BW Chapter 174

Wanxuan (3)

“Hiss, you remembered everything long ago, didn’t you?” Three days later, Ning Buwei, who had barely recovered all his memories, stared gloomily at Chu Jun who was feeding Ning Xiu and asked.

Chu Jun helped Ning Xiu wipe the meat scraps from his chin and said calmly, “What?”

Ning Buwei said with a serious face, “When I kissed you this morning, you didn’t resist at all. Before, when I hugged you in the sea of consciousness, you weren’t happy about it.”

Ning Xiu opened his little mouth but didn’t get the next spoonful of food, so he could only look up blankly, “Kiss kiss?”

Chu Jun coughed lightly. “The child is listening.”

Ning Buwei picked up Ning Xiu and placed him on his own lap, then reached out to cover his ears, narrowing his eyes. “When exactly did you remember? When we accidentally had shenjiao in the sea of consciousness? When I secretly kissed you? Or when I wanted to…”

Ning Xiu watched helplessly as the spoon of food moved farther and farther away from him. Being held with his ears covered by his father, he was quite depressed and sighed, protesting earnestly, “Xiao Shan~ wants to eat food~”

Under Ning Buwei’s pressing questions, Chu Jun spoke unhurriedly. “During the shenjiao.”

Then he elegantly picked up his rice porridge and drank most of it.

When Chu Jun felt the taste was wrong and put down the bowl, he met the shocked and hurt accusing gaze of Ning Xiu sitting on his lap.

“You surnamed Chu, you were actually acting.” Ning Buwei was so angry he ground his teeth, picked up the bowl beside him and drank it all in one gulp. Only after swallowing did he realize the taste was wrong. Looking down, he found he had grabbed the wrong bowl – Ning Xiu’s small bowl of rice porridge.

The last drop of rice porridge dripped onto the table.

Because it was just served and too hot, so he obediently waited, but in the end didn’t even get to drink the last sip of rice porridge. Ning Xiu stared blankly at the small bowl that had been emptied by his mother and father, sitting quietly on Ning Buwei’s lap, pitifully dropping tears with occasional sniffles, looking as pitiful as could be.

Ning Buwei pointed at Chu Jun and said irritably, “We have plenty of scores to settle.”

After speaking, he picked up his son who kept dropping golden tears and went into the kitchen.

After one incense stick of time, he was fiercely driven out by Jiang Yizheng for nearly burning down the kitchen.

Ning Buwei stood by the window and seriously reiterated, “I really was just careless!”

****

“…If it weren’t for the medicine your three senior brothers used, you two couldn’t have woken up so quickly.” Hao Zheng said, “But after all, your souls were damaged. Even though you’ve recovered your memories now, you’ll still occasionally be somewhat slow and abnormal in daily life, like accidentally drinking your son’s rice porridge together.”

Shang Nuanwei tried hard not to laugh out loud, but didn’t hide her mockery at all.

“After adjusting for a year and a half, there should be no problems.” Hao Zheng said with a smile.

Chu Jun nodded and stared at his chin. “Where’s your beard?”

Ning Buwei dared swear to the Heavenly Dao that for a moment, he saw veins popping on Hao Zheng’s forehead.

“Don’t even mention it. Senior brother fought with Wang Bin at Chenyue Mountain before, and was tricked by him into having half his beard burned off. Had no choice but to shave it all off.” Shang Nuanwei said with a giggle. “How about it? Doesn’t he look a thousand years younger?”

Ning Buwei nodded in agreement.

Hao Zheng was so angry he almost threw them out.

“Forget it, I won’t stoop to your level.” Hao Zheng habitually touched his chin, “Although the new prohibition has been established, the Eight Trigrams Array has been completely repaired, and the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation has disappeared, during the great battle at Chenyue Mountain, all the major sects and families lost most of their elite disciples…”

Ning Buwei sat there absent-mindedly stroking his teacup. When Hao Zheng paused, he suddenly asked, “The Eight Trigrams Array… how was it repaired?”

Hao Zheng was stunned. “Don’t you remember?”

“I only vaguely remember some fragments.” Ning Buwei frowned, but no matter how hard he tried to think, he couldn’t recall the specific situation at that time.

