Chapter 31: The Lijiang Sword Style
Qin Mu’s heart pounded wildly as he pulled the butcher knife from his back. This was the first time he had faced such a situation.
Mu Beifeng’s bearing pressed down on him invisibly.
Every move, every word, every action of this old man since entering the village brought boundless pressure.
When he had fought Qu from the Lijiang Five, he had been pushed to the brink and had no choice but to strike. But now, the scene before him made him feel a bit daunted.
“I peed on the stone statue at the village entrance—what else is there to fear? I’ve seen the Witch, the demon of Zhenyang Palace, and I wasn’t scared then. Can I be scared now? No matter how strong Mu Beifeng is, he can’t be stronger than gods or demons!”
Qin Mu steadied himself, his flustered heart gradually calming. He looked around, frowning slightly. The village was small, and with everyone standing here, including himself, there were twenty-two people, like so many wooden stakes. Moreover, each person stood in a different position, their bodies staggered, filling the little village to the brim.
The Village Chief lay on a stretcher, with the Medicine Master standing beside it. The Butcher, only his upper half remaining, perched atop a wooden stake. Ma Ye leaned against another stake. Granny Si held a basket. Mute stood at the blacksmith shop’s entrance. Deaf clutched a writing brush, ink still dripping from its tip. Cripple balanced on one leg with his crutch.
The positions of those Mu Beifeng had brought were also carefully arranged. Each person’s stance was bizarre, making it extremely difficult to move quickly through the village, let alone fight.
In such a setting, the demands on controlling a sword with Qi were immense!
If one were to wield a sword with Qi, they would need to be meticulous, careful not to let their sword touch anyone else or be affected by others, requiring an exquisitely refined swordsmanship. Qin Mu had trained in the Butcher’s pig-slaughtering knife technique, a martial arts style that could not achieve this.
“Are we fighting here?” Qin Mu asked.
Qianqiu nodded. “Right here!”
Qin Mu slid the butcher knife back into the sheath on his back, leaving his hands empty.
Seeing Qin Mu return the knife to its sheath, Qianqiu’s eyes flashed with sharp light. Qin Mu choosing to fight empty-handed caught him off guard.
Before coming, Mu Beifeng had taken them to inspect the canyon ruins. From Qu’s bones, gnawed clean to the skeleton, Mu Beifeng had deduced that Qin Mu used a blade technique.
At that time, Qin Mu had picked up a wooden stick from the ground, using it as a blade to strike Qu. The blows left tiny marks on his bones, with fine cracks appearing where the impacts landed.
From this, it could be inferred that Qin Mu’s blade technique was exquisite. Moreover, his footwork must be very fast; only with superb legwork could he continuously move and strike every part of Qu’s body!
Mu Beifeng’s skills were extraordinary—he was one of the top experts in the world. From the traces Qin Mu left behind, he judged that Qin Mu must be using martial arts.
Martial arts excel at close combat but have little achievement or foundation in controlling swords with Qi.
From that moment, Mu Beifeng had devised a plan to kill Qin Mu. After entering the village, each of their people stood in different positions, forming the Lijiang Water Dragon Formation, deliberately leaving nine formation eyes, with Mu Beifeng standing at the dragon’s head.
Aside from Qianqiu, the others were all top experts of the Lijiang Sect. To prevent the Lijiang Water Dragon Formation from unleashing its combined attack power, the villagers of the Crippled Elderly Village would have to block the formation eyes one by one. The Village Chief and Medicine Master would block the dragon’s eyes, Blind would block the heart eye, and Cripple, Granny Si, Ma Ye, and the Butcher would stand at the joints of the water dragon’s limbs. The Blacksmith would suppress the dragon’s body, and Deaf would suppress the dragon’s tail.
This created the current situation in the village: everyone stood in different positions, bodies staggered, making it hard to move quickly or control a sword with Qi—unless one had extremely high skill in that area.
Clearly, Qin Mu was not such a person.
But his disciple Qianqiu was.
