To Li An, Tan Qingxue was one of the women who had the deepest entanglement with him in this life.
In fact, when he was in Qingyang Market, he lived a peaceful life of cultivation. He might have had a little desire to fall into depravity. Later, when Tan Qingxue became a demon queen and took care of him in every way, he might have been grateful...
But his heart could not be with Tan Qingxue after all.
Why?
Li An didn't know why he had always been distant and defensive towards Tan Qingxue.
"Who are you..."
The white-haired old woman in front finally sensed someone approaching. She raised her eyes and looked at Li An, but her old eyes were suddenly a little dazed. The originally empty and absent pupils gradually condensed a little clear light.
"Li Lang."
She actually recognized Li An, but she was not surprised or shocked. She stood up and said tremblingly: "Li Lang, you are finally back. How is your business today? Is the income from talismans okay?"
"Come here quickly. I have sewn a second-grade defensive armor for you. Wear this thing and you will no longer be afraid of the foundation-building period demon cultivators."
She raised the robe in her hand and smiled.
Li An was stunned.
For a moment, he was a little confused about Tan Qingxue's state. She recognized Li An, but she thought the current Li An was the Li An who married her in Qingyang Market more than 4,000 years ago and ran a talisman shop?
Or, except for that memory, she has forgotten everything? Forgot that she had become the demon queen of the demon clan, forgot that she had entered the Dao Sect, and even forgot all the disputes in the thirty-three heavens.
Completely immersed in her own world!
The beautiful lady in the past, now an old woman with dementia, Li An felt a sense of desolation for no reason.
If you can't prove immortality, you will eventually wither.
Perhaps because he couldn't bear it, Li An stepped forward and said, "I'm back."
A smile bloomed on Tan Qingxue's face, a childlike happiness and joy, she suddenly rushed towards Li An, as she approached, her old face suddenly became younger, her white hair turned black, all the wrinkles disappeared, and her rather hunched body instantly became graceful. When she threw herself into Li An's arms, she had completely become the genius talisman girl in Xuanyang Sect.
"I've waited for you for a long time, I've waited for you for a long, long time..."
Tan Qingxue cried softly, "Li Lang, you won't leave me, right? You won't leave me?"
"I know you hate me, hate that I left you when you were in the most dangerous time, I really regret it, I regret it very much... I am willing to spend my whole life to make up for it."
She whispered, and Li An's knot was suddenly untied at this moment.
He didn't understand why he never had the slightest affection for Tan Qingxue, now he finally understood that all this... maybe it was just because when he was in danger in Qingyang Market, Tan Qingxue chose to leave.
Rather than facing it together with him.
He used Gu Hong and Shangguan Xiaoxiao at the beginning, but in the end, they were able to take the initiative to pay for Li An, even regardless of life and death.
The sense of security they gave Li An, Tan Qingxue never gave, so in the deepest part of Li An's heart, he would never regard her as a trustworthy and intimate person.
"I forgive you."
Li An sighed. He finally understood that in this chaotic world, the reason for pursuing immortality is not only to enjoy eternal wealth and glory, but also to fight against inner anxiety and uneasiness.
Because of weakness, there is fear, because of fear, there is anxiety, because of anxiety, there is indifference, because of indifference, there is strength.
Suddenly seeing the beauty's face old, I know that I am myself in this life.
Li An felt that he had an unprecedented understanding of himself.
Hearing this, Tan Qingxue in his arms smiled, very happy, very relieved, and her face suddenly became old again.
The moment she saw Li An, her last vitality was stimulated and burned out in an instant. Now she is exhausted and has reached the border of aging and even death again.
"Li Lang, I seem to have had a dream..."
Tan Qingxue murmured, tears on her old face: "I also dreamed that I left you, I married someone else, and had an inexplicable daughter..."
"I dreamed that I got old and was dying..."
She murmured: "When exactly did I dream..."
Then, Tan Qingxue's body slipped from Li An's arms.
She died.
When she died, her face was neither happy nor painful, but with some doubts that had not been solved in this life.
Li An sighed softly, and then took her body away.
"Taishang, where are you going?"
Li Nianxue, who was waiting outside the formation, asked.
She had no fluctuations about her mother's death. She had reached the level of Taiyi Jinxian, and she had long understood that she was not Tan Qingxue's biological daughter. The reason why she left Tan Qingxue was, in a sense, perhaps just because of Li An.
"Find a suitable place to bury her."
Li An said, "I'll go down the mountain and will be back soon... By the way, the teleportation array should still be usable, right?"
