Chapter Sixty: Three Attempts to Grasp the Profound, Yet Never Enter

Despite the fact that Kudaza had been struck by Li Bi’s blood escape technique days earlier, leaving him gravely injured, the saying holds true: a dying camel is still larger than a horse. His cultivation at the Enlightened Profound realm easily suppressed Yu Lang. Had Yu Lang not made progress in recent days, he might have been killed by the very first blow.

The curved blade in Kudaza’s hand was no less formidable than the Grindstone Saber—both were treasures of the Celestial Origin grade. Yu Lang’s usual advantage of weapon superiority had vanished. The two fought with speed against speed; in the blink of an eye, their blades clashed dozens of times, metal shrieking, sparks flying.

Seeing Yu Lang’s expression grow increasingly grim, Kudaza eased his assault slightly. While dueling Yu Lang, he would suddenly slaughter a few city guards, clearly intending to torment the young general who had killed his beloved disciple, making him suffer slowly and taste agony.

Kudaza soon realized Yu Lang possessed astonishing learning ability. The same technique, when used a second time, pressed Yu Lang less; by the third, Yu Lang could counter with it himself. The more Kudaza tangled with Yu Lang, the more shocked he felt. Added to his lingering illness, he knew if he delayed until Tang reinforcements arrived, things would end badly. Gathering his focus, he resolved to deal with Yu Lang directly, raising his blade to cripple Yu Lang’s arm.

Li Dahuo and Xue Wenyang, having stabilized the situation within the city, arrived together. Leading five students from Moon-Washing Academy, they formed a sword formation, surrounding Kudaza. The other members of the “Lang” Battalion, under their direction, escorted Qingqing and wounded soldiers from Longyou out of the city.

Even so, a formation made of two Void-Breaking cultivators and five Sea-Wandering cultivators posed little threat to Kudaza, a grandmaster of his generation. He spotted the formation’s core at a glance and, from afar, unleashed a blade aura that severed Dai Yang’s legs instantly.

For Dai Yang, who had always prided himself on his agility, losing his legs was a fate worse than death. Trembling, he felt the cold bone at the stumps, and, as if possessed, hurled the two severed limbs at Kudaza’s face, unwilling to accept them as parts of himself.

Kudaza growled, and the limbs exploded into a bloody mist under his powerful aura.

Li Dahuo’s eyes nearly burst from his rage. Before setting out, he had promised his comrades to protect them, but now he watched helplessly as Dai Yang’s legs were severed. He raised his wrist suddenly, shooting dozens of silver needles from his sleeve.

The Celestial Origin treasure, the Black Cauldron Needles, was Li Dahuo’s greatest safeguard. He would never use such a treasure except in a life-or-death crisis.

The needles pierced Kudaza’s chest. Though not fatal, they weakened his aura, finally giving Yu Lang a moment to breathe. Yu Lang clung to Kudaza, locking him tightly with his own body’s formidable strength—his physique, nearly half-saint, was even stronger than Kudaza’s.

“Go, quickly!”

Xue Wenyang stepped forward with his sword.

“Don’t let my sacrifice be in vain.” Yu Lang’s voice, squeezed through clenched teeth, brought sudden clarity to Li Dahuo and Xue Wenyang. They hoisted Dai Yang, rallied the remaining “Lang” Battalion brothers, and broke out.

The Black Cauldron Needles were wondrous, capable of locking a cultivator’s vital energies, preventing the use of internal breath or manipulation of the world’s spiritual energy. Yet Li Dahuo’s cultivation was too low, greatly diminishing their effectiveness. Kudaza, though affected, still retained much of his strength.

Corpses already piled high in the city. Of the fifteen hundred Longyou soldiers, fewer than five hundred remained, huddled in a corner, fighting desperately. Not a single one surrendered—yielding to the Tubo was pointless, it would not grant a better death. The Tubo army had also left behind at least a thousand bodies. Even in victory, it was a pyrrhic one; they could go no further, fully prepared to be wiped out by the Tang reinforcements, determined to die in their own city.

