Chapter 885: To see the peaks...

Chapter 885: To see the peaks…

Wu Long sighed, looking at the kneeling man “You really expect me to cut you down like this?”

“It was an honor to cross blades with a great master such as yourself”, Li Weifang spoke, seemingly unable to muster up any desire to continue fighting, his face dropping to look down at the red ground, “And it would be an honor to die by your blade…”

Wu Long’s eyes looked at the kneeling man, seeing a strong desire to live clashing with some kind of imperative to die.

Perhaps he was just too overwhelmed, as the difference in their martial skill was too far apart. But there also seemed to be something else going on.

“Thank you for letting me witness the true Halberd Arts… I only hope to know your name if that is allowed…”, Li Weifang spoke further.

“…”, Wu Long didn’t answer at first, as a slightly frustrated look appeared in his eyes. If he killed him here now after this, he knew it would leave a bad aftertaste.

He didn’t enjoy, to put it mildly, killing off promising talents, rather he enjoyed watching, or sometimes even helping such talents grow, as long as they didn’t cross him.

And this one wasn’t even all that eager to kill Wu Long or to oppose him, just doing it out of duty to protect the Young Master he was serving.

Not to mention, something in this guy’s demeanor was definitely off.

“You claim to have witnessed the true Halberd Arts after seeing the very base of a mountain which peaks are shrouded by clouds… would be quite shameful to go without at least seeing the peaks from afar, don’t you think?”, he decided to probe.

“…”, Li Weifang’s eyes shook as he looked at the ground, “I…”

But the next moment, the ‘weakness’ he showed as the will to live almost won out, was suppressed, as he clenched his fists with an exhale, and his voice once again gained a more calm tone, “…it seems those peaks are not meant to be reached, nor seen by someone like me… so this is how it should end… this is how it should’ve ended…”

Wu Long was now certain this man wasn’t just in this moment, but seemingly reliving some kind of moment in his past at the same time, picking a route he lamented not picking.

“What if I refused to end your life?”

“Y-You would spare me?!”, Li Weifang spoke in disbelief, raising his head to look at Wu Long. There was a kind of desperation, as if Wu Long was taking away something from him.

There was also a sense of calling out a lie in Li Weifang’s words. He didn’t believe someone who had such cold and emotionless eyes as Wu Long would spare someone who bared a weapon against him.

Not to mention, Wu Long himself admitted he did not plan to spare anyone of them really, as he did not wish for an enemy he didn’t know anything about to know about him.

“I have not decided yet. Honestly, it is a shame to waste a talent like yours…”, Wu Long spoke frankly.

However, Li Weifang shook, these words clearly having deeply affected him.

“I…”, he looked at Wu Long with a renewed desperation, as if some kind of chance was slipping away from him.

“…If only you had not accepted someone who would inevitably be my enemy as your Master…”, Wu Long continued with lament, as the relationship of a Master and Disciple was for life, and one of the strongest bonds of the cultivation world.

If Li Weifang easily betrayed someone he took as his Master, that would be bad as well. Nor did he seem like a man who would do so.

In fact, as far as Wu Long could tell, Li Weifang was exactly someone with an inner code, and who would take death over betrayal of his Master.

It was an attitude Wu Long respected regardless if it was his friend or foe, which added to his lament and hesitation to kill this man, especially since there now was a bit of uncertainty.

“Master? Hah! I certainly did not…” Li Weifang scoffed at the notion, a deep hostility to the very idea appearing in his eyes for a moment, “He is certainly the one who trained me in Halberd Arts for a long time… but I have never formally taken him as Master…”

“You didn’t?” Wu Long raised his eyebrow.

“He wouldn’t permit it even if I had the desire, nor would I want to become a Disciple of someone who made me a slave!!!”, Li Weifang spoke as a deep-seated rage and hatred broke through that previous calm demeanor, and then, as if grabbing hold of his emotions, shook his head with a sigh full of regrets, “… If I knew the life I would lead after submitting to him, I would’ve picked to die by his hand at that time, instead of clinging to life…”

“You didn’t seem like someone who was begging to die before we fought though…”, Wu Long noted.

Li Weifang made a wry smile of someone who seemed to be able to finally let go of everything, “I… just couldn’t let go of a dream to see those peaks you spoke of…”

“And now you can?”

“…”

“What does he have on you?”, Wu Long asked, now clearly seeing there was some element of control, whereas previously it was hard to tell.

At first, he naturally assumed Li Weifang was simply loyal to his Master.

