Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 49 Seven Days of Enlightenment (Congratulations to the reader "Ice Archangel" on the birth of his baby boy. Congratulations on the safety of both mother and baby)
"Liu Baihong lost?"

Upon hearing the news, Chen Tengjiao sat in the chair in a daze. He almost grew up listening to the stories of the White Rainbow Swordsman, and of course he was shocked beyond words for a moment.

"Liu Baihong returned to Wenjianzhai with the master of Wenjianzhai, Lin Lie. Rumor has it that Liu Baihong was defeated."

The subordinate, with sweat on his forehead, could only repeat it again, and then quickly left the room at the signal of the blue-clothed butler next to him.

"How could Liu Baihong lose? How could he lose? Even my father praised him. How could Liu Baihong lose to Lin Lie?"

Chen Tengjiao stood up suddenly in shock and anger, and smashed the long table in front of him into pieces with his hand.

He moved to walk out of the room, but was stopped by the butler. This was a thin and shrewd middle-aged man in a blue robe:

"Young Master, where are you going now?" Although it was a question, the tone was one of advice.

"...Do you think I shouldn't go?" Chen Tengjiao gradually calmed down after hearing this and turned his gaze to the butler.

"I think we should at least wait until the young master calms down before making a decision. Moreover, the master went to the Lin's Merchant House today to play chess with the owner of the Lin's Merchant House. The young master should at least wait for the master to come back."

"Huh, you are right. I was too impulsive. This matter should be handled by me." Chen Tengjiao calmed down in a few breaths, but his hawk-like eyes still revealed madness and cruelty.

"Uncle Fu, please arrange for the masters of the various sword halls to come see me in half an hour. Also, please arrange a carriage for me in the evening. I need to go to the Blood Rain Tower tonight."

The butler named Chen Fu frowned slightly when he heard this, but finally nodded in agreement.

In his opinion, this matter was just a means for the master to temper the young master's character. Regardless of success or failure, as long as it could serve as a training for the young master, as long as the master was there, things would not develop to the point of being out of control.

Xueyu Tower is a killer organization that has emerged in recent years. Unless you are a person with a very high net worth and a certain status, it is difficult to know about it. They charge a high price, but they do have experts in charge. No matter the success or failure of hiring people there, the young master will not be directly involved.

As for the high price, we can just share it from the major sword halls. Judging from the young master's instructions just now, he has already thought of this.

On the other side, in the backyard of Wenjianzhai in the Never-Sleeping City.

This is a peaceful and quiet place with green trees, pavilions, towers, rockery and clear pools.

Looking out from the pavilion in the lake, you can see the rippling waves and a huge red carp swimming leisurely in the lake, as if it is swimming in the air without support.

Outside the quiet backyard, the sound of disciples practicing sword skills could be vaguely heard in front.

In such an environment, in a peach blossom forest, Lu Cheng and Liu Baihong drank fine wine and talked about interesting things in their lives and the world's swordsmanship.

"I have never left the Shiwan Mountains, so talking to Brother Lin about sword techniques is just empty talk. I really want to have time to go and see the vastness of this world and the mysteries of sword techniques. It would be best if I could personally verify it!"

That jar of daughter's red wine is so delicious.

After opening the jar, the wine had a mellow aroma. You took a small spoonful and I took a small spoonful. The two of them soon drank half a jar. Lu Cheng quickly stopped them and set the rules.

Then the two began to compete in sword moves, then in chess, then in boxing, and then in life experiences. Whoever won would drink a spoonful of wine.

In the end, the two people were so greedy that Lu Cheng asked his disciples to go to the restaurant to buy two carts of fine wine. These could be drunk as much as they wanted, but as for the half jar of girl's red wine, only whoever won could drink a spoonful of it. That's how the wine tasted so good.

As time went by, the two of them won and lost alternately, and the wine jar was empty.

"When I was young, I liked a girl. At that time, I was less than 30 years old and at the second level of Qi training. I joined that village in order to assassinate a barbarian king."

"I was pretending to be an honest but cowardly fisherman, because fishermen would never kill anyone."

"The first time I saw her was during a festival in the village. She was wearing a plain totem robe and buckwheat shoes, and looked pretty. She sat quietly under the eaves, holding a small wooden sculpture in her hand, with a simple and kind look on her face. The light sunlight shining on her body made her look even more gentle."

