Mo Feng had never been in such a miserable state in his life.
Last night, this “righteous path genius” had added three whole bottles of cleansing spirit liquid to his bathwater, scrubbing his skin nearly raw, yet he still felt the faint, lingering stench of chicken droppings around the tip of his nose.
What drove him even more to despair was that this morning, before his mud-splattered brocade robe had even fully dried, rumors had already spread throughout the outer sect—”The newly appointed supervisory officer, due to his overwhelming righteous aura, caused a mountain gale to reverse its flow, blowing himself into a drenched mess.”
This “auspicious” reputation was probably impossible to wash off.
Lin Yue, on the other hand, had slept soundly until dawn.
He had just pushed open his door when he saw Wang Pangzi scurrying over with an excited face.
“Yue-ge! Big news! The major lecture today isn’t being taught by the regular instructor. It’s Senior Sister Chu from the inner sect giving the lesson personally!”
Lin Yue was in the middle of a yawn.
Hearing this, his hand jerked, nearly jamming his toothbrush down his throat.
“Who? Chu Wanning?”
“Yeah! The entire outer sect is going crazy. That’s Senior Sister Chu! It’s usually hard to even catch a glimpse of her, yet today she’s actually coming to lecture us bunch of mud-legged lowlifes.”
Wang Pangzi wiped a bit of drool from his mouth.
“Yue-ge, you just… ahem… touched hers yesterday… Do you dare to go today?”
Lin Yue looked at the pitch-black iron pillar under his bed and fell into deep thought.
Go, and he might die.
Don’t go, and with Chu Wanning’s vindictive nature, if she thought he was avoiding her out of guilt, she’d probably just storm right into the dormitory.
“I’ll go. Why wouldn’t I go?” Lin Yue hefted the heavy sword, his eyes profound.
“I’m going to learn skills. I have a heart devoted to the Dao.”
“…Not even a ghost would believe that.”
Training Ground.
The atmosphere today was completely different from usual.
Gone was the usual noisy clamor.
Over a thousand outer sect disciples sat cross-legged in neat rows, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
At the very front stood a woman in white robes, her hands clasped behind her back.
The morning light spilled over her shoulders, as if plating her with a silver edge.
Her longsword remained sheathed, but the chilling aura of aloofness it exuded kept everyone present from daring to look up and meet her gaze directly.
Chu Wanning.
The number one sword path genius of the Nine Heavens Sect’s inner sect.
Lin Yue hunched over, shrinking into the very last row, desperately trying to use Wang Pangzi’s lump of fat to block himself.
“Today, we will discuss ‘Sword Intent.'”
Chu Wanning spoke.
Her voice was as clear and cold as shattered jade, devoid of any emotion.
“Many believe Sword Intent is something one can only touch upon after reaching Foundation Establishment. But in my view, Sword Intent lies in the heart, not in one’s realm. A withered branch, a piece of stubborn stone—both can be a sword.”
As she said this, her gaze swept over the last row as if by accident.
Lin Yue’s heart gave a thud.
He hurriedly tried to hide that “Black Iron Heavy Sword” further behind his back.
“That disciple.”
Chu Wanning’s finger lightly pointed, her voice calm.
Every disciple in the training ground turned their heads in unison.
“Yes, you. The one carrying the iron pillar. Come up.”
Lin Yue froze.
Wang Pangzi looked at him with sympathetic eyes, silently shifting his body aside, revealing Lin Yue, who was squatting on the ground, and that shockingly ugly pig iron pillar.
“Damn it,” Lin Yue cursed under his breath.
He had no choice but to steel himself and stand up.
Dragging that several-hundred-pound heavy sword, he walked onto the platform step by step.
The grating sound of heavy iron scraping against the marble floor was especially piercing in the silent training ground.
“Senior Sister Chu, good morning,” Lin Yue forced a dry laugh and cupped his hands in greeting.
Chu Wanning ignored his pleasantries.
She just stared at the heavy sword for a moment.
“This is the sword you chose?”
“Reporting to Senior Sister, this is called the ‘Profound Iron Ruyi Rod’… ah, no, the Ruyi Sword,” Lin Yue stated with a completely straight face, spouting nonsense.
“A heavy sword has no edge; great skill appears clumsy. That is indeed one path.”
