Chapter 7

BANG! BANG!
His body shook as he pierced through the blockage, and hot water flowed out of his nose and mouth.
Probably blood.
But there was no pain.
The coolness of the piercing was too much for me to feel pain.
Bang, bang, bang!
My body, which had only been practicing minor jutsu, was now capable of major jutsu, and the energy had pierced new blood channels.
Finally, it rushed toward the head.
Bang! Bang!
“Kuluk!”
It coughed up a huge amount of blood, nothing compared to what had come before.
I coughed and coughed and coughed.
‘It’s not good to keep moving and screaming like this…….’
But contrary to what he had been taught, Jingyi kept moving regardless.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
The attempts to break through the wall continued, and eventually Qiun managed to punch a small hole in the passageway to the upper level.
Paaaaah!
It was only a very small hole, but the coughing stopped, and I began to feel a surge of energy throughout my body.
This was the power of the upper hall, the place for the deity who presides over the body and soul.
I opened my eyes, sobbing profusely.
A flash!
For a moment, my vision turned purple.
After a moment, my vision returned to normal.
“Whoa.”
I spat out the last of the turbid qi through my exhalation and tried to move my body.
Boom, boom, boom!
I banged my fists together, ran, and stretched out my legs.
“Is this…… my body?”
It was so smooth, so fast, so different from what I was used to.
There was a huge difference between before and after the upper body was hit.
“Wow!”
I exclaimed as my body became faster and smoother than before.
The birds on the tree flew away, causing a commotion, but I was still happy.
When my excitement subsided, I remembered the sword Master Mujin had given me and went into the drunken rock.
I opened the old chest nailed in one corner.
Pfft!
I opened the old chest and saw a sword that glowed brightly in the dark.
It was the first true sword he had received from Master Mujin.
“Long time no see.”
He thought back to the time when he had received it from his master and wielded it wildly, leaving scars all over his body.
It hadn’t been long, but it was different now.
The corner of his mouth twitched at the memory.
“It must be different now.”
I hadn’t taken it out until now because Master Mujin had scolded me so much back then.
To commemorate the death of the upper echelon, I grabbed the sword bottle for the first time in a very long time and lifted it up.
The cold sword bottle felt light, almost weightless.
The bluish hilt, sharp edge, and hilt of the sword were decorated in an old-fashioned manner, and two strands of red watermelon were hanging down from the end of the bottle.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but it looked very expensive and luxurious.
How angry and embarrassed his master must have been to see him making such a fuss with such an item.
I smiled bitterly and lightly swung it a few times.
Boom, boom, boom.
“Good.”
The sword sliced lightly through the wind.
It felt great in my hand.
“It’s a bit narrow…….”
The quarry was wide, but still narrow enough to move around with a sword.
I opened the door and stepped outside.
The breeze seemed to bless me.
“Feeling good?”
I smiled broadly and assumed the plum blade stance.
I stepped forward with my right foot, gripped the sword with my right hand, and made a handshake with my left.
“Whoosh!”
There’s always a little tension before you start.
But the thought of moving with a sword that had gotten me in trouble in the past made me a little nervous.
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and with a grunt, I executed a one-second plum blossom fall with my plum blade.
The sword sliced the wind gently.
Parrrr!
As I spun as fast as I could, I could hear a swarm of bees flying around, and the sword tip spun so fast that it was invisible.
Even I was surprised.
Papa papa papa!
The sword pierced through the virtual blood of the enemy, and finally pierced through the opponent’s heart.
It feels a little different than before.
I should have felt strange, but somehow it felt familiar and natural, and I continued to deploy my first attack.
Each time I moved on to the next formula, the sword deviated further and further from the prescribed path of the Plum Blossom Sword Path. Finally, at the sixteenth plum blossom ten thousand, the intense life force emanating from my body brought me to my senses and I sheathed the sword.
“What…….”
My vision was already dyed a deep purple color.
I quickly re-sheathed my sword in response to the uncontrollable surge of life force.
“Ugh…….”
And this time, his head hurt like it was going to crack.
“Kkkk…….”
His master’s voice echoed in his head.
“The body, mind, and soul must be in balance. The human body is like a microcosm, harmonious and infinite. But when that harmony is disturbed, the body collapses uncontrollably and is destroyed. When the body is broken, the mind is broken. When the mind is broken, the soul is broken. And when the soul is broken, God cannot follow. Do you understand? Harmony, harmony. Especially your method, the Jahasim method, is based on the sunset, the taiji, the harmony of yin and yang. When harmony is disturbed, there may be some side effects, so be careful.
