Though he'd never say it, he did think for a bit that he was harsh in his evaluation. After all, Hu Ji had the foresight to be the first to give his sworn enemy his back. Perhaps, he was mistaken about that.
But the fact remained.
The two knew it well.
Even if they came to understand one another, they could not get along. It was simply too difficult after all the words they'd said and the battles they'd fought.
Right as they were about to talk to one another, a shout came over.
"Ji-Ji!" Hu Ji's face twisted.
"Ji-Ji?" Shou Xin's face twisted.
Sect Leader Yue's face turned upwards.
Lan Suzu ran out and slammed into Hu Ji who was so weak, he couldn't do anything but fall from the weight of it.
See, Lan Suzu had lied just a little before.
She did have some contact with men, to be exact, a single man, one brutalized and battered person whom she had met whilst taking a moment to cleanse the Hidden Hydra Cave, she found him dying within and nursed him back to health.
In return, he swore to protect her, and would come back when he had become strong enough.
As the only person she had met, and the only one who had been nice to her besides her father, he was deeply imprinted into her mind.
Shou Xin wiggled his eyebrows at him, as he began to laugh.
Hu Ji was frowned and was about to say something when.
"Hubby!" Feng Wuqing shot to Shou Xin's side, her eyes running all over him and checking for injuries, a worried look filling her vision.
"Hubby…" Hu Ji's frown turned upside down and his voice trailed off into a breathless laugh.
Shou Xin looked crest fallen for a moment, but he than remembered Hu Ji's nickname and laughed again.
These two turned away from each other though, as how could they focus on making fun of one another, when they had such beauties taking care of them.
"Well, then." Sect Leader Yue rolled her eyes at the blatant displays of affection, feeling a bit lonely as her own lover had passed away a long, long time ago. "It is time you all went back."
Her job was done, she had put in the effort, now it was up to fate what would become of these two.
With help from the women in their lives, the two managed to stay on their feet and looked at one another.
Time slowed as they crossed their eyes.
"If you should shed your skin and become a monster, I will adorn my spear with your blood and say a prayer for your soul."
"Should we cross paths on the field of battle, I will do you the honor of ornamenting the hamon of my sword, so you might never be forgotten."
Sect Leader Yue frowned and wanted to hold her head, why did these two have to be so awkward?
On the flipside, Feng Wuqing and Lan Suzu were having a pleasant conversation since their stories were quite similar in the case of how they met their person.
Their whispers escaped the other two who were looking as though they were about ready to fight again, if only because they could.
It was only when Sect Leader Yue raised a hand, that they stopped speaking allowing her the air.
She eye'd them.
"...You've destroyed my cave, and so, I will naturally have you two pay back. Participate in my sect's tournament," They looked slightly confused and so she continued, "Don't worry. I don't expect you two to join the sect. I simply want these new juniors who have grown rather lax to have a wake up call. The vast world is not kind to those who laze about endlessly."
Naturally, the two accepted, after all if it was just that in exchange for having ran amok in the cave, then it was not much.
The reason that they didn't object despite the fact they were technically fighting her when it was destroyed was because she was using an illusion and the fact they didn't see through it was their own inadequacy, as prideful people, they did not make excuses.
They destroyed it due to their level being too low.
"Ah, and as for the Hidden Snow Hydra and Fallen Sword Grave, you two should not sneak about anymore. It is annoying to have the alarm reset each time," Her words rang in both their heads like kids caught with their hand in the cookie jar, "Simply head in through the front with these."
Talismans, the same which Lan Suzu had which allowed her to come to the cottage here underground.
Jiyue Sect's Forbidden Grounds Teleportation Talisman.
"Thank you, Sect Leader." Two voices, the same moment.
Two glares, the same people.
Sect Leader Yue shook her head, starting to get annoyed at their constant silent bickering, and so she sent them away with a have of her sleeve.
Blue light enveloped the cave for a brief moment.
"Finally," She looked up at the hole in her once ethereal cave, "Those little monster's cut through an Illusion technique like that huh…"
Shaking her head, she retreated back into her cottage, sealing the door behind her and allowing the cave to return to it's natural state, the walls, floors and ceilings recovering.
—
"Fuuu… The Sect Leader is just as ferocious as they say. I couldn't even fight against her illusions and got sucked in directly." Lan Suzu heaved a long relieved breath.
The room they'd landed in was the very place they'd been staying at the top of the Travel Mountain within the residence of Elder Lan.
"...she is not unchained." Shou Xin said between looks around the room trying to decipher something, "Is this an illusion too?"
