Chapter 585

Epilogue · The Fated Pact (Complete)

The old Master Siming stared fixedly at the shimmering crystal, dumbfounded: "This commotion??? Wait, old Xue?!"

He lifted his head, wanting to tell the Whale Fisher about this.

But remembering the Whale Fisher's earlier reaction, the old Master Siming fell silent; both the Black Tortoise Manifestation and his own eyes flickered with a hint of amusement—the Whale Fisher would normally notice such disturbances, but now his inner fire burned like charred wood, leaving no room for such matters.

The formation unfolded, its teleportation speed unmatched in the world.

Even rain clouds blocking the way were ripped apart outright.

Cloud qi could not draw near his person.

The old Master Siming directly placed the Black Tortoise Manifestation atop his head, averting one calamity—while the garrulous Tu Shengyuan got drenched head to toe, looking like a soaked chicken.

The Whale Fisher surged forward, arriving swiftly at the Mystical Realm of the Star-Watching Line; he raised his hand like a blade and slashed straight down—in an instant, the myriad formations shrouding the Star-Watching Line's Mystical Realm split open like waves cleaved by a sword, blooming layer upon layer like lotus petals.

In a single thought, he shattered one hundred and three formations.

Instantaneous birth and death.

The current Form Master's techniques were truly extraordinary—he even timed it perfectly, his speed unslowed, gliding into the Mystical Realm like a fish slipping into the sea; he raised his gaze and saw distant blossoms adorned with red lanterns.

The Whale Fisher's sharp eyes caught the table and chairs, the red cloth bearing the character 【Double Happiness】.

His scalp prickled.

"Wait a minute!!!"

Secret Technique—Heavenly Demon Disintegration Formation.

Unleash!

………………

Within the Star-Watching Line, members of the Breaker Line and the Yao Guang Line were busy; unusually, both the Breaker Line and Yao Guang Line members felt cheerful—for the Yao Guang Line, Qin Huang's return after marrying Yao Guang eased the anxiety of two hearts worried their child might be mistreated abroad.

On the other side, the Breaker Line felt Qin Huang had shown them immense respect.

He was loyal, accomplished great deeds, forged glorious achievements!

Awesome!

Did any of you old Breaker Line elders ever have a lord like this?!

Hah, you didn't, did you?!

So even the Breaker Line fellows helped prepare for the "Great Wedding Return" festivities—but amid this joy, the old men of the Breaker Line felt a subtle unease.

Although they'd won…

Hadn't they won?!

Yet as they stared at Yu Yanming and his wife, grinning until their eye wrinkles appeared, the old men felt a strange defeat—a sense of having won, yet somehow lost.

After much thought, Zhou Wangji, the Breaker Line's old tutor, gazed at his beautiful son, stroked his chin, crouched beneath a great tree, and whispered to the old men on either side:

"Should we change our ancestors' method of taking disciples?"

"Maybe next generation, we take a girl instead?"

The old men lowered their voices.

But who here lacked some trick or other?

These Breaker Line elders, chattering like village matrons, sounded as if they were shouting directly into everyone's ears—yet everyone still had to pretend they hadn't heard.

The Breaker's temple throbbed; shame and humiliation rose within him.

The Breaker's fingers, gripping his fan, turned white.

Now he no longer wished to flee to the world's edge.

He wanted to borrow a spade and dig a hole for each of these three old men—one blow, one grave.

Especially after the three old men muttered for a while, then all glanced at the Breaker, clicked their tongues, and shook their heads in unison.

Snap.

The Breaker's fan snapped clean in two.

This top strategist, who once spoke confidently of world trends and regarded all heroes under heaven as rivals at age twenty-seven, now flushed crimson—once elegant and unrestrained in youth, at thirty-seven he was outright blushing.

Damn it, all of you—

Huh?!!

At that moment, the Breaker keenly sensed a shift in the formation's energy—a faint ripple leaked out; its style was far too familiar to him.

Nothing else—it had appeared on battlefields multiple times.

Each time, it reversed the local tide of battle.

Even aiding the overall strategic situation, as Li Guanyi's chief strategist responsible for grand warfare, the Breaker knew this energy signature intimately—he instantly recognized it as belonging to the Form Master of the World.

And one-third of a breath later, he understood what was about to happen; he snapped his head up and shouted: "It's the Form Master!!! Has he come here to cause trouble?!!"

