123: Chapter 123 Memory Recovery

In her memories, Yan Qingning held Frost Radiance, her sword pointed at Jiang Xun.

She could not believe that the person before her had become a Demonic Path Cultivator, and a renowned one at that.

This was the first time she had seen Jiang Xun since his sudden disappearance.

She never expected that upon meeting again, the two would become opposing enemies.

Behind Yan Qingning stood Cultivators from the various major Righteous Path Alliances. Having heard that Jiang Hongyuan's Sect Master father had died, they had specifically come to besiege the Blood Fiend Sect.

As long as the Blood Fiend Sect was destroyed, the pinned Spiritual Vein of the Central Province could be revived.

Otherwise, it would be refined by the Demonic Path.

The Cultivators of the Central Province would inevitably be affected.

Just as they were on the verge of success, who would have thought that the Dao Seeking Demon Venerable would arrive.

The crowd did not dare to step forward; only Yan Qingning stood out.

She even dared to point her sword at him.

Jiang Xun shielded Jiang Hongyuan behind him.

The wind blew against his robes.

Jiang Xun's figure was upright, and facing Yan Qingning, he exuded an indescribable sense of detachment.

“Are you alright?”

He wasn't speaking to Yan Qingning, but to Jiang Hongyuan beside him.

Yan Qingning's originally joyful heart was shattered by this cold indifference.

She suppressed the urge to rush forward and embrace Jiang Xun.

“Demon Venerable.”

Yan Qingning spoke with a heart full of grievance, her voice carrying an uncontainable mix of joy and sorrow, “Look at who I am.”

She wanted Jiang Xun to take a good look at her—I am Qingning!

But from beginning to end, the Jiang Xun before her never cast his gaze upon her.

Yan Qingning's heart ached even more.

She had found him with great difficulty.

But why did the two of them end up like this?

Jiang Xun didn't look at her; he only looked sideways at Jiang Hongyuan. “This subordinate has arrived late, I ask the Saintess not to blame me.”

At this time, Jiang Hongyuan was still only the Saintess of the Blood Fiend Sect, and Jiang Xun was the servant by her side.

Jiang Hongyuan's tone was spiteful. “What are you still doing here? You've grown capable now, even daring to kill my father. Why don't you go out and establish your own Sect?”

“Why come back to acknowledge me?!”

She wanted to use the Red Silk on her body to strangle Jiang Xun.

Jiang Hongyuan's current plight was all because of Jiang Xun. If not for him, the Sect would not have fallen to such a state.

Meanwhile, Jiang Xun remained expressionless.

What a joke, he hadn't yet obtained the Blood Fiend Sect's supreme treasure, the true demon evil bone; how could he leave?!

He didn't say much.

Currently, Jiang Hongyuan's favorability was fluctuating wildly; he couldn't pester her and play the sycophant like he used to.

Jiang Xun faced all the Righteous Path Cultivators besieging the Blood Fiend Sect, a terrifying pressure weighing down on the entire field.

His voice wasn't loud, yet it resonated in everyone's ears like a great bronze bell.

“From now on, I am the new Sect Master of the Blood Fiend Sect. Who dares to be insolent?!”

Once the words were spoken, no one dared to respond.

Jiang Hongyuan stood behind Jiang Xun, a bright red light flashing in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Yan Qingning's hand holding Frost Radiance trembled slightly.

The tenderness and smiles that once existed in Jiang Xun's eyes—that light that belonged only to her.

Now, none of it remained.

Only indifference was left.

Like looking at a stranger.

Yan Qingning urged loudly, “Demon Venerable, do not persist in your ways and continue to make mistake after mistake.”

Her voice carried a plea that even she herself hadn't noticed.

She didn't understand why Jiang Xun would join the Demonic Path.

Was he being forced, or was he being coerced?

She only wanted him to come back.

Jiang Xun finally looked her in the eye. He spoke, his voice flat, transmitted only between the two of them.

