Chapter 647: No Sword to Draw
For the martial artist Cao Ci, it was the fist.
For the sword cultivator Ning Yao, it was the sword.
As if they were born with a mysterious and profound aura of heaven and earth.
This was not the same as Chen Ping'an's first natal flying sword, "Caged Sparrow," or Qi Jinglong's self-proclaimed "Rules," a flying sword he said he cultivated through reading. Both could create a small heaven and earth using their natal flying sword's innate abilities. The former two were a different matter entirely.
So when Ning Yao was the first to step out of the formation, holding the Sword Immortal in her hand, about to breach the enemy lines,
the originally stalled Yao clan army actually began to retreat involuntarily. This caused the frontline troops to become increasingly dense and clustered, bloated and cumbersome.
Perhaps this was the nature of all living things—they all have instincts in response to the changes of heaven and earth, just as humans sense the shifting of seasons and the change of cold and warmth.
Chen Ping'an was actually quite looking forward to seeing Ning Yao draw her sword without any restraint. He had never seen the real Ning Yao on the battlefield before.
As for the Sword Immortal that Chen Ping'an had barely tamed through countless hardships, it acted like a grumpy old man in his hands, but when it fell into Ning Yao's hands, it became as obedient as a little girl. Chen Ping'an didn't mind at all.
Ning Yao walked forward slowly, in no hurry to deliver her first strike.
The Sword Immortal in her hand shimmered with golden light, and combined with the golden Dharma robe that was already eye-catching on the battlefield, it made Ning Yao look like a supreme deity walking among mortals on the battlefield.
Seizing this opportunity, Chen Ping'an used his mind voice to ask Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo about some details of the previous battle formation. For example, the approximate numbers, appearances, techniques, and natal objects of the Dragon Gate and Golden Core realm Yao clan cultivators who were of sufficiently high rank and not severely injured. During the previous retreat, Chen Ping'an had been more focused on searching for those hidden assassin sword cultivators, inevitably missing a lot of information.
If he had asked Diezhang or Dong Hua Fu, it would have been a waste of time. Those two had been hacking and slashing, their flying swords flying wildly, and they probably couldn't even remember their approximate battle merits.
Chen Ping'an, with a rapid ripple of his mind voice, reminded everyone: "In the next formation breach, don't worry too much about killing enemies on the spot. Fan Dache and I will make up for a few strikes. Besides Ning Yao opening the formation, don't think about anything else. Sanqiu, you four, when you draw your swords, the most important thing is to use large-scale 'accidental injuries' to force those assassin cultivators to reveal themselves. I will point out their identities and positions one by one. If the timing is right, you can deal with them yourselves. Fan Dache and I will still act according to the situation, following up as a backup. If there's really no way to handle it, listen to my reminders and adapt to the time and place, striving to join forces and kill them."
Fan Dache was actually a bit nervous. He was still worried about becoming a burden to these friends. But now, after hearing Chen Ping'an's detailed deployment, he felt a little more at ease.
"Dache," Chen Ping'an said only to Fan Dache, "A heroic spirit pretended when your mind is hot—why isn't that still a heroic spirit?"
Fan Dache took a deep breath and smiled, "You're right."
Now, Dong Hua Fu's appearance was somewhere between a youth and a young man. There was a saying: only parents give wrong names, never do friends give wrong nicknames. Dong Black Coal was indeed a bit dark. He probably couldn't shake that nickname for life. Spending a thousand gold at a throw—Dong Black Coal. Never running a tab—Dong Hua Fu.
He deliberately chose the sword with the most effeminate name and a very "graceful" style, "Red Makeup," whose blade was as slender as a willow branch.
Diezhang carried "Town Mountain." The one-armed woman, the big manager, actually had a graceful figure and delicate features, yet her sword was a broad-bladed greatsword.
Dong Hua Fu and Diezhang, the most bloodthirsty, would follow closely behind Ning Yao, one on the left and one on the right, doing their best to help Ning Yao, who was the first to breach the formation, tear a wider gap in the Yao clan army.
If Ning Yao's sword strikes at the front determined the speed at which this group of sword cultivators could breach the formation, then Diezhang and Dong Hua Fu also had heavy responsibilities. If the overall killing power of the seven-person sword formation was not great enough, even if they successfully breached the formation and moved south at the fastest speed to approach the golden river guarded by the Sword Immortal, it would be of little significance to the overall battlefield situation.
Their approximate positions: Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo, who were behind Diezhang and Dong Hua Fu, were responsible for helping the two in front stabilize the battle line and kill more Yao clan on the lateral battlefield.
