Chu Xinghui hesitantly stopped the bird that tried to continue hitting him and carefully looked at the black bird’s wings.

After using up its golden light, the black bird returned to the same appearance as before, changing from a golden big bird back to a small black bird.

His sword spirit had returned.

Then… what about his Xie Liufeng?

Chu Xinghui turned his gaze and finally saw what the black bird had brought back.

It was a jade sword-shaped pendant, with a faint pearly-white light flowing inside.

Since Xie Liufeng gave him this pendant, it had hung on his neck. Even after ascending, he had never taken it off. He did not know when the black bird had secretly taken it away from him.

Xie Liufeng had always said this was the key to the warehouse. Until now, he finally knew what was really hidden inside the pendant.

It really was a key because it contained the soul imprint that Xie Liufeng left by secret technique.

From the moment he gave this item to Chu Xinghui, Chu Xinghui could freely enter all places related to him and could open all his restrictions… and even control his soul through the secret technique.

But now, something extra was inside.

Chu Xinghui released the black bird, walked over, and picked up the pendant.

He gently touched the light flowing inside through the pendant.

This was… a shard of Xie Liufeng’s soul.

He clenched the pendant, and a little light lit up in his empty eyes.

Chu Xinghui grabbed the black bird again and asked it in a trembling voice: “Where did you find this?”

…

When Ming Xiao returned holding noodles, Chu Xinghui was sitting by the table, a black bird perched on his shoulder.

Ming Xiao was also quite familiar with this bird and skillfully greeted it, then put the noodles on the table.

The black bird chirped at him.

After greeting, Ming Xiao realized something was wrong and suddenly widened his eyes: “No, how did it come back?”

Chu Xinghui looked at him and answered: “It flew back.”

Ming Xiao: “…”

Of course, if it didn’t fly back, how else could it return?

Ming Xiao stared at the bird carefully for a while. Although he still could not understand how the bird came back, he thought it was a good thing.

Although this bird was usually noisy, having something noisy like this next to Chu Xinghui now made him feel much more assured.

So he happily accepted the fact that the bird had come back and even took out a bottle of pills to feed the black bird.

The black bird swallowed the pill bottle and chirped at him again to express its thanks.

Ming Xiao was happy for a while and then glanced at something, his gaze stopped on Chu Xinghui’s neck for a moment.

There was a fresh wound that was still bleeding. If it was a little deeper, it would have touched the vital point.

The expression on Ming Xiao’s face gradually grew serious.

He tried to keep his tone calm and asked Chu Xinghui: “What happened to your neck?”

Just now, his emotions had fluctuated wildly, and Chu Xinghui only belatedly realized the pain on his neck.

He touched the wound he had forgotten to treat, looked around, grabbed Black Bird who had just returned, and decided to shift the blame: “… maybe it was done by it.”

Ming Xiao: “…”

He looked down at the spiritual sword on the ground that hadn’t been picked up yet.

He was trying to fool a fool.

Black Bird who was inexplicably framed, got angry again, and pecked at Chu Xinghui’s hand furiously.

Chu Xinghui calmly reached out to hold it back, and looked at Ming Xiao.

Ming Xiao angrily circled around him twice, then didn’t dare to provoke him, and finally pointed to the bowls and chopsticks on the table, weakly stammering: “… I know, let’s eat, I’ll go get you medicine.”

He rummaged through the drawer for medicine, constantly glancing at Chu Xinghui, afraid that a wrong look from this friend would send himself away.

But Chu Xinghui did not show any violent actions anymore, he had already sat down and began to seriously eat the noodles.

Ming Xiao really did not know how to cook, the bowl of noodles he made was both too soft and too hard, the salt was not salty and the vegetables did not taste like vegetables.

But Chu Xinghui did not even frown and ate it all.

He even casually cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks afterward.

Ming Xiao stood beside him watching, handed him the medicine.

Chu Xinghui took the medicine and treated the wound on his neck by himself.

Ming Xiao observed him carefully, feeling something was not quite right.

Chu Xinghui had wandered around Qingjing Peak like a silent restless spirit for some time… but now it looked like he suddenly gained some vitality.

… It surely was not that after the failed self-harm he suddenly came to understanding.

