Nightfall

The clouds and thunders had disappeared.

The wooden sword shakily flew back from the Verdant Canyon, quietly suspending in the air.

Ye Su slightly raised his eyebrows.

He knew Jun Mo was strong, but not that strong.

Only after getting surpassing the Five States, one was able to make his own rules in Haotian’s world.

Second Brother hadn’t yet crossed over the Five States, but he had turned the rules into his own by his strong faith.

In a sense, his way had exceeded the Five States.

Ye Su gradually calmed down.

He had finished his attack, and it was Second Brother’s turn.

Looking at the Verdant Canyon, he put his hands behind his back and calmly said, “Please.”

Second Brother moved.

His sword was simpler.

The broad straight iron sword flew away from his right hand, over the Verdant Canyon.

As long as a person’s height when set on the ground, the iron sword slowly flew toward the field.

The ground from the Verdant Canyon to the field was covered with blood.

It was the blood of the cavalrymen and the horses from two days ago.

It looked bloody and gave off an terrible smell.

The soil in front of the field even turned black as ink.

The iron sword flew over the bloody ground, without being contaminated.

On the contrary, it became more assertive.

Determinedly assertive.

Cold and aggressive.

Second Brother and Ye Su had never fought before.

They had met each other, but their swords hadn’t.

This time, they finally had the chance.

The iron sword had killed hundreds of people.

Hundreds of people’s blood dyed the ground.

Therefore, the blood belonged to the iron sword.

It was fostered and urged by its own blood.

It moved after Ye Su, which was for the sake of etiquette.

Even Ye Su could not dodge this powerful sword.

He had to defend.

In the south, Liu Bai slowly stood up by the carriage. Looking at the iron sword, he said, “Finally, it is getting interesting.”

The battle in Verdant Canyon had lasted for two days and the strongest man was waiting for Jun Mo at his strongest.

Looking at the iron sword, he finally felt interested, which meant that Second Brother at this time was in his strongest phase.

The iron sword was indeed interesting.

More interesting than Liu Bai expected.

It still represented Second Brother’s rules.

Black or white, no gray.

Alive or dead, one or the other.

To fight or defeat, no one could evade.

Facing such an aggressive sword, everyone should make a decisive choice.

There was only one way, going in one direction.

There was no third way in the world and no weeds on the wall could stand still.

The sword had gone beyond all expectation.

It gave its enemies a chance to choose, and then it would smash and eliminate them.

This was a kingly way.

How would people choose between life and death?

Even if they didn’t care for it, they had to choose.

Just because they had too much in sight, they didn’t know how to choose.

It was also a failure if they didn’t choose.

This was the puzzle from the iron sword to Ye Su.

Ye Su didn’t answer to the iron sword.

Since the sword represented Second Brother’s rules, if he took it, it was equal to accepting his rules which could not be changed no matter how he tried.

However, the iron sword needed to be taken.

What could he do?

Ye Su made the field to take the sword.

The field was his rule.

Before the iron sword came out of the Verdant Canyon, he had been putting his hands behind him.

The breeze created by his sleeves slightly blew over the field.

Then the iron sword flew into the field.

The field of rice divided in two, waving like a lake, a sea, and green pines in the mountains.

The weeds on the ridge were stained with blood.

The matured rice was stained with blood.

The iron sword flew over the weeds, smashing them into dust, which flew up and fell on the ground.

The matured rice fell down as the sword flew.

Losing its heavy seeds, the rice straightened up, rebounding its leaves into the air.

The ears of rice fell to the ground and the seeds bounced into the sky along with the leaves before they touched the ground.

The bran covering the seeds cracked, revealing the round crystal grains.

The grains flew around, reflecting sunlight like pearls which looked extraordinarily beautiful.

The grains in the sky, burned by the sunshine, smelled fragrant.

The grains on the ground, being dyed bloody, immersed in the earth.

Green rice leaves grew in the soil.

They sturdily grew up to the sky.

In an instant, the field of rice had experienced harvest, death, and rebirth.

The rice’s life just happened in front of people.

It was a continuous processes in the perfect harmony circles with no boundary, which even the flying iron sword could not find the dividing line.

It was still flying forward in silence.

