# 535
Chapter 535 – The Sword Saint’s Forbidden Ruins
“Instructor Yuan.”
“Good evening, Instructor Yuan.”
“Instructor Yuan, where’s that Rolex I gave you? Why aren’t you wearing it today?”
“…”
The corner of Yuan Gang’s mouth twitched. “You little fatty, how dare you bring up that Rolex. You slipped it into my pocket and nearly got me written up.”
Baili Pangpang grinned shamelessly. Everyone took their seats.
Yuan Gang shouted toward the barbecue joint behind them, and soon plates of sizzling skewers appeared.
“Instructor Yuan, I didn’t peg you for a street-food guy,” Lin Qiye said curiously.
Yuan Gang smiled. “After enough years in the army, you start craving the noisy kind of meal. Fancy restaurants feel wrong—unless I have to, I steer clear.”
“Exactly! Who needs a five-star joint when you’ve got barbecue?” Baili Pangpang chimed in.
Cao Yuan shot the shameless fence-sitter a silent eye-roll.
Yuan Gang hauled beers from a crate and passed them around, sighing:
“You little brats showed up at boot camp clueless as toddlers—especially you, money-sprinkling fatty, and you, thorn-in-the-side Shen Qingzhu. You two were every instructor’s nightmare. Just looking at you raised my blood pressure…”
Shen Qingzhu accepted a bottle with an awkward grin and pulled out a cigarette. “Instructor, care for one?”
“I don’t smoke.” Yuan Gang waved it off. “And you should quit. You’re about to be a special-team operator—act like it.”
Shen Qingzhu quietly tossed the pack into the trash.
“Hard to believe it’s only been two years and you’re already here to challenge my squad,” Yuan Gang said with a laugh.
“All thanks to your teaching,” Baili Pangpang flattered.
“Where’s Jiang Er?” Yuan Gang looked around. “Isn’t she with you?”
“Good evening, Instructor Yuan.”
The girl’s voice came from the MP3 on the table. Yuan Gang froze.
He had the Fifth Reserve roster, but no personal files; he knew nothing about her condition.
The group gave a sanitized summary, tactfully skipping the grimmer details. Yuan Gang still fell silent.
“Jiang Er, you…”
After a long pause he began, trying to comfort her.
A soft laugh issued from the speaker. “Instructor, don’t worry. I’m fine—freer than before, and I can do things I never could… By the way, who’s ‘29-163-36D Little Li Mei’ you’ve pinned to the top of your WeChat?”
Yuan Gang’s expression petrified.
Everyone else’s turned delicately amused.
“Just… just a friend,” Yuan Gang mumbled, taking a gulp of beer.
Laughter erupted. They ate, drank, traded old stories; time slipped by…
Finally Lin Qiye set down his bottle.
“Instructor Yuan, what do you know about the Sword Saint?”
Yuan Gang blinked. “Met him twice. Keeps to himself—beyond that, not much.”
“Anything else?”
“Well… I sat in on one meeting about him.”
“A meeting?” Lin Qiye and the others exchanged looks. “What kind?”
“Some Forbidden Ruins specialists and Night Watch brass evaluating his Forbidden Ruins. We named it and assigned a serial number.”
The Sword Saint’s Forbidden Ruins?
Everyone leaned in.
“What is it?” Cao Yuan blurted.
Yuan Gang eyed them suspiciously. “He taught you for months and you never asked?!”
They shook their heads in unison. “We tried—he doesn’t know himself.”
“Figures.” Yuan Gang nodded. “His Forbidden Ruins is one-of-a-kind in human history—never recorded before. And it’s… weird.”
“Weird?” Lin Qiye echoed.
What kind of adjective was “weird”?
“Its strength isn’t fixed; it depends entirely on the user. Weak enough to seem useless, yet it forged a Sword Saint. Strong enough to create a ceiling-level fighter, yet it has no overt killing power.
Frankly, we’re still not sure he even has a Forbidden Ruins.”
Yuan Gang paused, then said slowly:
“It’s serial 333: 【Crystal Innocent Heart】.”
“Serial 333? That’s rock-bottom,” Baili Pangpang gasped.
“Exactly why it’s weird.” Yuan Gang nodded. “It does one thing—keeps the mind as pure as crystal: no lies, no evil, no stray thoughts, total concentration in everything.
Know how the Sword Saint learned swordplay?”
“By reading novels,” they answered in chorus.
“Right—novels.
When he reads, he pours himself into the characters without reserve, living their lives in those fictional worlds… which, to him, are real.
He experiences every joy and sorrow. Among all characters, sword cultivators are his favorite.
Swords—lucid, pure, gentle yet strong—just like him.”
Yuan Gang took a swig. “So he threw himself into every sword cultivator’s role, feeling their triumphs, despair, breakthroughs, meditations…
The sword arts and qi in those books are imaginary, yet he grasped their essence—the ‘intent’.
From scattered lines he created techniques, awakened sword-qi, and with a transparent sword heart climbed all the way to Human Apex.
Had a ‘Sea’-level Mystery not popped up in Xijin City years ago and fallen to his casual slash, Night Watch might never have discovered such a genius hiding in a back-alley diner.”