CHAPTER 67: 60. RAISING A SWORD

The stars in the sky sometimes seem so close, as if they are suspended right above our heads, embedded in the deep, dark expanse. Standing on a mountain, it feels like you could reach out and touch them.

Yet in reality, the stars we see might be casting light that originated thousands of years ago.

Chen Ji didn’t know how long Xuanyuan had lived, such that he could casually spend 434 years just laying the groundwork for his cultivation.

He looked at Crow, "Uncle Crow, do you know about Lu Yang, the Mountain Master of the Jing Dynasty Martial Temple?"

Crow actually nodded.

Chen Ji then asked, "Do you know how old he is?"

Before Crow could respond, Old Yao came out with his hands behind his back. "Why aren’t you sleeping early in the morning, and instead asking about Lu Yang?"

"Um," Chen Ji thought for a moment and replied, "Liang Gou’er said I am suitable to learn the Sword Seed Path, and I heard that the Mountain Master Lu Yang of the Jing Dynasty Martial Temple cultivates it, so I wanted to inquire."

Old Yao snorted with laughter, "You think you can learn just because you want to? Does anyone want to teach you? Haven’t you cooled down yet? Why are you still talking nonsense?"

Chen Ji: "...Can you first tell me how old Lu Yang is?"

Old Yao casually said, "According to rumors, he should be one hundred and thirty years old. His high level of cultivation naturally allows him to live longer."

"How old was he when he became famous?"

Old Yao glanced at him and said blandly, "Why should I tell you such things? Ask someone else."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Ji moved a bamboo recliner out from the house for Old Yao and helped him lie down.

While massaging Old Yao’s legs, he earnestly said, "Master, I could ask others, but they aren’t as knowledgeable as you. As the saying goes, having an elder at home is like owning a treasure. With you, a treasure mountain right here, why should I go looking for someone else? Can they compare to you, Master? They cannot!"

Old Yao glanced at him, silent for a long time, and then slowly asked, "What did you just ask?"

"Lu Yang’s age when he became famous."

"His age when he became famous?" Old Yao fell into contemplation, his eyes filled with memories. "He’s a legendary figure rarely seen alive in the Jianghu."

"Lu Yang was born into a noble family of the Jing Dynasty, his father Lu Xiao being the Jing Dynasty’s Champion Marquis who became disabled in the battle at Chongli Pass, and so passed down the Sword Seed Path’s scripture to Lu Yang early. It’s said that Lu Yang entered the Innate Realm at twelve, the Seeking Dao Realm at sixteen, entered the Divine Realm at twenty-one, took charge of the Martial Temple at twenty-two, becoming the youngest Mountain Master in Jing Dynasty history."

"After Lu Yang took charge of the Temple, he traveled south to the Ning Dynasty twice. The first trip, he climbed Jinghai Mountain to Linghua Temple, shattered the copper bell in the temple court, and crippled the cultivation of the temple’s master."

"During his second journey south, Lu Yang ascended Linxu Mountain to Yuqing Temple, killed the Daoist Leader of Yuqing, and split the plaque in front of the Jade Emperor Hall. Surrounded by hundreds of Yuqing disciples, he burned the plaque and drank warmed wine. Before leaving, he left the words ’Not much to it’."

Chen Ji was shocked. Could a master of the Divine Realm really do as he pleased?

"Why did he attack these two sects?"

Old Yao chuckled. "Because Lu Yang is a Martial Fool. After entering the Divine Realm, he kept looking for an opponent in the Jing Dynasty but couldn’t find one, so he turned to the Ning Dynasty. Those temple masters and the Daoist Leader were said to be the most promising in the Ning Dynasty to cross the Heavenly Person Threshold."

"Did these two Divine Realm masters lose so easily?" Chen Ji puzzled. "Aren’t they all in the Divine Realm? Why is Lu Yang more formidable?"

"Nonsense Divine Realm! Do you really think the Divine Realm is as common as cabbages?" Old Yao shook his head. "Back then, many people overstated their realm to recruit disciples. There were many who falsely claimed their power level in those years. You could pull any coachman off the streets, and they’d claim to be in the Seeking Dao Realm. Actually, those from Linghua Temple and Yuqing were just in the Seeking Dao Realm."

"Ah? They dared overstate that?"

