Chapter 13

If Xu Fengnian said he wasn't at all afraid, that would be self-deception.

It was just that Xu Fengnian trusted his intuition, believing that the old demon trapped at the bottom of the lake for over a decade wouldn't harm him. After all, they had been dealing with each other in a peculiar way for so many years, and Xu Fengnian had thrown countless chicken legs and roasted meats down there. He had dived down every now and then during the spring and summer to familiarize himself, so they had some sort of relationship.

Xu Fengnian never mentioned this to his father, Xu Xiao. He believed that both father and son were well aware of it. Xu Fengnian was mostly grateful for the old demon's past act of saving his life. Even if he released the old demon from its prison, if it angered the Great Duke Xu, the worst he would get would be a whipping. Besides, Xu Fengnian was also curious about the true strength and capabilities of the talented individuals in the Beiliang Mansion. He wanted to know if the old demon, who could practice prenatal breathing for over a decade, was on par with the top ten martial artists in the world.

Xu Fengnian feigned calmness and said, "Old Huang, do you know what I'm going to do? Why are you following me? Can you swim? Don't drown!"

The old servant smiled shyly but didn't speak. He seemed to feel the weight of his luggage and shook his small frame, lifting the wooden box a few inches.

When they reached the center of the lake, Xu Fengnian drew the plain and unadorned purple Chunlei from its sheath, which was far less ornate than Xiudong. He took a deep breath, pointed the blade downward, and threw it with all his might.

After a while, nothing happened.

Xu Fengnian almost burst out in anger, thinking that it might be another futile effort, and he would have to jump in to retrieve the knife himself.

Old Huang slowly moved to the front of the boat and stood still.

Xu Fengnian said helplessly, "Old Huang, don't pretend to be a master. I know your level. What's so great about it?"

Old Huang turned his head and chuckled.

Xu Fengnian glared and said, "What are you laughing at? Is it great to have no front teeth?!"

In an instant,

The lake water surged more violently than ever before, as if the world was about to be turned upside down.

Xu Fengnian, hiding in the boat, thought his first priority was to call Old Huang and quickly leave. Then, of course, he would let his father's subordinates clean up the mess.

As a prince who could accidentally throw away Chunlei while performing a sweeping thousand-arm technique, he couldn't be foolish enough to tangle with the old demon.

But soon, Xu Fengnian noticed something strange about the small boat. Despite the terrifying waves on the lake, the old coachman, who always fled at the first sign of danger during their three-year journey, stomped his foot, and the boat instantly became as solid as a rock, unmoving.

Old Huang turned his head, grinned, and gestured to indicate his height, meaning he was a master of that height. Xu Fengnian was both amused and exasperated. "Old Huang, you still have the leisure to do this? Don't get beaten to the ground by the old demon, you already have no front teeth."

A gray figure leaped from the third floor of the Tingchao Pavilion, landed on one foot, and gracefully glided toward the lake.

Xu Fengnian instinctively raised his hand, only to realize he had no cucumber to munch on, feeling a bit disappointed. "The show is about to start."

The Tingchao Pavilion, known as the armory in the martial world, had five guardians. Xu Fengnian, who had climbed up and down the pavilion since childhood and even urinated in corners when he was in a hurry, was familiar with them, calling them "Uncle" or "Grandpa" with great respect.

The guardian who leaped from the third floor of the Tingchao Pavilion was a Daoist master from the Jiumi Dao, one of the three major Daoist traditions. According to his teacher Li Yishan, he was proficient in the art of Qimen Dunjia and had genuine Second Rank Tongxuan strength. He had willingly become a servant in the pavilion just to read the solitary copy of the "Can Tong Qi" in the Tingchao Pavilion. When Xu Fengnian was young, he often had the old man carry him up the stairs.

The old Jiumi Daoist, dressed in a gray wide-sleeved Daoist robe, touched the lake surface like a dragonfly, gracefully advancing. He rolled up his sleeves, creating two water columns that shot straight toward the center of the lake.