The formation was about to be breached.
Chen Ping'an also composed himself, sinking his mind. He had always been flying his sword just a few feet off the ground. His identity might not fool certain assassin sword cultivators, but it had a hidden use. Once those sword cultivators, wanting to stabilize the battlefield situation, used their mind voice to inform important Yao clan cultivators outside of the assassins, as long as one or two of them inadvertently glanced at the "young sword cultivator," Chen Ping'an could take the opportunity to find one or two more key enemies.
To do big business, one must be meticulous.
As the six sword cultivators each moved forward,
Chen Ping'an, who was responsible for guarding the rear, unknowingly found himself at the very back of the battlefield. He suddenly smiled.
Sure enough, Ning Yao looked best wearing that Dharma robe, "Golden Wine."
As for his previous dislike for that dandy Pu Yu's white Dharma robe, he had no memory of it at all.
Of course, any illusionary technique on the battlefield was completely useless for Ning Yao. First, the sword cultivator friends by her side were all young geniuses of their generation. More importantly, Ning Yao's own sword strikes were too distinctive.
After all, someone like Chen Ping'an, who advocated that having more skills never hurts, would use four ounces of strength to kill an enemy rather than half a pound. When he was ruthless, he was even willing to disguise himself as a woman or even pretend to be a traitor within the Yao clan. Such people were indeed rare.
Ning Yao flashed and instantly swept forward dozens of feet, slashing her sword horizontally.
On the front line of the Yao clan army, across a battlefield hundreds of feet wide, everything was cut in half by that golden sword light.
An Nascent Soul realm Yao clan cultivator responsible for overseeing the battle issued orders from behind and smashed dozens of retreating Yao clan soldiers on the front line who had lost their nerve with a single spell.
Ning Yao drifted forward in a straight line. After delivering one strike, she disdained to strike again, using only her vast sword qi to clear the way. Vaguely, it was very similar to Zuo You, the sword cultivator with the highest swordsmanship. Too much sword qi, too strong an aura—it was like an indestructible small heaven and earth sword formation. For her to strike at someone, she had to deem them worthy of her effort.
The Yao clan cultivators were unwilling—and even less daring—to just wait for death. Dozens of magical artifacts and several natal Dharma treasures were crazily hurled at the mass of sword qi, regardless of whether they would also hit the Yao clan army on that battle line. They only hoped to wear down that unparalleled sword qi realm as soon as possible. If Ning Yao was allowed to continue breaching the formation like this, the losses would be even greater, and the depletion of troops would inevitably be very fast. In a great war carried by a vast momentum, lives could be stacked to achieve results, but on certain specific battlefields, that might not be the case.
Facing Ning Yao, it was even less possible.
Anyway, just treat Ning Yao as a Sword Immortal, regardless of her realm.
Whether she was Golden Core or Nascent Soul was completely unimportant.
This was a recognized fact in the Wildlands.
In an instant, Ning Yao had directly swept across the battlefield covered with corpses. On the front line, anything touched by the sword qi was shattered, even the souls were ground up. The previous Dharma treasures and magical artifacts were either damaged or shattered, unable to hinder her advance at all. Alone with her sword, Ning Yao had already reached the heart of the Yao clan army in the blink of an eye. With one hand, she gently increased her grip on the golden-wreathed Sword Immortal, and with the other hand,
she held two fingers together, casually forming a sword talisman. The golden rays on the Sword Immortal instantly scattered in all directions. Within a radius of several miles on the battlefield, all died, except for the Golden Core cultivators who had escaped in time and those who had sacrificed a natal protective object.
Chen Ping'an, watching from afar, felt as if a golden lotus had bloomed in his heart.
In another instant, Ning Yao's figure was hundreds of feet away, swinging her sword down at a distant Golden Core Yao clan cultivator. At the same time, she looked up into the distance and said softly, "Come here."
That Golden Core cultivator, who had been frantically commanding his troops, never expected to be "so lucky" as to bear this sword alone. He immediately sacrificed a natal Dharma treasure—a weapon resembling a spear or halberd, ancient and simple, engraved with golden talismans. The Golden Core cultivator held the weapon with both hands and spun it, transforming it into a faint golden talisman disc resembling a protective mountain formation. Not only that, but a long string of pale golden cloud seal characters flowed like water backwards, covering his entire body, giving him the effect of donning a military armor pill.
With the talisman formation firmly protecting him, and wearing what seemed like a celestial armor of the divine military, the Yao clan's own physique was already tough enough.
