Chapter 61: The Sword Has Left Its Sheath

Stargazing Platform

Sword Lord Nanming stared in surprise at the arena ahead, at Lu Qingyuan, whose aura was sharp and ferocious, whose sword moves held nothing back, whose killing intent poured wholly into his sword. Compared with before, he was fiercer and far harder to deal with.

He could not help saying, “Did something provoke Lu Qingyuan?”

How had his usual slow, mild sword momentum suddenly changed into something so savage?

Hearing this, Sword Master Longquan, who sat beside him, gave a soft laugh.

He had heard a little about what had happened yesterday at Immortal Guest Inn, but if one were to say that Lu Qingyuan’s sword style and temperament had changed so drastically because of that...

Sword Master Longquan thought it was unlikely. Too unbelievable.

So although Sword Master Longquan thought of that matter, he still held reservations in his heart and did not bring it up.

Instead, he said, “Lu Qingyuan had poor luck. He drew the first match.”

His gaze fixed on the arena ahead, on Lu Qingyuan, whose sword momentum was keen, whose strikes were fierce, and whose handsome, upright face currently held not the slightest expression, making him seem cold and intimidating. Sword Master Longquan continued, “For him to end the fight quickly like this is actually a good way to preserve his stamina, energy, and spiritual power.”

Hearing this, the corner of Sword Lord Nanming’s mouth twitched. Then he turned his head and looked speechlessly at Sword Master Longquan beside him. “Are you serious?”

“With Lu Qingyuan’s usual slow style of always keeping a hand hidden, there’s no need to worry about him lacking stamina or spiritual power at all!”

At this point, even Sword Lord Nanming could not help calling him bizarre.

Among sword cultivators, who had always tended to be straightforward, unleashing their full strength from the start and growing fiercer the longer they fought, Lu Qingyuan’s slow style of always keeping something in reserve was truly bizarre. It was also quite disgusting to face.

There was even a saying in the cultivation world: if Lu Qingyuan was willing, even if he could not beat you, he could still wear you dry.

You would never know where Lu Qingyuan’s bottom line lay.

Hearing this, Sword Master Longquan could not help falling silent.

He had forgotten that part. Perhaps other sword cultivators had to worry about prolonged battles and insufficient stamina and spiritual power, but Lu Qingyuan, who was skilled at dragging out the battle line and delaying time, did not need to worry.

“Mm...”

Sword Master Longquan worked hard to save himself some dignity. After thinking for a long while, he said, “Perhaps it is because he wants to preserve his stamina and spiritual power to compete for the final championship?”

“He does not want to waste too much time, stamina, and spiritual power in the early rounds,” Sword Master Longquan said.

His words were already a tactful, implicit way of pointing out that Lu Qingyuan’s ambition to seize the championship this time was different from before. The Lu Qingyuan of the past had never desperately done his utmost, worked hard, sweated, and bled for the one final victory.

It seemed that every time there was a large, famous Dao gathering, immortal gathering, or tournament in the cultivation world, Lu Qingyuan would participate. Every time, he would rank near the front, yet he had never taken first place.

As time passed, no one regarded Lu Qingyuan as a candidate for victory.

But this time...

From the very beginning, Lu Qingyuan had shattered his fixed image from the past.

Whether it was his strength or his ambition, both were now faintly but clearly revealed.

Hearing this, Sword Lord Nanming’s expression turned thoughtful.

He stared at Lu Qingyuan on the arena ahead, whose sword momentum was fierce and sharp. After a long while, he said, “If that is the case, then it is possible.”

And Lin Yunheng, an outsider to their path who was seated between the two Sword Path great powers, finally could not help saying, “Why doesn’t he take pills?”

“If he’s worried about lacking stamina and spiritual power, one Replenishing Spirit Pill would easily solve it!” Lin Yunheng said.

“...”

Sword Lord Nanming.

“...”

Sword Master Longquan.

They did not want to explain the dignity of sword cultivators to an outsider!

