Chapter 55 – Astray Demon Lord’s Son (13 – End)
When the Sword Sovereign arrived, the people at the edge of the intricate formation retreated immediately.
The dim gold light of the formation shone brightly, illuminating the surroundings. The eyes deep within the giant valley wandered restlessly, trying to break through the cracks, but were unable to escape, becoming visibly more anxious.
The man standing with a sword in the center of the formation had blurred features, unaffected by the swirling strong winds.
The frantically moving eyes gradually quieted down.
The situation seemed favorable, and the figures standing on the nearby mountains showed smiles on their faces. However, one person couldn’t smile. He looked up at the still circling dense clouds, his expression far from relaxed.
After a brief silence, a massive tremor emerged from deep underground. Suddenly, a pair of white eyes abruptly penetrated through the cracks, with jagged horns pressing directly against the formation.
Some of the runes on the formation began to break, and darkness slowly spread from the edges of the formation inward.
The person in the intense light swung his sword, stopping the further spread of darkness.
The two sides were at a stalemate. Those watching from afar could not intervene and could only watch in silence.
The Sword Sovereign was not just a title but a special identity, representing top-tier strength and the only person capable of sealing the Great Demon. This ability was exclusive to successive Sword Sovereigns. No matter how anxious the others were, they couldn’t help in any way.
The current deadlock already hinted at the outcome.
The Great Demon was ageless, uninjured, and immortal; the only way to deal with it was through sealing. Sealing required absolute power to suppress, and now both sides were equally matched, with neither able to achieve absolute suppression. The final result was inevitable.
With one of his three souls missing, sealing the Great Demon was still too challenging for the current Sword Sovereign.
In the crowd, the Elder of the Medicine Valley withdrew his gaze and said, “I’ll go back to the sect to check.”
All the sect’s elders had gone out, leaving the disciples for too long. Even they must be feeling uneasy.
The crowd remained silent, with only the sound of the wind and the leaves.
On the precipice.
Watching the grand formation being gradually consumed by darkness, Chen Luosong slowly slipped the short blade into his sleeve, facing the wind.
Zhou Ji stood behind him, unable to see the actions of the person in front but sensing the increasingly dangerous atmosphere around him. He stepped forward and said, “We should leave…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the person in front suddenly turned around, reaching out to encircle his neck.
A sudden hug, warmer in the cold wind around them.
This was not their first embrace, but it was the first time this person had initiated it.
The familiar bitter medicinal scent and a faint pleasant fragrance filled his nose. He could feel the gentle touch of long hair brushed by the wind against his cheek. Zhou Ji’s pupils trembled slightly, and an inexplicable feeling of sourness surged up, overwhelming his eyes and nose.
He had seemed to wait for this hug for an incredibly long time. It wasn’t just these past few years, but much longer. This anticipation felt like it had spanned countless time and space, now finally becoming a reality, almost too surreal to be true.
It made one want to sink into it, wishing time would forever stay in this moment. In the ever-blowing wind, he heard the other’s voice:
“Zhou Kaiji.”
But the name he called out wasn’t his own.
Slowly, Chen Luosong took out the short blade from his sleeve. His light-colored pupils reflected the cold gleam of the knife as he said:
“If you want to meet again, then wake up.”
If he couldn’t wake up, this would be their last meeting.
“What are you say—”
Zhou Ji could vaguely feel the person in his arms moving, but he didn’t know what the other was doing. His heart gave an inexplicable throb. Mid-sentence, he heard the sound of a blade dropping to the ground, and the person in his arms suddenly became heavier. The hands that had been around his neck slid down.
A warm sensation spread on one side of his shoulder. He looked down and saw the white robe stained red.
The smell of blood replaced the bitter medicinal scent and faint fragrance.
In an instant, a bright light emerged from the distant grand formation.
The light was dazzling, visible even inside the main hall of the Medicine Valley.
The Elder looked up, puzzled, as he heard a sound behind him. Turning to follow the noise, he saw Qi Ming collapsing into the crowd, who had been searching for someone from the very beginning.
The people around initially thought he had just fainted, but when they reached out to check his pulse, they were shocked to find it had already stopped.
The previously solid body gradually became translucent, revealing the figure of someone standing beside him.
The main hall doors were suddenly flung open, and another Elder almost burst in. At the moment the person on the ground vanished, the Elder exclaimed, “It seems the Sword Sovereign’s love tribulation has been broken!”
A person suddenly collapsing, a love tribulation unexpectedly overcome.
—The Elder recalled the conversation he had earlier in the mountain courtyard with the person holding a teacup.
There are two methods to break a love tribulation. One is for the person experiencing the tribulation to see through it themselves, and the other is for them to personally kill the object of their tribulation. If they cannot do it themselves, using an object closely associated with the tribulation bearer to kill the other person will have the same effect.
