Chapter: Learning the Sword
After Chen Ping'an returned to the Sword Qi Great Wall, he chose a secluded section of the wall, responsible for guarding about a mile's length.
Generally speaking, below the Jade Pu realm sword immortals, only Nascent Soul sword cultivators had this treatment—being able to send out their swords alone to guard a section. For example, Qi Shou, who had just broken through his cultivation bottleneck.
Qi Shou thus became the first among all his peers in this big year of sword immortal seedlings at the Sword Qi Great Wall to enter the Nascent Soul realm.
This was an ironclad rule of the Sword Qi Great Wall, and also a kind of honor.
So even Ning Yao had to cooperate with Chen Sanqiu and the others to send out swords. Pang Yuanji and Gao Yehou were no exceptions. However, for these small peaks where the geniuses gathered, the width of the wall they guarded was longer than that of ordinary Nascent Soul sword cultivators, even comparable to many sword immortals.
The reason Chen Ping'an was an exception and had not drawn criticism was that he had not broken the rules. He was not yet a sword cultivator, only a pure martial artist who had raised a few flying swords.
Plus, Chen Ping'an was willing to put himself in danger, acting as bait to actively attract the attention of certain hidden great demons. Ning Yao said nothing, Zuo You said nothing, the old sword immortal Yao Lianyun of the Yao clan said nothing, and naturally, the other sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall did not stop him.
Coincidentally, Chen Ping'an and Qi Shou became neighbors.
Qi Shou was flying his sword continuously, only slightly distracted as he glanced at Chen Ping'an. Today, that fellow's face was not covered with those messy face masks. He wore his own green shirt dharma robe, with an additional robe from a garment workshop over it, and rested a standard sword from the sword workshop across his knees. The two immortal weapons that had rendered great service when he killed Li Zhen were not yet present.
At this stage, it was the early part of the offensive and defensive battle. The many lifebound flying swords of the sword immortals were like a tidal front, at the forefront of the battlefield, hindering the demon army from the Barbaric Wild Continent. Then came the ones that slipped through, which required Earth Immortal sword cultivators to offer their swords to kill the enemy. After that, if any demons were lucky enough to survive, they would often charge past the second sword formation and be met by a swarm of flying swords from Middle Five Realm sword cultivators, raining down on their heads. This itself was a kind of sword practice for the Sword Qi Great Wall. From the Cave Dwelling realm to the Dragon Gate realm, these three realms of sword cultivators, even if their realms were not high, would become faster and faster as they grew more familiar with the battlefield and more attuned to their lifebound flying swords.
Qi Shou shifted his gaze and looked at Chen Ping'an's sword strikes.
When Chen Ping'an went out of the city to fight Li Zhen, Qi Shou was in seclusion and didn't have the chance to see it with his own eyes. He could only hear about it afterward. Even for a proud sword cultivator like Qi Shou, he admitted that it was a not-insignificant regret.
Today, Chen Ping'an's swordplay was not held back. He sent out all four flying swords at once, as if cramming for a last-minute exam. He seemed to have learned some kind of illusion technique from someone. The appearance of the four flying swords constantly shifted and changed. Creatures of the Upper Five Realm and Nascent Soul Realm could naturally see through those crude illusions with one or two glances, but for dealing with the demon army charging headlong on the battlefield, it was sufficient. After being hindered by the four flying swords, they would easily suffer, getting tricked quite badly.
There was also a little nuance: the demons that charged to the front died first under the sword, which made many creatures still charge forward but involuntarily slow their pace.
Compared to Chen Ping'an's concentrated focus, Qi Shou blocked the enemy more easily, able to multitask without affecting his own battlefield situation.
The demon army from the Barbaric Wild Continent suffered heavy casualties, but they were still far from the city wall. For a sword cultivator like Qi Shou, who had experienced three major battles, he handled it with great ease. Moreover, Qi Shou himself had three lifebound flying swords. Flying Kite was extremely fast, giving him an advantage in one-on-one fights. Heartstring was best for prolonged battles, not afraid of the demons' thick skin and tough bodies. As for the most mysterious flying sword, Leaping Pearl, it had received an excellent prophecy from a Daoist sage: "Sitting upon the stars and rivers, rain falls upon the human world." It was of the same type as the Great Sword Immortal Yue Qing's lifebound flying sword "Skylark in the Sky" and Yao Lianyun's "Deep in the White Clouds," which could create seas of clouds. These were best for large-scale damage to enemies.
