"So that man’s name was Yuan Tiangang," Xu Ying thought.
But who Yuan Tiangang was, he had no idea.
He was just a village boy who knew nothing of court affairs, nor of Yuan Tiangang’s once-glorious past.
Yuan Qi, who had read more books, recognized the famous name and exclaimed in shock: "That legendary existence!"
The bearded man threw back his head and laughed. "By decree of the Sagely Emperor, civil and martial, I severed your dragon vein to prevent you from growing powerful and throwing the world into chaos. This is public enmity, not personal! But if you wish to fight, then fight! What have I to fear?"
From his sword chest, a beam of radiance leaped forth, and in an instant the wind and rain vanished. The sky stretched clear and blue, as bright as a freshly washed mirror—no longer the underworld, but as though they had returned to the world of the living!
Xu Ying and Yuan Qi stared up in awe as the bearded man soared skyward, sword in hand, to do battle with the giant above. Sword-light writhed and coiled, interlacing like lightning.
Suddenly the giant’s form shifted, transforming into a stone dragon of colossal proportions, its length stretching dozens of li. The earth shook with its thunderous movement. Yet after only a brief exchange, the bearded man summoned his sword and sent it flashing upward like a rainbow. It struck the dragon’s neck at its weakest point, severing the head with a single stroke.
The head crashed to the earth with a thunderous boom, landing not far from the house. Blood flooded the ground like a river.
Xu Ying and Yuan Qi stood gaping. The bearded man descended to the ground, and his sword-light returned to the chest, which snapped shut.
The bearded man said, "This dragon was born of the mountain’s essence, and it has two forms—mother and daughter. I slew the mother long ago. She sought to steal the imperial fortune and, once born, would have brought catastrophe upon the Divine Land. I cut her down before she could claim the throne. The daughter cultivated her power and came seeking vengeance. You may bathe in the dragon’s blood—there are benefits to be had."
Xu Ying and Yuan Qi approached the dragon’s head and bathed in the blood. They felt their wounds knitting together with astonishing speed, far swifter than any spirit pill or medicinal brew could achieve!
Xu Ying’s injured left shoulder healed entirely. His blood and qi surged, more vigorous than ever before!
He hurriedly set the great bell into the blood to soak, thinking: "Perhaps the bell can also absorb the dragon’s origin qi and recover more quickly."
The bearded man watched with fascination, eyeing the bell and laughing. "This treasure has a formidable origin—and equally formidable entanglements. Young brother, if your fortune is not deep enough, it may drag you down. Better to discard it soon."
Xu Ying’s heart stirred. The bell had been forged to suppress the ancient well beneath Stone Mountain. In that well lay a black coffin, and when the Nether River changed course, the girl inside had escaped.
Could the entanglements the bearded man spoke of refer to that?
The bearded man offered no further explanation. "Dragon blood contains dragon essence, which can heal your wounds. But absorbing too much dragon essence is harmful to the human body. Once your injuries are healed, you should stop absorbing it to avoid leaving hidden dangers. As for the strange serpent—she could absorb more. It would be of great use to her."
Xu Ying ceased bathing in the blood and let the bell continue to soak.
Yuan Qi threw herself entirely into the pool, reveling in the pure dragon essence that flooded into her. She was both amazed and delighted.
"A-Ying, I will soon be able to take human form!" she cried. "Once I do, I can properly cultivate the Elephant-Force Ox-Demon Fist!"
Xu Ying was equally excited. He asked, "Little Seven, after you transform, will you be male or female?"
"What do you mean, male or female? You mean rooster or hen!" Yuan Qi snapped. "I am certainly a rooster!"
"What a shame," Xu Ying said with genuine regret.
Yuan Qi glared at him furiously. "You Xu surname people—the reputation of your family has never been good among us snake folk!"
…
Yuan Qi absorbed the dragon essence until she reached her body’s limit, feeling as though she might burst. The bearded man counseled, "On the path of cultivation, never be greedy. Absorbing too much will only harm you."
