Chapter 1056: Chapter 596: Heart Demon (3-in-1 Extra)

Chen Yi suddenly understood, realizing the reasoning behind it. Zhou Yitang completely remembers the memories of two lifetimes, thus she has two states of mind that alternate back and forth. By helping her clear the obsessions from her previous life, the decaying vision becomes even more decayed, while the flourishing vision becomes even more flourishing. If all obsessions are swept clean, such a decayed state of mind will also cease to exist, and she will truly have a Taoist Heart that is clear and bright.

However, in such a short time, wanting to clear her obsessions is unrealistic, and as her master, he cannot guarantee that there won’t be new obsessions arising at any moment.

Having figured out this reasoning, Chen Yi no longer hesitated, drew his sword, and said, "What are you waiting for?"

Before his words had even fallen, the decaying scene began to surge, with vague shadows climbing from all directions just like before.

One after another, figures that resembled Zhou Yitang in outline but had only one arm, obsessions that never knew what "death" meant, thus they had no fear at all,

they only knew that the person wielding the sword in front of them was named Chen Yi.

A person destined to die.

At this moment, the dense obsessions formed into a mass, wielding swords with their hands, surging forward like overwhelming waves.

Chen Yi used both knife and sword, dashing and battling fiercely with them.

A pebble causes a thousand waves, from a high vantage point looking down, he was like an inconspicuous pebble plopping down, causing Sword Qi to dance wildly in the air, criss-crossing wantonly, as if to cut the entire Cangwu Peak into scattered pieces.

The Sword Qi was so intense that even Zhou Yitang frowned, and Chen Yi, deeply ensnared within, was like a lone leaf on a boat in a raging storm, rising and falling.

The wind howled, the rampant Sword Qi came crashing down like a violent storm, forcing Chen Yi to step back, wielding his sword continuously, enclosing himself in a Sword Intent World a few meters in radius, using his sword to draw in Sword Qi, making the rampant Sword Qi collide with each other, and then seeking an opportunity to strike.

Yet the obsessions that hated him to the bone wouldn’t give him the chance, Chen Yi suddenly turned back, in his view came a streak of Sword Gang, like thunder striking from a clear sky, vertically aimed to split him in half, his face showed apprehension, he halted his steps slightly and switched hands to draw his blade, using Swordsmanship to handle the knife, intending to dissolve the Sword Gang.

Yet in this gap, an obsession disregarded the crisscrossing Sword Qi to pierce directly toward his throat with a hand as a sword!

"Damned Zhou Yitang!"

Chen Yi couldn’t help but curse, withdrawing his blade, leaping to dodge that Sword Gang, then the light of his blade flickered as he exchanged a dozen moves with that obsession in an instant, the Sword Qi that was originally colliding within the Sword Intent World gradually returned to its path, all rushing toward Chen Yi.

Easier said than done, when Chen Yi found himself encircled once again, he recalled how last night these obsessions had chased him into a wretched state,

"Deserved it, deserved it, how could you be so deserving..."

Amidst the struggle, Chen Yi cursed incessantly in his heart, this woman who wouldn’t let herself go, continuously accumulating obsessions in her heart, had reached such a point. Just as he was cursing in his heart, suddenly a voice so subtle it was almost non-existent rang in his ear, that voice ethereal, blending into the pervasive Sword Qi...

"Are you cursing me?"

As soon as these words reached his ears, Chen Yi’s hair stood on end, a long-lost sense of fear crept over him, as if he was back in a previous life, when he had just ascended the mountain, she sat alone on a high peak with a sword across her knee, looking down at him like a disciple, like an ant.

Back then the master was truly the master, and the disciple truly a disciple.

The chaos in the Sword Intent World brought Chen Yi back to his senses, realizing that he could no longer afford to be entangled, his figure swayed like a fish swishing its tail in water, breaking through the waves with a swoosh, and in the gasp for air, he suspiciously glanced at Zhou Yitang hovering in the air. The latter stood immobile, without giving Chen Yi any time to understand the situation, as he turned his head to see Sword Qi surging toward him again.

Boundless and majestic Sword Intent accumulated at one point, the spreading Sword Qi pervading the world, as if a sword-blade precipice suddenly arose from flat ground, directly smashing toward Chen Yi head-on.

Chen Yi’s whole being seemed about to be completely swallowed by the waves, a solitary shadow in the world.

"Strike in the gap."

The sudden voice rang out once again, as if a secret transmission, was it Zhou Yitang reminding him? Chen Yi didn’t have time to discern, his thoughts shifted rapidly, under the Shangqing Heart Method, he focused on observing the impending sword-blade precipice.

The so-called striking in the gap, is the simplest and most straightforward principle of Swordsmanship, with attack and defense, although they can be smoothly converted back and forth, and having both attack and defense is not just empty talk. However, if one falls into a certain moment, an extremely small moment, a thrusting sword cannot instantly retract, nor can a guarding sword instantly strike, the attacker without defense, the defender without attack. This is an unchangeable truth even at the extreme of the world.

And a swordsman must strike at such gaps,

Sword Dao is a faith, if one does not believe unconditionally, the only fate is death.

The vast white sword-blade precipice pressed closer, and as Chen Yi opened his eyes suddenly, the nearer the precipice came, the more he saw the mighty gaps full of flaws in the imposing aura.

The obsessions were many indeed, but they fought individually rather than as a coordinated force, unconsciously combining their Sword Intent into a formidable momentum threatening to engulf the world, but having only the momentum.

Chen Yi flitted through the gap like a flash of lightning, piercing through, with the entire precipice pausing for a moment, then being severed in the middle, the stacked Sword Qi collapsing like a toppled skyscraper...

......

When Chen Yi was exhausted from fighting, the thousands of obsessions were once again banished by Zhou Yitang, retreating back to the directions they had come from.

The decayed Cangwu Peak returned to solitude, like a mountain smoothed by a long-lived being in a Zen story.