Noticing the various carvings on the pillars seemed to have degraded slightly, he wasn't sure if it was a near perfect illusion they'd been thrown into, or if they were truly let go.
"How would you know?" From across the hall, Hu Ji had similar thoughts though he was far less suspicious, "Have you met someone above Unchained?"
The hall went silent for a moment, it was not often one could hear about someone who had broken through the three realms and entered the Dao.
"Once. She saved my life when I was almost killed saving weapon slaves," Shou Xin shrugged lightly as he was reminded of her his mind moving rapidly, "She did not have a name to give, but the aura is unmistakable, the Sect Leader here has an aura far closer to the Dao than Law."
The silence was deafening as they processed what they had heard. A Dao Expert had appeared in the wild states and as a Sect Leader no less! Yet, she was hiding her cultivation?
"Hmph." They turned to look at Hu Ji who had a cold expression on his face, "Soon, there will be another Dao Expert here."
He raised the Hidden Snow Hydra talisman he had been given and activated it, his eyes filled with conviction, Lan Suzu, who was nearby got wrapped up in the teleportation as well, though it didn't look like she was necessarily upset, with her strength she could have stepped out.
"A Dao Expert…" Shou Xin's hear burned being a master was like stepping off a cliff, the further one fell the harder ground would be when one landed, and either one landed strong enough to survive the hit and rise or one would splat.
What one did during the fall, is what mattered most.
He refused to splat, like a bug.
Fallen Sword Grave.
The talisman began to light up, and he looked at Feng Wuqing who had taken a step back, her eyes falling over the many pillars in the hall.
"It seems this palace holds ancient powers left behind by those who carved them. I will stay here and train." He nodded in response.
In life, it was the parting that made the time spent together well spent.
In a breath, he was gone.
—
Gruelling rains, brutal winters and summer melts.
When blood meets water, even oceans turn, reviled.
Death at the end of a claw after living on the edge of a blade.
Such is the fate of the fallen swords.
A named grave for a nameless struggle.
Vaguely, over the last few month's a sensation would creep up the spines of those guarding the Fallen Sword Graveyard.
Within it's reaches, a young scholarly boy, an aura of absolutes, tyrannical in nature.
The aura of an ageless youth, possibly thousands or possible but a single year old.
Nothing can be discerned, all hidden behind a thick veil.
The Sword Dao slithered around him, as though inspecting his every being, every move and every purpose, scrutinizing everything he was, and is.
A thousand steps.
To arrive at the center of this grave, it would take exactly one thousand steps.
A sigh was heard.
The Sword Dao reacted with a mighty cut.
But it was defeated.
Ten steps had been taken, and not a single one more.
Since the time the youth had first stepped into the Fallen Sword Grave, he had only broken but a single challenge allowing ten steps to breath.
He had eared but a measly ten steps among a thousand.
Such was the cruel fate of a being such as he.
Yet, it was of no matter.
He stepped forward once.
Eleven steps.
The Sword Dao was aroused into a turning storm.
Twelve Steps.
Something vague could be seen approaching, the earth beneath earnest and vast, a subtle aura as though it were everywhere and nowhere.
Immovable strength.
A mirror image, a steady mountain in comparison to the youth's tyrannical undertones.
Shiiiiing!
The youth held his sword loosely, ravenous qi infected by many energies rose from his feet like a fog, coalescing into a dragon which curled at the end of his blade, the reflection in it's eyes the youth's reflection.
In it's eyes, a terribly calm visage.
The youth's reflection slowly began to move forward, each foot step a resounding fall as though what moved forward were not human, but the earth itself.
The surroundings felt as though they wished to sink him into it's gentle embrace, his mind recoiled at the sensation.
Blood boiled underneath his skin as he repelled the earth's call, much to the shock of the reflection whose eyes narrowed.
Shiiiing!
Heavy.
The air turned stagnant and thick as though an ancient forest risen in but a breath.
"You are not enough."
A slight, a slap to his face, gentle but resounding.
Something seemed to creep into his heart those words planted at the edge of it's fingers.
"You can never be enough."
Whoosh.
Clang!
Blades crossed.
That heavy aura came down, suppressing the ravenous tyrant.
Their eyes locked from mere inches apart, one shone with rage whilst the other was calm, almost leering at his very soul.
Boom!
They parted, a trace of blood visible on the ravenous tyrant.
However.
That heavy reflection was not unscathed, a cut down his eyebrow.
"You are weak."