"Report to the Supreme, the teleportation arrays leading to various places in the spiritual world of Dao Sect have been rebuilt."
Li Nianxue took Li An down the mountain and walked to the teleportation array. The array was activated, and Li An stepped into it. The light flashed and his figure disappeared immediately.
Watching him leave, Li Nianxue just sighed softly.
Behind her, An Li appeared at some point.
"It seems that the Supreme has really lost his cultivation. Even in a mere spiritual world, he needs the help of a magic array."
An Li sighed.
"Are you staring at the Supreme?"
Li Nianxue's face suddenly turned cold, staring at An Li, and a hint of coldness appeared in her beautiful eyes.
"I'm just worried about his safety."
An Li calmly exposed: "Don't forget, he is the only one who can break Yunluo Xianzun's longevity sacrifice, and the only hope. If people know, he will never have peace from now on, and may even attract Yunluo Xianzun to kill him."
Li Nianxue said indifferently: "But don't forget that Tai Shang has tried his best. He has paid enough for the people of the world and for Dao Sect, and now his cultivation has even fallen so much."
"He also said that he doesn't want to die and wants to live."
An Li was silent for a long time before answering: "Yes."
He seemed to hesitate for a long time before finally saying to Li Nianxue: "I sent Li Qingran and Fen Yuan, Lei Dang and the other two went there and followed Li Taishang secretly. "
Li Nianxue frowned instantly, the sword in her hand was already unsheathed, pointing directly at An Li, saying: "You want to attack Taishang? You want to kill him and save the people of the world? !"
An Li's face was a little painful, and he said: "This is indeed a painful decision. The two sides of the scale are Li Taishang and the people of the world. No matter which choice you make, you are destined to betray Dao Zong..."
"Sister Nianxue, your biggest dream was to restore Dao Zong. Can you watch Dao Zong's inheritance cut off from now on, and the whole world and the whole time and space will be destroyed?"
"But how can you kill Taishang?"
Li Nianxue just asked back.
...
The light flickered.
Li An finally appeared in the south of the spirit world.
This place was once called Xinzhou when the major forces in the spirit world were at their peak and had not yet been disturbed by the fairy world.
Xinzhou was formed by the integration of many lower realms into a new continent by various major forces, and the Emperor Yuan Realm was one of them.
Li An walked towards the earth calmly. He used his immortal-level cultivation, which was enough in this spiritual world. Not long after, he appeared in a verdant mountain range.
Although Li An was sure that he had not found the wrong place, the changes in the mountains in front of him still took him a long time to identify it.
The old site of Xuanyang Sect in the past has arrived.
However, the mountains and rivers have changed dramatically, and that small Jindan-stage force has long disappeared in the long river of history.
After Tan Qingxue's death, Li An was the only person in the world who remembered Xuanyang Sect.
Walking into the forest, insects and birds were startled and flew away, foxes and rabbits appeared, and there was really no old road to go. He released his spiritual consciousness and searched for a long time before digging out some broken bricks and tiles from hundreds of meters underground, but even the broken bricks and tiles were powdered like dust.
He also arrived at the location of Lingzhi Mountain. The place still had the original outline, but it was overgrown with grass and trees. The spiritual energy of the former spiritual field had long been dissipated. The sight was covered by wild grass. There was really no trace of the grave that Li An had built here.
Even though thousands of years had passed, Li An still remembered the two poor people on the road of cultivating immortals, Wang Zilin and Zhang Susu.
But what was different after thousands of years? Fan Jie, who had oppressed them at the time, and even the high and mighty sect master and elders of Xuanyang Sect at the time, all returned to the soil, and everything was over.
Even in the longer history, what were the Dali Dynasty, the demon clan, the spiritual world Taoist sect, the famous mountains and holy places above the thirty-three layers of heaven, the Tiangong Luojing, and even the characters like Daluo Jinxian and Changqing Xianzun?
Who still remembered the immortal who once suppressed an era and buried a piece of time and space? Only Li An and Shangguan Xiaoxiao knew a little about his powerful and miserable life.
All is gone. Looking at the old scene, Li An was in a trance and felt the power of these three words more deeply. Time flies, years go by, and the fire of civilization keeps changing, but it never goes out.
Every era has its heroes, and every era has its people.
He walked out of the old place of Xuanyang, and soon arrived at the place where the market of Qingyang was in the past. The market here has long disappeared, but there is still a small second-level spiritual vein being formed. Li An found a place with excellent scenery and buried Tan Qingxue.
He took some flowers and placed them in front of the grave. After hesitating for a while, he still erected a stone tablet.
"Tomb of Tan Qingxue of Xuanyang Sect."
