novelraw Chapter 66 : Lu Changyuan’s Reasoning
Chapter 66 : Lu Changyuan’s Reasoning
Chapter 66: Lu Changyuan’s Reasoning
“Young Master!”
Xia Lianxue snapped her eyes open, only to find herself upon a red wooden longsword, and beside her sat her familiar senior sister, Qiu Yuehan.
“No, I want to find Young Master! No… no, I cannot go find him.”
The wooden sword sped forward at an extreme pace, as if heaven and earth, mountains and rivers were all flowing backward.
The girl’s voice was scattered by the wind.
She calmed herself quickly, unlike those foolish women.
She knew that seeking out Lu Changyuan now would only cause all of Lu Changyuan’s prior efforts to be in vain.
But precisely because she understood she could not go, yet still wished to, such a thought gnawed at her more painfully, as though countless ants were biting at her heart, bringing a faint, tearing ache.
Calmness—brought greater pain.
Xia Lianxue closed her eyes in suffering.
Jiang Jiayi bit her own finger, scarlet blood dripping onto the wooden sword: “He said you must believe him. Do you believe him?”
The wooden sword’s speed increased once more.
This sharpest sword in the world was pushed even faster by the blood of her fingertips.
Xia Lianxue silently nodded: “I believe him.
He has never lied to me, never.”
The little fairy repeated it again and again, as if through endless repetition, Lu Changyuan would gain the ability to defy the heavens and overturn Heaven’s Dao itself.
“Junior Sister.” Qiu Yuehan embraced her own shoulders and spoke: “Do not worry too much.”
Though this senior sister already knew her junior sister’s identity was not simple, she still reached out her jade-like hand, gently grasping her junior’s hand: “He will be fine.”
Xia Lianxue only felt her chest clogged, a breath stuck in her throat, making her unbearably uncomfortable.
From afar, thunder suddenly roared, terrifying and soul-shaking, as if lightning turned into serpents that sought to devour everyone.
Under this majestic might of heaven, even cultivators could only hold their breath in fear and silence.
The sky here would no longer brighten.
A hundred thousand miles of mountains were buried beneath oppressive, pitch-black clouds.
Without Xia Lianxue’s death, the sun would never rise.
It was as though the next day would never come, time forever frozen before dawn.
Lu Changyuan stood watching the tribulation lightning, just as he had done many years ago.
The Jade Palace had already sealed its gates, its great formation cutting him off outside.
He had been sitting here cross-legged for two days, his momentum already fully accumulated.
The bleak autumn wind howled, carrying sorrow and the breath of death upon its chill, suffocating all.
Someone approached holding an umbrella—it was the silver-haired Third Princess.
“Three days have already passed two and a half.
At most half a day remains before Feng Xianlong’s remnant technique loses effect.”
Lu Changyuan did not turn back, only responded faintly with an “Mm.”
“Third Highness should not linger here.When the heavenly tribulation falls, you may also suffer injury.”
Su Youwan nodded.
Her mutton-fat jade-like skin glowed faintly in the darkness.
Her face remained expressionless.
“Before Grandmother died, she told you to take care of me. Yet now, it seems I must take care of you. If you die, I will collect your corpse for you.”
Lu Changyuan chuckled lightly: “And how do you know I will surely die?”
Su Youwan cultivated the Heaven’s Dao of Fate, half a specialist in evading heavenly tribulation.
She could sense it—this tribulation, long accumulated, burned with greater fury, possessing at least the power of Jade Radiance of the Seventh Realm.
Before her stood Lu Changyuan, who had not even fully entered the Fifth Realm.
How long could he endure?
The silver-haired girl shook her head: “If you survive, then naturally it is good.
That way, no one will become a widow… I speak of Miss Xia.”
Lu Changyuan looked up at the sky, murmuring: “Third Highness, I feel Heaven’s Dao is truly unreasonable, even arrogant.”
“Mm, Heaven’s Dao has always been like that.”
Su Youwan said: “Mortal men labor their entire lives just to fill their stomachs, enduring endless hardship, yet cannot even secure a peaceful home. Heaven’s Dao ignores such suffering. That is one thing. But if anyone dares to defy it in the slightest, Heaven’s Dao erupts in rage, raining down punishment.”
“Yes.”
“So, if you must truly do this, I will choose you a fine coffin—redwood carved, wound with golden threads, and find you a blessed grave site.”
The Third Princess smiled slightly.
That trace of elegance made even the blood-thunder above lose its brilliance: “That way, you will not turn into a corpse demon.”
Lu Changyuan muttered something ill-omened.
Boom!!!
The tribulation lightning suddenly descended.
Lu Changyuan shouted: “Go!”
The Third Princess said no more, drifting away to a distant spot, raising her umbrella as she watched Lu Changyuan face the tribulation.
The heavenly tribulation had arrived half a day early.
Feng Xianlong’s remnant protection lasted only two and a half days.
This meant Lu Changyuan must endure half a day longer.
Close enough.
So thought Lu Changyuan.
Then the young man rose, holding a three-foot-long sword, facing the heavens: “Since I began cultivation, I deliberately withdrew from the world. The more people I knew, the greater the karmic entanglements. Yet even so, the few friends I had all fell to demonic paths, until only I remained.”
