Many years later, Li Fuyao was not a teenager anymore. But when he stood on an isolated peak and thought of that man who led him to learn swordsmanship, he still couldn’t help laughing.
But at the moment, Li Fuyao had to think about how capable the middle-aged man was, who had a heavy moustache and was in front of him before deciding if he would learn swordsmanship from him.
Late in the afternoon yesterday, he had seen Chen Sheng in the forest cut off that python’s head with his sword at one blow. Earlier, he found the rope Chen Sheng had made with willow leaves on the bank of the Baiyu River. The two things were enough to prove that Chen Sheng was not weak.
He was even quite powerful.
Under the sun early in the morning, Li Fuyao sat under the eave in his courtyard. In front of him, Chen Sheng looked at this teenager, with a big smile on his face.
Chen Sheng stared at Li Fuyao who kept silent for a long time. Then he got anxious and rubbed Li Fuyao’s head, saying crossly, “Why do you still need to think? I am one of the top two swordsmen on the Sword Mountain in the past one hundred years. I could reach the Dawning Stage under the age of 100. I have such a talent. How many people in the human world can compare with me? Do you think anybody in my stage can kill an evil demon in the Revelation Stage?”
Although Li Fuyao had heard of a lot of rumors about the human cultivators, he knew little about the swordsmen. In the human world ruled by the three religious sects, the swordsmen had to open a new path.
“Little Fuyao, you should know that there are few swordsmen in the human world, but why has swordsmanship been passed down from generation to generation? Except for that Sword Mountain, it is because Sword Immortal sustains the current situation. Otherwise, it is uncertain if the swordsmen have come to an end now.”
“Just now I said I am one of the top two genius swordsmen on the Sword Mountain in the past one hundred years. Sword Immortal is the most talented swordsman in the human world in the past six thousand years. It’s not one hundred or two hundred years but six thousand years!”
“There are nine stages for the cultivators. The cultivators of the three religious sects can be sages after reaching the last stage, the Ocean Stage, and the swordsman like me can be a Sword Immortal after reaching the last stage. What is Sword Immortal? When he unsheathes his sword, even a sage would have to get away from him.”
“Six thousand years ago, when there were many swordsmen in the human world, six Sword Immortals showed up. You know what? There are only six sages in the most prosperous Daoism Sect in the human world. The six Sword Immortals were so honorable and energetic. Each one could cut thousands of stars at one blow. The swordsmen stood for the first Orthodoxy of the human world then. The cultivators of the three religious sects should be respectful to the swordsmen.”
“Fuyao, you have a good talent. It’s not that you have a good talent to cultivate. Instead, your cultivating ability is ordinary, but if you practice swordsmanship, you can go farther. The cultivators of the three religious sects like to talk about the talent, and so do we as swordsmen. However, in comparison, there were some swordsmen of ordinary talent who became the Sword Immortals in the end, but there were few. At last, I want to say something unnecessary. How can the swordsmen stand out among all in the same stage? That is because the way of swordsmanship is not as broad as the way of the cultivators. It is rough and difficult to walk on.”
“By the way, you need to remember the name of the Sword Immortal I mentioned. Otherwise, you will practice swordsmanship for nothing.”
“His name is Chao Qingqiu. He is the only Sword Immortal in the human world in the past six thousand years.”
Chen Sheng said a lot, but in the end, Li Fuyao didn’t have any reaction except writing down the two words, Chao Qingqiu.
Chen Sheng stood up and looked at Li Fuyao, thinking him unreasonable. He roared, “Little Fuyao, why are you so hesitant like a woman? Will you learn swordsmanship from me? Tell me yes or no. Why do you think so much?”
Li Fuyao asked in confusion, “After I learn swordsmanship from you, will I need to go to the Sword Mountain?”
“Of course you will. You can’t be counted as a swordsman before you climb up the Sword Mountain and come down from it. Even that Sword Immortal came out of the Sword Mountain,” Chen Sheng paused for a while and then continued, “You will mention my name when you go to the Sword Mountain after you learn swordsmanship. You don’t need to worry about any other problem.”
Chen Sheng was like a fortuneteller on the street and wanted to cheat Li Fuyao out of his money, so he looked unserious.
Fortunately, the lonely teenager nodded at last.
Behind him, Qing Huai looked much better. She glanced at Li Fuyao, with other meanings in her eyes.
…
Li Fuyao started to learn swordsmanship.
But he needed a sword to practice swordsmanship.
However, hearing Li Fuyao’s question, Chen Sheng just shook his head.
