Chapter 1114 - Choose How You Wish to Die, then Depart in Peace
The Abstruse Force Alliance had been destroyed!
Pi Mo had been executed!
The Swordmaster of Abstruse Force had swung his sword as he leaped through the skies, proved his Dao, and entered Profound Serenity!
When this news spread through the Wilds, it was like lightning striking out of nowhere, setting the whole world ablaze. Countless factions were shaken, and countless cultivators were astonished.
“So, Su Yi really is the reincarnation of the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force!”
Only now did people dare believe that the man Pi Mo called an imposter was actually the real deal.
“Alone, sword in hand, he cut down Pi Mo, sent the Studio of the Heart packing, proved his Dao, and entered Profound Serenity! Throughout the Wilds, only someone like His Excellency Su could possibly be so magnificent!”
Some people were wistful and utterly reverent.
“Not even the Studio of the Heart, a faction of the stars beyond, could protect Pi Mo!?”
Others’ hearts quivered, shaken to the core.
“His Excellency Su... Just how strong is he?”
“We can no longer judge him by his cultivation base, I’m sure of it. According to recent news, not even a Profound Unity cultivator would be a match for him!”
...The Wilds were in uproar as its various factions investigated in a frenzy, trying their utmost to acquire more details and get a clearer sense of the truth.
It was also on that day that everyone in the Wilds fully realized that that legendary, unparalleled existence had truly returned!
......
The Southern Origin Province, Eastern River City.
Eastern River City was famous because of the spatial portal built just beyond its skies. It led to the Winter Sky Realm, one of the Wilds’ thirty-three subsidiary worlds. It was largely barren and uninhabited. Many saw it as a place even ghosts detested.
Inside an inn.
A scrawny man in gray robes sat alone by the window, drinking alone.
He looked dazed, as if his soul had vacated his body, and his expression was utterly overcast.
The tavern was noisy as everyone discussed the battle at Martial Heaven Peak. Their voices swept past in waves, filling the room.
“Pi Mo was the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force’s first disciple, and he founded the Abstruse Force Alliance personally. How dazzling and glorious a figure was he? Who’d have thought he’d fall in such a way?” someone sighed.
Someone else fired back, “How is he worthy of pity? An unfilial, ungrateful traitor like him deserves to be minced into tens of thousands of pieces, his bones reduced to ash!”
“Don’t you think Pi Mo was awfully tragic? Apparently, a woman from the Studio of the Heart caused his death, but she was the woman Pi Mo loved and admired most!”
“His Excellency the Skythorn Poison Emperor said it himself: Pi Mo is just a simp. He simped to the very end, but nothing came of it. Moreover, he ruined his reputation and lost his life in the process. How tragic is that?”
“A simp? Hahaha! You really hit the nail on the head with that one!”
The inn instantly burst into uproarious laughter, and an air of revelry filled the room.
The scrawny man seated by the window silently lowered his cup, and his fists clenched so hard that his nails cut into the flesh of his palms.
His face was terrifyingly overcast, and it was only by gnashing his teeth that he gradually repressed his surging, roaring murderous intent.
I’m no simp, dammit!
The man in gray suddenly took a deep breath, got up, and left the inn.
He’d decided to leave Eastern River City that very day and proceed to the Winter Sky Realm, then sever his connection to the Nine Provinces of the Wilds completely.
Outside of Eastern River City.
It was drizzling, and the skies were overcast.
By the time he left the city, the man in gray robes had calmed down completely.
Suddenly, the ethereal song of a zither emanated from the distant landscape, faint and only barely audible, like the music of the heavens.
The gray-robed man’s gaze focused. He turned around and was just about to head back into the city when a cold voice appeared alongside a note of zither music.
“Even if your true body were here, you wouldn’t be able to flee. Why struggle in vain?”
The speaker sounded disinterested.
But the gray-robed man’s steps came to an abrupt halt. Subtle killing intent silently permeated the overcast landscape, and he dared not move.
That cold, clear voice rang out once more.
“Come over for a chat. It’s been a long time since the two of us last spoke.”
The gray-robed man’s expression darkened, but a moment later, he nodded, turned, and proceeded into the wilderness.
He soon arrived at a craggy hill covered in lush vegetation. A stream burbled past.
And a graceful, elegant figure sat casually atop a boulder.
She was dressed in solid black, without the slightest embellishment, and her flowing black hair hung to her waist. She was an unparalleled beauty, like a painting of a lady immortal.
An old, worn wooden zither lay across her lap, and her snowy fingers plucked at its strings, producing a sound like the music of the heavens.
When he saw her, the gray-robed man suddenly shook, and his eyes narrowed.
Qing Tang!!
What’s she doing here?
Waves of shock swept through the gray-robed man’s heart.
A little while later, he said in a low voice, “You... realized who I was a long time ago, didn’t you?”
Atop the distant boulder.
