Forge a path to success.

Chapter 191 The Art of Seeking the Dao with a Broken Heart (4)

The next day, early morning.

I groggily got up in the middle of the night, feeling much worse than before I went to sleep, with the content of the nightmare still vividly lingering in my mind.

In her dream, Dongsha's terrifying expression grew larger and larger, becoming a grotesque face that relentlessly pursued her. She kept running away, but couldn't shake it off. The other children in the family laughed and clapped, saying it was a brilliant new training method devised by a genius.

She slapped her cheeks hard, trying to banish the unpleasant memory from her mind. Only then did Qingye realize she was outside the settlement. She quickly turned around, her heart pounding, bracing herself for the grotesque faces that would appear in reality.

There were no ghosts in reality, nor were there any spirits of the past; only Long Yu sat motionless on the wooden stake. Qing Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Mr. Longyu."

“I didn’t do anything,” Longyu said.

It must have been Mr. Longyu who dispelled the nightmare, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to rest peacefully. Qingye rubbed her wrinkled fingertips, feeling a pang of sadness due to the aftereffects of her cultivation. There will be a way later, she comforted herself, pushing herself up from the ground—her legs felt weak due to the effects of aging.

"Ooh ooh ooh! Ahh!!"

Qingye tripped and fell, rolling for half a minute before crashing into a fruit tree. A fruit as big as a watermelon fell and hit her on the head, making Qingye see stars.

"What's going on... why is it so unlucky as soon as I wake up..." Qingye said with a mournful face.

The large fruit had been smashed open, and golden juice flowed to her lips, tasting like lemonade with honey. Qingye unconsciously licked it, her eyes shining.

"Mr. Longyu, this is a honey fruit! It can prolong life! You can't even buy it at the Heartless Sect. Come and eat!"

"I do not need."

"Really? Then I'll eat it first! Oh no, the juice spilled on the floor! I can't waste a single drop!"

Miss Qingye threw herself onto the soil without any hesitation. Longyu couldn't bear to watch, looked away, and for the first time in a long time, felt an urge to facepalm.

“Actually, Mr. Longyu, the dirt that got stained with fruit juice isn’t as bad as you might think…” Qingye stared at his fingers, which had returned to normal, his eyes shining.

"say no more."

"Ok."

Exactly fifteen minutes later, Qingye stepped on a moving vine. The strange plant's predatory trap sent her flying, crashing into three large trees before plunging headfirst into the strange bird's nest. Inside the nest were three eggs the size of rugby balls.

"This bird egg is surprisingly resilient..." said Qingye, who was wearing the eggshell.

"say no more."

Qingye removed the eggshell and steeled her resolve: "Just to be on the safe side, I'll eat the eggshell too!"

Longyu silently rubbed her forehead.

·
As night fell, the long and short swords clashed and separated, and Qingye's sword was once again taken from him. Longyu patted the blade with one hand.

"You must infuse your own essence into the way of the sword." Longyu's hand slid down the blade, "like sharpening a knife. Oiling the blade. Cutting out with your will."

Qingye sat upright, listening attentively: "Do we need to shout?"

“Some people do that,” Longyu gave an ambiguous reply. “Anything is acceptable as long as it achieves the goal. Let’s try again.”

"Drink!"

They clashed again. He held on until the fifth round, but his sword was taken from him.

"I feel better."

"It's an illusion. It's just as bad as before."

"Ugh...okay..."

Qingye walked into the fog, intending to continue her arduous cultivation. Longyu shook her head.

"You won't make any progress if you rely on techniques."

“I’ll die if I don’t use the technique,” ​​Qingye said defiantly. This time, Longyu remained silent.

This time, Qingye's training lasted about four hours. She dragged her battered body back and collapsed to the ground with a thud, displaying an expression of great accomplishment, but which looked utterly pathetic to onlookers.

"Why not practice swordsmanship?" Longyu commented.

"What's needed on the battlefield is a skill that can be learned quickly..." Qingye said, lying down. "Practicing swordsmanship for two nights only has a psychological effect. But if you can develop a new technique after two nights of studying it, and if that new technique can be used in future battles, then it's the right choice."

"Pondering for two nights can lead to mastering new sword techniques."

“Yes, yes, I know such an amazing person. He can come up with a new trick in half an hour.” Qingye waved his hand weakly. “But he is a martial arts cultivator. I am a crippled cultivator. A crippled cultivator must solve problems in his own way.”

Long Yu's lips twitched slightly. Qing Ye realized he was smiling.

“My younger brother used to say similar things. He always said that he should use smart methods to solve problems... and then I would always beat him. At that time, he would say that he failed because of the martial arts demonstration, and that his methods would succeed if used at the right moment.”

"He's so stubborn."

“That’s true…and then he’ll get a good scolding from Chongming, but he doesn’t really care, so he’s not angry.” Longyu shook her head. “That’s unlike you.”

"I'm still a bit soft-hearted..." Qingye said weakly.

Is this a good thing?

It was another ambiguous, vague question. Longyu didn't seem to expect an answer, always asking with an air of "anything goes." So Qingye didn't answer, and a silence followed for a while. She noticed Longyu looking at her knife.

This man was always very interested in knives; he would either stare blankly at his own knife or observe other people's knives. When a martial arts fanatic reaches this level, perhaps there's no entertainment left. "This knife..." Qingye tried to start a conversation.

Longyu responded faster than she expected: "It shouldn't be yours."

"Actually, I stole it from my home," Qingye chuckled. "It was originally the sword of a family ancestor. He was someone I admired."

"worship?"

