True Solution of the Sword Dao

"Gao Ge went to look for you, didn’t he?" Xu Chang said softly. "This is his last time. Perhaps he thinks you are his best choice. But I know he is wrong. You could not possibly follow in his footsteps."

"That’s only natural," Lin Fei responded matter-of-factly. "I could guess what he meant."

"I knew it would come to this from the beginning," Xu Chang sighed. "He’s here now. Do you want to see him?"

"My sister is having a bit of trouble."

"I know," Xu Chang nodded, "Zhao Kunning and Wei Xiongjiang, right? How do you want to handle it?"

"According to your rules," Lin Fei responded noncommittally.

"Then one hand each," Xu Chang said casually.

"Aren’t you afraid of trouble?" Lin Fei asked.

Xu Chang suddenly laughed. He turned to face Lin Fei, saying each word deliberately.

"In my dictionary, the word ’trouble’ does not exist."

Lin Fei also laughed. "Alright, alright. Why does it feel like our conversation is a bit strange? Could it be that the environment here really makes it seem like we are ancient people?"

"Indeed," Xu Chang smiled and nodded.

Though it was their first meeting, both of them were casual with each other, perhaps because they both knew that they were of the same kind.

Just then, suddenly, a chorus of children’s excited shouts came from outside. "It’s snowing, it’s snowing!" The children’s Coastal dialect mixed with Mandarin as countless white snowflakes slowly descended from the sky.

Xu Chang also turned his head and saw the sudden heavy snowfall in the sky. He walked up to the balcony.

"Gao Ge and I have been partners for many years. He has always been so proud. Now, his final destiny has finally arrived. Had he not spoken up, we might never have known."

"Destiny? What destiny?" Lin Fei was startled.

"A secret technique cast by a Bounder, no one in his family lives past the age of thirty. No one can break through it."

"Thirty years?" Lin Fei was shocked. Gao Ge was an extremely powerful B-ranked fighter. Had he only used thirty years to reach B-rank? Besides himself, logically, even a genius would be doing well to reach C-rank by thirty. Shunyan, who had reached D-rank in his twenties, was called the number one genius in Europe. This also indicated how much time and effort normal strong individuals need to grow."

"It’s not what you think," Xu Chang explained. "Gao Ge, rather than being a nickname, it’s more of a hereditary title in their family. Each generation’s successor inherits all the strength of the previous generation’s strong members and continues to cultivate from that basis. That’s the real reason they’ve become so powerful."

"And the Bounder who cast the secret technique?" Lin Fei sharply caught on to this term. He had always thought he had a clear understanding of the whole Inner World ranking system. It turned out there were still things he was unaware of.

"Bounders, those who transcend limits. Our ranking system is not qualified to measure their strength. Or you can simply understand them as ’invincible beings,’" Xu Chang said softly.

Lin Fei was startled and said in a grave tone, "How can there possibly be such a thing as the invincible?"

"Why can’t there be?" Xu Chang’s expression also turned grave. "Do you know why the Pantheon is called by the name of ten thousand gods? Because inside, there are real gods."

Lin Fei’s hand gripped the longsword tightly.

After a moment of silence, he said softly.

"I can’t believe there are really . . . What about Gao Ge?"

"He has decided to go and challenge," Xu Chang said calmly. "This is the destiny of his family. Many years ago, his ancestors died because of the Divine Curse. They were powerless to resist, but I know he will not give up."

"But why did he want to choose me as his Successor? Was he trying to break this destiny? To completely end the bloodline of his family?"

"Actually, Gao Ge was only twenty-two years old. If he didn’t, he could have lived another eight years." Xu Chang said indifferently.

"Then why did he—?" Lin Fei’s words came to an abrupt halt.

Xu Chang caught the snowflakes falling from the sky with his hand, letting them slowly melt in his palm, suddenly smiling: "You don’t understand, just like this snowflake, clearly knowing that its ultimate fate is to melt, yet still vowing never to regret."

