Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1084: No Remorse. No Guilt. No Regrets.

Few people can easily predict how long they will live. That’s especially true when life is brutal. One slipup or one deadly fight can end everything. Even powerful gods could perish. Even Grand Emperor Swordsage had eventually reached the end of the line.

However… the length of one’s life wasn’t the most important factor in determining how amazing that life was. As was said, the world is a tavern for living beings, and the timescape is an old guest.[1]

The most important thing was to examine what one had experienced in life. Each person had their own path to walk. It was the only freedom that all living beings controlled.

Grand Emperor Swordsage had safeguarded humankind for ages and ages. Though he couldn’t change how things would end for him, his life experience was something that all humans would remember.

That was glory. That was greatness.

Today, as the flame of his life force flickered one last time, he let go of everything. It was like a rebirth in which he felt completely unrestrained and unfettered. The spark of life force within him glittered even more brightly. It was now possible to catch a glimpse of how high-spirited and full of mettle he had been years ago.

“My Summer. Xu Qing. I don’t want your futures to be like this…. But given that I’ve lived this way, I want to share with you something that I’ve learned.” As Grand Emperor Swordsage led the way through the Revered Ancient mainland with Xu Qing and the empress in tow, he softly said, “No remorse. No guilt. No regrets.

“Work as hard as you possibly can in life. If you do, then no matter how things end, you will have no remorse about your obsessions.

“Listen to your heart. If you do, then no matter how you advance on your path, you will have light in your life. And that means you’ll have no guilt.

“If you succeed in those two things, then regardless of the people you encounter or the decisions you make, you’ll have no regrets. If you can live by those six words, then your life will be meaningful. You will not have lived in vain.”

As Grand Emperor Swordsage’s words echoed out into heaven and earth, the Empress and Xu Qing heard them and were deeply affected.

The Grand Emperor really had lived by those six words. He had safeguarded humankind for years on end. He had worked hard. And he had no regrets, no matter what happened. He had listened to his heart, and the light within him had never been tarnished. It spilled onto the path forward, becoming radiance free of any guilt. That was how had chosen to live, and he was now explaining it to Xu Qing and the empress. He had no regrets.

He laughed, and the sound echoed through heaven and earth, even reaching the three holy lands that were fighting the countless members of the Firemoon Darkheaven people and their three gods.

A total of sixteen celestial-level holy lands had come to Revered Ancient. And they had split up into four groups of four, which aligned with the four cardinal directions.

As for the east of Revered Ancient, one of the four holy lands had gone to deal with humankind, while the other three… went to the Firemoon Darkheavens. At the moment, those three holy lands were trembling.

The three gods of the Firemoons were visibly moved. Without any hesitation, they led their people into retreat, opening a path that led directly to the three holy lands.

The Grand Emperors of the three holy lands were shaking inside, and their expressions were unprecedentedly grave. All of them looked out and saw the same thing…. They saw Empress Summer Departure. They saw Xu Qing. And they saw the person in front of those two. He held a long sword and wore a voluminous robe, and despite being old, he stood tall and straight. The old man pulsed with a strong aura of death, but his soul emanated radiance that the death aura couldn’t cover up. In fact, it illuminated the entire sky over Revered Ancient.

Summer Immortal!!

That was what all of the Grand Emperors in the three holy lands were thinking. It caused their hearts to pound and their faces to turn ashen.

They weren’t the only ones who were astonished. The holy lands actually shook. Countless holy lands cultivators felt like their minds would explode as Grand Emperor Swordsage hefted his sword.

When he had been young, Swordsage’s dream had been to simply travel the world and expunge it of evil. He had still been a young man when he became a Grand Emperor. And thus, he had traveled far and wide cutting down gods and exterminating wickedness. He and his sword had left a lasting mark on heaven and earth. In his later years, when he thought back on his life, he spent most of his time thinking about those days. Right now, such concepts seemed to overlap with his current self, as if his memories and the present had become fused into one.

And therefore, he hefted his sword in a way that looked comfortable, carefree, and at ease. His sword shone with sword light that illuminated the dome of heaven. It filled the void and became like the will of heaven. It brought an incomparably domineering momentum that could shatter the sky, crush the earth, and devastate all enemies!

It landed on the nearest holy land.

That particular holy land looked like a planet. A deafening rumbling sound echoed out, as if an unstoppable tempest had arrived. The three gods looked on, as well as all of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, along with Xu Qing and the empress….. The holy land that resembled a planet rumbled as a huge rift opened up in it. The rift sank down, and within the space of a few breaths of time, the entire planet was cut through.

It started falling apart! It had been cut in half! The sword light wiped out all life in that holy land! An entire holy land had perished!

Countless streams of life force were swept up by the will of the sword, and rushed toward Grand Emperor Swordsage, to be absorbed by him…. He didn’t use it to stamp out the aura of death, but rather, to bolster his battle prowess.

Without the shackles of the star ring holding him back, Grand Emperor Swordsage wasn’t just back at his peak level of battle prowess. He was actually rising explosively to an even higher level. It didn’t matter that his rise to strength would only last for a short time. After all, there is a saying… once enlightened, one can die happy.[2]

Everyone gasped. All sound seemed to cease. The three Grand Emperors, looking as pale as death, didn’t hesitate to flee. They dropped everything and ran. They might be Grand Emperors, but there was absolutely no way that they could fight back against mightiness akin to that of a Summer Immortal.