“There are many swords on the Sword Mountain. You can choose any one when you climb the mountain.”
As Chen Sheng said, the swords from any place of the human world couldn’t be compared with the ones on the Sword Mountain. But he himself kept the Baiyu Sword he had just found on his waist, seizing it as heaven-sent.
Seeing that, Li Fuyao rolled his eyes even though he was good-tempered.
Ignoring Li Fuyao’s expression, Chen Sheng stated calmly, “The cultivators in the world have nine stages. The highest was the ninth stage, the Ocean Stage. I don’t know if it means the oceans and mulberry fields change as time goes by. Anyway, the cultivators reach the destination when they get to this stage. If they want to climb up, they will not be cultivators but immortals.”
“However, the great war that year broke the world, so in the past six thousand years, nobody in the world could become an immortal, so we can’t see any.”
Chen Sheng raised his head and sighed with emotion, “There is no immortal in the world in the past six thousand years.”
When he was speaking, in fact behind him, Qing Huai didn’t look natural.
“Under the Ocean Stage is the Ascending Stage. It is said that only after you ascend higher, you can see the ocean. If you reach this stage, I am afraid very few people in the world can take your life, except the sages.”
“The Revelation Stage, Twilight Stage, Sanctification Stage and Fundamental Stage are in descending order. If they are in the later stage, they are less powerful.”
“As for the lowest three stages, it is the Awakening Stage for the Confucian cultivators, the Triplex Unity Stage for the Dao cultivators, and the Bodhi Stage for the Buddhist cultivator. They are different. The cultivators of the three religious sects only need to cultivate the first stage and then they can try to reach the Fundamental Stage. They can avoid suffering from ascending each stage.”
“We are swordsmen and the later six stages are the same as the cultivators’, but our lowest stages are three stages: the Intent Stage, Focus Stage and Sword Qi Stage. We need to reach each stage step by step. Fuyao, you need to pay attention. The first three stages are the basic ability of a swordsman. If you don’t learn it carefully, you will walk slower and slower in the future.”
Li Fuyao kept the knowledge in his mind that he didn’t know in Luoyang City and nodded at last.
Chen Sheng laughed and waved his hand. Then he picked up a stick conveniently and looked at Li Fuyao with a smile, “So, Fuyao, now let’s start practicing swordsmanship.”
Watching the scenery described on the book was different from walking on the way in person, so when Li Fuyao wasn’t satisfied with what he heard of and started to take actions, he found the way was difficult to walk on. Although he was mentally prepared, he felt surprised.Chen Sheng led him to the way to practice, or rather the branch road. In Chen Sheng’s opinion, the way of swordsmanship was a rugged path, so when he took Li Fuyao to walk, he didn’t brag but told Li Fuyao that it would be difficult to walk on this path in the future.How difficult it was depended on what he felt, so Li Fuyao was wise and didn’t ask this question.Therefore, since Li Fuyao agreed to walk on this road, Chen Sheng kept making things difficult for him. This middle-aged man who looked easy-going at ordinary times was serious when he taught somebody swordsmanship.He told that teenager who didn’t know what swordsmanship was to stab one thousand times
“Li Fuyao, I am going to Liangxi, but I can walk with you to the border of Yanling. Get ready, and we will set out in a few days.”The next morning, as soon as Li Fuyao stepped out of his room after waking up, he saw Qing Huai. She said that with no emotion, which surprised him.But Qing Huai didn’t speak much and turned to leave after that. Chen Sheng was sitting on the stair and looking at Li Fuyao.Li Fuyao thought for a while and soon came to sit next to him.Chen Sheng was not that kind of old tutor who would like to explain something with a long speech. On the contrary, he was best at killing demons or people with a sword.Otherwise, why would he have killed that big demon in the Revelation Stage with a sword alone?So when Li Fuyao was sitting beside him, Chen Sheng didn’t keep anything from him but said straightforward, “You are in a very low stage, and I am afraid you will suffer on the way. It ha
On the third day after Chen Sheng left, Li Fuyao packed up and closed the courtyard door.Standing at the door, Li Fuyao carried a large bag and laughed in a low voice, “Maybe I won’t come back in the future. In the past, I always thought Baiyu Town is really small and I could wander everywhere in a short time. But now I am unwilling to leave here.”Qing Huai had nothing in her hands and ignored him. She just held her chest with both hands and looked the small courtyard up and down.After they walked less than one hour, they would go out of this town. Li Fuyao turned his head and looked at this small town for the last time under the morning sun and then left.There was an official road outside Baiyu Town, and it was the only way to the outside world, so they chose this road. The Sword Mountain was on the border between Yanling City and Dayu, and it was in the north of Dazhou Empire. Therefore, on this trip, Li Fuyao planned to walk
