Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 520 – Inseverable

Successive cries of alarm rose up from the distant great ship on the Luo River.

With eyes wide, the people stared as Chen Changsheng extended his left hand and used some inexplicable method to easily break the Sword of Great Light. Then, they stared as Xu Yourong seemed to have already guessed this method and borrowed his method of breaking her technique in order to break his sword energy. Then, they stared as Chen Changsheng clearly held control over the temple sword, yet the temple sword still pierced into his body. Finally, they saw Xu Yourong extend her finger very inconspicuously towards Chen Changsheng, but in reality, sending it with the strength of a thunderbolt.

“Rhino Horn Finger!” Daoist Siyuan said with emotion.

Was Chen Changsheng about to lose? Would he die under this finger? Mao Qiuyu’s expression abruptly changed, his two sleeves creating countless ripples as he prepared to rush over to the bridge. Tang Thirty-Six’s complexion turned extremely ugly, and the same was true for Mo Yu and Prince Chen Liu. Did deciding victory and defeat really require deciding life and death as well?

All of this had happened too quickly.

No one could have thought that in such a brief span of time, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong could move from extreme movement to extreme stillness and then back to extreme movement again. This signified the both of them had already fallen into their own respective tempos, but even more frightening was the fact that their tempos were actually very similar. This meant that it would be very challenging for anyone to break their tempos. Even those important figures whose cultivation far surpassed them could not accomplish this task.

Silence.

The light on the Bridge of Helplessness gradually scattered and faded away, like the light of the sun fading away to the darkness of the night.

The falling snow was still sparse, unable to hide their figures, nor fill the line drawn through the center of the bridge.

On one side of the line was snow, on the other side was still rain. Xu Yourong had already crossed this line and was standing in front of Chen Changsheng.

The forefinger of her right hand pressed towards the space between his eyebrows, but it had not been able to press all the way.

There was still the distance of a dagger between her finger and his forehead.

Because that dagger was between them.

At some point, Chen Changsheng had raised up the Stainless Sword and blocked Xu Yourong’s finger.

The body lacks the wings of the bright-colored Phoenix, but our hearts are spiritually linked like the rhino and its horn. But what if one were a bright-colored Phoenix as well?

Xu Yourong’s Rhino Horn Finger was like a flash of lightning, but it was not faster than his sword. This could only mean that he had already calculated that she would use the Rhino Horn Finger at the end.

The temple sword had left a vivid wound on his left arm, and the edge of the wound was even speckled with things that seemed like fragments of stars, but the hilt of the temple sword was already grasped in his hands.

Xu Yourong slowly withdrew her finger.

A drop of golden red blood slowly seeped from her finger and then dripped onto the bridge. The rain and snow instantly evaporated into steam, creating a faint mist.

The Stainless Sword had blocked the Rhino Horn Finger, but it had not been able to completely dissipate all the might of that slender finger. A drop of blood also flowed from the space between Chen Changsheng’s eyebrows, as if he had obtained a red birthmark.

A hush fell over the stone bridge.

The people on the distant ship in the Luo River realized that the situation was not as terrible as they had imagined and momentarily calmed down.

Separated by the faint mist, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong looked at each other, not speaking for a very long time.

They had both been injured, and it seemed that Chen Changsheng’s injuries were somewhat more severe. However, both swords were in his hands. So just who had won?

It was very obvious that Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong were no longer concerned about the final verdict. As they looked at each other, their minds gave birth to countless questions.

“Why is it that when I wrested control of the temple sword from you in the air and even had it slant to the right by seven inches, it still stabbed into my left arm in the end? Could it be that from the moment you began your Sword of Great Light, you never had any intention of injuring me, only of stabbing it into my left arm?”

“Why is it that your Stainless Sword, regarded as intelligent and elusive beyond compare, when given the huge opportunity to fall together with my Rhino Horn Finger and take us both down together, instead seemed to grow a little sluggish and through some inexplicable means, appeared in front of your eyebrows and blocked my finger?”

Seven days, seventeen star charts, three hundred sheets of paper, countless calculations and deductions—the sum of the two’s experience and knowledge in their cultivating lives were placed in this battle. They had already calculated every part of this battle to the finest detail, yet at the final moment, what was waiting for them was still a surprise.

Because they could calculate the path of the sword, calculate the time of day and location, but they could not calculate through the heart of another, could not calculate what the other was thinking.

Chen Changsheng could calculate for seven days and nights, yet he could not calculate…that Xu Yourong had actually calculated in advance that he would use sword intent to shake the temple sword, breaking the Sword of Great Light. He had not calculated that she would use the energy from this action to arrive in front of him. And most importantly, he had not calculated that Xu Yourong, from beginning to end, had been going easy on him, had not even a hint of killing intent towards him, and that even her thoughts of injuring him were rather weak. As a result, he had calculated the distance he should shake the temple sword incorrectly—the temple sword injuring him in the arm was truthfully a self-inflicted injury.

In this battle on the Bridge of Helplessness, Chen Changsheng had only wanted a draw, but he did not know that she only wanted to not lose. Similarly, Xu Yourong had also not imagined that he would be thinking this way, because she knew who he was, but he did not know who she was. As a result, there was simply no reason for him to shield her.

She believed that he wanted to win, so in the final moment, he would inevitably take control of the temple sword and break her Sword of Great Light—in front of the Mausoleum of Zhou, she had seen a similar scene and knew he had the ability—so she had already made her preparations. The moment he would attempt to steal away the temple sword, she would use the opportunity to take control over the entire situation and ultimately announce in front of the countless people on the two banks of the Luo River that this battle was a draw. Yet she had not imagined that Chen Changsheng had no intention of using the temple sword to counterattack, only defend. The final path of the Stainless Sword was also for this purpose.

In brief, they had all thought up to the same point, but they had expected one point.

After countless calculations and plans met, they transformed into the unexpected.

What Xu Yourong had not expected was greater because she was sure that he did not know that she was that Lady Chujian, so she made more mistakes.

A mistake was a mistake. She had still not completely understood this youth called Chen Changsheng.

Compared to the person she got to know in the Garden of Zhou, compared to the person in her imagination, he seemed to be even better.

This was very good.

She lost very willingly.

“I lost.”

If this battle were life-or-death, this battle could naturally continue. Her injuries were lighter than Chen Changsheng and she still had many techniques she had yet to display. But this was not a life-or-death battle, this was an exchange of swords. Now, both swords were in Chen Changsheng’s hands, so she believed herself to have lost.

There was no sense of giving in. She very calmly accepted this fact.

Chen Changsheng found it impossible to be calm because there were too many things he didn’t understand.

Upon hearing Xu Yourong’s voice, it became even more impossible for him to calm down.

This voice was very pleasing to the ear, like the waters of a clear mountain stream, the dewdrops atop an autumn maple.

This voice was rather familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

He turned to Xu Yourong, his gaze still kept out by the white gauze.

But he still stared at the white gauze, his gaze growing increasingly serious, increasingly tense.

Even if the snowstorm stirred to life once more, even if the remnants of sword intent whistled by, his vision was inseverable.

His body abruptly became somewhat rigid, his voice rather nervous. “You…you…can you say that again?”