"Yes. Its original owner was a powerful and brave general. In an unexpected encounter, his troops encountered an invincible enemy. The enemy was too strong, and the troops suffered nearly half their losses. If they continued fighting, they would all perish. The general judged the course of the war and decided to stay behind alone to fight the outsiders, thus buying his comrades a chance to retreat."

If he were to lose the duel, he might be corrupted by the heretical forces and cease to be himself. The general was fully aware of this, yet he resolutely decided to remain alone.

Qingye sat up and said earnestly, "He sacrificed his dignity to save the lives of many of his companions; he is a remarkable person with a broken heart. I have always aspired to be like him!"

Deep disappointment was evident in Longyu's cloudy eyes. This was the first time Qingye had seen such clear likes and dislikes in the other person. She didn't know what she had said wrong and was at a loss for words.

"Mr. Longyu...?"

“You’re stupid,” Longyu said. “You completely fail to understand the meaning of the stories your elders told you.”

"how come……"

"If that person is an excellent leader, he should be able to lead his troops to victory against the enemy."

If that person is truly a heartless individual, then he should perish together with the heretics, even at the cost of his own life.

However, he accomplished nothing; as both a leader and a warrior, he failed utterly.

Longyu closed her eyes: "This is a negative example, but you didn't understand it. You've mistaken the object of your worship, and thus established a wrong dream. That's naturally a foolish thing."

“That’s not it…” Qingye whispered, “What Shura Island needs now is someone willing to sacrifice themselves. Only someone like that can lead the broken-hearted ones off the island…”

"Let's talk about it tomorrow," Longyu interrupted her. "You'll understand tomorrow."

They fell silent. That look of disappointment lingered in Longyu's eyes, impossible to shake off.

·
On the third day, they finally emerged from the forest and arrived at the dark, muddy banks of the Shadow River. As this day arrived, Longyu brought forth a white bouquet of flowers from the forest.

Qingye's face was patchy with black and yellow marks, like she was wearing camouflage. She had been attacked by food again due to a series of unfortunate coincidences. She nervously looked around, her heart pounding with fear.

“There will definitely be more bad things,” Qingye said confidently, “and then we’ll find food. I’m afraid that’s the rule of the Misty Forest.”

Longyu shook her head silently and led her across the bridge and into the river. Many faces floated in the river, all with their eyes closed, as if asleep. They walked with their backs to the arena, and after half a day, they arrived at a dark basin.

Qingye shivered, sensing a profound chill. The deathly aura here was so intense that it even permeated the mist, turning it the same black as the earth. In her daze, she tripped. Buried in the soil was a pitch-black hand bone, as if reaching for her ankle.

Qingye's pupils constricted in shock. She swept away the dust and unearthed the skeleton. Not just the arms, but the broken skull, ribs, and so on were all pitch black. It was a color she knew all too well, the "sinful bones" that were the hallmark of the Heartbreakers.

She looked at the dark basin, her weak voice filled with fear.

"Mr. Longyu, this is..."

“These are the bones of sinners,” Longyu said. “This place is stained black by corpses.”

How many people had died here? And what terrifying methods could have caused so many heartless souls to perish simultaneously? Qingye didn't want to delve into these questions; she couldn't allow herself to succumb to imagined terror. The two walked in silence to the center of the black basin, where an unmarked tombstone stood. Longyu placed a bouquet of flowers before the tombstone and silently clasped her hands in prayer. Qingye joined him, clasping her hands in mourning for the souls who had perished in battle long ago.

"The allied forces assembled at the front-line base of Halvira are mostly Discipline Knights and Heartbreakers," Long Yu said, as if in a dream. "The city-states of the Ancient Dragons and the Divine Tree have their own marching routes. At that time, we had not yet made any progress and were more like a detached force supported by the Discipline Knight Kingdom."

In those days, we were a group that faced much skepticism. Many considered us a new heresy, and numerous forces resisted our arrival. Each time, Chongming would personally go and defeat them. But we all felt we couldn't do that; we needed to prove something…

"Status, reputation, goodwill. All of these must be earned by ourselves... proven by ourselves... and then we respond to the call to gather here, wanting to launch the first great battle against the heretics. We are a group of brave but reckless warriors."

"Then the Nightmare King descended in ecstasy, and he bestowed trials upon every warrior, hoping that we could demonstrate true courage."

Longyu turned around and met her gaze. His eyes were as cloudy as mud.

“Everyone regrets it,” he said.

"……What's the meaning?"

“Regret. Deep remorse. Madness, betrayal, begging for mercy. Kneeling on the ground, praying for divine mercy. Shouldn’t have dared to rebel. Shouldn’t have gone looking for trouble. If they had just stayed in their own territory, they wouldn’t have ended up in this hell.” Longyu said, “Not a single one passed the test of Vansalal. They wept bitterly, made a complete fool of themselves, accomplished nothing, and died in the most cowardly manner.”

"This is the future you envision." Long Yu's voice pierced the girl's heart like a needle. "Leaving Shura Island and fighting to the death against the heretics. Behind this statement is not any meaning or belief, but fear and meaningless death."

"I'll ask you one more time."

Longyu's expression became just as terrifying as Chongming's.

Why did you leave Shura Island?

Qingye did not lower her head; she pursed her bloodless lips.

"I cannot tolerate the infighting on Shura Island. I want to find the Lord of the Broken Heart and unite the forces within the island... so that we can once again stand on the front line against the heretics!"

"It seems that words are meaningless to you."

Longyu covered her face with her hand, the emotionless silver mask concealing her pale features.

The murky gaze was gone; the man's eyes were as chilling as a shadow. He silently drew his dagger.

"Now, let the trial begin for the Heartbreaker, Light and Night," said Longyu, no, Nightwalker of Fear. "Victory, or death."

(End of this chapter)