Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 60
Chapter 60: Fairness
With those words spoken, Xiang Haikui turned on her heel and left.
What the fuck did the race wars of this world have to do with her, and what did the high-and-mighty big shots’ lofty ambitions matter to her either?
She could barely look after herself, with a bone-scraping, heart-piercing blade hanging over her head at every second, yet they kept endlessly blabbering on, telling her to reflect on human civilization and the origin of species?
Cultivating Tian kuang to max level as early as possible and stepping into Joining the Dao herself was her real priority.
Others Joined the Dao to ascend to heaven—just look at the heavens here, ascending up there, were they afraid of not dying fast enough?
When the time came, she was going to cleave open the void, head back to Earth to enjoy her retirement, and let all these trash go play in the dirt!
After she threw those words out, Yin Changli remained relatively unbothered, but Han Qi seemed as though his acupuncture point had been struck, standing frozen for quite a while before calling out to stop her.
“Miss.”
Xiang Haikui halted her steps.
Han Qi smiled with a sigh.
“For such a major matter of principle, is Miss truly going to be so rash? Even if you are an outlander, Miss is still a human…”
Xiang Haikui whirled her head around sharply and barked, “Have you ever treated me like a human?! Before wanting me to agree with you, shouldn’t you first treat me like a damn human being?!”
The sheer sharpness in her eyes gave Han Qi a jolt, causing his smile to gradually freeze on his face.
Yin Changli let out a soft laugh as well—laughing at Han Qi.
Xiang Haikui then looked up at him draped in his feather cloak.
“Are you brain-damaged or something, standing so high up when you’re so sensitive to the cold?”
The smile on Yin Changli’s face gradually faded as well.
Back when he was putting her through intensive training, she would often curse at him for the sake of mad intent, so he had heard it plenty of times.
It was different now.
For him, the dormant period was merely the time it took to sleep, yet this reckless little girl had already been honed sharp as a sword.
Yin Changli did not hold it against her, nor did he fly down from the roof, simply saying, “Miss Xiang perhaps has some misunderstanding.”
Xiang Haikui knitted her brows.
“Brother Han Qi recruited you because he believes you are of use to him, whereas I… do not need it.”
Yin Changli stated his stance clearly, not intending to compete with Han Qi for anything.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Yin Changli switched to a secret voice transmission: “Do not misunderstand. If I were to compete, he would become all the more convinced that he can use you to manipulate me, and would be even less likely to let you go.”
Xiang Haikui uttered an “Oh.”
“Though I could also protect you, I am, when all is said and done, a fugitive who cannot see the light of day. This ship of mine is a bandit ship with no path of return.”
Yin Changli said: “If you wish to stay out of the affair, Han Qi’s suggestion is worth considering. I know Han Qi; he still has boundaries in how he acts. When he realizes he was wrong in the future, he will let you go, and you will be completely free.”
Xiang Haikui nodded.
Yin Changli looked at her quietly: “Han Qi was not wrong about one thing—your cultivation level was forcibly yanked up, and your accumulation of life experience is not yet enough.”
Xiang Haikui asked: “Aren’t you really afraid I’ll be persuaded by him and turn my blade around to deal with you?”
He didn’t reply, merely curving his lips slightly.
Xiang Haikui understood the meaning behind this smile—even Han Qi couldn’t handle him, so what difference would adding her make?
She also came to realize that he wasn’t playing mind games with Han Qi; he genuinely found Han Qi utterly hilarious for actually wanting to use her as a weapon to deal with him.
Han Qi was probably jumping over walls out of sheer desperation.
Xiang Haikui reminded him: “Senior Yin, there was a sentence I didn’t tell you earlier.”
Yin Changli signaled for her to speak.
Xiang Haikui: “The reason Senior Han targeted me is that he feels the key to breaking the curse lay in you falling genuinely for me when you lost your memories.”
Yin Changli smiled faintly: “Did I teach you before that when a person who isn’t fond of lying actually tells a lie, it tricks people most easily?”
He had indeed said so; turns out it was directed at Han Qi.
Xiang Haikui understood: “But…”
She paused for a moment, “I also felt that when you lost your memories, you seemed to have fallen for me.”
Yin Changli’s brows knitted slightly: “Miss should know best that I was merely a sick person previously.”
Having said her piece, Xiang Haikui turned directly around and kept walking.
Out of gratitude, she had merely given him a heads-up; she didn’t want to see that scrutinizing gaze of his, written all over with doubts about whether she was trying to throw herself at him.
Xiang Haikui headed straight for the Lesser Jianmu tower.
City lord Jinling was full of combat power, having handpicked top masters, and was still clashing head-on with Lu Zhengtu.
