Free Web NovelChapter 779 - Li Guanqi's Heart-Settling Tea
Li Guanqi smiled. freewёbnoνel.com
He picked up a teacup and held it out to Coward Li. “I’m not afraid of you becoming ‘human.’ Not even a little.”
Coward Li said nothing. He didn’t take the cup either.
Li Guanqi rested his hands loosely on his knees. “Actually, I want to become ‘myself’ even more than you do.”
He pointed to his own pure-white eyes. “Do you know what it’s like to live in a world where you can’t see anything?”
Coward Li frowned slightly, answering as though the answer were obvious. “Black.” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Li Guanqi smiled and pressed a finger to Coward Li’s brow.
The world before Coward Li went pitch-dark.
Before he could even sneer, an endless tide of cursing crashed into his ears, followed immediately by fists and kicks from every direction.
The words were unbearable. No matter how he tried to seal his five senses, they burrowed in anyway. Coward Li had never felt anything like this. The screaming abuse made his whole body shake.
In just a dozen breaths, the color had drained from Coward Li’s face. His expression turned dark and bleak, his shoulders trembling.
Li Guanqi withdrew the force, leaning close to look into Coward Li’s beautiful eyes. “Alongside the darkness, there is malice—overwhelming malice.”
Coward Li panted, staring at Li Guanqi in fear.
Ye Feng and the others said nothing, sitting quietly at Li Guanqi’s side.
Li Guanqi drew his sleeves together and spoke gently. “You’re full of fire and spirit, wandering the Six Territories and seeing every mountain and river under heaven. Free and unbothered, and yet still too proud to ask for wine outright, running up tabs wherever you go.”
He gave Coward Li a long, deep look. “But is it really a tab you’re running?”
Coward Li lowered his head and said nothing.
Li Guanqi smiled at his other self, his voice soft with reminiscence. “Have you ever gnawed on a stale bun in winter? They’re hard... harder than the bones of a tier-six demonic beast. Do you know which season beggars fear most? That’s right, winter. Leftover food in summer draws bugs and reeks, barely fit to swallow, but at least it keeps you from starving. Winter, though... winter kills... Childhood winters were the hardest to survive.”
He pressed his lips together and smiled, but anyone watching could see the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, held back by sheer will.
Li Guanqi looked at Coward Li, eyes rimmed red. When he spoke again, his voice carried the warmth of a parent. “Li Congxin. You are the manifestation of everything I have ever longed for. I was willing to sever my three hun and seven po to give form to you because I wanted you free from the nightmares that weighed on my heart. I wanted you to be the carefree sword-and-wine immortal I never got to be. So I will leave everything that makes you you intact. All I ask is that you return the soul force to me.”
Coward Li's eyes widened. After a long moment, he spoke again, his voice low. “You’re not going to absorb me? You’re sure I’ll live?”
“Yes. This is something I decided long ago.”
“But, if that’s the case, your soul will always be missing a piece!”
Li Guanqi shook his head gently. “It’ll lack a piece, not be missing a piece. I will completely sever our connection during the merging process. After that, whether you are Li Congxin or Coward Li, it has nothing to do with me.”
Coward Li stared at Li Guanqi with unblinking eyes. Ever since he first gained self-awareness, he had resisted the ‘self’ who had shaped him. He had believed he shouldn’t be merely an illusory spirit, a mere soul fragment. He was who he was.
And yet, for reasons he couldn’t explain, Coward Li knew Li Guanqi was telling the truth. Li Guanqi had kept all the trauma for himself. Every lonely step Li Guanqi took through the darkness had left nothing but bloody footprints.
In contrast, from the very moment of his ‘birth,’ Coward Li possessed an innate sword seed, which granted him immense talent in the sword Dao. The body Li Guanqi had shaped for him was extraordinarily powerful. His spirit root was the annihilation lightning spirit, and his core was the Heavenly Lightning Orb. He could see. He could gaze upon mountains, rivers, and clouds that stretched for ten thousand li. He was born able to walk on air, blessed with a sword Dao that approached the divine. He drank wine and recited poetry, often sleeping drunkenly on mountaintops, living a free and unburdened life. He had been born into the light, never having known darkness.
Coward Li fell silent. He lowered his head and drank, a wave of guilt washing over him.
Li Guanqi remained perfectly calm. He looked at Coward Li as though looking at another version of himself... one that never once had to endure the darkness.
As he watched, tears welled up and streamed down his face.
In that same moment, Coward Li let go of everything he’d been holding back. He lifted the teacup Li Guanqi had offered and took a small sip.
The tea tasted sweet at first, then turned bittersweet as it went down, as though he were tasting the helplessness of “his” past.
After draining the cup, he tipped back the wine jar and poured it straight down his throat. “Sss! Ha! This tea... It’s so bitter!”
He wiped his mouth and raised the wine jar toward Li Guanqi. “Li Guanqi. From today until the day we merge, I will give everything I have to help you! When the time comes, I won’t resist. I trust you to keep your word. After the merging, whether I’m Li Congxin or Coward Li, I’ll be your brother! Your real brother! And, well... if things don’t go as planned, I guess I can always call you Dad.”
Cao Yan, Ye Feng, and Xiao Chen, all in the middle of drinking tea, failed to hold it in and spat it out. This guy...
Ye Feng pressed his lips together. He thought Li Guanqi’s illusory spirit was quite the character. Coward Li was clearly Li Guanqi’s creation, yet utterly unlike him in temperament.
Sword Spirit’s voice drifted through Li Guanqi’s mind. “Are you trying to... correct ‘his’ heart?”
Li Guanqi’s mouth curved, and he said nothing more. He had learned quite a bit about You Ming from Hong Zhi’s accounts. You Ming’s nature was simply too carefree. Taken to its extreme, that freedom became something neither good nor evil, beyond the distinction entirely.
He wanted Coward Li to follow his heart, unshackled by the world. But he also didn’t want him to become capricious and lose his moral compass, which was why he’d made today’s arrangements. And wasn’t setting another’s path straight also a reminder to himself?
Unbeknownst to him, within the sword coffin, Sword Spirit had pressed a hand over her mouth to stifle a quiet laugh, her eyes bright with an inexplicable light. The reason she was laughing wasn’t clear, but the brightness in those eyes was unmistakable.
Li Guanqi spoke quietly. “You’re only at the peak Divine Transformation Realm right now, but I need you to reach the peak Illusory Refinement Realm as soon as possible. Don’t worry about resources; I’ll handle everything.”
Li Congxin shrugged and looked at Li Guanqi with an air of indifference. “Fine by me. You’ve already reached that realm, so I just need to stuff myself and cultivate. However... we may not have enough time.”
Li Guanqi smiled at him. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Coward Li glanced at Li Guanqi’s eyes and muttered, “I told you. You’re you, and I’m me. You’re very annoying.”
Li Guanqi burst out laughing. Coward Li sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “Uh... Elder Brother, I guess that makes me your little brother now. Which means... you’re not going to take the Yanluo Sword back, are you?”
Li Guanqi slowly rose to his feet. “I hope one day you’ll be the judge of the human world, Yanluo Sword in hand, drawing your sword only after listening to your heart. As for me... the Red Lotus Sword is all I need to reach the nine heavens!”
