Chapter 145 Is it me? Who am I? And who is she?

"Don't speak, please don't speak anymore, Brother Mo." Lu Qinglian wept bitterly, tears streaming down her face like rain, a sight so pitiful it tugged at the heartstrings.

She saw a pool of blood behind him. In just this brief moment, he had already collapsed into a puddle of crimson.

Lu Qinglian hurriedly helped him up, only to see his back covered in wounds, gash after gash, deep to the bone, horrifying to behold.

Those were the claw marks of the five-clawed golden dragon. Through such severe injuries, he had never made a single sound. He had always been so gentle, speaking to her sentence after sentence with such tenderness.

Perhaps he had been injured from the very beginning, or perhaps, during their flight, he had never truly escaped those wave after wave of attacks.

All he had ever done was stay by her side and protect her well.

She bit her lip, trembling as she placed her hand upon those wounds. The blood upon them was no longer warm; it had turned icy, cold as the dead, devoid of all temperature.

"Mo, Brother," she whispered softly, her voice choking with sobs.

"I am... here," he replied gently, his voice trembling.

He wanted to stay always.

"No, I don't want you to leave me. I want you to live! But why? Why! Why has it still turned out like this?" Lu Qinglian cried out, lifting her face to the gloomy sky, her voice desolate.

The heavy clouds hung low, the bitter wind continued to howl, and this world had always been so cold.

"Because he loves you. In this world, he loves you more than anyone else." The voice came from behind Lu Qinglian—a voice so cruel, yet so conflicted.

Lu Qinglian turned her head, only to see Xia Chuan looking at this scene with a complicated expression. The wounds on Baili Mo's back were inflicted by his own hand, yet he had not heard a single groan of pain from him. Such severe injuries—even he might not have been able to endure them.

"Am I a jinx? Why is it always me? My adoptive parents died because of me, my life was shattered because of it, and now the one I love, the only one who truly loves me, is going to die because of me! Why?!" Lu Qinglian roared at Xia Chuan.

She had never been a noble princess; deep down in her bones, she was merely a country girl. Therefore, she could wail and scream without a shred of regard for her appearance.

Xia Chuan fell silent. He did not know how to answer this question. His so-called arrogance was completely suppressed at this moment, and the emotions churning within his heart were inexplicably tangled.

"Don't die, please don't die. I'll get someone to save you. Xia Chuan can save you, he must be able to save you! I'll beg him, I'll beg him to save you. Wait, just wait for me a moment." Lu Qinglian wept before Baili Mo, then, as if having made a decision, turned her head toward Xia Chuan.

"Xia Chuan, save him! As long as you can—"

"Don't beg him."

"I... cannot die yet. Until I get you out safely, I will not die." Baili Mo grabbed her hand, gripping it so hard that it sent a sharp pain through her.

"Stop talking! Stop talking already!" Lu Qinglian screamed at him, her voice loud. Perhaps this was the first time she had ever lost her temper with him, the first time she had ever flown into a rage.

"I will not save him, nor can I save him. His injuries are too grave."

"He is going to die."

There was not a shred of emotion in Xia Chuan's words. The fact that he hadn't struck them down yet was perhaps already his greatest concession.

"He won't die! Brother Mo won't die!" Lu Qinglian roared like a madwoman.

"Baili Mo, I retract the contempt I held for you earlier. You are a man—far more of a man than those hypocritical villains in the imperial court. Perhaps, had our meeting not happened under these circumstances, we could have become great friends or brothers."

"But I must still say: Princess Qinglian, I will take her away. This is my mission. You cannot save her, nor can you save yourself. Your sacrifice is utterly meaningless. You truly should not have come."

Xia Chuan said to Baili Mo. The contempt on his face had long since vanished, replaced by a profound respect—the respect due to someone he acknowledged.

At the Golden Core realm, he was far from being considered a powerhouse in Xia Chuan's eyes, but Baili Mo was undeniably a true man, a man who stood tall between heaven and earth.

