Unarmored | Chapter 171 | The Answer of a Lifetime | Novela.app

It is said that when a person faces someone who has once hurt them, they feel an irrepressible surge of anger and sorrow. In the past months, whenever the night was still and she recalled that scene on Douchen Ridge, Xiao Nanhui had felt exactly that. But now that he truly stood before her, she found herself less overwhelmed than she had been when he was out of sight. Perhaps it was because many of her questions now had answers; perhaps it was because her accusations had lost their meaning; or perhaps it was simply because his presence alone evoked too many memories. He wore a plain, ordinary indigo robe, the kind he always wore after returning to the manor. In his hand was a long spear—gold at the tip, wood for the shaft. The haft was made of white wax wood, but the spearhead was that familiar dark-patterned white steel with a bronze base. Long, long ago, when he first taught her spear techniques, he had used a spear just like this. Even that "Return Horse" thrust he had just executed was his most prized move, the one he had spent the longest time teaching her. But however abundant the memories of the past were, the reality before her was equally desolate. She tried to flex her fingers, only to realize the blood on Jiejia had already congealed, sticking to her skin and gluing her fingers to the hilt of the sword. "Where is he?" The general in plain clothes stood with his spear held horizontally. It was a long time before he spoke. "I taught you your martial arts myself. You cannot win against me." "My spear techniques were indeed taught by my adoptive father, but my sword techniques were not." As she finished speaking, the sword Jiejia gave a clear cry, transforming into a streak of white light that lunged straight for his vitals. One could never underestimate Xiao Zhun. To face him, one had to use every ounce of strength, focusing on every breath, every parry, and calculating every subsequent move just to stand a sliver of a chance. But her emotions had taken hold; her reason had long since burned away. Every swing of her sword left no room for retreat. She knew she wanted to prove something. She wanted to prove his error, prove that he was a thing of the past, and prove that she had become a better version of herself. Yet, she simply could not strike the blow that would prove it all. "Using the short against the long, the shallow against the profound. You are not yet prepared." She was indeed unprepared, but by the time she was, everything would be too late. "Tell me, where is he?!" He parried her offensive, and with a flick of his wrist, placed her in immediate peril. "Today’s matter is already decided. 'The submerged dragon should not act'—this is a strategy for a defeated army. Do you still not understand the principles I taught you in the past?" "Military strategy, laws of war, victory and defeat—do these things matter more than human lives?" When one move failed, another began; she swung her sword so fast it left afterimages. "Even if you are no longer a general of Tiancheng, they are still Tiancheng soldiers—soldiers you personally raised! Can you truly bear to watch them go to their deaths like this?!" The blade was jarred away. She clutched her numbed wrist and looked at him. Amidst the chaotic haze of black and white, the general in plain clothes stood in the mist like a ghost. "There is no Marquis of Qinghuai here, nor is there a Great General of the North. There is only a survivor of the Xiao family. In the end, you are also of the Xiao family. To face me now with bared steel—in what capacity, and from what standpoint do you do so?" "From the moment you abandoned me at Douchen Ridge, I was no longer a member of the Xiao family." She tried to make her words cold and lethal, but her voice inevitably cracked with a sob. "Even if I no longer have a home of my own, Tiancheng still exists. You were the one who taught me the principles of family, state, and the world. Now that you are the one who betrayed them first, what right do you have to question my standpoint?!" As her voice fell, the air seemed to stagnate. After a long silence, the man opposite her spoke in a heavy tone. "At that time, I held the safety of the state as paramount, and Xiao Dai held the survival of the world as first priority. But in the end, what did we get?! Our family destroyed, our people dead or scattered. And all of it was merely because of a seed of suspicion sown by the Su family to protect their own eternal empire! It was Tiancheng that betrayed the Xiao family first. What face do they have to condemn my betrayal!" She knew she could not argue, yet her heart remained turbulent, unable to find peace. She wanted to say: *But you didn't just betray Tiancheng, you betrayed me too.* But looking at that face etched with pain and sorrow, she ultimately could not say it. She tightened her grip on her sword. Blood and sweat mingled, making her palm sting. "He didn't know about any of those things back then. None of this was his doing. He did nothing wrong." "Then what did the Xiao family do wrong?!" After saying this, Xiao Zhun’s voice suddenly dropped. "The blood of the Su family flows in his veins. The imperial house is the most heartless of all. If the scenes of yesterday were to repeat, how do you know he wouldn't make the same choice?" *He wouldn't.