BXBX NOVEL Chapter 139: 139. [The Ultimate One Sword and The Peak Half Sword] (4,000 words, asking for monthly tickets!)
Chapter 139: 139. [The Ultimate One Sword and The Peak Half Sword] (4,000 words, asking for monthly tickets!)
At this moment, Lin Chan was cooking porridge tor Lu Xun, who was waiting by her side for his precious disciple to feed him.
Then, he heard the announcement.
“What’s going on?” Lu Xun was slightly confused.
The timid Lin Chan, however, was startled by the sudden loud voice. She thought to herself, ‘this guy sure has a booming voice.’
Lu Xun stepped out of the kitchen to find his third senior brother, Zhuge Lai Fu, and his fourth senior sister, Mao Nanbei, also outside.
Rushing over, he asked, “Third senior brother, fourth senior sister, what happened?”
Mao Nanbei and Zhuge Lai Fu turned their heads toward him, speaking in unison, “Didn’t you know about the bet between our Demon Sect and One Sword Mountain, as well as Ten Thousand Sword Mountain?”
“I have no idea!” Lu Xun responded, but he had the nagging feeling that he might have forgotten something.
Strange, was there a bet or something? Did I hear this plotline when I was playing Heavenly Dust in my past life?
Right, it seems…l vaguely recall something like that.
“So, you didn’t prepare anything?” Mao Nanbei blinked her big eyes and looked up at Lu Xun, wondering.
“Prepare? Was I supposed to get ready for something?” Lu Xun pointed at his nose, increasingly puzzled.
Mao Nanbei and Zhuge Lai Fu exchanged glances before briefly explaining the details of the bet to Lu Xun.
Lu Xun:
“I guess Shen Yan assumed the senior disciples on the back mountain would tell me, and they thought Shen Yan would have already informed me…and then…they all conveniently didn’t mention it to me.”
As expected, everyone in the Demon Sect are so unreliable!
The bet was divided into three stages. The first stage involved the representatives of One Sword Mountain and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain facing off against the Breaking-Normal Sword Qi in the Lead Peak.
The second stage was the representative of One Sword Mountain and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain fighting against the Sword Dao Experts sent by the Demon Sect.
These two stages didn’t concern Lu Xun. What did concern him was the third stage – the newcomer battle.
“Has there been any new disciple in the Demon Sect, in the field of Sword Dao…who could outdo me?” Lu Xun asked himself.
“The answer is no!” Lu Xun answered himself.
Indeed, Lin Chan was a Natural Sword Embryo, but her cultivation duration was too short, even shorter than Lu Xun’s.
As a ‘Natural Sword Embryo’ just like her, Lu Xun was, of course, the best choice.
The only thing was that he, as the person involved, hadn’t known anything about it until a few minutes ago…
“I can’t tell if this means you guys don’t respect me or don’t respect One Sword Mountain and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain…” Lu Xun was too exhausted to even complain internally.
However, on second thought, there were hints laid out.
Back when Shen Yan speculated that he was a Natural Sword Embryo and he seemed overjoyed – like a hairless kid – he must have been looking forward to this day.
And recently, Lu Xun immersed himself in meditation and spent his nights obsessively scrutinizing his master’s manuscripts. This behavior misled others into thinking that he was aware of the situation.
“But it doesn’t matter. As a member of the Demon Sect, I’ll naturally go all out for the benefit of the sect!” Lu Xun reassured himself upon seeing the sudden task prompt.
“Ding! You have triggered a mission: Sword Challenge. Do you accept?” Obviously, this was a hidden mission. Lu Xun promptly chose to ‘Claim’.
Does it matter whether I prepared in advance?
I’m just an emotionless task-bot after all!
He read through the task details, which required him to win the third match of the Novice Battle.
Of course, there is a big precondition — the Demon Sect must neither win nor lose the two preceding matches consecutively.
The stakes are structured as a best-of-three, so if the sect wins or loses consecutively, the third match of the Novice Battle would be rendered meaningless.
The Demon Sect hasn’t recruited any new swordsmanship prodigies for many years. Their continuous success all boiled down to their consistency in winning the first two matches.
Hence, it seemed like the last match, which invariably had the smallest momentum, was arranged on purpose.
If Lu Xun gets the chance to compete, all he needs to do is secure a victory to receive task rewards.
If Lu Xun doesn’t even get the chance to compete, the task will automatically expire.
Lu Xun:???
What’s going on? It’s making me overthink. As a Demon Sect member, shouldn’t I be rooting for my sect to win the first two matches? Damn game!
