The Sword Dynasty

*Chapter Sixty-Three: Chaos in Mind **

“A good choice, then come along.”

Jing Liuli did not stop, and naturally walked to Dugu Bai’s side, spoke to this youth who had used an unknown amount of courage to make this decision. Then she looked up at the shadow of the Nether dragon that was getting close to the Changling imperial palace and said, “Master once said, regardless of someone’s birth, people who do not understand their path will not get far on the path of cultivation, what decides whether you end up on top is not your strength, but if you submit and live.”

Dugu Bai was silent. He glanced at the Nether dragon, and felt admiration again.

The mountainous Nether dragon finally descended above the imperial palace, the body covering half the light from the sky. As its energy swelled from its body, it started to snow from the sky.

An astounding number of cultivators had gathered around the imperial palace. The Changling cultivators all had their own choices. After a decade of management by Emperor Yuanwu, most cultivation places and cultivators chose to be loyal to him. Countless sword lights gathered together, and wove into a dazzling rainbow around the palace. Such a scene was spectacular and full of killing intent.

When the Nether dragon’s body descended, many seal weapons and sword lights broke through the air and left behind countless strange like tracks. The greenness in the Nether dragon’s eyes had faded. It started to breathe rapidly. As its body made a strange dragon howl that rang through the sky, its whiskers, horns, claws, and the patterns on the black scales started to surge with freezing black energy.

First, ice started to fly through the sky, and then these pieces of ice formed giant ice pieces which fell down crazily. These pieces of ice collided with the primal energies of the universe on the ground. Most of them did not touch the ground, exploding in the air. The fine ice pieces produced quickly froze. In the eyes of all the cultivators on the ground, the shadow of the Nether dragon expanded, like a divine ship flying through the air.

Frost froze between the tiles, the coldness greater than the frost in the world turning these tiles unusually crisp. Any vibration would cause them to make an ear-splitting crack.

Empress Zheng was below the skylight in her study, just like she usually spent her time. She did not need to look up to sense the Nether dragon coming closer. Other than her, all the cultivators who could stop this Nether dragon from coming close were in the Min Mountain area, much less being able to kill it.

The Nether dragon did not need to land directly. Just using the cover of its energy, Baili Suxue could easily enter the palace, and appear in front of her at any time.

In the view of everyone outside, she should hide. She could flee.

But no one knew what she was thinking. She just stood there coldly, waiting for Baili Suxue to arrive.

There were many metal puppets on the two sides of the stone path to her study. They were all seal weapons. In the shadows of the walls on the side or in the shadow of the courtyard, many cultivators were waiting.

Suddenly, her perfect brows rose.

A light appeared in the sky above the stone path, just like space was being twisted by a strange power, and a door was about to appear.

A Jiaodong Commandery cultivator hidden in the shadows sensed this and was about to attack. But he found that he could not move. The blood in his body froze, and then he quickly died.

The seal weapons on the stone path that would usually activate when energy vibrations were sensed did not move. Even the energies in the seals were frozen.

Silently, Baili Suxue’s figure appeared on the stone path.

A streak of white frost spread from his feet. When they were just dozens of feet away from Zheng Xiu, this streak of white frost stopped advancing, like they were cut away by a knife. There was some silent star fire burning on the borders of the white frost.

No one moved, not even the loyal death warriors because at this time, Zheng Xiu spoke.

She looked at Baili Suxue and asked coldly, “How does it feel to come here?”

Baili Suxue did not want to look at her face, and just stared at the star fire burning at the border of the white frost. He said coolly, “Very good.”

“You do not feel there are any problems with what you have done?” Zheng Xiu said to him after a moment of silence.

Baili Suxue frowned, finally looking at her, but did not speak.

“People will always change.” Complicated flames seemed to be pulsing in Zheng Xiu’s wooden eyes. She slowly said, “A person, from young to old, both in body and mind, how much will they change? The you back then you first learned the sword and the you of the present, are you the same in action and mind?”

“I was very young back then, a young girl who had just entered Changling. I carried many things you could not imagine. At many times, I do not know myself what to choose, and what to do.”

**

There could be more experts arriving outside the imperial palace, but Baili Suxue was not in a hurry. He patiently listened to Zheng Xiu speak and then smiled in scorn. “You say this, do you mean that it is because of me, so you were forced to become a person like this?”

“I did not worry what other people said to him, but you were once his best friend.”

Zheng Xiu’s face had been pale to start with, like porcelain, but when she said this, her face seemed to paler, so white that even her flesh seemed to turn transparent.

“I will worry about what you say to him.”

She looked at Baili Suxue and said in a soft but icy voice, “Before I thought about what kind of person I want to become, you said to him that we were not a good couple. You judged too early.”

“Your thoughts are in chaos, and so is your reasoning.” Baili Suxue shook his head and said, “You mean, no matter what bad things you did in the past, no matter how evil you were in the past, if you decide to be a good person in the end, all that occurred in the past does not exist? Also, you never reformed, you became more evil because you feared the matters being exposed… Did you reach this step just because of my few words?”

“Each person has their own reason. You feel it is not because of you, but if not for you, he may not have doubted me at all, maybe I would have decided to become the person he hoped for.” Zheng Xiu’s chest rose and fell rapidly. She looked up at the sky and said slowly and seriously, “The tracks of many things change because of minor matters. You think that I killed him, but in my view, maybe you, his best friend, killed him.”

Baili Suxue rarely smiled. Even if he did, he only gave slightly icy smiles. But at this time, hearing Zheng Xiu’s words, he laughed, laughed out loud.

“You have said so much, wanting a firm reason to kill me, wanting to arouse your own fighting spirit, so your word essence will be more perfect. But you have exposed one thing… Your heart is in chaos. Up to today, you still regret. You still think, if not for me, you and Wang Jingmeng may have become the most perfect couple in the world.” Baili Suxue looked with scorn and sympathy at Zheng Xiu, saying, “I really feel sad for Yuanwu.”