Chapter 1083: The Willingness to Let Go Leads to True Rebirth
Many times in life, it can be difficult to give up on something just because it’s hard. That refusal to give up could even be called obsession. That was especially true of matters of life or death. That of others. That of oneself. Obsession with life or death. The inability to let it go. In such instances, there is always hope.
However... there are many times in which there is no hope. Only despair. Sadly, in many instances, despair becomes the main theme. The world is a cold place. Heaven and earth are indifferent.
For example, just as the flame of his life force flickered within the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage, the statue started crumbling. It was like a lamp that had run out of oil. There just wasn’t a way to light it. It didn’t matter that the Devilbird holy land had been sacrificed. It didn’t matter that the manywonders smolderlife dao fruit had been awoken. Those things changed nothing.
And yet, the empress’ pure obsession could be heard in the words echoing in heaven and earth, turning into a reverberation of defiance like that cry of a thousand mountains. The empress was a god. But gods... were clearly not omnipotent. She even bit her tongue, causing god blood to spray out and soak her body. God blood became life force. An incantation gesture ignited it, and it poured into the statue of the Grand Emperor.
Xu Qing didn’t hesitate for an instant to do the same. He sent out his own life force, contained in his blood. He used his strength, his dao, and everything about himself to help the Grand Emperor.
Even Erniu sighed and lent his strength as well.
Unfortunately... none of that made much of a difference in the end. It was as if there was a massive ravine separating life and death.
The statue’s aura continued to collapse. As of this moment, there was no way to stop the resurrection ceremony from failing. Pain and bitterness filled the world.
How can this be happening...
The empress, however, was not ready to give up. It didn’t matter that all signs pointed to impending failure. She still unleashed the full power of her god altar. She did everything she possibly could to turn things around. At almost the exact same instant that she was about to harm herself by tapping too deeply into her own strength, an ancient voice echoed within the world of the dao fruit.
“Silly child.”
The familiar voice caused a tremor to pass through Xu Qing. Countless memories flashed through his mind. At the same time, the empress struggled to control her breathing. That voice was the source of her human nature. Xu Qing and the Empress looked at the statue simultaneously.
As the statue’s energy crumbled, the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls ceased moving for a moment. Then their momentum surged again.
This time, there was no obstacle. They returned to their peak, and Swordsage’s aura erupted into the world, an aura that belonged to a peak Grand Emperor.
Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. The world trembled. The holy land shook. The full Revered Ancient mainland was affected.
Even to the naked eye it was possible to see the statue transforming into flesh and blood, until a figure was visible. He opened his eyes.
Grand Emperor Swordsage. He stood on the surface of the transparent sea looking very, very old. An aura of death surrounded him, but he stood tall and straight. His gaze was soft as he looked at the world around him. Then he looked out of the Devilbird holy land and toward... humankind.
He saw all of the places where humans lived. He saw the people standing there. He gazed at the mountains and rivers, at the destiny aura. At everything. Everything that had happened in Revered Ancient since he perished was now pouring into his mind by means of the heavenly daos and all the living beings. He came to know that the holy lands had arrived after his death. He came to know that war had broken out. He came to know it all. Something fierce arose within him as he came to understand everything. It swirled out of him, affecting all heaven and earth.
And yet... off in the distance, Xu Qing and Empress Summer Departure simply couldn’t control the grief in their hearts as they looked at the Grand Emperor. That was because... the Grand Emperor was inundated with an intense aura of death.
Tears flowed down the empress’ face. She knew... that in the end, she was still going to fail. The Grand Emperor had not been fully resurrected. The power of the manywonders smolderlife dao fruit, and the strength of the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls, was only enough to bring him back to life temporarily.
Xu Qing felt like someone was squeezing down on his heart. Indescribable emotions filled him, including bitterness and emptiness.
“Oh, you two...” the Grand Emperor said with a sigh as he looked away from the outside world and focused tenderly on Xu Qing and the empress. “My Summer.” [1]
The empress looked up. At that moment, she wasn’t a god. She wasn’t an empress. She was the fragile young woman of years past that had just been rescued by the Grand Emperor. The tears flowing down her face made it difficult to see the fatherly figure in front of her.
“You’ve done very well,” the Grand Emperor said hoarsely. “You’ve done more than enough.” He strode over to the empress and tousled her hair, his eyes full of warmth, as if she were his own daughter. “It’s just that... your omniscience can’t tell you everything about me.
“The history books only talk about how my true form perished and my clone toiled to safeguard humankind. The truth about why it all happened was erased. By me.
“The reality is that back when I waged war against the god species from the central part of Revered Ancient, I did succeed in preventing humankind from being enslaved. But the price to pay was immense. It wasn’t just my true form that perished. My clone... also died in the fighting.
“After I perished, an old friend of mine used the manywonders smolderlife to resurrect me after the battle was over. That act of resurrection both failed and succeeded. It failed because the dao fruit only gives a chance at a resurrection. It can’t guarantee it. And thus, my true form did not return.
“You can say it succeeded, though, because my perished clone was resurrected. The point is that my clone already used the manywonders smolderlife dao fruit to come back to life. I can’t use it a second time. The failure of this resurrection attempt is no fault of yours, my Summer.”
The Grand Emperor spoke slowly and softly as he attempted to soothe Summer Departure’s emotions. He didn’t want the child whose life he had saved to end up regretting a failure for the rest of her days. He needed her to understand that the failure wasn’t due to her or her lack of effort.