Qing Tang casually pressed her fingers against the strings of her zither. She looked up, and her profound, elegant gaze locked onto the man in gray. “Five hundred years ago, you led the experts of the Six Great Daoist Sects into the Grotto of Abstruse Force. You took advantage of the chaos to steal numerous treasures from Master’s treasury. One of them was a Twolives Twin Lotus grown in a Xiantian power source.”
She paused, then gently strummed the zither and said distractedly, “Only one such treasure exists in the Wilds, and practically no one knows how to use it. Unfortunately for you, I just so happen to be one of the few.”
The gray-robed man’s expression darkened as he finally understood how Qing Tang had found him.
It turned out that she’d been onto him for five hundred years already!
“All a cultivator needs to do is extract a portion of the power of their soul and cultivation base, then refine the Twolives Twin Lotus. Then, they can forge a Dao Clone independent from their main body.”
Qing Tang continued, as if speaking to herself, “Ordinarily, a cultivator’s clones are reduced to rootless objects when the original dies. Without a power source, they’ll quickly die too.
“But a clone produced through a Twolives Twin Lotus is different. Even if the original dies, the clone can carry on independently, and even acquire the original’s memories and experience. It’s just that its cultivation base is a bit weaker.
“Take your current incarnation. You’re only in the Profound Illumination Realm, far from comparable to your true body.”
Here, a playful smile tugged at Qing Tang’s lips. “Am I right, Pi Mo?”
The gray-robed man’s expression shifted erratically. Finally, he sighed. “I truly wouldn’t have thought a little clue like that would be enough for you to see through me.”
Qing Tang put away the wooden zither, then took out a cup and had a sip of wine before responding. “Everyone says you’re a simp, and that you let love overpower your rationality. They think that’s why you betrayed Master, but I’ve never thought that.
“I understand your personality. When Master was the sovereign of the Wilds, you followed him loyally, but the moment someone stronger than him appeared, you betrayed him without hesitation.
“And you treated the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart the same way. She was simply a ladder for you to climb on. Were you ever to surpass her, you would surely have kicked your ‘ladder’ away without hesitation.”
She paused, her gaze rife with meaning. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have prepared this clone and left yourself a way out.”
A chill coursed down Pi Mo’s spine, and his expression was completely overcast.
Beneath Qing Tang’s gaze, he felt as if all of his secrets had been laid bare, and it made him thoroughly uncomfortable.
“Everyone knows you’re dead, and Master and the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart now have an irreconcilable enmity. Although you’ve suffered heavy losses, you’re still alive. You can simply change your identity and rise to prominence again,” Qing Tang said thoughtfully. “If I’m not mistaken, you plan to lie low for a while, then see who wins in the end: Master, or the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart. You plan to see how Master reclaims the Grotto of Abstruse Force.
“In summary, given the type of person you are, so long as you draw breath, you’ll seize every opportunity to become strong and realize your wild ambition.”
Here, Pi Mo couldn’t help but interrupt her. “Just what do you plan to do after saying all that?”
Qing Tang threw back her head and drained her cup before saying, “Naturally, I intend to send you on your way.”
Pi Mo’s pupils suddenly constricted. “Qing Tang, to the best of my knowledge, your identity isn’t simple either. You’re not from the Wilds, so why get involved in this? Why help Master take me down?”
Qing Tang asked right back, “Over the past five hundred years, why sink so low as to pin your betrayal and other misdeeds onto me?”
Pi Mo furrowed his brow. “You’re from the stars beyond. I’m sure you’re well aware that I’ve been acting on the young mistress’s orders. Besides, don’t tell me you didn’t have ulterior motives for infiltrating the Grotto of Abstruse Force?”
Qing Tang rose from her boulder and stretched languidly. “I did have ulterior motives, but none of that has anything to do with you.”
She gazed at Pi Mo and said plainly, “Choose how you’d like to die. We were once sectmates, so no matter how you’d like to go, I’ll grant your wish.”
Pi Mo stiffened. He couldn’t help but say, “Qing Tang! So long as you let me go, I promise to repay you! I’m even willing to work tirelessly on your behalf and serve you to the bitter end!”
Qing Tang shook her head. “You aren’t important to me, but getting rid of you...? That’s important.”
Pi Mo’s expression shifted dramatically, and he shook from head to toe as he rasped, “You told me to choose how I wanted to die, didn’t you? Fine! I want to die knowing the full story!”
Qing Tang nodded. “Very well.”
She then raised her fair hand and slashed it through the air like a sword.
Splurt!
Pi Mo’s head instantly flew through the air, only for Qing Tang to stretch out her hand and catch it from far.
Pi Mo’s body, meanwhile, split into countless fine meaty chunks, fell to the ground, and dissipated.
Qing Tang raised Pi Mo’s severed head into the air and said softly, “Once the situation has reached its end, I’ll naturally burn joss paper on your behalf, then tell you everything. For now, depart in peace.”
Disbelief and astonishment were written all over Pi Mo’s face, and his eyes bulged with fury. Just like that, his expression froze in place.
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