Chapter 158: Even if my soul is scattered, I will find you

Having lived two lifetimes, Wu Yan heard someone say such words to her for the first time.

In her understanding, words like “I only want you” could only be exchanged between long-married couples.

Yet now, they had come right out of the Demon Venerable’s mouth.

“You…”

Rarely, Wu Yan found herself at a complete loss.

She had never been good at handling feelings, let alone when it came to the Demon Venerable, who had always been by her side.

“Dead wood!”

The Demon Venerable buried her head between Wu Yan’s neck and shoulder, greedily inhaling the scent that belonged to no one but Wu Yan.

“You barged into my world without permission, and now you want to leave without permission.”

“I won’t allow it.”

“I…”

Wu Yan had just opened her mouth when another wave of indescribable exhaustion surged from within her.

Her limbs went limp, and she nearly collapsed into the Demon Venerable’s arms.

The Demon Venerable hurriedly caught her, only to see Wu Yan’s body begin to flicker, her very presence growing faint.

Of course, this meant only one thing.

The power of the Great Perfection Stage was gradually fading away.

“I will find you.”

The Demon Venerable lowered her head.

Her calm yet stubborn tone made Wu Yan feel as if needles were pricking her back.

“Even if your soul scatters, I will bring you back!”

The Demon Venerable straightened up and helped Wu Yan to her feet.

Her crimson eyes were filled with confident light.

“After all, this seat is the Demon Venerable!”

The warmth from her palm made an involuntary smile surface on Wu Yan’s face.

“Mm… I’ll wait for you.”

Wu Yan replied softly.

Wu Yan squeezed the Demon Venerable’s arm, signaling her to let go.

“Before I leave, there’s one last thing to do.”

Wu Yan had not forgotten the purpose of entering the Sea of Consciousness.

The first was to bid the Demon Venerable farewell.

The second, naturally, was to deal with the monster hidden deep in the Demon Venerable’s memories.

Back in the Demon Venerable’s memories, a thick, bloody stench permeated every corner.

With the cultivation of the Great Perfection Stage, Wu Yan finally understood why she had sensed something strange in the Demon Venerable’s memories back then.

The orbs of light carrying each of the Demon Venerable’s memories were all entwined with a barely visible black thread, extending into the deep and dark midair above.

There was no light there, no sound.

Space meant nothing to it.

Time could not leave even a trace on its body.

Its head and tail locked tightly together, and its unconsciously squirming body made the vault of heaven overhead shudder on the verge of collapse.

Every black thread connected to a scale on its body.

Merely existing there, it pressed down on Wu Yan with an immense weight.

‘So it really wasn’t an illusion!’

Wu Yan gripped Wu Nian tightly, the suspicion in her heart confirmed.

The ouroboros deep in the Demon Venerable’s memories gave her a feeling extremely similar to the aura she had sensed on herself!

Wu Yan closed her eyes.

A cold-white air current surged up from beneath her feet.

With every inch the air current climbed, Wu Yan’s body grew more tenuous.

She swung her sword once.

There was no grand spectacle—only an ordinary sword chi.

The cyan sword chi, wrapped in cold-white spiritual power, let out a joyful hum as it severed the black threads at their roots and soared into the sky.

—

A woman in a red dress dangled her bare calves, swinging her long whip out of boredom.

Every time the whip landed, it lashed up surging waves of blood.

“Going by the time, it should be about time for her to return, right?”

“The way you worry, you’d think you didn’t trust her.”

The other eye at her feet paused in applying its medicine and chimed in.

“Her cultivation may not be the highest among us, but her mission completion rate is number one. Hiss—that Shen Qingzhou truly lives up to her name. She’s way too ruthless.”

The red-dressed woman was about to say something more when she saw a small blood ball slowly rise from the Blood Sea.

Through the scarlet blood, one could faintly make out the tiny existence within.

Its appearance was the spitting image of a miniature version of the ouroboros deep in the Demon Venerable’s memories.

At the sight of the blood ball, the two immediately dropped their casual attitudes.

They stopped what they were doing and knelt before it with utmost respect.

“Sovereign!”

“It succeeded.”

The ouroboros, shaped like an infinity symbol, wriggled slowly within the ball.

