Chương 598: Chapter 593: The Teacher's Disappointment

Xu Feng was dead. While I stared at the corpse lying on the dream-stone, that was the thought that kept repeating within my mind. Only thirty seconds ago, he had been alive and breathing, proudly demonstrating his Earth techniques and how valuable he was as a team member, but now he was just… gone. Without a doubt, I had known that most of us would die here.

After all, the Sunken Dream Palace was legendary for its Lucid Lawbearer mortality rate, so it was pretty obvious it would only be more dangerous for Oneiric Sovereign cultivators like ourselves. But even though I had understood that intellectually, it was different to see it actually happen. Xu Feng's eyes were staring at nothing, blood was spreading slowly across the black stone, and his spiritual energy had dissipated like smoke in wind as his cultivation base collapsed with his death.

That made it real in a way numbers and statistics never could. A tiny squeal from my left told me everything I needed to know about Li Na's reaction to this. The girl's hand was covering her mouth, her eyes wide with horror, Xu Feng's blood splattered on her robes. She had been close enough to him that it could have been her if the manifestation hadn't chosen the Earth user. The ice princess's eyes narrowed to slits as her jaw hardened into something that could have been carved from the same ice she cultivated.

Xie Ling stood there, staring at the lifeless body with cold fury building behind her pale eyes. As for Tian, he simply let out a sigh. It was a tired sigh that informed us all just how fed up he was of seeing this over and over again. Shen Bolin had a similar reaction, the frown on his face deepened the lines around his mouth, and there was regret, or maybe calculating running through his eyes. I didn't know.

Honestly, with Lucid Lawbearers, it was difficult to ascertain what they were truly thinking because everything with them carried layers. Song Wei was easier to figure out because the disappointment was clear on his face, he didn't try to mask it. This was the disappointment that someone would wear after a resource failed to meet the expectations that had been set for it.

"So weak. How pathetic," the elderly manifestation murmured, pulling the staff out of Xu Feng's body without a care.

"What is that look on your faces? In my time, we wouldn't waste a breath mourning someone as useless as this boy. He died so easily. He didn't even put up a fight. He didn't deserve to advance. Those who die make room for the worthy. This is the natural order of the world. You should know this by now." No one said anything to that. Instead, we were all on edge, warily keeping an eye on him while our spiritual pressure was ready to explode into defensive techniques at the slightest provocation.

The manifestation didn't seem to care. His old, tired eyes looked like they had seen too much and had been disappointed by all of it.

"Where are my manners," he said after a moment.

"I should introduce myself before we continue." A perfectly formal bow was executed by him, as if he hadn't just murdered one of our party members.

"I am Gu Changming. In life, I was known as Valley's Eternal Light. I achieved Lucid Lawbearer at age three hundred and seventy-three. I taught dream cultivation for six centuries. Death met me during my attempt to break through to Dreamgod. Cultivation deviation. An unsightly ending..." A small smile touched his lips as his gaze focused on the two Lucid Lawbearers.

"But you two are already familiar with me, aren't you?" Instead of responding, Song Wei's eyes narrowed as his spiritual pressure exploded outward like a detonating formation.

"Probability Collapses To Certainty," Song Wei declared. Reality around us bent as the word hung in the air. This… this was a Law: a fundamental rewriting of how the world worked within his domain: options narrowed, possibilities died, and uncertainties became fixed. The next moment, he was directly in front of Gu Changming, his hand thrust forward, aiming for the old manifestation's throat.

The staff of Gu Changming glowed with golden light as dozens of floating books materialized around him, their pages flipping rapidly through combat techniques and defensive formations.

"The Student Must Surpass The Teacher," Gu Changming countered, his own Law activating. The conflicting pressures crashed against each other as two different fundamental rules fought for dominance. On one hand there was Song Wei's certainty trying to force one specific outcome, and on the other was Gu Changming's teaching principle trying to convert Song Wei's own techniques into learning opportunities. Neither was willing to give way.

When Song Wei's strike connected with the staff, the impact released a shockwave that cracked the stone beneath them and sent pressure waves rolling across the chamber. To shield my face from the blast of wind, I had to raise a dream qi enhanced arm. But to everyone's surprise, the staff held. In fact, Gu Changming hadn't been pushed back even an inch.

"How Disappointing," the old teacher said.

"Even though your foundation is solid, your understanding remains shallow because you learned this Law through studying rather than true comprehension, and it shows..." Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence because Shen Bolin attacked from the opposite side with a blade of pure condensed dream qi that looked sharp enough to cut reality itself.

"Dreams Made Real," Shen Bolin announced as his Law activated. With the addition of another law fighting for control of the same place, the pressure in the air changed, it felt as though space itself was about to be torn apart. What I found interesting was how Shen Bolin's Law worked differently than Song Wei's. The former manifested imagination, while the latter forced probability.

Shen Bolin's sword came down in a vertical slash aimed at Gu Changming's shoulder, which left a trail of beautiful and deadly silver light in its wake. But instead of allowing it to land, Gu Changming pivoted, sweeping his staff around in a tight arc to deflect the blade. A burst of pressure from the floating books tore the pages free, turning them into razor-sharp projectiles that forced Song Wei back.

"That is a good attempt from you, Shen Bolin," Gu Changming murmured.

