Chapter 103

103. Chapter 103

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The man knelt powerlessly in the sea of fire, his purple robes gradually turning charred and curling; he covered his face with both hands, and a choked voice flowed out from between his fingers: "Why! Why! What sin did the innocent child commit!"

He suddenly raised his head, slammed a fist into the ground, pulled the young girl who hadn't yet been wrapped up tightly into his arms, crawled forward on his knees for a few steps, and shouted hoarsely at a figure standing outside the ring of fire: "Master! Master! What sin did the innocent child commit, Master!"

Bai Tian sat up abruptly from the bed; she hadn't dreamed of this scene for many years, likely because she had heard too much news about the Square Immortal Dao yesterday, which stirred up distant memories.

Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, she didn't intend to sleep anymore. She jumped off the bed, picked up the silk skirt from the rack to change into, then used a hair ribbon to tie up her long hair; Atian brought along the Wanjie placed at the head of the bed, pushed open the door, and walked out of the room.

At this moment, the first rays of morning glow had not yet pierced through the clouds, and the surroundings were enveloped in a hazy feeling of being neither bright nor dark; she stood alone on the twentieth-story high platform, gazing at the Floating Island covered by a thin layer of mist, the slightly fishy sea breeze blowing the loose hair at her temples, and Atian lifted the Sword in her hand, threw it toward the ground, and at the same time, lightly tapped her toes, leaping down directly following the trail of the Sword.

The image of other disciples leaping between the courtyards played in her mind, every landing point overlapping with those in her memory; Atian rose and fell as if dancing, finally gave a forceful push, and her whole body leaped high into the air, her wide skirt turning into a peony blooming in mid-air.

"Who is it, so early..."

Hearing the sound, Song Zhicheng pushed open the door with sleepy eyes and saw Atian's figure drifting down gracefully, landing exactly on the Wanjie that had pierced into the soil; he was just about to speak a greeting when he saw the young girl jump lightly off the hilt, pick up the black long Sword, and the golden morning light hit her profile, plating her with a layer of gentle, thin makeup.

Song Zhicheng was stunned and opened his mouth subconsciously, but until the former's back disappeared from his sight, the words "Junior Sister Bai" remained stuck in his throat and could not be spat out no matter what.

After leaving the courtyard, Atian went straight to the cafeteria; the head cook of the Beihai Sword Sect was a middle-aged woman dressed in gaudy jewelry, with more rings on her fingers than could be counted; she was long accustomed to disciples rising early, and upon seeing Atian, she gave her a large bowl of porridge and a few steamed buns; the latter didn't complain after receiving them, found a place to sit down, and began to wolf them down.

Today would be an exceptionally difficult day; she had to ingest enough energy in a short amount of time.

The first technique Atian learned at the Beihai Sword Sect was the Sword Controlling Art. Saying she "learned" it isn't actually accurate; it was just like her sword moves, contained within her bones, needing only a little stimulation to emerge in her mind.

Unlike the Duan Yue Sword, which was always throwing tantrums and tripping Zhao Kuo, Wanjie could be described as "handy" when driven, just like Atian herself, wrapping a lethal interior with a docile appearance; yet even so, she almost crashed into the ground while climbing the suspended Martial Arts Arena, making everyone who saw it break into a cold sweat for her.

The person who saw this was naturally Luo Li, who had come to the Martial Arts Arena early to strike a pose; she was wearing men's clothing, draped in a moon-white outer robe, and with her tall stature and ear-length short hair, if one ignored the scar on her face, she really looked like a dashing young gentleman at first glance.

In fact, there was a reason for Luo Li to dress this way; the number of Elders in the Beihai Sword Sect was pitifully small, so each one could not be wasted and had to be used where it counted most, such as the Sect Master Duan Xuan who served as the face of the sect, Tan Tianming who was in charge of external affairs, Guo Huai who managed internal affairs, Li Ke who held a deterrent significance, and Luo Li who was responsible for acting as the muscle.

Luo Li was the Law Enforcement Elder of the Beihai Sword Sect and also their sharp blade for external matters; judging by the fact that she had directly attacked the mountain gate of the Square Immortal Dao as soon as the "Heartless Dao" incident broke out, she had always played the role of the "unreasonable" one, and over time, she had become what she was today.

"Young people nowadays..." Her face wrinkled into a ball, and she shook her head in disapproval, looking exactly like Granny Wang at the entrance of the village; this was perhaps a common ailment of people who had reached a certain age.

Atian put Wanjie back on her back, trotted to Luo Li, covered half her face with her sleeve, revealed a pair of bright, sparkling eyes, and called out softly, "Good morning, Uncle-Master Luo Li."

It feels so good to have a little sister!

Luo Li was almost moved to tears internally, but on the surface, she remained calm; she spat out the dogtail grass she was chewing on, nodded at Bai Tian, and after dropping the words "Follow me," she turned and walked toward the depths of the Martial Arts Arena.

The Beihai Sword Sect itself was a massive Floating Island, and the Martial Arts Arena was a floating city on the Floating Island; it was not a simple, crude, vast square, but a rather spectacular floating hill; the bottom-most platform was where Qi Refining disciples practiced their Sword, the stone huts scattered on the mountain were built specifically for seclusion, and the remaining forests and mountain body were the disciples' true training grounds.