Seeing that the small boat was not about to capsize, Xu Fengnian felt much more at ease. He marveled, "So Grandpa Wei is so formidable. If I had known this, I would have taken him on my journey. Those bandits and outlaws would have been beaten to a pulp."

Old Huang heard the prince's words and turned his head with a pained expression, his face showing deep sorrow.

Xu Fengnian, not wanting to make Old Huang, who had traveled with him for three years, sad, smiled and said, "No matter how powerful Grandpa Wei is, he can't match Old Huang's skills in掏鸟窝 and fishing. There are many masters in the world, but there's only one Old Huang who can weave straw shoes!"

The old servant smiled "lovingly," making Xu Fengnian shudder. He quickly said, "Watch the show, don't miss it."

Both master and servant looked toward the lake.

Two black chains burst out of the water, like dragons emerging from the sea, with great momentum.

At the end of the chains were two handleless knives, one with a blade as clear as snow, the other as red as blood. As the prince put it, they looked very impressive, top-notch, and exuded the aura of a master. If Xu Fengnian had a stack of silver bills, he would have shouted, "Reward!"

The two knives shattered the two water dragons created by the old Jiumi Daoist, cutting them to pieces.

A massive figure, over ten feet tall, burst out of the lake. Free from the heavy copper balls that had restrained his feet at the bottom of the lake, the white-haired old demon laughed wildly, almost piercing Xu Fengnian's eardrums.

Swinging the chains, he created an arc, and the crimson giant knife slashed toward the old Daoist, with a domineering momentum that split the air, accompanied by a whistling sound.

The old Daoist, surnamed Wei, lightly shouted, stepped on the water, and created a thousand waves, shooting toward the long knife.

The water waves were split in two, and the giant knife cut through them like a hot knife through butter. The old Daoist shook his sleeves, trying to block this almost unprecedented fierce strike.

But it was in vain.

The wide sleeves of his Daoist robe were instantly shredded.

He was defeated in one move.

His figure was thrown back and fell into the lake, his fate unknown.

It turned out that the old demon in the lake also wielded a mad genius's knife.

Both the White Fox and the old demon wielded double-handed knives, one creating a whirlwind of snow, the other a wave of water. It was hard to say which was more powerful.

Xu Fengnian, with a dazed look, said, "Is this old demon invincible? If I had known that masters were so awe-inspiring, I would have listened to Xu Xiao's advice and practiced martial arts properly back then."

Old Huang, unwilling to be left out, turned his head, shook it, and chuckled, "Not invincible, not invincible."

Xu Fengnian focused intently, noticing that the old demon's double chains were rooted in his bones, forming a single entity, rather than being wrapped around. This was terrifying. Who would be so obsessed with martial arts and so arrogant as to merge with their weapon? If someone controlled the knife, wouldn't they be in extreme trouble?

The old demon, with his double chains and double knives, leaped into a pavilion, lightly swung his weapons, and the pavilion, which had cost a considerable amount of silver, collapsed into rubble. The old demon laughed to the sky, his white hair flying, resembling a fearsome Yama.

The remaining four guardians of the Tingchao Pavilion moved together, forming a triangular formation, standing at a distance, each with a solemn expression.

At the top of the Qingliang Mountain in the Beiliang Mansion, the Great Duke Xu Xiao sat on a wooden bench, overlooking the lake in the mountain waist, holding a red clay teapot made by a famous craftsman, but filled with Green Ant wine. Beside him stood his adopted son Yuan Zuozong, with his "left bear" eyes half-closed.

Xu Xiao smiled lightly and said, "How many moves can he block?"

Yuan Zuozong, who had killed and cut flags on the battlefield with his white horse and silver spear as if he were in a vacuum, said softly, "Father, the left bear wants to try."

The Great Duke shook his head, "Forget it. There are people below who will deal with this monster. It won't hurt Fengnian."

