When I Mistook My Arch-Rival for My Dao Companion - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The moment Fu Guzhou spoke those words, even the air seemed to freeze.

In a bizarre silence, Fu Guzhou tightened his grip on the sword in his hand.

The child’s silence was not a sign that he had guessed wrong; on the contrary, it was the ultimate proof that he was right.

Information about the Dingxie Sword flashed through Fu Guzhou’s mind. In the cultivation world, some sword cultivators become famous because of their swords, and similarly, some swords become famous because of their masters. The Dingxie Sword was the latter—a sword that became famous because of a person.

Even in his Master’s stories, there was first the peerlessly talented Exalted Dingxie, and only then was there the Dingxie Sword that could slay all evil. Therefore, even though Exalted Dingxie had sealed his sword for seven hundred years for the sake of a ghost cultivator woman, he remained an extremely revered figure with significant influence among sword cultivators.

However, the Fu Guzhou of that time had a slightly different perspective on this matter. Since the Dingxie Sword became famous because of Exalted Dingxie, why was such a sword capable of quelling evil? In the eyes of the young Fu Guzhou, it wasn’t that the sword was powerful because the person was extraordinary; rather, it was the power of the sword that made Exalted Dingxie who he was.

But since these things were unrecorded, history was naturally written by the survivors.

Back then, Fu Guzhou thought his Master was simply trying to save face for sword cultivators—after all, cases of people elevating swords were far fewer than swords elevating people—but thinking about it now, an Exalted Dingxie who could suppress the Dingxie Sword and use it at will was hardly an ordinary man.

In that instant, Fu Guzhou felt a faint resonance with the Dingxie Sword.

When the resonance rang out, Fu Guzhou even felt that the childish voice he had heard before was a delusion.

The blood-stained Dingxie Sword let out a clanging sword hum. Simultaneously, Fu Guzhou’s originally groggy head suddenly snapped into clarity.

The Dingxie Sword—one strike to quell ten thousand evils!!

Leaving a bloody footprint with every step, Fu Guzhou, whose spirit had been wavering, was suddenly jolted. Looking at his position again, he realized that if he had continued walking, he would have led Wenren Qian right into an abyss.

Cold sweat broke out on Fu Guzhou’s back. Just when had he been controlled?

This method of silently controlling a person’s soul—if he hadn’t held the Dingxie Sword in his hand, he might have already perished here.

Fu Guzhou pursed his lips and made an extremely bold decision: to completely cut off his divine sense.

After ceasing to use his divine sense to see, Fu Guzhou’s vision returned to total darkness. This darkness was something Fu Guzhou had experienced just a few months ago in his memory, so it wasn’t unfamiliar.

The moment the darkness enveloped him, Fu Guzhou panicked slightly. No one can easily adapt to the feeling of seeing nothing. However, he quickly steadied himself and tightened his hold on Wenren Qian on his back.

With his sight cut off, his other senses remained. Fu Guzhou could clearly feel the existence of the door.

Since the door could lure so many people, in Fu Guzhou’s view, it couldn’t be a total fake. It could only mean that there indeed was a door, but its position was difficult to find—or rather, there were too many distractions on the path. Most people simply couldn’t find the door using a body on the verge of death. This was the true reason Wujian could trap people.

For a moment, Fu Guzhou reached a point of enlightenment.

From the very beginning, it was impossible for them to become true “people of Wujian.” Wujian does not exist within this realm. But whether human or demon, as long as one lives, there will be obsession. With obsession, it is impossible to leave Wujian.

Only after completely abandoning his sight did Fu Guzhou comprehend this truth.

It seemed as though he was being attracted by a force to constantly search for the Door of Wujian, but after casting aside visual interference, Fu Guzhou discovered that no matter how he walked, the door remained far away. Or perhaps he simply lacked the power to cross over right now.

Fu Guzhou frowned, feeling that something was still not right.

If one truly couldn’t leave Wujian, where did those records come from? They couldn’t have appeared out of thin air.

