Volume 1, Chapter 65 – Fangs

In the dark, Xu Xi was jerked awake by raw, stabbing pain.

She opened her eyes to pitch blackness. Every bone in her body felt shattered, more than half her body was stiff and numb, and waves of nerve-deep agony kept surging up; she almost let a groan slip from the pain.

Where is this…? What place is this?

She shut her eyes to adjust for a while, barely enduring the pain. Only then did she have the leisure to reopen them, forcing herself to stare into the darkness until, minutes later, her vision adapted enough to make out faint outlines.

It seemed to be a broad, empty cavern.

She was lying in a corner of it, with sharp rock outcrops pressing into her back. Lying on those for long would of course cause stiffness and stabbing pain; she hurriedly rolled herself bit by bit to a new spot, and her hand brushed against a tall boot.

This is… one of those army‑green camo tactical boots?

Someone else?

Xu Xi’s heart leapt. She forgot all propriety, running her hand up from the boot until she found a face, then a tangle of hair.

That height and the shape of the cheekbones… it seemed to be Xiao Ming.

Confirming that Xiao Ming was still alive—still breathing—Xu Xi finally let out a long breath.

This had nothing to do with Xiao Ming being the daughter of Senior Liang Qiusheng from the dojo. Simply put… even if Xiao Ming was a bit willful and sharp‑tongued, often disrespectful to many Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters—including Xu Xi herself—she still didn’t want her dying here.

With some strength back, Xu Xi crawled up to look around. She soon found Hao Chengzhuo, Zhao Xu, and the other four disciples; like Xiao Ming, they were all unconscious.

Where’s Junior Sister Zheng?

She groped about in the dark, nostrils twitching as she sniffed now and then.

In her memory, Junior Sister Zheng loved to primp… always adding little decorations, and even out training in the wild she never forgot to spray perfume on her hair. Her scent should be easy to pick out.

She sniffed—sure enough, a familiar fragrance drifted from one direction.

Xu Xi immediately felt her way over and soon found Junior Sister Zheng—Zheng Lingying’s—face.

“Junior Sister Zheng?” she whispered, and with a bit of force tried to lift her, to set her in a propped sitting position.

But what she hadn’t expected… her hand reached for Zheng Lingying’s shoulder and caught only air. With that light support, the head rolled away with a soft clatter, and the coppery reek of blood spilled out of nowhere.

“…!!!”

Eyes wide, Xu Xi clapped the empty‑grasping hand over her mouth and, with all her will, stifled the scream.

Faint movement sounded in the distance. Her heart clenched; she scuttled back to where she’d been and lay down, unmoving despite the sharp rocks stabbing her back.

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Footsteps came, growing nearer. Xu Xi first listened with her eyes shut; as they passed she caught a distinctive waft of perfume.

This scent… it smells like Junior Sister Chai?

A jolt of alarm ran through her: Junior Sister Chai is unhurt?

Then… is she here to rescue us?

“Bang!”

No sooner had the thought risen than a dull thud sounded ahead, followed by a string of “cough, cough, cough”—and the voice was actually Liang Wenbo’s.

“You… Chai Xuan!” Shock tinged Liang Wenbo’s voice. “What are you doing? Do you dare defy your elders?”

“Bang!”

“Urk—cough! Cough, cough, cough…!!??”

What is Junior Sister Chai doing?

The sounds she was hearing left Xu Xi dumbstruck.

If she wasn’t mistaken, Junior Sister Chai had just kicked Liang Wenbo twice in a row?

Master Liang had escorted them the whole way, taking the brunt of that dreadful sonic tide to shield them; he’d been grievously injured for it.

Even if Chai Xuan didn’t help tend to him, how could she treat Master Liang like this!

Anger surged, and Xu Xi instinctively started to get up to scold her.

But she quickly realized something was off. Forcing the impulse down, she continued to lie there feigning unconsciousness, ears pricked.

“Chai Xuan…”

After a pause to recover, Liang Wenbo seemed to grasp the strangeness of it all; his voice came again: “Do you… do you know how to get through this place.”

“…Yes.”

Only after several seconds did Chai Xuan answer.

“Have you—been here before?!”

“Yes,” Chai Xuan replied again. “I have.”

“Cough, cough, cough, cough!”

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“Ha…”

“I knew something was off…”

“It was your idea to lead us to that cave mouth to hide—and you’re the one who sealed it?”

“…”

“No answer? Let me think… No normal person who entered Benling Sword Dao would have reason to do this. You found this place beforehand and wanted to use others to help you break its mechanisms?”

