Chapter 197 - Guiltless

Co-TL and Edited by Animeart

A sheet of peach blossom paper, familiar brush strokes and font.

Shu’er, see the words as if we are meeting:

Recently, my moods have been fluctuating. I couldn’t sleep and was awake at night, when I saw your sleeping face. I felt all kinds of sadness and joy in my heart and to express them, I wrote this letter.

Xiao Shao’s intention to die has been decided, when the Immortal Lord reads this letter, I would have already given up my mortal body and gone to the Yellow Springs, as a lonely ghost in the Netherworld. Would not see you again in this life. You already know my idea, and the reason for dying, there is no need to elaborate in detail. As the old saying goes, “If there is a Dao in the world, You should be martyred by the Dao; If there is no Dao in the world, You should be martyred by your body”. Although this body has suffered a lot of sins, in the end, I am not ashamed of the people in the world, only to you, I am deeply indebted.

Thinking about this, I stopped writing several times, and I have not been able to write for a long time. I want to tell you all my sorrows, but I am afraid to delay your Immortal Dao. You are originally a heavenly Immortal, who happened to be here by chance to give me a chance at happiness. I have wondered many times over the Heartless Dao that you follow, and have thought about it many times. Cutting off the feelings, I am afraid that this was not the original intention of 《Everlasting Yearning》, and we need to understand the meaning of worldly love before we can transcend it. I think after this life’s parting, you will be able to understand the seven emotions thoroughly and return to the Dao and become a great Daoist who is unruffled by sentiments. Xiao Shao will be pleased and will rejoice at the Yellow Springs.

Although the road is near, you still have to delay in the world for several years. I know you have always been focused on cultivation and I don’t need to give any more advice, just for fear that you will deal with it at will and damage yourself. There is a joke in the folk saying: “although the golden elixir is an elixir, it is difficult to keep your face if there is little green elixir.” Make sure to withdraw money from the Villa and spend more on food and clothing. If you have no special preference, remember to choose the one with the highest quality. In addition, your body is weak. You should take more tonics in autumn. You must live in the south in winter. Do not drink alcohol, do not drink strong tea, do not eat cold things, do not go near the swamp. Don’t sleep late but remember not to get too early as well.

Although there are few pure places in the world, three years ago, I went to the south of the Yangtze River to visit the famous mountains, and found a beautiful place for you and planted a mountain full of flowers and trees. East of the mountain, peaches have been planted, the west of the mountain have plums planted, the south of the mountain is planted with maple, surrounded by three mountains, there is a water source that dives into a ca.n.a.l forming a lotus pond that reflects the sun. It is colorful all year round. When you are tired of Cultivation, you can go to Bingzhou to see it. The day of my death should be somewhere in February and March, when the peach blossoms are in full bloom. One day when you walk through the east mountain, the east wind would blow down peach blossoms, staining your robes, that would mean, I came to see you.

Just now, when the night breeze entered the window, you seemed to frown in a dream. I wanted to stop writing and go back to your side and caress your brows. Thinking about the nights you will be alone after this, makes it hard for me to write anymore. Even if there are thousands of words, in the end it’s just “take care my precious”.

Handwritten by Xiao Shao on the twenty seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year of the Gengxu year, at the fourth drum of the night.

Although separated by life and death, I am very glad to have met you.

Lin Shu did not realize until he finished reading that he was holding the letter with too much force, leaving finger marks on the paper.

He desperately tried to smoothen it out, but in the end he could not.

He didn’t know how many times he had read it, but he laughed in a daze, he was almost tempted to go to the Netherworld to find Xiao Shao and laugh at him a little.

And say to him — ‘this handwritten letter of yours, the preface doesn’t match the postscript. Half of the letter says how I should take care of myself, but if I really don’t take care of myself well, what will you do?’

He was just thinking about it, wanting to cry and laugh for a while. He didn’t know how long he had been standing there — and finally he put the letter away for fear that the spring breeze would blow away the paper.

Just as he was about to continue on his way, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him, and Cangmin caught up.

“Brother Lin, please wait!”

Lin Shu stayed, and Cangmin said, “Brother Lin, I forgot to tell you, the reason why these people had gathered into a crowd was because they c olluded together. They designed house arrest for the Grand Master and His Majesty in the Imperial Palace. We were unable to rescue them, but if you just showed your strength, I think ……”

Lin Shu knew what he meant and said, “I’ll go right away.”

Then he went to the Palace.

He didn’t know what his current state was. He only knew that at the moment when Xiao Shao died, he suddenly understood 《Extinction》 , and got the true inheritance of Qingming Demon Lord, out of this Heavenly Dao.

He finally watched the law of movement of everything in this world with cold eyes and had the strength to directly fight against it on the level of the “Dao”.

He could see the end of the Heavenly Dao to ascend the heavens and break through the realm and ascend to Immortality seemingly in only a matter of a single thought.

But no matter in the world of Mortals or Immortals, they all live the same way, and he didn’t want to go.

On the way, he suddenly heard the roaring of thunder, and dark clouds had gathered in the sky. It was the sight usually seen when Thunder and Lightning Tribulation was about to fall.

