Chapter 254

The fragments of memory were like flickering light and passing shadows* frequently occurring in front of the eyes. They were near or far, dense or thin, round or waning. Suddenly, there was a layer of hazy vapour. Those images were hidden behind them as if separated by a layer of thick fog that couldn’t be penetrated no matter what. They became grey, misty, wet, cold, and gradually became unreal and out of reach.

During the good times, they were extremely close and could hand over their lives to each other. During the bad times, they hated each other to the guts and hurt each other as much as they could. They were in a tangle for two lifetimes. They couldn’t figure out how to settle this rotten account.

The distortion of fate dragged them together again and again, and the invisible karma bounded them up layer upon layer. It seemed that they couldn’t be separated, so they could only play games in every inch of their heart, and they always suffered in the end.

"Big brother...came to save me..." Fan Wu She murmured. That fleeting tone was like sleep-talking, even he did not dare to believe it.

"I'm here." Xie Bi An hugged Fan Wu She’s shoulders tightly, so tightly that even he was encircled by the black death aura. He seemed to feel the impact of the flourishing Yin energy on his internal organs. It was like some kind of invisible, tasteless, but pervasive poison, which turned his soul into a hotbed that bred fear and hatred. If a person’s original heart was full of darkness, it would be a thousand times easier to stimulate them out.

Xie Bi An was secretly frightened. Even if Fan Wu She's purpose was impure, he was helping himself in the end. If he was allowed to be manipulated by his inner demons, he would only do whatever he wanted and would soon turn into, no, turn back into the real Supreme Demon. He must never let that Supreme Demon come back again.

Fan Wu She raised his arms and carefully hugged Xie Bi An. His vigor was gradually weakening, but he was still full of uneasiness and doubt: "...Is it really you? Big brother, is it you?"

"It's me. Look carefully, it's really me."

Fan Wu She did not let go of his hands. His body slightly leaned back and was gazing deeply at Xie Bi An, as if he wanted to find a flaw in his facial features. His eyes gradually brightened because a thin layer of water vapor emerged on them. He whispered: "I’m dreaming again. I always have this dream, dreaming that you are coming to save me."

Xie Bi An felt as if a knife was piercing his heart: "It’s not a dream. This is not a dream now." Fan Wu She indeed deserved all the punishments he had experienced in the Infernal Hell. This man's past and present sins were enough to bear the harshest punishment and retribution in the world, but even if he knew this truth, he could not stop his heartache. He was going to be heartbroken because he had seen the innocent and clean Xiao Jiu before. No one was born guilty.

"I'll wake up from the pain immediately, and then you'll disappear again and again." Fan Wu She raised his hand and slowly caressed Xie Bi An's face. The black death aura in his eyes receded slightly.

"This time it's not a dream. I won't disappear either." Xie Bi An held Fan Wu She's hand and held it with force, "Look at me properly. Look at big brother. You don't have to be tortured anymore, and you don't have to be manipulated by an object."

Fan Wu She traced Xie Bi An's face over and over again with his gaze, repeatedly confirming whether he was in another torturous dream or not. It was not until the person he missed so much did not disappear and he confirmed that the temperature of his fingertips was real did he speak with a shudder, "Big brother, it's really you."

Xie Bi An said in a hoarse voice, "Xiao Jiu, big brother has come to save you."

When he was the eldest prince in his previous life, he took the two words "big brother" very seriously. The eldest brother was like a father. His younger brothers and sisters respected him as their big brother, so he must set an example. If he couldn’t protect his younger brothers and sisters, how could he afford to be a "big brother"? In the end, his younger brothers and sisters either died or were exiled, and the youngest brother, who was the most precious to him, fell into diabolism and was doomed eternally.

But now he had a chance to save his ninth brother. His outstretched hand could also pull himself out of the abyss.

Fan Wu She stiffened, and tears suddenly rushed down. The pearls sprinkled onto the jade plate and made a sound with every grain. They smashed on the back of the hand, the lapel, the ground, and the heart. These glittering tears washed away the dirt clearly. The evil black blood vessels in his eyes were washed clean, and his eyes were black and white again, as bright as the stars in the sky.

There were strong arms hooping around Xie Bi An in a tight embrace. How could he let go of the driftwood when he was about to drown? He kept sobbing and crying out “big brother’ like a child, as if he was going to pour out a hundred years of pain and grievance at the same time with each sound: "I've always been waiting for you, big brother. I've always been waiting for you. Always been waiting for you."

In the darkness, at the end of the road, at the bottom of the abyss, he knew there was only one person in the world who could save him. He had always been waiting for his big brother.

