Uncanny Immortal 77

Chapter 77

“She is a person of my Yaoguang sect. It is not for you to take her away!” The sect master said this to Tan Yuan, then turned to look at Mu Ning, “You are a renowned righteous cultivator. Do not, for the sake of a private feeling, become a sect outcast that everyone scorns!”

Mu Ning knelt on the ground, motionless. “Yuan’er, you should go back to the Miao region. I cannot go with you. There is a distinction between Han and Yi, and between master and disciple. Once a master, always a master. We cannot be together.”

With that, she closed her eyes, not daring to look at Tan Yuan’s reaction, and tears streamed down her face.

A blaze of anger suddenly rose in Tan Yuan’s heart, so hot that her face contorted. “What nonsense are you talking about? We are already together! Why are you putting on such a righteous act now? Why do you keep pushing me away? Are you playing with me?”

This was not like her at all. She had never been willing to say such harsh words to Mu Ning before, no matter how angry she was. This aggressive posture made her seem very unfamiliar.

Mu Ning’s face was pale. She continued, “I lost my parents when I was young. It was the people of the Yaoguang sect who raised me. The sect has shown me a kindness as heavy as a mountain, and my fellow disciples have treated me like a sibling. At this time, I really cannot just leave…”

Hearing this, Tan Yuan suddenly burst into laughter, her laughter desolate and eerie. “Alright, alright! You are loyal and righteous, you repay kindness! I am ungrateful, I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing!”

Mu Ning closed her eyes and said nothing.

Tan Yuan laughed for a while, then gradually came to her senses. She suppressed her anger and thought to herself, I shouldn’t have spoken like that. I would never have been so fierce to her before. It’s all that emotion-forgetting Gu’s fault. It has made me lose my patience with her…

She squatted down, held her head, and was in pain for a while. She stood up again, and with patience, she gently persuaded, “A-Ning, don’t be influenced by the sect master’s words. Being together is a matter between the two of us. You must not be afraid of what others will say.”

She was under the influence of the emotion-forgetting Gu and could not feel her love for Mu Ning, but she tried very hard to love Mu Ning. She remembered that when she had loved Mu Ning, she had been very gentle and patient with her, almost completely obedient, even to the point of being a little humble.

She lowered her posture and humbly pleaded, “A-Ning, I have nothing left. I beg you to go with me, alright? My mother said that you were willing to go with me before. Why have you changed your mind now? The sect master must have said something to you, right? Don’t listen to this old thing! Why do you always have to listen to others? Can’t you have your own ideas?”

The sect master at the side, who had been called an “old thing,” snorted coldly. “I just told her that I have watched her grow up since she was a child. If she takes the wrong path, I will be ten thousand times more heartbroken than her.” After a pause, perhaps out of pity, she added, “Tan Yuan, don’t make another mistake. For the sake of our past relationship, I will not make things difficult for you. You should go. Don’t come to the Yaoguang sect again.”

Tears flowed from the corners of Tan Yuan’s eyes, but she smiled and asked in return, “What have I done wrong? I love her. My love is not fake, not dirty. I love her more than anything. What have I done wrong?”

She kept saying that she loved her, but she could no longer feel a single bit of affection for Mu Ning.

Hatred gradually occupied her heart.

Mu Ning pried open Tan Yuan’s fingers, one by one, and said nothing, her eyes red.

The sect master cursed Tan Yuan, “You’re full of nonsense! Do you have no shame? Mu Ning is not willing to go with you. Don’t pester her anymore! Scram!”

Tan Yuan was almost bursting with anger. She completely lost her patience, grabbed Mu Ning’s collar, and asked through gritted teeth, “Do you know that I have given up everything for you? I have nothing left. And now you’re telling me you’re not going? A-Ning, are you worthy of me?!”

Mu Ning closed her eyes tightly, not daring to look at her, and silently endured her accusations.

A hint of contempt appeared in Tan Yuan’s eyes. “You are really so weak. You dare to love but not to admit it. You never dare to choose what you really want. You are always pushed forward by others.”

The sect master raised her hand and slapped Tan Yuan. Tan Yuan’s arms trembled, and she was shaken so that her hands let go of Mu Ning’s collar. She took two steps back and murmured, “How is it that I only discovered today that you are so weak? I regret it so much…”

She really regretted falling in love with this person, regretted traveling a thousand li for this person, and personally handing her sincere heart to her.

Tan Yuan had always been firm and confident, but now she asked Mu Ning in a daze, “Did you never love me at all? Answer me.”