*************

Lin Fei originally intended just to pay a visit to Xu Chang, but unexpectedly learned about the secret of the limiters.

"Since the Pantheon has such an existence, could the equally powerful Religious Faction have a similar presence?" Lin Fei suddenly felt as if the world, which had started to become clear, had once again fallen into chaos. Many things became obscure and unclear.

Before leaving, Xu Chang gave him Gao Ge’s address.

As night fell, Lin Fei made a call back to the hotel.

"I’m going to wander around some more, Feng Biao, please tell Jiang Nan and Shuang’er that I will be back later."

"Okay." Feng Biao didn’t ask what the matter was; he knew that with Lin Fei’s background, there were many things that they couldn’t know about, that were not his place to know.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Fei slowly walked along the side of the street. The crowds were bustling, with neon lights, advertisements, and the sounds of cars and people all mixed together, making even the cold brought by the heavy snow seem a bit warmer. Having received such important information about the existence of limiters, he needed to seriously reconsider. Even his cultivation had unusually stopped, and he focused all his mind on guessing and speculating various possibilities. Since cultivating new True Force, his mind had become clearer, and his analytical ability, understanding, and memory had improved. He guessed it might be like the effect of the initial pseudo-True Force. But it seemed to slow down as time went on. Often, it took a long time to feel a bit of clear progress.

To Lin Fei, Gao Ge was just an odd person, many of his actions bewildering. Although he possessed an extremely high strength, he bore a family destiny so heavy that it was almost irreversible. Such a person had always been the standard protagonist in the martial arts novels of the past. Both of his encounters with Gao Ge had occurred when he had sought him out proactively.

He recalled Xu Chang’s words.

"He is too proud. Swords are his everything. As a swordsman, perhaps you might understand his thoughts."

Unconsciously, Lin Fei turned into a narrow alley. The alley was dark and damp, its ground wet, seemingly because the residents on both sides of it frequently threw water out. The houses on both sides were those very old low houses. A soft light emanated from the windows. Occasionally, one could see a house painted with colorful paint, preparing wreaths for the dead.

A few dirty children stood on the roadside holding colorful painted sticks, they all had long runny noses, kept silent, staring blankly at Lin Fei as he passed by. The whole alley had a deathly, still air about it.

Lin Fei’s mood, unknowingly, also became somewhat heavy. He continued along the alley, passing an unattended pile of garbage. The deeper he walked into the unlit alley, the darker it got.

He didn’t know why he had unconsciously come here. Lin Fei never indulged himself, but today was an exception. Perhaps it was a last struggle from the emotions that had been suppressed by rationality for too long. He had eventually come here.

Gao Ge’s home was in a bungalow on the left at the end of the alley.

Lin Fei had also asked Xu Chang before why Gao Ge would live in such a poor place. The answer he got was merely a "don’t know." Despite being partners for many years, Xu Chang had never inquired about Gao Ge’s personal life.

There were no lights around the small house. Only this one place seemed to have a dim incandescent light inside. The dim yellow light faintly cast out from the door gap.

The door wasn’t closed, and Lin Fei simply pushed it lightly to open it naturally. He walked in quietly, just in time to see a person sitting in the middle of the house, it was Gao Ge.

He was silently sitting on a wooden stool, not the painted kind, but a solitary stool with four legs, and up close, one could see that its seams were not very firm, and an ordinary person would probably hear a creak if they sat on it, but Gao Ge sat very steadily, with not a whisper of noise.

In front of him was a wooden table, on which lay a sword. The silver Sword Sheath had no stains at all, lying quietly in the center of the table.

Gao Ge’s gaze was fixed on the Longsword, as if nothing could distract him from this action.

Lin Fei stood behind Gao Ge; he had only decided impulsively to come and see Gao Ge, to see what the daily life of this odd person was like, but he was destined to be disappointed. Standing silently at the doorway, Lin Fei said nothing, just stood watching Gao Ge, who was sitting. The two of them, one standing and one sitting, seemed to have become a static tableau.