"I'm here, big brother came late, but I'm here." Xie Bi An closed his eyes and wept. Vicissitudes and sorrow spanning a hundred years were written on his jade-like cheeks. But when he opened his eyes, the pupils were shining, and he was determined to find a way out of an impasse.

Fan Wu She's emotions gradually calmed down. He let go of the arm that had tightened Xie Bi An to the point of pain, and turned his head to look at the messy Mo Shang Cun, who was tied to the black dragon pillar.

Mo Shang Cun, who was barely breathing, naturally couldn’t sustain the polymorphism for a long time. At this time, he had returned to his original appearance. The fresh blood and chopped meat flowed along the dragon pillar into the canals on the ground, and finally into the blood pool. He looked at the two and wanted to act sarcastically, but he had been tortured until he had no strength.

Fan Wu She put all the magic treasures into his qiankun bag, drew his sword, and put it against Mo Shang Cun's throat: "Tell me where he is and I'll give you a quick death."

"You...swear."

"I swear...."

"Swear…on your big brother..." Mo Shang Cun spoke weakly.

Fan Wu She looked at him grimly, paused for a moment, and said, "I swear on my big brother, if you hand over Lan Chui Han, I will give you a quick death."

Xie Bi An secretly sighed in relief. He lowered his head to conceal and wiped the tears from his face.

Mo Shang Cun made a great effort to raise his head and look at the little ghosts who were hiding under his throne and said trembling, "Go and...bring that living person."

Fan Wu She used the Shanhe Sheji Map to unlock the front door of the cave and the little ghosts were about to go after receiving an order.

"Wait." Fan Wu She looked at those little ghosts coldly, "If you dare to disclose what happened in this torture room, I will hang you on the dragon pillar one by one."

Only when the little ghosts waved their hands and kowtowed for mercy in a hurry did Fan Wu She let them out.

Fan Wu She turned and looked at Xie Bi An. The ruthlessness in the previous moment had disappeared. There was a little hesitation, a little embarrassment, a little invitation of taking the credit for his achievement on his face, and a twinkle in his eyes.

Xie Bi An said with a calm expression: "You did the right thing."

Fan Wu She was still as happy as when he received praises from his big brother when he was young. His dangerous life throughout the year had taught him to cover up his feelings. Only in front of this person would he always expose his real feelings.

Not long after, a few little ghosts carried in an unkempt and withered-looking man.

"Brother Lan!" Xie Bi An ran over, unable to believe for a moment that the person in front of him would be the high-spirited world's number one Lord, Lan Chui Han.

Lan Chui Han’s body had no obvious injuries, at least not a drop of blood was seen, but he was incredibly thin. His cheeks were deeply sunken. His clothes and hair were dirty and smelly. He opened his eyes, but there were no people or objects in his eyes. His eyes were cloudy, grey, and listless, as if they could not show a trace of light.

"Brother Lan, what-what’s wrong with you?" Xie Bi An did not even dare to touch Lan Chui Han so easily, afraid that the slightest force would break the bones wrapped in the layer of skin. Lan Chui Han's grey eyes were even more alarming to him. What kind of torture did a person have to suffer to become a walking corpse?

Fan Wu She looked at Lan Chui Han thoughtfully.

Xie Bi An injected his spiritual energy into Lan Chui Han's body and checked his internal organs and spiritual veins one by one. He found them to be very weak, but there was no obvious injury. He asked anxiously, "Brother Lan, can you still recognize me? Can you hear me?"

"He was always locked up in the 'Chamber of Nightmares*’." Fan Wu She glared at Mo Shang Cun. Although it was a question, the tone was affirmative.

"It was the Red King who locked him in."

"What is the 'Chamber of the Nightmares’?" Xie Bi An said anxiously.

"A torture room in the Infernal Hell that allows one to keep seeing their most painful memories repeatedly." Fan Wu She's eyes were dark and gloomy, "That was the punishment I was most afraid of." He was forced to watch his big brother die in his arms repeatedly. If not for Mo Shang Cun's bloodlust and his lack of love for these criticizing games, it would have been impossible for him to survive a hundred years and keep a conscious mind.

"The most painful memories..." Xie Bi An felt an oppressive pain and had already guessed what Fan Wu She saw from the sudden distortion of his face, but what did Lan Chui Han see? Lan Chui Han had brilliant talents and a comfortable life. If it wasn’t for the world’s chaos, he would have had a smooth life. What painful memory could he have? Unless…

"What Jiang Qu Lian showed him should be the memories of his previous life." Fan Wu She looked at Lan Chui Han, who was like a living dead person, "The Chamber of Nightmares can destroy the will of a person. If one stays inside for a long time, one will either go crazy or become like this."