Swordsage didn’t even look at them. He just calmly said, “My Summer. Xu Qing. You are my successors, and I gave you my cultivation base and sword. But I never passed on my most powerful sword techniques. Today, I’ll pass them on to both of you.

“My dao is that of the sword. During different parts of my life, I created different sword techniques. There are a total of five.

“The first stance is called… Earth Treasury.”[3]

Grand Emperor Swordsage pushed his right hand in the direction of the remaining two holy lands. Those holy lands trembled and started shaking. The sky dimmed, and the lands quaked, emitting muffled rumbling sounds. They were rumbling sounds that could shake the mind and heart.

Then Swordsage’s voice again echoed through the lands.

“I used Earth Treasury years ago to cut down a vicious killer who was proficient in the dao of earth. The sword move focused on the releasing of earth energy to replace the will of the earth with the will of the sword. It takes earth energy and turns it into sword energy. Then it converges to make an earth sword!”

As he explained, and as Xu Qing and the empress watched, the two holy lands trembled so violently that something like streams of smoke rose up from them. Those streams of smoke were the earth energy that Swordsage had just mentioned. More and more came out. In the shortest of moments, the lands of the two holy lands cracked as if all the nutrients were being sucked out of them. It turned into smoke, which rose up, converged… and turned into an astonishing sword! The sword didn’t just cause the holy lands to shake. The lands of the Firemoon Darkheavens were rippling as if they were the surface of the sea.

And then… the huge sword of earth energy chopped down!

Nothing could stop it! Everyone watched as the two holy lands crumbled into ashes. None of the people in the holy lands could escape or do anything to stop it from happening. They were killed in body and soul. The physical structures of the holy lands were similarly wiped out of existence.

Countless streams of life force swept into Swordsage, causing his aura to rise again. He waved a finger, and Earth Treasury was once again unleashed. Countless streams of fierce sword energy sucked in the aura of the surrounding lands and shot toward the three fleeing Grand Emperors.

It didn’t matter how they fought back. It did no good. The massive disparity made their deaths a foregone conclusion. As the sword energy passed, the three Grand Emperors shattered! Everything about them became nutrients for Swordsage, to be absorbed by him, causing his battle prowess to erupt.

Winds screamed, and the clouds roiled. The Firemoons said nothing. The three gods’ heads were bowed. Seeing Grand Emperor Swordsage like this made thēm think about the past. The time period when the broken face came and Dark Serenity left was the most blood-soaked, most brutal, and most dark period of time imaginable. The common state of affairs was for gods to walk the lands either enslaving or slaughtering the populace. It didn’t matter what the species was. They either bent the knee or were wiped out.

Back then, Grand Emperor Swordsage was the only Grand Emperor among humans. And back then, humans were still the number one species. Because of that, they attracted the attention of more gods than most. During that time, Grand Emperor Swordsage fought many gods who wanted to enslave humankind. As a result, he was the focus of attention of many species.

It culminated in the battle in the central region of Revered Ancient. That was when his true form perished, and his clone was left behind. That said, all the battles he had fought dispelled any notions in the central part of Revered Ancient that humans could be enslaved. The gods there abandoned such plans. As long as the Grand Emperor was around, they would never again think to do that.

That was how humankind got through that period of darkness and gloom. It was after that time that the three gods took control of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. By then, Grand Emperor Swordsage’s true form had perished, leaving behind only a clone to safeguard humankind with the threat of his sword.

Seeing Grand Emperor Swordsage right now caused complex thoughts to fill the three gods.

They weren’t the only ones. All of the gods in Revered Ancient looked at Swordsage in action and thought back to that period of darkness. That was especially true in the central part of Revered Ancient. That was the only place where no holy lands had gone, and right now, a gaze from there was focused on the east.

***

In the outer sea, Yu Liuchen sat on a boat looking off into the distance. He seemed to be deeply moved.

Though it’s not common knowledge, based on what I know from my stories, this guy almost certainly stayed behind in Revered Ancient because he’s always loved to show off. He’s a freaking showboater! He was like that back then, and now that he’s about to die, he just can’t resist the urge to showboat more than he ever did!

Yu Liuchen felt angry and jealous. And then… he sighed softly.

1. The “world is a tavern” saying came up previously in the following chapters: 29, 205, 546.1, 558.2. ☜

2. The line “once enlightened, one can die happy” also appears inI Shall Seal the Heavens in chapter 516 during the explanation for the Dao Seeking stage of that novel. And thanks to our proofreader UnifiedDivide for pointing out the other Xu Qing (the female one) is mentioned in that chapter. Lol. ☜

3. The Chinese characters for Earth Treasury are the same characters as the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha. Those of you who read I Shall Seal the Heavens might remember that there’s a supporting character in the novel with that name. As is made obvious in the text of this chapter, the interpretation of the characters doesn’t relate to the bodhisattva as a person, or the person from ISSTH, but rather, the literal meaning of the two Chinese characters as rendered in my translation choice. ☜