Chapter Twenty Five: Alive
This was true despair, or the greatest irony.
Extreme joy follows extreme sorrow. People’s fates were frequently like this. When they were at their most glorious, they would fall into hell.
Light even started to appear in front of An Baoshi. It was no longer pitch black. There was a bright light with true warmth coming down on his body from high up. He used all his power to shake his head, and managed to make out the shadows of some mountains.
Those seemed to be large ice glaciers. The parts close to him were nearly a hue of blue-black, and those higher all white. The gullies created by the strong winds were like paths to heaven.
He seemed to be in an enormous lake. The black water surrounded him, and was flowing slowly. While his cultivation was gone, his extraordinary senses told him this was a lake at a high altitude.
But this was all. This was truly all.
The true cold gradually consumed the life that came from the void realm’s energy. He had one his gamble. He managed to survive and escape the hands of an enemy like Master Qi. But he was here, and still unable to escape the final death here. This was the greatest joke that the heavens played on him. But he was helpless.
When his breathing started to uncontrollably grow weaker, and his life slowly disappeared, An Baoshi thought of that person as he faced his final death.
That person who led Ba Mountain Sword Field to conquer the world. That person stood on a mountain of corpses in Changling in the end, facing all the cultivators from the dynasties in the world who wanted him dead. When he looked at the imperial palace, just a dozen streets away, but was unable to get there, had he felt as helpless and despairing?
So useless.
In the end, he suddenly thought of Jing Liuli. He cried and he laughed. “It is most useful to live long.”
His body started to freeze. Looking down from up high, cold and frightening clouds locked around the enormous snowy mountain. There were many blue mirror-like lakes on these enormous mountains, but one lake was black.
In the black lake water, An Baoshi silently died. The water pushed his body slowly downstream.The water in this lake flowed down along the mountain. It was not any different from the other snow melt lakes on the mountains. But the water of this black lake seemed to have a unique power, a straight power that cut through the river bed along the way, stronger than the flow of the other lakes.
After the mountain fell for an unknown number of feet, the mountain was no longer glaciers, but frozen soil. In the desolate plains, it was possible to see moving dots of white and black. Those were the herds of sheep and black yak.
Occasionally, herders walked by, and looked at the snowy mountains where the gods lived with great piety.
**
Atop another mountain an unknown distance away.
Jing Liuli, in green robes, did not fear the wind and cold as she looked down at the distant city walls. She did not know of An Baoshi’s last despair in what was close to another world. The assassination that had occurs in Spirit Void Sword Sect had finally reached Min Mountain Sword Sect and Changling.
“Really an unexpected assassination.” She came to the peak of this mountain and told the news to Baili Suxue. She could not help but comment as she looked at Changling.
“I do not know what Zheng Xiu is thinking right now. This proves what she wants to tell the Changling cultivators. Any genius is very small compared to Changling. But I fear An Baoshi is one of her most important pawns for the future. She likely did not think that Ba Mountain Sword Field did nothing. Just some old matters were enough to kill him.”
Baili Suxue smiled with some scorn. He looked at Jing Liuli who had a strange look in her eyes. “There are many unexpected things in Changling. Do not be so disappointed about losing to An Baoshi.”
“I do not worry about having lost to him. He is dead now, and the fact that I cannot find him will not affect my cultivation.” Jing Liuli turned around and looked at Baili Suxue. “I never felt that he was invincible. I even did not think of him as an opponent for me in Changling.”
Baili Suxue stilled slightly. He naturally was the person who understood Jing Liuli the best. But he could not understand his disciple’s attitude right now.
“My teacher is much stronger than his,” Jing Liuli looked at him and said.
Baili Suxue smiled. “When did you learn to flatter?”
Jing Liuli looked seriously at him. “I do not speak of you.”
Baili Suxue stilled again.
“I am speaking of Ding Ning.”
Jing Liuli looked at him and pretended to not see his embarrassment. She said slowly and seriously, “He taught me too many things. So even though I lost to An Baoshi, I did not feel that he was very strong.”
She paused and turned to look up into the sky. She then said seriously, “Maybe that feeling will grow clearer in the future. After being with Ding Ning for a while, his pride and arrogance cannot compare. So in my mind, my opponent in Changling will only be Ding Ning, and not him.”
Baili Suxue nodded and said coolly, “The higher you see, the higher you stand.”
**
The Jin Town was a border town near the Qin-Chu border.
The closer to the border, the more strict the inspection of the passing business caravans. One caravan had been at the inspection point for a long time.
There was no problem with the customs documents. But because the general in charge today was Yang Fang. He was slightly famous in the border army for being lusty, and would take more looks at good-looking women if there were any. Coincidentally, there was a good-looking couple in the caravan this time. The woman was tall, beautiful and her chest as majestic as mountains.
In the past, when Ye Celeng returned to Changling in the rainstorm and killed Zhao Zhan of the Zhao Sword Furnace, she once said that women did not need breadth of mind, just a chest.
The Astrology Bureau members would not dare to spread such words, but the conversation of Bureau Chief Ye and Zhao Zhan’s conversation must be reported to the imperial city. The matter of killing a great rebel of the Zhao Sword Furnace alone was a proud matter for the Qin. Some matters had to be spread, and this phrase spread the widest.
The caravan was repeatedly inspected. All the soldiers at the point knew that the commander just wanted to look at this woman some more. The border army was a hard place usually, and such a beauty was rare to see. So the soldiers were all secretly happy and no one went to smooth things over.
Facing the undisguised gaze of Commander Yang Fan, that woman was dignified, and slightly patient. But when he suggested closely inspecting her husband in the carriage, the seemingly ill young man who appeared to be suffering from tuberculosis, she appeared slightly impatient. Her brows rose slightly. She smiled rather than get angry, her smile stunningly beautiful, heated and bold.
“How about not pretending?”
She did not look at the border soldier near her, but at the sickly man in the carriage cabin and spoke softly.
Her voice was not loud, but for some reason, not just this commander, but everyone within tens of meters felt their bodies stiffen. The border soldiers who had spent most of their time looking at her chest instinctively gripped their sword hilts.
The man in the cabin did not respond, just sighed softly. The beautiful woman seemed satisfied, and smiled sweeter.
“What are you laughing about?” This border soldier unconsciously took a step back and said coldly.
“Back then, I sang a song in your Changling. Today, you are reluctant to part with me, so I will sing again for you,” the tall woman said and lifted her head.
From the sky, a glowing water droplet fell down silently
Translator Ramblings: Ruined by lust …
