I Outworked the Entire Cultivation World

Chapter 841: Chapter 783: Letting Go of Obsessions (Requesting Yue Ticket)

Jiang Yuebai scooped up Little Green and held it in his arms, tenderly stroking the cracks on the frame of the Little Green Lantern.

Without the obsession of Ye Shiming to support it, Little Green’s entire aura weakened considerably, the light on the lantern flickering weakly.

Jiang Yuebai hurriedly retreated, continuously using Chaos Qi to manipulate Netherworld Ghost Fire to replenish Little Green’s body, wiping the turtle ink stains with his sleeve, yet still unable to remove them.

[I’m tainted]

[I’ve cracked]

Little Green pitifully condensed two lines of words.

”Not tainted, not tainted, my Little Green is the purest and flawless. It’s okay if it’s cracked, I’ll fix it, make it beautiful.”

Jiang Yuebai held Little Green, gritting his teeth in anger, cursing inwardly at the damn Unrestrained Brush!

”Lin Jingyue!”

Ye Shiming’s voice carried immense resentment, and Jiang Yuebai looked up to see Lin Jingyue’s face as calm as ever, quietly watching, with no waves visible in her eyes.

After a thousand years, Lin Jingyue’s calmness infuriated Ye Shiming, an overwhelming resentment emanating from his body, turning into tangible black smoke, drifting around his broken body.

Amid that black smoke, the faint shadows of a hundred thousand wronged souls flickered, like hands clinging to Ye Shiming, attempting to drag him into the Underworld for eternal suffering.

Lin Jingyue spoke slowly, ”Ye Shiming, the events of that year began because of me. Let go of your obsession, and I’ll send you and the hundred thousand wronged souls for reincarnation.”

Ye Shiming was extremely agitated, the black smoke around him boiling like water.

”Reincarnation? You speak so lightly. Do you know how much I suffered being trapped on the day of my death for a thousand years? With a hundred thousand troops as a gift, you included me in it. Was everything at Chunshan Pass part of your plan from start to finish, with no true feelings at all?”

Lin Jingyue remained silent, allowing Ye Shiming to vent his rage, her face streaked with bloody tears.

”You say you owed allegiance to the emperor and the people, to your clan and yourself, but only felt guilty towards me, yet you... No regrets! No regrets! What a ’no regrets!’ Let me ask you, if you could do it all over again, would you still scheme against me like this?”

Lin Jingyue’s fingers tensed, her aura unsteady, causing the mountain wind to grow stronger, leaves to scatter, and the red tassels on the spear behind her to sway in the wind.

She took a deep breath, facing her heart, slowly raising her eyes to meet Ye Shiming’s accusing gaze.

”In my position, I must plan for my duties. If everything could start over, as long as I was still a general of Yun Country, I would still make the same choice.”

Ye Shiming staggered back, letting out a miserable laugh, covered in arrows and bloodstains, trembling as he asked in a hoarse, nearly pleading voice.

”And what about me, what am I? What about that night at Chunshan Pass?”

Lin Jingyue calmly gazed at Ye Shiming, slowly speaking, ”When love reaches the limit, one cannot help oneself.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Ye Shiming suddenly looked up, staring at Lin Jingyue in disbelief, her gaze unwavering, without any hesitation, her eyes clear and without a trace of deceit.

”Love reaches the limit?”

Lin Jingyue took another deep breath, ”I know, saying anything to you now sounds like an excuse, but I still have to say it. Back then, I knew your father sent axemen to kill me, and I had planned to poison you and take you hostage to escape the camp.”

”With my skills, fighting for survival, it wasn’t impossible to escape. But when you accepted the poisoned wine I handed over and willingly drank it, at that moment, I indeed felt affection for you, and everything that followed was where love reaches the limit.”

Ye Shiming’s raging resentment gradually stabilized, tears in his eyes, looking at Lin Jingyue’s heroic face with longing. It was exactly the same as he remembered, unchanged.

Lin Jingyue continued to explain, ”But one thing, no matter how much affection I had for you, I am still a person of Yun Country, and my loyalty to Yun Country has never changed because of anyone or anything.”

”So, I could only fail you! You sent me out of the pass and said you wanted to marry me. I said a hundred thousand soldiers would be your gift, allowing you to marry in. These were all to make you give up the thought.”

At that time, Lin Jingyue knew Ye Shiming had youthful persistence. If she simply refused, he would certainly pursue the matter to the end and fight for it with all his might. So, she had to give him an impossible condition to make him weigh the pros and cons and give up on his own.

”Unfortunately, I was naive, thinking you would prioritize family and national interests. Later, I realized you had followed your mother since childhood. Your mother valued affection, and when your father passed, your mother abandoned you to follow him into the grave. You probably heard and saw her actions, thus placing love above everything else.”

”You sent letters to Yun Country every day, and even if I handled things carefully, someone with intentions would still find out and exploit it. That day at court, they forced me with the strategy of marrying in to lure you into the pass. By then, I had achieved military success that threatened the ruler, and refused several royal marriage proposals...”

Lin Jingyue paused, recalling past events, a bitter smile on her lips.

”I resigned from office and left the court, no longer concerning myself with matters behind me. By the whim of creation, I encountered a wise person on a desolate mountain who guided me to enter the Dao through martial arts. Only then did I realize the vastness of the world. In the mountains, I cultivated, and time flew by. When I entered the Dao and left the mountains, the Cang Country’s hundred thousand troops had already become lost souls and wandering ghosts.”

