Brothers and Master and Disciples (Please Follow and Read, skr)

In the dilapidated old house, only the faint moonlight pierced through the mist, shining on the battered and dying old man.

A young boy, his face streaked with tears, gripped the old man's hand tightly, sobbing uncontrollably.

On the other side, a short, thin boy remained unmoved by the scene of deep affection between master and disciple. Instead, his face was filled with resentment, and he cursed as he wept:

"You old bastard, you deserve to die! I already went back! Why did you have to take me with you?! Waaah..."

"Wu Ping, shut up! Do you have any conscience at all?!"

Wu Cheng glared at Wu Ping. He wasn't usually strict with his younger brother, but this time he was truly angry.

"Brother! What's the point of having a conscience when dealing with evil spirits?!"

No sooner had Wu Ping finished speaking than a sharp "slap" rang out, and Wu Cheng's vicious slap left Wu Ping stunned on the spot.

Wu Cheng gasped for breath, his voice escaping through clenched teeth:

"If it weren't for Master protecting us with his life, we would have been killed by Junior Sister You Su long ago! If it weren't for Master sacrificing himself to feed the evil spirits and protect us, how could we have survived to this day!"

Wu Ping stopped crying. He covered his burning right cheek, slowly turned his head to look directly at Wu Cheng, his narrow eyes filled with coldness.

"Wu Cheng! Don't get all moved on my behalf! You know perfectly well whether he wanted to save you or me! When that You Su was chasing and beating me, he could have made a move much earlier, but he waited until I was almost dead before he did!"

In all these years, has he ever praised me once? Can't you see that he has never respected me at all? My brother... you are his dearest disciple... In his eyes, I'm just a good-for-nothing who only got into his tutelage through connections! Just a burden that hinders your advancement! He can't wait for me to get out of here, do you understand?!

Wu Ping hysterically recounted the grievances he had harbored for so many years. Wu Cheng, on the other hand, seemed to be getting to know his somewhat foolish and spoiled younger brother, who was always obedient to him, all over again. He stared blankly at Wu Ping, his eyes filled with disappointment.

"If Master didn't consider you his disciple, why are you still alive? Why did he protect you from being eaten by those evil spirits even after he was possessed and lost his mind? And why did he still risk his life to take you away after you betrayed him and told others that he was an evil spirit?"

That's because he felt that place was very dangerous! His master was corrupted by evil spirits, and he only managed to stay alive until now because of his single thought of getting his disciple out of danger! If it weren't for saving you, he wouldn't have suffered that fatal blow at all, do you understand?!

"I don't understand!" Wu Ping glared, his eyes blazing with fury, as if his teeth were about to burst forth. He chewed until his gums bled, "All I know is that I was already safe, but this old monster insisted on dragging me back! If he hadn't gone and provoked You Su, would we be in this situation? Time and time again, it's him who has put me in this predicament! Am I supposed to have a conscience towards him?!"

Wu Cheng suddenly laughed bitterly, as if his heart had died:

"You don't understand... you don't understand anything. Your master only wanted you to experience more setbacks so you could improve, but you've misunderstood it to this extent..."

Wu Ping sneered, "Don't give me that high-sounding talk! You have no idea what I've suffered!"

Wu Cheng closed his eyes tightly, and a few more tears fell. He shook his head, about to say a few more words in defense of his master, when the dying Qi Daodong suddenly trembled twice and whimpered something.

Wu Cheng hurriedly grasped Qi Daodong's hand and asked with concern:

"Master! Don't speak! Everything will be alright! Everything will be alright!"

Qi Daodong slowly opened his eyes. The red light in his pupils had disappeared, leaving only the cloudy twilight in the eyes of a dying old man.

His Adam's apple bobbed, and a few weak syllables crawled out of his mouth like stiff worms:

"Yes... your teacher... is sorry... for all of you..."

As soon as he finished speaking, as if in a final burst of energy, he unleashed an unnamed burst of power, forming a sword with his fingers and piercing straight into his own heart!

"No!" Wu Cheng cried out hoarsely.

But it was all in vain. Qi Daodong's neck had tilted to the side, and he was completely still. A rotting, blood-red octopus appeared in front of his chest, motionless, and began to rot after a moment.

This once promising and spirited Sect Master Qi, accepted the power of evil spirits while severely injured. He used this power to protect two disciples for four days before personally exorcising the evil spirits within him, ultimately dying with his eyes wide open in disbelief.

Wu Cheng burst into tears, his mournful cries seeming to pierce the clouds and split rocks.

Wu Ping watched coldly, unmoved, and muttered venomously:

"Damn it, you think you can just die like that?! You better come back to life right now! You brought me here, you have to send me back before you die!"

He jumped up and down in anger, then suddenly seemed to catch a glimpse of something, and was so frightened that he slumped against the wall behind him, his mouth trembling as he said:

"Brother... what... what is this?"

Wu Cheng was already crying his eyes out when Wu Ping reminded him to look up, only to find that he was surrounded by eight enormous tentacles that blotted out the sky!

Following the tentacles to their confluence, there was a flowing vortex of flesh and blood, mixed with mist. What was most eye-catching were the two indescribable, strange points of light in the center.

It wasn't that the two had forgotten to escape, but rather that they had abandoned that unrealistic idea. Two tentacles enveloped them, lifting them high into the air.

Two identical voices rang in their minds at the same time:

"Only one person can survive, and in exchange, he must do something for me."

This mysterious evil spirit had already decided that their deaths were inevitable, and out of pity, granted one of them a chance to live.

The two brothers exchanged a glance; in the darkness, their expressions were obscured, only their contrasting gazes clashed...

An hour later, Wu Cheng dragged his badly injured left leg through the mist and night.

His expression was numb; he had cried all his tears.

Under the bright moonlight.

A pristine woman in a white dress, her body supported by a sword, couldn't hold back any longer and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Opposite He Shutong stood a scantily clad, venomous woman covered in bizarre tattoos. She wiped the dried blood from the corner of her mouth and said in a seductive voice:

"Lotus Sword Venerable, your cultivation is not like a man's. You lost it for eight years, and now that you've picked it up again, do you think it will be as affectionate as before? You can kill my junior brother now, but you can't kill me. If you continue to force your Qi like this, your spiritual platform might shatter immediately..."

He Shutong's eyes were resolute; the female Evil Cultivator was right.

Her body and the sudden surge of Mystic Qi in her mind had not yet fully integrated, and coupled with two consecutive days of fierce battles, she was on the verge of collapse.

But she had reasons to venture into the fog ahead, and she refused to allow herself to stop there.

Thinking of this, she was about to overexert herself to use another move of the Lotus Birth Sword Technique, but suddenly sensed something and turned to look at the moon hanging high behind her.

A Fairy stood in mid-air before the moon, her white dress fluttering in the wind, like a moon goddess descending from the heavens.

The newcomer was none other than the young prodigy leader of the Xuanxiao Sect, the sole True Disciple of the Lotus Sword Venerable, and the Wangshu Fairy He Shutong had described as being superior to even a hundred Gu Yao when facing evil spirits.

A Rabbit Mask concealed her true face, and her clear, cold voice drifted out:

"Master."

Thank you everyone for your monthly tickets, rewards, and of course, for your follow-up comments, favorites, and recommendations. I'm a new author with low productivity; producing 4k words a day is already my best effort. The book should be available for purchase during the Lunar New Year holiday, and I'll try to update more frequently then.