Mu Ning opened her eyes and said softly, “I cannot only love you.”

Tan Yuan asked, “I can. Why can’t you?”

Mu Ning could only say, “I’m sorry. I have let you down.”

Tan Yuan drew the sword from Mu Ning’s waist and held it to her neck. “I’ll ask you one last time. Do you dare to go with me?”

Mu Ning closed her eyes again, offered her neck to be killed, and tears flowed down her cheeks, dripping onto the blade. Tan Yuan looked at the drop of tear, and the hand holding the sword trembled slightly.

She really had a killing intent. She had forgotten her feelings and was only left with a heart full of sadness and resentment, hating the other for being weak, hating the other for having let her down, wishing she could skin her and break her bones.

But before the sect master could knock the sword from her hand, she spat out a mouthful of blood, and the sword in her hand fell to the ground with a clang.

She took two steps back, her steps unsteady. A buzzing sound filled her ears, and her vision was blurry. She was covered in wounds, had traveled a long way from the Miao region to the Central Plains, and had suffered such a drastic change. Her state of mind was greatly damaged, and her mind was in a mess.

She wretchedly wiped her lips. Mu Ning looked at the blood on the corner of her lips and reached out to help her. She fiercely pushed Mu Ning’s hand away, a contemptuous smile on her face. After a few laughs, her laughter suddenly stopped. She stared at Mu Ning, and a trace of a malevolent aura appeared between her brows.

“A-Ning, one day, I will also make you taste this feeling of losing everything.”

With that, she laughed a few more times, and like the wind, she flashed out of the Hall of Reflection, left the Yaoguang sect, left the Central Plains, and went to the wildlands.

The sect master of the Yaoguang sect said she was an evil demon, so she really went to the wildlands alone, but she did not join the Ten Directions Domain, only hiding her name and exiling herself in that desert, with the yellow sand and wild eagles as her companions.

She felt that she had no face to go back to the Miao region. She also hated her mother. If it weren’t for her mother’s deception at that time, if it weren’t for her mother putting the emotion-forgetting Gu on her, at this moment, everything might have been different.

Before she left, she had said some harsh words to Mu Ning, but she couldn’t bear to really take revenge.

Was she resentful? Naturally, she was. Did she hate her? Naturally, she did.

But in the end, the one she should resent the most was herself. It was all her own doing, her own choice.

She had chosen Mu Ning and had let down her family and her sect. Mu Ning had chosen her master, friends, and sect, and had let her down.

She could not feel her love for Mu Ning. Her heart was sometimes empty, and sometimes filled with resentment. She spent a month in the wildlands in a state of chaos and confusion.

The next time she heard news of the Yaoguang sect was a month later. Tan Yuan, in an inn, heard that the Ten Directions Domain, in revenge for their bodies being hung in the forest, had gathered a large number of people and had attacked the Yaoguang sect. The Yaoguang sect had asked for help from the Tianshu Sect, but the Tianshu Sect’s help had been slow to arrive.

Tan Yuan was in a daze for a moment and thought to herself: A-Ning, she was so cruel to chase me away. Did she foresee that the demonic cult would retaliate? Was she afraid of implicating me, which was why she said those harsh words?

Thinking of this, she immediately set out for the Yaoguang sect.

When she returned to the Yaoguang sect, it was already late at night. The sect was quiet and dark. The moonlight shone on the surface of the lake, and the surface of the lake was shimmering. A number of bodies were floating on it. The bloody water and the lake water were mixed together. The small boats that had once floated on the lake were now either broken or shattered, and the boats were also full of bodies.

Those bodies were from the Yaoguang sect and the Ten Directions Domain. Some were unrecognizable, and some were still bleeding.

A gust of wind blew, carrying a thick smell of blood. On the green waves, the former elegance and romance were no more.

Tan Yuan turned over the bodies one by one, her hands and feet trembling uncontrollably. She was afraid that she would find Mu Ning’s body.

As she was turning them over, her eyes grew moist. She found the bodies of many familiar people: the head senior sister, the second senior sister, the sect master, and many other familiar faces…

She rushed around the crisscrossing waterways. Finally, she found the patch of reeds she had often gone to, the secret place that only she and Mu Ning had often gone to, and also the place where they had first met in the Yaoguang sect.

Mu Ning was lying in a small boat, holding a string of bells tightly in her hand. She coughed weakly, and blood kept oozing from the corner of her lips.

Tan Yuan flew over.

Mu Ning looked at her in a daze, raised her hand to wipe the broken string of tears from her face, and asked her, “Is this… my illusion again?”

