Chapter Fifty-One: Sword Defeat
The Swan Sword, to Changling, was just a ripple many years ago, the light of the shooting star. It was not the name of a sword manual, or a sword, just a unique mark of a grand master.
Many of the grand masters that came from distant places to Changling would end up like this. They would appear for a short moment in Changling, to the point that Changling’s cultivators understood little about them, not even knowing their names, and the swords and sword manuals they used.
This Swan Sword was such a case.
For this grand master, even Jiaodong Commandery, with their best intelligence network, just knew that he was born from Yangshan Commandery. When he attacked, his sword light was like a soaring swan, a vast sword energy.
In the past, the Shang Family started the reformation with the support of the Ba Mountain Sword Field. The Yangshan Commandery was not the first to implement it, but the Yangshan Commandery was the first to finish.
The reason was related to this Swan Sword.
Back then, when the aristocratic powers in Yangshan Commandery that opposed the reforms the most used bloody tactics to suppress a village, they encountered the Swan Sword of this village. This grandmaster who was unknown before this killed two realm sevens. He almost wiped out all the aristocrats causing great waves in the Qin back then.
Yangshan Commandery became the first to finish reforms, but like the grandmaster and the Shang Family later on, they did not end up well. After losing the war with the Chu Dynasty, Yangshan Commandery was ceded to the Chu Dynasty.
Yangshan Commandery, the first to finish the reforms, was the one given to the Chu Dynasty. Whether or not there was a special meaning here, as the Qin Dynasty won greatly at the Deer Mountain Conference, and Yangshan Commandery was taken back, no one pursued it.
Back then, after the war with the Chu, the Chu became in charge of Yangshan Commandery. The Qin people in the Yangshan Commandery naturally were not willing. In the first few years, there had been many rebellions that were put down. There were clear records that the grandmaster who had a sword like a swan died in the battle fighting against the Chu.
For Changling more than a decade later, these were old matters that people rarely knew. Many people, when they heard this, would think that this was just a story, but clearly, the grandmaster from Yangshan Commandery had left an heir.
The heir appeared at this time. His cultivation likely was not weaker than the Yangshan Commandery grandmaster back then.
But was this useful?
Just like that Yangshan Commandery grandmaster back then, when Yangshan Commandery was ceded to the Chu Dynasty, his doom was fated. This was truly a battle of power. A grandmaster of this was just a fleeting wave in the tide.
Zheng Bainiao did not feel that this could change anything. So his expression only turned serious for a moment because of the power displayed, but after thinking through the history of the two sword lights, he just shook his head in sympathy.
Shen Xuan passed through the courtyard of an ordinary family. There were many orange trees that were planted in the courtyard. The oranges on the trees had not all been plucked. After a winter, they were slightly withered, but still had a pleasing color. He rapidly passed above the orange trees. The bright red orange color added some color to his gray face.
What he was thinking was different from Zheng Bainiao right now. Because only he knew, after he became the Secretariat Director, he saw Ye Celeng.
Ye Celeng was the bureau chief of the Astrology Bureau. Strictly speaking, she did not count as a power in Changling. Yet he knew, right now, she was not representing just the Astrology Bureau, and also the Ba Mountain Sword Field. She was more like the person in charge of Ba Mountain Sword Field’s matters in Changling. Even if she did not not act, she would have a way to change his fate of death.
Now, the sword light of the Swan Sword, in his view, was a start, a good omen. This was not a battle between him, a new power, and Jiaodong Commandery, but all the new powers of Changling, Ba Mountain Sword Field and Jiaodong Commandery fighting.
On the corner turret, Huang Zhenwei naturally did not know the relationship between him and Ye Celeng. But at this time, towards the battle, he and Shen Xuan had the same thoughts.
Standing higher meant seeing further. He had taken over Mo Shoucheng’s position. He was Changling’s eyes, and the person who saw most clearly in Changling. In his perception, other than the two dazzling sword lights, in other places of Changling, there were many violent primal energies of the universe flowing. There was more than one battle between experts. The change was starting.
Also, to be able to move so many powerful cultivators, the person who could influence the situation… this person was fated to be a power.
So, silently, other than he and Shen Xuan, there was another new power in Changling. He feared that this new power likely possessed power that surpassed him and Shen Xuan.
**
Zheng Bainiao frowned slightly. The incoming water mist condensed on his eyebrows like crystal dew. The moment they formed, they were blown away by the wind and flew behind his head.
It was near the suburbs. They were very close to the patch of reeds that He Chunyi had been guarding, and not far from the Wei River.
He Chunyi had not appeared. This meant that the most powerful cultivator the Li Marquessate Establishment left in Changling had been defeated by the Swan Sword. Other than He Chunyi, the cultivators who should have replaced him did not appear.
