627: Chapter 617 Imperial Tutor (17)

The spirit boat crashed outside the city, its hull snapped in the middle, and the array patterns were still flickering, flashing on and off, intermittently.

The medical Cultivator sat in a pool of blood, silver needles clutched in his hand, his eyes vacant.

A line of wounded stretched out before him.

Some had lost half their bodies.

Others clutched their severed arms, refusing to let go.

A young Cultivator kept his eyes open, his mouth constantly calling for reinforcements.

By the end, his voice was gone.

Lu Xingzhou crouched down and closed his eyes for him.

The young Cultivator was not old; his face still bore lingering traces of youth, and he clutched a cracked protective talisman in his hand.

Lu Xingzhou took out the protective talisman and placed it inside his robes.

In the distance, someone was crying.

The sobbing was very low, as if they lacked the strength even to weep.

Jiang Tinglan stood on a half-ruined city wall, her armor soaked in blood, a broken sword still gripped in her hand.

"The eastern front is gone." Her voice was hoarse.

"There has been no news from the two cities to the north either."

"Thirty percent of the Disciples from the Academy have already perished."

Lu Xingzhou did not turn around.

He gazed outside the city.

The black tide had retreated, but not far.

They had withdrawn temporarily, but could surge back at any moment.

"How much longer can we hold?"

Jiang Tinglan was silent for a moment.

"If there are no new reinforcements, three months."

"If the black tide comes even more fiercely next time..." She did not finish the second half of the sentence.

Lu Xingzhou understood.

There would be no days left.

The sword was still in his hand.

But for the first time, he felt this sword was very light.

So light that it felt as if it could not hold the lives of so many people behind him.

With the current Nine Continents, it could not be held.

There was only one person left who could truly turn this around.

Qin Yun.

Lu Xingzhou closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he had already made his decision.

The mountain was very quiet.

So quiet that it did not seem like a corner of the Nine Continents.

Bamboo leaves were stirred by the wind, a stream flowed through the cracks in the rocks, and outside the small house on the mountainside stood a wooden table, upon which sat a pot of tea and a game of chess.

The tea was still hot.

The game was unfinished.

Qin Yun sat before the table, dressed in grey with white hair, his expression indifferent.

He was quiet to the point of coldness.

Not cold.

Nor hot.

Lu Xingzhou walked up the mountain step by step.

His armor was not removed.

His robes were stained with blood.

The wound on his left shoulder was still oozing blood, and his Divine Soul had cracks.

Yet, he walked very steadily.

Qin Yun raised his eyes to look at him.

"You have come."

Lu Xingzhou did not offer pleasantries.

"Sir, the Nine Continents cannot be held."

Qin Yun placed a chess piece.

"I know."

Lu Xingzhou stood before the table, his voice lowered.

"The rift in the Heavenly Abyss is expanding, and the black tide is stronger than the last time.

Academy Disciples are dying, the Taichu Divine Sect is dying, and the remnants of the Xuanyang Heavenly Palace are also dying."

"The Mortals cannot be fully evacuated."

"The Sects cannot hold."

"The younger generation has not yet grown up."

"If you do not descend the mountain, Sir, the Nine Continents will perish."

Qin Yun looked at the chessboard.

"This is not the final turmoil."

Lu Xingzhou's fingers tightened abruptly.

Qin Yun continued: "The source of the darkness has not truly emerged yet.

What is happening now is merely a probing, and also a depletion."

"If I were to strike now, I could suppress it for a time.

But what about the next time?

And the time after that?"

"If the Nine Continents always waits for one person to save it, it will never be able to stand on its own."

Lu Xingzhou looked at him, bloodshot veins in his eyes.

"Sir, this is not a matter of waiting or not.

They are dying right now."

Qin Yun finally raised his head.

"The world has its own cycles of rise and fall.

The death of a city or a region, in the span of eternity, is not a decisive thing."

Lu Xingzhou was silent for a moment.

