After Faking My Death, My Disciple, Who Hated Me to the Bone, Has Gone Mad - Chapter 3

Sheng Muxue’s consciousness was already blurring. He had no energy to listen to the argument between Yun Zheng and the old man who had suddenly appeared.

He had underestimated the potency of the Hehuan Gu.

However, Yun Zheng delayed his attack, determined to torment him a while longer to savor the sight of his suffering and collapse.

Sheng Muxue did not want to drag this out any further.

He quickly realized that Yun Zheng’s natal sword, Tianyao, was a blade capable of commanding the heavens.

It was opportune that dark clouds were currently pressing down upon them, with faint electric light flickering across the firmament.

Although the sword was filled with Yun Zheng’s spiritual energy, he could still manipulate it to some extent.

The only problem was that the Demon-Suppressing Array had sealed all of his own spiritual energy.

Sheng Muxue had never liked asking for help, and he certainly would not ask the system for it.

But this was an emergency.

“Help me restore my spiritual energy,” Sheng Muxue commanded the system, his tone cold and direct. “Hurry.”

The system, terrified of Sheng Muxue, quickly agreed: “Understood, dear host!”

Although the system could not alter the plot, it still possessed a few minor functions.

As he felt his spiritual energy return, Sheng Muxue’s first action was to crush the worms biting at him from within.

With his cultivation level at the Mahayana stage, eradicating the measly Hehuan Gu was more than enough.

In fact, slaughtering everyone on and off the stage would be an easy task.

These people gathered here numbered no more than five hundred, a far cry from the ten thousand cultivators who had once raided his lair.

Then again, no matter how weak a mayfly may be, thousands upon thousands of them gathered together could still shake a great tree.

Added to that was the traitor, Yun Zheng.

But Sheng Muxue did not intend to kill them, nor did he wish to linger in this world that did not belong to him.

Everything was fake, and the people within it were fake as well.

Moreover, the plot had been corrected, and the bond between him and Yun Zheng had come to an end.

There was nothing left to regret.

Seeing that Xie Wuyai was about to strike at Sheng Muxue, Yun Zheng prepared to channel his strength through his sword once more.

However, he found that his natal sword would not obey his command.

The sword suddenly broke free from his control, flying up to drift in the air.

At that instant, the dark clouds overturned like spilled ink, and the thunderclouds from the Nine Heavens quickly gathered over the Demon-Suppressing Platform.

Guided by the tip of the sword, the clouds swirled into a vortex, remaining fixed directly above Sheng Muxue’s head.

In the next moment, Tianyao suddenly erupted with ten thousand rays of golden light. The blade expanded to a hundred feet in length in the air, its tip pointing directly at the rolling thunderclouds.

Sheng Muxue could clearly feel that his life had reached its end.

As he gazed at the purple electric arcs dancing within the clouds, he suddenly remembered the day he first met Yun Zheng two hundred years ago, the little boy covered in blood, weeping and clinging to him in the pouring rain.

The child had shouted through his tears: “Do not leave me alone. I only have you left.”

“Farewell.”

Sheng Muxue whispered, his thin lips parting. Blood trickled from his violet eyes, yet it could not tarnish the clarity in his gaze.

With a flick of his finger, Tianyao instantly transformed into ten thousand beams of sword light and soared into the sky. Each beam precisely hooked into the lightning within the clouds, dragging thousands of silver snakes down from the firmament.

The cultivators below the Execution Platform retreated in panic. The light of the blades flickered like candle flames amidst the thunderstorm, but only Yun Zheng stumbled forward, lunging toward Sheng Muxue.

His hair stood on end, whipped by the gale, and his eyes reflected the lightning that was about to consume Sheng Muxue.

“Sheng Muxue!”

Yun Zheng’s cry was torn to shreds by the thunder.

Sheng Muxue could no longer hear it.

The Execution Platform trembled violently in the storm. The Demon-Suppressing Array beneath it was shattered by the lightning, and the golden incantations dissipated like fireflies.

Yun Zheng watched helplessly as Sheng Muxue’s figure was swallowed by the lightning.

Finally, the storm subsided, and a torrential downpour began.

As Yun Zheng collapsed in the center of the scorched platform, the heavens began to weep in agony.

Tianyao returned to its normal size and slumped at his feet, its blade covered in cracks, never to regain its former sharpness.

Sheng Muxue’s corpse remained locked to the execution post.

He had closed his eyes, and his body appeared as if his soul had been extracted, leaving behind nothing but a scarred shell.

Yun Zheng climbed to his feet, trembling, and stumbled toward the corpse that would never wake again.

The heavy rain washed over the scorched earth of the platform. Just as Yun Zheng’s fingertips brushed Sheng Muxue’s blood-stained body, he heard the humming of magical weapons being drawn from their sheaths behind him.

Xie Wuyai and other elders of the Immortal Alliance swept through the air, landing on the platform and surrounding it completely.

