195: Chapter 64 Master and Disciple 195: Chapter 64 Master and Disciple Half an incense stick later.
In the small courtyard of Lotus Peak, the Starfire gate opened.
“Boom!”
The tall elder clad in lotus robes, wrapped in thunder, returned with measured steps.
The moment he stepped into the courtyard, all the Sword Qi around him converged, at first glance, there seemed to be no trace of the great battle, but upon closer inspection, one could find several tears in his robe, stained with traces of blood.
Seeing this scene, Qing Sun, enduring the excruciating pain of Sword Qi, was petrified.
He could sense that the pure gold blood staining the lotus robes bore an extremely powerful martial aura.
Even just a drop.
Made his heart palpitate with fear.
The aura of this drop of martial Essence Blood seemed even more potent than that of Lord Wu Zhexian!
As this thought flitted through his mind.
Qing Sun felt utterly desolate, the Essence Blood of someone more powerful than Wu Zhexian could only mean…
“Did you go to the Imperial City to fight?”
Xie Xuanyi’s expression was complex, and he spoke cautiously, having previously seen Sect Leader Pure Yang so fiercely step into the Jade Talisman Array Pattern, Xie Xuanyi had been somewhat worried.
But as it seemed now.
The master appeared to have not suffered much injury—had he won?
“Old friends reunited, I couldn’t restrain myself,”
Zhao Chunyang understood the young man’s thoughts and spoke lightly, “When Sword Cultivators and Martial Artists meet, it’s only natural to have a good spar…
Just a minor skirmish, nothing significant.”
These words plunged Xie Xuanyi into silence.
He looked at the blood on the lotus robe, not knowing what to say.
“Qing Sun, you’re lucky,”
Zhao Chunyang glanced down at the man curled up on the ground, intentionally uttering his name, “it’s not easy to find a good master in the Imperial City…
I promised him that I would spare your wretched life.”
Qing Sun’s face was ashen, his lips trembling, not daring to look up at the Sword Palace Master.
It was just a light pinch before.
Countless strands of Sword Qi entered his body…
He could feel that this Tongtian great figure had barely exerted any effort.
In the following half an hour.
Qing Sun experienced what it meant to be “worse than death,” as every special envoy of the Imperial City had to possess tremendous resilience, able to endure suffering beyond what ordinary people could bear…
But Zhao Chunyang’s pinch did more than shatter bones; it nearly collapsed his Divine Soul, and only now was he starting to recover slightly.
Qing Sun would rather endure the agony of the Nine Death Forbidden than be pinched by Zhao Chunyang again.
Zhao Chunyang said expressionlessly, “Aren’t you leaving yet?”
Qing Sun, as if granted amnesty, crawled and scrambled towards the Starfire gate.
Soon the gate closed again, and the whole Lotus Peak courtyard returned to tranquility.
Xie Xuanyi looked at Sect Leader Pure Yang with some concern…
the two exchanged glances for a moment.
“Why such a look?
Are you worried?”
After a brief silence, Zhao Chunyang started smilingly.
“…In these years, the Jiangning Xie Family has soared, dominating the Dachu Dynasty, and standing above other noble families, all because there’s a Yang God Martial Artist backing Prince Jiangning,”
Xie Xuanyi said softly, “It’s almost common knowledge that the Xie Family is supported by Wu Zhexian.”
“However…
behind Wu Zhexian is the Qin Family ancestor, the first among martial practicers in the Dachu Dynasty,”
Xie Xuanyi stated earnestly, “So the blood on your robe isn’t from Wu Zhexian, it can only be from the Qin Family ancestor.”
Zhao Chunyang looked at the young man with a smile, “How so?”
“Wu Zhexian has only ascended to the Yangshen Realm for a sixty-year cycle,” Xie Xuanyi said softly, “He doesn’t have the ability to tear this robe.”
Zhao Chunyang sat down opposite at the stone table.
He raised an eyebrow and asked, “So you’re worried I lost to him?”
