“You were definitely a….” She didn’t finish this particular sentence.
“For the most part, your life was a joke,” she continued calmly, “something no one would keep a record of. However, in the final war, you went all out, even expending your longevity. You didn’t fear death in battle, and ended up making illustrious achievements in the fighting. All of your beloved died, and you buried them in the First Peak.
“Your sons all died too, and you personally buried them in the Second Peak. As for the Fourth Peak, that is location of your father’s tomb. You ended up deciding to bury yourself there too.
“The day the Sect was destroyed, you and a few others chose to perish along with the Sect. You slaughtered many Ji Clan Immortals, and as death loomed over you, Lord Ji himself personally arrived. Because he prized your valiant heart, he offered you a way to keep on living. All you had to do was bow your head, something you had done many times in the past.
“But you didn’t bow your head. Instead, you lifted it up and laughed to the Heavens, then charged into battle once again. When the moment of your death arrived, you fell from above and landed into your coffin. In the last moment before you died, you uttered one final sentence.”
As he listened to all this, Meng Hao’s expression grew more and more complex. In the end, it almost looked as if he felt all of the things she was describing had happened to him. He said nothing.
Zhixiang continued. “You said… ‘Father, are you proud of me?’”
When he heard this, Meng Hao’s mind felt as if it were exploding. He closed his eyes for a long, long time before opening them. For some reason, tears were streaming down his face.
They were tears that did not belong to him, but rather, came from another life.
“You can stop now,” he said. His mood was dark as he suddenly spun and walked off into the distance, filled with sentiment.
Suddenly, Zhixiang regretted upsetting him. She was about to say something when she heard his voice drifting back.
“We’ll meet back here in three days to go to the Demon Immortal Cistern.”
Meng Hao returned to the Fourth Peak. He stood outside his Immortal’s cave and looked up at the darkening sky. Evening was falling, and the sun was setting. Within his mind, Meng Hao saw the images of everything that had happened with Ke Yunhai after he came here.
“He is my father in this life….” murmured Meng Hao. He thought again about how Ke Jiusi must have felt. It was a complexity that no outsider could possibly understand. In this world, in this Heaven and Earth, from ancient times until modern, only Ke Jiusi could possibly have understood. Except now… there was one more person who could.
Only the two of them could have such a sympathetic resonance. Only they had experienced such similar things, and such similar complex emotions.
“A son wants to care for his parents, but they aren’t there any more….” Meng Hao closed his eyes. If he didn’t understand the Soul Divergence Incantation, he would believe Ke Jiusi to be dead. However, now that he did understand it, and heard Zhixiang’s story, Meng Hao suddenly had a strange feeling.
He could imagine how Ke Jiusi’s flesh and bones had faded as the years passed. The Demon Immortal Sect became nothing more than corpse-filled ruins. Finally one day, Ke Jiusi’s body slowly formed back together from nothing inside that coffin. He opened his eyes.
He finally saw the sky again, and his Sect. He looked around at all the things that had once been so familiar, only to realize that everything was now different. He was the only person left. He missed his father, and regretted his silkpants lifestyle. That regret then transformed into tears.
He had most assuredly wept for a long time atop the Fourth Peak.
He had most assuredly looked out at everything and felt as if he were living a life filled with pain.
He had most assuredly drunk alcohol in front of his father’s tomb, blabbering like an idiot and knocking his head against the ground as he kowtowed.