Chapter 47

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Yuan did not speak, he just raised his hand and slowly gripped the sword he was holding – at that moment, a stern aura suddenly erupted from the man who had always been aloof and cordial, and for a moment his entire body resembled a sword that had been unsheathed and released!

“Oh, so you indeed are not under the Sword Sage?” Evidently it was the first time he had clearly seen Yuan’s sword, and a hint of insight swept through Shi Ying’s eyes, “You’re using a solid sword? Is it because you have not yet reached the realm of the Sword Sage’s mastery by using Qi? Or is it…”

Before he could say another word, a bolt of lightning struck him across the face.

“Just give it a try and you’ll see!” Yuan laughed coldly in a low voice and plunged his sword forward!

Zhu Yan was stunned in disbelief, a bit overwhelmed – they… were really fighting! The two most important people in her life were actually fighting right in front of her!

“Don’t… stop fighting!” She was a little overwhelmed for a moment and shouted repeatedly, “Can’t we just discuss everything properly? Stop fighting! Stop it now!”

However, no one paid any attention to her shouts.

It was a life and death fight. When Yuan’s sword came out of its sheath, the wind that it brought up rattled through the artifacts throughout the room. As the sword emerged with increasing speed, the sound of the wind passing through the rift along the black spine of the blade, the wisp of sound whimpered and shifted, becoming more and more urgent, and in the end bordering on a ghostly whine!

The black lightning swirled around the small room and through the corridor, agile and fluid, travelling in a myriad of directions, yet, no matter how violently he attacked, it only caused Shi Ying to retreat a few steps from the room back into the corridor.

Shi Ying’s face remained composed, only lifting his hands from beneath his white robe.

It was just a simple gesture, but it caused Zhu Yan to be shocked: it was the first time in her life that she witnessed her Master using both hands to form a seal.

Standing in the depths of the dark passage, Shi Ying’s expression was austere and composed, his eyes slightly downcast as he gazed at his own hands, not even bothering to look at his opponent’s sword – and yet, every stroke of his fingertips matched the direction in which Yuan launched his blade! In an instant, invisible walls stood up in the void, deflecting the black sword thrusts back to his opponent in the nick of time!

Shi Ying’s ten fingers interlaced across his chest in various gestures, silent and swift, each movement representing an extremely powerful spell: either defensive or offensive, distant or near; sparse enough to allow a horse to turn around, dense enough to withstand the wind penetration.

Zhu Yan was completely unable to interfere from the sidelines, watching in awe. Each one of those spells required more than twenty years of practice for an average practitioner, yet her Master only needed to lift a finger? There was actually someone as powerful as a God in this world!

She watched intently as her Master unleashed a subtle spell from his fingertips, and for a moment she looked mesmerized. However, a sudden pause in the movements of the Master’s fingers, a glance back, and a bolt of lightning was released in a flash, striking down on the pathway.

“Damn it!” Shi Ying scolded in a low voice, “She escaped?!”

Who? Zhu Yan turned back in shock following her Master’s gaze and found the room empty. That Flower Girl of the Star Ocean Cloud Pavilion, Ruyi, had disappeared at some point!

In that instant, she understood – Yuan knew that he was severely wounded, yet he still wanted to brave the odds and fight the strong enemy; so, it was only to give that Flower Girl a chance to escape! He… would even give up his own life for that beautiful woman?

Suddenly, her heart felt aching and sour like hot iron had been poured into it.

Fearing that Shi Ying would immediately go after Ruyi, Yuan’s eyes shifted and his wrist suddenly descended in a flash, as the sword wind that was raging in the room suddenly disappeared. Countless shadows of millions of swords converged into one, gathering in the air in an instant!

Yuan leapt up in the air and thrust his sword down. The sword gathered all its strength, however, there was no longer the slightest sound of wind, it was like a blunt and thick hilt blade that broke through the void without a sound – the power and pressure of that sword actually made Zhu Yan, who was standing on the side, feel suffocated in her chest, and she couldn’t help but retreat three steps backwards!

“What a good ‘Cang Sheng He Gu’*!” Shi Ying’s pupils shrank as he laughed coldly, “The Sword Sage’s sect mastery, Splitting Light and Transforming Shadow, Nine Songs and Nine Questions… Where did you learned all this from? The two Sword Masters, Fei Hua and Liu Meng have no disciple, who are you again?”

As he spoke, his fingers joined together and caught the sword with a swipe. However, Yuan didn’t bother to answer his question, instead he instantly struck out three more swords in quick succession, the power of the blade being so overwhelming, leaving no room for error.

“Trying to force me back and escape with your companion? Dream on!” In that instant, he raised his voice and laughed coldly, abruptly releasing the intertwined hands on his chest, spreading his arms from side to side, his body spinning rapidly, his wide robes fluttering wildly, and finally, his hands closing again in a split second.

Index finger to index finger, interlaced at the center of the forehead.

The gesture was so familiar to her – she seemed to have seen it in the last few pages of the handwritten book. At that moment, her brain clicked: oh no! Is this, is this the… Heavenly Punishment?!

Zhu Yan’s whole body trembled, and without having time to think about it, she instantly leapt forward with a single touch of her foot!

“Get out of the way!” She tugged at Yuan’s shirt and yanked him hard backwards with all her might – there was a loud shattering sound, and Yuan stumbled backwards. With the strength of that single pull, she instantly shifted her position and stepped in front of him!

In that moment, a lavender glow had condensed at the tips of Shi Ying’s fingertips.

No bones will remain beneath the Heavenly Punishment!

“Master!” Zhu Yan exclaimed, “No… don’t!”