“Who dared to interfere?”
His expression grew colder. The incoming mist could not get close to him, and were shocked away by the rippling energy coming from his body. There was an irregular transparent ball of energy formed around him. There were many invisible long thorns that stabbed out of the surface of the ball, their tips were slightly shiny like star light.
Seeming to echo with the energy ball outside his body, many stars lit up in the sky.
Shen Xuan looked up. He did not stop. In such a short time, there was thick water vapor coming at his face.
He was at the Wei River.
The thick water vapor came from the rain hitting the river surface which created more water mist. Unlike the clean rain water coming down from the sky, the water mist coming off the Wei River had a fishy smell, and this was the smell he was more familiar with.
Ye Celeng had returned in the storm from on top of the Wei River. He, in the rain at the end of winter, fled from Changling, and stepped onto the cold river. He stepped on the waves, and traveled towards the center of the river.
The surroundings were vast. The water vapor and the rain mist stopped him from seeing the banks of the river. Then he stopped, turned, and faced Zheng Bainiao who had chased after him.
“So the cultivation means of Jiaodong Commandery is related to the star energy.” He looked at Zheng Bainiao, and said with an odd expression, “It seems that it was not a coincidence that she got close to Ba Mountain Sword Field to start with.”
Zheng Bainiao could not understand the expression on Shen Xuan’s face. He said coldly, “There are no coincidences in the world, just people’s choices.”
After seeing this, Zheng Bainiao had a scornful expression. He turned his head slightly in the direction of the imperial palace. Then he said, “You only sat on the position of the Secretariat Director due to her favor. But from your words, you are not so faithful to her. The confidants that she nurtured are just so. This is a bit ironic.”
Shen Xuan shook his head, and sneered at him. “You are not correct, I did not end up in the position due to her favor, but out of exchange. Out of her need.”
After a pause, Shen Xuan looked in the direction of the imperial city, and said, “If I was really a confidant that she relied on, she would not have let you appear today to kill me. Just like how she got close to the people of the Ba Mountain Sword Field back then, to her, I am just to satisfy a momentary need.”
“Since you know, then why do you struggle in pain?” All clear expressions vanished from Zheng Bainiao’s face, he looked calmly at the other.
The rotten armor of Shen Xuan’s body had slowly disappeared, washed away by the rain. The first to fall away were the dried leaves and dust stuck to the sticky blood, and then the layer of blood. Because of a great loss of blood, his body was very cold and pale, like a corpse that had been soaking in the Wei River for a long time.
“The Ba Mountain Sword Field is the same to her. I am the same. Just like how Jiaodong Commandery is the same to her, now and then.” Shen Xuan looked at Zheng Bainiao. He slowly said, “The people in control of Changling are her and Yuanwu. If you want to live in Changling, you have to prove that you are useful to Yuanwu, or to her.”
“Maybe right now, Jiaodong Commandery is just a shackle to her?”
A “fresh” sword essence appeared on Shen Xuan. When the sword essence was just released, the Wei River water under his feet boiled over.
Zheng Bainiao’s eyes flashed. He inexplicably sensed something dangerous.
Shen Xuan, who did not like to talk, said so many things to him. The only goal seemed to be letting the rotten armor fade. Upon fading, his body could release energy better, and summon the rich water vapor on the river.
But he did not understand. Without the protection of the rotten armor, how did Shen Xuan think that he could stop the Heart Thought Sword?
“You think that you are invincible in your realm, but you do not understand. The reason I struggle is because I have confidence that I can win against you alone.”
“You think that you can be like her, appear shining, and continue to shine in Changling. But you are like many experts that come to Changling, you are just a guest passing by. Are you just a fallen leaf in the wind and rain?” Shen Xuan’s voice continued to sound.
When he said the words “fallen leaf,” his sword essence was completely released. His body was drowned out in the sweeping wind and rain. The moment Shen Xuan’s sword essence was released, the blood drained out of Zheng Bainiao’s face. He looked as pale as Shen Xuan.
“What is this sword essence?”
He was faster than Shen Xuan, but as his thought moved, his mental power, vital energy and gathered primal energies of the universe were all blown away by the wind and rain. The vital energy and primal energies that carried his thoughts, as they flowed towards a flying sword, were blown around in the wind and rain. They swayed around and grew slower.
Just like a flying sword could arrive directly in front of the other, now it had to pass through the peerless wind and rain, and floated like a falling leaf towards his enemy.
The advantages of the Heart Thought Sword no longer existed.
The Mind Chamber Sect’s Heart Thought Sword was defeated by Shen Xuan’s Peerless Wind and Rain Sword!