When two sword cultivators discussed the Dao through battle and competed for superiority, how could they pop pills?

Lin Yunheng expressed that when they talisman cultivators fought, they all competed over whose talismans were more numerous, stronger... and more loaded.

Talismans. The rich person’s game cheat, care to understand?

…

And at this moment.

On the arena ahead, Lu Qingyuan forced his opponent back with another sword strike.

“You have lost.”

His voice was calm. His expression was mild and faint, yet without the slightest trace of a smile, as he spoke to the young sword cultivator standing opposite him.

The young sword cultivator before him, defeated by his hand, said with a hint of regret yet in full acceptance, “Yes, I lost.”

After saying this, he raised his head and looked at Lu Qingyuan before him.

Only to see that, at this moment—

Lu Qingyuan, this young man known throughout the cultivation world as the Gentleman Sword, the one crowned with the title Young Master Lu, had sharp brows and eyes. His handsome face was filled with unconcealed edge, and the light in his eyes reflected the gleam of the sword in his hand.

His whole person was just like the sword he held.

A sword unsheathed, its edge exposed, sword qi pressing upon others.

Not a gentleman, but a sword.

This appearance of Lu Qingyuan’s, so different from usual, was far too obvious. It was hard not to notice. The young sword cultivator defeated by his hand could not help asking, “Is this your true appearance?”

Hearing this, Lu Qingyuan raised his eyes and looked at him, then gave a soft laugh.

With this laugh, he did regain a little of his usual mild, humble, gentlemanly appearance. “Who knows?”

“I only know that the person in this world who understands me best is certainly not me,” Lu Qingyuan said. He lifted his eyes, gazing far into the distance. “If such a person exists, I would also like to ask one question: what am I like?”

In this world, was there truly such a person, someone who understood me deeply, who knew me better than anyone else?

Sometimes, after being a person for too long, one no longer knew what kind of person one had originally been.

On Lu Qingyuan’s handsome, upright face, his expression was faint, his gaze clear and bright as a sword. His body was tall and slender, standing on the arena like a solitary pine, one hand holding his sword.

A moment later.

He withdrew his gaze. The corners of his lips once again lifted into an expression, but it did not make anyone feel relaxed in the slightest. Instead, it made him seem even more... terrifying.

Lu Qingyuan looked toward the front of the arena, flicked his wrist, and swung out the sword in his hand. The silver-white, chilling sword tip pointed straight ahead. Smiling, he said, “Then, who is next?”

“...”

At this moment.

There was a silent stillness.

No one answered him.

Too terrifying!

This Lu Qingyuan was too terrifying.

He alone had turned the entire arena into his battlefield, and he was the undefeated king who ruled this battlefield.

Looking at Lu Qingyuan like this.

Everyone, including Sword Lord Nanming, already knew who the winner of this arena would be.

No one could defeat the current Lu Qingyuan.

The current Lu Qingyuan carried the momentum of an undefeated king. His momentum would overwhelm everyone, suppressing his opponents.

It would also restrict and weaken his opponents’ strength.

As for Lu Qingyuan, he would grow braver the more he fought, his aura invincible, undefeated in battle.

And each of his victories would strengthen the momentum around him again. If one could not overpower or break the undefeated momentum on him, one could not defeat him.

Lu Qingyuan had already locked in the victory of this arena battle in advance.

…

Again.

Again.

And again...

Again and again, Lu Qingyuan drove back, defeated, and overcame his opponents.

He stood on the arena ahead, holding his sword in one hand, like a battlefield king who could not be defeated, could not be beaten.

No one was his match.

Beneath the arena, Qin Chuan and Bai Luozhou, who had yet to take the stage, stared at Lu Qingyuan on the arena ahead, whose aura was fierce and sharp.

Their expressions were heavy.

That man...

The sword in his heart had left its sheath.

Compared with the sword in his hand, the sword that man had drawn from its scabbard, the sword hidden in his heart, was even more terrifying!

