“Xie San is going up the mountain!”
“Xie San is going up the mountain!”
“Xie San is going up the mountain!”
It was still early morning, and the shouts echoed one after another in the forest, startling the birds and beasts that lived there. They also made the experts from various sects who were hiding at the foot of the mountain wonder and come out of their tents.
“Xie San dares to go up the mountain!”
“How can he actually dare to go up the mountain!”
“But he did go up the mountain, before you and me.”
A young man in red clothes, with a cold face, ignored the shouts and walked slowly up the stone steps in the mountain. He was not in a hurry, nor was he rude. He was polite and courteous, but to others, every step he took seemed to challenge the authority of the whole martial world.
On another peak shrouded in clouds and mist, a Taoist boy wiped his eyes gently.
“What’s wrong?” The tall Taoist next to him scratched his head.
“Xie San is all alone.” The boy’s voice was sad.
The tall Taoist, master of The Way of Heaven, looked at the young man walking on the mountain path and said slowly, “Yes, all his friends are dead. How can he not be lonely? So I’m also curious. Xie San’s going up the mountain this time, is it for revenge, or for death?”
And Xie San just walked silently like this. Sometimes he would stop and drink some water, sometimes he would suddenly look up at the sky and be in a daze for a while. He really looked like a sightseer climbing a mountain. Until an hour later, he finally stopped.
“Xie San has reached…the top of the mountain!” The messenger had not reached the foot of the mountain yet, but shouted out loud.
It only took a quarter of an hour for the messenger to go up and down the mountain with his speed, but Xie San, who had excellent lightness skills, took a whole hour to walk this distance. He wanted to tell the whole world that it was not him who wanted to take credit and go ahead of everyone else, but that among all the people in the world, only he dared to go up the mountain!
The young man stood on the peak and looked at the huge manor in front of him.
The gate was closed, and no one came to greet him.
“What a pity.” At the foot of the mountain, an old man in a gray robe poured out the wine from his flask on the ground. “Xie San is indeed very brave, braver than any of us. But this is as far as he can go. His courage is only that of a common man, and it will turn into dust.”
“Hahahahahahaha! Xie San! Did you hear that? Your courage is only that of a common man!” Suddenly there was a thunderous voice. More than half of the disciples from various sects at the foot of the mountain covered their ears and knelt down on the ground. The remaining experts all frowned.
Even Xie San, who was standing on the peak, quivered.
“Who is it!” The old man in the gray robe shouted angrily. “Who is pretending to be a god?”
“Pretending to be a god? No, I am a ghost. A wicked ghost who crawled out of the ground!” A huge long knife fell from the sky and landed in the middle of the camp. A powerful blade aura flattened the whole camp in an instant. Then a burly man landed on the knife handle, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked down arrogantly at the people below.
“It’s you? You’re still alive!” The old man in the gray robe retreated three steps.
“It’s me. I’m still alive!” The burly man’s mouth curled slightly, and his eyes were full of scorn. “I won’t die, because I still have to go up the mountain.”
Xie San, who was standing on the peak, turned his head and looked down.
The burly man looked up and saw him.
They were very far apart, but they both knew that they were looking at each other.
Xie San suddenly cried. He lowered his head, wiped his tears with his hand, and his shoulders twitched slightly.
“In this life, I didn’t expect to see you cry again. It was worth dying once.” The burly man jumped off the knife handle, grabbed it with one hand, and pulled out the big knife. “You, get out of the way!”
No one dared to speak. Even the old man in the gray robe clenched his teeth and made way for him. They had seen this man’s swordsmanship. Compared to those people on Ying Mountain, this man was a disciple of the righteous sects, but his actions and style were even more rude and unreasonable!
The burly man swung large knife, spun around three times on the spot, and then hurled the knife towards the peak. He then took three quick steps forward and leaped into the air. He grabbed the knife handle and soared over the summit.
Wherever the blade aura passed, it razed everything to the ground!
“He’s still so reckless.” On a distant mountain shrouded in clouds and mist, the tall master of The Way of Heaven smiled.
The young disciple of The Way of Heaven jumped up happily, “Big brother is really not dead! I knew he wouldn’t die so easily!”
“Yes, some people you just feel that they won’t die so simply. If he really died, he would only die in an extraordinary place.” The tall master of The Way of Heaven paused for a moment. “Like this Ying Mountain.”
In just a few breaths, the burly man landed next to Xie San. He put the big knife on his shoulder and pressed Xie San’s head with one hand. “Don’t cry.”
Xie San raised his head and looked at him, “How did you survive?”
“I still remember our promise. I won’t die until we fulfill it.” The burly man raised his long knife and pointed at the closed gate. “Those people at the foot of the mountain said that you going up the mountain alone was the courage of a common man. Today, I will show them.”
“What is it?”
“The spirit of a gentleman!”
The voice resounded through the mountains, and everyone below was moved.
“Do you really think that the gate of Ying Mountain is so easy to break? One person, two people, what’s the difference!” The old man in the gray robe said viciously.
“Master Chen.” A middle-aged swordsman sighed softly. “The gate of Ying Mountain may not be broken today, but from now on for decades, the martial world will only remember these two young men, and not us. As they said, this is the spirit of a gentleman, worthy of respect from every person in the martial world!”
“Since the gate won’t open, let’s break it ourselves.” The burly man lifted his long knife and pointed at the closed gate.
“It seems that every time it’s like this.” Xie San drew his long sword from his waist.
“I think at this moment, we are both thinking of one thing.” The burly man glanced at Xie San.
The two said at the same time, “It would be nice if he was here too.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a fierce and domineering sword aura surged from within the manor, shattering the gate in an instant and sending it crashing to the ground. Flames soared into the sky inside the manor, and a man stood at the entrance, his white robe torn to shreds, his hair disheveled, his face covered in ash, looking extremely wretched, but he grinned and laughed wildly, carrying his sword on his shoulder, and said to the two people outside the manor, “The one you were talking about…”
“Is it me?”
That day, some people said that they saw a dragon roaring and flying in the clouds on Ying Mountain.
The Little Taoist of Qingcheng Mountain, who was regarded as the best in the world in the art of observing qi, wrote in his memoirs:
To be a gentleman is to have a spirit that rises above the clouds, that pierces through the mist and transforms into a dragon, unparalleled in the world.