WJ Chapter 81.2

Jiang Youxi (6.2)

His fingers trembled slightly, using all his strength wanting to keep the person before him, yet unable to move even a fraction.

The Protector shook his head, saying seriously, “This acupoint will take half a shichen to release on its own. Before Wujue leaves, I’ll survey all the surroundings. The sect’s people should arrive soon too. You won’t come to harm.”

“You, you must not……!”

For the first time, an expression resembling despair appeared on Yun Changliu’s always calm face. With his mind in great turmoil, he actually coughed and violently spat out a small mouthful of blood, all of it spilling onto his robe. He said hoarsely, “Don’t leave!”

“Sect Leader!?”

Now Guan Wujue’s face immediately lost all color, and he could walk no further. His gaze fell again on the Sect Leader’s robe, where the already dried dark blood stains overlapped with the newly added bright red, even more shocking to behold.

Guan Wujue’s heart ached so much he couldn’t bear to look anymore. He wanted to ask in detail but couldn’t open his mouth. He hurried to feel the Sect Leader’s wrist pulse.

With this touch, his expression grew even more grave. The Protector stood up, put his fingers to his lips and blew a whistle. Liuhuo heard the sound and walked over.

He quickly rummaged through the bundle on the horse’s back, finding some small porcelain bottles containing medicine. He poured the pills into his palm.

Knowing that the Sect Leader certainly wouldn’t be willing to take medicine he gave him, Guan Wujue simply first crushed it with his own mouth, then knelt before Yun Changliu to feed it to him mouth-to-mouth.

Yun Changliu’s eyes were dim. He couldn’t even resist, could only feel the pill pushed in by the Protector’s tongue slowly dissolving in his mouth.

After feeding the medicine, Guan Wujue stood up and turned his back to the Sect Leader, walking two steps away.

Really leaving now. What kind of behavior was it to keep dawdling affectedly? If the Yin Ghosts from Xifeng City came looking again, it would be even more troublesome……

Yun Changliu called to him hoarsely from behind. “Wujue……”

Yet still repeating that same phrase. “Don’t leave……”

Guan Wujue’s footsteps paused. His expression changed and struggled several times. Suddenly he hesitated and turned back.

It wasn’t really anything else, just……

He suddenly felt the mountain wind here was a bit cold.

So Guan Wujue carefully picked up Yun Changliu horizontally in his arms again. Looking around, he walked toward a sheltered spot behind a mountain rock.

He heard Yun Changliu say softly, “Wujue, don’t leave.”

The Sect Leader actually couldn’t understand—his Protector……this person, who clearly couldn’t bear even him coughing up a bit of blood, who felt heartache even at him being blown by mountain wind; yet why was he so cruel, actually making him watch helplessly as he left alone!

Guan Wujue just pretended not to hear, not lowering his head to look at him even once. Arriving at the spot, he gently placed the person down with tender movements, then stood up and turned around again.

But he had only walked two steps when he heard a weak voice from behind. “I beg you.”

Guan Wujue’s breathing caught. He couldn’t believe his own ears.

He had never heard the always aloof Sect Leader speak the word “beg”—never, and there should never have been……

The Protector suddenly clenched his teeth, tightly closing his eyes.

His heart shattered to pieces with cracking sounds.

Now Yun Changliu could no longer stop him, yet he found it harder to move forward than at any other time!

“I beg you, all right?”

“Don’t leave, come back with me……”

Yun Changliu’s voice was light and weak, yet sharper than any blade, effortlessly cutting through his heart chamber.

Guan Wujue finally couldn’t bear it anymore. He turned and stumbled forward, falling to his knees before Yun Changliu. He was already on the verge of collapse, shaking his head and crying out in despair. “Sect Leader, please stop! You——spare me!”

“I can’t go on……Wujue truly cannot watch you die like this. Please let me go!”

So it was……desperate to leave like this, still for the Fengchun Sheng poison in his own body?

Yun Changliu stared unblinkingly at the Protector, his voice trembling. “But……but I begged you first……!”

Guan Wujue tightly gripped Yun Changliu’s hands, hoarsely pleading. “Just indulge Wujue one more time. Just this last time. Dote on me again, pamper Wujue once more, all right?”

“In the next life……in the next life, this lord will pamper you for a lifetime.”

Yun Changliu’s voice suddenly became somewhat choked. His eyes held a watery gleam like rippling light as he said softly. “As long as you listen to me this time.”

Guan Wujue’s eyes widened slightly.

In Yun Changliu’s eyes, he saw his own expression become agonized in an instant.

In this moment, Guan Wujue suddenly felt that perhaps the Sect Leader truly did like him very much.

Nothing to do with Ah Ku—just Guan Wujue alone.

He had always felt that in the past, when Young Sect Leader Changliu liked Ah Ku, such deep feelings were nothing more than guilt for turning him into a medicine person, gratitude for the life-saving grace of nurturing blood and feeding blood, the affection born from spending youthful years together……and the loneliness of having no one else by his side.

But he had never known why Sect Leader Yun liked Guan Wujue.

Burying the past, five years at Ghost Gate. Now he was no longer that Ah Ku with medicinal blood throughout his body who could save the Young Sect Leader’s life. He was just a subordinate under the Zhuyin Sect Leader, at most a useful sword and blade.

He had only stayed by the Sect Leader’s side for four years. Though nominally a Protector, he always felt it was more often the Sect Leader protecting him.

He always felt he had contributed nothing for the Sect Leader, but rather owed a great deal.

