Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 75
Chapter 75: No Road Back from Bian City (12)
Yin Changli never once loosened his hold on her, continuing to drag her deeper into the depths.
Neither the injuries covering his body nor Xiang Haikui’s words—which stung sharper than blade-scales—could alter the gentle, low cadence of his voice.
“Look at you now, sharp and consumed by rage. Doesn’t this make you look just like my third brother?”
“You saw him in the memory you stumbled into during my dream, back at the Jinling Inn.”
Her head throbbed violently; at this moment, Xiang Haikui had no desire to think about things that had nothing to do with her.
Yin Changli continued to explain on his own.
“After the Shanhai Clan lost the war, he refused to surrender to the Celestial Clan. He was the brother Que Chi devoured.”
The memory was vivid.
Xiang Haikui remembered it now.
“The one who drove us to a dead end back then was the Emperor. He showed Que Chi the path, leading Que Chi to corner us and force our submission. I advised my brother to preserve our strength, that surrendering wasn’t entirely unacceptable. But blinded by fury, my third brother wouldn’t listen to a word. The tone he used to scold me was far fiercer than yours.”
“Don’t try to…”
Sensing he might be setting a trap for her, Xiang Haikui attempted to cut him off immediately.
“In truth, I knew nothing about ‘preserving strength’; I simply didn’t want to lose anything more,” Yin Changli said, giving her no chance to interrupt.
“Besides my third brother, every last one of my kin had died in battle back then. Yet in the end, I failed to convince him, leaving me with absolutely nothing.”
The seawater grew increasingly cold.
Curling his body closer against her blade-scales, he entwined his neck with hers.
He gently rubbed his head against hers—on the spot where her scales were not raised—and whispered softly, “I lied to you before. I told you I killed those eight thousand clansmen who scraped off my scales. I didn’t. I could understand their desperate resistance after losing their homes and clan, as well as their anger at seeing me endure disgrace just to survive…”
As he brought it up, Xiang Haikui suddenly realized that she, too, was scraping away his scales.
She hurriedly retracted her flared blade-scales.
The five senses she had lost due to her demonization seemed to slowly return, the overwhelming stench of blood rushing into her nostrils.
“Little Kui, you stayed by my side for ten years. You ought to know my heart… I can’t even bear to see Mie Mie get hurt. Do you really think it’s possible for me to let you go and watch you walk to your death?”
Yin Changli shifted the topic away from himself.
“To come save you, Lu Xiqiao ignored the backlash of Turbid qi and disregarded my warnings, forcibly raising his cultivation realm. Little Bai right now… must also be trapped in the depths of dire peril. They both wanted to help you. Are they self-righteous as well? Are they in cahoots with the Emperor too?”
Xiang Haikui made a muffled sound in her throat, the power of her demon blood draining away at an accelerating speed.
“If there were a chance you could win—even if it meant perishing together—I might consider not stopping you. But you don’t have that strength yet; you cannot thoroughly exact your revenge… You have already done exceptionally well, Little Kui. If it were me or your master, neither of us would have had the capability to push the Emperor to such an extent.”
A physical injury was nothing.
The Emperor’s current state was nearly identical to Xiang Haikui’s—entirely consumed by wrath and bloodlust.
This was something that had never happened before.
After all, the Emperor was a man indifferent to his very core, yet now he had lost all poise and grace, biting at anyone like a mad dog in an unusually violent rage.
Watching these two madmen go insane together, Yin Changli felt an indescribable bitterness in his heart.
Just as Xiang Haikui had emphasized, this was a matter between the two of them; it had nothing to do with him.
Even attempting to step between them required the utmost caution.
He didn’t even possess the right to stand behind her and support her.
Xiang Haikui stopped struggling, tucking away her blade-scales completely, and remained silent.
Yin Changli fell silent as well, giving her time to regain her composure.
He ceased their descent, holding her tightly as they suspended motionless in the ocean waters.
“Yin Changli! Give her back to me!”
Jing Ran’s voice, imbued with spiritual energy, penetrated through the rolling waves.
Hearing that voice, Xiang Haikui, who had gradually begun to calm down, instantly raised every spine across her entire body like a startled hedgehog.
The sword aura swirled bitterly around them, making Yin Changli’s heart ache with indescribable helplessness.
All his painstaking effort to reason with her for so long couldn’t match a single word from him when it came to stirring her emotions.
The mad intent she had pushed back began rising rapidly once more, but Xiang Haikui fought with everything she had to control herself, refusing to let her mind slip away again.
