Another Choice

Winter came early. The snow in The White Forest was dyed red from blood. A man and woman caused destruction wherever their blows landed. The power of a Deity rank expert could have destroyed everything, let alone higher level cultivators, but the trees in The White Forest were over thousands of years old and extremely sturdy so none were uprooted in their battle. Nevertheless, leaves and flowers and snow swirled in the storm of spiritual energy.

Lin Jun had grown stronger—stronger than her. He finally striked Bai Rong down.

"Cough cough." She spat out a mouthful of blood and pointed her sword provokingly at him. "I  am not dead yet."

He looked at her.  She was  beautiful as always, even when covered in blood. He hated that some part of him still longed for her.

Love? He scoffed. There was no room for love. A familiar voice from his childhood resounded in his mind.

'You can't have power and love because love destroys order. Without order, there is chaos, disaster, all those troubles that could have been prevented. Love makes you irrational. Think with your mind, not your heart, and walk up the peak of success with no distractions. Which do you choose, boy, love or power?'

He still thought that people who chose love over everything were fools. Bai Rong and Chu Yuan chose wrong. Now he would fulfill their wish by sending her to him as another soul who had fallen under his blade.

Bai Rong stood up and swung her sword at him again. Over and over, he easily deflected her blows until she could no longer move. But even then, she propped her sword into the snow, and her back remained ramrod straight.

He once thought that only a brave woman who would never cower in the face of a threat was worthy of him, one of the three Devil Lords who would one day rule the Dark Dynasty. 

He chuckled in self-mockery. "I used to think only you could be my empress because you never faltered or bowed down. Now I don't like this trait of yours."

She still stood tall, a pillar of defiance against the storm and raging wind. She sent one last attack at him in the form of a golden streak, and he caught it in between his fingers.

He thought it was a needle, but the gold thing started wiggling under his thumb like a needle forcing its way into his blood. Suddenly, his chest felt like a hand was wrapped around it, choking the life out of him. He fell to the ground, clutching his heart, and saw that Bai Rong had long collapsed after sending her trump card at him. 

Her family's secret weapon—the Phantom Snake. 

That vicious snake was her spirit beast, and she rarely summoned it because the Phantom Snake fed off its owner's spiritual energy and made its owner feel half the pain it caused its victims. For her to command her snake to wreak havoc inside his body meant that she no longer cared about her own life or death. 

Tsk tsk. Truly a devil lord who was even more vicious to herself than her enemies.

The Phantom Snake in his body stopped moving, which meant its master was unconscious, cutting off their mental connection.

Lin Jun slowly walked towards her, and lifted his sword above his head. He closed his eyes and let the sword fall.

Steel pierced through flesh and bone. Even if she survived, she would never be able to cultivate again, and would live out the rest of her long life being more powerless than a mortal. But there was no way she would survive.

He turned around and walked away.

One step.

Two steps.

Ten steps.

'One last time.' Lin Jun told himself. 'Let me look at her one last time.'

He turned his head slightly. The snow was dyed crimson, and a figure in red lay unmoving amidst the bloody scene.

He recalled an old poem she used to recite to him all the time, back... before. He couldn't remember the whole thing though. Maybe he should have listened, then she would have chosen him in the end. Just because he didn't love her, didn't mean she couldn't choose him.

'Snow falls and the cold wind blows,

petals dance around a lonely heart.

A song of goodbye until next spring, 

amidst the white land, a blood flower blooms...'

Long after Lin Jun left, Bai Rong's finger moved.