Chapter Twenty-Two: The Land Sword Immortal versus the Heaven-Breaking Spear

Third update

Su Ning’s face was utterly blank, bereft of sorrow and joy alike. He had somehow emerged with startling speed from the abyss of grief over Su Xiao Xiao’s death. Call him heartless, perhaps not; it was only that he understood Su Xiao Xiao better than he understood himself. He knew that her inexplicable courtship with death must have carried some hidden meaning. The reason his tears had flowed so freely was that the bond between them in this lifetime had been severed, completely and utterly severed.

The Spirit of Arms looked at Su Ning and sighed in admiration. “As expected of the talent I chose. You do not even regard the realms of Immortality and Human Sovereignty as worth your notice. To step directly into the Emperor’s realm—calling you a once-in-a-ten-thousand-years genius would already be an insult. Pity…”

Su Ning naturally understood what that pity meant. When Su Xiao Xiao died, his heart shattered; all the entanglements of this world were swept away, and thus his Dao heart became clear, allowing him to ascend in a single step to the throne of the Human Emperor. Yet how could one truly attain immortality without ever passing through the Immortal realm? Much less a man whose heart had already been broken. His present state had the flavor of forcing seedlings to grow by tugging at them—an enlightenment born just before death, a fleeting blossom that vanishes in an instant.

“A lifetime spent guarding one person is enough,” Su Ning said with a trace of regretful smile. Looking at the Spirit of Arms, he said, “Last year, you tore through the barrier to come out, killed some, taught some. I am grateful. At least for a time, the sword in my hand was able to protect the one I loved. Now there is no sword in my hand, and no one left in my heart. I would very much like to learn from you.”

“Simple fool. You want revenge for that dead woman?” The Spirit of Arms looked at Su Ning as one would look at a junior.

“She has her own methods. I do not know what her final trump card was, but I imagine it must be connected to Chen Hongxu.” Su Ning smiled indifferently.

“Hm?” The Spirit of Arms laughed in bafflement, shaking her head before pointing at Su Ning. “Do you think you need to play games with me? I have lived for ten thousand years. Would I not see through that little scheme of yours?”

Su Ning tightened his grip on the serpent inheritance pearl, a little embarrassed.

The Spirit of Arms let out a sigh. “I will not interfere with your infatuation for that woman. Truth be told, I am not so petty. What if three women serve one man? Su Xiao Xiao and Xue Xi are both of limited talent; at most they live a century or so. The one who can accompany Chen Hongxu through immortality will be me alone. And besides, in some matters, having those two women around is nothing but a burden—indeed, they may very well hinder Chen Hongxu’s grand undertaking of immortality.”

Su Ning sighed in relief. As long as the Spirit of Arms was not deliberately targeting Su Xiao Xiao, then no matter what means Su Xiao Xiao used to be reborn, she should be able to do so safely. At first he had even planned to risk his life and wound the Spirit of Arms, though that was hardly realistic. After all, there were still differences among emperor-level powerhouses, and in his heart the Spirit of Arms was an unscalable mountain. That feeling had nothing to do with strength; it was simply an instinctive impression.

“Please guide me. At the end of my life, let me feel the might of a landborne sword immortal once!” Su Ning had fulfilled his wish. He bowed to the Spirit of Arms and spoke with sincere devotion.

“I passed on to you the secret manual of the Nine Veins Sword Sect. With your current cultivation, you may indeed call yourself a landborne sword immortal.” The Spirit of Arms nodded, then reversed her spear and pointed the tip straight at Su Ning’s face. “The weapon spirit can transform freely into any form. This spear is called Heavenbreaker. In the Great World, it ranks eighth on the Immortal Weapons List. It does not disgrace your cultivation as a sword immortal.”

As soon as her words fell, countless tiny whirlpools appeared from nowhere at the spear tip, pitch-black as voids, as though they could devour all spiritual energy. Then, as the Spirit of Arms wielded Heavenbreaker, bolts of lightning as thick as century-old tree trunks suddenly split the sky. The display was vast and thunderous; one glance made it clear that no human force could stand against it.

Su Ning remained unshaken. Raising a hand, he turned his finger into a sword. Threads of spiritual energy as tangible as substance converged at his fingertip, gathering and condensing until, in the sky above, there appeared a colossal illusory sword that blotted out heaven and earth.

A faint smile touched Su Ning’s lips. Silently, he stepped into the void and landed upon the sword’s center. Using his own body as the sword’s heart, he drove its momentum higher still, as if it would not rest until it had pierced clean through the sky.

The moment that sword appeared, every sword-shaped weapon below snapped in two. Even the divine peachwood talisman sword of the Daoist lineage in Zhang Shufang’s hands shattered straight down the middle.

Zhang Shufang’s face went deathly pale. She bit her lip until it nearly bled, stubborn and unwilling. Staring at the broken half of the peachwood talisman in her hand, her heart was filled with desolation. The man above, hailed as a landborne sword immortal—was that really the one she intended to avenge herself upon? Was that really someone she could deal with after entering the barrier? Why was he so strong?

