Yue Shen and Chao Ya were buried behind the inn, togetherwith Liao Jian and Pian Feng. The soil of Yue Shen and Chao Ya’s tomb were still black in colour while Pian Feng and Liao Jian’s tombs already have green gra.s.s growing above them. Huang Tuo and I were standing in front of the tombs when a cold gush of wind blew past, making our robes fluttered loudly in the wind.
“Huang Tuo, why did you kill Yue Sheng?”
“Because she wants to kill me.”
“But didn’t you see that I have already made my move to stop her? She won’t have a chance to kill you in any way.”
Huang Tuo didn’t say anything but he still has that strange smile on his face. “My king, I think it’s time for us to go the separate way.”
“Separate way? You mean…”
“I’m saying that I want to go back Ren Xue Cheng. Even though you see that as a toy castle, my entire tribe was still waiting for me there. I am their G.o.d.”
“You mean you want to give up on the remaining journey?”
“My king, do you think there will be journey after this? This is a journey that I cannot see a destination and I’m already very tired. My king, I wan to leave.”
“You are the real West Guardian right?” I asked.
“Ka Suo, there’s no point in asking this question anymore. Do you think there’s hope for you to even pa.s.s the West territory? You can’t even win the Weat Guardian, how is it possible for you to win Yuan Ji?”
When Huang Tuo was about to disappear into the fog, I ran to block him and my sword was pointing at his throat. “If you are the West Guardian, I will not let you leave.”
Huang Tuo just looked at me with a smile. “Will you believe if I were to tell you that I’m not the West Guardian?”
In the end he still died under my hand, his blood was flowing down my sword. I heard a mumble from him. “My king, you don’t have to imprison yourself anymore. Just be free…”
The place, where I killed Huang Tuo, was the end of the mortal world created by the West Guardian; it was a huge patch of wheat field. I could vaguely see snow falling down and I know once I reached the end, I could go back to Ren Xue Cheng, going back to the lonely life where I could only hear the shattering sound of life. And then I would stay on that way for another several hundreds or thousands years.
Huang Tuo fell onto the wheat field and his face as still hanging the same smile that Yue Shen had when she died. His hair was like mercury to the wheat field, flowing up and down along with the wheat wave and his robe was already soaked in blood.
I looked up at the pale blue sky when a flock of birds flew past my head. They were hovering about the wheat field, not wanting to leave just like me. They were as lost as me. It’s because I have lost my direction.
I have never thought that I would be left alone; the moment when I thought of the people around me, dying one after another; their white eyes and robes disappearing into the air; when I heard the soul soothing song once again, all the dead were standing up on the sky, looking down at me through the clouds, I couldn’t help but to feel upset when I looked up to see the sky above me.
I still didn’t know who’s the West Guardian, just like one who could never get out of his or her nightmare. Also, I wasn’t sure if the others died because of my mistrust and inability. Maybe the real West Guardian was smiling at me behind my back.
I bade goodbye to the waiter of the inn. Even if I were to complete the journey alone, I would still do it.
That waiter didn’t say anything when he sent me off that time. He was just a simple mortal, just like my people back on the city. The only difference was the fact that he did not know that I was the almighty G.o.d in my city.
I left the place without turning back because my year has already started to fall.
Images after images came flashing past - I saw Liao Jian standing in front of his father, telling him. “Father, I have become the best East Guardian.” I saw Yue Shen'stough yet lonely look, but her occasional smile was like wind of the spring, so soothing and warm. I saw Xing Gui’s weak and tiny body lying in a pool of blood, telling me to look for my happiness. I saw Pian Feng controlling the wind happily; I saw Chao Ya playing her zither with lots of b.u.t.terflies dancing around her; I saw Huang Tuo casting his protection enchantment over me; I saw the horrible death of Shang Lie…
I just felt something started to shatter within my chest, shattering into sharp pieces…
—
I was already very far away from that prosperous town; I have not seen any mortals around me anymore. I lay on the gra.s.s with the warm sunlight shining on me gently. The scent in the air smelled like spring was arriving soon.
When I sat up to think about what I should do, I saw a vortex appearing above the horizon line afar. I knew a person with strong spiritual power was going to appear because I could feel the ground rumbling and it started to snow. It was just like the time when Li Luo appeared. My memory started to shake like a bunch of messy reflections.
And then an unbelievable sight appears before my eyes when the snow had stopped falling.
Xing Gui was standing high up in the sky, descending slowly. The wind was blowing from her feet upward, making her hair and robe fly.
The moment she landed on the ground, she made her way slowly towards me. I saw that blur and strange smile on her face and it looked like an illusion to me.
