Chapter 1663: 13: A Rebellious Heart
Chapter 1663: Chapter 13: A Rebellious Heart
The dark clouds fully scattered, the Demon Army routed, and a crimson armor unit ripped through the frigid atmosphere, descending not far from the Platinum Armor.
Accompanied by a series of clacking sounds of mechanisms unlocking and disengaging, a locking pin popped out from the spine at the back of the armor. Yu Feng stepped out from within, landed on the ground, and kicked up a billow of dust.
That was white dust formed from evil demons being shattered, ground to nothing, then scorched and baked under the Light of the Abyss. Standing amid this smoky haze, this swordsman who had campaigned for a hundred years stared, dazed, through dust and wind at the Giant God towering directly before him.
With a human body gazing up from below, he felt only vastness.
Before Yu Feng’s eyes, the Platinum Armor displayed a sharp form that combined angles and smooth lines, its whole body lined with protruding sword blades and vector acceleration nozzles. Strands of scarlet-golden light patterns flared and dimmed across its whole body.
He was so majestic, so solid, so sharp that merely by standing there he was like a Sun radiating Sword Qi, making one involuntarily wish to lower their head and avert their gaze from that brilliance.
The wreckage of battleships and the surrounding steel armor plating had all been slashed into trenches by the Sword Qi spilling from him. There was not a single part of his whole body that was not a weapon; even the tips of his five fingers were incomparably sharp. On the back of his right hand was an argent-cyan sword pattern imprint, from which hazy smoke wafted—this was the purest Sword Fiend.
The battle just now had not left the Platinum Armor with any wounds. To say that his armor was simply so tough as to be incapable of damage would not be accurate.
From Yu Feng’s perspective, the basic qualities of the Platinum Armor could be called the strongest “Hundred Forms of the Red Furnace,” the toughest Divine Steel Alloy, a war machine forged with the craft of the Dao Courtyard.
Yet in itself he was still only in the relatively powerful category among Divine Weapons; any powerful True Martial Technique, Art of Magic, or weapon of war could deal damage to it.
There was only one reason it could remain unscathed.
Thinking thus, Yu Feng met the gaze of those flickering scarlet-golden eyes behind the Platinum Armor Helmet, like molten planets.
…All because of the Soul Spirit that dwelled within.
Without hesitation, this Desolate Alliance True Person, council member, and Bright Mirror Army Dharma Transmission General dropped to one knee, clasped his fists with both hands, lowered his head, and saluted the Platinum Armor.
“Junior Disciple Yu Feng, pays respect to Master An!”
The armor slightly inclined his head, overlooking this Sword Cultivator saluting him. During the battle just now, he had noticed that this Sword Cultivator’s swordsmanship was indeed somewhat familiar, and his technique was quite decent. His combat was very brave; he had even wanted to help relieve him of his predicament.
He clearly knew him; this was beyond doubt.
Thus he did not say anything extraneous. The Spiritual Fiend within the armor shook the air, his voice booming like thunder: “My name is?”
“An Jing.”
Thunder rolled; Yu Feng replied without the slightest hesitation: “Your honored name is An Jing, the Seven Evil Tribulation Master, Dao Master who opened the Feather Transformation Dao, the strongest Heavenly Mandate in the history of Embracing the Void, also the Mingjing Sect Master and Evil Suppressing Sword Lord.”
“There aren’t that many people here.”
The Platinum Armor’s voice was humorous; he was making a joke, his tone becoming somewhat pensive: “I have that many titles? Not surprising. I’m this strong; I ought to bear a fame that grand.”
“Then why did I lose my memory?”
𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
“Because in order to stop the grand design of the Demons, you swung the Heavenly Sword Evil Suppressing and took upon yourself the Dao-wounds it carried. Though you lost your memory, across the All Heavens and Worlds, an untold number of Great Demons were cut down by the Sword Light of you and Evil Suppressing—especially in Embracing the Void and the Great Wilderness. The Holy Demons of these two Great Realms were almost fully complete; now they are nearly shattered and can no longer continue their schemes.”
Saying this, Yu Feng could no longer restrain the excitement in his Heart. All doubt vanished: the Platinum Armor before him was An Jing. Though he had lost his memory and his Power was not yet whole, he had indeed returned!
“That still isn’t enough…”
The Platinum Armor did not so easily accept this name. He said calmly: “You all long for my return, yet in the fragments of memory I have left, I was just an ordinary Martial Artist, with no great ambitions, no desire to overturn the World. Though I had some skill, in the end, that was all.”
“Perhaps I truly did, in the past, do those earth-shattering deeds, saving the World—not just a single World. Perhaps I decided to let myself return, thus I could return.”
“But does it truly have to be me? Only me, and no other, as if so decreed…”
Speaking thus, he did not conceal anything in the slightest. Let alone Yu Feng, even a child or an imbecile could hear in the Platinum Armor’s words that thick weariness and loathing: “Such a thing…”
“Destiny.”
—Ho-how could this be… Clearly Master An is the Heavenly Mandate; how could he so abhor the ’Heavenly Mandate’?!
Yu Feng was suddenly stuck. A man tempered by a hundred battles, he had never felt panic from slaughter on the battlefield, yet at this moment he felt as though cold sweat slid down his spine. His voice turned hoarse and he could not speak, not knowing how to reply.
—Could it be that Master An wishes to resist his own responsibility? No, impossible. No matter how Master An thinks, he is not that sort of man…
Thinking this, Yu Feng suddenly realized that in those years, he had merely met An Jing a few times in the Ancestral Dragon Hall and the Zhaolin Realm, receiving a few pointers from him. His later study of the “Four Heavenly Extreme Swords” had been passed on by others.
Even afterward, when he joined the Bright Mirror Sect and became the Bright Mirror Lord’s Dharma Transmission General, in theory a direct subordinate of An Jing, in reality… his understanding of An Jing, of what sort of person he truly was, what temperament he had, could practically be called nonexistent.
So then, what kind of man was An Jing, truly…
“It’s fine. I just had a bout of contrariness; don’t worry about it.”
And just as Yu Feng truly began to ponder deeply, the Platinum Armor’s voice quickly returned to calm.
He gave a small laugh instead, beginning to comfort Yu Feng: “If someone were to say that in this World there can only be a single hero, that it is ordained that only he can save the World, restore all the chaos, and quell every storm…”
“As though his every story, every adventure, all his experiences and struggles, the slaughter and realizations, those emotions, reflections, the confusion along the road, his rage and sorrow—were all predetermined long ago, merely to shape such an instrument to verify the Heavenly Mandate.”
As he spoke, the Platinum Armor lifted his head and gazed toward the Heavenly Dome: “Then I would indeed feel bored.”
“Only, if one reverses the thought a little, and looks from another angle…”
“If we say that this World truly does need such a hero—then why can’t it be me?”
“Yes, why can’t it be me? Indeed, it is me; I am that hero. One cannot say it has to be me alone; it’s just that I am the fastest. In the distant future, in other windows of violent transformation, there will surely be seeds of other heroes being nurtured. Even beyond all heavens, in far more distant places, in an extremely distant past, and even in an extremely distant future, other heroes will appear.”
“Only, I am the fastest; my existence is the ’only’ of the present.”
Lowering his head, no longer facing that empty Heavenly Dome, the Platinum Armor said blandly: “It looks like Destiny, but in truth I am free. Just as now… I can entirely choose not to be any sort of hero, I very well could.”