Chapter 514 – The Descent of Heavenly Music (1/2)
Chapter 514 - The Descent of Heavenly Music
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
There were no opening remarks, no conversation, no foreshadowing, no sudden flurry of wind and snow.
In such an ordinary and uninteresting manner, this battle that was the focus of thousands of gazes began.
Xu Yourong unsheathed the sword very slowly, as if the movement had been divided into countless actions and then put back together again.
As the temple sword emerged from the sheath, the true essence attached to the sword incessantly collided against the sheath, causing the sword to ring out countless times. Combined together, they created a long and timeless sword cry.
The sword had not completely emerged from the sheath, but the attack had already begun.
Her attack was this sword cry which rang out over the Bridge of Helplessness.
The sword cry fell on his ear and went straight into Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness. Though it was invisible, he could clearly sense it.
Everyone on the two banks of the Luo River could hear this sword cry that surged like a wave. On the ship, a few students from the Ivy Academies who had slightly weaker cultivations were affected by the sword cry and paled.
”The South Sea Sword Cry.” Linghai Zhiwang looked at Xu Yourong on the Bridge of Helplessness and commented, ”Myriad stormy waves rise up with the sword. As expected, the Holy Maiden achieved some sort of enlightenment when she cultivated by the South Sea last year.”
On the side, Mao Qiuyu said nothing, only wrinkled his brow.
Upon hearing this sword cry resounding from the Bridge of Helplessness, Tang Thirty-Six and Zhexiu's expressions flickered. Xu Yourong had not truly begun to attack, but she was already so imposing. Could Chen Changsheng cope with it?
Mo Yu raised her eyebrows. Very few people knew that Xu Yourong was most skilled in archery, but she knew. Thus, she had been perplexed as to why Xu Yourong had not utilized the Tong Bow, instead using the temple sword. Was it because she looked down on Chen Changsheng?
Suddenly, she thought of a possibility: Xu Yourong wished to defeat Chen Changsheng in the path of the sword which he was most skilled at? From this, was she seeking to shatter his philosophy of cultivation and destroy any possibility of his becoming Pope?
……
……
The sword cry resounded on the Bridge of Helplessness. Those snowflakes descending from the sky were not affected in the least, but the same could not be said for Chen Changsheng. Because of this sword cry, a ferocious storm seemed to have risen up in his sea of consciousness. Enormous waves reached up to the sky. It made his spiritual sense extremely unstable, and he could even faintly perceive signs that it was about to disintegrate.
It was just the pulling out of a sword, yet it possessed such might?
In the information that Chen Changsheng had looked over, there was nothing mentioning that Xu Yourong was skilled in these sorts of fighting techniques. In the few battles of hers that had been recorded, she displayed understanding of every sort of technique.
Only at this moment did he confirm that Xu Yourong’s cultivation in the path of the sword was actually so profound. She was still far from great masters such as Su Li, but in terms of her comprehension of the principles of the heavens and earth, she was not one bit inferior.
This sword cry was in accordance with the principles of the heavens and earth, a storm that had come from the South Sea.
Chen Changsheng looked at her sword, moving around his spiritual sense and forcefully suppressed the waves in his sea of consciousness.
In truth, the speed at which Xu Yourong pulled out her sword was not at all slow, but because each action was so clear, the scene seemed to move somewhat slowly.
The temple sword leaving its sheath seemed like a very long journey.
Finally, the temple sword reached the end of its journey.
The waves in the Luo River grew even fiercer.
Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness was assailed by this sword cry and was on the verge of instability.
It was precisely at this moment that Chen Changsheng chose to make his move.
Clang!
The space above the Bridge of Helplessness was instantly silenced.
The Stainless Sword emerged from the sheath and stabbed towards a snowflake in the sky.
This attack had no material being, but was instead an illusory strike. The snowflake that was the target of the sword edge was not even affected, continuing its slow descent to the surface of the bridge.
But there was still the clang of a sword.
If it was said that Xu Yourong unsheathing her sword was a very slow process, Chen Changsheng unsheathing his sword was swift to the extreme.
The temple sword had calmly traversed tens of thousands of li while his sword had shot up straight from the earth to the heavens.
A silver vase burst.
(TN: This is part of a line from the poem ”Pipa Song” by Bai Juyi, meaning a sudden cracking sound.)
A crisp cry.
A crisp sword cry abruptly appeared and then entered the sword cry of the temple sword.
The sword cry, distant and calm, yet holding the power of countless storms, momentarily paused.
The instant the temple sword departed from the sheath, the sword cry once more rang out, even brighter than before.
Chen Changsheng drew back his sword and lightly rotated his body, almost as if he was using his sleeve to shoo away that falling snowflake.
Another illusory strike descended from the sky and back to shore, dashing apart the waves.
Wind entered the mountain cave.
It howled.
With these two sword sounds ringing out, the sword cry finally came to a stop.
Silence once more fell over the Bridge of Helplessness.
……
.……
……
As Mao Qiuyu, Linghai Zhiwang, and the rest looked at the bridge one li away, gazed at the young woman atop the bridge, they felt rather complex emotions.
This battle had begun just moments ago—Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong had only taken out their swords—but the mystery and danger within were not any less that of a battle between two ordinary initial level Star Condensation cultivators.
Everyone on the great ship honestly asked themselves, if the person standing there were themselves at that age, would they be an opponent for these two youths? The final verdict made them sigh with sorrow: perhaps they would have lost when Xu Yourong pulled out her sword. As for those cultivators of the path of the sword, when they saw this scene, their minds were agitated and they were filled with a boundless sense of defeat. They thought, when compared to Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng, can my sword even deserve to be called a sword?
”What sort of sword technique is this?” someone asked from the crowd.
No person responded to his question.
Mao Qiuyu sighed, ”Chen Changsheng's response was truly genius.”
People such as they could naturally see that the sword style Chen Changsheng had used was South Stream Temple's Descent of Heavenly Music.