Transcending the Nine Heavens

“Today, you came and looked for me, but you are worried about raising Prince Bu Tian’s suspicions so you’re leaving? You’re even saying I shouldn’t look for you?” Chu Yang sighed, “You’re so old you’re talking rubbish now?”

“Hahaha…”

Hearing what Chu Yang said, Tie Long Cheng’s guards glared, but Tie Long Cheng, himself, just laughed freely and walked out.

Upon reaching the door, he turned his head and looked at Chu Yang, “I like these swords of yours, but one hundred thousand gold taels is too expensive. Rare items, I also have a lot of. But these, I want to save for the soldiers; they are not for exchange. Well, how will I get these swords of yours?”

Chu Yang was beginning to feel dizzy; he had never seen anyone so thick-skinned as this. His talking like that, was it any different from asking me to give him one?

He snapped, “I don’t really want to part with these swords, and certainly will not give them to just anyone. The one person I will not give them to… is you!”

“Hahaha…” Tie Long Cheng was especially cheerful. He laughed until tears came out.

“Boy, in the end, you will have to give them to me. I guarantee this! At that time, I will not accept, leaving you to beg for a while before accepting reluctantly; just you wait and see.”

When he was done speaking, he once again laughed heartily. After leaving such a cryptic message like this, he immediately went out the door and left.

“Want me to beg you? You can keep waiting!” Chu Yang snorted, “It’s not even dark and you’re already having such a nice dream!”

Swooshing sounds were heard outside in a very orderly fashion. Within moments, the whole street was without any soldiers. The soldiers withdrew quickly but did not create any sort of commotion, not even a tiny one.

In the distance, bustling sounds started to ring out. At this time, the street started to recover its liveliness.

Chu Yang turned around and was about to say something when his mouth suddenly opened wide.

In front of him now was only Gu Du Xing. That strange young lady had disappeared. It seemed she had come to talk prices for fun. After not doing anything else, she left without a trace…

“Where did she go?” Chu Yang scratched his head.

“Who cares if she left or not. I have a question for you…” Gu Du Xing looked at him seriously, “You want to intervene in the war between Iron Cloud Nation and Great Zhao Nation, don’t you?”

Chu Yang nodded and replied, “Yes.”

“This is a very stupid decision! You and I are just martial artists. I believe you know what being a martial artist means. The position of martial artists in this Lower Three Heavens, the attitude of the royal court toward martial artists, these are not things you don’t know. What’s more, whether it is the royal court or the battlefield, they are both much more dangerous than Jiang Hu. I don’t think this is a good decision on your part.”

“I know this is not the path for martial artists. I also know about the danger. I am also sure that once I put myself on this path I could die at any time without a place to bury my body. Even so, I still must take it.” Chu Yang looked at Gu Du Xing and said, “Just as you would rather die ten thousand times than not save Gu Miao Ling, I also have similar reasons.”

Gu Du Xing looked straight into Chu Yang’s eyes and saw, in the depth of his eyes, pain mixed with longing. This type of deep emotion was even more profound compared to his love for Gu Miao Ling!

Gu Du Xing slowly nodded. At this moment, he suddenly understood why Chu Yang wanted to help him save Gu Miao Ling. Even though Chu Yang did not say, Gu Du Xing already understood his thoughts.

Chu Yang, too, had a love like that! Therefore, he would not allow any female to suffer an unfortunate fate. He also would not allow a beautiful and sincere love to turn to dust and be buried with time.

It was also at this moment that a warm feeling rose inside of Gu Du Xing.

“If you think this is dangerous then you can still leave now.” Chu Yang said casually, “My promise to help you, I will still keep.”

“I want to leave… but I understand…, the place that can help me cultivate the quickest is the battlefield.” Gu Du Xing smiled. His smile was as bright and warm as the sun, “After all, I already agreed to sell myself to you for ten years. I might want to back out, but honoring my commitment is more important.”

He winked a few times and continued, “You only cared about keeping your own promises. You want me not to keep mine and become a bad person?”

Chu Yang quietly looked at him for a long time before he finally relaxed and smiled, “Yeah, I thought you wanted to take back your words. I didn’t expect this.”

Gu Du Xing laughed out loud and punched Chu Yang on the shoulder hard. The two looked at each other and suddenly laughed. In this moment, a brotherly love, the kind that can weather through storms and hardship, sprouted inside both of them.

You can put out all your efforts for my sake; I can put my life on the line for your sake. It was that simple!

The two young men had officially accepted each other, but neither said a word. On the contrary, they used their previous agreement as an excuse to cover their sincerity.

However, both sides knew that the other person understood their true feelings.

The happiness at this moment was truly warm.

********************

Not too far off from there, within the military’s circle of protection, Tie Long Cheng and that strange young lady were talking quietly with each other.

Tie Long Cheng: “This person is useful. We can use him to do great things.”

Young lady: “Huh? Really?”

“Stop pretending in front of me. Why did you come here? And by yourself, too?”

“…”

“Even though I don’t know why he wants to go head to head with Diwu Qing Rou, when he opened Heavenly Armament Pavilion, the words Heavenly Armament were enough for me to understand his intentions.” Tie Long Cheng smiled, “Surely no one would be stupid enough to open a Heavenly Armament Pavilion in Iron Cloud because these two words ‘Heavenly Armament’ are a taboo here. And yet he did this on purpose. Because of this, I thought he did not know what happened before.”

The young lady nodded, then suddenly turned and asked, “This is why Second Uncle…”

“Hmmm, I came here because of this. Also because when you met him at the citadel gate, you showed interest in him, a little too much interest. Looking for talents like a drought looks for rain is a good thing of course. But you are still young. Your second uncle might be old, but I will help you look at people.” Tie Long Cheng smiled, “I just didn’t think you would be so quick.”

“So everything Second Uncle said to him was all intentional?” The young lady thought for a little and smiled again, “Each sentence carried some meaning? Second Uncle is truly shrewd.”

“Haha, he wants to deal with Diwu Qing Rou and you were also there, so of course, I told him the great price we had to pay for going head to head with Diwu Qing Rou. This was something that was necessary to be done, but those secrets that he spoke of, I don’t even know some of them.”

“But this opened up Second Uncle’s old wounds…” The young lady took a deep breath and said with great gravity, “I know that in this entire Iron Cloud Nation, the one person that really doesn’t want to talk about that year was you, Second Uncle. But today, you brought it up first. Second Uncle did that for me…”

“Also for Iron Cloud.” Tie Long Cheng face became somber, resilience clearly shown on his face, “Not talking about it does not mean it did not happen. If there comes a day when Second Uncle can no longer go into the battlefield, I hope that you people won’t make the wrong judgements because history had concealed the truth. That is why I must talk about it! Even if the wound has already scarred over, it must be uncovered.”