Chapter 632: The Next Backer

Large, pristine crabapple flowers bloomed sporadically across the mountainous terrain.

Above each crabapple flower, one or two figures in white robes, red robes, or gray robes stood, lay back, or sprawled out. Their expressions ranged from vacant to bewildered to entranced, moving in repetitive, simple yet profound rhythms that followed some grand dao principle.

A gust of wind howled.

Hai Tang Er, carrying the unconscious Ba Zun An on his back, had already dashed from the depths of the mountains to the outer edges of Ba Gong.

At this point, not to mention ordinary white-robed figures arriving in time, even Gou Wu Yue, without the support of his Guo Guo Tian Zhao sensing net, would likely struggle to track this pair of Sheng Nu.

A muffled groan of slight pain came from behind. Hai Tang Er stopped promptly.

"Woken up?"

He turned his head, and a pink crabapple flower bloomed in mid-air, gently placing the person on it.

The scene fell silent for a long time.

Ba Zun An sat on the crabapple flower, one hand rubbing the back of his neck, while his eyes gazed up at Hai Tang Er.

He didn't speak, just stared for a while, until Hai Tang Er couldn't bear it anymore.

"The situation was critical back then, and you couldn't act yet. I had no choice but to..."

"You ambushed me?"

Hai Tang Er's words halted abruptly.

Ba Zun An's eyes held a cold glint as he interrupted, leaving Hai Tang Er unsure how to refute.

"Yes!"

"It's true, that's a fact."

Gritting his teeth, Hai Tang Er continued quickly: "But if we had really fought Gou Wu Yue, not to mention your injuries weren't healed, just the sword—could you even handle it?"

"You ambushed me?"

Silence fell again.

Hai Tang Er closed his eyes heavily, deciding not to say more. "So what if I did?"

Ba Zun An spoke indifferently: "Gou Wu Yue is a Jian Xian, stronger than an ordinary Tai Xu by more than double. I was unconscious—who could hold him back?"

"Cen Qiao Fu could."

"Cen Qiao Fu could handle that, but what about the Tian Ji Kui and the other white-robed figures—who would stop them?"

"Shuo Shu Ren could."

"Shuo Shu Ren is just at Zhan Dao level. If a group of Zhan Dao surrounded him, he might save himself, but the others wouldn't be foolish enough to waste time and not go after everyone else." Even unconscious, Ba Zun An had his own assessment of the situation.

"Lao Er arrived."

Hai Tang Er had no choice but to come clean.

"Lao Er?"

Ba Zun An paused, his voice softening: "You know he's injured."

"He's recovered," Hai Tang Er said.

"Did he tell you?"

"Um."

"Do you believe it?"

"No."

"Then?"

Hai Tang Er sighed: "Whether I believe it or not, he opened Long Rong Jie and drew Gou Wu Yue away. He wants a final showdown—you know his temperament..."

"He wants a final showdown, so you just let him?"

Ba Zun An suddenly stood up, his voice cold: "If he really wanted a final showdown, he wouldn't have let Gou Wu Yue reach Bai Ku so smoothly back in Qing Long Jun!"

"He was held back by someone."

Hai Tang Er turned his head away, not daring to meet the gaze.

"Hmph."

Ba Zun An scoffed: "Excuses."

He turned abruptly and strode back the way they came.

Hai Tang Er had no choice but to extend a path of flowers beneath him to prevent a fall, and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Back."

"We've come this far, and you're going back? What can you do? In your current state, can you beat Gou Wu Yue?"

"As long as I'm there, he won't dare kill anyone."

"But he dares to capture you!" Hai Tang Er snapped angrily.

He didn't understand the point of returning like this.

Cen Qiao Fu had fought desperately to hold back all the high-level white-robed forces, preventing them from interfering in other battles.

Sang Qi Ye, with his strength alone, had blocked Gou Wu Yue—all to give Ba Zun An a way out.

As Hai Tang Er had said earlier, they'd come this far—how could they go back?

All the efforts from all sides would be wasted!

When had the leader become so sentimental?

Watching that weary figure trudging forward, step by step without any hesitation, Hai Tang Er couldn't help but shout:

"The battle is over!"

He looked toward the distant shattered mountains, that realm of sword intent, that scorched aura...

And that one arrow!

Going back now, they wouldn't even recover the bodies—just add two more lives lost!

"Do you have a sword?"

Ba Zun An didn't look back, his calm voice drifting from ahead.

Hai Tang Er's heart trembled.

He knew that back in the day, Hua Chang Deng's three swords had cut down not just an era, but also the ruling figure of that era's weariness toward wielding a sword again.

