Chapter 158 - 98: Young Mighty Ruler
Chapter 158: Chapter 98: Young Mighty Ruler
The last time this sword was sharpened, Great Liang still stood. The one time it was drawn from its sheath, it buried Great Liang.
Now.
I wonder if the sword is still sharp.
Perhaps.
In the eyes of the world, with more and more ancient Powerhouses emerging—Immortals and those of the Innate Realm alike—the Wind Snow Sword Immortal’s blade had surely grown too dull to cut anything by now.
"Lord Su."
"No."
"Then again, I still prefer calling you Captain Xu..."
From the lead war chariot, Sikong emerged. He was decrepit with age, and a complex emotion flickered in his cold, pale eyes.
"He is the strongest powerhouse below the Innate Realm. Get any closer, and you will die."
The Yaksha Ghost tried to stop him.
It was not out of any deep bond between them, but only because the other had promised him the cultivated flesh and blood of one hundred thousand Liang People, a promise yet to be fulfilled.
Sikong paid him no heed.
He knew.
The Wind Snow Sword Immortal was not that kind of person.
He would die.
But not like this.
"One hundred thousand elderly Zhou People leaped to their deaths from a cliff, erasing the chasm between worlds and sending one hundred thousand Demon Fiends down the mountain."
"The blood of one hundred thousand able-bodied youths was sacrificed to the Great Yu Imperial Mausoleum, allowing the host of Immortals to recover their Vitality and break free."
"Was it worth it?"
Su Chen asked.
He was still sharpening his sword. The Dust-Washing Sword in his hands was now nothing but fragments, yet a sheer force of will held them together.
It was a shattered blade.
A ruined sword!
Even so.
As Su Chen continued to sharpen it, a terrifying Sharpness still erupted from the shattered blade, enough to shake heaven and earth.
It had lain dormant for a very long time.
Now.
It yearned to prove to the world that it was still a sword—an unparalleled sword, capable of slaughtering fiends and slaying Immortals!
"It was worth it."
On Cyan Mountain Peak.
Sikong’s voice was heavy, without a trace of hesitation. His eyes were resolute, his Crimson Robe fluttering in the wind.
For a fleeting moment.
It was as if the Flame Emperor had returned.
"The Zhou People have suffered too much."
"No matter how much time passes, when I look back, I still believe the Flame Emperor did the right thing."
"My only regret..."
"...is not having slaughtered every last one of the Liang People."
"My only regret..."
"...is that in this life, my era is shared with you, the Wind Snow Sword Immortal."
Sikong stared at the figure in the Muddy World Profound Robe.
And yet, despite his hatred...
...his eyes held an undeniable sense of awe.
A man who was once a lowly Eunuch.
Utterly unremarkable.
In his youth, he befriended the Chief Eunuchs of Great Liang from two different generations.
After a little over thirty years of cultivation...
...at just over forty years of age, he ascended to the world’s Peak and became a Human Giant.
Even Long Xuanjun—the first Mortal Grandmaster destined to soar into the heavens and ascend to the Innate Realm after drinking the first mouthful of Mountain River Dragon Qi—
...had his spine broken and his spirit shattered before him.
"Then there’s nothing more to say."
"The Yaksha Ghost will die here."
"I allowed the dynasties to contend for unification, waiting for a heroic and wise sovereign to emerge—not a madman like you..."
"I will never acknowledge you. This Imperial City, and the world itself, should not be entrusted to the hands of a Eunuch."
Su Chen looked up, his bright eyes punctuating his declaration.
The sword in his hand was still on the sharpening stone.
He was not sharpening stone.
He was sharpening the world itself!
While the world’s Human Giants and true peak experts awaited the Immortal Arrival, he was the number one man alive.
His words were arrogant, but they were also the truth.
"HAHAHA!"
Sikong laughed.
His laughter grew louder and louder.
After a long moment.
He walked onto Cyan Mountain Peak and placed a brocade box before Su Chen. His eyes were cold and pale, and he stood like a fiend.
The box opened.
Inside lay a single, brilliantly glowing Cyan Fruit.
"I came here."
"Not to seek your approval."
"I came only to repay an old debt."
Gazing at the Cyan Fruit, Sikong’s silver-white hair whipped in the wind. His eyes grew vacant, as if he were back in that year, in the Jinjiang Military Camp.
The Flame Emperor was roaring.
Accusing him of betrayal.
But then, who would ever have connected the reclusive, mortal Captain from the Library Pavilion with the world-shaking, peerless Wind Snow Sword Immortal?
"Our history began with a small Cyan Fruit. Tonight, let it end with one as well."
"A Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Fruit is hard to find."
"I traveled far and wide, from the Third Year of Xuanlong to the Tenth, and finally found it somewhere between the land and the sea..."
"May this Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Fruit be the offering that sees you to your grave..."
Sikong left.
Without a backward glance.
He returned to the ranks of his three hundred thousand armored soldiers.
Su Chen did not stop him.
He just quietly watched the lonely old man.
He had served three generations of Emperors.
Loyal to the core.
Even in his twilight years, he worked tirelessly for the sake of the Zhou.
Was he wrong?
He wasn’t.
Was Su Chen wrong?
He wasn’t wrong either.
They were simply following their own paths, walking the road they each believed was right.
"It’s raining."
On Cyan Mountain Peak.
Su Chen held out his hand.
He wanted to feel the chaotic rain.
Alas.
He was too strong.
Before the rain could even touch him, it turned to a flurry of snowflakes and ice crystals, falling upon Cyan Mountain and freezing the world.
"When I was young..."
"...I was a Eunuch in the depths of the palace. I didn’t understand why the Emperor was cruel and the people suffered, why the world was in chaos."
"I thought that simply changing the Emperor would solve everything."
"But."
"Emperors came and went. The Flame Emperor was unsuitable, I killed Emperor Jie, and after all that, I’m right back where I started..."
"When I was young, I believed the sword in my hand could solve any problem in the world! Now... I still believe that."
Su Chen stopped sharpening his sword.
The blade in his hand was now incomparably sharp. It had reached its zenith, its intent bursting forth, needing no further honing.
It thirsted for fresh blood.
"KEKEKE."
"Finally, it’s my turn to make a move."
"How strong can he be? A mere junior with just over thirty years of cultivation, barely past forty, and one who still walks the path of Mortal Cultivation?"
From within the war chariot, that strange cackle sounded again.
A black fog filled the sky.
It blotted out the heavens and the sun.
Sweeping across the entire world.
At that moment,
the Yaksha Ghost emerged from the war chariot. His body was covered in corpse spots, his face was green and fanged, and he looked nothing like a man.
He wore tattered burial shrouds, laughing boisterously as his presence wreaked havoc upon the world.