Maiden Of The Splitting Moon - Chapter 746: Right Beside Her

If he had reached it, he would’ve recovered first and she wouldn’t have been able to get what she needed. In fact, Ming Yue would’ve died if she let him reach the Evergreen Heart first.

As for the cut tree sapling, it quickly wilted away. The multicolored leaves and flowers from all of the other plants disintegrated. It turned to dust within seconds.

Cheng Wei wheezed, forcing himself to sit up. Roots came out of the ground, forming a little seat for him to rest against. Looking at her, there was a hopeless smile on his face, a look of defeat and ridicule towards himself.

“Perhaps it was impossible this entire time”, he said, “I was reaching my own limit.”

He suddenly chuckled for a bit, coughing by the end of it.

“The Eternal Heart was in such a delicate state, one wrong move could’ve ended things but I managed.”

Ming Yue just looked at him and listened. The fight was over and neither side had won. Not to mention, she wasn’t in the best state to be moving around.

“Ahahaha, do you know how old I am?” he asked her.

She shook her head.

“No, I don’t.”

“I’m nearly a thousand years old, the limit of someone at the Sky Realm”, he revealed.

He looked down at himself, staring at his weakened body.

“Having come to an end, I realized that I wanted to finish my life with was doing what I loved most, pursuing knowledge. And you gave that to me in the form of that tree branch. But somewhere along the way, I found a sliver of hope.”

Cheng Wei laughed once again.

“I’m an idiot, I’m such a hypocrite. Berating you for wanting to use the Evergreen Heart for yourself when I sought to do the same. The amount of energy would’ve been an opportunity for me, a chance to reach the Heaven Realm. I might’ve had enough to break through. I would’ve been able to increase my lifespan and avoid death, I could’ve lived. When I realized it, the fear of death came for me, twisted me, and my rationality was warped. Perhaps, that’s what they call a ‘heart demon’.”

His eyes were wistful, almost as if he had now let go of everything.

“I suppose there isn’t a point in this anymore. There’s nothing left for me now. I’ve sold everything, I have no students, no family, and my comrades… Perhaps, they’ll miss me but time will erode all of that.”

Ming Yue just looked at him. It was hard to describe what she felt when seeing him. Despite their battle, she truly did not want to kill the old man. But seeing the state he was in made her feel saddened.

“I suppose we’re both in that same boat. Death comes for us and there is no way out of it.”

She just nodded.

“Without the Evergreen Heart, I can’t fight back against the Ascetic. I spent these last few months working towards this one goal and now I can’t even complete it. These past few months have been a waste.”

Cheng Wei just laughed at her.

“A few months? What about the few years that I spent? Ahahah! Even then, going against the Ascetic, hm. You’re only at the First Sky while he’s at the Heaven Realm. Think about this fight, I’m not even a warrior but a scholar and you had to use everything just to stand even against me. Going against him, your chance of winning is practically none.”

He straightened himself up, having some decent posture to his position.

“What did you want it for anyways?” he asked.

Ming Yue promptly answered him.

“It’s for a pill recipe, the last thing I needed was a piece of a Penzai. And the only one to exist was the Evergreen Heart.”

Cheng Wei raised a brow before laughing at her.

“What do you mean? Don’t you have a piece right there?”

He then pointed at her finger, right at the Eternal Heart Ring.

“It may be a ring but it did come from the Evergreen Heart. I believe that the last ingredient you needed was right there”, he told her.

Ming Yue looked down, staring at the glowing green ring. It took her a moment to realize it but she knew now.

“It was right here.”

Her shock was soon interrupted by Cheng Wei’s laughter.

“Ahahahah! So all of this! All of this could’ve been avoided! You wouldn’t have had to go through all of this if you realized that the ring could’ve been used. Is this karma?! Is this Heaven playing with us?! How laughable it all was!”

He roared out in laughter before coughing at the end of it.

“Haah, damn it, perhaps I was being too hopeful. Maybe, I wasn’t meant to reach the Heaven realm. Maybe, the Evergreen Heart was not meant to be revealed to the world.”

Ming Yue was still in disbelief. not realizing that she could’ve used the ring. Then again, this was something she had worn for years. She didn’t have to pay much mind to it. Frankly, the realization just slipped away.

And once Cheng Wei was done laughing, he turned his focus back to her.

“But a pill, huh? I don’t know what kind of pill it is but if it will let you fight a Heaven Realm Cultivator, it must be something amazing.”

He then continued, telling her more about the Heaven Realm.

“The difference between the Sky Realm and the Heaven Realm is in the name. What is the sky compared to Heaven? Just like how the gap between the Earth Realm and the Sky Realm, The Sky Realm and the Heaven Realm has an even vaster gap. You can destroy mountains, control the clouds, and summon lightning but someone at the Heaven Realm can do so much more.”

Ming Yue thought back to several years ago, back to when she witnessed a battle between two Heaven Realm cultivators.

One was the Grand Elder of Heaven’s Gate and the other was Dai Mian, the one that became the vessel for the Idol of Chaos.

It was a spectacular fight, a frightening one, a battle that truly opened her eyes.

At the Heaven Realm, they could manipulate the worldly laws, and bend them to their will. Day would become night, life could fade or grow, and things that seem impossible could be done with just a thought. They could form their own domains, and control their own little worlds. If Sky Realm Cultivators were equal to natural disasters, Heaven Realm Cultivators were worldly disasters, gods in their own right.

She couldn’t even fathom how to tackle fighting the Ascetic.

Ming Yue knew nothing of how he fought, his wins and losses. She just wasn’t sure what to do.

And unfortunately, time had just run out for her.

A shadow suddenly loomed over the two as an emotionless voice echoed above them.

“Hm, I was wondering what the noise was. To think that it was an old man and you… hah… What a surprise. Perhaps karma has come around for me, the one I’ve been looking for is right in front of me.”

Ming Yue’s eyes snapped upward at eh shadow, seeing a man dressed in plain gray robes. They were reminiscent of a monk’s.

Everything about him seemed unremarkable. It’d be difficult to find him in a crowd of people, perhaps almost impossible to do. However, there was one thing about him that made her shudder.

It was the look in his eyes.

Something that she’d never forget. There was simply no emotion in them when he looked at her. It was as if she was nothing more than a bug to him. And he barely needed to lift a finger to crush her.

“The Ascetic?!”

Cheng Wei immediately knew that something was wrong and he acted in an instant!