Chapter 81: 81. Chapter 81

81. Chapter 81

Guan San is currently stroking the server; please complete your subscription to defeat him! Before his words had even faded, the heavy Sword beneath their feet began to tremble due to an improper technique. Hearing this, Atian decisively lay flat, clutching the hilt with her right hand, and reached out her left hand to Zhao Kuo, who was still struggling with the technique, shouting: "Immortal Elder, grab my hand!"

However, Zhao Kuo had poured his entire heart and soul into controlling the flying Sword at this moment. Alas, this Life-bound Spirit Sword beneath his feet, "Duanyue," was truly worthy of being his heart-linked companion; its ability to fail at a critical moment could be said to be exactly the same as his own.

Seeing the young cultivator still sweating profusely while changing techniques, Atian withdrew her hand and quickly grabbed her hair ornament that had been blown away. Her meticulously styled hair bun had already come undone. The violent gale brought on by their rapid descent whipped her long hair and robes, carrying a familiar yet strange salty, damp scent.

That was the scent of the sea.

Unable to care about the weightlessness caused by the fall, Atian hugged the hilt and looked around. She saw the crimson sunset glow of the sky painting the entire horizon, even spreading to the shimmering sea surface. Between the sky and the sea stood a massive Floating Island wreathed in clouds and mist. Through the thin veil of fog, one could vaguely see pavilions and towers within. But most eye-catching of all was a giant Broken Sword slanted into it, its cold glint and awe-inspiring Sword Intent piercing through the dreamlike scene saturated in orange-red.

Atian could not tear her gaze away from the Broken Sword. It was so beautiful, yet so terrifying. The horrific Sword momentum coming like a landslide almost crushed her, yet the Sword Intent, clear as a breeze and bright as the moon, offered her the gentlest consolation.

She forgot that she was falling and could be smashed to pieces at any moment, nor could she hear Zhao Kuo's panicked shouting; she only stared intently at the Broken Sword, as if it were the only lover of her life.

"Splash!"

The Duanyue Sword plunged headlong into the sea with Atian and Zhao Kuo. The high-intensity impact was enough to smash a person to pieces in an instant. Zhao Kuo, who entered the water headfirst, fainted from the shock immediately, and the Duanyue Sword instantly emitted a faint halo of light to protect its master.

But Atian was not so lucky. She was shaken off the flying Sword. Seawater surged in from all directions, completely enveloping her and dragging her into the colder, pitch-black depths. Strings of bubbles rose from her nose and mouth, but these traces were quickly wiped away by the current.

No struggle, no self-rescue; Atian's mind was still immersed in that fleeting glimpse from just moments ago. Her thoughts even traversed time and space, returning to fifteen years ago.

A sea of fire filled the sky, burning everything to ashes. A woman's weeping sounded like a grievance. She sat in the center of the sea of fire, flames licking her skin and devouring her clothes, yet she felt not a shred of heat or pain. Instead, a warm emotion swept through her entire body, mixed with a laziness that only comes after catharsis.

A man whose face she could not see came before her. He wore a dark purple long robe, the hem of which had already been burned away, leaving only ragged edges. The man bent down and gently picked her up. Some icy liquid dripped onto her cheek. Atian looked up, but in the end, she only captured a blurry, indistinct light and shadow.

"You must die." The man's tone was very, very light, as if he were afraid of scaring her.

The young Atian giggled, reaching out as usual to hug the man's arm. The man supported the child with his right hand and covered her head with his left, rubbing it gently, then traced down along Atian's cheek, finally resting on the child's thin, slender neck.

The liquid dripping onto her cheek became more rapid, hitting Atian so hard she could not open her eyes.

The woman's weeping suddenly grew louder, and at the same time, messy footsteps sounded. Atian saw a figure rushing toward the sea of fire from the outside, grappling with those who were blocking her.

It was useless.

It was useless.

She could not pass through this sea of fire.

As the woman's resistance grew more violent, the hand on Atian's neck slowly tightened. The suffocation caused by the lack of oxygen made the child begin to struggle, but no matter what, she could not shake off the shackles on her neck. Her vision began to turn black, and her sight became blurry...

Then, she saw that Sword.

Roaring flames coiled around the long, narrow blade, and dark gold inscriptions flickered on the pitch-black edge. Even though it hung in the deep sea, it seemed as if it could ignite even the water current.

Atian walked toward the black Sword involuntarily, her eyes unable to hold anything else. The black Sword seemed to sense her presence as well; the blade turned, and the red-and-black hilt reached slightly toward Atian.

To grasp, or not to grasp?

This was not a multiple-choice question at all.

Although surrounded by flames, the hilt felt warm and smooth to the touch. Even though it was her first time seeing it, Atian found that she was not unfamiliar with it: the Sword was three feet seven inches long, weighed one jin ten liang, was polished on eight sides, and was indestructible...

