Li Mu was immersed in the sea of Sword Intent contained in the Ode to the Gallant in the small world inside the Green Lotus Pool.
As the greatest romantic poet in ancient China, Li Bai’s whole life was admired and worshiped by countless people. His poems were full of magnificent imaginary elements, as if he was an immortal living in heaven. Although there were thousands of poets who made their names in history, Li Bai was the only one who produced poems with such ease and a sense of liberty.
The Ode to the Gallant was Li Bai’s masterpiece.
It depicted a hero who gallantly battled and got over the violence unafraid.
The poem carried sharp Sword Qi and Li Bai’s characteristic extreme romanticism.
The essence of the Sword Intent of the Gallant was concealed right in the poem.
In order to master the Sword Intent, one must comprehend the poem first.
All the words of the Ode to the Gallant were flying about Li Mu. The silver characters swirled like figures in the Divine Way. Each stroke of the words held the intendment of swordsmanship.
Li Mu, however, had been practicing Broadsword-using methods.
He was zealous about broadswords since childhood.
As an old Chinese saying went, the sword was a gentleman out of all weapons, and the broadsword was a lord instead.
Li Mu never considered himself a gentleman. He preferred being a domineering lord. Broadsword-using methods were the most straightforward, for the moves were either slice or hack.
Nevertheless, all martial methods reached the same goal. Swordsmanship and broadswordsmanship indeed had something in common in terms of martial arts practice.
Li Bai himself had said that he hoped Li Mu to absorb the essence of the Sword Intent in the Ode to the Gallant and integrate it with his Broadsword-using method. Thus, there was not a second that Li Mu considered quit practicing broadswordsmanship. Instead, he had been trying to grasp what the two arts had in common.
Time ticked by.
Li Mu was still absorbed in the sea of Sword Intent.
The Ode to the Gallant consisted of 24 paragraphs, 120 characters in total. Now, each of the characters had turned into an absurd Sword Intent figure that held the intendment of swordsmanship. Li Mu opened his Third Eye. His tentacle-like spiritual force spread out to catch the Sword Intent figures, feeling them and grasping the meaning they carried.
Time flew by.
The Xiantian Skill was activated automatically inside Li Mu to absorb the Precious Qi of Cyan Lotus. In the meantime, his spirit was thoroughly engrossed in the world of the Sword Intent of the Gallant, studying the intendment of swordsmanship and combining it with his broadswordsmanship.
He practiced day and night.
Time elapsed like flowing water.
By the Green Lotus Pool.
Ye Hen, Head of the Moon Dao Sect, was sitting cross-legged, perfectly motionless.
She had been attacked abruptly. Someone had locked up her natural qi with Mount Shu’s exclusive meridian-freezing technique, so she could no longer move a bit.
“Well, is this really worth the trouble?”
Unable to undo the enchantment despite her best efforts, Ye Hen got quite worried.
She knew very well why it was she who was attacked by surprise.
And she was also aware of what the sneak attack was for.
She was not cross about this but just miserable.
Absolutely miserable.
Because one more old friend of hers was going to die.
To die in her stead.
The day was brightly scarlet.
The wind was blowing harshly.
“Father…”
Ouyang Yu, the Jade Young Master, was standing on the divine flying shuttle, looking desperate and heart-broken. Tears ran down his chin without a stop. Then, his legs gave away, and he dropped to his knees in the direction of the floating fighting ring.
The experts of Mount Shu on the divine flying shuttle all had wrath and grief written on their faces.
“Hahaha, you can’t withstand a single blow!”
Qin Rushuang, the Top Sword of West Sea, looked up and roared with laughter.
The battle was over. He was gripping a bleeding head in hand. At his feet, the headless body of Ouyang Huanyu, Head of the Sky-overlooking Pavilion, one of the seven branches of Mount Shu, was lying in a pool of blood, with Qin Rushuang’s foot tread on it.
The fourth of the 10 matches had come to an end.