They had been clashing head-on for so long, yet were still ten thousand leagues away from the lesser Jianmu tree.
Transforming into a small flood dragon, Xiang Haikui bored a hole directly into the tower and entered its interior.
The spiral staircase had been destroyed, so Xiang Haikui carried her sword and flew straight down.
When her divine sense could scope out the scene, she discovered Meng Nanting standing at the door of the cell, while Xiang Tianqing inside the cell was unexpectedly gone.
And right now, Meng Nanting was lifting his head to look upward.
Catching sight of Xiang Haikui, his eyes abruptly went wide.
Without a second thought, Xiang Haikui gripped Tian kuang’s hilt with both hands, leveraging gravity to slash down toward his head.
Meng Nanting seemed exceptionally startled, raising an arm to block.
“Sister Kui, it’s me, Lu Xiqiao—not Meng Nanting!”
With that block of his arm, he actually managed to stop Tian kuang’s sword aura.
He looked at his arm in somewhat disbelief.
“What kind of act are you putting on now?”
Xiang Haikui landed in front of him, Tian kuang pressing down against his shoulder.
“It’s true!”
Lu Xiqiao raised both hands to show surrender, “After I swallowed my elder brother, Meng Nanting suddenly popped out wanting to control me. I was weak back then and got trapped by him; he kept bashing at the protective restriction on my body for a long time, then suddenly stopped just now. I woke up in a daze and took back control of the body.”
“Who are you trying to fool?!”
Xiang Haikui pressed a deep line of blood into his neck, causing him to let out a loud cry of pain.
Previously, Lu Xiqiao had just ascended to the Seventh Grade.
After swallowing Lu Xigu, the dual fruits of good and evil merged into one, causing Lu Xiqiao’s cultivation level to continuously grow—growing visibly to the naked eye until it had reached the Ninth Grade.
In the span of their conversation, Xiang Haikui could feel his strength increasing, which was utterly abnormal.
Who wouldn’t covet such a physical body? Why would Meng Nanting give it up on his own initiative after scheming for so many years?
Once given up, it would be impossible to succeed in body-snatching again.
“If you’re Lu Xiqiao, then where’s Meng Nanting?” she asked.
“I don’t know!” Lu Xiqiao shook his head.
“Did he hide inside your sea of consciousness?” She sized him up on guard.
“I really don’t know, but I’m truly myself,” Lu Xiqiao was almost crying out of anxiety.
“If you don’t believe me, chop me down—if I fight back, I’m a dog!”
Xiang Haikui was indeed a bit unable to tell; this person truly resembled Lu Xiqiao.
Releasing her divine sense to scope around, there were no spiritual energy fluctuations within the vicinity.
Meng Nanting’s group seemed to have withdrawn clean away.
Could it be that they sensed Yin Changli’s arrival?
That shouldn’t be.
Que chi was indeed poisoned, but that bit of poison to a Shanhai Zhuyan was, at most, enough to paralyze his body temporarily.
Now that most of the night had passed, he should have recovered by now.
Meanwhile, Yin Changli had just awakened from dormancy, his cultivation seeming to have only restored by forty percent.
Que chi should have had the strength to fight him, and given that Que chi still wanted to devour him, why would he flee?
Xiang Haikui’s gaze toward Lu Xiqiao remained laced with vigilance.
Pointing her sword at his neck, she drew out a spiritual lock from her storage ring and bound him securely.
“Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
“Follow me up.”
Xiang Haikui thought to herself that Yin Changli and Han Qi should be able to tell whether he was genuine or not.
“Okay.”
Lu Xiqiao suddenly thought of something, “Right, Sister Kui, Brother Bai…”
Xiang Haikui cut him off, “His uncle will handle it; we don’t need to worry about him.”
Lu Xiqiao asked again, “Then, are you here to chop down the tree? I heard them say my tree can only be…”
“No, I’m just here to save you,” Xiang Haikui didn’t dare lower her guard for a moment, “If you really are Lu Xiqiao, that is.”
He fell silent.
And then, in a very faint, tiny voice, he said, “Sister Kui, thank you. Thank you so much.”
Xiang Haikui had saved him many times before, yet he had never thanked her like this.
His own biological brother wanted to devour him, while his father stood by with indifference.
His entire life was a lie; two hundred years lived like a complete joke.
So much so that ever since he woke up, whenever he thought of these things, he didn’t feel the slightest bit of sadness at all.
It was only at this moment that he seemed to gradually come back to life.
…
“Are you really not going to make a bid?”
After Xiang Haikui left, Han Qi walked forward a dozen strides, standing at a suitable distance—neither too far nor too close—and looked straight up at Yin Changli.