Ming Xiao really did not dare to think positively, always worried it was some bad “last flicker of life” situation.

After Chu Xinghui tidied up the bowls and chopsticks, he tilted his head to look at Ming Xiao and said: “Stop staring at me, I’ll go into seclusion later.”

Ming Xiao was stunned for a moment, feeling the topic jumped abruptly: “Ah?”

Chu Xinghui explained: “I’ll restore some cultivation, then go find someone.”

Ming Xiao was more confused: “… find who?”

“Xie Liufeng,” Chu Xinghui said: “I have to bring him back home.”

Ming Xiao was choked up.

He was silent for a while, then cautiously advised: “I know you’re sad, but Sword Sovereign he…”
Chu Xinghui shook his head firmly: “He came back, in that previous rain.”

Xie Liufeng was someone who knew very well how to seize the opportunity to go home.

So when the exile land disappeared, he hid his soul fragments—shattered by the explosion—within the returning fate of this world, and they fell back here along with the fate.

If Chu Xinghui was still alive, someone would restore him, if he wasn’t… the fragments would dissipate and dissipate, like a fox dying at its den, leaves falling back to their roots.

At first, Ming Xiao thought this sounded like fantasy.

Until he really saw the soul fragments in the pendant, he understood it was all true.

Sword Sovereign really was an extraordinarily ridiculous genius.

Ming Xiao was afraid his friend’s hope would be disappointed, hesitantly asked: “Only soul fragments then… what about the body?”

Xie Liufeng’s body had disappeared along with the exile land.

Chu Xinghui said: “I have his old bones.”

With the previously excavated divine bones of Xie Liufeng, making him a new body was not difficult.

Ming Xiao: “…”

These two guys sounded so messed up.

Ming Xiao poked at the pendant and couldn’t help but ask: “How many fragments are there?”

Chu Xinghui shook his head, his tone finally relaxed: “It doesn’t matter, I have plenty of time.”
He had lots and lots of time to bring his Dao Spouse back.

*

During winter, Chu Xinghui came out of seclusion, his cultivation had recovered to Foundation Establishment stage.

Having cultivated once before, the recovery was much faster this time. Chu Xinghui thought he roughly had the ability to protect himself and planned to go find Xie Liufeng.

The remaining cultivation could recover gradually during his search.

Before leaving, Chu Xinghui gathered materials to make a new body for Xie Liufeng, and properly placed the body waiting for the soul to return inside the formation on Qingjing Peak.

Only after finishing all this did Chu Xinghui leave with peace of mind.

The soul fragments might have scattered to all places he had ever been.

Chu Xinghui followed the soul’s aura of Xie Liufeng, beginning to look for the other fragments bit by bit.

His first stop was a mountain where the cultivation world met the mortal world.

Although the pendant was enough to open the door, Chu Xinghui still took out a box of jade talismans that Xie Liufeng had given him, found one, and opened the cave dwelling Xie Liufeng had left there.

Clearly, there was nothing useful inside the cave.

But a small vegetable garden that Xie Liufeng had planted still remained, Chu Xinghui cleaned the weeds for him and harvested a fragment of Xie Liufeng on a leaf.

While weeding here, an old man living nearby passed by on the mountain path.

The old man, carrying farm tools, looked around for a while and then took the initiative to chat: “Are you a relative of Master Xie?”

Chu Xinghui looked up at the old man and replied: “I am his Dao Spouse.”

The old man curiously asked: “Where did Master Xie go?”

Chu Xinghui said: “He went out to train.”

Though the training took longer than expected, so he had to find him back.

The old man nodded and began to recall some old stories related to Xie Liufeng, showing his fondness for reminiscing at his age.

Before going fishing in the Ten Thousand Spirits Valley, Xie Liufeng had spent several years planting vegetables here and had established good relations with the nearby residents.

At that time, the old man was still a strong laborer and had a deep impression of the immortal cultivator who planted vegetables here.

The cultivator always smiled gently, although he liked to say strange things, he had a very good temper and always gave away the vegetables he grew to others.

After all, back then, Xie Liufeng grew vegetables simply because he was extremely idle and did not really need to eat much, so naturally he could not consume all the vegetables he grew.

Chu Xinghui listened patiently the whole time.

