Bamboo Chest Chapter Twenty-Six: Drifting Down the River
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“Zhi Que, attack! Kill them!” Yuan Bai roared.
Zhi Que silently stepped forward and shielded Yuan Bai behind him.
“Zhi Que, Yuan Mo is still alive,” Lu Yun reminded him kindly.
“Zhi Que, you dare betray me? Have you forgotten how I have treated you these past ten years?!”
Yuan Bai’s face twisted savagely. He had already lost everything. If Zhi Que refused to help him, death was all that awaited him.
Zhi Que shook his head. With a solemn expression, he wiped his hands and clasped them toward Lu Yun.
He was rejecting Lu Yun’s goodwill, but he was also apologizing to him.
He had followed Yuan Bai for ten years.
For ten years, in a foreign land, Yuan Bai had endured deep discrimination after taking the wrong path in cultivation and practicing forbidden arts that left him able to appear only as a youth.
Yet although master and servant had both suffered bitterly throughout those years, Yuan Bai always shared with Zhi Que whatever treasures he obtained.
Sometimes it was an extraordinarily rare sword; sometimes it was a jade pendant…
Of course, none of those things remained in Zhi Que’s possession for long.
Whenever the two of them fell upon hard times, those imperial clansmen would always kick them while they were down. They might break a treasured sword or smash a jade pendant.
Zhi Que hated those people.
He was not one for conversation, but throughout those ten years, Yuan Bai had kept him company, talking with him about everything under the sun and telling him how glorious their return to Thousand Capital City would be one day…
Zhi Que had been moved—not by the beautiful picture Yuan Bai painted, but because Zhi Que’s figure was always present within it.
A mighty general, a minister who wielded great authority, the White Plain Kingdom’s foremost imperial guard.
Zhi Que loved the feeling of being needed. He loved silent companionship.
Suddenly, he remembered the first great obstacle Yuan Bai and he had faced upon returning to the White Plain Kingdom.
It was the great river, renowned throughout the White Plain Kingdom and indeed across the entire Savage World.
The river surged and roared. Yuan Bai knelt at its bank, letting the rushing water stream between his fingers.
Then Yuan Bai suddenly turned his head and smiled at Zhi Que.
“It would be wonderful if I could simply drift away with the river like this.”
…
Zhi Que raised his head toward the sky and saw a full, bright moon.
He turned around, but Yuan Bai was nowhere to be seen. A trace of regret rose within him.
The moonlight fell like swords. In an instant, Zhi Que was grievously wounded, terrifying gashes opening across his body.
Under that sword intent, Zhi Que knew there was no chance of escape. The silent man therefore stopped struggling, sat down cross-legged, and allowed the full moon to wear him away without end.
“You are Lu Yun, aren’t you?” Zhi Que asked.
“Yes.”
A voice answered from amid heaven and earth.
“Could I ask you to give these two things to His Highness?”
Zhi Que slowly opened his palms and used the last of his strength to protect the two objects.
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But he soon discovered that the sword energy seemed to be deliberately avoiding them.
“Could you carry one final message for me?”
“I can.”
“Thank you.”
Zhi Que smiled with sincere gratitude, then scattered upon the wind.
The strange phenomenon gradually faded. Lu Yun looked toward Yuan Bai, who stood frozen in terror, and tossed the objects in his hand to him.
“These are what he left for you.”
Yuan Bai stood rooted to the spot. Then he burst into loud sobs.
Zhi Que’s voice slowly emerged. The man rarely spoke, but his voice was exceptionally gentle, soothing to the heart.
“Your Highness, Zhi Que will go with the river for now.”
A fragment of a broken sword. A damaged jade tablet.
Zhi Que had carefully treasured both objects.
Their damage had made them far less valuable, but he had continued to cherish them.
They represented the rare moments of happiness he had once known. They represented his loyalty. They represented the meaning of Zhi Que’s existence.
Zhi Que’s voice faded away. Apart from the two objects lying before him, no trace of the man remained.