But the task rewards are so tremendous! 100,000 experience points, one point in swordsmanship aptitude, and 3,000 sect reputation points, plus a swordsmanship skill upgrade coupon!
The temptation is outrageous!
However, looking at the current situation, the first round, the interrogation of the sword, was about to begin!
Lu Xun turned to look at his Third Senior Brother and Mao Nanbei. He asked, “Third Senior Brother, Fourth Senior Sister, who is competing in the second match if I’m chosen for the third match and the half sword qi from Lead Peak is the first?”
Mao Nanbei was eating pocket food and keeping an eye on the situation at Lead Peak. After hearing Lu Xun, she answered, “In the past few years, it’s always been Second Senior Sister who played, but she is still trapped within the bamboo forest, and it’s unclear if she can make it.’
Zhuge Lai Fu waved his hand and said, “Don’t worry, even if Second Senior Sister can’t make it, others can substitute, you don’t have to fret over the second round.”
After saying that, Zhuge Lai Fu squinted his eyes even more and said solemnly, “On the contrary, Ping Shanhai almost broke through our eldest brother’s half sword qi three years ago. It’s hard to say what will happen this time.”
After that, he turned to Lu Xun and said with a smile, “So, little junior brother, it seems like the pressure will be on your shoulders.”
Lu Xun didn’t mind because he had always been a person with a good mentality. At that moment, he took the opportunity to ask further: “Third Senior Brother, Fourth Senior Sister, do you know what kind of legacy the founder of Sword Mountain left in our sect?”
Third Senior Brother Zhuge Lai Fu shook his head and said, “I don’t know, the master didn’t say.”
Lu Xun glanced in the direction of Lead Peak, his expression growing more serious.
After a careful recall, he began to notice something amiss.
Lu Xun speculated, if he hadn’t traveled through time and everything had progressed normally, the Demon Sect might have lost this time.
Because in his previous life, he had heard players mention this storyline. A player had chatted with an NPC who had inadvertently revealed a piece of the past.
However, what is strange is that although One Sword Mountain and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain won and retrieved the founder’s legacy, none of their senior members revealed what the item was.
The specific details of the three matches were also not widely known, only fragments of information were available.
To be precise, it would seem that the Demon Sect, One Sword Mountain, and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain have all intentionally refrained from bringing up the matter!
Because of this, Lu Xun couldn’t remember this storyline clearly.
From what he remembered, he learned about this storyline because Demon
Sect players and players from One Sword Mountain and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain were hurling insults at each other on the forum. They kept bringing up the matter, but he just skimmed over it without giving it much thought.
Since the storyline was from a few years before the public beta, it had nothing to do with him and was subsequently excluded from his storyline notebook.
That’s the way people’s minds work. Until the matter arose, Lu Xun probably couldn’t remember this story.
“Looks like there’s a big pitfall that I can dig into!” Lu Xun thought to himself.
Now is not the time to think about these details though. He remembered something else and asked again, “Third Senior Brother, Fourth Senior Sister, does the sword qi in Lead Peak suffer attrition since it has to be actively drawn up every three years? Will it not wear out over time?”
If there were losses each time, it would be easier for their opponents to win over time.
Third Senior Brother shook his head and answered, “The half-taken sword qi is the first loop of the Demon Sect’s Mountain Protection Array. It can draw spiritual energy from the array to nourish itself. It won’t get stronger, but it won’t get weaker either.”
Lu Xun nodded, now he understood, it could even recharge power…
At this moment, almost all of the Demon Sect’s people were paying attention to the situation at Lead Peak, only the Master was still in his room, unaware of what was going on.
It seemed that for this bet, he, as the one who initiated it, wasn’t taking it too seriously.
The Demon Sect’s Mountain Protection Array opened a slight gap under Shen Yan’s control.
After all, if they didn’t provide an opening, attacks from outsiders would not be able to get in.
The first Sword asking round was to compete with the Sword Qi within Lead Peak, not with the Demon Sect’s Mountain Protection Array.
The Mountain Protection Array, which was created by the Master himself, wouldn’t let Ping Shanhai’s sword qi in.
Although the Sword Qi inside Lead Peak is the first ring of the Mountain Protection Array, it’s not just this Sword Qi, there are other formations that will run with it. If they didn’t open a gap in the array, it would be a bit unfair.
Ping Shanhai hovered in mid-air, his Divine Sword crossed in front of him, his eyes staring directly at Lead Peak.
It wasn’t until a gap was opened in the Mountain Protection Array that he moved.
The Divine Sword was unsheathed!
The unsheathed Divine Sword was wrapt in a strong Sword Qi!
One Sword Mountain’s Doctrine is that one sword can break all skills, so sword cultivators of One Sword Mountain always have their best sword move, some even only practice one sword in their lifetime!