The young scholar was going to the ghost Zhuyu Town, which made Li Fuyao’s expression a bit unnatural. Finally, Qing Huai had some interesting ideas. Then they returned to the Zhuyu Town. On the way, it was obvious that the young scholar’s spirits rose. He was talking all the way. And he just let Li Fuyao know the ins and outs of the matter.It turned out that the young scholar had a girl friend who grew up with him together. The two originally loved each other. They had already made a deal that they waited after the scholar went to the capital to take the examinations and then they got married. But no one knew why the woman married far away to Zhuyu Town after the scholar left the village. The scholar returned from the exam and learned of this. So he raised a machete in preparation for coming to Zhuyu Town to grab his girlfriend back.Speaking of this, Li Fuyao really admired the young scholar. But because he made Qing Huai stop and go to Zhuyu Town, Li Fu
In everybody’s opinion, it was not a small matter to break a mansion’s gate for no reason. A mansion’s gate was the dignity of a family. After being embarrassed, that family wouldn’t look happy anyway.But now, what happened was that Qing Huai broke this mansion’s gate and entered it boldly, while nobody in the large mansion came out to stop her.Li Fuyao was petrified. Seeing that Qing Huai was going to get out of his sight, he hurriedly stood up and jogged to catch up with her. She had told him that Zhuyu Town was not safe, and he didn’t dare to get away from her.But he turned around and glanced at Huang Jin who sat on the stair in a daze. Li Fuyao quickly pulled him up and followed Qing Huai into that mansion.They rapidly walked a few steps and passed a short path. Li Fuyao finally saw Qing Huai’s back in front of a pavilion. He heaved a sigh of relief and stopped. Huang Jin took deep breaths and asked in a low voice, “Mr. Li,
Huang Jin was obviously not a man who was disloyal to love, and he was not even a bad man. He studied hard for so many years in order to be outstanding. And the reason was that he did it for this female ghost in red in front of them and wanted her to live a better life after marrying him.Thus, Huang Jin could bring a machete which he had never used to snatch a bride in Zhuyu Town. It was rare for a scholar to pick up a machete, but Huang Jin didn’t care for the sake of this woman. However, when he faced death, he might be willing to die, but as somebody asked abruptly, he would be scared. So it was not his fault to shake his head.But women didn’t like to listen to reasons, and perhaps this female ghost didn’t like to, either.Li Fuyao grabbed the machete and looked at the female ghost whose face turned ferocious. He cautiously kicked Huang Jin’s back, but the latter didn’t stand up after coming back to reality. Huang Jin just stared at the fe
On the roof of a house in this mansion in the deep of an alley, Qing Huai who disappeared as soon as she entered the mansion was sitting and looking at the pavilion in the distance with a smile.Next to her, there was a young woman in a cloth dress whose face was pale but looked peaceful. In the daytime, she still held an oil paper umbrella and covered herself under it. Now she was sitting idly on the roof with Qing Huai, a teenage girl dressed in black clothes.After Qing Huai called “idiot”, the woman whose name was Hehua showed a faint smile. Seeing that Qing Huai still didn’t plan to leave after calling, she asked in confusion, “Qing Huai, why don’t you go to help him?”Qing Huai looked emotionless, “I have to let him experience the danger in the human world. Otherwise, such a boy from a small town would be bullied when he is out.”Hehua covered her mouth and chuckled, thinking, “Qing Huai, you look so young. Why do you speak l
After leaving Zhuyu Town, they continued to walk northward. These days, Huang Jin was in low spirits obviously. After getting out of that mansion, he didn’t carry that machete on his back, and it was replaced with that umbrella, so the machete was on Li Fuyao’s back.It was ridiculous for a swordsman to carry a machete on his back. Although in Chen Sheng’s opinion, Li Fuyao was an unpresentable swordsman, he was a swordsman anyway. However, Li Fuyao had special feelings for this machete which was with him when he fought the first fight in his life, so he didn’t say anything.The three continued on the official road. Huang Jin walked quickly behind the other two but didn’t raise his head. This scholar took part in the first test of the imperial examination in Shaoliang City this year and learnt the news that the woman got married. Then he gave up the next tests and came back home in a hurry. According to the rules in Dazhou, he couldn’t attend the imperial e