Absolute Choice
chapter-286

Chapter 286: Failure is the mother of success

This was a duel, a duel that determined who could go further in the mass selection. It proved who was stronger. It was even an important duel that determined the honor of an organization!

This duel was supposed to be abnormally fiery, with both sides pushing hard at it, fighting a desperate battle, constantly exceeding their limits and surpassing each other. A battle of the century in which no one would be willing to lag behind. Finally it would end with a narrow margin that would be regretful.

But, why did this scene imperceptibly change?

Why did the duel transform into the present state?

Why?

Heartless sighed as his eyes gradually turned icy-cold.

“Tu Dahei, I will no longer hesitate or show any mercy. This is a duel. Sword is our only form of exchange. Using your full strength is the best form of respect.”

Heartless raised his psionic sword and his face was without expression. His gaze was keen, as surging sword intent churned around him. He had a dominating aura as he said coldly, “Sword techniques are split into five levels. Sword Technique, Sword Intent, Sword Truth, Sword Soul, and Sword Domain. Typical swordsmen would only be able to use sword techniques that are empty in nature. After practicing swords for several years, they would acquire Sword Intent through a honing process. But extremely few swordsmen are able to create their own Sword Truth. As for Sword Soul and Sword Domain, those are things only the top swordsmen in the world are able to comprehend.”

“Tu Dahei, your sword already possesses sword intent, but that is all to it. Compared to an expert with Sword Truth, you are still a great distance away. I have practiced swords for more than ten years. At the age of fourteen, I gained insight into the Sword Truth, and this Sword Truth of mine is known as [Heartless]”.

“So I regret to tell you that you will be defeated by Sword Truth, [Heartless]!”

After Heartless said this, his eyes turned cold, as though he had abandoned all his emotions.

Shi Xiaobai slowly wiped away the overwhelming excitement filled him when fully immersing himself in the study of the Kun Peng Sword Technique. He could sense the cold aura exuded by Heartless. It was as though he was an ice sculpture which had frozen all his emotions, thoughts, and ‘burdens’.

Heartless had ‘activated’ his Sword Truth, [Heartless], making him enter a realm of emotional voidness.

Sword Truth seemed like a vague term, but in fact, its existence was very real, real and powerful.

Shi Xiaobai had previously understood Sword Truth from Sunless. Her Sword Truth was [Fanaticism], with swords being the only thing in her head. She only had eyes for the sword, and even her heart was for the sword!

Sunless was a sword fanatic. She was constantly having her Sword Truth [Fanaticism] ‘activated’. She did not ‘deactivate’ it when she was sparring with Shi Xiaobai in their subconsciousness. Sunless’ Sword Truth had already become ‘one with the sword’ with her body itself.

Therefore, Shi Xiaobai had suffered an abject defeat in the consciousness sparring. At the beginning, he only knew sword techniques and lacked sword intent. Hence, he could not even last a strike. Gradually he gained insight into sword intent, allowing him to use Beginner Sword to enter a deadlock with Sunless for more than ten rounds.

The power of Sword Truth was obvious.

The reason why Heartless was considered to be the second best sword prodigy among rookies was because he had managed to create his Sword Truth at the age of fourteen. The possession of a Sword Truth was the benchmark criteria if a swordsman was excellent or not. For example, whether one possessed Sword Truth, or if the Sword Truth was strong, or if the Sword Truth could allow the person to become one with the sword, etc.

“Come on, let This King experience your Sword Truth!”

The fighting spirit in Shi Xiaobai’s eyes ignited again!

Heartless had a deadpan expression as he silently walked towards Shi Xiaobai with sword raised. The stance he had was a heaven and earth difference from before.

Shi Xiaobai put aside all the distractions in his heart. Sword techniques were never his most powerful skill. It was even the combat skill that he had only just begun practicing. However, he would only use a sword for this battle.

Just as Heartless said, swords were their only way of communication!

Heartless closed the gap and suddenly slashed over!

This strike was simple. It was not even in the form of a sword technique, it was just a simple slash!

But this strike was as domineering as fire and as fast as lightning!

Instead of retreating, Shi Xiaobai advanced and slashed out in a similar manner!

“Boom!”

This was a clash of swords, the explosive skirmish of sword beams. It was a competition between sword intents!

There was no victor from this clash, but Shi Xiaobai was completely at the disadvantage.

Heartless slashed out once again!

No, it was not a single strike this time. In this strike that appeared like a single strike, it contained three sword intents!

Shi Xiaobai managed to parry the first two sword intents, but was no match for the third sword intent. He had not choice but to retreat!

Heartless’ attacks would not take a break because of Shi Xiaobai’s retreat. He slashed out with a stronger strike!

Heartless did not use the Homecoming Sword or the Heaven Shrouding Eclipse, nor did he use the lower form of the Kun Peng. He just simply slashed forward, but such simple strikes seemed to contain the shadows of the three sword techniques.

This was the concentration of Heartless’ sword techniques!

His Sword Truth, [Heartless], froze all his emotions. Hence, his every strike did not give him excitement, fear, nervousness or softheartedness or other emotions that would affect him. His every strike was simple and direct, directed straight at vital body parts!

Shi Xiaobai faced with with the sword, but the battle became more and more taxing on him. He could only retreat again and again.

Finally at the thirteenth round, Shi Xiaobai’s psionic sword was shattered. He retreated in time, but a gash had appeared across his clothes. It had nearly slashed out a gaping bloody wound.

However, Shi Xiaobai did not feel fear during this period of time. Nor did he have time to feel frustrated or disheartened from every failure in each clash. This was because Heartless’ next strike was already slashing at his throat!

“Clang!”

Heartless’ sword was blocked!

