Chapter 629: Life Has Been Like This Since Ancient Times
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A faint hissing sound could be heard amid the whizzing noise of the wind and snow; that was the sound of blood seeping out from those holes.
The Cultivation pract.i.tioners were all stunned speechless.
The elder of the Kunlun Sect, Peng Si, was a very important aide for He Wei, the sect master of the Kunlun Sect, and had a very high Cultivation state. How could he be killed by her? And how come she could do so in such an easy manner?
She had been a genius at sword cultivation, so what Cultivation state was she in now?
It took a long time for the crowd to recover their senses before they hurried to treat the injury of the follower of the Windy-Broadsword Church.
"He was an important elder of the Kunlun Sect; but Zhao…the Peak Master has killed him with a swing of the sword. Doesn"t she fear major conflict between her sect and theirs?"
Watching the sword light disappearing into the other side of the abyss, a pract.i.tioner said this worriedly.
The follower of the Windy-Broadsword Church had a pale face. Looking at the Thoughtless Sword vanis.h.i.+ng on the other end of the wind and snow, he commented in awe and grat.i.tude, "Do you know how she became famous when she came out of the mountains the first time?"
These Cultivation pract.i.tioners had no idea what had happened over a hundred years ago, and asked him for the answer.
The follower of the Windy-Broadsword Church said admirably, "Killing people…a lot of them."
…
…
Back when Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu left Green Mountain and traveled the world the first time, she had indeed killed a lot of people and devils.
The methods and temperament she demonstrated during the journey made the official of the Pure Heaven Bureau, s.h.i.+ Fengchen, feel extremely fearful; as a result, a great many events ensued.
In truth, she had changed a great deal after having lived Jing Jiu for so many years, but her methods and temperament were still as formidable as ever. The only difference was that she became lazier now.
If she hadn"t met the person from the Kunlun Sect, she might not have struck that day.
Back when Liu s.h.i.+sui came to the Scenery Garden in Cloudy Town to visit Jing Jiu, he was attacked by the people of the Kunlun Sect on the road after they had an argument, and Liu s.h.i.+sui was injured in the scuffle.
Jing Jiu told Liu s.h.i.+sui at the time that he would beat the person up if he encountered him in the future.
Yet, Jing Jiu was still asleep in Zhaoge City; so this matter had to be taken care of by her.
It happened that the person who had injured Liu s.h.i.+sui was the elder of the Kunlun Sect, Peng Si.
If he were another elder of the Kunlun Sect, Zhao Layue might have merely broken one of his arms; but now that she encountered the right offender, she had no choice but to finish him off.
This event was only an insignificant episode in her journey and had effect on her emotion, nor would it change the course of her journey.
She flew over the abyss on her sword and arrived at a deeper part of the snowland.
As she traveled further north, the wind and snow grew more violent, and the weather got colder. The wind and snow in her face felt like being a.s.saulted by the Chaotic Wind.
A pract.i.tioner like her in the Broken Sea State could survive in such a dreadful environment for a long time; but those in the lower state would have been frozen to death, to say nothing of being unable to slay the monsters. However, a pract.i.tioner in the upper state of the Broken Sea would opt to stay in the mountains rather than travel around and show off, to say nothing of coming to such a dangerous place as the snowland. The pract.i.tioners in the upper state of the Broken Sea were merely one state away from reaching the Heavenly Arrival State; if they could pa.s.s the state without any glitch, their lifetime last twice as long . As such, who would be willing to take a risk at such a stage?
Hence, Zhao Layue was the only one in this patch of the snowland.
It was white from one end to the other; and it felt exceedingly clean.
She liked such a feeling.
And this is why she took her time traveling to the north. She would often stop somewhere in the snowland to kill some snowy monsters, and took a rest for one or two days, enjoying the scenery that was utterly different from the human world.
One day she killed an adorable and fuzzy snowy monster. All of a sudden, an idea struck her. She flayed it with her sword and skewered the snowy monster on the Thoughtless Sword; then she summoned the sword fire to barbecue it for eating. In her current Cultivation state, it was easy for her to barbecue meat perfectly. Unfortunately, the snowy monster didn"t have any fat, so no grease came out from it regardless of how much she grilled it. Soon, the body of the snowy monster was charred into a black pulp resembling a coal. Not to mention that a meat in such a condition didn"t smell so good, it couldn"t even arouse any appet.i.te. So she had no choice but to throw it away, regretfully.
