Qing Feng was fretting over how to escape when a cyan halo suddenly lit up beneath him.
A hilt-shaped object shot through the air, accurately striking the Zouwu’s abdomen. The mythical beast let out a mournful cry and flew back three zhang, shattering a millstone-sized bluestone into pieces.
“My Azure Jade Platform!” Qing Feng’s pained wail abruptly ceased. His pupils contracted as he recognized the sword hilt suspended in mid-air: “Autumn Water?”
The hilt circled the young man like a homing swallow, emitting clear, resonant hums. Qin Yue’s cherry lips parted slightly: “Ancient records state that a divine sword recognizes its master and can follow them even across mountains and seas. I thought it was an exaggeration…”
“So this iron lump is stuck with me?” Qing Feng’s face was filled with resistance. Qin Yue was exasperated: “This is a Heaven-grade supreme treasure! If it appears in the world, it will surely cause tremors among the heavens, and Spirit Transformation mighty figures will fight tooth and nail for it!”
Yet, the young man looked as if facing a great enemy: “What if the Beast Taming Sect hid a tracking restriction on the sword body…”
“How can a Heaven-grade spiritual artifact be tainted by others?” Qin Yue interrupted, “The priority is to control the Sword Spirit. This time, it knocked away a Zouwu; if it injures a fellow Martial Brother next time…”
Qing Feng suddenly stared at the unconscious Yan Yi, spiritual power gathering in his palm: “Only dead people can keep secrets best.”
“Be my guest.” Qin Yue folded her arms and sneered.
The young man snapped his fingers, and the Autumn Water Sword instantly blazed with cold light, transforming into a streak of light that shot straight for the young woman’s throat. Seeing the sword edge just three inches from her throat, Qing Feng frantically formed a hand seal: “Stop! Someone’s going to die!”
The sword tip stopped barely half an inch from Yan Yi’s throat, its sword qi drawing tiny beads of blood on her neck.
A cold gleam suddenly appeared in the air, the sword qi formed by Autumn Water hovering precisely three inches from Yan Yi’s throat. The young woman’s throat twitched slightly, and fine cold sweat beaded on her forehead. Two hours ago, she had specifically waited in the Cloud Sea Residence to prepare a banquet, originally intending to welcome Qing Feng and the other person, but she nearly ended up with her own beheading meal.
Three days ago, when Qin Yue encountered danger, although she did not personally see her off, she secretly dispatched six sound-transmitting paper cranes to listen in real-time. Now, smelling the burnt sweet and sour fish on the stove, Yan Yi’s fingertips trembled. Her protective artifact, the “Nine Revolutions Exquisite Pendant,” was clearly still glowing with golden light, yet that sword qi just now had passed through as if entering an uninhabited land, breaking through seven layers of defensive barriers.
“Sheathe the sword!” Qing Feng’s voice contained anger as he shouted from mid-air. The Autumn Water Sword hilt, suspended in mid-air, trembled slightly at his words, circling its master three times before reluctantly returning to its place, like a spiritual hound whose neck was grabbed while frolicking.
Qin Yue flashed over to support the stumbling cook. Seeing the shattered Profound Ice Jade pendant at Yan Yi’s waist, her heart was filled with dread. This protective artifact, personally forged by Elder Yao Jin, couldn’t even withstand a casual strike from Autumn Water.
Inside the side room, Qing Feng held the restless sword hilt between two fingers, his brows tightly furrowed. A Dream Sea Spiritual Butterfly fluttered out from between his eyebrows, and as azure butterfly dust scattered, layers of dark patterns appeared on the sword body. This ancient divine weapon, which had pursued him from the Beast Taming Sect’s forbidden ground, now obediently allowed him to examine it, though its humming clearly conveyed a sense of seeking praise.
“The Beast Taming Sect is truly willing to part with it.” He sneered, forming a hand seal, and seventy-two Spirit Binding Seal Runes lit up in succession. Ordinary cultivators would take at least three days to subdue an Earth-grade magical treasure, but this Autumn Water, which came from outside the heavens, actively accepted his spiritual power, as if a wanderer returning home with joy. In less than half a cup of tea’s time, the sword hilt had transformed into a streak of light and merged into his palm, leaving only a faint cyan sword mark on his wrist.
The faint clatter of bowls and dishes came from outside the window. Qing Feng looked up and saw black smoke rising from the kitchen. He suddenly remembered something and massaged his forehead. That still-shocked Young Miss Yan Yi seemed to have poured all his treasured century-old aged wine into the pot as cooking wine.
Qing Feng’s mind slightly condensed. When he looked inward at his Sea of Consciousness, he was startled to find that the spiritual sword was quietly suspended beside his Nascent Soul. This situation was as if a hallucination. Just a moment ago, a Heaven-grade divine weapon had chosen its master on its own?