Shi Xiaobai’s eyes were shining like the hot sun. Boiling fighting spirit seemed to burn everything!

Having fear in the heart?

Feeling disheartened because of defeat?

Shi Xiaobai would not experience such emotions. At the instant his psionic sword was shattered, other than dodging the fatal strike, he had immediately constructed a brand new psionic sword!

He would not waste time to regret failure.

He only had one thought on his mind.

Give This King such failure another ten thousand times!

…

…

In front of a crumbling wall, there was a young boy about six years old, holding a small knife carved from wood. He was constantly stabbing at the wall.

On closer look, there was a very tiny hole in the wall. And the boy’s thrust of the short knife was aimed at that tiny hole in the wall.

However, the hole was just too small, and was just slightly larger than the knife’s blade tip. It had to be precisely aligned in order to thrust the knife into the hole. However, the boy’s stabbing actions appeared to be deliberately magnified. Every thrust needed him to throw out half his body. This prevented him from being able to precisely stab the hole.

The boy’s knife would stab around the surroundings of the hole, but every strike was stabbed at an extremely fast speed and with great strength. This caused his hand to go numb from the recoil after each thrust.

The boy frowned and, with a tear stricken face, he repeated the thrusting at the hole.

Ten times, a hundred times, a few hundred times, more than a thousand times…

From noon to dusk, he had only managed to thrust the knife into the hole fewer than ten times.

The autumn’s dusk was dark and cold. As the air seemed to turn into frost, the boy’s hand turned slightly red from the cold, but he did not stop.

“Xiaobai, it’s time to eat.”

A gentle voice was heard as footsteps approached from the other side of the wall.

The boy’s eyes lit up and he immediately stopped. He jogged towards the other side of the wall and saw a black-haired teenager walking towards him slowly.

“Brother!”

The boy exhaled lightly before running towards the black-haired teenager’s side.

The black-haired teenager crouched down and stroked the boy’s head. He held the boy’s tiny right fist.

“Si…”

The boy let out a tiny cry of pain.

The black-haired teenager lowered his head and saw the boy’s white palm already red, to the point of it turning purple. The black-haired teenager’s heart ached for him as he said with a sigh, “Man, don’t you know how to skive? I purposely brought Dad away so that you could rest, but you…Sigh. Why don’t you stop practicing the Pig Slaughtering Knife?”

“No!”

The boy rounded his eyes with a stare as he said while shaking his head, “Dad said that if the pig slaughtering knife is not stabbed in accurately, the big white pig will feel a lot of pain, much more painful than me. So, I need to diligently practice so that I can stab it accurately! Brother, leave me alone. It’s not that painful. I’m no longer a three or four-year-old. There’s no need for Brother to be worried!”

The black-haired teenager gave a wry smile as he stroked the boy on the head and said, “Yes, yes, yes. You are five this year, so you must pay attention to your safety and health, got it? Dad might look very strict, but he is actually secretly feeling the pain in his heart. As for you, there’s plenty of time left. You can slowly practice the Pig Slaughtering Knife!”

When the boy heard this, he fell into a moment of thought. Suddenly he shook his head resolutely and pursed his lips to say, “No! I’m too stupid. I can’t stab that tiny hole. Dad said that without diligence, I’m hopeless with my stupidity. Furthermore, Brother previously said that, failure is the mother of success. The more you fail, the earlier Baby Success will be born.”

The black-haired teenager gaped and was at a loss as to what to say. He had said so in the past to console the young boy who had suffered numerous failures. He never expected the boy to take his words to heart, to the point of using it to encourage himself.

Was such a matter good or bad?

The black-haired teenager could only say, “Let’s go. It’s time to return for our meal.”

The boy’s eyes immediately lit up as he nodded his head vigorously. He was very, very hungry at that moment.

The black-haired teenager walked to the other side and held the boy’s left hand, as the two headed home.

“I like Mother Failure!”

As the boy walked, he suddenly looked up and asked, “Oh right, Brother, when is Mother coming back? I still haven’t seen her!”

The black-haired teenager’s footsteps came to a halt as he turned his head gently to the side. As though he was hiding something, he said softly, “Mother? She went to a very, very far place. I don’t know when she will be back as well. However, she is always very concerned with Xiaobai. She must definitely wish to see Xiaobai.”

The boy gave an “Orh” and did not speak further.

The evening glow cast long shadows of the two. The shadows of the hands were bound together, as though they would never separate.

…

…

“Failure is the mother of success.”

With this thought in mind, Shi Xiaobai constructed another psionic sword.

In a short span of ten minutes, his psionic sword had shattered more than twenty times. His clothes were riddled with holes and there were bloody wounds on his body.

When it came to sword techniques, Shi Xiaobai truly was unable to compare to Heartless, who had activated his Heartless Sword Truth. Without any suspense, he was defeated and retreated in a sorry state. The amount of psionic power and stamina he had was greatly drained. If not for ‘Unleaking Turtle Aura’, which forcefully allowed him to persist on, he would have long suffered true defeat from his exhaustion.

However, Shi Xiaobai was still persisting on. Despite having lost in the sparring of sword techniques for more than twenty times, the battle had yet to end.

Heartless did not show any mercy, nor did he hesitate. After Shi Xiaobai retreated, he would draw close once again. It was as though he would only end after obtaining true victory.

“The next strike shall end this duel.”

Suddenly, Heartless, who had been silent for a long while, spoke. His voice was calm and cold, as though he was an emotionless machine stating an objective fact. His auric pressure increased once again.

“This King thinks so too.”

Shi Xiaobai nodded in approval and said, “For with the next strike, you will be defeated by This King’s Sword Truth!”

…