Chapter 769

General Huaiyan glanced at his granddaughter, then smiled with deep meaning.

Yin Zhi & Da Hao: "……?!"

"I have heard your true wish, Guyun. I feel that you have grown tired of continuing to be a sword, falling into someone's hands to fight battles you do not wish for, is that not so?"

Guyun let out a long sigh: "This is the fate innate to a sword; I am destined to fall into someone's hand and wage war. Can the wind choose to stop blowing? Can the cloud choose to stop drifting? No, this is the fate of a created thing."

"No." Yunli immediately denied, "You have seen how the nameless swordsman decides his own fate, Guyun, and you can too."

Guyun: "I really couldn't imagine, a fate for me other than being a sword…"

Yunli said, "Do you remember? You stood alone and lofty before the swordsman's stone tablet, people looked up to you because you bore the remembrance of heroes. Thus, at that time you were no longer a sword, but a monument!"

"…Later I became mottled and worn; a light wind would pass through the hollows in my blade, producing varying tones that drifted toward distant mountains and wilds—it turns out I was then an instrument, and I miss the time I was an instrument." Guyun recalled, saying.

Yunli could not help but speak excitedly, "Does a created thing have the right to become what it wishes to become? Of course! I will fulfill your wish, Guyun, and I will forge you into another kind of object."

"But this is the prize of the martial demonstration ceremony; if the delegation of Kalawara finds out…" Da Hao looked helplessly at the old man beside him, "General Huaiyan, General, please say something!"

"Ah, my granddaughter is always stubborn. Yunli, are you really sure you want to do this?"

"What do… everyone think?" Yunli lifted her head and began to ask others for their opinions.

"It wouldn't hurt to ask Guyun's opinion."

Yin Zhi placed his hand on his chest and said earnestly, "Fulfilling Lord Guyun's wish is precisely why I have come to the celestial vessel. By the grace of Idelira, whether forging swords into plows or anything else, as long as Lord Guyun ends his fighting, I wholeheartedly approve."

——

Chinese Paladin 3.

Yuzhou, the rear courtyard of Xinan.

I also give my wholehearted approval!

The afternoon sunlight was just right, warmly spilling onto the stone table in the small courtyard. Jing Tian sat with his leg crossed, holding a half-polished, oily and smooth Han white jade snuff bottle. Upon seeing Yunli's decision in the sky, he raised the snuff bottle high, as if it could truly let Yunli see his opinion.

"Brother, they can't hear you speaking." Long Kui sat beside Xuejian, quietly sorting the herbs in the winnowing basket for her; hearing her brother so excited, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and smile.

"I certainly know they can't hear me; the Luofu celestial vessel is a place even farther than the immortal realm." Jing Tian glanced at Long Kui, then looked up at the broken demon sword in the sky, "Forging swords into plows… does that mean turning weapons of war into farming tools? Letting the sword that brings death give birth to new life?"

"That's wonderful." Long Kui smiled slightly, her eyes seeming to see golden wheat fields and a village with curling cooking smoke, "Guyun's duty as a sword has ended, but it can still protect, in another way, what that nameless swordsman once fought to protect. However, brother, Guyun's true wish is to become a musical instrument."

"Being an instrument isn't bad either; if my demon sword were still here, I might have the same thought."

After returning from the new immortal realm, Jing Tian brought Xuejian and the revived Long Kui (by Chonglou) back to Xin'an, where although the divine weapons from his days wandering the jianghu were gone, he lived a life of ease as the chief of Xin'an. If that demon sword were still by his side, it would likely just gather dust in a room; it would be better to forge it into a musical instrument to accompany Long Kui.

Jing Tian stroked his chin, suddenly feeling that this world beyond the immortal realm, though boundlessly distant and filled with strange people and events, still held some truths that seemed much the same wherever you placed them.

——

"Then I'll leave it to you, Yunli."

Finally, everyone went to the Five Arms Workshop of Gong Zao Si and borrowed its furnace.

Yunli gently cast Guyun into the furnace fire with a warm gaze.

"To know you in this way is my honor."

"It is also my honor; thank you, Yunli."

Without resistance, Guyun yielded and slid into the crimson‑gold flames hot enough to melt metal.

At the instant the blade was swallowed by the flames, it seemed as if an invisible, heavy shackle quietly melted away in the heat. The furnace light grew brighter; at the heart of the fire, faintly, one could see a distant snowy plain, a figure leaning on a sword, and finally a star‑filled sky that could be gazed upon.

"……"

After everything ended, Yunli walked out of Gong Zao Si with heavy steps, seeming somewhat sad.

Huaiyan also noticed his granddaughter's thoughts and turned to say, "What's got you upset, little girl? Are you feeling regret? When you melted the sword you were as decisive as anyone, so why do you now look unwilling and unhappy?"

"Grandfather, I melted the prize of the martial demonstration ceremony. How are you going to explain this to Luofu?"

Huaiyan couldn't help but chuckle, "What a fine fellow—such a young Yunli has grown such a big conscience. Hehe, not easy at all."

"Hmph." Although Yunli was displeased and couldn't rebut, she merely recalled the whole affair and felt a bit guilty, "Sigh, if I had calmly talked to grandfather at the start, perhaps this matter wouldn't have blown up into such a fuss."

"However, Guyun's sword getting its wish fulfilled is also a good thing; as for that, I have no regrets."

Huaiyan said, "Yunli… you and your father are at least somewhat alike in this matter. Are you still planning to recover the other weapons made by Guangguang?"

"Well, although Guyun is somewhat special, for most swordsmen the Suiyang demon sword is still too dangerous." Yunli paused, "I will just wait a bit before the next impulse."

Huaiyan stroked his beard and smiled with satisfaction: "Good 'wait a bit.' Remember today; in the days to come there will be many more things for us to 'wait a bit' about."

"I understand. But what about the prize?"

"Ever since you appeared at the sword‑giving ceremony, grandfather's heart has been sounding alarms. For this I specially prepared another sword as a substitute. Rest assured, the sword contains absolutely no Suiyang."