A Good-for-Nothing

311. Ending (I)

Translator: Dragon Rider

In the Ministry of Supervision, SMB.

The Luohun Bell used to be the most precious asset of Jinguang Temple. It bore some of the Buddha’s sanctity and was the bane of demonic Qi, but the Demonic Seed was so powerful that after a couple of days, the sacred power in the bell was depleted, and a crack had appeared in the wall of the bell.

Li Zong knew that it was about time.

He would calmly welcome his death. He believed that he had arranged for everything to be handled properly, so he did not know how badly his sweetheart, Steamed Bun, would upset his plans in the hospital.

He Zheng, after finding out that this whole thing was a great lie, felt furious, but unexpectedly, he did not lose his temper, and neither did he kick up a stink. He merely slapped his own face hard twice in the presence of Zhu Qi.

Zhu Qi was scared out of his wits by He Zheng’s act. He would rather see He Zheng curse and smash things than see him react like this.

He Zheng was wearing a strait jacket, his face deathly white, and there was tears remaining at the corners of his eyes. He should be cutting a sorry figure, but his eyes were red as though they could swallow you whole. His voice, cold and crisp, sent a chill down his cousin’s spine. “Qi, it’s okay if you don’t want to tell me the truth. Just give me my sword back.”

“Zheng!” Zhu Qi’s eyes also reddened. He raised his hand with the intention to placate He Zheng, but eventually he put it down and said in agitation, “You need to calm down, Zheng. Things are not as bad as you think. Supt. Li is … is still alive. There’s got to be a way to solve it.”

He Zheng repeated, “Qi, give me my sword back.”

When saying this, He Zheng reached a hand backward and placed it on the edge of the balustrade of the balcony. From this spot, he could easily vault the balustrade and jump off.

And He Zheng’s ward was on the ninth floor.

What could Zhu Qi possibly do? How was he supposed to deal with this? He could tell that He Zheng would jump and fall to his death on the spot if he refused to give him the sword. After looking at He Zheng for a long moment, Zhu Qi shook his head and smiled wryly, “I don’t know whether I’m doing you good or harm by making this decision.”

He Zheng, having got Shadow, rushed out of the hospital without another word, storming for SMB.

If Li Zong was still alive, he would, sword in hand, have them tell him his whereabouts. If Li Zong died, selfishly leaving him alone in this world, he would kill himself, which he believed should be enough to infuriate Li Zong back to life.

He Zheng’s eyes were red with rage. He resentfully hit the car door and cursed. “Don’t you dare die!”

The taxi driver, startled by his demented behavior, did not dare say anything and just drove faster.

Chen Qianlin and the others, after receiving a phone call from Zhu Qi, were also thrown into panic. It had never occurred to any of them that this kind of thing would happen to He Zheng. Those memories of his had unmistakably been erased. H–How on earth had he come to recover them?

On Mount Xiwu.

There was a mountain in the far east. Many many years ago, this mountain was called Mount Xiwu. There used to be a spring on it, the water in which was sweet. The mountain was covered by phoenix trees.

The last time that Li Zong had been reborn, he had woken up on Mount Xiwu. And this place which had been the start of all this was destined to be where it ended.

Most ancient fabled beasts had died in mountains or seas, and there were very few still alive.

Watching the peak of the distant mountain coming into view, everybody in the vehicle kept silent.

Mount Xiwu was a different sight now. The spring had dried up, the phoenix trees withered. Without the nourishment of Phoenix Force, this place had some time ago become lifeless.

Zhao Yidi gazed at Li Zong enfolded in the glow of the Luohun Bell for quite a while. Her eyes reddened somewhat.

At that time Li Zong appeared totally normal. He calmly got out of the automobile and said to Elder Chen, “Thanks for the trouble.”

Then he turned to the others and said, “Please go back, guys.”

Li Zong had not made eye contact with any of them from start to finish. The demonic Qi around him was alarmingly potent. Li Zong had to exert himself to suppress Xiangshan whose anger was building up, so he did not notice that there was a hooded figure among the group, who was standing there with his head down, making it difficult for the others to see his face, let alone his expression.

In fact, Li Zong was unable to spare any attention for the others. The longer Xiangshan stayed inside his body, the greater the extent to which the two of them were attached to each other, and the more powerful the demonic Qi in him. Li Zong found that it was getting increasingly hard for him to hold Xiangshan at bay.

Everybody knew what state Li Zong was in, and everybody was forcing themself to keep their cool and not to distract Li Zong.

Li Zong, not inclined to say anything else to them, pivoted around and headed for the depths of the mountain without bidding any of them farewell, without even a backward glance.

This man had always been like this — progressing alone in front of all others.

Tun Shanhai’s eyes instantly reddened. He recalled that Li Zong had once said to him, “When that day comes, I’ll be standing in front of you all.”

He had honored his promise.

Xiangshan, having come to realize what Li Zong was going to do next, failed to restrain himself. He maliciously tried to provoke Li Zong, to evoke Li Zong’s desire and his hidden bloodlust. Li Zong gave no response to any of Xiangshan’s remarks, ignoring the giant shadow behind him which was blustering wildly.