Though he felt a subtle defeat from having lost to Yao Guang, the Breaker understood one thing clearly: since ten years ago, he had been his lord's strategist.

Zhou Wangji froze; Yu Yanming's gaze halted; they all looked up and saw the Whale Fisher—white hair streaming, riding the wind, carrying two old men—descending from the sky; the Whale Fisher spotted Li Guanyi and Yao Guang across the way and roared:

"Li Guanyi, what are you doing?!"

Perhaps because his travels and fishing had made him forget to contact his daughter, he'd missed her wedding entirely—and now, embarrassed, he feigned anger, for otherwise he couldn't face them.

The silver-haired girl saw through her father's thoughts instantly.

Her face showed no emotion; she lowered her gaze and spoke calmly:

"Fool."

The Whale Fisher tossed Tu Shengyuan and the old Master Siming out.

The old Master Siming landed in the manner of a martial hero.

As his buttocks hit the ground in the "Falling Sand Across the Plain" posture, the Black Tortoise Manifestation cushioned him, bounced, and he landed steadily; he snatched the Black Tortoise Manifestation, flicked it, and sent it spinning—precisely striking Tu Shengyuan's rear, launching the garrulous old man into a tree branch.

Tu Shengyuan's face turned ashen.

Instinctively, he still reached up to touch his own mouth.

His mouth and tongue were both perfectly fine.

Only then did he let out a breath of relief, and began wailing "Ow ow ow" as he cried out in pain.

Old Master Siming looked over at the Whale Angler charging forward, and Zhou Wangji recognized that this person was the famous martial arts legend; the contemporary helmsman of the radical Pojun lineage, Ming Rui, had also realized that there must be some hidden story here, and that he had not necessarily come to stop it.

Just as he was about to open his mouth and say, "I say— mmph mmph mmph!"

The steady and even-tempered conservative Yu Yanming finally could not bear it any longer; he raised his hand and slapped it down on Zhou Wangji's head, his five fingers clamping shut, and yanked him straight back. His hair bristling with rage, his face flushed red with fury, he said:

"Back then you left the child at my doorstep, and now that the child is married and returning home, you still come looking for me!"

"You fisherman!"

"Do you really take me for a pushover?!"

"I******!!!"

Zhou Wangji sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

Yu Yanming had already waved his hand, directly activating a formation to intercept the Whale Angler; this was the fury and resentment he had bottled up for over twenty years, finally exploding all at once. The Mystical Realm formations of the Yaoguang lineage were unrivaled under heaven; even among the Shiwaisan Sect, there was none that could compare.

The formation's flowing light erupted, and the Whale Angler crashed straight in.

Old Master Siming's mouth corner twitched, but he could also tell that no real killing intent had been unleashed—it was still within the bounds of sparring. Yet at this moment, he also saw the Whale Angler over there, his momentum surging, invincible wherever he turned.

Even with the accumulated heritage and foundation of the Yaoguang lineage layered on top, Yu Yanming was still no match for the Whale Angler. But this old Bai Mao ultimately knew that, to Yaoguang, Yu Yanming was like a sworn father, so he also held back considerably, simply using pure skill to break the formation.

Tu Shengyuan, hanging from the tree, curled his lip.

"This fisherman's gone crazy."

"Just obediently apologize to your daughter and it'd be over."

"Won't apologize, and still has to pretend to be angry on purpose, hoping someone will come comfort him."

"So damn awkward."

"Has this fisherman's mind not grown up yet?"

Old Master Siming: "…………"

Xuan Gui: "…………"

Old Master Siming had the urge to grab a pair of worn-out shoes he hadn't changed in three months and stuff them into this old bastard's mouth. With that mouth of his, he shouldn't have become a storyteller—this old bastard should have gone to the front of the great army to be a challenger, shouting insults at the enemy lines.

Or, better yet, been reborn eight hundred years earlier.

During the heyday of the Scarlet Emperor, as an envoy sent by the Central Plains Scarlet Emperor lineage to the various Western Regions kingdoms.

With that mouth of his—

Way too sharp.

Still, this old chatterbox had a point. Letting the Whale Angler keep 'acting up' like this wasn't going to solve anything. But when this old fellow wasn't being unreliable, he truly wasn't—his Wu Gong was indeed unrivaled under heaven.

Only Li Guanyi was his match.

But one couldn't exactly have the father-in-law and son-in-law draw on each other at the homecoming banquet.

