In an instant, the hand that had emerged from the Space-Time Gate
of Life and Death pulled Xu Shuanglin into another universe.
Nangong Si made to pursue, but it was impossible. The instant Xu
Shuanglin crawled through that rift in the heavens, it sealed itself with a
bang. All that remained in the night sky was a drifting scrap of Xu
Shuanglin's hem that hadn't made it through the Gate. The slip of fabric
fluttered down through the stillness and landed on the lake, where the white
cloth quickly soaked through and sank below the water's surface.
"How," Mo Ran muttered. "How could someone have mastered the
Space-Time Gate of Life and Death?" As Taxian-jun in his past life, he
knew better than anyone the three forbidden techniques: the Zhenlong
Chess Formation, Rebirth, and the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death. The
first two forbidden techniques were exceedingly difficult to learn, yet it was
not unheard of for some in the cultivation world to master them. Mo Ran in
the past life and Master Huaizui in this one were two such examples.
Historical accounts of the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death, on the
other hand, were passing few. The most recent was a tale from thousands of
years ago, in which a grandmaster cultivator lost his beloved daughter and,
heartbroken, opened the forbidden gate to retrieve his daughter from
another universe and bring her back into his own. Unfortunately, his
counterpart within the other world discovered him. He, too, was a father.
How could he allow anyone—even himself—to wrest from him his beloved
daughter? As the two squared off, fighting to kill, the space-time rift
warped. In the end, their daughter was swept into the gap between worlds
and reduced to dust.
Upon his return, the cultivator, rent with grief, sealed the forbidden
technique scrolls within the Flame Emperor's sacred tree. The vast river of
time flowed onward, and he became the last person to fully master the
Space-Time Gate of Life and Death. No one had witnessed this forbidden
technique performed in centuries, and present-day cultivators had grown
increasingly skeptical that such a technique, able to distort space and time
itself, had ever existed in the first place.
In the past life, however, Mo Ran had gotten hold of a fragment of
those ancient scrolls. Drawing on his own boundless cultivation, he had
succeeded in opening a small rift of a similar nature. But that rift crossed
only space, not time, and it was far from stable. Mo Ran had tossed a rabbit
into the gap, intending to send it thousands of miles away. The rabbit was
indeed transported—but on account of the rift's instability, the creature
emerged inside-out. Its organs were exposed, and its skin and fur had been
sealed within. What was left amounted to no more than a scrambled lump
of gore, its small heart still beating…
Mo Ran experimented with the technique many more times after that,
but five or six attempts in a hundred would go horribly wrong. Sometimes
the body would be mutilated, torn to pieces. Sometimes the brain would
emerge right away, but the rift wouldn't disgorge the rest until an hour later.
Even these mediocre results had been sufficient to make waves in the
cultivation world. Many believed that Mo Ran had uncovered and mastered
the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death. But Mo Ran himself remained
uncertain. He had no firsthand experience of this forbidden technique, last
used thousands of years ago. But if the records were to be believed, the
technique he had cobbled together was nowhere close to the genuine Space
Time Gate of Life and Death.
Chu Wanning soared across the surface of the lake and plucked that
scrap of Xu Shuanglin's robe from the water. Closing his eyes, he carefully
probed its residual spiritual energy.
He let out a breath, but his face was written with worry. Chu Wanning
shook his head. "It's not a complete Space-Time Gate of Life and Death.
Whoever created it has only mastered part of the ancient scroll. Judging by
the spiritual energy on this fabric, it's merely a Space Gate, not a Space
Time Gate."
"What does that mean?"
"It means there's still a great difference in power between the
technique we just witnessed and the real first forbidden technique," Chu
Wanning replied. "I can sense that the remnant spiritual energy has only
traversed space. Someone pulled Nangong Xu through this rift to
instantaneously bring him somewhere else."
Mo Ran thought to himself—was this not similar to the Gate he had
produced in his past life? If so, such an achievement wasn't inconceivable.
