Firmament Sword

Xu Luo sat quietly in his courtyard, enjoying the rare morning peace. A happy smile never left his face.

His path was different from others. The Heart Verification Dao required him to immerse himself in the most ordinary aspects of life, to experience and comprehend them, and finally, to achieve sublimation.

When Huangfu Chongzhi was at his most troubled over matters concerning the Divine Domain, he and Xu Luo once had a conversation.

”Why do we cultivate?” Xu Luo asked.

Huangfu Chongzhi answered, ”Worldly people cultivate to become stronger. With strength comes fame and fortune.”

”Then what about those from sects? Why do they cultivate?” Xu Luo asked again.

Huangfu Chongzhi replied, ”To seek long life and explore the unknown.”

Xu Luo asked, ”And after attaining long life, what then?”

Huangfu Chongzhi pondered for a long time before slowly saying, ”Live.”

”In that case, whether you have a long life or not, isn’t it all just living?” Xu Luo said with a smile.

”A better life!” Huangfu Chongzhi said.

”I, however, think that whether it’s worldly people or sect members cultivating, it all comes down to a single word: desire!”

Xu Luo said, ”People progress because of desire. It’s precisely because we have various wants that we strive to improve. After improving, new wants arise, and we want to climb even higher!”

Huangfu Chongzhi was silent for a long while before speaking. ”But many people lose themselves in the process, forgetting their original purpose.”

Xu Luo nodded. ”It’s like a beggar. At first, he might only want to fill his stomach. Three meals a day is his greatest wish! But as he grows stronger, he might want to eat well! Later, he gets some underlings and no longer needs to beg himself, able to eat and drink his fill... Gradually, he finds that even this isn’t enough, because whenever people look at them, they always say, ’Look... beggars!’”

At this point, Xu Luo looked up and smiled at Huangfu Chongzhi. ”So, in the end, he’ll want to become the Emperor! Because only by becoming the Emperor will no one in this world dare to mock him! Yet, even after becoming the Emperor, he’ll discover... he’s very old! He’s about to die! He doesn’t want to die; he wants to seek a long life... So, perhaps one day, even if he truly attains a long life, he will still discover new things and remain just as unsatisfied.”

”Perhaps... one day, when he is truly on the verge of death, he will remember that his original dream was merely to have three meals a day, and he’ll realize that he was happiest back then.” Xu Luo gave Huangfu Chongzhi a meaningful look.

Then he said, ”For the past few years, I’ve barely left my home in the Imperial Capital because I feel very happy! If not for some unfinished business, I would rather stay by my family’s side forever, because I’m afraid...”

Xu Luo didn’t say what he was afraid of, but Huangfu Chongzhi nodded. Looking at Xu Luo, he said, ”Third Brother, I understand what you mean. Don’t worry. No matter what, I won’t become the kind of person you wouldn’t want to see. I have only two great wishes in this life. First, for my child to grow up healthy and happy. Second, that one day, I can live happily with my wife! Therefore, everything I do is in service of these two things. I won’t get my priorities mixed up.”

Xu Luo clapped his hands and laughed heartily. ”Excellent!”

That night, just the two of them, brothers, drank until they were completely smashed.

From then on, the once dejected and heavily burdened Huangfu Chongzhi seemed like a new man, his temperament becoming much more cheerful. Even the Little Emperor, who had always been afraid of him, now dared to act spoiled with his father when no one was around.

Except for being unable to see his beloved wife, Huangfu Chongzhi became happy again. He was still engrossed in studying the Pill Scripture, still spending his days practicing Alchemy, but his entire spirit and energy were completely different.

Little Fatty had always been curious about what Xu Luo had said to his Eldest Brother, but Xu Luo never told him.

Because the cheerful Little Fatty, no matter how clever, would have a hard time grasping things so far removed from his own experience.

As a natural optimist with a happy and fulfilling family life, Little Fatty’s cultivation progressed quickly, but he had never deliberately focused on it, let alone pushed himself to the brink... That was completely foreign to him.

”Can these peaceful and tranquil days last for another five years?” Lianyi asked in a soft voice, standing behind Xu Luo.

”What’s wrong?” Xu Luo didn’t turn around, patting the stone bench beside him.

Lianyi sat down on the stone bench and rested her head gently on Xu Luo’s shoulder. ”I’ve been feeling uneasy lately, as if... something is about to happen.”

”Oh? Your intuition is that sharp?” Xu Luo praised her with some surprise, then chuckled. ”If that old man Huo Tongtian were still alive, he’d probably be crying and begging you to be his disciple.”

”I would never want that!” Lianyi pouted slightly. After all these years, she knew full well what kind of person Huo Tongtian was, and she knew even better that her husband had once infiltrated the Huo Family disguised as a direct descendant.

”Intuition is a mysterious and wonderful thing, profound and enigmatic.” Xu Luo put his arm around Lianyi’s waist and said with a smile, ”The Ancient Race is about to attack.”

”Ah? Attack?” Lianyi was slightly startled. ”But I thought... it was supposed to be ten years?”