Hao Zheng looked at Chu Jun. Chu Jun nodded slightly. “I also can’t quite remember what happened then.”

“The damage was most severe then, which is normal.” Hao Zheng said, “Just right, Shen Xi and others are also at Wanxuan Academy. We can take this opportunity to explain the whole matter clearly to everyone.”

“What are they doing at Wanxuan Academy?” Ning Buwei picked up his tea and took a sip, his eyebrows moving slightly. “Still harboring evil intentions about the Linglong Bone?”

Shang Nuanwei continued, “That’s not it. Shen Xi is now the new alliance leader of the Chongzheng Alliance. Today she specially brought people to visit your——“

“Cough cough cough!” Ning Buwei was genuinely choked by the tea.

“——dao companion, Venerable Jinghe.” Shang Nuanwei said, “No matter what, he’s still the grand martial uncle of Wushi Sect.”

“Moreover, Chu Jun’s three senior brothers are also here… Wei Lian unfortunately fell in the great battle at Chenyue Mountain. Those twins stepped up. After Wang Bin’s death, the Wang family scattered like birds and beasts. The Shen family and Qingdan Sect…” Hao Zheng analyzed the current situation of the seventeen states with Chu Jun in a low voice.

Ning Buwei was impatient listening to these matters. He yawned drowsily and heard Shang Nuanwei beside him say, “The Suzaku Knife melted into the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation. Do you have any favored natal magical treasures now? I have a piece of ten-thousand-year mysterious iron that I’m worried about having no place to put.”

Ning Buwei narrowed his eyes. “What materials is Vice Dean Shang lacking?”

Shang Nuanwei lowered her voice. “Could you lend me that Mister Yellow for a few years? The Suan beast is an ancient divine beast, a rare teaching specimen.”

Ning Buwei readily nodded. “Deal.”

Completely unaware that he had been sold, Big Yellow was holding Ning Xiu when he sneezed and rubbed his nose hard. “Aiyoo ancestor, don’t cry anymore. Your fathers should have gone to the Central Gate Hall. I’ll take you to find them.”

A quarter-hour later.

Central Gate Hall was packed with people.

Hao Zheng saying that Shen Xi brought a few people was conservative. Just looking at this scene, this formation didn’t seem smaller than what they had at Chenyue Mountain before.

Ning Buwei walked into the Central Gate Hall openly, facing countless pairs of eyes with various expressions. He chose a seat closest to Chu Jun and sat down. Immediately, many more dissatisfied gazes fell on him.

After all, most people in the hall were standing. Only about twenty-some people could sit, and Ning Buwei’s seat was the highest position among the high positions. But people could only feel indignant in their hearts while not daring to say much on the surface.

Chu Yi across from him happily waved at him. “Little cutie.”

Ning Buwei’s mouth twitched. Staring at that white-haired man, he asked Chu Jun through gritted teeth. “Can I beat him up?”

Chu Jun said unhurriedly, “He’s at Mahayana Great Perfection.”

“Oh.” Ning Buwei immediately restrained his provocative expression and said sincerely, “I suddenly feel that eldest senior brother is quite approachable.”

“We invited everyone here today mainly because of the battle at Chenyue Mountain half a month ago.” Hao Zheng said, “In the battle at Chenyue Mountain, cultivators from all seventeen states worked together to resist the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation. Finally, Ning Buwei and Venerable Jinghe Chu Jun spared no expense to their lives, using their respective natal knife and sword to trap the villain Pei Heguang in the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation. Following the instructions left by Alliance Leader Chu Linyuan before his fall, they worked together with… Young Master Xingyuan and others to repair the Eight Trigrams Great Array, saving all living beings from crisis…”

Ning Buwei was stunned and transmitted to Chu Jun in confusion. “Ning Xingyuan?”

He completely couldn’t remember there being anything about Ning Xingyuan in it, but this didn’t prevent the light that lit up in his eyes. “What do you mean? My brother is still alive? Where is he now? Why haven’t I seen him?”

Chu Jun’s heart tightened. He gripped his hand, his tone carrying some reluctance. “Chengfeng.”

