IS Chapter 146

Chapter 146

In the mountains, time has no meaning; ten days pass in the blink of an eye. All one can do is meditate, cultivate, and discuss swordsmanship.

Sometimes Li Yuan would hold Ye Zhuo and say a few words to him.

His words were measured; this dragon was indeed a gentleman. There were no clingy, reluctant farewells, nor did he paint a tempting picture of the dragon realm. Just endless, rambling trivialities.

For example, the little deer was trying to absorb spiritual energy into its body, but after a month of trying, it still hadn’t succeeded. It wasn’t as good as the three lotus seeds he was raising, which had actually sprouted new leaves.

Speaking of which, he naturally mentioned the suddenly blooming Yulan Magnolia Tree. Feng Jiang and Clan Master Xiao had both recently said that their medicinal herbs were growing well. The Green Mountains were truly a good place; with a dragon, it was spiritually rich, and with an immortal, it was famous.

Little Shen had returned from outside and had actually grown a little taller. He now looked like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old youth, no longer a little imp. Xiao Su had recovered from his injuries and left, bidding farewell to Ye Zhuo before he left, saying that he was going to travel the world to prove his inner Dao.

It was also heard that Pei Xi of the Great Mountain Sect, who had been silent for a year, was now beginning to create his own sword techniques.

Disciples of the Red Dust Sword Sect came to the Green Mountains to travel, saying they wanted to experience the Micro-Snow Palace’s sword Dao heritage. But the Micro-Snow Palace had no sword Dao heritage at all. Apart from the two of them, only a nameless young master of the Micro-Snow Palace cultivated the sword Dao, and even that was taught by Wei Sheng Xian, full of loopholes.

Wei Sheng Xian had also come once, saying that he was too busy with affairs, which had delayed his cultivation. Fortunately, the Green Mountains had a constant stream of visitors, and he had gradually found some suckers to share the burden. Soon he could also consider entering a period of closed-door cultivation.

Li Yuan suddenly said again, “I think you’re really a little hot.”

“?”

Li Yuan reached out to touch his forehead, then grabbed his wrist and tried the temperature inside his sleeve. In short, he examined all the skin he could touch, frowning and thinking for a long time, before saying, “You’re just hot.”

Ye Zhuo said, “How hot?”

Li Yuan was as if facing a great enemy. He turned into his dragon form again and pressed his scales against him, carefully feeling him. Finally, he came to the conclusion: “Two or three percent.” Ye Zhuo was speechless and thought that if he was hot, he didn’t need to stick to him all day long.

“Stop being delusional,” he said. “Get up and let’s discuss swordsmanship.”

In the following days, they left the Micro-Snow Palace and wandered around the Green Mountains.

The scenery of the Green Mountains was beautiful. In this season, there were icefalls, hidden streams, snowy valleys, and dangerous cliffs everywhere. In the north, there was a blue lake with snow-white trees growing in it. The ice was also blue, and at night it had a crystal clear light. Li Yuan lit a fire by the lake, and Ye Zhuo leaned against him and somehow slept through the night.

They roamed for several days, not just for sightseeing. It was Li Yuan’s sudden whim to find a place in the Green Mountains that they both liked, to keep their one-year appointment.

The ice lake was beautiful, but it was too deep and not suitable for swordplay. Besides, it would be a pity to destroy it.

In the end, they settled on a vast white snowfield. The sky was high, the land was vast, the wind and smoke were all gone, a place where all dust had settled.

On the tenth day, Ye Zhuo was not with Li Yuan. He was wiping his sword by the cold pool.

His fingers slowly stroked the cold blade. He was very familiar with everything about this sword. Sometimes, Ye Zhuo would think it was a part of himself. That was not wrong, actually. He was a sword cultivator, and this was his Life-Bound Sword.

Ye Zhuo remembered when it was still that scale, the end of the scale stained with the dragon’s blood, a cold and desolate bloody scent. Later, Li Yuan said it hurt a lot. Well, of course, it would hurt. That fight lasted a month, and he himself had been seriously injured.

