Chapter 44: Successor of the Sword God

Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Successor of the Sword God

The old man in the cotton-padded jacket had drunk a little wine and was feeling tipsy. He gazed toward a specific spot on Dao Yi Mountain outside the courtyard, Sword Qi flashing in his eyes.

"Old man, what are you saying? How could your master’s sword be on Dao Yi Mountain?"

Lin Qingqing was utterly astonished and quickly asked,

"Are you saying your main reason for coming to Dao Yi Mountain is to take a sword from it? What on earth is going on?"

Listening from the side, the young master of the Lin Family had a face full of fear and apprehension.

’This old man actually has a grudge against Dao Yi Mountain?’

’He used escorting us as a pretext to come to Dao Yi Mountain and start a fight.’

’If a fight breaks out, what are we going to do?’

The old man in the cotton-padded jacket, however, seemed to see through the thoughts of the Lin Family’s eldest son. He sneered, "Boy of the Lin Family, don’t get any funny ideas. I am completely sincere about taking your sister as my disciple and teaching her everything I know. I was also completely sincere about escorting her to Dao Yi Mountain. If she had a change of heart along the way, that would have been for the best. Since she hasn’t, there’s nothing I can do about her."

As he spoke, he looked at Dao Yi Mountain. "But as for coming to Dao Yi Mountain this time to retrieve my lineage’s Great River Sword—I am ten million times more sincere about that."

Lin Qingqing was growing impatient. "Old man, stop being so mysterious! What is going on? What’s the history between you and Dao Yi Mountain?"

Although she didn’t want to learn the sword from Wuu Liusheng, she had grown fond of the old man in the cotton-padded jacket.

On one hand was the old man who had lived in her home for over a year and had just personally escorted her for twelve hundred li; on the other was the sect she was about to join as a disciple.

She didn’t want to see the two sides come into conflict.

"Girl, I know what you’re trying to say."

Wuu Liusheng raised his wine gourd and chuckled sardonically. "The feud between me and Dao Yi Mountain is not something that can be resolved with a few words. That sword has been hanging there for twenty years. Now that I’m here, if I leave without doing anything, how could I ever face the Sword Path I’ve inherited?"

Then, the old man in the cotton-padded jacket explained the origin of the sword on Dao Yi Mountain.

The sword Wuu Liusheng carried was called Manhood, one of the Six Swords in the Box belonging to the peerless Sword God, Chu Yankai, from fifty years ago.

Fifty years ago, Chu Yankai used his Six Swords in the Box to kill countless people, fighting his way to become the second-strongest person in the world.

This Chu Sword God was the most promising person in nearly two hundred years to achieve the rank of number one in the world through his swordsmanship. Unfortunately, his sword was always one step short, and he spent his entire life as the world’s number two.

Fifty years passed.

People only knew that the six swords of Chu Yankai, the "World’s Number One Sword" and "World’s Second-Strongest Master" of his time, were each supreme weapons. Anyone who obtained one could increase the power of their swordsmanship several times over.

What they didn’t know, however, was that this Chu Sword God of old also had a successor.

"You’re the successor of the Chu Sword God?"

After hearing this, Lin Qingqing thought for a moment and immediately said,

"No, that’s not right. Fifty years ago, when the Chu Sword God became famous, he was already in his sixties or seventies. The late Sect Leader of Dao Yi Mountain became unrivaled twenty years ago. They were a generation apart. By the time Chen Canxuan dominated the world, that Chu Sword God had long since vanished from the Jianghu."

Wuu Liusheng said, "You’re a clever one. That’s right. Chu Yankai was my grandmaster. Back then, the old man defeated every swordsman in the world with his Six Swords in the Box. His life was filled with too much killing; his sharp edge wounded others and himself. He passed away in his sixties, so it would have been impossible for him to fight Chen Canxuan."

Lin Qingqing asked, "Then who left that sword in the Spirit Official Hall on Dao Yi Mountain?"

Wuu Liusheng replied, "It was Chu Yankai’s disciple, my master, Wen Taibai. He and Chen Canxuan were of the same generation. Both of them reached the First-Grade Great Innate Realm at the age of thirty, and their fame shook the world..."

"It’s just that after the age of thirty, Chen Canxuan’s fame and power grew greater and greater. For the next twenty years, no one in the world was more famous or had stronger Martial Arts than him. He became the undisputed number one in the world."

"My master, however, later faded into obscurity."