Once again, they clashed in the fog, appearing only briefly, the ravenous tyrant being suppressed with every attack, brought low by the mountain below.
"You are…"
The mountain raged with a fiery breath hidden in it's eyes.
"...uncertain."
Sparks arose as their swords clashed for the final time.
The ground broke underneath the weight which felt as though the energy in the surrounding came together at the call of the calm reflection.
"Am I?"
A response, the first of it's kind since he began this challenge, his eyes locked onto the sky a target to be aimed for and nothing less.
The calm reflection fell to his knee's, and the land seemed to fall in on itself in grief.
"Every inch of my path is covered in blood, every step a monument to my convictions."
The sword in the ravenous tyrant's hand came down, but it did not draw blood, the dragon did not cry out and the earth did not die away.
That earthly youth looked up, it's eyes as still as they had been.
"You are lost."
The reflection began to come apart as it's strength waned, it slowly stood up on firm feet.
A single, scarred hand reached past the long sleeves which once hid them like a cave hides a beast, the touch felt like a mountains pressure yet carried similar opportunity.
"...Know thyself, child. What is it that you seek in this miserable existence reaching for a peak so lonely, a place so isolated. A life so…"
It trailed, as though what it had said was too far, the face became unreadable as it turned into dust.
Darkness reigned within the Fallen Sword Grave.
The ravenous tyrant walked forward, each step filled with the conviction of the last and the resolve of the next.
At the twentieth step, darkness reigned.
Every ten steps, there would be a condition to advance the Sword Dao would be the one to choose, it could see that which other's could not despite its eye's those which could only see through the reflection of other's.
After every ten steps, something would occur, a darkness would reign.
That ravenous youth was not unfamiliar to this, he was no fool despite his tyranny.
Runic lights came and greeted him the moment he stepped foot into that infinite abyss, yet his mind was not present enough to respond to their gestures.
He knew what would happen here.
Two, Four, Eight, Sixteen, the strength of Law Expert's expanded drastically with the laws they acquired each time they broke through.
At the third level, one would have Eight Laws.
Many would need to take many years to acquire these new laws, since almost no one ever got to take laws for free, nor were laws so readily available.
It was said that to take an abandoned law, one might as well destroy their cultivation and begin again, yet the ravenous youth did not care.
He waited.
And those four laws which would join him, came forth.
He did not give them names, for they did not need them.
He did not remember their names, for they did not wish for him to.
He did not spurn them, for he was overjoyed in his tyrannical silence to accept them.
He treated them with kindness, welcoming these laws which other's so easily spurned into his body and embrace.
There was no great battle within his body, nor a war in his mind.
They did not struggle.
They knew.
And they were joyful in knowing.
Joining the fold, four new runes connected to a system of laws within his Inner Sea, hovering around the Inner Furnace which purified his three cultivations.
Sword Intent, Sanguine Sword Qi and Sanguine Sword Body.
Once the new laws appeared and were made into the planets which orbited his everything, fires were roused from the seas below and lightning from the skies.
Coming together, they were fed immense power, a burning lightning ripping through the outside of the Inner Furnace, forcefully purifying that which was inside.
Sword Intent improved as his mind was submerged, his soul hidden deep within the foundation of this small world called his Inner Sea.
He practiced tirelessly within, as though thousands of years passed in but a breath, his Sword Intent grew until it shattered the walls.
Qi and Body followed as fire and lightning purified with power unmatched to that which it was once at before.
Power flowed through the ravenous tyrant.
And then, it was made silent and heavy.
It spread and came back together again.
His breathing steadied, his mind gathered.
"What do I truly want?"
Muttering without much meaning to mortals whose choices were few, but to immortals, one could pass a lifetime pondering.
He thought to his heart, a woman so beautiful that one could hardly imagine, her soul so alluring that he found himself silent in her presence if only to enjoy her a moment longer.
He thought to his clan, a group of people who were ragged and cold blooded, and yet through love to one another and loyalty to their oath became strong and self-sufficient.
He thought to his family, those dead and gone faces which would never arise in this world again, people who deserved that which they got.
He thought of where he stood, on the long path to the peak which was not even assured, to the clouds where one could not stand and only fall.
He thought of the end, his heart, trembling.
He imagined standing at the top, and yet he could not imagine doing so with anyone else as though something let him know.
His instincts which had carried him for so long, told him, screamed at him!
The peak is lonely.
The peak is the end.
The peak is where hopeless fools hope to go.
Stand against heaven alone, and you will be crushed by it's suitors, those who seek it's hand if only to cut it's throat and take it's place.