As a result, many One Sword Mountain players, who followed local customs, spent all their experience points on one sword, especially obsessed with a single proven tactic.
When fighting with others, they always loved to shout the name of their sword moves, and the scene was roughly like this:
“Take my sword! Gale Sword!” “Take another one! Gale Sword!”
“Another one! Gale Sword continues!”
“Did you expect that? Gale Sword strikes again!”
Of course, these were only a few among the players, not to say all sword cultivators in One Sword Mountain would only practice one sword.
They were more focused on improving one sword to perfection.
However, the majority of the sword cultivators of One Sword Mountain do only practice one set of swordsmanship in their lifetime, that’s true. While only practicing one set of swordsmanship, they specializes further in one particular sword move.
The opposite was naturally Ten Thousand Sword Mountain.
Ten Thousand Sword Mountain advocates learning more, then connecting ideas, verifying each other.
So most of the sword cultivators of Ten Thousand Sword Mountain learn many sets of swordsmanship, reaching proficiency is enough, they don’t seek the ultimate. Their sword moves can be said to be endless.
Colorful players have summarized Ten Thousand Sword Mountain and One Sword Mountain with a four-word phrase – many/shallow/one/deep!
The former practices many but shallow, the latter few but deep.
Therefore, even in One Sword Mountain, those who only practice one sword in their lifetime are a small minority, and Ping Shanhai just happens to be in this minority!
His sword skill was a very simple one, it was merely a sword drawing technique.
However, using this technique from his hand, it gives people a completely different feeling!
The sword intent wrapped in it is as wide as the sea, ordinary cultivators definitely can’t see how profound it is.
Atop Lead Peak, Shen Yan and the others couldn’t help but knit their brows slightly.
Compared to three years ago, Ping Shanhai obviously had some new understandings!
Moreover, the Sword Qi inside Lead Peak couldn’t hold back any longer, it shot out directly!
Compared to it, this Sword Qi did not possess sword intent.
Yes, Yan Li closed the death path, this Sword Qi has been lingering inside Lead Peak for so many years, the sword intent has long since dissipated cleanly.
Even if it does not have the reinforcement of sword intent, even if it’s just half a Sword Qi, up to now, no challenger has shattered it!
If Ping Shanhai’s Sword Qi with sword intent is like the sea, then this half Sword Oi intends to be the Seagod’s Needle!
At this moment, it was all about whether the sea would swallow it completely, or it would balance the ocean with brute force!
Sword Qi collided directly with the Sword Qi.
The half Sword Qi was from Yan Li, and the other from the Ancestor of the Sword Sect’s leftover divine sword.
In an instant, the stars in the night sky seemed to have all dissipated cleanly at this moment.
Strong fluctuations spread from the air, Shen Yan directly activated the Mountain Protection Array, intending to absorb these remnants into the array for resolution.
Otherwise, this large area outside the gate of the Demon Sect would be destroyed under the aftermath of these two swords!
He wouldn’t like to see a mess at the door, the clean-loving Master might get angry.
The Mountain Protection Array, originated from the Master’s hand, took in all the remnants of the Sword Qi like a bull drinking water, to avoid adverse effects.
However, even so, there were still changes around.
In this Spring Festival, it’s been snowing heavily for many days and the surroundings was covered by heavy snow. The snow was so thick it was of a degree that someone, like Lu Xun from the south, had never seen before.
But at this moment, outside of the Demon Sect’s mountains, snow within the vicinity of tens of miles completely disappeared!
Inside the gate of Demon Sect, it was covered in silver snow.
Outside the gate of Demon Sect, the accumulated snow was gone.
It seems that within a breath, it was two different worlds.
Atop the small hill, the disciples of One Sword Mountain and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain, no matter how much they disliked each other during normal days, are now unified.
At this moment, they were all looking at each other saying, “Who won? Who won?”
Compared to three years ago when Ping Shanhai was knocked flying, the current situation was a bit hard to see.
Could it be a tie?
If it’s a tie, how to determine who wins or loses?
Unlike these elite disciples, the few elders present with deep cultivation base already have an answer in their hearts.
Shen Yan and others on Lead Peak also have their own answers.
At this moment, an earth-shaking sword song came from inside the gate of the Demon Sect.
It came from the top of Hidden Mountain.
It came from the Sword Qi is Near!
(PS: The second update, 4000 words, won’t be counted as an extra chapter.. Please give me some Monthly Votes at the end of the month! I think I can still jump two places up on the New Book Monthly Votes Rankings! Also, remember to vote for me in the ‘Glory Battle’ event!)