"Our Beihai Sword Sect is located on the North Sea and is always mocked by those guys who occupy mountains and rivers as a small family and a small courtyard, but so what? If there's no back mountain, why not just build one yourself?"

Luo Li led Atian through the forest; her footsteps were light, as if walking on flat ground, yet she didn't deliberately speed up, instead slowing her pace slightly to chat with the young girl behind her.

Calling it a chat was actually just Luo Li rambling unilaterally.

"Tan Tianming says your Sword Bone contains Demonic Thought and is a Demonic Sword; this is actually the lingering poison he contracted during his early years at the Taixuan Sect; although he was sent here as soon as he awakened his Sword Bone and abolished all his cultivation to start over, some habits were ultimately too ingrained to change."

As she spoke, she raised her hand to push aside a branch.

"For us Sword Cultivators, what kind of talk is there about Demonic Thought or not? In this world, there are swords that destroy the world and swords that save the world; the Sword Heart of a Sword Cultivator is strange and varied, and the Sword Intent is also different, but no matter how they change, one thing will never change—they are all swords for killing."

"The Sword is a lethal weapon."

"Those who are weak-hearted cannot lift it, those who are compassionate cannot swing it, and those who do not harbor a killing intent cannot thrust it."

Perhaps because it was located above the sea, the soil in the mountain forest was soft, and there was even a freshness unique to after the rain; Atian reached out to steady herself against a towering tree, and Luo Li also stopped and turned to look at her.

"But the Sword is also a gentleman."

"Those who harbor evil intentions are not worthy of lifting it, those who are hypocritical and falsely kind are not worthy of swinging it, and those who are bloodthirsty and cruel are not worthy of using it."

"If you have even the slightest hesitation regarding the above, do not draw your Sword; that will only bring shame to your Sword."

Luo Li's eyes were like a heaven-piercing Sword, stabbing straight into Atian's soul.

"However, in the final analysis, the one who uses the Sword is still a person."

"A Sword Cultivator's moves come from their Life-bound Sword, a Sword Cultivator's Sword Heart comes from their Sword Bone, and a Sword Cultivator's Sword Bone comes from the Sword Cultivator themselves."

"If you are at a loss without your Sword, how are you any different from a puppet controlled by a Sword? If everything is entirely controlled by the Sword, then is it you swinging the Sword or is it swinging you?"

Luo Li turned around, her moon-white outer robe drawing an arc in the air, and she began to stride into the forest.

"Remember! You and it are both half-bodies and enemies!"

"You must listen to it, understand it, and probe it, pursuing together the ultimate truth that the Heavens have bestowed upon you, while at the same time suppressing it, subduing it, and driving it! Let it know who the master is!"

This time, Luo Li did not wait for her; Atian started running, not caring about the mud staining her shoes, her eyes fixed only on the moon-white hem of the robe fluttering in her line of sight.

She didn't know how long they had walked before Luo Li stopped at the edge of a cliff; when Bai Tian walked over to look, she realized this wasn't a cliff, but a rather spectacular sinkhole.

Having grown up in a small town, Atian had never seen such a magnificent sight; this sinkhole was over a hundred meters deep, and as far as the eye could see, there were swirling clouds and vines clinging to the steep stone walls; the mouth of the pit was so large that from a distance, it looked like a circular piece of the sky.

"Sect Master Senior Brother asked me to teach you how to retract and release power; however, one must first learn to wield a weapon before one can stop the fighting; to learn how to condense a scabbard, one must first know how to release power."

"Let me see what kind of ability you have, you who can give birth to the Sword of Huangye."

Luo Li's voice rang out unexpectedly by Atian's ear; such a close distance immediately gave her a bad premonition, and sure enough, a force came from behind, kicking her directly off the cliff before she could twist her waist to dodge!

Bai Tian's first reaction was to call for Wanjie, but the black Sword remained motionless on her back; the mountain wind carried her as she plummeted rapidly, and she soon disappeared from the mouth of the sinkhole.

"Work hard; I've already made an agreement with them that if you succeed, I'll bring you along."

As Luo Li spoke, she looked through the layers of mountain forest toward the Yishi Dian in the distance, and in front of the Yishi Dian standing in the center of the Floating Island, two figures were waiting quietly at the entrance.

"Elder Li, Senior Brother Bai," the Sword Attendant Boy pushed open the door and bowed to the two, "The Sect Leader invites you in."

Just as they were about to enter the great hall, a gust of sea breeze blew their robes until they rustled, and a letter slipped quietly from Li Ke's sleeve, spinning in the air and gradually flying away; on the half-open paper, one could vaguely see the character "Qing".

Atian was falling.

She closed her eyes, feeling the weightlessness of her body; just as she was about to hit the bottom, she thrust her Sword out, the tip of the Sword pointing directly at the ground; the originally rigid Sword body bent into an arc at this moment, and relying on this elasticity, she stayed suspended in the air for a few seconds head-down, her long Sword rotating with her body, dancing a clean sword-flower in the air. As the feeling of cutting into flesh traveled from the hilt, Atian landed lightly on one knee, and some liquid splattered onto her face.