“My king, how have you been?” She asked, looking up at me.
I could feel my strength leaving my body slowly as if I have lost the strength to even stand properly.
“Xing Gui, weren’t you dead while you were at the North territory?” I asked her.
Her voice appeared in the air around me but I didn’t see her lips moving. The strange smile was still on her face. “Do you think Xing Zhou can kill me with her power?”
“Then you…”
“I am the West Guardian that you have been looking for. Xing Gui.”
I couldn’t say anything; all I could do was to watch her smile becoming creepier and creepier. “How can Xing Gui be the West Guardian?” I couldn’t stop asking myself.
“My dear king, do you still remember the last dream that I had given you? I told you to look at it when you meet the West Guardian. Have you forgotten?”
Xing Gui’s smile was like a charm
In that dream, she was exactly the same as what was before me. That blurry smile and strange creepy voice. She told that this was all her game.
“My king, you are my brother’s most trusted person, so I know you are not that simple. Hence I have to try my best to help you to get past the first three guardians, because if you were to die in their hands, it wouldn’t be interested ting anymore. Those people couldn’t even fight with a finger of mine. I want to play a game with you; a game of killing others and being killed by others. You are a worthy opponent and because my life has been so boring, I wouldn’t want to miss such interesting thing in life. I want to see if you are able to find the true West Guardian but I think my brother believe in the wrong person. Your thinking is much simpler than I thought that you would have. Ka Suo, this is a great chase and kill game. I would kill every single person around you and when all the people around are dead, I would appear to tell you that I am the true West Guardian. Mainly because you couldn’t do anything to me and you would never win me with your spiritual power even if you have inherited your brother’s power.”
“My king, I have already set the route for the star. Please follow me to play this interesting game…”
When I struggled to get out of Xing Gui’s dream, her smiling face was still in front of me but the surrounding has become clearer and I could see the gra.s.s and sunlight, but my heart was enveloped in a snow storm.
Xing Gui stood before me and I saw her hand holding a weapon that I had never seen before. Countless of black ribbons were surrounding her fingers like they were dancing in the wind. The air around me seemed to be frozen, giving one a suffocating feeling. I heard Xing Gui’s voice floating above my head. “Ka Suo, you are alone now. I’ll see how are you able to get past me!”
I felt so tired all of a sudden. “You think so? Then you should look what is behind you.” I said slowly.
Because Chao Ya, Yue Shen and Huang Tuo have already appeared behind Xing Gui. They were my most trusted people.
Xing Gui looked calm but when she looked at me that time, I could see the sparkle in her eyes. “So they did not die at all.”
“Right. They didn’t die. I would rather see myself die than them because they are the most outstanding people of Ren Xue Cheng. And this includes Pian Feng, Liao Jian and Shang Lie who died in your hands as well. They are the most outstanding ones.”
“You know that I’m the one who killed Liao Jian? Since when did you start to suspect me?”
“I did not suspect you at that time.”
“Then how did you know that I am the West Guardian?”
“From many areas, first one is Liao Jianms death. Because found a needle with lethal poison in his head, so we fell into the trap that you had set for us. You made us think that it was that poison needle that killed Liao Jian but it wasn’t the fact at all. After that Huang Tuo discovered that the poison congregated at his head was a lethal poison caller Shang Yao, a chronic flower poison and it would mean that Liao Jian was already poisoned way before we entered the West territory. And at that time, he has been the one carrying you the whole, so you’re the one closest to him and no one would expect you to be the one who would poison him.”
“Correct. I am the one who killed Liao Jian and Shang Yao is the poison used. And then? Don’t tell me you know that I’m the West Guardian from this simple deduction?”
“Nope. Besides Liao Jian’s death, it would be your own death.”
“My death?”
“Yes, your plot to kill yourself was a very well-planned one. No one would suspect a dead person. Because Huang Tuo had casted the most powerful enchantment, it’s where his life was and if he were to survive, the person within the enchantment would have survived as well. If not, the person, who would die, would be Huang Tuo himself if the enchantment were to be broken. But you still died in the end. At first Huang Tuo and I thought that it’s because your weak body const.i.tution and the restriction force between astrologers, so we were upset. Upset over your death. After that your brother gave me a letter, he said he saw it from the stars that you had gone to another place and he told me not to let you be alone. At that time I thought Xing Jiu was referring to you being at the underworld. But in actual fact, you have gone to the West territory to wait for our arrival. Because you were afraid that your brother would tell us about the news that you’re still alive, you told me not to tell him about your death news.”
Xing Gui’s gaze started to get colder. “Continue.”