“Ugh…… this is the side effect of the harmony being broken?”
I lay on the ground, clutching my head with my hands as my head ached like it was going to break.
“Ugh…….”
Not even a scream escaped me.
Tears streamed down my face, and I felt like my body wasn’t my own.
Then, a shadow blocked out the sun.
A middle-aged man with dark eyebrows, tiger-like eyes, and a bushy beard stood in front of me, his skin the color of purple because of my watch.
“Your soul has disturbed the harmony of the gods and the council. You had better be still. Endure the pain.”
“Ugh…….”
I tried to say no, but all that came out was a groan.
The elder touched the heart and energized it.
The storm-like jinqi of the elderly man moving through the lower jiangshi quickly moved toward the middle jiangshi.
“Bang!
“Ugh!”
His whole body shook, and the dark purple color of the clock gradually became lighter and lighter until it finally returned to its original color.
The jinqi that had forced the breaker to extend quickly disappeared after circling my body a few times.
“I increased the interruption as a temporary precaution.”
The middle-aged man’s ignorant remedy had worked, and the headache was gone.
“But it’s only temporary. As soon as one of the two parts of the mind and soul that are inactive becomes more active than the other, the pain will return. So harmonize your body, mind, heart, and soul before the effects of this temporary cure are over.”
With that, the middle-aged man left the room.
“Now…… wait!”
The middle-aged man stopped in his tracks and looked back at me.
His beaky tiger eyes gave me goosebumps.
“Thank you…… for saving my life. I will not forget this favor. Please give me your honorific name.”
The middle-aged man stroked his chin for a moment.
The middle-aged man’s chest-pressing atmosphere subsided a lot.
The middle-aged man exhaled and opened his mouth.
“It’s called the Gong Tian Pavilion.”
With that, he turned and started walking again.
Chapter 3: Training (1)
Ding!
“Come in.”
The door opened softly, and Gong Tianfan, a middle-aged man with dark eyebrows, a bushy beard, and a bushy eyebrow, stepped into the hall.
“Long time no see.”
“Yes, it’s been a while.”
The old man sitting in the chair processing papers, Zhang Chuixuan, the elder of the Volcano Sect, looked up.
Shuffle!
Gong Tianfei sat back in his chair and stared at Zhang Chuiyi.
His eyes were intense, as if trying to pierce through Zhang Chuiyi’s heart.
The two men’s gazes intertwined.
Without breaking his gaze, Gong Tianfei opened his mouth.
“Zhang Chuiyi, a member of the Nine Sects, the eldest of the Volcanic Sect, the Plum Blade Sect, you’ve risen to great heights. It’s only a matter of time before the Volcano Sect becomes a great sect, but is it too great? Your energy isn’t as strong as it used to be.”
Gong Tianfei’s eyes and words seemed to foretell the distant future.
“What about the commune?”
“No different from here. The elder masters of the Great Gu Sect are so ambitious…… Shaolin, Shaman, and Ami are not, but the rest of the sects have become too worldly.”
“It is natural for people to want to stand above others. Unless you’re a Buddhist monk, a master of the Tao, it’s a very natural human desire.”
“Too much is worse than not enough. We can only pray that we don’t cross the line.”
“Enough of that. How about you, have you changed?”
“Not yet, but I think it will be soon.”
“Are you going to stop it?”
“No, that is not my destiny. There are others who can reverse it.”
“And who will stop it?”
“There does not appear to be one. It has not yet grown.”
“Is that so? And if so, for now…….”
“There’s nothing we can do about it. We can only watch and wait…….”
“Hah…….”
Swordsman sighs.
It was mixed with deep emotions that seemed to resonate all the way to his heart.
“I’ll go back now. We’ll meet again someday…….”
“Of course…….”
With a nod, Gong Tianfei stood up and walked over to the door.
Just as he was about to open it, he turned around.
“Speaking of which, I met an interesting kid on the way here. He was playing topgame by himself at such a young age.”
“Hao, is that so?”
Zhang Qiuyi’s eyes shone.
“How do you think he’ll grow up?”
“I don’t know yet. But it looks like it will be beyond my imagination.”
“If you say so, it must be. What’s its name?”
“I don’t know. I think there was a rustic hermitage, a large boulder, and a smokehouse…….”
“Is it the Drunken Rock? If so, then Mu Zhen and Qingwu…… are also unusual children there.”
Zhang Qiuyi smiled with satisfaction.
Gong Tianfei shook his head.
“What a harsh destiny awaits that child…… A hero in the midst of trouble is not a good destiny…….”