Ouyang Huanyu, representing Mount Shu, had died in the battle.
The nine major sects once again scored a victory.
Now each party had won two matches, which brought them to a tie for the time being.
But to Mount Shu, they had basically been driven to the wall. Wu Ming and Ouyang Huanyu, the two experts in the Void-breaking Realm they had, had been crushed in the fight in an almost insulting way. Up to now, Mount Shu had not found anyone who had a chance of triumphing over Qin Rushuang, the Top Sword of West Sea who had “achieved a breakthrough out of the blue”.
“I figure there is no need to continue with the rest of the six rounds. None of you is a match for me. You’d better surrender now and give us the White Emperor City. That way, you still get to preserve some of your strength,” Qin Rushuang said contemptuously.
He threw Ouyang Huanyu’s head to the ground, trod on it, and sneered coldly.
Ouyang Yu was frenetically flinging himself forward, yet was stopped by Mr. Shuiyue and the others beside him.
Qin Rushuang’s ceaselessly ridicules were made just to provoke the members of Mount Shu into rushing to the floating fighting ring. And once any of them did it, what awaited him was nothing but a miserable death.
“Well, I know you’re all angry and in anguish. Feel it with your heart. This is the tragedy of the weak,” continued Qin Rushuang, who meant to cut the wounds of Mount Shu deeper. “Death is no end of the pain. It’s actually the beginning of another kind of shame.”
At last, he asked his men to take Ouyang Huanyu’s body back his flying shuttle, pierce a hook through his shoulder, and hang him up on the mast, letting him dripping blood and being scorched by the sun.
“This is what the ones who go against our nine sects will get—a forever torture even after death,” Qin Rushuang said with a cruel smile.
The insides of the members of Mount Shu started burning with rage.
“Qin Rushuang, you’re way out of the line. This was supposed to be a fair and square fight. But you cheated by borrowing power from others. Even if we can put that aside, why have you got to insulting the body of the dead then?” Mr. Shuiyue bellowed, “You West Sea Sword Sect calls yourself a decent sect after all. As one of the Seven Supreme Beings of the Decent Alliance, you really don’t care if your behavior makes you look bad, do you?”
At this, Qin Rushuang’s face hardened. He also felt his cheeks burning, but he soon gave a cold smile and said, “We don’t need to fuss about morality and benevolence when dealing with you devils of the Devil Cult. It’s already a sort of mercy to smash your bones and scatter your ashes.”
“You…” Mr. Shuiyue was so furious that he was shivering.
There was a moment when he felt the urge to race to the floating fighting ring and start the fifth round right away. But he managed to stifle it in the end.
With those old mates dying one after another in the fight, there were not many experts left for Mount Shu as candidates for the competition. Mr. Shuiyue knew very well that he must attend to the current situation. Though he was eager to climb onto that ring and fight, he had to ensure that everything had been sorted out, for Mount Shu could not afford any more internal conflict at this critical moment.
“Let’s head back.”
Driving the divine flying shuttle, Mr. Shuiyue took the other members of Mount Shu back to White Emperor City. As to Ouyang Yu, Young Master of Sky-overlooking Pavilion, he had long passed out because of extreme grief.
Indescribable mournfulness wreathed around the group, which did not dissipate for a long time.
Looking back, they saw Ouyang Huanyu’s body still hanging from the mask of West Sea Sword Sect’s flying shuttle.
“This is odd. Today we’ve pushed so far. How come that Li Mu still didn’t turn up?”
The female assassin from the Black Killing Tower finally started doubting that things might not be as what she had thought.
“Has Li Mu already run away?”
“Unlikely.”
After the fight in the Tomb of the God of Sin, the young woman in black gauze believed her knowledge and understanding of Li Mu had been quite thorough. That sinner was definitely not the kind who cared for nothing but saving his own skin. On the contrary, he was as ruthless and undaunted as every other sinned cultivator in lore. He would never forsake his fellows and take flight.
“Then why hasn’t he shown up yet?”
