Di Hongtian was defeated by Doukong; all the monks of the White Horse Temple secretly drew in deep breaths. But those in the audience were happy to criticize the young man as if they were the winner instead of Doukong.

“Like I already said, this young man is too proud; he thought that, by defeating the leaders of the low-end clans, he could claim to be number one in the world,” a man with a thick, black beard commented.

“He made the mistake of challenging Doukong.”

“If Doukong used his full strength, this guy couldn’t take ten hits from him. Maybe he’s sobered up now,” someone said, laughing at him.

Such criticism came from the leaders of some low-end clans, who had earlier been afraid of being defeated by Di Hongtian. Now they were so quick to criticize him, and taking Doukong’s side just to save face. What’s more, taking pleasure in his failure helped them relax from the anxiety of being defeated by him. The other members of the audience were not like them, but they did not dare to speak more for fear of offending them.

“His failure here should teach him to respect a world he knows nothing of,” the commentators were going on.

The rest of the artists were cautious to say such bold words, and they focused their eyes on the heavy sword. The rumors said the sword’s weight was about 500 kilograms. Di Hongtian was only a teenager, so how could his strength compare to that of Doukong and the other first-level artists? So they thought that his strength was from the sword. Now he had lost this sword, and he himself had became a commoner. They had no need to fear him anymore.

“Little almsgiver, you are so young and you already have such a great power; there is no need to care too much about the result of our compet.i.tion.” Doukong did not want to take his weapon, for he had realized that the sword was no ordinary one. How could he take the young man’s precious sword he was relying on? “Take your weapon, and leave us our quietness for the practice of Buddhism, okay?”

The entire audience was abuzz, discussing Doukong’s kindness, and the young man’s eyes went over though their faces; he was disappointed in them.

n.o.body knows this sword. It looks like they are not here. He sighed. Anyway, though I lost this compet.i.tion, the story of this fight should make its rounds throughout the whole martial world. It should be able to attract their attention.

He raised his head to answer Doukong, saying, “Everything has its price. I lost; this sword is the price.”

Doukong was stunned by him. Everybody in this world cherished their weapon as if  they were their lives. How could this young man be so stubborn? 

Two well-dressed middle-aged artists met each other and sat at the abbot’s side. One of them was staring at the sword, and spoke slowly, in a good and dignified manner, “The sword is as wide as twelve centimeters, as long as one point four meters, and bears a weight of 500 kilograms, which is heavy enough to take the responsibility of protection. . . ”

When he came to this sentence, he posted his eyes on Di Hongtian’s face, confronting with his stare; everyone else’s attention fixed on them.

“Its name is Zhongfeng.”

He said this after several minutes.

“Zhongfeng?” All the people were shocked by the sword’s name.

“Wow. . . ”

All the people there burst into an uproar.

“This sword is the legendary Zhongfeng?”

Everybody was staring at the wide sword standing in the ground, and suddenly it felt hard to breathe.

“Impossible!”

“The Sword Zhongfeng and Sword Jinguang both disappeared ten years ago when the Sword Villa was eliminated.”

“Leader Huang was the master of the Three-River Sword Clan, and he had once had a compet.i.tion with the fourth Prince of the Sword Villa; how could he be mistaken? Maybe he has seen the Sword Zhongfeng.”

“If this is the legendary sword, how did this guy get it? Has he any connection with the decimation of the Sword Villa?” 

“How could he? He was only four or five years old ten years ago.”

“Where did you get this sword?” the Leader of the Three-River Sword Clan asked Di Hongtian coldly.

He had enjoyed a good relationship with the Sword Villa and he had held an investigation of the decimation case, but had found no trace of cause or culprit.

“From my family,” Di Hongtian replied. He turned to Doukong and said, “Since you would not take this sword, I will pay with a finger.”

 The young man raised his palm to the sword and cut off his pinkie.

“Little almsgiver, why do you hurt yourself?” Doukong shook his head and looked at the abbot for him to settle the issue.

“I owe n.o.body,” Di Hongtian answered in a quiet voice.

“Amitabha.” The abbot stood out and advised, “Little almsgiver, the sword is sharp enough to take lives; Buddha and I dislike it. You’d better take it, and be careful when you walk around in the world.”

The Sword Zhongfeng was one of the nine swords. For this treasure to reappear in the world, the abbot could foresee a series of b.l.o.o.d.y fights in order to take possession of it.

There was a legend about the nine swords. In ancient times, the demon who possessed tribe leader Chiyou of the Shennong tribe enjoyed killing and the people lived in endless wars and slaughter. So all the G.o.ds took the copper of the First Mountain to forge a G.o.dly sword, and granted it to Huangdi, the leader of the Xuanyuan Tribe, to help him kill the cruel Chiyou. This sword, named after the last name of Huangdi, was called Sword Xuanyuan. It had endless power from the G.o.ds and it successfully helped Huangdi defeat the Shennong tribe.

After that, this sword pa.s.sed through the consecutive Five Emperors, and was inherited by Emperor Yu, the emperor of Xia Dynasty, the first Dynasty of China. Yu was afraid that this sword was too powerful and it could be a disaster if it was stolen by some malicious person, so he melted it down and had it re-forged into nine swords, putting them into nine tripods to hide in the nine provinces he managed.

The legend said that if all the nine swords were joined together, they had the power to kill any G.o.d or demon.

This was only a legendary saying, and n.o.body knew where it came from. The nine swords had existed for such a long time, and n.o.body had seen them gathered together. But each of the nine swords alone was powerful, and it could only be held and hid by one of the most powerful artists, otherwise the world would become b.l.o.o.d.y, even if one of them appeared.