[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 71

“Fool.”

Li Xuanci’s brow was tightly furrowed, his curse utterly sincere.

Just from the pain transmitted from the back of his own head, he knew how hard this fool had hit it.

Truly stupid to the core.

Li Xuanci understood perfectly clearly: Shiliu’s soul had been retrieved, and Xuanqing wouldn’t dare provoke him again.

That earlier move was simply Xuanqing realizing he cared nothing for others’ lives and trying to take advantage of Hongluo’s distraction with Shiliu to coerce her into escaping.

Li Xuanci hadn’t been the least bit worried.

Xuanqing had stolen the soul; she absolutely had to die. Early or late made little difference.

Hongluo returning the soul? Li Xuanci felt no gratitude. This mess started because she meddled unnecessarily. Besides, even if Hongluo hadn’t acted, he had his own methods to force Xuanqing to return the soul.

However they wanted to fight was the two fox spirits’ business. If they were truly foolish enough to cross him, it would just mean a bit more effort on his part to run both foxes through with his sword.

He had calculated everything, indifferent to both good and evil, but he had utterly failed to account for the fool in his arms.

Usually lazy and gluttonous, today she had to be uncharacteristically and inopportunely brave. Her consciousness had just returned; she didn’t even have enough breath to curse properly, yet she pushed with the strength to uproot a willow tree.

Li Xuanci felt the large bump swelling on the back of Shiliu’s head, a rare, unconcealable irritation surfacing between his brows.

Meanwhile, He Chong stepped forward, carefully feeling the bump, checking her pupils, examining her tongue by pinching her chin. His expression calmed.

“Should be fine. She’ll probably wake up soon.” Her own senior brother seemed quite composed.

“Brother Shiliu is really alright? That sounded like a really loud thud just now.” Jin Zhan was a good guard, asking what his master wouldn’t voice.

“I checked. Her pupils aren’t dilated, her tongue isn’t obstructing—shouldn’t be a big issue.”

“This isn’t her first time. She was always restless on the mountain, loved running, jumping, climbing trees to steal fruit, and her martial skills were poor. Since childhood, she’s fallen countless times. All of us senior brothers have dealt with her bruises and sprains; we’ve all gained experience. And she still never learned her lesson.” He Chong felt a bit embarrassed for their orthodox Taoist sect’s reputation.

The three of them, plus the still-unconscious Shiliu, lapsed into a brief silence.

Their side had escaped real danger, but not far away, a scene of vivid crimson unfolded. Xuanqing lay on the ground, a large wound in her chest gushing blood continuously. The grey monk’s robe she wore quickly saturated, creating a bizarre yet strikingly beautiful final scene.

Her face melted like white wax in midsummer, constantly shifting. One moment it was a young girl’s visage, the next an utterly ordinary middle-aged man, then a child’s face atop an adult’s body, exceptionally grotesque.

Finally, as if the wax had burned away, a face half-fox, half-human was revealed. She coughed up blood with difficulty, gasping for breath, only her eyes burning with the last of her vitality, fixed on Hongluo standing before her.

Hongluo’s eyes were also on her, complex emotions churning in her pupils like waves. She seemed to want to look away from this miserable sight but ultimately didn’t avert her gaze.

After who knows how long, Hongluo sighed. She condensed a small, golden-glowing crimson flower in her palm, gently blew on it, and sent it toward Xuanqing.

But Xuanqing, barely propping herself up against a pillar, curled her lips into an extremely mocking smile.

“What? Going to include me in your accumulated good karma too?” Xuanqing coughed blood, speaking with difficulty, the sharpness hiding a bitterness.

He Chong noticed this scene and approached. He was still relatively polite to Hongluo but couldn’t help advising, “That’s your cultivated demon power, right? But she’s clearly corrupted in nature and deserves this outcome. You’ve already embarked on the righteous path of cultivation. Why interfere with cause and effect for a demon like this?”

Before Hongluo could answer, Xuanqing laughed, an utterly arrogant laugh mingled with the venting and abandon of all emotions before death.