Ning Buwei was stunned, then as if guessing something, he pulled at the corner of his mouth. There was a moment of loneliness on his face. “Soul damage, I can’t control my emotions very well. It’s fine.”

“…The matter has to start from over five hundred years ago.” Hao Zheng sighed and explained the whole matter from beginning to end.

About six hundred years ago, the Ning clan, which was then ranked first among the sects and families of the seventeen states, had the wife of the family head’s legitimate son give birth to twins.

The younger of the twins had the Luo Tian Spirit Body, a cultivation genius rare in ten thousand years. However, the older brother had no spiritual roots and was just an ordinary mortal. At that time, the Ning clan had serious internal fighting among various branches, and there were predictions by great powers about “twins destroying Ning.” To compete for inheritance rights of the main family without leaving room for gossip, they had the older brother sent to the mortal realm, leaving the other to naturally become the legitimate eldest son of the Ning clan, later known as Ning Xingyuan.

At sixteen, Ning Xingyuan created the Rejuvenation Great Array and was listed first on the Tianji List. Later, he traveled to the mortal realm with friends like Chu Linyuan, only to be saved by his twin brother Pei Heguang who had been sent to the mortal realm years ago.

At this time, Ning Xingyuan and others accidentally discovered that the entrance from Li City to the mortal realm had loosened, so they began investigating this matter——

“At that time, he came to Wanxuan Academy after returning to the seventeen states to inform me of this matter.” Hao Zheng sighed. “But when we sent people to investigate, we found nothing. Later it was left unresolved. Looking at it now, we old fellows were too stubborn and self-opinionated…”

Three years later, Ning Xingyuan brought Pei Heguang back to the Ning residence. The two usually appeared before people using Ning Xingyuan’s identity, but as Pei Heguang was a mortal who gradually aged, he became increasingly dissatisfied and even tampered with Ning Xingyuan’s Rejuvenation Array.

“About five hundred and eighteen years ago, a child was born to a branch family in Xun Prefecture’s Chen City. The child should have died young but was saved by Venerable Jinghe. Pei Heguang wanted to use this child’s body for cultivation, so he instructed Ning Fan to falsely accuse Ning Gu and the Li Xiaohan couple. Finally, the Chen City Ning branch was wiped out, and the only surviving child was taken away by Ning Fan…”

Later, Ning Xingyuan discovered what Ning Fan had done and brought Ning Chengfeng back to the Ning residence to raise. Pei Heguang’s evil heart persisted, so he planted heart demons on the then five-year-old Ning Chengfeng and patiently waited for opportunity.

“Until five hundred years ago, Ning Xingyuan and others finally found the reason for repairing the Eight Trigrams Array.” Hao Zheng looked at Shen Xi beside him and sighed. “Alliance Leader Shen, please tell the rest.”

Shen Xi stood up, performed a formal bow to everyone, and said solemnly, “What I’m about to say was instructed by my master Chu Linyuan before his fall. He hoped to give the cultivation world,”

She looked at Ning Buwei, “and their living relatives an explanation.”

Five hundred years ago, they finally found the fundamental reason why the Eight Trigrams Array would break. Tens of thousands of years ago, cultivators forcibly broke the prohibition between the mortal realm and cultivation world, causing spiritual power to slowly leak. Thirty thousand years ago, Di Huai’s sacrifice of the Linglong Bone to create the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation accelerated the spiritual power leak.

“…The Eight Trigrams Array itself would gradually break due to suppressing the blood formation and the existence of the entrance between the two realms. Initially, the five of them wanted to repair the Eight Trigrams Array, but they discovered that with the blood formation present, no matter how well they repaired it, there would always be a day when the array would be destroyed.” Shen Xi said.