“It is said that the Qin Family ancestor has overseen the martial fate of the Dachu Dynasty for many years and has reached the Heavenly Human Realm, no ordinary Yangshen can match him,”
Unable to contain himself any longer, Xie Xuanyi asked worriedly, “Are you alright?”
“You silly boy!”
Zhao Chunyang scolded with a laugh.
With a snap!
The Sect Leader’s sleeve flew, and his palm pressed towards the top of Xie Xuanyi’s head.
This motion seemed ferocious, but when it actually landed, no force was used at all.
In the end, the palm just gently, gently landed on Xuanyi’s head.
But Xie Xuanyi went along and knelt on the ground.
“You don’t think your master is just an ordinary Yangshen, do you?”
Zhao Chunyang’s gaze toward Xie Xuanyi held no anger, only tenderness.
He gently stroked his disciple’s head and spoke softly, “What first among Dachu’s martial practioners…
That old fellow isn’t as mystical as you all imagine.
The martial fate of the Dachu Dynasty has been withering for years, and many branches have been split off, allowing Wu Zhexian to advance.
In my view, only half a shell of him is left.”
Xie Xuanyi, kneeling before his master, couldn’t help but stretch out his hand to pinch and knock.
This old bone was incredibly hard.
He raised his head in surprise, blinking, “You’re not injured.”
“What a joke…”
Zhao Chunyang smiled and said, “Your teacher doesn’t fight battles he’s not sure of!
”
“…”
Xie Xuanyi fell into silence once again.
He had imagined countless scenarios for his reunion with his master, but had never thought it would be like this.
Master and disciple reunited.
There was no melodrama as imagined, instead, it was serene like water.
As if they had just met the day before.
Even…
Identity needed no introduction.
When that strand of Divine Thought suppressed “Chen Ke” back into the Sword Qi Cave Heaven, Xie Xuanyi knew that his master knew everything already.
There was no need for explanation.
With his myriad forms mask off, he just looked at his master, after thinking for a long while, he managed to blurt out, “Master, I’m still alive.”
“I see that…”
Zhao Chunyang’s response was unusually calm, even a tad too composed, “Your teacher isn’t blind.”
Having said that,
Zhao Chunyang gestured with his eyes for Xie Xuanyi to hurry up and bring him a comfortable chair, and then to brew a pot of hot tea, for he had just fought a fierce battle with the top martial artist of the Dachu Dynasty…
he was indeed somewhat tired.
Xie Xuanyi sighed deeply.
A moment later, the old man clad in a lotus robe comfortably seated himself on a wooden chair, took a sip of tea, and let out a satisfied, long sigh.
Xie Xuanyi bustled about, and after tending to his master’s needs, finally had the chance to speak, “How can you be so calm?
I should be the ‘dead person’.”
“Indeed, you should be the ‘dead person.'”
“Had it been anyone else, they would have certainly perished in the North Sea affair, their soul annihilated.”
Zhao Chunyang smiled lightly and casually said, “It’s just that with the Undying Spring on your person, dying…
it wouldn’t have been that easy.”
“???”
Xie Xuanyi’s expression was one of baffled astonishment.
Since his rebirth,
this was the first time he felt so utterly lost.
Wait, the master knows about the Undying Spring?
If so, the master should know that in the North Sea affair…
I wouldn’t perish and my Dao vanish.
Yet according to what Lu Yuzhen said, it was he who saved me.
So, how to explain the Undying Spring?
Xie Xuanyi rubbed his temples, feeling a tangled mess of thoughts in disarray; he took a deep breath, sat down, and after organizing his thoughts, he recounted in detail his awakening in Yuzhu Town and his return to the Da Sui Sword Palace.
The Sect Leader, Zhao Chunyang, listened patiently.
After listening,
Zhao Chunyang put down his teacup, narrowed his eyes, and said, “Interesting…
you mean to say, a Taoist named ‘Lu Yuzhen’ intercepted you in Lichao City, told you that he was the one who saved you, and gave you the Undying Spring?”
Xie Xuanyi looked bewilderedly at his master.
Master and disciple fell into a brief silence.
The next moment, Zhao Chunyang raised his palm.
Whoosh!