Xie Bi An felt extremely upset. He looked at Mo Shang Cun: "What did you make him see?"

Mo Shang Cun spat out the blood that welled up to his throat: "It's not that…I let him see anything...The nightmares…were projected from his own...memories..."

"Did Jiang Qu Lian just keep him locked inside? Did he say anything?"

"You have to ask him..." Mo Shang Cun gasped intermittently, "Kill...me. Kill me...”

Fan Wu She narrowed his eyes and was unwilling, but he was forced to swear on his big brother. Even if there was only a little taboo, he couldn't ignore it as long as it was related to his big brother. He threw out his soul-hooking chain. The chain sickle stabbed straight into Mo Shang Cun's chest. A spiritual light flashed. Mo Shang Cun let out a mournful scream, and cracked lines appeared on his body. The last light flowed out from the cracks and then smashed into a fine powder with a loud bang.

Mo Shang Cun's soul was scattered under the attack of the soul weapon, and he no longer existed in the universe.

Xie Bi An wanted to pick up Lan Chui Han, but Fan Wu She took over: "Let's go."

After the two walked out of the stone cave, Fan Wu She used the Shanhe Sheji Map again to seal the stone door of the torture room, so that the outside world would not know what happened here for a short while. When Jiang Qu Lian returned, a few hours would have already passed.

They rode in the skeleton carriage and returned the way they came. King Qinguang's trusted subordinate also came out to meet them at the right moment. With an official document and Cui Jue's Judge’s token, they succeeded in taking Lan Chui Han out of hell.

After leaving hell, Xie Bi An thought that if Jiang Qu Lian didn't come back, they would try to think of a way to rescue Cui Jue and the others. Moreover, the most important purpose of their trip-----the Book of Life and Death, had not been successful. They should wait for Jiang Qu Lian to come back, but Lan Chui Han’s situation was not optimistic. Such a weak body could not continue to remain in the Underworld. After weighing the pros and cons, they decided to return to earth first.

Returning to earth from the Underworld is much more difficult than coming in. The steadiest way out was naturally from the Yin Yang Monument, but the Yin Yang Monument was not a place they could muddle through by pretending to be dead people. The Yin Yang Monument was a checkpoint connecting the two worlds. In order to prevent the living from entering randomly, they were born with the ability to be distinguished between life and death. No one could disguise it, not to mention that they also brought Lan Chui Han who couldn’t take care of himself. After thinking about it, they could only break through with force, but now they could not alarm the enemy.

In the end, it was Day Patrol who helped them again.

Day Patrol had been patrolling both the human and ghost worlds for hundreds of years together with Night Patrol. They were Cui Jue's two "eyes" for observing the world. During this period, he found many cracks in the boundary. Some of those cracks were naturally formed due to special land formations and magnetic fields. Some were formed due to the extreme fluctuations of spiritual energy and resentment because of previous great wars, which damaged the formation of the boundary. Some were torn open by people or ghosts with evil intentions. Most of the time, these cracks would cause lonely and wild ghosts to wander the earth and harm people, while a few humans will take advantage of these cracks to go to Mount Luofeng for Yin cultivation because Mount Luofeng in the Underworld gathered a huge amount of spiritual energy, which was beyond the reach of any cave on earth.

And the Patrols’ mission was to find out all the things that violated the laws of the Underworld and report them to Cui Jue, who would handle the cases impartially, such as those cracks, which had to be repaired constantly, and those people and ghosts who took advantage of the cracks to seek personal gains had to be arrested and punished. However, some naturally formed cracks would still leak after being mended several times. Almost no one knew about those places except the Patrols.

Day Patrol found this kind of crack for them. With a little force, it split again.

Xie Bi An thanked Day Patrol once again and discussed the next step with him---- settle down Lan Chui Han, find the Golden Trunk Jade Policy, then go back to the Underworld to defeat Jiang Qu Lian and save Cui Jue and the others. This was also what Day Patrol needed to convey to Cui Jue.

The two of them took Lan Chui Han and crawled back to earth through the crack.

The other side of the boundary was actually underwater. Although they both knew how to swim, Lan Chui Han could not hold his breath, so he let the lake water go into his body.

The two of them dragged Lan Chui Han up to the surface as quickly as possible, but he had already drunk several mouthfuls of water and lost consciousness.

On the shore, Xie Bi An laid Lan Chui Han flat on the ground and pressed hard on his chest. After dozens of times, Lan Chui Han choked out the water. He kept coughing. His thin and bony chest was heaving so violently that they were worried whether he would break his sternum from the coughing.