Ning Xingyuan and Sang Yun worked together to calculate the specific time when the Eight Trigrams Array would be destroyed. At the same time, Ning Xingyuan calculated that death tribulations were approaching for himself and all of Xun Prefecture. So the five made a bold decision——Ning Xingyuan would respond to the death tribulation to deceive the Heavenly Dao while actually forcibly preserving his complete soul in his corpse to wait for the Eight Trigrams Array’s destruction. The other four each had corresponding responsibilities, waiting for the catastrophe to come, defying heaven to change fate, fighting desperately to destroy the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation, establish new prohibitions between the mortal realm and cultivation world, and make the Eight Trigrams Great Array operate again…

“What they predicted was a catastrophe where no one in the seventeen states would survive.” Shen Xi said, “Young Master Xingyuan originally could have ignored Xun Prefecture and survived the death tribulation alone, but for the sake of all seventeen states, he buried himself alone underground for five hundred years. Ancestor Sang Yun had her spiritual roots completely severed due to peering into heavenly secrets. Originally of extremely high cultivation, she could no longer cultivate. Zen Master Mingsang was trapped in the Dark Domain for most of five hundred years, never seeing daylight. Senior Yan Jinzhou exhausted her life’s effort constructing a prohibition array in the Floating Sky Realm, using her true body to suppress it. My master Chu Linyuan traveled throughout the seventeen states building spiritual power pathways… All five finally died for the Dao——“

“From now on, the prohibitions between the cultivation world and the mortal realm are reconstructed. Spiritual power will slowly permeate. After three thousand years, the prohibitions will dissolve themselves. Then there will be no more separation of spiritual power between the two realms. The Eight Trigrams Array will automatically stop after ten thousand years, and the seventeen states will have no more such turmoil.”

When she finished speaking, everyone was in an uproar.

Shen Xi didn’t care how these people reacted and said firmly, “All disciples of our Wushi Sect will follow our late master’s dying wish, guarding the prohibitions for three thousand years and the Eight Trigrams Array for ten thousand years. Anyone who dares to destroy them will be killed without mercy.”

At these words, the hall fell silent.

After all, sitting behind Shen Xi were four great powers at the grand martial uncle level from Wushi Sect. Although they claimed their names had been removed from the sect records, Wushi Sect was famous for protecting its own. No one dared to openly oppose Shen Xi.

“As for the Linglong Bone——” Shen Xi’s words rang with finality. “It was merely a decoy thrown out by Young Master Xingyuan and others to mislead people. The complete Linglong Bone was already used by Di Huai to create the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation thirty thousand years ago.”

Finally, someone couldn’t help asking, “But what about this child of Ning de…fellow cultivator Ning?”

“Heh, before Zhuozhi Zhenren ascended, he developed a Child-Bearing Pill and gave it to his most beloved little disciple before ascending.” Chu Yi sitting in his chair said lazily, “To compete for this Child-Bearing Pill, we four martial brothers even had a bloody battle, but unfortunately Chu Jun was still superior.”

“That’s right. Junior brother later took a fancy to this Ning family boy and used methods to force him to take the Child-Bearing Pill.” Chu Yu said matter-of-factly. “Unfortunately, later Ning Buwei fell out with Chu Jun after saving us three and was tricked by Chu Linyuan into stealing that fake broken bone. He disappeared for a year, actually went to carry the pregnancy.”

Veins on Ning Buwei’s forehead were about to explode. He turned to look at Chu Jun through gritted teeth, only to be met with Chu Jun’s gentle and apologetic smile.

The sickeningly sweet gesture made Ning Buwei’s teeth ache and gave him goosebumps all over.

However, the watching crowd had sudden realizations and looked at them half-believingly, their faces clearly showing their inner thoughts:

Ah, who would have thought Venerable Jinghe was such a beast.

Ah, who would have imagined the great demon’s one-year disappearance was actually to give birth.

Ah, looking at the great demon’s gritted teeth and unwilling appearance, he was indeed forced.

Ah, unbelievable…

Chu Qu’s explosive temper made him slam the table. “You bunch of pig-brains, anyone thinking with their feet would know it’s impossible for it to be such a coincidence that a lifeless broken bone could turn into a person by itself. Which of you wasn’t born of your mothers!?”

Hao Zheng stepped forward. “I know everyone has doubts about whether Ning Xiu was transformed from the Linglong Bone. Today I will personally verify it in front of everyone.”

After speaking, Big Yellow came out from the back hall holding Ning Xiu.