The growth of rice suddenly speeded up, whooshing.

The iron sword created a hurricane over the rice.

Ye Su’s wooden sword suspended in front of him and was swayed by the hurricane like a frail boat in the rice sea.

The boat had no power and was swayed by the push of the rice and wind.

No matter how strong the waves were and how fierce the wind was, the small boat had never sunk, rising and falling in the dark sea with white waves.

A moment ago, it disappeared in the sea.

The next moment, it showed up once again.

The boat had no deck nor cabin.

It was the wooden sword, the simplest piece of wood.

It aimlessly floated in the sea of life and death.

It asked for neither survival nor death.

Therefore, nothing could control it either.

Some time passed.

The wind stopped and the sea calmed down as if nothing had happened.

Only the seedlings on the ground could prove what had happened.

Ye Su reached and caught some grains.

They were full and burned by the sun, turning yellow and having a good smell.

He put a grain into his month.

He slowly chewed with a smile on his face, carefully tasting it.

“Over ten years ago when I traveled around many countries, I believed I had stopped caring for life and death and stopped being scared. I believed I and my sword had merged together, and it knew me as a second me,” said Ye Su.

Ye Su sprinkled the rest of the rice to the ground and said with a smile, “If I faced your sword at that time, I would have taken it and lost.”

“Until a few years ago, when I stabbed Mr. First across space against the sun on the Snow-capped Peak with my pure sword intent, I realized that I was completely wrong.”

Ye Su stopped smiling and calmly said, “Because that sword I was proud of, never hit Mr. First. It didn’t even stir up the water in the pool.”

“Mr. First was reading books by the pool and he didn’t even look at my sword or think of it at all. Until that moment, I realized that… seeing through was a joke.”

“After that, I went to Chang’an and lived in a small Taoist temple for a long time. I saw the Taoist temple collapsing and my neighbor’s roofs breaking. I was no longer supermundane. I was feeling them. I began to repair the temple and houses for them and finally understood the truth of ‘first destroy and then build’.”

Looking at the blood in the field, he continued, “Blood represents death, but it can fertilize the field. The blood-rice must be delicious.”

“Frist destroy and then build. This is the circle of life.”

“There is no death in the world.”

Second Brother looked at him and suddenly said, “There is.”

Ye Su said, “I know. But in our time, there is no death.”

Second Brother said, “Life and Death, how can you break them?”

“The Buddhism and Taoism both ask for the last great peace.”

“Seeing through life and death is aimed toward the last peace. However, at this moment, I understand death is eternal and life is lucky, both of which are full of joy. Why should people have to be in peace?”

“That kind of peace is false.”

“Facing life and death, people should follow their hearts. That is real.”

“This is my view of life and death now.”

“It seems simple and powerless, but it can’t be broken.”

“Neither by your sword nor by anything in the world.”

Upon hearing this, Second Brother thought for a moment and said, “You have approached the Tao.”

Ye Su said, “But I haven’t attained the Tao.”

Second Brother said, “However, your Tao has deviated from Haotian’s.”

Ye Su said, “Tao exists in the heart of Heaven. Maybe this is the Tao Haotian teaches me.”

Second Brother asked, “If it isn’t, what will you do?”

Looking at the rice and seedlings, he answered after a long silence, “I have my sword.”

He reached out his hand to the golden rice sea.

He held the wooden sword.

Everyone had his own Tao.

This was irrelevant to faith and piety.

Someone like Ye Su was bound to develop his own Tao.

Second Brother’s question was practical.

So was Ye Su’s answer.

He was prepared.

This represented a shocking fact.

If Haotian agreed with his Tao, he would remain pious.

If not, he had his sword.

Since his Tao had been built, he would like to hold on to it.

Ye Su was a genius as well as a determined believer of Haotian, because of which the Abbey Dean took him as a disciple.

However, he had changed.

Maybe since he was in the wilderness, or in the temple in Chang’an.

Anyway, he held his own sword.

The sword dared to question the Heavens.

How powerful he must be.

At this moment, he was a believer of Haotian.

The Wayfarer of the Haotian Taoism.

He didn’t need to question the Heavens.

Instead, he asked Jun Mo.

Was Jun Mo able to take it?