Here is the fully corrected translation, with all Chinese characters replaced by their English translations or pinyin transliterations:
Chapter 714: Two Sword Strikes
Chen Ping'an held a repaired sword immortal banner in his hand, standing atop the most towering and perilous spot of the Imitation Jade Capital.
Within his own realm, everything within Chen Ping'an's sight was crystal clear, like a mortal viewing cliffside inscriptions up close.
That girl, Sheyue, seemed to have a particular fondness for that seven-colored Nectar armor, the Nectar Armor.
On the city wall, the only "cultivator Sheyue" to appear in her true form concentrated moonlight with her natal divine ability, once again donning a strange precious armor that looked like an ancient rainbow refined into form. She raised her head to gaze at the young Hidden Officer, who wore what appeared to be a Daoist celestial robe.
The precious armor on her body shimmered with multicolored light, like the flowing ribbons of a celestial maiden in a "Wu Style" mural in a Buddhist temple.
Sheyue quietly waited for those sword-qi ripples to scatter across heaven and earth, confronting her bright moonlight everywhere, like two armies facing off, each commanding millions of troops.
Beneath Chen Ping'an's feet, the Imitation Jade Capital—towering and steep, seemingly "injuring the extreme height of heaven"—was a celestial treasure that Sheyue actually knew all too well. It came from that neighboring bright moon of the Lotus Nook Abbot, an ancient relic. It seemed that old demon daoist had given it to Tuoyue Mountain's closed-door disciple as a greeting gift to curry favor with the Tuoyue Mountain Grand Elder. After Li Zhen was defeated and died, it was picked up by Chen Ping'an, who hadn't yet become the Hidden Officer. Clearly, he had received guidance from a master and successfully refined it completely.
Was it that Daoist sage who once guarded the canopy of the Sword Qi Great Wall? But instructing a Confucian disciple to refine an item in the form of the Jade Capital—wouldn't that violate Daoist rituals?
Sheyue knew that the other party was still painstakingly searching for her true form's location, yet she still let her mind wander. No wonder Mr. Zhou always said she was too lazy.
But today, Sheyue planned to be a bit more serious, because she was indeed somewhat angry.
On the city wall, Sheyue's moonlight avatars appeared in all sorts of bizarre forms. One sword immortal after another unleashed flying swords, martial artists punched toward the Jade Capital, great demons rose in their true forms, and some charged at the Jade Capital with their massive bodies. Along the path of every existence, the sword-qi ripples from the sword immortal banner suddenly tied knots in various places, then formed a large net. The threads were the tens of millions of fine sword-qi strands from half the Sword Qi Great Wall. Obviously, to shake the Jade Capital, one first had to break through those pervasive and abundant sword-qi with their physical body, flying swords, fists, or magical techniques.
The momentum was overwhelming, and none of it was mere illusion. So Sheyue struck alone, like an army forming a battle array, jointly attacking the Jade Capital.
Meanwhile, "Sheyue" in her original appearance rode the wind, her seven-colored garment tearing through the sword-qi net as she headed toward Chen Ping'an's vicinity.
"Jade Pure Realm" Chen Ping'an smiled freely. One hand raised, he formally offered up a crystalline and mystical Five Thunder Law Seal from his palm. It suddenly grew as large as a mountain peak, then instantly sank down, perfectly overlapping with the heights of the Jade Capital.
This placed Chen Ping'an both at the summit of the Jade Capital and standing atop the seal.
The high eaves and upturned corners were like the roads of the mortal world, where a scholar rode a white ox with books hanging from its horns.
Ten thousand methods converged, lightning intertwined, and the canopy of heaven seemed to gather a heavenly tribulation.
If not on this Sword Qi Great Wall, but in any other world, those goblins, ghosts, and mountain-water yin creatures below the earthly immortal level—upon seeing this Jade Capital, this thunder tribulation, this divine figure in the sky—would probably have their livers and gallbladders shattered and their Dao hearts broken at the very first glance.
Chen Ping'an, appearing both as a Jade Capital immortal and as a "divine being," though his vision was fixed on only that "Sheyue" in her colorful armor, his mind had already been patrolling the four corners of heaven and earth.
Holding the sword immortal banner, Chen Ping'an took a step, firmly stamping on the seal. With the banner in his left hand and the index and middle fingers of his right hand pressed together, he faced the earth and gently wrote characters.
Though called a Thunder Law Seal, the thunder method—revered as the lord of all methods—lived up to its reputation as the creator of all wonders. Once this seal appeared, suspended high in the sky, the scene manifested by the technique was far from limited to lightning and thunder.
From the seal's seal-script characters, bolts of lightning emerged across the void, as if sixteen Thunder Department divine generals from the Heavenly Court simultaneously wielded their whips, lashing them down toward the mortal world.
Golden lightning bolts from all directions rapidly descended, making a slight turn before striking the great demons that were battering the Jade Capital. The moonlight shattered like fine powder, dissipating without a trace.
As for the Five Thunder Seal manifested in Chen Ping'an's palm, it was previously in the prison, where the extra-celestial demon Frostfall had guided him, and the Sewing Man, Wick Turner, had helped transfer the Five Thunder Law Seal's "cave heaven" from the mountain shrine to the peak of a "mountain" within the lines of Chen Ping'an's palm.
The seal had six faces in total, which Frostfall called the "Six Fullness Seal," also known as the "Full Moon Seal." Besides a missing section on the top heavenly seal script, one face was blank. The bottom seal script consisted of sixteen insect-bird seal characters:
"Gather the Five Thunders, Command All Methods. Sever the Five Leakages, Pivot of Heaven and Earth."
Thus, the sixteen "thunder whips" resembling ancient spirits originated from these sixteen ancient seal characters. Each insect-bird seal character on the bottom face seemed to be the central hub of a Thunder Department bureau.
The other four faces were engraved with a total of thirty-six closed-eyed spirits, none of which had been "dotting the eyes to open them." Thirty-six—the number nine carried great significance. Thus, the engraved images included Thunder Lords, Lightning Mothers, Wind Earls, Rain Masters, Cloud Clerks, Spirit Generals, Heavenly Maidens, and other officials—all bearing ancient, profound patterns.
