Evil Mage Cultivation: The Immortal Enslavement Path Chapter 71

Wu Han finished finalizing his technique and shut down his concentration mode.

Blood spilled from his mouth as it ran from his nose and eyes, his ears ringing.

The drawback was real and extremely painful.

He could not access his own intellect because of the risk of calling down the red lightning, so he was forced to channel his consciousness through Wu Han’s mind as a medium.

Wu Han coughed the last mouthful of blood out, then healed the damage.

Now he had Sky Piercer, Cloud Trace Art, Tempest Edge, and Stormgate Cannon as his martial arts.

He sighed and wiped the blood away.

When he looked outside, the sky had already turned dark.

Night had passed while he cut off all outside stimulus without even noticing, and it still caused this much damage.

"Just you wait..." he muttered.

Knock. Knock.

A knock came from the door.

With a single sense, he knew it was Hong Qing.

With a snap, he cleaned every trace of blood from the room. He could not be seen inviting a girl in while the place looked like a slaughterhouse.

He might be evil, but he still had etiquette.

"You actually came?" Wu Han opened the door and leaned against the frame with a smirk.

"Y, yes..." Hong Qing twisted her hair, embarrassed. Being looked down on by someone stronger made her heart pound.

"You know, I thought you were going to have trouble with that boyfriend of yours."

"Well... I did, but it’s not like he could do anything about it. Hehe~"

She let out a mischievous laugh at the memory, and that caught Wu Han’s interest.

"Oh? What did you do?" He asked.

"You know... ah, I feel so embarrassed to talk about it." Hong Qing’s face turned red. The memory alone made her want to jump.

"Now I want to know even more. Come in." Wu Han led her inside while she gathered her courage. Once she stepped through, he sealed the door so no sound would leak out, giving them the privacy they needed.

"Tea?" Wu Han brought out fire tea and prepared the pot without touching it.

The kettle floated in the air, flame burning beneath it as the water boiled, while he arranged the table for them to sit.

"Invisible hand?" Hong Qing recognized the miscellaneous technique.

Its difficulty far outweighed its use, which was why few people practiced it.

"Something like that. I prefer to call it mage hand." Wu Han let the tea finish brewing, then poured it for both of them.

"Thank you." Hong Qing smiled and took a sip. Her nerves finally eased.

"Want to talk about it now? I’m listening." Wu Han had always enjoyed love stories, especially broken ones. They tended to have the strongest flavor.

"Well..." Hong Qing took a breath and let the memory surface.

That afternoon, while Wu Han was perfecting his new martial arts, her house had been on fire.

"You are really going to break up with me?!" Yan Fei’s voice shook.

Fury and confusion tangled inside him.

"Yes, and could you move? I’m trying to pack." Hong Qing rolled her eyes. Now that the heat of her emotions had faded, she finally noticed how painfully annoying Yan Fei sounded.

"But why? We have been together for almost ten years!"

"And that is already long enough." Hong Qing cut him off, cold, and continued gathering her belongings, pushing them into her storage ring without slowing down.

"Is it because of that guy? Fine, he is the miracle doctor’s disciple, but we were going to start a family!" Yan Fei tried to convince her.

"Not anymore. We are not." She finished packing and turned toward the door.

"You are going to throw away our families, our promise, for someone you have known for a month? Does he even like you? He has Luo Lan beside him, for ancestor’s sake!" Yan Fei’s argument made sense. Hong Qing was desirable, but she stood nowhere near those two.

"So, you admit I was with you because I settled?" Her voice trembled with anger.

"T-That is not what I meant." Yan Fei swallowed, even though it was exactly what he meant.

He had known for years there were men better than him.

The thought had always gnawed at him, leaving him insecure about their future.

But as the wedding date approached, he started to relax, believing she had already chosen him.

Then Wu Han suddenly appeared.

"Do you even know why I liked you? Do you still remember the promise you gave me?" Hong Qing stepped toward Yan Fei, eyes shining with rage and disdain. This was the man she once cared about so deeply.

"Uh... ah..." Yan Fei tried to remember. It had been so long since they first met. He had barely been aware of anything back then. Hong Qing was older, while he had been immature.

Of course he forgot.

"See? You never cared." She let out a breath full of disappointment and turned to leave.

"Stay away from me. Never talk to me again."

