Chapter 23: My Arms Ache

  Nanyang Zhenren waved his hand and dispersed the white cloud spell of Qingmo. He turned around, and his voice was filled with kindness and affection: "Foolish child, after you attain enlightenment, you will understand."

  Qing's heart was shocked, her body suddenly jumped up, spitting out a mouthful of blood, and she fainted. Nanyang coldly laughed and ordered his disciples: "Wake her up, this time what we're doing, she must see it with her own eyes!"

  The younger brother obeyed, and a strand of true yuan was seized into Qu Qingmo's body. The latter let out a soft hum and came back to consciousness, his eyes reddened as he stared at his older brother, pitifully asking: "Why... why didn't you run away?!"

  Qu Qing's face was ashen, the blue veins on his forehead twisted like a centipede, Liang Xin and Liu Yi gritted their teeth and clenched their fists, carefully guarding him, if he made any suicidal move, the two brothers would immediately pounce on him to hold him down.

  Nanyang Zhenren had a calm and composed expression, without any signs of urgency, and was watching the people on the ground with interest.

  Qu Qing Shi fell silent for a while before lifting his head again to ask Nanyang Zhenren, "If... if I die, will Qing Mo still not be able to comprehend the Tao?"

  Nanyang Zhenren furrowed his brow, seemingly finding this a difficult problem, and replied with some helplessness: "Then it will be more troublesome. I'll go kill the rest of Qingmo's relatives again, and she has to be present every time. Busy, rushing about, striving, but ultimately ending in futile effort." He then turned his head towards Qingmo: "Doing this is fundamentally to make you understand that everything in the mortal world is just a fleeting cloud, a dream. Everything around you now will eventually abandon you, whether it's a few decades earlier or later makes no difference. Only your heavenly path is eternal."

  He finished speaking, and the hesitation on Qu Qing Shi's face was swept away, replaced by his usual cold and indifferent expression. Liang Xin and Liu Yi were overjoyed at the same time, as the Qu Qing Shi they knew, who was resolute against enemies and had a strong sense of justice, had returned.

  Qing Shi flipped his hand, took off the Yangshou evil bow on his back, puffed out his chest and proudly said: "If you can't cut off all worldly emotions, then you have to kill the whole family. Hmph, I'm not dead yet, do I still need to drag my parents down? Your heavenly way is no better than that of a beast."

  Liu wasn't afraid of death, but rather an unjust and unclear one. Seeing Qu Qing's stone return to normal, he laughed heartily with joy, nodding his head loudly: "Not bad, dog shit heavenly way!" Then, with a majestic air, he beckoned to Qing Mo: "Younger sister, come here, we won't cultivate immortality anymore!"

  Qingmo's small face also regained some of its luster, and after giving Liu Yiyi a glance, he looked up at his master in mid-air, furrowed his brow, seemingly deep in thought. After a while, he slowly opened his mouth: "Originally, I was muddled and confused, thinking that cultivating immortality was just a fun thing to do. But today, I really gained some insight."

  Nanyang Zhenren smiled warmly and said in a gentle voice, "What you have realized now is not correct. Tell me about it, and I will personally point out the mistakes for you."

  Qingmo struggled free from his sister's supporting arm and stood up straight: "Cultivation is very interesting, the power is great, so great that no one dares to provoke me, even my parents are respectful towards me? The lifespan is very long, so long that I will watch as relatives and younger generations die one by one, but I still look like an eleven or twelve year old? And now, to extinguish worldly desires, do I have to kill my brother?"

  Nanyang Zhenren shook his head, but Qingmo didn't wait for him to speak and continued: "I know what you want to say, whether or not to kill Gege is irrelevant. The key is that I don't care about him, I won't bother with him. Whether he loves to live or die, suffers or enjoys himself, it's all worldly affairs and has nothing to do with me."

  He paused for a moment, then continued: "If it's really like that, then it's not about whether my brother lives or dies, but...but rather I'm dead. What difference is there between the heavenly way you want me to comprehend and being dead?"

  Nanyang burst out laughing: "Not bad! Forgetting one's emotions, originally means abandoning the mortal brain, from now on stepping onto the immortal path to transform and be reborn. What you said about being dead yourself is also quite fitting."

  Qing Mo no longer wanted to start like that, and even gradually restored some of her lively appearance, revealing a depressed expression: "Rebirth? Sounds good, turning oneself into someone else, is it pleasant?" As she spoke, she lowered her head and sighed: "Such cultivation, once successful, would only have human form, but no human heart."

  Nanyang chuckled and said: "If you don't break it down, you can't establish it. Even if you cultivate immortality and attain the Tao, you are still you..."

  Before he could finish speaking, the little girl Qu Qingmo suddenly raised her hand and pointed at him without any politeness, shouting: "Shut up! If you want my brother to die, you will be Qu Qingmo's lifelong enemy!"

  Everyone was stunned, and it was clear that Qu Qingmo was dissatisfied, but no one expected the little girl to utter such vicious words without any restraint.

  Only Liu also made a strange sound of applause: "Good girl, indeed the younger sister of Lao Er!"

  "Shut up!" Qingmo and Qingshi glared at him simultaneously.

  Qingmo's master sister was furious, sternly scolding: "How dare you, disrespecting your elders..."

  Qingmo didn't hesitate and scolded back: "You have a respectful attitude, then invite him to go back and kill your father?" Following that, she took a deep breath, stepped back a few steps, stretched out her slender fingers like spring onions, and randomly drew a circle, enclosing the five people from Donghai: "I respect you, love you, and understand that you've always spoiled me. But you want to kill my brother! Your kindness to me is not worth more than a single drop of my brother's spittle in my heart!"