Daoyou Li Anli.
After doing all this, he turned around and left, and started looking again. After wandering for a long time, he found a small mountain village. What surprised him was that this village still existed, and even the road to the village had not changed much. The villagers still worked from sunrise to sunset. Just like the scene he and Gu Hong saw when they first came here, it seems that the power of time has never visited this place.
After entering the small village, Li An searched for a long time before he found a low earthen mound. In front of the earthen mound, there was an old tree stump that had been dead for a long time.
"The immortal path is evergreen, I did it."
Li An sat in front of the earthen mound and sighed softly.
This used to be a yard, which he and Gu Hong built. There used to be an old Li tree, which was planted by Gu Hong himself.
The tree is dead, and the person has actually disappeared long ago. The earthen mound is just an earthen mound, and the grave is just the meaning given to death by humans.
"Before you died, you were afraid that I would be lonely, but from now on, I will not be lonely."
Li An was grateful to Gu Hong. When he was weak, only Gu Hong gave him a rare sense of security and trust.
Even when he was dying, Gu Hong still wished him an immortal path, and at the same time worried that he would be too lonely.
After talking to himself for a long time in front of the mound, when he stood up, Li An didn't even know whether he was saying goodbye to Gu Hong or to himself.
Then, he set off again.
"Finally caught up, very careful."
The followers in secret naturally couldn't hide from Li An's perception. There were quite a lot of people from Dao Sect, all masters.
When will they take action?
Li An didn't know, he deliberately walked quite slowly, heading towards the Dali Dynasty in the past.
The old site of the White Tiger City now has another city. Li An entered it and felt a lot of emotion. There were countless cultivators coming and going on the roadside, and there were even ordinary people in the outermost area. Li An thought for a while, then entered the mortal vegetable market, bought a lot of fish, chicken and other vegetables, and left with them. He didn't look like an immortal at all, but like an ordinary uncle at home.
After turning a few alleys, there is a small courtyard with a separate door and a separate household. This place is hidden in the bustling city, but it is also secluded. Li An pushed the door open and entered, only to see that the courtyard was clean and tidy.
In the courtyard, a girl was sitting on a recliner reading a book. She was wearing a white dress, and her delicate hands were turning the pages of the book. When she heard the voice, she raised her head. Under her long eyelashes, there was some disgust in her pupils, and she said:
"What are you carrying?"
"I passed by the vegetable market and bought some vegetables. It's convenient to be close to the vegetable market here."
"You came to see the master and apologize, and you only brought this?"
She seemed a little unhappy and quarreled with Li An.
Li An said: "You will get tired of eating Dofudan after a long time, change the taste."
"It seems to make sense, but won't you get tired of eating vegetables?"
"Then change the way you cook, braise, steam, pepper and salt, stew, fry...different cooking ingredients, different methods, different tastes, ever-changing, try to make them one by one, you will never finish all the famous dishes in this world in this lifetime."
"Okay, then you, go cook? I'm reading a novel, it's the right time to read it."
"What novel?"
"You don't know, it's written by an author named Gui Xin, it's good to kill time. Oh, go cook, I'm hungry."
Li An smiled, didn't say anything else, really walked into the kitchen, took out the fire starter to light the fire, put the vegetables on the table, washed, cut the vegetables, put them in the pot, the aroma of food has filled the whole kitchen.
Dishes were served one after another, braised eggplant, fried tomato and egg, bacon and potato... Li An exhausted all his life's tricks and finally prepared a table.
"It's time to eat."
After calling, Shangguan Xiaoxiao put down her book and walked in. She sniffed and said, "It smells pretty good."
She sat down and served the rice. The rice tasted good. Then she picked up an egg with chopsticks and ate it without saying a word.
"How is it? Is it delicious?"
Li An actually spoke with some trepidation.
Shangguan Xiaoxiao ignored the eggs and ate some other dishes one by one. Finally, she put down her chopsticks and said with a complicated look on her face:
"I'll go out to the restaurant to buy some."
Li An: "..."
"If you have nothing to do at home, practice more. It's expensive to go to the restaurant."
"Besides, I can't cook anyway."
She walked out after she finished speaking.
...
At this moment
"Is this news true? Li An is still alive? Can he... hinder Yunluo Immortal Venerable?"
In the secret hall of Baoding Palace, Daluo Jinxian Ye Ding was shocked when he heard the news, and his brows immediately frowned!
"Li An... is he still alive?"
In Tianzhu Palace, Ye Tiancan was stunned when he heard this long-lost name.
"This person is really going to shock the world..."
He sighed faintly.