be sealed, cough-- I can't move."

Ye Anping did not answer. He looked with a solemn expression at the sword he had plunged into the last blood orb, counting silently in his heart, three, two, one...

"Break!!"

A sound was heard.

Swish---

A golden light suddenly appeared on the sword. It penetrated ten inches into the blood orb and made a crack on the surface. The cracks gradually spread along the surface of the blood orb, until they finally covered it entirely.

Crash--

The outer shell shattered, and the bloodied energy trapped inside soared into the sky.

Seeing that all four formations had broken, Ye Anping also breathed a sigh of relief and slowly crouched down, letting the two girls, who were unable to move, rest against his shoulders as he said softly, "It's over."

"Cough--"

Li Feng, who was floating cross-legged in the center of the field, slowly landed on the ground and then stood up, propping on his knees. He dragged his right hand to his side, turned his wrist, and a light burst out from his palm, condensing into a white spiritual sword.

The spiritual sword was three feet and three inches long and looked like a clear water surface. It was embossed in gold with a dragon symbol on the outside, and there was a flaming red spirit bead embedded in the sword grid.

Ye Anping looked at the sword and immediately recognized it as the Heavenly Splitting Sword that had been in Li Feng's possession for a thousand years and beheaded many evil demons and strange creatures.

After thousands of years of hardship, the quality of this sword was even better than the black stone sword that Liang Zhu had snatched from Xiao Yunluo. It was also a spiritual sword forged by a hundred immortal cultivators employed by Si Xuanji and equipped with the best heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

Li Feng stared at Ye Anping's still calm, deep purple eyes and slowly stepped forward.

Except for the sound of slow footsteps, the square was silent.

There were only forty steps between Li Feng and Ye Anping, but those forty steps seemed as long as walking through the whole cycle of spring, summer, fall, and winter.

As he waited for him to come over, Ye Anping laid the two girls in his arms flat on the ground, stood up, and raised his head slightly, meeting Li Feng's gaze without wavering.

Swish---

The breeze blew Ye Anping's long hair, which was now strewn across his back, as the Heavenly Splitting Sword came to rest against the side of his neck.

"..."

"..."

The two stared at each other for a long time, but none of them spoke.

At last, Li Feng couldn't hold on any longer and asked, "Aren't you afraid that I'll cut off your neck?"

"In fact, you already knew in your heart that you had lost the moment we came here."

Looking into Ye Anping's eyes, Li Feng felt unsettled, as if he had been seen through.

This kid knew he couldn't kill them.

Knew what his weaknesses were.

Knew his past.

...

After a moment of silence, Li Feng withdrew the Heavenly Splitting Sword, looked up at the sky, and sighed. "You, kid, are exactly like that old lady."

"Is that a compliment?"

"Heh..." Li Feng chuckled, looking into Ye Anping's eyes. "You know what I want to hear..."

"Well... Miss Li is doing well, and Young Lady Xiao is with her now. Don't underestimate your daughter. Although she is blind, she can see more clearly than many people without sight problems."

With that said, Ye Anping took out Li Longling's jade pendant.

"Here, your daughter gave it to me."

"..."

Looking at the jade pendant, Li Feng raised his eyebrows, reached out to take it with a bitter smile, and said jokingly, "Hehe... this troublesome girl, does she think her father has lived too long?"

"Twelve hundred years old. For a cultivator with four spiritual roots, you have already lived long enough."

Li Feng grimaced, put the Heavenly Splitting Sword behind his back, shook his head, and retorted. "One thousand one hundred and ninety-nine years old. Only seven days till one thousand two hundred."

"Isn't it enough?"

"Enough?"

Ye Anping shrugged ambiguously.

Then, Li Feng glanced at Feng Yu Die and Pei Lianxue, who were lying on the ground. "Boy, what's your name?"

"Ye Anping."

"Ye Anping, um..." Li Feng returned the jade pendant to him and said, "She is going to be homeless."

?

Ye Anping blinked. "Oh..."

"Oh, what? Kid, don't act like you don't get it. Don't you know what I mean?"

Ye Anping took the pendant, cupped his hands in salute, and abruptly changed the subject. "Soon the 1200th birthday of Immortal Master Li will come. May you be blessed with abundance like the Eastern Sea and life as long as the Southern Mountains."

Li Feng's eyes twitched.

This kid's technique of making people shut up was really superb, even knowing that he couldn't live through tonight, he still wished him birthday blessings.

Well, let it be...

He shook his head and said, "Thank you for your kind words."

After saying that, Li Feng flicked his sleeves slightly, and four lights flew out from his sleeves, covering Ye Anping, Pei Lianxue, and the other two. As the lights dispersed, the four figures disappeared from this space.

However, suddenly, a quacking suddenly sounded above Li Feng's head.

"Long live for a hundred years!! Long live for a hundred years!!"

?

A hundred years?

When Li Feng heard this, his eyes twitched for a moment and he looked up. Only then did he realize that in the starry night sky of this space, there was a golden-crowned parrot wearing a bamboo hat, circling around.

"Is this bird..."

"Congratulations on your fortune!! Congratulations on your fortune!!"

"Old woman?"

As Li Feng said this, two beams of black and white spiritual energy suddenly hit his chest.

Boom--

As a result, Li Feng flew up from where he was, spinning fourteen times in mid-air, and then fell to the ground, creating a twenty-foot shallow trench on the white jade floor.

