Chapter 22

The man ended his talk about Ma Jintian with these words, and walked around the neighborhood in silence.
He memorized the geography, figured out where everything was and what it was like, and returned to his quarters.
It looked like dinner time, with food on the table and people sitting around.
But it wasn’t like lunch.
There were four people sitting at the same table, in a set arrangement.
Moreover, two of them were from the Huashan faction and the other two from the Zhongnan faction.
There was a chill in the air, as there had been before the war.
“You’re here, go sit over there.”
At Elder Wenhu’s words, I went to the far end table and sat down with Yan Hua.
In front of them sat a stubborn-looking boy with a square face and a sturdy body, and a boy with a frail body and a curly haircut who looked like a girl, but with protruding vocal cords…….
“Now, if you’re all here, listen up.”
Elder Wenhu said, clapping his hands in unison.
I stopped scanning the people in front of me and turned my attention to Elder Wen Hu.
“From now on, you will behave together. Be friendly.”
The words came out of nowhere, without explanation.
But there was no one in the room who didn’t understand.
There was a moment of silence, and then Elder Liu Zhiqi of the Sect of the South turned to Elder Wenhu and said.
“……What are you talking about?”
“Four people at a table. We will act in groups of six. Cooperation is important, and getting along will help us live comfortably.”
“That’s nonsense. These are the same groups as the Sect of the South!”
“Gal! Shut up!”
Elder Wenhu’s words silenced one of the shouting landowners.
“I don’t allow rebuttals. I don’t listen to complaints. Just do as you’re told.”
The tone of voice was commanding.
Elder Wen Hu frowned as if he was in a bad mood, and the other Late Elders in his chain also fell silent and lowered their heads.
“Hehe. If you speak so forcefully, they’ll comply on the outside, but they’ll rebel on the inside, so you’ll have to explain it to them gently.”
“Is that so? I’m not sure.”
Elder Wenhu’s tone was a bit blunt, as if he was offended.
Elder Lingfeng coughed in embarrassment and clapped his hands in unison.
“Now, this meal was organized to strengthen our fellowship, so let’s eat without arguing with each other. Stop for a moment.”
At Elder Lingfeng’s words, the meal began.
However, the meal, which was supposed to be a soft and light meal for fellowship, was silent.
Except for the Elders’ explanations of things like the upcoming schedule.
“There are five things you must train in starting tomorrow. Martial arts, Qin, cooperation, strength, and intellect. How you train will be taught in due time. And once again, get along. In short, good relationships are important. It’s a truism that if you create a grudge, one day it will come back to you. Today’s friends may become tomorrow’s enemies, and today’s enemies may become tomorrow’s friends, and it’s not good for colleagues who have to live together for two months or so to start off like this.”
Elder Lingfeng’s rant was met with silence.
After a few moments of coughing in vain, Elder Lingfeng sat back down to eat.
After eating in the heavy air, he and Yan Hua walked up the stairs and talked.
“This is really too much, isn’t it? How can you expect us to eat in such an atmosphere?”
A grumbling Yeon-hwa poured out her complaints.
“Why do you make people who don’t get along sit together? Why don’t they eat separately at first, and then you can make a table for them to get along later? And everyone else, too. There’s no reason to eat in such a heavy atmosphere, is there?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I give him a cursory response to his ramblings, then go back to thinking.
“Why are you reacting like that? Is something wrong?”
She’s a friend I’ve known for a long time, so she knows how I’m feeling in an instant.
I turned the tables and answered Yeonhwa’s concern.
“No, I’m just thinking about something.”
“Really? I don’t know what’s on your mind, but just take it easy, and I’ll go.”
“Okay, okay.”
Yeonhwa’s room was on the left side of the stairs, mine on the right, so I turned around with a bow.
I opened the door, walked in, and buried myself in the fluffy bed.
“Woohoo.”
The softness of the bed made me feel a bit disturbed, unlike the relaxing sensation.
“Did I say Ma Jinchen……?”
There was only one thing that came to mind, Zhongnan’s half-dragon.
The overwhelming aura that I could feel even though I was just walking still.
It was so overwhelming that I couldn’t think of anything but him, even at the meal earlier and on the way up.
“But why are you an eighteen swordsman?”
Speaking of the Eighteen Swords, it’s the equivalent of the Sun Sword in a volcano.
Being a good swordsman is great, but in my opinion, a swordsman with that level of power should be a plum blossom swordsman of the Volcano Sect, or a ten-sword swordsman of the Zhongnan Sect.
But a rank of Eighteen Swords, that was strange.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. It could be something similar to me.”
I’m also stronger than a Sun Swordsman, but am I not just a Land Swordsman?
I pushed myself up from the bed and opened the window.
A cold breeze rushed past my face.
“Huh?”
As I absorbed the yin-tinged air through my white gray blood, my mind cleared.
He closed his eyes in the afterglow for a moment, then opened them and looked down.
A red light was illuminating the darkness, and a blue light was illuminating the darkness from Zhongnan’s quarters up ahead.
Blue and red.
Yin and Yang.
Two colors that are often compared to water and fire.
Two coexisting, opposing energies.