Old Master Siming suddenly thought of something, slowly lowered his head, and looked at his own Xuan Gui Dharma Aspect with an encouraging, expectant gaze. The Xuan Gui Dharma Aspect had been watching the show with great relish, and cheerfully discussed with Old Master Siming: "The Formation Chief can truly be said to have lost his composure from embarrassment and anger."

"I think he wants to complete the wedding homecoming while he's present the whole time, so he must interrupt the Star Observation lineage's preparations."

"Otherwise, a father's dignity would be trampled into the dirt."

"Yaoguang's teacher is clearly holding back a bellyful of fire, and has also seen through the Formation Chief's thoughts, wanting to stop him. Tsk tsk tsk, what a show. If it can't be stopped, they can't exactly have Li Guanyi step in—that would change the whole flavor of it."

"It all depends on who can stop the Formation Chief."

"What a grand show."

"There probably isn't anyone who can stop him, right! After all, it's the Formation Chief—who would really dare go up and stop him?"

Old Xuan Gui and Old Master Siming chatted.

Clicking their tongues in wonder.

But slowly, the Xuan Gui Dharma Aspect suddenly felt that the atmosphere was getting a little strange. The Old Master Siming who would always squat together with him to discuss and watch the show was not speaking, but Old Xuan Gui inexplicably felt that there seemed to be two gazes looking at him, and an inexplicable chill ran down his spine.

Old Xuan Gui fell silent.

Old Xuan Gui slowly turned his head and saw Old Master Siming looking at him.

On Old Xuan Gui's turtle face appeared a "we're good buddies" kind of smile, yet tinged with a trace of careful caution: "There probably isn't anyone who would dare go up… and stop him, right?"

Old Master Siming's mouth corner twitched.

He revealed a smile that Tuguhun had been very familiar with in his youth.

"You're not a person."

Old Xuan Gui: "???!"

Old Master Siming, full of high spirits: "You go stop the Formation Chief!"

The Xuan Gui Dharma Aspect went blank.

Who? Me?!

Before He could even retort, Old Master Siming took three steps as two, darted forward, bent down, reached out, grabbed the Xuan Gui Dharma Aspect, his right foot suddenly stamped forward, and with the momentum twisted his waist.

His sleeves billowed.

Old Master Siming's waist, spine, and legs all tensed.

He rotated into an inward-spinning posture.

Like the ancestors of primordial times who, gripping long spears and javelins, dared to hunt and slay the Sun God, Old Master Siming's face even wore a solemn expression.

"I'll miss you, old friend."

He suddenly exploded with power.

The Xuan Gui Dharma Aspect was hurled flying directly, spiraling and whirling through the air.

Xuan Gui raged: "You old raggedy bastard, you son of a—!"

The Black Tortoise spun at high speed and slammed into the Zhenkui.

The Zhenkui was slapped flying with one palm.

"Where did this mosquito come from?"

Old Master Siming grinned, watching the Black Tortoise Dharma Aspect precisely slam into the tree fork that had pinned Tu Shengyuan, and as the latter tried to pull himself free but couldn't, only able to scream as the Black Tortoise came spinning in, the two of them fell from the tree together.

Old Master Siming muttered: "This way, the old man isn't entirely without having taken action, he's done something at least, hmm?!!"

Suddenly feeling a scorching heat in his hand, a burning pain, Old Master Siming came back to his senses, looked, and saw that the Mystical Realm crystal stone Xue Shen held was growing ever more richly radiant, the tiny cracks that had appeared earlier all showing a tendency to slowly heal.

Old Master Siming froze, then immediately saw the Mystical Realm of the Yaoguang lineage fully opened.

Looking at Xue Shen's crystal stone.

Upon encountering this special situation, Old Master Siming immediately realized that Xue Shen's Mystical Realm crystal stone had originally been personally created by that generation's Yaoguang five hundred years ago, and the methods used must have been passed down to the many later generations of the Yaoguang lineage.

Old Master Siming raised a hand and slapped his forehead, then suddenly laughed out loud: "To untie the bell one must tie the bell — truly a case of not seeing the forest for the trees, this place is where Old Xue will awaken." His hands shifted, and in an instant the yin and yang energies flowed and transformed.

