Chapter 173: Seeing Aoxue Hongmei Again, Chen Shisan I Want to Practice the Sword
Chapter 173 – Seeing Aoxue Hongmei Again, Chen Shisan I Want to Practice the Sword
Watching Chen Shisan’s stubborn silence, Chen Changsheng smiled.
“So what if your innate talent is utterly putrid? There are times when natural aptitude does not dictate the Dao.”
“Since I have sworn to elevate you, you must choose a path of martial progression.”
“Or, more simply, choose a weapon.”
“I will cultivate the sword!”
Chen Shisan uttered these words with chilling calm.
Hearing this, Chen Changsheng furrowed his brow.
“You truly possess a knack for choosing the one discipline I am least proficient in. Why not let me impart supreme fist techniques?”
“With a single punch, the heavens shatter, the earth cleaves apart, and all deities are forced into retreat.”
“I will cultivate the sword!”
Chen Changsheng: “…”
“If fist techniques displease you, there is no harm. I can instruct you in the Dao of Formations.”
“Drawing upon the momentum of mountains and rivers, utilizing heaven and earth as your array, a mere flip of the wrist can reduce any foe to drifting ash.”
“I will cultivate the sword!”
Chen Shisan offered the exact same unyielding response, rendering the ageless immortal thoroughly speechless.
“Are you incapable of being slightly less rigid than raw iron?”
“Though I comprehend the sword, it is not my zenith. How am I supposed to forge you into the strongest existence beneath the heavens?”
At this, Chen Shisan raised his chin, locking his dark gaze with Chen Changsheng’s as he asked evenly.
“Have you ever encountered the strongest entity in this world?”
“I have.”
“Then why did you descend to seek me?”
“Because that pinnacle of strength only managed to succeed halfway. The burden is too immense; even the absolute strongest could only walk half the path.”
Hearing this, Chen Shisan slightly lowered his head and murmured.
“You just declared my talent rotten to the core. Therefore, it is a certainty that I will never become the strongest.”
“All I am capable of is swinging the blade in my hand.”
“Whether my edge is sharp enough to aid your grand design is not for me to ponder. My only duty is to draw the sword.”
Staring at the frail youth before him, Chen Changsheng maintained a profound silence for a long time.
“Your words hold a certain Dao. I possess a foundational sword manual; study its forms for now.”
“I have an errand to run. Remain here in the temple.”
Leaving those instructions, Chen Changsheng vanished.
Staring at the battered sword manual in his grasp, Chen Shisan’s face was a mask of cold stone.
Ten breaths passed, and Chen Shisan slowly turned the first page.
……
Wan Hua Lou.
A woman of peerless beauty sat before a polished bronze mirror, meticulously applying her rouge.
Scattered haphazardly around her were chests overflowing with priceless gold, silver, and luminescent pearls.
“Tsk, tsk!”
“That Zhao Ke truly bled his coffers dry to claim you for his inner courtyards!”
A man’s lazy drawl shattered the quiet sanctity of the boudoir.
Yet, faced with the sudden intrusion, the woman showed not a sliver of panic. She merely whispered into the mirror, “Thank you for saving his life today.”
“Had you not intervened, they would have beaten him into the mud until his breath stopped.”
At her gratitude, Chen Changsheng offered a sardonic grin, plucked a spirit-fruit from the vanity, and took a loud bite.
“Five years ago, you were fifteen, and he was but eleven.”
“You were a lowly maid scrubbing floors in Wan Hua Lou, and he was a starving beggar fleeing famine. You spared him a single boiled egg, dragging him from the brink of death, and begged the brothel Madam to give him chores.”
“Without your mercy, his bones would have long since rotted in some alleyway.”
“Now, five autumns have passed. You sit atop the pedestal as the reigning flower of Wan Hua Lou, while he remains the lowest drudge, smelling of night soil.”
“Yet, the riddle I cannot unravel is why, upon claiming the title of top courtesan, you severed all contact with him.”
“I highly doubt it stems from mortal arrogance over status.”
“After all, I conversed with you during your very first year holding this title.”
“Even then, you knew I intended to foster his growth, and you understood his destiny would eventually eclipse this pathetic Jinshan City.”
