Chapter 166 Lotus Blade (2/2)

She did not understand and even did not have extra state of mind to give it a guess.

Shen Lian’s eyes were deep and quiet, as though countless births and deaths took place within, the massacre of life and death followed as a matter of course of the natural law. If he wanted to kill Chao Xiaoyu, it was him doing the heavens a justice, like how the Gods would send massive floods as warnings to the people. Even if you died, you could not blame him.

Even when Shen Lian had this earth-shaking power and influence, Chao Xiaoyu still dared to stare straight at Shen Lian. For these two, the hundred feet distance was as though they were standing in front of each other.

There was light in Chao Xiaoyu’s eyes. It was not daylight but an indescribable gaze. It was as though her psyche had reached its peak and her eyes could brighten everything in the dark, there was no need for starlight and moonbeam, there was even no need for fire or campfire.

This was the spirit condensed by her through the Book of Nine Lotus, it was a physical example of her spirit reaching a peak.

In the beginning, there was Dao, and the Dao was with the gods. 3[3]

Even though the path of Shen was outside the normal family, but Shen itself was at the same level as Dao.

The indifference from ruling over the beings of the world came from her gaze, it was merciless and absolutely ruthless.

The white lotus beneath Chao Xiaoyu disappeared. To be more precious, it did not disappear per say but a nine petal lotus appeared on her smooth back like a pair of wings. It caused her to float in midair and while she moved simultaneously, her speed was so fast that it was beyond comprehension.

The instrument had mingled with her mind and spirit, as though it was a part of her own flesh and blood. It was hard to separate the two and it could take the form of the shape she wanted at a thought.

One of the ten-petal loti flew out and landed on Chao Xiaoyu’s jade-like exquisite hand.

There was a blade in her hand that was made out of lotus petals, with the galaxy like glow pulsating through it. The Qi dynamic of the two clashed continuously. The sky darkened shortly as uncountable black clouds began to gather. It soon returned to darkness at the break of daylight.

The dark clouds did not come so randomly. With the two powerful cultivators brazenly waiting for each other’s momentum to climb to new heights while at the same time, the Qi dynamic continuously tangled, it was natural to cause such an air flow of the wind and clouds in this universe.

This was known as ‘Sympathic of the Gods and Humans’ in Daoism, it was a sign of the cultivators reaching a degree of being with one with the universe.

If it was the spiritual pressure given out by an extremely tyrannical demon king, it would be very scary when traveling because it was the demon fog that blocked the sun and sky, covering everything, unlike how Shen Lian and Chao Xiaoyu was causing the black clouds to gather together slowly.

There was a distinct hum when the blade appeared, as though there were endless soundings of strings vibrating through the Qi of Vitality and the lake waters. Almost at the same moment, Chao Xiaoyu and Shen Lian both disappeared.

Because it was too fast, the human eyes already could not see clearly, which gave the effect that these two had disappeared.

On the rippling lake waters, there was a rising water pillar in the middle of the shattered ice pieces, which devoured the ice. It then dispersed into endless amounts of little water droplets as it sprayed in a direction. Before it even landed into the lake, it was melted by another strength into more finely and closely water droplets, which later became a thick fog and it coagulated on top of the lake water.

The white fog spread continuously, covering tens of acres of the lake water, even including the shore of the lake, covering the willow trees entirely.

There were rays of sunlight that penetrated through the black clouds, as though wanting this Banyue Lake to not be this gloomy.

But this bit of light was nowhere near the starlights or moonbeams, it could not get rid of the thick fog.[1] For those interested, the full translated version of this can be found on [2] 正如离离原上草,岁岁枯荣,岁岁新生 is modified from Bai Juyi(白居易)’s poem ‘Farewells from Grassland’(賦得古原草送別)Reference borrowed from John 1:1 of the Bible but I used dao instead of the words to fit this context.