Chapter 1818 - 1816: Deep Longing—Do You Know?
Chapter 1818: Chapter 1816: Deep Longing—Do You Know?
Shui Liuzi also knew where Sima Xiaowen’s weakness lay, so he disguised himself as a poor scholar who was bullied and had no strength to fight back.
As a matter of course, the chivalrous Sima Xiaowen stepped in and saved him, and afterward the two of them got to know each other.
In the plan of Shui Liuzi and that venomous woman Liu Ling, they wanted Shui Liuzi to trick Sima Xiaowen into trusting him, and then marry her.
If Sima Xiaowen refused, they would use some vile means to destroy her purity.
If a girl’s chastity was ruined by his hands, by then, whether she wanted to or not, Sima Xiaowen would have no choice but to be with him.
But although Sima Xiaowen saved him, she didn’t like him, so marriage was absolutely impossible. Then Shui Liuzi tried to take advantage of her, but happened to be caught by him; he nearly beat Shui Liuzi to death, and at the time he didn’t even know where his own fury came from.
Now he understood everything.
He hated himself for leaving Shui Liuzi with so much as a single breath.
What followed was the calamity of the Phoenix Clan.
In the Sanctuary of the Divine Land, there was a sealed place guarded by a Barrier; inside was the divine relic of the Phoenix Clan, a red Phoenix Nirvana Stone.
This Nirvana Stone was different from any other Nirvana Stone. It carried boundless Divine Power, and because of this Divine Power, the Divine Land existed, and the Phoenix Clan of the Divine Clan existed.
But that day, Liu Ling colluded with Shui Liuzi and attempted to steal this Phoenix Nirvana Stone, yet they were seen by Sima Xiaowen. The two sides first argued in the Divine Land Hall, then started fighting.
Because there was a Barrier, no one else could see it.
Yet somehow, in the dark, he sensed it.
He rescued Sima Xiaowen from the hands of the two of them, and by then Liu Ling had already used her status as the future Clan Leader’s fiancée to open the Barrier of the seal. But in her panic she struck the wrong place, and no one knew that the area sealing the Nirvana Stone also sealed countless streams of malevolent energy.
That day, some of the elders of the clan, led by his Clan Leader father, had gone to attend the Mystic Sect conference; those who remained were few. So many people had no idea what exactly had happened in that chaos, but he remembered it with crystalline clarity.
Because there was simply too much malevolent energy, he had no choice but to hide Sima Xiaowen in a safe place. When he came back out, most of the Phoenix Clan had already been slain or wounded. At that time the Phoenix Clan lived in the north, and Liu Ling and Shui Liuzi were just about to flee. He intercepted them; Shui Liuzi, though full of sinister schemes, did not have high Cultivation.
Liu Ling, in utter panic, knelt on the ground and begged him to forgive her. He told Liu Ling that as long as she personally killed Shui Liuzi, he would forgive her.
Liu Ling was indeed a ruthless woman. Without the slightest hesitation, she killed Shui Liuzi.
He brought Liu Ling back to the great hall. At that time, his Clan Leader father and several elders were still away from the clan and had no idea something this terrible had happened.
The three elders who remained were outside trying to stop clan members from slaughtering each other.
Back then, the Divine Land was in utter chaos.
Moreover, he felt that to let Liu Ling just die like that would be far too cheap for her. No matter what, everyone should know her true face; he wanted to use her head as an offering to the dead Phoenix clansmen.
But he had still been too naive; a woman like her should have been run through with a single sword strike.
He did not do so, and everything that unfolded after that spun completely out of control.
His stepmother took advantage of his inattention and launched a sneak attack, wiping out his memories, and just before he sank into darkness, he killed his stepmother.
Even now, he still could not understand why his stepmother would do such a thing.
Later, when his Clan Leader father returned, he never would have imagined that the Phoenix Clan, whose Divine Clan bloodline once brimmed with joy, harmony, and boundless Divine Power, had turned into a Shura field straight out of Hell.
On top of that, the woman he loved deeply was also dead. In agony and despair, he could no longer control his Spiritual Fire, and it vanished forever.
What came next was what everyone already knew.
The eight elders of the Phoenix Clan saw that the clan was leaderless, and on top of that, their people had suffered disastrous casualties. In a fit of rage, they took the Phoenix clansmen who followed them and left the Divine Land for a foreign country.
Sima Xiaowen was safe and sound, but she had still been injured by the malevolent energy; her memories were fragmented. Elder Sima took her away, and she never remembered what had happened in the Divine Land Hall.
He had no memories, so Liu Ling naturally was safe.
She stayed by his side, helping him deal with clan affairs.
Bit by bit, under Liu Ling’s deliberate and insidious influence, he came to remember Shui Liuzi, and to remember that it was Xiaowen who had led him to the Divine Land.
However, Liu Ling wouldn’t let him go look for Sima Xiaowen, saying they had no evidence. At that time, his thoughts were in chaos. In a single night, the Phoenix Clan had been shattered, and his father had left him forever.
And in his remaining memories, it was his own hand that had killed his stepmother.
Though he’d never been close to his stepmother, it had never come to the point where he would kill her.
Besides, his stepmother was the woman his father loved most.
He could not find any reason for his own action, so his mind was in turmoil and pain.
In fact, he was grateful—grateful that he had not gone to look for Xiaowen.
But that vicious woman Liu Ling was truly abhorrent; even a thousand cuts would not be enough to vent the hatred in his heart.
Yet a woman like her was still living well. Not only alive, but still his fiancée.
Until war separated them.
Until last year, when he found her again.
Thinking of this, Chu Chengfeng pounded his own head hard with his fist.
For the sake of such a snake‑hearted, scorpion‑souled shrew, he had hurt the girl he loved most.
And she was the one person he had never wanted to hurt.
Boundless cold wrapped tightly around Chu Chengfeng. He did not know what the future would hold, but he did know this: debts of blood must be repaid, grievances must be avenged. The ledger of the Phoenix Clan of the Divine Land was something to be settled carefully with Liu Ling.
He would see her die with no burial place. He would see her fall into eternal damnation. He would see her denied Reincarnation forever.
Because she wasn’t even worthy of being an ant!
At this moment, a bloodthirsty glint flashed through Chu Chengfeng’s eyes. He straightened his clothes, then walked toward the car by the roadside. By now the car was frozen solid; he glanced at it, frowned, and without hesitation started walking toward the Imperial Capital.
An hour later, he encountered a car heading for the Imperial Capital.
Before dawn, he arrived near the Gu Garden.
Chu Chengfeng stood quietly by the roadside.
His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his overcoat, his figure straight, those pitch‑black deep eyes staring unblinkingly toward the direction of the Gu Garden.
He knew where Xiaowen lived.
But from where he stood, there was no way he could actually see it.
Even so, he still stared foolishly in that direction.
Through the cycles of the years, after all the twists and turns, perhaps Heaven had finally taken pity on him.
Yet he had hurt Xiaowen so deeply.
If it had been any other woman it might have been one thing, but it just had to be that vicious shrew Liu Ling.
Even if Xiaowen could forgive him, he would never forgive himself.
Nor was he worthy of Xiaowen’s forgiveness.
His eyes grew moist. Chu Chengfeng closed them, then slowly opened them again; when they opened, his gaze was already cold as ice.
He turned around and strode away with long, decisive steps.