Jiang Ye - Chapter 11

Perhaps the grey and dull handleless sword small sword heard the cry of the giant man and understood it fell into a trap. It started to vibrate violently in midair. The vibration caused a sharp and forceful sound wave to occur. It almost sounded like a screaming bird wanting to escape its cage.

The elder’s two hands were still on his knees and he glanced gently at the handleless  small sword an inch away from his eyebrows. However that gentleness contained enormous power and tightly held the escaping sword in place.

Wherever the elder’s sight landed, the temperature there dropped rapidly. In a few moments there was a layer of frost on the body of the handleless sword. It started to shake and vibrate even harder, but there was no result from its effort.

After a long time of useless struggle, the handleless sword finally fell onto the ground on top of fallen leaves, almost like it lost its precious life force.

The moment when the handleless sword dropped onto the ground, somewhere in the dense forest of North Mountain, not far from the carriage formation, a painful moan was heard.

Finally a trace of relaxation appeared in the calm pupils of the elder. Two hands supported by the knee, his entire fragile body lift off like wind and landed in front of that giant man.

The man shouted and struck the elder with his fan-like hands. The momentum was not to be ignored. The force was similar to that of a mountain landing on top of the thin body of the elder.

Just when it looked like the elder was going to be crushed to pieces by the two giant hands, the elder looked at the incoming palms expressionless.  His dried lips opened slightly and a soundless tone came out. His hands, which were full of dust, crossed each other in front of his body and made a sign.

Following the soundless tone and hand sign, the dirty old robe on elder’s body suddenly became rock and persistent. Every wrinkle of the rag disappeared. From the looks of it, the elder was not wearing the robe, but rather the robe supporting his fragile body.

The giant palms stopped. It kept on trembling in the air on top of the elder’s head, but the giant man could not land the hit. The movement of other body parts of the giant man also slowed down. His neck started to shake and his body cried out blood. It was clear that the giant man was in unimaginable pain.

The elder’s face was sickly white. He was struggling as well. He raised his right arm with all his might and pushed onto the giant man’s chest slowly.

The giant man saw the elder’ hands approaching inch by inch, but he could do nothing to stop the action. It seemed like he was forced to by a magical force that restricted his movements.

The elder’s hand landed on the giant man’s chest quietly.

Strong wind suddenly shot forth from the hands of the elder and went straight through the chest of the giant man. With a cracking sound, the rock hard chest was fractured and damaged. The entire surface of the chest sank and caved inward.

Using the opposite force of the speeding wind, elder backed off quickly. The wind of forest blew onto the robe and lifted slightly. The elder retreated back into the carriage and sat down cross-legged once more.

The attack only lasted for a few moments but the elder’s intrusion and retreat was quick and traceless. His hands were on his knees and his robe turned shabby again, almost seemed like he had not moved from his original state from the beginning.

The giant man in the depth of dense forest of North Mountain finally regained control over his body. The palms that had not landed on the elder finally moved and crushed the earth, creating a large hole on the mud and fallen leaves. Yet it was all too late, he looked at his bloody chest. cried out a regretful cry and finally crashed into the ground like a mountain.

The elder who sat crosslegged in the carriage glanced at the location. He bent his body forward and started coughing repeatedly. Some red dots could be seen on his robe after the coughing had ended.

The guards used the knife formation and fought with the handleless sword bravely to create some time for the elder. The elder used this precious time to calculate and capture the hidden spot of the enemy Great Sword Master and used the handleless sword as a bridge to activate his psychic power and damaged the opponent. In doing so, the elder was also weakened due to overuse of his abilities.

When he flew to the opening in the North Mountain and killed the giant man with his hands, the action was extremely risky. Although the attack seemed simple and easy, the risk it carried was also great. His psychic power stored in his Mountain of Qi was drained and he became exhausted.

At least the ending was certain.

The fight at the entry to the way of North Mountain was already over. The barbarians from Great Plain demonstrated their loyalty, courage, and battle skill in the fight. The slightly curved knives slayed all of the opponent assassins, although they pay an extremely big cost. The fortunate survivors seemed to have bathed in blood and  to have no energy left to stand.

The number who survived and were able to stand were even fewer.

The elder gave a complicated look at a tree not much far away.

Night arrived, the entrance to the way of North Mountain was silent. This tree’s barks fell off piece by piece. Like a man ageing in a short time, unfortunatly flecks appeared, and a body showed sign of collapse and decay.

A middle aged scholar wearing green long gown slowly walked out from the back of the tree. He carried an empty circular sheath on his back. He was good looking, even though his age was a bit old, but if he was on the Gaily-painted Pleasure-boat in Chang An, he could be depicted as “handsome.”

However his face now could not be called “handsome” at all. Countless tiny blood drops penetrated out from the pores on his face and hands. Painted him into a scary looking blood man. His green long gown was also permeated by blood. It could be inferred that the body covered by the long gown was also bloody, just like his face and hands.

The mid-aged scholar lifted his sleeve to wipe off the blood and sweat on his eyebrow.  He looked at the elder standing by the wagon and looked at the empty sheath. He lowered his voice and sighed, “One miscalculation and the whole plan was ruined. Named guest of South Gate of Great Sky Way, Lu Qing Chen, actually….discarded swordsmanship but Xiu Xing Psychism. If this news was spreaded out, can’t imagine how many people would feel surprised.”

