Volume 3, Chapter 74 – Sword Momentum(Two-in-One)

Xiang Xian was also standing on a nearby peak, left hand clenched around the sheath at her waist, staring tensely at Qin Wuyang. Her palace dress snapped and fluttered in the cutting wind.

“Finally found you…” A delighted shout came from the clouds. She turned her head and saw a young woman in a black robe flying over, a sword case on her back just like Qin Wuyang.

The girl’s frame and bone structure were actually quite good, but she clearly did not take care of herself. Her clothes were cheap and shabby, her hair so greasy it shone, who knew how long since it had last been washed. This was that “Senior Sister Qin” Zhao Feng had treated to drinks earlier.

Seeing Xiang Xian, this woman deliberately dropped down beside her. Xiang Xian immediately smelled the heavy reek of alcohol on her and could not help knitting her brows as she asked, “You are this generation’s Qingping disciple?”

Qingping Dao passed its lineage down a single line, one master, one disciple. Xiang Xian had heard before that this generation’s Qingping disciple was “very unreliable,” but she had not expected her to be unreliable to this degree.

No matter how strong Chu Weiping was, he still had to die one day. After his death, the disciple would have to inherit the position of Dao Lord. And in the Nine Daos, almost every other Dao disliked Qingping. This karmic burden… could this Qingping disciple really shoulder it?

“You are worrying about me?”

Who knew how “Senior Sister Qin” sensed it. She suddenly looked up and smiled at Xiang Xian. “The outside world all says the ‘Calculating Immortal’ is cold and heartless, that you even scheme against your own direct disciple. I think that rumor is all fake. You are obviously a very good person~”

“…” Xiang Xian broke out in goosebumps and, without another word, immediately put distance between them.

She had a jolt of unease, the unease of having her thoughts seen through. Ever since she had cultivated Jade Spirit Mingxin, she had not felt this way in a very long time.

I really have too much time on my hands. What am I doing worrying about her?

Just like that Chu Weiping. He had been taken in by Han Yinshan for less than half a year and had already vaulted to that kind of realm. Only Xiang’er could be compared to him.

This person definitely had some quality that made her worth that favor. Instead of worrying about her, I should worry more about Xiang’er.

Xiang Xian ignored this Senior Sister Qin and turned her head to focus on the sea of clouds.

This counted as the fringe of Clear Mist Peak. It was called that because from the mountains near the peak you could see the cloud sea, pale and hazy like a great body of water, with only a few peaks poking up through it.

The silver-haired old man was just then bowing cheerfully toward Bai Xiang. “I would like to ask Dao Lord Bai for some instruction.”

“To see whether this path still holds any changes.”

“Instruction?” Bai Xiang frowned. “You are the illustrious Qingping Sword Lord, a pillar of the state and the race. I am but a mere Divine Fetus Earthly Immortal. How could I possibly be worthy of you seeking my instruction?”

She stood there in the wind, black Dao robe snapping loudly with each gust. Part of her white hair was blown back, coiling behind her like a white dragon, the pressure she gave off growing heavier and heavier.

She had gotten stronger again.

After finishing his quiet talk with his father, Kong An turned his head just in time to see this scene. His expression changed before he could stop it, shocked by this feeling, unsure if he was right or wrong.

Once one succeeded in Divine Fetus, cultivation became something very free and easy.

Taking the era into account, and counting all cultivators since ancient times, the odds of a Divine Fetus immortal advancing to Sword Lord were far below one in a hundred.

The Innate was hard to find, the Sword Lord was remote and hazy. The road ahead looked as if it had simply disappeared. Some cultivators simply chose to lie flat, plodding along collecting demonic qi and only looking for a way to solve their problems when their bodies began to fail.

Of course, Divine Fetus itself was already the Earthly Immortal realm. Very few people who reached this step were anything but proud in their bones, either for the sake of long life or ultimate strength. Most of them would still choose to charge once more.

It was exactly because of these examples for comparison, and his own experience besides, that Kong An knew what it meant to keep advancing in such a short time at this realm.

She had only entered the Dao for half a year. At most she was eighteen. To reach Divine Fetus in such a short period, she ought to have halted her realm here to slowly settle her foundation. How could she still be deepening it further?

What terrified Kong An was precisely this. He could not help wondering just what it was Bai Xiang had deepened.

Could it be that she, like that Chu Weiping, had in one breath pierced through to the secret of the Innate?

“Words are useless.” Qin Wuyang loosened the cord on his sword case and drew out a sword that was black from tip to hilt. It looked more like a poker for stirring a fire than a treasured blade. “I would much rather hear Dao Lord Bai speak with her sword.”