* He was often ruthless in his actions, and she could never truly fathom his thoughts. Yet, this answer came to her instinctively. But before she could respond, Xiao Zhun charged again with his spear. This time, he clearly no longer held back, intending to end the duel swiftly. She was intimately familiar with the Xiao family spear techniques, but there was one move she had never learned: the Interception Kill. She had already lost to that move once, and Pingxian had been snapped because of it. For her, the psychological dread of this killing move was far greater than the tactical disadvantage. The spear is the most rigid and powerful of weapons. It opens up the four directions, never retreating before an enemy; it is so dense that water cannot pass through it, so strong that stones and arrows cannot break it. And the sword in her hand was only two feet seven inches long. She had only practiced this sword style for a few days. The more she attacked with force, the more she was driven back. The more she hurried to break the spear technique, the more she was constrained at every turn. Another three-move combination of feints and strikes came at her. Unable to keep up, she could only hold her sword horizontally to block a heavy sweep. The slender blade of Jiejia met the blow head-on, holding out through sheer force of will. The screeching sound of bronze and iron grinding against each other sent vibrations from the hilt to her wrist, her arm, and her upper body, reminding her of the moment Pingxian was severed. The web of her thumb split open, blood gushing out, but she gripped the hilt tightly, struggling to hold on. Blood trickled down the blade, leaving a thin red line on the smooth, simple steel, as if the blade itself had cracked. In a daze, she thought of Bo Lao again. She wondered if, in that bone-chilling night before her defeat, Bo Lao had seen the same sight and felt the same way. Fighting until exhausted, yet finding only a dead end at every step. She suddenly remembered Li Yuanyuan’s expression when he taught her the final form of the sword technique. It was a kind of resolve that could sever anything, leaving no path for retreat and no room for regret. *To retreat in order to advance; to sacrifice one's life for righteousness.* To deliver a heavy blow, one often needs to take half a step back first. Perhaps true liberation was not holding on tight, but learning to let go. Her knees bent, her right leg stepped back, and the balance she had struggled to maintain collapsed in an instant. The spearhead lunged toward her with the force of a thousand catties, and this time, she did not try to block it. The silver spearhead split the air with sharp, perilous momentum, embedding itself deeply into her right shoulder. Blood instantly soaked half her arm. A piercing pain made her breath hitch, merging with the scars hidden in her heart into a bloody, blurred mess. From the moment fate wrote the bond between him and her, using her growth to compensate for the pain of his lost kin, this bond was destined to be severed one day. The hand holding the sword loosened. Jiejia fell, only to be caught instantly by her other hand. The left-handed sword rose against the momentum, soaring upward to execute the final form of Soul-Dissecting. Three inches below the ribs, the inner thigh, the ankle, and finally tracing up the spine to exit through the crown. The thin, cold blade slid past the general’s spine and aimed straight for his throat. So this was the essence of Soul-Dissecting: the more resolute and uncompromising the strike, the more fluid and swift the blade. So a sword could be this fast. So fast that before she could even react, life and death were already decided. Her bloodshot eyes suddenly cleared. The blade stopped just short of his nape, the whistle of the circulating inner energy still humming at the tip. "You lost." The man beneath the blade shifted his shoulder to break free, but she pressed the sword three inches closer. "If you move again, I will have to cripple your arm!" The corner of Xiao Zhun’s mouth twitched slightly, his voice firm. "The Xiao family is full of heroic martyrs. How could there be one who surrenders without a fight?" "Surrender only applies to enemies. How can it be surrender when facing one's own?!" He turned his head halfway, but she did not dare look at the expression on that side of his face. "Then kill me." Her hand trembled slightly, whether from exhaustion or hesitation. Jiejia’s edge hung beside his neck; a mere flick would draw blood. "Kill me. I am telling you to kill me..." He slowly closed his eyes, his tone no less resolute than hers. "As things stand, neither you nor I can advance or retreat. I am your senior by more than a decade; let me be the one to take that half-step forward and end this." Before he could finish, he leaned into her blade. She jerked her hand back, lifting Jiejia, and he met only empty