“Release me,” she negotiated with him.
“Otherwise, you’re going to get hit.”
“It doesn’t matter. He and I… are evenly matched.”
He had just awakened from his slumber, and the Emperor had only recently returned as a reincarnation; originally, they indeed stood on equal footing.
The Emperor had been heavily wounded by Haikui and was far inferior to him, but in the blink of an eye, Yin Changli was injured as well, bringing them back to a deadlock.
Swerving away from the path of Jing Ran’s descent, Yin Changli turned his body and swam upward.
Remaining at the bottom of the sea favored neither of them—both the Emperor’s and his own spiritual energies leaned toward fire.
Besides, he had no idea what the situation was up above; he needed to take a look.
Moreover, with Little Bai and Lu Xiqiao around, their presence would help stabilize Xiang Haikui’s condition.
Yin Changli had no time to sort through his chaotic feelings right now; dealing with the immediate crisis was the top priority.
As long as she could remain stable, he could force himself to stay grounded.
…
Meanwhile, Bai Xingxian and Lu Xiqiao had already carved a path of blood, fighting their way into the Twelve Palaces.
“The Netherfire seed Uncle gave me is way too incredible!” Ever since he forced the Underworld Sovereign back with a single palm strike, Bai Xingxian’s initial shock had transformed into an unprecedented surge of confidence.
He had even channeled the golden Netherfire onto his Tianbao Sword.
In the past, a simple clashing of his twin swords would produce a blinding golden glow of precious artifacts, temporarily dazzling anyone looking at them.
Now, enhanced by the golden fire, the twin swords released arcs of radiance upon impact that scattered like the miniature sun Jing Ran had summoned earlier—scorching and brilliant.
The turbid qi was dispersed by the golden light, and a massive surge of pure spiritual energy billowed out around Bai Xingxian.
The non-celestial warriors called upon by Jin Ying were equally unable to get close to him.
Lu Xiqiao, meanwhile, became the beneficiary.
He had originally been struggling to keep the turbid qi inside his body at bay, but Bai Xingxian was currently like a spring of pure spiritual energy; not only did Lu Xiqiao suppress the turbid qi, but he also took the opportunity to let his cultivation level shoot up even higher.
Complemented by the radiant golden fire, his attacks grew heavier and more brutal with every strike.
“If you had such a powerful treasure, why didn’t you bring it out earlier?”
Lu Xiqiao had never fought so exhilaratingly since the day he was born; all the pent-up frustration in his heart over this period seemed to melt away.
He was almost falling in love with the thrilling pleasure of this slaughter. “Otherwise, Sister Kui wouldn’t have faced such a agonizing battle back in Silversand City.”
“I couldn’t,” Bai Xingxian explained, shaking his head.
“I wasn’t able to pull it out on my own back then. It only appeared when my life was in grave danger. Last time at your place, I only managed to take it out because I sensed that it wanted to come out.”
He thought for a moment.
“Maybe it’s because I reached adulthood. According to my uncle, these past few years happen to be my coming-of-age period.”
“You only just became an adult?” Lu Xiqiao’s mouth twitched.
“I’m a demon! Demons have different adulthood timelines.”
Having fought all the way here, Bai Xingxian was now thoroughly adept at controlling the golden fire.
As he spoke, he delivered a sword strike; accompanied by the golden flame, the sword aura shot like an arrow off a bowstring, piercing directly through the chest of a sneak attacker.
A burst of golden light exploded from the wound, and the light instantly tore the attacker into fragments—without shedding a single drop of blood.
Bai Xingxian recoiled in shock.
He had only wanted to kill the man, not obliterate him so gruesomely into ash!
He felt a sudden hesitation to use this power again.
Bian City was completely submerged in the flames of war, yet Jin Ying had no time to spare for the Shanhai Clan. She kept her eyes fixed on Bai Xingxian from afar.
He watched step-by-step as Bai Xingxian mastered the golden light of the Celestial Clan, moving from clumsy awkwardness to effortless mastery.
Such adaptability proved that this power belonged to him in the first place—it had been forcibly stripped away, and now it was returning home.
Just as Jin Ying drifted off into thought, a loud boom erupted as a gigantic wave surged off the ocean surface.
A colossal form shot up from beneath the water, landing straight onto the ruined remnants of the palace towers.
Upon landing, Yin Changli reverted to human form, his outer feather cloak instantly spreading out to completely cover Xiang Haikui, whom he held tightly in his arms.