  Following Qu Qing's lead, Mo Sa ran towards Ge Long. Several East Sea Qian disciples wanted to chase after him, but were stopped by Nan Yang Zhen Ren with a wave of his hand.

  Qing Mo ran to his brother's side, stood shoulder to shoulder with him, furrowed his brow and said: "Others want to kill you, but you still keep asking them for reason, are you a man of the Qu family or not?"

  "You really are a woman of the Qu family!" He then raised his hand to stroke his sister's hair, smiling and asking: "Not cultivating immortality anymore?"

  Qingmo resolutely shook his head: "No repair!"

  Liu also chimed in from the side: "Still repairing what? After you scolded Commander Zhang as an old thief, will you still continue to be a Qingyi?"

  They are all mortal thoughts, measuring others by themselves, and thinking that even the immortal sects that forget emotions and enlighten the Tao will also care about these things.

  Qu Qing Shi finally returned to normal, first stretching out his hand, carefully brushing off the mud on his pants, and then looked up at Nanyang in the sky: "Qu Qing Mo will no longer cultivate immortality, from now on, I have nothing to do with Donghai Qian, if we meet again, it's a fight to the death!"

  Nanyang burst out laughing: "You're really something, you just won't die! You were born not to die! Go ahead and do whatever you want, I'll let you die without regret, for the sake of our past friendship in Green Ink."

  Qing Shi Ha Ha smiled, raised his hand to lift the evil bow, but before he could even draw the string, Liang Xin suddenly lifted a fist and heavily punched him under the jaw, then with both hands, forcibly snatched away his evil bow!

  Qu Qing was caught off guard by Shi Cong's sudden attack and suffered serious injuries. He was then beaten out of the house by Liang Xin, who shouted at him in anger: "What are you doing!"

  Liang Xin grasped the bow, chuckling and asking: "I've always wondered, where do the arrows on the bow come from?" As soon as he finished speaking, he sank his waist, spurred his horse, and with a loud shout, drew open the wicked bow!

  Qing Shi burst forth like thunder, but it was too late to stop. Liu Yi and Qing Mo stood still on the spot, their faces complex.

  The wicked bow was extremely hard, and Liang Xin could only barely pull it open halfway. Suddenly, he discovered that the bow handle was densely wrapped with countless fine lines of dark green color. As soon as the bow was opened, one of the fine lines would transform into a sharp arrow, placed on the bowstring.

  Qing saw that he had already drawn his bow, and was afraid that in the chaos of snatching it back, Liang Xin would accidentally shoot him instead. He took a deep breath and solemnly warned: "If you draw your bow, one arrow will be fatal!"

  Yang Shou's evil bow, Qu's brother's disciple practiced the ancestral method, and was able to shoot out three arrows, which were called Qing Si, Bai Fa, and Bu Gui Ren.

  If others use it, just one arrow will drain all their life force with the evil bow!

  "You're no different!" Liang Xin retorted, but in his heart he was pondering, when the time came to release the bowstring, whether he should shout "Qīng Sī Liè" or "Bù Guī Rén".

  Qu Qing's eyes darted to the corner, his face twisted in a scowl, his voice growing even more severe: "You're being reckless! You've never practiced archery before, this arrow won't even hit the enemy, it'll just be a waste of your life."

  Liang Xin held up his crossbow, shaking and trembling as he aimed at the enemy in the air, unable to aim properly, nor did he know how to aim. His mouth twitched a few times, wanting to cry, but he gritted his teeth and forcibly endured it, after all, he was just a child under thirteen years old.

  His ridiculous expression now falls into Qu Qing Shi and Liu Yi's eyes, but it is a genuine heartache!

  Nanyang Zhenren floated in mid-air, his expression not showing any impatience, smiling as he looked on. Donghai Qian was the number one sect in the world, and Nanyang was one of its top experts, having a certain reputation in the cultivation world, his cultivation being higher than Zhu Wu's, and he was confident in dealing with Xie Gong.

  Qing Shi made an effort to soften his voice: "Old Three, listen to me, slow down and put away your bow..."

  "Shut up!" Liang Xin choked back tears, his tone weirdly funny: "You know I won't give up on my life, death is certain, yet you're still my second brother, not thinking of teaching me how to shoot straight, just spouting nonsense!"

  In this half-day, Liu also had a guilty look on his face and didn't speak. He was previously abandoned by Zhu Wu and lost an arm, otherwise he wouldn't have let the evil bow be taken away by Liang Xin. The two people who were fighting for the bow in front of him were both his sworn brothers, but if he really had to give up one, he would still choose Liang Xin.

  Liu Yi, who was feeling uncomfortable in his heart, suddenly burst out laughing when he heard Liang Xin's words and said loudly: "Third brother, rest assured that as long as I'm alive, your mother is my mother!" Then, he raised his head and shouted at the sky: "Old man, now it's my third brother Liang Xin, Liang Mochou, who will shoot you!"

  Qing's face turned iron-green, he walked up to Liang Xin's back in big strides, reached out and patted his shoulder: "Relax your shoulders, shooting arrows isn't chopping cabbage, don't hunch your shoulders or tuck in your neck, feet shoulder-width apart..."

  The little girl, Qing Mo, bit her lip and stood silently beside them, watching the old man and child in front of her. She was about to cry but didn't dare make a sound, afraid of disturbing them.

  Qu Qing Shi was so anxious to pass on his shooting skills to Liang Xin in this brief moment, since he was doomed to die anyway, how could he bear to let the old third die with his eyes open!

  In just a short while, no more than half an incense stick's worth of time, Liang Xin let out a sobbing laugh and said: "My arm hurts..."

  *silence*

  The bowstring vibrates, a sinister arrow is drawn, and one shot is fired!