Edited-Zaki and Animeart

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  It was not an illusion.

  His fingertips trembled slightly as he took the piece off his robe, and held it in front of his eyes.

  Light red, like sunset, when held in his hand, he felt a melting warmth on his fingertips.

  He had lost a lot of blood and his eyes were blurry. He could barely see that it was a very small feather.

  But there were no peach blossoms in the Sword Pavilion, nor were there any birds.

  He looked around blankly holding the small feather in his hand, but saw the people’s expressions in front of him and look amongst themselves.

  There was nothing on him that could frighten these people – so he turned around and saw a golden–red flame burning behind him, lighting up half the sky.

  A gust of wind swept him up, a red shadow appeared, an arm across his waist, and he was picked up horizontally in a princess carry style.

  He heard a laughing voice ringing in his ears, a beautiful tone, like peach blossom wine mixed with ice, echoing through the mountains.

  “All heroes, hope you are well.”

  The crowd was horrified, and Daoist Qin even took several steps back, his chest heaving violently: “You, you ……!”

  “Me?” The man smiled gently, the blazing sun was like a sea, flames flared up in the middle of the crowd in an instant!

  This sea of fire was hot and bright, like a glorious sun. The aura was extremely murderous that seemed to imply the mighty will of the Heavens. It was like facing the Thunder and Lightning Tribulation, there was simply no power to resist.

  Lin Shu, after the previous ordeal, was extremely weak. He tugged at his sleeve and said: “You are not allowed to …… kill and do evil again.”

  The man gently kissed his forehead: “Alright.”

  “You heroes have spared no efforts for the artifact. This Xiao admires your dedication very much and is moved to tears at your efforts. I do not know how to repay.” He continued, “But the artifact is a great evil thing and is not good for the world. So now I’ll let you all do what you want ……”

  He deliberately paused: “You will stay here and plunge into the abyss of the Sword Pavilion. Using your spiritual powers you will all suppress the artifact all your lives — Since Daoist Qin has put in the most amount of effort, he will be the eye of the array formation. A hundred years is too short, not as good as a thousand years.”

  Daoist Qin’s face was gray as a corpse. His legs softened and he fell down to his knees.

  —–I’m afraid such a punishment is a hundred times harder to bear than going straight to death.

  The man laughed lightly, and when he finished, his voice was extremely cold, freezing a thousand miles instantly.

  “Scram.”

  The blazing fire, the gale, the turbulent Qi surged. At this time more than a hundred people, like dumplings, wrapped in wind and fire, fell into the abyss under the cliff of the Sword Pavilion, howling and wailing.

  Lin Shu laughed.

  After laughing, his mind was still blank, losing all ability to think.

  He slowly turned to that person.

  In his blurred vision, this person was wearing a red dress.

  Lin Shu caressed his cheek and felt himself being held very tightly, so tight that he could hear the other party’s breathing and feel the imperceptible trembling of his body.

  Before he could speak, tears came down first, and his voice trembled: “You……how ……”

  The man’s slightly trembling fingertips wiped away his tears, lowered his head and met his forehead: “You reap what you sow. What did you plant?”

  Lin Shu was still shedding tears, and laughing at the same time: “Fifteen years ago, I planted …… a chick.”

  He bit his lower lip and buried his face in the other party’s shoulder: “Xiao Shao, Xiao Shao ……”

  “It’s me.” Xiao Shao said hoarsely, “Baby …… don’t cry anymore, it’s me.”

  He hugged Lin Shu and kept kissing his forehead and eyes: “Baby planted a chick, and now there is a Phoenix.”

  Lin Shu trembled: “Didn’t you &#k2026;&#k2026; abolish your Phoenix Blood?”

  Xiao Shao put him down so he could hug him tighter, and while smoothing his hair, he said, “But I also consumed the soul of that Phoenix.”

  “Good boy, no more crying &#k2026;&#k2026; I’ll never go away again.” Xiao Shao said, “Baby, you have suffered.”

  He didn’t say ‘it’s okay’, but his cry fell. Lin Shu couldn’t hold back anyway.

  In the past two years, he had travelled thousands of miles of mountains and rivers all over the country. From beginning to end, he had never been an independent person, nor did he want to be independent.

  He was just a hamster without a feeder, desperately running in vain on a wheel that never stopped.

  At that time, he did not feel aggrieved.

  But in Xiao Shao’s arms, all the …… all the aggravation, countless nights of deliberately forgotten sadness, all rushed to the heart.

  \r \r \r

  “Qin ……” he could not breathe.

  Xiao Shao gently patted his back: “Beaten down to the abyss.”

  He buried himself in Xiao Shao’s shoulder, his right hand grabbed his shirt in a death grip: “Mirror ……”

  Xiao Shao: “I’ll smash it.”

  He seemed to cut his wrist and fed it to Lin Shu’s lips: “Baby, be good, drink it.”