Even though Li Weifang seemed to be not fond of the Young Master he was protecting, he took the protection itself very seriously. Even after arriving here, Wu Long could see that until a certain point, Li Weifang was actually searching for a way out to be able to return to his target of protection.

It was certainly not the dedication of someone who was just hired to do a job for a pay, and if it was someone who held great pride in doing their job, babysitting a clearly insufferable young man wasn’t a job such a man would take on. So that ruled out a hired man.

And before he claimed to be a slave, there were no signs he was forced, either in his attitude or ‘leash’-like element that Wu Long could detect.

The combination of all those factors, coupled with Li Weifang’s inner character of a true martial artist that shined through, his carefree and adaptable personality that did not outwardly show he obeyed out of necessity, and his circumstances of still clinging onto a dream and will to live despite a dire situation, misled Wu Long to believe that Li Weifang was loyal to his Master, and obscured the fact that he was, in fact, forced to obey.

This was the source of the uncertainty and confusion. Having untangled the mystery, Wu Long finally inwardly sighed with relief, as he didn’t have to have a bad aftertaste after all.

“He… holds my life in his hands…”, Li Weifang answered.

“I don’t see any dependency cultivation techniques, seals, arrays, or life-binding treasures…”, Wu Long narrowed his eyes that flashed with profound patterns to re-confirm what he already saw from the very beginning.

“There is… a Soul Curse deep within my Soul Sea…”, the man spoke, as Wu Long finally understood.

“What if I removed it? Would you still wish to die?”, Wu Long asked.

“…”, Li Weifang widened his eyes in shock, and for a very brief moment, a glimmer of a strong emotion appeared within those eyes, only to be smothered by a dark look.

“I have no interest in having a slave”, Wu Long spoke, now seeing the whole picture, “Nor do I enjoy seeing misery. I just need to know you won’t be going back to report what happened here”

Li Weifang seemed to become conflicted, a mixture of doubt and hope, as well as the flashbacks to the first time he faced a similar choice, and chose, in his opinion, wrong.

‘Is this some kind of cruel joke…? Just when I finally prepared to let it all go…’, he thought.

He still had the dream, a dream he held since he was a young martial artist just starting out on a journey into the cultivation world out of a Mortal Kingdom. The dream of reaching for the heights of martial arts of legends.

That dream, and his wish to continue living, were the only two things that made him persevere through times when his freedom and ambitions were taken away from him.

Millenia passed since that young martial artist met someone who took interest in his talent, and enslaved him. And yet that dream and will to live still were there, preventing him from giving up, forcing him to live the life he led.

And now, facing a different, but to an extent, similar situation to the one in his youth, as he met an opponent whose skill he stood in awe of, he finally though he could make peace with his fate of being slain by a greater martial artist.

Wu Long, having untangled the mystery, could now guess all that from the clues that Li Weifang gave out, but he didn’t really care about this man’s doubts if Wu Long was sincere or not at this point. He already made a decision.

A mixture of dark and light ethereal mist formed next to Wu Long, with a figure coming out of it.

“Sister Baihu said you needed me?”, Cai Yin spoke.

“Mm, there’s a Soul Curse in this guy’s Soul Sea. It’s likely a bit complex so you won’t be able to remove it yourself, but if you give me access to his Soul Sea, I can do the trick”, Wu Long nodded, adding, “It’ll be a good experience for you as well, watch carefully what I do”

“Got it”, Cai Yin nodded, concentrating as she put her hands together in the same way she always did, linking all tips of her fingers while keeping the palms apart, and two ethereal carps swirled around her, this time not slowly forming, but simply swimming out of her Niwan Palace.

“…a… a True Soul Cultivator…”, Li Weifang widened his eyes in shock at the sight, as he never expected to see one of the truly rare types of cultivators twice in his life, not to mention this one seemingly was a far greater one.

Cai Yin’s carp swam into Wu Long’s Soul Sea, and the other swam toward Li Weifang.

There wasn’t anything he could really do to block it even if he tried, so he helplessly sat on his knees as it entered his Soul Sea, and swam deep within it, releasing Wu Long’s Soul Power that did not have to travel openly but through the link between Cai Yin’s carps.

Profound symbols and patterns flashed in Wu Long’s eyes as his hands made a few hand seals, and then Li Weifang felt the Soul Curse untangle and dissipate.

“Done”, Wu Long lightly said, in a tone as if he finished doing some kind of small chore, nodding to Cai Yin that she could withdraw her carps as Li Weifang looked at them with round eyes.

Hehe ^^

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