A Painful Choice

Keke struggled to hold one end of the Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge, preventing the Green Lotus Celestial Maiden from using its power.

Primordial, Tongtian, Zhunti, Chiyou, and the others pressed forward together. The Green Lotus Celestial Maiden finally changed color—she knew they intended to destroy her.

In single combat, she had already lost. Now they came to demand an accounting. At the Half-Ancestor realm, each of them was decisive. When it was time to strike, they struck without hesitation, killing without a furrowed brow.

“I wish to keep Ruoshui’s body…” That was Xiao Chen’s last wish. Ruoshui’s consciousness had already been utterly crushed, leaving him no room for false hope.

“A mere shell—what use is it?” Tongtian snorted coldly.

Primordial nodded as well. “If we spare her flesh, it will be impossible to kill the Green Lotus Maiden.”

Things had reached this point. The Half-Ancestors would never let the Green Lotus Maiden escape. Even for the sake of the Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge, they could not stop now.

Zhunti, holding the Seven-Colored Ferocious Sword leveled at the Green Lotus Maiden, turned to Xiao Chen and asked calmly, “Kill or not kill?”

Tongtian raised all four of his swords, also pointing at the Green Lotus Maiden. Their edges were icy cold, sharp radiance flashing from every blade. They waited silently for him to decide.

Kill or not kill?

For Xiao Chen, this was cruel beyond measure. The Green Lotus Maiden could not be kept alive—letting her go would leave infinite calamity. But… what about Ruoshui’s body? Should it be destroyed as well, leaving behind not even the faintest trace?

What should he do?

Would he raise his blade against the body of his former love?

This was a dilemma.

“Hahaha…” The Green Lotus Maiden burst into loud laughter.

Never had Xiao Chen faced a choice so difficult. It was a painful and agonizing decision. He grew silent, thinking for a very long time.

Ruoshui was gone. An empty shell remained. What purpose did it serve? Killing the Green Lotus Maiden would be justice for Ruoshui—a sacrifice to her memory.

After a long silence, he reached his decision.

Let her flesh dissolve. Leaving it for the Green Lotus Maiden to use was an insult, a desecration.

“Kill…” Xiao Chen roared, making the decision in agony. His hair flew wildly; he closed his eyes. The corners of his eyes grew wet, and teardrops slid down his face.

The moment he shouted, he felt as if he had collapsed. Could a man with feelings really make such a decision? He felt his heart splinter, his chest aching beyond words.

Tongtian—whose ferocious name shook the Four Realms—made the first move. All four of his ferocious swords rose together and slashed forward. Zhunti followed immediately, his seven-colored ferocious sword blazing as it hacked down. Primordial swung his ancient staff, tearing through space as it swept across.

Half-Ancestors struck in unison.

“How cruel your heart…” The Green Lotus Maiden stared at Xiao Chen.

“Eh…”

Someone cried out in surprise. On the Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge, a lotus stone carving had appeared, so lifelike it seemed to be a real flower growing there.

The Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge had no patterns, but now a lotus carving had appeared.

“Is that… the Green Lotus Maiden’s original body?”

“She was a stone carving on this bridge?!”

Even the Half-Ancestors changed color. If a single carving on this ancient bridge had, after endless ages, become a living creature, then the bridge itself was truly extraordinary!

The ancient stone bridge was filled with the vicissitudes of time. The scratches left by swords, knives, and halberds were clear and real, suggesting that in an age long past, supreme experts had fought atop this bridge—beings far beyond the Half-Ancestor level.

Even the Half-Ancestors’ divine treasures could not leave such deep marks on the stone bridge.

Three War Swords were embedded in the stone bridge, motionless. None of the Half-Ancestors went to pull them out. After flying onto the bridge, they all fell into silence.

“That is…”

Xiao Chen’s heart trembled. Beside the lotus carving, he saw another hazy silhouette—mournful, despairing, lonely, bewitching, forlorn… It was Ruoshui’s figure, a carving that tore at the heart.

Why was this so? How had her image been imprinted on the Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge? Was it heaven’s will, unwilling to let him forget? Xiao Chen’s heart quaked. He seized one of the War Swords that had been fixed in the Lost Paradise, and came trembling before the carving. Calming his mind, he chiseled the girl’s image out of the bridge.

The Half-Ancestors around him watched with sharp gazes, but seeing that he had not damaged the bridge itself, they said nothing.

Xiao Chen placed Ruoshui’s carving into the Lost Paradise. Facing those sorrowful, despairing eyes, his heart shuddered; he could hardly bear to look at them.

Beside the carving, he erected a stone tablet and carved the name Ruoshui. Even if his memory faded soon, he would still know this girl’s name.

When he finished, he drove the War Sword back into the Lost Paradise. He had never felt so exhausted in his life. Weakly, he said to Keke, “Let go of the bridge. We’re leaving.”

The little beast was also struggling. Though the Lost Paradise was extraordinary, its owner had wasted too much time in recent years; his cultivation had not advanced, and he could not draw the bridge inside.

“Boom!”

The moment Keke released the Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge, it erupted with a surge of immense energy that blasted even the eleven Half-Ancestors back. But they immediately charged forward again, surrounding it on all sides.

Xiao Chen did not wish to contend for the bridge—partly because he could not, and partly because his heart was not in it. Grief weighed eternally on him. The whole world seemed dark; he wanted nothing more than to leave this place at once.

He flew to Old Man Taihao’s side, took one last look at Qingqing, who was still peacefully asleep, and with Keke transformed into a beam of light shooting into the distance.

Chiyou transmitted his voice: “If you need anything, come to Changyang Mountain. I will soon go there to rescue a friend from confinement.”

