# 1781
Chapter 1774: Sword Hut
Great Xia.
Lin Qiye pushed open the office door and stepped inside.
Shen Qingzhu was leaning against the window, smoking a cigarette. When he saw Lin Qiye arrive, he lightly flicked the cigarette butt, shattering it into powder that drifted out the window.
"Is everything ready?"
"Yeah, it's been stamped already." Lin Qiye walked to the office chair and sat down, a smile forming on his face. "But those Olympian Gods probably won't understand what that thing means for another couple of days..."
"True, they don't know Chinese."
"How's the situation on your end?"
"Killed one, the other escaped."
"Just bad luck... The northern border, where we had the most people stationed, only sent one god, while the southern border had two arrive at once. Catching one is already pretty good." Lin Qiye nodded in approval.
Shen Qingzhu didn't seem to share this sentiment. His brow remained furrowed. The fact that he had let an outer god escape left him extremely displeased.
"By the way, Xia Simeng was here earlier."
"Her? What did she want?"
"She was sneaking around, opening the door to look inside. When she realized I was there, she awkwardly laughed for a long while before leaving a document on your desk and leaving."
Hearing this, Lin Qiye's mouth twitched slightly. He didn't even need to look at the document on the desk to know what it was.
"This person... she's taken four leaves of absence in half a year. Once she said she had tuberculosis, once she said she had hemorrhoids, once she said she was going back to her hometown for an arranged marriage, and once she said her mother gave birth to a younger brother... If I remember correctly, her mother is almost sixty, right?"
Despite the complaints, a moment later, Lin Qiye sighed and reached for the document to read through it:
"Let me see what excuse she'll come up with this time."
"
Leave Request:
Respected Commander Lin,
I am pregnant...
"
"Pfft!!"
The half-mouth of water Lin Qiye had just taken in sprayed out entirely.
After a few coughs to steady himself, he continued reading in astonishment:
"...Please do not ask who the father is. Perhaps it is my unrestrained and free soul...
"Lately, I feel my pregnancy symptoms have been unstable. I've decided to take the baby out into nature more often. Perhaps when I找回那肆意又自由的灵魂的时候 (find my unrestrained and free soul again), his condition will improve...
"This trip may take three or four days. By the way, for the safety of my pregnancy, the other members of the 【Phoenix】 squad may need to accompany me... During this time, I may not be able to serve Commander Lin. Please be magnanimous, generous, handsome, and handsome—(crossed out)... Please understand, Commander Lin!"
"【Phoenix】 Squad Leader, Xia Simeng, []~￣▽￣~*"
Lin Qiye: ...
He supported his forehead with one hand and let out a long sigh.
"What's the reason this time?"
"She says she's pregnant..."
Shen Qingzhu's ears perked up, his voice dropping to a whisper: "Whose?"
"Whose what, she's just making up excuses, claiming it's her unrestrained and free soul..." Lin Qiye crumpled the leave request into a ball, about to throw it in the trash, then hesitated as if he had just thought of something.
In the end, he unfolded the request and signed his name in the lower right corner.
"You're actually approving it?" Shen Qingzhu asked, bewildered.
"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Lin Qiye gave a cold laugh. "The Night Watch has its rules. Since it's maternity leave, by procedure it must be approved... However, if she comes back after her leave and tells me she couldn't give birth... Hehehehe..."
Shen Qingzhu understood what Lin Qiye meant. He nodded. "That's indeed ruthless..."
Lin Qiye had his secretary send out the leave request and glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's about time. Let's go visit the teacher first."
...
The helicopter descended slowly over a stretch of wasteland, the rotor blades churning up a hurricane that pressed the withered grass flat against the ground.
Two figures in Crimson Cloaks stepped out from the cabin door. Lin Qiye patted the fuselage to signal the helicopter to leave first. As the engines roared back to life, the only souls left on the desolate plain were Lin Qiye and Shen Qingzhu.
This was a deserted zone at the edge of the desert, the nearest city nearly a hundred kilometers away. Under the gray sky, fierce winds howled, snapping at their cloaks.
Lin Qiye oriented himself and began walking toward the depths of the wasteland.
After walking about two or three kilometers, the barren ground had become covered in yellow sand. If one looked closely, they would notice that beneath this sand, the earth was already covered in fine cracks. As far as the eye could see, there was not a trace of vegetation on the land. Walking all this way, they hadn't even seen a single bird.
Going deeper in, even the existence of wind became vague. In this silent world of death, a faint yet persistent sword intent seemed to hover constantly above the two of them. The further they walked, the more intense the oppressive pressure became.
Of course, this pressure was not directed at them—it was released indiscriminately. As if somewhere deeper in this wasteland, an unmatched supreme sword was unconsciously radiating its edge.
Lin Qiye and Shen Qingzhu showed no intention of stopping. They walked through this sword intent, pressing forward. Finally, a black speck appeared on the distant horizon...
It was a thatched cottage.
The terrifying sword intent and oppressive pressure all emanated from within this thatched cottage. Under this sword intent, there was no wind within a five-li radius. Even the occasional raindrops falling from the sky would be torn apart mid-air by the sword intent, never touching the ground.
Lin Qiye came to a halt less than a hundred meters from the thatched cottage.
His gaze swept across the surroundings. He saw countless white, fine needles floating in the air beside the cottage. If one looked carefully, they would realize these were not needles at all, but countless miniature sword shadows suspended upside down in the air.
"The teacher's aura grows more terrifying by the day." Lin Qiye reached out to touch one of the miniature sword shadows, and his fingertip was immediately pricked, a drop of blood forming. He couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"Indeed... It's been three years since he entered seclusion, hasn't it?"
"Yeah, it'll be three years soon. Back then, he walked in with a sword in one hand and a suitcase full of books in the other, saying he was going into seclusion to break through the Supreme Realm. I was completely caught off guard." Lin Qiye's eyes filled with nostalgia.
"Three years have passed in a flash. The teacher's aura is truly on the verge of breaking through that barrier..."
"If he succeeds, the teacher won't just be the first human to become a god in this world—he'll be the first to step into the Supreme Realm... the Supreme Sword Immortal."
Shen Qingzhu let out a long sigh. "The teacher truly lives up to his reputation. I thought our progress was fast enough, but it turns out we still can't keep up with his pace. Relying solely on one [Luminous Innocent Heart], he has still come this far."
Lin Qiye smiled, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding miniature sword shadows. He spoke softly:
"Teacher, how much longer until you exit seclusion?"
For a moment, the miniature sword shadows floating in the air suddenly stirred, weaving together in front of the two men to form a single white character:
—Nine.