Even 10,000 miles away—even from an entirely different space—it could still clearly perceive that the aura identical to its own had dissipated.

The next moment, a horizontal figure-8 symbol crossed the space-time turbulence and crashed into its body.

“Sovereign!”

The two tried to step forward but were stopped by it.

The power of the same origin rapidly mended wounds that had not healed in 9,000 years.

It strengthened the ouroboros, and at the same time, brought it an unexpected surprise.

—

The instant the serpent’s head was cut off, the Demon Venerable’s memory world collapsed.

It split violently from the middle, its black-gray scales growing dim.

Only upon death did it finally open those enormous vertical pupils, as huge as the sun, and unleash an indescribable roar.

When the ouroboros died, unbearable pain knocked the Demon Venerable unconscious.

The mountains of corpses and seas of blood in her memories began to crack apart inch by inch.

Wu Yan’s wrist trembled.

Her five fingers could no longer hold onto Wu Nian.

Hum—

Wu Nian tore open a spatial rift beside Wu Yan.

Then it flew behind her, pressing its sword hilt against Wu Yan’s waist, as if trying to push her out.

“It’s useless.”

Wu Yan shook her head.

Her body turned into specks of light from the bottom up, disintegrating along with the Demon Venerable’s memories.

“After you get out, remember to take good care of her for me. I owe her so much. I can only entrust her to you.”

Wu Yan whispered softly to Wu Nian.

Wu Nian gently swayed a few times, then sneakily nudged Wu Yan a few more times toward the rift.

Its snow-white sword tassel swayed back and forth with each movement.

“Protect them for me too.”

Wu Yan added.

“Stay by her side. Don’t let her fall into the same trap again.”

With that, Wu Yan turned sideways and outwitted Wu Nian, sending the sword—which had still wanted to insist—tumbling into the rift.

In the last remnants of her consciousness, Wu Yan saw the light scattering from her body gently spread over the unconscious Demon Venerable, like a blanket being tucked over her.

They say that at the moment of death, a person relives all the experiences of their life.

In her previous life, all Wu Yan could recall when dying was the days she spent roaming the city’s corners with the old man.

But this life was different.

From Piaomiao Sect to Medicine King Valley, from Su Qianqian to Ning Xiyan—every place she had been, everything she had experienced, every person she had met—all of it played through Wu Yan’s mind once more.

In the end, her consciousness came to rest on the people who mattered most.

Wu Yan, the Demon Venerable, Xia Lingshuang, Yu Qingyao, Shang Yin, Ying Xin, Dao Yao, Ji Xuerou, Bai Zhiqiu, Lin Wan’er…

Each one was an irreplaceable existence to her.

Every one of them had extended a hand to her at some moment.

When she thought of them, Wu Yan’s heart thumped.

The days and nights spent with them, every single thing they had been through—all of it became the most precious treasure, stored deep within Wu Yan’s heart.

Only at the very end did Wu Yan close her eyes and vanish along with the Demon Venerable’s memories.

—

Main Peak.

Xia Lingshuang calmly gazed at the Demon Venerable.

Yet her left hand, clenched tightly within her sleeve, betrayed her unease.

Suddenly, a flying sword trailing a sword tassel shot out from the Demon Venerable’s body.

Xia Lingshuang naturally recognized it as Wu Nian.

But right behind Wu Nian came the spatial turbulence it had torn open.

Seeing that the unconscious Demon Venerable’s body was already being drawn into the spatial turbulence, Xia Lingshuang acted immediately.

The white silk at her waist wrapped around the Demon Venerable’s waist and pulled her back.

In that process, however, Xia Lingshuang seemed to notice something on the Demon Venerable’s body shatter and get sucked into the spatial turbulence.

After a tense standoff, space healed itself once more.

Xia Lingshuang then laid the Demon Venerable down on the ground.

Looking at the unconscious Demon Venerable and Yu Qingyao, Xia Lingshuang merely lifted her head to glance at the sky.

With the death of Xue Zun and “her” departure, the situation had completely tilted in Piaomiao Sect’s favor.

Victory was only a matter of time.

Yet beneath the bright moon, perhaps no one but her would ever know about the girl who had given up her life to protect everyone.