Later, it was forged into a sword. Unfortunately, there were too few materials in this world that could match the dragon scale, so the forging was ultimately flawed. The best way to forge a sword made from a dragon scale was to use the heart’s blood of that dragon to consecrate it. Heart’s blood would be even harder to obtain than the scales. At that time, the Swordsmith sighed softly and said, “As expected, nothing in this world is perfect.”

Was it difficult? Ye Zhuo remembered the way that dragon looked at him when he pulled out the scale, staring fixedly at him, with a hate like betrayal. He knew that dragon would definitely come looking for him again. Just like he would definitely go looking for Yun Xiangxi.

With hatred, he would definitely improve quickly. Ye Zhuo was always waiting for the day that dragon found him.

Later, the sword was really forged.

Ye Zhuo’s fingers stroked the name of the sword. It was called “No Self,” but as the master of the sword, he didn’t seem to have achieved those two words. If he had really reached the realm of No Self, he wouldn’t be here wiping his Life-Bound Sword, and then thinking about everything that had happened in the past ten years, twenty years. Every single thing was related to the sword.

Actually, the first time he held a sword, it wasn’t Yun Xiangxi who taught him. It was on a certain spring day when the mountains were green, and Ling Ye pulled out the Sword of Hidden Aspirations. She showed him the bright colors on the sword’s body, and under the sunlight, they changed in turn.

Why did it have to be a sword?

In Illusion Cloud Cliff, what hit him head-on was the desolate sword wind. When he looked inward at his meridians, it was a set of bones and muscles formed by sword intent. Someone said that fate had already chosen for him. The sword was the best weapon. There were only people in this world who couldn’t use a sword or who didn’t use a sword well, and no one who didn’t want to use a sword. Actually, it wasn’t true. If you used them well, they were all the same, they could all kill people.

And what was the difference between things that killed people, in the end? A broken flower branch could also be a sword, a thrown chess piece could also be a sword.

So the sword was a “form.” And the sword Dao was an obsession.

Just like the result you had to hear, the love you had to get, those were also obsessions.

Buddhist scriptures said that relinquishing obsessions was to understand the void. Yun Xiangxi was different. For the sake of the sword Dao, he cut off his worldly ties. For the sake of one obsession, he cut off another obsession.

Was this right? Maybe. If Yun Xiangxi thought it was right, then it was right. People who thought it was right would practice such a sword, to great success.

Ye Zhuo turned the Reverse Scale Sword to one side. Under the sunlight, the veins of the dragon scale refracted a changing shimmer. It was like more than twenty years ago, when the Sword of Hidden Aspirations was slowly turning in front of his eyes, and those colors were also changing, from light cyan to a glass-like red. He saw this scene again.

It was like twenty years had passed, and he seemed to have reached the same situation as Yun Xiangxi. Between one obsession and another, he chose to slash his sword towards one of them.

A person walking in the world was bound to have a tribulation.

He suddenly sheathed his sword. On the other shore, a raging fire soared into the sky, engulfing the sky and the ground, turning all the Buddhas of the ten directions and three worlds in the sky red. The faces of the Buddhas in the sky twisted and changed in the fire, altering inch by inch. Their gilded clay sculptures peeled off inch by inch in the fire, finally revealing their true faces. Each one had a fierce brow and cold eyes, a murderous and awe-inspiring angry expression.

It was like at the moment he sheathed his sword, Ye Zhuo saw his own eyes in that shimmer.

He saw the boundless fire again.

He had seen such a fire once before, twenty years ago, when he chose to isolate the fire on the other shore.

But twenty years later, seeing the raging flames soaring into the sky again, he wanted that fire to burn over, or he wanted to walk over and let that fire burn him. He wanted to face that ball of fire directly.

Li Yuan was probably right, his body temperature should be a little higher. He now wanted to burn the entire human realm with a fire.

In the past few days, Li Yuan had asked him, “Ye Zhuo, who are you angry with?”

“It’s none of your business,” he replied.

Actually, it wasn’t none of his business. Without Dragon Li Yuan, perhaps none of this would have happened, and he wouldn’t need to choose. Maybe he didn’t even know that when you were angry, you could bite people.