Remained silent for a moment, he then sighed, “The most surprising thing was that, you are already very old, yet you successfully went into the Seethrough stage*, was there any mysterious techniques in the Great Sky Way?”

The elder, called Lu Qing Chen, answered mildly, “I followed Princess to the north for a year. On the Great Plain, I saw different landscape, different culture, my insight was stimulated, therefore I went up a stage. There was actually nothing to do with the Xiu Xing method of Great Sky Way.”

Hearing this unexpected explanation, the mid-aged scholar was dumbfounded for a while and seemed to have gained a realization. After remaining silent for a really long time, he looked at the head of the guards, who was half-kneeled on the fallen leaves, and said with an extremely serious tone,

“Since I became a Great Sword Master, I had thought that secular power could no longer stop me, but today you and your subordinates gave me a good lecture.”

The mid-aged Scholar made an obeisance by cupping one hand in the other before his chest to the heavily wounded guards. “You brave and fearless soldiers are Tang’s pride.”

The head of guards slightly nodded his head but did not say a single word.

“There are not many Great Sword Masters in Chang An, yet I don’t know you.” The old man Lu Qing Chen looked at the bloody mid-aged scholar “The Academy is really a great place of talents.”

Hearing the word “Academy,” the survivors on the way of North Mountain, couldn’t help but exhibit confusions and surprises. Was this murder actually related to the respectable and holy Academy?

Ning Que involuntarily looked toward the maid, seeing that her face showed some complex expression, but obviously it was not trust.

The mid-aged scholar was surprised again, shaking his head and said sadly, “I didn’t know that you could tell my origin. However, I am not daring to bring shame to the Academy……I am only a dumb student expelled from the Academy.”

His body was covered entirely by blood and was shaking, seemed to fall at any moment. Yet facing only one such enemy, the barbarians and guards who survived all felt very tense, treating him as the hardest obstacle ever.

Ning Que also felt very nervous, but he felt more excited and restrained.

He lived in Wei City for many years. He studied Extreme Sense for many years and imagined about these elites based on the legends he heard for many years. Yet today at the entry to the way of North Mountain was his first time in his life seeing a real fight between the elites.

He heard that the Tang’s generals each had his own powerful methods, yet the frontier was peaceful for many years. He, a small unknown soldier at the frontier, had no chance to see such fight on the battlefield.

Handleless sword flying between the fallen leaves in air, giant people pulling out mountain and throwing rocks to destroy carriage, Psychic Power moving freely as eyes closed,  and damaging people through space. These extremely inconceivable and mysterious things happened one by one in a really short amount of time, causing to shake with excitement.

When academy, expel, dumb student entered his ear, he felt calm but at the same time his blood froze.

A dumb student expelled from Academy, by using only a dark handleless sword, could kill almost ten Tang’s strongest guards. Then a real student from Academy, would possess how much unimaginable power?

“He was probably Xia Hou’s subordinate.” The maid said coldly..

Hearing the words “Xia Hou,” Ning Que’s body became a little stiff. After several seconds it calmed down, but his look toward the people turned from previously applause into cold calculation and evaluation.

“You practice Hao Ran sword art, so it’s not that hard to guess that you are from the Academy.”

Lu Qing Chen said, “But unfortunately, you did not learn much from the 2nd Floor before you got expelled from the Academy. The startup of your sword had some thunder and wind force, but you forced the force to become strange and secretive.”

“Hao Ran Qi was emphasized on candid, straight and nonstop, but you went into a wrong direction. This mistake is so major that even if you encountered me twenty years ago, when I was still young, even if I did not get to the Seethrough stage, you would of still lost to me.”

The mid-aged scholar looked down and smiled. The smile appearing on his bloody face made him look very dismal.

As a Great Sword Master who already entered Seethrough, this mid-aged scholar accepted someone’s invite and came to assassinate the princess. After he knew the elder’s strength, he thought that it would be a simple thing.

However, the people who gave him intelligence did not know that the old man already got into Seethrough on the Great Plain. More surprisingly, this man from South Gate of the Great Sky Way chose to discard sword and  become a Psychic Master instead.

Even so, he still had some chances to winning. Yet this Great Sword Master did not know that, these Tang’s guards would cause so much trouble for him, allowing Lu Qing Chen to see his position.

Letting the opponent, especially a Psychic Master, within the same stage, to find out about his position was a really dangerous thing. Lu Qing Chen first controlled his sword shadow, then used the handleless sword as a bridge conducting Psychic Power to hurt him. Facing the Psychic Master who was fastest at attacking, he had no way to react, letting the opponent Psychic Power assaulting both his Sea of Soul and Mountain of Qi, and fragmenting all of his inner organs.

Today he was destined to die at the entry to the way of North Mountain. He did not care about the old man’s evaluations at all. However, even if he had to die, he still had to finish something.

* Seethrough Stage- Stage or tier of xiu xing its the fourth stage above the preliminary stage

** Sea of Soul- The area where the soul force (which is different type of force from the Qi) is kept

*** Mountain of Qi- The area in the body where the qi is kept.

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