The unrestrained

To a new beginning

Brother staggered a few steps back from the push. He hadn’t realized what happened yet. Meanwhile, I struck the back of the fair-featured Guanyin statue at the center of the temple. The statue vibrated as it flew towards the coffin. Nie MingJue was still inspecting the corpse in his hand, the head had already dipped. As the heavy statue hit him, he fell right back where he’d been.

Wei Ying leaped over and stepped onto the Guanyin’s chest. The coffin lid had broken already. They could only use the Guanyin statue as a lid to seal away Nie MingJue and his rampage. Down below, Nie MingJue struck the statue again and again in attempt to break free, while Wei Ying also shook again and again, reeling so much he was almost thrown off. He wobbled, realising that he wasn’t able to paint a talisman at all, “Lan Zhan, quick, quick, come up beside me. One more person would mean more weight. With a few more slaps, the statue might fall apart again…”

If only he was in his original body, I sighed. I saw that at Xuanwu cave. He was more stronger than me when he had the golden core in his body. He opened the jaws of that Xuanwu with his bare hands. I still couldn't recover from the shock I saw years ago.

Before he finished, I held one end of the coffin and lifted it up.

Which meant, with only a left hand, I lifted the wooden coffin, the two dead bodies within the coffin, the Guanyin statue above the coffin, and Wei Ying atop the statue.

Wei Ying gaped in astonishment. It wasn't that heavy to me. But to ordinary they faint on the spot due to its weight.

My expression hadn’t changed. My right hand unleashed a silver guqin string. As if on wings, the string zipped dozens of times around the coffin and the Guanyin statue, tying the two tightly together. And then a second one, and a third… Having determined that Nie MingJue and Jin GuangYao were sealed away properly, I finally let my left hand drop. The one end of the coffin plummeted to the ground, letting out a loud echo. Wei Ying tilted as well. I welcomed him by breaking his fall with my arms before I placed him steadily on the ground. I was gentle to him.

Brother stared at the coffin enveloped in seven guqin strings. He was still lost in thought. Nie HuaiSang extended a hand and waved it before his eyes, terrified, “… Xi- XiChen ge ge, are you alright?”

Brother asked, “HuaiSang, just now, was he really trying to catch me off guard with an attack?”

Nie HuaiSang spoke, “I think I saw it…”

I found his reply suspicious. Hearing his hesitation, brother pressed, “Think it over some more.”

Nie HuaiSang said, “If you ask me like that, I can’t be sure either… It really did seem like…”

Brother asked, “Cut out the ‘seem like’! Did it happen or not?!”

Nie HuaiSang answered with difficulty, “… I don’t know, I really don’t know!”

This was the only thing Nie HuaiSang knew to say when he was desperate. Brother buried his forehead in his palm. He seemed as if his head was about to split, unwilling to speak again.

Suddenly, Wei Ying called, “HuaiSang-xiong.”

Nie HuaiSang was confused, “Huh?”

Wei Ying asked, “Back then, how did Su She stab you?”

Nie HuaiSang, “He was carrying San ge… carrying Sect Leader-Jin when he was running away. I blocked his way, so…”

Wei Ying said, “Really? With where you stood, I don’t recall you blocking their path of escape.”

Nie HuaiSang asked, “I couldn’t have run into him purposely trying to be stabbed, could I?”

Wei Ying smiled, “I never said that.”