“Why did Yan Chun die?” Jian Xiuyun asked.
The word “death” seemed to stab Shen An. His expression condensed, fingers clenching instantly, and he said with difficulty, “On the day I returned to Yanling, he happened to be….getting married.”
Jian Xiuyun was choked up when he heard this. He didn’t expect it to be so complicated.
“That day, the whole palace was full of joy and adorned in bright red. I didn’t want to do anything on that day.” Shen An sighed and continued, “But then I thought, he is King An’s only child, and King An wants nothing more than to see him get married, establish a career, and make a name for himself. I knew that was King An’s happiest day, so I wanted him to experience the same amount of despair.”
Speaking of this, Shen An’s eyes turned cold.
“So Yan Chun had just finished bowing to heaven and earth, and before the ceremony could be completed, I appeared. King An didn’t expect me to be alive, and he looked like he’d seen a ghost. A bunch of guards came forward and tried to stop me, but none were my opponents. Holding the knife, I felt like I was back in that deserted place. Just like he choked me back then, I tightened my grip on his neck and stabbed the knife into his chest.”
A small smile played on Shen An’s lips, but his eyes only held indifference, his tone devoid of joy, as if he was just telling them a story that had nothing to do with him.
“The palace was instantly in chaos. King An fainted. Yan Chun rushed to King An like a madman to check his injuries while crying. I stood aside, holding the bloody knife, looking at the scene in front of me. Suddenly, I felt that the timing was wrong. I shouldn’t have killed King An in front of Yan Chun, but there was no use regretting it. I was about to leave…” At this point, Shen An suddenly paused, then continued, “Yan Chun suddenly stopped me and called me…brother.”
Shen An’s voice became hoarse, and he raised his hand to touch the scar on his face with a bitter smile, “I thought he wouldn’t recognize me.”
“He strode over, grabbed my arm and scrutinized me deeply. He probably had too many questions, he didn’t know which to ask, his words were all confused. His first sentence, he asked me what had happened when I was guarding the border. His second question was, “Why do you want to kill father?””
“Why?” Shen An laughed, a tone of sadness evident in his voice, “How should have I told him why all this happened? Should have I told him what King An did to the Shen family and me? Or just say nothing and let him think I was crazy?”
“You told him?” Jian Xiuyun asked.
“Yes.” Shen An admitted, then his eyes fell shut, as if he was reluctant to recall, “I wanted to leave, but he held on to me. I was so angry that I spilled everything.”
To this day, whenever Shen An closed his eyes, Yan Chun’s collapsed expression still clearly appeared vividly in his mind.
The treasure that he had cared for so attentively was shattered inch by inch in front of him.
And then it was merely a stroke in the history books.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
June of the 23rd year of Qianyuan.
King An Yan Chengze was assassinated and died. The emperor was furious and demanded a thorough investigation, but to no avail. His only heir, Yan Chun, refused to take his position, destroyed his eyesight, and disappeared.
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Jian Xiuyun suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. Yan Chun had been raised in a noble family ever since he was a child, and naturally had never experienced hardship. Such a person destroyed his own eyesight and left the protection of the palace…his future life was imaginable.
Shen An seemed to be tired. He sat down on the chair next to him and poured himself a cup of tea.
His face was still expressionless, but Jian Xiuyun noticed his hands were trembling, and his tone was overflowing with suppressed rage, “He hates me and he hates himself for losing his eyesight. He has a pair of eyes but can’t see anything. So he just shouldn’t have done it!”
The more Shen An spoke, the more excited he became. He tightened his hand and crushed the cup into pieces instantly, “I didn’t expect that after three years of not seeing him, he would have such a future. Back then, he was so squeamish that he was unwilling to even ride a horse, but now he had gouged out his own eyes.”
Shen An stood up and stared at Yan Chun, his eyes brimming with rage, but his face had a chilling, twisted smile, “When he left Yanling, I was waiting at the city gate. I saw him dressed in cloth and holding a stick in his hand. He walked slowly with its help, and some children threw mud at him, making fun of him. He couldn’t hide, so he simply let them bully him. I watched him sleeping under no roof, leaning against a tree. Even wild dogs competed with him for food. He was obviously the pride of heaven, but he had managed to end up like this.”
“It’s simply messed up!” After saying the last sentence, Shen An gritted his teeth, obviously angry, but his eyes had reddened.
He turned his head around and continued, “Once, he slept at the door of a family’s house overnight. In the morning, the woman came out with a bucket of water. When she saw him, she poured it all over him without a word. I couldn’t help it, I came out and kicked that lady into the river. When he heard the noise, he stood there for a long time, and then suddenly called me…but he called out, “Shen An”. He said that what King An had done to me was wrong, but I had also taken my revenge, so now we were even. He asked me not to follow him anymore. I didn’t say anything, but continued to follow him. I picked out wild fruits for him and bought him food, but he didn’t eat a bite and refused to let me follow him.”
“In those years, I watched him fall into a pit while walking and struggle to get out. I watched him trip and fall. I watched him almost get eaten by wild beasts. It wasn’t until he came to Ancient Stone City that his situation got a bit better, but only slightly. I couldn’t stand it. He didn’t owe me anything, so why would he lose a pair of eyes in vain? So I took someone’s eyes and gave them to him.”
Jian Xiuyun felt his heart leap up, and intuitively felt that things had changed from here.”
