Chapter 115: 115. Chapter 115

115. Chapter 115

Guan San is currently stroking the server, please complete your subscription to defeat him! He had almost been shot through; asking why the arrow appeared here was now meaningless. Clearly, the opponent's target was him.

However, this did not make sense.

The mountain gate of the Tianxing Sect was one hundred and eight thousand miles away from Guangkai Town. It was hard to imagine someone traveling such a long distance just to assassinate a Qi Refining disciple of the Beihai Sword Sect. And heaven is my witness, this was his first time leaving the island; what kind of enemies could he possibly have!

A thousand thoughts flooded his mind. Zhao Kuo might indeed lack experience, but no one who could enter the Beihai Sword Sect was a fool. Regardless of whether the person who fired the cold arrow came from the Tianxing Sect, they were ill-intentioned. Moreover, the fact that the opponent could make him completely unaware meant their cultivation was clearly above his. The most urgent matter was to dodge first.

Thus, while pinching a Sword Art, he reached out to pull Bai Tian. Unexpectedly, this pull did not move her at all.

Zhao Kuo was anxious, "Miss Bai! You first come with me...!"

"He has left," Atian replied calmly. Her left hand gently brushed away the boy's hand gripping her right arm, and with both hands, she grasped the still-crackling arrow, snapping it cleanly and throwing it to the ground.

Watching the Tianxing Sect's signature magical artifact be as fragile as a withered branch in the young girl's hands, Zhao Kuo felt like he was dreaming.

"Is the Immortal Elder injured?" Completely unaware of what a shocking thing she had done, Atian turned her head to ask him.

"Oh... no, no, no," Zhao Kuo shook his head like a rattle-drum, "Are you sure he has already left?"

"Left," Atian nodded, "He ran away very fast."

To flee a thousand miles after a single failed strike—this was indeed the style of the Tianxing Sect.

Zhao Kuo felt a bit panicked. Disciples of the Beihai Sword Sect were required to descend the mountain for training once they reached a certain age. Considering his young age and low cultivation, this task with almost no difficulty had been assigned to him. Who would have thought an assassin suspected to be from the Tianxing Sect would appear and disrupt his pace all at once. Moreover, this child-bride of the Senior Brother, who looked like a mortal without any cultivation no matter how one observed her, had not only caught the Soul-Chasing Arrow with her bare hands but could also determine a cultivator's movements, which truly gave him a great shock.

But Zhao Kuo was a man after all, and he prided himself on being a Sword Cultivator; he could not show cowardice in front of a mortal girl. He managed to grit his teeth and maintain a calm expression, though after the "beauty saving the hero" scene that had just occurred, his image as an expert from the outside world was likely unsalvageable.

He bent down to pick up the arrow broken into two pieces on the ground. He carefully examined the residual magical power fluctuations on it and made a rough estimate of the enemy's strength—late-stage Qi Refining. This judgment made him heave a sigh of relief. Although the enemy was a layer or two higher than him, Sword Cultivators always had fierce attacks, which was enough to make up for this gap in cultivation. If they were to face each other head-on, he would not necessarily be as disheveled as he was this time.

It was just that he was not alone; he was accompanied by Bai Tian. Even if she had just performed an astonishing feat, it could not change the fact that she was a mortal.

Thinking of this, he stood up and looked at Atian, gritting his teeth, "Miss Bai, we must leave quickly before he returns. I will explain other things to you on the way..."

"Immortal Elder Zhao," Atian interrupted him, patting the boy's shoulder in a soothing manner, "Do not be afraid."

Zhao Kuo looked at the big eyes of the other party, which were filled with "You are so weak, life in the Beihai Sword Sect must be hard for you," and the true Qi circulating in his body almost went astray.

Yet he had to admit that the move Atian had just pulled off was something he himself absolutely could not have done.

Was Senior Brother Bai Xinli really insisting on seeing this child-bride because he was afraid that "the cooked duck would fly away"? He suddenly became suspicious of this.

However, even if there were many more questions in his heart, now was not a good time to investigate. Since he had encountered an unexpected danger, Zhao Kuo could no longer care about the rule that "a Sword Cultivator's sword must not be touched by outsiders." He directly abandoned that ridiculous big basket and pulled Atian onto his heavy sword, which was already hovering in the air. He changed a hand seal, and the long sword rose from the ground, shooting straight into the clouds.

This was Atian's first experience with sword flight. Even though she was always calm, she was so scared that she grabbed the boy's shoulders in front of her. Watching the heavy sword beneath her feet get further and further from the ground, she actually felt dizzy. It was also at this moment that she had the real sense that the person in front of her was truly an "Immortal Elder" with divine means.

Although this "Immortal Elder" was not very good at fighting.

"It is inevitable to feel uncomfortable during your first sword flight. If you feel any discomfort, Miss, you must tell me in time." Even though he did not think that Atian, with her heaven-defying physique capable of snapping a magical artifact with bare hands, would be unable to handle a mere sword flight, Zhao Kuo still reminded her dutifully.

Just kidding, if this girl couldn't cultivate, then he would have to go to the back mountain to grow vegetables.

Atian's body naturally would not have any discomfort; her attention was still on the recent experience, "Was that the Immortal Elder's enemy just now?"

Hearing this, Zhao Kuo revealed a slightly bitter smile, "Perhaps, though I didn't know I had such an enemy before."

Seeing Atian reveal a curious expression, he pulled himself together and continued, "Since you have a connection with my Immortal Sect, and I don't know if there will be other dangers on this journey, I will tell you about it."