The infinite transformations of yin and yang in heaven and earth were all contained within this mountain of a seal, all within the single palm that held it.
And the characters Chen Ping'an was currently writing were to "arbitrarily" inscribe the heavenly seal script for the seal.
In a mountain study, a fine inkstone is kept in a heaven-earth box. This Five Thunder Seal, which had fallen into Chen Ping'an's hands through a series of karmic coincidences, was originally supposed to have both a heavenly and earthly seal script.
Chen Ping'an intended to fill in the gaps for this seal, to complete the last blank face with his own inscription.
The Second Shopkeeper might not have read many books, but he had carved quite a few seals.
The moon wanes after fullness—so what? If the heart is like the moon, displaying mutual imprint, it will wax again after waning. The operation of the Great Dao itself lies in the cycle of waxing and waning.
I stood alone on the city wall for many years, yet I didn't complain to Heaven every day. I refined swords, drew talismans, practiced fists, and cultivated my heart—none of these were neglected.
I even managed to refine that three-hundred-thousand-word travelogue. Even if it had three million or ten million words, Chen Ping'an would still refine them all!
Whenever the opportunity arises in the future, I will travel the world under the alias Cao Mo.
In the path of talismans, I have also entered the hall and become a Refiner.
Around the Imitation Jade Capital on the city wall, great demons in their true forms violently shook this imposing structure, which was also "merged with the Dao" of the Sword Qi Great Wall. They let the mighty thunder whips crash upon them, their moonlight shattering and then reforming, tirelessly, seemingly without any loss. As if shaking the Jade Capital by even the slightest amount would shake Chen Ping'an's soul and Dao heart.
Even more, there were gold-body and far-traveling realm martial artist Sheyues, climbing the towering buildings and great cities of the Jade Capital, rapidly ascending to the heavens. They moved with effortless strides, like apes scaling cliffs.
And there were golden-body dharma forms whose origins Chen Ping'an didn't even know, each a hundred zhang tall, wielding divine weapons and madly battering the Jade Capital.
Chen Ping'an's state of mind stirred slightly, and he couldn't help but frown. Did this Sheyue have too much of a foundation? She wasn't that old, yet she had so many techniques. A young lady who appeared foolish but was actually full of tricks—wouldn't she have no friends walking the martial world?
You may have countless techniques and divine abilities, but I have my own little bit of expertise.
Chen Ping'an forcefully thrust the sword immortal banner in his hand toward the earth. Like a whirlwind, it descended from the Jade Capital toward the mortal realm. The banner and the seal were both refined items, so naturally there was no obstruction. The banner passed through in an instant, disappearing in a flash.
It landed in an imitation great city of the Imitation Jade Capital.
Once the sword immortal banner was driven into the ground at the center of the city, the great standard stood tall, and troops assembled.
The sword immortals contained within the banner emerged one by one, walking out of the banner, then shooting out like meteors, either riding flying swords or holding them, tasked with intercepting those martial artist Sheyues who swarmed up the Jade Capital like ants.
The momentum of these sword immortals' attacks was indeed a bit more imposing than when Li Zhen first offered up the banner.
More of Chen Ping'an's attention was still on this matter of completing the seal.
In truth, Chen Ping'an had already refined four characters into this seal as its heavenly seal script.
But he had never truly poured his heart into it, never employed the mountain-opening method from the *True Script of the Cinnabar Book*.
So the characters he was writing now marked the first complete manifestation of this Five Thunder Law Seal.
Under Chen Ping'an's hand-written characters and his intent's guidance, fragments from the seal's surface flew like sparkling snowflakes, eventually "revealing the stone beneath the water"—four characters emerged.
When the characters first appeared, they were not large, only about the size of a palm. Compared to the seal's top, which was as vast as a mountain platform, they were negligible. Chen Ping'an looked down at those four characters. The first oddity of this talisman was that, after enduring hardships and heavy losses in the past, Chen Ping'an this time chose a novel approach: he wrote the characters in reverse order. Combined with a Jade Pure Realm cultivation level temporarily borrowed from heaven and earth, he finally managed to complete the talisman with ease, as if in one smooth motion.
Seeing those four characters, Chen Ping'an squinted his eyes, genuinely delighted.
It seemed that the Great Dao was lofty and distant, and certain exalted existences were far beyond reach. But since Chen Ping'an could write these four characters today, it proved that continuing on this path for ten years, a hundred years, or a thousand years would only bring him closer to those existences than when he was that sword-carrying youth punting a single-leaf boat. He was approaching them every day. One day, traveling far across the world, he would no longer need to look up at the true Jade Capital.
One day, riding his flying sword on a distant journey to the Azure Underworld, he would be level with the summit of the Jade Capital.
The colorful-armored Sheyue, who had been flying toward the high Chen Ping'an and the Five Thunder Law Seal, suddenly changed her mind. In a single step that shrank a thousand li of mountains and rivers, she headed toward the sword immortal banner, which served as the central pivot of the formation.
Chen Ping'an, who had already completed the seal in the sky, smiled and also learned from Sheyue to divert his attention.
Choosing to merge with the Dao had cost him his yin and yang spirits, heavily damaging his Great Dao. But Chen Ping'an didn't feel too disappointed about this.
I am still me.
Chen Ping'an is still Chen Ping'an.
I have long dwelled within my own heart, always at home wherever I am.
The cultivator Sheyue's armor, which was more like a dharma robe—the ancestral Nectar Armor of the military strategists—made Chen Ping'an reassess her. It was an unexpected addition to his knowledge. Zhong Kui had once said that among these seven suits of Nectar Armor, including the Western Peak, the most marvelous aspect was that they possessed certain "natal" divine abilities similar to sword cultivators.