Chu Wanning offered a faint evaluation, then looked toward the audience below.
“Today, I will demonstrate a set of ‘Basic Sword Control Forms.’ Lin Yue, you will receive the moves.”
A wave of gleeful, malicious laughter rose from below.
Who didn’t know Lin Yue had just “harassed” Senior Sister Chu yesterday?
This wasn’t a lecture.
This was clearly a public settling of a private grudge, live-streamed for everyone to see.
Lin Yue made a bitter face.
“Senior Sister, I’m only at Qi Refining layer four. This… isn’t really appropriate, is it?”
“I will suppress my cultivation to Qi Refining layer three.”
Chu Wanning wasted no words.
She brought two fingers together like a sword.
A faint yet extremely concentrated blue light flickered at her fingertips.
“Make your move.”
Lin Yue knew he couldn’t avoid it.
The Book of Karmic Entanglement within his sea of consciousness began to stir restlessly once more.
Task Issued: Do not retreat during the spar.
Make Chu Wanning realize there exists a fatal flaw of ‘excessive sentiment’ within her sword techniques.
Task Reward: Unlock the Heavy Sword’s second form, ‘Severing the Vast Horizon.’
Failure Penalty: Chu Wanning will deem you a useless smooth-talker and publicly freeze you into an ice sculpture, hanging you at the mountain gate to sun-dry for three days.
Lin Yue cursed inwardly: Heavenly Dao, you pervert.
You want me to teach an inner sect genius how to wield a sword?
Chu Wanning moved.
She had indeed suppressed her cultivation extremely low, not even disturbing the dust at her feet.
But as that single finger pointed out, Lin Yue felt as if an entire iceberg was collapsing toward him.
A chilling aura instantly locked down all possible paths of retreat around him.
That was true Sword Intent.
“Senior Sister, forgive my offense!”
Lin Yue narrowed his eyes slightly.
The third hidden meridian within his body instantly boiled over.
He did not dodge. Instead, he swung that pitch-black iron pillar, smashing it heavily toward the blue light.
CLANG!
A deafening crash echoed, and a wave of air rolled out.
The outer sect disciples sitting nearby felt their eardrums ache and couldn’t help but take a few steps back.
A flicker of surprise passed through Chu Wanning’s eyes on the platform.
This single finger strike of hers, while only using the power of Qi Refining layer three, contained sword path insights sufficient to instantly kill an ordinary Qi Refining layer five cultivator.
Yet Lin Yue’s swing seemed to have precisely slapped the crack in the iceberg.
“Again.”
Chu Wanning’s figure flickered, gliding like a spirit across ice.
Her fingertips were unpredictable, each strike aiming directly at Lin Yue’s openings.
Lin Yue’s current feeling was strange.
The combat instincts of his past life as a Demon Emperor were slowly awakening.
In his eyes, Chu Wanning’s movements, while fast, were too clean.
So clean it felt deliberate.
So clean it felt like… she was trying to prove something.
‘This kind of swordsmanship can kill, but it cannot retain sentiment,’ Lin Yue thought to himself.
His feet remained rooted like a mountain.
That several-hundred-pound pig iron pillar in his hands actually whirled out a circle of black afterimages.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Dense collision sounds linked together into a continuous stream.
Lin Yue truly had not retreated a single step.
Each time he swung his sword, it looked like the clumsiest blacksmith at work, yet each time it just happened to block that elusive, ghostly fingertip.
The disciples below were dumbstruck.
“This… what medicine did Lin Yue take? He can actually exchange this many moves with Senior Sister Chu?”
“How is that iron lump of his so nimble?”
Meanwhile, An Xiaoxiao, who had been hiding behind a tree the whole time, held a half-eaten cucumber in her hand, grinning like a little cat that had stolen some fish.
“Go, Senior Brother! Put more effort in, or Senior Sister will turn you into a sieve!”
On the platform, Chu Wanning’s offensive grew faster and faster.
Her brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
Something was wrong.
This was very wrong.
With each collision, she felt a strange force travel along her fingertips and burrow into her meridians.
It wasn’t spiritual power.
It was an extremely domineering, extremely… covetous resonance?
“What exactly are you looking at?” Chu Wanning suddenly asked coldly.
Lin Yue stared into her eyes, his iron pillar suddenly planting itself upright on the ground.