"At least you understand your Law, yet your execution is still crude. It is clear that you manifest what you imagine, but you do not pause to consider what the optimal solution is." While Gu Changming continued his commentary, Song Wei channeled more spiritual energy to his Law to intensify the silver light that surrounded him. With the increase in speed, and probability itself bent to ensure his strikes would land, his fingers found gaps in Gu Changming's defense.

One touched the old teacher's shoulder, while another grazed his ribs, but that was enough for the silver energy to burrow into Gu Changming's spiritual foundation like invasive roots. Immediately, I realised what the party leader was planning. Song Wei was attacking probability itself to make it increasingly unlikely for Gu Changming to continue defending successfully. Every touch that landed stacked the odds further against the manifestation.

And Shen Bolin coordinated perfectly with him by letting his sword split into seven identical copies that attacked from seven different angles at the same time to create a cage of lethal intent.

"Ten Thousand Pages Defense," Gu Changming whispered The floating books that had been in the dozens multiplied into the hundreds, then the thousands, until they filled the air around him in a perfect sphere of ancient texts. The books exploded open and the pages flipped rapidly to find the exact technique needed to counter the incoming attacks.

The seven swords struck the book-sphere simultaneously, silver light met golden text, and for a moment, the two forces were perfectly balanced, and that was when the books shattered like glass. It was pretty clear that Song Wei's probability manipulation was in effect and paying dividends. The old manifestation had expected for his defence to succeed, but the outcome had been distorted, so that the defence instead failed.

Shen Bolin didn't let the opening slip through his fingers, seven swords converged and struck from all directions, impaling Gu Changming's chest, shoulders, and arms with devastating force. Gu Changming staggered. Blood, or what passed for blood in a dream construct, leaked from multiple wounds, and his staff fell from nerveless fingers, clattering against the stone, but he still didn't look bothered.

"Is this really all you've learned?" he asked with a disappointed tone as Song Wei and Shen Bolin pressed their advantage.

"After all this time? After all these expeditions? I had expected more." With narrowed eyes, Song Wei's hand thrust forward again, fingers rigid like spear tips to punch through Gu Changming's chest and emerging from his back in a spray of spiritual energy. The silver light spread through the old teacher's body like cracks in porcelain. Shen Bolin's sword swept horizontally, cutting through Gu Changming's torso at the waist to split him into two separate pieces.

Despite the old manifestation's body dissolving, he continued talking.

"I do admit you fight well together now." His voice a whisper now.

"You have better coordination, better tactical awareness, and better technique application than your previous attempts, but you still don't understand the lesson I was trying to teach."

"You've spent fifty thousand years as constructs in this palace," Shen Bolin said quietly, not dismissing his swords yet.

"What lesson could possibly matter anymore?" Gu Changming's eyes, the last part of him still intact, focused on Song Wei specifically.

"The same lesson I tried teaching him when he was alive," the old teacher said, but now without a mouth, the sound came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

"That power without wisdom is just well-dressed stupidity. That advancement without understanding is spiritual suicide. That being strong and being worthy are not the same thing." His gaze shifted to include Shen Bolin.

"You two have become powerful, you've survived where countless others died, and you've learned techniques that would make ancient masters weep with envy." The eyes began fading.

"But you'll never step out of his shadow. No matter what you do." Those were the last words that he spoke. The last motes of golden light dispersed into the chamber's ambient spiritual pressure. Gu Changming was gone. All that was left was nothing but scattered pages and bloodstains on the black stone. From the expressions of the Lucid Lawbearers, it was clear that his words had an effect.

Song Wei's face had darkened, his spiritual pressure flickered dangerously, and his hands clenched into fists so tight I heard his knuckles crack from twenty meters away. As for Shen Bolin, he had a complicated expression on his face, like those words had touched on something he'd been trying not to think about. When I looked around at the others, I saw that Li Na had backed away from the combat area, pressing herself against the far wall. The girl's eyes were too wide, and her breath was too fast.

I didn't blame her. She probably thought she was Gu Changming's next target, and she likely wasn't wrong. Xie Ling's jaw was tight, and ice swirled around her form, ready to attack or defend when needed. Tian had drawn his sword at some point during the battle but hadn't moved to help. But none of us spoke. What was there to say? We'd just watched two Lucid Lawbearers tear apart another Lucid Lawbearer like he was made of paper. The battle had lasted maybe two minutes from start to finish.

The overwhelming display of power should have been reassuring; we had strong allies who could protect us, but all I felt was cold. I turned and looked at Xu Feng's corpse, only to find it wasn't there anymore, or at least not all of it. Dream-stone tendrils had emerged from the floor and were in the process of pulling it down to integrate it into the palace's structure. A few years from now, some future expedition might face a manifestation of Xu Feng on these stairs.

They'd fight his techniques, hear his voice, maybe even learn his story. My eyes narrowed as I tried to figure out why if Song Wei and Shen Bolin had been able to overwhelm a Lucid Lawbearer, they had let Xu Feng die? Sure, the white-robed formation had appeared suddenly, and the attack had been fast. But Song Wei's Law literally manipulated probability; he could have made the attack miss. While Shen Bolin could have manifested a shield or counter-technique from his dreams.

So, if they had the power to save Xu Feng easily, how come they failed? Were they genuinely surprised by the sudden attack? Unable to save him despite their power? Or had they chosen not to? The question settled in my gut like a stone, yet I kept my face neutral because I didn't want to show anything of what I was thinking. But inside, I was wondering, and that wondering felt dangerous.