If it had been Lu Qingyuan before today, whether Qin Chuan or Bai Luozhou, both would merely have treated him cautiously, but they would not have regarded him as a true opponent.

Lu Qingyuan, who kept his sword inside its scabbard, was not terrifying.

But...

Qin Chuan and Bai Luozhou withdrew their gazes from the arena ahead at the same time and looked at each other.

In each other’s eyes, they both saw deep wariness and contemplation.

Who had changed him?

For whom had Lu Qingyuan drawn his sword?

In Qin Chuan and Bai Luozhou’s minds, the incident that happened yesterday at Immortal Guest Inn arose at the same time. Could it be him?

Could it be because of that youth?

That unfamiliar youth had changed him...

But was that possible?

No matter how one thought about it, it felt absurd. Impossible.

How could Lu Qingyuan change himself because of an unfamiliar youth, because of a trivial betting game that was almost like a joke?

If changing a person were truly so simple, then where would the saying “rivers and mountains may be altered, but one’s nature is hard to change” come from?

“Hey!”

Gu Chun, who was sitting in the seats below the arena, looked at Lu Qingyuan fighting with his sword on the arena ahead, his aura fierce and pressing. With a face full of surprise and curiosity, he said to Lin Yuchu beside him, “That Young Master Lu’s sword is really fierce.”

“He fights so hard. What part of him is a young master?”

Hearing this, Lin Yuchu nodded. Looking at Lu Qingyuan ahead, whose expression was cold and stern and whose brows and eyes were sharp, he nodded and said, “Yeah.”

He stared at Lu Qingyuan on the arena for a moment, then commented, “Really fierce!”

For some reason, at this moment, the image that appeared in Lin Yuchu’s mind was of a short-tailed blue cat baring sharp claws, brandishing its teeth and claws, pouncing forward, showing its teeth, super fierce.

He raised his head and stared at the arena ahead. His gaze fell on Lu Qingyuan’s handsome, upright face, then moved a few inches down and fixed on his mouth. “Mm...”

He wanted to pry open his mouth.

To see whether his teeth were just as sharp!

“You really do see people accurately,” Gu Chun said. “With one glance, you saw that person’s essence.”

“Yeah.”

Lin Yuchu nodded in agreement. “How could there be any so-called Gentleman Sword or true gentleman in this world? If he were truly a gentleman, why would he cultivate the Sword Path?”

“A sword is fierce by nature. If it isn’t fierce, can it still be called a sword?” Lin Yuchu said. After thinking about it, he continued, “Those soft of heart, those who pity the world, and those with mild temperaments are not suited to cultivating the sword.”

After listening, Gu Chun, seated beside him, felt this was absolutely true. He nodded in agreement and said, “Back then, the old man only felt moved to take me as his disciple and pass the Sword Path to me because he saw how fierce I was when fighting wild dogs for food.”

Lin Yuchu stared at Lu Qingyuan on the arena ahead, thinking that this man had merely been shackled by the name Young Master Lu, by the Gentleman Sword.

Those shackles had trapped him.

And they had also trapped his sword.

As for Lin Yuchu, he had merely given him an opportunity to draw his sword, or perhaps one could say, an excuse.

Lin Yuchu thought to himself that even without him, in time, that man’s sword would certainly leave its sheath.

As long as it was a sword, there was no such thing as not longing to leave its sheath, not wanting its edge sharpened for battle.

It was as simple as that.

…

Bright Moon Capital, before the spiritual mirror in the center of the city.

The many cultivators gathered here were watching this Sword Path Competition through the spiritual mirror.

Everyone’s gazes were fixed on Lu Qingyuan’s arena.

Everyone was silent.

Looking at Lu Qingyuan in the spiritual mirror, whose sword strikes were swift, whose moves were sharp and fierce, whose whole body was forceful and pressing, making it difficult for others to resist or counterattack...

The same thought surfaced in everyone’s mind at once: Lu Qingyuan might really win!