“It is not I who is wrong.”

“It is this world.”

If one were to ask why Jiang Xun would say such a thing...

The dialogue box popped up too suddenly.

And at that time, Jiang Xun had scrolled to some 'edgy youth' quotes and just happened to fill it in.

After speaking, he raised his hand and tore open a spatial rift.

Dim light flowed around the edges of the rift, and inside was the bottomless Void Realm.

He reached out and forcefully took the hand of Jiang Hongyuan beside him.

The two stepped into the rift.

Disappearing completely.

Leaving Yan Qingning alone, the wind blowing until she felt chilled to the bone.

Afterward, the next news she heard of Jiang Xun was that the “Dao Seeking Demon Venerable failed his tribulation and perished within the Lightning Tribulation.”

At that time, she had always thought that Jiang Xun said those words to end this era where the Demonic Path ran rampant.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have said that it was the world that was wrong.

Otherwise, how could the once so kind and chivalrous Jiang Xun possibly join the Demonic Path?

But looking at that indifferent gaze in her memory now, looking at that hand holding Jiang Hongyuan's.

She suddenly realized that perhaps everything was not as she had imagined.

Jiang Xun might have already fallen for someone else back then.

Her heart felt as if it were being scorched by something.

Yan Qingning's icy body actually began to heat up slightly.

Jealousy.

It ignited within her heart.

The three lives mirror could not erase the memories of an Ascension Realm Cultivator; it could only hide and blur them.

But as long as a single flaw appeared, this concealment would vanish into thin air.

At this moment, the flaw had been opened.

Inside the room, the temperature plummeted.

On the walls, the desk, and the window frames, a thick layer of frost condensed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The frost flowers spread, as if they wanted to seal the entire room in ice.

Yan Qingning sat in the center of the frost, her entire body surrounded by an aura of extreme cold.

She questioned in her heart.

“Jiang Xun, did you join the Demonic Path because of her?”

“Did you fall in love with that demonic enchantress?”

Memories continued to flow.

Memories without Jiang Xun were dull and tedious.

And the memories had already reached a thousand years later.

She saw herself finding clues of Jiang Xun's Rebirth in the Blood Prison Nether Spider's cave.

Then she interrogated Frost Radiance.

And then she found Jiang Xun.

But that day, he said to her: “I don't love you anymore.”

Five words.

Like five nails, they were driven into her heart.

At this moment, those words surfaced again, once more stabbing fiercely into her heart.

A mouthful of blood overflowed from the corner of Yan Qingning's mouth.

Before the blood could hit the ground, it froze in the extreme cold, turning into a brilliant crimson ice mist that slowly drifted in the air.

“Master!”

Frost Radiance hugged her neck, her small face full of terror.

“Master, what's wrong? You're bleeding!”

She desperately wanted to sever the mental connection, but Yan Qingning reached out and held her down.

“I am fine,” Yan Qingning said, her voice hoarse.

“But...” Ice beads condensed in Frost Radiance's eyes again, “Master, you're bleeding...”

Yan Qingning looked down at her, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“So the heart can hurt this much.”

When she first heard Jiang Xun say those words, it was mostly disbelief and the joy of regaining what was lost.

But hearing those words again now, it was more of a realization and understanding that she didn't want to face.

She said softly.

“But even if it hurts, I am willing to endure it.”

Frost Radiance looked at her blankly, then buried herself tightly in her embrace, her small body twitching with sobs.

Yan Qingning closed her eyes, sinking into her memories once more.

She saw herself putting a neck collar on Jiang Xun.

She saw herself teaching him swordplay.

She saw the two of them in day and night intimacy, in the Forbidden Ground of Jade Void Grotto-Heaven, in corners where no one could see.

She saw the gifts she had given to Jiang Xun.

The two were linked by blood and bone, difficult to separate.

Until Jiang Xun said he wanted to go to the Cangwu Secret Realm.

