Chapter 348: Intense Westward wind
Translated by: La0o9
Proofreader: Arya
âGreat Protector, weâve troubled youâ Su Xue Erâs mother hurriedly bowed to greet her.
âThat is fine, quickly board the craft, weâre leavingâ the Protector spoke.
âYesâ
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.
ââjust 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.
âIâm sorryâ the Protector muttered, âthere are too many demonic gods patrolling in space, I can only ensure that I alone wonât be discoveredâ
âFor the sake of continuing the 9 Lordsâ bloodline, all of you will have to become part of the onboard genetic storage, giving up your life for the sake of future 9 Lordsâ
âHow regretful, such a rare talent like Su Xue Er was discovered so lateâ
âŠ
The scene ended.
Looking at her unconscious self slowly losing her everything, Su Xue Er couldnât help but sigh.
âWhat a powerless and uninspiring lifeâ
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 ââouhhh!
The shadow let out a bellowing cry.
The Professionist attacking it were dropping like flies, becoming corpses that filled the body of water below.
âThe most powerful Demonic God is here, we canât cross Demon Clouds River!â someone panicked and shouted.
âHowâs the situation at the back?â another voice yelled out asking.
Su Xue Erâs heart jumped.
This was Gu Qing Shanâs 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, heâs even grown a beard now.
His immaturity was completely gone, he had grown up.
The only thing that didnât change were the look in his eyes.
Clear, determined, a pair of eyes unchanged with time.
Su Xue Er couldnât help but fly down, standing in front of Gu Qing Shan.
He didnât seem to notice her.
She reached out, wanting to touch his face.
âReport!â
A shout came from above.
Su Xue Erâs hand retracted quickly she was shocked.
A bloody person came flying down, rolled on the ground a few times before being helped to stand.
âQuicklyâ Gu Qing Shan ordered.
The person was breathing heavily, but reported without fail: âThe 9 Lordsâ Professionists that were supposed to protect the stronghold did not show up at all!â
âThe stronghold is about to fall!â
His voice was panicked, and in total despair.
âWhere are our Divinity?â Gu Qing Shan asked.
âThe Divinity is still resisting!â
âThatâs not good! Our Divinity cannot hope to defeat them, there are too manyâ another officer said.
âThat is true, but the Demonic God on the river is too powerful, we canât even leave to reinforce themâ Gu Qing Shan spoke heavily.
Everyone went silent.
Su Xue Er stood by Gu Qing Shanâs 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.
âŠanother world?
The people of the 9 Lords didnât show up.
Which means, this is the âcultivation worldâ 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 couldnât help but stare at her for a few seconds.
âBai Hua sect You Ji General, Wang Qing Xiu is hereâ someone whispered to remind Gu Qing Shan.
âGeneral Wang, why are you here?â Gu Qing Shan put up a strict expression and asked.
âIf this goes on, we are going to lose arenât we?â the female general asked.
Gu Qing Shan stayed silent for a bit, then replied: âThat is correctâ
The female general sighed dejectedly: âUnfortunately, my Shifu isnât here, nor are my first and second brother, I am the only one leftâ
Gu Qing Shan said nothing.
The female general continued: âGu Qing Shan, you are the only sword saint left of humanity, I recall that you know a certain sword saint Secret Art, [Tong Gui]?â (1)
âSilence!â one of his subordinates shouted angrily and spoke: âIf he uses Tong Gui, even strategist Gu will lose his life!â
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: âThatâs right, I know that techniqueâ
The female general then said: âI am willing to give up my life and all of my cultivation to help you activate that techniqueâ
She looked at Gu Qing Shan with eyes as clear as crystals.
âWe 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 Guâ she spoke
Gu Qing Shan glanced at the gigantic shadow in the sky, laughing bitterly.
âThis Demonic God, is the demonâs ultimate weaponâ he spoke slowly: âWith only our lives as the trigger, we wonât be able to beat this Final Demon Lordâ
ââFinal 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 Erâs entire life, she has never seen such a tragic scene.
She was stunned, and terribly shocked.
Then, Gu Qing Shanâs voice came from beside her again.
âWe need at least two Sainted realm cultivators to deal with thatâ Gu Qing Shan commented as he looked up.
âBut the Saints have already died in battle long agoâ one general sighed dejectedly.
âSeems like both Reality and this world will be destroyed without any hope for salvationâ 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 ââ-
The only man wearing black armor in the camp came before Gu Qing Shan.
âGeneral Du Guong, what is it?â Gu Qing Shan carefully asked.
General Du Guong spoke: âIf we manage to win here, the other camps wonât have to consider whether to help us or to help the stronghold ââthey will make it back in time to save the strongholdâ
âRight, this is the only way, but with my strength alone, even if I sacrifice myself, I wonât be able to kill this Demonic Godâ Gu Qing Shan replied.
The black-armored general slowly lowered his stance, kneeling on one knee and clasped his fist.
âStrategist Gu, I am willing to Tong Guiâ 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: âStrategist Gu, I am willing to Tong Guiâ
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.
âStrategist Gu, I am willing to Tong Gui!â
âNo going backâ
âTong Gui!â
âWith all my blood, I will sacrifice myself with youâ
âŠ
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: âItâs only life and death, today, I will sacrifice myself with all of you!â
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.
âSwords!!â
In a single moment, hundreds of thousands of flying swords appeared from the void of space.
These swords flew down, falling into each cultivatorâs 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: âââFor humanity!âââ
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 Artââ
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 Shanâs 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, âTong gui yu jinâ (ććœäșć°œ) which means mutual destruction/death, basically âIâll have to die, but youâre coming with meâ. Tong Gui by itself means âto return togetherâ, with the âreturnâ part implied to be dying.
(2) Strategist Gu: they call him âXian Shengâ (ć ç) which literally means âborn firstâ, usually itâs used to address people that you respect (comparable to the âdono 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.