Joy of Life

The Dong Mountain incident.

Following Sigu Jian’s pointing, the sword that had been hovering in midair flew out with a whoosh. It drew a half circle around his body and pierced toward the Qing Emperor’s back.

At this time, Ye Liuyun had already come to the Qing Emperor’s side. He flatly stretched out his two hands, which were as white as metal.

The sword had broken through the air and tore through the thick vitality of Dong Mountain. In the next second, it seemed about to pierce into the Emperor’s back. Out of everyone’s expectations, that pair of pure white, even somewhat young and tender, hands pressed down toward the sword.

The situation of the Great Grandmasters surrounding the Qing Emperor on Dong Mountain suddenly underwent a great change. Ye Liuyun stretched out his hand toward the sword and not the Emperor.

The first thing to touch this sword was Ye Liuyun’s sleeve, a wide sleeve woven out of hemp. In an instant, it became soft like the clouds that periodically floated across the middle of Dong Mountain when there was no rain. Gently, layer by layer, it enveloped the quickly approaching sword.

The cloth broke, and the hemp sleep shattered into butterflies that danced around the summit of Dong Mountain. The sword burned through its essence in a gentle and warm embrace. The iciness and murderous intent it carried disappeared instantly. It became a chunk of waste metal, dull and dark, petty and low.

The power of this word was too vicious and severe. After Ye Liuyun had chanted a Buddhist verse, he had no choice but to take action to protect the Emperor’s safety. When he demonstrated his true position, he was unable to find the most crucial point to carry out an attack. How would he deal with the following situations?

Ye Liuyun’s white beard was soaked by the rain. His eyes remained intently on the sword in his hand. He did not underestimate the sword because of the dimness of its blade. He also didn’t feel any unease about not being able to ambush Sigu Jian because he had been forced to act early.

He only looked intently at the sword and held onto it. It was like countless spirits were contained within this normal sword and would come out in the next instant to devour everyone on the summit.

The hands that were as steady as jade formed an abstract circle. The thumb and index finger became a loop. The lightless sword stopped abruptly high in midair.

He was a Great Grandmaster, so he knew that all of Sigu Jian’s sword intent was contained within the sword. If he didn’t take action, the sword would wholly enter the Emperor’s body.

He had traveled the oceans for many years for this one moment. However, he had been forced to act early. Sigu Jian was not truly an idiot. Just as the Eldest Princess thought after the fact, although he and Ku He did not think Ye Liuyun would be on the Qing Emperor’s side, the Great Grandmasters from Northern Qi and Dongyi had a deep understanding of the Qing people’s cunning. Until the last moment, they would not allow themselves to enter dangerous ground.

The little body wearing the straw hat actually contained the wisdom of a Great Grandmaster, which was completely different to his reputation in history. He only used this one sword outside of his body and broke through the Qing Emperor’s setup, forcing out the true killer on Dong Mountain, Ye Liuyun.

Just as Ye Liuyun stood in front of the Emperor’s body like a bright sun with his hands held together forcefully fending off the vicious sword, Sigu Jian’s body began to shake. The hemp clothing on his body shook violently like it had been attacked by lightning. Suddenly, his sword flew into the sky, stopping between Ye Liuyun’s steady hands. Following his body’s trembling, an astonishing cold sword intent fluttered and pierced through the hemp clothing he wore and shot straight to the horizon.

Inspired by this sword’s intent, the sword Ye Liuyun’s naked hands controlled also began to tremble violently and made a buzzing sound in the air while glowing with a brilliant light.

The rain was still pouring down on Dong Mountain. The raindrops seemed to be using a remarkably slow speed to finely sense the ground’s attraction. They were no longer threads or a downpour. Instead, they were crystal-clear pearls.

After the heavy curtain of pearls, the short man wearing hemp clothing used his body as a sword. With world-shattering power, he covered 30 or so meters in a flash, reaching Ye Liuyun like a bolt of lightning. Stretching out his hands, he pressed down on the common sword he had worn by his side for dozens of years. The sword that had long integrated with his heart.

Sigu Jian’s hand once again grasped his own sword. The tip of the sword spat wildly, dancing like a silver snake. Its aura was imposing.

Just as the hemp-wearing Sigu Jian broke the frozen layers of rain, a brilliant light abruptly shot out from Ye Liuyun’s pupils like flowing clouds enveloping the sun and forcefully absorbing the sun’s power. With a muffled groan, the two fists that formed an endless circle folded together inward.

