Reckoning

"I really have grown 'old.'"

Xie Xuanyi weighed the umbrella sword in his hand and looked toward the blood-soaked mountain ridge, mocking himself inwardly.

Back in those days, even without his life-bound sword, why would killing a wicked cultivator like this require a second strike?

A flick of his finger would have been enough.

Now, after slashing twice, he had merely severed one arm.

"Heh... hah..."

The desolate mountain was overgrown with wild grass and mottled with blood. Reverend Heavy Mist, with half his life carved away, crawled like a stray dog, his body caked in blood and filth. He desperately clutched a boulder, sat slumped against it, and turned around, gasping for air.

Reverend Heavy Mist knew he was doomed.

That strike had seemed to do no more than sever his arm, but in truth, its peerlessly sharp Sword Qi had already invaded his organs. Within a few breaths, it would reach his dantian.

Before long, his sea of qi would be torn apart and minced to pieces.

Before dying, he only wanted to see his opponent's face clearly—to understand just who this great bodhisattva was, descending upon Jade Pearl Town for no reason at all.

Xie Xuanyi granted his wish, planting that "incomparably sharp" paper umbrella into the mud.

"You really want to know who I am?"

Xie Xuanyi slowly approached Reverend Heavy Mist and crouched before him.

Their eyes met.

Reverend Heavy Mist, coughing blood without end, looked at the youth before him in bewildered confusion.

"...You are?"

"My surname is Xie. The Xie in thank you."

Xie Xuanyi spoke lightly.

Just that single word—Xie—made Reverend Heavy Mist, slumped there in dejection, shudder violently from head to toe, as if struck by lightning.

A face that had terrified him for half his life surfaced in Heavy Mist's mind.

"Great Grain Sword Palace... Xie Xuanyi?"

His voice trembled as he spoke that terrifying name.

Reverend Heavy Mist stared fixedly at the youth before him, his face turning whiter than paper. "Impossible. Xie Xuanyi died... ten years ago, in the North Sea."

"White Wraith chased me for three thousand li. Only after seeing me sever my heart meridians with his own eyes, ignite my life-bound Sword Qi, and fall into the North Sea did he finally give up."

Xie Xuanyi spoke each word distinctly. "Of that lot who hunted me down back then, he put in the most effort. Yin Mountain clearly wanted me dead, but unfortunately for them, I simply refused to die."

"How can this be? How can this be?"

Reverend Heavy Mist could not believe what stood before him. His breathing grew rapid.

Staring at that unfamiliar yet familiar face, Heavy Mist realized that Xie Xuanyi's appearance seemed somewhat different from what he remembered.

Ten years had passed... yet the young sword immortal who should have died had not only survived, but become even younger!

After staring for a while longer, Heavy Mist discovered something deeply ironic. The youth before him was not vastly above him in realm and deliberately concealing his primordial essence. Rather, his body was utterly empty—there was not the slightest trace of primordial essence within it to begin with.

This was an empty shell.

The reason he had been able to grievously wound him and kill the demons under his command... was simply because Xie Xuanyi understood "Sword Qi" too well. Even without Primordial Force in his body to serve as a catalyst, he could still draw upon the power of heaven and earth.

This discovery confirmed Xie Xuanyi's identity.

Because under all heaven, there were simply too few sword cultivators who had cultivated Sword Qi to such a degree.

Only realizing it now, Heavy Mist was suddenly filled with immense regret...

Ninety-nine percent of cultivators in the world needed Primordial Force in order to fight.

If the physical body was a lake-like vessel, then Primordial Force was the drops of water within it.

A sword cultivator without Primordial Force was nothing but a paper tiger, an empty shell. Even a sword immortal like Xie Xuanyi, who could borrow the power of heaven and earth as Sword Qi, was not as terrifying as imagined.

If he could do it all over again, if he had chosen to fight to the death rather than flee... perhaps he might have had a chance to survive.

He might even have had a chance to kill Xie Xuanyi instead!

Slap!

A crisp slap shattered his fantasies.

Crouching before the half-dead Reverend Heavy Mist, Xie Xuanyi swung a hand across his face and said flatly, "Hey. Wake up. It's not time for you to die yet."

"...You!"

Reverend Heavy Mist dared not voice his anger.

Gritting his teeth, he said, "Since you are Xie Xuanyi, I ask only for a swift death!"

If Xie Xuanyi was still alive, once this news spread, all of Great Chu would be shaken!

The highly publicized siege and slaughter from ten years ago had been vast in momentum and unprecedented in scale—a grand event unseen for several sixty-year cycles.

On the first day after Xie Xuanyi's death, the North Sea had been turned inside out.

Countless people lay awake at night.

They could not accept the outcome that Xie Xuanyi was still alive, because they knew the temperament of this killing fiend. If Xie Xuanyi still lived, everyone involved in this killing plot would be called to account!

Not until a year had passed, with Great Chu at peace and nothing happening.

Only then could those people barely manage a peaceful night's sleep.

Reverend Heavy Mist knew full well what kind of "misfortune" he had run into today. Now that he knew Xie Xuanyi was alive, there was no way he could survive.

"Of course you'll die, but not now."

Xie Xuanyi spoke coldly. "I know the Demon Cultivators of Yin Mountain like to huddle together for warmth and ordinarily never leave their little patch of land in the Southern Borderlands. But Jiayong Pass is a full ten thousand li from Yin Mountain. Why would Golden Abyss Perfected One send you to a place like this?"

"..."

Heavy Mist drew a deep breath and closed his eyes, his face the picture of one calmly embracing death.

Buzz!