air. "Does seeking death end everything? If so, wouldn't those who remain alive be a joke?" She took a deep breath, trying to speak sincerely. "You told me that before every battle, I should remember something good, so that I could live on properly. You are more than ten years older than me—is the weight of your heart's attachments truly less than mine?" Xiao Zhun opened his eyes, but there was no light in them. "Generals die in a hundred battles; the strong return after ten years. Thinking of my parents and elder brother, I could endure not just ten years at the border, but decades in purgatory. But now the manor is empty; there is no one left to await my return." She leaned down, her gaze level with his. "How can the manor be empty? I am still there. I am still willing to be your family. As long as you are willing, we will always be family..." She spoke urgently, desperately waiting for him to waver, to turn back, but she never heard the answer. With a dull *thud*, she slowly looked down. A blood-stained arrowhead and a slender shaft had pierced through the general’s chest. Blood flowed from the hollow shaft, splashing into her eyes. "I'm sorry to interrupt your trip down memory lane." The slender, curved white horn bow was slowly lowered. The hand holding it was fair and thin, carrying an air of innocence. "But an altar can't have two different sacrifices. You can understand me, right?" The hand holding the sword fell limp. The trembling in her wrist spread through her entire body. She felt as if something had been shattered and dismantled, slipping through her fingers like shifting sand. "Nanhui..." She blinked her dry eyes and stiffly leaned closer to him, hearing only a final, long sigh left by that familiar voice in her ear. "I'm sorry..." The general’s body grew heavy, as if something light had left him at that moment. But she still did not let go, only staring down at the blood-stained sword in her hand. "It's my fault. If I had a sword in my hand last time, would I have been able to keep you? If I had, would everything be different now..." "Even if you started over, the result would be the same. His fate was sealed over a decade ago. No matter how many branches it took or how many twists it went through, it was always going to converge here, toward the same ending." Speaking to this point, the woman paused for a moment, looking with some pity at the man on the ground with an arrow through his chest. "He was too weak. He didn't deserve to stand by my side." The body in her arms grew cold. Xiao Nanhui slowly stood up and turned to look at Bai Yun behind her. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but the surrounding mist seemed to have thinned slightly. Earlier, she could only see a few feet; now, she could vaguely make out figures dozens of paces away. "He abandoned everything for you, and now all he gets is the word 'weak'?" "He didn't do it for me; he did it for himself." The figure drew closer, revealing that face that was still poignantly beautiful yet held a trace of stubbornness. "Whether it was the grudge of his family or the hatred of a lost love, it was all the turbulence of his own fate. Since he harbored hatred, he was driven by me. And now, so are you." She struggled to suppress the urge to tear the other woman apart, telling herself that it wasn't over yet and she had to remain calm. She then raised her sword to cut off half of her hem and bound the wound on her shoulder. "Have you forgotten? Your young brother is still in Tiancheng's hands. I heard he has been sent to the Heavenly Prison. If you persist in your ways, his end will likely not be pleasant." "Is this your trump card?" The woman lowered her head, half of her long hair veiling her face. She seemed almost on the verge of tears, yet when she spoke again, there was a hint of laughter in her voice. "My father was foolish and stubborn. In life, he always placed high hopes on that boy, believing the Bai clan's misfortune could end with him. But people really shouldn't be too greedy. Since he already had a clever and resilient eldest daughter and son to manipulate and sacrifice, he shouldn't have hoped for the youngest son of his old age to be even more outstanding than his siblings. That child is his retribution—the retribution for how cruelly he treated his children." Xiao Nanhui stared fixedly at the blurred figure, and after a long time, she spoke slowly. "You are not Bai Yun. Even if she was cold-hearted, she had a sincere heart for my adoptive father, and she valued family honor above all else. Who are you?" "If I am executed, the Bai family will never rise again. Even if he lives, he will be nothing but the descendant of a rebel and traitor; even the lowliest beggar in Quecheng could step on his head. The same goes for Xiao Zhun. What meaning is there in living like that? One is the descendant of a capital noble house, the other the scion of a loyal military line—how could they live like that?" The woman stepped back a few paces, her voice sounding ethereal in the mist. "I am Bai Yun, and Bai Yun is me. Do you think that by taking her body, I have cast her out? I wouldn't deign to