“Why? Because she owes me!” With that, bloody tears actually streamed from Xuanqing’s eyes.

Seeing Xuanqing’s madness, the guilt in Hongluo’s eyes deepened. Her peerless face showed sorrow, making her seem truly human, no longer so distant.

“She’s right. This is what I owe her.”

“Back during the Lady of Mount Tai’s trial, most of our power was sealed, and we left Qingqiu in fox form to venture out.”

“We were supposed to hide in remote forests, but because I was playful and reckless, a few ruffians discovered us, and we were both captured.”

“Those ruffians tormented and humiliated us. To avoid affecting the trial, we endured it all, waiting for a chance to escape. But once, they took Xuanqing alone. I don’t know what they did, but they provoked Xuanqing into breaking the seal. His demon power went completely out of control. Not only did those few die horribly, but the houses were also burned down, and none of their families survived.” Hongluo closed her eyes at the end, as if recollecting the memory of the overwhelming flames.

“Yes, Daoist Priest, you judge. You say my current state is karmic retribution. What about them? Didn’t those people deserve to die?”

“I was merely carrying out Heaven’s will, yet I was permanently expelled from the trials, doomed to be a wild fox forever. Who will give me justice!”

“If Heaven is unjust, why should I believe in it any longer!”

Leaning against the pillar, Xuanqing seemed to have a final surge of energy. Ignoring the blood continuously overflowing from his chest, he laughed loudly, venting his resentment.

“And you!” He suddenly turned his gaze to Hongluo. “Do you know what those people did to me that day? I am not a female fox, yet they forced me to transform into a woman and then… subjected me to all kinds of humiliation.” At this point, Xuanqing’s voice trembled slightly.

“Clearly, it all started because of you. Clearly, you knew all my suffering, yet you still hypocritically sided with the humans, continued walking your broad, bright path, becoming your celestial fox immortal, and went out of your way to protect those despicable humans!”

“Now you’ve cultivated a human form, while I am forever forced to borrow others’ appearances, a monster neither demon nor human.”

“All these years, have you ever felt a shred of guilt for me when you woke from a midnight dream?”

After saying this, Xuanqing seemed to have used all his strength, even his bloody tears had dried. He just struggled, staring motionlessly at Hongluo.

A clear teardrop fell on the blue garment, spreading into a small circle.

Hongluo opened her mouth, about to answer, but Xuanqing suddenly erupted. Gathering his remaining life force into one strike, he condensed all his demon power into a blade in the void and stabbed toward her.

In an instant, it was before Hongluo. Instinctively, she raised a defense, but this dying strike was too fast and too fatal. The blade was about to pierce her body.

But the next moment, the blade formed of demon power pierced into Xuanqing’s own chest, right through the heart.

Warm liquid splattered on her hands. Hongluo’s eyes widened in disbelief, staring at Xuanqing slumped in her arms.

Xuanqing had seized Hongluo’s defending hand, turned the blade, and helped her deliver the fatal blow into his own heart.

The blood could no longer be stopped. Now, not only Xuanqing but also Hongluo was stained a vivid color with fresh blood.

Xuanqing’s breath rapidly weakened, but his eyes welled up with a satisfied smile.

“Now… cough… you’ve also created karmic obstacles. You can never become an immortal now. You can only be… like me… forever a monster, neither demon nor immortal, with nowhere to belong.”

Xuanqing’s eyes were full of ecstasy, but beneath that ecstasy was a vast whiteness, nothing at all—no joy, no sorrow.

Only an indescribable, faint regret.

His distinctly demonic pupils shone with a final point of light, like a dying candle in the wind, yet he still cast that last bit of light entirely onto Hongluo, who was unconsciously shedding tears.

“You said… you deliberately lost to me in seal practice… but I also deliberately lost to you in swordsmanship practice. See, this last time, I won.”

“And… one last secret… That day… I could have escaped on my own…”

Xuanqing’s breath finally faded completely. His extraordinarily demonic eyes at last turned into lightless stillness.

Leaving only this half-spoken secret.