Ye Shiming trembled all over, ”So that letter... the letter inviting me to marry in, wasn’t written by you?”

”No!”

Ye Shiming staggered to his knees, laughing and crying hysterically, realizing only now that it all happened because of his foolishness, his incompetence, and his blind infatuation, which brought about the demise of everyone, including himself.

The hatred in Ye Shiming’s eyes gradually gave way to regret. Lin Jingyue’s words ’Love reaches the limit’ had resolved his obsession.

Yet, a hundred thousand wronged souls would not easily forgive him.

The resentment around him, due to his diminished obsession, gradually corroded him, like ghostly claws tearing at his flesh, revealing ghastly white bones.

Ye Shiming groaned in pain as streams of blood surged to his eyes, leaving his face covered in blood and tears.

At this moment, a hand pressed on top of Ye Shiming’s head, bringing with it the light of redemption.

”Let him go. The blood debt you bear, I will repay.”

The resentment of a hundred thousand wronged souls followed Lin Jingyue’s outstretched hand, like venomous snakes, entwining upwards.

Lin Jingyue did not resist at all, allowing the resentment to erode her body.

Jiang Yuebai watched this scene in shock. Lin Jingyue was just a step away from Mahayana, and at this moment, using herself to endure the resentment of a hundred thousand wronged souls would inevitably decline her cultivation.

”No, don’t touch her, it was me who caused your deaths, blood for blood, don’t touch her!”

Ye Shiming hysterically rushed forward, intending to take all the resentment back onto himself.

At that moment, Lin Jingyue’s body suddenly radiated spots of golden light. Within the golden light seemed to be flickering images of mortals kneeling and praying, accompanied by sounds of their prayers.

”War God, bless me, so that my boy at home is freed from illness.”

”Thank you, War God, my wife and child are safe and sound, came specially to fulfill my vow.”

”I beg you, please let the War God bless me to pass this martial exam.”

The golden light appeared, countless as the stars, like moths to a flame, resolutely colliding with the resentment.

Jiang Yuebai, holding Little Green, opened her mouth in shock. Was this the Incense Fire Power of the people of Yun Country? It looked very similar to the Merit Golden Light she had seen on Kong Jingyan.

Her master had discussed with her very early on that Lin Jingyue was burdened with the sins of a hundred thousand wrongful souls, yet every time she crossed tribulations, she turned misfortune into fortune, precisely because she was the War God of Yun Country, protected all along by the prayers of a million people from Yun Country.

Now it was the same, this Incense Fire Power dissolved the resentment of the hundred thousand wrongful souls. Each strand of incense fire golden light, after dispelling the resentment, contained a touch of a ’clean’ soul, a soul ready for reincarnation.

Ye Shiming was also enveloped by tens of thousands of incense fire golden light, the blood stains on his body dissipated, his wounds vanished, and his silver armor was restored as before, gradually reverting to the once high-spirited young general.

Dawn was approaching, the eastern sky was turning pale, and Ye Shiming gazed longingly at Lin Jingyue, knowing he must leave. From the start, he and Lin Jingyue were destined to only be strangers.

Now knowing that Lin Jingyue once had genuine feelings for him, he had no regrets or complaints, only wishing her well, hoping she would find the Immortal Path and lifelong freedom she desired.

There were no lingering separations or unspoken feelings. The thousand-year-old grievances were resolved today, liberation for both.

Ye Shiming looked at Lin Jingyue, retreating step by step, the sky full of incense golden light, following like a shadow.

Back then, she ventured alone into the camp to help him defeat the barbarian soldiers of the Sixteen Departments of Xiyun.

Today, with her own Merit Incense Fire, she absolved him of all his sins, helping him and the hundred thousand wrongful souls reincarnate together.

She owed him nothing; it was he who burdened her.

”Lin Jingyue, meeting you in this life, I too... have no regrets...”

The words ”no regrets” slipped away with the wind, the morning sun breaking through the darkness, casting golden light across the mountains.

...

”Lin Jingyue!”

”Do not shout loudly, I am the one who helped you to win the battle.”

...

”How many days have you been here without asking the young general for his name?”

”Me? My name is Ye Shiming.”

”When the osmanthus falls, the night is still, the spring mountain is empty, the moon startles the mountain birds, and occasionally chirping in the mountain stream.”

...

”Wait, the wine given to you by the enemy general, you dared to drink without thinking?”

”If it comes from you, even poison is no matter.”

”Enough...”

...

”Lin Jingyue, next spring, I will come with a magnificent procession to ask for your hand; you must wait for me.”

”Marry, absolutely impossible!”

”I will never let go!”

”Very well, with the ten thousand warriors of Cang Country as the bride price, I permit your marriage!”

”Really?”

”Naturally!”

”Agreed!”

Drive!

The sounds of the past echoed by the ear, Lin Jingyue bathed in the morning golden light, turned her head and closed her eyes, listening as the sound gradually dissipated into the wind among the mountains, with the bird song high in the sky.

Whoosh—

A gust of fresh wind brushed against Jiang Yuebai’s face, and she was stunned to find the morning light being pulled by some special force, falling entirely on Lin Jingyue.

Atop the mountain, her whole being glowed brilliantly.

Lin Jingyue opened her eyes to look at Jiang Yuebai, letting out a bitter smile.

”My Mahayana Heavenly Tribulation is coming!”