A Good-for-Nothing

174. I Found You (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

On the training ground.

He Zheng was in meditation, his eyes closed, his Consciousness Sea as empty as usual.

Legs numb, He Zheng dejectedly opened his eyes. He had been meditating for several days, but no progress whatsoever had been made hitherto. Even a good-tempered person would have felt frustrated, let alone He Zheng who had a quite violent temper.

He Zheng flied into a rage and sprang to his feet. His right arm was too sore to wield a sword, so he grabbed the Shadow Sword with his left hand and started hacking madly at a tree.

It was as though he were splitting firewood.

“You’re reducing the Shadow Sword to a firewood chopper. If I were the sword spirit in it, I would have some time ago flown the Shadow Sword back into a smelter to be remade so as to rid myself of a master like you.”

Surprised, He Zheng looked back and saw Zhao Yidi standing behind him, her arms folded across her chest, ill-concealed sarcasm in her eyes.

Zhao Yidi’s standing position was graceful. She wasn’t moving, but He Zheng kept feeling that because of her presence, the scene around her had become somewhat different.

“Mrs. Zhao.” He Zheng had met Zhao Yidi during the previous interview. He didn’t understand why Zhao Yidi had come here, but he still did her the courtesy of greeting her.

Zhao Yidi flicked a glance at the Shadow Sword in his hand and stretched her fine and slim hand at him. “Stop degrading this sword and give it to me.”

He Zheng knitted his eyebrows and warily took a step backward.

Zhao Yidi gave a chuckle, her eyes full of scorn. She slightly raised her arm and the Shadow Sword in He Zheng’s hand suddenly started buzzing.

He Zheng looked at his sword in astonishment. This was something that had never happened before.

But He Zheng still didn’t loosen his grip.

Zhao Yidi exerted a little more power, her palm covered in a layer of faint light which was visible to the naked eye, but strangely enough, the Shadow Sword gave her no further reaction apart from the buzzing a moment ago. No matter how hard Zhao Yidi tried to magic it to her, the sword refused to move an inch.

“Pathetic!” Zhao Yidi scowled. Judging from her tone and face, that word seemed to be directed at the Shadow Sword rather than He Zheng himself. “Whatever. If you’re really so determined to take him as your master, I won’t stop you.”

He Zheng stared at Zhao Yidi, his face etched with perplexity. Why was she talking to his sword? Had Zhao Yidi developed some kind of mental disease from her unduly heavy workload in SMB, by any chance?

Zhao Yidi could tell from He Zheng’s eyes what he was thinking. She gave a cold snort and said, “Your skills are just average, but your luck is quite good. Li Zong asked me to do him a favor and help you forge a bond with the spirit in your sword, but that fool in your hand seems to be unwilling to let anybody but you to touch it.”

He Zheng was torn between snapping back at her or thanking her.

“Whatever. They are both so mulish. What else could I say?”

He Zheng was on the verge of losing his temper.

Zhao Yidi flicked her sleeve and with that He Zheng was bodily drawn towards her by a force, as if there were an intangible rope tied to his waist. There was a certain distance between him and Zhao Yidi, but the next instant, he was very close to her.

Zhao Yidi slapped He Zheng’s fair-skinned, smooth forehead hard with the back of her hand, instantly leaving a red handprint on it, causing He Zheng pain. Then Zhao Yidi raised her foot and kicked the backs of his knees, sending him sitting cross-legged onto the ground.

“Close your eyes, gather your Qi and start meditating,” instructed Zhao Yidi as she pressed her hand against He Zheng’s eyes. A barely detectable fragrance wafted from her into He Zheng’s nostrils, and funnily enough, on smelling it, He Zheng was thrown into some kind of trance, his mind falling into his Consciousness Sea.

“Now try infusing your Qi into the Shadow Sword.”

He Zheng numbly raised his hands and placed them on his knees, the Shadow Sword overlying his palms. As his Qi entered the Shadow Sword, it flew upwards and then stuck straight down into the ground before him, shining constantly.

He didn’t know when, but the surroundings had changed. Originally the sky had been clear and sunny, but now it was star-strewn with a bright moon hanging high.

The moonlight as smooth as silk was being reflected by the blade of the Shadow Sword, and the Big Dipper seemed to be having some kind of communication with the sword as well.

Zhao Yidi closed her eyes, her whole body giving off a soft glow which seemed to be influencing the Shadow Sword in a mysterious way. If He Zheng opened his eyes at this time, he would definitely catch sight of this amazing and beautiful scene.

Zhao Yidi, He Zheng and the Shadow Sword were shrouded in sheets of gleam, and the orbits of the stars in the sky had changed because of the three of them.

Pity He Zheng was totally unaware. Sitting cross-legged with the Shadow Sword in his hand, he was gently guiding spiritual energy into the blade the same way that he guided his Qi into Fu paper when drawing a Fu (Fu is a piece of rectangular paper on which magical figures are drawn by Chinese Taoist priests to invoke or expel spirits and bring good or ill fortune). The Shadow Sword, as if having sensed He Zheng’s call to it, started to vibrate.

He Zheng suddenly had a very odd sensation. In his Consciousness Sea which had been empty all along, he sensed a powerful but extremely soft light. As he approached the cloud of light, it momentarily splintered into numerous bright spots like stars, amid which the Shadow Sword was displaying itself in the most stunning fashion.

He Zheng slightly widened his eyes. This was the first time that he had clapped eyes on the Shadow Sword in his Consciousness Sea. It was very occult but also made him feel very comfortable. He Zheng even felt that the Shadow Sword was about to develop its own consciousness and communicate with him.

He raised his hand in a somewhat uncontrollable manner, reaching towards the Shadow Sword, which seemed to sense his will, shaking violently, and flew from the center of the starlight towards his hand.

Hand against the blade, He Zheng thought he heard the Shadow Sword murmuring something to him.

A few moments later, He Zheng’s whole consciousness was sucked into the blade.

It was so cold.

There was an expanse of white snow stretching as far as the eye could see, covering silvery gray armor, lofty mountains, vast rivers and numerous piles of bones.

A young general was lying on the snowy ground, his eyes unnaturally bright. Dead as he was, he retained his unyielding bearing.

In the general’s firm grasp was a sword, the whole blade of which was blood-red, indicating how gory the fight it’d last witnessed had been.

Countless emotions abruptly came flooding into He Zheng’s mind: fury, regret, unwillingness to admit defeat… They didn’t ebb away until a snowflake landed on his cheek.

A drip was heard.

A drop of tear fell from the corner of his eye.

He Zheng saw a semi-transparent figure materializing beside the young general’s body. It stood there, looking down at the general, their eyes so sorrowful.

After gazing at the body for a very long time, the dimly discernible figure finally turned around. He Zheng made eye contact with it, but he couldn’t see it clearly.

“Finally, I found you.”

This voice echoed in the depths of He Zheng’s Consciousness Sea.

Before He Zheng could come back to his senses, he was drawn to another more powerful consciousness and thoroughly fell into a coma.