Chapter 115
The room was filled with medicinal fragrance, rich and intoxicating. Though it was early autumn with mild coolness, the man sitting at the desk was already wearing a thick fox fur coat.
The man's complexion was pale, but a sickly pale lacking much color. His face was gaunt, with only his eyes slightly bright, revealing sharp spiritual energy.
Mu Yong'an held his fist to his lips with five fingers, coughing softly, while his other hand lifted the freshly boiled tea water and filled the cup across from him.
Mei Liangyu leisurely walked to the desk and sat down. Seeing Mu Yong'an still coughing, he asked: "Should I have Yan Xiaochuan get you some medicine?"
Mu Yong'an waved his hand to indicate it wasn't necessary, looked up at him, and said with a steady expression: "What do you want to know today?"
Mei Liangyu placed his Wind-Listening Ruler on the table and illuminated its surface, displaying the message he had received.
Mu Yong'an glanced down and shook his head with a smile: "Gao Tianhao has been dead for so long, and you still can't let go of matters concerning him?"
Mei Liangyu wasn't asking for Gao Tianhao's sake, but for his Junior Sister. However, he wouldn't say this now and only nodded: "I've decided to restore my memories."
Mu Yong'an paused in lifting his teacup, his gaze sharp as he looked at him.
Mei Liangyu said with an unchanged expression: "But Uncle Mu, you also know my temperament. I won't easily believe what others say. I only trust my own memories."
Mu Yong'an had once told him: There are some things I'll only tell you when you decide to restore your memories.
Let you personally choose what kind of life you want to live in the future.
Whether to choose what your master says, forget the past and start your life anew, or remember the past and inherit those grudges and entanglements.
"There are some things I can't explain too clearly, at least not at Taiyi. Some names are taboo at Taiyi. The moment they're spoken aloud, you'll be monitored from all directions." Mu Yong'an brought the teacup to his lips and took a light sip. After pondering for a moment, he said: "First, let me satisfy your request. You want to know about matters related to World Destroyers?"
Mei Liangyu retrieved his Wind-Listening Ruler while asking: "Is my revenge related to World Destroyers?"
"No." Mu Yong'an said.
Mei Liangyu asked again: "Then who was the World Destroyer that died this time?"
"A young man named Yu Xian, from Dan Kingdom." Mu Yong'an reached out and tapped the table surface. His finger wet with tea water slowly slid down across the table surface.
Following his movement, the table surface flickered with azure blue characters, all records related to Yu Xian.
Mei Liangyu crossed his arms and looked down at them.
Mu Yong'an also looked at the text appearing on the table surface, saying in a low voice: "After this trip to Dan Kingdom, the six kingdoms and Taiyi decided to restart the 'Water Vessel Plan.'"
"Over these six hundred-plus years, the continent has had many attempts and disagreements in dealing with World Destroyers. When the prophecy first descended, it was a Medical School Saint who proposed watching over the five World Destroyers to prevent world destruction."
"But that very year, those five World Destroyers, for various reasons, caused massive casualties in Dan Kingdom, Qingyang, Nanjing, Taiyuan, and Yan Kingdom, burning countless people to death."
Following Mu Yong'an's explanation, the text on the table surface transformed into small human figures, with mountains, forests, and cities all consumed by flames.
A map of Xuangu Continent appeared on the table surface. Mu Yong'an's water-dipped finger pointed to the far east of the continent: "The first time, the Strange Fire started from here and burned all the way to the westernmost point."
The scope was so vast, the casualties so severe, including Saints, Thirteenth Realm masters, Nine Schools practitioners, and ordinary people. If counted in detail, it would be an incredibly massive number.
"The Strange Fire's power was too strong. It could burn Five Elements energy, which meant it could burn all Nine Schools Arts. But when it first descended on Xuangu, it wouldn't burn the World Destroyers to death, so World Destroyers were safe and could use Strange Fire at will. We could only stop the Strange Fire's spread by killing the World Destroyers." Mu Yong'an said: "The Medical School Saint advocated cooperating with the World Destroyers to study the Strange Fire's power together. So the six kingdoms combined forces to create the 'Water Vessel' to imprison World Destroyers willing to cooperate."
He pointed to a location in the continent's southwest direction, and a small boat icon appeared on the table surface.
"World Destroyers are randomly chosen. Anyone could be selected. Some people, relying on the Strange Fire's power, wanted many things: money, power. The six kingdoms initially advocated peaceful coexistence because they also feared the Strange Fire's power and didn't want to be its enemy."
