by <unknown>
"Did you notice the flamboyant decorations on the sheath? Hehe. She wasn't a person who understood swords. She thought that the more spectacular a sword appeared, the more powerful it would be. This sword cost her almost everything. She was certainly charged much more than she should've been!
"I remember that when she offered the sword to me, I was at the lowest point on my path of training. I was so depressed that I even considered abandoning the sword arts and working as an ordinary disciple who dealt with mundane affairs!
"She was much nobler than me at that time. I was both surprised and delighted to see the sword, but I did not have enough self-esteem to pick up the sword. Out of nowhere, I asked her, what would happen if I could not achieve anything or become a world-famous swordsman despite her trust?"
In the blowing, freezing wind, Yan Liren's voice was mixed with weird magnetism. Li Yao could not help but feel hooked by the story. He asked, "How did she reply?"
Yan Liren smiled. He took out the immaculate short sword that Li Yao had crafted and stabbed it into a random crevice. Then, he unsheathed the damaged old sword from his waist and held it in his arms. Looking at the world below the clouds, he casually said, "She smiled… in a very silly way and said that it didn't matter. She said that she didn't give me the sword because she wanted me to be a great swordsman but because she liked to see me wielding my sword."
Li Yao acknowledged his story with a long 'oh'.
"After becoming Cultivators at the level of you and me, as long as we find a suitable technique, it is not entirely undoable for us to twist the shape of our bones and flesh and therefore change our appearance completely."
Looking at the volatile clouds in the cloud, Yan Liren continued. "The Purple Pole Sword Sect has already gone through the trouble of searching for Cultivation arts that can alter the body. They found quite a few secret arts that can extend one's height and limbs.
"Although the secret arts are not enough to turn me into a tall, magnificent-looking man, they are certainly enough to make me look like a normal person.
"I know that, although they never say it explicitly, they always consider me to be too much of an eyesore as a signage for the sect. A swordsman should look gracious and otherworldly. How can one be as hideous as I am?
"However, if what she liked was how I wield my sword in my current appearance, why would I bother to change my appearance just because of some irrelevant people's opinions?"
"Understood!" Li Yao took a long breath and said sincerely, "Thanks for your candor, Brother Yan. I know how the sword should be renewed now. However, it will take a long time and cannot be hurried. You must not be impatient, Brother Yan!"
"It doesn't matter." Yan Liren smiled causally. "Take your time, Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture. Not just a year and a half, even ten or twenty years are fine with me."
"Why?" Li Yao was dazed. Pondering for a moment, he asked, "Do you not want your sword to be renewed as soon as possible?"
Frowning, Yan Liren said, "It will certainly be great if the sword can be renewed sooner.
"However, my sword arts are already incredible and marvelous as they are right now. If I have a sword that integrates with me perfectly, won't I really be invincible in the world?"
"… Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough. What's bad about being invincible?"
"Being invincible will be too lonely." Yan Liren sighed. "With my ability today, there are fewer than ten people in the entire world who deserve my full attention and most perfect attack. They will be fewer still if I start killing them.
"I really can't bear to kill them!
"However, however reluctant I am, I will kill all of them someday. Even Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin, the two dominating Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, will be found by me. Their body together with their soul will be completely slain by me!
"Now that you are helping me to forge the sword, the day will come much sooner than I expected!
"After all the experts in the world have been executed by my sword, who shall I wield my perfect sword against?"
"…" Li Yao.
"Heavens, heavens, why are you so unfair!" Yan Liren suddenly leapt at and cursed toward the infinite sky furiously. "Why—why did I have to be born so strong? Why did you allow me to train myself to an invincible level so easily while making everybody in the small world hens and hares instead of giving more experts to me so that I can kill them all?
"Why? Why exactly?"
Like a crazy devil, Yan Liren triggered his invisible sword auras and launched them into the sky, which ripped apart narrow and long fractures in the clouds. Pale traces lingered in the sky!