"Hah, I would never make friends or brothers with a running dog. Xia Chuan, you should not have become that person's hound. That so-called Xia Emperor is far from worth your loyalty."

"My allegiance has always been to Great Xia. Whoever sits upon the throne of the Xia Emperor matters not to me. The martial soul of Great Xia shall be guarded by me, upheld by me. While I live, Great Xia lives!"

"Talk is always easier than action. I have never had any respect for a Great Xia that requires the sacrifice of a woman. Xia Chuan, I will not hand her over to you. I made a promise to her that I would help her escape Great Xia, and for that, I will risk my life without hesitation!"

Disregarding the wounds on his back, Baili Mo struggled to his feet, inch by inch. Every movement was agonizingly difficult, every motion tearing open his gradually freezing veins and arteries.

"She is a princess of Great Xia; she ought to understand the duties of a Great Xia princess. She will become the wife of the next chieftain of the Northern Province's Guyue tribe, and our Great Xia can forge a favorable alliance with them. This is the best outcome for both her and Great Xia."

"Baili Mo, do not bring trouble upon yourself. All of this was destined long ago. A single woman is simply not worth your going to such lengths."

"For a man, romantic attachments are only a part of life. With your natural talent, you could rise above ordinary mortals. If you turn back and leave now, you might still survive. I will not block your path, and I can even pretend none of this ever happened."

Xia Chuan said expressionlessly to Baili Mo. Perhaps he already knew that, barring intervention from a supreme master, someone with such severe injuries could not possibly survive. But so what? To him, this was the respect owed to Baili Mo as a formidable warrior.

His final respect.

"I will die? Who says so? I have never believed in such things. I will not die! Until I accomplish my goal, I will never die!" Covered in blood, Baili Mo's voice was frigid. He retained no trace of bodily warmth; what kept him going was merely his final breath and his ultimate obsession.

"Incorrigible! If not for the speed granted by the character 'Xing' (Move) of the Nine-Word True Mantra, if not for the fact that I did not deliberately target your vital points, do you truly think you would still be breathing?!" Xia Chuan roared in fury, spiritual energy beginning to surge around him—the power of the Nascent Soul realm.

"Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Qian, Xing! Soldier, rise!" Disregarding everything, Baili Mo roared in a hoarse voice.

Lu Qinglian, who had still been trying to stop Baili Mo, suddenly felt a wave of heat surge from her chest. Looking down, she saw a fragmented jade pendant glowing with a dim emerald light upon her chest, until the warmth coursed through every meridian and the light enveloped her entire body.

The jade pendant slowly floated into the air, as if it had given birth to its own spirit, carrying Lu Qinglian as she gradually drifted upward, lifting her away from the canyon.

He had arranged everything long ago. He had never intended to return alive; his sole purpose in coming here was to save her.

He had lied.

"Baili Mo! You big liar! You said we would go back together!" Lu Qinglian screamed helplessly in the air. Yet she was merely at the Foundation Establishment realm—the weakest kind of Foundation Establishment, forced to grow by pulling up the seedlings.

Baili Mo's injuries no longer allowed him to slowly heal himself with the character 'Jie' (All). He had neither the time nor the capacity, so he simply poured his all into dragging Xia Chuan down with him, using the character 'Bing' (Soldier) to send Lu Qinglian away from this canyon.

"Do you truly believe she can escape?"

"How would I know if I don't try?"

"You cannot withstand a single blow from me."

"How would I know if I don't try?"

"You will die, and her ultimate fate will not change."

"How would I know if I don't try?"

He smiled—a tragic, desolate, heroic farewell at the end of a hero's road.

A surging wave of spiritual energy erupted from Xia Chuan. Inside the canyon, sand and stones flew in an instant, and Baili Mo stumbled, nearly falling.

"Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie... Pfft..." A jet of blood spewed from Baili Mo's mouth, instantly frozen into ice by the low temperature of the howling wind, scattering across the ground.

Like blooming Manjusri flowers, crimson and vibrant.

"I told you, everything is in vain. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself—blame your own weakness."