"As long as World Destroyers didn't use the Strange Fire's power, no disasters would occur."
Mu Yong'an pointed to Qingyang Kingdom again: "Lu Feixiao, Qingyang Kingdom's World Destroyer. He was once a steward of East Prince's Manor, later burned the people of East Prince's Manor to death and abducted the manor's princess. He diverted to Baiqing Prefecture, where he seized many young, beautiful girls, then demanded the Qingyang ruler offer his queen, or else he would burn Qingyang to ash."
Following his explanation, the text and images on the table surface also changed, presenting Mei Liangyu with a map of Xuangu Continent consumed by flames.
"Yin Qiao, Yan Kingdom's World Destroyer. She gathered people who worshipped Strange Fire and formed the Strange Fire Cult, taking money to kill people. She issued Strange Fire laws, and those who didn't comply would be surrounded and killed by Strange Fire Cult believers, whether ordinary people or Nine Schools practitioners."
"Tang Chi, Zhou Kingdom's World Destroyer. After his wife and children were brutally killed by mountain bandits, he was chosen by Strange Fire and began taking revenge on the world, slaughtering eight mountains and six cities."
"At that time, though Strange Fire wouldn't burn World Destroyers along with others, using it once could destroy 15 Ghost Way Saint Halls."
Mei Liangyu watched the map on the table surface, listening to Mu Yong'an speak about the historically recorded World Destroyers. As each name appeared, the flames on the map multiplied.
"There were also law-abiding World Destroyers, but compared to these beings who brought enormous harm and left countless people with hatred and pain, they weren't enough to placate the masses."
"Taiyuan Kingdom's World Destroyer, Bai Cheng, was the first to agree to Taiyi's proposal, willing to enter the Water Vessel and cooperate with the Saints on how to seal and eliminate Strange Fire."
"But by then, the world's fear and hatred of Strange Fire had reached its peak. Even Saints, when facing such tremendous power that could instantly burn them to death, rendering any Nine Schools Arts or Divine Mechanism Arts useless, were essentially placing their lives in others' hands."
"When those in the Water Vessel thought Bai Cheng was genuinely cooperating, he killed six Saints, nearly completely burned the Water Vessel, and escaped."
Mu Yong'an looked up at Mei Liangyu and said quietly: "He wasn't trying to cooperate, but to destroy the Water Vessel that imprisoned World Destroyers."
Mei Liangyu moved his eyes, saying in a tone revealing neither joy nor sorrow: "Doesn't this mean letting different people in the world gain power strong enough to destroy the world, then seeing what kind of reactions these different people would have and how they would use this power?"
"Who in the world doesn't want power? When bad things happen, when bullied by others, when lying in bed bored and lost in thought, the mind always thinks," Mu Yong'an tapped his temple with his finger, "if only I could be like that, or I want to become like that in the future."
"Strange Fire brought fear to the world and filled people with hatred toward World Destroyers. Everyone was afraid that someday, in some instant, they would be burned to ash, because they weren't the ones with power."
This was precisely why people would feel more profoundly that how this world was depended on those who held power.
Mu Yong'an's finger pointed back to the small boat at the southwest corner, his gaze also fixed on it: "People are born and die every day on Xuangu Continent. After those who took conservative approaches toward World Destroyers died, the continent's attitude toward World Destroyers changed, and they began hunting World Destroyers."
"Kill on sight, without question."
"Because of the experiences in the first 200 years, people had no patience or trust for World Destroyers. Any softness would result in thousands or tens of thousands of deaths. This world has always been like this: the few sacrifice for the many."
Mei Liangyu raised an eyebrow: "How do you find them, and how do you kill them?"
Mu Yong'an said: "Through Technical Arts School divination."
Mei Liangyu suddenly thought of the Divine Wood Seed in Dragon Slaying Cave, his brows furrowing slightly.
"But the only Technical Arts School Saint who could accurately divine Strange Fire has been Qin Qi. He ultimately perished together with a World Destroyer, which is when people discovered that World Destroyers could no longer control Strange Fire." Mu Yong'an pointed toward Zhou Kingdom's direction: "Strange Fire was also changing. Its power grew stronger and stronger, so strong that even World Destroyers couldn't control it. Once used, it would burn themselves too. To some extent, this also curbed World Destroyers from using Strange Fire's power to commit evil without reason."
"Qin Qi wanted to kill the World Destroyer because Nanjing was planning to attack Zhou Kingdom, and the mastermind behind it was Nanjing's World Destroyer, Ke Heng."
