320 Exchanging Intentions by Brushing Away Snow

That day by the lake, when Nanke’s two maids came together, Chen Changshenglost all chances at winning and could not stand up to them at all. Just when hewas about to be shaken to death, he completely relied on those silver boxes androast lambs to find a chance to live, and then borrowed the Yellow PaperUmbrella to escape. Now, if calculated using the time in the Plains of theUnsetting Sun, the bloody and dangerous battle only occurred several dozen daysago, yet he was actually now able to able to force back the combined attack ofthe two maids that had been stored up for a long time, and even injure them.How could a cultivator improve so greatly in such a short amount of time? Whatexactly happened to him? It could be clearly seen from this one strike that Chen Changsheng’s level ofcultivation had not undergone any change, and still remained at the upper levelof Ethereal Opening. At the same time, the amount of true essence he had wasstill much lesser than cultivators at a similar level. This sword strike wasadmittedly exquisite, but the greatest difference was still that his trueessence had turned abnormally cold for some reason, and just using the swordenergy, he formed a huge snowflake. Even so… it was not the greatest change. The most important part was thechange of his sword intent. His sword intent became incomparably refined, andhad already turned into substance. It must be known that he followed his heart, so he did not practice the sword.How could his heart of the sword become so perfectly fluent and bright in ashort, several dozen days? The shock was only momentary, and in the battle, they could not think about itdeeply. With the loud sound from the high speed fluttering of the wings oflight, the two maids transformed into a streak of light, once again rushing thestone platform. On the side of the stone platform, a bright sword ray illuminated thesurrounds. The sword ray appeared so suddenly, causing the area to become whitehot, as if it was a bolt of lightning. There was a screech as the edge of the dagger pierced through the air. The streak of light stopped in a flash, and then flew backwards at greatspeeds. It transformed into countless glimmers of light several dozen zhang inthe air before dispersing. It was still the Toppling Mountain Staff from the Orthodox Academy. The swordenergy was still desolate, the sword intent was still refined, and the heart ofthe sword was still so perfectly fluent and bright, unbelievably clear. Chen Changsheng held the dagger in front of him, and he did not reveal anyexpressions of joy. He did not become complacent because the wings of lightsuddenly disappeared—instead, he became even more alert. This was because he knew very clearly that although his sword intent hadimproved greatly, and the initial strike could unexpectedly injure the twomaids, the second strike should not have been able to have such a perfecteffect. The sword ray that was like electricity only injured the left shoulderof the lady called Ning Qiu, and did not heavily injure her. Naturally, it wasimpossible to cause the opponent’s wings of light to disperse. The reason why the wings of light had dispersed into countless glimmers oflight was because someone had confirmed that the two maids were not hisopponent, and did not want them to continue wasting their time. His gaze followed the floating glimmers of light and landed at the end of thedivine path that was several thousand zhang long, on the ground in front of themausoleum. He saw a small girl in her teens. The glimmers of light floated and landed on her body, and were all absorbed.There were no changes in her expression, but she never had any expression sincethe beginning. Nanke looked to the end of the divine path several thousand zhang away, at theyoung human male and female on the stone platform. She did not say anything. According to her calculations and estimations, Xu Yourong would flee for theentire way, and after killing those monsters from before, her blood of the truephoenix should have been consumed. Right now, only the poisonous blood shouldremain in her body. Logically, even if she made it to this mausoleum, sheshould have been dead already at this moment, so why was she still alive?However, this did not matter. It was very obvious that she was incredibly weak,and had no strength to continue to battle. Although Nanke could not claim shehad won in this predestined confrontation, the god of death would act as thefairest judge. Xu Yourong was about to die, and Nanke was going to live. Thiswas enough, but the problem was the teenager called Chen Changsheng. Her master Black Robe did not tell her the entire plans of the Garden of Zhou,so she naturally did not know. Because of this Yellow Paper Umbrella and someother reasons, Black Robe could not tell