Although Qianqiu was still a martial artist at the Spirit Embryo realm, his skill in controlling swords with Qi was exceptional. His Qi threads were refined to an incredible fineness, and his sword control reached astonishing levels. He had once used Qi to control a brush and painted a lady from thirty paces away, with every strand of hair on the painting distinct and orderly.
If Qin Mu fought with a blade, he would surely lose.
But Qin Mu returning his knife to its sheath and fighting empty-handed surprised Qianqiu. Still, bare hands against a treasured sword seemed disadvantageous. Moreover, the sword he brought this time was no ordinary one—it was a spirit sword, born from the divine repository of a Six Harmonies realm cultivator.
A spirit sword far surpassed ordinary blades in sharpness, toughness, strength, and spiritual nature.
Qin Mu bowed. “Senior Brother, please.”
Qianqiu returned the bow, and the sword in his back scabbard hummed. “Junior Brother, please.”
Qin Mu lifted his foot. At that moment, the sword in Qianqiu’s scabbard shot out with a clang. Qi threads controlled the treasured sword, its cold aura piercing, as specks of sword light stabbed toward Qin Mu!
The Qi threads were so fine they were nearly invisible to the naked eye. With a slight tremor, the sword traced out sword blossoms, striking from various tricky angles with dazzling speed!
For a martial artist to reach such a level in controlling a sword with Qi was a remarkable achievement!
Qin Mu moved his feet with agility, weaving between the motionless people, while Qianqiu’s sword sped even faster. The swordsmanship was so delicate it was astonishing. To the others standing still, the sword posed no threat, but to Qin Mu, every strike was lethal!
The sword light was impossible to guard against. Even if Qin Mu used Cripple’s Heaven-Stealing Footwork, he couldn’t escape—there were too many obstacles. Each person standing motionless limited his speed, preventing him from unleashing it fully!
Whoosh—
Qin Mu observed the fire, and his Qi suddenly became violently explosive. A faint dragon’s roar echoed as a fiery dragon coiled around his arm, faint and indistinct. Sometimes the dragon’s head merged with his fist, sometimes the dragon’s claws fused with his fingers and palm, shifting unpredictably.
As the sword light stabbed toward him, Qin Mu threw a punch. Just as his fist was about to collide with the spirit sword, he suddenly spread his five fingers. The air in his palm exploded with a bang, shaking the stabbing sword tip and making it waver!
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang—
Qin Mu’s five fingers snapped out in succession, striking the sword tip, blade, and hilt one after another. Each strike rang out like a massive hammer slamming into the sword!
When his fifth finger struck, the spirit sword was sent flying, and Qianqiu’s Qi threads were shattered by the force of his fingers.
Qin Mu moved quickly, his body weaving through the crowd as he rapidly closed in on Qianqiu. They were now only about ten feet apart. Just then, Qianqiu’s expression remained wooden, and another sword hummed from his scabbard. A second spirit sword flew out, stabbing toward Qin Mu.
Startled, Qin Mu retreated. Then a third spirit sword flew from the scabbard, followed by a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh...
Over a dozen spirit swords connected end to end, all threaded by a single Qi strand through their tips and hilts. The hilt of the first sword pressed against the tip of the second, the second’s hilt against the third’s tip, forming a chain six or seven zhang long. It looked like a lively silver dragon twisting and dancing in the air, or like the winding, meandering waters of the Lijiang River.
The Lijiang Sword Style!
The number one sword style of the Southern Frontier.
Qianqiu’s first sword was incredibly agile, flipping up, down, left, and right, while the swords behind followed suit, threading through the crowd without touching anyone. From Qin Mu’s perspective, he could only see the tip of the first sword, unable to see the ones behind.
A strong sense of danger surged within him. Not seeing meant the unknown, and the unknown meant he couldn’t dodge or predict!
The Lijiang Sword Style was indeed treacherous and fierce!
At that moment, the first spirit sword shook out dozens of sword blossoms, stabbing toward Qin Mu, the sword light dazzling his eyes.
And behind those dozens of sword blossoms, the second spirit sword detached from the sword formation, connected by an independent Qi thread, and suddenly shot toward Qin Mu’s neck!