The two chatted casually for a while, and in the end, the old man enthusiastically gave Chu Xinghui a basket of radishes grown by his own family, each looking big and juicy.

It was said that these were a variety cultivated by Xie Liufeng long ago. Before he left, he had left seeds, which later took root and sprouted in a nearby village.

Chu Xinghui chose a radish, washed it, and then bit into it.

The radish tasted very sweet.

He inexplicably imagined the scene of Xie Liufeng planting radishes here long ago.

Black Bird came over and pecked at a radish leaf, found it tasteless, and sulkily flew back to Chu Xinghui’s shoulder.

The man and the bird continued to walk forward.

Xie Liufeng had quite an adventurous spirit, when alone, he explored every nook and corner.

Chu Xinghui followed his former footprints, first going east to Yongning City, then south to Tianhuo Domain, then west to the vast desert with swirling yellow sands… then he traveled north to Fuxuechuan.

Previously, Xie Liufeng had told him that he originally planned to go to Fuxuechuan to escape the heat after fishing at Ten Thousand Spirits Valley.

But because of picking up Chu Xinghui, Xie Liufeng’s trip to Fuxuechuan that year did not happen, so no soul fragments of Xie Liufeng remained there.

However, Chu Xinghui found Xie Liufeng’s spiritual sword there.

Whether the sword itself was strong enough or Xie Liufeng had thrown it down in advance, in any case, the sword lay quietly on the snowy mountain peak around Fuxuechuan, sleeping as calmly as its master.

Black Bird was very interested in this sword. Before Chu Xinghui could reach out, it flew over trying to carry away the spiritual sword.
Fearing Black Bird would swallow the sword again, Chu Xinghui immediately drove it away and put the sword away himself.
Black Bird could only regretfully return to the spiritual sword.

…

Chu Xinghui spent ten years, thus slowly traversing all the places Xie Liufeng had once been.

When searching for the penultimate fragment, Chu Xinghui returned to Gubridge Town.

Before entering the cultivation world, he had grown up there.

For the mortal world, ten or twenty years was enough time for many changes.

Chu Xinghui had not returned here for a long time, many familiar faces from before had disappeared, and the town’s scenery had become somewhat unfamiliar.

He was actually not surprised that there would be a soul fragment of Xie Liufeng here.

He had never told Xie Liufeng where his initial fondness for the term “Sword Sovereign” came from.

It was not just because of his sword.

Several hundred years ago, when Gubridge was still Newbridge and the town was not yet called Gubridge Town, the place was plagued by monsters.

The child of a wealthy family was abducted by monsters but was rescued by a passing young cultivator, who also slew the monsters that had long terrorized the area.

The wealthy family was extremely grateful and was willing to offer a large fortune as a reward.
After several refusals, the young cultivator, seeing displaced people who suffered due to the monsters, thought for a moment and said: “Then please use this reward to build a charity hall.”

He did not take the reward but left some possessions to help with reconstruction.

Thus, a small charity hall was established here.

No one knew at the time that this young cultivator would later become the famed Sword Sovereign of the entire cultivation world.

Compared to the cultivation world, the mortal world changed much faster. Later, when the wealthy family passed away, their descendants moved away from this land.

The original village became a town, generation after generation of young people grew up and passed away… yet that small charity hall remained over time, undergoing several renovations, eventually becoming the Charity Institute in Gubridge Town.

Later, one New Year’s Eve, a kind person found a baby outside and brought the baby into the Charity Institute.

Fate was truly a mysterious thing.

Even across long stretches of time, people with destiny would always create strange connections for one reason or another.

When Chu Xinghui was young in the Charity Institute, he often heard the elders who came to help tell this story and also mention the Sword Sovereign far away in the cultivation world.

So he remembered the Sword Sovereign.

Later, when he entered the path as a sword cultivator, he himself did not know how much these stories influenced him.

Chu Xinghui walked to the bridge and caught a fragment of Xie Liufeng’s soul in the bridge’s tunnel.

This fragment very much knew how to find shelter and was covered with a fallen leaf.

Chu Xinghui collected this fragment carefully.

… Only the last fragment remained.

He knew where the final soul fragment was located.

Chu Xinghui turned and headed toward his sect.

 

 

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