her his final decision. She alwaysbelieved that Chen Changsheng, Qi Jian and Zhexiu were the same, all targetsthat had to die. However, from her current perspective, he did not seem to beas easy to kill as she had imagined. She was not unfamiliar with the name Chen Changsheng—not because he placedfirst upon the First Banner in the Grand Examination, not because hecomprehended all of the monoliths of the front mausoleum in a night, and alsonot because he was the youngest principal of the Orthodoxy Academy in all ofhistory, but rather because he was Xu Yourong’s fiancé. She had not thoughtthat this human teenager would actually be able to heal his own injuries whilefleeing through the grassland. She could not have predicted that even thoughhis cultivation level had not risen, his sword intent and fighting strength hada clear qualitative leap when compared to his performance in the battle severaldozen days ago that was once narrated in detail to her by her two maids. What happened in the grassland? Alternatively, did these changes occur onlyafter they had entered the mausoleum? When she thought this, her mood became even worse. Of course, no matter howmagical the encounter that Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong had, all she neededto do right now was to command the monster tide to attack via the Soul Wood tokill them very easily. However, she did not do so, because the monster tidestill maintained some sort of natural reverence towards this mausoleum. If shewanted to forcefully command them to attack, it would require too much effort.More importantly, she did not want this mighty and sacred mausoleum to be madeinto a mess by the extremely filthy, stinky and dumb monsters. If it waspossible, she would not allow any other organism to approach the mausoleum,much less step inside it. Since she could not change what had happened already,she could begrudgingly accept Xu Yourong and… the current Chen Changshengstanding on the high platform in front of the mausoleum. This was becausealthough she viewed them as enemies, they had enough bloodline talent, andcould not be regarded as dirtying this mausoleum. Indeed, in her eyes, this was a mighty and sacred mausoleum. This was because the mausoleum buried the human, the person that was sheworshipped the most in her entire life. It even exceeded her master, much lessher father. She had never expressed these thoughts, and even sometimes purposely expressedan opposite opinion in Xuelao City. Because even if the demons believed inrespecting the strong, even though there were many demons that admired or wereeven crazy about that human, she was a noble Demon Princess; how could sheworship a human? However, she had never tricked her inner feelings. She worshipped the human man buried in the mausoleum to no limit. In Xuelao City, in the land of the demons, her father was strong like thenight sky, but only that man had once torn a piece off the night sky. Looking into the past and future, looking at the continent and oceans, as longas it was beneath the starry sky, this man was always the strongest entity. Toher, such an expert deserved the admiration of all life. Besides, her masterand that man had countless secret connections. These connections had long beenthe greatest honor in the depths of her heart. Today, she finally arrived before the mausoleum. Compared to this matter, anything like the dignity of the Demon Princess, orher father’s cold attitude, was unimportant. With such a mood, Nanke began to approach the mausoleum along the divine path. The divine path was several thousands of zhang long. With her level ofcultivation, she could cross it in only a moment, but in order to express herrespect for the person in the mausoleum, she did not do so. Her steps were verysoft, and her manner was extremely careful. She walked very slowly and herexpression was very solemn, as if she was worshipping. Between the steps, hundreds of moss-green tail feathers slowly grew out of herbody, and then suddenly opened in the incoming wind. It was indescribablybeautiful and pretty. The sun at the edge of the grassland had already become ablurry ball of light. The colour of the sky did not stop at being dark andgloomy, and grew even more so. She who walked on the divine path was lit up bythe final rays of setting light, actually becoming brighter and brighter, as ifshe was on fire. Seeing this image, Xu Yourong’s eyes also brightened, before growing slightlygloomy. This was because no matter how much she wanted to fight Nanke who wasunder such a state, she had no more power to battle. Chen Changsheng’s eyes didnot become any brighter, because his eyes were always so bright—just like howNanke’s expression did not change, because she never wore any expression. In Tang Thirty-Six’s words, his eyes were like two mirrors, very bright anddazzling, and