But now, what had he heard?

"No sword!"

Hai Tang Er's voice shook slightly.

"Even if there was one, you couldn't pick it up."

"Is this the path you chose, only to abandon it halfway?"

"Just because of Lao Er, just because of Gou Wu Yue, just because of this minor skirmish?"

"Have you forgotten what you know?"

Hai Tang Er roared: "The real great battle is waiting ahead—without you, it won't work!"

There was a soft footstep.

Ba Zun An stopped and slowly turned back.

"Hai Tang Er."

"Go?" Hai Tang Er's voice softened, though it was just one word, implying more like, "Since you've thought it through, come with me?"

Ba Zun An shook his head gently.

"Hai Tang Er, it's not that I've forgotten—it's that you've gotten used to it."

"Waiting, lurking..."

"We've been brewing and accumulating for too long, far too long."

Ba Zun An lifted his head, looking at the shattered sky, his murky eyes filled with endless weariness, as if a lifetime of will had been dusted by time.

Yet his words rang with conviction.

"Like this flower."

He pointed to the crabapple at his feet: "If you don't have the ability to spend your whole life with it, you'll never know if the most glorious moment you've seen, which you think belongs to it, is truly so."

"Like this hand!"

He spread his palms, his eight fingers trembling slightly. "What you see is that it's no longer as steady as before, but with no sword and unable to hold one, how can that mean the outcome is truly just that?"

Ba Zun An stared straight at Hai Tang Er, pausing for a moment before speaking earnestly:

"In this world, nothing can be faced in a perfectly prepared state."

"When the time comes, it's here."

"When the opportunity arrives, you can't refuse it anymore."

"If you truly see the flower at its most radiant or a person's life at its most complete, it's because you've given everything for it... In other words, you've prepared it all, so you see the ending you want."

"But is that ending meaningful? Is it really what you wanted to see?"

Hai Tang Er lowered his head.

He agreed with the leader's words, but that didn't mean he could accept them.

This time, acting without perfect preparation might cost them everything—total defeat!

Ba Zun An chuckled, knowing what the other was thinking.

"You're too extreme, too much of a perfectionist."

"Not every step in life needs to be measured to perfection, and not every matter in the world is just black and white."

"People can have a third choice."

Hai Tang Er looked up, his eyes full of cold resolve. "Is that so? You haven't dedicated your whole life to it either, so how do you know the outcome?"

"I don't know, but I can create it—that's what I've been doing, isn't it?"

"With what?"

"With my hands, my body, my will, with everything I can use, with preparations that are only half-ready..."

Ba Zun An gave many answers, then paused and said: "With facing it, not turning away!"

Hai Tang Er's heart constricted sharply.

This was about him...

Escaping?

He gritted his teeth, wanting to retort.

"Let me down."

Ba Zun An pointed to the ruined mountains below.

The area was desolate and ravaged, with tree roots uprooted and branches shattered by the aftermath of battles in Ba Gong.

"Oh."

Reluctantly, Hai Tang Er lowered him down.

With a soft thud, Ba Zun An landed and stepped on a broken twig.

He looked down.

Hai Tang Er followed his gaze down.

The broken twig...

Was it symbolizing something?

Hai Tang Er felt the sky darkening, enveloped in gloom and sorrow.

He couldn't persuade the leader!

But Ba Zun An shifted his steps, as if struck by a thought, and squatted down thoughtfully.

He picked up the twig, broken in half and only as long as a forearm, examining it closely for a long time.

"Leader?"

Hai Tang Er glanced toward the battlefield behind him.

If they didn't leave now, the white-robed figures would catch up.

Ba Zun An stood up and stood beside him, looking in the same direction.

"The battle isn't over," he said suddenly in a low voice.

Hai Tang Er was startled, taking a moment to realize Ba Zun An was responding to his earlier words about the ended fight between Gou Wu Yue and Lao Er.

"Can you see it?" he asked curiously.

"No."

Ba Zun An gazed into the distance.

With his mere Houtian cultivation and full of injuries, all he could see was the ruined sky.

The twig in his hand swiftly drew a line, creating a faint whooshing sound.

Ba Zun An's lips curved into a smile.

"But I know..."

"The battle has just begun."

On the other side.

The arrow from Xie Zui Gong returned.

Clearly, Gou Wu Yue's sword technique "Shi Xu · Ni" wasn't powerful enough to fully affect the two domains.

The arrow vanished into the sky and then shot back with unstoppable force.

"Xu Xiao Shou..."

Sang Lao sighed.