A shallow fate could still be mended with effort; a deep fate gave no room to advance or retreat.
Lu Changyuan recalled many people—Su Wu Xiang, the master of the Sun-Moon Palace, the former master of the Grass-Sword Sect.
But in the end, what surfaced was still that little girl from years ago.
Severed Thought floated at his side, letting out a clear sword cry.
The sword could hear what its master’s heart spoke.
Lu Changyuan’s aura surged upward rapidly, and in the sky another star blazed forth.
The star belonging to the Path of Severed Emotions, long silent, suddenly shone brilliantly—yet only for a moment.
Then, it exploded.
Never had Lu Changyuan’s emotions surged so violently.
No—more precisely, not in a thousand years had he felt such an emotion.
When he tasted it closely, it was—anger.
Fury filled his mind, finally transforming into an overwhelming fire.
From his chest burst forth an unquenchable force, blazing like the burning sun.
“Wu Xiang fell into demonhood—you cast tribulation upon him, I did not stop you.
I ascended to Jade Radiance, broke the rules—you cast tribulation upon me, I accepted it.
But why do you cast down blood-red lightning upon her?”
Lu Changyuan spoke as calmly as if describing last night’s meal.
“When chaos erupted, she safeguarded the mortal world’s peace. As a Seventh Realm Jade Radiance, she never once plunged the world into turmoil.
Only because she sought me, she reversed the river of time.
She harmed no one!”
Xia Lianxue believed she had erred, and so deserved to die under tribulation.
But Lu Changyuan did not.
“She reversed time for me. This cause and effect should be borne by me!”
Debts had debtors, grievances had masters.
It was he, Lu Changyuan, who ought to bear this karma!
“Today, I will reason with you properly!”
The *Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique* shattered completely, his already fractured heart-mind breaking to pieces.
Lu Changyuan’s aura sublimated utterly, the power of Seventh Realm Jade Radiance surging forth, threatening the desolate autumn.
He still had one final sword.
Soon, in his hand appeared a white mask, traced with crescent-shaped golden lines, covering the face.
“I ended the age where men devoured men, suppressed the Desire Demon for a thousand years. I ask you—after cultivating for the world for a thousand years, must I still be unable to protect even my own beloved? Do you think this is right?”
Lu Changyuan slowly placed the mask upon his face, leaving only his eyes exposed—eyes that defied Heaven’s Dao.
The trembling cultivators around no longer feared Heaven’s Dao.
“I do not expect you to answer me. You claim impartiality. Yet she harmed no one.
So I refuse to accept this.”
The blood-colored tribulation lightning seemed ready to scatter and chase after Xia Lianxue.
Lu Changyuan shot upward into the sky.
Behind him, yin and yang qi transformed into an enormous yin-yang fish.
The heavenly tribulation was forcibly halted.
Unless it slew Lu Changyuan, it could not leave this place.
Thus, the rolling thunder struck down furiously.
Lu Changyuan laughed, grinning wide.
Had Xia Lianxue been here, she would have been shocked—Lu Changyuan, showing such intense emotion.
A clear, detached voice of seeing-through resounded across heaven and earth.
“The Path of Severed Emotions—let it remain unpracticed!”
“Today I will speak to you of my reasoning!”
There was a mortal song: White-gold mask, three-foot sword, Chang’an in the world for a thousand years.
Daoist Chang’an reappeared in the mortal world!
Then came the decree:
“Spring and Autumn, Summer and Winter!”
The four seasons of heaven and earth began cycling rapidly.
In an instant, spring, summer, autumn, and winter passed by.
A flower bloomed and withered in mere breaths.
Again and again the cycle turned, and each season condensed into a longsword before Lu Changyuan.
Seizing Heaven’s Dao’s authority over the seasons—transforming it into my swords!
The Spring Sword was Qingyang, the Summer Sword Zhu Ming, the Autumn Sword Bai Cang, the Winter Sword Xuan Yin.
Lu Changyuan spoke again: “Pure Yang, Extreme Yin.”
Spring and Autumn, Summer and Winter merged two by two.
The four seasons alternated, becoming yin and yang, transforming into the Pure Yang Sword and the Extreme Yin Sword.
The massive yin and yang qi clashed head-on against the blood-red lightning.
The vast force tore trees from the ground across thousands of miles, surging waters became torrential rain.
In the sky remained only one small figure, drawing his sword against the devouring thunder.
The wind paused for a moment.
Invisible shockwaves exploded in succession.
The Pure Yang and Extreme Yin swords sliced away half the thunderclouds, and even the blood-red lightning dimmed.
Boom!
Heaven’s Dao grew all the more enraged.
Chaotic lightning turned the hundred thousand mountains into a field of thunder.
Lu Changyuan wiped blood from the corner of his lips: “Today, I want to see—five hundred years since I struck you with that sword, how much progress you have made.”
Yin and yang qi revolved, finally merging once more into the ultimate sword.
“Yin and yang give birth to all things.”
“The pure comes from the turbid, motion arises from stillness.”
The two principles united, black and white returning to the most pristine origin—the One that birthed heaven and earth.
This sword’s name—
Taiyi!
Clear sky, blazing sun, one sword spanning heaven and earth.
Stars and qi, towering might—cleaving heavenly thunder.
This was Lu Changyuan’s reasoning!