"… B—Brother Yan, don't get too excited. Have you ever thought that there might be a vaster world other than the one we are living in, where plenty of worthy experts are waiting to be challenged by you?"
"Are you referring to the deities' realm?"
After his catharsis, Yan Liren gradually calmed down. He turned around to look at Li Yao but shook his head with disapproval. "For tens of thousands of years, rumors among the Cultivators have said that, as long as you advance to beyond the Divinity Transformation Stage, with the most mysterious secret arts, you will be able to break the void, ascend into the deities' realm, and become immortal deities!
"However, where exactly is the so-called 'deities' realm'?
"I have read a lot of ancient notes. Tens of thousands of years ago, the spiritual energy of the Ancient Sages Sector was far denser that it is right now. There were many experts above the Divinity Transformation Stage, many of whom had marched out of the Ancient Sages Sector and into the sea of stars, looking for the 'deities' realm'!
"However, most of the super experts above the Divinity Transformation Stage never returned and simply vanished into the unpredictable sea of stars!
"According to the experts who luckily escaped back to the Ancient Sages Sector, there was not a deities' realm outside of the Ancient Sages Sector. Instead, it was a place of absolute emptiness and darkness without air, life, or resources. The darkness also knew no destination. It was like an ocean that nobody could get through!
"If anyone rushed into it, they would also end up as a dry corpse in the darkness after all the resources and spiritual energy were exhausted during the prolonged flight!
"That's how the super experts who once dominated the Ancient Sages Sector were killed!
"I read the notes of a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator from the Great Chu Dynasty twenty thousand years ago.
"The Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator was an aristocrat of the Great Chu Dynasty. He was ambitious enough to collect resources, prepare magical equipment, and accumulate spiritual energy for a hundred years, all for the purpose of breaking out of the 'black ocean' that surrounded the Ancient Sages Sector in search of the deities' realm!
"He drifted for thirty years in the dark sea of stars. He thought that he had arrived where none had ever arrived before, when he accidentally discovered a boat that was a hundred times more precise than the one that he had prepared, as well as a vivid body inside the boat.
"After examining the items left on the body, he discovered that the body was a famous Cultivator in the Void Refining Stage who raised and destroyed quite a few dynasties fifty thousand years ago!
"Even a great Cultivator in the Void Refining Stage, with a boat a hundred times more precise than his, died miserably on the quest for the deities' realm!
"The aristocrat of the Great Chu Dynasty, who was at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage, was so frustrated that he nearly went mentally deranged. He lost all his courage to keep searching for the deities' realm. Finally, after another decade, he fled back to the Ancient Sages Sector!
"Hehe. Many ordinary people believe that the erratic stars in the sky are the residences of the deities. In fact, the boundless stars we see are just glittering remnants floating in the dark ocean!"
"The quest to the deities' realm is long and unpredictable. Where exactly is the so-ca
lled deities' realm, and how can we reach there?
Li Yao thought of something and said, "There's need to be pessimistic, Brother Yan. Since everybody knows of the 'deities' realm', it can't be groundless, right? Perhaps, the deities' realm does exist, but we cannot reach there by rushing the outward without stopping. We may need to resort to certain… magical equipment, like portals, in order to be teleported to the place!"
Yan Liren eyed Li Yao in a very weird way before saying, "Interesting. Your theory is somewhat similar to Wang Xi's theory."
Li Yao's heart nearly skipped a bit, as he lost his calmness and exclaimed, "Say what?"
"Wang Xi once asked me whether or not I feel that the Ancient Sages Sect is a lone island surrounded by an ocean of darkness, or just a bottomless well, and that our so-called 'unparalleled experts' are merely a bunch of frogs that can never jump out of the well however hard we try!"
Yan Liren smiled and said, "Then, Wang Xi said that, perhaps for a hundred thousand years, we have been resorting to a wrong approach. This well is too deep for us to jump out, but if we dig a hole through the wall of the well, we may be able to crawl out through that hole!"
