Old Master, Times Have Changed - Chapter 724 (Patreon)

Chapter 724: The Extremity Sword

Doesn’t count?

Ming just smiled and didn’t say anything more, instead bringing up something else.

“I heard that brat Chen Yuanlin was lucky enough to receive guidance from you, Sword Ancestor?”

In the end, Chen Yuanlin had still been chosen as the Ascension Envoy for the Alliance of Righteousness’s first ascension mission.

This time, he had returned to the Central Continent precisely because of the “Ascension Plan.” With the candidate confirmed, of course he had to go and learn the details.

And it was during that process that he heard from Yuan about what had happened at the martial performance grand ceremony.

Picking an opponent and picking the Sword Ancestor…

Should he say the kid didn’t know the meaning of death?

Or should he say the kid had good taste?

After all, there were far, far too few cultivators in this world who could receive the Sword Ancestor’s guidance.

“It just happened to be a chance encounter,” Xu Xing explained casually. “How is he now?”

“Having received the Sword Ancestor’s guidance, naturally he had a ‘great awakening,’” Ming said with a smile. “After shoring up his foundation, he’s already one of the most outstanding among the alliance’s younger generation.”

And in terms of temperament, he seemed to have changed somewhat compared to before.

Ming had personally gone to see him, and the kid’s performance had genuinely surprised him.

Without exaggeration, the current Chen Yuanlin was probably the most clear-headed and most at ease among the alliance’s young cultivators.

If Ming didn’t still need to guard the Starfront Battlefield, and if he hadn’t already taken a final disciple many years ago, he might truly have felt the urge to take Chen Yuanlin as a disciple.

“If he can keep moving forward with this mindset, then in the future, even Sword Sovereign’s peerlessly talented eldest disciple might feel some pressure.”

“That’s good.”

Rushing a little at one time wasn’t a big deal. He was still young.

The cultivation road was long. There would always be time to make up for it.

If there was a next chance to meet, Xu Xing could even give him a small gift.

As for whether Chen Yuanlin, after steadying his heart and rebuilding his foundation, would make Chi Jiuyu feel pressure…

That one worked herself to death on the regular just to keep the title of “number one genius of the myriad heavens and worlds” forever.

It was just that she was cheerful every day, so outsiders thought she was sloppy and unserious.

For her, the greatest pressure actually came from herself.

At most, add one more—Yuan.

“Still, if you ever run into Jiuyu, it’s better not to say those things,” Xu Xing added.

“Hm?”

You can’t even say that?

“If you tell her she’s ‘peerlessly talented,’ she’ll get carried away. She’s already mischievous enough.”

Recently she’d gotten that third-class Rededge Medal, and she was already inflated enough as it was.

Ming: “…”

So that’s what he meant.

But then again…

Sword Sovereign was famously cold and distant, not fond of outsiders. How could her disciple possibly be associated with the word “mischievous”?

It wasn’t strange that Ming didn’t know.

First, he had been stationed long-term at the Starfront Battlefield and rarely returned to the Central Continent.

Second, twenty-odd years was far too short for a Soul Transformation realm Dao Lord.

The first time Chi Jiuyu became truly known to the world was when she won the Nascent Soul division championship at the grand competition of the immortal sects with absolute, crushing dominance.

Before that, she had some reputation, but it was just… that.

…

…

By noon, time had come.

Sheng Ji Cave-Heaven—a cave-heaven that did not exist in the present world, standing apart from a level ordinary cultivators could not touch.

It was also the residence of the Sheng Ji Swordmaster, Cheng Ding, within the Sword Sect.

Within it, mountains and rivers were exquisite. You could see drifting mists winding among the peaks, flowing rainbows passing through, and even boundless waves stretching for tens of thousands of acres.

From a high vantage, the vast blue sea and all its myriad forms could be taken in at a glance.

Compared to Jing Hai’s simple cave-heaven, Cheng Ding’s cave-heaven was no different from a real world.

At the center of the cave-heaven stood a magnificent palace, the whole structure a blue-white hue.

In front of the palace was a vast martial field. Black-and-red banners snapped in the wind on all sides, carrying a stern, killing air.

“Little Zhao, my improved ‘Sword of Annihilation’ is aw— I mean, it’s amazing, right!”

At the very center of the martial field, Chi Jiuyu grinned as she looked at Zhao Ruohan across from her.

Zhao Ruohan pressed her lips together, unwilling to accept it.

But given what had just happened, she couldn’t very well say “no.”

“It’s amazing.”

Just now, the two of them had fought again.

More accurately, after Chi Jiuyu issued a challenge, Zhao Ruohan had come all the way from the Supreme Dao Sect to the Sword Sect to spar with her.

Zhao Ruohan believed she had improved quite a bit lately.

After planting the spiritual plant seed given by Sword Ancestor senior using her innate divine technique, the Supreme Celestial Radiance of the Evergreen Source, not only had she gained new insights into her innate divine technique, she had also tempered her own mana using the spiritual essence released when the plant sprouted.

Even her father had said her progress during this period was not small.

So she had been very confident about Chi Jiuyu’s invitation to fight.

The result…

Three swords!