But under this stimulation, he also seemed to "wake up".

Xie Bi An carefully caressed his back and called out softly, "Brother Lan, are you feeling better?"

Lan Chui Han slowly turned his neck to look at Xie Bi An. His gaze was blank and dull.

"Do you still remember me?" Xie Bi An looked at him worriedly, "What else do you...remember?"

Lan Chui Han fell weakly to the ground like a fish out of water. He was breathing weakly, as if breathing was the only thing he could do.

"He probably did not drink a drop of water for days." Xie Bi An said dully, "Even though the people who cultivate immortality can abstain from eating, they can't tolerate fighting against the nightmares when they are abstaining. If they were ordinary people, they would have starved to death."

"Jiang Qu Lian seemed to have a really deep hatred by torturing him like this." Fan Wu She said.

Xie Bi An sighed with a deep feeling, "We don’t know where we are now. Let's find a place to settle down first."

----

The location of the crack was actually in the west and closer to the outside of the Pass. The local customs and practices here were a little different from the Central Plains. Although the two entered the city after dark, they were dressed as foreigners. They couldn’t help but attract some attention.

They found the nearest inn and stayed there. Lan Chui Han’s situation was extremely bad, so they should settle down first, save his life and adjust his foundation, then return to the Central Plains and go to Chunyang Sect to recuperate.

Xie Bi An fed Lan Chui Han a top-quality pill. The two of them injected spiritual energy into his body at the same time, repairing his internal organs and eight extra-meridian channels.

After 10 hours, Lan Chui Han's breathing was more fluent and his face was a little rosy, but he still looked like he was half asleep and half awake.

Xie Bi An ordered the waiter to boil a bowl of porridge, and tear the meat into thin strips and sprinkled it in. He then fed him one bite at a time.

But Lan Chui Han seemed to have lost the ability to eat. Even the pill was broken into pieces and stuffed into his mouth with force. This bowl of porridge couldn’t be fed to him no matter what.

Fan Wu She looked at Xie Bi An's patient appearance and got annoyed first. He pasted a puppet talisman on Lan Chui Han's back and ordered him to open his mouth to eat.

Xie Bi An was just about to object, but when he saw that Lan Chui Han had really started to eat, he could only follow this unwise decision.

After settling Lan Chui Han, the two of them were already physically and mentally exhausted. The three days of infiltration into the Underworld were extremely tense and they were always on high alert. They didn’t even have time to close their eyes, let alone eat or drink. Fan Wu She laid a boundary in Lan Chui Han’s guest room, and he coaxed and dragged Xie Bi An to the guest room next door.

"Big brother, you also need to eat and sleep."

Xie Bi An sat at the table supporting his forehead with his hand, looking extremely worried: "I know. Let me be alone first."

"... Is big brother tired, or do you not want to face me?"

Xie Bi An raised his eyes, looked at Fan Wu She, and said wearily, "What if I say it is both?"

"If you are tired, just rest. If you don’t want to face me, I am also not in a hurry. The future is long*, you cannot always escape."

"Alright, you go out then."

"Just sleep. I'll sleep on the floor." Fan Wu She routinely took out the bedding and put it on the floor.

"..."

After Fan Wu She laid down, he stared at Xie Bi An again, urging him with his gaze to hurry up and get some rest.

Xie Bi An had no alternative but to lie on the bed with his clothes on, but his mind was in turmoil, so how could he close his eyes peacefully? "Will Brother Lan get well? Where do we start to find Xu Zhi Nan and the Book of Life and Death? I don't know if Jiang Qu Lian has returned to the Underworld."

"Big brother, these problems can't be solved overnight. You are too tired. Close your eyes and have a good sleep. When you wake up, no matter what it is, we will face and solve it together."

Fan Wu She’s words inexplicably had some reassuring power. Xie Bi An looked at the bed-curtain in a daze for a while, and then closed his eyes. He knew that everything that happened in the Infernal Hell was against his will. This experience changed something, but it didn't change completely, and he didn't know how to face Fan Wu She after they escaped.

Some things will not have an answer after waking up. Some things do not necessarily have an answer after passing through life and death. The answer always needs him to pursue unceasingly.

 

----

nightmares* [心魇]---心魇 is equivalent to inner demons 心魔. But if I use inner demons in certain phrases it'll sound quite weird, so I stick to nightmares

flickering light and passing shadows*[浮光掠影]--- blurred scenery

the future is long*[来日方长]- there will be ample time for that later

 

Edited on 4 July 21 (Emzie)

 

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