CHAPTER 390: CHAPTER 35: IDENTITY EXPOSED

Old Kuru’s gloomy tone carried not the slightest hint of jest.

Without a blade and hacking with Dark Power? That’s essentially like chopping with one’s palm – that’s the palm of the hand, for heaven’s sake! Yue Jinghua suddenly felt a surge of frustration flush over her face.

What kind of wood chopping was this? It was utterly like using an embroidery needle as a hammer—it was plain mockery.

If it weren’t for Old Kuru’s hawk-like eyes watching her back, preventing her escape, Yue Jinghua would definitely turn around and walk away.

Although she is a half-baked Dark Earth expert, the cultivation technique she has been practicing all along is the Nine Revolutions Star Creation Technique.

This technique, to put it bluntly, is an Inner Cultivation Technique, akin to internal strength. As for her skills in hand-to-hand combat, the so-called external martial arts, unless holding the Lianyun Great Sword, Yue Jinghua could only execute a few striking, powerful sword moves.

But that’s also contingent on having the Lianyun Great Sword in hand.

After Old Kuru finished speaking, he performed an eagle-swooping somersault, jumping onto a nearby white beech tree, and soon began to snore.

Luckily, the old man wasn’t watching her the entire time. Yue Jinghua touched the smooth Qu Wood, knocked on it with her knuckles, and it made no sound. Although this type of Qu Wood looked like bamboo, it was genuinely solid wood and its toughness was not inferior to that of middle-grade Spirit Rank metals, no wonder Old Kuru would travel so far and trudge through forests to specifically cut down this material for building a cattle shed.

Taking advantage of Old Kuru being sound asleep, Yue Jinghua lightly leaped a hundred yards away and chose a row of uniformly grown Qu Wood trees, about ten or more, and drew the Lianyun Great Sword.

"Only a fool would chop wood with their hands, you old coot, clearly throwing me under the bus again," Yue Jinghua had inquired around – Ah Zad had been a cattle herder at the farm for ten years and never once needed to chop wood. It was obvious Old Kuru was just picking a bone with her.

Summoning the power of the Nine Revolutions Creation Technique within her body, Yue Jinghua wielded the Great Sword with a sweeping motion.

The Sword Qi streaked out like a white silk ribbon descending from the ninth heaven, abruptly striking at the row of Qu Wood.

Unbeknownst to Yue Jinghua, the moment she drew the Great Sword, the old man using his hands as a pillow, legs crossed at the ankles, stopped snoring. He squinted his eyes slightly.

As he saw the magnificent Sword Qi emanating from the Great Sword in Yue Jinghua’s hands, a flash of admiration sparkled in Old Kuru’s eyes, clearly attracted by her brilliant sword move. However, immediately after, that glint of interest turned into schadenfreude.

Old Kuru secretly thought: Heh, the higher the young start, the harder they fall. Go ahead and use a blade when I told you not to. Just you wait and see, you’ll soon be crying and begging for mercy.

The Sword Qi, like a raging flood or a ferocious beast, surged towards the Qu Wood forest.

She expected the Qu Wood to break on contact with the Sword Qi, but when the Sword Qi collided with them, something strange happened to the row of trees.

The dozen or so Qu Wood trees, as if suddenly activated, began to twist their formerly motionless trunks, resembling a cluster of wriggling worms or willow branches fluttering in the spring breeze.

Willow branches?

A jolt went through Yue Jinghua’s heart – if they were like willow branches...

"Snap, snap, snap," the dozens of Qu Wood, as if possessed by a spiritual sense, fearlessly met the Sword Qi head-on.

They moved like waves of trees, one after another, staunchly blocking the overwhelmingly powerful Sword Qi, then, with an indrawn breath, boom – a thunderous explosion resonated.

It was like drawing a bow and pulling the string, her own Sword Qi was fiercely rebounded back at her. The more ferocious the Sword Qi Yue Jinghua had swung out, the more intense the rebounded Sword Qi was.

Despite Yue Jinghua’s astonishing reaction speed, she knew it was already impossible to dodge it at this point. Her legs thrust violently as she infused them with Dark Energy, causing the ground beneath her to collapse as if it had caved in, and she immediately sank more than half a zhang into it.

The Sword Qi she had wielded almost grazed the skin of her scalp, sending a chilling breeze past her.

Yue Jinghua was so frightened that cold sweat broke out in succession. If her reaction had been even a fraction slower, her head would have been separated from her body by now.

Dying to one’s own Sword Qi would be such an embarrassing tale to tell that it would make others laugh their heads off.

On the other side, Old Kuru, who initially wanted to get up, laid back down and secretly praised in his heart: "This kid’s reflexes are indeed not bad. That mastery of the Great Sword technique signifies a famous teacher, it seems that passing on the Hua Xuan Technique to him is something to seriously consider."

Turns out, Old Kuru was actually entertaining the thought of accepting a disciple.

Splitting firewood with bare hands was merely a test he gave Yue Jinghua.

Yue Jinghua, unaware of her own good fortune, grumbled inwardly that Ah Zad hadn’t been played like this—because Old Kuru found Ah Zad’s temperament a bit too honest.

Old Kuru had been a by-the-book person all his life. Now that he was older and thinking of taking a disciple, naturally he wanted someone more spirited.

Although Yue Jinghua was a bit tricky, she was young and sweet-talking. Although Old Kuru verbally complained about her, he secretly liked her deep down.

Thinking of all this, Old Kuru floated down from the tree and watched as Yue Jinghua scrambled to extract her feet from the ground, breaking into hearty laughter: "Hahaha, you little fox, you suffer from not listening to the wisdom of the old."

Yue Jinghua was covered in dust as she put away the Great Sword. The force of her stomp had sunk her half a zhang into the soil, and it wasn’t easy to climb out at this point.

Old Kuru hummed twice, and with a gentle lift of two fingers picked up Yue Jinghua as if she weighed no more than a feather.

"Thank you, Grandpa Kulu. This Qu Wood is really perverse. I’m afraid I can’t handle it. How about I offer some money to help you buy a batch of top-quality highland red pines from down the hill? Those things can withstand even ninth-level earthquakes; they are definitely good material," Yue Jinghua felt helpless in front of the Qu Wood Forest.

After her sword power was viciously rebounded back at her, those dozen or so Qu Woods returned to their original upright position, leaving Yue Jinghua’s eyes nearly falling out of her sockets in astonishment.

"Girl, stop trying to act obedient in front of this old man. I am not Madan, who could be fooled by you," Old Kuru blew his beard and glared at Yue Jinghua.

Hearing this, she immediately realized that Old Kuru had seen through her identity.

Old Kuru came from a military background, and even after many years of retirement, he retained the habits of a soldier.

He didn’t easily trust others, and he investigated everything thoroughly.

The reason he had been delayed in coming down from the mountain wasn’t just to meet up with old friends. He also made a trip to Five Saints Town specifically to investigate Yue Jinghua’s identity, and followed the trail to Blood Cherry Duke Mansion and the change of ownership in Fengdan County.

"Bankrupt Blood Sakura Duke Yue Nian, only father to two sons and one daughter; one son and one daughter his own, his eldest son Yue Minzhi residing in Wo Hua Imperial City and never having left, his younger son Yue Chen, merely ten years old. The only one close to your age is his daughter, who left Dragon War Empire four years ago and went to Shang Kingdom, the eldest daughter Yue Jinghua," Old Kuru slowly unraveled the identity of Yue Jinghua, all the while carefully watching for any changes in her expression.