A drop of pure water slowly emerged at the center of Zhao Chunyang’s palm—a drop whose contained power was far greater than Xie Xuanyi’s, and in terms of the vitality it encompassed, it was many times stronger than the intact Undying Spring Water in Xie Xuanyi’s dantian.
“Undying Spring…
You have it too?!” Xie Xuanyi could hardly believe it.
“During the battle with Mo Zhen, the Great Venerate perished, his Dao vanished, and the borderlands of the north drank his blood.”
Zhao Chunyang spoke calmly with his eyes downcast, “That battle was extremely brutal, and although it was just the extermination of Mo Zhen alone…
the Dachu Dynasty still paid a heavy price.
As compensation, the ‘main forces’ involved in this battle, several top-level Yang Gods, divided up the heritage that Mo Zhen left behind.”
Xie Xuanyi murmured, “You mean to say…
the legacy of that battle included the Undying Spring?”
“Of course not.”
Zhao Chunyang smiled, “Everyone wanted the Undying Spring, but is the Undying Spring so easy to obtain?”
Back then, the Great Venerate Mo Zhen used the Undying Spring as bait to sow discord among the Taoist sects.
Even the Great Perfected Taoists who had reached the Yangshen Realm were unable to resist such a temptation and chose to betray.
“Then this Undying Spring…”
Xie Xuanyi looked at his master.
“When the battle in the borderlands was at its fiercest, I personally went to the Demon Country, killed a Great Venerate and a Human Race traitor, and obtained two drops of Undying Spring.”
Zhao Chunyang lifted an eyebrow, and said with slight pride, “This piece of news is unknown to anyone else.”
“???”
Xie Xuanyi’s expression was complex and shocked.
“Do you remember you once said…
you wanted to cultivate two Sword Dao paths?”
The Sect Leader, Zhao Chunyang, said softly, “Due to your innate limitations, your physical body cannot forge a ‘Martial Arts Golden Body,’ and even with a strong Sword Dao talent, it’s very difficult to cultivate both paths.”
Xie Xuanyi was stunned.
“After you took charge of Lotus Peak, I implanted a drop of ‘Undying Spring’ into your body,” Zhao Chunyang said gravely, “Xuanyi, your Dao arises from death, is established through destruction.
It’s a path I have not walked in my own time.
If you continue down this road, perhaps you will face the world as your enemy, but with this extra drop of Undying Spring, you can live a second life…
The regrets of your first life, can be made up for in this second one.”
This news struck Xie Xuanyi like a bolt of lightning.
After he took over Lotus Peak,
Xie Xuanyi felt that his master seemed to have aged some.
Was it because of giving away the Undying Spring?
“…”
Xie Xuanyi opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
But all the words seemed so pale in comparison.
He looked at his master; ten years had passed, and his master’s white hair seemed to have become more plentiful.
The wind blew through the courtyard, and the banyan leaves fell.
Just like that moment back then,
the young man and the old man sat under the shade of the tree.
As a young man just starting out, filled with pride and ambition, I knocked on the door to ask about the Sword Dao, defeated all my enemies, but also made countless foes.
Looking back now, there were many things I did wrong back then…
The master pointed them out, taught me, guided me.
But I was “stubborn,” “defiant,” “obstinate.”
In the end, I was just too young.
Beyond the lessons of the Sword Dao, I never really took the master’s teachings to heart.
At that time, the master had already decided to give me the “Undying Spring,” so that if anything went wrong…
I could start over.
“I don’t know who this Lu Yuzhen you speak of is,”
Zhao Chunyang said with a light smile, “But I do know…
that even if you sank into the North Sea, you wouldn’t just die.
Because you have a second life, that drop of Undying Spring is hidden in the deepest depths of the Sword Qi Cave Heaven, it will protect your soul and shield your body when your soul disperses.”
“With me here, how could you die so easily?”
…
…
(PS: 1.
There will be another update tonight, after twelve o’clock.
2.
The content of this chapter has undergone major revisions, mainly regarding the origin of the Undying Spring in Zhao Chunyang’s hands, please take the revised version as the final one.)