A Cunning Pervert in the Cultivation World Chapter 335: An Unseen Future (2)

Li Feng gazed intently at his alternate self, who appeared somewhat older and more seasoned.

Those eyes carried the heavy burden of innumerable years of wisdom.

A dark cloak billowed softly around him as chilly mist escaped his breath, though his stare stayed fixed unyieldingly on Yue Lan.

Li Feng sensed an bizarre, crushing aura emanating from the figure... a force so immense it nearly forced him to drop to his knees right there.

"What’s going on...? Why am I...?" he muttered, completely bewildered.

Rather than clarity, the apparition only deepened the chaos swirling in his thoughts.

At that moment, the elder 'Li Feng' strode steadily by him, moving directly toward Yue Lan.

Li Feng's eyes bulged as the memory hit him... of Yue Lan's earlier whisper.

Yet he remained powerless, merely watching the man's retreating form.

...And oddly, a peculiar guilt seemed to radiate from that mighty presence.

Suddenly, a piercing voice sliced through the roaring gale.

"So after two hundred years... you finally decided to come back..."

Yue Lan sneered icily while glaring at the approaching man.

"..."

No response came.

The elder 'Li Feng' kept advancing with measured, unhurried strides, the wind softly tousling his long black locks.

"...Say something, you coward!!"

Without warning, Yue Lan's agitation surged.

Her stunning features contorted in pure fury.

She scooped up snow and flung it at the elder 'Li Feng', yet he made no move to evade.

He took the hit wordlessly, his inscrutable gaze never straying from her.

"..."

"Haha! Are you shocked that your beloved sect, packed with your playthings, is no more? You're eternally too late, Li Feng!"

Yue Lan erupted into manic laughter, her sneer dripping with frost toward him.

"You truly thought a divine weapon could shield them? How pitiful! You ought to have witnessed me smashing the Azure Moon Sect's divine weapon. And those women... they cried out for you, pleading for their owner... But not one realized their supposed master had already escaped to another continent... Hahaha!"

The elder 'Li Feng' pressed on without faltering.

His pace stayed leisurely, snow crunching faintly under his boots amid Yue Lan's wild cackles ringing over the icy field.

Gradually, snowflakes adhered to his flowing black hair and the hems of his ebony robes, though he ignored them entirely.

His face remained serene and detached, akin to a tranquil pond undisturbed by hurled pebbles.

Yue Lan's mad laughter faded as she noticed his utter lack of response.

Her bosom rose and fell rapidly, her lovely visage warping with fury, anguish, and a profound emotion beneath.

"You... you really have nothing to say?" she hissed, her tone fracturing a bit.

"After two hundred years? After all you abandoned? After I waited... after I encased everything in ice for you?!"

She staggered a step ahead, her fists balled so hard that blood seeped from her palms where nails pierced skin.

The elder 'Li Feng' halted mere meters from her at last.

When his voice emerged, it sounded deep and even... imbued with the subdued command of one who had endured too much.

"...I'm sorry, Yue Lan."

The phrase was plain... and soft, surprisingly.

But it struck with more force than any blow.

Yue Lan's eyes flared wide, then slitted menacingly.

"Sorry? You dare utter sorry now?!"

Her hand lifted, and ferocious spiritual energy erupted around her in a tempest of glacial azure glow.

Snow whipped into a ferocious blizzard from her palm, swiftly shaping a deadly lance of packed ice and murderous intent.

"You think 'sorry' will revive the Azure Moon Sect? Will it resurrect the sisters who perished shrieking your name as I ripped them apart one after another? Will it restore the nights I spent etching your name into my very bones to remember why I turned into a beast?!"

Her cry escalated to a shrill wail, tears crystallizing on her eyelashes before they could drop.

The elder 'Li Feng' stood unmoved.

He merely regarded her, those profound, enigmatic eyes brimming with ages of remorse, weariness, and a hint of... affection.

"I know it won't," he replied softly. "No action of mine today can reverse the past. I arrived too late back then... and remain so even now."

He advanced one final step nearer, disregarding the fatal spear pointed straight at his chest.

"But I returned nonetheless. Not to mend what's done."

His look grew tender.

"I returned... to stop your suffering, Yue Lan. By whatever means necessary."

Yue Lan's hand shook uncontrollably.

For an instant, her savage mask shattered with torment as she gripped her head.

"L-Li Feng..."

She whispered his name, devoid of poison, laced with desperation instead.

"I-I didn't mean to... Ugh...!"