And when Sheyue's precious armor was just approaching the city where the sword immortal banner stood, seven celestial maidens transformed sequentially from seven ribbons, eventually forming a rainbow that hung in the sky. Starting from where Sheyue rode the wind, it finally landed on the sword immortal banner and slammed into it. The rainbow light collided with the banner. The light was dazzling, radiance splashing everywhere, but the momentum was like a great river entering the sea—continuous and unending. The qi around the banner surged like waves crashing against reefs, mingling spiritual qi and sword qi. The sword immortal banner began to tremble.
After learning from Sheyue's divarication, a "Chen Ping'an" also stood atop the banner. One hand behind his back, the other forming a hand seal before his chest, he smiled and looked through the rainbow at the woman riding the wind toward him. He said, "My little Jade Capital has five cities and twelve towers, but only this gate remains closed. Miss Sheyue, please go enjoy the scenery elsewhere."
This Chen Ping'an was wearing a green Daoist robe.
His face looked somewhat older than the real Chen Ping'an.
This scene, these words.
Any Daoist immortal in the Azure Underworld probably wouldn't like to see or hear it.
Sheyue didn't know the true identity of the "middle-aged Daoist" apparition, but even if she did, she probably wouldn't care.
As for the matter of transgressing, she herself had done plenty.
For example, when she reached the apex of the rainbow, she transformed into the figure and face of the Lotus Nook Abbot and pressed down with her hand.
Above the great city, the clouds coalesced into a jade-white palm. In the center of the palm was a lotus leaf pond bathed in moonlight, with green lotuses nestled together. Then, in an instant, countless white lotuses bloomed within the lotus pond in the palm.
The middle-aged Daoist Chen Ping'an glanced sideways at the descending palm and the blooming lotus pond, smiling, "The Great Dao is supreme; its greatness lies not in physical size. Too small, still too small."
The Daoist kept one hand behind his back, flicked his fingers, and a single golden speck slowly rose.
The lotus pond plummeted with thunderous momentum, as majestic as a mountain pressing down.
Each time a lotus bloomed in the pond, a beam of snow-white light fell.
The middle-aged Daoist's golden speck drifted and wobbled, like a bird flapping its wings in the wind and rain, charging ahead to meet that torrential rain of snow-white.
The Daoist Chen Ping'an smiled and said, "Urgent as the law, go!"
The single golden speck vanished abruptly and reappeared on the back of the large, downward-pressing hand.
A dragonfly had long since alighted there.
Whether it was the mutual agitation between the rainbow light and the sword immortal banner, or the mountain-crushing momentum of that giant hand, the emergence of this golden speck carried no grand celestial phenomenon whatsoever. Logically, it should have been utterly useless.
Yet the moment it stopped on the back of the hand, the snow-white rain reversed course. The lotus blooms that were about to bloom ceased, and the descending hand retreated.
The river of time itself flowed backward.
It was as if this was a contest of Dao techniques between the middle-aged Daoist and the Lotus Nook Abbot.
Sheyue shook her wrist, dismissing the divine ability she had learned after just a few glances, causing the giant hand in the sky to dissipate.
She still focused her mind on shaking the sword immortal banner. Pure martial artists weren't the only ones who could overcome complexity with simplicity; cultivators could too.
This cultivator Sheyue stopped in her tracks and looked around.
Lofty beyond measure, towering to the heavens, five cities and twelve towers.
Wave after wave of lightning and thunder, carrying the majestic might of the Heavenly Dao, pounded the earth within the Jade Capital's domain, repeatedly dispelling the moonlight of the great demon true forms.
But the sword immortal banner was suppressed by the rainbow light, and the number of sword immortals emerging from it was too few. This made it impossible to kill the ascending martial artist Sheyues; the sword light could not finish them, and the sword immortals could not cut them all down. The martial artist Sheyues' ascent had already covered more than half the distance.
Then Sheyue sensed something unusual.
It was the first time she had felt this.
That Chen Ping'an had finally started using his trump cards.
If Sheyue guessed correctly, he had activated one of his natal objects!
Within the Jade Capital, five tall martial artist Chen Ping'ans appeared: one in straw sandals with a saber at his waist, one carrying a sword on his back, one with a gourd of wine hanging from his waist, one with a jade hairpin in his hair, and one dressed as a scholar in blue robes.
They simultaneously appeared in the towers and cities of varying heights in the Jade Capital, each wearing one of five differently colored garments.
They casually killed those martial artist Sheyues whose cultivation wasn't high enough.
"Too slow! Your punches are far too slow!"
"Like paper!"
"When a martial artist asks for a fist exchange, the fist is on the opponent's body. Don't just scratch lightly!"
The five martial artist Chen Ping'ans punched relentlessly, shattering the bodies of one martial artist Sheyue after another, twisting off their heads, or making a straight hand-knife motion that split a Sheyue neatly in two.
What a delicate-handed Second Shopkeeper!
Then a warm, mellow voice fell into Sheyue's lake of consciousness from above.
"Miss Sheyue, you and the Lotus Nook Abbot have long been neighbors, but I have never exchanged a single word with that Daoist sage of the canopy. Why is it that your Dao techniques are so light and fragile, unable to withstand a single blow?"
"So, you see, finding a scripture teacher is not as good as finding an enlightened master. How about you apprentice yourself to me and study the Dao? I can first take you on as an unregistered disciple. My standards for taking disciples have always been very high. And as for my ability to transmit the Dao, it's actually quite decent."
"The appearance of your techniques is nothing more than taking the vast lunar po of a bright moon, and as the master, you divide and entertain guests. The fundamental root of the Great Dao should be unity. Why not, Miss Sheyue, be sincere and bring some true divine ability as a gift for entering the door?"
Sheyue found this person so annoying. He was indeed quite capable, but he talked far too much nonsense.
She had never been so annoyed by anyone.
Perhaps even two Jiang Shangzhens chasing after her across ten thousand li with a single willow leaf couldn't compare to the annoyance of this Chen Ping'an.
And the Chen Ping'an standing at the highest point suddenly stamped his foot heavily on the last two characters of the heavenly seal script he had written—characters that were actually the first in the talisman.