Lin Shu felt the surrounding Qi and saw that this time the Thunder and Lightning Tribulation was aimed at the Guiltless blade.

He felt that the Heavenly Dao really went too far. It had just taken Xiao Shao away. Now it wanted to take away Guiltless as well?

Fortunately, the thunder at this time was not as frightening as it was before.

The Guiltless Blade trembled in his hands, its body vaguely flowing with demonic red light.

The blade had a very evil aura. There were at least tens of thousands of dead souls that had been killed under this blade.

But the sins were done by the people who wielded the blade, what could the blade have to do with it?

Not to mention that Lin Shu did not want to lose the only one thought related to Xiao Shao.

Therefore, when the Heavenly Lightning finally fell, he struck.

The Heavenly Thunder and Lightning was the will of Heavenly Dao, but Lin Shu was now just out of the control of the Heavenly Dao.

He blocked it.

One, two, three… There were nine strikes. It was not like a Heavenly wrath, but more like a Tribulation.

Cangmin watched him from the side as he blocked and withstood the nine strikes of the Tribulation Lightning and Thunder. He was dumbfounded and couldn’t speak clearly : “Brother Lin, you, you, you……..”

Lin Shu said, “It was a fluke.”

Cangmin: “Shidi admires you.”

Lin Shu then smiled.

But even with such a realm of cultivation, he only wanted to return to the time when his meridians were all damaged.

As he was thinking about it and in a daze, Guiltless Blade suddenly trembled again and emitted a few more sounds.

Lin Shu asked it: “What’s wrong with you?”

Guiltless trembled, and a blood mist filled its whole body.

After a while, the blood mist dissipated.

Lin Shu: “……..”

He saw a child and couldn’t help but stare helplessly at the child.

Looking at his appearance, the child was about six or seven years old. He was dressed in dark and dull black clothes, like the scabbard of the Guiltless sword. The pupils of his eyes were as red as a bloodstream gushing, exactly the same color as the blood mist.

In addition, his eyebrows were cold, indifferent, a pair of eyes with an icy demonic evil aura, not like a living person.

Lin Shu: “…Guiltless?”

Guiltless did not speak, just silently turned around and walked with him.

Cangmin clapped his hands and sighed,”Brother Lin, I finally know, you and Big Miss’ children, were actually born like this!”

Children?

They could be considered like that.

An extra child came out of thin air, Lin Shu’s heart felt a bit complicated.

Fruit was first, then there was Yingying. He was already an experienced person and known to have more exposure with children.

Guiltless ignored him, but he did not ignore Guiltless.

He went to hold Guiltless’ hand.

Guiltless avoided it.

He talked to Guiltless.

Guiltless didn’t say a word.

Lin Shu saw that the child was not like Fruit and Yingying, but seemed like he was a little autistic.

It did not matter. If one had too many children, just like there were many types of trees in a forest, naturally there would be different personalities in children.

Guiltless, thus remained autistic for three days.

He acted as if there was no Lin Shu, there was no Cangmin around him, but he followed them silently, not too far, not too close.

On the way, when they encountered mortal beasts, Lin Shu felt that Guiltless’ eyes flashed with malice, seemingly wanting to kill, and even tried to act on his impulse a few times — of course, he was forced to stop.

“Guiltless” itself was the famous “Demonic Blade” in the lists of most powerful weapons. Naturally, he would not be kind, and Lin Shu could accept that.

He still tried to talk to the problem-child “Guiltless” everyday and tried to hold the child’s hand but there was no success.

And then, they traveled to the Capital City’s boundary, broke the array formation that trapped the Grand Master and the others — it turned out that Fruit and Yingying were also detained in the palace.

Fruit was so angry that he took his sword and was about to go and take the group of people’s dog heads. But then he caught sight of Guiltless and was frozen in place.

“Is this… Guiltless?” he asked Lin Shu with surprise in his eyes.

Lin Shu: “Yes.”

And Guiltless still didn’t speak, as if everyone was air.

In the following days, Fruit was fidgeting and restless. Finally, on this day, he pulled Lin Shu to his room, spread out an ancient book for him to see.

While flipping through the book, he said, “Do you know that you blocked the Transformation Tribulation for Guiltless Blade?”

Lin Shu: “At that time, I did not know that it was the Transformation Tribulation.”

Fruit sighed: “No wonder you don’t know …… it’s a long story. Transformation Tribulation is when a spiritual weapon gains wisdom, then to transform into human form it needs to experience the Heavenly Tribulation. My fruit can give the weapons, the spirit of wisdom, and allow them to transform into human form without having to experience the Heavenly Tribulation. But if they developed the spiritual wisdom on their own, then they need to go through Nine Thunder and Lightning Tribulation strikes to transform – This is the Transformation Tribulation.”

After that, before Lin Shu could respond, he continued, “Do you know why I didn’t give Guiltless my fruit for transformation?”

Lin Shu: “You said at first that Guiltless’ evil aura was too heavy.”

“Exactly!” Fruit gritted his teeth: “If Guiltless takes human form, it’s a big problem!”

He showed Lin Shu the origin of the Guiltless Blade in the ancient book.

Lin Shu knew this history, and even had deliberately looked it up.