"Ke Heng was very clever and hid well. He only had his subordinates infiltrate Nanjing's high ranks and nobility. Nearly half of Nanjing's court consisted of his people. He even convinced the Nanjing King at the time to attack Zhou Kingdom and prepare for it, while he hid in a corner of Nanjing's royal city as an inconspicuous noodle shop owner."
Mei Liangyu looked at the two small figures representing Ke Heng and Qin Qi on the table surface, pondering: "How did Ke Heng plan to attack Zhou Kingdom? The six kingdoms have a non-war pact."
"There are ways, otherwise how could the current Yan Kingdom be divided among Qingyang, Nanjing, and Taiyuan?" Mu Yong'an pondered for a moment, then pointed to Nanjing Kingdom's location: "You must remember this: Saints' power is weakened when they go to other countries due to the non-war pact, but if they're pursuing World Destroyers, their power isn't constrained by the pact."
"Army cavalry cannot bypass the border barriers of the non-war pact, and Military School warriors cannot enter other countries for large-scale warfare, but Nine Schools practitioners below Saint level can enter freely, infiltrate long-term, and disrupt other countries' fundamental power and influence distribution."
"Spies from the six kingdoms are everywhere, never ceasing their probing of each other. Nine Schools practitioners entering Yan Kingdom first began dismantling from sects and aristocratic families, using people's hearts, interests, and strange abilities as reasons. From one's own husband, wife, to children, they grew up in Yan Kingdom, but their blood and hearts belonged to other kingdoms."
"Give the high ranks more benefits to make them cooperate, then oppress the people below, stirring up popular resentment and anger. First kill the ambitious, then eliminate the strategists."
"For hundreds of years, Qingyang and other kingdoms targeted Yan Kingdom's court on one hand and Yan Kingdom's Nine Schools practitioners on the other, infiltrating Yan Kingdom from bottom to top." Mu Yong'an reached this point and moved his finger to Qingyang, tapping it: "The Qingyang Nangong family's schemes across hundreds of years and several generations have all been used on Yan Kingdom."
Mei Liangyu lowered his eyes to look at Qingyang's location, his dark pupils reflecting the light of the characters and images, flickering bright and dim.
Nangong Ming's plan to completely take Yan Kingdom while bypassing the six kingdoms' non-war pact was almost complete.
Mu Yong'an also looked at Yan Kingdom's location on the table surface. His sharp gaze didn't match his gaunt, sickly body, as if all the energy in his body was concentrated in his eyes.
"Current Yan Kingdom has only one Agricultural School Saint left, Yan Manfeng." Mu Yong'an said: "Though he hasn't recovered from severe injuries, he's a symbol of Yan Kingdom's hope. If he dies, those who still hold hope for Yan Kingdom will die with him."
Mei Liangyu asked: "Are Yan Manfeng's injuries because of Breath Soil?"
"Not only that." Mu Yong'an shook his head and coughed a few times: "The person who took the Breath Soil was his Junior Sister, Su Xing. No one expected Su Xing to cooperate with Nangong Ming."
"Nangong Ming is extremely skilled at seeing through others' weaknesses and using them to create opportunities for himself to get everything he wants." Mu Yong'an picked up his teacup and drank some water to moisten his throat. Speaking of this, some memories flashed through his mind, but he ultimately just shook his head and said to Mei Liangyu: "Yan Manfeng's injuries cannot be healed. Death is only a matter of time. Nangong Ming's rare kindness, or rather arrogance, is waiting for Yan Manfeng to die on his own."
"Even if Yan Kingdom's people killed Nangong Ming's daughter and retrieved the Breath Soil, they couldn't save him."
Mei Liangyu thought carefully and felt Nangong Ming might not be being arrogant.
Yan Manfeng was Yan Kingdom people's last hope, yet in these 18 years, he hadn't accelerated Yan Manfeng's death but let Yan Manfeng survive as "hope," making others think there was still a chance to turn things around.
This made those who held hope and had strength, with promising futures, continuously go to kill Nangong Sui and die, which was equivalent to weakening Yan Kingdom's young generation's strength, gradually crushing Yan Kingdom's hope.
When Yan Manfeng died, Yan Kingdom would erupt in brief fury. Nangong Ming only needed to suppress this momentary resistance to completely defeat Yan Kingdom and make them give up struggling.
Moreover, Qingyang wasn't the only one eyeing Yan Kingdom. Nangong Ming had to guard against Nanjing and Taiyuan too. Keeping Yan Manfeng alive was more useful than killing him.