But his heart felt heavy. "What if it were the genuine article though?" he
asked. "What could that accomplish, if mastered?"
Chu Wanning's expression shifted subtly. After a pause, he answered,
"If it were the real Space-Time Gate of Life and Death, the caster wouldn't
be limited to creating a rift between two different locations. They could
bring Nangong Xu into an entirely different world."
At this, Mo Ran's face fell slightly. He pressed his lips into a tight
line and didn't make another sound.
In the past lifetime, he hadn't been well-read and didn't know which
of the records he'd gathered could really be trusted. He had doubted the
reliability of the legend about the grandmaster cultivator who had opened a
rift in time to fetch his daughter from another world. But after hearing these
words from Chu Wanning, Mo Ran was convinced.
With this sense of conviction came a deep chill. During the five years
Chu Wanning slept in the Red Lotus Pavilion, Mo Ran had read many of
the classics. He had vaguely begun to feel over the course of his studies that
the phenomenon of his own rebirth was quite peculiar. In the past life, he
had never encountered the genuine Rebirth technique. He had imagined this
so-called "rebirth" would be what happened to him—a person would be
returned to some point in time before their death and start anew from there.
But in the present life, Mo Ran had personally seen Master Huaizui
execute this forbidden technique. It had left him confounded: Huaizui's
technique had summoned Chu Wanning's souls from the underworld and
returned them to his mortal body, which hadn't decayed or endured serious
damage. Afterward, Chu Wanning went on living in the world he knew.
This was completely different from what Mo Ran had experienced. If
someone had used the same technique as Master Huaizui to revive Mo Ran
after his death in the past life, he would have been reborn in Wushan
Palace. He would have still been the abominable Emperor Taxian-jun. Chu
Wanning, Shi Mei, his aunt and uncle…they'd all be dead. No one would be
by his side.
Thus Mo Ran had reasoned that there might be more than one type of
Rebirth, and differing methods had been used for his and Chu Wanning's
resurrections. But now, hearing Chu Wanning confirm the existence of the
Space-Time Gate of Life and Death—the most mysterious of the three
forbidden techniques—Mo Ran was struck by a horrifying thought.
Could it be that, in addition to the Rebirth technique, he had been
additionally subjected to the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death? And his
evil souls that ought to have been tormented in another universe for their
crimes were transported through a rift in space-time to a year when none of
it had yet occurred, when everything could still be turned back?
If that were the case, then wouldn't the one behind the scenes have
been spying on all he'd done? Wouldn't that person have plotted
everything, including his rebirth, then watched in silence from the
shadows?
A violent shiver ran down Mo Ran's spine.
Before he could think on it further, he heard a thunderous explosion
from the direction of the apocalyptic fire burning in the distance.
"Let's go take a look," said Chu Wanning.
Yet even as he said the words, the flames roared to new heights as
they consumed the seventy-two cities of Rufeng Sect. It seemed the blaze
had reached some device Xu Shuanglin had planted beforehand. The
inferno spiraled dozens of feet into the air, its glow piercing the heavens.
They needed go no closer to see—by now, the raging fire eating up the
night's darkness was visible from hundreds of miles away.
Xue Zhengyong had already brought Madam Wang out of the
conflagration. Turning his head, he saw the towering flames weave into the
form of two bodies, passionately intertwined. The figures of a man and
woman gradually took shape. "What's…going on here?" he asked in
astonishment.
Madam Wang's upbringing in a prestigious sect had exposed her to a
great number of precious artifacts. Her expression changed at once. "This is
a type of painted scroll that records memories. Its magic is self-contained
and requires no other supporting techniques; once the user creates it, the
memories sealed inside will emerge in the flames of apocalyptic fire.
Whatever scenes are recorded in the scroll will play repeatedly until the fire
dies out."
