novelraw Chapter 33 : Breaking Delusions
Chapter 33 : Breaking Delusions
Chapter 33: Breaking Delusions
“At the very beginning, I liked this sword of Sword Solitary Sun the most, because it was fierce. It could cut down all enemies in the world.”
In a sudden moment, Lu Changyuan recalled that rainy night when they were being hunted.
They stumbled and crashed into a mountain cave.
Inside the cave were two skeletons, and beside the skeletons sat a small meditation cushion.
Upon that cushion lay two manuals.
One was called “Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles”.
The other was this “One Sword from the West”.
“With the ferocity of the great sun, strike with absolute dominance.”
The darkness was a pitch-black sea, its turbulent demonic waves crashing upon the fragile shores one after another, stirring a world-shaking tremor.
Some heard a tsunami.
Some heard waves of Buddhist chants.
But more still heard only a plain, simple word: “Scatter.”
That sword light directly shattered the darkness of the Demonic Kingdom.
The pitch-black night, the withering fire—all vanished beneath this one sword.
Light rose where the sun fell, traversing the entire city, then hanging high in the heavens, becoming like a second sunset.
The massive demonic body disintegrated inch by inch, as if it had never existed in this world at all.
The entire firmament began to fracture from a single fragile point, peeling away like an eggshell.
The black rain that held maddening demonic nature was finally purged clean by this sword.
And afterward came the dazzling burst of flames after ultimate suppression, and a sun fierce enough to sear the flesh.
“But later, slowly, I began to feel this sword had too many flaws. This sword was too fierce—it spared neither enemy nor ally, nor did it distinguish immortal from mortal.”
Lu Changyuan’s voice drifted on the breeze, unsure for whom he spoke: “But for purging demons, it truly could not be more fitting.”
Xia Lianxue raised her head, pressing her lips together.
The scorching aura alone pricked at her skin.
Her long eyelashes trembled gently; her cherry-colored lips opened several times, yet in the end she said nothing.
It was instead Li Qingcao at the side, suppressing the sword in his hand, who asked with feigned nonchalance, “If I become sworn brothers with Brother Lu now and ask him to teach me this sword, would it still be in time?”
No one answered him.
The blindfolded girl finally said, “Not a bit of it lies within our control.”
The entire Lake of Retained Affection was utterly submerged beneath a vast white light.
“Long time no see.”
In just a blink, Lu Changyuan found himself in a place of pure white.
Before him stood a perfectly square table.
On the chair directly opposite him sat a short-haired man dressed in a black long robe and wearing a gold-carved crown.
This was Su Wu Xiang.
By Su Wu Xiang’s side, Luan Rumeng wore an elegant beauty’s coiffure, clad in a pale-golden phoenix robe.
“Brother Lu has come. Thank you. Please, sit.”
Lu Changyuan was silent for a long time.
He sighed, pulled out the chair, and sat down.
“Long time no see, Wu Xiang.”
Su Wu Xiang waved his hand.
“Why be polite with me? This is my final wisp of thought. The Desire Demon has been uprooted. I’ve been tainted for too long—I can no longer live. I just wanted to see you one last time.”
Lu Changyuan said nothing, but in his eyes flickered emotions that could not clearly be seen.
Su Wu Xiang said, “Don’t you cry. It’s not easy for me to meet you while still clear-headed. Don’t make it sentimental. Come, it’s been a long time since we drank together.”
A jar of wine appeared on the table.
With a wave of Su Wu Xiang’s hand, two glazed wine cups formed again.
He frowned.
“We brothers shouldn’t be using these things.”
Thus the jade-glazed wine cups vanished, replaced by two large bowls.
Luan Rumeng rose and poured wine for Su Wu Xiang and Lu Changyuan.
Su Wu Xiang grabbed his bowl in one hand and drained it in one gulp, then laughed heartily.
“It’s been nearly a thousand years since you and I last clinked bowls.”
“Yes.”
Lu Changyuan also took up his bowl and downed the wine within in one gulp.
Su Wu Xiang shook his head with a smile.
“I can’t find the taste of drinking with you back then. You and I once rode swords and horses, chasing the demonic path for three thousand li. We lopped off his head, then went to an ordinary tavern to drink that burning knife liquor… That was the most delicious wine of my life. Never again have I tasted it.”
Lu Changyuan too seemed to recall that throat-burning taste of cheap wine, but he did not laugh.
He only said, “If not for you injuring his leg, we might not have caught up.”
Su Wu Xiang laughed brightly, as though to make up for one and a half millennia of missing laughter.
“And what of our Sun-Moon Palace? We once said we’d become the demonic path that devours the demonic path.”
Lu Changyuan said, “No one dares provoke the Black Domain.”
Once, it had been promised to be the first under heaven.
Sword sweeping the demons, never looking back.
Once, the three of the Sun-Moon Palace had sworn to kill every demonic cultivator in the world, becoming demons who killed demons.
Even though later the Sun-Moon Palace too faded with time, that demonic palace had indeed stood upon the earth.
“That’s good. That’s good. That… Forget it. You’re like me. Both of us don’t have the temperament to mind a household.”
Lu Changyuan suddenly slammed the table hard.
“Can’t you talk nicer!? Am I more neglectful than you?”
Su Wu Xiang laughed.
“I got married. I had a family. Only then could I neglect it. Not like some people who haven’t even married yet.”
“Su Wu Xiang, do you believe I’ll dig up your grave myself someday!?”
“Oh no, I’m so scared. Too bad I don’t have a grave! As for the imperial mausoleum, dig it if you like.”
This founding emperor of the Glazed Dynasty, dressed in imperial robes, jumped like a child, then made a face.
Luan Rumeng patted her junior brother’s shoulder, speaking softly.
“Enough. Don’t act like a child. Didn’t you say you had something to give Brother Lu?”
“Oh right.” Su Wu Xiang patted the dust from himself.
“Look at you, how you’ve fallen. Without your brother’s support, you’re down and out. Look at that body of yours—nothing left. You look like you’ve been struck by lightning.”
At last Lu Changyuan couldn’t hold back and hurled the bowl in his hand at Su Wu Xiang’s face.
“Hey, he’s angry. Senior Sister, look, someone’s angry.”
Just as Lu Changyuan was gnashing his teeth, Su Wu Xiang flipped his wrist.
In his hand suddenly appeared a fragrant pill.
Nine lines upon the pill, its glow restrained, giving off only the scent of grass and wood.
“Look. What’s this?”
Lu Changyuan said, “Where did you get a Heaven-Mending Pill?”
In this world, it was not only the strange item Drunken Red Luan that could repair Lu Changyuan’s Five-Deficiency Body.
The Heaven-Mending Pill could do so as well.
Su Wu Xiang staggered to Lu Changyuan’s side and patted his shoulder.
“One thousand five hundred years ago, my demonic body ate men and grievances. It also ate spirits. And I gathered a portion of the medicinal energy from the spirit plants in the national treasury, fusing them into this pill.”
Lu Changyuan reached out his hand to take the pill, but Su Wu Xiang suddenly drew back his hand, smirking at him.
“Su Wu Xiang!”
“Hey, angry, angry!”
Su Wu Xiang casually tossed the precious pill up.
It landed with perfect precision into Lu Changyuan’s hand.
He turned away, hiding his desolate face.
“All the sins committed before the making of this pill, I will bear for you. Hurry and take it. At least let me see you well, so I can leave without regrets.”