“And then while we were fighting with Xing Zhou that time, you could kill her easily. Before she died, she was about to tell us who is the West Guardian because she found it a joke to see you among us. But you didn’t give her a chance to speak up; you killed her with your power again. That time we thought you were using one of the ice skill, and we were wondering how did you, an astrologer, know about such complicated dark magic because only the best illusionist and dark sorcerers would know about this spell.”
“And then when we entered into your territory, you and your men created a series of death to distract us from your questionable behavior. It was only until Ya Zhao’s death then I started to suspect you again.”
“Why?”
“Because of Yue Shen’s suspect towards Chao Ya. Both of them possess the ability to dispel that dream, but the weirdest part is Chao Ya’s ability to interpret dream is much stronger than Yue Shen and yet she cannot even dispel that dream spell. This shows that there is an astrologer, who is much stronger than Chao Ya, around us and you are the most powerful astrologer. At first you wanted to make use of Chao Ya to make us suspect her instead, but you have forgotten one thing - it’s impossible to have two West Guardians at the same time. If Chao Ya pretended to be injured, why would Huang Tuo help to cover up for her? So I told Yue Shen that the both of them are not the West Guardians.”
“So all of you faked your own death to lure me out?”
“Not really. I was only suspecting you but the thing that confirmed my suspicion would be Shang Lie.”
“Shang Lie, how did you know that I was he one who killed him?”
“Because of the hand sign when we found his body. That is the frequent hand sign that astrologers would use so we all thought Shang Lie is an astrologer but Chao Ya said she could detect any dream interpretation or astrology related spiritual power from him. Hence it showed that the person, who killed Shang Lie, is an astrologer and is a powerful one because it’s totally impossible for a normal person to kill Shang Lie so easily.”
“So you guys pretended to start killing one another to lure me out?”
“Yes. It is a risky move because if you were to read the stars on our actions, you would definitely know that we are all acting. But I know you are way too arrogant and self-conceited, so you tend to underestimate all of us. Moreover everything has been proceeding in accordance to what you have predicted, so you would never thought of this secret plan and also, you would not read the stars to know about our actions.”
Huang Tuo stood behind Xing Gui and said, “We have been staying by the king’s side, waiting for you to appear. It is because we know you are an arrogant person, you will never see anyone in your eyes and you will definitely appear in front of Ka Suo when he’s alone. Because you don’t see him as your opponent, you want to see his shocked and confused look but our king isn’t as useless as you think.”
Xing Gui looked at me with a confident and despising smile. “Ka Suo, do you believe that I can kill you without even moving my hands?”
I just looked at her without saying anything.
“I know you won’t believe it. Remember your beloved granny? Do you still remember the time when she transferred all her spiritual power to you? Do you remember when her rough skin is p.r.i.c.king your hand like needle? Have you not suspected her before that she may be p.r.i.c.king you with needle?” I heard her presumptuous laughter.
I started to daze out all of a sudden, feeling my heart falling downwards.
And then Xing Gui attacked me suddenly, her black ribbons came charging at me like lightning strike. But I dodged her attack easily.
She stared at me with anger in her eyes. “Why didn’t you feel fl.u.s.tered after hearing the truth?”
I stared at Xing Gui and told her. “Because I believe in humanity. I believe this world still has something that worth me believing in, like the love granny has for me. I have no reason in suspecting it.”
Xing Gui didn’t say anything and her long robe fluttered around her. She finally spoke after some time. “Ka Suo, it seems like my brother isn’t wrong after all. You are smart king but I dare to say that even if I may not win all of you, I am still certain to tell you that I have enough power to soak this gra.s.sland with your blood before I die.”
The black ribbon started flying rapidly in the air like the speed of the wind, separating the four of us. While I was trying to dodge her attack, I saw the three of them being separated and they were defending themselves on their own with Xing Gui in the centre. She was riding on the wind, overlooking us from above and she has that creepy smile shining brightly on her face. “The climax of this game has finally arrived. My king, you are a worthy opponent, Let’s continue…”
The black ribbon wrapped Yue Shen’s moonlight, and the light darkened because of it. I could hear Yue Shen’s breathing rapidly; her robe and hair were flying in the air as she jumped around. Xing Gui’s black ribbons had also wrapped Chao Ya’s white shiny chords together and they looked a black and white dragon fighting one another. Countless of white shattered b.u.t.terflies started falling down to the ground like crushed snowflakes, and Huang Tuo was trying to protect everyone with his enchantments while Xing Gui’s black ribbons kept hitting the transparent wall, creating sharp and clear sound from it like lightning striking across the sky.
I have already summoned a number of ice swords and those ice swords were hovering above Xing Gui, but it was hard to get past her defense and the black ribbons shattered the ice swords into million pieces.
