Song of Adolescence

Chapter 406 Behind the History Books

A rogue was detestable because he didn’t follow your rules. He had his own rules and he would only follow himself. There was no room for negotiation, no possibility of compromise. So, once a person becomes a rogue, his opponent would be out of luck. The only solution was to be more roguish than him.

"If you don't tell me, I won't let you go up." The black-robed man side-stepped to stand in Xiao Se's way.

Xiao Se gripped his Wuji staff. "Then we fight."

The black-robed man waved his long sleeves. "If you really want to fight, I will pull you back into the battlefield and leave you there."

Xiao Se shook his head lightly. "Even if I’ve never practised these strange techniques, my shifu Ji Ruofeng is, after all, the most knowledgeable person under Heaven. I’ve at least heard of it. Earlier, when you pulled me into that battlefield, it would have been extremely taxing on you mentally. You can't possibly continue it for long."

"Very clever." The black-robed man sneered. Then, with a flash, he disappeared.

On the second floor, Lei Mengchen finally stood up and patted Lei Wujie's shoulder. "All the things I didn’t say back then, I’ve said today. Go on, then."

"Shushu, don't worry. I won't let down our Lei Clan. I’m going to become a sword immortal, you know." Lei Wujie shrugged. "I thought that if I went up this tower, I would be at least almost there. Looks like I’m still a little short."

"Don't worry. What you’ve accomplished now has already exceeded your father and shifu when they were your age." Lei Mengchen gave him a rare smile and he turned around. "I won't see you again. Treasure the road ahead, and don't turn back."

"I will listen to shushu." Lei Wujie lowered his head.

Lei Mengchen disappeared, and the room returned to the way it was before. Lei Wujie glanced at the portrait of the great ancestor with his half-smile, though he felt that the great ancestor’s smile had widened a little. Then, the floor under his feet shattered suddenly and he fell right through.

On the other side, Li Fansong's Azure Empyrean sword finally flew out of his hand. It flew towards Zhao Yuzhen’s Drunken Song sword and with another swing, the sword was deflected and stuck into the ceiling beam.

Li Fansong was sweating profusely and he shook his head helplessly. "Shifu, your swordsmanship is godlike. I’m not your match."

"Didn’t I already say, I’m created by your mind. I’m only as strong as you think I am. You didn’t lose to me, but to yourself." Zhao Yuzhen jumped up and pulled out the Azure Empyrean sword stuck in the beam. Then, he handed both swords back to Li Fansong.

Li Fansong accepted the two swords with a smile. "Since I lost, so be it. It's no big deal."

"You sure are easygoing." Zhao Yuzhen sighed.

"I was able to see shifu again, and challenge my sword against shifu. This is not a loss. It’s fine even if I can’t climb to a higher floor. Instead of ascending with one step, I can do it one sword at a time too. My name is Fansong, so I won’t do things like ascending with one step." Li Fansong cupped his fists and lowered his head. "Shifu, this disciple will not let you down."

"I have no aspirations for you, as long as you live happily." Zhao Yuzhen chuckled, turned around, and disappeared.

Li Fansong raised his head again, and Zhao Yuzhen was no longer in front of him. All he saw was the portrait of the great ancestor and his half-smile. He was about to open his mouth to speak when he felt a sudden void beneath his feet. He fell straight down.

The interior of the First Tower Under Heaven was really bizarre. The same fall dropped Xiao Se at the entrance to the third floor, while Lei Wujie and Li Fansong fell back to where they were before.

"Yo, Li-xiong, you didn’t get through either," Lei Wujie quipped with a laugh when he saw Li Fansong tumble down from above.

Li Fansong scratched his head. "Lei-xiong, you’re here too? But, Xiao Se-xiongdi is not here?"

"I have no idea who he met, that one. Anyway, I think he’s someone who can even kill himself. It won’t be difficult for him to break through." Lei Wujie wagged his eyebrows.

"Then, let’s wait for him here," Li Fansong said.

Xiao Se and the black-robed man exchanged three moves in an instant. Xiao Se’s every move was lethal, leaving no quarter, while the black-robed man’s movements were incredibly fast. Most of the time, he was dodging instead of attacking.

"Fine, then I’ll ask you. You said you’re fighting for yourself. What does it mean to truly fight for yourself?" The black-robed man shouted sharply.

"Protect yourself, protect the people you care about, so that your loved ones and your friends won’t be harmed by others. That’s fighting for yourself. All under Heaven is vast, nobody really fights for all under Heaven. Because once you fight for all under Heaven, people will die. Those people are not your enemies. In fact, you don’t even know who they are. But, they died because of you. They didn’t do evil, and they won’t hate you for it, but they still had to die. Just like when Tianwu Emperor Xiao Yi united all under Heaven, countless innocent people had to die. Regardless of how great his final achievement was, this is an undeniable fact. Hence, in this world, there’s no such thing as a true fight for all under Heaven!" Xiao Se swung his staff down.

The black-robed man caught it with one hand, and he suddenly laughed out loud. "Well said. Yes! You are right!"

Xiao Se pulled back his staff and faced this somewhat crazy and eccentric tower guardian. He couldn’t help but feel vexed.

The black-robed man retracted his long sleeves. "I wrote the history books myself. His Majesty Xiao Yi was insignificant when he started out, and his ambition to save the common people from calamity was all made up by me. The fact was, although Xiao Yi was a military commander at the time, he had no permission to deploy the soldiers to repel the enemy bandits. He had overstepped his authority. Those officials who had fled returned when they heard that the riot with the bandits had been suppressed. They wanted to convict Xiao Yi, so Xiao Yi killed them all. Xiao Yi and I were best friends at the time. I gave him thirteen swords, all of which were my family treasures. Since he killed the court officials, he would definitely have been sentenced to death. So, we could only rebel. It was written in history books that Xiao Yi saw the chaos among all under Heaven. I made that up. Before the bandits came, Xiao Yi led a pretty happy life. He drank wine and ate well every day and thought that everything in the world was perfect. Later, when we started on our crusade, we came to the realisation that all the people under Heaven had suffered for so long they could no longer make a living for themselves."

"Then what about the final battle at Heavenly Revelations?" Xiao Se asked.

"By then, Xiao Yi was suffering from an incurable disease. I examined him, and knew he could only live another six months at most. Finally, Xiao Yi died a year after he took the throne. I managed that little miracle only by exhausting all of the world’s most precious medicinal ingredients. Back then, all under Heaven was still unstable, yet he was dying. He was afraid that the Great Qin Empire would ally with other states that had been destroyed. Although he was going to die, we would still be alive. He wanted to save his brothers, so he stormed Heavenly Revelations City. History books are really like a lady in her chamber. It’s up to us to dress her up and present her to the world. But, the true history would never be seen in the end." The black-robed man took off his hat, and the face he revealed was still young. He still looked like the Xie Zhize that Xiao Se saw on the battlefield, except his hair was already as white as snow.

Xiao Se frowned slightly. "You’re really Xie Zhize."

Xie Zhize still shook his head lightly. "As I said, I used to be Xie Zhize."

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