"Don't tell me she is the daughter of that barbarian king..."

"Are you going to listen or not?"

"Okay, okay, go on."

The two chatted, drank, bragged, and talked about each other's past lives.

"Believe it or not, I promised Xiaowei that I would no longer be a killer. If I am still a killer, hehe."

Liu Baihong stared at Lu Cheng's neck and sneered.

"Under the assassin's sword, there is no victory or defeat, only life or death. If I were to hide in the dark and suddenly use the White Rainbow Piercing the Sun move, the power would be several times greater than it is now."

"I have a fire thunder bead in my hand. If you let me notice it in advance, I will kill you with one bead. If you can't kill me with one sword, I will still kill you with one bead." Lu Cheng sneered and replied.

Some people are as new as they are, and some are as old as they are.

Because they met each other through a sword-fighting duel, perhaps Lu Cheng and Liu Baihong belonged to the latter, so they really talked and drank together and had a great time.

Both of them possessed magical powers and could drink a lot. After two days, the whole cart of wine was finished.

"Tell me, why do some old monsters who have lived for two or three hundred years suddenly become lustful one day and jump out to snatch girls from young men?"

The wine jar was placed beside the grass. Liu Baihong asked this drunkenly while lying on the grass.

"Because of cultivation, what is cultivation? Some books say it is a process of becoming one with the Tao. For this purpose, some people constantly discard the fragile parts of their bodies and replace them with harder limbs. In order to make themselves stronger and more in line with the so-called Heavenly Dao, they replace their hands, feet, heads, and various organs in the body... In the end, they become a person like a stone, and for thousands of years, they will be in harmony with the Tao."

"It's nothing. To become stronger, to gain the most powerful force, there's nothing wrong with doing this. But if you have a choice, retaining something that belongs to you, even if it's dirty, like the desires of pigs and dogs, is also a kind of strength."

"So, if a person who has practiced for two or three hundred years, or even two or three thousand years, suddenly becomes lustful one day and jumps out to snatch girls from young men, I think this is very normal. Isn't this the meaning of practice?"

"Three thousand years from now, the heavens and the earth will celebrate my 3,000th birthday. At that time, I can still be attracted to a sixteen-year-old girl and still be as horny as a pig or a dog. This means that I have really succeeded in my cultivation. I even have the potential to go further. I have not cultivated into a stone."

Lying on the stone table, Lu Cheng answered while holding the wine jar in his right hand.

At this moment, perhaps even he himself didn't know what he had answered. The two of them were just talking nonsense after drinking. Before drinking, I was from Huoyun Mansion and I was from the City That Never Sleeps.

After drinking too much, Huoyun Mansion is mine. In the Never-Sleeping City, I, Liu Baihong, can handle half of the problems!
One day, two days, three days, four days, five days.

"No, you can't drink like this anymore."

"If the two of us keep drinking like this, I'll be ruined and your Wenjianzhai will have to close. No, no, I have to go."

On the fifth day, Liu Baihong, who was more busy with work, came to his senses in time and regained his composure.

This is a habit for him. In his early years, after assassinating an important target, Liu Baihong would lead a period of indulgence and decadence. However, indulgence was indulgence, and he had to recover after the release. Otherwise, Liu Baihong would not have achieved what he has today in cultivation.

Lu Cheng tried to persuade her to stay, but seeing that Liu Baihong was determined to leave, he said helplessly:
"Then wait for a moment, wait for me. If you take the opportunity to run away, don't say you know me in the future!"

Lu Cheng returned to the house drunkenly and took out a Qiankun bag from his room. He thought for a while, then took out two thousand spirit stones from the Qiankun bag he usually carried with him, put them into the Qiankun bag he picked up first, and walked out.

"Yes, you take this Qiankun bag."

Liu Baihong frowned slightly when he saw this, but he still took Lu Cheng's Qiankun bag and opened it. He saw that it was filled with stacks of spirit stones, probably more than 20,000 pieces.

"Lin Lie, what do you mean?"

Liu Baihong was arrogant, and her face immediately showed anger. "What can I mean? This is all the spirit stones I earned from running the sword hall. Now I can't even get 200 spirit stones even if I pick my asshole and suck my fingers. I give these to you so that you can buy blood spirit pills, foundation building pills, and anything else you think is useful, so that you don't have to die. You are over 60 years old. If you don't break through, you will never have another chance."

