Chapter 348: Intense Westward wind

“Great Protector, we’ve troubled you” Su Xue Er’s mother hurriedly bowed to greet her.

“That is fine, quickly board the craft, we’re leaving” the Protector spoke.

“Yes”

The unconscious Su Xue Er was brought onto the spacecraft.

A few minutes later.

The gigantic spacecraft lifted off, quickly exited orbit and flew off into space.

—–just like that? Escaping the planet together with the 9 Lords, that was my destiny?

Su Xue Er stood still in the air, silently thinking.

The scene changed.

Within the spacecraft.

Everyone had been put to sleep.

The Protector was the only one standing in front of the spacecraft control dashboard, after a bit of hesitation, she pressed a green button.

Mist began to fill the spaceship.

“I’m sorry” the Protector muttered, “there are too many demonic gods patrolling in space, I can only ensure that I alone won’t be discovered”

“For the sake of continuing the 9 Lords’ bloodline, all of you will have to become part of the onboard genetic storage, giving up your life for the sake of future 9 Lords”

“How regretful, such a rare talent like Su Xue Er was discovered so late”

…

The scene ended.

Looking at her unconscious self slowly losing her everything, Su Xue Er couldn’t help but sigh.

“What a powerless and uninspiring life”

Was I unable to decide on my own fate until the very end?

A thought flashed through her mind.

What about Qing Shan?

How is he?

Following her will, the scene changed once again.

The blur becomes clear.

Wind.

Fire.

Smoke.

The fresh smell of blood.

Boiling fighting spirit.

Running, crying, explosions.

Countless Professionists wearing different kinds of armor and weapons were crossing over a great river.

Above the river, a dark figure that clouded the sky was moving back and forth.

Wuo ——ouhhh!

The shadow let out a bellowing cry.

The Professionist attacking it were dropping like flies, becoming corpses that filled the body of water below.

“The most powerful Demonic God is here, we can’t cross Demon Clouds River!” someone panicked and shouted.

“How’s the situation at the back?” another voice yelled out asking.

Su Xue Er’s heart jumped.

This was Gu Qing Shan’s voice.

She quickly followed the voice.

This seems to be an ancient military outpost.

Gu Qing Shan was also wearing a battle armor, sword in hand, protected by countless Professionists.

He looked a little waned, there were a few terrifying scars on his face together with exhaustion.

From the passing of time, he’s even grown a beard now.

His immaturity was completely gone, he had grown up.

The only thing that didn’t change were the look in his eyes.

Clear, determined, a pair of eyes unchanged with time.

Su Xue Er couldn’t help but fly down, standing in front of Gu Qing Shan.

He didn’t seem to notice her.

She reached out, wanting to touch his face.

“Report!”

A shout came from above.

Su Xue Er’s hand retracted quickly she was shocked.

A bloody person came flying down, rolled on the ground a few times before being helped to stand.

“Quickly” Gu Qing Shan ordered.

The person was breathing heavily, but reported without fail: “The 9 Lords’ Professionists that were supposed to protect the stronghold did not show up at all!”

“The stronghold is about to fall!”

His voice was panicked, and in total despair.

“Where are our Divinity?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“The Divinity is still resisting!”

“That’s not good! Our Divinity cannot hope to defeat them, there are too many” another officer said.

“That is true, but the Demonic God on the river is too powerful, we can’t even leave to reinforce them” Gu Qing Shan spoke heavily.

Everyone went silent.

Su Xue Er stood by Gu Qing Shan’s side, silently watching this unfold.

How strange, where is this?

She scanned around.

Suddenly, she saw a familiar face.

It was a famous Confederate martial artist.

Standing here, he was also wearing a strange armor with a weapon in hand, and a look of despair on his face.

…another world?

The people of the 9 Lords didn’t show up.

Which means, this is the ‘cultivation world’ that I spoke of earlier?

She muses about it.

A golden-armored woman suddenly came flying from behind.

The woman was so beautiful that even Su Xue Er couldn’t help but stare at her for a few seconds.

“Bai Hua sect You Ji General, Wang Qing Xiu is here” someone whispered to remind Gu Qing Shan.

“General Wang, why are you here?” Gu Qing Shan put up a strict expression and asked.

“If this goes on, we are going to lose aren’t we?” the female general asked.

Gu Qing Shan stayed silent for a bit, then replied: “That is correct”

The female general sighed dejectedly: “Unfortunately, my Shifu isn’t here, nor are my first and second brother, I am the only one left”

Gu Qing Shan said nothing.

The female general continued: “Gu Qing Shan, you are the only sword saint left of humanity, I recall that you know a certain sword saint Secret Art, [Tong Gui]?” (1)

“Silence!” one of his subordinates shouted angrily and spoke: “If he uses Tong Gui, even strategist Gu will lose his life!”

Strategist? (2)

Su Xue Er quickly caught that.

Is that a common way to address someone in this world as well?

Gu Qing Shan stopped him and replied: “That’s right, I know that technique”

The female general then said: “I am willing to give up my life and all of my cultivation to help you activate that technique”

She looked at Gu Qing Shan with eyes as clear as crystals.

“We have no other choice, only this technique will be able to directly destroy cause and effect to kill them for good, please listen to my selfish request, strategist Gu” she spoke

Gu Qing Shan glanced at the gigantic shadow in the sky, laughing bitterly.

“This Demonic God, is the demon’s ultimate weapon” he spoke slowly: “With only our lives as the trigger, we won’t be able to beat this Final Demon Lord”

—–Final Demon Lord

Su Xue Er looked up.

The sky was dark.