Yuan Qi reluctantly climbed from the pool, then lay at its edge and gulped down several mouthfuls of dragon blood.
The bearded man shook his head. "You have only made it harder for yourself to take human form. How foolish. Come with me. This path is alive, but when we reach the Nether Bridge, whether the old woman is willing to let you pass remains unknown. Once we reach the bridgehead, it will be up to your fortune."
Xu Ying lifted the great bell in his left hand and hurried after him.
Yuan Qi looked back at the dragon’s head with regret, but followed, thinking: "If only I could devour it…"
The bearded man led them along, probing the mountains for a route. Often, when the path seemed to run out, he would uncover a new trail. Xu Ying and Yuan Qi followed him, and on both sides stretched the horrifying vistas of the ghost realm—gloomy and ghastly, turning their blood to ice.
Had they been on their own, they might never have escaped alive.
At last the Nether River came into view. A suspension bridge spanned it, connecting to the far shore.
But the river was empty, leaving only a channel veiled in mist.
The bearded man brought them to this point. "Cross the bridge, and you will be in the world of the living. If an old woman is selling tea at the bridgehead, do not drink it. Just keep walking. If you drink her tea, you can never return to the mortal world. Remember this—remember it well!"
Xu Ying bowed. "Thank you, Senior. Do you have any unfinished wishes? If I make it out alive, I will find a way to repay you."
The bearded man hesitated. "I came here to extend my life, but now I am trapped—neither alive nor dead. Though I can see my homeland, my family does not know whether I live or die."
He produced the sword chest. "Take this with you. If you encounter my family, the chest will fly from your back and return to them. Consider it a token of remembrance."
Xu Ying agreed and strapped the chest to his back. Leather straps at top and bottom buckled across his chest, and the chest did not hinder his movements.
He took his leave of the bearded man and headed for the suspension bridge with Yuan Qi.
The bearded man watched them go, murmuring, "This boy has deep fortune—may he reach the living world. Above all, do not drink the old woman’s tea!"
Xu Ying and Yuan Qi stepped onto the bridge and walked forward, uneventful, encountering no tea-selling crone.
Their guard began to lower, and they chatted and laughed as they went. But as they neared the bridge’s end, they found a crowd gathered, blocking the way.
They took their place at the back of the line and watched the queue inch forward.
At last they saw the people filing up to a tea stall. The seller was an old woman—white-haired, hunched, her face a map of deep creases—pouring tea from a pot into bowl after bowl.
Yet the tea in the pot never diminished.
When Xu Ying reached the front, his mind had grown foggy, and the bearded man’s warning was forgotten. All he felt was a desperate thirst; the sole purpose of his wait was to drink a bowl of the old woman’s tea and quench it.
At last the queue brought Xu Ying to the stall.
On the far end of the bridge, the bearded man watched Xu Ying raise the tea bowl and sighed softly. "His fortune, in the end, is a little thin. His parents were mighty, but they could not protect him after all…"
Just as Xu Ying was about to drink, the old woman looked him up and down. Her expression shifted. She snatched the bowl from his hand and sneered, "Wretched boy! You have drunk this old woman’s tea more times than you can count, in more lives than you can remember, and still you try to trick me into giving you more? Out!"
Xu Ying’s mind cleared instantly. Cold sweat beaded his forehead. He seized Yuan Qi’s tail before the serpent could drink and dragged her off the bridge.
On the far side, the bearded man stood frozen, mouth agape.
After a long moment, he found his voice: "Meng Po’s tea erases all memory and returns one to primordial ignorance. The old woman said he had drunk her tea countless times—does that mean his past memories have been wiped countless times, or that he has lived countless lives?"
By then Xu Ying had left the Home-Viewing Terrace and vanished from sight, and the bearded man could not pursue him to learn what had truly happened.
Xu Ying pulled the snake demon Yuan Qi off the bridge. She too regained her senses, shaken to the core.
She looked back and saw the bridge trembling like a ripple in mist, then dissolving into nothing.
