Chapter 60: Once Again, Becoming a Disciple

"Lend me your sword for a moment." Before Chen Yi He could agree, the Purple Tempered Sword slipped from his grasp and flew into the Seventh Elder's hand.

"Step back." The Seventh Elder's words were icy from start to finish. Having said that, he gripped his sword and charged forward.

The battle between the Fifth Elder and the Seventh Elder was the most spectacular fight Chen Yi He had ever seen, describable only as "peerless." Every sword strike and every punch reached the utmost extreme!

Chen Yi He watched the Seventh Elder wield his sword—what kind of aesthetic was it? It possessed beauty without sacrificing power; all those so‑called "flower‑dancing sword" techniques were nonsense in his hands. The sword flashed out like a swimming dragon, retracted with ease, feeling neither heavy nor sluggish, yet still produced a sharp "hiss" as it split the air.

Only through the Fifth Elder's fist could one truly grasp how ferocious this woman was! A single punch could crater the ground nearly a meter deep. Chen Yi He had reason to believe that her strength would not wane with age and fading looks; instead, she would only grow stronger.

Over three hundred moves passed in the blink of an eye.

Finally, after the Seventh Elder blocked the Fifth Elder's punch head‑on, he thrust his sword through her thigh.

"Ah!" the Fifth Elder fell from mid‑air, one leg supporting her, the other kneeling, blood streaming from the knee‑down leg. Her true qi quickly dissipated from her body. She glared venomously at the Seventh Elder, saying nothing.

The Seventh Elder fared no better—the Fifth Elder's punch was the heaviest among the seven elders; only by testing could one know its weight. He was the one who took the blow; if any of the other four—Chen Yi He included—had stood in his place, they would surely have been blasted half‑to‑pieces.

"Cough…" the Seventh Elder endured the pain, dragging his body and his sword slowly toward the Fifth Elder.

"Ahaha! What's wrong? You wanna kill me?" the Fifth Elder laughed loudly, the laughter letting her forget her pain for a moment.

With a wave of his hand, the Seventh Elder sent the Purple Tempered Sword flying back into Chen Yi He's scabbard. His gaze remained fixed on the Fifth Elder's face.

"Pah." the Fifth Elder spat a mouthful of old phlegm at the Seventh Elder.

The Seventh Elder swung his hand and slapped her, shouting, "Filth!" After striking, he turned to leave and told the four disciples, "Follow me."

The Seventh Elder walked toward the lake, step by step to its center, until the water gradually covered his head.

"Is this suicide by jumping into the lake?" Chen Yi He felt bewildered; he had just fallen into the lake's depths, yet he had seen nothing strange.

Yet seeing the Seventh Elder favor the lake so, could the exit be within the water itself?

"Let's follow them," Dongfang Xing urged Chen Yi He, seeing that Wu Rong and the Young Palace Master had already gone ahead.

Just as Chen Yi He extended his foot to probe the water, the lakebed suddenly erupted with a deafening boom! "Boom!"

Immediately afterward, the Seventh Elder was blasted out of the lake and fell onto the shore. Wu Rong and the Young Palace Master were frightened, stumbling back repeatedly—they too nearly got hit.

Chen Yi He even found it funny, remarking, "Really, cool for only three seconds?"

"Pfft!" the Seventh Elder spat out mouthfuls of blood, pointing at the Fifth Elder and demanding angrily, "What's going on?"

"Hahaha! Newcomers! Get ready to grow old and die together with this old hag in this underground world!" the Fifth Elder cackled hysterically, pointing at Chen Yi He, Dongfang Xing, Wu Rong, and the Young Palace Master: "You, you, you, and you—you all will be buried here with me! Hahaha!"

"What on earth is happening?" Chen Yi He lunged forward, grabbing the Fifth Elder's collar, and asked.

"Hahaha! Ahahaha!"

"Damn it!" Chen Yi He slapped her. The Fifth Elder had exhausted her true qi and was now a cripple; Chen Yi He could hit her however he pleased.

"Ow ow ow, stop hitting, stop hitting—I'll talk, I'll talk…" the Fifth Elder chuckled; her leathery skin could take any blow from Chen Yi He—she was a total masochist.

"Speak up!" Chen Yi He urged loudly.

"Actually, whether I speak or not makes no difference—you can't get out. The Grand Elder has already sealed the underground world's seal tight; no one can leave!"

"What?!" the usually composed Seventh Elder lost his composure. No wonder, when he earlier touched the lakebed mechanism, he was blasted away by some mysterious force.

"Old Seven, we're both just pawns—why take ourselves so seriously?" the Fifth Elder sighed, then, after speaking, laboriously pulled herself up from the ground and staggered toward the dark depths.

