Chapter 569: Holding Sword, Appearing

Buzzing.

Unlike the massive upheaval on the battlefield that had turned everything upside down, in the underground pit, the sand and mud trembled, and silence descended.

Those rocks as hard as boulders cracked under an inexplicable pressure, forming faint lines.

Then, with a few soft cracks, they shattered into pieces.

The pieces cracked further.

Amid hissing sounds, they turned to dust.

"What am I doing?"

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes were bloodshot, fixed on the Ba Yi Chi Shuang Long Mang that was completely crushed on the battlefield.

That wasn't the Ba Yi Chi Shuang Long Mang.

It was Jiao Tangtang!

And even if it was Jiao Tangtang, so what?

In the end, that woman had little connection with him.

Xu Xiaoshou felt his concern was only out of sympathy for the weak.

But...

What about Xin Gugu?

Just moments ago, using his "perception" to survey everything, he could only watch helplessly as the four Minotaur ghosts charging toward the Shuo Shu Ren were obliterated in the black hole fragments.

They weren't just any Minotaur ghosts!

It was Xin Gugu!

"Huh!"

Xu Xiaoshou felt his breathing growing rapid.

"What am I doing?"

He asked himself again.

Clutching his forehead, his hand was covered in cold sweat, and he froze.

"Dead?"

"All dead?!"

Staring at the sweat stains in his withered palm, Xu Xiaoshou didn't even notice the pain from gripping the Ji Jian so tightly that his fingers curled, completely lost in thought.

"Xin Gugu, dead?"

"And I... what am I doing?"

Xu Xiaoshou stopped in his tracks, bracing his hands against the soil on both sides.

Tilting his head back, he realized he had already passed through the blood sea barrier summoned by Xin Gugu.

Just one final push, and he could break through to the surface.

"No, wrong, I can't, it's not possible..."

"Sheng Nu, that's 'Sheng Nu'!"

"Xu Yue Hui Gong, that's 'Xu Yue Hui Gong'!"

"This is a war among Dao-cutting level bigwigs. If I go out, what can I even do?"

Xu Xiaoshou desperately pinched his hand, trying to calm himself down.

"Never mind that—even if I ignore the Shuo Shu Ren and the ghosts, what about the others?"

Dozens of Hong Yi, like him, were watching from the sidelines, waiting for an opportunity.

"Up there, there are Hong Yi, Shou Ye, Lan Ling, Yu Zhi Wen, and the Feng Tian Da Zhen."

"I'm just a tiny innate ant—what am I thinking?"

"Go out?"

His blood-red eyes filled with raw destructive desire, Xu Xiaoshou's breathing grew even faster.

"Huh!"

"Huh!"

"Huh..."

He grabbed a handful of soil and rubbed it hard against his face.

He didn't even feel the pain as the force broke his skin and embedded sand and stones into the grooves of his aged, wrinkled face, letting blood drip and heal.

Buzzing.

The Ji Jian was desperately suppressing its own screams.

Its fear wasn't from the immense force that Xu Xiaoshou was almost using to crush it, but from his frenzied, demonic state.

What was wrong with this guy?

Seizure? Out of his mind?

Xu Xiaoshou gasped for air in big mouthfuls.

"Can't go out, can't go out."

"What can I do?"

"At most, I could release A Jie, then watch A Jie get beaten half to death, and end up exposing myself."

"In the end, I'd be ganged up on by the furious Shuo Shu Ren and the Hong Yi, and beaten to death!"

"What can I do?"

"I have one move, 'Passive Fist,' that could blow myself into serious injury, leaving half a mangled body on the battlefield to beg for my life—don't kill me?"

"What can I do..."

Xu Xiaoshou muttered to himself, answering his own question: "I can't do anything!"

"If I go out now, it's a dead end!"

"But..."

Watching Jiao Tangtang swallow that ghost beast pearl without a second thought, fighting with all her heart for Xin Gugu...

"What about me?"

Xu Xiaoshou's mind went blank.

A sudden thought surfaced in his heart.

Even if he hid underground and somehow survived to the end...

What was the point of living like that?

"For myself?"

"For selfishness?"

Xu Xiaoshou clutched his chest, a hint of confusion appearing in his bloodshot eyes.

Once, he might have truly lived only for himself.

No one could claim to live for the world after being terminally ill and then miraculously gaining a second life.

Xu Xiaoshou couldn't do it either.

