Chapter 634: Epilogue: The Final Stop

June 3, Hui Moqiong finally caught sight of the red carp again.

After she was sucked into the vortex, not knowing what she had gone through, when Hui Moqiong found the red carp at a reef ten li away, he very much wanted to pick her up and feed her, but all he could do was silently watch and silently encourage her.

The red carp opened its eyes, and the first thing it saw was Hui Moqiong.

She swayed as she stood up, leaning against his leg, and just like that, she snuggled up to him.

She maintained that posture all night.

The next morning, when the first ray of sunlight pierced the sea surface, the red carp once again plunged into the rapids, rushing toward the next node.

Later on…… along that journey, they experienced many, many things together.

Hui Moqiong was no longer like that night, prone to losing control of his emotions at the slightest provocation.

Every time he messaged me or called, it was after he had solved a problem.

"Xiao Jiu, Li Qingying has safely crossed the Lubei Plain segment; the day before yesterday she was blocked by a group of yellow carp, but she narrowly won."

"Xiao Jiu, Li Qingying has safely crossed the Dongping Lake flood detention area; she almost ran aground on a shoal, but thanks to her quick reflexes, she leapt past several carp doing sit‑ups."

"Xiao Jiu, we have already reached Little Wave Bottom……"

"……"

Mid‑August, Hui Moqiong sent me his final message.

"Xiao Jiu, we have arrived at Hukou Waterfall; here Li Qingying underwent a heavenly fire tribulation, nursed her wounds for a week, we watched the sunrise and the waterfall together each day, she plucked a heart‑protecting scale and gave it to me, saying this is the last scale she has left as a red carp; the next stop is Yumen Gate."

I could feel that Hui Moqiong's mood was heavy when he sent this message.

Li Qingying's fish‑scale armor transformed all over; entering the final stop, Yumen Gate, foretold that she would soon undergo marrow washing.

These days at Hukou Waterfall, though it seemed like companionship, it was in fact…… a parting.

At that moment we had just finished dealing with Shi Rou and Jin Wuya's side, and I and Liu Junyan immediately decided to rush to Yumen Gate.

From early April to mid‑August, a span of four months, Li Qingying finally reached the final stop; no matter what, we had to be there.

This road, though not long, is not short either.

When packing my luggage, my emotions were a little uncontrollable.

At that time I was already five months pregnant, my belly had swollen, and as I directed Liu Junyan to fetch this and that, I kept holding back my tears.

Before, no matter where I went or how long I stayed, my luggage was always packed by Li Qingying.

Even if I packed it myself, she would still look it over once, checking for gaps and making good any deficiencies.

She really took very good care of me.

There were originally few people at the pawnshop; after Li Qingying left and Hui Moqiong followed her away, the whole pawnshop became deserted and quiet.

Liu Junyan also said she wanted me to move to the Jiǔyàn qū, but I refused.

Not only because the pawnshop's business is still going, but more importantly, this place carries many, many of my thoughts and feelings.

This includes Li Qingying.

Her sudden departure left all traces of her life in the pawnshop still there.

If one day she suddenly returned, I would not want to leave her nothing but a scene of changed circumstances.

The day we rushed to Yumen Gate, the weather was terrible.

It poured with rain, thunder and lightning, the dark clouds seemed to press down on our heads, and visibility was extremely low.

We found Hui Moqiong a few hundred meters from Yumen Gate.

Over these months he has become gaunt all over, weather‑worn to an extreme degree, and he has grown a beard.

"We parted at Hukou Waterfall; I drove ahead first, from Hukou Waterfall to Yumen Gate, she still has to go through several trials and will arrive a little later than me."

Hui Moqiong said, turning to Liu Junyan: "Seventh Lord, did you bring everything I asked you to bring?"

Liu Junyan said they were all brought, in the car.

Hui Moqiong then had us watch for the red carp's appearance and call him immediately when it showed up.

I wondered aloud: "What did he have you bring?"

"A set of clean old clothes, a razor, nail clippers, toothbrush and toothpaste, that sort of thing." Liu Junyan said, "They're just daily consumables."

I then understood.

Hui Moqiong wanted to dress himself respectably, to see Li Qingying off one last time.

More than an hour later, Hui Moqiong reappeared, already washed clean and fresh.

His beard was shaved, his hair neatly combed, he changed into a dark‑gray long robe…… it felt as if he had returned to his former self, the vigor he had when he first came back to the pawnshop.

Aside from being thin, there wasn't much else changed.

After another hour, the surface of the water at Yumen Gate suddenly began to churn as if boiling, thunder rolling, fist‑sized fireballs shooting from the web‑like lightning and striking down without warning, instantly sinking into the water and kicking up huge waves.

Amid the splashes, firelight flickered, accompanied by blood spattering wildly.

Even though I had witnessed many such heavenly tribulation spectacles before, I was still stunned by the sight before me.

Even the little guy in my womb was excited for the first time ever.

I placed one hand on my belly, but I could not tear my eyes away from the water surface for a single second.

I saw several yellow carp corpses, each about the size of a young dolphin, float up from the water bottom, their scales scorched to ruin by the heavenly fire.

I also saw a blind snake's head, with no eyes, just break the surface, when it was blown to bloody pulp by a thunderbolt……

The creatures capable of reaching Yumen Gate each had cultivation that was the cream of their kind.

Yet even at the final step, their efforts could fall short and fail.

Time trickled by, each second an agony for us.

Worry piled up layer upon layer, until a figure appeared whose body was covered in fine red‑and‑yellow interlocking scales, its head bearing a pair of forked little horns, at which point I and Liu Junyan both stared in shock.

We had seen Li Qingying's true form as a red carp, and we had seen the true form of the evil jiao, but we never imagined that combining the two would turn out so bizarre.

Hui Moqiong obviously knew we would be surprised, and he said, "It's Li Qingying."

Hui Moqiong sprang forward, straining to stand at the highest point he could reach; as soon as Li Qingying lifted her head, she could see him.

Heavenly thunder and fire fell repeatedly.

The violent rain curtain mixed with rolling seawater, already blurring our vision.

I could only see Li Qingying's blurry figure tumbling in the seawater, and hear her low growls one after another.

Splash!

A sound of water.

Li Qingying finally fell into the marrow-washing pool.

Immediately afterward, denser heavenly thunder and fire smashed into the marrow-washing pool, the ground shook violently, and we could barely keep our footing.

This process lasted a full five or six minutes.

With a tremendous boom, a majestic heavenly gate rose from behind the marrow-washing pool, golden light poured down from the sky—this scene instantly pulled me back to the Linghai Forbidden Ground.

I recalled Liu Junyan, who, knowing full well that the heavenly gate was false, still climbed it without hesitation.

Time passed, circumstances changed, yet the memory remained vivid.

I instinctively grabbed Liu Junyan's clothing, my heart tense to the extreme.

This heavenly gate is the true Dragon Gate…