Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 928 – The Last Lesson

The sword intents were quiet but no less intimidating. Even using one’s spiritual sense to perceive them could harm the sea of consciousness.

A stone had been shaken loose by the battle of swords and now dropped from above. However, it failed to reach the ground, as it was chopped into countless pieces by the invisible sword intents, its final form a fine sand that was blown into the valley by the wind, leaving behind no trace.

Chen Changsheng watched this sight and fell into a long period of silence.

And then he lowered his head and thought for a very long time.

He was recalling the scenes when Su Li taught him the sword in the wilderness and a few things that happened afterward.

Before Su Li left for the Sacred Light Continent with the Holy Maiden, he left several letters for the world.

One letter had severed the Longevity Sect’s last bit of daring while another had cut off Zhu Luo’s arm.

These letters were naturally most precious and terrifying objects.

Chen Changsheng had been given two letters.

From this act, one could see that Su Li truly did value him, even regarding him as the disciple that would take up his legacy.

These two letters had saved Chen Changsheng’s life twice while also greatly advancing his cultivation in the sword.

Right now, this path was full of sword intent, waiting to be stimulated, the sharpest existences in the world, able to cut apart all things.

This made him recall the scene when he opened Su Li’s letter in the Orthodox Academy’s kitchen.

At the time, he stood amidst the sword intents, not even daring to move.

Now, he still could not move.

Could he only walk this far?

Chen Changsheng suddenly remembered that before Su Li left, he had also left a letter for Qiushan Jun.

But Qiushan Jun had not wanted it.

Perhaps this was the discrepancy between him and Qiushan Jun?

When Su Li was teaching him the sword, Su Li had said that he wasn’t bad, with only a little gap between him and Qiushan.

When parting at Xunyang City, Wang Po had also told him that he was rather good, but still just a little less than Qiushan.

From Xining to the capital, he had heard similar words many times.

At the start, in the conversations of others, the disparity between him and Qiushan Jun was as vast as the one between the heavens and the earth. Gradually, this gap began to shrink, but even now, when he was Pope and Qiushan Jun was still an ordinary disciple of the Mount Li Sword Sect that had hidden away for five years, there was still no one that would say that he had surpassed Qiushan Jun.

Chen Changsheng gazed at those unseeable sword intents as if he was gazing at Su Li himself. “I still want to try.”

He wanted to try and see if he could take one more step, or even walk out of this path.

He wanted to try and prove to Su Li that the choice to teach him the sword was the right one.

He wanted to try and prove to the world that perhaps he might not be stronger than Qiushan Jun, but he was not lacking, at least in some aspects.

His mind was set, his aura calm.

His mind was clear and bright, like a sword that had been washed by water for countless years.

Innumerable swords silently emerged from his sheath, countless fish leaping from the water, seeking to become dragons.

Innumerable sword glows illuminated the gloomy passage, snatching away the luster of the world as they cleaved at those invincible sword intents.

The crisp cries of swords suddenly burst out, gradually forming into a line, the line that divided the sea from the sky. And then they suddenly fell silent.

……

……

The people on the cliff nervously watched the path.

Ivy obscured their vision and sword intents disordered the light. It was impossible for them to make out any details, but they could vaguely make out those sword glows.

Suddenly, the sword glows suddenly exploded with light, making it impossible to see anything.

Sword cries rang out in a burst of noise, making it impossible to hear anything else.

They could only see the winds stir gravel and dust that clashed and struggled within the path like a living dragon.

As they watched this sight and sensed the vibrations from the mountain, those ordinary disciples slightly paled and thought in shock, His Holiness the Pope truly is Martial Granduncle Su Li’s legacy disciple. His cultivation in the sword really is as powerful as rumored. Is he really going to walk through it?

Bai Cai asked in concern, “Does he intend to destroy this path?”

Even when Chen Changsheng began to use his swords to shatter the walls of the path, Qiushan Jun remained quiet, his expression still extremely calm.

Now, his face finally showed a hint of sternness. “If he can destroy this path, then it naturally counts as a success.”

……

……

This path was cleaved out of the rock of Mount Li’s main peak. Su Li had used an unimaginably powerful attack to slash a path through, and in the following centuries, the sword slashes on the walls continuously increased, sword intent seeping into the mountain. The walls had become so sturdy that even one of the precious treasures of the Orthodoxy would find it hard to destroy them, so Chen Changsheng naturally did not possess this ability.

But he walked out.

After some time, he finally managed to walk out of the path and onto the meadow at its exit.

His clothes were covered in tears and his hairband had snapped, causing his black hair to scatter behind him. His appearance was quite wretched.

Blood was dripping from his clothes, its scent gradually weakened by a cool breeze. Fortunately, after the coup of the Mausoleum of Books, he had grasped a few methods and so prevented anything strange from occurring.

He was born with a stainless constitution and his spiritual sense was both serene and powerful to the extreme. His meditations were incredibly effective, allowing him to accrue vast amounts of star radiance. When performing his first Meditative Introspection, he had been bathed in the true blood of the Black Frost Dragon. When condensing his Star Domain, he had simultaneously illuminated three-hundred-sixty-five Qi openings. He could be said to have the most perfect body for cultivation in the world.

But today, he had suffered so many injuries.

Besides his body covered in sword slashes, there were several thin wounds on his face and a small part of his left eyebrow had been cut off. If this wound were in a slightly different position, it would have been on his eye. One could imagine just how dangerous the situation had been just now and just how terrifying the sword intents Su Li had left behind were.

As he stood at the path’s exit and gazed at the verdant valley and cloudless blue sky, Chen Changsheng felt incredibly refreshed.

Today, in confronting the sword intents Su Li had left behind, he had used everything he had learned in his life, leaving nothing behind, keeping nothing hidden.

This was not the most dangerous battle in his life of cultivation, but it was his most delightful one.

Countless sword styles had been used to their fullest extent, cleaving open the path and the world and also broadening his mind.

He even wanted to shout at this verdant valley and cloudless sky.

But this was not in accord with his personality.

In the end, he didn’t shout, but turned around to look back at the path.

After walking through this path, he was naturally aware that the sword intents and techniques on its walls were not completely left behind from when Su Li cut open this path. Many of them had been left by Su Li later on, and there were also several that were left by other people from the Mount Li Sword Sect.

He gazed silently at this path through stone for a very long time.

He seemed to be looking into the past.

Several hundred years ago, on one of Su Li’s rare returns, he came to this place and casually slashed at this stone wall.

Those elders of the Sword Hall with profound cultivations embraced their swords while meditating within this path for the sake of advancing. When enlightened, they would slash at the walls of this path.

After several hundred years, this place contained the essence of Su Li’s sword, and also the spirit and will of the Mount Li Sword Sect.

This path was used by the disciples of the Mount Li Sword Sect to hone their sword hearts.

Su Li had left his own daughter in this lush valley, certain that Chen Changsheng and Zhexiu would attempt this path.

To put it another way, this had been his last lesson to Chen Changsheng.