Chapter 1413: The Things About Wang Xi |
Taking a long breath, Li Yao tried to calm himself down before he remarked, "Crawl out if we can't jump out? That's indeed a theory that I've never heard before!"
"It was not unusual for Wang Xi to propose bizarre theories such as this one," Yan Liren said. "For example, he once asked me whether or not I ever wondered what exactly the world beyond the sky was, how exactly the so-called deities' realm looked, and what the difference between the deities living in their realm and mortals such as us was.
"He also suspected that theory of breaking the void and ascending to the deities' realm is just a scam. Could the seniors who had 'immortalized' really live an eternal life in the deities' realm? If that was true, why had the 'deities' never returned to the Ancient Sages Sector to visit us and teach us the methods of ascension in the past hundred thousand years?
"I remember that the weirdest question he asked me was this. Everybody knows that the so-called 'Ancient Sages Sector' is actually an enormous sphere that floats in the boundless sea of stars.
"Then, why does the sphere not fall downward, and what exactly is 'downward'?
"Also, the sphere is rotating all the time. If so, why is the water in the ocean not poured into the sky, and why are the sphere's inhabitants not thrown off the sphere?"
Li Yao was felt so astounded that he almost fell off the cliff. Holding back his shock, he nodded and replied, "It's very interesting. How come I never thought of such bizarre questions before myself? How did you answer them, Brother Yan?"
"I didn't," Yan Liren said. "I am not interested in such stuff. Even if the deities do exist, the only thing that I care about is how it feels like to kill them."
Li Yao was amused. "That makes sense. Discussing the mysteries of the sea of stars with you, Brother Yan, is no different from casting pearls before swine!"
Yan Liren was not insulted to be taken as swine. He admitted frankly, "Yes. Sword arts are my sole concern. In every annual meeting with Wang Xi, most of the things we talked about were about the sword. Wang Xi indeed had an extraordinary talent for sword arts. Or rather, as long as he grew serious, he could be a top-tier expert in any field!
"I remember that when I met Wang Xi for the first time ten years ago, he was already the most powerful eunuch in the world, but he paid a special visit to me to ask about the mysteries of the sword arts.
"I'd been dedicated to my sword for my entire life, and I was not interested in fame or power at all. I did not intend to waste my time on him, but my senior brother and the rest of them begged me, claiming that the meeting concerned the future development of the Purple Pole Sword Sect. So, I had to waste a few days of my time to deal with him!
"However, after I tested him, I discovered that Wang Xi's Cultivation was immeasurable, and his passion about sword arts was genuine. He was definitely a worthy opponent!
"At that time, in terms of sword arts, he was still far behind me.
"However, I could feel his rapid growth in our competitions every year. In less than five years, he already deserved the full will of my sword to cope with him!
"In the last year, he was even able to enlighten me, asking me not to dwell in the unimaginable power of the three primeval swords too much.
"A swordsman rides his sword and should not be ridden by the sword!
"As I recall, that is exactly what Wang Xi said at that time!
"His words were like a bash right on my forehead and awakened me from my delusion. When I reviewed my experience in polishing the three primeval swords, I realized how ridiculous and hilarious I was. I was almost lost for good!
"It was not until then that I completed the polishing of my fourth sword, and I finally achieved the perfect state where my sword and I are integrated as one!"
Li Yao was greatly moved. According to Yan Liren's interpretation, Wang Xi, the Lead Eunuch as one of the 'Four Rapscallions', was indeed not a simple person!
Having come from a modern Cultivation civilization, Li Yao knew for a fact that the secret treasures of the Pangu Clan from the primeval era, despite their formidability, were not necessarily unassailable.
There were two unchangeable shortcomings about the primeval treasures.
Firstly, most of the primeval treasures were not designed for human beings. Their original owners could be in bizarre shapes, say, half human and half snake, three heads and six arms, or particularly monolithic.
Then, the operations of the treasures might conflict with the physiological features of human beings.
The colossal black sword that Yan Liren wielded would be a perfect example. Not just a dwarf, even a muscular, ten-meter-tall man would not be able to wield it in his hands easily.