The incantation that had not yet formed a seal between his fingers quietly dissipated, replaced by the circulation of his innate true essence to nourish the sword. The spiritual artifact recognizing its master was only the beginning; thereafter, it required constant immersion with primordial spiritual power day and night until it reached the state of perfect harmony between person and artifact. If it were to be refined into a destined artifact for proving the Dao, it would further require the fusion of vital blood and divine soul to achieve the achievement of human and sword co-creation.
Just as he was about to conclude his cultivation, the silent sword guard suddenly burst forth with a seven-colored rainbow, and as his Sea of Consciousness surged, myriad sword intents condensed into fireflies. Qing Feng immediately reflected on emptiness and entered a deeper level of contemplation.
He saw the incomplete sword body self-repairing, with Dao patterns flowing and resonating with his Sea of Consciousness. Suddenly, myriad towering mountains manifested from nothingness, and a thousand rivers surged between heaven and earth, their water veins crisscrossing to form a cosmic landscape. Qing Feng’s divine sense flowed with the waves, only to see where the turbid waves emptied the sky, the vast waters overflowed the cliffs, and mighty rivers spanned a thousand li, the towering cliffs on both banks barely discernible.
“Is this scene the ultimate beauty of heaven and earth?” An ethereal Daoist voice came from amidst the waves.
“This journey eastward eventually returns to the sea.” Qing Feng used his finger as a sword to part the water’s surface.
“Is the vast ocean the ultimate realm?”
“The Star River hangs beyond the heavy heavens, and a mustard seed contains Mount Sumeru.” The sword cultivator stood on the waves, his robes stirring myriad ripples.
“As far as I know, that should be the answer.” Qing Feng replied frankly.
“Wrong.”
A sigh of regret came from the void: “Space has no boundaries, time never stops, and gains and losses are impermanent. A truly wise person will not be confined by appearances but can understand the infinite possibilities of the world. The unknown is always more than the known. Since you have such innate wisdom, why is your vision so limited?”
Qing Feng raised an eyebrow and retorted: “Since there is more unknown, how can you assert that space and time are necessarily infinite?”
“Knowing and not knowing inherently have boundaries. If one can comprehend the principle of the sameness of all things, one can naturally transcend the distinctions of life, death, nobility, and lowliness. Unfortunately, my cultivation is still shallow, and I cannot speak of this realm.”
“How can a frog in a well discuss the ocean? How can an insect born in summer and dying in autumn understand ice and snow?” Qing Feng suddenly changed the subject, “But if I am indeed a well frog or a summer insect, naturally I can only experience what I see before me. Don’t you think the River God’s enlightenment itself also had limitations?”
He recalled the famous fable from “Autumn Water”: The Yellow River God was initially complacent upon seeing all rivers flowing into him, until he witnessed the North Sea and realized the vastness of heaven and earth. But what if the Sea God’s so-called insight into the “sameness of all things” was merely the view of a slightly larger well frog?
“Admitting limitations is wisdom. Who in this world is not a well frog? Your insight is quite unique!”
As the praise faded, the surrounding illusion shattered. Three profound meanings of divine abilities suddenly appeared in Qing Feng’s Sea of Consciousness: Myriad Rivers Converging, Autumn Water Brightening the Mind, and Equality Breaking Delusions.
When his Nascent Soul, stepping on a three-colored lotus platform, swung its sword, the mighty sword qi surged like myriad rivers, actually splitting the entire Sea of Consciousness in two. Feeling the resonance from his destined magical sword, Qing Feng’s lips curved upward. Although he was only at Nascent Soul Stage Three, with this sword intent, he could even fight a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
“Qing Feng’s bone structure is superior to yours.”
“He holds a sect-suppressing divine weapon!”
“I nearly died by Xu Shidi’s sword just now?”
…
On the bluestone slab outside the bamboo house, the half-peeled yam in Yan Yi’s hand rolled to the ground. She had merely been thinking of their camaraderie as fellow Martial Brothers and Martial Sisters, specially preparing a welcoming banquet, never imagining it would almost become her own beheading meal.
What was even more infuriating was that the one who nearly took her life was none other than Xu Shidi, who always loved to mooch her snacks.
“Roughly so.” Qin Yue leaned against the doorframe and nodded. Hiding certain details didn’t count as lying.
Yan Yi bit her molars and tore open the brocade pouch at her waist, taking out a glazed bottle and pouring the entire bottle of medicinal powder over the chicken. She didn’t care when spices splattered onto her sleeve as she stirred with bamboo chopsticks.
