“Yes.” Chi Wang Chuan’s long hair swirled as if caught in a phantom wind. His gaze gleamed with malevolence and resentment. “I ripped out their fingernails—those women with rotten hearts—and used them to curse the pear tree, spawning more Jade Pears. These cursed pears drove their victims mad, forcing them to kill themselves in the most gruesome ways imaginable. Stabbing themselves through the chest, ripping out their own organs… The more horrific, the better!”
“And yet you expect me to spare your soul?”
“If you can,” Chi Wang Chuan hissed. His fingers moved as if plucking strings, conjuring tendrils of green mist from the pear tree.
The mist coalesced into the form of a woman with flowing hair—a haunting image of Ji Li, the source of his deepest hatred.
The battle erupted in a flurry of light and shadow, with the cursed mist and Moonlight Blade clashing violently.
Half Xia, meanwhile, could not let go of one question. As the chaos raged, she shouted, “Did you find her reincarnation?”
Amid the battle, Chi Wang Chuan’s voice rang out clearly, cold and bitter: “I did.”
Half Xia felt her heart jolt. The answer reverberated through her mind, casting an eerie glow on everything she had heard.
The rest of the fight unfolded as the green mist wrapped itself like serpents around Xuan Ye, while his blade cleaved through it with dazzling precision. Finally, with a final, decisive strike, the Moonlight Blade pierced Chi Wang Chuan’s brow.
At that moment, the oppressive mist dissipated, and Chi Wang Chuan’s voice grew faint. “I found her… and I let her go.”
“Why?” Half Xia pressed, stepping forward in disbelief.
Chi Wang Chuan looked at her, a faint, rueful smile on his lips. “Because when I tested her, she answered every question truthfully. Every cruel, unfair test… She passed them all.”
“Even after all this, you still loved her?”
“No,” Chi Wang Chuan replied softly, shaking his head. “But she loved him… utterly, without reservation.”
As his soul began to fade, he whispered, “Even the vilest things in this world can bear witness to something pure. Love itself is never the mistake.”
With those words, his form dissolved into the first light of dawn.
“That’s Ji Li’s image,” Chi Wang Chuan’s voice was low and gravelly, filled with hatred and venom.
In this battle, he truly gave everything he had.
The scent spread through the woods, a cloying and corrupted fragrance, and Half Xia could almost taste the stench of decaying desire.
Xuan Ye’s Moonlight Blade had already left his grasp, spinning in mid-air with an almost palpable energy.
Half Xia, however, stood frozen, her mind circling a single thought she could no longer suppress. Finally, she voiced it.
“Did you find her reincarnation?!”
As her question echoed, the battle began.
The green mist, as if alive, sprouted countless tendrils, weaving through the air to entangle the Moonlight Blade.
“I did.”
The reply came after only three exchanges, three simple words that resonated in the chaos.
I did.
No matter how dangerous the fight became, those words echoed in Half Xia’s mind, lighting a spark of realization just out of reach.
The clash between Chi Wang Chuan and Xuan Ye grew fiercer.
Xuan Ye’s spiritual energy waned, while Chi Wang Chuan fought with the advantage of the terrain. The battle balanced precariously on a knife’s edge.
Two hundred moves passed.
The moon dipped low, and the sky began to pale with the first hints of dawn.
The sickly green mist coalesced into the shape of a massive serpent, its scales shimmering with venomous malice. The serpent hissed, winding its way toward Xuan Ye.
With a surge of power, Xuan Ye hurled the Moonlight Blade into the air. The short, crescent-shaped weapon burst into brilliant light, cleaving the serpent in half and scattering it into mist.
But from the dissipating mist, a crimson thread appeared—thin and serpentine—its icy edge slicing toward Xuan Ye’s neck.
Xuan Ye’s Moonlight Blade, now guided by the last reserves of his spiritual energy, turned and struck true, heading for Chi Wang Chuan’s brow.
The stars dimmed, and the night plunged into the profound darkness before dawn.
The crimson thread sliced into Xuan Ye’s neck, missing his artery by mere centimeters.
But the Moonlight Blade struck Chi Wang Chuan’s brow with unerring precision.
An inch made all the difference. Victory was decided.
As the Moonlight Blade glowed in triumph, its radiance pierced through the fog clouding Half Xia’s mind, clearing away the last shadows of doubt.
“The reincarnation of Ji Li is—Yuan Fang!”
Her voice rang out clearly, shattering the tension.
The Moonlight Blade drove deeper into Chi Wang Chuan’s brow.
Chi Wang Chuan’s face paled as his eyes fluttered closed. His fingers ceased their movements, and the garden’s pervasive mist dissipated in an instant.
“You let her go… you let her go…”
Half Xia stepped closer, incredulous, searching his face for answers.
“Did you think I still loved her?” Chi Wang Chuan’s voice was faint but steady.
“Of course.”
He laughed softly, a bitter sound. “It’s been over a century. She did what she did, and you think I still loved her? You overestimate me.”
“Then why did you spare her?!”
“I tested her,” he said quietly, as if each word cost him a great effort. “Ten questions, each one harsher than the last. I devised the most cruel, the most venomous death I could imagine for her. But she passed the trial.
“Regardless of beauty or ugliness, wealth or poverty, status or lack thereof, right or wrong… she loved him. Her heart was pure and true. How could I deny it?”
“You let her go… to keep your word?”
Chi Wang Chuan tilted his head upward, his fading energy no match for the radiant pull of the Moonlight Blade. Yet his stance remained upright, his dignity unshaken.
“Whether as a man in life or a spirit in death, keeping one’s word is the foundation of honor.”
His voice carried a strength that even Xuan Ye could not ignore. For a moment, the warrior paused, struck by the weight of those words.
Half Xia sighed softly.
Chi Wang Chuan turned to her.
“We’re not the same, you and I,” he said, as if reading her thoughts. “We both loved the wrong person, but I don’t regret that I loved.”
“This world rarely offers what people call ‘pure love,’ but you must believe—beyond everything else—love itself is not the mistake.”
“It’s like the Jade Pear,” he continued, reaching out to pluck one of the cursed fruits. As he began to peel it with a blade, his voice grew quieter. “This cursed pear, steeped in the rotted desires of countless women… Peel away the skin, and inside, it’s still just a pear.”
With that, he finished peeling the pear.
The cursed green peel, laced with crimson threads, fell away to reveal a fruit of crystalline white, gleaming like snow.
“Eat the pear,” he said, holding it out in his fading hand. “Truly, it’s just a pear.”
For the third and final time, Chi Wang Chuan extended his offering, as the last flickers of his spirit began to fade.
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