Yan Fei panicked. He grabbed her hand and looked at her with wet eyes.

"Please, at least tell me why. I deserve to know."

"You don’t deserve anything." Hong Qing pulled her hand away, disgust clear on her face.

"But fine. I will tell you."

She took a deep breath, trying to cool the anger burning in her chest. "Do you remember our first fight, when we met?"

"Yes, of course." The details were blurry, but he remembered the result. "I won that fight, and then we became friends." He tried to pull her back toward those memories, hoping she would change her mind.

"Back then, I had been in the fourth stage of Qi Condensation for a while, and you were only at the third," Hong Qing said. "You beat me with your skill and your determination. That was what I liked about you."

"Then why? I’m still me, the same Yan Fei..." he pleaded.

"No, you are not. Right now you are just a lazy, arrogant bum who doesn’t know his place." Her voice dripped with disgust.

"Back then I couldn’t imagine how far you would grow, so I stayed by your side. I supported you. I even went to learn massage for you." The anger in her chest began to rise again.

"And this, this is what I get?!" Hong Qing looked him up and down with open contempt.

"You have been stuck at the sixth stage for years. We are in the Luo clan and you had me! I tried again and again to push you to form a Dao seed, but every time you started to slack off and insisted on doing things your own way."

Her fury spilled over. "You are stuck, and you dragged me down with you."

She pressed a hand to her chest, breath uneven. "All I ever wanted was for you to surpass me. That was the promise you made."

Her eyes swept across him, from head to toe, and whatever hope had lingered there finally died.

"But what I got... is this."

"I am leaving."

The words emptied her. Everything she had carried from those bright, foolish years slipped away, leaving her gaze cold, as if the man in front of her had already become a stranger.

Yan Fei finally understood what he had lost.

His body shook. The future he imagined with her shattered in front of him.

The memories he treasured slipped through his fingers.

In their place rose something bitter, twisting grief into anger.

"Then it’s a duel!"

Hong Qing stopped. She turned back.

Seeing that reaction, hope flared inside him.

"I challenge you! If I win, you stay with me. This time I swear I will surpass you, Wu Han, maybe even Luo Lan!"

Her eyes stayed fierce.

"And if you lose?" Hong Qing asked.

Yan Fei pulled in a long breath, his chest shaking.

"Then... I’ll kill myself."

Hong Qing smiled. Maybe there was still something left to look at after all. "Fine. I will give you one chance, since you sound that confident."

She drew her sword.

The pressure pouring from her almost made Yan Fei throw up, yet they had trained together for years.

He knew her moves.

If he gambled everything, he believed he could win at least once.

Yan Fei pulled out his spear.

"Come," Hong Qing said, her voice laced with mockery. "I will let you have the first move."

Yan Fei dragged in a huge breath of qi. Wind whipped around him under the force of his power. Heat rolled off his body and bent the air as he gathered everything into a single strike.

"Volcanic Strike!"

The ground burst and turned black.

Fire roared outward, leaves igniting in an instant as flames shot into the air.

This was the first attack he made.

It would also be the last.

He put everything on that blow, gambling his life to take back the girl he loved most.

The spear tore through the air like a meteor falling from the sky. As the red-hot tip closed in, Hong Qing sneered.

"Pathetic."

She stepped aside with ease. Shock spread across Yan Fei’s face. When they fought before, she had never been this fast.

Because she had not been.

All this time she had been holding back for him, but not anymore.

"Get lost."

Without using any technique, she kicked him in the face with the full force of the seventh stage.

"Ah!" Yan Fei’s body tumbled across the ground and crashed near a ditch. His jaw shattered. Pain spread through every part of him. Tears streamed down his face as he watched Hong Qing walk toward him, and he found no care in her eyes.

In the past, she would already be kneeling beside him, trying to heal him.

"If it were him, he wouldn’t even be hurt. And if he was, he would heal it himself."

Hong Qing nudged his spear toward him with her foot. "Do as you promised, if you are still a man."

Yan Fei stared at the weapon in despair. Blood filled his mouth. Tears blurred his sight. "P, ple..." With his jaw broken he could not form the words, so he could only watch as she turned and walked away into the distance.

Back in the present, Wu Han’s tea had already gone cold by the time Hong Qing finished her story.

"Damn," He said.