One eye welled with tears as she gazed at him.

Upon beholding that scene, even the elder ’Li Feng’, who had stayed as steady as a mountain, at last displayed a tiny fracture in his composure.

His jaw clenched tight as he gritted his teeth, preventing any falter.

...Gradually, flecks of golden radiance started manifesting in the air nearby... lighting up the frigid, barren battlefield and rendering the mournful vista nearly heavenly in its allure.

Next, ’Li Feng’ lifted his right arm.

The golden flecks swiftly assembled, solidifying into a dazzling blade crafted from unadulterated glow.

He raised the blade of light overhead and whispered frostily,

"Enough, Governor. I know... she is no longer there anymore."

Those words made Yue Lan’s form stiffen.

Her gaze abruptly turned piercingly icy as she glared at him.

"Hehe... It seems the loser who ran away from me in the secret realm has grown quite a lot."

The beseeching voice from earlier evaporated, Yue Lan growing as frigid as frost itself.

Feeling her inability to budge, pinned down by the golden radiance, she fixed her eyes on the light blade and emitted a soft chuckle.

"Hahaha, and to think you actually obtained Divine Authority... It seems you finally noticed..."

Then her smile emerged, vicious and scornful.

"But you... are way too late, Li Feng... You will always be."

The elder ’Li Feng’ appeared not to register her speech.

He just gazed at Yue Lan’s countenance for one final instant.

Reminiscences raced through his thoughts like a surging stream of eras.

With a faint, closing exhale, he murmured,

"...That is why I came back. To end all of my past."

At those words, he brought the light blade, surging with Divine Power, sweeping downward.

A luminous, tender stroke sliced neatly through the furious blizzard.

As soon as the utterance escaped his mouth, the whole world lost its vibrancy, shifting to a deadened gray.

Yue Lan’s eyes bulged wide as the dreadful reality of the Divine Authority hit her at last.

Rather than dread, frenzied guffaws exploded from her lips.

"[Gold] and... [Sever]?... Ah, Li Feng... You never disappoint us. If only you had obtained one of these sooner... maybe... you might have made a difference. Hahaha!"

Crimson blood gushed into the ashen atmosphere as her form toppled ahead.

Nevertheless, the elder Li Feng acted with unexpected tenderness, seizing her tumbling body in his embrace before it met the earth.

"...... But you are too late... we already... have it all."

Yue Lan kept whispering, her sight dimming further while the pair of Divine Authorities crushed her, uniting to deliver her....

On her dying breath, she breathed faintly,

"...Ah... even if this was... only a short one... it was... indeed a beautiful future..."

With that, her form slackened utterly.

’Li Feng’, clutching her gore-soaked body, gradually turned his eyes to the midnight sky.

His lengthy ebony tresses thrashed madly in the roaring gale, partly veiling his features as he lingered in weighty quiet.

Then his body tensed.

A delicate, shaky palm softly grazed his cheek.

"...Don’t cry."

Shocked, ’Li Feng’ glanced downward right away... only to encounter Yue Lan’s limpid golden eyes staring upward at him.

Her fingers tenderly traced his cheek as she mustered a frail, brittle smile... while fresh blood dripped from her mouth’s edge.

"...Please... forgive me... I’m sorry," she breathed, her tone scarcely a whisper, as though summoning her final resolve to thwart death once more.

’Li Feng’ seized her diminutive, ebbing hand firmly and uttered in a tone laden with remorse.

"No! This is all my fault! If only I was stronger! If only I—"

Yet his words perished unspoken as Yue Lan’s body chilled to ice.

Once more, the vitality of this Dao-pursuing cultivator... had truly ebbed, and this time....

...This time, he was certain it was irreversibly gone... for he had [Sever] it with his own hand.

’Li Feng’ gnashed his teeth.

He bent low, dropped to his knees, and crushed her now-still body against his torso.

In this snowy domain bathed in golden glow, the sight grew even more intolerably... forlorn.

Meanwhile, the true Li Feng observed mutely, silently beholding the apparition progress.

"..."

Just when he assumed the vision had concluded, his elder self stirred anew.

He stood leisurely, gathered Yue Lan’s deceased form into his arms with remarkable gentleness, and ventured into the blizzard’s depths.

As he brushed past the current Li Feng,... the primal, crushing ferocity in those eyes defied dismissal.

"...You are next, Divine Blood..."

The whisper melted into the gusts as both figure and remains vanished into the gale.

And with their vanishing... the two hundred year karma had at last concluded.

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