Chapter 398: Breakthrough to the Supernatural State
"Crush!" The blade was driven into Fang Zhengzhi’s chest. It was a fine blade, but it was extremely sharp and clean from the washing it got from the rain.
This blade was named Spectre.
Si Ponan had no energy to raise the blade. It wasn’t Si Ponan who drove the blade into Fang Zhengzhi, it was Yun Qingwu.
Blood rushed out from the wound and onto the blade. It was washed to the ground by the rain, staining the ground red.
Si Ponan was stunned and surprised to see this. He knew that Yun Qingwu would attack, but he didn’t expect Yun Qingwu to be so decisive.
The reason wasn’t very obvious.
As the young master of the demons, Yun Qingwu would never show a human talent mercy.
But...
Si Ponan kept thinking about what Yun Qingwu had said, "Why did you have to stop?" He heard this clearly.
Even though he had no idea why Yun Qingwu would ask a question like that, it did not matter. Yun Qingwu had attacked.
Silence.
Other than the sound of rain, the entire arena was quiet. No one spoke, their breathing light.
"Fang Zhengzhi... failed?!"
"Yun Qingwu actually managed to stab Fang Zhengzhi!"
"How did this happen?"
All of the candidates and soldiers could not find an answer to that question. No one could believe their eyes.
Bai Xing unclenched his fists. He had no idea what just happened, but he was glad that Yun Qingwu decided to kill Fang Zhengzhi.
That meant that...
Fang Zhengzhi would not survive.
"Stab!" The sound pierced through the rain.
This was not the sound of the Spectre blade being removed from Fang Zhengzhi’s body. This was the sound of Traceless falling to the ground.
It stabbed the ground like a knife through butter.
The strange purple light shot to the sky like a pillar, intertwining with the purple lightning in the sky.
Yun Qingwu gripped the hilt of Spectre tightly. She stared at Fang Zhengzhi, watching those eyes that were filled with killing intent.
Then, the spinning swords in his eyes slowed down.
To be more precise...
They were disappearing, almost like a cloud of smoke. They cleared from his eyes, together with that strange shade of purple...
...
The lake was filled with clear water.
Fang Zhengzhi was confused when he saw the lady in the white dress and the lake. Why would he appear in the World of the Sage?
This...
Where was this?
Was he even in a dream?
All of these questions flew past in his mind, but there was no one to answer him. The only moving person was the lady in the white dress.
"Why don’t I capture and interrogate her?" Fang Zhengzhi smirked with lust momentarily.
But it did not last very long.
He remembered that he had the same thought before. However, when he jumped into the water, he could not find the lady in the white dress.
He had already been fooled once.
He was not going to be fooled again.
So...
If he could not get close and interrogate her, how was he going to find out the true identity of the lady? How was he going to escape this place?
Fang Zhengzhi began to think about the scene back at the Divine Constabulary’s Heavenly Treasure Hall.
He remembered that when he last saw this lady in the white dress, he had understood the essence of the Heavenly Reflection State.
But this time...
He did not feel anything.
Hang on, he was feeling something. Fang Zhengzhi turned to look at his surroundings. There were trees, grass, and a lake.
This was a world without any wind. There were no ripples on the surface of the lake. The surface was so calm it was almost like a mirror.
It was very clean.
Clean?
"It’s calm!" Fang Zhengzhi’s eyes brightened. At that moment, he knew what the feeling was. It was calmness.
Even though the lady in white was constantly moving, dancing on the surface of the water...
It was precisely this movement that allowed Fang Zhengzhi to realize the calmness in this world.
The surface of the water was calm, the surrounding woods were calm, the grass was calm, even he was calm.
Seeing something move allows one to understand calm?
Fang Zhengzhi never really tried to understand these theories. However, he recalled the incident back at the Heaven Dao Sage Tablet.
He did not know why he managed to escape.
But...
Now, he understood.
He had moved!
He had disturbed the calm!
That time, Fang Zhengzhi had thought that he had disturbed the cleanliness by bathing in the lake. In actual fact, he had disturbed the calm!
By disturbing an otherwise calm world, he had broken the rules of the world. Without rules, the world would implode.
To be more accurate...
The world would reject Fang Zhengzhi and expel him from it. Fang Zhengzhi had broken the calm, so he was kicked out.
"Heaven Dao Sage Tablet... was I expelled by the Heaven Dao Sage Tablet? Then... why am I back?" Fang Zhengzhi remembered that Chi Guyan and Ping Yang had told him something...
Each Heaven Dao Sage Tablet embodied an extremely powerful Dao.
Anyone who could understand it would become a Sage.
Since he managed to figure out why he was expelled from this place before, he could guess that this Heaven Dao Sage Tablet had something to do with "calm".
Calm?
Was it to do with the heart?
Or was it that he had to be as calm as the water?!
If that was the case, the water and the lake in front of him could be explained. However, the trees and the grass...
What could explain those?