"Twenty thousand spirit stones. After I buy you and you advance to the foundation building stage, you can come and duel with me again and cast White Rainbow Piercing the Sun on me again. I have no other intentions."

Liu Baihong should have been furious. He was once a powerful man and treated money like dirt. He spent all his fortune on his wife's medical treatment in his early years.

But at this moment, looking at the drunken young Taoist in front of him, and looking down at the Qiankun bag filled with 20,000 spiritual stones in his hand, Liu Baihong finally laughed:
"Hahahahahaha, back then, I, Liu Baihong, had to fight wild dogs for a piece of bread to stay alive. I didn't expect that sixty years later, a friend I had only known for five days would give me all his money so that I could survive. Hahahahahaha, God has been kind to me, Liu Baihong."

"Stop laughing. Let's go. If you can't break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, don't come back to see me alive."

With a wave of his hand, Lu Cheng returned to his room drunkenly to sleep again.

The four essentials for spiritual practice are Dharma, land, companions and wealth. Twenty thousand spirit stones are definitely a large sum of money. In some places with high alchemy skills, it is even enough to buy foundation-building pills.

But Lu Cheng really liked and admired Liu Baihong's swordsmanship, and wanted to have the opportunity to continue discussing swordsmanship with him in the future, so he used 20,000 spirit stones to buy a companion, and Lu Cheng did not feel that he had lost out.

Money, you bastard? I have a sword in my hand and spirit stones are everywhere wherever I go.

"Whirring whirring……"

One day later, Lu Cheng climbed up from the bed in his room. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the statue of Chijun placed facing east in the room.

He first performed the Taoist hand gestures, bowed, and then stood up.

The sun was high in the sky, and the pavilion in the backyard and the lake were still filled with a strong smell of alcohol.

"Pure grain wine is good. I don't get a headache after drinking it."

Too lazy to wash up, he cast a cleansing spell on himself. At this moment, Lu Cheng suddenly felt a sharp sword energy spreading and overflowing in the courtyard without any concealment.

Feeling this way, he walked out naturally and came to the place where he and Liu Baihong had been drinking together a few days ago. He saw that the area was now filled with a mist of pure white sword energy, forming a barrier that prevented those with insufficient cultivation from approaching.

"..."

When Lu Cheng saw this, he naturally understood that Liu Baihong had left something for him, but he didn't want to ask other people in Jianzhai Sword Hall in case they accidentally got close and saw it.

Move forward.

Lu Cheng broke the sword energy barrier with just a wave of his hand.

Then he saw several particularly familiar stone slabs placed among the scattered wine jars. Liu Baihong dismantled the stone table in Lu Cheng's backyard, cut out a few stone slabs, and carved the following words on them:

"Brother Lin, you have a broad mind and value friendship over money. You are willing to give 20,000 spirit stones to a friend like me, whom you have only met once, without expecting anything in return. However, as your brother, I am not sure that I can break through to the foundation-building stage. I am afraid that I will never be able to repay you in this lifetime."

"This move, 'White Rainbow Piercing the Sun', is the essence of my lifelong swordsmanship. If I can no longer perform it for Brother Lin, then Brother Lin should study it on his own, so that what I have learned throughout my life will not disappear from the world."

The next few stone slabs represent Baihong Guanri's method of circulating qi and using swords.

Lu Cheng was a genius in swordsmanship. Just by taking a look at it, his mind was naturally immersed in it and he began to ponder and comprehend Liu Baihong's sword, which could be described as a "divine transformation".

"It turns out that this sword move of White Rainbow Piercing the Sun is simple, but the method of moving the Qi is extremely complicated. The practitioner can only exert the highest power by putting himself in a deadly position and striking the sword ruthlessly. It is indeed an extremely clever assassination sword."

"Although Brother Liu has not comprehended 'Sword Intent Becomes Force', the more people he kills with this killing sword, the more his own energy and spirit will be elevated to the peak when he strikes. He has temporarily reached the realm of Sword Intent Becomes Force, and killing someone only requires a moment of the sword."

During the process of thinking and comprehending, Lu Cheng sat on a stone bench next to a column where there was no stone table. His qi, blood, magic power, and spirit naturally rose to the peak as he activated the method.

