Chapter 58: Give Xie Xun a Condition He Cannot Refuse

Compared to Xie Xun, who was blind in both eyes, Zhang Wuji, with his exceptional eyesight, saw clearly:

Zhang Jie did not directly touch the blade of the Dragon-Slaying Blade with his jade-like palm,

but firmly gripped the blade’s body with his five fingers.

Zhang Jie would never be so arrogant as to catch the blade’s edge bare-handed.

When there is no absolute gap in strength, relying solely on the body to intercept weapons is always disadvantageous.

Even in xianxia worlds, those cultivators who specialize in body refinement,

still need to wear spiritual armor appropriate to their realm during combat.

In One Piece, even Capone, who possesses general-level strength and wields nothing but iron fists to level mountains,

wasn’t he left bleeding and battered by Montblanc, a colonel far beneath him in rank, with just an axe?

And yet Montblanc earned the title “Axe Emperor” despite being merely a colonel compared to a general.

Unless his strength reaches the level of the Sweeping Monk from Heavenly Dragon, with qi so profound it forms a three-foot qi wall,

he would never consider catching the Dragon-Slaying Blade bare-handed.

Zhang Jie: Stay calm, don’t be reckless~

“Father, stop. You’re no match for my senior brother.”

Zhang Wuji, knowing Xie Xun stood no chance against Zhang Jie, hurriedly urged him to cease.

“No!”

Xie Xun shook his head slightly, refusing firmly.

If earlier he had merely wanted to teach Zhang Jie a lesson,

now he was defending the dignity of the Golden-Haired Lion King and the Dragon-Slaying Blade.

“Hah!”

Xie Xun poured all his inner energy into the Dragon-Slaying Blade.

The Dragon-Slaying Blade and the Heaven-Defying Sword became peerless weapons in the Heaven-Defying world

because, like the chakra metal in Naruto that conducts chakra,

they possess exceptional conductivity for inner energy, enabling wielder and weapon to achieve more than the sum of their parts.

As Xie Xun poured more and more inner energy into it, a chilling glow appeared on the Dragon-Slaying Blade, raising the hairs on one’s skin.

“What a magnificent Dragon-Slaying Blade!”

Feeling the blade’s edge sharp enough to cleave metal and cut jade, Zhang Jie couldn’t help but praise it.

This chilling glow reminded him of the sword qi found only in the martial world of high school.

Hmm, given the weapon type, shouldn’t the Dragon-Slaying Blade’s output be called saber qi?

Still, Zhang Jie was not afraid. Though saber qi was powerful,

Xie Xun’s inner energy paled beside his sixty-year-old Northern Darkness Qi.

Zhang Jie willed his mind, and his surging Northern Darkness Qi surged into the blade, vying for control of the Dragon-Slaying Blade.

Under Zhang Jie’s torrential and exceptionally high-quality Northern Darkness Qi, Xie Xun’s inner energy retreated step by step.

“Ahh!”

The Northern Darkness Qi, harmonizing yin and yang, blending water and fire, rushed into Xie Xun’s body in a frenzy,

alternating between extreme cold and searing heat within him,

his face flushed alternately pale and ashen, his eight extraordinary meridians trembling,

his entire body wracked with agony, beads of sweat pouring endlessly from his forehead onto the ground.

“Senior brother, senior brother, my father concedes!”

Seeing this, Zhang Wuji hurriedly declared Xie Xun’s surrender.

Zhang Jie, seeing the opportunity, withdrew the Northern Darkness Qi ravaging Xie Xun’s eight extraordinary meridians.

“Father!”

Zhang Wuji rushed to Xie Xun’s side, supporting the staggering man,

had him sit cross-legged on the spot, pressed his palms against his back, and channeled Nine Yang Divine Art energy to heal him.

Watching Zhang Wuji not remove Xie Xun’s outer robe, Zhang Jie couldn’t help internally scoffing:

“Why must you strip off a woman’s outer garment to heal her?

But for a rough man like Xie Xun, you don’t?

Is this the legendary rule: after a hero saves a beauty,

if the hero is handsome, the beauty says, ‘I’ll give myself to you’;

but if the hero is unattractive and fails to impress,

the beauty says, ‘I have nothing to offer, but in my next life I’ll become your ox or horse to repay your kindness’?”

“Shaking with rage, I’m trembling all over, drenched in cold sweat despite the heat, my limbs icy—

when will ordinary boys like me ever get our due?”

Zhang Jie silently championed the cause of ordinary boys.

Zhang Wuji was about to heal Xie Xun, but the next moment he realized Xie Xun’s condition was astonishingly improved—

even his old battle wounds had healed considerably.

“Senior brother?”

Zhang Wuji cast a grateful glance toward Zhang Jie.

Among everyone present, only Zhang Jie, with his immeasurable inner energy, could achieve this.

“Mm.”

Zhang Jie nodded in acknowledgment—Xie Xun’s injuries were healed by him.

After obtaining the Northern Darkness Divine Art, he had tried practicing the Nine Yang Divine Art,

and discovered the two had miraculously merged into one!

