Longzang

Chapter 595 Answer
The scholar looked at Wei Yuan suspiciously, while Wei Yuan forced himself to remain calm and said, "Having just overcome the tribulation of inner demons, some residual effects are inevitable. Since you're here, your woman and child must have been captured by me. Which one exactly?"

"Do you think I would tell you?"

"It doesn't matter, we'll find out sooner or later. But judging from your appearance, Lady Hongye, you weren't a person before, were you?"

Hongye said, "It's just a shell; what it looks like doesn't matter."

Wei Yuan suddenly became wary, looked Hongye up and down, and asked, "Are you also from the Pure Land Sect?"

"Of course not, I just said that because of your current appearance."

What was he looking like now? Wei Yuan suddenly had a bad feeling. He reached up and touched his head, and sure enough, it was smooth to the touch. He was bald!
He had just survived his tribulation when Hongye arrived, giving Wei Yuan no time to change or prepare. It was already quite quick that Wei Yuan managed to change his clothes in the blink of an eye.

However, Wei Yuan was extremely thick-skinned and said nonchalantly, "It's nothing. My body tempering skills are not up to par, so I can't make my hair as tough as my physical body. But you, which one is the real you today, the one on the battlefield that day?"

Hongye smiled faintly and said, "Personality can change a thousand times, but there is only one primordial spirit. So it's enough that you know I am Hongye."

“That’s right.” Wei Yuan carefully discerned the aura of the red leaves, which was exactly the same as the one he had sensed on the battlefield that day. He nodded and said, “Someone offered a high price to take your dog’s life. I couldn’t refuse that price, so I had no choice but to use this despicable means to send you on your way.”

"Fighting here will damage the memorial tablet. Please leave."

Hongye was the first to step out of the hall, her gaze falling on the orchids planted on either side of the entrance. She exclaimed, "What a fine variety!"

"A gift from an old friend. If it's kept here for hundreds of years, it might become an immortal plant."

Hongye remained noncommittal, strolled to a tree and stood there, then turned around and said, "We don't need to fight like those low-level cultivators, each giving their all, deciding the winner in three moves?"

Wei Yuan immediately shook his head: "No, let's just use whatever we have."

"You really don't like to suffer losses. Fine, then let you experience the withering of fate first." Behind the red leaves, a huge flowering tree appeared, its leaves as red as blood. Above the red tree, the setting sun cast its last rays, a scene that should have been magnificent, yet inexplicably evoked a sense of sorrow for the end of all things.

A sudden gust of wind blew, scattering a tree full of red leaves.

Wei Yuan suddenly realized that with each falling red leaf, his heart trembled, as if something had been taken away, something had been lost. It was his destiny and fortune!

Hongye's sorcery directly reduces the opponent's fate and fortune, similar to Wei Yuan's lifespan reduction technique, only more circuitous and convoluted. Once the opponent's fate and fortune are reduced to a certain extent, it will trigger various variables.

If the power of this witchcraft reaches its peak, even emperors will find it difficult to escape calamity, either suddenly falling ill or descending into chaos, with powerful warlords rising up.

Autumn leaves are like knives, each one deadly.

In an instant, Wei Yuan made a decision, directly using his own azure energy to replace his own life force to prune the red leaves. In the blink of an eye, most of the red leaves on the tree fell, and Wei Yuan also lost tens of thousands of azure energies.

But Wei Yuan's prestige in Qingming is currently at its zenith, and while his Humanity Luck has decreased by tens of thousands, it still stands at over a hundred thousand. However, there are hardly any leaves left on the tree behind Hongye.

Seeing that Wei Yuan was still alive and kicking, Hongye was quite surprised and said, "Using the Qi Luck Technique to deal with you is really just asking for humiliation. Fine, then I'll try my innate witchcraft: Doomsday Sorrow."

Hongye's entire body emitted a hazy red light, like the setting sun burning the evening clouds, and the surrounding area of ​​a thousand feet turned into a red lotus inferno, burning with faint red flames everywhere.

This fire is a witch's fire, with a unique nature. It uses the witch's power of red leaves as fuel and only burns sentient beings. Even insects and birds can safely walk through the flames if they do not have a spirit.

However, the hundreds of people guarding the Hall of Heroes and cleaning the cemetery suddenly began to burn. In the blink of an eye, their life force was completely burned away, and they turned into mummies.

Wei Yuan was both shocked and furious, but powerless to stop it. Within his field of vision, all the witch fire converged on him. Wei Yuan's Dao power was rapidly consumed and burned by the witch fire. In the blink of an eye, the Dao power equivalent to several Dharma bodies was burned away by the witch fire.

This witchfire is essentially a direct contest of magical power between Hongye and Weiyuan. It's the fiercest and most direct battle of magic, where the two sides compete based on the amount of magical power they possess and their respective ranks. The one with lower magical power is very likely to be burned to ashes.

