Chapter 118 — Deep Scar
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 4
"Today I have told you all this so that you would understand my heart—and then, before your eyes, cut away this ten years of foolish longing!"
Her pale hand gripped the Tianxuan tightly, as though she had spent all her strength to speak these words.
Every word fell upon Ming Li's heart like a blade.
But he was silent, and said nothing.
Deep, deep gaze!
This man, once so deeply carved into her heart! He stood right before her, yet it was as though the whole world lay between them!
Tianxuan—drawn!
A graceful arc of flickering blue light flashed through the air, and swept down before Ming Li!
There in the ruined street, between the two of them, a single step before Ming Li, it carved out a deep, deep scar.
It cut the two of them apart!
The moonlight was desolate, the night already vast and dim!
Her white robes were like snow, swirling though there was no wind, as if she were a fairy; in her bright eyes, a thousand tender feelings and ten thousand agonies dwelt only deep in her heart.
"After tonight, when next we meet, you and I are enemies who live and die by one another." Her pale face held not a trace of color; even her body had begun to tremble faintly.
"For ten years, besides this foolish longing, I have practiced my sword in the back hills," she said quietly. "Tonight, let me dance it one last time!"
Zheng!
The divine sword Tianxuan rang out like the clear cry of a phoenix, rising straight to the ninth heaven.
The woman in white, like snow, leaped into the air, and in the desolate, beautiful moonlight, like a fairy from the ninth heaven descended into the mortal dust, she danced, wild and lost.
That sword-light was faint and dreamlike, dancing out a thousand years of lingering sorrow. The years gone by slowly rose up, drifting past.
Who was it that sighed so softly, who was it whose eyes grew dim?
Sword-light like snow—whose heart did it wound?
She danced, wild and lost!
She danced alone!
A wind arose, and the clouds slowly parted.
Broken walls and ruined ramparts scattered and fell.
Loose stones flew in all directions, dust rose in clouds, and the wind moaned desolately.
Her figure drifted and swayed, as though floating and sinking in the wind; clouds and winds gathered from every quarter, and the sky darkened once more.
All that remained was a pale shadow, drifting in desolate solitude!
What was it that roared softly in his heart, what was it that surged and cried out in his breast?
He could not, could not, could not...
His body trembled—perhaps he meant to step forward?
That foot lifted into the air, and it seemed he would cross the deep scar upon the ground.
The wind howled, the shadow was like frost!
The sword, like autumn water, fell from the sky; with a keen ringing it tore through the air and came—then stopped short, halting before his brow.
The wind that had roared through the heavens moments before gradually fell silent; the scattered stones that had rolled in every direction slowly came to rest. The sky cleared again, the moonlight returned, its pure radiance like water.
Lu Xueling's peerless face was before his eyes, cold as ice and frost, save that in those bright eyes there seemed yet a faint tenderness, gentle as water.
Their gazes both fell upon the line between them—
That deep scar!
The chill of the Tianxuan Divine Sword seemed to reach across the air from its tip, seeping through his whole body and waking him with a start from his bewildered dream.
Her face was beautiful beyond mortal measure.
Ming Li's foot hung in midair; slowly, slowly—
It drew back!
Lu Xueling's sword hand slowly lowered, and the man's body at last quietly retreated from that deep scar.
Then she smiled...
That smile was like a lily blooming radiant in the night, blossoming through past and present alike!
But a moment later she frowned, bent forward, gave a soft, low moan, and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Flecks of crimson scattered across her white garments, like blossoms vivid and strange.