That was not it. If the Heaven Dao Sage Tablet represented a powerful Dao, the Dao could not be this simple. However, what could calm represent?
Calm...
If it was not as calm as water, what other calm could there be?
Cleanliness?
Fang Zhengzhi reverted to his original train of thought. When he thought about that, his eyes brightened.
That was it!
Calm. In the ancient times, calm and cleanliness meant the same thing. The word clean was made up of the words green and determination.
Green represented life in its nascent stage. Determination meant that one would preserve what was important.
Calm meant that one would preserve the initial purity and character.
There was mention of this in the "Six Secret Teachings".
And again in the "Book of Songs"...
All of these passages regarding calm flooded Fang Zhengzhi’s mind. He began to think about them individually.
Contemplating...
Fang Zhengzhi realized that he was becoming calmer and calmer. He began to assimilate into the lake and the vegetation around him. His vision also began to clear.
After some time, when he looked at the lady in white, he seemed to be able to make out her lips.
Those exquisite, luscious lips.
They were very familiar.
Almost as if he had seen them somewhere before.
Fang Zhengzhi wanted to get a closer look, but he realized that the appearance of the lady was blurry. No matter how hard he tried, he could not see what she looked like.
Why was that?
He wasn’t very far away. Why can’t he see her clearly?
Why did she feel so familiar?
Fang Zhengzhi kept thinking about these questions. However, he did not want to harp on the same question over and over again.
He tried to put it out of his mind.
However...
Just as he found some success, he saw the white dress and began thinking about it again.
"I have seen her somewhere!" Fang Zhengzhi looked up and still saw that her face was blurry. This time, even her lips were blurry.
Must he be calm in order to see the lady’s appearance?
Fang Zhengzhi had seen this lady twice now.
If...
He did not even get a good look at her, was he still a man?
With that goal in mind, he began to take steps in the appropriate direction. He calmed himself down, even kneeling on the ground to help himself calm down.
The lady continued to dance on the lake.
Hang on.
He felt as though his vision was different from before. All of his cells were in a strange state. They felt calm and clean...
Calm and clean.
Cells!
The Supernatural State!
It was said that the Supernatural State occurs when one’s on the brink of death. The state was characterized by the vitality of the cells.
No!
It is not the vitality, it’s the calmness and cleanliness!
The cells are all calmer and cleaner than ever before. This allows the body to rid itself of illness and injuries and revert to its original state.
Fang Zhengzhi’s heart jumped, then calm down. Then, it jumped again before calming down. He felt as though he was going in circles.
When he first accessed Dao, he had started from his body.
At that time, he felt that he could control every cell, every drop of blood, every muscle in his body.
And now...
He was able to change his body and rid it of what was bad!
Hang on, did he really manage to understand a powerful Dao? Or was he on the verge of it?
Or had he already broken through to the Supernatural State?
Should he cut himself and test it out? Did his power just increase manifold? Or, was he already a sage?
"Hahaha... am I really a Sage now?" Fang Zhengzhi began to chuckle, shattering the calm and peace in this world.
Then, the dancing lady in white stopped, almost as if she had heard Fang Zhengzhi chuckling. Then, she turned around...
...
"Yun Qingwu?!" Fang Zhengzhi’s gaze froze. The veiled face appeared in front of his eyes.
It was pouring.
Where was this?
Was this a dream?
It felt very familiar. There was a valley below him. He felt as though he had been here before, but why was the purple gone?
Hang on...
The lady in white is Yun Qingwu?
Fang Zhengzhi subconsciously extended his hand, then removed Yun Qingwu’s veil in a swift motion.
In that instant, he saw an exquisite face staring back at him. Her eyebrows were thin, her skin fair as snow, her luscious lips slightly open, revealing two rows of ivory white teeth.
Yun Qingwu was like a white lotus in the middle of the torrential rain. To have her veil removed by Fang Zhengzhi... especially in the face of hundreds of thousands of soldiers...
Was an insult.
It was almost as if an angelic lotus flower was removed by a mere mortal.
Yun Qingwu was shocked.
Anyone would be equally shocked. No one would expect that after Fang Zhengzhi had been stabbed, his first reaction would be to remove her veil.
Not only did Yun Qingwu not expect it.
No one else in the valley expected it.
All of the soldiers stared at Yun Qingwu in disbelief.
All of the demons, including Bai Xing and Wu Ji, were furious at what they saw.
"How dare this dead man walking insult Yun Qingwu!"
"Audacious!"
"..."
Fang Zhengzhi ignored it all. All he wondered was why the lady in white would be Yun Qingwu.
Just as he was thinking about it, he felt his heart shudder, then he felt pain in his chest. It felt as though he had just been stabbed.
That’s impossible.
Why would he feel pain in his dream?
Why would the pain be so clear?
Fang Zhengzhi did not understand. He instinctively looked at his chest and saw a blade driven deep into it.
"Oh? Why is there a blade in my chest?"