519 Heaven and Earth

A sword glow emerged, but compared to the boundless light surging over fromthe fog of snow on the other side, it was fairly dim, completely unworthy ofmentioning. The trajectory the sword drew through the misty rain and theposition it descended towards were both ordinary and uninteresting. Anyonecould see that it was a very normal sword technique. Yet just as the swordstruck, the misty rain and foggy snow falling from the sky ceased. Even theboundless light brought along by the temple sword began to fall away, ceasingto be as it approached the Stainless Sword! The Sword of Great Light had not arrived, but what it carried along throughthe mists was sword intent, incorporeal and formless. Yet Chen Changsheng hadseen through the intention of the temple sword that was hidden behind the Swordof Great Light, because he used the Intellectual Sword. He had used an entireseven days to wash clean his insight, as he wanted to see what was true. To be able to guess at the sword intents hidden within the mists and to beable to see the truth that was yet to be did not make it easy to break. How didhe do it? The seemingly casual stab of the Stainless Sword, that incrediblyordinary sword technique—both were especially appropriate for the situation. Itwas just like he was painting birds and flowers in the gongbi style. His finalstroke seemed casual and uninterested, a twisted and strengthless ink line, yetif one looked at it from just a little farther away, one could see that it wasa plum branch. A casual dot of ink could also be the dot of an eye. An ordinary brushstrokecould at times bring an entire painting to life. The problem was, in order to apply the dot of ink and draw the brushstroke atthe appropriate moment, in the appropriate situation, countless hours ofpractice and comprehension were required. Only this way could one know wherethe stroke should fall and what sort of brush style should be used. What sort of brush style was this? What sort of sword technique was this? From one of the floors below the main deck of the great ship, a rather unsurevoice said, "The Plum Hut Short Sword?" The speaker was a lecturer of the Temple Seminary. With his status, it wasnaturally impossible for him to stand at the bow of the ship, but separated bya bit more than a li of distance, he still managed with great difficulty toclearly make out the attack Chen Changsheng had made through the misty rain. Hefound the technique Chen Changsheng used to be very familiar. He was deeplyshocked and inadvertently spoke. Many people heard his comment and, upon recalling the scene, realized thatChen Changsheng really had used the Temple Seminary's extremely obscure PlumHut Short Sword. For a moment, no one could muster words to speak. The factthat Chen Changsheng's path of the sword had dabbled in almost everything hadlong made them numb from shock, but they had simply not imagined that he wouldactually dare to use such an ordinary style to break Xu Yourong's Sword ofGreat Light. And it actually seemed like he had succeeded? Had he really succeeded? No, it had just begun. How could one of the world's Five Grand Masterstrokes be so easy to break?Just as Chen Changsheng's attack was breaking through the mist, just as he wasdisplaying his abilities for the first time, the light in the snow that hadretreated a little suddenly flourished once more. Transforming into countlesssword slashes, carrying along the snow and rain, it chopped at Chen Changshengonce more. The light was still in the snow, Xu Yourong was still on the other end of thebridge, and those countless sword techniques were still flying over in adisorderly manner. Those sword techniques were still concealed and unreleased.Only by seeing the tracks they left through the fog of snow could one sense howincredibly exquisite they were, what boundless might they contained. This was the most inconceivable aspect of the Sword of Great Light. The lighttraveled between heaven and earth and was able to imitate all things, allswords. Even if Chen Changsheng's cultivation on the path of the sword hadreached even greater heights, what could he possibly do against thismasterstroke of the path of the sword which formed an ever-changing tapestryresembling blossoms of snow? Xu Yourong's attack did not pause in the slightest. Simultaneous with the cryof the lecturer from the Temple Seminary, the temple sword cleaved through thesnow. It was still ten-odd zhang from Chen Changsheng, but the sword energy ofthe Great Light had already crossed the stone bridge and reached him. Unlike those past matches before the gate of the Orthodox Academy, ChenChangsheng did not use the Yeshi Step and attempt to escape his opponent'ssword energy or attack. This was because after his battle with Nanke, he waskeenly aware that attempting to compete in speed with the Heavenly Phoenix wasan incredibly foolish choice. Moreover, since he had drawn a path through the snowy bridge and Xu Youronghad taken this path, how could he retreat? His eyes were calm and focused.Gazing at the wall of light coming towards him, without hesitation, he grippedhis sword with both hands, brought it up and then down, slashing at the mostconcentrated point of the light! From the ship came Tang Thirty-Six's cheer, "Toppling Mountain Staff! Break!" Xu Yourong's temple sword had not truly descended. What was breaking throughthe fog of snow was sword intent. Similarly, Chen Changsheng, using the Orthodox Academy's Toppling MountainStaff as a sword, could not really break the Sword of Great Light. The light within the snow had already transformed into three sword intents,and Chen Changsheng had responded with three sword techniques. All of this occurred in an exceptionally brief span of time. Sword glows illuminated the Bridge of Helplessness that was engulfed in rainand snow, then never dispersed, one sword glow following after another. The air above the Luo River seemed to have become a midsummer thunderstorm,with lightning flashing from time to time. However, the clouds formed from the fog of snow were still powerful andviolent. Undispersed by the lightning, they continued to move to the other sideof the bridge. Neither the people on the ship nor the common folk on the two banks of theriver could make out any of the details on the Bridge of Helplessness, such asthe fluttering sleeves and white gauze. They could only faintly make outthrough the mists and fog the figures of Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong. The divine Qi released by Xu Yourong's ambling figure was getting thicker andthicker, the pressure of the light getting stronger