Since the war began months ago, Wei Yuan has witnessed several of Hong Ye's innate sorcery techniques, each one terrifyingly powerful. Take, for example, the "Last Sorrow of Doomsday," which can be used for both group attacks and single-target kills, and can even drag out an opponent's mana battle. In terms of mana rank, Hong Ye's is equally terrifying, surpassing even Wei Yuan's Dao power essence. She essentially only needs two units of sorcery power to burn away three units of Wei Yuan's Dao power.

In the blink of an eye, Hongye and Weiyuan calculated the ratio of their respective mana consumption, and they were both relieved, revealing confident smiles.

Hongye calmly said, "Being defeated by me is not shameful. Apart from Long Zhe, you are the only truly formidable opponent I have ever faced in my life, enough to make me... proud..."

Hongye's voice suddenly became drawn out and her tone changed noticeably. Her black hair quickly turned gray and then snow-white. Her once smooth skin developed grooves, her eyebrows drooped, her eyes became sunken, her waist hunched over, and her legs became bent.

In the blink of an eye, he went from being middle-aged to being very old, and he exuded an aura of decay and decay from the inside out.

Hongye was quite surprised and looked at Wei Yuan's hand. Wei Yuan's left hand remained tightly clenched, faintly exuding an aura of shortened lifespan. Hongye had always thought that Wei Yuan's left hand held the Yang Bullet killing move, but she didn't expect that the Yang Bullet came from behind, almost grazing his back as it entered.

Hongye turned around and saw the brutal rifle that was wrapped around the tree behind her with its branches, the muzzle still steaming.

In a single step, Hongye reached the tree and delivered a seemingly effortless punch to its trunk. The punch, though appearing weak, was actually incredibly fast and powerful, instantly shattering the tree and revealing an icy blue fairy tree within.

The Ice Blue Immortal Tree was blasted by a single punch, causing its entire canopy to bend to one side. The trunk creaked and groaned, but it managed to hold on.

Hongye exhaled and shouted "Break!", and then boundless power surged from his fist once again!
With the second burst of force, the Ice Crystal Divine Tree was finally unable to resist, and the trunk broke in the middle, with the entire crown flying hundreds of feet away!
Then the Ice Crystal Divine Tree disappeared. Only then did Hongye withdraw her fist and say to Wei Yuan, "What a skill! It was truly unexpected. I deserved to be hit by that shot. Someone as powerful and shameless as you is truly unique in the world."

Wei Yuan was struggling to resist the witch fire and couldn't even speak.

Hongye pointed a finger and a water mirror appeared before him. He looked at his reflection, then put the mirror away and extinguished the witch fire.

Wei Yuan finally let out a long breath, staring intently at Hongye. From the moment the fight began until now, he had been completely overwhelmed by Hongye, with no chance to retaliate. Fortunately, thanks to his pre-planned actions, he had successfully ambushed Hongye and delivered the Yang bullet into his body.

Hongye looked at her hands, which were covered with age spots, and said, "So this is what it feels like to grow old. It's really not pleasant. Fortunately, I still have more than ten years of life left, so I can still do some small things in the end and not leave too many regrets."

Wei Yuan suddenly said, "Did you deliberately take that shot?"

Hongye smiled and said, "I did have that idea, but I didn't expect you to be even more cunning than I anticipated. There was no way I could escape this shot. But it's fine this way, it saves me the trouble of acting."

"Is it worth it for a woman and a child? You already have tens of thousands of descendants." This has always been Wei Yuan's question.

Hongye flicked her finger, seemingly shattering a bubble. Then, some changes occurred in certain places, but Wei Yuan didn't know what those changes were. He only knew that this move was extremely profound, something even immortals couldn't achieve.

After doing all this, Hongye said, "Without taking this shot, I wouldn't have been able to return to the Rain Kingdom alive. Those guys who entrusted you with this task will never let me leave Qingming unscathed. I knew that from the moment you returned a second time and took her and Xiaobao away."

The outcome is not bad so far; I still have some time to do my own things. Those guys won't bother me anymore, heh heh, a witch like me, nearing the end of her lifespan, no one would want to mess with me. Alright, I don't have much time left, I should go.”

Wei Yuan asked, "Why?"

"Why..." Hongye seemed to recall something from a long time ago. After a moment of distraction, she said, "The initial reason, which was also the cause of my duel with Long Zhe, was that I... did not want to become a Heavenly Witch."

Wei Yuan never expected this answer. He wanted to press for more information, but Hongye shook her head and said, "That's all I can say. If you want to know more, you'll have to find the answers yourself later."

"Where are your woman and children? Aren't you taking them with you?"

Hongye waved her hand: "Let them live among the humans!"

Hongye said no more, put his hands behind his back, and slowly walked towards the edge of the boundary. He walked westward, facing the setting sun, the blood-red afterglow dyeing his somewhat messy white hair golden-red.

Watching the old man's figure gradually disappear into the embers of the sunset, Wei Yuan was momentarily speechless with mixed feelings. Had such a brilliant talent come to an end?
At that moment, Hongye's voice drifted from afar, as if ringing in my ears: "You just asked me whether it was worth it to come here to die for a woman and a child. Now you know the answer."

(End of this chapter)