Chapter 727 - The Woman from Three Hundred Years Ago
Gong Yang looked at the Blind Swordsman with a confused expression. He was clearly aware of the Blind Swordsman’s severe injuries and that he had chosen the rare artifact to deal with them. But why would he need to come to this place to do so?
“Spirit of the Golden Orb!”
The Blind Swordsman had his eyes closed as a powerful sword intent burst into the sky, which transformed into a breeze of gentle wind that wrapped around the Yin Yang Golden Orb.
The Yin Yang Golden Orb shuddered slightly, before streams of magical force were unleashed, flowing into the Blind Swordsman’s body.
Time slowly passed.
After the period it took three incense sticks to burn, the Yin Yang Golden Orb exploded into pieces when the magical Yin Yang force within it depleted.
BANG!
An explosion took place.
The destructive aura within the Blind Swordsman’s body disappeared, allowing his cultivation to skyrocket.
Eighth-layer Martial Sacred Realm!
Ninth-layer Martial Sacred Realm!
In the blink of an eye, his cultivation had reached the peak Martial Sacred Realm.
“I didn’t expect senior to be a peak Martial Sacred Realm expert…” Gong Yang’s eyes revealed a hint of astonishment.
It appeared that the Blind Swordsman’s cultivation was comparable to Progenitor Wen Dao’s.
“Follow me up the mountain.”
The Blind Swordsman rose from the ground, showing no joy despite the fact that he had restored his cultivation.
Gong Yang did not overthink it and followed the Blind Swordsman into the forbidden area of the Dao-Seeking Mountain. When he went uphill, he was utterly astonished.
Halfway up the mountain stood many stone statues.
The statues were wearing a variety of clothes with various expressions—vivid and lifelike—as if they had been humans before.
“You’ve guessed it right; these status used to be humans. However, as they disobeyed the Dao-Seeking Mountain, they were refined alive into statues.” The Blind Swordsman uttered the shocking words with a calm tone.
“Refined into statues? Used to be humans?”
Gong Yang wore a blank expression.
He had never heard of such a thing before.
“Since the Dao-Seeking Mountain was established, it has always emphasized on self-interest in the Martial World. Many of the disciples thought it wasn’t right, as they believed that in the Martial World, whether it be cultivators, beasts, etc., there is always some element of emotion in them…”
The Blind Swordsman simply pointed at a statue and calmly said, “This man and his Junior Sister were mutually in love, but the Dao-Seeking Mountain betrothed her to a genius of the Trading Alliance in order to strengthen the relationship between the Dao-Seeking Mountain and the Trading Alliance. As a result, the man was infuriated and went to the authorities to voice out his opinions, but was killed in the end.
Gong Yang was stunned.
Calling themselves the Dao-Seeking Mountain, but never seeking the path of the Dao.
He had been aware of this before, but he had never known it was this serious.
Self-interest came first in the Martial World?
That was absolutely wrong!
Humans, regardless of how strong their cultivations were, would always be humans, thus would always have feelings in them.
The Blind Swordsman fell silent as he finished the story. He led Gong Yang forward, passing one statue after another.
Halfway up the mountain, a huge storm took place, causing the snow to fall rapidly.
Gong Yang felt like he was experiencing some sort of illusion.
The people here had once rebelled courageously, and despite the years that had passed, their wills still existed.
The Blind Swordsman suddenly came to a halt, as his figure shuddered.
Gong Yang raised his head and saw a woman standing close to the cliff.
The woman looked ordinary, but he could see an indescribable heroic spirit from her expression, an indication that she had once been an impressive expert.
“Senior.” Gong Yang called, and upon realizing that the Blind Swordsman showed no reaction, he called once again.
The Blind Swordsman collected his thoughts. Following this, his sword intent became extremely lonely.
Gong Yang immediately understood that there existed some relation between this woman and the senior, thus he chose to remain silent.
A while later, the Blind Swordsman slowly said with a hoarse voice, “Three hundred years ago, I had just achieved the Martial Sacred Realm, thus I did have some status in the Dao-Seeking Mountain. I eventually recruited eight disciples, and she was one of them. Among my disciples, she was the most talented one, as she possessed an eighth-grade Di ranked Martial Spirit. She reached the peak Martial Highness Realm just in time for the opening of the Dao-Seeking Treasure Vault. She went there and found the Godly Candles Path and ended up obtaining twenty rare artifacts, which assisted her in ranking up to the Martial Sacred Realm…”
Gong Yang stayed quiet.
