Infinite_Peace

Cheng Ming and Liu Wei are known to be rivals. Cheng Ming is known to be rude and abuses his disciples often, while Liu Wei is known to be cold, indifferent, and talented. As the world knows Cheng Ming as a merciless person, he secretly adores his younger brother, Cheng Ming. One day, Cheng Ning's condition worsened and began to deteriorate. Cheng Ming began to worry and made a deal with the Demon Lord. Give up his soul for the cure. Cheng Ning begged his brother to not make the deal when he found out but it was too late, his brother was gone. With the world thinking that Cheng Ning is his brother, he will need to act like his cold brother and not get caught.

Substitute Rival

Liu's gaze sharpened, his sword steadying as he regarded Meng with an intensity that made the hairs on the back of Meng's neck stand on end. "You're fighting like you've lost everything... like you're someone who's been through hell. Your anger—it feels like... like I've seen it before. It reminds me of..."

"Enough!" Meng roared, the heat of his rage flaring back to life. But Liu's words hung in the air, tangled in the chaos of the battlefield, leaving a seed of doubt in Meng's mind.

"I won't let you distract me," Meng continued, lunging forward again, swinging his sword with reckless abandon. Each strike was fueled by the pain of loss, but Liu's words persisted, pulling at the corners of Meng's consciousness like a haunting melody.

Liu sidestepped Meng's strike, and in the moment of reprieve, he took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain steady. "You're not just a demon," he said, his voice firm yet layered with concern. "There's something more to you. You're... you're not just Meng Qingshan. You're connected to this fight in ways I can't fully understand. But it's like I can hear echoes of someone I used to know."

Meng's eyes flared with anger once more, but a part of him hesitated. Liu's questioning brought forth buried memories—moments of laughter, fleeting glimpses of a past he thought he had left behind.

"What are you implying?" Meng shot back, feeling the grip of despair tugging at him. He could sense the tightrope they were walking on, the thin line between fury and understanding.

"I'm saying," Liu replied, stepping back to create distance, his own emotions flaring beneath the surface, "that there's something you're not telling me. The way you fight, the pain in your voice—it's as if I'm facing a ghost. A memory of someone I thought was gone forever."

Meng's heart raced at Liu's words, the truth of them cutting through the fog of battle. He felt a whirlwind of emotions crashing over him—anger, confusion, and an echo of something he had tried to bury deep down. The memories of Chen Ning—of laughter shared, of friendship forged—were surfacing, threatening to unravel everything he had become.

"Stop talking!" Meng shouted, voice cracking with desperation. "You know nothing about me! You don't know what I've lost!"

But Liu's gaze remained steady, a fierce determination burning in his eyes. "Then tell me! Tell me who you really are! Why do you sound so familiar?"

In that moment, as the battlefield surged around them and cries of pain rang out, Meng felt the very ground shift beneath his feet. The anger that had fueled him began to wane, replaced by a crushing weight of reality. Liu wasn't just an enemy; he was a reminder of everything Meng had tried to escape.

The memories rushed forward, a tidal wave of emotions, overwhelming him. And as he stood there, sword poised, Meng could feel the battle within him raging—a war between the past and the present, between the anger that had consumed him and the pain he could no longer ignore.

Liu's voice echoed in his mind, persistent and unwavering. "Tell me the truth, Meng! You owe me that much!"

Meng's grip on his sword tightened, torn between the instinct to fight and the desire to reveal the truth. Would it change anything? Would it matter in this chaotic moment?

But as he glanced at Liu, searching for any sign of deceit, he saw something unexpected—a flicker of understanding, a glimmer of shared pain. It was a connection that transcended the chaos around them, a bond forged in the fires of loss.

With a deep breath, Meng took a step back, lowering his sword slightly. "You want to know who I am?" he said, voice barely above a whisper. "I am... someone who has lost everything. And if you don't step aside, you will lose everything too."

Liu's expression shifted, the tension in the air palpable. "Then fight me, Meng. But know this: I won't back down until I find out the truth."

The Price of Rage