Chapter 648 – No Longer Looking Back

　　Edited by Molly and Ea

　　When Lian Hua said this, he lightly sighed and sat next to Lin Xuanzhi on the cushion. He said, “In my heart, you will always be my unapproachable and incorruptible Shixiong. but he actually had ideas about you. So I got angry and threw him out.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi raised a brow. “Unapproachable and incorruptible?”

　　Lian Hua knew he had made a slip of the tongue, quickly changing his wording and said, “Living clean and honestly.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi said, “To be harmonious as a couple and closely intimate is simply a natural law. Why can I not do so?”

　　Lian Hua looked at Lin Xuanzhi and suddenly smiled and said, “Shixiong, can you still remember when in front of the entire Spirit Sect, Youshan Lingyu confessed to Shixiong?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi paused, seemingly absentminded.

　　Youshan Lingyu tended to be the most self-indulgent of all the disciples, acting unreasonably and impudently following his heart.

　　At that time, Youshan Lingyu had been encouraged by someone. He stood up at the once every ten year Grand Dao Ceremony when it was about to come to the end, signaling he had something to say.

　　Then, in front of the tens of thousands of orthodox Dao cultivators, Youshan Lingyu climbed up the flying boat that he personally refined to flee, holding a magic weapon to amplify voices in his hand, and shouted at Chang Sheng who was sitting on the on the right hand side of Dao Zu.

　　“Shixiong, I like you. I want to dual cutivate with you!”

　　The entire audience was in an uproar. Not to mention that at that time, men who fell in love with each other was a move that went against the heavens. The moral relationship between fellow disciples was also a great obstacle. However Youshan Lingyu did not care. If he liked Chang Sheng, he had to say it, with no care for the occasion. This action of Youshan Lingyu spread across the world in an instant.

　　Youshan Lingyu didn’t hurry to run after he finished saying the words that could make ghosts and gods cry. He was determined to wait for Chang Sheng to give him an answer. He stood on the flying boat, and both his eyes were burning with anticipation, looking at Chang Sheng, who was white as snow and with long hair like ink, he was reluctant to leave.

　　Chang Sheng behaved very indifferently to this unexpected change.

　　He just faintly said, “I am honored by your deep love, however in this lifetime Chang Sheng has already given his body and mind to the Dao and will not touch matters about affection and love. Shidi shouldn’t joke about this again in the future.”

　　Youshan Lingyu opened his mouth and said, “You have all heard. My Shixiong doesn’t want to talk about love. All of you who want to introduce my Shixiong to a predestined marriage under the guise of visiting the mountain shouldn’t waste any more effort. I’m tired of looking at you.”

　　After he finished saying that, before Dao Zu got mad, Youshan Lingyu quickly ran away.

　　However, you can run from a cultivator but you can’t run away from a sect. Even though it was proved that Youshan Lingyu deliberately confessed such a shocking thing in public in order to prevent others from visiting and disturbing Chang Sheng, it still had a bad influence.

　　Soon, Youshan Lingyu was caught by Chang Sheng, and knelt down on the hardest stone in the world for three days and three nights.

　　Lin Xuanzhi thought of the past, but his heart was a little soft. He couldn’t help saying, “The present is different from the past. I really didn’t feel anything about love back then. It was only after I met Ah Hen in this life that I knew this feeling; I just hadn’t met the right person yet.”

　　Lian Hua faintly looked at him and asked, “Back then, did you really believe Lingyu had said those words to block those peach blossoms for you, instead of taking the opportunity to say his thoughts?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi turned to look at Lian Hua and asked nonchalantly, “What do you mean?”

　　Lian Hua continued, “In other words, in the beginning, did Shixiong really not know Lingyu’s thoughts about you?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at the doors of the temple and lightly said, “Didn’t know.”

　　Lian Hua said, “So you can also tell lies. You punished him, not because he acted unreasonably, but because after the Grand Dao Ceremony, he went to the Water Cloud Room where you practiced swords at night, pestering you to tell you about his sincere love. First you refused him, then you had him go to the hardest stone in the world and kneel down to calm down. After that, you went out to travel and then three years later brought back Fenglang.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi did not open his mouth or refute this.

　　Lian Hua lightly laughed and said, “You treat Fenglang very well, and you did everything you should have done. You brought him wherever you went, everyone with a discerning eye could see you were doing it on purpose.”

　　Distancing himself from Lingyu.

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at Lian Hua and said, “How do you know the matter of him seeking me out at the Water Cloud Room at night?”

　　Lian Hua said, “My relationship with him is closer than you think. When Lingyu woke up after his first wet dream, he thought he had wet the bed. He was scared and ashamed to death. It was only when I didn’t see him in morning class andI went to his residence to find him that I found out about this. Lingyu asked me one question at that time, and I knew since then that he had those intentions towards you.”

　　“He asked me why he dreamed of a naked Shixiong embracing him last night.”

　　When Lian Hua thought of the past, he unconsciously started to laugh. The things were still there but the people were different, he felt disappointed again. “From then on, I knew he had you in his heart. Later, what thoughts he had he was willing to tell me, including confessing to you in the Water Cloud Room that day. He also told me that personally, but later, he slowly refused to tell me anything.”

　　Unwilling to talk to him, and unwilling to mention Chang Sheng, was the beginning of his complete defection from the Daoist sects.

　　After a long silence, Lin Xuanzhi just opened his mouth and said, “Say, if I had refused him more gently at the beginning, or guided him slowly, would Lingyu not have done those things in the end?”