Taihao and the Xuanwu Patriarch also transmitted their voices: they would jointly teach Qingqing their techniques; he could seek them overseas if needed.

Primordial’s cold voice followed: “If disciples of the Green Lotus Maiden come seeking revenge, we will handle them. After this, our ties are settled; the cause and effect ends here.”

Tongtian and Zhunti also nodded in agreement.

Xiao Chen did not reply. He flew all the way back to the Nine Provinces.

Ruoshui’s shadow finally vanished completely from his heart. Yet he still felt an unspeakable grief. Eventually, he knew only that he had lost someone very important, but he would soon forget who it was.

“Ya-ya…” Keke gently grasped a lock of Xiao Chen’s hair, looking at him with concern.

Home. At that moment, Xiao Chen had only one thought: return to his homeland, to that warm house.

Mountain Beyond Mountain was at the village gate. When he saw Xiao Chen, he grinned foolishly.

Xiao Chen’s parents were overjoyed to see him back—a wandering son always worried the old, and Xiao Chen had been missing for eight years.

For the next three whole months, Xiao Chen did not seek out Liu Mu, Yizhen, or any of the others. He did not set foot outside his door. He became lost. Now he felt that he had lost his direction, as if he had no goal left to strive for, like a lone boat adrift on the vast sea.

Where should he go from here?

Grow stronger? Become the strongest? Suddenly, he had lost that drive.

He was listless, sunken into a state of powerlessness.

Xiao Chen’s parents saw it and worried. They sensed his despondency. Though he forced a smile every day, a mother and father could feel the bitterness behind that smile.

They forcibly pushed him out of the house. Childhood friends—Great Zhou, Xiao Hu, Er Bing, Xiucai, Bald Head—dragged him to the county town for a temple fair.

After three months of confinement at home, suddenly coming to the crowded marketplace stirred the still heart within him. From absolute stillness to extreme motion, in that brief instant Xiao Chen had a sudden insight. Stillness and motion were so stark in that moment. Shifting from one environment to another abruptly, even his state of mind changed in an instant.

In the month that followed, his childhood friends often dragged him out—wading for fish in the Yellow River, hunting in the wilderness, trekking through distant Gobi deserts, listening to stories at the Baicao Hall.

Slowly, Xiao Chen's lost heart began to steady. Gradually, he found himself again.

A very important woman in his life had vanished. He had already forgotten her face. But the road still stretched ahead—why let his mind dwell on the moment of ‘losing’? What was gone was gone. Self-blame and despair were useless. He still had to move forward.

Perhaps that mysterious power had helped him cut away that girl's shadow precisely so he could continue advancing.

Xiao Chen’s state of mind began to transform. He felt as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun.

“Whether it was love or conviction, the road still must be walked. I decide to begin anew.”

With the Eight-Aspect Extreme, he roamed the Eastern Sea at dawn and traveled to the Western wastes at dusk. He crossed the Gobi and ventured into grasslands. In the next two months, his heart underwent a true transformation.

Having grown accustomed to spring blossoms and autumn moons, entering a battlefield thick with murderous aura gave him a different feeling. Long settled in the clamor of the city, traveling a stretch of Gobi’s desolation provided a separate kind of experience. Having seen the chatter of a small stream, witnessing the roar of the ocean inevitably brought a new insight.

For months he did not cultivate, yet his power surged—his state of mind rose, his cultivation realm transformed. He even broke into the Sixth Heaven of Sky-Mastery.

This gave Xiao Chen an even deeper understanding. Imperceptibly, he had undergone a journey of heart-training.

“Who can walk a path of ceaseless triumph?” That was his greatest realization.

Without the raging of dark storm clouds, how could the colorful rainbow blaze high? Without the dim closing of dusk’s glow, how could the dawn’s radiance be reborn? Without the gray low points of life, how could one appreciate the lofty feeling of looking down from the peak?

Change your perspective. Change your mindset. Reexamine the past, and everything will be completely different.

Seeing Xiao Chen revitalized, Keke was the happiest of all. The little creature held a Yin Wood Ginseng Fruit and ate contentedly, no longer sleeping the days away as before.

Filled with surging power, Xiao Chen’s Martial Body advanced another layer. Though the Nine Provinces were gravely lacking in spiritual energy, a pure martial artist cultivated the strength within himself—the outside world’s energy deficiency had little effect on him.

He wanted to grow stronger. To stand at the pinnacle and see all mountains small—that was his goal.

A certain woman in his life had drifted away with the wind. Though a faint ache remained, he no longer wallowed in the past. Now he felt no fetters in his heart—nothing could stop his climb to the ultimate martial realm.

This was a great era. Martial, Spell, Soul, and Qi would sooner or later reappear together in the world. Wind and clouds were converging; he could not avoid it. He could only advance.

When Xiao Chen reentered the cultivation world, news came crashing down on him.

Dragon kings warred across the four seas; blood stained a thousand leagues of ocean. All the young dragon kings from Dragon Island had reappeared in the mortal world. Backed by various great powers, they fought for the Ancestral Dragon’s qi, competing for the Dragon Sovereign’s throne.

Half-Ancestors like Yu the Great and Houyi from the cultivation world descended to the mortal realm. They had friction with Zhunti, Primordial, Tongtian, and others, but had not yet truly gone to war. They were now recruiting disciples, seeming intent on establishing their teachings in the mortal world.

Chiyou struggled mightily at Changyang Mountain. He was about to free an ancient war god who had been sealed for endless ages, but failed several times.

Younger generations of the cultivation world and the World of Immortality clashed constantly, from the Nine Provinces to the overseas islands. It looked as though they would erect arenas to compete for the title of Number One among the younger emperor candidates.