A pair of large hands steadied Zhang Shufang’s tottering shoulders from behind. In a low voice, the man said, “Your heart is in disorder. Su Ning is a genius seen only once in ten thousand years. There is no need to compare yourself to him. He is like the fireflies of summer—destined to shine brilliantly, yet far too brief in life. And the female war god standing above may not be invincible either. When she first tore through the barrier, she was clearly badly injured. I suspect that world can make our strength even greater, but your Dao heart must remain extraordinarily firm.”

Zhang Shufang seemed to know who stood behind her. She, too, counted as a genius of the Daoist path, or she would not have been called a Dao embryo. Once someone pointed her way, she understood at once. Her eyes flashed. Turning, she looked at the man behind her. “Tang Xiaowei, you didn’t lie to me?”

The man visibly froze, then said with wry surprise, “It’s been a long time since anyone called me that. You’d better call me Binglong. Of the four heavenly stems—Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding—I am the third dragon inheritor. Though I rank third, the other three all fell before me. That is why I have always believed that if we keep striving, there will eventually come a day when we can call ourselves kings and emperors.”

Zhang Shufang nodded, casually tossing away the peachwood talisman sword. “Mm. I believe that day will come.”

Su Daji lay sprawled atop the palace roof, amused as she observed the scene. Under her breath she cursed, “A pair of foolish lovers, dreaming impossible dreams.”

…

By now, the battle in the sky was no longer something the crowd could look upon directly. The heavens blazed with light; even a group of accomplished cultivators could not peer into the radiance and discern how the fight was unfolding.

After a brief instant, or perhaps after an unbearably long span of time, the sky finally returned to its proper color. There stood the Spirit of Arms, still as wind and cloud, while across from her Su Ning wore a smile as well.

…

Su Ning sighed. His body had begun to grow transparent little by little. Looking up at the cloudless sky, he said coldly, “If there is truly another life, then I hope I am never reborn as a human again.”

The words had barely fallen before the sky was filled with a torrential rain of swords, silver-white and dazzlingly beautiful. Su Ning’s form dispersed bit by bit, and under everyone’s gaze, at last, every trace of his existence was utterly erased.

The Spirit of Arms moved quickly forward and caught the serpent inheritance pearl suspended in the air after Su Ning’s dissolution. Glancing beside the little serpent within the pearl, she saw that a tiny sword had appeared there as well. Even this woman, who had seen the great world, could not help but sigh. “Su Xiao Xiao, after all your calculations and every one of your plans, I hope you do not betray this peerless inheritance of the sword immortal.”

On the ground, no one dared so much as glance up at the Spirit of Arms in the sky. Even Binglong and Zhang Shufang knew enough to bow and keep their heads low. Fan Caobao panted heavily; blood tears streamed from his eyes. He had no great feeling about Su Ning’s death in battle, but Su Xiao Xiao was a woman he had fought and bickered with all along the way. He did not know that she had her own designs, and so the scenes of the past came vividly before him.

With some difficulty, he raised his hand and pressed it to his forehead, as though he still meant to etch something further.

The Spirit of Arms cast a glance at this unstable factor and let out a cold laugh. In a single step, she crossed well over a hundred meters to stand beside Fan Caobao. “Indeed, the inheritance of the Great Sage is extraordinary. Truly gifted. Saint, saint—only beyond the ordinary can one enter sainthood. Your mortal heart is too heavy. Even if I let you finish carving the final stroke of your inscription, could you truly transcend the mundane and become sacred?”

Fan Caobao stared coldly at the Spirit of Arms, who loomed over him from above, and clenched his teeth so hard that his gums bled.

“Your life and death have nothing to do with me. But you should be one of those who won Chen Hongxu’s friendship, and I do not want him to remain alone forever. So keep that shabby little life of yours. When you are confident enough, come seek your revenge on me.” With a look of pity, the Spirit of Arms laughed wildly.

“Brother Chen, Chen Hongxu, everyone is dead—what in the world are you doing?” Fan Caobao’s raised hand crashed heavily to the ground as he roared through a face streaked with red tears.

All those rare battles had, under the deliberate guidance of the Spirit of Arms, been drawn away from Chen Hongxu’s side. At that moment he sat with eyes shut tight and brows furrowed, engaged in a war invisible to outsiders against the Spirit of Arms.

He had thought of this as well: the Spirit of Arms had kept urging him to release the weapon embryo outward, and that was what had led to this outcome. So long as he could reestablish contact with the weapon embryo, the Spirit of Arms would return to her original state, and everything would go back to normal.

Thus he kept his eyes closed, his mind wholly immersed in the struggle for the weapon embryo, utterly unaware of what followed.

The Hidden Saint, chapter twenty-two, landborne sword immortal versus Heavenbreaker spear, update complete.