The characters he had written earlier were:
Order, Decree, Settle, Land.
So the complete talisman was "Settle Land Decree Order."
Thus, Chen Ping'an stamped heavily on the characters "Settle" and "Land," and with a grand wave of his hand, he laughed, "On your way!"
The characters "Settle" and "Land" first went to the upper left and lower right corners of the seal, while "Decree" and "Order" went to the other two corners.
The Six Fullness Five Thunder Law Seal was finally complete, without any gaps.
Sheyue's heart trembled slightly; she knew something was wrong.
That Five Thunder Law Seal, like the Thunder Department's heavenly gate opening wide with radiant light, crashed down to the ground at an incomprehensible speed, aligning with the city wall and the Dao.
This caused nearly half of Sheyue's apparitions to be simultaneously trapped within the four characters "Settle, Land, Decree, Order" that covered the four quarters of heaven and earth.
The cultivator Sheyue, standing atop the rainbow, also realized that only now did Chen Ping'an employ the fundamental means of merging with the Sword Qi Great Wall—severing heaven and earth.
At the same time, he also offered up those two sixty-year-cycle flying swords, whose names were unknown for now but whose approximate divine abilities were known.
Three separate realms, large and small, imprisoned half of Sheyue.
Sheyue sighed softly. Indeed, annoying people all had even more annoying tricks.
She had long known about the heavenly restrictions of the Sword Qi Great Wall and the young Hidden Officer's natal flying sword, and she had prepared for the worst.
But she never expected that this Five Thunder Law Full Moon Seal, which anyone would normally use to increase offensive power, could be turned into a prison by Chen Ping'an with just a few extra strokes.
A martial artist Sheyue who had just begun to climb the Jade Capital—not the cultivator Sheyue in the seven-colored armor—took charge of gathering all the moonlight, turning back into a round-faced young woman in cotton-padded clothes.
She was already within the miniature realm of the flying sword "Caged Sparrow."
The seal hit the ground, the thunder light vanished, and the world turned dim and obscure.
Like the chaos before heaven and earth were separated.
Even the towering Jade Capital, the sword immortal banner, the middle-aged Daoist, and the five martial artist Chen Ping'ans all disappeared.
The young man in the bright red dharma robe, holding a narrow saber and tapping it gently on his shoulder, slowly descended from the sky to the city wall, his smile radiant. "Even if I still can't completely kill Miss Sheyue, I'll still leave a piece of Miss Sheyue here on the city wall."
The young Hidden Officer spoke polite words.
But within this sword-qi-laden miniature realm of Caged Sparrow...
Except for the path where Chen Ping'an descended, where the flying swords dispersed on their own to make way for the bright red dharma robe, dense arrays of flying swords filled the rest of the realm. Ring after ring, layer after layer, all sword tips pointed directly at Sheyue.
Within ten zhang of Sheyue, moonlight flowed like water, blocking those flying swords.
Sheyue asked doubtfully, "You arbitrarily altered the purpose of this Five Thunder Law Seal. Don't you feel regret that doing so will cause this seal, which had the potential to become a celestial weapon, to not only halve its offensive power away from its perfect state, but also lose its chance to become a clan-head-level transmission seal?"
Chen Ping'an blinked, seeming to want to say something but stopping, as if to say Miss Sheyue's question was too big and too difficult to answer.
Sheyue asked curiously, "Isn't it?"
Chen Ping'an stopped tapping the saber and shouldered the narrow saber Zhan Kan, complaining, "Miss Sheyue, you and I hit it off. I don't allow you to think so little of yourself. Isn't half a Sheyue, or even a small piece, worth more than a clan's transmission seal?"
Sheyue felt a bit self-reproachful, saying, "Your talisman techniques are too strange. I never imagined a seal prohibition could be so bizarre."
Chen Ping'an suddenly asked an even stranger question, "Can self-reproach kill a person?"
Here we go again!
Sheyue raised both hands and slapped her cheeks hard.
Without Chen Qingdu sitting on half the Sword Qi Great Wall, could a Jade Pure Realm Chen Ping'an, with all his bizarre methods and interlocking schemes, really stop a bright moon from traveling far away?
Chen Ping'an hung Zhan Kan at his waist, withdrew his smile, and suspended himself in midair. With the index and middle fingers of his left hand pressed together, he gently pressed against empty space on his right.
Finally, a faint light appeared, like a single lamp flame.
Chen Ping'an slowly moved his two fingers from right to left.
His eyes narrowed, staring intently at that single flame. It became a beam of light, then grew brighter and brighter, and eventually increasingly resembled a sword.
Within his personal miniature realm, a small golden figure gently grasped the sword hilt. Riding a fire dragon, it went all the way to Chen Ping'an's lake of consciousness, looked up at the sky, where a moon hung suspended.
And behind Chen Ping'an stood a towering golden spirit—it was Chen Ping'an's golden-body dharma form, but wearing a Daoist robe, with a middle-aged face.
The four characters of the four quarters gathered together.
A young Chen Ping'an with a jade hairpin in his hair stood on two of the characters, his smile confident, almost arrogant. He had the heroic air of a scholar who said, "If not me, then who?"
The straw sandal youth stood on the characters "Settle Land," a white jade hairpin in his hair, and a water character seal hung at his waist.
First, using the false Jade Pure realm of merging with the Dao, he alone wandered here, thinking alone, murmuring alone, coming and going alone.
Ascending to the martial artist mountain peak realm through a broken golden core, on this city wall he formed his golden core one last time, eventually becoming one of "us" in the eyes of those mountain immortals.
He had thoroughly memorized a fist scripture, *The Manual of Shaking Mountains*; a talisman scripture, *True Script of the Cinnabar Book*; and a frankly titled book, *Orthodox Sword Techniques*.
He still had one open aperture that had not been used for the grand refinement of a natal object.
He still had a "return to hometown."
The setting sun shines far away; flowers bloom on the path as I slowly return home.
Around Sheyue, the moonlight grew more brilliant, the lunar essence more intense.