Using the Way of Yin and Yang, he derived the positive and negative, from these the Four Transformations, the Eight Trigrams, and even the Sixty-Four Hexagrams, the Yang Escape five hundred and four, the Yin Escape five hundred and four, and even one thousand and eighty formations, until the entire Yaoguang Mystical Realm was enveloped by the flowing qi of Yin and Yang.

Four thousand three hundred and twenty formations.

The Four Transformations of Yin and Yang, reaching a realm of Qimen Dunjia unmatched by any before or after.

What I tread upon.

Is Yin and Yang.

His hands came together, and Xue Shen's true spirit faintly revived. Xue Shen, since his fierce battle with Yuwen Lie a year ago, had fallen into slumber, drowsy and hazy, not yet awakened. After waking, he didn't know where he was, didn't know what to do, like a great dream — he'd only just fallen asleep when Old Master Siming kicked him straight, kicking the door open, then dragged him off the bed.

Old Master Siming saw that the Whale-Angler over there was breaking through the Yaoguang lineage, about to arrive close at hand.

Old Master Siming was suddenly inspired.

He grabbed Xue Shen's Mystical Realm crystal stone and tossed it that way.

Straining his throat, he shouted:

"Someone is trying to wreck this generation's Yaoguang wedding!!!"

Xue Shen's true spirit, still in a drowsy haze, heard this one sentence.

The Zhenkui was about to block this return-home banquet when he suddenly sensed something was wrong.

The formation behind was directly broken open.

The next moment, the two boots that had trampled the Spirit Mountain five hundred years ago descended directly from the sky, kicking the fisherman squarely in the lower back, knocking the Whale-Angler's movement askew. In an instant, the entire Yaoguang Mystical Realm fell silent, watching Xue Shen descend from the heavens like a roc spreading its wings, trampling the Zhenkui down from the sky.

Without a shred of hesitation, without a shred of doubt.

The drowsy Xue Shen took action without the slightest hesitation.

"No matter which generation's Yaoguang business it is, I've got to come and back the scene!"

Only now did Xue Shen see the person kicked down, and he froze:

"Huh?? The fisherman, you're still alive?! How long have I been asleep?"

The Whale-Angler couldn't match such a martial brute in physique, and landing on the ground with weeds in his hair, veins bulging on his forehead: "You've only been asleep a little over a year and you're already up, you surnamed Xue, were you doing a carp leap in your coffin the whole time?!"

The silver-haired girl nibbled at a pastry.

No particular emotion on her face, her perception was sharp, and she knew this was only the roughhousing sort.

After the Whale-Angler and Xue Shen beat each other up, both bruised and swollen, the Whale-Angler still wasn't satisfied.

Li Guanyi had already come bearing tea.

Qin Huang, dressed as a wandering knight, held the tea in both hands and presented it with a deep bow.

"Father-in-law, please have some tea."

The Whale-Angler fell silent, then still muttered a few times — this kid really had given him full face — so he could only sigh, accept this cup of tea, and then froze slightly. Li Guanyi turned his gaze to look, and was also stunned.

As if finally touching her heart, or as if only at this moment did the white-haired girl finally realize that certain things had changed, the ripples of emotion reached her in a delayed way.

'From the beginning to the end, I will accompany you to your conclusion, whatever it may be — whether it is opening a new era, or perishing in the fires of war, I will be with you.'

'Even a hero the whole world leans on may be allowed to be weak.'

"When you need to, you can turn back."

'I am here.'

More than ten years ago, the girl outside Guan Yicheng took off her hood, revealing silver long hair and a face cool and aloof, without a single ripple.

And now, Li Guanyi turned back, the pastry slipped from the silver-haired girl's hand to the ground, her silver hair swayed gently in the wind, her fair cheeks already flushed crimson, an intense surge of emotion showing on her face.

It was as if the hazy night clouds parted to reveal a fleeting glimpse of moonlight.

The night-blooming cereus opens for a single instant — no one in this world may behold it.

The girl's face flushed.

Here the four seasons were ever spring, the sky like a vast vault, the clouds drifting. The flower trees of the Star-Gazing School's Mystical Realm swayed in the wind, spreading out like an ink wash painting. Beneath the flower trees, the silver-haired girl smiled.

Then she spread her arms and threw herself into the wandering knight's embrace.

'I am a disciple of the Eastern Lands Star-Gazing School, Yaoguang.'

'I have come to fulfill with you—'

'The Fated Promise.'

?? Side Story Part Two ends~ Recently ran into some things, so it won't be this long between updates from now on~