Chi Jiuyu defeated her with only three swords!

One move: Four Symbols Annihilation Sword Wheel. One move: Lingyun Dao Sword. One move: Sword of Annihilation.

She had improved, but Chi Jiuyu’s improvement was even greater than hers!

Especially the improved Sword of Annihilation—its power was said to be inferior to before, but Chi Jiuyu could control it perfectly.

If the former Sword of Annihilation had been worth ten parts of power, but Chi Jiuyu could only make five parts take effect—

Then the current Sword of Annihilation was worth seven parts of power, and she could make all seven parts take effect!

“Hehe! Honestly, it’s thanks to the injuries we took this time, and the medicine Little Ye gave me. Otherwise I couldn’t have finished improving the Sword of Annihilation this fast.”

Of course, her own supreme talent and supreme wisdom had also played a huge role!

Chi Jiuyu acted “humble” on the surface, but inside she was extremely pleased with herself.

“Injuries…” Zhao Ruohan murmured softly, thoughtful.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Seeing the situation turn dangerous, Chi Jiuyu hurriedly spoke up. “I got inspired because the power nature of the new biological weapons is similar to the Sword of Annihilation. Don’t go doing something stupid!”

Little Zhao was good in every way, except she could be a bit stubborn.

Chi Jiuyu was genuinely afraid Little Zhao would run off to the stars and go looking for new biological weapons to get herself killed.

“Don’t worry. I’m not as suicidal as you think,” Zhao Ruohan said with a slight shake of her head.

“I haven’t even said anything yet and you already said it yourself.”

Chi Jiuyu sidled up, threw an arm around her, and teased her with exaggerated eyebrows.

“…”

Zhao Ruohan didn’t speak.

She’d worked hard cultivating for so long, thinking she’d finally caught up, only to find the gap still existed.

She really was a little shut down.

“Ah, don’t be discouraged. The Sword of Annihilation is my trump card. You might not be as good as me, but you’re still better than everyone else,” Chi Jiuyu said, face serious.

“I’m the number one genius of the myriad heavens and worlds. Losing to me isn’t embarrassing!”

“Like Dog Brother—I don’t think he’s as good as you.”

She even gave an example.

“…”

That was not comforting at all.

Zhao Ruohan felt she wasn’t comforted in the slightest, but the gloom in her heart did ease up quite a bit.

“You haven’t even fought him recently.”

“Oh?!” Chi Jiuyu looked surprised. “I thought you’d say Dog Brother isn’t important like you used to.”

Zhao Ruohan looked at her with a blank face.

Chi Jiuyu avoided her gaze.

“Ahem! How about this—I’ll treat you to a meal!”

No choice, no choice. Who told her she was too outstanding and made Little Zhao feel pressure?

Little Zhao usually treated her very well.

She had even gotten her some internal products from the Supreme Dao Sect before.

“I’m telling you, my martial uncle brought me another box of Xuan Candle Fruit. The really huge kind. I’ll split one with you later!”

Zhao Ruohan had been about to refuse, but hearing that, she still nodded.

“Alright.”

She had bought a few Xuan Candle Fruit through certain channels before, but their quality couldn’t compare to Chi Jiuyu’s.

Usually it took two or three of hers to match one of Chi Jiuyu’s in size.

Seeing her agree, Chi Jiuyu grinned, then turned and shouted into the palace:

“Senior Brother! We’re heading out!”

It wasn’t that she didn’t get her martial uncle’s red envelope last time. She just didn’t want to go to Sword Sovereign Hall for now—that place broke Jiuyu’s heart.

She’d gone to Sword Ancestor Hall and didn’t find her martial uncle either, so she came here to ask Senior Brother Cheng Ding for help.

“Mm.”

A flat response drifted down over the martial field.

…

…

Behind Sheng Ji Hall.

Bamboo shadows swayed, and the lake water was jade-green.

A delicate pavilion sat beside the bamboo grove. Inside, two figures sat on opposite sides of a stone table.

One looked like a young man. The other had the steady appearance of a middle-aged man.

Hong Sheng, and Cheng Ding, who had recovered quite a bit.

Hong Sheng’s expression was complicated.

Even though little Ruohan admired Chi Jiuyu greatly, Hong Sheng had always been somewhat dismissive.

A genius?

In this world, who could be more of a genius than Yuan?

Not until today’s match.

To learn the Sword of Annihilation in her twenties, improve it, and also create the high-potential Four Symbols Annihilation Sword Wheel and Lingyun Dao Sword…

If that didn’t count as genius, then there were no geniuses in the world.

“Well? My junior sister Jiuyu’s performance—does it at least pass?” Cheng Ding looked at him.

“Pass…” Hong Sheng gave a bitter smile. “It’s far more than passing.”

Back then, it wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about becoming a sword cultivator.

When he was young and arrogant, he admired that carefree image—white robes fluttering, riding the wind on a flying sword.

After endless pestering, his father finally agreed to arrange for him to challenge the supreme inheritance trial of the Tai Void Sword Codex at the Sword Sect.

Unsurprisingly, that trial ended in failure.