Layer after layer of the flying sword formation, formed from her natal ability "Well-Moon," shattered on the spot after being coated with a layer of moonlight. Sheyue's figure was shrouded in moonlight, like a miniature moon growing stronger, ascending to become a great moon.
But Sheyue suddenly frowned deeply. Sword formation after sword formation had countless flying swords crushed, but in the unseen, her opponent's destroyed swords—yet the true "sole" sword seemed to be secretly refined through this very natal moonlight!
Sheyue immediately stopped that thought, abandoning the idea of forcefully breaking through the formation with moonlight, opening three layers of restrictions in succession before leaving.
Even if Chen Ping'an was now a Jade Pure realm sword cultivator, how strong could one sword strike be? In fact, were these millions of pointing flying swords truly aimed at the real "Sheyue"?
She began to gather her moonlight, making it more condensed and intense around her.
Try it? Try killing her!
Chen Ping'an suddenly reached out and grabbed the sword hilt, holding the sword horizontally before him.
The spirit behind him made the same motion, identical.
Sheyue, do you really think I don't know where you're hiding?
I consider you a beast of the Barbaric Wild.
Don't you treat me like a human being either.
Come before me and face me as an enemy. Please be careful.
One sword strike to cut the moon in my heart.
Please reveal yourself.
Another sword strike to cut your true body.
Please go and die.
I have a question to ask with my sword. Let heaven and earth answer, starting from the bright moon.
---
That Sheyue, having plucked the moon from the sky and returned to the mortal world, muddleheadedly charged straight at the opposite city wall, which annoyed Li Zhen. Now, he couldn't beat that girl, and in terms of background and foundation, she wasn't inferior either.
Li Zhen could only exchange lives with Sheyue in the mortal world at his peak. Her round face had long ceased to be endearing; her indifferent, "don't bother me" attitude, which she displayed toward everything, had once made Li Zhen envious to the point of jealousy.
Li Zhen immediately flew on his sword to near a gray-robed figure on the cliff edge, complaining incessantly, "Why didn't you stop her? Just because destiny favors her and she's exceptionally gifted, does that make her so great? Just because she can pluck a moon from the sky, can she arbitrarily break the rules of the Sixty-Year Cycle? If our Hidden Officer catches her and chats her up endlessly, won't all our hard work be ruined in an instant?"
At this point, on the half of the city wall where Li Zhen and Dragon Lord stood, almost all of Tuoyue Mountain's Hundred Sword Immortals had already rushed to the Hao Ran World. Li Zhen was still dawdling here. As the Grand Elder's closed-door direct disciple of this world, he had thoroughly disgraced Tuoyue Mountain. When a senior brother of Li Zhen passed by the Sword Qi Great Wall, he didn't even greet Li Zhen; he simply flew over the city wall.
Dragon Lord condensed a blurry form from tens of millions of fine sword-qi strands. The old man raised his sleeve, pointed a finger at the single bright moon remaining in the sky, and said, "There's still one left. If you have the ability to pluck it, I'll let you wander the opposite city wall too. Do whatever you want."
The Hundred Sword Immortals of Tuoyue Mountain were, of course, the undisputed darlings of the Barbaric Wild. But above them, there was a secretive handful of people, young but exalted in status, not recorded in the Sixty-Year Cycle.
Besides this round-faced girl that Li Zhen kept nagging about—the mistress of the bright moon in the sky—there were also Fei Ran, Yu Si, Jun Tan, Dou Kou, and others.
Li Zhen sighed, "Dragon Lord, Dragon Lord, senior, senior. You and I have been friends for tens of thousands of years; we should cherish that. Instead of protecting my Dao, you say things that hurt our feelings. A jar of old wine—how many big gulps can you take before it's gone? Keep a little leeway in everything, and genius will never be at a dead end."
Plucking the moon down to the mortal world.
In the past, the Lotus Nook Abbot, who had refined half the lunar po of a moon, could barely manage it, but he didn't dare because of Tuoyue Mountain's existence. Of course, it would have been meaningless anyway. Having the moon not in the sky—trading earthly advantage for heavenly timing—was still a losing proposition, damaging one's Dao cultivation. The Hao Ran World had many cave heavens and blessed lands, surpassing all other worlds. The Lotus Nook Abbot was ambitious, attempting to unify the moons in the sky from various places, so that the old demon Daoist could merge with a portion of heavenly timing and Dao, manifesting as "Heavenly Dao" in his true form—not a god, but surpassing gods.
Legend has it that before the great war, Zhou Mi visited the sky and sat in discussion with the Lotus Nook Abbot. Zhou Mi laughed in the moon, saying, "Why must this year lose to the past? Why must today's people lose to the ancients?"
But alas, romance is always scattered by wind and rain. It's a pity that the Lotus Nook Abbot couldn't even catch a glimpse of the bright moon of the Hao Ran World. It cannot be said that he was ambitious but incompetent; it was simply that Dong San'geng's sword strike was too domineering.
Old Man Dong's feat was not only in slaying the Lotus Nook Abbot, a throne-level great demon, but in thoroughly ruining a part of the heavenly timing and qi fortune of the Barbaric Wild.
It was like smashing a Grain Rain Coin into a pile of Snow Coins. Even if the Snow Coins all fell into Tuoyue Mountain's money pouch, the difference in value was a real loss for the Barbaric Wild.
If Tuoyue Mountain wanted to reshape a complete moon and rehang it in the sky, it would be another huge expense.
Though Dragon Lord allowed that round-faced girl in cotton clothes to land on the opposite city wall, he had been keeping an eye on the commotion over there. If Sheyue made the slightest overstep, don't blame him for showing no mercy with his sword.
One of the top ten young talents of several worlds, whose Dao was destined to be lofty and distant—certainly extraordinary. But in the eyes of an ancient sword immortal like Dragon Lord, looking at these spirited young juniors was merely like glancing at his former self, nothing more.