On the second floor of the Tingchao Pavilion, a man in a white robe stood by the railing, a Xiudong knife at his waist. He watched for a moment, placed his finger on the hilt, pushed the knife out an inch, and then pulled it back into the sheath, caressing it once before turning back to the pavilion.

Not only that, but even the mansion's top advisor, Li Yishan, stepped out of his dark room, hands behind his back, watching the rare spectacle. He shielded his eyes from the sun and muttered to himself, "Jian Jiu Huang, Chu Kuangnu, will they have to destroy the pavilion again?"

The old demon paid no attention to the guardians, as there were few opponents in the world he considered worthy. He roared, "That Huang Lao Jiu, come out and die!"

Xu Fengnian was shocked, "Huang Lao Jiu? Old Huang, is he calling you? Don't tell me you have a grudge with this old demon!"

Old Huang pulled off the tattered cloth, revealing the long, purple sandalwood box that made Xu Fengnian uneasy. He turned and smiled, still without front teeth. Every time Xu Fengnian saw this, he wondered if the old servant could drink yellow wine with his remaining teeth closed.

The old demon, seeing the old coachman standing at the front of the boat with the box, had wild white hair and a fierce expression.

At the tense moment when Xu Fengnian dared not even breathe, Old Huang extended his withered hand, touched the box, and still managed to turn back and grin, tilting his head to make a gesture of pouring wine into his mouth, saying, "Young Master, that?"

Xu Fengnian laughed and said, "Look at you! Do you have any master's demeanor? If you really beat him, I'll treat you to a hundred jars of Longyan Chen Gang yellow wine."

The coachman, called "Huang Lao Jiu" by the old demon and "Jian Jiu Huang" by Li Yishan, smiled. For a moment, Xu Fengnian felt as if his eyes were dazzled. Old Huang was no longer foolish or silly; instead, he exuded an indescribable aura, making him seem even more formidable than the old demon with the knives.

The Tingchao Pavilion had a large plaque that read "Qi Chong Dou Niu," referring to the supreme sword qi that existed only in ancient texts. Xu Fengnian thought that if Old Huang really knew how to wield a sword, it would be worth celebrating with a hundred, two hundred, or even a thousand jars of wine.

Damn it.

Without any visible movement, the wooden box hummed like a dragon, buzzing but not piercing, yet deeply moving.

Xu Fengnian was stunned. Could Old Huang, who had been with him for three years, stealing chickens and being hit by hoes, really be a master?

"Jian Yi."

Muttering these two words, Old Huang lightly stepped out from the boat, and the small boat Xu Fengnian was in moved backward toward the shore, extremely steady, gliding smoothly and creating ripples.

Xu Fengnian watched Old Huang's thin figure walking on the water.

The purple sandalwood box opened at one end, and a long sword shot out.

The Great Duke and Li Yishan in the Tingchao Pavilion said simultaneously, "Jian Yi, Longshe."

The old demon with the knives laughed wildly, "Good, good, good, Huang Lao Jiu, I've been waiting for you for so long. Today, I'll break your nine swords and make you carry one less sword!"

Xu Fengnian, an outsider, was frustrated.

Because he knew it was a showdown between the top martial artists in the world, but to him, it was just a knife against a sword, and he couldn't see the subtleties. It was even less impressive than the initial battle between the old demon with the double knives and Grandpa Wei.

The only thing he noticed was that another sword flew out of the purple sandalwood box.

Xu Fengnian didn't know that the highest-level techniques were all about returning to simplicity.

The Great Duke, forgetting to drink, held his wine cup and sighed, "Jian Er."

Li Yishan in the Tingchao Pavilion slowly said, "Bing Dian Lian."

The two men on the mountain and in the pavilion clearly had a默契.

One sword became two, two became three.

"Jian San."

"San Jin."

Three swords already filled the sky, enveloping the world.

The old demon with the knives and the old Huang with the swords.

They were almost like half-gods, half-immortals.

Xu Fengnian sat down on the boat, laughing foolishly, "Reward, they are all top-notch skills!"

{Piaotian Literature}