Chapter 60

The young man, feeling a sense of relief that his opponent wouldn't kill him, fainted and woke up in a room filled with the smell of medicinal herbs. Judging by the smell, it seemed to be a room attached to a clinic. He tried to get up but found himself unable to move no matter what he did.

‘I can't even move a finger after just a few hits. I must be really pathetic.’

As he was thinking this, a soft voice came from beside him.

“You’re finally awake. You’re weaker than you look. Don’t try to move. I’ve just given you an acupuncture treatment and manipulated your meridians to prevent you from moving...”

‘This voice...?’

The young man suddenly felt a chill, and his body began to tremble involuntarily, cold sweat breaking out.

“Now that you’re awake, there’s no need to worry about you tossing and turning in your sleep. I’ll release your meridians.”

The young man felt a gentle breeze over his body, and he realized he could move his fingers, indicating that his meridians had been released. This was the moment he clearly understood that his opponent was a terrifying expert with immense inner strength, capable of striking and releasing pressure points in mid-air.

“Now that you’re awake, let’s have a pleasant conversation. Don’t shake so much. I’d rather talk if I can. Where were we? Oh, right, you told me that your master, Dugu Qiubai, had a last disciple named Moxiang. Let’s start from there. Did you hear this from your master’s own mouth? Remember, no lies.”

“Yes, he said he had many disciples, but Moxiang was the strongest among them.”

“So, this Moxiang is really that strong?”

“Yes, he said Moxiang was the strongest among all his disciples.”

“Good. Where did you meet Dugu Qiubai?”

“At Huashan.”

“Huashan?”

“My sect is based at Huashan. About ten years ago, a martial artist set up camp next to our sect. He chose one of the caves on Huashan as his home, set up a bed, and bought some household items from the market to settle in. He had no intention of leaving. Our sect suspected he might be a spy trying to steal our techniques, so we had a minor conflict with him. After a few unpleasant incidents, he decided to go into seclusion and chose this scenic Huashan as his place of retreat. We had no choice but to back off. Also, his sword skills were incredibly strong, so we didn’t think he was someone trying to steal techniques from other sects.”

“But how did you learn his martial arts?”

“To be honest, I wasn’t very strong ten years ago. One day, I saw a few ruffians harassing a young lady and, driven by youthful blood, I rushed in and got beaten up. He happened to pass by and saved me. He would occasionally come down to the village to buy food, and that day, he noticed me. He seemed to like me and made a proposal. He asked if I wanted to learn swordsmanship.”

“And?”

“I said no. My senior brother, who was teaching me at the sect, wasn’t very skilled, so it would have been an honor to learn from such a master. But I couldn’t leave my sect. However, he said I didn’t need to change sects or even consider him as a master. He said that his last disciple, who had learned his ultimate martial arts, had died, and if he died, his martial arts would be lost. He wanted his martial arts to be passed down, so he told me to get permission from the sect leader and come to him if I wanted to learn. So, I went to the sect leader, explained the situation, and said I wanted to learn his swordsmanship.”

“Did the sect leader give you permission?”

“At first, he didn’t. He didn’t know who this person was. After meeting him and talking, the sect leader learned that he was the renowned Dugu Qiubai, who had recently amazed the world with his exceptional martial arts. He then gave me permission. So, I visited him whenever I could and learned martial arts for about ten years.”

“Good. I have a general idea now. But how did you know the last disciple’s name was Moxiang? Did he tell you?”

“He often talked about Moxiang while teaching me swordsmanship. He would say, ‘If Moxiang were alive, he would be very happy to see you.’”

“What kind of swordsmanship did you learn?”

“I learned the Wu Xing Jian Fa (Invisible Sword Technique). It was very difficult to master...”

“Invisible Sword Technique? Is there such a technique?”

“It’s almost a technique without any forms. He said he completed it recently. It’s very unique and difficult to learn, but once you master it, it’s incredibly powerful.”

“So, Dugu Qiubai created the Invisible Sword Technique himself. It’s hard to learn... How much did you learn?”

“My talent was lacking, so I couldn’t master it deeply.”

“Good. We’ll see how much you’ve learned when we spar. Now, take it easy and recover. When you’re fully healed, we’ll have a match. If you try to run away and I catch you, I’ll half-kill you. Understand?”

Since there were no internal injuries, his body healed quickly. Once the young man was fully recovered, Moxiang called him outside. Moxiang was holding a sword he had taken from a box and stood outside. The young man, understanding what his opponent wanted, took the sword passed down by his senior and went outside. Moxiang, without drawing his sword, said calmly,

“Draw your sword.”

The young man couldn’t understand his opponent’s intentions but decided to do as he was told. They were about two zhang apart. After drawing his sword, the young man prepared to defend against his opponent’s attack. But his opponent just stood there.

‘Is he giving me a head start as a courtesy?’