Lying in the bamboo chair, Old Yao reminisced amusingly, "When Lu Yang first entered the Divine Realm in his youthful vigor, he heard that someone in the Demon Sect was close to touching the Heavenly Person Threshold. Wishing to challenge them, the elders of the Martial Temple advised against it as defeat could weaken the Jing Dynasty’s vitality. But, leaving only the words ’If the enemy can go there, so can I’, he descended the mountain and slaughtered through the Jing Dynasty’s Demon Sect for sixty years."

"Did he find that Demon Sect master?"

"He did."

"Was that person a Divine Realm cultivator?"

Old Yao laughed, "When Lu Yang returned to the Martial Temple from the Jiazi Demon Cleansing, someone else asked him the same thing, and he replied: ’The enemy lied.’"

Chen Ji: "...Without such bravado, he wouldn’t have invited such deadly peril."

But Old Yao continued, "In those years, he not only killed members of the Demon Sect but also challenged all those claimed to be ’likely to ascend to Divine Realm’ or ’likely to cross the Heavenly Person Threshold’, such that for those thirty years, almost no one dared overstate their realm anymore. The name Lu Yang weighed like a mountain on the heads of the world’s masters, impossible to move or shift."

Chen Ji solemnly revered him as a professional anti-fraud fighter.

He wondered, "Was there no one in the Ning Dynasty who could resist him?"

"It’s said that the Apostle from Huangshan Mountain could. Thirty years ago, the two fought for a month outside Chongli Pass. Afterwards, the Apostle went back to recover from his injuries and never descended Huangshan Mountain again, while Lu Yang secluded himself for thirty years, never leaving the Martial Temple."

"Did Lu Yang lose?"

"He didn’t lose, but he didn’t win either." Old Yao reflected, "It’s heard that the Apostle descended the mountain recently; there might be another battle between them..."

"Master, do you know Lu Yang? You seem to know so much," Chen Ji wondered.

Old Yao didn’t answer but once again asked, "You want to learn the Sword Seed? I advise you to give up, as the Lu Family’s Sword Seed has never been passed down outside the family. With Lu Yang’s cultivation at the Divine Realm, he could easily live another hundred years, and such a person likely to touch the Heavenly Person Threshold won’t take disciples."

"He reached the Divine Realm at twenty-one, why hasn’t he crossed the next threshold in over a hundred years? Is it because someone else is also cultivating the Sword Seed?" Chen Ji asked.

"Exactly," Old Yao confirmed, "Lu Yang once said there should be another person in the world cultivating the Sword Seed with him, so he has never been able to cross the final threshold. For decades, the entire Jing Dynasty was helping him search for the other cultivator of the Sword Seed, but they never found them, and no one knows where they’re hiding."

Chen Ji pondered quietly. If Lu Yang entered the Innate Realm at twelve, at what age did he start cultivating the Sword Seed? Counting by the distance from here to the closest star, Proxima Centauri, it would take over four years for anyone to touch it with Divine Sense.

How does Lu Yang nurture his sword?

Chen Ji looked at Old Yao and simply asked, "Do you know what Lu Yang uses to nurture his sword?"

Old Yao, surprised, said, "You even know about nurturing swords? Did that kid at the cloth store tell you?"

"...Hmm!"

Old Yao thought for a moment, "It’s not really a secret, but in the north of the Jing Dynasty lies the North Sea, vast and boundless. Lu Yang cultivates a sword with the great North Sea; it shall be the finest in the realm."

Chen Ji: Huh?

Cultivating a sword with the huge North Sea?

Not using a star?

How is this different from the sword seed I’ve cultivated? Did Xuanyuan miss something?

By the apricot tree.

Old Yao, wearing his loose cotton robes and black cloth shoes, stroked his beard and glanced sideways at Chen Ji, "Don’t aim too high. The Mountain Lord Sect’s Scripture is no less than cultivating a sword seed, it’s just that it’s more difficult to practice. You’ll understand later."

Chen Ji understood; to cultivate the Mountain Lord Sect’s Scripture to the Divine Realm, half of the officials in the Ning Dynasty would probably have to die off. Indeed, the difficulty was quite substantial...

But whether he could cultivate a sword seed, he would have to try to find out.