He suddenly laughed.

There was no mockery in that laugh, only exhaustion.

"The death of a city or a region." He repeated it once.

"Has Sir seen that young boy who could not close his eyes?

He was still calling for reinforcements before he died."

"Has Sir seen the medical Cultivator sitting in blood, his hand shaking so much that he could not even hold a needle?

Have you seen a child clutching their mother's corpse, asking why she will not wake up?"

Qin Yun did not answer.

Lu Xingzhou took a step forward.

"Sir, you once walked among the Mortal realm.

You taught me that the strong are not meant to be high above, but to see the catastrophes that lie further ahead."

"You taught me that the sword is the path taken after descending the mountain.

You taught me that if there is suffering below the mountain, the Immortal should descend."

Qin Yun's fingertips paused.

"I stand higher, so I see further.

What you see now is the suffering before your eyes.

What I see is that if I exhaust my Origin now, when the true tribulation of the future arrives, no one in the Nine Continents will be able to block it."

Lu Xingzhou's eyes sank.

"Sir.

If for the sake of a future tribulation, one can watch the people before their eyes die,

then who are the people being saved in the future?"

The wind in the mountains paused.

Qin Yun did not speak.

Lu Xingzhou's voice did not rise; instead, it became steadier.

"Sir, it is not that you do not understand pain.

You understand it all.

It is just that you have stood too high, for too long, so long that you have come to view the blood of the Mortal realm as mere dots on a chessboard."

Qin Yun looked at him.

There was neither joy nor anger in his eyes.

Lu Xingzhou looked at him as well.

"Sir, I did not come to argue about winning or losing with you.

I only came to ask you to descend the mountain.

The Nine Continents need you."

Qin Yun shook his head slowly.

"I will not descend the mountain."

These words were very soft.

The mountain suddenly fell quiet.

Lu Xingzhou stood there for a long time.

So long that the tea had gone cold.

So long that the chess piece on the board remained in its original spot.

He finally took a step back.

"I understand."

Qin Yun did not bid him stay.

Lu Xingzhou turned, walked a few steps, and then stopped.

He did not turn back.

"Sir.

The character for Immortal is composed of a person on the left and a mountain on the right.

The person is in front, the mountain is behind."

Qin Yun's gaze finally flickered slightly.

Lu Xingzhou continued: "There are no Immortals in this world.

There are only people who have climbed the mountain.

The world can exist without mountains, but it cannot exist without people.

The most important thing is the people."

After he finished speaking, he continued walking down the mountain.

His back was very weary.

Yet, it did not sway in the slightest.

He had not won the argument.

Nor had he obtained an answer.

He had simply said everything that needed to be said.

From this point on, he would no longer ask of anyone.

The mountain was quiet again.

Qin Yun sat before the table, the chess piece in his hand suspended in mid-air.

It did not fall for a long time.

The mountain breeze brushed by, and the chilled water in the teacup swayed gently.

The person in front.

The mountain behind.

This sentence echoed in his heart once.

And then again.

He looked out beyond the mountain.

There, one could not see the flames of war.

Only clouds and mist.

He suddenly remembered what that young boy had said many years ago in a ruined temple.

If an Immortal only stands on the mountain and refuses to descend, then the person part of the character is lost.

A ripple stirred in the depths of Qin Yun's eyes.

But soon, that ripple was suppressed again.

The tea had gone cold.

The chess piece fell.

The mountain was silent.

When Lu Xingzhou returned to the battlefield, the black tide had already pressed forward again.

He did not mention Qin Yun again.

No disappointment.

No complaints.

He simply gripped his sword again and stood at the very front.

A heavily wounded general wanted to charge with him, but he pressed down on his shoulder.

"Take the people and retreat.

I will cover the rear."

"Mr. Lu..."

"Go."

The general gritted his teeth and led the remaining troops and Mortals in a retreat.

Lu Xingzhou raised his sword and moved forward.

The black tide engulfed him.