If the sword was driven by telepathic thoughts, there would be issues such as interference and latency. It would not be as convenient as when it was wielded in a pair of hands.
Secondly, because of the erosion during the hundreds of thousands of years, most of the primeval treasures often had all kinds of rust and damaged. Even if they looked as good as new on the surface, there were often hidden injuries and metal fatigue inside.
That was the conclusion that the Star Glory Federation made after excavating Kunlun for five years.
They searched Kunlun for five years before they managed to find enough components to assemble five Colossi!
Therefore, the seniority of a piece of magical equipment did not imply its excellence. There were both marvelous weapons and garbage in the primeval era.
Although Li Yao came from a modern Cultivation civilization, it still took him a long time to overcome his blind admiration on the heritages of the Pangu civilization and to realize that anciency did not necessarily lead to excellency.
But Wang Xi had so many amazing ideas in an enclosed environment such as the Ancient Sages Sector. He even clearly recognized the advantages and disadvantages of the primeval treasures.
The Lead Eunuch who once stirred up the entire world of Cultivators in the Great Qian Dynasty purely on his own was too dreadful!
Who is he exactly? Could he be…
Calming himself down, Li Yao simply showed that he was interested and asked directly, "I've been staying in the Great Qian Dynasty for almost half a year, and the name 'Wang Xi' has echoed in my ears hundreds of times. It is said that he is still one of the 'Four Rapscallions' even to this day, on par with Han Baling, Wan Mingzhu, and Qi Changsheng. Brother Yan, you've had seven competitions with him, and you must know him pretty well. In your eyes, what kind of person is he exactly? Is he a wicked and cunning man as the rumors make him out to be?"
"I don't know if he is wicked and cunning. I'm not interested to know it, either."
Tilting his head and thinking for a moment, Yan Liren put on a weird expression as he said, "Anyways, if I have to make a comment, he is an ab
sent-minded guy."
"An absent-minded guy?" Li Yao was slightly dazed. "How so?"
"He seems to be absent-minded about everything. He does not even seem to fit in this world." Yan Liren's eyes were slightly cramping as he gnashed his teeth. "Even when we were in the middle of our fierce fights, I could still notice something uncanny deep inside his eyes, which told me that he did not fully concentrate on the fight with me!
"I always felt that Wang Xi does not belong to the Ancient Sages Sector, at least not just the Ancient Sages Sector. He belongs to be bigger, vaster world. The legendary 'deities' realm', perhaps!"
Li Yao's face shifted greatly because of the last remark. He gasped so hard that his throat was shrieking.
To cover himself, he hurried to ask, "What? Are you suggesting that, while Wang Xi was 'absent-minded', he was still able to draw even with you, Brother Yan, despite the slight disadvantage?
"Then, if Wang Xi had focused his soul, attention, and spiritual energy on the sword in his hand, wouldn't he have been able to surpass you and become the greatest swordsman in the world?"
"Probably." Yan Liren shook his head with a smile. "It's a pity that he cannot concentrate his spirit on a tiny sword, just like you can't, Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture.
"He has his path, you have your path, and I have mine. Each of us has chosen our own path. Although we may share the same destination, the scenery that we see on the road is still different!"
Li Yao was silent for a moment. Then he observed with mixed feelings, "It sounds like you think very highly of Wang Xi, Brother Yan!"
"Indeed I do." After pondering for a moment, Yan Liren said, "Let me put it this way. If I am forced to choose only one person to kill for my entire life, with the options being Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture, Qi Zhongdao, and Wang Xi, I will choose to kill Wang Xi without any hesitation!
"This is an example of how highly I think of Wang Xi. You wouldn't mind, would you, Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture?"
"No. No. Not at all. You can always test your sword with Wang Xi, Qi Zhongdao, Qi Changsheng, Wan Mingzhu, Han Baling, and the rest of them. I'm really not in a hurry. I can wait in line behind the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators!"