The Northern Darkness Divine Art’s cultivation principle is the opposite of ordinary martial arts.

Yet when Zhang Jie practiced again, he found he could freely choose to activate it forward or backward!

Forward was the Nine Yang Divine Art; backward was the Northern Darkness Divine Art!

He later consulted other Zhang Jies in the shared space, but they were equally baffled.

In the end, they could only attribute this miraculous change to the shared space.

After the transformation, the Northern Darkness Qi inherited—not just absorbed, but fused—the healing properties of the Nine Yang energy.

Zhang Jie had originally planned to find a few lucky volunteers to test his new inner energy’s effects.

And here came Xie Xun, right on cue.

Zhang Jie took the opportunity and used Xie Xun as his guinea pig.

“Thank you, young friend.”

Xie Xun, rid of most of his chronic ailments, looked at Zhang Jie with a complex expression and thanked him.

Even his address had changed from “brat” to “young friend.”

“Father, my senior brother needs the Dragon-Slaying Blade for a great purpose. Why not give it to him?”

Seeing Xie Xun’s resolve soften, Zhang Wuji pressed his advantage.

“No!

The Dragon-Slaying Blade is my only hope—I won’t give it to anyone!”

Xie Xun still flatly refused.

“This…”

Seeing his father so stubborn, Zhang Wuji was torn.

From Zhang Jie’s demeanor, he was determined to obtain the Dragon-Slaying Blade.

And Zhang Wuji knew Zhang Jie was no “gentleman who fears crushing ants underfoot,

or covers a lamp to save a moth.”

If pushed past his limit, he would not hesitate to use force.

But Xie Xun was his adoptive father, the closest person in the world to him after his parents’ deaths—

he could not abandon his father.

On one side was his senior brother, who had treated him well and held absolute martial superiority; on the other, his father, whom he could not forsake—

Zhang Wuji was now a mouse caught in a bellows, trapped between two pressures.

Still, what did Xie Xun mean by “hope”? Zhang Wuji was puzzled.

“Senior brother…”

After much thought, Zhang Wuji decided to speak with Zhang Jie first,

asking him for time to persuade Xie Xun.

“Wuji, rest assured. I will give the Lion King a condition he cannot refuse.”

Before Zhang Wuji could even speak, Zhang Jie smiled slightly.

“??”

Zhang Wuji was utterly confused.

Zhang Jie had met his adoptive father for the first time today—how could he offer him a condition he couldn’t refuse?

Still, knowing Zhang Jie never acted without reason, Zhang Wuji chose to trust him.

“Hahaha! Boy, let me see what kind of condition you could offer that I couldn’t refuse.”

“You could give me a condition I couldn’t refuse.”

Hearing this, the Golden-Haired Lion King burst into wild laughter.

He had long since lost all family and kin in the world except Zhang Wuji.

How could Zhang Jie possibly offer him a condition he couldn’t refuse?

Could Zhang Jie be planning to threaten him with Zhang Wuji?

But judging from the relationship between Zhang Jie and Zhang Wuji, Zhang Jie shouldn’t be capable of such a thing.

He still trusted Zhang Jie’s character: first, Zhang Jie was a disciple of Mount Wudang,

under the watch of the Seven Heroes of Wudang and the hundred-year-old Daoist Zhang Sanfeng,

Wudang disciples couldn’t possibly be utterly morally corrupt.

Second, just now Zhang Jie had easily defeated him without seizing the Dragon-Slaying Blade.

Clearly, Zhang Jie still held to his own moral code.

As Xie Xun began laughing wildly, his Lion Roar Art—already merged with his human power—activated instinctively.

Sound waves, nearly tangible, radiated outward from him in concentric rings.

Crack. Crack.

The rocks around him began to split; the entire cave seemed on the verge of collapse.

“Father!”

Zhang Wuji, closest to Xie Xun, struggled to resist the Lion Roar Art.

“Why not let me finish speaking before you decide?”

Facing the oncoming sound waves, Zhang Jie swept his sleeve.

Northern Darkness Qi formed an invisible vortex that dissolved every incoming wave.

He waved again; the vortex expanded, completely neutralizing the Lion Roar’s sound waves.

“Phew~”

Zhang Wuji, who had been struggling against the sound waves, finally exhaled in relief.

The Golden-Haired Lion King, whose Lion Roar had been utterly nullified by Zhang Jie’s overwhelming power, fell silent.

He spoke slowly: “Tell me this condition you say I can’t refuse.”

“I can give you information about Cheng Kun.”

Zhang Jie spoke calmly.

“Cheng Kun!”

At the name Cheng Kun, the Golden-Haired Lion King went berserk.

Roar!

A Lion Roar stronger than before by several degrees burst from his mouth.

Zhang Jie, prepared in advance, instantly enveloped Xie Xun in a Northern Darkness vortex, preventing the sound waves from spreading.

“Ahh! Cheng Kun! Ahh! Cheng Kun!”

Within the vortex formed by Northern Darkness Qi, Xie Xun descended into madness, as if possessed by demons.