Killing some monsters once in a while, watching the scenery, and walking about in a leisurely manner were a wonderful way to live her life, since Zhao Layue didn"t like dealing with people, and she also became accustomed to a lifestyle of solitude.
Unfortunately, such a way of life didn"t last long.
As she rode her sword over a patch of light blue glaciers, she felt a cold and powerful energy a.s.saulting her face.
Zhao Layue wiggled her body slightly to bring out many sword wills into the sky, successfully dodging those a.s.saults more formidable than the divine crossbows on the city walls in Zhaoge City.
Accompanying several sword sounds, several ruptures of a hundred feet deep appeared on the surface of the blue glacier, which deflected the sunlight, creating a very beautiful sight.
A monster of the Snowy Kingdom stood at the junction of those ruptures.
And that monster of the Snowy Kingdom stood erect like a human being.
Judging from its physical shape, it looked no different from humans, except that it had silvery long hair throughout its body; and it looked like a bear standing up as a human.
The long silvery hair was tousled slightly in the cold wind, looking extremely sharp. It could be easily imagined that those hairs could cut any regular magic treasure in half.
The monsters of the Snowy Kingdom had many state levels. The kinds of monsters the humans usually encountered were the Snowy Beetles and the White Monsters, which crawled and galloped like wild animals, and the Snowy Worms, which looked like the silk worms no matter whether they were the newborns or the ones in the King State. The monsters of the Snowy Kingdom that could stand up like humans must be very powerful.
Zhao Layue hadn"t seen this sort of snowy monster, but she had read about them in the books, and knew they were the personal guards of the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom, and that they had a dreadful name, the "Snowy Ghost".
The Snowy Ghosts could travel as fast as lightning, and had an extremely cold energy and amazingly powerful strength. Judging by their fighting ability, they were equivalent of a swordsman in the Broken Sea State.
According to what had been recorded in the past, the Snowy Ghosts were usually seen in the northernmost territory, and they were normally not found in the area close to the blue glacier.
It seemed that what He Zhan said was correct; the Queen was recuperating. So she didn"t want to be disturbed and sent her personal guards to somewhere further south.
…
…
One single Snowy Ghost seemed harmless. Zhao Layue wondered if she should barbecue it or boil it in the hotpot.
However, the Snowy Ghost looked really like a human even though it was about thirty feet tall. It would be repulsive to barbecue and eat it.
Zhao Layue thought better of it; the most she could do was cut off one of its feet and have a taste of it.
The bright and b.l.o.o.d.y light illuminated the blue glacier, which was a beautiful scene. The blue glacier and the b.l.o.o.d.y light were a perfect match ever since ancient times.
No rupture appeared on the surface of the glacier, not even a shallow one; it was because all the sword wills were locked inside the shaft of the Thoughtless Sword.
The Thoughtless Sword shot through the air as a b.l.o.o.d.y line and circled the Snowy Ghost at a high speed.
Crack!!! Crack!!! Crack!!!
Countless sounds of friction broke out that could make one"s teeth feel sore. The Snowy Ghost turned into a dozen busted-up pulps after letting out a deep and angry shout, which scattered on the surface of the glacier.
Zhao Layue raised her eyebrows slightly, the cold wind tousling her messy short hair.
The Snowy Ghosts were indeed powerful enough to be the personal guards of the Queen. Though they had ordinary magic methods and limited fighting prowess, their bodies were much stronger than the regular magic treasures.
Her striking sword looked simple, but it contained shapeless sword wills and had tremendous lethal power; as a result, she had used a great deal of her sword source, and it was difficult for her to strike continuously.
She had to strike so many times to kill a single Snowy Ghost though the striking sword was exceedingly powerful. What should she do if more of Snowy Ghosts came?
What one feared would often come true.
Five Snowy Ghosts bounded toward her over the glacier from various places. Their large bodies cast long shadows on the surface of the glacier.
One Snowy Ghost was not harmful.