“You even used the Demon‑Immortal Dao… The news that the Jade Phoenix Sword was at Longhua Temple—that was your leak too, wasn’t it?”

“After all, I told only the Dao Lord about it—and you and Liang Qiusheng were there at the time!”

How is that possible?

Xu Xi’s eyes widened in the dark; she couldn’t believe Chai Xuan had orchestrated all of this.

“For you to show up before me like this… you’re clearly not planning to let us leave alive…”

Liang Wenbo’s voice grew weaker.

“Let me at least die understanding…”

“Why?”

“What secret is here.”

“And are you using the Demon‑Immortal Dao, or have you been on their side all along?”

A long silence.

Xu Xi’s heart was about to leap out of her chest.

“As expected of Master Liang…”

Chai Xuan finally spoke again.

“Which side I’m on doesn’t matter.”

“Master Liang, you can take it like this… whichever side lets me reach the peak, that’s the side I belong to.”

“The peak?” Liang Wenbo was startled. “What do you mean… ‘Sword Lord’?”

“None of that,” Chai Xuan’s tone turned cold.

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“What I want isn’t that shallow…”

“Many spend their whole lives chasing the realm of ‘Sword Lord,’ and yes, a rare few do succeed.”

“But even they do not gain true longevity! They still can’t see through reincarnation! Can’t fathom the mystery of the womb! Can’t seize their own fate! They still can’t escape birth, aging, sickness, and death!”

“That isn’t the kind of power I seek.” Chai Xuan was breathing hard, pronouncing each word like an oath: “I will surpass the realm of the ‘Sword Lord.’”

“…Impossible.”

Liang Wenbo reflexively retorted.

“What you want lies beyond the limits of your understanding.”

It truly was impossible.

Xu Xi nodded hard to herself.

What a joke… Chai Xuan was saying she wanted to surpass the Sword Lord’s realm?

Wouldn’t that mean she wanted Ascension?

That realm is what countless prodigies through the ages have pursued… a mysterious state beyond human immortals, beyond saintly emperors, beyond anything the mortal world can comprehend!

To this day it’s only legend; no one has ever realized it. It isn’t even certain that such a realm truly exists.

Has Chai Xuan gone mad?

To betray Benling Sword Dao for something so nebulous?

“Limits?”

“Do not exist?”

“Heh…”

Chai Xuan gave a soft laugh, her tone turning flippant.

“Master Liang, do you know of Daokong Chan Master.”

“Of course.” Liang Wenbo nodded without thinking.

Then he jolted awake: “This is the site of Daokong Chan Master’s tribulation?”

“Correct.” Chai Xuan let out a cold laugh.

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“The Jinchan reincarnate… nine lives, nine tribulations…”

“Legend has it that in each life he sought a way to transcend life and death, striving to break past the ‘Sword Lord’ and reach that final realm of Ascension.”

“Cicada Molt Method.”

“Feathered Ascension Method.”

“Nine lives, nine tribulations; nine lives, nine methods.”

“Though he ultimately failed to break free of the Heavenly cycle, some say it wasn’t that he could not—only that, at the final juncture of the nine‑tribulation method, he chose to give it up.”

“For the sake of the common lives under heaven… he chose to halt his own Ascension, refining the ninth sword embryo to completion—thus the ‘Zhenyuan’ Sword that suppressed the Demon Kingdom.”

“After he died, the Great Yu royal clan took his remains and the sword. They also swept up everything he’d left behind, all to uncover the method of Ascension, to reclaim the eight relics from his first eight lives, and the other eight unfinished sword embryos.”

“That’s just… apocrypha!” Liang Wenbo glared. “Rumors from six hundred years ago! And you believe them?”

“Master Liang has praised Xuan’er’s cleverness…” Chai Xuan drew out her words. “Why not consider—if I weren’t fully certain, why would Xuan’er take such a risk…?”

Shiiing…

From the darkness came the rasp of metal, as if someone were slowly drawing a longsword from their waist.

“You… that sword?”

Liang Wenbo’s tone turned horrified, as if he were seeing the impossible.

Squelch!

The sound of a blade sliding through flesh.

“…”

No one spoke again. Only a terrible silence filled the dark, with a faint “hiss hiss” still audible.

Like that, after what felt as long as a year, Chai Xuan’s footsteps finally receded again.

“Huff… huff huff…!”

Only then did Xu Xi heave herself up, collapsing to one side like a drowning person, chest heaving, gulping for air.