Chapter 73: The Supreme Strategy
“No.” Gui Qing’s voice was sharp and severe. “The workings of Heaven were ever-changing, never fixed for even an instant! The moment a person believed everything was firmly within their grasp, that was when death drew near. Ji Xiao died for this very reason.”
Yun Xuzi quickly bowed in respect. “Disciple understands.”
Gui Qing’s tone softened slightly. “Go. Immediately deliver the Mirror of Reflection to Tai Heng, and tell him the plan has changed. Tell Ning Wei as well—Meng Xueli must not die within the secret realm. But remember this clearly: we and Tai Heng were never true allies.”
Many people, out of their hatred, fear, and envy of Ji Xiao, had temporarily tolerated one another’s differences and banded together. Yet this sort of alliance was the most fragile. With Ji Xiao dead, the cooperation would naturally dissolve. Old divisions remained divisions.
Now, although Ji Xiao had fallen, his Dao companion Meng Xueli was still alive. If what Hu Si said was true, Ji Xiao had left behind two of his most precious possessions, named Weary of Rain and Tired of Wind. Those treasures were most likely also in Meng Xueli’s hands.
That made Meng Xueli Ji Xiao’s final trump card, Ji Xiao’s true successor, the last fragment of Ji Xiao’s will lingering in the mortal world.
As long as Meng Xueli did not die, the matter of killing Ji Xiao could never be considered complete.
Letting Meng Xueli die within the secret realm would have been only a middle or lower-tier strategy. But now that the Mirror of Reflection had appeared—this divine tool arriving at such a perfect moment—the higher strategy became clear: Meng Xueli must reveal his demon soul, be judged, and only then die. It had to be done in such a way that the whole world knew Ji Xiao’s most beloved Dao companion was in truth a demon. That was the supreme strategy.
Yun Xuzi received his orders and departed, though unease gnawed faintly in his chest.
In the original plan, the step involving the “hunting of the mirage beast” had been broken. Then Gui Qing Zhenren received this divine artifact, and the plan was altered accordingly. The mirage beast had led to the peacock. The peacock had led to the Mirror of Reflection. Outwardly it seemed their side had adapted on the fly, finding the perfect solution in the end—but in truth, they were being led by the nose.
Behind all of this lurked a chilling fact: the Mirror of Reflection had not appeared out of thin air. It had been handed directly to Gui Qing Zhenren by someone else.
The mirror’s original owner had never once shown themselves. Yet with a single mirror, they had forced Gui Qing and his people to completely overturn a carefully arranged plan that had involved countless threads and countless people.
The mirror had not arrived a moment too early, nor a moment too late—its timing was flawless. It gave them no extra time to think or weigh alternatives, and left them unable to refuse this “supreme strategy,” because it was simply too perfect. Ji Xiao’s flawless reputation would now be tainted forever by his demon-born companion. There could be no better opportunity to achieve such an outcome.
Yun Xuzi carried out Gui Qing’s instructions, but his thoughts churned restlessly: “I stand above, overlooking Jing Di, Ning Wei, the thousands of cultivators of Mingyue Lake, the countless people of the mortal world—all of them like black and white chess pieces. I thought myself, along with Gui Qing, the one playing the game. But perhaps the original master of the Mirror of Reflection is the one looking down at me?”
On this point, when Tai Heng first received the Mirror of Reflection, he knew nothing of the truth. But, just as Gui Qing had expected, Tai Heng knew exactly how to act.
The Skyline Path had already been opened, and the passage between Jingsi Valley and the outside world once again lay exposed. Within the silent valley, footsteps sounded in a dense and chaotic clamor. Jingsi Valley had never in its history been this lively as it was tonight.
The sect leader heard the voice of the Chongbi Peak Master: “Disciple requests an audience with the Daoist Revered!”
Zhou Yi bowed to Daoist Revered Tai Heng and withdrew, leaving the hall to greet the visitor. By the time he shut the great doors, the younger Zhou clan disciples and the disciples of the Supreme Elders’ faction were already standing in a perfectly ordered formation in the square before the hall.
The sect leader waited a moment. Outside the hall, the sound of footsteps drew nearer and denser, like ten thousand troops setting out at once—yet they all stopped together, and silence fell again. He heard the Chongbi Peak Master’s deep voice: “Daoist Revered, what is the meaning of this?”
Zhou Yi shouted: “Daoist Revered has invited Jianwei Zhenren as a guest. For you to storm into the valley in the dead of night, armed and bearing blades, is the height of disrespect to the Daoist Revered!”