But five of them were a bit troublesome to deal with.
Looking down at the glacier, Zhao Layue reflected on all this. She stabbed her finger at the air.
The Thoughtless Sword turned into a red line again, and arrived above the glacier instantly, pa.s.sing through the bodies of the five Snowy Ghosts many times.
The five Snowy Ghosts stopped short one after another, and their bodies cracked open, becoming heaps of crystals.
The Thoughtless Sword came back before her, growing dimmer, the same as the expression in her eyes at the moment.
The look on her face was paler than the white snow around her.
Slaying six Snowy Ghosts that were as strong as swordsmen in the Broken Sea State in the distance was quite taxing, even for her.
However, it was not over yet.
More than twenty Snowy Ghosts seemed to have appeared from thin air on the blue glacier.
These Snowy Ghosts had pupilless, crystal-like eyes devoid of any emotion possessed by intelligent beings.
She could have chosen to leave by riding her sword. Even if these Snowy Ghosts could manage to fly up to the sky, they would be unable to keep up with the Thoughtless Sword. However, the purpose of her coming to the snowland was to temper her sword through fighting in addition to fulfilling her wish. She could in no way miss such a perfect opportunity.
Along with a crisp sword sound, she and the Thoughtless Sword turned into two straight lines and arrived on the blue glacier.
No rupture appeared on the surface of the glacier; but the snowflakes hurling up in the air contained innumerable formidable sword wills.
A few moments later, Zhao Layue pa.s.sed through the siege formed by more than twenty Snowy Ghosts and killed one Snowy Ghost; but she was also slightly injured.
She shot a glance at the scratch and the blood seeping out from her left sleeve, but no change of expression could be detected on her face. She turned around in the sky and charged into the fray along with the Thoughtless Sword.
She did this over and over again. The white and red sword lights were shuttling above the blue glacier constantly. Once in a while, the two of them would land on the glacier, making a thudding clas.h.i.+ng sound.
After a long while, seven more Snowy Ghosts were slashed to shreds; her body was covered in fresh blood as well.
The blue glacier coupled with the red fresh blood looked wonderful, a perfect match.
The wounds Zhao Layue suffered were severe, but the expression in her eyes was still quite calm, and she looked even a bit delighted.
The threat of life and death became a sort of tangible nutrient, nouris.h.i.+ng her Dao Tree and training her willpower.
Once she recovered from the wounds she sustained that day, she would become a true swordsman in the upper limit of the Broken Sea State.
Now that she had already reached her goal, it was time for her to leave. She wheeled around and flew up to the sky.
Those Snowy Ghosts suddenly gathered together. Then they grabbed a few of their colleagues and threw them toward the sky, making a barrage of whistling sounds.
Boom!!! Boom!!!
The few Snowy Ghosts hurled up like the large catapulting rocks headed toward Zhao Layue at an unimaginably fast speed.
Zhao Layue tapped on the Thoughtless Sword with the tip of her toes, drifting up to a higher elevation in the sky. Her messy short hair was quite visible under the blindingly bright sunlight.
She tied up the rest of the Snowy Ghosts with the Thoughtless Sword like a red ribbon. After that, she tautened the "ribbon" forcefully, and the bodies of the Snowy Ghosts were cut in half, demonstrating the daunting prowess of the Thoughtless Sword, after which the sword flew back underneath of her feet.
When Zhao Layue stepped onto the Thoughtless Sword, she wobbled a few times, her face looking paler.
It was then that a shadow suddenly appeared in the midst of the sunlight, and the figure attempted to strike her head from above.
There must have been a person in the high sky because the sunlight was blocked and a shadow was cast, a flying sword hidden in the shadow.
The person sneak-attacking Zhao Layue had a very high Cultivation state, which was at least as powerful as hers. The sword move the person employed was extremely brutal and horrendous.
Zhao Layue raised both of her palms toward the sky, intercepting the incoming sword with a dozen of her shapeless sword wills. She clasped the incoming flying sword between her palms.
With a horrible ear-splitting sound of metallic friction, the flying sword broke loose from her palms and pierced deep into her body.
She fell off the Thoughtless Sword, landing on the glacier like a rock.