He casually tossed the sword case onto a nearby peak. The silver-haired old man’s body blurred, and the next instant he was already in front of Bai Xiang.

So it started just like that?

All the onlookers, whether Divine Fetus Earthly Immortals or core realm Sages and True Persons, stared hard at the scene, afraid of missing even the slightest detail.

Jiang-lang!

A clear sword cry rang out over the clouds. Non-Thinking Heaven left its sheath, gripped by a pale hand. The instant it was drawn, it swept out horizontally to block, colliding with that fire-poker sword.

It really was a “smash.” The moment the two swords met, an invisible ripple surged out. The sea of clouds below was instantly churned up and rolled away to all sides. A huge hole was gouged clear through it, revealing the verdant landscape beneath.

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The feeling was extremely strange, as if each sword had tremendous weight. Every clash between them felt like smashing heavy maces together. The clanging thunder of metal on metal rang in the ears and the invisible ripples flung out at the moment of impact seemed to twist the vacuum itself.

“Treating the light as heavy.” The silver-haired old man’s face was tight at first, but after a few exchanges with Bai Xiang, more and more smiles appeared. In the end he broke into loud laughter.

“Good. So you really have reached this realm as well.”

“On the way here I kept wondering if this might be making a fuss over nothing, but the rumors about you are just too outrageous. I could not help imagining that possibility.”

“And now, you really have given me new hope.”

He finished speaking each word to Bai Xiang, and his aura changed rapidly. With a puff, rust fell from the thing in his hand, revealing a dark green eight-edged Yu sword.

The blade was wide, the eight facets made its sword presence feel even heavier. Bai Xiang had thought he meant to use some sort of divine ability, but the next instant her heart jolted with warning and she spun, raising her sword in a vertical block.

Boom!!!

A terrifying force slammed into her from the front. All the others saw was the air rippling at that spot, then a black figure crashing down into a mountain peak and smashing into the rock with a rumbling roar.

“The purpose of a sword is to chop people.” Qin Wuyang hovered in the air and said mildly, “What bullshit divine abilities and sword arts. Studying all that is putting the cart before the horse.”

Crash…

Rock exploded. Bai Xiang flew out of it with her sword in hand.

Qin Wuyang lifted a brow and let out an “Oh?” because Bai Xiang looked completely unscathed. There was not even dust on her clothes or face, and even her hair was still perfectly clean.

I knocked her down with brute force, and she still had the leisure to wrap every strand of hair in her power?

Wait, the power she is using might not be demonic power…

He had just thought this when a black shadow cut off the sun above his head. Qin Wuyang’s thoughts froze. He gripped his sword with both hands and jerked it up to block.

Boom!!!

His whole body became an even faster blur, smashed down into the ravine below by a tremendous force.

“Heh!” He was sent sliding diagonally through two mountain peaks before he managed to stop. Qin Wuyang looked down at the dust on his body and recalled the way Bai Xiang had flown out before, feeling a bit disheveled.

But he did not get angry. He lifted his head again, the light in his eyes bright enough to be frightening, and burst into wild laughter.

“Again!”

Boom!!!

Clang!!!

Non-Thinking Heaven smashed into the black sword again. The old man suddenly let go of his grip. His body turned half a circle in midair.

Bai Xiang’s brute force was still driving her forward. With the resistance suddenly gone, she could not stop her charge.

The old man turned back right on time, and a sword finger thrust straight at Bai Xiang’s face.

Bai Xiang’s eyes were cold. Her body seemed to run into an invisible wall of qi and her forward momentum jerked to a halt. She lifted a leg and kicked him square in the gut.

Bang!!

Another shockwave exploded out. The old man’s body flipped away, but in midair the eight-edged black sword slid up against his back like a board, carrying him back in a swooping arc. He flipped in midair, gripped the sword with both hands, and chopped straight down.

That kick had left Bai Xiang slightly off balance. Seeing that sword momentum, she simply half turned, letting her body spin. Non-Thinking Heaven rode the force of that spin and swept upward. The two swords smashed together yet again.

Zheng!

All the onlookers’ ears rang from the vibration.

Bai Xiang and the old man locked swords and hung in midair, unmoving, while only two opposing layers of shockwave pushed outward.

After a single breath’s stalemate, the mountain below Bai Xiang suddenly split open with a vertical crack and collapsed with a crashing roar.

Above the old man, the deep blue vault of heaven slowly opened a rent. Through the gap, one could glimpse an even deeper realm of stars.

“Human-body great medicines.” Qin Wuyang growled in a voice only Bai Xiang could hear. “How many points have you harvested?”

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Bai Xiang did not speak. He pressed urgently, “This is not demonic power. Little girl, what path are you cultivating?”