  Lin Shu could not see what it was, only smelt the blood, but Xiao Shao wanted him to drink, he bit Xiao Shao wrist and drank the gushing blood by the mouthful.

  The blood slid into his throat, bringing a burning sensation in his body. After a few moments, it turned into a strong warmth. His previous injuries all seemed to heal in an instant, no longer feeling weak, and things in front of him gradually became clearer.

  He came out of Xiao Shao’s arms and stared at him in a daze.

  “Baby ……” Xiao Shao’s eyes were a little red: “I missed you so much.”

  Lin Shu said “En”, and he once again hugged the other, in the cold wind of the ruins, as if they were dependent on each other for survival.

  He said, “I also …… missed you.”

  Xiao Shao wiped off his tears, seriously looking at the other. The gentleness on his eyebrows and eyes were like the peach blossoms in March.

  When Lin Shu’s emotions finally calmed down, Xiao Shao took his hand and led him into the ruins.

  The first person to be found was Lingsu who was seriously injured, near death, and unconscious.

  Xiao Shao cut another slit on his wrist, filled a jade bottle with blood and dipped it on her lips.

  Lin Shu watched as Lingsu’s pale cheeks gradually regained their rosy color and looked at the wound on Xiao Shao’s wrist.

  “Now it’s real phoenix blood,” Xiao Shao smiled and said, “The living dead, have flesh and bones.”

  Lin Shu and Xiao Shao holding the jade bottle weaved through the ruins, saving the Sword Pavilion crowd who were not yet completely dead.

  Elder He took the lead and wanted to have a big ceremony for Xiao Shao and thank this benefactor.

  Xiao Shao helped him up: “Elder, there is no need to be polite, I am not an outsider.”

  Elder He: “What does the words of the benefactor mean……”

  Then, a marriage certificate was unfolded in front of him.

  Xiao Shao had a smile in the corner of his eyes: “Elder, I am the fiancée engaged by the Pavilion Master’s three matches and six ceremonies.”

  The look in the elders’ eyes was first “As if I would believe your nonsense”, but after reading through the marriage letter, the look in the elder’s eyes immediately changed from “this is our benefactor” to a “scrutinising” look.

  Lin Shu did not know what Xiao Shao had planned, he asked Elder He: “Elder, I am confused.”

  Elder He said kindly, “What is your doubt?”

  Lin Shu said, “Does the Sword Pavilion have 《Everlasting Yearning》 or not?”

  Elder He stroked his snow-white beard, one could no longer see the rigorous look he had when he first told the story of the great devil, but instead had a godlike face: “As the old saying goes, if you believe it, you have it, if you don’t believe it, you don’t ……”

  Lin Shu: “So that’s how it is.”

  Just as the words left his mouth, he was held by Xiao Shao’s wrist.

  Xiao Shao bowed to the elders: “Elders, I will leave and discuss the marriage with the Pavilion Master, and also travel around the world, so I will say goodbye. The Phoenix Mountain Villa would help rebuild the Sword Pavilion……”

  As he said this he fished up Lin Shu and flew away from the elders’ attack range.

  Only to hear Elder He say in a loud voice: “How preposterous!!!”

  However, Xiao Shao had already fled with Lin Shu all the way down the mountain, and immediately got on the horse with Lin Shu. He put his arms around his waist, and went all the way south.

  Lin Shu looked back at the snowy mountains of the Sword Pavilion, silently said goodbye to the elders.

  On the Tianhe River, a boat sailed downstream.

  In the cabin, Xiao Shao covered Lin Shu with the quilt and kissed his forehead: “Go to sleep, sleep first.”

  Lin Shu’s spirit was also very exhausted, he grabbed Xiao Shao’s sleeve, and almost immediately fell asleep.

  At first it was a nightmare, providence, destiny, that all haunted him making him suffocate. But then there was a familiar soothing voice in his ears and he could vaguely smell the ethereal fragrance of winter plum. Gradually he calmed down, as he felt as if he was being immersed in warm water and was no longer anxious like a scared bird and then he slept peacefully.

  When he woke up, he was being held in Xiao Shao’s arms.

  Xiao Shao said, “Baby, tell me everything.”

  Lin Shu nodded his head.

  During the beautiful springtime of the third month, on the boat, he leaned against Xiao Shao’s chest, looking at the landscape outside, he started telling everything from the beginning.

  “I was born in the Sword Pavilion ……” He closed his eyes, and there was a faint flash in his memory, like fireflies, back from the point in time, leading him upstream.

  He talked about when he was young.

  He talked about Guiltless.

  He talked about Lord Taoyuan.

  He talked about the Great Wizard who eventually died at the top of the tower.

  He spoke for a day and night.