Yuan Bai covered his face and said in a trembling voice, “I wanted to kill you, and you wanted to kill me. That would have been simple enough. Why did you have to kill him? Why did you have to kill him?”
“I gave him a chance,” Lu Yun said calmly. “He died for you.”
Yuan Bai threw back his head and laughed wildly. He seized the broken sword fragment and allowed blood to flow freely from his hand.
“He died for me… He died for me…”
Though the sword had been broken, it was still sharp.
Yuan Bai did not want to die beneath Lu Yun’s sword. He used that broken blade to end his own life.
Before he died, the damaged jade tablet lay quietly before his eyes.
Only a single character remained upon it: Lord.
Yuan Bai still remembered the complete inscription:
“You and I walk together; I and you bear the sentence.”
“Blame me. Blame Dong Sangeng. Blame Zhou Mi. Blame Father…”
At the very end, Yuan Bai murmured, “The river rolls endlessly. In the end, your life and mine can only drift eastward with it…”
…
“Dong Sangeng, do you truly believe you can return to the Sword Qi Great Wall?!”
Yuan Feng stood with his hands behind his back, watching Dong Sangeng approach with sword in hand.
Dong Sangeng chuckled. “Who can stop me?”
“The Sword Immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall certainly have sharp tongues.”
Yuan Feng threw back his head and laughed.
“Then let us wait and see!”
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“A dying man, yet you still have so much nonsense to say.” Dong Sangeng waved impatiently. “Hurry up and get lost.”
Yuan Feng looked toward the Moon-Reaching Tower and murmured, “An Immortal Realm expert the likes of which has never existed before, and Yuan Mo, supported by Old Master Bai… They should be able to preserve the White Plain Kingdom, shouldn’t they?”
“What is it? Now that death is at hand, do you feel that everything you did was meaningless?” Dong Sangeng mocked.
Yuan Feng smiled and shook his head.
“Many times, what we do, and how we choose to gamble, are not things we can decide for ourselves…”
The middle-aged man pointed toward the stone island in the sky, then toward the distant horizon.
“The ones who decide our fate are them. The one who influences our fate is you, Dong Sangeng.”
“Ha. I really am important.” Dong Sangeng touched his face. “Could it be that I have become handsome again?”
Yuan Feng ignored him and merely let out a sigh.
“Bai’er, you and that Zhi Que are no more than mayflies caught in the vast river, carried straight along by the current. Are your father and the old ancestor any different? If even those who ascend are in such a plight, then among all under heaven, who can remain untouched?”
With that, the immensely resolute yet exceptionally cautious Emperor Yuan Feng began to fade away, his spiritual sense and soul dispersing into heaven and earth.
Just before he vanished completely, Dong Sangeng struck with his sword and severed the head of this great demon of the Ascension Realm.
Dong Sangeng’s face began to pale.
Yuan Feng had not been wrong.
Some of the great demons across the Savage World had already begun to grow restless.
…
Across the Savage World, immense golden-armored giants moved in orderly fashion, transporting mountain after mountain.
A blind old man reclined in a chair, leisurely basking in the midday sun.
At the old man’s feet, a yellow dog opened its mouth. In the next instant, it vanished without a trace.
The old man seemed to be asleep and paid no attention.
A watchdog kept at home could not be allowed to grow too arrogant. A little punishment would teach it some manners.
…
Upon the stone island, the Taiping Academy had finally reached its end.
The scholar Guan Yuan covered his mouth, but blood continued to pour through his fingers.
“I had originally planned to wait a few more years. What a pity…” Zhou Mi said regretfully.
It turned out that Zhou Mi had swallowed every disciple of the Taiping Academy in a single gulp.
Guan Yuan patted Shan Cong on the shoulder.
“Big fool, run while you still can.”
“Senior Brother!” Shan Cong cried, tears streaming down his face.
Guan Yuan smiled.
“Your senior brother is rather formidable now.”
The scholar, whose Dao fruit and golden core had all been devoured by Zhou Mi, had somehow broken through by rebuilding from ruin. He had entered a state so profound and mysterious that he faintly possessed the bearing of the Dao.
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