Chapter 40 – Drawing a Blade for One Person
A cool stream of air flowed from the young man’s fingertips into his left hand, sealing the bleeding wound. Immediately after, his right hand felt lighter as the Taiyi Sword was snatched away.
Chou Bodeng looked up to see that the newcomer had already turned around, sword in hand.
In the fantastical light and shadow, his jawline was sharp, like a cold blade drawn from its sheath.
The wide sleeves of his black robes were pulled into a straight line by the rushing air as he charged forward, like a goshawk’s wings cutting through space like black blades as it swooped towards its prey. Shi Wuluo’s pale hand gripped the hilt of the Taiyi Sword tightly, his silver-gray eyes long, sharp, and chillingly fixed on the approaching Huai Ningjun.
The moment he appeared, Huai Ningjun had unhesitatingly drawn his Azure Water Sword, swept across the long street, and launched a fierce attack.
Shi Wuluo had turned a fraction of a second later than him, but his speed was faster. The two of them closed in on the midpoint of the long street at almost the same instant.
“Forbid!”
Shi Wuluo suddenly shouted a stern command.
His voice was extremely cold, and this angry shout was like a piece of ancient, profound ice from a million years ago shattering in the sky, the resulting chill freezing time and space in that instant. Huai Ningjun’s forward momentum suddenly stalled, the sword strike he was about to deliver stopping in mid-air. And Shi Wuluo had already leaped high into the air.
He was actually holding the sword with two hands!
This was an incredibly unbelievable move, a mistake that not even a novice swordsman would make.
Among all weapons, the sword has two edges and a spine in the middle. The edges are thin and easily broken, so a swordsman must be light and agile. Chou Bodeng had previously used a high leap to chop down, but he had held the sword with one hand. Although his sword’s momentum was like a bursting river, he could actually turn the raging river into a gentle breeze at any moment. A longsword battle has always involved alternating between feints and real attacks in the thirteen unorthodox techniques of chopping, drilling, collapsing, sweeping, hooking, hanging, bringing, wiping, stabbing, lifting, filing, etc. But Shi Wuluo, gathering all his strength into a single strike, a raw, hard chop, was doing exactly what was most taboo in the way of the sword.
The blood-colored Taiyi Sword was burning, twisting, and pulsing!
Chop!
A light as scarlet as a blazing flame split down vertically, the blood of heaven and earth splashing from its path… The Azure Water Sword snapped, the silver armor shattered, and Huai Ningjun was thrown back several dozen meters, his boots sinking deep into the ground, spiderweb-like cracks exploding in all directions.
That wasn’t a sword!
It was a saber!
The Taiyi Sword’s blade was broken, putting it at a natural disadvantage against the intact Azure Water Sword. Shi Wuluo had simply abandoned the lightness and agility of swordsmanship and used it as a bladeless saber.
Without giving Huai Ningjun time to switch swords, Shi Wuluo dragged his sword and spun, leaping up again.
The blood-soaked Taiyi Sword splashed open a ferocious red sun in mid-air, and an endless stream of hostile and killing intent poured out from that dead sun. And the one who could deliver such a strike, dressed in black, was as pale as a ghost.
The most ruthless, most cold-hearted vicious ghost.
But what did it matter?
Chou Bodeng sat on his knees on the street. The undried rainwater gathered into a river, flowing past him. His red robes were soaked in the cold water, like blood, like fire. His face was expressionless, but his beautiful black pupils clearly reflected the figure of the young man swinging his blade.
Even if he was a vicious ghost, he was a vicious ghost willing to draw his blade for you.
—What if I insist on jumping?
—I’ll catch you.
He suddenly remembered their conversation from that day.
Huai Ningjun’s white robe and silver armor were swallowed by the shadow of the sun. Before his avatar dissipated, he looked towards the other end of the long street and saw the red-robed youth sitting in the midst of the iridescent scales, while the young man in black walked towards him through a land of water, blood, and fire.