This Dharma treasure, both offensive and defensive, was undoubtedly a top-tier immortal heavy treasure.
In the Haoran world, even Nascent Soul cultivators would covet it.
Unfortunately, when a golden line fell straight down, the talisman formation, the golden armor, and the Golden Core cultivator were all split in two.
On the ground, the still-powerful golden line carved an extremely long trench.
Breaking the talisman formation, breaking the golden armor, breaking the body—it was just a casual strike from Ning Yao.
When Ning Yao paused and appeared on that battlefield, the surrounding Yao clan army was already frantically retreating. But when she casually said "Come here," strange phenomena occurred.
Around Ning Yao, in four directions, four ancient, pure sword intents that had been wandering between heaven and earth were as if commanded, all landing straight down. The originally wispy sword intents, as if gaining life and understanding, not only appeared for the first time at the command of a later-generation sword cultivator of the Sword Qi Great Wall, but also absorbed the abundant sword qi between heaven and earth. The four refined sword intents, reaching up to the sea of clouds and deep into the earth, continuously expanded, like the pillars of a great hall.
Finally, at the four cardinal points, four great pillars of sword intent connecting heaven and earth were erected.
Then, in an instant, they split into countless extremely fine sword intents, crisscrossing and covering the entire heaven and earth.
This time, no one survived on the battlefield around Ning Yao. All the Yao clan soldiers had their bodies, souls, natal objects, and weapons all ground to a pulp.
Ning Yao swept forward again, opening up a large distance from the sword cultivators behind her.
The four wisps of sword intent converged again into lines, following her like shadows, lingering around Ning Yao.
Thus, besides the sword qi formation, Ning Yao also had sword intent.
The golden long sword in her hand truly had little room for use.
Even Fan Dache, an ally, felt his scalp tingle watching this from afar.
If Lin Junbi had the chance to see this, he would probably tell himself that his defeat was an honor, without any sadness or loss, and would only be quite happy.
In the path of the sword, what shame was there in losing to Ning Yao?
If you don't believe it, go ask Pang Yuanji, Qi Shou, and Gao Ye Hou if they have the ability to invite Ning Yao to make a move?
Looking back,
before Ning Yao became a Golden Core sword cultivator, she might have been on the battlefield mainly to practice her sword and kill enemies while also looking after her friends' safety as much as possible.
But after Ning Yao traveled through the Haoran world and returned to the Sword Qi Great Wall, in the three subsequent battles, it seemed she was only helping Diezhang, Chen Sanqiu, and the others practice their swords.
It was as if she had no sword left to practice.
Far behind Ning Yao,
the battlefield was empty. Some small-fry Yao clan cultivators who were far away, along with the unenlightened Yao clan soldiers, were easily killed by Diezhang and Dong Hua Fu, who were desperately trying to keep up with Ning Yao.
Dong Hua Fu even had the leisure to scratch his head, muttering quietly, "Sister Ning, at least leave some for us."
Diezhang, twisting her body, fiercely threw her "Town Mountain" sword, directly chopping a Watching the Ocean realm Yao clan cultivator to death. Then, without recalling the sword, she tipped her toes and flew south on her sword. The nearest wisp of sword intent to the south was still over a hundred feet away from her and Dong Hua Fu.
She turned her head and complained, "What are you mumbling about? Keep up. Soon, neither of us will be able to see Ning Yao's back."
Of course, Diezhang wouldn't complain about Ning Yao, but complaining a few words about Dong Black Coal was fine.
Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo naturally had even less to do than Diezhang and Dong Black Coal ahead of them.
Chen Sanqiu was naturally lazy and didn't mind the awkward situation of having no enemy to kill. Yan Zhuo was a bit bothered, but there was nothing he could do.
Fan Dache just kept flying forward on his sword.
At the very rear, Chen Ping'an was at most flying slightly off course, wandering around, picking up scraps here and there, with little gain.
Actually, Chen Ping'an was the most helpless. It seemed that whether he kept an eye on the battlefield or not, it made no difference. Some traces he had painstakingly spotted either fled in panic before he could warn anyone, or died if they were too slow. Still, it wasn't entirely meaningless. Since he was too far from Ning Yao, he planned to use his mind voice to speak to Chen Sanqiu, hoping to pass the message to Dong Black Coal and finally to Ning Yao: be careful underground, as at least a Golden Core bottleneck, or even Nascent Soul realm, Yao clan cultivator was finally unable to hold back and was about to make a move.