do such a thing." Xiao Nanhui moved toward the figure without making a sound. "It's just selfishness. Why speak of it so grandiosely?" The figure in the mist paused, then sensing her intent, turned and ran. She hurried a few steps to give chase, but could only see a blurred shadow swaying ahead. The woman’s crisp laughter drifted through the mist, lingering. "It's a pity I couldn't kill you at the Jiaosong Summer Palace. Looking at it now, you really are a nuisance, quite difficult to deal with." She pursued in silence, feeling as if she were in the center of a giant maze, with vast emptiness in every direction and no sign of the person she sought. The ground retreating beneath her feet changed from level to sloped. she realized she was walking into a low-lying pit. If she had been pressing forward and the other had been retreating without a fight earlier, it now felt as if she were being lured into a trap. Her heart beat faster and faster. The wound on her shoulder went from burning to numb. An indescribable premonition made her feel dizzy until the slope ended and that familiar figure appeared ahead. He was still wearing the dark clothes he had on when he left. He sat cross-legged with a calm expression, looking just as he had when he meditated by the cliff after crossing the Sevenfold Abyss in Bijiang. She hurried forward a few steps, wanting to go to him, and Bai Yun’s figure appeared behind him. The woman in white clung to the black-clad man’s torso with extreme intimacy, like a white snake coiled around a Bodhi tree. "You've been sitting like this for three days and nights. Aren't you tired?" The fury and hatred in her heart could no longer be suppressed. She barked out fiercely, "Let him go!" As if hearing the exact opposite, the woman did not pull away but instead pressed closer. A pair of slender, pale hands slid from the man’s face to his neck, then from his neck to his chest. However, the torso beneath those hands remained still, much to the frustration of the perpetrator. "Wu Min passed everything he learned to him and had him meditate in the tower for years. I suppose he knew he would eventually have this battle with me and wanted him to hold the final line." Bai Yun spoke while rolling her eyes toward the blood-stained woman standing with her sword. "Unfortunately, the disciple he spent so much effort cultivating has fallen into this mortal world after all. Although I have used every method and cannot shake him or make him willingly leave this state of Samadhi, you are different. Why don't you call out a few more times? Perhaps he will answer you." Bai Yun laughed again after speaking. Xiao Nanhui remained silent. The more arrogant the opponent became, the more she calmed down. "I have seen the power of the Divine Blood. However, because of that, I have one or two questions." She looked around, confirming that no Puhuna were lying in ambush nearby. "Back at the third stone tablet, even Aunt Dai could repel hundreds of people from a hundred paces away. Why is it that you haven't made a move since just now, and even used a bow and arrow to kill my adoptive father? You are conceited enough to have many followers and disdain to act personally, but since a moment ago, I haven't seen any of those flying lackeys of yours." Bai Yun’s laughter slowly died down. She finally raised her head to look at the battered woman, scrutinizing her without blinking. "What are you trying to say?" "I guess this mist is preventing you from using your divine power right now, and you don't want anyone else to approach this place. Am I right?" Before her voice could fade, a young voice suddenly rang out from behind her. "Miss Xiao, don't waste words with her! Capture her quickly!" In her momentary daze, another figure charged from her left rear, his long saber trailing an afterimage in the mist. "What are you standing there for?!" Xiao Nanhui finally snapped back to her senses. Without time for further thought, she raised Jiejia and followed closely behind Ding Weixiang. A distance of fifty paces would take even a top-tier martial artist seven or eight leaps to close. Meanwhile, even the most ordinary archer of the Black Feather Camp could shoot a moving target three times over. And the opponent was no ordinary archer. Bai Yun nocked an arrow and drew her bow, narrowing her eyes to lock onto the two shadows moving rapidly through the mist. *Whoosh.* A black arrow grazed her scalp. She wasted no energy on dodging, her speed undiminished as she saved the effort of looking around for her rapid charge. *Whoosh, whoosh.