Thus, although Qi Shou had just broken into the Nascent Soul realm, it was very easy for him to guard a small section of the wall. Generally speaking, the entire group of sword cultivators—whether it was sword immortals with abundant spiritual energy or Middle Five Realm sword cultivators with relatively thin spiritual energy—would only start to consider the battle truly perilous when they needed to calculate their resources carefully. At that point, dangers would arise on the wall, and more and more sword cultivators would be forced to withdraw from the wall or die in battle.
Whether it was demon cultivators who had already embarked on the path of cultivation or demon beasts that had not yet transformed into human form, as long as they were unlucky or dared to change their charging route and enter Qi Shou's territory, they would be cruelly killed by his flying sword Flying Kite.
Qi Shou used Flying Kite to kill enemies, always with cruel methods. He liked to strip the demons of their flesh and blood, exposing their white bones, making them wish they were dead.
For some relatively troublesome ones, he would use his second flying sword, Heartstring, to deal with them. The longer the stalemate, the smaller the enemy's chance of winning, because it gave Heartstring a chance to build momentum. This flying sword could strike faster than Flying Kite and could independently seek out the enemy's key acupoints on the battlefield by relying on subtle spiritual energy movements in the small domain.
Qi Shou looked at the corpses scattered across the distant battlefield. Back when he first mounted the wall to strike with his sword, he saw the same scene. In the lulls of battle, he couldn't help but ask a question: why weren't these beasts afraid of death?
A sword immortal smiled and gave the answer: No one isn't afraid of death, but over in the Barbaric Wild Continent, life is the cheapest thing. Even cultivators are the same, unless they become sword cultivators and change their fate, becoming worth a bit more, not so easy to die under the city wall.
Qi Shou still hadn't used Leaping Pearl yet. No need for now.
The offensive and defensive battle between the Sword Qi Great Wall and the Barbaric Wild Continent was never about the peerless style of a particular sword immortal's strike, nor about a certain great demon's shocking true body or divine abilities. It had always been about attrition—who could wear down whom. The Barbaric Wild Continent ground down countless lives, while the Sword Qi Great Wall ground down the spiritual energy accumulation of each sword cultivator. Whoever couldn't hold out first would lose.
In the last big year of the Sword Qi Great Wall, when sword immortal seedlings sprang up like bamboo shoots after a rain, they nearly lost everything, with young geniuses nearly wiped out. That was because the Barbaric Wild Continent almost held out until the end. After that bitter lesson, more and more cross-continent ferry boats went to the Inverted Mountain. The Nalan and Yan families of the Sword Qi Great Wall began to rise, doing bigger and bigger business with the Haoran Continent, buying up elixirs, talismans, and magic treasures that sword cultivators once looked down upon, just in case.
And thanks to the ferry boats that could make a huge profit with a single trip to the Inverted Mountain, new immortal aristocratic powers appeared all over the nine continents of the Haoran Continent, brimming with wealth. The foremost among them was the Liu clan of Aiai Continent, along with the Mountain Water Cavern of Fuyao Continent, the Qionglin Sect of Beijulu Continent, the Old Dragon City of Baoping Continent, and the Rain Dragon Sect, which served as an important hub.
Across from Chen Ping'an was a female sword immortal from Aiai Continent, Xie Songhua, who arrived at the Sword Qi Great Wall only at the end of last winter. She had not made a name for herself and was staying in a private residence left by a sword immortal between the wall and the city, the Wishful Mountain Cottage. Since she had just arrived at the Sword Qi Great Wall with no battle merits, she was only temporarily settled. Xie Songhua almost never interacted with outsiders, and she didn't show up at many lively events.
At the moment, when she unleashed her lifebound flying sword, its momentum could only be described as mediocre. The flying sword was neither fast nor slow; the sword light and sword intent were ordinary, as if just barely enough to kill enemies.
Qi Shou couldn't help but glance at the bamboo sword case on Xie Songhua's back.