Everything that happened in the Secret Realm now surfaced clearly before her eyes.

That life-and-death struggle, that phrase “returning your freedom as well,” that look of finality.

Yan Qingning snapped her eyes open.

“Returning my freedom...”

She murmured those words repeatedly.

Blood overflowed from the corner of her mouth again, dripping and condensing into blood beads that rolled on the frost-covered floor.

She closed her eyes again and murmured:

“To support each other in hardship is not as good as forgetting each other in the Jianghu...”

This was the last thing Jiang Xun had said to her.

She shouldn't have known, but at that time she was already in the Ascension Realm; she could recall not only her subjective memories but also the memories of her surroundings.

She saw the silhouette of him turning to leave.

Yan Qingning slowly opened her eyes.

Her eyes were bloodshot, a solid red.

“Leaving me just to go find that enchantress, wasn't it?” Yan Qingning's tone was full of resentment.

The fire of jealousy within her burned more and more fiercely.

The extreme icy Qi had already begun to spread uncontrollably, affecting the outside world.

Above the Peak Cloud Sea, clouds churned.

Snow began to fall.

First fine ice crystals, then heavy snowflakes.

At the harbor, several Loose Cultivators were drinking when they suddenly shivered.

“Eh? Why did it suddenly get so cold?”

“Yeah, it was warm just a moment ago...”

“This weather is weird, snow in the sixth month?”

Not far away, an old Cultivator tending a stall looked up at the sky, frowning.

He had lived for over three hundred years and had never seen such a celestial phenomenon.

This wasn't natural snow.

A powerful expert was nearby.

And their own rules were influencing the celestial phenomena.

The old Cultivator quickly packed up his stall and called out to those around him: “Hurry, leave! Don't stay here!”

In the mortal town below the Peak Cloud Sea, the commoners also looked up.

“It's snowing?”

“Snow in the sixth month? What kind of omen is this?”

“Freezing, freezing! Hurry home and put on more clothes!”

They didn't know that this snow was not a celestial phenomenon, but a woman's heartbreak.

Inside the room, the Cold Marrow Jade Scripture within Yan Qingning was circulating frantically.

She hadn't fully activated that Cultivation Technique in a long time.

But now, it was circulating spontaneously, as if trying to combat the burning fire of jealousy in its master's heart.

But it was a drop in the ocean.

The fluctuations of an Ascension Realm Dao Heart could no longer be intervened by external Cultivation Techniques.

If this continued, her Dao Heart would be flawed, which could very likely damage her foundation.

Yan Qingning gritted her teeth and squeezed out three words with all her might:

“Jiang... Hong... Yuan...”

Every word carried bone-deep hatred.

In her view, it was this demonic enchantress who had seduced her Jiang Xun.

It was she who led Jiang Xun to fall into the Demonic Path.

It was she who made Jiang Xun leave her.

Yan Qingning recalled every little detail of Jiang Xun being by her side.

Although she knew Jiang Xun no longer liked her.

That tenderness, that companionship, that false affection—it wasn't that she couldn't see through it.

But she was willing to indulge in it.

It didn't matter if he didn't like her anymore; he could like her again. She didn't believe that if the two of them stayed together for thousands or tens of thousands of years, Jiang Xun still wouldn't be able to like her again just like before.

But she had never thought that Jiang Xun would fall in love with someone else.

Yan Qingning recalled her control over Jiang Xun; it seemed everything was just her own wishful thinking.

She had never asked Jiang Xun what his thoughts were.

From beginning to end, it was just her simple fear that Jiang Xun would leave her.

“Master.”

Frost Radiance's timid voice sounded.

“Master, have you already remembered Daddy?”

Yan Qingning looked down at the small figure in her arms.

Frost Radiance looked up, her eyes red, with undried ice beads still hanging from them.

Yan Qingning reached out, picked her up, and gently held her in her arms.