"Sss." Chen Yi He swung his sword and sliced off her head.

The Fifth Elder's head rolled on the ground a few times before stopping. Chen Yi He lifted his foot with a normal stance and kicked it like a ball.

"Why did you kill her? What if she knew a way out?" Wu Rong scolded Chen Yi He.

"She doesn't know—the seal is already dead‑locked; no one can get out." The Seventh Elder shook his head, giving a wry smile.

"Then can anyone get in?" Chen Yi He asked.

The Seventh Elder still shook his head, unsure whether he meant that entry was impossible or that he simply didn't know.

"Are we really trapped here with no way out?" Chen Yi He asked anxiously.

……

More than ten days had passed, and the five of them had returned to the starting point. As time went on, the Seventh Elder's usually calm, unwavering face gradually showed a look of worry.

According to the distance between Nanjiang City and Bei Du, in another ten and a half days a large crowd of experts will gather in Nanjiang City to discuss the eradication of the Thousandfold Gate.

He didn't know what deployment the Grand Elder would make; trapped here, he could not take the next step.

For thousands of years the lakebed seal had never been broken; it was a seal that even experts of the Five Heavens could not shatter. If one tried to force it, the seal would surely backlash, ending in utter annihilation.

In the underground world there is no day or night, yet people still need rest.

Chen Yi He and Dongfang Xing lay on their backs by the shore, listening closely to the sound of the lake's ripples; though the space was sealed, they did not know where this wind and water came from.

"I wonder how the Dragon King is doing?" Chen Yi He worried, having searched for the Dragon King these past ten‑plus days with no success.

"It'll get better……" Dongfang Xing softly comforted Chen Yi He.

"But we can't just waste away here—do we really have to wait until we die?" Chen Yi He pondered, "Or perhaps we're not strong enough; in those novels, a finger breaks the seal, a sword shatters the earth—all possible if one trains diligently for thirty or seventy years. I should be able to manage that… Anyway, staying here is just wasting time."

Chen Yi He sprang up, ran to the Seventh Elder's front, and knelt with a thud. "Seventh Elder… we've endured countless hardships to come study martial arts—who doesn't admire your Thousandfold Gate? Yet you've locked us up in this place!"

"Huh?" the Seventh Elder's train of thought was interrupted by Chen Yi He, and he took an interest in this young man before him.

"You guys ought to teach us something!"

"Uh……"

"As they say, anyone who walks out of the Thousandfold Gate alive ends up many times stronger than when they entered!"

The Seventh Elder knew that it wasn't that those people had become many times stronger; rather, they were discard‑takers who, after leaving the underground world, consumed the Amnesia Powder. They would spend their remaining nine and a half years cultivating, and the seven elders, to atone for their killing karma, would spare no effort in guiding the disciples.

Until the disciples leave the Thousandfold Gate, this way there's no need to worry about the secret leaking, nor fear that the Thousandfold Gate's sign will be smashed, and there's no concern that the next decade will fail to attract people.

"What do you want to do…?" the Seventh Elder felt a flicker of fear; Chen Yi He's gaze was greedy and terrifying…

"I want to learn the sword! Elder, Master!" Chen Yi He didn't wait for the Seventh Elder's reply, he began kowtowing while still shouting "Master! Master!" from his mouth.

The Seventh Elder looked at Chen Yi He speechlessly, thinking that since they were stuck here with no immediate way out, it might be better to find something to do to pass the time. He asked Chen Yi He, "Do you really want to learn?"

"Yes!"

"Then go ahead and perform a set of your sword moves for me to see." The Seventh Elder had not agreed to become Chen Yi He's master, but he had Chen Yi He demonstrate his sword forms.

Chen Yi He performed the full set of the Mountain River Sword Technique once.

The Seventh Elder nodded, "The ancient 'Mountain River Sword Technique'."

Chen Yi He performed the full set of the Hua Mountain Sword Technique once.

The Seventh Elder nodded, "The 'Hua Mountain Sword Technique' was performed well."

Chen Yi He performed most of the Flying Flower Dance Sword.

The Seventh Elder nodded, "The Flying Flower Dance Sword is better than his family's young manor master's, but if the manor lord sees it, it'll be hard to get away!"

The Seventh Elder asked Chen Yi He, "Which sword technique truly counts as yours? Or do you simply have no sword technique of your own?"

The Seventh Elder had long noticed something odd about Chen Yi He; that day at the Returning Geese Tower, he observed closely. As a swordsman, he knows best how difficult it is to learn swordsmanship! Yet Chen Yi He can learn it in a glance—could he be a prodigy?