　　Lian Hua said, “This is hard to say. Others can never guess Lingyu’s thoughts. Now, things have passed for so many years. We can’t relive the past, so even regret is useless. Chang Sheng, I just want to know, if you met Lingyu one day, would you still kill him?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi said faintly. “When I see him, I just want to ask him one question — Is he still willing to turn back.”

　　“If I am willing to redeem you, are you willing to turn back?” That year, Chang Sheng asked Lingyu this.

　　At that time, Lingyu had already become a Demon Venerable, with millions of troops on hand, and he was preparing to launch the final attack against the top ten sects and the whole Nine Land’s people.

　　Chang Sheng had once seen Lingyu in private. He was not willing to witness people plunge into the abyss, and he didn’t want to see the Nine Lands fall. He prepared his body to be fed to the demons and found Youshan Lingyu. There was already no one who could stop Youshan Lingyu.

　　He was a dual cultivator in demonic Qi and evil Qi, and his cultivation was much higher.

　　Chang Sheng asked him, “You have lost so much, but what you have gotten in return is a devastated mainland. Can you really clearly calculate the value of this account? Is this considered equal?”

　　Youshan Lingyu was dressed in a bloody robe and his dark long hair was spread all over the ground. He smiled brightly and looked at Sword Venerable Chang Sheng who had come alone. He said, “This is rare. My hands are already covered with blood, and you are drifting, floating in doubt in this mortal world. How can you redeem me?”

　　Chang Sheng said, “I will take you to a place without any people and accompany you in penance to bitterly cultivate for a hundred thousand years, chanting sutras for those departed spirits to cross over to and wash away your sins. I can also atone for my own mistakes.”

　　After listening, Youshan Lingyu acted as if he heard a big joke. He lifted up his face and openly laughed.

　　After laughing, he looked towards Chang Shen’s eyes and said, “You don’t even know why I fell to the demonic path or why I started cultivating evil Qi, but you want to persuade me to turn around. What a joke! Cheng Sheng, what sin have you committed? Is it because you failed to fall in love with me, which caused my current madness? There is no such reasoning, there never has been! Not only do you not have to atone for any sins, but even though my hands are dripping with blood, similarly I also owe nothing to these Nine Lands. They are the ones that owe me and they should pay me back!“

　　Chang Sheng slowly sank his eyes.

　　He knew from that time on that he and Youshan Lingyu could never go back. He would never be able to redeem a sinner who never thought he did anything wrong. Chang Sheng went back alone with the answer given to him by Youshan Lingyu.

　　When he left, he never looked back. This farewell was a parting separated by death.

　　But under the circumstances of now, the dust had settled, and the ancient gods that should have fallen had all fallen. Those that should have reincarnated had reincarnated. The people who helped the world and the people who destroyed the world all disappeared into the dust of heaven. When he woke up from a long deep slumber, in his heart one of the most regretful and disappointing things was still that he couldn’t make Youshan Lingyu turn back.

　　If Lin Xuanzhi saw Youshan Lingyu again, he wouldn’t kill him and wouldn’t blame him, but he just wanted to ask if he was willing to go back.

　　Lian Hua said, “What if he is willing to go back?“

　　Lin Xuanzhi said, “Then he is still my little Shidi, and I will make up for the things I owed him in those years.”

　　Lian Hua sighed and said, “These things have never been what he wanted.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at Lian Hua and said, “When I was in the most difficult part of the war, I once thought, if all he wanted was me, what does it matter if I went with him? Only now, I already have Ah Hen, and even if Lingyu overturns the heavens and earth again, I will never betray Ah Hen.”

　　Lian Hua smiled in his heart and secretly thought, I’m afraid that won’t happen.

　　He was rejoicing that Yan Tianhen and Youshan Lingyu were the same person, otherwise, no one would dare to think what the future would look like.

　　“However, in front of Ah Hen, mention Youshan Lingyu less,” Lin Xuanzhi told him.

　　“Do you not want him to know about your past suitors, or do you not want him to know about such an evil person?” Lian Hua asked.

　　“I am not willing for you to embellish it and have him misunderstand and eat vinegar.” Lin Xuanzhi didn’t withhold any feelings and said, “If he wants to know about the matters of Lingyu, I will tell him myself.”

　　Lian Hua nodded and agreed.

　　Yan Tianhen understood Youshan Lingyu so well that if he claimed to know Lingyu the second best in the world, no one would dare claim to be first.

　　However, if Yan Tianhen really pestered Lin Xuanzhi to know about the matter of Youshan Lingyu, that would only be a matter between these two, and he was too lazy to pay attention to it.

　　Lin Xuanzhi said, “In the future, I will be with Ah Hen for a long time, and I also punished you slightly heavily in the hopes that there will be no bad feelings between you.” After all, one was his sweetheart and the other was his only living Shidi, so Lin Xuanzhi naturally didn’t want them to have a bad relationship.

　　Lian Hua smiled and said, “He is a person who doesn’t remember grudges well, he is a child with a bad temper.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi nodded. The things that should be explained had almost been explained. He got up and said, “I still have to continue my secluded cultivation and refine a magic treasure that can accommodate the soul and spirit. Maybe this time, I will be in seclusion for a hundred years, I’ll entrust Ah Hen in your care.”

　　Lian Hua also got up and said, “Shixiong, don’t worry, whatever the appearance of Ah Hen you see now, I will guarantee that he will still be like this when you leave seclusion. Shixiong, what other materials do you need?“

　　Lin Xuanzhi said, “I’ve already found enough of the required materials.”

　　Lian Hua nodded. “Then I won’t bother you anymore. You probably have a lot to say to your sweetheart as well.”