With a crisp clapping sound, the empty air became as solid as metal. A moment later, it was forcefully shattered by the pair of pure white hands and closed around the body of the sword.

…

…

For the Great Grandmaster, there was no setup. Even though the Qing Emperor had set something up and hid Ye Liuyun until the very end, the fog of confusion was easily broken by Sigu Jian’s one strike. Immediately after, Sigu Jian used the opportunity to pour all of his sword power into the sword again.

The Emperor was to Ye Liuyun’s side. When this attack came, it was impossible to dodge. He could only use Cloud Hand to meet it head on. When the ultimate sword power met his flesh, Ye Liuyun’s Sanzhou movement could not be demonstrated to the extent he desired. This was the opportunity Sigu Jian was looking for.

In a Great Grandmasters’ battle, an occasional thought caused the heaven and earth to change. Only a slight deviation could change the entire situation.

Sigu Jian began to yell shrilly and maniacally. All the wild and ruthless sword intent in his body surged into the sword in his hand. The surging speed was so fast that the part of the hilt where his hand grasped it heated up. It abruptly evaporated all of the water droplets on the rope.

A terrifying sound of metal moving against rock rang out. The sword between Ye Liuyun’s tightly closed hands moved forward an inch.

Ye Liuyun’s head remained slightly lowered. The wide sleeves on his shoulders had long turned into the dancing butterflies around him. The steadiest hands in the world were locked tightly around that sword. A moment later, the skin on the hands began to crack open inch by inch like the victim of some kind of skin disease. The skin aged. The edges began to rise up. It looked like the earth during the massive drought in the fifth year of the Qing calendar cracking open. It was especially terrifying and mystical.

His eyes were full of a calm light. Looking at the sword between his hands inching closer toward his body, there was not a glimmer of expression on his face. He only spat out a single word.

“Cloud!”

Following this word, the skin on the two hands, which had already been cracked open by the ultimate sword intention, abruptly became soft and gentle again. Deeper than sea water, softer than lake water, and purer than the glance of a Jiangnan woman, it was the clouds in the sky, the threads in the clouds that wrapped around the sword like worries. It forced the extremely powerful sword to unexpectedly encounter gentleness and have no choice but to rest in the middle of its journey.

In this short second, the heaven’s aptly awarded a flash of lightning with a crack, lighting up the particularly dark summit of the mountain that had been covered by black clouds.

The lightning illuminated Sigu Jian’s face under his straw hat. His eyes were completely filled with the wildness of a savage animal.

He didn’t say a single word. He only roared shrilly. His roar echoed around Dong Mountain, shocking countless people into a dead faint. He was a Great Grandmaster who used a sword. He used the Sigu Sword, caring only about what was in front of him and not what was behind him, endlessly forward.

The power of the sword surged out with the cry and became unstoppable. Endless and boundless killing intent and an aura of ruthlessness were all contained within this one strike.

This was Sigu Jian’s most powerful attack in his life. His entire life, spirit, and faith had converged to form this strike. The power of the sword was vicious and ruthless. It appeared to be in defiance of the natural order. No one had ever performed such an attack before, and probably no one in the future would.

No one could stop it, not even Ye Liuyun.

…

…

Often it was the people outside a situation, who didn’t know who was involved with the situation or what situation determined victory, that sorrowfully realized in a moment that they had calculated themselves in.

The development of an incident detracted further and further from the calculations of the person in control of the situation as the incident went on. If one knew everything that happened in this second that was at a standstill, perhaps from the beginning the Qing Emperor would have chosen differently. He would have had the Tiger Guards enter the Mountain and face-off against Ku He and Sigu Jian with Qing Kingdom’s two Great Grandmasters and Wu Zhu on the side. Then, he would have swung the knife down after the Tiger Guards and both sides were heavily injured. If he had done so, there would be no need for the situation appearing in front of him now.

On the most important day of his life, Sigu Jian perfectly demonstrated a Great Grandmaster’s wisdom and decisiveness. Using only one attack, he forced out Ye Liuyun and perfectly used the Qing Emperor’s set up and life to force Ye Liuyun into a dead end.

