Chapter 296: Transmitting Chuan Xin Zhu

Sacrificial realm.

Ancestral land of the Dragon Descendants.

Li Piaoping stood in Bowang City. The old three-story building of red wood in front of her was strange yet familiar. The bustling noise inside mixed with the sunset and fell on her, making her dazed for a moment.

The voices singing in the building were clear and melodious, and Li Piaoping quickly identified what this was.

Theater.

She had almost forgotten how much she used to love listening to opera, almost forgotten that she often sat under the stage for a whole morning or evening, and almost forgotten that for a few years, she told everyone she met that when she grew up, she would write the most wonderful opera script and perform the most wonderful opera.

Now this beautiful obsession returned to her heart all at once, making her long-tightened heart and mind seem to fall into a warm and gentle embrace.

But...

Li Piaoping stood blankly for a while—this interrogation was also too easy.

She actually couldn't figure out what she was being interrogated about, but after two rounds of Candle Sword washing, she indeed began to gradually possess some vague consciousness—realizing that this was not the real world, and also realizing that this seemed to be a test of the state of mind.

How could she... because of these sentimental things, abandon the Cuiyu Sword Sect?

Li Piaoping thought blankly. She didn't know when she had sat under the theater stage, clapped her hands watching the agile opera characters coming and going, and laughed and cheered from the bottom of her heart.

It was indeed very leisurely and happy, she thought. Cuiyu had also passed the difficulties now, and she could actually find time to do many things she liked in the future.

Then she turned her head sharply and saw a quiet black robe standing among the audience under the stage.

It was so outstanding and unique, looking out of place among the many lively and noisy audiences.

The moment she saw it, it also noticed her and jumped straight toward this side.

Li Piaoping immediately realized that this was the target of the heart illusion this time. Without fear, and without the slightest nostalgia for the theater stage, she supported the back of the chair and jumped up, the sharp Shicui sword revealing a section of emerald light under her skirt.

But when it was drawn with a clang, everything around became quiet. In the field of vision, only this stunning emerald light remained. The scene suddenly became pitch-black, and when it slowly brightened again, it was already around this sword light in her hand.

"Good sword! Little junior sister!" Li Piaoping stood on the Cuiyu sword field, the cheers around her rising one after another, "You were born to learn the sword!"

This familiar scene brought her back to the past instantly.

Five years ago, during the sect's snow sword competition, Li Piaoping was only First Life at that time, but she won First Place in the Third Life realm with her sword skills, and the whole sect was boiling for her.

She suddenly remembered her obsession and ambition for the sword path.

After finishing "Emerald Light," there was "Jade Shadow." How stunning and beautiful would the "Yellow Jade" that senior brother was practicing be? Could she see the complete appearance of the legendary "Jade Jade Sword" of four hundred years ago in her life, and what kind of miracle was in it?

The sword was really something that made people obsessed. There were so many sword techniques in the world, she wanted to see them one by one one day.

"I want to enter the Sword Academy to learn the sword!" Li Piaoping heard her young voice say, "Come back and become a top expert to protect you!"

"Hahahaha... Good!" The cheers on the field were endless. Li Piaoping once again personally experienced this glory and happiness, and felt her obsession with the sword light in her hand.

But she still didn't forget what she was going to do. Everyone would abandon countless things in their growth, which was not enough to break the young girl's firm heart.

Turning her head, that black robe had indeed stood under the stage again. Li Piaoping twisted her wrist, her body jumped like a green bird, and the Shicui cold light had already hovered over this person.

But the scene changed again.

Next, Li Piaoping rotated the scene and the past hundreds of times. There were ambitions like the sword path that made her dream back at midnight, and there were also thoughts that flashed through her mind at some point. Every feeling was so real, and every period of time made the young girl deeply miss it.

But she still didn't get lost.

Even after hundreds of emotional wear and tear, Li Piaoping still didn't forget what she was going to do. Every time, she was staring and looking for that black robe.

It was just that every time she found it, she would enter another affectionate plot.

And in countless rotations, the young girl's consciousness became clearer and clearer.

—Heart Poison.

She still couldn't remember what Heart Poison Candle Sword was, and she couldn't remember how she came here, but she now knew that she wanted to break the Heart Poison and reignite the Candle Sword.

Finally, in the deeper and deeper reincarnation, she felt that this black robe was gradually running out of tricks. Those emotions were becoming more and more fragmented and weak. Finally, all scenes faded, and she and it returned to the empty Cuiyu sword field, and Li Piaoping faced it.