The struggles for power, the rainy night assassinations, the inner courtyard of Tianxuan Gate, the city lord's mansion framing Zhang Taiying as a ghost...

In all of it, hadn't Xu Xiaoshou lived just for himself?

But along the way, he realized he had changed.

Everyone grows.

No one can truly "just" live for themselves!

Yet!

In the instant the black hole shredded Xin Gugu, sending blood rain scattering through the air...

What flashed before Xu Xiaoshou's eyes was the scene of two people who shouldn't be connected meeting for the first time.

At the entrance of Duojin Merchant Guild, that guy was hiding behind Jiao Tangtang.

Their conversation—he'd forgotten if there was one.

Probably just a few snappy exchanges, like a forgettable background character.

But why... were these scenes replaying now?

Xu Xiaoshou held his head, lowering it to hide.

Even so, the images kept playing in his mind.

After passing out under Hong Gou's hand, the first thing he saw upon waking was that person drooling on his bed.

In the night raid on Zhang mansion, that person always charging at the front line.

Under Zhang Taiying's illusion in the city lord's mansion, that person silently transforming into a ghost to take the hit...

"Xin Gugu, what are you living for?"

"For yourself?"

Xu Xiaoshou scoffed at himself.

He thought that answer was ridiculous.

Anyone with eyes could see it didn't make sense.

Suddenly, his vision blurred, and he saw the moment in Tiansang City when they bought the large estate, Xin Gugu holding the gold card with a flash of envy in his eyes.

"If possible, leave me a room..."

In the underground pit, the surrounding mud and stones exploded with a dull boom, then were suppressed by an unseen force, firmly embedded in the layers.

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes filled with tears.

He didn't understand what Xin Gugu was living for or why he fought so desperately.

Such questions...

Maybe even that guy didn't know!

But in that instant, he could empathize.

"If there were no violent ghosts, there wouldn't be Hong Yi who enjoy racial extermination."

"And if there were no violent Hong Yi, these ghosts who don't know why they're living wouldn't have to fight out of hatred."

"If..."

There are no ifs!

Xu Xiaoshou's thoughts halted abruptly.

Reality is that cruel.

Ifs will never exist.

Those vicious cycles of cause and effect are everywhere!

People aren't fools.

Everyone knows they're already trapped in a game, and the more they struggle, the tighter the external bonds become.

But not struggling means death.

In actions driven by such dire consequences, does the reason for living even matter?

Just staying alive is already a blessing.

"But that's not right!"

"In a world like this, it's deformed, isn't it?"

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly understood what he longed for, what he was pursuing.

It wasn't some complex reason for living—just two simple, pure words:

"Freedom!"

Like a caged bird yearning to escape, a fish in a pond trying to leap into the sky, a tiger in the mountains wanting to leave the forest...

Freedom needs no reason.

But freedom sounds simple, yet every step toward it is restricted.

How does a trapped beast break free?

When fate is all arranged, and everyone is like pieces on a board—pawn, horse, cannon—born with preset rules, how easy is freedom?

With a thud, Xu Xiaoshou slumped to the ground, letting the soil from above bury him.

He understood that what he'd been fighting against, rejecting, and pursuing all along was nothing but freedom!

Shou Ye, Sheng Nu, including the ghosts...

Every big figure and force that extended an olive branch to him seemed to say, "You, Xu Xiaoshou, are the strongest, the most promising—join us!"

But so what?

"I can't do anything!"

Xin Gugu, Jiao Tangtang...

Under the Shuo Shu Ren's overwhelming pressure, one friend after another vanished before his eyes, and he could only watch helplessly.

Having witnessed it all, Xu Xiaoshou was powerless!

What's the use of potential?

Anyone knows that if he, Xu Xiaoshou, went out now...

He'd accomplish nothing but death.

But because of that, should he choose to keep hiding?

"Living..."

"Heh!"

Xu Xiaoshou mocked himself with a laugh.

His body was supported by spiritual energy, creating a spherical space.

Yet, chunks of mud and stone still fell, like a mini earthquake.

Xu Xiaoshou felt as if even the earth was mocking him.

He lowered his head, looking at the deformed Ji Jian in his grip, and let it go.

"Sorry, I forgot about you."

The Ji Jian let out muffled "woo woo" sounds, as if trying to speak, but its blade trembled wildly, unable to form words.

Xu Xiaoshou glanced at the information panel and chuckled.

He knew the Ji Jian was afraid of him, but he hadn't expected it to be this terrified.