Looking at Lu Qingyuan like this, no one doubted that he had the strength and courage to compete with Qin Chuan and Bai Luozhou.

After a long while.

“This is seriously uncanny.”

Someone muttered in a low voice, “Could that youth really win?”

“How could it be such a coincidence? He had just bet on Lu Qingyuan taking the championship, and then Lu Qingyuan broke out? Too uncanny!”

Quite a few people present had bought horses and placed bets in the betting game at Immortal Guest Inn. Of course, most of them had bought either Qin Chuan or Bai Luozhou. As for Lu Qingyuan, no one was optimistic about him.

Yesterday in the inn, when Lin Yuchu insisted on buying Lu Qingyuan to take the championship, quite a few people present had even kindly spoken up to advise him against it.

As soon as they heard that person speak in such a way.

Immediately, quite a few others echoed him. “Exactly! It’s way too uncanny!”

“Could that youth predict the future?”

“Maybe. Perhaps he understands divination and calculation of the Dao? Anyway, I don’t believe it was a coincidence! How could there be such a coincidence? Lu Qingyuan didn’t break out earlier or later, but just had to break out now!”

“Makes sense!”

“Makes sense!”

“Makes sense!”

“...”

“...”

And so Lin Yuchu, who had thrown down a huge bet of one hundred thousand spiritual stones on Lu Qingyuan taking the championship, was unanimously judged by everyone, without his knowledge, to be capable of divination and calculation of the Dao.

“Hold on, don’t get ahead of yourselves!” Seeing this, someone hurriedly spoke up. “This is only the preliminary round! No matter how fierce Lu Qingyuan is, it doesn’t mean anything. At least wait until the finals tomorrow before saying that. Maybe that youth just got lucky, like a blind cat running into a dead mouse and happening to guess right once.”

“At least, at least wait until the final result of tomorrow’s finals comes out before talking about all this. I just don’t believe Young Master Lu can really be fierce all the way into the finals. Qin Chuan and Bai Luozhou are not easy to deal with!”

Hearing this, everyone felt...

That there was some sense to it.

“You can’t put it that way. That youth was able to predict Young Master Lu’s extraordinariness and breakthrough, which is enough to prove he wasn’t just running his mouth. At the very least, he’s someone with insight and ability,” someone else said. “You say he’s a blind cat running into a dead mouse, but what if, in the end, he really called it and Lu Qingyuan takes the championship? What will you do then?”

“...”

That person.

“Then I’ll... I’ll be his grandson!”

That person steeled his heart and said through gritted teeth.

I refuse to believe in this uncanny nonsense. Can Lu Qingyuan really soar into the sky in one leap?

Do you think Qin Chuan and Bai Luozhou are vegetarians?

“Ohhh!”

“Ohhhhh!”

“Ohhhhhhh!”

Hearing this, everyone immediately let out a chorus of ohs. They loved watching the fun and stirring up trouble, so they jeered, “Then you’d better remember what you said!”

“A grandson, oh!”

“...”

That person.

He gritted his teeth and shouted, “It’s still not certain who will be whose grandson!”

And so, without Lin Yuchu knowing, he was about to happily become a grandfather and gain another grandson...

If he knew, he would probably say in an indifferent tone, “The people of the cultivation world really know how to play.”

…

On the Stargazing Platform.

Qin Chuan, Bai Luozhou, and Lou Qianxue also went up onto their respective arenas one after another, each defending their arena until the end.

The preliminary round was basically without suspense.

The greatest surprise was Lu Qingyuan’s outbreak.

However, in terms of the result, there was no surprise. The winners of the four arenas, the top four of this Sword Path Competition, were Qin Chuan, Bai Luozhou, Lu Qingyuan, and Lou Qianxue.

The finals would begin the next day.

From among the four of them, the champion, second, third, and fourth place would be chosen.

News of the Sword Path Competition was sent back to the Immortal Alliance.

The immortal lords of the Immortal Alliance: “...”

For a long time, there was a soundless, suffocating silence.

All the immortal lords’ faces and mouths twitched nonstop.