This visit to the Home-Viewing Terrace had been like a dream. Besides the lingering melancholy, Xu Ying was left with unanswered questions: "Why did the faces of my parents in the Terrace differ from the ones in my memory?"
Though the underworld mountains still flanked the Nether River on both banks, the sky was brightening, and the mist no longer hung in the air. Xu Ying carried the sword chest on his back and felt a faint sword essence coiling within it, flickering before his eyes now and then—like two blades clashing in midair.
He asked Yuan Qi about it, but she sensed nothing.
"I have read that in the era of the Sagely Emperor, civil and martial, down to the period of the Great Sagely Enlightened Emperor, the martial arts flourished, and among the Nuo officials it was fashionable to nourish swords with qi. Yuan Tiangang was a Great Nuo Shaman who nourished his sword with qi and became a legend in his own time."
Yuan Qi guessed, "The sword chest still contains his sword essence. Carry it, and the essence will influence you—that is why you see sword-shadows."
Xu Ying’s interest was piqued. "Then could I learn his sword technique from the sword essence?"
Yuan Qi burst out laughing. "A-Ying, what nonsense! Even if someone handed you a scripture, you might never master it—let alone extract a technique from mere sword essence!"
It was the truth. Countless aspirants longed to cultivate but found no method; even those who found one might never succeed. Even decades of study could lead one astray.
The Ox family was proof: three generations had cultivated the Elephant-Force Ox-Demon Fist without ever mastering the fourth tier.
Only after Yuan Qi received Xu Ying’s guidance had she quickly reached the fifth tier, and she was now approaching the sixth.
From this one could judge the difficulty of learning a sword technique from sword essence alone!
Xu Ying, undeterred, continued to study on his own. The boy picked up a straight willow branch and, as he walked, began to practice the sword forms he sensed in the flickering sword-light.
Gradually, his blood and qi flowed into the willow branch. Without his realizing it, his circulation began to follow a peculiar pattern—arriving at the branch and transforming into a keen sword-essence, sharp and piercing!
He thrust the willow, reversed into a cloud-cut, flicked his wrist into an upward slash, hacked, carved, chopped, and dotted—and the hissing of sword-essence grew ever sharper and louder.
Swordsmanship was composed of many simple moves, broadly grouped into thrust, flick, cloud, chop, hack, dot, snap, hang, pull, sweep, parry, intercept, flourish, coil, and roam. Xu Ying had never learned the sword, but through his perception of sword essence, he had mastered these fundamentals unaided!
He practiced with mounting excitement, his blood and qi circulating more fluidly, and the willow branch sprouted a razor-sharp blade of sword-light that grew and shrank with his circulation!
This sword-light, condensed from sword essence, radiated a cold gleam and was sharper than any fine blade—unstoppable by anything.
Yuan Qi jumped. "Has he really extracted a sword technique from the sword chest?"
Suddenly Xu Ying leaped into the air, the great bell in one hand, the willow branch sweeping before him. Sword essence hissed and poured forth in torrents.
Yuan Qi scrambled aside. Dozens of holes appeared in the ground—even stone had been pierced clean through!
"This fellow can still fight like this while carrying a bell!" Yuan Qi stared with envy.
Xu Ying landed, delighted. He poked the willow branch here and there, wishing he had something to stab.
Yuan Qi hurriedly kept her distance.
Xu Ying asked, "Little Seven, I have seen deities wield swords—flying swords that leave the hand and reach dozens of paces, controlled as freely as one’s own arm. How do they control them?"
Yuan Qi corrected him. "Deity swordsmanship can take a head from a thousand li away, not merely dozens of paces. Their flying swords are conjured from incense qi—weightless. And the flying sword is their divine power. To control one’s own power is natural, is it not?"
Xu Ying stood frozen, then cried out in joy: "You are right! Little Seven, you are too clever! How could I not have thought of that?"
Yuan Qi blinked. "Wait—which sentence was correct? I’m not quite sure I follow…"