He had heard rumors about the Godly Candles Path that had appeared three hundred years ago.
“After reaching the Martial Sacred Realm, she decided to sever the relationship between us.” The Blind Swordsman said.
Gong Yang was stunned, and asked, “Did she betray you?”
“Uhh…” The Blind Swordsman’s face reddened slightly as he recalled the past, before saying in a bashful tone, “Not that, she mentioned that she couldn’t openly start a relationship with me as my disciple, thus she made the decision to do so.”
Gong Yang was startled.
“However…”
The Blind Swordsman let out a soft sigh and said, “Good things don’t always last. She rebelled against the Dao-Seeking Mountain and was turned into a statue. I tried to save her, but back in the day my cultivation was too weak.”
Upon saying this, the Blind Swordsman’s tone became incredibly cold.
Gong Yang finally knew why the Blind Swordsman had given up on the Dao-Seeking Mountain.
“How shameless of the Dao-Seeking Mountain.”
Gong Yang’s expression coldened.
“No need to mention it, since the Dao-Seeking Mountain is gone now,” The Blind Swordsman turned around and said to Gong Yang, “Now that I’ve got nothing to worry about anymore, I’ll pass on my sword art to you. I hope that you will make good use of it.”
He flipped his hand, causing a scroll to appear in it, before handing it to Gong Yang with a stern expression.
“This…”
Gong Yang was dumbfounded. Why had he suddenly made him his successor now?
Despite being confused, he chose to accept it.
The Blind Swordsman turned around and raised his foot. Without hesitation, he took a step forward.
BANG!
His figure was engulfed in flames.
Seeing this, Gong Yang was astounded and blurted out, “Senior, what are you doing? Why are you burning your life force?”
The Blind Swordsman was burning his life force!
“Will of the Heavens, captivity of life, bound by the wheel of fortune, so why the burden…”
The Blind Swordsman murmured chants from his mouth and executed an ancient forbidden technique, as he continued to move forward, taking one step at a time.
In the blink of an eye, he had taken eight steps.
“Heavens, I’m willing to sacrifice a hundred years of my lifespan for a single day of vision!”
The Blind Swordsman uttered a roar into the sky.
Swish.
A huge life force was lost from the Blind Swordsman’s body. Following this, his hair turned ashen grey, while the wrinkles on his face became even more apparent.
If he had been considered an old man before, he was now in his declining age.
“Senior, you——”
Gong Yang did not expect the Blind Swordsman to execute a forbidden technique in exchange for a day of eyesight.
“Gong Yang, I was born blind, and had never seen light before. However, that doesn’t really matter. I can feel the sword with my heart, thus being able to see won’t make any difference. However, I want to see her with my own eyes.” The Blind Swordsman said with a soft tone.
He had made a deal with Qin Nan for the rare artifact, not to restore his cultivation, but to execute the forbidden technique.
Merely for a day of eyesight.
“Senior…” Gong Yang shook his head with a wry smile, “Your cultivation is already so outstanding now, you could easily determine her appearance with your saber intent, right? Why would you sacrifice a hundred years of your lifespan just to see her with your eyes…”
Gong Yang was confused.
“The others have told me that she looks gorgeous when she smiles, but I could only hear her laughter instead of seeing her smile. When I finally could see it with my sword intent, she was already dead.”
The Blind Swordsman said calmly, as his eyelids began to shudder, and finally sprang open.
It was his first time opening his eyes, and the feeling of it caused tears to roll down his cheeks.
“I can finally see you.”
The Blind Swordsman reached out his hand and touched the face of the stone statue while speaking with an unprecedented gentle voice.
“But…”
Gong Yang was about to say something, before he held his tongue.
He was going to say, Does it matter now that you can open your eyes. She’s already dead, she can’t smile at you now.
Once people die, they turn into ashes, turn into dust. Either way, we all have to accept the reality.
“Sigh, why bother?”
Gong Yang let out a sigh.
All of a sudden, he saw the lifeless statue of the woman wear a smile, like the blossoms of a flower. As she smiled, two lines of tears silently rolled down her face.
Seeing this, Gong Yang’s figure shuddered, as he was left speechless.