Chapter 143 - 92: I Am Waiting for a Heavy Rain (Part 3)
Chapter 143: Chapter 92: I Am Waiting for a Heavy Rain (Part 3)
A voice filled with admiration was heard.
"Who?!"
Someone had stepped into his domain of wind and snow without him sensing them.
Su Chen glanced to the side.
He saw a man whose face was impossible to see clearly, even standing right before him. The man had a smile on his lips and was standing on a single reed.
There was no wind tonight.
Nor was there any power propelling it.
And yet, this person stood on the reed, approaching him like a solitary boat.
This was another expert of the Innate Realm.
But even within the Innate Realm, there were heaven-and-earth differences.
This person was arguably the strongest Innate expert Su Chen had ever seen.
He was far beyond what the one-horned old man could ever hope to compare with.
The difference between them was perhaps as vast as the gap between Fifth Grade and the Innate Realm.
"I bear no ill will."
"The true masters are all lying low. They will not interfere in the Human World’s affairs, not even once, before the Immortal Arrival. You can rest assured."
The man stood on the reed with his hands behind his back, smiling.
The crashing waves fell silent.
Heaven and earth grew still.
The wind and snow also came to a halt.
All because he had arrived.
"I came only because I was worried you might grow arrogant. I am here to enlighten you: do not underestimate the Innate Realm."
"The Innate Realm is but a single realm."
"But there are ants, like that Red Flood Dragon Half-Demon Monster, who become smug and complacent. After tasting a single mouthful of Innate Qi, they grow conceited and call themselves Innate."
"There are the powerful, who seize fate from the heavens, giving birth to more and more Innate Qi, breaking the limits of their lifespan. They can even slaughter Immortals with a flick of their wrist."
"And then there are the Peak Climbers, their swords sharpened and ready, who wish to sever the Tenth Layer of the Immortal Path during the Immortal Arrival Era. They do this to prove the might of the Innate Realm, to rise above the so-called Heaven-Reaching Immortal Path, and to fight for the honor of the Path of Mortal Cultivation!"
"I like that sword strike of yours."
"The spirit!"
"Simply wonderful! Hahaha!"
He laughed, a hearty and joyous sound. He seemed delighted that even in this later age, there was still someone who could wield a sword with such spirit in their heart.
A single breath of spirit, daring to contend with the heavens!
It was audacious!
But it could be done.
As his words faded, the man vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.
The waves began to crash again.
The sound of the surf filled the air.
The chirping of insects, the calls of birds, and the whistling of the wind returned to the world.
Wind and snow drifted down once more.
It was as if that moment—the reed, the man, the laughter—had all been nothing but an Illusory Dream.
’This man... he’s so strong!’
’Perhaps he is one of those Peak Climbers of the Innate Realm he spoke of, the kind with swords sharpened and ready, waiting for the Immortal Arrival to sever the Tenth Layer of the Immortal Path.’
’Why?’
’To fight for honor.’
’Are there Innate and Merging Realm experts in the Imperial City?’
’Yes!’
’Including the Ancient Immortals, there are quite a few.’
But in this battle, no outsiders had interfered.
Su Chen gazed into the distance.
Outside the Imperial City.
There was a Cyan Mountain where Innate experts, Ancient Immortals, and many Sub-Innate masters had gathered. Their expressions were not pleasant.
Someone had drawn a circle with a sword, trapping them within.
A line drawn on the ground had become their prison.
It forced these Human Giants to not dare take a single step outside the circle, all so they could witness the legendary style of this sword strike of spirit.
It was also a way to grant this young junior a moment of profound clarity.
Staring at the figure at the bottom of the river, a figure that had been bound there for who knew how long, Su Chen fell silent.
He hesitated, not daring to step forward.
This emotion felt so foreign, yet so familiar.
After a long while, Su Chen stepped down to the riverbed in silence.
The undercurrents surged and the waves churned, but they dared not touch even the hem of his robes. The river feared him. The schools of fish fled from him.
At the bottom of the river, millions of river fish exploded.
Blood filled the water.
This drew the attention of the countless cultivators on the Tower Ships.
The reason was simple: Su Chen had seen fish nibbling at the flesh of the young man at the bottom of the river.
A hush fell.
Su Chen looked at the handsome, delicate face—seventy percent similar to his own in appearance, thirty percent in spirit—and at those empty eye sockets...
A thousand words were on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t know how to begin.
Thirty years.
He had forgotten him for thirty years.
An emotion burst forth.
Then, in an instant, it was devoured by the Longevity Tree Whiskers.
’So empty!’
’Anger!’
