235 Sage of Eight Virtues

For the first time in his ten years of Immortal Cultivation, Wang Lu finally experienced a powerful enemy that was genuinely fit to be the enemy of a professional adventurer.

First, the enemy’s strength was powerful enough; in a fair contest, one hundred Wang Lu could never block a single strike from the Guardian. Second, its weakness was obvious; there were one hundred thousand talismans that reversed the natural meridian circulation, so the magical power went straight through its body, making it tantamount to a place where its important points were completely wide open. Third, it was stupid enough; because it has just been resurrected, the Guardian’s primordial spirit was still in an obscure state and its consciousness was still in a mess, unable to think like a normal being, thus, could not display its earth-shattering power, moreover… it was very easy to fall into a simple and ridiculous strategy.

For any normal opponent, no one would fly into an uncontrollable rage just because of foul language. However, upon hearing the sword language, the Guardian even ignored the great crisis of the one hundred thousand talismans invasion and set off its monstrous pent-up anger to single-mindedly deal with Liu Li.

Wang Lu held up his Non-Phase Immovable Sword to firmly block its attack, immovable as a mountain. Yet, unexpectedly, the Guardian didn’t realize the target has shifted. It kept locking on Liu Li and continued to push the fire from its wrath forward. Though the power was considerable, ultimately, it was not aimed at Wang Lu, therefore, it was exceptionally easy for him to withstand it.

In a technical expression, this was a wonderful position blocking.

The taunt, block, and drawing enmity were the tasks of the three Spirit Sword Sect people. As a mobile force, Wang Lu didn’t need to fight with the Guardian; as long as he created enough favorable condition for the other people, that was enough.

And other people did not disappoint him. The three sects Shengjing, Kunlun, and Ten Thousand Arts gave their maximum effort. Under the powerful magical power perfusion, one by one, the one hundred thousand talismans were stimulated, manufacturing intense destruction from within the Guardian’s body.

The Guardian’s body trembled. Cracks appeared one after the other on the surface of the mountain, and before long, it looked like a cobweb that covered a large area. Gravels and silts fell down like waterfall. It was as if the Guardian’s body was shrouded in a layer of gray mist… Of course, the damage inside the mountain was certainly much more intense than what appeared on the surface.

Yet, the Guardian turned a blind eye to it all. For in its confused state, the greatest hatred was not the physical pain, but the vicious curse sent through the sharp sword language by the small bug. Unfortunately, its confused mind couldn’t let it think too much. Therefore, it continued to clumsily send out its pent-up anger in the form of fire, trying to burn the sword language and that bug, totally ignoring the rapid disintegration of its body.

This stalemate lasted for a long time.

Although the one hundred thousand talismans were very powerful, the Guardian’s vitality was equally alarming… This fact showed that the four sects’ disciples had underestimated the strength of the Guardian.

The Spirit Sword Sect has played well the role that they were expected to play. With his professional adventurer means, Wang Lu firmly attracted the Guardian’s attention so that the other people could freely concentrate on reversing the natural meridian circulation and destroying the Guardian’s vitality. Properly speaking, their task should be smooth and very quickly be able to kill it… However, who would’ve thought that although the Guardian has obviously just been revived—still in its weakest state, not to mention the three-days-arranged one hundred thousand talismans multiplied the destructive force of the cultivators by tens of thousands of times—still Jianglu and other people were almost completely like a dried up oil lamp before the Guardian finally collapsed with a loud rumble.

With the continuous accumulation of internal damage, the Guardian’s vitality finally came to an end. From the mountain, a large amount of lava and ash were spilled up high up in the sky. The lofty mountain was quickly covered with a layer of gray ash. The mountain was finally beaten and continued to be reduced, chunk by chunk.

The battle was finally over.

Everyone felt aghast.

According to the initial plan, all of the arrangements were set in a way that they have a considerable amount of surplus, a high rate of fault-tolerance. However, in practice, their fault-tolerance was almost stretched to zero. Even with Spirit Sword Sect’s extraordinary display, they barely managed to win. If in the process, there was any link that made even a bit of mistake, all of them would end up being splattered.

"What a terrifying opponent."

After finally feeling with absolute certainty that the Guardian’s vitality sign has completely vanished through the array on the icy lake, Jianglu finally relaxed, wiped away the black blood between his mouth and nose, and then sighed with heartfelt emotion.

This Guardian has an incredibly powerful life force that perhaps in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, even people of the Royal Soldier Sect who were well-known to have a valiant body would find it hard to have someone that could match it… Fortunately, they did not need to be enemies of the Guardian in its heyday.

However, even so, only by the sincere cooperation of the four sects’ cultivators could they barely pass this off. While recuperating from the exhaustion and injury after the battle, Jianglu also thought of this, and he had to admit that if they were to rely on their Shengjing Sect team alone, it was impossible to overcome this Guardian. And this was just the level four of the sword tomb...

Initially, the four sects cooperation seemed to be just a joke. However, since the difficulty of the sword tomb far exceeded their expectation, even cooperating with the other three sects has become a really good choice. In the battle, although the main force was the Shengjing Sect team, the role of any other of the three sects was just as important.

Thinking about this, Jianglu changed his originally domineering posture and said, "Let’s take a break first and restore our magical power as quickly as possible. If there are any friend here who was injured by the physical resonance damage, we have a good healing medicine, feel free to use it."