He let out a faint sigh.
Shi Wuluo walked towards him against the light.
He stopped in front of Chou Bodeng, the shadow he cast completely enveloping him.
The sky and the houses were reflected in a magnificent and strange dark red by the dying brilliance of the Ru fish. Shi Wuluo’s figure was haloed in black and red, as if it were a meeting of a human and a ghost on the street at dusk. The human was unarmed, while the vicious ghost was filled with the hostile aura of one who had just finished a slaughter, as if ready to devour the living at any moment.
The human and the vicious ghost looked at each other.
In their gazes, a hundred years passed in an instant.
Tap.
The sword was placed on the ground, the hilt and the stone surface making a slight, soft sound.
Shi Wuluo lowered his eyes and half-knelt in front of Chou Bodeng. He took Chou Bodeng’s hand and, with a little force, flattened the youth’s colorless fingers. A gruesome wound stretched across the pale palm. Although it was no longer bleeding, the flesh was torn, and the bone was almost visible.
He was silent, his fingertips gripping Chou Bodeng’s hand turning slightly white.
A cool stream of air once again flowed from Shi Wuluo’s fingertips, continuously, time and again, brushing over the wound. The wound had actually stopped hurting just now. The cool air seemed to be just to trick the nerves, to block out the pain… This person had rushed here in a hurry, and in a life-or-death moment, his blade was both mad and ruthless, as if it could split heaven and earth.
Yet the one who could split heaven and earth remembered, before swinging his blade, that the other person hated pain the most.
Chou Bodeng turned his head, gazing at the school of fish circling in the sky above Ru City.
***
All the darkness was dispelled, and the entire city was bathed in an unprecedented brilliance.
Hundreds of millions of Ru fish circled in the sky above the city, every fish, every scale doing its utmost to shine. They circled together, like evening clouds flowing across the sky. Finally, the evening clouds gathered around a central point and spun rapidly. Thousands upon thousands of rainbows radiated from the swirling fish formation, as if a dazzling sun had risen into the sky.
The metallic scales collided, like a million iron strings being plucked at once, like a million bronze bells being struck at once.
Like a million people singing and roaring together.
Elder Tao’s sword stopped at Zhou Ziyan’s throat, unable to pierce it for a long time.
A fierce wind swept through. Zhou Ziyan staggered and fell to his knees, looking up at the sky, tears suddenly streaming down his face.
All the people of Ru City fell to their knees, all looking up at the sky.
All had tears streaming down their faces.
They heard the song of Ru City from a hundred years ago.
It was the song of their ancestors’ heroic souls.
The people of a hundred years later finally understood what they were singing.
They sang that life need not be hoped for, that death need not be feared, that the city and its people lived for a single breath of spirit. And so, a hundred years ago, when the Taiyu Clan trampled and killed the Divine Ru, a million people rose up in indignation, a million people threw themselves into the fray, a million city-dwellers became a million soldiers. Men and women, old and young, brandished their sabers and swords, charging towards the high and mighty Heaven-Herders.
Such was its valor, such was its sorrow.
This was Ru City.
A city that would rather be a shattered jade than an intact tile.
But, who had the right to make it shatter?
Zuo Yuesheng subconsciously took two steps towards Zhou Ziyan, then stopped. Elder Tao’s sword slowly lowered, unable to be raised again.
It was the incompleteness of the Heavenly Dao, it was an injustice that could not be redressed.
It was the Hundred Clans, it was the Taiyu.
It was…
The Mountain Sea Pavilion.
***
“You didn’t lie to me,” Chou Bodeng’s voice was very soft, drowned out by the dying song of the Ru fish. “Ru City… is truly beautiful.”
He did indeed like this city.
“Do you want to see the sunrise?”
Shi Wuluo didn’t look at the weeping city-dwellers, nor at the magnificent, dream-like school of fish. He just looked up at Chou Bodeng.
Chou Bodeng turned to look at him.
“Do you want to see it?”
He repeated.