I thought you would wait until we finished fighting to waste breath on this.

Bai Xiang sent that message plainly with her eyes. Her sword momentum rose, the blade trembling as it bit by bit forced the black sword aside.

Qin Wuyang’s expression changed. He was above her, which meant he was bearing more of gravity’s pull than she was, yet in this clash of swords he was still losing.

How did she train this?

Starting in her mother’s womb by eating immortal pills? That still would not be this ridiculous.

Zheng!

Bai Xiang erupted. Non-Thinking Heaven pried the black sword completely aside, opening the old man’s center line. Add in the fact that his shock and distraction had made his mind wander, and she slammed straight into him from below.

At that moment, Bai Xiang had originally planned to give his lewd old face a solid punch.

But as the force built to that point, her back suddenly itched. Instinctively she set the blood and qi circulation of the Mountain-Crashing Chapter of the Sun-Chasing Scripture in motion, sending all her qi-force and blood-force surging to her shoulders. She turned her side and slammed into him.

Puff!

This time there were no shockwave effects at all.

Qin Wuyang’s eyes went wide as the blow hit his chest. His body popped up half an inch in midair and then, with no suspense whatsoever, exploded into a cloud of blood mist.

“Huh?”

Xiang Xian heard Senior Sister Qin cry out in surprise.

In fact, this was the instinctive reaction of most of the onlookers.

There had been quite a few people who did not really understand the earlier parts of the fight, unable to figure out why the two of them did not use divine abilities and techniques, only faced off like sword students crossing blades.

But after those two slashes seeped out, after the mountain collapsed and the sky split open, they had no doubt left about the power contained in every one of their moves.

Divine abilities?

If every sword contained power that could cleave through divine abilities, then there really was no need to use any.

It would just waste strength. It was better to simply hack away one sword stroke at a time, continually spiraling upward in a contest of strength and skill.

However…

It was precisely because they had witnessed the earlier fight and knew what the name “Qin Wuyang” meant that they were shocked. Shocked that Bai Xiang’s “Iron-Mountain Lean” could actually smash the old man to pieces.

That was… that was the Qingping Sword Lord Qin Wuyang…

Quite a few Sages and True Persons in the core realm did not know the name Chu Weiping. They simply assumed that the one crossing swords with Bai Xiang now was a genuine Sword Lord at the peak.

They almost could not imagine what sort of power it would take to produce that kind of result, for Qin Wuyang to be unable to resist in the slightest and simply turn into blood mist like that.

“Stop pretending.” Bai Xiang lowered her stance and looked calmly at the drifting blood mist. “I do not have time to play along with your little act.”

Never mind that she already knew Qin Wuyang was only a split-off incarnation. Even if it were gone, it did not count for much.

Even just judging this incarnation alone, she had felt it after smashing Qin Wuyang’s fleshly body. He was still far from death.

The reason was simple. Non-Thinking Heaven would not absorb anything. The “scouting radar” in her hand had no reaction.

No vitality energy, no remnant-soul feedback.

All of that showed the situation was still under his control.

“You brat. You really were trying to kill me.”

The old man’s voice came from within the blood mist. As it coalesced again, it took on Qin Wuyang’s fleshly form once more. Even his black robe was restored. It truly was a wondrous sight.

“From the point of view of these people, your path has already reached its peak, has it not?” Bai Xiang could see that this was all demonic power in essence. She looked steadily at the old man and asked.

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The external Aspect of demonic power was blood-colored mist.

When the blood hue deepened, it became purple. Hence Purple Blood and Purple Core.

Condense it further, and it became black.

“Not quite.” Qin Wuyang answered frankly. “But for their purposes, even if it is not the peak, it is only a step away.”

“Your true body?” Bai Xiang locked her gaze on his eyes. “Cutting away good and evil, severing human emotion, letting the true body approach the Dao of Heaven without limit, imitating the will of Heaven to cultivate one’s method. That is Qingping Dao’s way of breaking the game?”

“You know quite a lot.” Qin Wuyang gave her a long, deep look.

“Come.” He suddenly snatched up the black sword from the side and pulled away, flying higher and higher.

“One last sword.”

“If you are still alive after this sword, I will tell you everything you ought to know.”

Insisting on going into the sky. Was this because he did not want others to see through what he was doing, or had he finally learned to care about the environment?

Bai Xiang glanced at the surrounding peaks, now looking rather miserable, and soared up after him. Very soon the two of them were only black dots.

“Ha!”

Qin Wuyang halted and looked down at Bai Xiang from above, then suddenly squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

Thump.

Thump.