"I'm telling you this because after you remember, he will be your enemy." Mu Yong'an pointed to the Qingyang Nangong family's location.
Mei Liangyu looked down at it.
Mu Yong'an covered his mouth and coughed forcefully several times. The brightness on the table surface also dimmed somewhat. Mei Liangyu looked up at him: "Let's stop here for tonight."
"It doesn't matter. If I don't finish saying some things now, I'm afraid there won't be another chance." Mu Yong'an reached out to tap the table surface, trying to reilluminate the characters and images, but was stopped by Mei Liangyu's hand.
He frowned, knowing some things couldn't be said. If too much were said, it might bring mortal danger to Mu Yong'an.
Before Mei Liangyu could speak after stopping him, Mu Yong'an already smiled: "Don't worry, I won't die in the short term."
As Mu Yong'an reilluminated the table surface's characters and images, the fire on the Xuangu map diminished somewhat, replaced by the gentle rippling of flowing water: "Heaven and earth declare that water and fire are incompatible. The currently known greatest weakness of Strange Fire is its host, the World Destroyer. As long as the World Destroyer dies, Strange Fire will stop."
"Since Strange Fire descended on Xuangu Continent, there have been Nine Schools practitioners calling for strengthening strange abilities related to the Five Elements' water. Against Strange Fire that can burn Five Elements energy, this is actually useless."
"After Qin Qi's divination killed World Destroyer Ke Heng, traces of World Destroyers disappeared for nearly a hundred years, until around the 500th year when World Destroyers began appearing sporadically again."
"At this time, Xuangu Continent's attitude toward World Destroyers was: as long as you don't expose your identity, there's peace. Once a World Destroyer identity is exposed, death is certain."
Mei Liangyu pondered: "Because by this time Strange Fire would burn World Destroyers to death too?"
Mu Yong'an nodded: "World Destroyers were no longer protected by Strange Fire's power."
As he spoke, he looked down at places on the map that had been burned by Strange Fire and sighed softly: "Perhaps it's not Strange Fire that wants to destroy the world, but those who possess it."
Strange Fire was just a kind of power beyond people's imagination and control.
Mei Liangyu said: "Maybe Strange Fire's power is evolving."
"The Water Vessel was built by the six kingdoms' combined Mechanism Schools, on an island deep in the southwestern seas." Mu Yong'an looked at the swaying water vessel's location on the map: "It was originally designed and built by your father's clan, but most of your father's clan died when Bai Cheng first burned the Water Vessel. The originally vast family also declined because of this."
Mei Liangyu's expression was calm. He had no memories of getting along with his father. When hearing about the past through others' scattered words, he felt no real connection.
"123 years ago, Situ Wen of the Mechanism School locked her sister Situ Fei in the Water Vessel."
As Mu Yong'an spoke, the Situ family crest appeared beside the Water Vessel: "Situ Wen, now the Situ family's grandmother. After her sister Situ Fei was chosen by Strange Fire, the two sisters discussed and decided to let Situ Fei go to the Water Vessel to study Strange Fire."
"But not many people were willing to go to the Water Vessel together to study Strange Fire, because Strange Fire was uncontrollable. The rebuilt Water Vessel couldn't gain others' trust and was considered unsafe."
"The same year, another person exposed their World Destroyer identity: Zhao Xiayan, from Yan Kingdom, also Yan Kingdom's Consort Zhao. Situ Wen requested she enter the Water Vessel to study Strange Fire together."
"Zhao Xiayan said her first half of life was trapped in Yan Kingdom's harem. She finally had the power to leave, but would be imprisoned in the Water Vessel again. She didn't want to live such a life, so she fled."
Mei Liangyu listened and rolled his eyes: "Don't tell me they used what Situ Fei researched to successfully kill Zhao Xiayan?"
Mu Yong'an looked at him somewhat surprised and nodded: "Besides Technical Arts School divination, only heavenly and earthly spiritual objects can detect World Destroyer identities. Initially, when Strange Fire didn't harm World Destroyers, killing them was actually easier. You just needed to be fast enough to deliver a fatal blow before they released Strange Fire. Most relied on assassination then."
"Now when confronting World Destroyers, both sides are in danger. You don't know when is the right time to act. Even if a World Destroyer has only one breath left, they can still release Strange Fire."