The city was, after all, originally Tubo’s. There was no side with justice in this conflict.

Roars and wails echoed in Yu Lang’s ears, growing louder, nearly overwhelming his consciousness.

He felt his awareness shrink to a tiny point, yet also expand everywhere.

A Tubo soldier ripped out the heart of a Tang soldier, took a couple of bites, and dragged his nine-ringed broadsword toward the next separated soldier.

From the heap of corpses, a Tang soldier who had survived crawled out, face twisted with savagery, dragging Tubo civilians out of their hiding places and hacking them to death, one slash at a time.

This was not a clash of civilizations, but a battle between beasts.

The leaf that Li Bi had used to save Qingqing that night appeared in Yu Lang’s mind. Its veins unraveled slowly, splitting into countless needles. This unraveling process was the method to break the sea of qi and enter the Enlightened Profound realm. Li Bi’s voice grew louder in Yu Lang’s heart: Enlighten!

This was Li Bi’s Dao seal, guiding Yu Lang into Enlightened Profound. Even if Yu Lang did nothing, his internal breath would circulate and he would break through naturally.

Yu Lang nearly reached the final step, then suddenly became clear-headed. He suppressed all his internal breath, reversed the trajectory of Enlightened Profound, and expelled everything he had gained, repeating the process three times—thrice passing Enlightened Profound, yet refusing to enter.

I do not want your charity! Yu Lang bit down hard. Li Bi, ever the strategist, had deliberately sent Kudaza east to exert pressure on Yu Lang, and planted the leaf in Yu Lang’s mind as a mark, hoping to force him to break through. But Li Bi had not foreseen Yu Lang’s refusal, even at the cost of death, to accept such an ugly gift.

Why should your cleverness demand the blood and deaths of so many as its price? Why should you assign this debt to me and expect me to be grateful?

Yu Lang’s vision darkened, darker still.

A strange scene unfolded—a young Tang general clung tightly to the national master Kudaza, charging like a human meteor into the Tubo army’s formation, smashing through the walls of Lanxie City and unleashing countless vengeful spirits.

Kudaza screamed in terror, unable to wake the mad youth. Again and again, Yu Lang ran, wielding Kudaza as a weapon, slaughtering countless Tubo soldiers, nearly demolishing the city walls of Lanxie.

If one could run fast enough, could one return to the past, to where it all began?

One man destroyed a city. Still, he did not stop. He carried Kudaza into a nearby hill, smashing into it again and again until it collapsed, then ran headlong into the depths of the desert.

Who knows whether he ran for days, months, or years? At last, exhausted, he collapsed with Kudaza, falling into the sand, soon covered by a wind-blown dust, as if nothing had ever happened, leaving no trace.

Li Bi had deliberately obstructed Nan Jiyun and Li Guangbi’s march to reinforce, hoping to give Yu Lang time to comprehend the seed he’d left in Yu Lang’s mind and break through safely. Yet when he arrived at Lanxie, Li Bi could not believe what he saw—the city was nearly razed, rivers of blood everywhere.

He had placed a surveillance talisman on Qingqing, which could only be activated in her moment of peril, using her body as a conduit for his spell. But Qingqing had been escorted safely out of Lanxie City.

“How could it end like this?” Li Bi, who had always prided himself on flawless calculations, was more flustered than ever. He pressed his fingers together like a blade, his vast magical power drawing upon the world’s spiritual energy, using great arts to open the celestial eye and review all that had happened.

After a long time, he sighed quietly: “It seems reconciliation between Qingqing and me will never be possible. This time, I have truly outsmarted myself.”

Nan Jiyun drew his giant sword, pointing at Li Bi’s head. “I will kill you!”

“No birth or death, no union or separation, no farewell.”

Nan Jiyun’s sword slashed through the air. Li Bi dissolved into a plume of blue smoke and vanished.