and stronger. She seemedjust like one of the divine sculptures of the Li Palace. On the other hand,Chen Changsheng was still standing at his original position, still just asbefore. He was calm and quiet as a stone. No matter how furiously the waterflowed, it could not change the shape of the rock or move its heart. One was moving, one was still. The heart was still, the sword moved. The Stainless Sword was like a lightning bolt while the temple sword was likea shining sun. However, in the misty rain and foggy snow, they seemed more liketwo boats in the dusk, traveling the ocean, facing the wind and braving thewaves, gradually getting closer to each other. Ultimately, at some point, theywould meet. At this moment, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong's swords had not met, but theirsword intents had clashed countless times. Countless clangs rang out over the Luo River, followed soon after by thecrumbling sound of swords cutting through all firm objects. This Bridge of Helplessness, which with the protection of a powerful arraycould not even be smashed apart by a warship, seemed quite fragile in the faceof the ocean of light and enormous waves stirred up by these two swords.Countless cracks appeared on the firm surface of the bridge, the fragments ofrock sent flying instantly being crushed by the sword energy. The two handrailslining the bridge were covered in a dense spiderweb of cracks. Those sculpturesin the shape of beasts that had quietly watched the Luo River for many yearssuffered even more damage from the haphazardly flying sword intent. Stone chipswere sent flying, leaving behind mutilated ears and shattered faces. The people on the two banks of the Luo River were somewhat far and couldn'tsee clearly what was occurring on the bridge. They could only see the rays oflight in the falling snow and hear those sounds. Despite this, they still feltagitated and uneasy. The people on the boat were closer, and were thus moreprone to cry in amazement at the exquisite swordplay displayed in the rain andsnow. "That's the Heavenly Pool Sword Style!" "The Three Chants of the Fisherman's Song!" "How does he know the sword style of the Emotion-Severing Sect?" All these excited yells came from below. Those standing at the bow of the shipwatched the Bridge of Helplessness in silence. Yes, there truly was no sword style in this world that could completely breakthe Sword of Great Light, because this sword technique of Holy Maiden Peak wastruly too inconceivable. When the light first appeared in the fog of snow andChen Changsheng recalled the records in the Daoist Canon, he had a similarfeeling. He had never seen such a sword technique that was so complex as toembrace almost all things and yet so simple as to already be in accord with theHeavenly Dao. He hadn't even imagined such a technique before. The Sword ofGreat Light was already the final frontier of the path of the sword. In hislife of cultivation, the only time he had a similar feeling was when he saw SuLi cut a path south with the Heaven Shrouding Sword in the snowy plains of thedemon realm. With his current level of cultivation, he had two methods of breaking theSword of Great Light. These were to use the final move of the Mount Li SwordStyle or, as he had done in the Garden of Zhou and in Xunyang City whenconfronting Zhu Luo, to use the ten thousand swords of the Sword Pool restingin the Vault Sheath. However, the former could only end in the both of themdying, so it was not an option. Regarding the latter, it was impossible for himto control the consequences of the ten thousand swords simultaneouslyattacking. This required more time to calculate than was possible in sevendays. As a result, this choice was also out of the question. Ultimately, the method he used was the third sword that Su Li had taught him,the sword that Su Li could never learn. But this time, he used the swordintent, not the sword itself. He also did not use the sword to defend himself,only using the stupidity of the sword, because regardless of what angle onelooked at it from, this method was very stupid. He would use countless swords to break Xu Yourong's one sword. The light shone over the mortal world, able to imitate every sword intentbetween heaven and earth. Then he would just display every sword technique between heaven and earth. This method was very stupid, but could someone who could learn all theseswords, know when to use these swords, where to use these swords, and thus, inthe face of this light, break the shapeless shapes and intentionless intent,truly be a stupid person? The students and teachers standing on the lower decks of the great ship couldnot understand this, but those important figures at the bow of the ship clearlyunderstood this point. So when they stared at those sword intents above the snowy bridge thatcrisscrossed the sky, they remained silent for a very long time. The Minister of Rites was not a cultivator, and couldn't restrain hisquestion, "How many swords?" Linghai Zhiwang expressionlessly replied, "Principal Chen has used forty-threesword techniques." With a complex expression, Daoist Siyuan declared, "He hasn't even completedone sword technique." Both of these Prefects of the Orthodoxy had spoken correctly, and it wasn'tbecause one was speaking of Chen Changsheng and the other of Xu Yourong. Xu Yourong's Sword of Great Light truly had not been fully displayed. Of course, Chen Changsheng's forty-three swords could be understood as asingle sword. The bow of the ship was silent, but in reality, from the very start, someonehad always been talking. When Chen Changsheng used his sixth sword, Su Moyu murmured, "I lost." When Chen Changsheng used his ninth sword, a Divine General who had returnedfrom Sangharama Pass to report to the court wrinkled his brow and shook hishead. When Chen Changsheng used his eleventh sword, Xue He's hand gently caressedhis severed arm. When Chen Changsheng used his twenty-seventh sword, Zhexiu shook his head. Ifhe were to confront Chen Changsheng head-on, he would have lost here. Ofcourse, this was only in swords, not a life-or-death battle. He then glanced atTang Thirty-Six, rather confused, thinking,could it be that you can last evenlonger than me? All this time, Tang Thirty-Six had never said anything about how he had lost,but now he sighed, "Have all of our sword techniques been learned by a dog?" Many people at the bow of the ship showed ugly complexions, yet no one couldrefute him. Everyone knew that Chen Changsheng knew the Daoist Canon from back to front,but could it be that he had also learned all the sword styles of the world? ……