Compared to the inattentive and always slacking Li Zhen, Sheyue had sufficient cultivation and unique divine abilities. Thus, she could break through layer after layer of restrictions, entering as if into an unguarded land, to meet that young Hidden Officer.
One had just returned from his homeland to his own; the other liked to play guard dog for others.
A pair of young men and women from different homelands but similar age, coincidentally both among the top eleven young talents.
Li Zhen asked, "Are they chatting or fighting?"
Dragon Lord said, "A lone man and a lone woman, dry firewood and blazing flame. Do you believe it?"
Li Zhen grinned cheekily, "Hurry up and open the restrictions. Let me have a look. I want to see with my own eyes. See if they really set off sparks. I'll make a divine immortal painting and find someone to send it to Ning Yao. Then maybe Chen Ping'an won't be killed by Liu Cha first, but by Ning Yao. Wouldn't that be wonderful? When Ning Yao strikes with her sword, the Hidden Officer surely wouldn't dare to fart, he'd just stretch his neck obediently. That's the one thing about the Hidden Officer that I admire most."
Dragon Lord glanced at this increasingly unfamiliar "Guan Zhao" and shook his head, "On this reunion between you and me, there is only one thing I admit you're right about: you are indeed more pitiable than Chen Ping'an. You are no longer that Guan Zhao. At least when Chen Ping'an stays here as a guard dog, no one finds it laughable. Perhaps even Fei Ran and Muji and the like hold some respect for him."
Dragon Lord looked up at the sky.
In the past, three people with three swords, cultivating and climbing together, asking questions of the heavens with their swords.
In the end, their Dao diverged at that high mountain in the Barbaric Wild.
He, Dragon Lord, did not actually die at Tuoyue Mountain. His heart died the moment Chen Qingdu said he was going to make a trip to Tuoyue Mountain.
The reason he was still willing to go to Tuoyue Mountain with his sword was to give an explanation to all his fellow Daoists who had become prisoners.
Chen Qingdu died once in the battle at Tuoyue Mountain, and then died again here.
What about this Guan Zhao? He also died once at Tuoyue Mountain, and then once more outside the city wall, losing to Chen Ping'an. In Li Zhen's body, the remaining trace of Guan Zhao's spirit on the Dao heart was probably truly dead.
Dragon Lord almost never asked the same thing twice, but today he made an exception for Sheyue, and then an exception for Li Zhen again, "In your final battle with Chen Ping'an, what exactly did you see through the natal divine ability of that flying sword?"
Li Zhen smiled, "Someone who is not Guan Zhao, someone who does not resemble Dragon Lord. And you still pity me."
Dragon Lord changed the question, "That one on Tuoyue Mountain—did he see the same result as you?"
Li Zhen thought for a moment, "I don't know if my master knows or not. Because I myself don't know anything at all."
Dragon Lord said no more.
This Li Zhen truly deserved to die.
In the future, consider it as Dragon Lord seeing Guan Zhao off on his final journey.
Li Zhen seemed either unaware of Dragon Lord's intent, or didn't care, and simply persisted, "Dragon Lord senior, please open the restrictions. Practicing swordsmanship is so boring."
Unexpectedly, Dragon Lord actually opened the mountain-water restriction of the Sixty-Year Cycle.
Li Zhen let out an "Aiyo wei," and clicked his tongue, "The Jade Capital! Quite impressive. The Hidden Officer has quite a grudge against the Azure Underworld, doesn't he? This Jade Pure realm technique is truly remarkable. Can't offend, can't offend."
"Look, look, the Hidden Officer is starting to beguile people again. Luckily it's Sister Sheyue, who doesn't overthink things. If it were Sister Liu Bai, she would definitely fall victim."
"Dragon Lord, you're of a higher seniority and have broad knowledge. Do you know where Sheyue's true body is? Can the Hidden Officer's dog nose smell it?"
Dragon Lord listened to Li Zhen's chatter and, for once, thought of some old memories he didn't want to recall.
Chen Qingdu's natal flying sword, Duckweed, was shattered at Tuoyue Mountain long ago.
Hence the later saying, "A wind rises at the tip of a duckweed leaf," and the phrase, "A single leaf of duckweed returns to the sea."
Dragon Lord's natal flying sword, Great Ruins Immortal Grave.
Guan Zhao's natal flying sword, River of Time.
Thus, on an old calendar spanning ten thousand years, on its front pages, was recorded: "Sword cultivator Guan Zhao," whose path of cultivation was the most arduous, facing the most opposition from ancient spirits.
His friends Chen Qingdu and Dragon Lord guarded Guan Zhao's Dao the longest. Just the longest.
Because the sword cultivators who guarded him the most were those deceased ones, buried in the dust of history.
There had been several sword cultivators of extremely high achievement, whose sword techniques were so exquisite, whose sword intent was so vigorous, and whose sword strikes were so magnificent that they could stir ripples in Dragon Lord's heart even after ten thousand years, when he occasionally recalled them.
It is hard for later generations to imagine that Chen Qingdu's talent, when he first started practicing the sword, was not the best among the many sword cultivators rising like comets that fell just as quickly. In fact, it could be said to be ordinary. But Chen Qingdu's karmic opportunity was decent, and in the end, he managed to seize it and hold it firmly, gripping that opportunity like a sword tightly in hand.
But with Chen Qingdu's stubborn nature, for ten thousand years, he probably would not have been willing to confess this to anyone.
Seas change, mulberry fields shift, houses in the sea accumulate shells, and in old age, people become forgetful.
Li Zhen stood on tiptoe, peering at the battlefield over there, and sighed, "These two really can fight. All sorts of tricks. Makes my eyes blur."
Endless techniques, a mishmash of methods, tit-for-tat across all battlefields.
Li Zhen suddenly asked, "Chen Ping'an seems to have used his Jade Pure realm cultivation from the start. That's not like our Hidden Officer's style. Is this fight just going to be a big thunderclap with little rain?"
The thunder was indeed huge.
That Five Thunder Law Seal suspended high above the Jade Capital—its sixteen earthly characters each contained the true meaning of Daoist techniques, with spirits wielding lightning, fiercely beating the earth.