Baili Mo watched the expressionless Xia Chuan as he slowly lowered his head. A blood-drenched hand had pierced straight through his abdomen, moving so fast that he had no time to react at all.

"Baili Mo, in this world, both cultivators and mortals are extremely fragile. In the face of absolute power, all you can do is run—to keep running endlessly."

"Otherwise, your weakness will become your original sin, the rope that eventually tightens around your neck. Your weakness will lead to your ultimate demise."

"We are all ordinary people, so ordinary that no matter when we die, no one will care. Therefore, never daydream about miracles, nor imagine that you are some chosen child of destiny."

"See? Everything you said earlier can only become a joke now. You achieved nothing of what you set out to do, and you even threw away your own life."

"This world has never been fair. We should have known that from the very beginning, shouldn't we? The so-called unfairness is simply because you are too weak—too weak to change anything."

"The one high above, standing at the absolute apex of power, was born with far more than we could ever hope for. What the Xia Emperor possesses, the realm he stands upon, is a level you will never reach in this lifetime."

"Remember to weigh your own strength properly the next time you talk big. This is my advice to you as a senior."

Xia Chuan spoke quietly. Behind him, the remaining cultivators arrived one after another, their morale soaring. The look in his eyes as he now gazed upon Baili Mo was one of pity—the pity bestowed upon the weak and the foolish.

"In your next life, be a proper mortal." Xia Chuan leaned in close to Baili Mo's ear, his words carrying a wisp of warmth. The tone sounded as though he were earnestly looking out for him, yet to Baili Mo, it felt cruelly ironic.

Baili Mo crashed heavily to the ground, everything before his eyes beginning to blur. His body was hollowed out, leaving behind only a few stone-like dust particles; he had lost everything now.

A lifetime of cultivation, a span of life, the love of his life.

Now, he had nothing left.

Lying in the pool of blood, he could no longer feel a thing. The sounds of the outside world grew increasingly muffled as he lay entirely alone in the freezing cold, resembling a withered Manjusri flower.

"Let me go! Xia Chuan, let me go! What did you do to Brother Mo?! Save him! Go save him!"

Amidst his daze, he heard her voice. She was so anxious, so desperate; those were her tears.

Who was it that made her weep with such panic?

Was it me?

"Xia Chuan, I beg you! As long as you save him, I will give you anything! Everything I am, my body, my life—you can take whatever you want!"

Who was it that made her lower her pride once again?

Was it me?

"Xia Chuan, if you don't save him, I'll die right here for you to see! I mean it! When I'm gone, what will you use to face the Xia Emperor?!"

Who was it that made her choose death once more?

Was it me?

"Xia Chuan! I just wanted to be with him. Even in death, I want to be with him."

Who was it that was worth her going to such lengths?

Was it... me?

Then? Who was I again?

And who was she?

Within the canyon, the wind never ceased, and heavy snow began to drift down. The sky was nothingness, pale white alongside the gloom, stretching out endlessly without a boundary.

The mountains on either side were jagged and perilous, like demonic beasts attempting to swallow everything within the gorge. Baili Mo's body lay quietly right there, resting upon a pool of already frozen blood.

Not a single soul remained beside him. In the distance ahead of him stood an army whose momentum remained unabated, marching in neat unison, striding boldly behind their leader.

At their forefront was a scar-faced young man cradling a woman who appeared to be fast asleep. The woman's features were breathtakingly beautiful, yet her face was streaked with tear stains. Even in deep slumber, her brows remained tightly furrowed, looking as though she were enduring immense pain, trapped in some dreadful nightmare.

Upon her lips, she seemed to be murmuring something—whispering the name of a person.

That name was...

Baili Mo.

Snow began to blanket Baili Mo's body, his flesh turning stiff alongside the biting cold. His eyes remained wide open; even in his final moments, he had never closed them.

His frost-covered eyes were so hollow, so pale, so utterly devoid of life.

He could not see, could not hear, could not feel—like a corpse, or rather, he had already become a corpse.