Li Qingshan decided to say something and break the awkward atmosphere. He took out the xiezhi’s horn from his clothes. “This…”
There was perfect silence, enough to hear a pin drop.
All of the elders and swordmasters recognised the xiezhi’s horn. They all knew about its power to tell lies. They could not help but look towards the palace master. They all felt rather awkward too.
Regardless of how hostile they were towards Li Qingshan, having a lie exposed so openly was basically like a slap across the face. After all, the Sword Collection palace was still a famed, righteous sect, and the palace master’s face basically represented the entire sect’s face.
The palace master squinted his eyes slightly as a hint of anger seemed to flash through them, but he immediately recovered his calm. “The xiezhi’s horn is an item that belongs to my Sword Collection palace. Why are you in possession of it, fellow?”
“I borrowed it.”
Li Qingshan’s lips twitched as he did his best to hold back his smile. He was laughing just too hard inside. Even if the palace master might directly turn against him, he no longer cared.
“Can you return it to me?” the palace master asked.
“Sure!” Li Qingshan handed the xiezhi’s horn back to the palace master. He could not help but ask, “Palace master, does what you just said still count?”
“Of course it does. Far too much time has passed already. This item is no longer as functional as before. You don’t have to worry about this, fellow,” said the palace master.
“It’s but a trifle, so I obviously won’t worry about it.”
Li Qingshan became even more certain that there was a scheme involved, but he was unable to think of what kind of scheme it was. If they wanted to harm him, when they sealed up his cultivation just then was the optimal moment.
Even if he had hid his strength, several great sword cultivators working together combined with the formation around the entire Sword Collection palace still posed an extremely great threat. Even he was not confident about getting out of here unscathed. Just what was the palace master scheming?
Though, since the palace master did not turn against him, Li Qingshan was happy to spend some time as an honoured guest elder and see what he was trying to do!
……
The next morning, all of the light on the Sword Collection peak had dispersed. Sunlight illuminated the many mountains below.
The palace master held a simple ceremony on the Heaven Leaning peak, formally making Li Qingshan an honoured guest elder of the Sword Collection palace.
In the lofty main hall, regardless of their thoughts, all of the swordmasters and elders bowed towards Li Qingshan and said, “Honoured guest elder!”
Li Qingshan stood high on the pedestal with a leisurely smile on his face. The Soul Cycling sword hung from his waist.
The palace master asked from one side, “Is there anything you’d like to say, honoured guest elder?”
Li Qingshan coughed gently into his fist. “Then let me say something. There’s no need for everyone to be too polite with me. Since I’ve become an honoured guest elder of the Sword Collection palace, I’ll definitely do my best to serve the Sword Collection palace as the palace master wishes. I’ll even go through fire and water. Of course, there still might be people here who harbour ill intentions towards me, but I’m completely sincere with you. If you don’t believe me, you can use the xiezhi’s horn.”
The swordmasters and elders looked at one another. Their gazes were all disgruntled. If he had been completely insincere with what he said at the start, then so be it, but he even decided to rub it in at the end. This kid was as despicable as he could get.
Li Qingshan could see from the corner of his eye that the little finger of the palace master’s hand placed on the Heaven Leaning sword was trembling. If he continued like this, the palace master might directly draw his sword and turn against him, so he could not help but ease up the atmosphere.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Anyway, I hope that we can work hard together, so the Sword Collection palace becomes better…”
Following the speech of nonsense, the palace master could not be bothered with saying anything more for the sake of formalities anymore. He directly said to Ji Xuanri, “Xuanri, bring the honoured guest elder to the Pavilion of Heaven and Earth to comprehend the Sword Collection Manual of Heaven and Earth.” Afterwards, he left in a huff, and the elders and swordmasters dispersed with him.
The main hall quietened down, and Ji Xuanri smiled. “Elder Li, we’ve known each other for so long already, but I’ve never formally introduced myself. I am Ji Xuanri. If you don’t mind, you can just call me Xuanri.”
He spoke politely, and he was friendly, but his sense of pride as a great prodigy was unconcealable. It was like the sun in the sky. As it illuminated the world with its glow, it remained high above, aloof from the world.
“Sure!” Li Qingshan had almost butchered a crown prince of Great Xia recently, so why would he care about a “prince of the Green province”?
“Then I’m not going to hold back and call you Qingshan. Speaking of our swords, there’s quite the connection!”
“Really? What connection?” Li Qingshan asked.
“Qingshan, your knowledge of our Sword Collection palace’s Ten Renowned Swords must be very limited! My sword is called Spirit Destroying. It was forged from the same cauldron as Soul Cycling, so they’re technically brothers.” Ji Xuanri patted the Spirit Destroying sword on his waist.
“Then I’ve gotten the better of the deal, since I can befriend someone like you.” Li Qingshan smiled and then asked, “You must have a lot of siblings! You’re called Ji Xuanri. Don’t tell me there’s a Ji Xuanyue too?”
Note: The ri in Ji Xuanri means sun. The yue in Ji Xuanyue means moon. That’s why Li Qingshan can bring Ji Xuanyue into the conversation.
He was already roughly certain that Xiao An’s original name was Ji Xuanyue, and the Dark Queen had named her cat Xuanyue in memory of her late daughter, except they were homophones.
Ji Xuanri fell into a moment of silence. “Let’s walk and talk!”
The two of them left the main hall. Ji Xuanri did not fly, walking over to the back of the Heaven Leaning peak slowly. He began to talk after thinking over his words.
“This is a private affair of my family, which should not be shared with outsiders, but the private affairs of the King of Chu’s estate is the public affairs of the Green province. Who knows how many rumors have already spread. Since you want to know, then there’s nothing really to hide. I do have a younger sister called Xuanyue, except she passed away in her childhood. It’s also something that I lament about in my life!”
Ji Xuanri seemed slightly defeated as if he truly regretted this very much.
“Really?” Li Qingshan observed him closely, but he was unable to tell whether this was true or not. All he could do was lament over the fact that the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine did not have a Xiezhi Transformation, or he would have been able to see through lies and throw a punch straight at those posers.
“You might not believe it, but while the Sword Collection palace and the Umbral Yin sect are rather hostile with one another, our relationship had been very good in the past. However, ever since Xuanyue died young, her majesty the Dark Queen has been a little eccentric. She blindly believes that my mother killed Xuanyue.”
“So it’s still better to just kill her off!” Li Qingshan grinned.
“Not exactly. The Green province is currently facing both internal and external threats. The locust plague runs amok internally, while the Mist province pressures us externally. We’re currently in need of the two major sects setting aside their differences and banding together. If her majesty the Dark Queen had not provoked us, insisting on killing the disciples of our Sword Collection palace, we would have never struck out proactively either. Actually, even if you didn’t interfere, I would have spared the Dark Queen.”
The way that Ji Xuanri spoke really did possess the bearing of the future King of Chu. He had the entire Green province in the palm of his hand.
“Oh. You’re not afraid your mother will be angry?” Li Qingshan asked.
“This is for the sake of the Green province. I’m sure my mother will understand. We’ve arrived at the Pavilion of Heaven and Earth.”
Ji Xuanri stopped. When he said that, they had already arrived before a pavilion. The pavilion was chiseled out of a mountain, standing three hundred meters tall. It was majestic and imposing and engraved with three words, “Heaven and Earth”. The engraving seemed to be done by a sword, sharp and graceful, grand and magnificent.
“The two great elders are also comprehending the sword inside right now. You can go in and meet them, Qingshan. Oh right, you haven’t refined the Soul Cycling sword yet, have you?” Ji Xuanri mentioned that as if he had done so carelessly.
ps: 今天还有!