Is it that serious?

"Xiao Ji..."

"I remember, I was the one who named you, right?"

Xu Xiaoshou felt like he was watching a movie, and suddenly, the scene outside the city lord's mansion appeared—that guy desperately calling him "bro."

"Woo woo, woo woo."

Chunks of soil shook loose.

The ground trembled slightly, with fine cracks spreading.

"Request received, passive value +1."

"Not speaking?"

Xu Xiaoshou glanced at the information panel again. A request?

He smiled bitterly and stood the Ji Jian upright in the ground.

Smack!

But it bent like a pressed straw and flattened against the ground.

"Softened?"

"Am I that scary?"

Xu Xiaoshou paused, as if realizing something, and said, "Don't be afraid. I had a plan earlier—you probably overheard it. The Shuo Shu Ren and I had the same idea."

The Ji Jian, transformed from You Si Jian, was too realistic.

As long as the battle reached its climax and everyone was fully unleashing their power, no one would notice the switch with You Si Jian.

The Shuo Shu Ren had given him You Si Jian for that very reason, and the swap would go undetected.

But...

Xu Xiaoshou muttered to himself and sighed.

"But living like that is meaningless."

"You've been with me for so long—stealing the heavens and changing the day might sound good, but that's all it is."

"Now..."

Xu Xiaoshou looked up at the brutal scene on the battlefield. "I can't bring myself to do that anymore."

"You agree, right?"

"Woo woo, woo woo..."

"Request received, passive value +1."

"Sick!"

Xu Xiaoshou rolled his eyes and picked up the Ji Jian again.

"Turn into a straw hat."

"Woo woo..."

It couldn't change.

The Ji Jian was on the verge of tears.

What was going on?

Why did this small pit feel like it was under hundreds of times normal gravity?

I can't even stand up—how can I turn into a straw hat for you?

"Then forget it."

Xu Xiaoshou gripped the Ji Jian tightly and suddenly lifted his gaze.

The light and shadows in front of him flashed by, as if the disordered time and space were restored, and his self-talking soul returned to his body.

"Old two, catch the sword!"

In a flash, from the battlefield, the Shuo Shu Ren's unreserved voice finally reached him.

At the same time, under the watchful eyes of many Hong Yi, a fierce sword came flying through the air!

Xu Xiaoshou shook off his confusion in an instant, burst through the soil, and grasped You Si Jian.

No spiritual energy barrier.

No more hesitations.

Grasping it meant truly grasping it!

The suppressed emotions that had been contained entirely within the underground pit now burst forth like a flood breaking a dam upon seeing the light of day.

"Freedom..."

Xu Xiaoshou's body trembled as he took a deep breath of the air filled with battle remnants.

Unlike the darkness underground.

Unlike that cramped, confined space.

The sky, flying—that was the simplest freedom everyone yearned for.

Lurking in the darkness for too long.

So long that Xu Xiaoshou had numbed himself, focusing solely on survival.

But he knew full well.

That so-called clinging to a powerful backer—once out of the ancient book space, how would he escape?

There was no way!

Any strategy that ignored the consequences was just self-deception born from fear of the unknown.

If you can live, then live.

If not, that's fate!

So, after the silence of darkness, he should, like Cheng Xingchu pursuing the stars, burst into his own moment of brilliance.

Fate sometimes lies in not compromising, in the resistance that brings a glimmer of surprise or turning point.

"Freedom..."

The moment he grasped You Si Jian, Xu Xiaoshou suddenly realized nothing else mattered.

This diseased world wasn't worth overthinking.

When everyone was fighting for the peak, if you couldn't do anything, then grasp You Si Jian and stand at the peak yourself!

Rumble—

The mountain-swallowing momentum that had been building throughout the entire war—what was its true power? Xu Xiaoshou dared not say.

The massive black hole above Li Jian Grassland had already mended, and space had returned to normal with the Shuo Shu Ren and Ba Yi Chi Shuang Long Mang's truce.

But the instant Xu Xiaoshou's aura exploded, space collapsed again within several li, and the earth was destroyed once more.

Black holes spread, Dao mechanisms disrupted.

This small ancient book space had already suffered too much damage.

Now, it seemed on the verge of complete collapse—mountains and rivers changed, heaven darkened, earth dimmed.

"Freedom..."

Xu Xiaoshou murmured, demonic patterns entwining his flesh as he slanted You Si Jian in the air.

"War! No reason needed!"