Chapter 235: Meeting Red Kite Again
Jiang Wanxi fetched a basin of fresh water, carefully wringing out a cloth to clean Jiang Wanru's body. She wiped every inch of her sister's skin with careful, agonizing care. The stark contrast in their complexions was startling; Wanxi possessed the healthy, warm skin tone of a living person, while Wanru glowed with an unnatural, deathly whiteness.
Upon that pallid skin, thin purple veins spread out like a spider's web, pulsing faintly with a toxic energy. It was a sight so daunting that a single glance would send a chill through an ordinary person's entire body. Jiang Wanru's fingernails had grown red and long, curving sharply like the claws of a wild beast. Her crimson eyes stared unblinkingly at Jiang Wanxi, devoid of their former warmth.
Jiang Wanxi scooped up a wooden ladle of water and poured it gently over Jiang Wanru's head. The stark white hair was instantly soaked, and her wet bangs fell forward to obscure her erratic vision.
"Sister, are you afraid?" Jiang Wanru asked, her voice raspy and hollow.
"..." Jiang Wanxi's hand paused in mid-air for a fleeting moment before she forced herself to continue cleaning her sister's shoulders.
"When we were little, I was always the one taking care of you. You were so clumsy back then, sister, but now you have become so capable," Wanru continued, a faint, melancholic smile touching her pale lips.
Jiang Wanxi remained entirely silent, her jaw tight as she focused on the task.
"Sister, if I die, can you bury me in that forest on the mountain? It is the highest point around here, and you can see very far from the peak. Maybe... maybe you can even see Taixu Mountain from there."
Clack!
The wooden ladle slipped from Jiang Wanxi's trembling fingers and fell into the basin, making a dull, splashing sound. She lunged forward and hugged Jiang Wanru tightly, ignoring how the cold water from her sister's body soaked instantly into her own dry clothes.
"I told you, you will not die. I will take you to see every famous doctor in the world. Someone will be able to cure you. There has to be someone out there."
Jiang Wanru could feel Jiang Wanxi's body trembling violently against her own.
"...Thank you, Sister."
A strange, lucid light flickered in Jiang Wanru's crimson eyes. She slowly raised a hand, wanting to pat Jiang Wanxi's back to comfort her weeping sister. But her corrupted body would no longer allow her to complete the simple gesture of an embrace. Long ago, when this physical form was completely eroded by Honkai Energy, she had lost almost all of her voluntary mobility. If she had not rigorously practiced Taixu Sword Qi to suppress the corruption, she likely would have perished years ago.
Meanwhile, miles away on a dusty dirt path.
"Do you know two purple-haired women? They are twins."
Red Kite stopped a traveling scholar, questioning him with a voice as flat and unyielding as a stone tablet. The sole reason she had singled him out was that her heightened senses had detected Jiang Wanxi's lingering aura clinging to his clothes. The resonance of the Xuanyuan Sword had guided her all the way to Nanjiang, but the trail had gone cold, leaving her with no other clues. By pure chance, she had sensed that familiar, faint aura and tracked it directly to this unsuspecting scholar.
"You... you know A-Xi and A-Ru?" The scholar asked in sheer surprise, caught completely off guard as he looked at the stoic, white-haired immortal blocking his path. Jiang Wanxi and Jiang Wanru had always lived deep in the secluded mountain forests; he had only met them by pure accident during his travels.
"Yes. I left something with them, so I have come to take it back," Red Kite nodded slowly.
"That is perfect! I just went to the local town to pick up a medical letter from Dr. Gao and was about to bring it up to them! But... you knowing A-Xi and A-Ru must have been a very long time ago, right?" The scholar scratched his head, his expression suddenly turning dejected. "A-Ru's hair has turned completely white now. She has contracted a strange, terrible illness, and I do not know when she will ever be cured..."
His naturally optimistic nature soon pulled him back up from his gloom. He adjusted his carrying frame and smiled.
"I still need to buy a few more supplies from the peddlers. Could I trouble you to wait right here for a moment?" The scholar blinked, looking at Red Kite for confirmation.
"I can."