But just as Chen Ping'an was about to speak,
Ning Yao, who had been continuously breaching formations alone, finally stopped again on that distant battlefield.
She planted the Sword Immortal in her hand into the ground, gently pressed the hilt, and the golden long sword instantly sank into the earth, disappearing from sight.
She had clearly already detected the sneaky movements of that Nascent Soul Yao clan cultivator.
The ground beneath Ning Yao's feet cracked and split. The golden long sword was the first to meet the enemy. The nearby sword qi fell like torrential rain, seeping urgently into the earth. She was too lazy to waste time figuring out the exact hiding place of the hidden Yao clan cultivator.
She glanced at a few relatively capable Yao clan cultivators on the edge of the "sword formation" and said calmly, "Come again."
Another four ancient sword intents, which had been passed by countless sword cultivators for ten thousand years and sought in vain, appeared in the world because of the young woman's two words.
Together with the previous four wisps of sword intent, a total of eight ancient sword energies created an even larger sword formation cage around Ning Yao.
Within the great formation, countless died.
Even so, Ning Yao still felt it wasn't enough.
She formed an ancient sword talisman with two fingers and moved her mind slightly. The eight sword intents, as if using sword qi to form flesh and blood and sword intent as a skeleton, materialized out of thin air into eight white-robed, ethereal Sword Immortals. The eight expressionless Sword Immortals, with white robes fluttering, stood several tens of feet tall. Each reached out and grasped, forming long swords from the nearby sword qi. They all turned in unison, their backs to Ning Yao, who had commanded them to appear, and scattered in all directions, almost simultaneously drawing their swords to kill enemies.
These ancient "Sword Immortals," who had no intelligence, could not recover to their peak state. Their combat power was currently only equivalent to that of Golden Core sword cultivators, and of course, they had no natal flying swords
or special abilities.
But the combat power of eight Golden Core sword cultivators, even if they were shattered by the attacks of the Wildlands army, would simply reform from the battlefield's sword qi, endlessly regenerating, tireless, and unafraid of death. They didn't need to worry about qi accumulation. Using them to grind down the battlefield—wasn't that easy? As long as Ning Yao's mental energy wasn't too severely depleted, and the eight pure sword intents serving as the "foundation of the Dao" weren't forcibly severed from Ning Yao's mental connection by an enemy Nascent Soul sword cultivator or a fifth-tier Sword Immortal, the eight ancient Sword Immortals could exist on the battlefield forever.
"Ning girl's swordsmanship, sword intent, and sword path—if given time, and not too much time—all three can reach great heights."
This was what the old Sword Immortal Chen Qingdu had said personally.
Why was it that on the Sword Qi Great Wall, where sword cultivator talents emerged in great numbers, no one called Ning Yao a genius? Because if she was considered a genius, then Qi Shou, Pang Yuanji, and that group of young sword cultivators would all have to be lowered by one grade, not even counting as geniuses anymore.
Ning Yao.
She had always been in a league of her own.
Since the first day Ning Yao started practicing the sword as a young girl, no one of her age, or even those from the generation above who were considered geniuses, was willing to challenge or spar with her.
It was unnecessary.
The ground beneath where Ning Yao had stood was now shattered and collapsed.
Ning Yao then hovered in the air. She also turned around to look behind her, probably to see if Diezhang and Dong Hua Fu had caught up.
A few blinks later, when that Nascent Soul cultivator was found by the golden long sword, Ning Yao's figure plummeted and disappeared.
By the time Diezhang and Dong Hua Fu reached the edge of the huge pit, Ning Yao had already emerged from the southernmost end of the pit with her sword in hand and continued southward to breach the formation.
Because she had found a Jade Pure realm assassin sword cultivator.
However, the opponent chose to retreat without a fight.
Ning Yao, facing south, raised her hand and wiped a wound on her face made by a dharma blade—just a slight scratch.
Diezhang glanced down into the pit. At the bottom of the pit was a Nascent Soul Yao clan cultivator that had revealed its true form—a giant ape, probably of the ancient mountain-moving type. Its fate could be described as being dismembered. Golden sword qi still lingered in the gaps between its corpse parts.
It was clearly killed by the Sword Immortal in Ning Yao's hand, a weapon of immortal rank. The ape didn't even have time to self-destruct its golden core and Nascent Soul.
At the bottom of the pit, beside the corpse, a pure white narrow knife hovered quietly, looking like an embroidery needle compared to the huge corpse. Its blade light fluctuated, quite conspicuous.