A heartbeat sounded from his chest, each beat very deep and very heavy, accompanied by blood surging through his body, roaring like water into the howling winds.

He fully activated the meridians and apertures he had unearthed during his Innate enlightenment. Qin Wuyang’s demonic power, blood and qi, and qi presence all surged upward, climbing to a frightening degree.

Facing him head-on, Bai Xiang felt that what she saw was no longer a person, but a blood-soaked demon king. The killing intent and blood qi he released seemed to stain half the sky red, even more exaggerated than when she had suppressed the blood souls.

That demon king moved.

Man and shadow as one, he took a lunging stance. The next instant he vanished from where he had been, briefly slipping into the void.

Bai Xiang watched this happen with her eyes open, and the corners of her lips lifted slightly.

Honestly, she was very pleased.

She did care greatly whether Qin Wuyang could tell her more secrets. But compared to that seemingly most important matter, she personally preferred his strength.

It had been a long time since she had such a satisfying fight.

That feeling of crossing swords with a true equal, blades clashing, life and death on the line, hanging by a thread.

It had been a long time since she had felt that.

Facing the cutting wind, she closed her eyes as well.

Her neatly bound hair was blown loose by the gale. Her body under the Dao robe seemed outlined by the air around her. In that moment her face was almost solemn like a statue, and little by little, with the wind at her back, she raised her arm. Her body half turned as it had before.

She was still using the Sun-Chasing Scripture .

From the toes, to the ankles.

From the shins, to the thighs.

Then the twist of the waist, the tightening of the abdomen. All of her blood and qi-force was carried to her spine and then, along this half-turn, pushed further forward.

To the shoulders.

To the arm.

Her eyes snapped open. In those strange golden pupils, the silver-haired old man’s lunging sword was reflected. Bai Xiang began with a movement that was almost graceful, somewhat like the God-Descent Calisthenics, twisting her body and swinging her right arm in a full arc.

Sword edge met sword tip.

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The instant they touched, Qin Wuyang’s pupils shrank.

For a moment, he felt as if he saw a blazing sun.

The scorching light poured down and burned away all the bloody baleful qi around him. Beneath that sun was a blurry giant shadow whose face he could not see. He saw that giant take an Iron-Mountain Lean stance and charge straight at him. The momentum of that charge merged into the descending sword edge and shattered his will in one blow.

There was no sound.

The people below only saw a small point in the sky above split neatly into two.

“Old man actually…”

Senior Sister Qin stared blankly upward, the words catching in her throat.

Her master had wanted to come see the show and “test the junior.” She had felt that was making a big deal out of nothing.

Why care about Suzhen’s opinion?

As long as they held the Northern Pass and did not let other races breach it by even an inch, their mission was complete. No matter how fierce the internal struggles were, what did that have to do with them?

What genius appeared, what situation they stirred up, what did that have to do with them?

Give her a hundred times her courage and she still would not have dared to imagine that Qin Wuyang would stumble on this trip.

It was true that this was not the true peak of the Sword Dao, and there was still a step to go before the summit.

It was also true that this “step” was far more than the word could cover.

But that was still her master.

The old man.

The old man who had taken her in, who in her eyes had been invincible under Heaven ever since… and just like that…

“…I acknowledge it.”

The two clean halves slowly drew together and became one again as Qin Wuyang gathered himself back into a complete body.

“Shenming’s Bai Xiang.” He spoke her name with great weight, then lowered his head to look at the sword in his hand, split cleanly down the middle into two half-blades, one in each hand, and shook his head.

“Go on, ask. What secrets do you want to know?”

“Letting a guest stand in the cold wind is poor hospitality.” Non-Thinking Heaven rang as it slid back into its sheath. Bai Xiang said to the old man, “My Dao has a pavilion and side courtyard on Clear Mist Peak. Daoist Qin, why not come down with me to rest a while and try the local tea?”

“Very well.”

Qin Wuyang nodded, casually tossed the two half-swords aside, and floated upward with his hands folded behind his back.

“Daoist Bai, lead the way.”

“Please.”

“Please.”

“It really is different now…” Down below, Kong An heard Kong Tianbao muttering and shaking his head.

“Father?” He turned to look.

“Even though that is not his true body…” Kong Tianbao mumbled a few obscure phrases, then suddenly shook his head and looked at Kong An, asking something that left him completely baffled.

“I am no good anymore. My son, have you thought about changing your lineage?”

“Father…” Kong An frowned. He more or less understood what he meant.

To forge a new path that could trade blows with a Sword Lord’s incarnation like that, taking such a master would be no disgrace at all.

But psychologically, he could not quite get past it.

After all, Bai Xiang’s age… was quite enough for her to be his daughter.