She was supposed to be the net handler assisting Chen Ping'an in fishing. It was said she was only at the Jade Pu realm, which made Qi Shou a bit puzzled. If a demon took the bait and required Xie Songhua to go all out, it would surely be a big fish. Even if Xie Songhua was a sword immortal at the Jade Pu realm bottleneck, could she really avoid dragging Chen Ping'an along as the pole was pulled away by the big fish? Was this Xie Songhua one of those sword cultivators who pursued extreme one-strike killing power? There had been such strange sword immortals in the history of the Sword Qi Great Wall, but not many. They were best at one-on-one duels, preferring to decide life and death with one sword strike. If the opponent didn't die after that, it was often the sword immortal's turn to perish, body and soul. So such sword immortals on the Sword Qi Great Wall often had short lives.
From right to left, it was Qi Shou, Chen Ping'an, and Xie Songhua, each guarding a section.
None of the three had substitute sword cultivators behind them.
During this time, Fan Dache sneaked over once but didn't dare stay long. He left a jug of wine and ran off.
Chen Ping'an opened the wine jug and took small sips, always paying attention to the movements of demon creatures on the battlefield.
Unlike Qi Shou's nearly cruel and sharp methods, Chen Ping'an tried his best to achieve a single lethal strike. At the very least, each sword strike should injure the demon's fundamental body or hinder its movement. This was also a helpless situation. After the great battle with Li Zhen, he had dropped three realms. His originally quite decent spiritual energy foundation, such as the Water Mansion, could no longer be restored to its peak by merely refining Water Pills. If he used spiritual energy recklessly, like draining a pond to catch fish, it would only widen the cracks in the Water Seal that could have been repaired, accelerate the peeling of the mural depicting the Water God on the wall, and cause leakage in the small pond beneath the Water Seal. Simply put, if before the Water Mansion could hold one jin of water fortune, now it could only hold three or four liang. Once sword intent was too depleted and the mind exhausted, relying on the spiritual energy as a last resort to support each sword strike would lead to a vicious cycle. Using elixirs to replenish the Water Mansion's spiritual energy would result in heavy losses of water fortune and spiritual energy, practically wasting it. This would ultimately squander the invaluable Water Pills from the Water God Palace of the Swamp Marsh.
And that was not the most troublesome thing.
After extensive tempering, Pine Needle and Coughing Thunder, though they were only imitations from the Sword Hatred Mountain, were not lacking in sharpness. But they lacked the unique lifebound divine abilities of flying swords. To some extent, First Day and Fifteen were the same. The difference between being a sword cultivator or not, and between a lifebound flying sword or not, was as vast as the sky and earth. Beside him, Qi Shou had three lifebound flying swords, which Chen Ping'an had personally experienced. Even Gu Jianlong's flying sword, Arsenic, was a genuine lifebound flying sword of very high rank. As long as it injured the enemy, it usually killed them. Once Arsenic truly struck the opponent's body, its sword intent could penetrate the enemy's acupoints and air mansions, making it extremely troublesome.
But solving troubles was itself cultivation.
Carefully controlling the spiritual energy depletion of four key acupoints while repairing the foundations of the Water Mansion, Mountain Shrine, and Wood House, whenever the spiritual energy of a certain acupoint was about to run out—for example, the Water Mansion, where the water receded and the rocks emerged, making many flaws even more visible—he would immediately close the mansion and cease using that spiritual energy. The green-clad child servants would then become busy, acting as menders. At the Wood House, a Yin Spirit Jiezi was stationed. At the Mountain Shrine, a golden little figure assisted in patrolling. The battle was intense, leaving no time for Chen Ping'an to cultivate leisurely in the city. So he compromised, using battle to nurture cultivation. By taking this opportunity, he actively sought out every small flaw in his cultivation foundations. Even if this meant the effects of the elixirs stored in the Ning residence and the bottle of Water Pills from the Water God Palace of the Swamp Marsh would be greatly reduced, he couldn't care too much.
Killing demons on the battlefield also earned money.
Especially since the Sword Qi Great Wall had a clear rule that was very favorable to Chen Ping'an: when killing a demon of the same Golden Core realm, the reward was very different between a sword immortal and a Middle Five Realm sword cultivator. The latter's reward was far greater than the former's.