This indicated only one thing: the door was originally an exit, but many years ago, someone placed a lock on it that had no key.

It was normal for a place used as a prison to have no key, but Fu Guzhou and Wenren Qian were just that unlucky to have stumbled in here.

Perhaps due to the fermentation of this despair, Fu Guzhou, already dizzy from excessive blood loss, felt truly light-headed and heavy-footed, sensing he might lapse into a coma at any moment.

In his daze, he heard the child’s voice once more.

“Do you want to go out?”

Yes, of course I do.

But right now, even making a sound was difficult for Fu Guzhou.

“If you want to go, then relax your body and give yourself completely to me. Don’t worry, I will lead you both out. You just need to relax a little bit. Don’t be nervous.”

The already groggy Fu Guzhou felt his head spin even more. Instinctively, he was about to surrender his body.

The blood-red transparent longsword flickered with light. In a single moment, the body of Fu Guzhou holding the sword jolted violently. A gaze that absolutely did not belong to Fu Guzhou flashed through his originally vacant eyes.

In that instant, Fu Guzhou’s entire aura changed. However, it was only for a flash before his expression returned to calm. The only difference was a smile on his lips that could be described as joyful. “Caught you.”

The Dingxie Sword continued to let out clanging hums during this process, but to no avail. Fu Guzhou, who seemingly wasn’t worth taking seriously, gently stroked the longsword in his hand and asked, “The one who taught me the sword technique earlier was you, wasn’t it, Dingxie Sword?”

A long silence followed, as if all previous voices had been Fu Guzhou’s hallucinations.

Fu Guzhou spoke unhurriedly, “Exalted Dingxie was a sword-cultivating genius the likes of which even my Master rarely praised. Aside from being a genius of the Dao of the sword, it was because he was an upright person. How could such an upright person, who could even comprehend such a sword strike in his later years, have a remnant soul with grievances that wouldn’t dissipate for a thousand years?

Rather than saying you are the remnant soul of the master of the Dingxie Sword, it’s more accurate to say that you are a lingering obsession that, after absorbing Exalted Dingxie’s memories, believes its grievances haven’t vanished.

Such a sword strike doesn’t seem like something that could be comprehended by someone mired in self-reproach. From the perspective of the Great Dao, Madame Xiyun was merely Exalted Dingxie’s emotional tribulation. Passing the tribulation was the moment of rebirth through fire. Therefore, Exalted Dingxie could feel no regret.

Unfortunately, this sword cultivator, praised even by my Master, disappeared in this tiny Wujian. You want us to stay and accompany your master, not realizing that for such a proud sword cultivator, leaving this place was likely his final goal.”

Fu Guzhou’s final words seemed logical and well-supported, but they were actually just random guesses. He simply felt that if Exalted Dingxie had become despondent because of Madame Xiyun, his Master wouldn’t have admired him so much. However, in their previous interaction, ‘Exalted Dingxie’ claimed to have no regrets, yet if he truly had no regrets, why would his expression change when Fu Guzhou mentioned Madame Xiyun? Why would he still be brooding and unable to forget Madame Xiyun’s affairs?

Based on these various reasons, Fu Guzhou guessed that the ‘Exalted Dingxie’ from before was not the man himself. In the end, he was right.

“It’s not that no one has guessed I wasn’t Exalted Dingxie, but you are the first to truly know where I was right and where I was wrong. Lad, what exactly is your background?”

“Fu Guzhou, disciple of Qingchen Sanren of the Wangxu Cave.”

Fu Guzhou honestly disclosed his origin. The Dingxie Sword, which had been acting like an old man just now, was somewhat at a loss for how to respond.

“So how exactly did you guess it?”

“Because you have resentment toward Madame Xiyun. An Exalted Dingxie who could say he has no regrets should not harbor resentment toward Madame Xiyun.”