The Life-Bound Sword let out a long sword cry in its sheath. The cry was gentle, as if it wanted to soothe his mind. A disloyal thing. If it was wholeheartedly loyal to him, it should be emitting the same murderous ringing sound as in his heart at this moment.

“Do Not Long For” was also made of dragon bone, but the ink dragon it once belonged to was no longer there, so what “Do Not Long For” could embody was all of Li Yuan’s own intentions. It wouldn’t be like this sword.

In the past, when they occasionally discussed the Dao, he had also asked Li Yuan, “What is a sword?” Li Yuan had naturally never thought about this question. He said that a sword was just a sword.

There was no obsession on Li Yuan’s sword. Even hatred could be transformed into pure competition. This was a grandmaster’s sword. Li Yuan could cultivate to be so inclusive of all things no matter what weapon he used, but no matter what weapon he used, he only used it to kill people.

So the sword was the heart.

Ye Zhuo gripped the sword sheath, got up, and went to the snowfield.

Li Yuan was already in the snowfield. He liked waiting for Ye Zhuo, and he didn’t like Ye Zhuo waiting for him.

The wind blowing from the distance was very cool and refreshing. It hadn’t snowed yet. In a while, the other end of the snowfield would stretch into mountains, and the mountains would be covered with snow pines and winter plum blossoms.

Li Yuan saw the figure in red robes coming with a sword from afar.

It had been a long time since he had seen Ye Zhuo from a distance. This person, up close, was a meticulous and detailed painting, but from afar, he was a splash of vermilion in a snowy landscape. Especially, he was carrying the best sword in the world, coming towards him.

Ye Zhuo was a sword without a sheath.

The frost and snow sword edge was too sharp. Anyone who saw him for the first time would think, if they got close, would they be cut by this sword? If they wanted to touch him, would the sword edge sink into their flesh, cutting off their bones? Would their three souls and seven spirits be cut in two by a single sword in the end?

Li Yuan hadn’t thought about it like this for a long time. Receiving a blade empty-handed, whatever situation he fell into was what he deserved.

He watched this person cultivate himself into a sword, becoming sharper and sharper, more and more resolute.

Now Li Yuan wondered if such sharpness would hurt this person himself. Would such bright flames also burn him himself?

The wind blew, carrying a trace of clear lotus scent. Li Yuan stopped thinking. Now he was about to face Ye Zhuo’s sword. Ye Zhuo had said that he would strike with a deadly hand, as if he hadn’t struck with a deadly hand before.

To compare swords to the point of disregarding life and death was what sworn enemies should do.

Actually, there were very few people in the world who could meet a real opponent, and even if they met one, very few had the chance to fight without reservation.

His arch-enemy had the sharpest sword, the most beautiful face, and the most awe-inspiring murderous intent. He had chosen this dazzling red robe for this person, and he had buckled on that waist belt. Everything was beautiful.

White snow, red robes, and an unparalleled treasured sword.

Wasn’t it true that even grudges and love were hard to let go of, even if right and wrong were unclear?

“You’re early,” Li Yuan said. “It hasn’t snowed yet.”

Ye Zhuo: “There’s no need.”

“Didn’t you say that drawing your sword required a windy, snowy day?”

Such superfluous leisure and elegance showed that Ye Zhuo felt that he didn’t put his heart into improving his sword techniques.

“With you, it’s just a matter of life and death,” Ye Zhuo said. “We haven’t reached the point of being irreconcilable.”

“Then the day you kill Yun Xiangxi, will you wait for a windy, snowy day?”

“No,” Ye Zhuo said. “Killing him doesn’t require choosing a time.”

“Ye Zhuo,” Li Yuan suddenly said, “It’s snowing.”

Ye Zhuo looked up and saw faint, white snowflakes scattered in the dim sky. The wind scattered them all as they fell. They landed on him, a fleeting coolness. The snow also fell on his sword sheath. Sandalwood, the origin of Buddhist nature, was used to make a sheath, but it held a sword for killing people.

Li Yuan: “Ye Zhuo, do you want to win or lose?”

“?”

Li Yuan was out of his mind to ask such a question.

Ye Zhuo’s sword was suddenly unsheathed.