Tao and Heaven

Chapter 26 The Second Best Sword in the World

Gu Wen was regulating his breathing to digest what he had learned, while Yu Hua was flipping through a number of books on the desk beside him.

"Your poem is good, but the words are a little crooked."

Gu Wen said calmly, "It wasn't written by Gu. It was just copied for practicing calligraphy."

Yu Hua smiled but didn't point it out, and continued to flip through the book with his head down.

This book is made of hemp paper, and it costs one coin per copy, with a total of fifty pages. It is the cheapest paper in Daqian. It is no different from the ordinary paper in the outside world, but it lacks the magic of the immortals to call the wind and rain, and the people live in hardship, so it is not for ordinary people.

But it was not used to record poems, because it was too difficult to write on and easily damaged. It should have been used by Gu Wen to practice calligraphy.

She had also read the poems in the several booklets sent by Zhao Feng, but there were a few more that she had never heard of before.

Slender fingers slid across the paper and ink with candlelight, and the mind seemed to wander between the pen and ink. At first it looked sloppy, but then it looked like the author was alone between the sea and sky.

One sentence after another, it's dizzying, as if the talent is endless.

"After getting drunk, I didn't know the sky was in the water, and the boat was full of sweet dreams that pressed down the stars."

“Who first saw the moon by the river? When did the moon by the river first shine on people?”

"I see how charming the green mountains are, and I think the green mountains see me the same way."

It is understandable that doggerel is not presentable, but these lines are definitely not the best, unless the people of Daqian have their eyes between their thighs.

But the artistic conception of these sentences is very different, and they don’t seem to be written by Gu Wen.

It's not that we question his talent, it's just that everyone has different lives. When Gu Wen was enduring and lying dormant, he was able to say "Heaven will give great responsibilities to this person", and because his treasures were stolen, he said murderously "The inner treasury was burned to ashes, and the bones of the nobles were trampled on the streets."

From their talent for cultivation to their talents, they are the best that Yu Hua has ever seen, but these all have their traceable tracks.

Perhaps it is true as he said, that it was not written by him, unless his talent is beyond common sense.

Gu Wen on the side officially began to refine the spiritual treasure.
-
As their thoughts converged, a phantom eel rose up, its body several times larger than it appeared, like a yellow dragon looking down at Gu Wen from above.

Gu Wen took a look at the curved sword intent in his hand. It turned out that the sword intent could be brought into it, and it did have an effect.

Looking up at the eel that was dozens of meters long, it was not difficult to kill it. The mind was an extension of the body. Their minds were not yet transcendent and were actually more fragile than the body.

The real difficulty is to tame it, to tame it without taking any damage.

The fate moves slightly, and the imperial juice boils.

This is his confidence. I am talking to you sincerely, but you insist on playing tricks on me!
【One Year of Imperial Juice】

The universe is in order, all things coexist, there are five immortals and five insects, with different destinies, but all beings are equal, and this world is immortal.

A dim golden light mediated between the two, trapping them both in a watery area with no end in sight, with the reflections of a man and a snake reflected under their feet.

Gu Wen understood the purpose of the Emperor's Juice, and roughly understood why he could not understand it before. He could not truly understand the words "fate" and "law", and did not believe that everything was predestined.

He lost his destiny because of the Zhao family and was destined not to have the chance to become an immortal.

The Emperor's juice formed a special Taoist rhythm that allowed him to ignore fate and control all laws of destiny.

The fate was shaken again, and the mysterious meaning was unravelled and turned into something more concrete that Gu Wen could understand better.

Here, the soul is immortal, and there is no need to worry about the soul being injured when refining spiritual treasures, nor is there any need to worry about the spirituality of the spiritual treasure being wiped out. All cause and effect, destiny and fate are useless, just like the earth gives birth to all things, and all living beings are acquired.

Ignore destiny and seize the opportunity to become an immortal.

Gu Wen sighed helplessly, "The Heavenly Marrow is not an initiation, and the Emperor's Marrow still requires people to fight to the death. Is even the fate a life of hard work? But it's okay, success depends on people, not heaven."

He clenched his right hand, and a three-foot-long green sword entered his palm, straight and sharp.

