The wind suddenly stopped.
The withered lotus outside Tingxue Tower no longer swayed. Even those few plane-tree leaves that had yet to fall seemed to be caught by an invisible thread, frozen in midair.
A suffocating stillness instantly shrouded the entire waterside pavilion.
The man in black had been standing casually, but now he suddenly hunched his back. Every muscle in his body tensed in an instant, like a powerful bow drawn to its limit, his eyes fixed dead on the iron sword in Ji Ye's hand, only half an inch out of its sheath.
He was a Half-step Grandmaster.
And so, more than anyone, he understood that this "stillness" was not peace, but terror compressed to its utmost before the storm broke.
Xiao Hongxiu's fingers still rested on the strings, but her fingertips had already turned somewhat white.
"Please."
Ji Ye said only one word.
The iron sword left its sheath.
There was no chilling radiance soaring ten thousand feet, nor was there sword qi crisscrossing the air.
There was only a murky gray line, like a painter casually splashing a stroke of pale ink across rice paper, lightly sweeping through the autumn colors filling the garden.
This sword strike was very slow.
So slow that even Xiao Hongxiu, who knew nothing of martial arts, seemed able to see the path of its blade through the air.
Yet this sword strike was also very fast.
So fast that just as the man in black wished to take half a step forward, he abruptly forced himself to stop, a bead of cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
Because he discovered that no matter how he moved, the edge of that sword had already enveloped this patch of heaven and earth.
The sword edge swept past.
The pond's surface did not split apart, yet the fish beneath the water suddenly stopped flicking their tails.
The falling leaves in the air did not shatter, yet the veins of every leaf were snapped by an invisible force in that instant.
Ji Ye lightly flicked his wrist.
"Buzz."
An exceedingly faint sword hum, like an autumn cicada's final mournful cry.
Then, that gray line abruptly spread outward.
The several hundred fallen leaves that had hung suspended in the air all flipped over at once.
They had not been stirred by the wind, but forcibly turned by a killing intent surging against the current. Their withered yellow sides had faced down, yet now they all turned upward, revealing the pale color of their undersides.
In an instant.
The garden's golden splendor turned deathly white.
It was as though heaven and earth themselves had been forcibly overturned by this sword.
"Crack."
The ornamental rock by the pond silently split open along a fissure.
Ripples finally rose on the water, but rather than spreading outward, they collapsed inward, as though even the water had been frightened into retreating three paces by this sword.
Ji Ye sheathed his sword.
The iron sword returned to its scabbard with a dull thud.
Only then did the belated autumn wind dare blow into the courtyard.
Those overturned leaves drifted down one after another, carpeting the ground, deathly white as frost.
The man in black slowly straightened up and let out a long breath of foul air. When he looked at Ji Ye again, there was no trace of disdain left in his eyes, only deep apprehension.
Xiao Hongxiu stared at the deathly white leaves covering the ground. For the first time, a dazed look appeared in her beautiful, bewitching eyes.
She had seen countless swordsmen.
Some wielded swords like thunder; others wielded swords like flowing water.
But she had never seen a sword like this.
This sword had not cut down a person. It had cut down rules, common sense, and this autumn that had once been orderly.
Ji Ye stood amid the fallen leaves, his azure robe stirring faintly. His expression was as calm as if he had merely done something insignificant.
He raised his head, looked at Xiao Hongxiu, and slowly spoke:
"When man gives rise to killing intent, heaven and earth turn over."
His voice was not loud, yet it rang like great bells and mighty chimes, echoing through the empty waterside pavilion.
Xiao Hongxiu's entire body trembled.
As she looked at the young man standing amid the white leaves, the words from that incomplete sword manual seemed to come alive in her mind at that very moment, perfectly overlapping with the sword that had overturned heaven and earth before her eyes.
When heaven gives rise to killing intent, stars shift and constellations change.
When earth gives rise to killing intent, dragons and serpents rise from the land.
When man gives rise to killing intent, heaven and earth turn over.
This was the great momentum.
This was the true Way of Killing.
Ji Ye patted the nonexistent dust from his sleeve and lightly cupped his hands toward the dazed Xiao Hongxiu.
"Your Highness, the latter half has now been supplied."
After a long while.
Xiao Hongxiu took a deep breath, then clapped her hands and laughed.
"What a 'heaven and earth turn over.'"
She rose to her feet, her red robes blazing like fire, especially eye-catching amid the garden's deathly white.
"Attend me."
"Serve the gentleman tea."
"The finest tea."
Before you continue