Although there were still traces of superiority in his tone, it was rare for Shengjing Sect to be generous. Kunlun Immortal Sect and Ten Thousand Arts Sect have no reason to refuse. After exchanging pleasantries, they chatted amicably with each other, and the atmosphere gradually warmth.

Only Spirit Sword Sect remained independent, coldly hid on the side, completely not involved in the pleasantries. Just now in the fierce battle, Wang Lu and his teammate contributed a great amount of credit. However, under the protection of Non-Phase Sword, the three of them actually came out unscathed. Compared to Shengjing Sect people and the others whose condition could only be described as bleak, they were simply noble and glamorous. They were the fewest in terms of team member, but they appeared stronger than the Shengjing Sect.

After skimming through with his peripheral vision, Jianglu could not help but sneer, thinking, "Spirit Sword Sect people do have a way of doing things, but even us Shengjing Sect could lower ourselves in times of need. But acting like a maverick like this would only isolate you in this four-sects joint action. Of course, while in action, we might not deliberately set you guys aside, but when it’s time to finally allocate the loot, being isolated will definitely cause you to suffer a big loss."

However, this was actually just a misunderstanding. Wang Lu and his teammates actually have an important matter to discuss.

"Liu Li, just now, you said you found something, what is it?"

Liu Li earnestly said, "At the last moment before the Guardian’s life was cut off, I distinctly felt that it seemed to release two very different, but equally strong emotions, like feeling regretful, but also relieved. It’s like, it’s like…"

Liu Li awkwardly furrowed her brows. She wanted to describe them more vividly, but found that her ability to express them was rather limited.

Wang Lu was silent for a while, and then tried to explain, "After thousands of years of slumber, it finally awoke, but before it could experience more life, it was sent into the abyss. This would certainly make it feel regret. As for feeling relieved… It has already died in the first place, it’s just that it’s not completely dead. Now that we let it thoroughly dead, perhaps it could enter the cycle of reincarnation, which was good, and that’s why it felt relieved."

For this explanation, Liu Li found it somewhat difficult to understand, and more difficult to accept. However, she didn’t know how to question or even respond anything to that.

In the ensuing silence, Bai Shixuan expressed her own opinion, "Senior Brother, I think… it seems that we should not kill it."

Wang Lu asked, "Why?"

Bai Shixuan replied, "Because it didn’t do anything bad."

"Hare and pheasant didn’t do any bad things, but they still end up in human’s belly. This is the natural law that could not be questioned… However, overall, do you think I did something wrong?"

Bai Shixuan hesitated. "It’s not that… It’s just that I always feel that this Guardian is really pitiful. Perhaps… it has the same reason as the mountain spirit. Sorry, I’m somewhat in a mess."

Wang Lu reached out and touched her head. "Don’t think too much. Although you were born smart, unlike the hopelessly stupid Liu Li, but thinking about this is too early for you."

Liu Li protested, "I am not stupid!"

Wang Lu cast Liu Li a glance. "Is it? Then I’ll give you a question. If you can think of its answer, then you’re smart."

"Sure!"

"Prove that any even numbers bigger than two can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers [1]. Well then, you can slowly think about it."

"Okay!"

Then, he no longer paid heed to the pondering Liu Li as he also fell into thinking. This is the fourth level, yet the difficulty is already almost insurmountable… is there a problem here, or…?

However, just when Wang Lu was about to vaguely grasp something, suddenly, a burst of rumbling sound from a collapsing mountain was heard.

The strong quake that was transmitted under their feet stopped everyone from talking. One by one they, turned their gaze to the not far away mountain.

At the remains of the Guardian, lava erupted, which formed another mountain when dried later on. The tall mountain appeared dull and without luster. Initially, everyone thought that it would end there. However, unexpectedly, there was a change. The tall mountain suddenly trembled, which caused fierce earthquake within its five kilometers radius, and the initially superficial fissure that covered the whole mountain continued to expand by some unknown force.

Then, the earth suddenly jerked down as if there was a hole at the foot of the mountain. With astonishing speed, the whole mountain collapsed into it, and even the volcanic ash that it just spewed out was also pulled back. In just a moment, in everyone’s eyes, there was only a vast empty plain on a sunny day. It was as if that lofty mountain has never existed.

Jianglu bewilderedly looked around, and then tried to guess, "Does this mean the entrance to the next level is about to open?"

Zhou Mumu somewhat dispiritedly said, "The big guy is useless, so… it died without a corpse?"

Zhan Ziye excitedly guessed, "Is this the internal recycling mechanism of the sword tomb? Unexpectedly, cultivators from many years ago already have such advance concept. This is an important discovery, and it’s very necessary to amend the relevant record."

While they were talking, suddenly, on the plain where the mountain disappeared, a circle of eight stone gates that led to eight paths appeared.

A quaint word engraved on each of the stone gates. Although there has been a lot of changes to the word after thousands of years, there was no lack of learned people on the scene. With a single glance, they immediately recognized them.

Filial Piety. Fraternal Duty. Loyalty. Trust. Rite. Justice. Honesty. Shame!

…

[1] [Goldbach's conjecture; an unsolved problem in maths]