"Until the fire dies?" Xue Zhengyong, watching as Rufeng Sect was
swallowed up in the inferno, couldn't help but look on with some pity. Most
people, if they planned a daring exposé, would simply gather some
witnesses and speak their piece while presenting what evidence they had—
that was typically plenty. But Xu Shuanglin? The man was insane. He'd
assembled a swath of his own memories in a scroll and set whole cities
aflame just to expose to the world the filthy secrets of his own sect. Taking
the spreading flames as his canvas, he'd magically amplified these
whispered conversations of the past into a thunderous rumbling, as though
to ensure even the deaf would hear.
"What is Xu Shuanglin even doing?" Xue Zhengyong sat on his
enlarged iron fan in midair with Madam Wang beside him, his features cast
into fragmented light and shadow by the towering inferno beneath. "Has he
not dug up enough of Rufeng Sect's rotten deeds, that he needs to uncover
more?" he muttered.
Madam Wang said nothing.
"It's enough, he's done enough. He's bloodied Rufeng Sect beyond
recognition; it's become the laughingstock of the cultivation world. How is
he still not satisfied…"
A woman's voice boomed from the sea of hellfire. The cultivators
who had paused mid-flight to watch the fiery scene take shape were
startled, Xue Zhengyong among them.
"Liu-ge, we aren't as young as we were. Why are you—why are you
still so insatiable… Ngh…"
Following this weak groan, the blurry outlines of the pair in the
flames gradually sharpened. The apocalyptic fire that blanketed Rufeng
Sect's seventy-two cities twisted into a massive image of two nude,
undulating bodies. An auspicious five-bat motif tattooed on the woman's
delicate arm was rendered the size of a building, so enormous that
onlookers could see the individual hairs inked on each bat.
Almost as one, the assembled cultivators turned to look with
astonishment at Jiangdong Hall, one of the ten great sects of the upper
cultivation realm. Jiangdong Hall's disciples were still more horrified. Their
eyes were round as bronze bells as they stared blankly at their sect leader,
Qi Liangji. This sect leader was still relatively new to her position. Ashen
faced, she stood stiff on her sword in the night wind. On her arm, clear as
day, was that very bat motif tattoo.
Never had she imagined that someone not only had witnessed her
secret affair with Nangong Liu, they'd turned it into a memory scroll that
was now being shown, so plainly and starkly, to the masses. Her mind went
blank.
Mo Ran's mind had gone blank in much the same way. The instant
this image of Sect Leader Qi appeared in the sky, he covered Chu
Wanning's eyes. "Don't look."
Chu Wanning was speechless.
Mo Ran had acted on subconscious impulse born of his possessive
desire for Chu Wanning. He'd once desired to possess his body, taking all
his panting breaths, soft moans, and broken sobs for himself. Now, he had
an even greater desire to preserve for himself Chu Wanning's clean, pure
heart. "Don't look, it's filthy stuff."
Isn't it a little too filthy to hide? Chu Wanning wondered. What good
did it do to cover his eyes? The lewd sounds of lovemaking echoed in his
ears. But he remained silent, letting Mo Ran fold his hands over his eyes.
Try as he might to stay calm, his face still heated beneath Mo Ran's palms.
"Ahh… A—a little faster… Keep—keep going…nnngh…"
The pair stood in awkward silence. Perhaps because his eyes were
covered, Chu Wanning's available senses became all the more acute. Sect
Leader Qi's delicate voice seemed to have sprouted downy hairs that
brushed along his spine, leaving a prickling itch in their wake. Whether it
was genuine or not, her voice trembled with passionate fervor, as if the
man's incursion was the solid root of a tree burrowing into fertile soil,
plunging so deep it brought spring water streaming from the mud, suffusing
the air with the earthy smell of petrichor.
This development made Mo Ran incredibly anxious, at a loss for
what to do. He wanted to continue shielding Chu Wanning's eyes, but also
to cover his ears. He wanted to shift his hands to cover Chu Wanning's ears,
but he wasn't willing to move them from Chu Wanning's eyes. Even worse
—in this newly erotic atmosphere, Mo Ran felt that the deepest longing of
his heart wasn't to cover Chu Wanning's ears or his eyes. A vicious beast
crouched in his chest, urging him on with a roar.