The young woman in black gauze felt uneasy.
“I’ve got to move faster. If more experts of the extraterrestrial Sect land in this world at the end of 10 matches, once they recognize Li Mu as well, I won’t be able to take away the rewards of all the big sects by myself.”
She began to scheme.
Shortly after, Qin Rushuang was summoned again.
“You can fight one more match tomorrow. I want you to make it even more savage on the ring tomorrow. Beat and crush the other side regardless of who he is, understand?” demanded the young woman in the black gauze. Her words were absolutely blood-curdling.
Qin Rushuang was terrified, but he agreed in haste.
In the past two days, having killed Wu Ming and Ouyang Huanyu gave him a sweet taste of matchless power. Like drinking, Qin Rushuang was too intoxicated in the wonderful feeling to extricate himself from it.
“Senior Ye, I’m sorry for doing this to you.”
A Guardian of Rules of the Sky-overlooking Pavilion came to Ye Hen, Head of the Moon Dao Sect, removed the secret meridian-freezing technique from her, and then bowed to her apologetically.
“Where’s Brother Ouyang?” Ye Hen turned around, stared at this Guardian of Rules, and asked, stressing each syllable.
When Mount Shu had not fallen apart and the seven major branches were still like the sun at high noon, Ye Hen, Ouyang Huanyu, and Mr. Shuiyue were among the best of the younger generation in Mount Shu. They had fought side by side. Even though they all thought they were better off than the other two and often rowed, they did have maintained a relationship that lasted nearly a century. How could ordinary people understand such a relationship anyway?
This Guardian of Rules was also a senior member. His eyes turned red and tears flowed down, yet he couldn’t utter a word.
Ye Hen stumbled in shock.
She propped herself up by seizing the edge of the Lotus Pool, straining to compose herself.
The corners of her eyes were slightly red, but tears did not burst out.
She knew she should stop shedding tears.
Ye Hen left the Green Lotus Pool and went off to the Fairy Hall.
The Fairy Hall that used to be boisterous was now dead silent. Dragon the Fifth was maimed. Wu Ming was killed. So was Ouyang Huanyu. That left Mr. Shuiyue and Ye Hen the only two senior experts in the Void-breaking Realm Mount Shu had.
“Tomorrow, I’ll fight. If I die on the arena, Mount Shu will admit defeat in the 10 matches and retreat from White Emperor City. There’s no need to make unnecessary sacrifices. You’d better take a rest and wait for the opportunity to stage a comeback,” said Ye Hen in a very decisive and final sort of way.
Mr. Shuiyue actually wanted to say something, too. But at the look of Ye Hen, he swallowed the words that had reached the tip of her tongue and stayed silent.
The odds of they winning tomorrow’s battle were dim.
Ding Yi was in the crowd, frowning, looking as if he was torn between options. But eventually, he did not get his words out.
An extremely sorrowful atmosphere enveloped the entire White Emperor City.
In a blink of an eye, the sun rose and the next day arrived.
The fifth round of the competition was about to begin.
The teams of the decent and the devil appeared on both sides of the floating fighting ring. And Luo Xuanxin, Xiao Dong, Lu Xun, Qiu Shuiming, the four people from Earth, also showed up on the divine flying shuttle. It was the first time that they’d been allowed to watch the battle. Also, as emerging talents, they were expected to memorize what they saw today forever and to learn how real experts fought their enemies.
Ye Hen, Head of the Moon Dao Sect, leaped up and landed on the floating fighting ring like a flash of light.
Her green dress was bright as spring, and her machete was shining like lightning.
“Qin Rushuang, move your ass here and start the fight!”
Ye Hen seemed fearless, taking the initiative to ask for a fight.
“Humph, the old head of the Moon Dao Sect? Has the Devil Cult already been reduced to such a poor group that they have no one but a woman to come out and fight? Oh, poor thing!” With loud laughter, Qin Rushuang appeared on the floating fighting ring, his face full of contempt and mockery.
