Chapter 1194: No Need To Explain, I Completely Understand

“Hmph!”

The next moment, a hmph entered Liang Huanxin’s ears.

It was just a hmph, and yet it felt like a thunderclap happening right beside his ears. It stunned him and disrupted his energy flow.

Before he could react, the surrounding area suddenly trembled violently like someone had stuck a paddle into a pond and stirred it by force. The ambient origin qi was immediately thrown into disarray.

Because of this, the eight copies he conjured instantly shattered into pieces. His true self was booted out of the space as well.

Not a moment too soon, a hand descended from the sky and made a grab for him.

The hand looked no different from anyone’s hand, but for whatever reason, Liang Huanxin felt like it was undodgeable and inescapable.

It was as if that hand was the heaven and the earth. It was as if he was nothing more but one of the many ordinary mortals crawling on the earth.

How could an ordinary mortal hope to fight against the world?

At that moment, Liang Huanxin wasn’t just trapped in body. His courage and fighting spirit suddenly leaked into nothing as well. He never recovered until the hand grabbed his skull.

“Cough... you’re quite the runner, aren’t you?” Ye Qing remarked while coughing out a trickle of blood.

He was injured. It was because of his fight against Zhao Changming, of course.

Not only was Zhao Changming a Great Grandmaster, Blue Demon had boosted his power to Half-Sage levels as well. It would be stranger if he suffered no damage whatsoever.

They were fairly deep injuries as well.

“It... It was a trick?”

Liang Huanxin’s eyes widened when Ye Qing’s aura abruptly took a nosedive. This could only mean that his injuries were quite severe, meaning that his earlier aggressiveness and power were just a pretense.

Unfortunately, he fell for it, so that was that.

“Correct.”

Ye Qing wiped away the blood on his mouth and remarked, “Victory might have been yours if you had hung on just a while longer.”

It was a half-truth. It was true that his injuries were quite severe; so severe that he could only maintain his earlier aura and strength for only a short time. However, he was lying when he said that Liang Huanxin had a small chance at defeating him. After all, he still had the Earthly Sovereign Bell and the Blue Demon.

“You cannot escape even if you kill me, you know that right?”

A moment of silence later, Liang Huanxin actually calmed down.

At this point, he was a prisoner. There was no point regretting his past decisions. The only thing that mattered now was surviving this situation!

“So? What are you trying to say?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

“I can help you evade the Brocade Shirt Marquis’ pursuit,” Liang Huanxin said calmly. “All I ask is that you let me live!”

“Is that so?”

Ye Qing wasn’t surprised by Liang Huanxin’s betrayal. In this

jianghu

, traitors and ingrates were a dime a dozen, not to mention that Liang Huanxin and Zhao Changming’s relationship was purely transactional. What loyalty could possibly exist between two people who were simply taking what they needed from each other?

“I don’t think I need your help though.”

It was at this moment a bronze armor appeared around Ye Qing’s arm. Dragons and serpents swam across the piece of armor while hissing silently.

“Blue Demon?! How did Blue Demon fall into your hands?” Liang Huanxin blanched at the sight of this.

“What do you think?” Ye Qing countered.

“Did you... actually kill Zhao Changming?” Liang Huanxin gulped with clear disbelief.

Ye Qing put away Blue Demon and grinned deviously. “Why the question mark? Yes, Zhao Changming is as dead as a dodo.”

Liang Huanxin opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say.

All sorts of possibilities had run through his mind when Ye Qing suddenly appeared in this place, but the one possibility that never occurred to him was Zhao Changming’s death. After all, Zhao Changming possessed the Blue Demon, and he rivaled a Half-Sage at his full strength. Besides, Zhao Changming brought his full force to this place to ensure that there was absolutely no chance Ye Qing could escape him or defeat him. With that in mind, how could he possibly think that Zhao Changming would lose, much less perish?

