Shenzhou Broken Sword Chronicle VI

"After all these years, Fifth Senior Sister, you're still the same as ever." Ma Feima looked at the white-haired woman across from him with emotion. However, his injuries were nowhere near as optimistic as his tone suggested.

Just moments ago, his full-force strike had been defeated head-on by Cheng Lingshuang with nothing more than a wooden scabbard. It had also made him realize just how vast the gap between himself and Cheng Lingshuang had become.

Ma Feima had roamed the martial world for many years and suffered countless injuries, both great and small, so he did not care much about his current wounds. He merely said, "Seeing you like this, Fifth Senior Sister, puts my mind at ease. In terms of martial arts, in this world, aside from Master Immortal Chi Yuan and Miss Jiang here, no one else can stand alongside you, can they?"

"Heh..." Jiang Muyue merely gave a derisive snort, offering no comment.

Ma Feima frowned inwardly. He did not know what Jiang Muyue was mocking—whether she was laughing at how they had murdered their benefactor yet still spoke of her from time to time, or ridiculing his claim that, apart from Immortal Chi Yuan and herself, Cheng Lingshuang should be the strongest in the world.

"When you were little, you were so obedient and well-behaved—more ladylike than any girl," Cheng Lingshuang said. "But in the dozen or so years since growing up, you've fought more battles than Master has in all her thousands of years."

Ma Feima smiled. "I never expected Senior Sister to know so much about me. I'm truly flattered."

Cheng Lingshuang glanced at Jiang Muyue and said, "In this little place, yours are the only deeds that keep pouring in. Who you beat, who you defeated, who you killed... I really wonder, why does the entire martial world revolve around you? Are all the other senior sisters dead?"

"Th-That... Fifth Senior Sister, you can't put it like that. It's only that the other senior sisters don't enjoy showing off as much as I do," Ma Feima said with an awkward smile.

"A man born of perfect nature, a peerless sword beneath heaven... After all these years, Cheng Lingshuang, your understanding of the Tai Xu Sword God has only grown deeper," Jiang Muyue said leisurely. "But you actually got angry over a mere disciple? How rare."

"If you wish to find out for yourself, I will hold nothing back," Cheng Lingshuang said coldly. "No one comes to the temple without a reason. Why have you come looking for me?"

She showed only the slightest affection toward her fellow disciples. As for Jiang Muyue, who was entirely an outsider, her attitude was naturally quite different.

"Ah, it's very simple. Your beloved master, Immortal Chi Yuan, has returned to life." Jiang Muyue yawned as she spoke, looking as though she had not taken Cheng Lingshuang's words to heart at all. "She has already killed your junior sister Qin Suyi and burned down Yijian Villa. Of the several hundred people in the villa, not a single one survived."

Cheng Lingshuang's gaze shifted slightly as she turned to Ma Feima. With a grave expression, he nodded. "When I arrived, Yijian Villa was already reduced to ashes. Although I did not find Junior Sister's body, judging from the current circumstances, I fear she has already met with disaster."

"Immortal Chi Yuan's purpose is likely twofold. First, to purge her sect. Second, to reclaim the Xuanyuan Swords she bestowed upon you back then," Jiang Muyue said unhurriedly.

"Merely karmic retribution," Cheng Lingshuang said calmly. This did not surprise her. She also knew why Ma Feima had come to find her: to kill Immortal Chi Yuan once more. As one of those who had slain Immortal Chi Yuan back then, she could not stay out of this.

Besides... someone had already come to harm.

In truth, she did not feel much for Immortal Chi Yuan. She only knew that the woman was her master. Nothing more.

She had entered Mount Tai Xu at the age of two to become Immortal Chi Yuan's disciple. Other than guidance in her daily training, nearly every aspect of her life had been handled personally by her Eldest Senior Sister Lin Zhaoyu and Second Senior Sister Sumei.

That person... though she had indeed valued Cheng Lingshuang highly, Cheng Lingshuang had always felt that this regard was not born of any affection between master and disciple. Rather, Immortal Chi Yuan had treated her as a weapon against the Honkai beasts.

