Sometimes, a moment can seem so long that it seems like it will never end.

During a person's lifetime, he or she may experience several such special long moments, such as when death is approaching.

Cheng Qian's frost blade instinctively pointed backwards and flew into the air until he turned his head and saw the face of the person behind him - Han Yuan.

There were many reasons why Han Yuan suddenly ran behind him. Maybe he wanted to watch the fun, or maybe he wanted to kick Zhou Hanzheng and say a few words to satisfy his desire to talk... No one would be on guard against him.

At this moment, his fourth junior brother's eyes were the same blood red as those of the wandering cultivators on Qinglong Island. The familiar face was shrouded in black air and his facial features were distorted. He seemed to have concentrated all his body's true energy on this one hand. He used too much force and broke his finger bones, but he didn't feel any pain.

The same goes for those wandering cultivators on the island who were possessed by the Painting Soul—let alone the pain, they didn’t even know they were dying.

Cheng Qian stared at Han Yuan in astonishment, feeling that his true essence and life force were all pouring out through the hole in his chest, along with his heart's joy and anger. He couldn't stop it, couldn't struggle, and couldn't believe it.

Han Yuan stared back at him unconsciously, then suddenly pulled his hand out of Cheng Qian's chest, blood and flesh splashing on his face. He watched Cheng Qian fall at his feet in a daze.

Cheng Qian had been staring at him closely, his limbs twitching unconsciously, and the blood color on his face seemed to gather around his eyes, but he couldn't utter a word.

All the unbearable pain and blooming joy in the past decade have now become faded trivialities, falling into the absurdity of "it's fate".

Finally, the Frost Blade Sword that was already on Han Yuan's neck trembled violently, and fell to the ground like iron, only scratching a thin layer of Han Yuan's oily skin.

This sudden change was so sudden that everyone was stunned until Shuikeng burst into tears. Yan Zhengming finally woke up from his dream. He maintained the half-kneeling posture on the ground, but his limbs seemed to be filled with lead. He was as stiff as a stone and could not even stand up.

Li Yun, who had always been timid, got so excited that he completely forgot about the terrifying conditions of the wandering cultivators on the island. He rushed forward recklessly and pushed Han Yuan away.

Han Yuan was pushed backward and fell, but he didn't know how to get up. He just looked there with empty eyes. If it weren't for his chest rising and falling, he would have looked like a fresh corpse.

"Xiao Qian, Xiao Qian..." Li Yun's vision was blurred by tears. She knelt helplessly beside Cheng Qian, one hand touching herself aimlessly, as if she was still holding on to a glimmer of hope, trying to find something that could save her life.

Cheng Qian lay on the ground on his side, like a dried up and dying fish. Perhaps because he heard Li Yun's voice, his slightly dilated pupils suddenly regained some spirit as if a last ray of light had come to him. Then, the Frost Blade Sword rose into the air like a corpse, brushed past Li Yun, and almost froze the tears on Li Yun's face into ice. The sword went straight into the crown of Zhou Hanzheng's head behind him.

This sword and this man seem to truly live up to the saying "A man's heart is as hard as iron until his death."

Zhou Han was struggling to break free from the Soul Gathering Jade, and then he tried his best to activate the "Painting Soul" that he had previously cast on Han Yuan. He was basically done for, and after enduring such a blow, the scourge of his generation was finally put to rest.

Cheng Qian had a special connection with the Frost Blade. He knew in his heart that Zhou Han was dying under his sword without even checking.

The young man smiled slightly despite his bloodstained face - they finally killed the man surnamed Zhou. As long as they were careful, no one outside would know that they were from the Fuyao Sect, and no one would use those real and fake, ambiguous treasures on Fuyao Mountain to target them...

Cheng Qian breathed a sigh of relief, almost feeling that he could retire after his success. He turned his face slightly towards the ground, as if a dying man was instinctively looking for a resting place.

At this time, Li Yun exclaimed: "Han Yuan! What are you doing?"

Just because Zhou Hanzheng died, Han Yuan, like a puppet, twitched violently, but he didn't know what had happened to him. Han Yuan was not fully awake. His eyes turned around in confusion, and when he fell on Cheng Qian, the expression on his face struggled for a long time, as if the real Han Yuan was desperately fighting for control of his body.

But he didn't wake up in the end.

Han Yuan suddenly stood up from where he was, without even looking at his fellow brothers on the island, and walked straight into the sea.

Li Yun was crying and panting. He made a hand gesture that he didn't know if it was correct or not, and waved his hand to hit Han Yuan on the back. Countless tiny spider silks stretched out from his palm, tying Han Yuan tightly in the middle, and shouted, "Stop right there!"