The Dingxie Sword fell silent, likely having never expected its flaw to lie there. After a long silence, the Dingxie Sword returned to its previous way of speaking: “If you don’t want to die, you’d better treat yourself. This door cannot be reached no matter how you walk; even my master couldn’t do it. Do you think you can? Since your Dao companion is also here, you might as well stay in Wujian.”

Fu Guzhou pursed his lips and eventually shook his head. “No. This place is not my home, after all.”

With that, Fu Guzhou tightened his grip on the sword once more.

Fu Guzhou wasn’t blind to the fact that Wujian was itself a massive cage. The so-called ‘door’ here was merely a method to lure those in the cage to a swift death to become nourishment. But as a participant in the play, he couldn’t view the matter from a bystander’s perspective. Thus, even though he was repeatedly harming himself and testing with his life at risk, Fu Guzhou still did not choose to give up.

Even the ancient killing formation, the Nine-Turn Yin Fiend Formation, had a way out—let alone a small Wujian.

Fu Guzhou completely opened himself up to feel that door. He communicated with the Dingxie Sword in his hand and actually swung the blade with a body that was not yet dead. The blood staining the Dingxie Sword followed Fu Guzhou’s movements in a bizarre way, tracing a complex character in the void.

Following his movements, Fu Guzhou’s complexion became so ghastly he looked like he had just crawled out of a grave. But simultaneously, a terrifying power began to gather in his direction.

Using that move again so soon, even Fu Guzhou didn’t know what he would face next. He simply felt that through this, he might be able to communicate with the power of space. If he succeeded in communicating with spatial power, wouldn’t they be out?

A small price to pay for freedom—this was a very fair trade.

Fu Guzhou had seemingly been well-behaved for the past ten-plus years, but in his bones, he had the impulsive blood of a youth. Unfortunately, the impulsiveness of a youth often leads to paying a tragic price.

Fu Guzhou, who had already bled all over the ground, had no more essence blood in his body. This move was not meant to be used in such a state.

Just as Fu Guzhou’s head spun and he felt he was about to fall, he realized he hadn’t fallen; instead, he was supported at the small of his back by a hand that had appeared out of nowhere.

“This Seat didn’t know the Immortal Venerable had a hobby of self-mutilation. The Immortal Venerable’s tastes are indeed unique.”

A familiar voice carried a hint of mockery.

Faced with such ungracious words, the person who a second ago looked exhausted and on the verge of fainting turned to look at him, as if confirming something.

The pitch-black eyes had no luster, yet Wenren Qian actually saw a trace of a smile within them. “Wenren Qian.”

This joy, manifested purely because he had woken up, made Wenren Qian feel a bit uncomfortable.

Soon, he heard Fu Guzhou’s apologetic voice: “You were right. The current me really can’t do anything well. I didn’t even manage to guard you as I promised. I seem truly useless.”

If a person cannot even protect the one they want to protect, let alone anything else—Fu Guzhou felt a genuine sense of powerlessness. Would the pre-amnesia version of him also leave himself so helpless?

“Are you apologizing to This Seat?”

Fu Guzhou’s head was spinning, and he was physically weak. He relied almost entirely on Wenren Qian’s hand to prop him up. Facing such a question, Fu Guzhou was stunned for a moment before belatedly saying, “It’s not an apology. I just feel…”

Fu Guzhou stopped halfway, a faint curve that could barely be called a smile appearing on his face. “Wenren Qian, I just feel a bit tired.”

Wenren Qian never considered himself a good demon. For the sake of profit, he could commit every evil; he appeared nonchalant but was actually the most vengeful. Fu Guzhou was undoubtedly the primary target of his revenge. He had been leading him step by step, wanting to see him in a wretched state, wanting to see him in despair. Now that Fu Guzhou truly felt powerless and distressed because of a situation, Wenren Qian found he wasn’t that happy.

He rubbed Fu Guzhou’s slightly overly slender neck twice with force before softening his voice. “If you’re tired, then just take a good rest. Who would expect a teenage brat like you to accomplish anything great?”

After a long silence, Fu Guzhou asked almost abruptly, “Wenren Qian, can I give you a hug?”

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