In an instant, he was outside the hall, his toes touching the ground before he leaped into the air. He looked in the direction where he had previously sensed the demonic cultivator departing and swiftly moved forward.
Landing on a large rock amidst the rising wind, the Elder saw the figure standing on the precipice.
A blood-stained short knife lay on the ground. The person holding another in his arms had eyes filled with near-collapse blood-red pupils, standing quietly without any movement.
Unexpected, yet within reason.
The promise to obtain herbs from the extreme north of the demon realm, followed by the sudden disappearance and then the mysterious reappearance of the demon sect’s royal family, who passed through without doing anything.
All these events connected, and the situation gradually became clear.
So, this was how it was.
Mist surged through the mountains, brilliant light shone, and the black clouds above, riddled with holes, quickly dissipated.
The Great Demon retreated back into the giant valley, the grand formation merged into the thousand mountains. The Sword Sovereign stood in the eternal sky, his golden eyes seeming to sense something, looking towards the precipice.
The sky cleared, and the blazing sun shone on the solitary pine.
——
“…Mr. Chen!”
When consciousness returned, Chen Luosong opened his eyes to see the room filled with people.
These were the bureau’s staff, who would only appear in special circumstances.
Sitting quietly on the chair for the routine EEG check, he lowered his eyes and slowly touched his neck with one hand.
At that time, there wasn’t enough time. Any actions within Zhou Xiaoji’s line of sight would have been stopped, so he had to act during the closest and most inconspicuous moment.
He hoped he hadn’t scared him.
After the routine check, the people around him looked at him but didn’t say much. Finally, they said, “After this task, Mr. Chen, take a few days off. The subsequent matters will be arranged by the higher-ups.”
All previous tasks had been completed with a 100% success rate. This was the first time he had terminated a mission early and in such a manner. They didn’t know what to say, so they tried to say as little as possible.
Chen Luosong lowered his hand from his neck, smiled, and agreed, then thanked them.
He could still manage to smile under such circumstances, leaving the others unsure of his emotions. They could only watch him stand up and walk straight out of the room.
After leaving the building, Chen Luosong went to the hospital as usual, accompanied by a doctor specifically assigned to this case.
Standing outside the double-layered glass window of the ward, he turned to the doctor and expressed his desire to go inside and have a look.
He usually just sat outside the glass window for a while and left shortly after. This was the first time in a while that he asked to go inside. The doctor was momentarily surprised, then nodded and reminded him while opening the door, “You can stay for a maximum of one hour. Please make the most of the time.”
Chen Luosong thanked him and walked into the ward.
The room was very quiet, with only the sound of machines running. He sat down on the chair beside the bed, leaned forward slightly, propped his face with one hand, and looked at the person lying in the bed.
The person on the bed had their eyes closed. He didn’t speak, and the room remained as quiet as usual.
In the absolute silence, the passage of time was hard to notice. It wasn’t until he heard a slight tapping on the window that Chen Luosong turned his head and saw the doctor standing outside the glass, accompanied by a man in a suit.
He got up and left the ward.
After he came out, the doctor checked the ward again. After closing the door, the doctor didn’t stay long, leaving with the documents that still needed to be processed.
Chen Luosong looked at the man beside him.
The man, Yu Wen, carefully observed his expression and said, “I heard about the situation from the people at the bureau.”
He asked, “What do you plan to do next?”
He didn’t mention the consequences of dying during the mission, knowing the other was aware and there was no need to elaborate.
Instead of answering his question, Chen Luosong asked, “Why are you here?”
“I guessed you would come here,” Yu Wen replied. “Will you continue to stay where you are now?”
Unable to undertake frontline tasks anymore, the bureau would probably arrange for him to transfer to another position. Given his abilities, he would likely be assigned a good post.
Chen Luosong simply said, “No.”
Yu Wen had expected that.
He had joined the bureau solely for the person in the ward. Once he lost that goal, there was no longer any reason for him to stay.
Two years ago, his company, Myriad Creations, collaborated with the Bureau to merge research based on neural and deep consciousness with the various worlds managed by the Bureau. Using special methods, they transferred people’s consciousness into books, allowing intelligent analysis to select suitable roles. Through a series of developments, they stimulated people’s nerves, attempting to use cumulative stimulation to awaken them.
However, people with autonomous consciousness would never completely follow the predetermined directions of the book. Some people’s actions would cause the world lines to deviate, leading to the collapse of the world.
In such cases, the collapse of the world equated to the collapse of a person’s consciousness, a very dangerous situation. The system would analyze the situation based on the data, and if there was a possibility of world collapse, it would send other people in to correct the situation before it happened.
Zhou Kaiji, who had been in a coma due to a car accident, was also selected for the collaboration plan, and Chen Luosong became the one responsible for corrections.
But the correction career ended today.
Yu Wen asked, “If he never wakes up, what will you do?”
Chen Luosong loosened his tie, smiled, and said, “Wait.”