Han Yuan unconsciously allowed the spider silk to cut scars on his body. Li Yun gritted his teeth and clenched his five fingers to pull him back, but at this moment, Han Yuan's body suddenly caught fire for no reason. The flames came from nowhere and burned all the spider silk that Li Yun had wrapped around him and his own clothes. Then, Han Yuan, who was not restrained by anyone, jumped naked into the vast sea and never came out again.

Cheng Qian was unaware of this series of events. All his senses were becoming dull, and all were focused on the pain. A pair of cold hands reached out and lifted him up, and the person's fingers stroked his face with trembling hands.

Strangely enough, at this moment, Cheng Qian couldn't even smell the blood on the ground, but he strangely smelled the fragrance of orchids.

This was the smell that came from the eldest senior brother's cuffs every time he applied medicine to him. It was also the faint smell that overflowed from the brocade quilt every time he stayed in his senior brother's room. Every time it lingered around him, he seemed to be drowsy.

Cheng Qian's consciousness began to blur. The clarity of mind that he had just shown when he was ready to drag Zhou Hanzheng down with him disappeared in an instant. For a moment, he was so confused that he almost forgot where he was.

"I..." Cheng Qian uttered a mosquito-like mutter.

Yan Zhengming lowered his head and slowly put his ear close to his lips: "Hmm?"

"……I want to go home……"

Yan Zhengming was stunned for a while, then revealed a smile that seemed both sad and happy.

He staggered to his feet while holding Cheng Qian in his arms, and said softly, "Okay, let's go home. Senior Brother will take you back to Fuyao Mountain. Let's go."

Cheng Qian seemed to smile, but gradually he no longer had the energy to speak, so he fell silent.

At the same time, he suddenly thought to himself, "It really hurts. Death hurts this much. Is it the same when I'm born?"

Later he recalled that it seemed as if his own mother had felt the pain for him when he was giving birth.

Suddenly, Cheng Qian's resentment towards his parents and everyone else disappeared. Even the hardships and dependence he had experienced in his short life were dissolved in the faint fragrance of orchids.

Finally, Cheng Qian's head suddenly lost support and fell weakly on Yan Zhengming's shoulder.

Since it is called worldly fate, it is like noise, coming and going, and cannot be caught up.

Li Yun chased after him, "Brother! Brother! Put him down. Xiao Qian is gone!"

Yan Zhengming turned a deaf ear to him, and Li Yun grabbed his arm and said, "Senior Brother!"

Yan Zhengming paused, turned his head and looked at him quietly without shedding a single tear. Li Yun's heart was in his throat for a moment, fearing that he would say, "The copper coin has fallen asleep, don't disturb it."

With one dead and one missing, if another madman comes, Li Yun simply doesn't know what to do. He took a half step back and said in a trembling voice: "Big Brother, please don't scare me."

"I know." Yan Zhengming lowered his eyes and whispered to himself, "I'm not crazy, tell my little sister to stop crying."

Li Yun became even more panicked after hearing this, because the eldest senior brother's madness seemed a little unusual.

"Go get some water," Yan Zhengming ordered. Without even looking back, he carried Cheng Qian's body and walked toward the center of the deserted island, saying, "Let him dry... Then we can find a way to build a boat."

Li Yun asked blankly: "Where are we going by boat?"

Yan Zhengming: "Let's go back to the Yan family first, but I think they are gone. Although my family is rich, they are just ordinary people. Getting rid of them is no different from excavating an ant nest... I just want to see it with my own eyes. If it's gone, I won't miss it anymore."

Li Yun suddenly felt cold all over. On the way here, they were still deceiving themselves by saying that Xue Qing's puppet talisman was just lost and the people were fine. There was certainly no possibility that there was any problem with the Yan family. But now, his head senior brother seemed to have accepted without reservation all the bad news that could befall him in this world.

Heshi silently lowered the puddle, quickly found some water, and assisted Yan Zhengming in lowering Cheng Qian, washing the boy's blood. After doing all this, Yan Zhengming still felt a little aggrieved that Cheng Qian was so disheveled, so he took off his outer robe and wrapped Cheng Qian up.

Yan Zhengming half-knelt beside Cheng Qian, staring at that face for a long time, as if he saw the despair in his heart.

Yan Zhengming suddenly thought: "Why am I still alive? Why not go with him?"

As soon as this thought came to his mind, the true energy in his body reversed, and Yan Zhengming's face suddenly became ominous, vaguely a sign of being possessed. Thousands of grievances rose and fell in his heart, forming a net that tightly bound his soul. Zhou Hanzheng, Tang Yao, Bai Ji... countless faces flashed before his eyes.