He clearly had nothing left, was nothing at all, yet the Sect Leader still said he liked him.

He couldn’t understand it, so he thought this kind of liking was just a momentary feeling, not to be taken seriously. Even if he died in the future, the Sect Leader might grieve for several days, perhaps several months at most, and would eventually slowly move on.

Now Guan Wujue suddenly understood.

Perhaps……perhaps the Sect Leader liked him simply because he liked him, and that was all.

Nothing else—the purest liking, the most untainted love.

Affection arising without knowing its origin, growing ever deeper as it went on.

It was the Sect Leader who, even when losing control in rage, never truly wanted to hurt him, who deliberately kept his distance but could never pretend for more than a moment before softening.

It was the Sect Leader who, when in pain to the point of losing strength, always unconsciously leaned on him, seriously asking him to hold him.

It was the Sect Leader who blocked arrows for him, shattered the Qingku qin for him, saying he would give his life to him.

It was the Sect Leader who walked through snow to break off plum blossoms for him, then carefully and cautiously kissed him.

The Sect Leader perhaps truly……truly……

Loved him to death.

“Sect Leader……Sect Leader!”

Under the remnant light of the setting sun, Guan Wujue suddenly cupped Yun Changliu’s hands and kissed each fingertip one by one. With the most sorrowful faint smile, he murmured in a low voice, “I will come back. Wujue promises you I will definitely come back……!”

——Let this be the last time he lied to the Sect Leader.

After he took the blood, the old Sect Leader would certainly handle everything well. With no body seen in life or death, at least it could leave a thread of hope. Let the Sect Leader forever believe he was still wandering somewhere in the jianghu, searching for the so-called antidote to Fengchun Sheng……

Let the Sect Leader think he was still somewhere in this world roaming with his sword and horse, just that they had no fate to meet again in this life.

But now, he really had to leave.

Guan Wujue brought his two fingers together, gently pressing them against Yun Changliu’s sleep acupoint, saying tenderly, “You sleep for a while.”

“No……”

“Once you’re asleep, you won’t feel sad anymore.”

“No……”

“When Wujue finds the antidote to Fengchun Sheng, I’ll come back. Until then……you must live well.”

“No……”

Guan Wujue tightly shut his eyes. In the end……he didn’t have the courage to look at the Sect Leader’s expression.

Gritting his teeth, he channeled internal energy into his two fingers.

The Protector just closed his eyes like this. In the darkness where he couldn’t see, he felt the body in his arms tense for an instant, then slowly lose its strength.

He began to hear Yun Changliu’s disordered breathing gradually return to calm.

……Was it over?

The Four Directions Protector’s eyelashes trembled and he slowly opened them.

But he saw a teardrop slide down from Yun Changliu’s closed lashes, leaving a very faint, very faint tear track on that pallid cheek.

Guan Wujue unconsciously drew in a sharp breath. He trembled all over in extreme shock, his heart seeming to have curled tightly into a ball, the pain making it impossible to breathe.

He held the now-sleeping Yun Changliu in his embrace, standing in a corner of Mount Shenlie gazing around in bewilderment.

He could only see the vast boundless surroundings, the remote sky, the vast earth.

The setting sun was sinking. Boundless sorrow together with the overwhelming red light submerged him completely.

——He had clearly only wanted to save one person in this world, to spare him loneliness, to eliminate his suffering; wishing him a hundred years of life and peace in days to come.

——But in the end, it was also he who caused this person’s robes to be stained with blood, his lapels wet with tears, suffering immeasurably.

……

In the end, Guan Wujue still rode Liuhuo all the way down Mount Shenlie.

Beyond the mountain was a dirt road with trees on both sides sprouting new buds. By the roadside was a tavern called “Mountain and Xi River,” with a wine flag bearing four characters: Yuan Lai Tavern.

Guan Wujue didn’t stop at all, urging his horse southward on his own.

This time there was nothing to delay him. He spurred his horse very fast. The scenery along the way rapidly receded. Gradually he turned onto another road.

A road that wasn’t very smooth, but was still broad enough to accommodate two horses riding side by side.

The sound of hoofbeats rang out urgently and chaotically on the deserted wild road. Guan Wujue’s red robe flew behind him, his handsome brows and eyes inevitably dazed. He remembered that last time when he left the sect, he had also taken this road.

It was also sunset like this, also a long road ahead like this.

But at that time——

At that time, the Sect Leader was still riding Feixue alongside him.

At that time, neither he nor the Sect Leader had as many wounds and injuries as now. They could still leisurely ride their horses. He had a small bag of sesame candy in his embrace, joking while tossing pieces to the Sect Leader to eat.

At that time, he had asked the Sect Leader if in the future he could please not be so sad. He remembered the Sect Leader had agreed.

……Come to think of it, how had he agreed?

……Had he really agreed?

Wait, why couldn’t he quite remember clearly?

He only remembered the crimson fire clouds at the edge of the sky, the long intertwined shadows under the setting sun. One small road, two horses, two people—as if they could continue riding side by side forever.

Now it had all scattered like a dream or fantasy. The good days from just a few months ago already seemed like past events of a previous life, ending in dispersed wind and smoke.

Guan Wujue suddenly felt heartbroken to the core.

He raised his head, biting his teeth to keep from sobbing aloud, yet tears continuously rolled down along his black lashes. A few drops were blown away by the wind at his side, landing on a blade of newly grown spring grass along the way.

The setting sun went down the mountain.

Guan Wujue, one person and one horse, galloped toward the grand, magnificent, and dark end he had long hoped for.