The content of the ancient book that Fruit showed him was similar to what he had found previously. It was said that thousands of years ago, the world was in chaos, and countless Lords ceded territory and claimed power and t.i.tles.

And in this era, there was a world-famous forging master, named Ou Yezi who was an unprecedentedly talented craftsman whose talent could be only seen once in thousands of years.

In the Emperor’s reign, there was another Emperor who was particularly ambitious and heard that the weapons forged by the first craftsman Ou Yezi carried infinite Fortune Luck. So he ordered Ou Yezi to forge a Mortal Emperor’s Sword for him to help him unify the world.

Ou Yezi said that the Emperor did not have the heart and mind to unify the world and refused to forge the sword. The Emperor became furious and killed Ou Yezi’s whole family by cruel means and continued to force him to forge. Coerced by power, Ou Yezi had to agree to him. However, he claimed that the sword needed to collect nine kinds of special iron and three kinds of meteoritic material from outside the sky, forge it with the blazing fire in the extreme south, refine it with the blood of the people in the fourteen states, and bury it in a ma.s.s grave for ten years. Only then the Sword could seize the Fortune Luck of Heaven and Earth and have the power to kill everything in the world.

The Emperor was delighted to allow it, and he fought for years to collect blood, and slaughtered ten cities to build ma.s.s graves. Five years later, the materials were gathered. Three years later, the weapon was forged and buried in the ma.s.s grave, and then ten years later, Ou Yezi took out the weapon and offered it to the Emperor. But it was a Blade. The Emperor was furious and gave Ou Yezi death penalty, buried him with his family. Ou Yezi died with a big smile.

Although it was not a sword, the Emperor wore it on his side for the legendary Fortune Luck of the Mortal Emperor that could unify the world.

The next day, he bled out from seven orifices and died suddenly.

Later, all those who had worn this blade died horrifically, and the Guiltless Blade became a demonic object that was feared, and was put in the high pavilion.

“Refined using the blood from Fourteen states in the world! Then buried in the ma.s.s graves for ten years! This is clearly an unparalleled evil object forged by Ou Yezi to get his revenge on the Emperor. How much fury and resentment would it have on it, you think? Ou Yezi was an unparalleled craftsman of the ages. He could forge unparalleled artifact and naturally he could forge unparalleled murder weapon. Would such a weapon be a normal weapon? Now if such a weapon gains wisdom, would it be a good person? Just with a single glance, you can see he hates the world and its people. It looks like he would go out and chop down people like gra.s.s. His eyes are blood-red.” Fruit seemed to be very uncomfortable: “But it’s already here and can’t be stuffed back. I suggest you deal with him early.”

Lin Shu finished flipping through the ancient book, and then looked at Fruit’s uncomfortable look: “You should be friendly to your younger brother.”

Fruit pulled his hair: “I am very upset. Just a single glance at him has made me very worried. I am an innate spiritual plant, and my intuition has always been very accurate. Do you know why he met the Transformation Tribulation? Because father used him to kill too many people. He was originally a great evil spirit, and in these six months he is full of blood due to the killings. His spiritual intelligence has been born from the blood of tens of thousands of people.”

Lin Shu pondered for a while.

Finally, he said: “I will discipline him.”

Fruit: “Just in case you are unable to discipline him.”

Lin Shu: “He’s actually a pretty well-behaved kid.”

Fruit: “You actually think he is cute?”

Lin Shu: “After all, he is still so young.”

Fruit bristled: “You don’t love me anymore, you have a new son.”

Lin Shu also didn’t know why this was.

He remembered the day he was trapped in a sea of blood at Phoenix Mountain Villa and couldn’t find Xiao Shao, it was Guiltless who took the initiative to guide the way.

In the past, when wandering in the Jianghu with Xiao Shao, Guiltless Blade would take the initiative to give an alarm during danger like the other spiritual weapons in the world.

So although Guiltless was silent and autistic …… its nature may not be very bad.

After saying something else to Fruit, Lin Shu left the place and pushed open the door

Straight into the eyes of the Guiltless.

Guiltless raised his eyes to look at him. He still had a very cold look. It was not known how long he was listening outside the door.

The next moment, he saw Guiltless slightly lowering his eyes, seeming a little overwhelmed.

He did not say anything, and as usual went to hold Guiltless’ hand.

Yingying liked being led like this, so he thought Guiltless should like it too.

When he was in the Sword Pavilion, not caring about the worldly affairs, it was Xiao Shao who raised Yingying alone.

Now it was his turn to raise Guiltless on his own.

The world seemed to be a cycle of events.

The world was big, but there was no Xiao Shao.

Guiltless dodged, but did not move away too far and also the movement was not very firm. This time Lin Shu finally held his hand.

Sure enough, the little hand was ice-cold.

————-

The author has something to say: Lin Shu, a single father with not much emotions.

Note: When the Anti j.a.panese war is won in the future, as a famous Anti j.a.panese general quote, ‘if there are waves like mountains when you cross Wusongkou, I will come to see you—— Guo Rugui

The overall tone of the letter is a reference to Lin Jumin’s “Letter to his Wife” which is similar in context.