In a friendly match, a senior usually gives a junior a three-second head start. For peers, each gets a three-second head start before the real fight begins. Not knowing what his opponent wanted, the young man decided to make the first move. He used a light step to quickly approach and unleashed a sword technique.

“Plum Blossom Fragrance”

This was the first move of the Huashan Sect’s famous Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique. In a friendly match, he had to announce the name of the technique so his opponent would know.

As the young man unleashed the technique, Moxiang turned his body to avoid the attack aimed at his torso and kicked at his opponent’s exposed thigh. The young man, surprised, used a light step to move to the side and dodge, then immediately slashed at his opponent’s leg. This time, he didn’t announce the technique’s name. The Invisible Sword Technique was a unique style that focused on attacking the opponent’s weaknesses, using a method called Tong Gui Yu Jin (Mutual Destruction). It had no fixed forms, only the application of existing techniques or the fastest way to strike or slash the opponent.

When Moxiang saw the young man’s sword coming straight at his leg, he quickly retreated and finally drew his sword, aiming at the young man’s hand. His sword-drawing technique was incredibly fast. The young man, pulling his hand back, blocked his opponent’s sword.

Clang!

Using the rebound from the clash, Moxiang quickly retracted his sword and aimed at the young man’s head. The young man, aiming at his opponent’s wrist, countered. The fight was intense, with both of them using direct, formless attacks. Surprisingly, their sword skills were quite similar. The only difference was that Moxiang’s movements were more straightforward and brutal, while his opponent’s were slightly more elegant, which made them a bit slower.

Moxiang hardly used any inner strength. The young man could match him with his own power, partly because of this. The decisive factor was the length of their swords; Moxiang’s was about five cun longer. However, the shorter sword allowed his opponent to attack faster. Moxiang used this advantage to launch a variety of attacks, and the young man was completely focused on defending.

The young man, who had only recently entered the martial world, had never encountered such a strange sword technique. Each attack found a gap in his defense, and he was breaking out in cold sweat with each move.

At first, he didn’t notice, but as time passed, he realized he was familiar with his opponent’s sword technique. He knew it well and, surprisingly, there were only two other people he knew who used this technique: himself and the late Dugu Qiubai. This realization filled him with awe. Moxiang’s skill with the sword was on par with Dugu Qiubai, his master.

They exchanged hundreds of moves in a short time. After a thousand moves, Moxiang jumped back three zhang, stepped out of the attack range, and slowly sheathed his sword.

“You’ve learned well. But don’t think you can wander the martial world with just this level of skill. Go back to your sect and train more. I don’t want to hear that a Huansha Sword disciple was killed by some no-name group...”

“Who are you? How do you know the Invisible Sword Technique?”

“Didn’t I tell you? My name is Moxiang, the deputy leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect. Many people say that the righteous and the evil cannot coexist, so don’t tell anyone about today’s encounter. Did your master pass away peacefully?”

Moxiang’s words filled the young man with a mix of awe and joy, but his face darkened when he heard the last part. Moxiang, noticing this, said solemnly,

“It seems he didn’t.”

“Yes, he suffered greatly when he passed away.”

“That’s the inevitable fate of those who follow the path of evil. To avoid the pain of dispersing one’s inner strength, one must transcend the demonic realm... But he couldn’t. Did you assist him in his final moments?”

“Excuse me? What do you mean?”

Moxiang smiled bitterly.

“In the evil sect, the closest friend often grants a peaceful death to the dying person just before the pain of dispersing inner strength begins. You didn’t know, so you couldn’t help him. It couldn’t be helped.”

With that, Moxiang walked out of the door, leaving the young man feeling helpless. He realized he had never introduced himself to Moxiang.

‘Should I follow him? But what would I say? I have no choice but to wait for another meeting. If fate allows, we’ll meet again. I should return to Huashan and train more, as my senior suggested. That was a truly terrifying sword technique. What would it look like if someone with the same inner strength as my senior used it? I’m so curious...’

The main reason he hesitated to follow Moxiang was that he had been thoroughly defeated by him, and he felt intimidated every time he was in his presence. When would they meet again?

After parting ways with the young man, Moxiang’s mood was extremely bad.

“Damn...”

The thought that if he hadn’t lost his memory, he could have saved his master from dying in pain tormented him. With his current skills, he could have easily removed his master’s inner strength without causing pain, filled him with new inner strength using the Northern Ming Technique, or even helped him reach the supreme demonic realm, allowing him to live longer. Once in the supreme demonic realm, guiding him to transcend the demonic realm would have been easy. In the worst case, he could have ended his master’s suffering with a single strike.

Because he wasn’t there, and only the young man, who knew nothing, was by his side, Moxiang’s most respected master probably suffered intensely for a long time before dying, due to his deep inner strength. Moxiang, who had grown up and lived in the demonic sect, knew this all too well, which made him even more distressed.