"Why don't they just die?" Yan Zhengming suddenly murmured, "Is the so-called heaven's way to let shameless people live a hundred years?"

The Ochre who was closest to him immediately sensed something was wrong and called out in a low voice, "Master?"

Yan Zhengming's eyes slowly turned to him. His usual smiling peach blossom eyes were like two bottomless dry wells, so dark that the edge was invisible. Yan Zhengming suddenly laughed softly and said word by word: "If I can attain the Tao, I will also run rampant, kill indiscriminately, and rob and plunder. Whoever dares to stand in my way, I will cut him into pieces and never reincarnate, no matter if he is a god or a Buddha!"

Li Yun was shocked: "Brother, what are you talking about?"

"Why?" Yan Zhengming's voice was low and hoarse, "Why!"

Before he finished speaking, a layer of black gas rose from his body, and a circle of sand and gravel all rose up in response. No one could get close to him for a while. Li Yun rashly reached out to grab his shoulder, but before he could touch anyone, he was bounced back three or four steps and sat down on the ground.

Zheshi didn't know what to do and could only look at Li Yun eagerly.

Li Yun jumped up from the ground and said in a timid tone, "Yan Zhengming! Xiao Qian is in trouble and Xiao Yuan is missing. Do you think I am heartless and don't know how to feel sad? I would rather be the one to die!"

Li Yun's personality was not very sharp since he was a child. He was a bit mean at best. As he grew older, he rarely lost his temper. Therefore, the rage he had accumulated with great difficulty was vented in just a few words. After jumping up and down, Li Yun took a breath with red eyes, and then said in a crying voice what he had refused to admit for many years: "At least Xiao Qian is much better than me."

Unfortunately, his rare opportunity to express his true feelings was like playing the lute to a deaf person. Yan Zhengming seemed to be deaf, and a stone flew up from the ground and slapped Li Yun in the face, leaving a bloody mark. Li Yun was forced to take a few steps back and happened to bump into a puddle that was thrown aside and no one was paying attention to it.

Shuikeng hugged his thighs helplessly. In just a few days, her chubby face had obviously become thinner and smaller, with a chin as sharp as the two soul-searching needles on her neck. Li Yun glanced at her, suddenly squatted down, pressed her shoulders, and said hurriedly, "Lend me the soul-searching needles!"

Before the puddle could react, Li Yun had already pulled out a soul-searching needle, broke the wooden cork on the needle with a flick of his finger, and swung it towards Yan Zhengming.

Shuikeng was stunned with fear. With a scream, the soul-searching needle sank straight into the black fog and pierced Yan Zhengming's shoulder exactly.

The thick black fog suddenly dissipated. Yan Zhengming groaned and fell forward, lying on Cheng Qian, unable to get up for a long time.

Li Yun rushed forward immediately, quickly pulled out the poison needle, cut off Yan Zhengming's blood flow, and injected a stream of true energy into him, forcing out all the poisonous blood that had not yet spread. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until the black blood that flowed out turned red. He took out a bottle of detoxification pills soaked in sea water from his arms, pushed the motionless Yan Zhengming, and said hesitantly, "I called you and you didn't respond... I had no choice, Brother, take the detoxification pill first."

Yan Zhengming didn't look up. Li Yun waited for a moment, but there was no response, so he carefully placed his hand on the uninjured shoulder of Yan Zhengming. Only then did he feel the eldest brother's body trembling like rustling fallen leaves.

Yan Zhengming hugged Cheng Qian's already cold body tightly and burst into tears.

They stayed on the island for half a month, and finally finished a canoe with crude spells carved all over it. The canoe could barely fit two people, but fortunately the puddle was small enough so they could squeeze in. Yan Zhengming could fly a sword, so he could barely go along. He tore off a piece of cloth, wrapped Cheng Qian's Frost Blade Sword, and took it with him. His bag was as simple as it could be.

"Master Brother, let's go." Li Yun reminded.

Yan Zhengming nodded, and finally looked back at the unknown little desert island. His brows, which originally had some youthful energy, seemed to be covered with a layer of gloom overnight, as if the time in a small space of an inch was infinitely stretched. In just a moment, the boy had been reborn and grown into an adult.

Yan Zhengming looked towards the island, his brows suddenly curved, revealing a bit of heavy tenderness: "One day, when we can return to Fuyao Mountain openly, we will come to take you home, okay?"

Naturally, no one answered him.

Yan Zhengming put the frost blade wrapped in rags on his back, stepped on his sword with a broken corner, and flew away on the sword.

The sea and the sky are one color, and both places are vast.

Author's words: End of Volume 2