The analogy between Zhongnan and the volcano made me laugh out loud.
Just then, the servants at the door of Zhongnan’s quarters opened the door.
A man stepped out with a bright light shining on his back.
“That’s…….”
The man I was thinking about just a moment ago.
It was Zhongnan’s half-dragon, Ma Jintian.
He saw me, too, and he looked at me, waving his scepter.
Bam!
I closed the window, put on my robes, opened the door, and stepped outside.
I rushed down the stairs and opened the door before the servants could open it for me.
A cold breeze rushed past me.
“He’s…….”
I couldn’t see where he’d gone on my way down.
I walked to the middle of the street and looked around, searching, until I felt someone’s eyes on the back of my head.
“Hmm?”
I turned around and there, on the side of an obscure building, shrouded in the shadows of the night and hard to see, was Ma Jinchen, waving his saber gently.
It stared at me for a moment, then turned away and went inside, as if beckoning me to follow it.
As if mesmerized by something, I complied and followed him inside.
Twists and turns, straight lines, curves and turns.
When I emerged from the winding path, I found myself in a large clearing, like a stage for a performance.
Standing in the center of it was Ma Jintian, and he was staring at me.
“Why are you following me?”
His tone was different from when he spoke to Yan Hua.
His tone was arrogant, as if he were a king.
“You asked me to follow you, didn’t you?”
He didn’t say it, but his actions said it.
“Hmm, did I? I don’t think I did, but if I did, I don’t know what to say.”
He sounded as if he were playing a joke.
“Stop playing games and say what you have to say.”
My tone turned stern as my mood worsened.
“Well, well, well. I’m sorry I offended you so easily. I didn’t realize two words could offend you so much. I apologize.”
He smiles.
His tone changes so quickly that I’m not sure which is his real personality.
“Well, to cut to the chase, there’s something I need to ask you to do.”
Ma Jinchen said with a serious face.
“You’re a strange man.
The equation was established: Ma Jinchen = weirdo.
“I need to give you a test.”
“A test?”
“Oh, to see if you’re worthy to talk to me.”
To talk to me?
“And what if I refuse?”
“You have no right to refuse, because I’m interested.”
As soon as Ma Jintian finished speaking, he stabbed out a swift sword line.
“Ahem!”
It was too close for a foot sword.
He switched his hand into a water sword and deflected the sword.
“Hmph, I thought you were a swordsman, but you’re a pupil?”
There was no point in arguing with the sudden attacker, so he stepped forward.
Power rose from the soles of his feet.
It swings from the waist, then from the shoulder, then from the fist.
A blow with a warrior’s spirit.
Ma Jintian raised his saber to defend his face.
KANG!
His fist hurt a little as he realized the material was made of iron.
But he wasn’t surprised, and he folded his arms and punched out with his elbow.
BANG!
The elbow is a stronger part of the body than the fist.
As if it worked, Ma Jinchen was knocked back two steps.
“Jiang Tianxu, but different…….”
Ma Qin Tian muttered as he took a few steps backward.
A discerning eye.
He could recognize a martial artist from another sect at a glance, even though he had changed his formation.
He stiffened his stance and said.
“Jiang Chen Shui is right, but it’s my own Jiang Chen Shui.”
“You can even change a martial art to suit yourself? That’s amazing.”
Ma Jintian looked astonished, buried his Qi into his chest, and drew his sword.
Hmph.
With a crystal-clear sound, the sword beam dispersed the moonlight.
Pore-dilating white light, sharp edge, and blue blade.
It was indeed a masterful sword.
“You’re too advanced to play around with the divine spell, I’ll deal with you with a sword. You’d better draw your sword.”
Ma Jintian loosely dangled his sword.
It was a stance with too many loopholes on the surface, but upon closer inspection, it was flawless.
The apparent flaws were bait to lure the opponent in.
It was a perfect natural body.
Unable to ignore it, I struck a stance of my own.
One second with the plum blade, one second with the foot sword.
“You go first.”
With a thud, Ma Jintian charged.
Three chapters, two chapters, one chapter…….
Moments divided and divided The moment Ma Qin Tian’s body was within range, he drew his sword.
A silent sword.
Without a sound, it reached the strike point at a tremendous speed.
“Got it!
I thought I had the perfect catch.
But Ma Jintian wasn’t so sure.
No matter how silent and exhilarating the sword was, it was still blocking my sword when he retrieved it.
Boom!
“Quick.”
Ma Jintian said with a moment of admiration, then moved his sword.
A slow sword. But a heavy sword with Chen Ge’s experience.
Its movements slowed down as if it was caught in a net.
A heavy sword at its peak.
But Touro had one thing going for him: a sword that made gentle circles.
It was easy to block.
“Hot!”
With that, he slowly released the plum pumice stone.
The petals of the plum blossom slowly chipped away at the heavy sword and rock.
Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop!
I blocked it perfectly and took three steps back.
Just as I was preparing for the next attack, Ma Jintian returned his sword to its sheath.
“Why are you retrieving your sword?”
“That’s enough. Pass. Why? Do you want more?”
After saying the last word, he picked up his momentum again.
A momentum that was incomparable to the one before.
If that’s his momentum, he’s lost.