After a short while of standing in silence, Red Kite felt the scholar's aura getting further and further away at a rapid pace. Clearly, he had panicked and run away the moment he was out of sight. With a light, soundless tap of her foot against the dirt, Red Kite's figure vanished, reappearing thirty meters away in an instant.
"Master, you have changed. You never used to use Fenghuang Down on ordinary people."
An ethereal figure followed closely behind Red Kite, speaking softly into her ear. It was an illusion born from the divine key, taking the shape of a memory.
"He is no ordinary person. He has practiced the exact same martial arts as Su Mei," Red Kite explained without turning her head.
"But you only found that out after using Fenghuang Down to probe his mind, did you not? In the past, you certainly would not have used such an invasive method just to find someone."
"Is that so? Then what method would I have used?" Red Kite asked, her pace never slowing.
"If they did not speak willingly, you would not ask further. That was your way. You were always unwilling to cause extra trouble, preferring to spend more of your own time searching rather than use such a direct, forceful method."
"..." Red Kite fell completely silent.
Looking toward the source of the voice, an observer would only see Red Kite murmuring to the empty air. There was absolutely no one walking behind her.
Deep in the mountain forest.
"A-Xi! A-Xi!" The scholar jogged frantically all the way back into the clearing, shouting at the top of his lungs toward the secluded wooden house.
"Brother Junyan, what is wrong?" Jiang Wanxi stepped out of the front door, looking in deep confusion at the man who was doubled over and panting for breath.
"Someone is looking for you, she... she..." Liu Junyan gasped, his lungs burning.
However, before he could even finish his warning, Red Kite had already materialized silently behind him. Seeing that familiar, haunting figure appear once again, Jiang Wanxi's eyes widened. Her face instantly filled with alarm and dread, and her body instinctively took a step back toward the door. But remembering Jiang Wanru resting helplessly inside, she gritted her teeth, forced her fear down, and took a firm step forward.
Liu Junyan was startled out of his wits by Red Kite's sudden appearance at his back. He opened his mouth awkwardly, stammering, but could not form a single coherent word.
"Return the Xuanyuan Sword to me."
Red Kite wasted no words on pleasantries, demanding the divine weapon directly.
"Master, after twenty long years apart, is this truly all you have to say to me?" Jiang Wanxi bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. A beautifully crafted bow materialized in her grip.
"The Xuanyuan Sword exists for the heavy responsibility of protecting all living beings. You can no longer hold it," Red Kite said calmly, shaking her head with an air of absolute finality.
"If I give the Xuanyuan Sword to you right now, will you let my sister go?" Jiang Wanxi's hand gripped the taut bowstring. Though there was no physical arrow nocked, she still made the practiced, lethal gesture of drawing the bow to its absolute limit.
In the very next second, invisible True Qi surged from her fingertips, transforming into the sharp, deadly shape of a glowing arrow resting on the string.
"She has succumbed to mara." Red Kite stated the grim outcome with just those few, merciless words.
Without a single sound, the True Qi arrow shot out toward Red Kite's heart. The world around them seemed to have been entirely muted; not a single whistle of wind or snap of the string could be heard.
Red Kite simply raised her bare hand and caught the invisible arrow mid-flight. With a slight, effortless squeeze of her fingers, the lethal projectile dissipated back into harmless True Qi.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wanxi vanished from her spot. In a fraction of an instant, she reappeared in multiple locations across the clearing. Countless True Qi arrows were fired from every possible blind spot and direction, weaving a net of certain death that had only one target—Red Kite.
"Immortal Art: Di Ji."
A massive, glowing Taiji diagram appeared beneath Red Kite's feet, illuminating the forest floor. The moment the light flared, all the incoming arrows flying toward her froze completely in mid-air, trembling for a second before shattering and dissipating into scattered True Qi.
Red Kite looked up at the person standing defensively in front of her. That defensive move just now had not been executed by her own hand.
Jiang Wanxi also stopped her relentless barrage. Her eyes were full of absolute disbelief as she stared at the figure who had just intercepted the attack, unconsciously crying out.
"Senior Brother?"
"It seems I have made it just in time."
Rovel let out a long, heavy sigh, lowering his hand. He then turned his head, looking at Jiang Wanxi with an incredibly cold, piercing gaze.
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