Xiang Haikui also transformed back from her flood dragon form.
Her hair was disheveled, her face pale, her lips cracked, and her eyes still retained a thread of blood-red glow—though fortunately, the whites of her eyes were no longer so murky.
“Uncle! Little Kui!”
“Sister Kui!”
Bai Xingxian and Lu Xiqiao immediately flew toward them.
A deafening roar resounded from the sea once again, signaling that Jing Ran was hot on their heels.
Yin Changli handed Xiang Haikui over to Bai Xingxian.
“The sword wound on her chest is extremely severe, piercing straight through. Be careful.”
“I got it.”
Bai Xingxian hurriedly sheathed his sword and took her into his arms with extreme care, doing his best to avoid touching her injuries.
The last time they parted was back at the inn, where they were still fighting over a chicken leg.
Seeing her reduced to this state now, Bai Xingxian’s eyes turned red with tears as he spoke.
Lu Xiqiao rolled up his sleeves, about to rush off and fight Jing Ran with his life, but Yin Changli instructed him: “The Jianmu tree possesses the power of regeneration. Try using your power to help her repair her heart’s meridian.”
“Oh, right!” Lu Xiqiao didn’t actually know how to do it, but since the big shot said he could, he definitely could.
He summoned a small knife. Initially, he thought of slashing his wrist to cut a vein, but that was nothing compared to a heart’s meridian.
So, he sliced the blade directly across his own neck.
“Sister Kui, wait for me! Let me practice my technique real quick, I’ll be ready in a second!”
While transformed into a flood dragon, Xiang Haikui had felt no pain at all, but now that she was human again, the pain felt like dying all over again.
She was on the verge of fainting when Lu Xiqiao’s warm blood splashed across her face, waking her back up from the scalding heat.
Her dry, cracked lips moved slightly, but she swallowed her words back down.
He had already cut himself; stopping him now was pointless.
Xiang Haikui cast a side-eye toward Yin Changli.
He did that on purpose.
Pretending not to understand the meaning behind her gaze, Yin Changli flicked out a scale, which expanded into a barrier of light, enclosing the three of them securely inside.
Turning around, he faced the direction where Jing Ran was descending.
The original fury raging inside Jing Ran seemed to have a bucket of cold water doused over it the moment he laid eyes on the weak, haggard state of Xiang Haikui back in her human form, extinguishing much of his rage.
As a result, for quite a while after landing, his face remained icy cold, and he uttered not a single word.
“How would the Emperor like to fight?”
Yin Changli imperceptibly shifted his position, blocking Jing Ran’s line of sight.
He held two scales in each hand, one black and one white.
The black was divine ability; the white was a divine sword.
Jing Ran’s eyes darkened.
“Yin Changli, there is truly no need for us to escalate things to this point. As long as you hand over the divine artifact to me, I promise you that I will release everyone who is imprisoned, and I will never suppress your kind again.”
Yin Changli ignored him completely.
Jing Ran curled his lips into a slight smirk.
“You have hesitated to use the divine artifact for so long—surely you must have your own misgivings and risks?”
Yin Changli casually toyed with the scales in his hands.
“And yet, who would dare to trust a promise from the Emperor?”
Jing Ran took a step to the side, bypassing Yin Changli to look at Xiang Haikui once more, as if offering a defense.
“No matter how strong that divine artifact is, it can never truly kill me. I resort to such unscrupulous means not for myself, but for the living beings of my Celestial Clan. Even if I deserve to die, do all the people of our Celestial Clan deserve to die as well? You must realize that those celestial people with low Inspiration are no different from ordinary humans.”
Xiang Haikui stared fixedly at him, completely unmoved.
As the movement pulled at his own wounds, Jing Ran took a deep breath and looked back at Yin Changli.
“Even toward your Shanhai Clan, we didn’t wipe you out entirely, did we?”
Yin Changli said in a heavy tone, “That is only because the Emperor lacked the power to eradicate our Shanhai Clan root and branch. Count them up—are the clans wiped out by your hands really so few?”
Just as Jing Ran was about to speak again, he suddenly froze.
His gaze slowly drifted toward Bai Xingxian, his lips trembling slightly, shocked by the faint layer of golden light shimmering around him.
“Big… Big Brother…?”
Bai Xingxian: ?
“Call him Uncle.”
Yin Changli shot a look toward Bai Xingxian.
“I am a fake uncle. He is the real one.”