It made Li Zhen feel a bit dazed, as if sword cultivator Guan Zhao had returned to an ancient battlefield.
Li Zhen shook his head, dispelling this utterly meaningless thought.
Li Zhen said regretfully, "What a pity it wasn't Liu Cai. If it were Liu Cai, with those two natal flying swords, plus a heavy treasure borrowed from Tuoyue Mountain, even if our Hidden Officer was extremely cautious, he would still lose badly, wouldn't he?"
Dragon Lord sneered, "You like to pin your hopes on others. You're no longer Guan Zhao, and now you don't even want to be a sword cultivator?"
Li Zhen said plaintively, "Dragon Lord, what's wrong with you? Every time you talk to me, you're so sarcastic. Why don't you go test your strength against the Hidden Officer?"
Dragon Lord was still watching the battlefield over there and casually gave an answer, "I can't win with words. Why bring humiliation upon myself?"
Li Zhen was speechless.
On the opposite city wall, two figures suddenly vanished.
Li Zhen laughed heartily, "Good Hidden Officer! He's finally can't hold back and brought out his killer move. Sister Sheyue is too arrogant. Once she falls into the trap, it'll be hard to get out."
Dragon Lord said, "That Five Thunder Law Seal was a gift from you."
Li Zhen smiled, "If Sister Sheyue wants to call me to account, she'll have to survive first."
Dragon Lord said, "Having crawled out of the well and seen the sky, now you want to be a frog at the bottom of a well again. Guan Zhao is indeed the same kind of fool as his friend Chen Qingdu."
Li Zhen suddenly changed expression, no longer having any mind to banter with Dragon Lord.
Dragon Lord sensed something amiss even before Li Zhen did.
In an instant, Li Zhen was knocked off the city wall by the impact of sword qi.
Li Zhen was first stunned, then hugged the back of his head, letting his body float and fall, laughing heartily, "Dragon Lord draws his sword to help someone—what a rare spectacle!"
Dragon Lord reached out and grasped his sword, revealing his dharma form. Heavenly and earthly phenomena manifested; sword qi swept across, shattering thousands of li of cloud sea. Dragon Lord's entire body of sword qi and myriad ancient sword intents seemed to initiate a struggle over the Great Dao.
Not only did Li Zhen dare not land casually, but he was also humiliated, hastily offering up a heavy protective treasure, doing his utmost to resist those sword intents and qi that held no regard for any Tuoyue Mountain direct disciple. The remaining Tuoyue Mountain sword immortal seeds on the city wall, whose talents and opportunities were inferior, had it even worse. One by one, they offered up their natal flying swords to protect themselves.
Dragon Lord struck with full force, slashing his sword toward the opposite city wall without any reservation.
Otherwise, that Sheyue would suffer severe damage to the root of her Great Dao. Dragon Lord didn't care about that—she brought it on herself—but he would never let Chen Ping'an gain any benefit to his Great Dao!
Earlier, letting Sheyue go to the city wall, whether for casual chat or Dao questioning and combat, was just Dragon Lord throwing a final meal to a stray dog.
After Chen Ping'an struck the first sword in his heart...
The bright moon in his heart shattered into pieces.
Sheyue's figure drifted within the heavenly prison. Even if not all of Sheyue, she was still a caged sparrow.
Then the second sword.
Chen Ping'an's true body and the spirit behind him struck together.
Heaven and earth combined into one sword.
It first cut open, then shattered, then shattered again that tiny part of Sheyue's true body, which had quickly coalesced into a single speck of moonlight. Everywhere, the moon waxed and waned; the moonlight, omnipresent, was turned to powder again and again. What the sword cut was Sheyue's true body, and even more so, Sheyue's Dao technique.
Chen Ping'an looked up and let out a scoff.
Dragon Lord's all-out sword strike seemed not that fast, after all.
Above half the Sword Qi Great Wall, heaven and earth returned to clarity.
Dragon Lord reached out, scattered a patch of chaotic sword qi and fragmented moonlight, then made a grabbing motion.
A round-faced girl with a pale complexion stood beside Dragon Lord, hoarsely saying, "Sheyue thanks Dragon Lord senior."
Dragon Lord looked at Sheyue's overall aura and said, "It's alright. Fortunately, the damage to the root of your Great Dao is not excessive. Take this opportunity to change your temperament, practice diligently, and study hard in the Hao Ran World for a while. You should be able to make up for it."
Sheyue nodded silently.
A figure in bright red, hands tucked into his sleeves, stood on the opposite side, looking at Sheyue and chuckling, "I accidentally didn't control my restraint well. Please forgive me, Miss Sheyue."
Sheyue had a doubt in her heart, which she kept deeply hidden. She didn't speak. The damage to her Great Dao at the moment was not light. If not for her true body's peculiarity—indeed, as Li Zhen said, exceptionally gifted—then an ordinary pure martial artist would be writhing in pain, and cultivators would be even more panicked, their future on the Dao path bleak.
Li Zhen, hanging on the city wall somewhat distant from Dragon Lord and Sheyue, craned his neck to look across. He saw that the Hidden Officer raised one hand, and in his palm was a pure, pristine miniature moon.
One might even say it could compete with the pure moon of the pure Confucian Chen Chun'an!
Chen Ping'an moved his hand slightly, and the miniature moon wavered gently, as if on the peak of a mountain within the lines of his palm.
This more than compensated for the loss suffered by the first sword that shattered the moon in his heart.
Sheyue said, "Today's conflict will surely be repaid."
Chen Ping'an nodded, "Feel free to visit again. You are most welcome."
Chen Ping'an shifted his gaze, looking at the sneaky Li Zhen in the distance, and smiled, "Look at Miss Sheyue's gift for entering the door, and then look at your stinginess. If it were me, I'd have long since smashed my head against the wall and died."
Li Zhen, his hands propped on the city wall, his body hanging and plastered against it, revealed only his head, looking pitiful and saying nothing.