"The person who ambushed us just now should be a disciple of the Tianxing Sect. The arrow you caught is called the Soul-Chasing Arrow, which is their signature magical artifact. The Tianxing Sect's cultivation techniques have always been known for concealment and speed. It's just that we only saw one arrow, so it's unknown if someone else was impersonating them," Zhao Kuo said, "It's just that the Tianxing Sect and my Beihai Sword Sect have no past grievances or recent grudges; I really can't think of any reason for them to come and assassinate me."

"Perhaps they just don't like the look of you. The county magistrate's daughter and Scholar Lü's daughter are the same; they are always fighting back and forth." So said the female devil king who had run rampant in Guangkai Town for many years.

Zhao Kuo did not know the inside story, but his heart stirred upon hearing this. The Tianxing Sect was located at the southern end of the Yuanguang Continent, right in the territory of the Fangxian Dao, one of the Four Great Immortal Sects, and had always followed the lead of the Fangxian Dao. As for the relationships between the Four Great Immortal Sects, even Zhao Kuo, whose Sword Heart was about to be renamed "The Liar," could not bring himself to tell Atian that they were as close as family with the other three great immortal sects.

The Yuanguang Continent was only so big, and there were only so many people who could cultivate. They bumped into each other every few days, so no matter how good their tempers were, friction was inevitable—not to mention that the ability of Sword Cultivators to offend people was as outstanding as their attack power. Among the many fellow practitioners, the one the Beihai Sword Sect offended the most was the Fangxian Dao.

The reasons for the feud between the Beihai Sword Sect and the Fangxian Dao were complex. Aside from the Sword Cultivators' sharp tongues that begged for a beating, there was the inevitable competition between top forces and the struggle between Dharma Cultivators and Sword Cultivators that had been entangled since ancient times. So many contradictions gathered together, creating a troublesome situation where one side felt the other was unreasonable and sharp-tongued, while the other side felt the other was hypocritical and dark.

However, compared to the Dharma Cultivators who could cast a wide net, the cultivation qualifications for Sword Cultivators were more stringent. This also meant that the number of people in the Beihai Sword Sect was completely insufficient compared to the Fangxian Dao, which occupied the entire southern continent alone, and they had no advantage when it came to verbal sparring.

Fortunately, there was another sect in the north that was even more at odds with the Fangxian Dao, and that was the Taixuan Sect, which was also listed among the Four Great Immortal Sects.

If the Beihai Sword Sect and the Fangxian Dao were an external contradiction, then the Taixuan Sect and the Fangxian Dao were an internal contradiction, and an even more irreconcilable one at that.

Fundamentally, these two immortal sects were of the same origin and were one family in ancient times, but they took completely different paths in their subsequent development.

The Fangxian Dao practiced the art of the Danding, specializing in refining pills, and even developed a method of using one's own body as a furnace to refine the Five Gods. As for the Taixuan Sect, they called themselves the Talisman Sect and were famous for their talisman arts. Both sides viewed the other as evil heretics who had defiled the Dao Lineage of the founding masters. If one were to count the grievances between the two sects, one could probably write a magnificent chronicle.

Against this background, it was only natural for the Beihai Sword Sect and the Taixuan Sect to band together to resist the Fangxian Dao; the enemy of an enemy is a friend, after all.

Atian, who grew up in Guangkai Town, naturally did not understand what the struggle between Dharma Cultivators and Sword Cultivators was, nor could she understand the difference between the Danding Sect and the Talisman Sect, but she had her own way of understanding.

"I understand," she nodded seriously, "In other words, Miss Bei and Miss Fang both want to be the town beauty. Miss Fang is the county magistrate's daughter and has power at home; Miss Bei is the scholar's daughter and reads many books. However, reading many books ultimately cannot defeat someone with power at home, so Miss Bei united with the rich merchant's daughter, Miss Xuan, to jointly resist the power-abusing Miss Fang."

After finishing, she even sighed: "You guys don't have it easy either."

Zhao Kuo did not understand why the complex relationships of the cultivation world turned into a village palace intrigue in Atian's mouth, but upon thinking about it, it seemed there was nothing wrong with it. He could only open his mouth, and after a long time, he squeezed out a sentence, "... What 'you guys,' it should be 'us'."

Atian thought about how she was just about to attend the Ascension Ceremony they were holding, and it was indeed not very authentic to distance herself, so she quickly nodded to make amends.

However, even if Atian understood why Zhao Kuo would suspect the Fangxian Dao, it did not mean that this puzzle was easily solved.

As a big shot, it was hard to imagine the Fangxian Dao ordering its underlings to assassinate a nobody like Zhao Kuo. Even if they really did that, they wouldn't send someone whose cultivation wasn't much higher to test him and then call it a day.

But he could probably understand the opponent's mood regarding running away immediately; after all, he was also quite scared to see a mortal catch a magical artifact with bare hands.

Can't figure it out, can't figure it out, no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure it out.

Zhao Kuo's brows furrowed, feeling that his train of thought had hit a dead end. However, this appearance in the eyes of others was naturally because he was worried about being assassinated.

"Immortal Elder, do not be afraid," Atian said gently, not forgetting to roll up her sleeves to reveal her fair arms and pat the thin layer of muscle on them, "For that kind of weakling, I can take on ten of them by myself."

You, what did you just say?

Facing the wide-eyed Zhao Kuo, Atian lowered her head and smiled shyly.

Atian had never thought that she would dream of the second half of the story.

The man's hand was clamped on the young girl's delicate neck, cold liquid dripped onto her cheeks, the suddenly rising tongues of fire crackled and popped, and the feeling of suffocation and pain grew stronger and stronger.

Just as her vision went black, the hand that was gripping her neck like iron pliers suddenly loosened, and the young girl, freed from the shackles, let out a weak cough in the rolling thick smoke.