"You can probably guess what happened. In the Jianghu of that era, both men were immensely famous and around thirty years old. It was inevitable that people would compare them. This was especially true for Wen Taibai, who had inherited the legacy of the era’s greatest swordsman. He also believed he was superior to Chen Canxuan."

"On the third day of the sixth month, twenty years ago, Wen Taibai went to Dao Yi Mountain on his own initiative and waited for Chen Canxuan to come down at the first palace on the path up the mountain."

A common saying goes: Before you ascend the sacred mount, you first must bow to Wang Spirit Official.

After entering the mountain gate, the first deity to be worshipped is Wang Spirit Official. Therefore, the first palace upon entering a Daoist mountain is the Spirit Official Hall.

A look of fascination appeared on Lin Qingqing’s face. "They were both masters who became famous throughout the world by the age of thirty. The battle between them must have been incredible, right?"

Although she now knew that the Great River Sword had been hanging on Dao Yi Mountain for twenty years, which meant the old man’s master had surely lost, she still wanted to know how the great battle unfolded.

One was the disciple of the former world’s number two, the other was the future world’s number one.

At that time, both men were in their thirties.

It must have been a spectacular battle, one that captured the imagination.

Wuu Liusheng stroked the wine gourd in his hand and said with a reminiscent look,

"My master told me that in front of the Spirit Official Hall, he used his grandmaster’s six famous sword forms. In the hands of the Sword God grandmaster, when all six forms were unleashed, he could kill anyone except for the world’s number one of that year. Yet, even after my master unleashed all six forms, he couldn’t touch Chen Canxuan. Instead, Chen Canxuan knocked the Great River Sword from his hand with a single blast of qi, sending it flying until it lodged diagonally in one of the mahogany beams of the Spirit Official Hall..."

"Defeated by Chen Canxuan, my master was too ashamed to retrieve the Great River Sword when he descended the mountain. From then on, that sword hanging from the rafters of the Spirit Official Hall on Dao Yi Mountain became his Heart Demon."

"After leaving Dao Yi Mountain, my master spent every single day thinking about how to advance the swordsmanship passed down from his grandmaster, so he could one day ascend Dao Yi Mountain again to fight Chen Canxuan, reclaim his sword, and wash away his humiliation."

"As the years went by, although his swordsmanship did indeed grow stronger, Chen Canxuan’s power was growing many times faster..."

"In the four or five years that followed, whenever news of Chen Canxuan’s duels spread through the Jianghu, my master’s face would grow a shade paler. Just from the descriptions, he knew the gap between himself and Chen Canxuan was only growing wider."

"Eventually, Chen Canxuan suppressed all the masters of his generation to become number one in the world. My master finally fell into despair, knowing he would never be able to retrieve his Great River Sword in this lifetime.

But it was already too late. In the years after he left the mountain, his obsessive, round-the-clock training to advance his swordsmanship had already led him down a demonic path. That final blow of despair caused his body to finally collapse from the accumulated strain, and he never recovered..."

Wuu Liusheng opened his wine gourd, but instead of drinking, he just took a sniff and said,

"I was just an ordinary blacksmith from my master’s hometown, responsible for forging his swords. Later, when he was gravely ill, I took care of him. Before he died, he passed on all of his Swordsmanship and Martial Arts to me. He told me that he could never defeat Chen Canxuan in this life, but if I could help him find a worthy successor for his Sword Path, and if that future disciple could one day defeat Chen Canxuan’s successor, then his sword could be reclaimed honorably."

"He was about the same age as me. He simply felt that since I had taken care of him for a time and had nothing else to give me, he would give me his Martial Arts. He never intended for someone his own age to become his disciple, only entrusting me with finding a successor for him. But since I learned his Martial Arts, how could I not consider him my master?"

"Luckily, I had some talent for the sword. Though I’m not as good as my master, after fifteen years, I also managed to step into the Grandmaster Realm and earned the title of ’Southern Sword Champion’ in the martial arts world of Zhao Country."

"However, I also knew that as long as Chen Canxuan was alive, my master would never get his sword back, and I certainly didn’t have the ability to challenge him. So, I could only focus on my master’s dying wish..."

He looked at Lin Qingqing.

"I was originally looking for a genius of the Sword Path like you, to teach you everything I’ve learned, so that you could defeat Chen Canxuan’s future successor."

Lin Qingqing was stunned.

’To think that behind the old man’s desire to take me as his disciple lay such a heavy ambition and promise.’

’And yet, I was the one unwilling to go along, making it impossible for him to fulfill his promise.’