Dong Hua Fu was about to go down to retrieve the treasure.
But Diezhang glared at him, "Are you stupid?"
Dong Hua Fu said "Oh" and quickly flew south on his sword with Diezhang.
Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo followed south along the edge of the pit. The only use for their natal flying swords and the swords they used as flying swords was to collect some battle merits from the battlefields on the left and right sides. It was better than nothing, so they wouldn't have absolutely nothing to do and look bad. They were like picking wheat ears from the ground into a bowl, one grain at a time, and hadn't even filled the bottom of the bowl yet.
Fan Dache was a bit dazed.
Wasn't I supposed to be the bait?
After reaching the southern end of the pit, Fan Dache looked back. The second manager was squatting there picking up junk, moving quickly, even showing a bit of pleasant flair.
Fan Dache was closest to Chen Ping'an, and since he was acting as bait, a little distraction didn't matter. He knew very well that the second manager had been accumulating little by little all the way south. He picked up scrap metal, magic artifact fragments that hadn't turned to dust but were scattered all over the ground, not missing a thing. So the quantity was considerable. By the time he finished going through this pit, even the quality of the Dharma treasures would be good.
Chen Ping'an flew out of the pit on his sword, his mood complicated. It didn't seem right to keep picking up leftovers like this.
It seemed those assassin sword cultivators had lost even the courage to make a move.
Chen Ping'an had no choice but to use his mind voice to remind Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo, "I guess we can't keep up. Find a chance to kill the clearly identified Golden Core cultivators. If there are Nascent Soul ones, work together to intercept them. Don't let them flee to other battlefields."
Unexpectedly, Ning Yao, far to the south, had already moved even earlier. She had the ancient Sword Immortals stop slaughtering the army on the north-south line and start searching for Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators trying to escape to the sides. Once found, she would slow down her southward breach a little and take a detour to chase and kill them.
That Jade Pure realm sword cultivator seemed extremely skilled at hiding, similar to Grandpa Nalan's style. Ning Yao didn't dwell on it; just let him hide.
Thus, Diezhang and Dong Hua Fu finally managed to catch up with Ning Yao.
Chen Ping'an scratched his head.
Then, this group of sword cultivators continued southward like this.
I guess those assassin cultivators originally thought that Ning Yao would eventually exhaust her mental energy. But they never expected that she would continue southward, always breaking formations ahead, without any sign of mental fatigue or qi depletion.
Furthermore, two Golden Core sword cultivator assassins and one Nascent Soul realm sword cultivator were successively killed. Ning Yao personally killed the Nascent Soul one, leaving the two injured Golden Cores for Diezhang and the others behind to deal with.
Ning Yao didn't even bother to pretend or lure the enemy into attacking.
If I find you, you die.
That was Ning Yao's sword.
Compared to the infamous second manager, their styles on the battlefield were completely different.
And so they continued southward.
When they approached the golden river, a Sword Immortal smiled and greeted Ning Yao.
Ning Yao hummed in response and nodded in salute to the senior Sword Immortal.
Then Ning Yao finally stopped. The seven sword cultivators, after a long time, finally gathered together.
Ning Yao looked at Chen Ping'an and asked, "Go back and kill? Diezhang, the four of you go together to another battlefield and return north. I, you, and Fan Dache will take another route. Can we?"
Chen Ping'an smiled, "Why not?"
Diezhang, Chen Sanqiu, and the other four went to another battlefield, heading north from the south, turning back to the Sword Qi Great Wall.
Following all the way, no one had to draw their swords—there was no sword to draw. It was awkward.
Ning Yao accompanied Chen Ping'an and Fan Dache, the three of them returning north to the Sword Qi Great Wall.
Fan Dache felt more and more superfluous.
Chen Ping'an stopped flying on his sword, sheathed the sword from the sword workshop on his back, and shook his sleeves.
Fan Dache was the first to fly north on his sword, but he dared not put too much distance between himself and the two behind.
After Fan Dache wisely left,
Ning Yao suddenly asked, "Being the Hidden Official, is it tiring?"
Chen Ping'an smiled, "Even if it is tiring right now, it's not."
Ning Yao hesitated for a moment, a bit awkward, but still quietly spoke her true feelings, "Anyway, when you're by my side, you can think a little less."
Then Ning Yao raised an eyebrow.
That was the truth.
What was there to be embarrassed about?
Chen Ping'an turned around, raised his hand, and gently wiped the wound on her face with his thumb. Then he pinched her cheek and said softly, "Who's to say it isn't?"