Even the meridian-breaking sword energy in his body was inspired by this sword technique and it was spinning faster and faster inside Lu Cheng's body. The power of the sword energy continued to increase rapidly, but the burden on the meridians decreased because of his selflessness.

It was the morning of the sixth day when Lu Cheng woke up from his hangover. He went to the backyard and saw the swordplay written on the stone slab. He was mesmerized. When he came to his senses, he looked around:

The blue-purple sky is dotted with stars, and there is a bright silver moon hanging high in the sky.

There is a small lake on one side, and trees and flowers beside the lake.

Lu Cheng turned around and saw a bright mirror in his room that he used for washing. It was facing here. He looked intently and saw his own reflection, the small lake, the flowers and the bright moon in the mirror.

Suddenly, Lu Cheng felt a strange sense of uplift, as if his mind had separated from his body and was flying up, then looking down.

"The heart is like still water, like flowers in the mirror and the moon in the water!"

In this situation, the sword energy in the body's meridians circulated violently, and it seemed that its power could destroy everything. However, at this moment, his mind was completely suppressed, without any joy, sadness, fear or other thoughts.

"Unfortunately, my spiritual awareness is still insufficient, otherwise, I could have achieved the ultimate sword skill of swordsmanship and reached the state of clear swordsmanship."

As soon as this thought came to mind, the wonderful state no longer existed.

He himself, the small lake, the flowers, the bright moon, and the blue-purple starry sky all cracked and then shattered, revealing the noon of the seventh day.

Lu Cheng, who was prepared, slowed down and gathered the violent sword energy in his body in an orderly manner, while also feeling the improvement of his spiritual awareness.

According to ancient records, there were sword practitioners who trained their six senses, namely eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, and thus acquired the unique skill of swordsmanship;

If the sword heart is clear, one can be pure in oneself, recognize the enemy clearly, anticipate the battle in advance, and foresee the opportunity. The flying sword is unleashed to move freely and unstoppably...

But in fact, if one can condense spiritual consciousness first in the Qi training stage, then one can also cultivate the sword skill of "Sword Heart Clear" in the Qi training stage. Unfortunately, unless one is gifted and has an innate strong spiritual consciousness, the difficulty of practicing it can be imagined.

Lu Cheng's mental cultivation was first tempered by Chi Jun. After two rounds of comprehension, it was not weak, but it was still a little short of the mark and he could not cultivate his sword heart into a clear one.

Just keep your mind as calm as still water and be pure.

"Come here you three."

Following Lu Cheng's call, He Guo, Xie Yan, and Yu Liang walked over hesitantly, bowed, and said:
"Master, you have been sitting here for a day and a night. We are a little worried about you."

"Master, I wanted to come over to see you, but Junior Brother Xie Yan said that you are in a state of enlightenment and cannot be disturbed."

"It's okay. I just felt something when I read the sword manual left by fellow Daoist. Is there anything going on in the sword hall during this period?"

"Nothing happened. Since your battle with the Immortal Sword Ape Liu Baihong seven days ago, more and more people have come to the sword hall to become your disciples. Some have even asked me and Junior Brother Yu's father to help them. Apart from that, everything is normal in the sword hall." Xie Yan replied.

"If it's for the sake of Patriarch Xie and Patriarch Yu's face, it's okay to let in ten people. He Guo, I'll give you five spots too. How much you can sell it for is up to you."

"Master, I don't need it." He Guo wanted to refuse when he heard that, but Lu Cheng stopped him.

"You three are brothers. What I gave to them should also be given to you. There is no need to say more. In addition, I have not tested your swordsmanship during this period. Today, the three of you will each demonstrate your swordsmanship and let me see your progress."

A few days later, there were fifteen more apprentices in Wenjianzhai Sword Hall.

In response to this, both the Xie family and the Yu family reciprocated by arranging for their housekeepers to bring gifts to thank their young master's mentor.

"Master Lin, we are sorry to trouble you for your trouble. I heard that you were searching for this item some time ago. We have found some recently and are sending them to you now."

As the person in charge of this trip, the Xie family's butler took out the wooden box after a respectful speech and opened it carefully, revealing a row of four blue and white iron balls inside, exuding a dangerous aura.

(End of this chapter)