"Hiss--"

Li Feng took a breath of air, and just when he was about to sit up from the ground, a small bare foot landed on his chest and pushed him back.

Boom--

"Cough--"

With a shock through his back, his vision blurred and he was forced to exhale the spiritual energy he had just breathed into his lungs. It took him a while before he could look at the owner of the small bare foot on his chest.

It was a little girl with yin and yang eyes, wearing a white feather robe, with long black and white hair trailing on the ground behind her. Her eye-catching beauty and mature expression were incompatible with her small and delicate figure.

Li Feng swallowed, and after looking over and over for a long time, he asked in a low voice, "Si Xuanji, why do you... look like this?"

Si Xuanji answered without blinking. "It's due to the practice. The Mahayana method requires eighty-one reincarnations."

She removed her foot from Li Feng's chest, stepped back, and patted her skirt.

"This body will grow from twelve to fifty-two years old and then back from fifty-two to twelve years old. After eighty-one times, the old body will be able to break through the void and enter the Immortal Realm to finally relax."

"So it's like this... Then, you are now..."

"I look like a fifteen-year-old."

Fifteen years old... Li Feng felt a little awkward. Her daughter was also fifteen years old, but she was obviously at least a head taller than Si Xuanji's current appearance.

This was a bit too short.

Of course, he didn't dare to say this.

"Are you here in person... or..."

"It's just an ethereal body that came here to teach this old friend a lesson."

Si Xuanji raised her right hand and snapped her middle finger and thumb.

Clatter--

In an instant, everything in this square shattered like a mirror and dissipated, and the two of them returned to the garden of the inner mansion, sitting on either side of the Go board in the pavilion.

Li Feng was startled and looked up at the sky. The giant bloody lotus that originally covered the stars and the moon had disappeared. The sky was clear, the moon was bright, and the stars were shining.

Everything seemed to have returned three hours ago.

Feeling somewhat lost, he asked, "Is this the present world? Or is it..."

"Yes, it's the present world."

Si Xuanji reached into the basket next to her, grabbed a handful of white stones, and looked at the stalemate on the board. "Fortunately, Mr. Ye was here, so the evil you brought out did not reach the point where the game cannot be finished. I will play the last game of Go with you."

"That kid is your..."

"He is this old body's..."

The golden-crowned parrot on the beam of the pavilion opened its beak and shouted, "Pretty boy!! Pretty boy!!"

"..."

Petrified, Li Feng needed some time to come back to his senses.

"It's a pity that the charm is not enough! It's a pity that the charm is not... cluck--"

Before the parrot finished speaking, Si Xuanji waved.

A golden light shot out from her sleeve and hit the parrot.

Only a few golden feathers were left to swirl inside the pavilion.

"..."

Li Feng gulped and did not dare to ask any more questions. He grabbed the black stones on his side.

Clatter--

"Si Xuanji, since you were here, why didn't you show up earlier? Then these kids wouldn't have messed up here."

"Do you regret it now?"

Si Xuanji raised her yin and yang eyes. "This is just an ethereal body now, without much power. I was thinking of showing up when you killed them, but I never expected this kid, Ye, to be so resourceful. Considering his cultivation level, this matter was dealt with almost flawlessly."

"It's not often I've heard you speak so favorably of someone."

Clatter--

"In front of the others, he claimed that it was a Nascent Soul stage demonic cultivator who invaded, and you were dealing with him. He didn't mention all the crap you did at all."

Li Feng widened his eyes slightly and understood why Si Xuanji spoke so highly of Ye Anping. He lowered his eyes. "I just..."

Si Xuanji interrupted. "Greed was the cause. Over the past thousand years, I have seen too much of this."

"..."

"Li Feng, you are just an insignificant loser among the countless people who want to defy their fate."

Clatter--

"..."

Li Feng sighed lightly and placed another stone.

Clatter--

"Si Xuanji, my girl..."

"She has her own destiny, and now..." Si Xuanji sighed and looked up at the starry sky outside the pavilion. "The star of her destiny was taken off course by this Ye kid. I don't know what will happen."

"..."

"By the way, Li Feng, you..."

Si Xuanji turned her gaze back but stopped abruptly mid-sentence.

Li Feng, who was still playing Go a moment ago, had lost the brightness in his eyes, and his right hand, which was originally about to make a move, was stagnant in mid-air.

Looking at this scene, a hint of loneliness flashed in those yin and yang eyes.

In this world, there was one less friend with whom she had shared a thousand-year friendship.

If you live too long, you can only witness the departure of your friends one by one.

Si Xuanji had a little regret now. She should have made more enemies in the past. In that case, she would receive a steady stream of good news.

"Tsk, the game isn't over yet..."

Si Xuanji pressed down Li Feng's right hand, which was hanging in the air, helping him place the last stone.

Clatter--

Then, she looked at the Go board.

"It's a draw."

Si Xuanji stood up from the stone bench, gently waved her sleeves, and closed Li Feng's eyes with spiritual energy before walking out of the pavilion. Her figure turned into a streak of starlight and dispersed, leaving Li Feng behind with his hand on the board and his head hanging.

It was as if, from beginning to end, Si Xuanji was never here, and she was just an illusion of Li Feng before he died.

...

"My condolences! My condolences!!!"

The golden-crowned parrot with its small bamboo hat, spread its wings and soared, and in an instant, it blended into the endless sky, becoming one with it.

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