The Jade Purity Sword Intention is different from the outside world. It lacks the step of practicing the virtual to the real, and does not require too much mana and a strong enough sword intention. This made Gu Wen feel a little better, and the Heavenly Marrow he used up some time ago was not without effect.

He raised his sword and pointed it directly at Huang Long, a dark red aura attached to the sword.

"Now you and me."

Huang Long opened his mouth and pounced at him at an extremely fast speed. Gu Wen had no experience in life-and-death combat. Even though he was a veteran in the underworld and a veteran on the frontier battlefield, he probably didn't know how to respond.

A dragon car was rushing towards him, without any skills, it just crashed into him.

Gu Wen stood holding the sword, raised his hand, and held the sword high. The clear and bright sword intent reflected the yellow dragon and completely fell into his pupils.

He whispered, "At first it was dark and mysterious, but the sword's power became clear and bright."

As the sword comes out, the sword light is ten feet long, breaking the skin, cutting the flesh, and breaking the bones!

The eel split into two and cracked ten steps away from Gu Wen. Blood and wind blew across his face, and flesh and blood quickly passed by on both sides.

This world is created by the mind, the mind is the main focus when divine thoughts collide, and when the sword mind is clear, one will be invincible.

boom!
The huge body of the yellow eel fell heavily to the ground, and its blood flowed into the water mirror floor, turning into wisps of essence and merging into Gu Wen's body.

Gu Wen felt that his spiritual power seemed to have grown a little stronger. Although it was extremely subtle, for him who had not yet begun to refine his spiritual power, every little bit of growth seemed extremely huge.

In a moment of distraction, the corpse disappeared, everything went back to the past, and the eel appeared again.

This time it did not show its fangs and claws again, its meager spiritual power was occupied by confusion and fear.

【The great way competes, all things return to one】

The function of the Emperor's Juice is not to allow him to refine spiritual treasures. The Emperor's Juice is not such a narrow thing. It is more like a place where "big fish eat small fish".

I can swallow it to strengthen my mind. Gu Wen suddenly had an epiphany, and then he looked at the eel with a different meaning. His spiritual shadow immediately fell down, and his mind extended a meaning of submission.

It is natural that the soul is an extension of the mortal body. All spiritual beings fear life and death, and the lower the spiritual intelligence, the more they tend to be instinctive.

Gu Wen came in front of it and looked at the eel with a flattering attitude.

The murderous intent gradually subsided. It was true that what Yu Hua said was the easiest way. A spiritual treasure was not an artifact, and even if it was an artifact, it could still hurt oneself.

It was still uncertain how much the direct strengthening of divine consciousness would have, just like how the Jade Purity Sword Art consumed so much of the Heavenly Marrow and was only now really put to use. What Gu Wen needed was to maximize his ability to protect himself, not some mysterious divine consciousness.

A magical treasure can definitely greatly enhance one's self-defense ability.

The yellow eel shrank in size and rubbed Gu Wen's ankle. The ugly thing looked quite cute.
Hmm! Retracting and expanding the body?

I, the Taoist priest, don’t know how to do it, how dare you do it?

Bang!
The eel's head was suddenly pressed to the ground, and the knife came down, and blood flowed into a river.

The unknown equals danger. In the realm of divine consciousness, the eel has gone further than himself. He must suppress it more times to keep it in a weak state at all times.

The second time it was resurrected, the eel resisted, which showed that it had not been defeated. The third time it was resurrected, the eel begged for mercy again, which showed that it was conserving its strength.

Three times, four times, and five times.
As strands of spirit entered his body, Gu Wen held the palm-sized loach and sighed, "I have been walking on thin ice in this life."

Even this spiritual treasure is harboring murderous intentions towards him.

[The Emperor's Juice is Exhausted]
-
Boom!
The midnight bells rang into the house.

Yu Hua rested her chin on her right hand, breaking away from the scribbling words. She pinched her brows in a state of headache.

The hobbies of the cultivators are similar to those of the common people, such as playing the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and songs. Except for a few great masters who have reached the ultimate state, most cultivators are also human beings, mortals with seven emotions and six desires. Even the bald donkeys who have attained the status of Buddha have greed, anger and ignorance, and the old Taoist priests of the Three Pure Ones Sect were also furious with their disciples.