Her fingers lightly touched the blade, and all kinds of information flooded her mind. However, there was one most important thing she could not remember at all.

The Sword's name...

The Sword's name...

What is the Sword's name?

"Haa!"

Suddenly poking her head out of the sea, Atian wiped the water droplets from her face and looked around blankly. Even at the end of her trance, she could not recall the black Sword's name. By the time she reacted, her body was already floating upward, as if the Sword that had stolen her soul was merely a phantom produced at the moment of Life and Death.

After experiencing such a fall into the sea, the jewelry on her body had completely vanished, including the hair ornament she had tried to save while the flying Sword was falling. That was a gift from Lady Bai for her coming-of-age ceremony, seemingly hinting that she was about to be completely severed from secular life.

Atian was not a sentimental person; she felt no annoyance at losing the hair ornament. Instead, she looked around, earnestly searching for people.

It was not close to the shore here, and the only thing she could rely on was Zhao Kuo, who had fallen with her, even though the incident of falling into the sea had already proven that this "Immortal Elder" was not reliable at all.

However, soaking in the water for a long time was not a good choice; the current would constantly drain her body heat. Fortunately, Atian's luck had always been good, and it didn't take much effort to find Zhao Kuo, who was also floating on the sea surface.

At this moment, this half-baked cultivator was still in a coma, and the Sword light emitted by the Duanyue Sword was wrapping him up perfectly, looking from afar like a bizarre "egg."

Atian swam to the "eggshell" and reached out to knock on it tentatively.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The "eggshell" made a crisp sound.

She circled the "egg" once, but never found a way to wake Zhao Kuo or enter the Sword light. The loss of body heat had already caused her originally rosy lips to turn pale.

Atian frowned; she was a little angry.

"If you don't wake your master up, I will snap you in half," she said to the Duanyue Sword with an expressionless face.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but the threatened Duanyue Sword seemed to tremble, then suddenly flew up and stabbed fiercely at the buttocks of the unconscious Zhao Kuo that were exposed above the water!

"Ah!!!"

Even a cultivator could not withstand such an attack. Zhao Kuo let out a pig-like shriek and woke up instantly.

"So, so painful! Duanyue, what kind of madness are you in!" he complained, clutching his buttocks.

"Immortal Elder Zhao," Atian leaned over, her face full of concern, "are you alright?"

"Miss Bai!" Zhao Kuo called out in surprise. The moment the Duanyue Sword lost control and fell into the sea, he knew he had caused a huge disaster. No matter how strange Bai Tian acted, it couldn't change the fact that she was a mortal. If something happened to her in such a fall, let alone the Senior Brother, the sect would absolutely not let him off lightly.

Therefore, seeing Bai Tian, who was soaked but otherwise unharmed, he was happy from the bottom of his heart.

Seeing that Zhao Kuo was awake, Atian was not in a hurry to go ashore. She reached out and patted the youth's shoulder, pointing to the Floating Island in the distance, and asked softly: "Immortal Elder Zhao, that Sword...?"

Zhao Kuo, who had been violently awakened by his Life-bound Sword, was still dazed. He rubbed his eyes, "... You mean the Ancestor's Sword?"

"The Ancestor's Sword?" Atian repeated after him.

"Yes, that is the Sword of the founding ancestor of our Beihai Sword Sect," Zhao Kuo nodded. "Legend has it that the Floating Island where the sect is located was refined by the Ancestor after he cut off the head of a dragon vein. When the Ancestor ascended, he left his own personal Sword behind to continue suppressing the dragon vein."

Speaking of this, he scratched his messy back of his head, "I don't know if the legend is true, but when I first saw this Sword, I was so suppressed I almost fainted. Every cultivator in this world who learns the Sword must un-Sword when they come here; this is the Ten Thousand Swords Paying Homage to the Sect."

"Ten Thousand Swords Paying Homage to the Sect..." Atian looked at the giant Broken Sword piercing through the Floating Island, feeling dazzled and mesmerized.

Bai Tian's life for the previous eighteen years had been one of self-abandonment and drifting with the tide. The Bai family raised her, so she stayed; the Beihai Sword Sect summoned her, so she came. Anything was fine, anything didn't matter. She had long since lost any expectation for the future.

But now, looking up at this sect-protecting treasure Sword, she found that every drop of blood and every piece of bone in her body was trembling with excitement, as if all these years of waiting were for this very moment.

If one hears the Dao in the morning, one can die without regret in the evening.

"Ha."

She could not help but laugh out loud, from a muffled chuckle at the start to a completely unrestrained laugh, overcome with joy.

Atian's unusual behavior naturally drew Zhao Kuo's sidelong glance; it was the first time he had seen this young lady show such an expression, no longer the reserved smile of a refined lady, but a truly, genuinely happy laugh.

At this moment, Atian could be described as disheveled, with bangs stuck messily to her forehead and her clothes clinging tightly to her skin, yet her smile was brighter than ever before.