  Xiao Shao stroked his hair and said: “To keep Qinglu alive, you sent him to a thousand years in the future, and gave him the Folding Bamboo Sword and the 《Everlasting Yearning》. Master Hulu…… is Qinglu, 《Everlasting Yearning》that you learned as a child was in fact, the 《Everlasting Yearning》you had written yourself……”

  He smiled and kissed the top of Lin Shu’s head: “So, you suspect …… you are Folding Bamboo?”

  Lin Shu nodded: “Wuque had said, he had already enlightened the Folding Bamboo Sword and fed it many spiritual fruits …… and within a few decades, the Folding Bamboo sword could become a human.”

  And decades later in the modern world, Qinglu helped the Folding Bamboo Sword become a human and took it as a disciple. In the memory of his master, he named it, “Lin Shu”.

  Qinglu’s qualifications were not good, and he never reached the Peak of the Tribulation, and the soul seal that he had carved, eventually got carved on himself to play a role.

  He then came back here, before everything happened.

  Xiao Shao pinched his arm: “But the baby is soft and pretty.”

  Lin Shu gave him an expressionless look.

  Xiao Shao changed his tone: “Folding Bamboo is also very beautiful.”

  Lin Shu played with his fingers: “But I don’t know …… exactly where it all started. I left the Folding Bamboo to Qinglu, so that I could be what I am today, but if I were not what I am today, no one would have left the Folding Bamboo to Qinglu.”

  “Like a circle.” Xiao Shao said, “Lord Taoyuan took little Lin Shu as his disciple, and little Lin Shu grew up to become Immortal Lord Taoyuan.”

  Lin Shu looked at the stars outside the window: “So …… where did it all start?”

  Xiao Shao said: “From the ancient times, when Folding Bamboo was forged out, it circled and went out again until Xiao Shao and Lin Shu ascended to the Immortal world, out of the Heavenly Dao and finally stopped the circle.”

  Lin Shu watched him draw a schematic diagram of the time trajectory in the air, smiled, and looked at him again, “When I was in the mirror, it felt like an endless loop.”

  “Perhaps the time does not flow sequentially.” Xiao Shao conjured up an illusion in mid-air in front of them, the river of time slowly moved forward, and the threads of cause and effect entwining with each other.

  “When we are in time, like a boat going down the river, we can only move forward with time, so we think that there is something before, and then there is something after.” Xiao Shao said gently, “But standing outside the river, they actually exist at the same time.”

  He plucked the thread of cause and effect with his hand, like playing the strings of a lute.

  “Cause and effect are entangled with each other, and one change would affect everything,” he pulled a thread and showed Lin Shu the changes of the whole river of light, saying, “if you change the past, the future will change accordingly. If you change the future, the past will also change.”

  “Therefore …… you thought that everything was destined and your efforts were futile. But because the things you see have changed, different from before……you have changed a lot.” Xiao Shao buried his head on his shoulder, seemingly addicted to his body scent, said in a muffled voice: “Baby, if there is no you in the world, how can I still be alive?”

  Lin Shu hugged him and gently smoothed his hair, like soothing a pampered child.

  He stared in awe at the river of time in the illusion, seeing the deepest secrets of time and space.

  Time was only dimensional, not sequential. There was no past and no future in the world.

  “Heavens were always constant, not for the Yao to survive, not for Jie to perish.” He heard himself murmuring, “This was the sentence on the title page of 《Everlasting Yearning》, I just understood it, but who wrote that sentence …… on it?”

  Xiao Shao said, “Perhaps it was added by Qinglu later.”

  Lin Shu said, “If he also realized this truth in time ……”

  Xiao Shao said, “Then his realm can rise day by day. One day, you can meet him in the Immortal world.”

  Lin Shu said, “.…… I understand.”

  Xiao Shao kissed him on the neck.

  Lin Shu said, “You should go study physics.”

  Xiao Shao: “The Theory of Everything?”

  Lin Shu: “En.”

  “I don’t want to learn.” Xiao Shao tugged at his clothes: “The Theory of Everything is not as fun as the Immortal Lord.”

  Lin Shu looked at him half helplessly and half indulgently, and was pressed down on the soft couch in accordance with his movements.

  The red candles went out, but Xiao Shao’s movements stopped.

  Lin Shu: “?”

  Then Xiao Shao said: “I suddenly remembered that you are Lord Taoyuan……”

  Lin Shu tilted his head.

  Xiao Shao seemed to want to dress him back again: “I also called you Master, also called Senior ……”

  Lin Shu wanted to laugh at this crow who had finally woken up to what he was doing.

  He reached out and cupped Xiao Shao’s cheek and whispered, “Master loves you ……”

  Xiao Shao thought about the meaning of his words. After thinking, his eyes gradually became very perverted. He leaned down and said in a hoarse voice, “I also love Master.”

  ————

  Ela ~~~YAY!! Happy ending …… everything tied up so well.

  Zaki~~~ Yahoo!! Yes, it was a sweet sweet reunion.

  Ani ~~~ Wohooo!! so sweet <3