Dragon Lord reopened the restriction. Chen Ping'an still had his hands in his sleeves, nodding slightly, his gaze rising to fix on Sheyue. He said with a smile, "Miss Sheyue, I won't see you out."
Chen Ping'an also had a not-so-small strange matter: why was this round-faced girl in cotton clothes so lazy when she reached the Hao Ran World? Didn't she kill anyone?
Li Zhen leaped onto the city wall, but Sheyue had already transformed into moonlight and disappeared in an instant, passing through the gate at the site of the Inverted Suspension Mountain ruins, traveling thousands of miles, eventually merging with most of her true body in Tongye Prefecture.
Now, with the constant collision between the Hao Ran World and the Barbaric Wild, especially the gradual Dao integration of Tongye Prefecture and Fuyao Prefecture, the heavenly timing was gradually converging.
No longer was it the scene where a single gate separated day and night.
Sheyue had a mystery in her heart: why hadn't Chen Ping'an seemed to put all his strength into that second sword?
Otherwise, even with Dragon Lord's sword strike coming to her aid, Sheyue would have had to leave behind much more lunar po.
But this round-faced girl, despite her big heart, couldn't help feeling desolate. Half a percent of her lunar po was gone just like that!
On a mountain peak, the round-faced girl screwed up her face forcefully, then slowly crouched down, lightly patting her cheeks, comforting herself, saying, "It's okay, it's okay. Don't cry, don't cry."
Chen Ping'an turned and left.
Unexpectedly, Dragon Lord had another sword strike coming.
It seemed Old Dog Dragon Lord was truly angry this time.
Chen Ping'an's form dissipated, then reformed ahead. He burst into laughter.
On the opposite city wall, Li Zhen stealthily and carefully walked up to the gray-robed figure, "This time when Sheyue returned home, not all of her true body came traveling here. The Hidden Officer is truly generous with his heavy hand. Big bet, big win. Admirable, admirable."
Dragon Lord didn't bother to acknowledge Li Zhen at all, just sneered to himself, "Daring to publicly trample on that name, with not the slightest fear that the Third Teaching Master in the Jade Capital might sense it."
And in the true Jade Capital of the Azure Underworld, a young Daoist wearing a lotus crown headpiece, while walking along a railing, raised his hand to look into the distance and laughed, "Good characters, good characters. Good name, good name."
Chen Ping'an sat on a section of the city wall, his feet dangling, gently swinging.
In one hand, he held a pure miniature moon; in the other, he flipped the Cao Zi dagger, later inscribed with random inscriptions.
This short blade from Deer Cutting Mountain, later carved with the words "Morning Dew" in relief, eventually fell into the hands of a young man named Chen Ping'an.
Chen Ping'an glanced at the miniature moon, smiled, and tucked it into his sleeve.
He planned to give it to his first disciple as a gift for breaking through from the fifth realm to the sixth.
If the disciple had already reached the sixth realm and was about to break through to the seventh, then this disciple would be putting the master in a difficult position.
That Cao Zi dagger flipped and spun between Chen Ping'an's fingertips and the back of his hand.
Chen Ping'an suddenly stopped, put away the short blade, propped his hands on the city wall, looked up, and murmured to himself.
Fortunately, peace, seeing the sun again. The rest are innocent, yet they alone face the morning dew.
When A Liang returned from the Azure Underworld to the Sword Qi Great Wall, they met again in a foreign land.
As they drank together, A Liang once said, "Chen Ping'an, it really is a pity."
"You have never seen the Three Teachings debate—that old scholar who seemed to have already won before he spoke. You never saw him in his youth, full of vigor and brilliance."
"You have never seen your master, when his temples were only slightly white and he wasn't yet too old."
"You have never seen the young Cui Chan on the colorful clouds, in white robes, holding a black stone."
"You have never seen the young Zuo You, after making mistakes, always holding his head high."
"You have never seen the young Xiao Qi, who liked to slightly frown when reading."
"You have never seen Liu Shiliu, stretching out both hands to hold down two heads, preventing two junior brothers from angrily fighting, showing his teeth in a simple grin. Then, under the master's gaze, he slightly loosened the grip on one head to let the younger junior brother, Xiao Qi, gently kick the unreasonable Senior Brother Zuo. Finally, the master acted as a mediator stirring up the mess, saying, 'Alright, that's enough.' Xiao Qi, arms crossed, brows raised, bore a strong resemblance to the master when he taught. The tall senior brother Cui Chan would put his hands on the shoulders of the junior brother Zuo, resting his chin lightly on the angry boy's head, saying, 'Let it go, let it go, you're the senior brother, yield to the younger junior brother.' Xiao Qi would gain an advantage and still act innocent, shaking his head and grinning at Senior Brother Zuo, saying, 'I need him to yield?!' When Zuo glared back fiercely, the younger junior brother would immediately hide behind the tall senior brother. But when the senior brother let go of Zuo's shoulder, Xiao Qi felt something was wrong and quickly hid behind the master. The master would spread his arms to shield the youngest disciple, stepping left and right, blocking the persistent second disciple—that boy named Zuo You."
Chen Ping'an replied, "That's right. I have never seen any of that."
At the time, Chen Ping'an smiled as he drank, downing a bowl of wine, saying, "I've only heard you talk about it. Having heard it, I can only imagine it. But just hearing and imagining it makes me very happy."
A Liang saw the sadness that seemed to seep out of that young man's smile, out of that empty wine bowl.
Sadness is always so mischievous; the eyes can't hide it, and the wine can't hold it back.
So in the end, A Liang finished the last bowl of wine with him, both sighing and consoling, saying, "That time I left the Sword Qi Great Wall, I think I had already aged. Then one day, a dark, skinny straw sandal youth, accompanied by a little girl in a red cotton jacket, walked toward me together."
At this moment, sitting on the city wall, Chen Ping'an also wanted to walk toward his hometown, toward many people. The road home was long, and even if he met many strangers along the way, he still had to look at them carefully.
Chen Ping'an cradled the back of his head with both hands, straightened his back, and gazed into the distance.