Just like the young girl held herself in every previous time, this black robe was also becoming weaker and weaker. When Li Piaoping forced it here, the black robe was already dim and broken, and the pressure at the beginning was no longer visible at all.

She slowly drew the Shicui sword.

The opponent also drew sword light from under the robe.

Li Piaoping swept up. Her sword seemed to have obtained the soul of an emerald bird. The green shadow was handsome and drifting. The two swords crossed, and she had already cut through the ribs of the person in front of her.

She had learned the sword for twelve years and had already reached an incomparably high realm. How could the opponent win against her?

"Still hiding your head and showing your tail?" She jumped up and leaned close, looking at the hood in front of her and saying coldly. In the agitation of the sword wind, a section of fair chin had already been exposed.

The young girl raised her sword, and the emerald light jumped, prying open the hood of the person in front of her.

Green silk danced.

After ten thousand soft silks, the young girl under the hood had handsome brows and eyes, her pink lips pursed tightly, and she was looking at her with the Shicui sword in front of her, panting.

Li Piaoping froze heavily.

It wasn't until the opponent stabbed another merciless sword light that Li Piaoping reacted.

—Her own heart poison, of course, was her own appearance.

The Shicui sword met again.

Two identical people, two identical swords, two identical sword techniques, coming and going with sword shadows dancing.

This battle was really difficult.

Li Piaoping was always in the upper hand, but the opponent was also stubbornly amazing. The sword blade left blood marks on her body again and again, but she always returned with an equally painful injury.

Because both knew each other well, this battle was tragic beyond description.

Finally, after another sword collision, Li Piaoping finally pierced the black robe's chest and abdomen with a sword, pinning her dead to the wall.

Li Piaoping herself had almost reached the end. She clearly had better sword skills than the opponent, but she still won so hard. She had abandoned the feeling of ease when she first entered this realm, and the journey had really made her physically and mentally exhausted.

But fortunately, everything was over. The surroundings began to fall into darkness, and Li Piaoping breathed a sigh of relief weakly.

But why did this face look much older than herself?

What exactly did she represent as heart poison? Why did she have some inexplicable panic?

Li Piaoping thought blankly, and before everything completely fell into darkness, she suddenly noticed that the dying heart poison in front of her raised her head weakly at some point, and was looking at her with begging eyes.

Her face was miserable with blood marks, and she said in a low voice with a crying tone: "Li Piaoping... we are... the Cuiyu sect leader..."

Li Piaoping's heart and lungs tightened, and she froze in place.

————

Pei Ye crossed his forearm, strangled this flowing light in his hand, waved it gently to shake off the residual blood, and returned the sword to the scabbard.

The first extreme of the Jade Jade Sword: Flowing Light Shooting Feathers, extremely light and fast.

In the past, 【Stepping on Water Picking Scales】 was indeed light, but when used by a Fifth Life cultivator, if they wanted to be fast enough, the power of the sword strike would always need a Third Life cultivator to catch it.

And now this sword, even a landlubber who has not practiced martial arts has a chance to block it.

Light is not always a disadvantage, just like cutting a person's throat, many times it does not require too much strength. In the hands of a true swordsman, any quality in the sword move that can break through the convention is a rare advantage.

What 【Holding Xian Xinshi】 brings is extreme speed, and defense-defying drive.

Facing an opponent who has mastered this sword, you must be vigilant about every bit of residual strength they hold, because it might turn into a stunning flowing light that takes your life in the next moment.

The C-lower sword of the East Sea Sword Furnace, 【Mountain Feather】. Li Piaoping once told Pei Ye that it was a sword suitable for Jade Jade martial arts. She chose this sword for him, actually because of the stunning sword light that Pei Ye threw out on that competition against Yang Yan.

"Jade Jade Sword" is inherently spiritual and wonderful, and in the boy's hands, it is as if it has been given a divine soul. Between a thousand machines and a hundred changes, and in the places of returning wind and drifting, it is always three folds in one sword, with killing intent everywhere.

And there is a circuit on 【Mountain Feather】 that temporarily stores True Qi, which can make the sword master more smooth and relaxed when drifting and changing moves, and can also start a stunning fold out of thin air after the long sword is thrown out.

This sword only needs a very light amount of strength, and there is exactly such an amount of strength in the sword. This is the origin of the 【Holding Xian Xinshi】 just now.

Pei Ye walked to the corpse at his feet. The man had just died.

Until he died, there was no expression other than indifference on this face.

Pei Ye actually

For a cultivator, especially a genius cultivator, the potential that erupts when one desperately desires to win and the strength displayed during daily sparring can often be vastly different.