often causing people to feel nervous. He was the same as Xu Yourong, and could clearly feel that Nanke, who walkedalong the divine path so carefully as if she was worshipping, had alreadyraised her state to an almost perfect level, displaying an unimaginablestrength. However, unlike Xu Yourong, no feelings for battle appeared in him.He did not want to battle Nanke in this state at all. This was his greatest difference with Xu Yourong and Nanke, these peerlessgeniuses. He never battled for battle, and did not win in order to bevictorious. When he did things, it was often for one reason: to live. Hebelieved that this was the most sacred reason, or importance. As a result, hedid not need to adjust, he did not need to enter tranquil contemplation, and hedid not need to worship, much less need to be bathed in incense and fast forthree days. When he had to battle, he needed to be already prepared. It was just that today, his state was not too perfect. It was extremely possible that this was the final battle in his life. He didnot have any confidence, but that was not the problem, as he had already wontoo many battles that had no reason for him to be victorious. The problem wasthat, when he should have been focusing on welcoming this battle, he wasinstead slightly distracted, and always felt that some things were not done. At this moment, Nanke had already reached the final part of the divine path,only a hundred zhang away from him. He finally could not endure it any longer, and turned around to Xu Yourong. “What’s wrong?” Xu Yourong asked. Chen Changsheng looked at her face. He wanted to extend his hand and touch it,but he did not dare. Xu Yourong raised her heavily injured and powerless hand, and gently pattedhis shoulder, as if she wanted to dust off the snow on his clothes. Those bits of snow were already long-melted. Chen Changsheng was satisfied. He looked into her eyes, and said extremelyseriously, “If we are able to leave the Garden of Zhou alive, I will definitelycome and find you.” Xu Yourong looked into his eyes, forcefully resisted the shyness and purposelysaid calmly, “No need, I will find you.” “Sure.” Chen Changsheng had never replied so quickly. If Nanke had given up her attitude that seemed like worshipping at thatmoment, and launched her attacks, perhaps he and she would already be dead. Fortunately, Nanke did not do so. After finishing off this thing, he finally had no more matters that coulddistract him. He looked at the small girl on the divine path that walked over slowly. He wascalm and focused. Just as countless people had once said, cultivation was never a fair matter.Although he had studied the Daoist Canon since he was a child, although hisphysique was also different from a normal person’s, and although he had reachedthe upper realm of Ethereal Opening at just fifteen, the difference ofbloodline talent could not be made up for so easily. Besides, there was stillthe monster tide that had transformed the surroundings of the mausoleum into ablack ocean. This was a battle that only held death. However, he was still so calm, displaying steadiness and calmness beyond hisage. If looked upon from behind, at this moment, he would have the demeanor ofa great sword cultivator. Before, when he was able to force back a strong opponent with one strike, thatwas because his heart of the sword was already different from before. In thelong abscond that occurred in the grasslands for several dozen days, he and XuYourong had conversations on many matters. What they conversed most about wascultivation. From the raining temple to the snowing temple, from the reeds inautumn to the island of grass in summer, they always talked about this. He hadtalent in cultivation, but no experience in battle. Xu Yourong taught him manythings. Much more importantly, her attitude towards cultivation and life, thistype of tranquility, serenity and calmness affected him a lot. This was the heart of the Dao. The heart of the sword was actually a type of Dao heart. In terms of the brightness of the heart of the Dao, just who was greater thanXu Yourong in the younger generation of the entire world of cultivation? From the clashing of swords, the edge became sharper. The same could be saidfor the heart of the sword. Right now, his heart of the sword was already brightly lit, so his swordintent was naturally strong and pure. Xu Yourong did not know that he was only fifteen this year. However, lookingat him from behind, her slightly gloomy eyes once again brightened up, as ifnew rain had finally arrived to the dried-up mountain. She left his side, and returned to the main entrance of the mausoleum. Shelooked for a corner where she could avoid the storm, and sat down cross-legged,wrapping herself up in the insulating sackcloth. Just how had his attitude towards life already influenced her so much?