"Sumei asked me to give this to you." Ma Feima took a bamboo tube from his robes. It had been stained with a little of his blood after he was wounded by Cheng Lingshuang's earlier move.

Inside were Sumei's detailed arrangements for the second joint assault on Immortal Chi Yuan. The reason she had not allowed Ma Feima to tell Cheng Lingshuang in person was to guard against Jiang Muyue.

If Immortal Chi Yuan had not been responsible for this matter, then this plan to encircle and kill her would be aimed at Jiang Muyue instead.

Cheng Lingshuang opened the bamboo tube, took out the letter inside, and read it. Then she put the letter away and said, "I understand. Once I have settled Sushang, I will join you."

"And the Xuanyuan Sword in her hands?" Ma Feima said. "What happened to Yijian Villa has made it clear that Master will show us no mercy. She is indeed exceptionally gifted, but that is no reason for Master to spare her."

Cheng Lingshuang fell silent for a moment. She looked toward Li Sushang, who was still unconscious inside the house, and thought of the foreigner from the West whom Ma Feima had brought back.

If this encirclement failed, perhaps she could have that foreigner take Sushang away. Immortal Chi Yuan was powerful, but she rarely left Shenzhou, so...

No. She should tell Sushang the truth. Sushang should choose her own path. To be afraid before the battle had even begun, to cling to life in cowardice—this was not the path she had taught Sushang.

"I will tell her the truth. What she chooses afterward will be entirely up to her," Cheng Lingshuang said.

"Then I won't linger any longer. The matter is urgent. I need to head to the Central Plains and learn Master's whereabouts as soon as possible," Ma Feima said.

He was not one to dawdle. As soon as the news had been delivered, he mounted his prized horse, Night Blood, and left. Jiang Muyue glanced at Cheng Lingshuang and Li Sushang inside the house behind her, chuckled softly, then mounted her horse and pursued Ma Feima.

After the two uninvited guests departed, Cheng Lingshuang sighed. She walked into the house, sat before Li Sushang, and quietly waited for her to awaken.

Not long after Ma Feima left, the instincts honed through years of battle and slaughter warned him of danger behind him. He instinctively twisted aside. A streak of sword qi swept past and cleanly severed Night Blood's head. Ma Feima's eyes split with rage. Without hesitation, he sprang from the horse and struck backward with Sword Opening: Mountain Collapse.

The ambusher behind him casually blocked the attack and said teasingly, "I thought you wouldn't notice. Looks like you never lowered your guard against me the entire way, Ma Yanqing."

"Jiang Muyue!" Ma Feima gritted his teeth and shouted her name, sword in hand. He now knew that Qin Suyi's death had most likely been Jiang Muyue's doing, and he knew even more clearly that he was likely doomed.

"Qin Suyi, Jiang Wanxi, Jiang Wanru... with you added in, more than half of the Seven Swords of Tai Xu are gone," Jiang Muyue said mockingly. "When Immortal Chi Yuan accepted the seven of you as disciples, it was because the Honkai beasts in Shenzhou were growing ever more numerous, and she was gradually unable to handle everything alone. So she took disciples to protect Shenzhou. What a pity. Of the seven disciples she raised, not one took up that responsibility."

Ma Feima silently drew his sword. Jiang Muyue merely smiled disdainfully at his full-force attack.

Their exchange ended in an instant.

"Come to think of it, is Dustless the limit that men can reach in the Tai Xu Sword God? It seems Yu Feng stopped training after reaching that realm too?" Jiang Muyue muttered to herself. Then her expression abruptly changed, because she could clearly feel someone forcibly severing her control over Jiang Wanxi and Jiang Wanru.

The puppets she had left in the Far East and Europe were also gradually losing contact with her.

She gathered the last information sent back by her puppets, and the expression on her face became deeply amused. "Pardo, Sakura... and Vill-V? It seems I can no longer remain hidden at last. Then... come... fight me to your heart's content..."