“Although death was too easy on him, considering he died by your Tianyao sword, I will not hold your deliberate delay of the execution against you,” Xie Wuyai said. His voice was muffled by the rain, but it carried a cold hardness that was unusual for him. “But this man is a remnant of the Demon Realm. If his corpse remains in this world, it will surely become a disaster.”

“He must be handed over to the Immortal Alliance to be dealt with: extract his heart, sever his limbs, nail him into a black coffin, and sink him into the Sea of Death, where he shall never be reincarnated.”

Yun Zheng’s back stiffened abruptly.

He turned slowly. Rainwater dripped along his sharp jawline, staining the remnants of Sheng Muxue’s robes a deep, dark color.

Only then did the crowd realize that the corners of Yun Zheng’s eyes were burning red. The murderous intent surging in his pupils was almost tangible, far more chilling than the storm that had just passed.

His voice was so low it sounded as if it were squeezed through gritted teeth, every word coated in shards of ice.

“No one is allowed to touch him.”

“Are you insane?”

An elder from the Tianji Sect standing to Xie Wuyai’s left suddenly spoke up: “This demon committed many atrocities. It was not just you who was persecuted by him; Xie Wuyai’s own son, and even our sect leader, have fallen to his treacherous hands.”

“And do not forget, our Demon Realm.”

From the other side, a slender man in green robes approached slowly, holding a red umbrella.

The umbrella covered the upper half of his face, revealing only a delicate, fair chin.

It was the Demon Emperor, Lin Jie.

It was clear that these people were afraid Sheng Muxue might not be truly dead and wanted to finish him off.

“Get out!”

Yun Zheng suddenly roared, the sound causing everyone’s ears to ring.

Sheng Muxue’s corpse trembled slightly at the shockwave, and a strand of silver hair fell, covering the scorched mark on his forehead that had yet to fade.

A broken sob escaped Yun Zheng’s throat. He reached out to brush away that strand of hair, only to realize as his fingers touched the skin that Sheng Muxue’s body had already begun to turn cold.

A nameless, indescribable emotion surged in his chest.

Was it hatred?

But his enemy was dead; why, then, was he still in such agony?

Seeing that Yun Zheng was still obsessed, Xie Wuyai gritted his teeth and stepped forward. “So you were still clinging to your old master-disciple relationship! Even for the enemy who destroyed your entire family, you are so reluctant to let go. How truly chilling!”

As he spoke, spiritual light wove around him, and he prepared to strike at Yun Zheng.

Although Yun Zheng knew the man behind him intended to kill him, he made no move to dodge.

Until the spiritual light was a mere fraction of an inch from his heart, a long, narrow golden slit suddenly cracked open in the center of his forehead.

Golden light seeped from the gap and covered the exhausted Tianyao, instantly restoring it to its former state.

Tianyao surged toward the crowd with intense sword energy.

The magical weapons of the cultivators on and off the stage let out mournful cries, and half of them shattered on the spot.

“This is…”

“How is this possible!” Xie Wuyai exclaimed in shock. “Yun Zheng is actually…”

Before Xie Wuyai could finish, the golden light on Yun Zheng’s forehead transformed into a diamond-shaped mark. At that same moment, Tianyao split into countless blades, instantly ensnaring the nearest elders.

They did not even have time to activate their defensive artifacts before the sword energy sent them flying dozens of feet, crashing into the stone pillars of the Execution Platform and coughing up black blood.

Xie Wuyai’s pupils contracted, and he unleashed a high-level artifact, but as Yun Zheng waved his hand, the treasure he was so proud of shattered to pieces like paper.

The crowd that had surrounded the platform only a moment ago was now critically wounded, collapsed beneath the stage.

Only the Demon Emperor, Lin Jie, remained standing.

The red umbrella was exceptionally striking against the black, rainy backdrop.

He had also seen the golden mark on Yun Zheng’s forehead.

Though he was surprised, he was not entirely caught off guard.

A frivolous smirk curled the corners of his bright lips.

Yun Zheng ignored him entirely.

He withdrew Tianyao, used the blade to sever the chains locking Sheng Muxue, removed his own soaked outer robe, and wrapped it around Sheng Muxue’s corpse, holding him gently in his arms.

At that instant, a muffled rumble of thunder rolled across the horizon once more.

The storm clouds, which had already begun to dissipate, gathered again over Yun Zheng’s head, and thousands of tiny electric arcs followed the mark on his forehead, drilling into his body.

The dark robe covering Sheng Muxue was lifted by the violent wind, revealing the jade pendant Yun Zheng had personally carved for him at his waist.

The pendant had been shattered by the lightning.

The fragments, split in two, vibrated gently in the golden light as if responding to the aura of their master, which was rapidly fading into nothingness.

“You are mine.”

Yun Zheng lowered his head and kissed Sheng Muxue’s forehead, blood and tears mingling with the rain, dripping onto the other man’s lips.

“In life, and in death.”