* Two more arrows. One grazed her right arm, and another nearly pierced Ding Weixiang’s shoulder blade. However, both were determined. Instead of retreating, they advanced, instinctively splitting into two paths, gambling that the mist would be the best cover and that they could win this final chance at life within those fifty paces. Whether it was heaven's favor or the perfect timing of a split second, by the time the woman nocked her last arrow, both saber and sword arrived simultaneously. The blades passed under the woman’s ribs, around her shoulder blades, and finally crossed at her throat. The longbow fell to the ground. The woman’s hair was disheveled, and she looked like a vengeful ghost as she tried to lift her head, only to be pinned back ruthlessly by the swordsman and the swordswoman. Both used extreme force, as if they were not pinning the body of a weak woman, but a captured Northern Barbarian brute. Her chest was compressed, and labored breaths squeezed through her teeth, yet she still spoke with contempt. "That spineless Wu Min... even at death's door, he still spent so much effort on these petty tricks." "The high altar is Yang; the low pit is Yin. Earth is mounded for an altar to sacrifice to Heaven; the ground is swept for a clearing to sacrifice to Earth. Since you have already set the stage, how could I, this humble monk, not come to perform?" The young monk dragged his half-injured leg forward. Without a moment's delay, he took a sutra scroll from his robe, carefully brushed off the dust, and walked behind the man sitting on the ground, sitting back-to-back with him. "My foolish disciple always says the Great Compassion Dharani Sutra sounds the best when chanted. But I was in a hurry today and only happened to bring this Great Subjugation Dharani Sutra. It's difficult and unpleasant to recite, but it has some miraculous effects for slaying gods and subduing demons. Don't you think it's appropriate for the occasion?" Bai Yun’s gaze fell on the sutra scroll, the corner of her mouth curling coldly. "Even Wu Min couldn't do anything to me. What can you do? The Demon-Subduing Array only lasts for half an hour. What will you do after that half-hour passes?" "Half an hour is enough." After Yi Kong spoke, he reached out toward the white-clad doctor crawling on the ground nearby. Hao Bai cursed, yet he still tremblingly took a cloth bundle from his nearly crushed medicine basket. The tattered coarse cloth fell away, revealing a square of emerald green within. "I have always abstained from killing. It's not that I must make your soul dissipate; I only need to lock you back into this box, and my lesson for today will be complete." The square piece of fine jade passed through several hands before returning once more to the earth and soil. Yi Kong slowly unfurled the sutra scroll and began to chant softly. A scent of decay began to emanate from the young woman beneath their hands. Black blood seeped from her seven orifices, making her expression even more hideous. "You think a broken piece of stone can trap me forever? In terms of the three thousand great chiliocosms, I have seen far more than you mortals. The Bai Ze's incantations, the Yunyang human speech, the Azure Dragon lurking in the abyss, the chariots riding among the clouds... Even so, I have never seen anything truly unbreakable. Mountains can be leveled, rivers and seas can be overturned. Wu Min calculated that I would eventually come here and staked everything on this array—so what?! Human calculation can never beat the calculation of Heaven. And I *am* Heaven!" Xiao Nanhui looked at the near-manic expression of the woman under her sword, trying to convince herself that this was just the opponent's final bluff. Everything should be settled now, right? But why... why did she feel that something was not quite right? Perhaps it was this enemy who claimed to be a god but was captured too easily; perhaps it was the mist that continued to thin; or perhaps it was the luck she had in dodging those arrows earlier... Wait. She whipped her head around, but it was too late. In the even thinner mist, the silhouette of the Buddhist tower vaguely appeared. Three black-feathered arrows were clearly embedded in the tower, each one precisely struck into the joints between the stone layers. She could not see the cracks spreading from where the arrows had entered, but she heard a faint sound of snapping. In an instant, the entire upper half of the stone tower collapsed, and the vajra pestle atop it fell with it. At the same time, the last of the mist vanished in a flash. The night sky above was revealed, with rolling, heavy clouds mingled with thunder and lightning, converging into a massive vortex over the entire Buxu Valley. She instinctively twisted her wrist, wanting to plunge her sword into the woman’s throat, but a massive, invisible force followed, and the blade in her hand could not move even half an inch closer. The woman, her face covered in blood, slowly raised her eyes. Her dilated pupils flashed with excitement. "Now, it's my turn." *** **Glossary** Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation ---|---|--- 步虚谷 | Buxu Valley | The location of the final confrontation. 大正降服陀罗尼经 | Great Subjugation Dharani Sutra | A powerful Buddhist scripture used for subduing demons. 白泽祝由 | Bai Ze's incantations | Reference to ancient mythical knowledge/spells. 云阳人语 | Yunyang human speech | Reference to mystical or ancient dialects. 苍龙潜渊 | Azure Dragon lurking in the abyss | A poetic/mythical reference. 骖御云间 | Chariots riding among the clouds | A poetic/mythical reference to divine travel. 三千大千世界 | Three thousand great chiliocosms | A Buddhist cosmological term referring to the vast universe.