“So it really was me who was pestering him all along.” She spoke softly, as if asking Frost Radiance, yet also as if asking herself, “Am I... very lowly?”

A tear slid from the corner of her eye.

Deep red, like a solidified blood bead, it rolled down her cheek and fell onto Frost Radiance's face.

Frost Radiance was stunned.

Then she shook her head desperately, crying out:

“No! No! Master is not that kind of person!”

She lunged forward, using her small hands to wipe the blood-tears from Yan Qingning's face, wiping more and more frantically.

“It was clearly Master who liked Daddy first! Master was first!”

Yan Qingning was dazed for a moment.

Then she smiled.

“Yes.” she murmured, “It was clearly me first.”

Frost Radiance nodded vigorously.

“That's right! Master can snatch Daddy back!”

Yan Qingning looked at her.

In those bloodshot eyes, a spark of life returned.

“Frost Radiance is right, I will snatch him back.”

Yan Qingning looked down at the Frost Radiance in her arms and suddenly remembered something—something she had always forgotten.

“Frost Radiance calls him Daddy, so call me Mommy from now on as well.”

Frost Radiance blinked.

“Mommy?”

“Yes.”

Frost Radiance tentatively called out: “Mommy!”

Yan Qingning smiled.

“Good girl.”

Frost Radiance called out several more times, getting happier with each call.

She had never thought that as a sword spirit, she could one day have a father and mother.

Yan Qingning held her, gently stroking her back. After a while, she suddenly asked:

“Does Frost Radiance want to have a real body?”

Frost Radiance was stunned, “A real... body?”

“Yes, just like a real child.”

Frost Radiance's eyes lit up.

“I do! Frost Radiance wants one!”

Yan Qingning took out a mass of something from her sleeve.

That mass floated in her palm, its entire body a faint multicolored hue, with seven-colored light flowing through it.

It seemed only the size of a fist, yet it gave off a feeling of being immeasurably heavy.

Colored Heaven Breathing Soil.

One of the top supreme treasures in the Cultivation World.

It was said to be divine soil left behind by ancient Divine Beings when they mended the heavens; a single grain could turn into a mountain range, and a mass could mold all things.

It was an excellent Artifact Refining material and also the best choice for molding a Physical Body.

Frost Radiance stared at that mass of colored light, her eyes fixed.

“Is this... for Frost Radiance?”

“Yes.”

Yan Qingning raised her hand, and the mass of Colored Heaven Breathing Soil slowly floated up.

She closed her eyes, her Divine Sense probing into it, beginning to mold the shape.

The colored light grew stronger and brighter.

Within the light, a blurry human figure gradually took shape, small, like a five or six-year-old girl.

First the outline, then the limbs, then the facial features.

All were exactly the same as Frost Radiance.

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Yan Qingning's forehead.

Molding a Physical Body was unlike forging a Magic Treasure; it required extremely precise control. A slight mistake could damage the divinity of the Breathing Soil.

But for her, already in the Ascension Realm, it was not difficult.

Half an hour later.

The light dissipated.

A porcelain-like little girl stood before Yan Qingning.

She wore a light blue ruqun, her hair was white-blue, tied into two small buns.

Her two eyes seemed to reflect two patches of azure sea.

She looked down at her hands, turning them over and over, then looked up at Yan Qingning.

“Mommy...”

Her voice was crisp, filled with surprise and disbelief.

Yan Qingning reached out and picked her up.

Frost Radiance hugged her neck, her little face buried in the crook of her neck, saying muffledly:

“Frost Radiance has a body... Frost Radiance can truly embrace Mommy now...”

Yan Qingning gently patted her back.

But in her heart, she was thinking of Jiang Xun. “Since Frost Radiance calls you Daddy, then I will be her Mommy. I want to see, on your wedding day, when we mother and daughter stand before you,

Will you acknowledge us, or not?”

Yan Qingning looked at Frost Radiance and said dotingly:

“Daughter, how about Mommy takes you to find Daddy?”