He slashed with his sword, forcefully carving out a bloody path.

A young Cultivator was surrounded by Fallen Beings; he charged in and threw the person toward the rear.

A Disciple of the Academy had their Divine Soul entangled by polluted black threads; he used the Sword Book to sever the threads, but was himself backlashed, vomiting blood.

He was becoming more and more severely injured.

Yet he always stood at the very front.

After seven consecutive bloody battles, the frontline of the Nine Continents collapsed nonetheless.

Lu Xingzhou stood upon a broken city, watching the black tide expanding in the distance.

He finally confirmed it.

The front line could not be held.

He could only go for a decapitation strike.

If the Green Lotus were still there, perhaps he could borrow its power to reseal the Heavenly Abyss.

If the Green Lotus did not respond, then he would enter the Heavenly Abyss.

Meet the Emperor.

Exchange his life.

Lu Xingzhou did not explain to many people.

He only handed the Academy Command Token to Jiang Tinglan.

"If I do not return, the Academy is left to you all."

Jiang Tinglan's face turned pale.

"Where are you going?"

Lu Xingzhou looked toward the Heavenly Abyss.

"To find an answer.

If I cannot find it, I will leave my life behind."

After speaking, he set off alone.

Deep in the Heavenly Abyss.

The remnants of the Green Lotus floated in the darkness, its brilliance very faint.

Lu Xingzhou reached out his hand, trying to resonate with the Green Lotus.

There was no response.

He tried again with the Body Scripture, the Sword Book, and the supreme Origin of the Supreme Body to touch it.

Still, there was no response.

The Green Lotus remained silent.

As if it did not recognize him.

Lu Xingzhou did not stay disappointed for long.

He withdrew his hand and continued walking downward.

"The Green Lotus does not respond.

Then I shall find the Emperor."

The further he went, the heavier the pressure became.

The Law of the Heavenly Abyss descended on its own.

Lu Xingzhou's dao fruit began to tremble.

His supreme Supreme Body was compressed until his bones rattled, and the Sword Book vibrated incessantly within his Sea of Consciousness.

He finally saw that figure.

He could not see its face clearly.

Nor could he see its form clearly.

He only knew it was there.

Merged with the darkness.

Lu Xingzhou drew his sword.

The first sword strike was unleashed.

The sword light submerged into the darkness, like a clay ox entering the sea.

The second strike.

The third strike.

The Body Scripture, the Sword Book, and the Supreme Body were all pushed to their limits.

It was useless.

It was completely not on the same level.

A wisp of will pressed down, and Lu Xingzhou was smashed into the stone wall of the Heavenly Abyss.

His bones shattered.

His Divine Soul cracked.

The sword fell from his hand, but he grabbed it back in one motion.

He stood up shakily.

He still moved forward.

In the depths of the darkness, there was no sound.

Only boundless pressure continued to descend.

Lu Xingzhou was crushed until he knelt.

He propped himself up with his sword and stood again.

He was pressed down again.

And stood again.

He knew he could not win.

From the first moment he saw the Emperor, he knew.

Then, he would not seek victory.

He raised his head; there was no madness in his eyes, only calmness.

He began to burn the Origin of his Supreme Body.

He consumed the dao rhyme of the Sword Book.

He burned his own life count.

He regarded himself as the final blade.

No one on the mountain responded.

Then he, as a person, would fill the gap.

His body began to glow.

Not brilliantly.

It was the burning before disintegration.

Just at the moment he was about to completely sacrifice himself.

Above the Heavenly Abyss, the Green Lotus, which had been silent for eternity, suddenly shone with great brilliance.

One blossom.

Two blossoms.

Three blossoms.

The Green Lotus bloomed one after another from the darkness, illuminating the Heavenly Abyss.

Lu Xingzhou looked up abruptly.

Deep in the darkness, that ancient path, which had long since vanished, also slowly lit up at this moment.

One inch.

And another inch.

As if someone had reopened the path leading to the past.