It was wholly, completely inappropriate—yet he realized suddenly
that what he wanted most desperately was to grab Chu Wanning from
behind. He wanted to take this man, so unguarded with him, and crush him
in his arms, caress his back, suck his earlobe, then wrench his chin around,
hold him fast, and kiss the breath from him.
He fixed his dark stare upon Chu Wanning across the gap of mere
inches between them. His breathing gradually grew heavy. Chu Wanning
was strong and fierce, but no longer a match for Mo Ran in terms of
physical strength. If Mo Ran really wanted to overpower him—as he had in
the past life—Chu Wanning wouldn't stand a chance. All this stubborn
man's strength could only be directed toward biting back the moans
between his teeth. No matter how Chu Wanning resisted, Mo Ran would
crush him, devour him—such would be his fate.
The man in front of him was oblivious to the dangerous thoughts
racing through Mo Ran's head. In an attempt to dispel the awkwardness,
Chu Wanning quietly grumbled, "This is really outrageous."
"Mn." Mo Ran's throat was dry, his eyes beginning to water. "Very
outrageous," he agreed in a muffled voice.
"Qi Liangji was clearly a married woman. She stepped up as sect
leader of Jiangdong Hall after the recent death of her husband. To think
she'd turn around and behave like this with Nangong Liu." He scornfully
concluded: "Absurd."
"Mn." It was unseemly—Mo Ran knew it was—but the hunger in his
heart was irrepressible. Without realizing, he'd leaned in until his lips
practically skimmed the back of Chu Wanning's neck. "It's totally absurd,"
he said distractedly.
He swept an indifferent glance over the sky, where Nangong Liu and
Qi Liangji's pornographic production was still hurtling along. He dimly
recalled that Qi Liangji was quite a bit older than Nangong Liu. Her
husband had been Nangong Liu's sworn elder brother, so by rights of
seniority, Nangong Liu should be calling her his elder sister-in-law.
How did two people who seemed perfectly respectable fall into such
a sordid affair?
As he lost himself in thought, Nangong Liu's voice floated over from
the great fire. When Mo Ran looked up, those two shameless individuals
were going at it in a brand-new position. Nangong Liu was goading her: "If
you want it, call me 'gege.'"
Wait…what? Mo Ran was gobsmacked. You can…do that? Qi Liangji
was plainly much older than him. How—how could she call him gege?
Taxian-jun had obviously underestimated Nangong Liu's abilities,
while crediting Qi Liangji's pride too much. This woman had been
provoked past the point of endurance. She gasped and moaned, and panted
without a mote of hesitation, "Gege… Ge… Don't tease me… Ahh…"
Mo Ran's skin was as thick as a city wall, but even he couldn't help
but blush. At the same time, Chu Wanning's long eyelashes trembled lightly
against his palms, almost as though he knew of the warm itch in Mo Ran's
heart and sought to soothe the tingle in his bones with this tiny movement.
But his lashes were too light and soft—how could it be enough to dispel
that itch? This half-hearted relief seemed only to intensify it. Mo Ran stared
absently at the nape of the man in front of him. In the dimness, a light,
unexpected flush the hue of peach blossoms seemed to pinken that pale
skin.
Heart beating like a drum, Mo Ran blinked. He didn't dare look
longer and lowered his gaze. Beneath his lashes, his pupils were the black
of burnt ash still smoking with heat. Layer over layer of fiery sparks
smoldered beneath that darkness. It would take but a single breath from Chu
Wanning, saturated with desire, for those embers to spark to life, for an
entire grassland to go up in a roar of orange flame.
Mo Ran felt a sharp twinge of regret—if only he'd been half as
creatively malicious as Nangong Liu in his past life. If only he'd witnessed
this brand of bullying earlier. Then he would doubtless have fucked Chu
Wanning senseless, rendered this aloof man a panting mess beneath him,
and made Chu Wanning call him gege.
