The Path Toward Heaven

Chapter 633: The Reasons for Staying Alive

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was then that a miracle suddenly occurred.

The five Snowy Ghosts stopped short. They took a sharp gaze at her before they turned around and headed toward the north, disappearing into the other end of the glacier.

Zhao Layue lifted her head, looking in the direction of the distant lonely peak. She seemed to have guessed why, but she didn’t feel happy about surviving the ordeal; she felt more alarmed instead.

A tremendously powerful or even magnificent spiritual awareness came over from the distant lonely peak, landing in her Sea of Awareness.

Bang!!!

It felt as if countless ancient bells were struck all at once. Zhao Layue had a pale face, spitting out a mouthful of golden blood.

Fortunately, the spiritual awareness left her Sea of Awareness in the next moment, returning to the lonely peak.

But a moment later, she sensed the rich and complicated information from the other party, including four messages:

We are very much alike.

Neither of us are substitutes.

We will grow stronger and then defeat those who created us.

I hope you will leave here alive, though it will be difficult.

...

...

The cold snowflakes were still drifting in White Town in the early spring. The accumulated snow piled up in the snowland, and the frozen streams had the ice all the way to the bottom, resembling an item of artistry made of icicles.

He Zhan was good at playing zither, chess and painting, but he was the best at barbecuing fish. His barbecued fish was considered by many as an art.

However, his barbecued fish tasted worse after each passing day. Yet, Sese didn’t get upset about it, which was extremely rare. It was because Sese was fully aware that He Zhan was quite concerned so that he was in no mood for doing a proper job.

Zhao Layue had entered the snowland for a long time already, but she hadn’t come back yet.

A few days ago, some Cultivation practitioners came back from the snowland, bringing the latest news; and they claimed that they had seen her somewhere in the snowland, but they couldn’t give him a definite description. The wounded follower of the Windy-Broadsword Church stared at his colleagues all the time, to prevent them from leaking the truth.

Cao Yuan was the disciple experiencing the mortal world of the previous generation, and He Zhan was the one in this generation, so he had a close relationship with the Windy-Broadsword Church. Pressured by him, the follower of the Windy-Broadsword Church had finally told him about what had happened in the snowland.

Learning that Zhao Layue had killed the elder of the Kunlun Sect, Peng Si, He Zhan was not worried, thinking that it would be fine as long as nobody knew of it.

However, it was already the early spring, and the Green Mountain Meeting was coming up; why hadn’t she returned?

“I didn’t think Sister Zhao went to the snowland for the sake of tempering the sword through fighting.”

Sese continued, “Based on her temperament, she went there to check out the icy peak.”

Regardless of how talented Zhao Layue was and how high her Cultivation state was, she would end up dead if she went and saw the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom on that icy peak.

He Zhan fell silent for a while, and handed the barbecued fish to Sese before saying, “I’ll go there and have a look.”

“Be careful,” Sese reminded him. She was well aware that it was useless to advise against his decision once he made up his mind.

He Zhan said, “Don’t worry; I’m not going to go to the deep part. I’m just concerned that she might need someone to get her.”

Now that he had made the decision, he should take the leave right away. Sese brought out a case from the room and threw it to He Zhan. He had entered the snowland many times in the last one hundred years and killed a great many monsters of the Snowy Kingdom, having a great deal of knowledge about the snowland. All the necessary items were in the case, and there was no need to prepare them.

He took the case and leapt up into the sky, heading toward the snowland. Though he left in a leisurely manner, as if he was on his way to White Town to purchase fish, his heart was actually heavy.

As he arrived in the sky, he suddenly heard many surprised screams in the army base and other courtyards. Soon after, a dozen Cultivation practitioners headed toward the snowland by riding on their swords or magic wares. Feeling startled, He Zhan looked in the direction of the snowland. With a changed countenance, he disappeared from the original spot as he turned into a waft of green smoke.

In the current Cultivation circle of Chaotian, He Zhan was the fastest traveller, save for Jing Jiu. Even the Escape Method of Heaven and Earth of the Center Sect was not as fast as the traveling method he had learned from the Eunuch Hong in the Green Sky Mirror. He surpassed those Cultivation practitioners with ease, and arrived in front of the black mountain in a few minutes’ time.

The accumulated snow outside the valley was immensely thick, on the surface of which there were a few dry leaves knocked down from the trees by birds.

Crack!!!

A dry leaf broke into pieces, and the snowy surface sank to the ground as a foot with soil and blood stains stepped down.

A moment later, another foot stomped down.

Along with the cracking sounds, a young woman with short hair and tattered clothes walked out from the valley.

The young woman trod forward very slowly; it seemed that it took all her strength just to make each step.

He Zhan broke though the air and arrived before her like a band of smoke. Seeing her in such a condition, he felt astonished and wanted to support her, but he didn’t know where to place his hands.