Listening quietly, the woman stared into the bronze reflection and murmured, “I know he holds me in his heart, but I cannot grant him an audience.”
“Why?”
Faced with Chen Changsheng’s interrogation, the woman slowly turned her head.
Bright, starlit eyes, lips like painted petals, and skin rivaling pristine snow—such breathtaking allure would incite wars even within the lofty realms of Cultivation.
Aoxue Hongmei’s coronation as the absolute peak of Wan Hua Lou was built on an undeniable, devastating truth.
“I am utterly destitute of virtue. If he merely desired to toy with my ruined flesh and hollow sentiments, I would gladly surrender them. I would not care.”
“But because he is sincere, I am forced to weigh the cost.”
“Yet you know his temperament. He cares nothing for such mortal prejudices. As long as your feelings are genuine—”
“But I care!”
Aoxue Hongmei abruptly sliced through Chen Changsheng’s words, her voice trembling with suppressed force.
“A clean marriage, a bright path, a life untainted by whispers—these are the blessings he was born to possess.”
“He loves me, and I constantly measure my own soul on the scales. I have nothing left to give, nor am I worthy to stand beside him.”
“For five agonizing years, I have watched him toil from the shadows.”
“Even while he scrubs filth and suffers the lowest indignities, his gaze remains as fiercely clear as it was five years ago. His Dao heart is just as pristine.”
“A man of raw, unpolished iron deserves a woman of jade, not a stained flower born of the pleasure quarters.”
“You are an immortal stepping beyond the mortal dust. Perhaps you possess the divine means to sever my mortal shell and cleanse this soiled flesh.”
“But my soul has been dragged through the mud of this brothel. Do you have a pill to purify that?”
Meeting Aoxue Hongmei’s tear-bright eyes, Chen Changsheng remained silent for a long spell before letting out a dry chuckle.
“A profound pity. Had he swallowed his pride and begged me earlier, I could have easily fished you from this Sea of Bitterness.”
“It is not a pity,” Aoxue Hongmei said, shaking her head. “Shisan is actually fiercely intelligent. He discerned my inevitable fate long ago.”
“Four years ago, he slipped past the guards to find me. He asked if I wished to flee this gilded cage.”
“I understood the weight of that question. Bound by his mortal limits, he could never afford my ransom.”
“The sole possibility was that a powerful benefactor had offered him a desperate bargain.”
“Immortal, do you know how I answered his plea?”
Chen Changsheng leaned back, his eternal weariness replaced by genuine curiosity. “I wasn’t sweeping with my spiritual sense during that period; you managed to evade my gaze. What was your reply?”
Under Chen Changsheng’s piercing gaze, Aoxue Hongmei’s pale cheeks flushed with a faint crimson. Lowering her head, she whispered.
“I told him never to shatter his spine for my sake. The Shisan I hold in my heart would sooner die than bow to the heavens themselves.”
“His will is simply too unyielding. He would gladly feed his life to the dogs before kneeling to another.”
“Yet… he was willing to snap that iron spine for me. He offered me the absolute purest part of himself. In this vast, rotting world, he is the only man of worth.”
“If the cycle of reincarnation grants me a next life, I will throw myself into the flames just to become his wife.”
Drip!
A crystalline tear slid down Aoxue Hongmei’s cheek, shattering upon the lacquered floorboards. Staring at the damp stain, Chen Changsheng’s God-eye perspective wavered, sinking into a heavy silence.
“Is walking this agonizing path truly worth it?”
“It holds no value in the Dao, but it is the sole anchor we mortals possess. It is the only warmth we rely on to survive the bitter winters.”
“Caught within the churning tides of this mortal dust, we are all mere leaves swept by currents beyond our control.”
“Shisan and I are blessed by fate, for we have an immortal like you to beseech. But can a single immortal scoop every drowning soul from the river of suffering?”
“You immortals can sever mountains and dictate our mortal fates.”
“But when the day comes that the heavens collapse, and a calamity arises that even immortals cannot thwart… who will you pray to then?”
“Both Shisan and I learned this brutal truth in the gutters. And we learned even deeper that bending the knee to the heavens will never equate to standing on one’s own two feet.”