Among these hobbies, calligraphy, chess, and painting are the most popular and profound. Those who have reached the pinnacle of proficiency can even enter Taoism through them. It is just unknown whether it was first sought after by someone who entered Taoism through them, or whether it was only after more people liked them that people entered Taoism.

Yu Hua often appreciates poetry, songs, strange stories and miscellaneous notes. This is a hobby that does not require contact with people, so she likes it very much.

Only this book gave her a headache. The book in her hand was obviously used for writing practice, and contained many popular poems. But in Yu Hua's eyes, most of them were unbearable to look at. Many times, there were only a few famous lines in hundreds of years. These doggerel poems and Gu Wen's sloppy handwriting made people get stye.

Yu Hua could choose not to read it, but she didn't mind the many golden sentences she had never heard of, and just a few of them made her linger on.

Turning the page again, another sentence caught my eye. I wonder where he found such a famous sentence.

[When the sea ends, the sky becomes the shore; when the mountain reaches its peak, I am the peak. ]

At this time, Gu Wen slowly opened his eyes and their eyes met.

He asked: "May I ask the fairy, who is the peak of refining spiritual treasures?"

Yu Hua raised his chin slightly, his voice soft and pleasant, and said: "There is a list of 132 people for sword-refining in the Sword-Folding Mountain of the Military Family. Those who refine spiritual swords before the turn of spring into summer can be included in the list. The top of the list refines 39,000 swords a day, the 20th one a day, and the third one a month."

Gu Wen opened his mouth slightly, with a look of astonishment on his face. He originally thought that he was already amazing enough. The reason he asked this question was because he was wondering if refining a spiritual treasure in less than a few hours would be a bit shocking.

He needs to create a genius persona in front of Yu Hua, but he has to keep things in reserve.

But I didn’t expect that there was someone even more outrageous than him, refining 39,000 spirit swords in one day. What kind of monster is this?

This way, I don't need to worry about being too shocking.

There is always someone better than you. There are always people with cheats in the world, and some of them have them since birth.

Yu Hua leaned forward slightly, with the corners of her mouth slightly raised behind the veil, and said, "Why do you want to be on the list? I do know the way to Zhejian Mountain. When you enter the cultivation world in the future, I can take you there. I just don't know if those sword fanatics will let you go up."

"Of course, the prerequisite is that you can refine spiritual treasures."

hum~
The spiritual energy floating in the void was stirred by an inexplicable wave, and spots of water light began to appear around it.

Yu Hua's gaze froze, with a hint of green reflected in his dark pupils.

Gu Wen asked, "I wonder if I can be ranked second on the list?"

Of course, because the top of the list is Master Zhejianshan, the number one swordsman in the world, but he is a person on par with Master.
Yu Hua did not answer. He was speechless and had no idea how to respond.

Four days to build the Dao and one day to refine the spirit. Is there really someone in this world who has the talent to reach this level?

She didn't know, but she glanced down and saw the pen and ink inadvertently.

[When the sea ends, the sky becomes the shore; when the mountain reaches its peak, I am the peak. ]

The dull consciousness suddenly came into being, like a bolt of thunder piercing the sky.

This seems like something he could write, his heart is higher than the sky and his intentions are lofty.

Perhaps his concealment of his shortcomings was not due to his caution, but rather his arrogance that he was too disdainful to reveal them to others.

Yu Hua closed the book and put it into his sleeve, and said solemnly: "After this matter is over, I will take you to Zhejian Mountain. I heard that the second place on the Sword Master List can get a fairy sword. Just like this magical treasure, that fairy sword should be yours."

"I am an outsider, how can I take the treasures of other sects?"

Gu Wen didn't quite believe it. It wasn't in their interest. The ranking was used to motivate their disciples.

Yu Hua chuckled and said, "If I can leave the immortal land alive, they will naturally give it to me. This is also the rule set by their master. But over the years, people have lost their sense of morality."

"Whether it's my Sanqing Dao Sect, Zhejian Mountain, or the Zhao family, they are all old things that smell terrible."

(End of this chapter)