‘Worrying won’t change what has already happened. I need to drink until I’m numb. For my master’s sake...’

Moxiang entered a shabby tavern and started drinking heavily, determined to drink the town dry.

A few pairs of eyes watched him from a distance, careful not to be noticed.

“We finally found him, but he doesn’t seem to be in a good mood... What should we do?”

“His expression looks terrible. If we approach and say something, and he’s as temperamental as they say, we might lose our heads...”

“What did that young man say to him after a good match that left him in this state? If we capture that young man and interrogate him, we might get some answers.”

“I don’t know...”

These were the people who had been tracking Moxiang from Hubei Province. They lost his trail in a village, but by following related footprints, they eventually caught up with him. After a chase of about an hour, they found four members of the notorious Henan Five Freaks, who were known for causing trouble with their mediocre martial skills. After capturing and interrogating them, they learned that Moxiang had taken a young man and disappeared at an incredible speed.

However, this didn’t help them catch up. They were pondering their next move when they saw Moxiang carrying a bloodied young man to a clinic. It seemed Moxiang had beaten the young man and then returned to the village to treat him for some reason. Since Moxiang didn’t move from the clinic, they waited for an opportunity to meet him. This morning, they saw him and the young man, who had recovered, engage in a dazzling match and then have a conversation, after which Moxiang’s mood turned sour, and he went to a tavern.

“Since he’s started drinking, he’ll probably stay here for a while. We need to understand the situation before we can approach him. Let’s capture that young man and interrogate him. It seems to be the safest option...”

“Let’s go quickly.”

The young man was in a daze. Recently, every high-level expert he met seemed to want to capture him, which was incredibly frustrating. When he left his sect to gain experience in the martial world, he was confident in his skills, but...

“Aaaaaah!”

“Hey, you! Talk faster. What did you say to that man in black?”

They chased him down and, from the start, asked about his encounter with Moxiang. He couldn’t tell the truth because they seemed to be a group trying to harm Moxiang. Besides, Moxiang had warned him not to reveal their relationship, as he was from the demonic sect and the young man was from a righteous sect. Initially, they asked politely, but as their patience wore thin, their expressions hardened, and they eventually attacked. Unfortunately, their martial skills were far superior to his, and he was quickly incapacitated and subjected to brutal torture.

“Seems he’s not giving in easily. Brother, what about using Fen Jin Zhu Gu (Bone Separation Technique)?”

“Alright. I think that would be faster.”

The man struck a few of the young man’s meridians, and a cracking sound came from his body.

“Aaaaaah! Kill me, kill me...”

The group finally got a satisfactory answer from the young man after seven types of torture. He was almost unrecognizable, and the group started to worry. They whispered to each other.

<This is bad. If he’s almost like a senior brother to Moxiang, and Moxiang finds out we beat him, it will be very troublesome. Should we kill him?>

<Is that necessary? He doesn’t know who we are. And according to him, they probably won’t meet again. Let’s just take him back to the clinic?>

<Hmm, no need to kill unnecessarily. Alright, let’s do that.>

“Hey, guys.”

“Yes?”

The man pointed to the beaten young man.

“Take him back to the clinic where he was treated earlier. Pay for his treatment and tell them to take good care of him. He mustn’t die.”

“Got it!”

As his subordinates carried the young man away, the man muttered,

“Idiot, if you had listened to me from the start, we could have avoided this.”

Meanwhile, the young man, who had been admitted to a small room in the clinic, was being treated by an angry doctor who was frustrated by his condition. Moxiang, on the other hand, was also in a daze, but not from torture. He was drunk from drinking too much in a short time.

Gulp, gulp.

“Hah! Good, good. The world is spinning...”

No one in the tavern could understand why he was slurring his words so much. Ten empty bottles were already on the table, and he had brought a whole jar to drink from.

In fact, martial artists don’t usually get this drunk from drinking this much. They use their strong inner strength to suppress the alcohol or, if they are more skilled, expel it from their bodies. It’s hard to understand why someone would pay for alcohol if they’re just going to expel it as sweat. Most martial artists handle alcohol this way, so it’s rare to see a drunk, stumbling martial artist.

Moxiang, however, was drinking to get drunk and didn’t use either method. He let the alcohol take its course. Even with his high martial skills, the alcohol made him dazed.

After drinking five more cups of sorghum wine, he finally collapsed on the table, and the tavern owner shook his head in disappointment.

“Tsk, tsk. I’ve been in this business for a long time, but I’ve never seen someone drink like they’re trying to die.”

“Hehe, at least we got paid in advance, so no worries.”

“Tsk! If he dies, we’ll be in the red, in the red. Take him to a back room and let him sleep it off. A young man drinking like this in broad daylight... It must be a woman’s fault. Tsk, tsk.”