So this time, Chen Ping'an was killing demons to earn money as a second-realm cultivator.
The Hidden Officer lineage and the Confucian lineage, who served as supervisors and recorders, had no objections.
Falling in realm by one's own ability, and acting as bait by one's own ability—both sides felt this was extra income Chen Ping'an deserved.
Chen Ping'an appeared to be focused on controlling the four flying swords to kill enemies on the battlefield, but in reality, he was also paying attention to the swordplay on both sides. Qi Shou, now a Nascent Soul cultivator, struck differently from their previous duel on the main street.
As for Sword Immortal Xie Songhua's strikes, they were even more unadorned. She relied solely on the sharpness of her unknown lifebound flying sword to display killing power, which allowed Chen Ping'an to gain more insight.
After all, Chen Ping'an was not a pure sword cultivator. Controlling flying swords consumed far more mind and spiritual energy than for a sword cultivator. His Golden Body realm's physical toughness certainly helped, strengthening his soul and spirit, but it still couldn't compare to a sword cultivator's sword strikes.
And the demon army's relentless tide of death never stopped.
So Chen Ping'an had to drink wine frequently. The wine held great secrets.
Qi Shou watched with some amusement. It was really tough for this fellow to puff himself up as the second shopkeeper. Don't let the big fish not take the bait, but the rod holder collapses first.
But the young man, though his face was slightly pale, had eyes that grew brighter. Leaving aside the difficulty of sustaining the flying swords for long periods, Chen Ping'an's tenacity and the clever choices he made in handling many details still impressed Qi Shou somewhat. Although they were opponents who nearly killed each other, Qi Shou wasn't petty enough to wish for Chen Ping'an to be injured again and again on the city wall, ultimately damaging his fundamental dao path.
So Qi Shou used mind voice and said, "If you don't mind, you can deliberately let a group of beasts break through the four-sword battlefield, let them get closer to the wall. I'll just activate Leaping Pearl to harvest a wave of battle merits. Otherwise, like this, you won't be able to hold the battlefield for long."
Chen Ping'an, now only a second-realm cultivator, couldn't even send out mind voice ripples. He had to use the martial artist technique of concentrating sound into a thread to reply to Qi Shou, "I appreciate the kindness, but not needed for now. I need to be worse off to have a chance to hook a big fish. After that, even if you don't ask, I'll ask for your help."
Wasting one or two Water Pills, or even causing further damage to his four key acupoints, making his sword strikes harder—this was fine as long as he successfully hooked an Upper Five Realm demon. That would be a huge profit.
That's how the accounts should be calculated.
The female sword immortal from Aiai Continent, Xie Songhua, was, as Qi Shou guessed, indeed a sword cultivator who pursued extreme sword intent. In her life of practicing the sword, she always aimed for one strike to clear the sky and brighten the earth.
Xie Songhua was very practical. After the Great Sword Immortal chose her to be Chen Ping'an's net handler, she had an open and honest talk with Chen Ping'an. The female sword immortal came straight to the point, saying bluntly that she came to the Sword Qi Great Wall only to try to use one or two great demons as sacrifices for her sword. After she succeeded and gained benefits and fame, she would immediately return to Aiai Continent.
Chen Ping'an was somewhat relieved instead.
Qi Shou asked with a smile, "Why not ask the allied sword immortal Xie Songhua for help?"
Chen Ping'an said, "Owing a favor to a sword immortal is a debt I dare not not repay. How much to repay and whether it's enough is also a huge problem. But owing you a favor is easier to repay. This war is destined to be long. Between us, who will owe whom a favor in the end, it's still too early to say."
Qi Shou felt that this guy was as annoying as ever. He was silent for a moment, then tacitly agreed to Chen Ping'an's request. Curiously, he asked, "Right now, how much of your difficult situation is real and how much is fake?"
Chen Ping'an smiled and said, "You won't believe whatever I say, so why ask?"
Qi Shou pretended to be helpless and said, "I'm just idle anyway. As a Nascent Soul sword cultivator, I'm temporarily unmatched. Lonely, you know."
Chen Ping'an chuckled, "I can have a Nascent Soul sword cultivator and a sword immortal as my gate gods. I'm even more lonely."
Qi Shou raised his middle finger.