It then occurred to him that, in this lifetime, Chu Wanning had indeed
once called him by this moniker. In fact, he'd even called him shige. It was
just that Mo Ran hadn't known Xia Sini's true identity at the time, so he'd
thought that little shidi of his was only a little shidi. Heat flared within his
chest as he recalled this now.
His reckless desire, it seemed, knew no bounds. Despite
understanding perfectly well that it was impossible, he couldn't help
fantasizing. He pictured Chu Wanning lying on the bed, damp strands of
hair stuck to his sweat-sheened forehead, phoenix eyes narrowed at
Mo Ran. A gaze filled with indignance and stubborn reserve, all burned
away by the flames of desire into a slight, dewy redness at the corners of his
eyes. His lips lightly parted, as if fighting the urge to bite them closed. But
in the end, they'd part again as he called in a hoarse, tearful voice, Shige…
Mo Ran felt the breath run out of him.
At some point—he had no idea when—he'd let go of Chu Wanning.
The remaining rational piece of him must have realized that continuing to
cover Chu Wanning's eyes so intimately would tempt him into committing
some disgraceful act. Passionate love was impossible to restrain, and
Mo Ran had tasted of this fruit too many times before. He knew firsthand
the exquisite ecstasy of its flavor.
Chu Wanning turned to look at him. His cheeks were pink, but his
chin was unconsciously lifted, and his eyes shone bright and haughty.
"What's wrong?"
Mo Ran flicked a glance at his lips, then cleared his throat softly and
turned his face aside. "It's nothing."
After their lovemaking was over, Nangong Liu stroked Qi Liangji's
hair and asked lazily, "Have you asked your sect's elders to consider how
they want to proceed?"
Qi Liangji blinked open her charming eyes. "Proceed with what?"
"Look at you. You know what I'm talking about, yet here you are
playing coy with me," said Nangong Liu. "It's the same old thing. Didn't
you tell me after you become the sect leader we should merge Jiangdong
Hall into Rufeng Sect?"
"Oh, is that what it was." Qi Liangji smiled. "Don't be so hasty. The
sect leader's ring hasn't yet grown warm on my hand."
"But you should make haste. Once our two sects become one, I'll
appoint you the head warden of Rufeng Sect. Tens of thousands will be at
your beck and call…"
Nangong Liu reached out to fondle her waist again as if he couldn't
help himself. But Qi Liangji appeared less than pleased. Though her face
was still sweetly flushed, she reached out to stop him. "It wasn't easy to rise
to the position of sect leader. And you won't even let me stay here a bit
longer? What good is it to be the head warden? You still won't officially
marry me and bring me home as the madam of Rufeng Sect?"
"You know Si-er's temper—there's no way he'd accept it if
I remarried." Nangong Liu sounded embarrassed. "Consider our positions.
Marriage isn't just a personal matter. Who knows what sort of vulgar gossip
we'd be subjected to."
"Vulgar gossip?!" Fury rose in Qi Liangji's eyes as she raised her
head to glare at him. "So you're afraid of what people will say—you think
I'm not? Have you forgotten how my husband died? Did you think it was a
simple matter to take his place as Jiangdong Hall's sect leader? Nangong
Liu, you know how I've felt about you since we were young!"
"Yes, yes, don't be angry, don't be angry."
"Of course I'm angry! Back then, you only married that bitch Rong
Yan so your dead bastard of a father would name you his successor! I…
I had no other prospects; I married my shixiong. Now we're finally freed of
both of them, yet after we merge our sects, you—you'd make me a
warden?"
"Liangji…"
"Forget it! Whoever wants that post is welcome to it, but you have to
marry me!" Qi Liangji's tirade continued. "That son of yours, Nangong Si
—he's out of control, just like that bitch Rong Yan. You really intend to let
him inherit the position of sect leader? People can talk about it for as long
as they like. One of us is a widow and the other a widower; what's wrong
with us getting married? Whom are we harming? Not only do I intend to
marry you; afterward, I'll bear you ten little gongzi. Nangong Liu, do you
want our children, or the little dog that bitch left behind?"