The empress bit her lip as she listened to the explanation.
Finally, the Grand Emperor sighed and tousled her hair again. Then he looked at Xu Qing, whose face was tinged with bitterness.
“Xu Qing, you haven’t disappointed me.”
Xu Qing bowed his head. Heart filled with grief, he clasped hands and bowed deeply.
The Grand Emperor smiled as he looked at the empress and Xu Qing. They were his successors. One had inherited his cultivation base, while the other had inherited The Emperor’s Sword. He was very pleased with both of them, and didn’t feel an ounce of regret in picking them.
And yet... he still had some concerns about humankind. He was concerned about the people he had spent his life protecting.
“I understand everything now. The dao fruit can’t fully resurrect me. But it has brought me back temporarily. And the body I’ve returned in is not limited by the shackles of the star ring. I’ve returned to my peak. And that will do very nicely.”
The Grand Emperor smiled. It had been a very, very long time since he had felt this free. In fact, it was a sensation that he didn’t remember experiencing since the time his true form had been alive. In his waning years, he had always been struggling with lingering injuries, and had spent most of his time in slumber.
And even when he did wake up to do something, he felt exhaustion deep in his soul. Because of that he could never wield his sword to his heart’s content. He always had to be careful and maintain absolute control, always holding back his final sword move. It had all been extremely exhausting. Even in his final battle when he had longed to hold nothing back, he had been unable to.
The responsibility of safeguarding humankind was a weight like that of a mountain, and he had borne it for a lifetime. He had always wanted to let everything go and fight like he had when he was young.
“I suppose I don’t have much time left....”
The Grand Emperor grinned and reached his right hand toward Planet Ancient Emperor up above. He waved his finger, and the planet started rumbling and shaking. Then it began to spin, causing the sealed bone cauldron to appear.
The lid of the cauldron opened. A distorted figure shot out. It was none other than Netherflame.
His expression was ferocious as he opened his mouth. But then his face fell as he spotted Grand Emperor Swordsage. His pupils constricted, and all the hair on his body stood on end. Given the current state of his battle prowess, he could sense that Grand Emperor Swordsage was an extremely dangerous threat to him.
This clearly isn’t a Summer Immortal. But the sense I’m getting... is that this person is incredibly terrifying!
Scalp tingling, Netherflame shot backward to flee. He was too slow.
The Grand Emperor’s gaze fell upon him. A screaming sound filled the world as the most spectacular stream of sword energy imaginable erupted from within Netherflame’s fleshly body. Netherflame couldn’t stop it. Sword energy towered into the sky, shattering the clouds.
It was... The Emperor’s Sword!
The sword glittered with might that stunned Netherflame to the core. It did not slice through him. It hovered above the top of his head before lowering to touch him.
Netherflame shivered from head to toe. A terrifying power surged out of the sword like a wave. It smashed into his fleshly body with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, slamming right into his soul.
This is as strong as a Summer Immortal!
That was the last thing Netherflame thought before his soul shattered. His soul did not form anew. Swordsage grabbed it, and Netherflame’s senses turned dark. The Grand Emperor waved a hand to send the soul flying toward the empress.
“It’s a good soul. It absorbed a lot of the karma from Xu Qing’s fleshly body. You can sacrifice it in the future.” The Grand Emperor smiled as he flicked his sleeve, sending the fleshly body to Xu Qing. “Xu Qing, your current body has immortal troves. This body has god troves. Going forward, you can advance on both the path of gods and the path of immortals. Though I never walked that path myself, from what I can tell, it is infinite.
“But that’s a good thing. There are two different paths, one of the extreme immortal, the other of the extreme god. In the case of the latter, as long as you successfully gain enlightenment of godly authority, then you can ignite godfire and become a god. And most likely, a very powerful god.”
Xu Qing took hold of his god body. He looked at the Grand Emperor, his heart full of sorrow. He owed too much to the Grand Emperor.
The Grand Emperor smiled. “Don’t look like that, you two. I’m very happy. My Summer. Xu Qing. Are the two of you willing to help an old man wield his sword one last time?”
The empress took a deep breath and then forced a nod. Xu Qing steeled his gaze and bowed.
“We’re willing, Senior!”
Laughing heartily, the Grand Emperor waved his hand. The sky opened and the Devilbird holy land trembled.
And then he took his two successors away with him. He left the Devilbird holy land, piercing through the air with astonishing speed as he went into the direction of the three holy lands hovering above the Firemoon Darkheaven people.
“I have a sword that can sever heaven and break open the earth!”
The Grand Emperor’s proud words echoed in Revered Ancient. In different parts of the Revered Ancient mainland, various ancient gods opened their eyes from slumber and looked at the figure in the sky that was familiar to all of thēm. That included Yu Liuchen. For a brief moment, all of thēm felt like thēy were tens of thousands of years in the past, when a young man with a sword in his hand had traveled the world fighting the gods.
“Swordsage....”
1. Swordsage actually takes one of the characters of her name and adds ‘er’ to it, which creates a sort of cute, tender, and intimate form of address. But since her imperial name is translated, adding the ‘er’ doesn’t really work. Summer’er or Departure’er would be ridiculous. So I’m going to have him address her as ‘my Summer’ in order to convey that intimacy that the Chinese has. I know it’s not perfect, but I feel that leaving out that little touch would be a shame. ☜