Her clothes were in complete tatters, and worst of all, the blood and wounds were all over her body, so he couldn’t find a spot that was intact on her body. The pinkie on her right foot was obviously broken off.

“What...what has happened?” asked He Zhan in a trembling voice.

Zhao Layue stared at him and said expressionlessly, “I don’t know you, so you can’t be a hallucination in my mind.”

After the spiritual awareness landed on her, no monsters of the Snowy Kingdom came out to brother her any longer. Like the message sent by the Queen said, it was almost impossible for her to get out of the snowland alive since she was severely wounded and on the brink of death.

Her sword source was exhausted, and her body and meridians were badly damaged, so she couldn’t heal them by meditating, nor could she ride the sword; all she could do was walk on her feet. She trod all the way out of the deep part of the snowland until her boots were torn to shreds. Stepping on the cold and snowy ground, she couldn’t feel any pain in her broken pinkie that she had lost during the fights.

Treading out of the snowland, the most difficult part was not the wounds and pain; it was the hallucinations she had when her consciousness became unstable.

During the long journey in the wind and snow, Zhao Layue saw Jing Jiu, her parents, Ada, Yuan Qü, Zhuo Rusui, Liu Shisui, Bai Zao, and a woman with a vague appearance in her hallucinations.

It was not the face of Guo Dong; it must have been the face of Lian Sanyue she had conjured up.

In such a weak state, few people could keep their hallucinations under control, and they would be confused about the directions and get lost in the wind and snow.

But she was not that confused.

She was aware that all those people were her hallucinations.

The Dao usually occupied her mind all the time. And she would think about Jing Jiu only once every a few years. As such, she knew that it was impossible for that handsome face to appear so frequently.

She trod on and on...her wounds not getting worse, but not getting better either.

She had been trudging on while on the verge of life and death. After many days, she had finally walked out of the snowland and saw He Zhan.

At that moment, a snowflake could knock her down easily, but she still remained calm and alert, still able to calculate and analyze. She judged correctly that the other party was real and not a hallucination. “Now it’s time for me to lie down,” she told herself in her mind.

And with that, Zhao Layue collapsed.

...

...

In the quiet courtyard, the flowers on the pear tree had suddenly bloomed overnight, though it was not supposed to grow green leaves in the early spring.

It was because a Formation of Gathered-Souls was set up in the courtyard, which absorbed a great deal of energy of heaven and earth.

The Master of the Windy-Broadsword Church walked out from the room tiredly and exchanged some words with He Zhan before he departed.

As he came out of the courtyard and saw the Cultivation practitioners and the generals of the divine army everywhere, the Master of the Windy-Broadsword Church frowned slightly. Now that these people weren’t making a commotion, he didn’t say anything.

Everybody had learned by now that Zhao Layue was severely wounded, and some of them witnessed the horrific wounds she sustained. The whole of White Town was astounded, and they all wanted to know what had happened in the snowland.

The energy of heaven and earth gathered in the courtyard like a bunch of filaments that entered the room along the passage of the formation, falling down to the bed like the spring rain.

Sese saw He Zhan come back in the room and asked while wiping off the tears from the corner of her eye, “What did he say?”

“The most he can do is stabilize her condition for the time being. Whether his treatment will work or not depends on her willpower. But don’t you worry, because her willpower is...”

He Zhan trailed off while looking at Zhao Layue on the bed. After a moment of pause, he continued, “Her willpower is unparalleled in the world.”

Sese said irately, “Even though the Master of the Windy-Broadsword Church doesn’t have an effective treatment, what about the Broadsword King?”

Shaking his head, He Zhan replied, “The Broadsword King has said that he never saw somebody in such a severe condition in his life.”

In fact, Cao Yuan had said something more.

“Given Zhao Layue’s Cultivation state and severe wounds, she should have died. As for why she has survived...nobody can tell why.”

Sese turned around and scooped a bit of medicine with the tip of her finger, and applied it on Zhao Layue’s wounds gingerly.

She did it very carefully, moving her finger as gently as the spring breeze. Zhao Layue furrowed her eyebrows even though she was unconscious at the moment, as if she had felt acute pain.

Sese’s finger started trembling. She couldn’t stand it any longer, and remarked while crying, “She must have suffered a great deal when she walked all the way back.”

Looking at Zhao Layue on the bed with admiration in his eyes, He Zhan sighed, “Having sustained such a severe injury, she still managed to walk out from the snowland. She is truly outstanding.”

It was just then that Zhao Layue opened her eyes. She spun her head around and saw He Zhan and Sese; then she ascertained what condition she was in.

Sese sobbed as she said, “Big Sister, I’m sorry that I have hurt you.”

“I don’t like pain, but I’m not afraid of it.”

Zhao Layue said this to Sese, and turned to He Zhan.

“I’ve promised to him that I’ll live and I’ll live forever. Maybe, he and I will have different paths, but our goals are the same. As a result, I can withstand all sorts of pain as long as I can live.”

This was the answer.

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