Li Zong’s face was getting paler with every step he took, his breathing becoming heavier. Soon he was panting.

Seen from a distance behind him, he was like a senile man wearily trudging along with a giant shadow in his wake, but his straight back never bent an inch.

Distantly, everybody watched as Li Zong walked into the depths of a valley. The shadow became thin and vague and eventually disappeared from view.

Mount Xiwu had long since become lifeless. There was no vegetation on its surface. Its dark gray ridge was bare, but it seemed to have a kind of thrilling beauty.

Elder Chen let out a sigh and said to those in the vicinity, “Let’s do this.”

Sect Leader Zhang of the Tigers and Dragons Mountain gave a slight inclination of the head, and the remainder of the group also readied themselves. They were going to cloak Mount Xiwu in a protective enchantment. When Li Zong and Xiangshan came to blows, all the demonic Qi would be restrained within the magical barrier, which would not disappear until the last bit of demonic Qi was purged.

This was a kamikaze move. Li Zong had said that even if things went south and he failed to kill the Demon King, he would make sure that the latter never made it out of this place.

When they had done all this, a calm voice came from the crowd. It was cold and brisk and utterly fearless. “Thank you for the trouble, guys.”

A man walked out of the dark, face pallid, eyes reddish, a layer of dead skin on his greenish gray lips, wearing a nondescript short-sleeved T-shirt, sword in hand. It was none other than He Zheng.

Yesterday morning, He Zheng had hastened to SMB and, without saying anything, directly held his sword to his throat and forced Chen Qianlin into taking him to see Li Zong. By sheer luck, he had chanced upon Sect Leader Zhang who had just finished a stint of non-stop cultivation and left the sect to help Li Zong. It had been Sect Leader Zhang who had brought He Zheng to this place.

“You … ” Zhen Daoyuan, standing beside Sect Leader Zhang, was dumbstruck, but soon he came to understand what had happened. In his eyes was heartache and sympathy. At that time Zhen Daoyuan had rejected categorically, but He Zheng had insisted and eventually Zhen Daoyuan had relented.

He Zheng had not seen Li Zong until he had got into the vehicle.

It had been only then that he had finally been reunited with his lover.

The others shifted their attention from their memories to He Zheng and shook their heads. They had bought Li Zong a couple of days’ time to see if they could figure out another way to help Li Zong survive, but after such a long time, everybody was exhausted but still had not found a solution.

He Zheng, his lips pressed together, was gazing in Li Zong’s direction all along. Li Zong was now a certain distance away. He Zheng pivoted around and unhesitatingly gave chase.

“Let’s go.” Elder Chen withdrew his eyes, gave a little sigh and tossed a magical artefact named Jiulong Shenhuo Shade up into mid-air, and with that the whole Mount Xiwu was shrouded in a red enchantment looking like a colossal glass lampshade. Nobody could go through it.

He did this as a precaution. If Li Zong failed to overpower the Demon King, this magical artifact would use dragon flame to burn everything on the mountain to rule out the possibility of the Demon King making a comeback. But because of this, Li Zong and He Zheng stood no chance of getting out … Li Zong had all this planned out. They had no choice but to follow the plan.

When they reached the exit, Zhao Yidi, eyes red, gave an “Eek?” of surprise. “This place is so strange. There seems to be a Dragon Vein (in Chinese geomancy, a dragon vein is a mountain range or similar terrain that is extremely auspicious and brings people living nearby good fortune) starting from this place.”

The place that the sun rose from was called Yanggu. Mount Xiwu was standing opposite the capital city, a long distance between them.

Sect Leader Zhang was momentarily surprised. He twisted his head around to look at Mount Xiwu shielded by the enchantment as an inexplicable look flashed across his eyes.

Li Zong was walking very slow, trailing a giant shadow. He had been under great stress for a very long time, and his nerves seemed to be dissolving bit by bit. The scorching heat building up inside him made the pitch-black gas around Li Zong crackle like log fire.

The shadow began to struggle violently. It glued itself to the spot, refusing to let Li Zong take another step forward.

Demonic Qi swept over, swirling the dust and dirt in the vicinity. A trickle of blood wound its way down from the corner of Li Zong’s mouth as Xiangshan’s bewitching voice muttered constantly in his head.

He turned into He Zheng’s doppelgänger and blocked Li Zong’s path.

Thus Li Zong caught sight of the person he had been longing to see for so long.

The fake Steamed Bun, eyes red, said in a soft voice, “It hurts so bad.”

He was holding his forehead with his hand, tears in eyes, his voice sad and weak, looking like a wounded little cub. Li Zong recalled that this was a repeat performance of He Zheng, with a soul taken away, crying in unbearable pain caused by the loss of his soul.

“I’m sorry,” Li Zong said. Watching the “He Zheng” before him, though aware that it was a fake, he still closed his eyes wearily and made a reply despite himself.

His voice was as hoarse as the sound of abrasive paper rubbing against the ground. It made his scalp prickle.

As Li Zong was distracted, the Demon King, naturally, found an opportunity he could capitalize on. Black gas instantly enfolded Li Zong, whose countenance became icy and looked somewhat scary.