Tan Yuan shook her head desperately, and tears fell on Mu Ning’s face. Her throat was choked, and she stammered several times, unable to say a word.

She fed Mu Ning a pill and released her bonded Gu, wanting to save her life. But Mu Ning was too seriously injured. Her dantian was already shattered, and even if she transferred spiritual energy to her, she could not circulate her qi to heal.

Mu Ning caught a drop of Tan Yuan’s tear and tasted it on her lips, smiling faintly. “It’s not an illusion…”

She put the string of bells in her hand on Tan Yuan’s wrist. “The Yaoguang Bell… I have had it acknowledge you as its master. Yuan’er, I… I only have one request… don’t let it fall into the hands of an evil person…”

Tan Yuan pressed the acupoints on Mu Ning’s body to stop the bleeding, carried her on her back, and held back her tears, saying, “I’ll take you to a doctor… don’t sleep… you must not sleep…”

The people of the Yaoguang sect had either fled, scattered, or died. The entire sect was almost wiped out, leaving only Mu Ning.

She had indeed lost everything: her sect, her friends, her lover…

She had foreseen this result long ago.

Mu Ning lay on Tan Yuan’s back, her mind unclear. She wanted to ask, “Can I go with you now… Yuan’er, do you still want to take me with you?”

But she did not dare to ask.

She knew she had no right to ask anymore. She just kept apologizing, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Tan Yuan, carrying her, ran and said, “I will not forgive you. I will not forgive you for the rest of my life…”

Mu Ning did not speak for a long time. Tan Yuan, fearing she would fall asleep, took the initiative to say to her, “Don’t sleep… I’ll take you away. I’ll take you to a doctor…”

Mu Ning asked vaguely, “Is there… a doctor in this world who can bring the dead back to life?”

“There is, there is. You will be fine. You will be fine…” Tan Yuan said, not knowing if she was answering Mu Ning or talking to herself, comforting herself.

Her back was wet and hot. Mu Ning’s blood soaked her back. She carried Mu Ning and flew out of the Yaoguang sect, running everywhere, looking for a doctor.

She still remembered that she had to take Mu Ning away.

She had forgotten that feeling, and she was only left with this obsession. She had to take Mu Ning far away, not let this place restrain her anymore, so that she could freely float on the lake.

“I’m sorry…”

The person on her back apologized again.

Tan Yuan said with a trembling voice, “Don’t apologize to me anymore… I will not forgive you! Unless you can live…”

After Mu Ning had said her last “I’m sorry,” she held on to Tan Yuan’s neck tightly, pressed her cheek against Tan Yuan’s back, closed her eyes, and there was no more sound.

Her body was light and soft. Tan Yuan thought of the past when they were together, how she had liked to rest her head on her lap and look at her, her heart a field of softness.

Her body gradually grew cold. Tan Yuan slowly stopped, and slowly held the person on her back in her arms.

Mu Ning had closed her eyes, still holding a brocade pouch tightly in her hand.

Tan Yuan snatched the brocade pouch from her hand and saw that it was filled with some withered flower petals.

It was the udumbara flower. The udumbara flower she had brought back from the Luoyang Garan Temple had been well-preserved with a secret method, but when she had been attacked, it had been shattered by a palm strike.

It had been shattered into pieces the size of a fingernail. The people of the sect had even joked at the time that it could be used to make flower tea.

She never thought Mu Ning had kept it.

A conversation from a long time ago appeared in her mind:

“It buds for a hundred years, grows a flower for a hundred years, and blooms for a hundred years. From budding to blooming, it takes three hundred years.”

“This udumbara flower blooms once every three hundred years. After it blooms, it withers in one shichen. It’s too short, and there’s nothing to see.”

The time of blooming was too short, just like their fruitless love.

Tan Yuan’s eyes were bloodshot. She held Mu Ning and said in a small voice, “A-Ning, wake up.”

“Wake up and say sorry to me again.”

“Don’t sleep. Wake up!”

She childishly threatened, “Mu Ning, if you don’t wake up, I’ll go and kill all the people in your sect. There must be other survivors… do you want to wake up and protect them?”

“It’s alright, it’s alright, A-Ning. Can we start over? I’ve thought of how to break the emotion-forgetting Gon me. The love Gu and the emotion-forgetting Gu are cause and effect. As long as you put a love Gu on me, I can break the emotion-forgetting Gu on me, and I will know how to continue to love you. I won’t be fierce to you…”

She in turn apologized to Mu Ning, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

She regretted it again. She hadn’t said any gentle words to Mu Ning in the end.