’Pain!’
...
A torrent of complex emotions ultimately turned into a sense of utter helplessness!
"Han..."
Su Chen wanted to call out the child’s name as he did in his memories, but he opened his mouth and no words came out.
"Is that you?"
"You monster."
"I’m going to kill you myself and bring... my brother back."
He was speaking.
But... he was dead.
Having seen the person he could never let go of, he, who was already on the verge of death, let out his final breath.
’Should I feel sad?’
Su Chen wanted to feel sad, but his heart was empty.
It once held Zhang Gui, Xu Han...
Later.
There was a Little Cyan Sparrow.
And then.
The suffering masses.
But he didn’t know when it had all gradually disappeared...
’What am I...’
Su Chen felt he was becoming more and more like a monster named Longevity.
He reached out his hand, trying to close Su Han’s hollow eyes.
But they would not close.
The Tree Whiskers surged, pouring into Su Han’s body.
In that instant.
Su Chen took on Su Han’s appearance. One of Su Han’s hairs melted as Soul Fusion Remembrance activated.
Memories flooded in.
...
Heavy rain.
On a mountain path.
A young child cried under a withered tree, watching the procession head toward the Imperial City.
After that.
He was always waiting for a great downpour.
’If it rains hard, will Big Brother come back for me...?’
...
In that moment.
Su Chen fell silent.
He sat silently at the bottom of the river, merging with heaven and earth, watching as people from the Black Abyss descended from the Treasure Ships to search for Su Han.
Even though they were right there, they didn’t find him.
The people from the Black Abyss came and went.
Su Chen continued his silent vigil.
He sifted through Su Han’s memories, watching all the suffering he had endured in his life.
In his chest.
It was no longer empty.
An emotion was bursting forth.
The river water tasted salty.
’Is this what sadness is?’
’It feels like the last time I was sad was so long ago.’
Su Chen felt an ache in his heart.
A pain so sharp it was almost hard to breathe.
「Tenth Year of Xuanlong.」
A great snow began to fall.
The river outside the Imperial City froze over.
It was also in this year.
A pillar of Essence Qi smoke shot into the sky, rising thousands of feet, shaking the nine heavens and rolling back the rosy clouds for ten thousand leagues.
On this day, the mountains and rivers trembled. The fortune of the land, which had been gushing forth for seven years and gathering in the Imperial City for just as long, was suddenly siphoned away by a terrifying power, more than half of it gone.
"Who is it?!"
The Human Giants awaiting the Immortal Arrival were all enraged.
On this day, across the entire Human World, across hundreds of thousands of miles of mountains, rivers, and land—be it the domain of the Human Race, the Endless Sea, or the Demon Monster Mountain Range—an endless snow drifted down.
"What are the common people in your eyes..."
In Zhou and in Liang, at the pinnacles of power, a figure stood in each, watching from afar.
The countless people under heaven—past, present, and even future—were all watching his choice.
"Are you... abandoning us!"
A roar echoed out.
A surging Demon Shadow plunged the world into darkness, as if the sun and moon were inverted, but it could do nothing to erase the boundless, continuous snow.
Su Chen, carrying the corpse on his back, walked out from the bottom of the river.
He had reached Great First Grade Perfection.
And.
He had completed the No-Self Dao, the second trial of the First-Grade Ceremony.
BOOM!
The components of the First-Grade Ceremony—Heaven and Earth Formation, Mountain Sea enlightenment, and the No-Self Dao—all activated in unison, trying to push Su Chen into the Grandmaster realm.
The threshold to Extreme Dao Grandmaster shattered with a roar.
Su Chen could step through at any moment and become the first Extreme Dao Grandmaster in this Human World.
The moment he stepped into the Extreme Dao Grandmaster realm, all One Hundred and Eight Human Acupoints would open, all Seventy-Two Earth Locks would shatter, and all Thirty-Six Celestial Gates would be breached.
This would send Su Chen directly before the Celestial Gate itself.
The Extreme Dao Grandmaster path has only two stages.
Extreme Dao Minor Master, which corresponds to the Acquired Realm! And Extreme Dao Grandmaster, which corresponds to the Innate Realm!
Once he stepped onto the Extreme Dao.
Su Chen would be able to slay Immortals and slaughter Innate experts as if they were toys in the palm of his hand.
But he didn’t.
"Han."
"That great rain you waited for, but never came."
"I will bring it."
"I will wash away the filth of this world! I will forge an era of peace! And there will be no more famines to separate us..."
Su Chen gazed out over the mountains and rivers.
He still had one wish left: the wish of the common people.