Unwilling to accept it, he tried once more—this time the supreme inheritance trial of the Sword Codex of Annihilation.

Not only did he fail, he was also unbelievably unlucky for more than a month after…

Later, when he reached Void Return, he still couldn’t let it go, so he went to his father again.

His father passed him a supreme sword art of the Tai Void Sword Codex—one that wasn’t within the supreme inheritance and carried a certain danger.

Among them were the four swords: Annihilation, Severance, Extinction, and Interception.

Adding it all up, he spent twenty years comprehending them, yet only managed to learn the first sword—the Sword of Annihilation—into some half-baked imitation.

Not to mention improving it like Chi Jiuyu did.

“Little Ruohan and little Ruoming are both stronger than I was back then. And this junior sister Jiuyu is beyond even that.”

Even if you placed them in Yuan’s most dazzling era, they would still have shone with their own brilliance.

“Junior brother, you needn’t belittle yourself. Back then, you were stronger than I was, too,” Cheng Ding said.

“Different conditions. There’s nothing to compare,” Hong Sheng said, shaking his head slightly.

With his success in reaching Integration, he now knew many things he “shouldn’t have known” before.

So he understood clearly: in Senior Brother Cheng Ding’s era, cultivation theory wasn’t even properly established. Everyone crowded into the few existing cultivation methods, with no room for choice at all.

“It’s different now, too,” Cheng Ding said with a smile.

“Back then, would you have dared imagine that a twenty-two-year-old Soul Transformation cultivator could exist?”

“The era keeps moving forward. And hasn’t ‘humanity’ been moving forward right along with it?”

Just as their master had said—throughout history, there had never been an era better than the present.

“…”

Hong Sheng fell silent for a moment, recalling what he had seen after leaving seclusion. He smiled as well.

“True.”

If, right after leaving seclusion, he had still been a bit unwilling to accept Yuan, then after learning what Yuan had done over the years, he had completely accepted it.

Not long after leaving seclusion, he joined a high-level cultivator exchange forum through his father.

Some people in it claimed Yuan could do all of it only because he had borrowed the Sword Ancestor senior’s momentum.

They said that if not for the Sword Ancestor senior’s “Tai Xuan Blood Calamity,” Yuan could never have changed the entire Tai Xuan Realm.

Even worse, some claimed Yuan had guessed the Sword Ancestor wouldn’t care about his “borrowing momentum,” so he dared to do it so brazenly.

Utter nonsense!

You guessed it?

If you guessed it, why didn’t you go do it?

He, who had regarded Yuan as his lifelong rival, argued with them for a full day and night, until he finally forced that idiot to delete his account.

“The Yuan of this era is an extraordinary person,” Hong Sheng said sincerely.

That Yuan borrowed the Sword Ancestor senior’s momentum—true.

That without the foundation laid by the Sword Ancestor senior’s Tai Xuan Blood Calamity, it would have been hard for Yuan to change the entire Tai Xuan Realm—also true.

But you couldn’t use the word “all.”

The Sword Ancestor senior had tried so many things back then and failed. Everyone knew he wanted to change this world.

Yet after all these years, only one person had stood up—only Yuan dared to stand up—and he truly changed the world.

“…”

Cheng Ding looked at him strangely.

Hadn’t he clashed with Yuan over Ning Wanzhu junior sister just a thousand-plus years ago?

Cheng Ding remembered it clearly, mainly because one of Hong Sheng and Yuan’s matches had been near a city under the Sword Sect’s jurisdiction.

Later, after Yuan reached Integration, he even crushed Hong Sheng into severe injury with a single finger.

And now this man—famous for being “arrogant”—didn’t mind at all…

Did reaching Integration really change one’s mindset that much?

“It seems your view of Yuan has improved a lot,” Cheng Ding said.

“It’s just the facts. In cultivation, in deeds, in temperament, I’m not his equal,” Hong Sheng said calmly.

“…”

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Cheng Ding would have found it hard to believe that the Hong Sheng who calmly admitted he was inferior to Yuan was the same lunatic who had once been so wildly arrogant.

Suddenly, Hong Sheng seemed to think of something.

“By the way, with junior sister Jiuyu having such high sword-dao talent, did Sword Sovereign senior or Sword Ancestor senior never think of having her learn that sword?”

That sword…

Cheng Ding paused. A trace of complexity flashed through his eyes.

“Master and Martial Uncle have their own arrangements. Junior sister Jiuyu also has her own road to walk.”

That sword was hailed as the “pinnacle of talent”—

The Extremity Sword.

Most sword arts were not recorded in the Hall of Inheritance because of the danger involved after cultivation.

But the Extremity Sword was different.

It wasn’t included in the Hall of Inheritance purely because the difficulty was too high.

Back before it was removed from the Hall of Inheritance, many sword cultivators became obsessed after seeing the Extremity Sword, and from then on could not advance another step.

Because that was the ultimate sword Third Senior Brother created after achieving the Soul Transformation realm—gathering the lifetime of his sword-dao insights into a single stroke!

Back then, that life-burning, all-or-nothing sword had, with a Soul Transformation body, held back the severely injured Tai for a single instant!

Next Chapter >