Chapter 17: Unseverable
From the distant boats on Luo River, successive cries of surprise arose.
People watched helplessly as Chen Changsheng extended his left hand, effortlessly breaking the Great Radiant Sword in a way none could fathom. Then they saw Xu Yourong seemed to have anticipated his move, using his method of breaking her sword to instead break his sword momentum. Next, they watched as Chen Changsheng, despite having clearly gained control of the Abstinence Sword, still had it pierce his body. Finally, people witnessed Xu Yourong extending that seemingly casual yet thunderous finger toward Chen Changsheng.
“Spirit Resonance Finger!” Siyuan Dao Ren exclaimed, his expression shifting.
Was Chen Changsheng about to lose? Would he die under this finger? Mao Qiuyu’s expression changed dramatically, his sleeves billowing like waves as he prepared to rush toward the bridge. Tang Thirty-Six’s face turned exceptionally ugly, as did Mo Yu’s and Chen Liu Wang’s. Was this not only about deciding victory but also life and death?
Everything happened too fast.
No one could have imagined that Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong, in such a short time, would go from extreme motion to extreme stillness and back to extreme motion. This showed they had both entered their own rhythms, and terrifyingly, their rhythms were very similar. This meant it would be difficult for anyone to break their rhythm—even those great figures whose cultivation realms far surpassed theirs could not.
A profound silence fell.
The radiance on the Bridge of Helplessness gradually faded, as if it were time itself.
The sparse snow continued to fall, unable to conceal their figures or fill the line running down the middle of the bridge.
On one side of the line was still snow; on this side, rain. Xu Yourong had already crossed that line, standing before Chen Changsheng.
Her right index finger pressed against his brow, but not completely.
Between her fingertip and his brow, there was the distance of a short sword.
Because that short sword lay between them.
At some unknown moment, Chen Changsheng had raised the Stainless Sword to block Xu Yourong’s finger.
Without a colorful phoenix’s body, yet with a heart that knows—let alone when one’s body is a phoenix?
Xu Yourong’s Spirit Resonance Finger was as fast as lightning, but not faster than his sword. This could only mean he had long anticipated she would use the Spirit Resonance Finger at the end.
The Abstinence Sword had left a clear wound on his left shoulder, its edges mixed with something like stardust, but the sword’s hilt was now in his hand.
Xu Yourong slowly withdrew her finger.
A drop of golden-red blood slowly seeped from her fingertip, then fell onto the bridge’s surface. The rain and snow instantly evaporated, giving rise to a faint mist.
The Stainless Sword had blocked the Spirit Resonance Finger but could not completely neutralize the power of that slender finger. A drop of blood also flowed from Chen Changsheng’s brow, as if he had gained a new red mole.
The stone bridge was utterly silent.
On the distant Luo River boats, people found the battle not as brutal as imagined and temporarily calmed down.
Through the faint mist, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong gazed at each other, neither speaking for a long time.
Both were wounded. Chen Changsheng’s injury appeared more severe, but now both swords were in his hands. So who had won?
Clearly, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong no longer cared about the final outcome. They looked at each other, countless questions arising in their minds.
“Why, when I remotely seized control of the Abstinence Sword, making it deviate seven inches to the right at the last moment, did it still pierce my left shoulder? Could it be that your Great Radiant Sword, from the very beginning, never intended to strike my vital point, and ultimately only wanted to pierce my left shoulder?”
“Why, at the final moment, when your Stainless Sword strike was exquisitely unmatched, with a great chance to fall together with my Spirit Resonance Finger—at worst, a mutual death—why did it hesitate for an instant, only to appear mysteriously before your brow and block my finger?”
Seven days, seventeen star charts, three hundred sheets of paper, countless deductions and calculations—all the experience and wisdom of their cultivation careers had been poured into this battle. They had calculated every detail to the extreme, yet in the end, they found themselves facing surprises.
That was because they could calculate sword paths, calculate celestial timing and earthly positioning, but they could not fully calculate the human heart, could not calculate what the other was thinking.
Chen Changsheng had calculated for seven days and seven nights, but had not calculated that… Xu Yourong could anticipate that he would ultimately use his sword intent to shake the Abstinence Sword, thereby breaking her Great Radiant Sword and then advancing with the momentum. The most crucial point was that he had not calculated that Xu Yourong had held back from beginning to end, harboring no killing intent toward him, not even a strong desire to wound him. So he had miscalculated the distance to shake the Abstinence Sword—the Abstinence Sword piercing his left shoulder was, in truth, a self-inflicted wound.
In this battle on the Bridge of Helplessness, Chen Changsheng only sought a draw, not knowing that she only sought not to lose. Similarly, Xu Yourong had not expected him to think this way, because she knew who he was, but he did not know who she was, so he had no reason to show her any consideration.
She thought he wanted to win, so he would inevitably manipulate the Abstinence Sword to break her Great Radiant Sword—before the Zhou Mausoleum, she had seen a similar scene and knew he had this ability. She had prepared herself: when he tried to seize the Abstinence Sword, she would use the momentum to control the entire situation, and finally, before the countless people on both banks of the Luo River, declare the battle a draw. Yet she had not expected Chen Changsheng had no intention of seizing the Abstinence Sword to counterattack, only to defend. The trajectory of the Stainless Sword at the end was the same.
In short, they had thought toward the same direction, but not to the same conclusion.
Countless deductions and calculations, meeting each other, had turned into the unexpected.
Xu Yourong had more unexpected things, because she was certain he did not know she was that First Meeting girl, so she was more wrong.
The mistake was that she still had not fully recognized this young man named Chen Changsheng.
He seemed even better than the person she had known in the Zhou Garden, better than the person she had imagined.
This was very good.
She accepted her loss willingly.
“I lost.”
If life and death had to be decided, this battle could certainly continue. Her injuries were lighter than Chen Changsheng’s, and she still had many techniques unused. But this was not a life-or-death battle; it was a sword debate. Now both swords were in Chen Changsheng’s hands, so she considered herself defeated.
Without any concession, she calmly accepted this fact.
Chen Changsheng could not be calm, because there were still many things he could not understand.
And when he heard Xu Yourong’s voice, he became even less calm.
This voice was pleasant to the ear—like water in a clear stream, like dew on autumn maple leaves.
This voice was somewhat familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.
He looked toward Xu Yourong, but his gaze was still blocked by that layer of white gauze.
Yet he still stared at the white gauze, looking more and more intently, more and more nervously.
Even if wind and snow rose again, and residual sword intent hissed faintly, none of it could sever his line of sight.
His body suddenly became somewhat stiff, and his voice tightened: “You… you… say that again?”
…
…
(An animated trailer for “Ze Tian Ji” has been released. I will post it on WeChat shortly. Please take a look, or reply with the words “animation trailer” to view it.)