”I also didn’t expect the Huo Family’s foundation to be so deep that they actually had a second Saint. And although his Inference Skill isn’t as powerful as Huo Tongtian’s, it’s not weak either.” Xu Luo sighed softly, then said, ”This battle was bound to happen sooner or later. It’s unavoidable. So, being five years early... doesn’t make much of a difference.”

This was because just a year ago, the couple Song Chengfeng and Chu Xiaoya had secretly come to the Cangqiong Imperial Capital and spoken with Xu Luo for an entire night.

Then, early the next morning, the couple departed just as quietly.

The entire process was so secretive that besides Xu Luo, not a single other person in the entire Xu Mansion knew that two top-tier experts had been there.

Song Chengfeng and Chu Xiaoya had come specifically to warn Xu Luo about this matter!

Xu Luo gently held Lianyi, his mind recalling the words his Eldest Brother and his wife had said to him when they arrived.

”After you left, the Ancient Race was in turmoil for a while. Those other clans felt that with the Huo Family’s old ancestor dead, there was an opportunity to be seized. The few clans just a tier below the Huo Family, in particular, grew restless. They wanted to join forces to destroy the Huo Family and take their place!”

”The Huo Family did indeed panic at first. Their shops all over the Ancient Race Continent were smashed and looted, and almost all of their business came to a halt during that time...”

”This was a blow to the Huo Family, but not a fatal one. The truly fatal move was when those clans began assassinating the Huo Family’s disciples!”

Song Chengfeng had said with great emotion at the time, ”The entire Huo Family was in peril; everyone feared for their own safety. We were originally planning to make a move against them, but given the situation, it seemed the Huo Family had no chance of survival whether we acted or not. The great mansion was about to collapse; it was irreversible!”

”But who would have known? Just as the Huo Family was teetering on the brink of collapse, needing only one final blow to fall, an ancestor-level figure from the Huo Family emerged. Unlike the foundational powers the Huo Family had used before, this ancestor’s appearance was world-shattering!”

”Overnight, he annihilated two major clans on the Ancient Race Continent that were just a tier below the Huo Family. One of those clans was even guarded by an expert who had just stepped into the Saint Realm, but he had his neck snapped and every bone in his body shattered.”

”This battle sent shockwaves through the entire Ancient Race Continent. All the powers that had been targeting the Huo Family were scared into silence...”

Song Chengfeng had concluded with deep feeling, ”The Huo Family is a true behemoth. As the saying goes, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Their foundation is so deep that outsiders can’t possibly fathom it! Even the Huo Family Master and a large group of the older generation had no idea their family still had such an ancestor.”

Xu Luo had also been deeply moved, and quite surprised, marveling at the Huo Family’s profound foundation.

”What happened after that?” Xu Luo had asked.

”Afterward, that Huo Family ancestor performed an inference and directly told the Huo Family Master that there were no more Saints on the Central Plains Star Continent!” Song Chengfeng had sighed.

Xu Luo still remembered how his own mood had grown heavy at the time. A person who could slaughter a newly advanced Saint Realm expert as easily as killing a chicken... their strength was likely already Tongxuan. Even if they hadn’t reached the level of a Great Saint, they had to be at least a Middle to Late-stage Saint Realm expert.

’An expert like that... I’m afraid I’m no match for them.’

It was Chu Xiaoya who had rolled her eyes at Song Chengfeng and said, ”Don’t listen to your Eldest Brother trying to scare you. That Huo Family member was a Saint, true, but his vitality and blood were completely depleted. He was so decayed he was barely holding on. He only emerged because he didn’t have much lifespan left and couldn’t bear to watch his descendants be annihilated. He held on by a thread, destroyed those two clans, and after deducing that the Central Plains Star Continent had no Saints, he passed away.”

Hearing this, Xu Luo didn’t have time to blame his Eldest Brother for scaring him; he just let out a long sigh of relief.

”It’s just that this news is extremely secret; we had a very hard time digging it up. After that battle, the Ancient Race clans hostile to the Huo Family were all intimidated. Although they heard through various channels that this Huo Family Saint might have already passed away, they don’t dare to make any rash moves...” Song Chengfeng had said.

Xu Luo had laughed. ”They’re afraid that if they make a move, the Huo Family will just produce another old monster like that, right?”

Song Chengfeng had laughed too, nodding. ”Exactly.”

”However, after surviving this crisis, the Huo Family is bound to turn its sights to the Central Plains Star Continent. You haven’t made a move in several years, and they know the speed of your improvement. It probably won’t even take a year before they march their forces straight into the Central Plains.” Song Chengfeng’s voice had grown heavy, because even he felt the pressure when facing a terrifying behemoth like the Huo Family.

”When the time comes, your Eldest Brother and I won’t just stand by and watch!” Chu Xiaoya, feeling for her younger brother, had said, directly reassuring Xu Luo.

”Also, that girl named Su Qianqian... I’ve met her.” As Chu Xiaoya spoke, she had given Xu Luo a mischievous smile, her eyes full of ambiguity.

Xu Luo had been a little embarrassed at the time, but he could only brace himself and ask, ”Is... is she okay?”

Chu Xiaoya had shot Xu Luo a look. ”Should I call you heartless, or should I say you sow your wild oats everywhere? She is not okay!”