Chen Ping'an took another sip of wine. The wine jug was of the Bamboo Sea Cave Heaven style from his own shop, hiding secrets.
The wine in the Sword-nurturing Gourd at his waist had one Water Pill dissolved in it. He wouldn't drink that wine unless it was an emergency. The jug of wine Fan Dache occasionally brought helped replenish spiritual energy, so there was no worry for now. As for the few valuable elixirs in the fifteen storage spaces, they were more targeted, mainly to deal with the depletion of spiritual energy in the Mountain Shrine and Wood House acupoints.
On the battlefield, all kinds of strange things happened.
Suddenly, a sea of clouds covered the battlefield for a hundred li in radius. Looking from the city wall into the distance, a glint of light suddenly rose, breaking through the clouds, dragging a ray of light, and then falling back into the clouds, hitting the ground with a thunderous vibration.
There were demon cultivators who stealthily evaded the first sword immortal sword formation, then suddenly revealed their true forms. Without exception, they were clad in silver armor. Leading the charge, they could deflect the flying swords of several Earth Immortal sword cultivators before being targeted by a sword immortal and killed, while trying to create a formation that would go deep underground instead of standing on the battlefield.
The great demon Zhongguang led the Mountain Moving demons, who still revealed their enormous true forms, tirelessly hurling mountain peaks like trebuchets on a mortal battlefield in the Haoran Continent.
There was also an unknown great demon hovering at a great height, holding a flawless white jade bottle. The bottle mouth tilted downward toward the Sword Qi Great Wall's city wall, and a river poured out. The great water was like white silk but did not fall to the ground, instead colliding with the torrent of sword qi from the Sword Qi Great Wall.
There would be a great demon that stealthily moved deep underground, suddenly breaking through the earth, revealing a true body hundreds of feet long, like a flood dragon or snake, trying to destroy the lifebound flying swords of many Middle Five Realm sword cultivators. But it was instantly detected by the Great Sword Immortal Li Tuimi on the city wall, who struck with his sword and drove it back. The huge body re-submerged into the earth, trying to retreat. The flying sword chased, the earth shook, and the brilliance of the sword light underground was visible even through the thick soil, with dazzling flashes.
There were also demon cultivators scurrying around, dodging the sword immortal flying sword formation, then stopping in front of the second formation. They suddenly threw out what seemed like a handful of sand, and instantly, hundreds of tall puppets clad in bone armor appeared on the battlefield. These puppets used their huge bodies to capture lifebound flying swords. Once a flying sword fell into their grasp, it would explode. Because this happened at the edge of the two formations, the white bones and armor shattered everywhere. Earth Immortal sword cultivators might only have their flying swords' edges damaged, but many Middle Five Realm sword cultivators' lifebound flying swords would be directly pierced or even shattered.
When truly placed on the battlefield, some sword cultivators would completely forget the flow of time, or on the opposite extreme, be terrified, feeling that a day passed like a year.
Day and night alternated.
The three moons of the Barbaric Wild Continent, so familiar to the Sword Qi Great Wall, seemed to be growing brighter, as if the moonlight was drawing closer to the battlefield, especially favoring the Sword Qi Great Wall.
Qi Shou glanced at Chen Ping'an and warned, "Be careful: instead of fishing, you might be worn down. If this continues, you'll only be able to withdraw your swords once."
If it were just ordinary sword strikes to block the enemy, the strain on Chen Ping'an's mind would never be this severe.
This required Chen Ping'an to keep his heartstring taut at all times to guard against unexpected events. A great demon hidden somewhere, waiting to strike, could be treacherous. If it didn't aim to kill but simply destroy Chen Ping'an's four flying swords, that would be as devastating to Chen Ping'an.
Chen Ping'an lifted the Sword-nurturing Gourd and took a big gulp of wine, then whispered, "So it's a contest of patience and acting. If the other side doesn't dare to gamble big for a big win, and really pushes me to the edge, I'll just withdraw my flying swords and call for a substitute. I can afford to stop being bait."
On the battlefield, incomplete wandering souls were everywhere, constantly shattered by sword light. This was another kind of widespread misery.