Although they had coordinated beforehand, Ning Buwei still had a sour expression and was very displeased.

Ning Xiu wasn’t afraid of strangers. The white and chubby little baby curiously looked at everyone present. When he saw Ning Buwei and Chu Jun, he smiled happily. “Father~ Mother~”

Hao Zheng grabbed one of his little hands and pressed it on the crystal orb behind him. A golden spiritual light immediately appeared inside. He said, “This child merely inherited Ning Buwei’s Luo Tian Spirit Body, and because Venerable Jinghe’s cultivation is profound, combined together he was naturally born with a Golden Core. At most he’s just a cultivation genius. Besides that, there’s no life force in his spiritual power.”

He stepped aside to let everyone see for themselves.

The Nine-Leaf Lotus in Ning Xiu’s palm emitted invisible light, firmly wrapping all the life force in his body into his dantian.

After a moment, Ning Xiu sat on his father’s lap as he wished and enthusiastically began chewing on his own fingers.

The crowd who confirmed this was just an ordinary little genius who could currently only chew his fingers: “…………”

Worthy of Young Master Xingyuan and the others. Even the decoy they threw out could be so convincing.

Everyone dispersed, until midnight.

Shen Xi met with Chu Jun, Hao Zheng and several others within a barrier.

Ning Buwei lazily sat in a chair, listening to Chu Yi tell him interesting stories about Chu Jun’s childhood – how he went up the mountain to catch rabbits and ended up breaking his leg. Only then did he reluctantly forgive them for making up that ridiculous story about him being pregnant and giving birth.

“…Although we can protect Ning Xiu for a while, there will always be people with evil intentions coveting him. Human hearts are treacherous and we must guard against them.” Hao Zheng said to Shen Xi, “Thank you, Sect Leader Shen, for helping to conceal this.”

“Dean Hao need not be so polite. This was also our late master’s wish.” Shen Xi turned to look at Ning Buwei and said, “Fellow cultivator Ning, to avoid unnecessary trouble, please forgive me for not mentioning the role you played in this.”

Ning Buwei looked up at her.

“At that time, Young Master Xingyuan and Ancestor Sang Yun calculated that you were the only thread of hope to break the situation of the Eight Trigrams Array’s destruction, so Young Master Xingyuan gave you the Suzaku Knife.” Shen Xi said, “Although Young Master Xingyuan left his soul in his corpse, his spiritual power had long been exhausted from saving Xun Prefecture. The real Rejuvenation Great Array was actually divided into two parts hidden in the Suzaku Knife and its sheath. Only by melting them both into the Heaven-Piercing Blood Formation could their true effect be achieved – drawing out the spiritual power in the blood formation through the array formation to use for rejuvenation. Therefore, it could only disperse spiritual power but couldn’t save lives or bring the dead back to life.”

Ning Buwei’s eyebrows moved slightly. “So?”

“So if the Venerable and Chiyuan Sword hadn’t been there to resist with you, I’m afraid you would also… Young Master Xingyuan once asked my master to relay a message to you, but at that time he didn’t get the chance to tell you.” Shen Xi said.

Ning Buwei was silent for a long while before slowly asking, “What did he say?”

“Young Master Xingyuan said he was truly incompetent. Besides Ning Chengfeng as this thread of hope, he could find no other solution.”

“He felt no shame toward all living beings, but felt shame toward Ning Chengfeng, making him walk alone for five hundred years, merely serving as a chess piece on his board. If there is a next life, he would willingly repay with his flesh, blood, and life.”

He used heaven and earth as his chess board, not hesitating to gamble his own life and countless others’ lives to oppose the Heavenly Dao, fighting for the safety of all living beings, forcibly pulling Ning Buwei into the game as the final killing move.

On the path of ruthlessness, for all living beings.

Ning Buwei smiled and turned to look at Chu Jun.

Chu Jun said seriously, “You wouldn’t even bear to use Yuanbai for fighting.”

“So I can’t cultivate the ruthless path.” Ning Buwei sighed deeply. “I really want to beat him up.”

“It’s fine, you already dug up his grave.”

“Ah.”

“Then let’s barely call it even.”