"Situ Fei had only one chance. She told Situ Wen her guess in advance: Strange Fire burns things, water blocking is useless, but when it burns things, there's also a sequence. Five Elements energy of heaven and earth is what it prioritizes burning."
Rings of flames appeared around the Water Vessel on the map. Mu Yong'an pointed in the air above, and dense small figures appeared surrounding the Water Vessel: "Sufficient numbers, gathering enough Five Elements energy, can slightly delay Strange Fire's burning speed. It indeed prioritizes burning Five Elements energy. The massive Five Elements energy produced instantly will cause Strange Fire's burning speed to pause briefly. Even if only for an instant, it's enough to kill the World Destroyer in this gap."
"This experiment surprised everyone by discovering that World Destroyers might not necessarily die in Strange Fire's burning."
"Situ Fei had three chances to release Strange Fire and only died on the fourth release." Mu Yong'an said: "When pursuing Zhao Xiayan, they also gave her the first chance to release Strange Fire. Zhao Xiayan also wasn't completely burned to death by Strange Fire."
"Some World Destroyers die as soon as they release Strange Fire, while others can release it two to three times. Because of this instability, some people believe World Destroyers must be killed."
Mu Yong'an's finger moved to Taiyi's location: "Gao Tianhao came to Taiyi wanting to find a way to strip away Strange Fire, but I believe no method exists to strip away Strange Fire. His understanding of Strange Fire seems limited to what it looked like after changing in recent hundred years. There are some things he doesn't know, and some things we don't know."
Mei Liangyu looked at the small figure standing on the table surface with Gao Tianhao's name written on it and couldn't help chuckling: "After he died, I even suspected whether I had some connection to Strange Fire, since he always took the initiative to greet me when he saw me."
But Mu Yong'an said: "Gao Tianhao was close to you not because of Strange Fire, but because you saved him before."
"Me?" Mei Liangyu raised an eyebrow.
Mu Yong'an looked down at the map and said quietly: "And Saint Chang Gen doesn't know about this."
Mei Liangyu vaguely sensed that his master's position seemed somewhat opposed to his own, but didn't think deeply about it. Before recovering all his memories, he wasn't willing to think about what his master had done.
"On this trip to Dan Kingdom, the returning Saints seem to have made new discoveries, so they decided to unite the six kingdoms and publicly announce next month that they're giving World Destroyers a chance to voluntarily go to the Water Vessel for cooperation, abandoning the use of Strange Fire to harm this continent."
Going to the Water Vessel meant being imprisoned there for life.
Would World Destroyers be willing to live such a life?
Hearing this, Mei Liangyu's mind recalled the scene when Yu Sui first learned wind-riding techniques.
His Junior Sister bounced and jumped on the way back to the dormitories, running and walking, using wind-riding techniques to run ahead for a while, then deliberately turning back to look at him walking behind.
The young girl stood in the peach blossom grove, her eyes full of bright smiles, curiously and contentedly examining the flower branches on the trees, those landscapes she hadn't had time to see before, finally having time to see them all.
Looking back now, that should have been one of the few truly happy moments in Junior Sister's life.
Making her go to that cold place called the Water Vessel to be imprisoned for life, or even die there, was impossible.
......
Mei Liangyu and Mu Yong'an talked about many things, chatting until dawn.
When Mei Liangyu stood up to take his leave and told him to rest well, Mu Yong'an looked up at the tall figure walking toward the door and asked in a hoarse voice: "Do you know which country you're from now?"
Mei Liangyu's motion of pushing the door paused, and he said quietly: "I know."
"Before long, someone will come looking for you." Mu Yong'an said: "Someone from outside."
Mei Liangyu looked back at him.
Mu Yong'an drew his finger across the table, and the glowing characters and images scattered. He lowered his head and said: "When you leave Taiyi, be sure to bring Xiaochuan with you. When you recover all your memories, you'll know who he is."
"Alright."
Mei Liangyu didn't ask more questions and readily agreed.
He couldn't ask more. Mu Yong'an had said enough tonight.
After Mei Liangyu left, Mu Yong'an suddenly began coughing violently, spitting blood all over the table. He covered his mouth with his hand, but blood continued overflowing through his fingers.
The suppressed coughing sounded as if he wanted to vomit out his heart and lungs entirely.
A black shadow behind the screen transformed into a graceful feminine figure. The woman's cold, clear voice came: "You might as well tell him a little more. That way neither of you will be able to leave this small building alive."
Mu Yong'an said: "He won't die."
The woman mocked: "I'm not talking about Mei Liangyu, but you and your disciple."