Invisibly, as corpses piled up like mountains time and again, and were smashed down by sword immortals' strikes, pulverizing the land for hundreds of li to prevent the Barbaric Continent's formation masters from stabilizing the terrain and raising the battlefield, the bloodthirsty aura and the accumulated resentment of the demons grew thicker and thicker. Even though sword immortals and their lifebound flying swords had long-prepared countermeasures, using the unique abilities of their flying swords to roam the battlefield and cleanse that cruel aura as much as possible, as time continued to pass, it was still impossible to stop the gathering of some kind of great momentum. This made the originally clear vision of the battlefield gradually blur for the sword cultivators.
This was a struggle for the advantage of heaven's timing.
On the other hand, the demon army of the Barbaric Wild Continent charged more and more recklessly, losing their rationality, becoming less afraid of death. More and more demon cultivators, upon setting foot on the battlefield, already had a purer resolve to die.
Such generous death-seeking was not exclusive to the sword cultivators of the Sword Qi Great Wall.
So the Daoist sage sitting in the heavenly curtain pulled a strand from the white horsetail whisk in his hand and cast it to the earth. Without warning, a torrential rain fell on the battlefield, refreshing the atmosphere.
Immediately, a great demon sitting high in the clouds, like a refined lady from the Haoran Continent, with a peerlessly beautiful appearance, wore two jade bangles on each wrist—one white, one black. The two bangles, with flowing inner light, did not touch her skin but floated cleverly around her. Colorful silk ribbons fluttered slowly around her. Her flowing black hair was seemingly bound by a series of golden rings but actually spun suspended in the air.
She took an ancient scroll from her sleeve and gently unrolled it. The scroll depicted a series of continuous mountain ranges, with mountains clustering and waters flowing with a clangorous sound, as if a celestial being's divine power had moved and imprisoned the mountains and rivers within the painting, not just simple brushstrokes.
This great demon, wearing a robe of sunset clouds, smiled sweetly. She took out a seal, breathed a breath of her origin essence onto the seal script, and lightly stamped it on the scroll. The seal script burst into myriad rays of light, but the original green-blue landscape style scroll gradually dimmed.
She gently pushed the scroll away. Except for the stamped vermilion script that remained in place, the entire scroll vanished instantly.
In the sky above the battlefield, a magnificent scroll appeared, a thousand li long and a hundred li wide. Not only that, but the scroll's spiritual energy spread out, trying to block the torrential rain.
The heavy rain fell onto the green-blue landscape scroll.
On the battlefield, not a single drop of rain hit the ground.
But on the actual mountain ranges of the Barbaric Wild Continent depicted in the scroll, a rain full of spiritual energy fell.
The old Daoist waved his whisk, shattering the scroll. The scroll re-condensed, so the rain transformed from the strand of whisk hit the battlefield again, then was blocked by the scroll again, and then was shattered again by the old Daoist's whisk.
When the vermilion script in front of the woman grew dimmer and dimmer and finally shattered with a bang, she smiled charmingly, "The old immortal's gift is generous. I won't stand on ceremony."
When the woman took out the seal again, a sword light that cut through the sky came roaring. The two black-and-white bangles on her wrists and the golden rings binding her hair shot out on their own, colliding with the sword light, emitting dazzling sparks. A rain of fire fell from the sky.
Although the woman blocked that sword light, she had to retreat over a hundred li. She looked down at the bangles on her wrists. Fortunately, there was only minor wear. She stopped using the scroll to block the rain and continued to watch the battle from afar.
The one who struck from the Sword Qi Great Wall was Lu Zhi.
She remembered.
When a woman holds a grudge against another woman, it's often even more ruthless.
When Chen Ping'an had to withdraw all his flying swords at once, still no great demon took the bait. It was unexpected but understandable.
Xie Songhua and Qi Shou, without any need for verbal communication, immediately joined forces to help Chen Ping'an kill demons, each taking half of his battlefield so that Chen Ping'an could rest a bit and resume his sword strikes.
The great battle had just begun. For now, the majority of the demon army were ants using their lives to fill the battlefield. There weren't many cultivators, and compared to the previous three great battles, the Barbaric Wild Continent's assault this time showed more patience. The sword formations were layered, each ring interlocking, each responsible for its own duty. And the demon army's assault seemed to have a certain indescribable sense of hierarchy, no longer so crude. However, in various parts of the battlefield, there were occasional connection problems, as if the group of people behind the command and dispatch still lacked experience.