Chen Ji stealthily glanced at Old Yao. Should he secretly cultivate it without telling his master? It seemed there was no need to hide it; if the other party wanted to harm him, he would have died many times over by now.

He ventured, "Master, if there is a chance... I mean, if I could practice the Sword Seed Path, would you be angry?"

Old Yao taunted, "If, and I mean if, you can practice the sword seed, then go ahead and cultivate it. It’s perfect for chopping down officials and princes. The cultivation of the Mountain Lord Sect’s Scripture will speed up!"

The next moment, disregarding the astonished looks from Old Yao and Crow, Chen Ji used the method taught by Xuanyuan and gently sliced open his forehead with a short knife.

A drop of fresh blood oozed from his forehead, slowly sliding down. With his right thumb, Chen Ji wiped the blood upwards, leaving a crimson stain.

It was as if he had opened a third eye!

Chen Ji sat cross-legged beneath the apricot tree, his blood-stained right thumb and index finger pinching the base of his left ring finger, while his left thumb pinched the tip of his middle finger.

Old Yao suddenly got up from his bamboo chair, utterly astonished, "Isn’t this the Zi Wu Technique of the Daoists?"

The base of the ring finger is "Zi," and the tip of the middle finger is "Wu." With his hands crossed in front of him, it was indeed the Zi Wu Technique, the exact hand gesture of Daoist salutation.

Strange, where did Chen Ji learn this?

However, Chen Ji paid no attention to Old Yao’s astonishment. When the Zi Wu Technique was completed, he felt as if he was watching the "world" through the wound on his forehead.

But this world was different from the normal world; it was only a vast expanse of starry sky, boundless.

Sirius, Tianshu, Alioth, Orion’s Belt, hunter, Beiluo Shimen... the stars were brilliant!

But Chen Ji didn’t look at them; instead, he fixed his gaze tightly on the nearest sun.

The next moment, he flew up lightly, soaring towards the sky like astral travel.

Looking down, Chen Ji saw the small courtyard of Taiping Medical Hall. ’He’ was sitting cross-legged under the apricot tree, Uncle Crow tilting his head curiously observing him, hopping back and forth on the branches, continuously changing angles to watch.

Old Yao paced beside him, his eyes wide as copper bells.

In front of the breakfast shop opposite the medical hall, a clerk was taking down the door; on Anxi Street’s cobblestone road, an old man carrying firewood hurried along, his shoulder pole rhythmically swinging.

Looking further away, Chen Ji even saw Wu Yun crouching on the roof of a fabric shop. Opposite him crouched a Li Hua cat; the two seemed to be swearing fiercely at each other.

The Li Hua cat pounced towards Wu Yun, but Wu Yun pinned the cat to the ground, curling up its paws, ’banging’ on the cat’s head...

Chen Ji had never had such an experience before, feeling as if he no longer belonged to this world, yet as if the world now belonged to him.

Somehow, the long-accumulated gloom from Yun Yang, Jiao Tu, Jin Zhu, Si Cao had been swept away.

Chen Ji involuntarily wanted to shout in exhilaration, but no sound came out.

He wanted to fly to other places but could not control it; he was only drawn little by little by the sun.

Chen Ji suddenly turned around and flew rapidly toward the rising sun; it seemed like a long time, yet also no time at all, when he crossed the vast distance and arrived next to the blazing sun.

There was no sensation of burning; the exploding flames in front of him had no effect on his "Divine Sense," and he could not feel any change in temperature.

Chen Ji gently extended a finger, touching the rolling ’molten lava’ of the sun.

In an instant, he began to plummet swiftly downward; as his fingertip touched the sun, a trail of fiery silk followed, leading from his forehead back into his body!

Everything returned to normal. Chen Ji could again feel the wind, hear the sound.

He felt a mysterious connection he had established with the sun, as heat continuously surged from the trail of silk into him.

The sixteen stoves inside his body blazed fiercely, seemingly in distant correspondence with the warm current Chen Ji had drawn from the sun.

A sharp yet intangible energy moved through his meridians and blood, like a tiny sword.

So this was the sword seed!

So this was the Sword Qi that could cut through the injustices in his heart!

Chen Ji opened his eyes, raised his hand to wipe away the wound on his forehead, and the cut healed instantly, leaving no trace.

Old Yao, at his side, kept exclaiming in shock, "You? You? You!"