The reality was that Zhao Changming was dead though. Although he hadn’t seen his corpse, it was a fact that Blue Demon had fallen into Ye Qing’s hands and even acknowledged him as its new master. That, more than anything else, was the clearest proof that Zhao Changming was dead.

“So? What more do you have to say for yourself?” Ye Qing asked.

Liang Huanxin remained silent. That was his one and only bargaining chip, and it wasn’t applicable.

Now, it was completely up to Ye Qing whether he lived or died.

“Young master...”

It was at this moment Old Man of Snowy Mountain finally caught up with the duo. When he saw that Ye Qing had captured Liang Huanxin, he let out a sigh of relief before clasping his hands together. “Can you please give her[1] another chance?”

“Xuesong...” Liang Huanxin looked at Old Man of Snowy Mountain with gentle eyes.

“Huh. You know each other?” Ye Qing asked.

I smell romance in the air!

“We do.” Old Man of Snowy Mountain nodded before taking a brief moment to explain their past. Then, he said, “That is why I ask that you let her live, young master.”

“Damn. I didn’t think you were... like that!” Ye Qing remarked with a complicated tone after Old Man of Snowy Mountain reached the end of his explanation.

I thought that your sexual preference was pretty normal, but as it turns out...

Seemingly guessing what Ye Qing was thinking, Old Man of Snowy Mountain tried to explain himself, “It’s not what you think, young master!”

“Ahem. It’s fine. You don’t need to explain anything.”

Ye Qing waved him off. He was an open-minded man. In this

jianghu

, scissorers and brokeback mountaineers were everywhere. There was nothing to be surprised about.

Besides, his... all-too-manly voice aside, Liang Huanxin was, for all intents and purposes, a woman. Actually, Old Man of Snowy Mountain was pretty normal after all!

No, you don’t get it at all!

Old Man of Snowy Mountain

really

wanted to defend his honor, but looking at Ye Qing’s expression, anything he said would probably be misconstrued anyway. In the end, he gave up and shut his mouth.

“Since Bai is begging on your behalf, I can let you live.”

Ye Qing finally turned back to Liang Huanxin and said, “However, I will need you to accept me as your master just like Bai. Do you accept?”

“As you wish, young master,” Liang Huanxin replied without hesitation. It wasn’t like she had a choice to begin with.

“Very good. Lower your mental defenses.”

After that, Ye Qing mustered his demonic thought and implanted a demonic lotus in Liang Huanxin’s mind. Just like that, he had converted him into his Paranirmita Boundless Heavenly Demon Dependent.

“I greet you, master.”

Liang Huanxin’s attitude changed drastically after the demonic lotus was implanted.

“Rise,” Ye Qing ordered. “From now on, you will address me as young master just like Bai.”

“As you command, young master,” Liang Huanxin replied without hesitation.

“Alright. Let’s go search for our old Taoist, shall we?” Ye Qing gave him a nod before taking off toward Yi Pin’s hiding spot.

It wasn’t long before the trio found him, though Ye Qing was very impressed when he saw where Yi Pin had hidden himself. Ye Qing didn’t know how he did it, but the old Taoist had somehow managed to insert himself inside a rock without damaging the rock at all. He did not give off even a hint of aura either. If not for the fact that he had attached a wisp of demonic thought to his person, he did not think that he would be able to find the old Taoist either.

Yi Pin’s ability to fight might only be power level five, but his ability to keep himself alive and run away was definitely over nine thousand.

“Is that the Undying True Blood I sense?”

As soon as Yi Pin exited his hiding spot, he immediately noticed the strange aura Ye Qing was emitting. “Did Zhao Changming get one past you somehow?”

From the start until the end, the thought that Ye Qing might fail to escape Zhao Changming had never crossed his mind. This was a man who had caught even true Sages such as Xiahou Zun, Wan Lingxiao, and Ghost Taisui off guard. There was no way a mere Zhao Changming could do better than them.

1. Since Liang Huanxin technically isn’t a woman yet I used ‘he/him’ for most instances, but in this case I’m going to use she/her in consideration of their friendship. ☜