If Sigu Jian had not burned through part of his spirit when he killed over a hundred Tiger Guards with one strike as he mounted the staircase to heaven up Dong Mountain, the astonishing strike would perhaps have long pierced into Ye Liuyun’s abdomen.

Of course, if he hadn’t used the blood of hundreds of Qing Kingdom aces to worship this sword, to contain within it a boundless bloodlust and killing intent, perhaps Sigu Jian would not be able to execute such a heartless, emotionless, and ruthless strike.

Ye Liuyun had three ways of dealing with this attack. Like the last trick in that world’s 36 tricks, when things developed to an extreme, the best way was often the simplest way.

Given the Qing Kingdom’s Great Grandmaster’s ultimate techniques and Flowing Cloud Sanzhou, when he faced Sigu Jian’s astonishing attack, he could have chosen to retreat and escape at the beginning. He could use Sanzhou Sea of Clouds to temporarily seal the blade of the sword. Only an instant was needed for him to leave the enveloped boundary of the sword.

However, the Emperor was at his side. If he dodged, then the Emperor would probably be turned into shards of flesh by the sword. Thus, Ye Liuyun did not dodge. Now, he was unable to dodge.

…

…

Wu Zhu, who had stood silently by the door to the ancient temple, had his head down. He had placed, at some moment, his hand back on the metal drill by his waist. The Emperor’s life was hanging on by a thread, yet he still didn’t do anything.

In the last moment of this second, a slight smile suddenly flashed across Ye Liuyun’s inelegant face. The timing of this smile’s appearance was particularly strange.

A portion of the flowing cloud-like hands was suddenly picked up by the wind on the summit and sent straight toward Sigu Jian’s face.

The flowing clouds did not stop there. The straw hat flew far away. A powerful wind blew over his face, heading straight for Sigu Jian’s five sense organs.

Since he couldn’t block the attack, then why should he block it? Ye Liuyun chose to let go of one hand, scatter a cloud, and use it to envelop Sigu Jian’s face. This was the trick, which even low-level martial artists were particularly skilled at, of rescuing an ally by attacking the aggressors. However, being used by a Great Grandmaster, it appeared unconstrained and smooth.

It was a cloud on the horizon that followed the sword intent, which shot into the sky ruthlessly and gently and quickly floated to Sigu Jian’s face.

If Sigu Jian ignored this Sanzhou, the sword would pierce into Ye Liuyun’s abdomen. Given the killing intent contained in the sword, it would churn Ye Liuyun’s internal organ into pieces in an instant. Even if he managed to survive, he would not have any battle power.

If he avoided this Sanzhou, his intention would sway. A gap would appear in the energy pouring into the sword. How could an imperfect and ruthless sword technique pin a Great Grandmaster under it?

Ye Liuyun’s choice in this instant was wise. It could even be said to be wonderful. He knew that this Flowing Cloud was unable to heavily injure Sigu Jian, but he was forcing him to make a decision in a short amount of time.

He was using his life to gamble on Sigu Jian’s heavy injury because he could clearly sense that Sigu Jian had already entered into a fatal realm. However, there was still Wu Zhu, Eunuch Yao, and others on the mountaintop.

Ye Liuyun could die, but Sigu Jian could not be heavily injured. After being heavily injured, he wouldn’t be able to ensure that he could kill the Emperor of Qing Kingdom. This kind of result was not one that Sigu Jian could accept.

Thus, with his Flowing Cloud moving forward, he waited for Sigu Jian to change his attack.

Sigu Jian did not change his attack. His eyes still shone with a savage light. His black hair danced wildly in the wind, looking like a demon-wielding a sword with a shocking aura. The sword continued to press forward inexorably toward Ye Liuyun.

His left hand closed over empty air and pointed in front of him to the left, completely ignoring the ball of Flowing Cloud coming toward him.

There were all kinds of sword techniques in the world, but there was only one technique to holding a sword. Sigu Jian’s left hand was in a perfect sword holding posture. His thumb and four fingers formed a hollow circle with nothing in it. However, there was suddenly a weak sword intent emitting from the nothing.

Although it was weak, it could easily kill the bright yellow shadow the empty sword in his left hand pointed toward.

Sigu Jian had no choice but to react to Ye Liuyun’s attack. Sigu Jian’s illusory grasp of the sword hilt broke through the air with sword intent, forcing Ye Liuyun to react to the counterattack.