The gigantic monster above has already blocked out the entire sky.

This monster is made from countless skulls.

Human, beasts, demons, and some unknown.

Each of them closed their mouths, and reopened them at the same time.

Innumerable blinding attacks came from each of the mouths.

Across the sky, cultivators tasked with attacking it fell one after another, their bodies crashing into the water below.

During Su Xue Er’s entire life, she has never seen such a tragic scene.

She was stunned, and terribly shocked.

Then, Gu Qing Shan’s voice came from beside her again.

“We need at least two Sainted realm cultivators to deal with that” Gu Qing Shan commented as he looked up.

“But the Saints have already died in battle long ago” one general sighed dejectedly.

“Seems like both Reality and this world will be destroyed without any hope for salvation” another general despaired.

Reality?

This world?

Humanity could already travel between two worlds?

Su Xue Er silently thought about this.

The rowdiness and panic in the military outpost slowly died down.

The cold wind blew.

A silent wind.

All cultivators stopped trying.

Before the Final Demon Lord, all their actions are ridiculously futile and meaningless.

The cultivators stood still as if they were statues.

The expressions on their faces contained unwillingness, anger, together with helpless despair, mixed into one.

As the silence continued, there were even female cultivators crying.

Then ——-

The only man wearing black armor in the camp came before Gu Qing Shan.

“General Du Guong, what is it?” Gu Qing Shan carefully asked.

General Du Guong spoke: “If we manage to win here, the other camps won’t have to consider whether to help us or to help the stronghold ——they will make it back in time to save the stronghold”

“Right, this is the only way, but with my strength alone, even if I sacrifice myself, I won’t be able to kill this Demonic God” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The black-armored general slowly lowered his stance, kneeling on one knee and clasped his fist.

“Strategist Gu, I am willing to Tong Gui” he calmly spoke.

Seeing that, the female general from before also raised her skirt, knelt down and looked up at Gu Qing Shan.

Her beautiful yet cold face showed indifference to life and death.

She also clasped her fist: “Strategist Gu, I am willing to Tong Gui”

The other cultivators silently watched this.

Following that, one after another, the cultivators all knelt down, clasping their fists.

The group of people seems to emit an overwhelming fighting spirit, they were showing their finally resolve.

In the military outpost, over tens of thousands of Professionists and cultivators all knelt on one knee, looking at Gu Qing Shan.

They declared their willingness to die in battle.

“Strategist Gu, I am willing to Tong Gui!”

“No going back”

“Tong Gui!”

“With all my blood, I will sacrifice myself with you”

…

The intense Westward wind blew.

Gu Qing Shan stood in the wind and looked around.

In the entire military outpost, he was the only person still standing.

The rest were kneeling on one knee, clasping their fists at him with resolution in their eyes.

Gu Qing Shan slowly knelt down on one knee as well, clasping his fist at the people: “It’s only life and death, today, I will sacrifice myself with all of you!”

Saying so, he started flying up to the sky.

Behind him, all the cultivators stood up.

Tens of thousands of people all looked at the figure in the air in unison.

Halfway there, Gu Qing Shan ordered loudly.

“Swords!!”

In a single moment, hundreds of thousands of flying swords appeared from the void of space.

These swords flew down, falling into each cultivator’s hands.

The cultivators took the swords, then began to burn away their cultivation, their life force, their soul, their everything and transfer it to the swords.

At this moment, they all shouted at once: “””For humanity!”””

They all turned into streaks of light, infusing themselves into the swords in their hands.

The swords flew up by themselves, swiftly but orderly arranging themselves into a blindingly glowing formation.

Sword saint Secret Art——

Sword formation, [Tong Gui]!

Ooong!

Intense sword qi swept across the sky.

The mountains and rivers rumble, the wind started to pick up.

The sky was covered by the demonic black figure.

But more sword qi came, ascending until they reached the top.

Gu Qing Shan held a sword in hand, riding the sword formation to fly upwards.

He was coming towards the Demonic God.

Closer.

Closer.

The final sword saint of humanity, giving everything he has in the final moments of his life for a single strike.

Once the sword is drawn, there is no going back.

The blinding sword phantom swept across the sky, eliminating the darkness.

Within the darkness, millions of agonized screeches echoed across space itself.

But at this time, the scene being shown in the scroll started to slow down to a stop.

All images slowed down indefinitely, all sounds disappeared.

Su Xue Er could see everything clearly, she could see Gu Qing Shan flying at the Demonic God in extreme slow motion.

Su Xue Er could even make out even the tiniest detail on Gu Qing Shan’s face.

Gu Qing Shan was slowly opening his mouth to utter a roar of anger.

Su Xue Er tried to listen, but heard nothing.

The light became even brighter.

The heaven and earth itself was dyed in the white light.

The light slowly dimmed, turned into nothingness, as darkness resumed.

The scene stopped here.

Su Xue Er stood blankly in the House of Law.

She touched her face.

Tears have been streaming down her face without her knowing.

Note:

(1) Tong Gui: this is part of a Chinese expression, “Tong gui yu jin” (同歸于盡) which means mutual destruction/death, basically “I’ll have to die, but you’re coming with me”. Tong Gui by itself means “to return together”, with the “return” part implied to be dying.

(2) Strategist Gu: they call him “Xian Sheng” (先生) which literally means “born first”, usually it’s used to address people that you respect (comparable to the –dono suffix in Japanese), in ancient times of war, around the period of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this is usually used to address the strategist of the army, as a title that implies great wisdom in the bearer. Since there is no equivalent in English, I left it as the situation calls.