He never imagined his newly accepted disciple could inflict such severe damage on one of the mainland's seven Jian Xian.

True, Gou Wu Yue was a Jian Xian, a Tai Xu.

But on this continent, cultivation level didn't decide everything.

At least, without a natural holy body or physical training, that body enhanced by heavenly dao forces couldn't withstand that punch's damage.

"What kind of fist technique was it?"

Sang Lao didn't dwell on it.

It was Xu Xiao Shou's own opportunity.

He knew his disciple had many ideas, many secrets, and even more opportunities.

If that punch had been aimed at him, even as a Wang Zuo body, he might have been wary.

But regardless, Xu Xiao Shou had done more than enough in this battle.

He had exceeded what his current realm should bear—"anything."

This fight, not even ranking among Zhan Dao, wasn't something a junior like him should face.

What he should be doing was shining on various arenas, effortlessly defeating his peers.

"To love all living beings..."

Gazing at the arrow plummeting from the sky, Sang Lao spread his arms.

With Gou Wu Yue no longer obstructing, he easily gathered his disciple's body, shattered by the punch's backlash into several pieces.

Before a true Jin Zhao successor like him,

As long as there was a breath left, or even if death wasn't too long ago, he had several ways to snatch a person back from the grasp of death.

Smack!

Grabbing Xu Xiao Shou's remaining half-cracked skull, Sang Lao slapped a Fu Qu Dan into the wound.

In an instant,

Xu Xiao Shou's muscles began to split and grow wildly.

In no time, his body was fully restored.

Sang Lao then pulled out a pill bottle from his ring.

This time, he carefully poured out a golden pill the size of a fingernail.

"Shen Zhi Bi You!"

This pill, hailed as the strongest healing medicine under the heavens, could eliminate all negative effects, restore spirit and soul, and reverse heavenly dao forces.

He fed it in one go.

In less than three breaths, Xu Xiao Shou spat out a mouthful of reverse blood, his eyelids trembled, and he opened his eyes.

"Old man..."

Time seemed to slow.

Xu Xiao Shou immediately saw the Xie Zui Gong arrow falling from the sky, but in Sang Lao's embrace, he felt surprisingly no anxiety.

It was as if, even if the sky collapsed, this old man would hold it up.

—A full sense of security!

Smack!

Darkness fell before him.

Sang Lao took a straw hat from his ring and covered his disciple's face.

"Xu Xiao Shou."

He parted his lips, as if he had many words to say.

But as his lips moved, it seemed nothing needed to be said, and he fell silent.

Amid the scent of medicine mixed with char and even the old man's sweat...

Xu Xiao Shou, feeling the smells from the straw hat on his face, already understood everything.

Suddenly, his nose stung, and he choked up.

"Master..."

Sang Lao's heart trembled, but he still didn't look down.

The arrow, enlarging in his pupils, left no time to savor this first heartfelt address since the night of apprenticeship.

He knew.

Xu Xiao Shou had held resentment in his heart.

But who wouldn't?

His way of taking disciples was essentially treating lives as disposable.

Yet Sang Lao didn't care.

He had no extra time or patience to deal with pieces that might not grow.

Only through trial after trial, disappointment after disappointment, might there be a slim chance.

And now.

Clearly, Xu Xiao Shou had grown.

So, his mission was accomplished.

Any regret? If he said none, that would be a lie.

But because it was hard-won, he cherished it all the more.

At least, in front of Sang Lao, he wouldn't allow anyone or anything to harm his disciple in any form—physical, mental, or spiritual.

No one could!

Not even someone named Ai Cang Sheng!

"Xiao Shou, this might be the last thing your master says to you."

With a boom, Sang Lao flung the person in his arms, along with the straw hat, into a spatial rift.

The straw hat flew off.

Xu Xiao Shou hastily grabbed it.

As the spatial rift was about to close, he only saw the old man’s lips move a few times, forcing a smile that was unpracticed, eerie, but clearly an effort to show warmth and kindness.

"If your master dies, on this continent, you won't need to fear anyone."

With that, Sang Lao turned fiercely, his hands blazing as he clamped down on the descending Xie Zui Gong arrow.

The void exploded, space shattered.

Invisible shockwaves flattened several li of area.

No sound could pass.

Yet even in that moment, the old man’s jaw clenched, and he stubbornly turned his head away.

He knew sound couldn't travel in the vacuum, and Xu Xiao Shou might not hear.

But he insisted on saying it.

What he didn't know was that, even with the spatial rift barely open, Xu Xiao Shou's "perception" could fully discern the lip movements.

"Your next backer is Sheng Gong, Long Rong Zhi!"