Chapter 139: Past Events

"I returned to Wulong Mountain, sword in hand, practicing day and night with the bitter hope of one day returning to Tianshan to avenge the destruction of my sect. Alas, I was too eager for success, and haste made waste; before long, I suffered a relapse of my cultivation deviation.

My inner energy vanished completely. Without inner energy, all my martial arts moves and techniques were reduced to flashy acrobatics, utterly useless. Despair consumed me then on Wulong Mountain, and I was driven nearly to the brink of madness."

"That day, as I wandered aimlessly beneath Broken Sword Mountain, I saw a man and a woman fall down the precipice. Both were grievously injured, nearly every bone in their bodies shattered, yet remarkably, they were still alive. I was never a kind and benevolent person; perhaps the heavens were offering me a chance at redemption.

At that very moment, a surge of compassion moved me to rescue them. I carried them on my back into the cave where I lived, tending to them day and night. Having mastered medicine back at Tianshan, and with countless herbs growing wild in the mountains, I set and aligned their broken bones one by one.

I secured the fractures with wooden splints and applied herbal poultices. Because both possessed inner energy to protect their bodies, they recovered far quicker than ordinary people.

Later, they told me their names were Han Qinghua and White Snake. I had heard of both back at Tianshan: White Snake was the concubine of the Nether Fiend, while Han Qinghua was the Ghost Sword, one of the Four Renowned Swords, and a rising star in the pugilistic world. A year later, the woman called White Snake made a full recovery—presumably because women are lighter and thus suffered a somewhat less severe fall.

Once recovered, White Snake did not leave, but instead stayed behind to help me nurse the man called Han Qinghua. Yet Han Qinghua showed extreme hostility toward White Snake, either ignoring her completely or glaring at her with fury. Whenever he was confined to the cave, he felt heartbroken and grieved in secret.

White Snake told me privately that the Ghost Sword had been cast down the cliff by his own junior martial brother. As for the grievances between Han Qinghua and his junior, Han Qinghua never spoke of them, and I did not care to ask. After another year, Han Qinghua finally recovered.

Moved beyond measure by White Snake's round-the-clock nursing, even Han Qinghua's iron heart was touched, and he finally accepted White Snake.

They bowed in gratitude to me for saving their lives. But I had them to thank instead; despite the extraordinary hardship of the past two years, heaven had shown me mercy, allowing me to sow good karma and reap good rewards. The lingering malice and resentment in my heart were swept away entirely, replaced by peace of mind.

Though I no longer cared for the affairs of the jianghu, my body constantly suffered the torments of old injuries. When the affliction flared up, the pain was unbearable. Inadvertently, I asked White Snake about the cultivation method of the Nether Blood-Evil Art, hoping to find a different path,

hoping for nothing else but to cure my old injuries. To my surprise, White Snake's face turned pale at these words. After pondering for a long time, she told me that while everyone believed her to be the Nether Fiend's concubine, in reality, her life under the Nether Fiend was worse than death!

I had long wondered why the Nether Fiend's inner energy was so profound, seemingly beyond his years, with a strange and uncanny quality to his breath—something that should have been impossible. White Snake explained that the Nether Blood-Evil Art allowed one to plunder the vital essence and blood of opponents during combat.

However, the Nether Fiend only used this technique to kill, because at most half a percent of the vital essence absorbed through the Nether Blood-Evil Art could be retained for oneself, while the rest dissipated into the void as it broke through the body.

Consequently, the Nether Fiend had independently created the Jade Seeding Technique. As for what the Jade Seeding Technique entailed, White Snake did not explain explicitly, but she revealed that she and the other concubines had all been seized from various places by the Nether Fiend. After teaching them martial arts mental formulas,

he forced them to use their charms to seduce robust young men, stealing the men's primordial yang during