Ideals

With battle looming, Luo Wei had been pondering a single question, one she had often discussed with her late husband: How had the massive Sect Alliance, which once virtually hollowed out the central imperial court, arrived at where it stood today? Those in the Sect Alliance today could probably scarcely imagine the state of affairs back then, when the struggle between the Great Yan imperial court and the immortal sects was in fact nearing its conclusion. From the high provincial officials directly governing entire provinces down to the local county magistrates overseeing prefectures, almost all offices were monopolized by the immortal sects and noble clans across the land. If that was true in the provinces, it was even more so in the imperial court. Over half of the court officials were mere mouthpieces for the sects. High-ranking cultivators from the sects could enter and leave Di'an at will, and could even reside permanently within the capital, establishing their own manors and offices. How could such a Sect Alliance decline step by step to this point? No. "Decline" was not the right word. The Sect Alliance had never declined. Compared to several decades ago, it was actually stronger now. It would be more accurate to say that over these years, the imperial court's power had expanded at a speed that far outstripped their own. Because of Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan. Luo Wei did not truly understand either man. Over the past century, she had only met them a handful of times. At first, she—or rather, the Sect Alliance—held both of them in contempt. Across Great Yan's thousand-year history, there was no shortage of ambitious sovereigns seeking to rein in the Sect Alliance, yet without exception, every single one had failed. Surely this new Great Yan monarch and that young Prime Minister would be no different; in the end, the ideals in their hearts would compromise with reality. Yet reality proved them wrong. And the Sect Alliance paid dearly for that contempt. They gradually began to take the two men seriously, but every policy and stratagem the duo enacted stepped precisely on the pulse of the changing tides. They exploited the internal friction within the Sect Alliance and preyed on the appeasement lurking deep in most people's hearts. By the time the Sect Alliance finally reached a consensus on the threat they posed, the other side had already grown too formidable to rein in. Unless war was launched outright. Over twenty years ago, at the Tianyuan Grand Assembly, the high-ranking members of the Sect Alliance had gathered to debate the feasibility of waging war. The conclusion was that they would certainly win. It was merely a matter of cost. Moreover, the chaos following the fall of the imperial court would become everyone's nightmare. No one wanted war. Peace and stability were what these vested interests desired from the era. And so, with their unanimous tacit consent, the Sect Alliance continued to choose appeasement. If things progressed peacefully along this trajectory, even when Li Yaoxuan reached the end of his lifespan and perished, the court would still be unable to threaten the Sect Alliance's foundation. And once both men were dead, another cycle would begin anew. Yet what happened next caught the Sect Alliance completely off guard. The Prime Minister of Great Yan... opened the path of cultivation to ordinary mortals. The Xu family of the Prime Minister's Manor, already a colossal behemoth, underwent another round of rapid expansion, yet Li Yaoxuan, who represented the imperial family, chose silence at that moment. The Sect Alliance could not comprehend it. After yet another surge of expansion, the threat posed by the Prime Minister's Xu family to the Great Yan imperial household far exceeded that of the Sect Alliance. In a realm of myriad dynasties, the Sect Alliance had never cared who ruled the world or who held the imperial mantle. To them, the imperial house could be named Li, or it could just as well be named Xu. Most of them would never understand in their entire lifetimes Li Yaoxuan's trust in Xu Yinhe, nor could they fathom Xu Yinhe's loyalty to Li Yaoxuan. For compared to what bound these twin stars together, all the struggles for gain in this world, all the love, hate, and grudges, paled into insignificance— It was the noblest thing born of the human heart: Ideals. This was the assessment once made of the two men ruling the Great Yan Empire by the late Imperial Preceptor, Ran Jianli, and it was Luo Wei's assessment of them as well. He and she both admired these two men who were at once strangers and familiar figures. And for that reason, their discussions back then had never ceased. They believed that Li Yaoxuan and Xu Yinhe would inevitably fail in the end. Man's noblest ideals always die at the hands of man's basest desires and the coldest reality. And reality had unfolded just as they foresaw. Decades had passed, and neither man retained his former youth; the former comrades-in-arms were destined to cross swords as their lives drew to a close. Yet at this very moment, an unexpected turn had occurred once more. To dissolve the suspicions of the comrade who had accompanied him through life, Xu Yinhe was willing to go calmly to his death for the sake of this ideal. Thus, when Luo Wei heard the voice echoing from that abyssal black hole, her body moved faster than thought. Compared to the ideal bridging life and death between those two men, her choice might be base and despicable, an insult to that noble ideal. But as the Sect Master of the Sword Sect, she had no choice. Differing stances aside, right and wrong mattered not. If Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan were to step across that black mirror together and descend, then in this season where heroes and tyrants converged upon the Tianyuan Mountain Range, these two luminaries who had dominated the world for decades would inevitably meet their grand curtain call—but the Sword Sect would likewise meet its destruction. Li Yaoxuan surely had the confidence and means to dare execute Xu Yinhe, but the Sword Sect's mountain gate could not endure the devastation wrought by four existences beyond Saint. To the Sect Alliance, slaying Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan was of paramount importance. But to the Sword Sect, once this battle commenced, even victory would be nothing more than a pyrrhic one. The Sword Sect would lose the capacity to face that chaotic end yet to come. Therefore, rather than letting them stand side by side in the end, driving them to mutual slaughter was far more in line with her interests. Therefore, she could never allow Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan to descend upon the Tianyuan Mountain Range. The mighty power of the military array formed rings of dazzling halos around Luo Wei. From a corner where no one was paying attention, her figure shot forth like an arrow from a bowstring, arriving at the center of the battlefield in a flash. While Li Yaoxuan was still pondering and had yet to respond, the saber in Luo Wei's hand struck first, reaching Xu Yuan, the vessel for the contest of strength between Xu Yinhe and Tianye! This strike was fast, so fast that even someone as powerful as Tianye could only catch an afterimage. The light of the morning sun grew dim before this blade, only to be rekindled by the fire trailing in its wake. The mighty power of the military array bared its fangs against the pinnacle of individual might! Yet to everyone's surprise, the target of Luo Wei's strike was neither the immobilized Xu Yuan nor the dragon-embroidered black sleeve reaching across tens of thousands of li, but rather the golden-eyed maiden who was the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Master. Watching the incoming strike draw near, Tianye showed an anomalous hint of a smile in her eyes. She had considered that the Sword Sect Master might make a move against her. After all, if these figures truly engaged in battle right now, the destruction of the Sword Sect would be set in stone. Still, Luo Wei's decisiveness caught her somewhat by surprise. Nevertheless, this too could be considered the backlash of attempting to destroy the Catastrophe ahead of time. Sensing everything around her, Tianye gradually pulled her thoughts back. The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion had come to annihilate the Catastrophe, but judging by the current situation in every sense, the failure of their plan was already a foregone conclusion. Since the Catastrophe could not be slain here, there seemed little point in persisting. Thoughts flickering, Tianye instinctively cast a glance toward the sky. *In the end, it really must come to that step...* Tianye smiled faintly. Glancing aside, she took a deep look at the young man frozen in stasis, then released the slender hand that gripped him. "Until next time, Changtian... if there is a next time." *Buzz—* Luo Wei's blade fell. The slash that muted heaven and earth skimmed past Tianye's slender hand and Xu Yuan's body. The residual force of the blade light swept downward, tearing through the dense mountain forest like rotting wood and plowing a trench several li long! And at that very moment, the master of that dragon-embroidered black sleeve seemed to sigh in faint regret, pulling his trouble-attracting boy straight into the abyssal black hole without hesitation.