Sword cultivators practiced their swords; demons practiced their martial arts.
Three moons hung in the sky.
Beside the Confucian sage, an old man in Confucian robes appeared. He was looking up at the three moons.
The old man was the number one of Southern Bodhisattva Continent, the pure Confucian Chen Chun'an.
Chen Chun'an withdrew his gaze and said to the young wandering scholars in the distance, "Go help. Remember, when in Rome, do as the Romans do."
A group of young people dispersed.
The Confucian sage, also of the same line as the sub-sage, said, "There are quite a few good seeds for study."
Chen Chun'an said, "Such fine jade and beautiful gems are plenty in my Southern Bodhisattva Continent."
The Confucian sage smiled and said, "After all, this isn't the Haoran Continent. Here, if you want to have a word with the Great Sword Immortal, you have to do something."
Chen Chun'an nodded and raised one hand high.
In the sky of the Barbaric Wild Continent, one bright moon actually trembled slightly, as if being dragged toward this old man, to be eventually put into his sleeve.
A great demon sitting on a throne emerged in the air, standing between the moon in the sky and the old man on the wall.
Chen Ping'an returned to the wall and continued to strike with his sword. Xie Songhua and Qi Shou gave way and returned the battlefield to Chen Ping'an.
A tall young man in Confucian robes sat quietly nearby, not speaking, not disturbing Chen Ping'an's sword strikes. He stared at the battlefield for a long time and finally said, "Just pretend to be exhausted. Let them all in. The closer they get to the wall, the better."
Chen Ping'an did not hesitate. He controlled his four flying swords to retreat.
He allowed the demon army within his jurisdiction to swarm forward.
Liu Xianyang closed his eyes, as if entering a dream.
Qi Shou turned his head to look at the unfamiliar scholar who seemed to be sleeping deeply, then looked at the chaotic demon horde ahead.
Just as Qi Shou was about to activate Leaping Pearl.
Liu Xianyang opened his eyes.
On the battlefield under Chen Ping'an's guard, all demons died. Not a single survivor.
Even the sword immortal Xie Songhua couldn't help but turn to look at Liu Xianyang.
Because she didn't detect any ripple of spiritual energy, no trace of sword qi, and there was even no sign of any sword intent on the battlefield.
Chen Ping'an carefully watched the battlefield that had suddenly fallen silent. It was deathly still—truly dead.
Liu Xianyang himself seemed to find it unbelievable. He rubbed his chin and muttered, "Are they that fragile?"
Just as Xie Songhua and Chen Ping'an felt a faint stir in their minds.
Qi Shou said casually in a low voice, "Here it comes!"
Liu Xianyang, who carried only a standard sword from the sword workshop on his back, said "Oh." The sword on his back unsheathed itself, drew an arc, and flew away. In the air, a golden divine being of unknown origin appeared, holding that ordinary sword. As it descended toward the earth, ancient sword intents that resonated with the Dao gathered upon it. The sword-wielding divine being finally struck down, smashing a slender sword light that rose from the corpses and sped straight toward Chen Ping'an. That sword light, not far from the wall, was smashed into the ground. The golden divine being and the sword workshop's sword also dissipated in the air.
Xie Songhua's sword case behind her shot out streaks of sword light, their speed astonishing.
They eventually shattered the great demon sword immortal's lifebound flying sword deep underground.
Xie Songhua only took back half of the sword light, storing them into the sword case one by one. She stood up, turned her head, and said, "Chen Ping'an, for the near future, you'll have to protect yourself. I need some time to recuperate. If not, I won't be able to kill Upper Five Realm creatures, which is meaningless to me."
Chen Ping'an nodded.
Liu Xianyang turned and walked toward Xie Songhua, as if to take over the female sword immortal's defensive position.
Chen Ping'an wanted to say something but stopped.
Liu Xianyang, as he passed behind Chen Ping'an, bent down and patted his head, laughing, "Old rules. Watch and learn."
Ever since they met and became friends, it had always been Liu Xianyang teaching Chen Ping'an all kinds of things. They each left their hometown, parted for over ten years, and now it was still the same.