178: The First Sword of Fengyun

The flying dagger in his hand, he didn't know when, had already drooped.

How could a person's aura be so vast?

He knew he was wrong.

His mistake wasn't in coming to stop him, but in only now truly understanding that the path the other was treading was one so brutal, so absolute, so... lonely!

All of Li Xunhuan's persuasions, all of his reasoning, seemed so pale and powerless before this extreme and pure 'Dao'.

He suddenly began to cough violently. This time, he bent over, coughing as if his heart and lungs would tear, as if he wanted to cough out his entire Soul.

Blood, large mouthfuls of blood, stained his plain white robes and dripped onto the grass at his feet, a shocking sight.

Tie Chuanjia quickly stepped forward to support him.

A Fei, You Longsheng, Han Zhen, and the others all watched Lu Jiuyuan in silent shock,

As if for the first time truly realizing that the one they followed was such a terrifying yet... admirable existence.

If one could follow him and achieve such a feat, even ten thousand deaths would be willingly accepted!

Lu Jiuyuan merely looked coldly at the coughing Li Xunhuan, without any expression on his face.

The air in the valley seemed to solidify.

Li Xunhuan's heart-wrenching coughs were the only sound, each one exhausting his already dwindling life force.

Crimson drops of blood fell onto the withered yellow grass, blooming into dazzling flowers.

Finally, the coughing gradually subsided.

Li Xunhuan covered his mouth with the handkerchief already soaked in blood, gasping violently, each breath a hoarse, wheezing sound like a broken bellows.

He slowly, with extreme difficulty, straightened up.

His back was no longer straight, as if Lu Jiuyuan's declaration of the 'Dao of Purification' had transformed into an invisible mountain, crushing his long-held persistence and almost crushing his body.

But when he raised his head, a faint but unyielding spark ignited in his deep eyes, filled with pain and exhaustion.

That spark was named responsibility, named knowing it was impossible yet still doing it.

He was wrong; he might not be able to change Lu Jiuyuan, and perhaps Lu Jiuyuan's path, in some cruel logic, might even be correct.

But he could not retreat.

Behind him was the Jianghu he cared for, even if disappointed, those Jianghu heroes who might be numb, or perhaps despicable, but whose sins did not warrant death.

Lu Jiuyuan's 'reckoning' was too brutal, too absolute.

He could not stand by and watch this river of blood continue to overflow.

"I... understand."

Li Xunhuan's voice was so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable:

"Our Dao are different... indeed... we cannot conspire together."

He slowly pushed away Tie Chuanjia's supporting hand and stood steady on his own.

This movement exhausted a great deal of his strength, and his body swayed again, but his gaze was exceptionally clear and exceptionally firm as it locked onto Lu Jiuyuan.

"Brother Lu, your Dao is purification, it is reshaping."

"My Dao is protection, it is... preserving... as much as possible."

"Words are exhausted." Li Xunhuan's breathing was still unsteady, but his hand slowly and steadily rose.

That hand, pale and slender, had once written astonishingly brilliant poems and essays, and had also unleashed the Little Li Flying Dagger, which never missed its mark.

At this moment, between the fingers of that hand, a dagger was already clasped!

A flying dagger three inches and seven fen long, as thin as a willow leaf, shimmering with a faint cold light in the dim sky!

Lu Jiuyuan, however, remained standing, unmoving.

He didn't even adopt any defensive or combative stance, merely looking quietly at Li Xunhuan, at that flying dagger, and in the depths of his gaze,

There seemed to be a hint... an indescribable hint of expectation?

"It seems this is Detective Li's answer."

Lu Jiuyuan's voice was calm and unruffled.

A trace of deep sorrow flitted across Li Xunhuan's face, not for himself, but perhaps for this outcome where they finally had to cross blades.

"I am not... here to kill you." Li Xunhuan's voice was low and strained, "I also... cannot kill you."

He knew better than anyone that against the invincible Lu Jiuyuan, his sickly, frail body had little chance of victory.

"I will only strike once."

"This strike is for this Jianghu... to demand an... attitude from Brother Lu!

If I wound you, please, Brother Lu, withdraw from the Jianghu and only re-emerge ten years after my death.

If I fail to wound you, then I will beg you with my life to show some mercy to the Jianghu. Is that acceptable?"

"Good!" Lu Jiuyuan nodded, his cold Internal Energy condensing into an embroidery needle at his fingertip.

"I also really want to know which is stronger, my Yamas Summons or your Little Li Flying Dagger!"

"However, the Little Li Flying Dagger cannot be a swan song. Write down your Secret Manual. If you die, I will find a righteous person in the future to pass on your flying dagger."

"I have already written down the Secret Manual; it is in my bosom. I ask Brother Lu to help find a successor."

In the valley, the wind ceased, the clouds stilled.

All sounds seemed to be sucked away, leaving only the invisible, taut to the extreme string between the two men.

The flying dagger in Li Xunhuan's fingers faintly gleamed with cold light, and the ice needle at Lu Jiuyuan's fingertip swirled with an ethereal glow.

Two completely different Dao, condensed onto these small killing implements, were about to collide.

There was no warning, no shout.

Li Xunhuan's wrist moved ever so slightly; it wasn't a 'flick,' but more like an extension of his will, a 'release' that poured his entire life, belief, and even his remaining True Qi into it!

A cold light burst forth!

It wasn't a straight line, nor an arc; it seemed to transcend the constraints of space, appearing instantaneously before Lu Jiuyuan with an abstruse and profound trajectory!

It never missed! What it pursued was not absolute speed, but absolute 'certainty of hitting'!

However, at the very instant the flying dagger was unleashed, Lu Jiuyuan's hand also moved.

His movement was equally concise to the extreme; he pointed his fingers like a sword, striking later but arriving first, and that ice needle, condensed with supreme cold Internal Energy, shot out with unparalleled precision.

"Ding—!"

An extremely clear, yet sharp and piercing clang echoed through the valley!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a frantic clash of extreme power and skill within a minuscule area!

"Chirp!"

A soft sound.

A one-inch long slit appeared on the right shoulder of Lu Jiuyuan's sky-blue robe.

Revealing the golden silk armor underneath, it was the gift A Fei had given him when they first met.

The flying dagger cut through the clothes, but failed to penetrate the golden silk armor's defense.

Because almost at the same time, an almost imperceptible faint blue cold light pierced through the icy mist, surpassing visual capture, as if appearing directly in front of Li Xunhuan.

Li Xunhuan saw it, or rather, he 'felt' it.

But he didn't dodge.

His strength had been exhausted in that one strike, and his belief was already faltering under Lu Jiuyuan's words.

More importantly, he knew he couldn't dodge.

"Puff—"

An extremely faint sound, like tattered cotton being pierced, rang out.

That faint blue cold light plunged into Li Xunhuan's chest near the Tanzhong acupoint.

Li Xunhuan's body violently shuddered!

There was no intense pain, only an instant coldness that spread, penetrating deep into his bones and Soul!

That coldness rapidly devoured his body temperature, froze his blood, numbed his Meridians, and even suppressed his surging Qi and the heart-wrenching coughs with its absolute chill.

His face visibly turned pale, his lips purple, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably, each tremor appearing incredibly stiff.

He could no longer stand and staggered backward.

"Young Master!"

Tie Chuanjia lunged forward, using his strong body as a cushion, catching Li Xunhuan's falling form.

To the touch, it was icy cold! As if he were holding not a person, but a block of ice!

What domineering cold True Qi!