Yet Yi Nandai seemed like nothing more than a machine. He did not look forward to any outcome of the fight, nor did he reveal the upper limit of the Eighth Life realm to the youth; he simply used his strong Seventh Life strength, neither more nor less.

Pei Ye paused for a while, as if seeing some relief on this face after the fatigue was shed. He threw a cluster of fire onto this corpse, summoned his horse with a whistle, flipped onto its back, and galloped away.

————

Within the mind.

Countless scenes began to replay in Li Piaocing's mind.

In the theater, she saw herself cheering and clapping below; on the sword field, she saw herself happily raising the sword in her hand high; in the mountains and fields, in the school—every rotation, she was the protagonist, while the black-robed person was always heedlessly coming toward her...

But wasn't it these scenes... that forged the true self?

Who exactly was the heart-poison?

Who should be the one to die?

Two pairs of clear, penetrating eyes gazed at each other, and the world slowly fell into darkness once more.

Yi Chengxin woke from the heart-candle trial, her face pale once again. Around her, six mirrors had already fallen into temporary dimness.

The inheritance of heart-candle cultivation was, in fact, to bear the candle-sword heart-questioning of one's predecessors one by one—exactly the same thing she was doing to Li Piaocing.

Yi Chengxin looked over slowly. The young girl in the green skirt was still sitting with her legs tucked, leaning against the wall, her hands hanging to the ground, her head hanging powerlessly on her chest, her entire person motionless.

Perhaps she would never wake up again.

It should be so. Only after being tempered by the heart-candle would one become more powerful, and the stronger her own candle-sword, the more stern the heart-poison trial she could bring to the other party. Therefore, the third heart-candle she ignited on Li Piaocing after inheriting ninety years of cultivation was naturally far more murderous than the previous two.

Yi Chengxin took a slow, deep breath and looked slowly toward the seventh small mirror.

But just at this moment, a heavy sound of exhaling came from the direction she had just been looking.

Yi Chengxin turned her head abruptly.

The young girl was like a drowning person who had suddenly breathed in air, gasping in large mouthfuls. After four or five consecutive breaths, her brain, which had fallen into darkness, vaguely regained consciousness.

Li Piaocing stared blankly at the young girl sitting cross-legged in the center. After a long time, she realized that she had indeed made the right choice just now.

At this moment, she understood the weight of the young girl's previous words: "The family of the Imperial Edict has three hundred years of heart-candle cultivation; I took ninety." The struggle between the "past me" and the "present me" was indeed a difficult problem, but if it weren't for the increasingly profound cultivation of the girl opposite her, this heart-refining would not have been so perilous and hazy.

This ancestral land was indeed Yi Chengxin's undisputed home field. She was becoming more powerful every time, while the pressure she herself could withstand had a limit.

The heart-questioning just now had pushed her to the brink of a predicament. If there were another heart-questioning of higher intensity, Li Piaocing had no confidence she could support it again. She glanced at those niches; the six mirrors that had become dim made her heart sink bit by bit.

She tried to mobilize her body—still no Qi.

In reality, every deeper heart-questioning was detaching her mind from her body. The Fifth Life cultivation was of no use here; this battle was increasingly trending toward a pure battle of the mind. She understood why the "Child of the Edict" did not need to practice Wu Gong.

In this battle of the mind, how could she possibly defeat Yi Chengxin?

Or should she abandon everything and use all her strength to communicate with the meridian tree? But even if she could connect to a wisp of Qi, the Fifth Life could not release Qi externally, so how could she—

Li Piaocing paused and looked up again at the text on the wall.

Only by knowing the enemy as soon as possible could she hold on until that moment.

The heart-candle that had just emerged from the tempering was incomparably bright. Li Piaocing also had some guesses by now about how Yi Chengxin inherited these cultivations. She suspected that she herself had actually been burned and washed by a hundred years of heart-candles, only she had not learned the secret art of "Transmitting the Heart-Candle" and did not know how to use it.

The wall read: "There are three realms of the heart-candle: Cultivating the Candle, Sensing the Heart, and Entering the Spirit. Those who cultivate the candle first form a heart-candle within their own heart, and only then can they extend from themselves to others; those who sense the heart can see the hundred candles of others' minds—the deeper the progress, the wider the vision; those who enter the spirit cannot reach it through cultivation techniques alone; they must bear the immortal authority of 【Chunshou】, can enter the heart without obstruction, obtain the guidance of the 'candle-sword', and personally issue the 'heart-poison'."

(End of chapter)