In a flash, she remembered that on the last pages of the handwritten booklet there was a very powerful defensive spell: the Thousand Trees – a protective spell that summons wood from the depths of the earth, using her body as a guide, and drawing endless power from the earth as long as her feet were on it. Such a profound martial art skill was something she had not yet had the time to acquire in the past few months. But at this moment, when faced with the Heavenly Punishment cast by her master, only Thousand Trees could barely stand up to it!

She didn’t care about anything else, she just tried her best to remember and her fingers drew a defensive charm as fast as they could, braving the enormous amount of hazards involved in the attempt, not caring at all about the terrible consequences if the spell would fail.

In the basement of the Star Ocean Cloud Pavilion, in a room protected from the sun, one by one, the magic trees emerged from the ground and grew in the void, quickly intertwining in a web around her. A thousand trees and ravines were competing with one another – the feeling of the six harmonies echoing together, the same force of heaven and earth was so powerful and endless that she felt a little in awe even when manipulating such power for the first time.

My goodness… had she known that the last pages of that handwritten book were so powerful, she should have learned them earlier, even if it meant skipping meals and forgetting sleep! It was too late to do something about it now.

Just as her hands were scrambling in confusion, Shi Ying’s fingers slightly closed, and the power of the Heavenly Punishment was instantly collected and completed between them! However, this was after all Zhu Yan’s first time casting the spell, so her hands were shaking and her speed was nowhere near that of her Master – without waiting for the spell to be completed, and the thousand trees to become a barrier, the ray of light had already struck down like thunder!

It was over! No bones left where the Heavenly Punishment falls!

Her Thousand Trees, only one moment away from being completed, were just too late!

In that instant, she covered her face in terror and cried out in despair, “Master!”

“Back off!” In the same moment, seeing that she couldn’t defend against the lightning, Yuan, who had been pulled behind her back, suddenly roared harshly and leapt out, stepping in front of her! As soon as Yuan pushed her away with all his might, he met the falling streak of lightning and drew his sword!

“Yuan!” She widened her eyes and shrieked out loud in shock.

However, the moment she opened her eyes, all she saw was a rolling thunderbolt descending from the dark underground above, carrying the aura of exterminating the Gods and Demons; on the other side, Yuan armed with his sword, pierced upwards, meeting the lavender light with his black blade, defiant and fearless in his intent!

She shouted out in horror, her heart and soul ripping apart as she recklessly raced forward in a single motion!

Seeing her suddenly leaping out to block, Shi Ying’s expression changed slightly, yet his wrist continued to slash down swiftly and unforgivingly!

“No!” She shouted, in a heartbreaking cry, “Please, don’t!”

The Heavenly Punishment descended from the sky, the black sword slashing into the oncoming light, like two bolts of thunder crashing into each other! The glow flared out in all directions like flames instantly engulfing the entire space – with a loud bang, her entire body was shaken and sent flying backwards, smashing heavily into the wall, spitting out a mouthful of blood with a clatter, her eyes instantly going blank. That was the temporary blindness caused by looking directly at the “Heavenly Punishment”.

“Yuan… Yuan!” She slipped to the ground, aching as if her limbs were fractured, struggling to crawl over on the floor, shouting uncontrollably, her whole body shaking with fear and anger: Master… Master he, actually killed Yuan in front of her eyes? Moreover, in order to kill Yuan, Master would go to the length as to kill her along with him?!

This… What was going on here? Why has everyone changed so much all of a sudden?

She struggled to crawl over while shouting Yuan’s name. However, fumbling all the way through in the darkness, the room’s floor was empty, in addition her hands filled with blood, although she hadn’t touched anything. Yuan… Where did Yuan go?

The power of the Heavenly Punishment is so great that if it struck frontally, there will be no bones left.

“Yuan… Yuan!” Although she knew it was hopeless, she shouted in desperation, her internal organs boiling, dragging her body to the ground and struggling to crawl, pawing at the empty ground, “Yuan! Where are you? Answer me!”

Suddenly, a foot stepped on her shoulder.

“Don’t waste your energy.” A voice came from above her head, faintly saying, “You are seriously injured, the more you move, the more your internal organs will be damaged.”

She froze for a moment and uttered a startled cry, “Master?!”

That, that’s Master’s voice! Master… he is safe and sound? Then, that means Yuan was really… She took a breath of cold air for a moment, only to shiver in pain all over her body, and her eyes went blank.

However, when the man leaned down and tried to pick her up from the ground, Zhu Yan came back to her senses all of a sudden and only felt anger burst out from her heart like a flame!

“Stay away from me!” She pushed him away with one hand and was about to release a spell towards him. However, Shi Ying’s speed was far faster than hers, and as soon as her fingertips moved, he squeezed her wrist and dragged her entire body up from the ground.

“Don’t move,” he said coldly, “or you’ll get a beating.”

She struggled desperately, and in the heat of the moment, she drew back her arm, dragged his hand along with hers, and bit him fiercely!

“…” The person who was suddenly assaulted shuddered, but did not pulled his hand out.

*The Nine Questions – 苍生何辜 – The Nine Questions is from the modern author Cang Yue’s work Mirror, and is the sword fighting style of the Sword Sage clan in Mirror, The Nine Questions of the Tongs.

Nine Questions: “What is the longevity of heaven? What are the extremes of the earth? How long does life last? What joy is there in life? What is the pain of death? What is love? Where is reincarnation? Where is destiny? What is the innocence of life?”

Nine Answers: “Heaven and earth shall live together. The earth is boundless. Life is the joy of desire; death is the misery of reincarnation. Death is the torment of rebirth. Life is a hundred years old. The true heart is right, the false heart is evil. The evil heart is wicked. Love is like arsenic. How can the world be innocent of hatred?”

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