With the Blade

Chapter 268: Chapter 219: Embracing Life Through Facing Death

Between life and death, there is immense terror.

Most people cannot escape the fear of death, even those who pride themselves on being tough. Perhaps they can be tough once or twice, just like that mass slaughterer. In critical moments, they can also show some hardness to dare to fight desperately. But once they survive the shadow of death, once they are out of the threat of death, they are unwilling to go back, no matter what.

This has nothing to do with mentality or willpower; it is purely human instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. If there is a normal chance to survive, who would willingly choose to die?

The Yin people are willing.

Every Yin person is willing.

"Hoo..."

A figure with a Yue Saber embedded in its chest exhaled a turbid breath after punching to death someone bold enough to charge at it with a knife.

Blood and brains splattered on its face, reminding it of when it was young.

Every Yin person is a warrior and can only be a warrior. In that wild era, not fighting meant only death, so every Yin person learned from a young age how to fight, how to battle, and how to kill all moving things in front of them as fast as possible.

It was only recently that it learned these things were summarized by later generations and called "martial arts."

Perhaps with a new name, it might sound more pleasing, but to it, there was no need for any renaming—on the contrary, changing the name made people think that as long as they didn’t learn this so-called "martial art," fighting wasn’t related to them.

But is it really unrelated?

Combat has never been far away; it runs through life itself. The moment you give up fighting is the moment closest to death.

Every Yin person is a warrior; every Yin person has faced death. Perhaps some Yin people chose to retreat, to give up fighting, but they eventually died with no place to bury their bodies because of their choices—also because of the blood and tears experiences accumulated by generations of Yin people, later generations increasingly realized what is most vital, related to combat and life.

Combat runs through life itself; to survive, one must fight.

Yes, fighting might lead to death, but not fighting will certainly lead to death.

The moment when one stops fighting is also the closest to death. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

"Therefore, one needs to fight."

Thinking this, it reached out and touched the two nicks on the Bronze Halberd in its chest.

With the help of the essence of the Five Grains, the ghost in its heart eventually guided it to the path—or perhaps it was a problem it should have discovered early on.

When was the last time it fought seriously?

It seemed to be a long, long time ago, so long that it couldn’t quite remember. However, precisely because it had been away from fighting for too long, it ended up overturning the boat—it could say, "I’m battling something more challenging, the study of things is also another battlefield," or simply blame this body, as this body indeed couldn’t exert even half of its power.

But it didn’t want to make excuses. If wounded, it is wounded.

As a Yin person, it had no need to make excuses because the poisonous snakes and fierce beasts in the wilderness wouldn’t listen to its explanations, and the enemies wanting to kill it, the adversaries wanting to beat it to death, certainly wouldn’t give it any chance to explain.

"So, fight."

Thinking this, its fist once again shattered an opponent’s skull.

It didn’t use any other power or any extraordinary techniques; it was merely clumsily manipulating its fists and feet. This was the most fundamental and also the most savage fight.

Also, the most primitive, the battle closest to the essence.

Under the guidance of the ghost in its heart, in the continuous battle, it seemed to come alive again, and not just it. Even the wild environment of the past, that cruel atmosphere, came alive again—for it, however, this extremely dangerous environment, even survival impossible for others, was just as comfortable as a fish in water.

After all, it originally came from such a place.

The familiar environment allowed it to stretch its hands and feet, even making the temporary body it had found become handy—initially, it had considered finding a better body, but now it seemed being able to possess this body might well be the best arrangement left by some unseen spirits.

Indeed, unfamiliarity with this body caused it some harm, but also because of these injuries, it clearly saw its weaknesses.

That is, it relied too much on its own strength.

That powerful strength set it too far from death, such strong strength even made it stray from battle—perhaps being able to stop battles before they even began is a sign of strength, but without fighting, how can one approach death?

Death is the harshest trial, also the strictest mentor. Death is a mirror; under its pressure, all errors and neglect become unescapable.

This is the ritual it devised for itself after contacting the ghost in its heart.

Under the sky, in the witness of all beings, defeat the enemy in the most primitive way.

As for how long the fight should last, it hadn’t considered, but such matters were inconsequential to it—in any case, the battle itself was its greatest entertainment, taking some time each day to fight a round. This was undoubtedly the most beneficial exercise for mental and physical health.

Fighting is something that runs through life itself and doesn’t require a deadline.

It’s just that its opponents are somewhat lacking. These people wielding weapons, although frightening to see, aren’t even considered warriors. In its eyes, these people could only be counted as monkeys who have just picked up weapons—of course, monkeys with weapons can indeed cause some trouble. But as its control over this body deepened, these monkeys gradually couldn’t hurt it.

But it wasn’t in much of a hurry.

"I knew it! You would come looking for me!"

Grabbing the blazing fiery blade coming at it, the figure with the Yue Saber in its chest was full of excitement.

"This is the guidance of the spirits! The arrangement of destiny! As long as you are still a warrior, there will be a battle between us sooner or later!"

"Why do you talk so much?"

The five-zhang long fiery blade vanished instantly, leaving the figure with the Yue Saber in its chest empty-handed.

Immediately after, the double-handed war sword in Du Chengfeng’s hand plunged fiercely toward the figure’s chest and abdomen.