Chapter 36: Face It Together
The obsidian coffin was enormous, like a small mountain. Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong stood inside it as if standing within a mountain, unaware of the passage of time.
Xu Yourong followed the normal order, looking at one image after another, moving slowly from left to right. Chen Changsheng’s order was opposite hers, moving slowly from right to left. Memorizing was much simpler than comprehending, but recording such profound and ineffable blade techniques was not an easy task.
They did not know how much time had passed when Chen Changsheng’s left arm brushed against her shoulder. Only then did they come to their senses and realize they had met.
If it were Tang Thirty-Six, he might have said flippantly and smugly: What a coincidence, meeting you here of all places.
But Chen Changsheng would not say that, nor did Xu Yourong speak. The two exchanged smiles and continued to look at the last two images.
This was the sixty-ninth image Chen Changsheng had seen, meaning he had memorized sixty-nine moves of the Two Severing Blade Technique. Xu Yourong, weakened by her injuries, had seen fewer than him, memorizing thirty-seven moves.
After some more time, the two finished looking at the last two images and, once again, woke up almost simultaneously, exchanging smiles once more.
Yet in the next moment, the smiles on their faces vanished, replaced by shock and bewilderment.
The images and text on the walls of the obsidian coffin were… disappearing.
Obsidian was the hardest stone in the world. Those lines, images, and text had been carved by Zhou Duofu himself with his legendary divine blade back in the day, etched deeply into the stone. Even after centuries of wear, they had not faded, let alone weathered away. But now, the edges of those lines seemed to have softened greatly. A faint wind from the tomb blew, and the obsidian at the edges of the lines was swept away like sand, rustling down to the ground.
In an instant, before Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong could even react, all the text and images on the obsidian coffin walls were erased, leaving behind one hundred and nine slightly rough depressions.
What was this? This magical scene left the two speechless with shock. Could it be that these Two Severing Blade Techniques disappeared on their own once memorized? How had Zhou Duofu achieved such a miraculous feat?
The Two Severing Blade Technique had already turned into black sand at the bottom of the coffin, no longer existing. The obsidian coffin was truly empty now, so they naturally would not stay any longer.
Chen Changsheng carried her out of the obsidian coffin and back onto the stone floor of the tomb chamber. Recalling what had just happened, his heart still could not calm down.
“At least we remembered it all,” Xu Yourong said. “Once we get out, we can transcribe those blade techniques, and they’ll be complete.”
Having grown up in the old temple of Xining Town, the fifteen-year-old Chen Changsheng was naturally somewhat slow on matters between men and women. But for some reason, at this moment, he grasped her meaning very accurately. This earth-shattering Two Severing Blade Technique now belonged to them—not separately, but as a whole, just like the technique itself.
If they could not trust each other enough or be fully honest, then this technique would be meaningless.
“Mm, we’ll practice it together,” Chen Changsheng said.
“What if we can’t leave the Garden of Zhou?” Xu Yourong looked into his clear eyes, a faint melancholy in her voice. “Would this technique have to leave this world with us?”
Chen Changsheng said, “Don’t put pressure on yourself. If Zhou Duofu is really still alive, the Two Severing Blade Technique won’t be lost.”
Xu Yourong was silent for a moment, then said, “I have a different thought now. If Zhou Duofu isn’t dead, why would he leave these techniques in his own tomb?”
Chen Changsheng thought it over and guessed, “Maybe he was about to do something he wasn’t sure he’d survive. Leaving these techniques behind was his way of not wanting his greatest creation to be buried in obscurity.”
Xu Yourong looked into his eyes and said, “In any case, you must fight as hard as you can to stay alive.”
Chen Changsheng met her gaze, thinking that if fate existed, its terms were already very clear. Whether it was the Two Severing Blade Technique or the desire to remember these beautiful moments, both required them to live together, to be together, for it to have meaning.
“May the holy light be with you,” she offered sincerely.
Chen Changsheng leaned forward and gave her a somewhat clumsy hug, saying, “Be with us.”
The ground shook again. This time, it wasn’t the opening of the obsidian coffin or his short sword, but the beast tide had finally arrived. Chen Changsheng remembered that not long ago she had said she didn’t want to die in someone else’s tomb, so he naturally helped her toward the tomb’s exit. As they passed through the long passageway, he didn’t forget to take all the night pearls embedded in the walls.
Watching this scene, Xu Yourong found it amusing and also felt more admiration—being so calm in the face of life and death was not something everyone could do. And clearly, he truly wasn’t afraid of death. Such a state of mind was nearly that of a sage.
Chen Changsheng wasn’t actually thinking much about life and death. He was thinking more about the black dragon sleeping in the lake outside the Netherworld. At this moment, he wasn’t sure, and was somewhat worried, that if he died in Zhou’s tomb, what would happen to the black dragon? Would it sleep forever with him, or would it still live even if it couldn’t wake up, since it was now just a separated soul?
Leaving the tomb and arriving at the high platform at the end of the spirit path, before even looking down at the grassland, Chen Changsheng gazed at the parasol tree swaying its myriad green leaves in the wind and said to her, “Your artifact is powerful, but it can’t hold out forever. You might as well withdraw it.”
Xu Yourong said, “But it can buy us some time.” Unlike other cultivators who valued realms and artifacts above life itself, she had always considered these things external possessions. If they could be used to gain precious time or opportunity, even if severely damaged or destroyed outright, what was there to regret?
Chen Changsheng said, “Time is the last thing we need right now.”
Before memorizing the Two Severing Blade Technique, time was urgent. Afterward, time lost its meaning for them. Though Xu Yourong had been pulled back from the abyss of death by his blood, she was still gravely injured and weak. The longer they delayed, the more dangerous it became. Most crucially, the flow of time in the Never-Setting Sun Prairie was different from the real world. The closer they got to Zhou’s tomb, the slower time moved. Even if they held out for several more days with the parasol tree, only an instant might pass in the real world outside the Garden of Zhou. What chance would that give them?
“Makes sense.” Xu Yourong reached out and withdrew the parasol tree into a longbow, slinging it over her shoulder.
The green leaves vanished in an instant, leaving the stone platform bare all around. Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong began to face powerful enemies and an unknown outcome head-on. Though no blood rain greeted them, a bloody wind swept in.
The dim sky and earth were filled with countless demonic beasts. On the grassland and before the tomb, from before their eyes to the horizon, it was a dense, black mass.
(Thinking of the chapter title reminded me of Leslie Cheung’s old song, “Together Through It All,” but no matter how I look at this scene, I can’t find a place for “through it all,” so I’ll just have to let it go and keep the thought.)