19: Chapter 19 The Deception Continues, the Great Truth is Simple!

Su Changge's thoughts stirred slightly.

One hundred emotion points vanished in an instant.

He exchanged them for that tattered book, "Swinging the Sword One Thousand Times."

A thread-bound ancient book, reeking of decay and mold, as if it had just been dug out of some damp cellar, appeared out of thin air in his palm.

The pages felt slightly sticky to the touch.

He did not turn around immediately.

The timing wasn't right; the atmosphere had to be established first.

Su Changge rose slowly, saying nothing, and with his back to Ye Qingyao, paced to the edge of the cliff.

He stood with his hands behind his back, his robes fluttering, his deep gaze fixed on the endless sea of surging clouds beneath his feet.

The fierce wind at the summit howled, whipping up his ink-black hair and wide sleeves, outlining a figure of peerless, solitary detachment—as if he were one with the heavens and earth, yet also independent of the mortal world.

From somewhere unknown, a few withered yellow leaves spiraled down, landing perfectly, brushing past his shoulder as they flew into the abyss, adding three parts desolation and seven parts loneliness to the scene.

Ye Qingyao looked up at her Revered Master's back, her heart tightening abruptly.

"Revered Master... are you displeased?"

Was it because I became arrogant and impatient after achieving some success in my cultivation, causing Revered Master to be disappointed in me?

She felt uneasy in her heart, subconsciously holding her breath, fearing she might disturb that heavy silence.

Just as she was letting her imagination run wild, Su Changge finally spoke.

His voice was carried away by the mountain wind, sounding somewhat ethereal, yet it possessed the power to pierce through the clouds and reach straight into one's heart.

"Qingyao."

"Disciple is here!" Ye Qingyao replied hastily, burying her head even lower.

"Do you know what the Dao is?"

This question was too vast, like an inquiry from the Heavenly Dao, leaving Ye Qingyao's mind blank, not knowing where to begin.

Su Changge did not expect an answer, simply continuing leisurely: "There are three thousand Daos and billions of methods, but they are merely thousands of stairs leading to the summit. Some are heartless, some are murderous, and some seek to save all living beings."

"The Dao has no superiority or inferiority."

"But all methods return to one; their Origin lies only in the word 'Truth'."

The moment his words fell, he turned around abruptly.

He tossed the tattered "Swinging the Sword One Thousand Times" backward, extremely casually.

The action was understated, as if he weren't tossing a Cultivation Technique, but a useless scrap of stone.

Ye Qingyao, however, grew solemn, hurriedly extending both hands to catch the ancient book with the utmost gravity, as if she were holding the weight of the entire world.

Filled with piety and excitement, she couldn't wait to look down at it.

What kind of earth-shattering supreme method had Revered Master bestowed upon her?

However, when she saw the five crooked characters on the cover, resembling a child's graffiti, she froze completely.

"Swinging the Sword One Thousand Times."

She opened the pages in disbelief.

Thrust, parry, hack, chop, lift, collapse, point...

The illustrations, so simple they could be called crude, depicted the basic stances she had already mastered by heart when she started learning the sword at age three.

This...

On Ye Qingyao's beautiful face, the fervent worship quickly faded, replaced by an unmistakable trace of bewilderment and confusion.

She looked up at her Revered Master's indifferent expression, her lips trembling; the word "Why" rolled in her throat several times, but in the end, she dared not ask.

"Revered Master, this..."

She finally couldn't hold it in, her voice trembling slightly.

Su Changge seemed to have anticipated this question long ago.

He turned his back again to avoid exposing the muscles on his face, which were twitching from extreme guilt, to his Disciple, and spoke slowly in an increasingly inscrutable tone:

"The Dao is simplicity; only when the glamor fades can one see the true essence."

"You think this is just a basic sword manual?"

"Wrong!"

Su Changge's voice rose sharply, laced with a sense of regret as if he were lamenting her inability to live up to expectations.

"Your talent is peerless, but because of that, your Foundation is unstable, and your heart is restless! What you pursue are merely those seemingly dazzling Divine Abilities, yet you have neglected the very Foundation of a ten-thousand-foot tower!"

"What is a sword? It is a tool of slaughter! What is the Dao of the sword? It is the Dao of seeking Truth!"

"All illusory sword Moves, all flashy sword lights, in the face of true life and death, are nothing but bubbles! They are far inferior to the simplest, purest thrust or hack!"

"I bestow this method upon you today to strip away the vanity and help you return to the Origin!"

He paused deliberately, letting every word have time to hammer into Ye Qingyao's heart, then his tone became distant and ethereal once more.

"Go to the back mountain."

"Perform this simplest action one thousand times, ten thousand times, one hundred thousand times, one million times!"

"When you can manifest the sound of wind and thunder, the transformation of Yin and Yang, and that unique 'Truth' that belongs only to you within the simplest sword swing..."

"That will be the moment you break through your Bottleneck and your Sword Heart becomes clear!"

After finishing this speech, even Su Changge felt his blood boiling; he almost believed it himself.

Meanwhile, Ye Qingyao, kneeling on the ground, was no longer just struck by lightning; it was as if her entire Divine Soul had been crushed by these words and reshaped anew!

The Dao is simplicity!

Only when the glamor fades can one see the true essence!

Every word of Revered Master's was like a giant axe splitting the heavens and earth, cleaving through all the fog in her heart!

She understood!

She had been wrong, how terribly wrong she had been!

In her past life, she had indeed been too obsessed with the grade of Cultivation Techniques and profound Moves, always thinking that the more complex, the more powerful.

Yet she had never thought of practicing the most basic Moves to the extreme!

When a sword is thrust, can it be faster than a thought?

When a sword is hacked down, can it sever Karma?

This is the Dao!

Revered Master isn't just teaching me a Cultivation Technique; he is pointing me toward an unprecedented, supreme path of the sword that embodies Return to Simplicity!

"Revered Master's righteousness is high! This Disciple... this Disciple was dull-witted!"

"This Disciple has received your teaching!"

The confusion in Ye Qingyao's eyes was swept away, replaced by a flame a hundred times more intense than before—it was the ecstasy of enlightenment!

She clutched the book "Swinging the Sword One Thousand Times" tightly in both hands. At this moment, in her eyes, it was no longer a tattered ancient book, but a supreme scripture carrying the Origin of the sword Dao!

"This Disciple will go to the back mountain now! I swear I will not come out of seclusion until I have practiced the true meaning of the sword!"

Before the last word had faded, she bowed heavily to Su Changge, then transformed into a streak of sword light, charging toward the Forbidden Ground of the back mountain with unprecedented, soaring fighting spirit.

Watching her figure, more excited than if she'd been given a stimulant, disappear into the horizon, Su Changge's tense body instantly went limp, his legs trembling, and he collapsed onto his backside at the edge of the cliff.

"Phew..."

He let out a long, turbid breath, feeling his whole body soaked in cold sweat.

"Oh my god... finally managed to bluff my way through."

"One hundred emotion points for a few years of peace and quiet—this trade was not a loss!"