Chapter 379 - Blaze, My Sword (Part One)
Translated by: Pipipingu
Edited by: Nora
What Chen Changsheng said was not accurate. Back then, in the final moment of the battle in the Grand Examination, he was prepared to use the final move of the Mount Li Sword Style, but he never actually used it. However, the final move was about intention, and Gou Hanshi saw his intention, which was why he admitted defeat. As a result, if he said he had used the move, it could not be considered wrong.
Su Li understood very clearly what the final move of the Mount Li Sword Style meant, so he felt more and more like he did not understand the teenager. However, since Chen Changsheng knew the move and had used this move, the greatest difficulty of learning the Blazing Sword no longer existed.
The Blazing Sword was a sword move, and also a method of circulating true essence. It was a method he had created for Chen Changsheng from his observations of him in the past few days.
The amount of true essence a cultivator could output, or in other words, the efficiency, depended on the speed the cultivator could burn star radiance and the thickness of the meridians. This meant that there was a certain upper limit. The greater the innate talent, the better their aptitude, then the greater the speed of true essence output. The limit of the meridians for people with innate talent like Xu Yourong and Qiushan Jun could be ignored. As long as they had enough star radiance in their bodies, they could even output true essence forever.
Chen Changsheng had a lot of star radiance in his body. He had no problem in the Meditative Introspection, but the greatest problem was the pathways for the true essence were overly thin, with many meridians that were even severed. As a result, his efficiency for true essence output was naturally extremely low.
As a great scholar of the path of the sword, Su Li’s most impressive area was that his understanding of the world exceeded far beyond the categories that ordinary people knew. He solved problems in a very unexpected fashion, but it was actually the most reasonable and fair way.
He did not begin on Chen Changsheng’s amount of true essence, and also did not attempt to solve the problems of his meridians. Instead, he used an utterly fearless method of directly placing the answer to the problem on the method of burning true essence.
Of course, the person who needed to take risks was Chen Changsheng, and the person who needed to be utterly fearless was still Chen Changsheng.
“There are many methods, or in other words, many forms of burning. Normally, it’s about gentleness, transforming the star radiance into clear water and having it flow like droplets. Only like this can the thin stream of water flow for a long time. However, this sword requires you to burn your true essence in a much more violent way.”
Su Li looked at him and said, “Just like countless pieces of wood shavings being trapped in a space. If a source of fire suddenly appeared, the wood shavings would immediately combust, giving off extremely great heat and power, like an explosion.”
Chen Changsheng heard what he said, and imagined it in his sea of consciousness. He nodded his head.
Su Li said, “This method of exploding can help your true essence immediately increase to a certain level, breaking through the disordered meridians, and the power of the sword can be increased to a barely bearable level.”
“Understood,” Chen Changsheng said. “But what has this got to do with the final move?”
Su Li looked into his eyes and said, “Endless amounts of true essence will blaze in your body at the same time like an explosion. You may illuminate everything with your sword energy, dazzle your opponent, but there is an even greater possibility of blazing yourself into an idiot or being blown to pieces. If you don’t have the resolution of definitely dying, it would be impossible to take the final step at all.”
Chen Changsheng felt that there was a vague reaction from the spiritual soul of the Black Dragon in the dagger. He thought of the scene where he underwent Meditative Introspection in the cave under New North Bridge, and he could not help but feel slightly sorrowful. He thought that as it turned out, everything that happened had a reason.
Thinking of Su Li’s reaction when he had said he knew the last move of the Mount Li Sword Style, he held back and did not say it to Su Li that he had several similar experiences. Although he was still young, his feelings towards life and death had already undergone great changes.
Su Li carefully explained the move and sword intent of the Blazing Sword. He did not say anything else afterwards. He let Chen Changsheng comprehend it himself, before looking at the mountains dyed in the color of the sunset and the grassy land on the opposite side of the stream. He said nothing.
It was possible for the assassin to appear on the grassy land at any moment.
Chen Changsheng did not hurry to comprehend the sword. He put some coarse salt on the chopped fish, and then hung them over the bonfire to roast. Since he had confirmed that the enemy was always there, the fire was not something worth concentrating over. With the light fragrance of roasting, he followed Su Li’s gaze and looked at the grassy area opposite of the stream, before shaking his head afterwards. He thought that the assassin really was extremely patient, actually doing nothing even after so many days. Maybe Zhexiu could do something similar, but he definitely could not.
To Su Li and him, the assassin that always hid in the wilderness was an extremely great pressure. The two knew very well that at a certain moment, the assassin would definitely appear. It was just that they did not know when.
“Just like what Senior said, if you keep waiting like this, even if you wait till death, you will not receive any opportunities.”
Chen Changsheng said in his heart to the famous assassin who never appeared in the end, “Because Senior is teaching me how to use the sword. I will become stronger and stronger, and when it is time, you will be unable to kill me.”
Fat, tender whitefish with sorghum rice. After the very simple but delicious dinner, Su Li leaned on the furry deer with his eyes closed, resting. Chen Changsheng tidied up everything before walking to the side of the stream. He sat down and began to properly comprehend the sword.
He looked at the grassy area opposite of the small stream and thought about the vast snowy plains in his body. The snow was the star radiance he had collected day and night, the initial form of true essence. It was the origin of all battle power.
Right now, he only needed the slightest movement of his spiritual sense and he could burn the entire snowy plains and even the lake water that surrounded the Spirit Mountain above the plains, turning it into endless amount of energy and mental power. However, the sword did not ask for him to do that, because the method of burning it was still too soft. It was not violent enough, and the rate at which star radiance turned into true essence was too slow.
The Blazing Sword was about the word ‘blaze’.
It needed to be a burning that was violent, resolute, and would burn the body like a flame.
Chen Changsheng sat by the stream. He said nothing. He looked as the color of dusk disappeared, looked as the stars filled his eyes, all the way until the arrival of dawn.
He used the time of an entire night to finally learn how to have his spiritual sense land on the snowy plains but not ignite the snow. Instead, he would use a shapeless power to loosen the snow, all the way until it left the ground and floated in the air again.
With the arrival of dawn, a red color dyed the wilderness and turned the stream completely red.
Looking at the grassy area that seemed like it was burning on the opposite side of the stream, Chen Changsheng’s hand slowly left the dagger hilt.
On the third day since he began learning the Blazing Sword, in a tea house by the main road, Chen Changsheng and Su Li met their third assassin in their journey to the south. The assassin was called Lin Pingyuan, a tyrant of the north, who had killed countless people with his hands. Apparently, the person had some secret, unclear connections with the bearman tribe that relied on the demons. Perhaps because of this, he determined the path which Su Li took towards the south more soundly than other people, and waited for them to arrive there.
Because the matter was overly important, and also because it was overly hurried, the northern tyrant Lin Pingyuan only brought a dozen or so of his most loyal subordinates. However, in the small tea house, it already seemed to be rather full.
The tea house had no customers and had a faint smell of blood. The stove to warm the tea was already cold and seemed like it had not been used for several days. The owner should have been already dead, with his corpse buried somewhere.
Chen Changsheng sat by the table and looked at the bowl of tea that had a weird smell. He said nothing, as he was thinking of something.
“Congratulations.” Su Li looked at Chen Changsheng and said, “I believe you will not have too many psychological burdens in killing this person.”