Book 4, Chapter 163: The Song Ends, But The Storm Continues

Yao Zhiyi continued, “This phrase contains the crux of the Fourth Limit.

“What is the true form? It’s the foundational shape of your self. Some people believe that once you have an awareness of your own self, you can truly claim to know yourself. Others, though, believe that you need to have control over both your mind and body to truly be in control of your self. But no matter what, you need to defend your sense of self. This is something you can’t lose.

“As for your spirit form, it’s the manifestation of your spirit flames in a fight. It can even be said to be the physical shape of your spirit form. You need to have a sense of self to give it physical shape. You can’t deviate from that path, but find a way to maintain that foundation. That’s the only way to manifest your spirit form.

“Currently, there are three paths to take: The human, mental, or other form.

“The human form focuses on the self. In this path, you never change the physical form and use the mind to store your foundation. This is the most common path to take. The mental form is the reverse. You treat the body as a host and the mind as your true self. This path wasn’t that common in the past, but now, with how advanced our technology has become, there are more people walking down this path.

“The last is the other form. In the old era, it was also known as the fiend form, but that’s a prejudiced term. While we can look down on a person for their actions and character, it’s best not to have biases when it comes to the way they practise martial arts. This is no different from putting a blindfold over our eyes and would spell complete defeat against someone who is truly strong in this path.

“Wei Guochan practiced the other form. Let me see if I can find you another example. Hmm... Since you’re a lecturer in the university, you must have seen the two divine general statues at our entrance, haven’t you?”

Chen Chuan nodded. The statues left a deep impression on him. “I did.”

“At the end of the path, Wei Guochan would have ended up looking like that. Those are protector generals.

“Have you gone to the Lotus Light Temple in Western River Road? There are eighteen lifelike guardian statues there. Wei Guochan was walking down the path that led to the eighth statue. It has eight arms and three heads, but he only had six arms. He hadn’t managed to manifest the other two arms and was even farther away from the three heads.

“There are people who have them in the imperial army, though—”

Wan Yunshan cut in. “Most of the imperial army walks down the path of the other form because they aren’t human anymore. You mustn’t look down on the nonconformists in the merged space, either.

“They’re the merged space locals. Before we set up the World Ring, they often invaded our world through the gaps. Some of them were even worshiped as gods. There were those among them who finished their paths after getting possessed by an existence for such a long time that they merged with them and those that were children born between nonconformists and the existences from the other world. There were also some who were ‘regressed’ forms of the existences. All of them look bizarre, and I can’t make heads or tails of them. One time—”

“We’ve gone off tangent, but you will run into such people sooner or later. Someone will liaise with you when you go back and tell you about it,” Yao Zhiyi interrupted Wan Yunshan before picking up his teacup and finishing it. Then, he set his teacup in front of Wan Yunshan again. “Fill it.”

“Sure thing.”

***

A long time after they left, a unit of cavalrymen rode into the battlefield. When they saw that the place looked like it had been carpet bombed, they were shocked.

This meant that martial arts masters had fought here. Otherwise, the place wouldn’t be so badly damaged. They had seen the airship belonging to the Great Shun Republic leave with the shining artifact. It gave them a bad feeling, and they had hurried over to check the place after it quietened down.

But even after looking for a while, they couldn’t find Wei Guochan. Had the general left?

One of them feigned calmness and said, “The general likely killed the enemies and flew back with the enemy airship.”

The others agreed. It was an acceptable result, and the only one they could accept. They didn’t dare to entertain any other possibilities.

Just then, they heard a cry of surprise. Their hearts leapt to their throats, and they immediately rode over.

It was only after going there that they noticed a crater that looked like it had been formed by a huge artillery shell. A crushed, headless corpse was inside it.

The charred remains had multiple arms, and some bits of armor were still attached, so they could see how it originally looked.

All the cavalrymen shuddered.

They were incredibly familiar with Wei Guochan’s armor, and they were sure that this was the exact one. Wei Guochan was the only person in their army to have multiple arms as well. He had shown them off in the military base plenty of times.

Once they connected all the dots, they were pretty sure that this was their general.

Their faces turned pale. They didn’t want to nor dared to believe this.

After a long while, someone finally said, “It’s the general...”

The others immediately glared at him. One of them snapped, “What on earth are you saying, Qu Xian?! How could this be the general? That’s impossible!”

The others also cursed at him. Someone even wanted to kill him.

Qu Xian ignored them all and got off his horse to slide into the crater. Once he was next to the corpse, he picked up a square jade seal and lifted it to the group.

