Watching the Mountain

Chapter 31: Chapter 26: The Sword That Was Never Swung

In response to Xu Ran’s questioning gaze, Chen Chang’an raised his hands and formed a Dao Seal in greeting. Only then did he slowly begin to speak:

”I heard about him the moment I came out of seclusion. I thought it was just a rumor at first, but seeing him like this now...”

His mouth hung open. He paused for a long time before continuing, ”He’s made many of us lose our sense of purpose.”

His voice was full of dejection, tinged with a melancholy that wouldn’t fade.

Xu Ran nodded slightly. He could understand the sentiment. For the Sect’s True Disciples, Ye Shan had always been the one they strived to follow, and one day, surpass.

When Ye Shan was around, they were filled with motivation every day. But now that their benchmark had fallen, they were left feeling empty and lost. After all, they had grown accustomed to striving toward that singular goal every single day.

After a moment of silence, he looked at Chen Chang’an and asked, ”You heard what he just said, didn’t you? Do you think that’s what he really believes?”

Hearing this, Chen Chang’an considered it for a moment before shaking his head with a wry smile. ”I’m not sure. We could never figure him out back then, either. No one ever knew what he was thinking.”

He tilted his head back slightly, a nostalgic look on his face as he spoke with a sigh of emotion:

”It’s like back in the Secret Realm. Do you know why he chose to break through inside the Secret Realm?”

”Was there some hidden reason for it?” Xu Ran stared at him, taken aback.

Chen Chang’an shook his head slightly. ”Not a hidden reason, exactly. It’s just that the night before, he suddenly found us and announced he was breaking through to the Golden Core realm the next day. And he had chosen the Secret Realm as the location.”

”He said he’d conceived of a swordsmanship technique, but it was so powerful he couldn’t unleash it. He said he needed some pressure.”

”If, during his breakthrough, the disciples from the other sects decided to break the rules and ambush him, it would provide the exact pressure he needed to unleash that technique. He could wipe out everyone from the Four Major Sects and drive them out, allowing our Sect to claim the entire Secret Realm.”

Xu Ran was taken aback. ”So you just agreed to his plan?”

Chen Chang’an nodded slightly. ”He was always supremely confident, and we, in turn, trusted that confidence implicitly. He told us that as long as he could unleash that swordsmanship technique, he was certain he could challenge a Divinity Transformation cultivator with the power of his Golden Core. He even said he could challenge an Immortal.”

”Ah.” Xu Ran was momentarily stunned. ’Slaying a Divinity Transformation cultivator with the power of a Golden Core... just what kind of person would be confident enough to say that?’ That was the Ye Shan he knew of.

Seeing his reaction, Chen Chang’an gave a self-deprecating laugh and said:

”Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? A Golden Core challenging a Divinity Transformation. It’s so outrageous, you don’t even have to think about it to know it’s impossible.”

”And yet, we all believed him at the time. Because the one saying it was Ye Shan. His name alone represented shattering the impossible. Even if he had said he could shatter the heavens with the power of his Golden Core, we would have believed him without hesitation.”

”In fact, it wasn’t just us. I reckon that even if the disciples from the Four Major Sects in the Secret Realm had heard him, they would have been at least seventy percent convinced.”

Xu Ran fell silent for a moment. The True Disciples in the Secret Realm had all witnessed Ye Shan’s invincible prowess firsthand. That was precisely why they were so certain he could create a miracle.

”What happened after? Did he manage to unleash that swordsmanship technique?”

Chen Chang’an shook his head. ”No. We kept waiting for him to unleash that swordsmanship technique. But right to the very end, as many of our fellow disciples fell, we never saw it.”

”Even later, when he collapsed to the ground, we were still waiting, still believing. We were certain he would get back up any second, unleash that technique, kill everyone attacking us, and lead us to victory in the Secret Realm...”

”And yet, right up until Senior Sister Yue arrived to rescue him, he still hadn’t unleashed that swordsmanship technique. When we saw her appear, many of us even secretly resented her. ’Why did she have to show up? Why couldn’t she wait for him to use the technique first?’ It was only later that we discovered he had truly been unconscious the whole time.”

As he spoke, Chen Chang’an let out a long sigh, seemingly for the one who had fallen.

”Do you think he can ever get back on his feet?” Xu Ran asked.

At this question, Chen Chang’an fell silent for a long time before answering in a low voice, ”It’s hard to say. He’s a proud man. When we first saw him fall into this state, a few of us deliberately spread rumors, hoping to provoke a reaction from him.”

”We thought that with his pride, he would definitely react. We never expected he would end up like this.”

”For those words to actually come out of his mouth...”

Xu Ran raised an eyebrow, staring directly at Chen Chang’an. ’Well, I’ll be damned. So you guys were the ones who started all those rumors blaming Ye Shan back then.’

Seeing Xu Ran’s reaction, Chen Chang’an said calmly, ”Otherwise, did you really think so many people blamed him? In fact, many of those who spread the rumors were thinking the same thing, because everyone knows Ye Shan is a proud man.”

”Of course, some people in the Sect genuinely believed them. You can’t expect those who were truly harmed and implicated because of him to be so magnanimous as to not blame him at all, can you?”

Xu Ran nodded slightly. He understood the logic, of course. When the rumors first started spreading through the Sect, he’d had his suspicions. It was just that having them confirmed, and learning who the true culprits were, had caught him a little off guard.

Chen Chang’an tilted his head back and remarked with a sigh, ”You know, because of him, many of the people who were in the Secret Realm back then are still recovering from serious injuries. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. I came out of seclusion this time because I wanted to see him one last time before my own Golden Core breakthrough.”

”I never imagined this is the state I would find him in.”

He shook his head, his tone complex and unreadable, a mixture of countless emotions.

He noticed the shock on Xu Ran’s face and added with a small smile, ”Don’t let the fact that Ye Shan and I are from the same generation of True Disciples fool you; that’s just because of Sect rules. In reality, I’m already two hundred and fifty years old. And breaking through to the Golden Core at this age is the bare minimum for being considered a genius in the Cultivation Realm.”

He sighed, his voice laced with complex emotion. ”I’ve been like that my whole life. No matter what I do, I always just scrape by, right on the minimum line for being a genius. I honestly don’t know if someone like me can even be called a genius at all.”

Xu Ran stared at him, dumbfounded. ’Always just meeting the bare minimum to be a genius? In its own way, that’s actually kind of terrifying.’

Chen Chang’an paid no mind to his reaction, as if he was long accustomed to this kind of response whenever he said that.

He then waved a hand at Xu Ran. ”Even though Ye Shan has changed, I still don’t think he’s the kind of person to do things without reason. Since he went out of his way to find you and say those things, I feel like he must have been trying to express something. You should think back on it carefully.”

With that, he offered a brief farewell and turned to leave.