Xie Xuanyi raised a hand without changing expression. The paper umbrella embedded in the distant mud instantly tore free from the ground and flew into his palm. With a heavy thrust, he drove the paper umbrella into Reverend Heavy Mist's shoulder. The blow went so deep that the umbrella tip protruded from the far side of the boulder!

"Ah..."

Beads of sweat as large as beans seeped from Reverend Heavy Mist's brow. At this moment, he no longer even had the strength to scream. He merely opened his mouth and let out a pained groan, as though he were about to vomit up his very soul.

"I understand Yin Mountain and its cultivators better than anyone in this world. When it comes to cherishing life and fearing death, you rank second—no one dares claim first."

Xie Xuanyi said, "If you're truly hard-boned, then keep your mouth shut. Doesn't Yin Mountain usually enjoy skinning people, drawing out their bones, refining artifacts, and setting formations? This time, it's your turn. I'll let you properly savor what it means to be worse off than dead."

With that said.

Xie Xuanyi gripped the umbrella handle, about to slowly pull it out—

Veins bulged across Reverend Heavy Mist's forehead as he cried out miserably, "I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

Xie Xuanyi stopped pulling and smiled, signaling for Heavy Mist to begin.

"The reason I came to Jade Pearl Town was because Yin Mountain could no longer tolerate me. Besides me, many Yin Mountain disciples were expelled from the Southern Borderlands. If we wanted to live, we could only head north and flee Great Chu."

As Heavy Mist went on, mockery spilled from his words. "The Yin Mountain of today no longer possesses its former glory. Enemies surround it on all sides, and its situation is dire, so it was forced to seal off the mountain... In that regard, it is rather like the Great Grain Sword Palace."

"Why did Yin Mountain seal off the mountain?"

Hearing the mockery in his words, Xie Xuanyi continued applying force, slowly twisting the umbrella handle in his grip.

Sweat poured from Reverend Heavy Mist like rain. Gritting his teeth, he hastened his speech and continued mockingly, "Perhaps Yin Mountain paid too great a price to kill you back then? Many things have happened these past years... Many new forces have emerged across the Southern Borderlands. Where Great Chu's laws cannot shine, the strong naturally devour the weak. If you can't win, you can only turtle up and defend yourself. As for the real reason behind sealing the mountain, I'm merely a disciple not even in the Grotto-Heaven Realm. You ask me such a question—do you really think I would know?"

"..."

Xie Xuanyi understood the intent behind Heavy Mist's words.

He was trying to provoke him, hoping for a swift death.

He nodded. "I forgot you're just a small fry."

Heavy Mist closed his eyes again, ready to meet death.

But in the next moment, Xie Xuanyi's voice made him open them again.

"You still seem not to have explained the 'real reason' you set up a formation to cultivate within Jade Pearl Town's territory."

Xie Xuanyi said softly, "Just as you said earlier, as a rogue cultivator expelled from your sect, if you wanted to live, you could only head north and flee Great Chu... That makes sense. But Jade Pearl Town is still within Great Chu's borders."

"A Yin Mountain disciple not even in the Grotto-Heaven Realm traveled ten thousand li to reach the northern frontier. If it was to survive, why not go a little farther north? Go a little farther, and you could completely escape the constraints of Great Chu's laws—unfettered and free."

Heavy Mist's secret had been struck, and his face turned deathly pale.

"If it was for cultivation, why meditate in this place where vital energy has run dry?"

Xie Xuanyi lowered his eyes and smiled. "After thinking it over, there is only one possibility... You originally intended to head north with those 'senior and junior brothers' and flee Great Chu. But while passing through Jade Pearl Town's territory, you discovered something irresistible. That thing made you hesitate, and in the end, you decided to stay."

"What kind of providence or opportunity could this land depleted of vital energy possess, to make you stay at any cost? An undiscovered saint's abode, or immortal pills and spiritual medicines that could rapidly advance your cultivation?"

Xie Xuanyi watched Reverend Heavy Mist.

He shook his head and said calmly, "I don't think it's either. As for the fortunes within a saint's abode, with your strength, even if you had the life to see them, you would not have the life to take them. And as for the latter—if there truly were any miraculous pills or medicines, you would not still be at your current realm."

Killing a man, then stabbing him in the heart as well?!

Such naked humiliation brought a flush to Reverend Heavy Mist's pale face.

He dearly wished to borrow this final burst of strength to settle life and death with Xie Xuanyi.

But unfortunately.

He had no strength left—not even enough to move a single finger.

"After thinking it over, the only possibility is that you came across some providence related to the Spirit Control Art..."

Xie Xuanyi rose to his feet and looked down at this dying man, speaking with a faint, ambiguous smile.

"Everyone in the world says that White Wraith was able to become one of the Three Sages of Yin Mountain entirely by luck. When his cultivation was still shallow, he happened upon a half-dead 'earth dragon' and formed a Spirit Control contract with it, which led to all his later splendor... Such fortune is rare in a hundred years, scarcely seen in a thousand."

At this moment.

Reverend Heavy Mist's face uncontrollably turned deathly pale again.

He wanted to say something.

But it was too late.

Countless strands of Sword Qi followed the blood into his dantian, tearing apart his sea of qi. Innumerable tangled scenes erupted in Reverend Heavy Mist's mind, memories flashing past like a galloping horse glimpsed through flowers.

At this moment, he could no longer distinguish reality from illusion...

A moment later, Xie Xuanyi stood in the pouring rain with his arms folded, gazing thoughtfully in the direction Reverend Heavy Mist had looked before his death.

That was the "highest point," surrounded by mountains.

Night gave way to dawn.

A sliver of heavenly light tore through the clouded sky, shooting out from the gloom and falling straight upon the mountaintop.

Thanks to Sister Purple Rain for the alliance leader support~