“Are you getting old and your memory is slipping?”
Yin Changli raised an eyebrow with a smile.
“Do you need me to repeat it again?”
With his hands behind his back, Han Qi merely raised a single eyebrow, his expression rather amusing.
“You’re not even competing with me for her—this is quite suspicious, Brother Changli. Could it be that you still haven’t realized it yet?”
In his original plan, he had only intended for Yin Changli to develop an imprinting complex toward Xiang Tianqing.
He hadn’t expected that after Yin Changli altered his own destiny, the alteration would end up moving his genuine heart.
Thinking further, Han Qi felt once again that he hadn’t truly won.
Yin Changli still appeared to be a cut above in skill.
Yet inexplicably, it also felt somewhat hilarious.
Yin Changli smiled and said, “You are the one who hasn’t realized it. I haven’t compared myself to you in a long time; all along, I’ve merely been escaping with my life from your hands.”
With a rustle, snow began to fall again over Jinling City, landing on the feathers of his cloak and piling up in no time.
Han Qi watched as he brushed it off with his hand.
He then produced an umbrella and opened it.
“Brother Han Qi, in the past I indeed liked comparing myself to you—it was even more endlessly enjoyable than fighting against heaven itself. I even thought back then that if you and I were of the same clan, we might have become best friends.”
Han Qi revealed a slight trace of melancholy.
“I, too, once thought so. Regrettably…”
“It isn’t regrettable.”
Yin Changli drew back his smile, speaking coldly, “Later on, I realized that we were never on the same path. In this life, even if we were not enemies, it would be impossible for us to become soulmates.”
Han Qi smiled faintly.
“Oh?”
Yin Changli: “You speak so grandly to Miss Xiang, as if everything you do is for the human race, but you’re merely enjoying this sense of accomplishment. Do you possess a heart of benevolence and love for the human race? Never once, have you?”
Han Qi said, “No matter what my motives are, at least our human race is thriving and flourishing today. What wrong have I committed?”
“Back when there were no resources, you still crossed the tribulation and Joined the Dao. You kept yourself clean, yet you forced all future cultivators to shoulder a debt of blood—and all of this was merely to achieve your accomplishment.”
Yin Changli showed utter disdain for him, “To speak bluntly without courtesy, what Dao Ancestor? You’re clearly just a selfish piece of scum. Have you no shame, beguiling a little girl who has barely seen the world?”
Not showing a hint of displeasure, Han Qi pointed a finger at him.
“It’s been a long time since Brother Changli cursed at me so directly. It’s clear you’re extremely dissatisfied with me right now.”
Having said that, the depths of his eyes also turned icy cold, “And what about you? Expending half a lifetime of effort, aren’t you tired of propping up your Shanhai Clan?”
“Back when you surrendered and fled back to your old clan, how did they treat you? Do you need me to remind you again?”
“They struck your name off, one blade per person—a full eight thousand six hundred slashes. They flayed you until not a single scale was left, rendering you unable to even transform into your Zhulong form, yet you are still running around for those savage, lower species. Wouldn’t you say you’re being a glutton for punishment? To speak bluntly without courtesy, what Wise One? You’re clearly an utterly foolish idiot.”
Yin Changli remained silent.
Han Qi sneered, “Yin Changli, as long as you refuse to give up on releasing those warmongers like Qi Yin, the two of us will have to keep fighting to the very end.”
Yin Changli picked up.
“Since we’ve reached this point today, why don’t you and I have a fair fight? Stop playing all these underhanded schemes and tricks—let’s meet on the battlefield, how about it?”
“Oh.”
Han Qi nodded as if suddenly realizing, the falling snow covering his head and making his face appear all the paler, “You’ve been provoking me for so long, but you actually just want me to stay away from Miss Xiang, don’t you?”
Yin Changli spoke against his words.
“If you truly believe she can defeat me, then she can certainly defeat you too.”
“I’ve already said before—I seek nothing but a defeat.”
He patted the snow off his shoulder, his gaze sharp, “Whether it’s either of you, Han Qi seeks nothing but a defeat.”
“I know best how proud you are to your very bones. To vent your anger against me, you’re looking to engage in dual cultivation with her—are you truly willing at heart?”
As Yin Changli spoke, he vanished from the roof, holding his umbrella as he appeared directly in front of him.
“You said earlier that you were standing inside the door while I was standing outside, and I ridiculed you for spouting wild talk…”
Han Qi took a stride forward, advancing toward him as the tension between the two grew palpably explosive, “Whether I am willing at heart or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that for the sake of fairness, I must enter the very same door as you.”