What were they supposed to say?

Had the course of history been pushed forward again?

They had discovered that all matters, all people, once they encountered the Rain Emperor, would either break out ahead of schedule, or be completely changed and reversed.

According to how things had gone before, Lu Qingyuan should have continued on in this neither-warm-nor-cold manner, maintaining his identity as the mild and humble Gentleman Sword, Young Master Lu.

Until fifty years later.

The Lu family was exterminated overnight, and the only survivor was Lu Qingyuan, who had been traveling outside at the time.

Lu Qingyuan, having suffered the tragedy of his whole family being wiped out, underwent a drastic change in temperament. He spent twenty years cultivating the Shura Sword Path.

Alone, he killed his way into the Demon Domain with one sword.

He slaughtered more than half of the Demon Domain and, in the end, unified the southwestern Demon Domain, established the Shura Gate, and took an imperial title.

He became the Shura Sword Emperor, one of the four great Demon Emperors of the Demon Domain.

He shocked the entire cultivation world.

Only at that time did the cultivators of the cultivation world and the Demon Domain learn that they had always underestimated Lu Qingyuan.

In one thought, a gentleman. In one thought, a Demon Emperor.

However, in every previous instance, the Shura Sword Emperor Lu Qingyuan had never once taken the championship of the Sword Path Competition.

According to the timeline, at this time, the Shura Sword Emperor should still be perfectly well playing the part of his Gentleman Sword.

In the end, it had once again been disrupted and destroyed by the Rain Emperor...

“Could the Shura Sword Emperor... be born ahead of time?”

Finally, an immortal lord of the Immortal Alliance twitched the corner of his mouth and said speechlessly, “This would be disastrous. If the Shura Sword Emperor appears ahead of time, the balance between the righteous path and the Demon Domain will be broken, and the cultivation world will usher in a period of turmoil.”

It had to be said, this time, the Rain Emperor had truly done something huge!

“Do not panic!”

Immediately, an immortal lord spoke with a calm expression. “Lu Qingyuan will enter the demonic path because the Lu family is exterminated. It is still early right now. The Lu family should be exterminated fifty years from now.”

“Before that, Lu Qingyuan should not enter the demonic path.”

“Are you certain?” Hearing this, an immortal lord immediately could not help saying, “Are you certain the Shura Sword Emperor will not be provoked into appearing early by the Rain Emperor?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

I cannot answer that question.

After another long, suffocating silence.

“Why do I feel that this time, things are becoming more and more chaotic? There’s no need for the Rain Emperor to make a move. The cultivation world is already finished!” an immortal lord could not help saying.

“...”

“...”

“...”

I still cannot respond to that.

“Ahem...”

Finally, Immortal Venerable Yuquan, Lan Cui, coughed lightly twice and soothed everyone. “Everyone, do not panic. After the Sword Path Competition, the Rain Emperor will leave. After that, he will no longer have any interaction with the Shura Sword Emperor. The Rain Emperor’s current age and cultivation are still not enough for him to stand on the same platform as Lu Qingyuan, so what everyone is worried about will not happen for the time being.”

Lan Cui had already worked very hard to comfort the immortal lords.

However, no one bought it.

“However, anything that encounters the Rain Emperor will only produce wondrous changes... Impossible, won’t happen, none of that exists!” an immortal lord muttered in a low voice.

“Exactly, exactly. Besides, with the Rain Emperor’s monstrous aptitude, perhaps in just a few years, he’ll be able to rank among the current young sword cultivators and contend with the younger generation of sword cultivators.”

“Don’t forget, Sword Master Taichu even treats the Rain Emperor as a sworn brother! In the future, maybe he’ll aid the evildoer. Think about it, that’s Sword Master Taichu! Sword Master Taichu, who created an entire domain himself and possesses a whole city!”

“...”

Lan Cui.

I cannot respond to that either.

Today...

Today’s Immortal Alliance was also a scene of joy and celebration, filled with bright red.

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