“This is the general’s personal seal...” The people who recognized it started trembling so much that even their lips quivered. The seal was the general’s personal item, and it was a crime to forge it.

“I-It really is the general.”

“The general died? But how is that possible...”

“Who killed the general?!”

Most of them felt as if their world had collapsed. The entire group descended into chaos. Some of them had wild, crazed eyes as they kept denying the truth. Others swayed and fell off their horses to start bawling.

After more than thirty minutes passed, one of them with chattering teeth, “W-We need to notify the base. We have to tell them that the general was ambushed and died—”

“No! We can’t!” someone immediately shouted. Wei Guochan was like a god and emotional anchor of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the merged space. If his death was announced, morale would immediately crumble.

Even though the Great Shun Republic was bound to release the news, as long as they didn’t admit to it and came up with a logical reason as to why Wei Guochan was missing, they could maintain morale. Somewhat.

But they didn’t know what to do after that. After some discussions, they decided to bring Wei Guochan’s corpse back and let their superiors decide what to do.

***

After flying for around thirty minutes, the airship picked up Xu Chan’s group and flew back. At noon, they finally reached the perimeter of the military base.

Artillery fire rang in front of them. Judging by the sounds, the scale was pretty big. There were hundreds of artillery shots.

Wan Yunshan perked up. “Are we launching a full-on assault already?”

He turned to Yao Zhiyi. “Does that mean that Mr. Xue has decided to attack first?”

Yao Zhiyi was quite surprised. Xue Shou should have waited for them first after receiving the news. Once they met up, they could attack together, because then the chances of succeeding would be much higher. But honestly, he didn’t know Xue Shou’s strength. Perhaps he felt confident.

“Sir!” a communications officer called out to them.

The aide-de-camp went to get the telegram from him. After taking a look, he handed it to Yao Zhiyi. “It’s a telegram from Mr. Xue. He said that he didn’t find Gai Shuhe in the military base.”

“He’s not there?”

“Yes. Apparently, while his flag is around, he’s nowhere to be seen.”

Yao Zhiyi scowled at that. “Could he be hiding?”

Someone chimed in at that moment. “He already left.”

Chen Chuan turned around and saw Xue Shou sitting in a chair. He had apparently come in at some point in time, but when Chen Chuan looked closer, he could tell that this was just Xue Shou’s mental energy. Even so, Chen Chuan greeted him. “Mr. Xue.”

Xue Shou smiled and gave him a nod.

“He left?”

Yao Zhiyi and Wan Yunshan weren’t at all surprised by Xue Shou’s appearance.

“You didn’t manage to stop him, Mr. Xue?” Wan Yunshan asked.

“After receiving your message, I went over to keep an eye on him, but he had only showed up for a moment before leaving. I notified the World Ring Defense System about it, and they attacked while the enemy’s defense had weakened. They didn’t want to lose such a chance,” Xue Shou answered.

Yao Zhiyi’s expression grew stern. “Did the Gai boy notice something?”

There was an entire imperial army battalion around during the fight with Wei Guochan. While they couldn’t see the specifics of the fight, they should have seen the airship being struck down. If Gai Shuhe was careful, it would be the call for him to leave.

“Perhaps. All I’m sure of is that he left,” Xue Shou answered.

“He’s supposed to be a garrison, but he left while casting aside hundreds of thousands of soldiers. I don’t even know whether I should call him decisive or a coward,” Yao Zhiyi sneered.

“He’s from a noble house with imperial ties and a martial arts master, so he’s different. Even if he abandons the soldiers, he’ll be fine even as long as he comes up with an excuse,” Xue Shou said with a smile.

“You’re right. That’s what the former royal family has always done. They don’t change,” Yao Zhiyi said darkly.

“No matter what, we won this battle, and it’s going to solve a lot of our problems.” Xue Shou smiled.

Yao Zhiyi nodded. “It’s thanks to your help.”

Xue Shou continued smiling. “It’s nothing. I was just carrying out my duties.”

He turned to Chen Chuan. “One more thing. Night is about to fall. In order to ensure the military’s operation runs smoothly, we need the artifact. It can ensure that the imperial army won’t be able to leave.”

Chen Chuan immediately brought the artifact out and placed it on the table.

Yao Zhiyi picked it up and tossed it to Wan Yunshan. “I’ll let you handle this, Xiao Wan.”

Wan Yunshan cracked his neck and exclaimed excitedly, “Leave it to me!”

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