Sure enough, he heard Shen An continue in a harsh voice, “I thought he would be happy, but as soon as he opened his eyes and saw me, he started acting crazy and wanted to pluck those eyes out. I didn’t let him, so he pushed me and ran away. I wanted him to calm down, so I didn’t follow him. Who knew that when I saw him again, he would be at the foot of a cliff, with his limbs broken and his eyes dripping with blood.”
His teeth chattered, and he looked at Yan Chun with a mad expression, “Why? Why couldn’t he take good care of himself? Why did he have to be angry with me? He doesn’t want to live, but I want him to stay alive. I want to make a Yin Corpse out of him and let him live forever. Even if he doesn’t want other people’s organs, I will make him a new body. Except for the head, every limb comes from other people’s bodies.”
“Hahahaha…” At this point, Shen An suddenly laughed, his voice full of desolation.
“I couldn’t wait to see his reaction, but when I was refining him, I found out that Yin Corpses can only be refined from people who are near death or have died recently. He has been dead for a long time, and cannot be refined.” Shen An said, with a smile on his face. The smile faded little by little.
“I didn’t believe it, so I started looking for people to refine. I didn’t expect that I would kill everyone in the town, and there would still be nothing I could do. Later, I thought that a cultivator’s golden core might be useful, so I had Li Zhang invite the immortal cultivators.”
Shen An looked at them, his voice laced with a hint of provocation, “I didn’t expect that they would not only send Golden Core stage cultivators, but even Nascent Soul and Distraction stage cultivators. I’m truly honored.”
After Shen An finished speaking, he extended his hand and said to Jian Xiuyun, “I’m done, give him to me.”
Jian Xiuyun looked at him coldly and bit out, “Madman.”
Shen An’s eyes darkened and he said again, “Give him back to me.”
Jian Xiuyun hugged Yan Chun tightly and stepped back, “He would rather commit suicide than be entangled with you anymore. Don’t you understand? He can’t bear the past between you and King An. Let him go. He won’t be able to bear it. How long do you want him to remain this non-human, ghostly person?”
Shen An didn’t respond and took a step forward, as if he wanted to take him by force. At this moment, a figure suddenly flashed in front of his eyes. Kan Wenxiao stood in front of Jian Xiuyun and pointed his sword at him.
Jian Xiuyun held Kan Wenxiao’s hand, and a dark red flame ignited in his palm.
“What are you going to do?” Shen An asked with a hint of rage.
Jian Xiuyun hesitated for a second before lighting Yan Chun’s robe on fire.
Shen An’s eyes were round with anger, about to burst. He rushed towards him like crazy, but was held back by Kan Wenxiao.
Jian Xiuyun put Yan Chun back on the bed. The flames touched the quilt and blazed more violently.
Shen An was no match for Kan Wenxiao, and kept getting blocked. The fire grew more and more intense. He stopped his movements, his knees softening as he knelt down on the ground.
His chest rose and fell, and his eyes fell on Xiao Xi’er beside him.
Shen An fell silent, staring at the burning mahogany bed. When Jian Xiuyun relaxed his vigilance, he suddenly leapt up, rushed to Xiao Xi’er, and pressed the knife against her neck.
“What are you doing? Let her go!” Jian Xiuyun exclaimed hurriedly.
“If you stop, I’ll let her go. Otherwise, she’s dead.” Shen An warned, applying a bit of pressure on the knife, and a trace of blood immediately oozed out from her neck.
“You…” Jian Xiuyun gritted his teeth.
Just as he was about to give in, he saw Xiao Xi’er clutch Shen An’s knife. She was terribly frightened, her tears dripping down, but still said in a trembling voice, “Brother Immortal, please don’t agree to him. Kill him and avenge my brother, dad, mom, and the people from Ancient Stone City.”
“Xiao Xi’er.” Jian Xiuyun’s voice was slightly hoarse.
Xiao Xi’er didn’t look at him anymore, but turned around and glared at Shen An fiercely.
For some reason, Shen An’s hand suddenly relaxed.
Kan Wenxiao immediately took note of this and suddenly stepped forward, knocking away the knife with his sword. He pulled Xiao Xi’er over and turned around, pushing her into Jian Xiuyun’s arms.
Then, he stabbed straight towards Shen An.
Shen An didn’t even dodge. He looked at the blazing bed quietly, tears welling up in his eyes.
Jian Xiuyun reached out and covered Xiao Xi’er’s eyes, so she only heard a “puff”, followed by the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground.
After a long time, the hand in front of her eyes moved away.
Xiao Xi’er opened her eyes and stole a glance at Shen An, but she didn’t expect that he would be staring right at her.
Xiao Xi’er was startled and dug deeper into Jian Xiuyun’s arms.
When Shen An saw it, the tears in his eyes gushed out, but a smile broke out on his face. He spoke hoarsely, breathing heavily, and every word seemed to be spoken with all his strength.
“Your eyes really look like his. I thought so the first time I laid my eyes upon you.”
I wasn’t particularly a huge fan of this side story, but the last line really did things to me. Alas, the tragedy…
Lmao, not the translator saying they didn’t like the side story while I’m a screaming crying mess, when he said he can’t make him a yin despite trying his all I was like 😭😭😭😭😭
No but actually tysm for all the hard work ♥️♥️♥️♥️
Haha welcome~
They’re so tragic, I dont even have words. I don’t like or dislike the side story but I just think that, at least so far, it’s unnecesarry. The novel is not that long anyway and this side story seems random and unrelated to any event of the past and to the MC at all.
Thank you for the translation!
Ah the implicit warning to wenxiao not to push things too far with shizun
Funny, I like the side story much more than the original. So Sad for Shen An and Chun Yan.