On the square outside the main hall of Jingsi Valley, the faction of the Supreme Elder and the faction of the Five Peak Masters faced each other in open confrontation. Their numbers were nearly equal. In terms of disciples’ cultivation realms, the latter held the advantage. Yet if a true clash broke out, the former had Han Shan—the valley’s sole Nascent Soul stage powerhouse—holding the line. The outcome was impossible to predict; only rivers of blood could be foreseen.
And within the hall, the leaders of the two sides—Daoist Revered Tai Heng and Jianwei Zhenren—were still present. Though the hall doors were tightly shut, the disturbances outside could be heard with absolute clarity. The sect leader though gravely wounded, remained lucid. He knew the other side must still have hidden moves prepared.
In all his life, Jianwei had most abhorred the thought of Han Shan breaking apart. To think that this vast foundation, painstakingly built over centuries, might crumble in his hands filled him with grief sharper than the pain of the wound in his belly. He said bitterly:
“You would rather bargain with the tiger for its skin than cease your enmity with Ji Xiao? Do you hate him that much?”
Tai Heng shook his head. “You are thinking far too narrowly. My greatest enemy has never been Ji Xiao. One Ji Xiao dies, another ‘Ji Xiao’ will always appear. My greatest enemy has always been time itself… Some say I am an old tortoise, refusing to die, hiding my head in its shell. Do you think I am unaware? I know. But time is the fairest judge of all. In five centuries of upheaval, how many great figures has the world seen? Yet where are they now? All dead—winners and losers alike, only victories of the moment. But I still stand here, and I still possess the future. Jianwei, think carefully: who is truly in the right?”
Blood trickled from the sect leader’s lips as he gave a faint smile. “Time? A long life? When I first began cultivating, yes, I sought to extend my years. I thought cultivation was all about longevity, about immortality, about power. But the truth is simple: would you rather be a turtle hiding in its shell, living a hundred years, or live openly, honorably, for twenty? If I die here today, it will be a meaningless death, but I do not regret it. I will not betray the location of the formation core just to survive… I understand now. You and I walk different paths. We cannot, and need not, understand each other.”
“Foolish!” Tai Heng did not grow angry; he sighed instead. “I ask you for the formation core not for my own sake, but to give you—and those outside—a chance. To offer you a way to live! If I obtain the formation core, most of you need not die. But if not, you will all die… Within Han Shan, aside from Endless Sky Sword, is there a second sword that can wound me? There is none! Your Zhengyi Sword cannot. Even if Yuan Ziye returned from the Hanhai Secret Realm, her Dream-Returning Sword cannot either.”
Tai Heng paused to consider. “Had Qian Yuzhi not abandoned his sword in those days, and continued training until now, his Hair’s-Breadth Sword might have gained enough edge to compete with my Seabound Silence Sword. But as Han Shan stands today—other than Endless Sky and my own sword—not a single blade can even step onto the stage…”
As for the peak masters and elders outside, tense, breath held, arrayed for battle—he did not regard their swords as worthy of notice at all.
This outcome he had rehearsed countless times in his mind. Yet speaking it aloud now, and speaking it directly to Jianwei, released years of stifled frustration from his forced seclusion. A faint sense of satisfaction rose in his chest.
Tai Heng felt even more at ease. “A pity Ji Xiao is already dead, and Endless Sky has no master to wield it. Surely it will not fall from the heavens on its own.”
He closed his eyes. A sword aura, pure and annihilating, surged outward like a tide, flooding the space beyond the hall.
….
Endless Sky rose up from the whirlpool of the pond, swept around Changchun Peak, moving like a sovereign inspecting its domain.
The young disciple Xiao Huai, startled awake by the noise, rushed out of his room barefoot, forgetting even to put on shoes. He craned his neck to the heavens where a streak of light raced across the sky, and cried out in excitement:
“Senior Brother Yu, you’ve mastered sword-riding?!”
The gale was so fierce Yu Qishu could barely keep his eyes open; he was utterly miserable. Inwardly he cursed: Which of your eyes sees me riding the sword? The sword is riding me!
When Endless Sky rose from the sea, it could not shake off the human burden clinging to its back. So it was forced to carry him along. The streak of light passed the stone stele carved with the words “Changchun” and vanished into the night.
Xiao Huai ran as fast as his legs could carry him, chasing all the way to the suspension bridge, waving with all his strength to send him off: “Senior Brother Yu! You’re amazing—!”
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
