Dreamscape

Yun Hu had, in recent days, devoted nearly all his mind and spirit to the dozen or so sword manuals the Ning Family had sent over.

By day, he fought others, his true qi draining away like running water.

On the journey home, he appeared steady of step, but in truth, all six senses were fully alert, wary of every whisper of wind and rustle of grass.

Upon returning to the residence, he would briefly fool around with Yun He and Shi Chen before plunging headfirst into his secluded little courtyard.

The lamplight flickered.

Longsword in hand, he drilled tirelessly.

Every move and every stance was broken apart and reassembled in his mind, repeatedly compared against the Qingcheng Swordplay he had learned, as he tried to meld them into one.

He only felt exhausted, utterly exhausted.

His eyelids weighed a thousand jun.

Every inch of muscle in his body groaned under an unbearable burden.

At last, he could no longer hold on.

Leaning against the cold stone table, his hand clenched tightly around his sword, Yun Hu fell into a deep sleep.

His consciousness immediately plunged into boundless darkness.

Strangely enough, he felt that he was still practicing swordsmanship.

Sword manuals opened one after another within the ink-black void.

Their pages turned without wind, transforming into countless figures of light and shadow that performed one exquisitely intricate sword form after another.

Yun Hu's arm began to move of its own accord, following the light-shadow figures.

Once.

Then again.

He could not remember how long he had practiced.

It was as though the passage of time had lost all meaning in this place.

His body knew no fatigue.

Yet his spirit remained in a strange state of exhilaration.

The crucial points of those sword moves that had usually been obscure, difficult, and impossible to comprehend now seemed to melt away like ice and snow, enlightenment pouring into him like a cleansing initiation.

All of a sudden!

The sword in his hand—or rather, the sword condensed from his will—erupted with towering radiant light.

That sword light was vast and majestic, sacred and grand, like the first ray of dawn born when heaven and earth were split apart, violently tearing through the endless darkness before him.

The light faded.

He found himself standing at the foot of a towering, verdant mountain.

The mountain was magnificent and perilous, clouds and mist winding upward from its waist in a dreamlike haze, as though it were a land of immortals.

An old man dressed in plain azure robes, his hair and beard white as snow, was gazing at him with a smile.

Behind the old man stood an ancient mountain gate.

Upon its lintel were three large ancient seal-script characters, carved with the sweeping grace of dragons and dancing phoenixes: Qingcheng Mountain.

Yun Hu's heart shook like a beating drum!

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning tearing open the night sky!

Could this be the Yun Clan ancestor who had taught him the Qingcheng Swordplay?!

"Child, do you wish to learn the sword?" The old man's voice was gentle and kind, yet it seemed to carry the power to see through the human heart.

"I do!" Yun Hu nodded without hesitation, his voice slightly hoarse from the excitement he could not suppress.

"Are you not afraid of hardship?" the old man asked again, his gaze profound, as though it could see through Yun Hu's soul.

"I'm not afraid of hardship!" Yun Hu answered with absolute certainty, every word ringing like metal.

"Are you not afraid of pain?" The old man's voice remained calm, giving no hint of pleasure or displeasure.

"I'm not afraid of pain!" Yun Hu's answer struck the ground with force, his gaze unwavering.

"Since that is so," the old man said with a slight nod, his gentle smile undiminished, "then first learn ten thousand different kinds of mundane swordsmanship."

"I will wait for you."

Before his words had even faded.

The green mountain before him.

The mountain gate.

The white-haired old man.

Everything shattered and scattered like flowers reflected in a mirror and the moon in water.

Boundless darkness swallowed him once more.

"Ancestor! Ancestor!" Yun Hu cried out desperately in the darkness, reaching for something, anything, but grasping only emptiness.

Yun Hu suddenly opened his eyes!

Awakening from that limitless darkness, he was still crying out instinctively.

He gasped for breath, his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat that had soaked his temples.

What met his eyes were his father, Yun Ji, and his elder brother, Yun Long!

Those two faces were currently filled with shock and disbelief beyond words.

They stared at him without blinking, their expressions so complicated that Yun Hu felt his scalp tingle.

"Father, Big Brother, you..."

Before Yun Hu could finish, Yun Ji raised a hand to stop him.

Yun Ji's lips trembled, as though he were trying with all his might to calm the storm in his heart.

After a long while, he finally found his voice. Pointing above Yun Hu's head, he said with an almost imperceptible tremor, "Hu'er, you... just now..."

Yun Hu was still somewhat dazed, still immersed in that incomparably real dream.

Following his father's finger, he looked up, but saw nothing.

While he had been asleep, Yun Ji, who had silently remained by his side, had been the first to notice something unusual.

At first, only faint strands of pale azure light quietly seeped from Yun Hu's body.

Like fireflies on a summer night, those glows circled around him, carrying a trace of mystery.

Then, the glows gradually gathered and compressed.

They actually transformed into tiny sword shadows, each finer than an embroidery needle!

More and more sword shadows appeared.

Dense and countless.

Spinning and dancing.

Yet they remained utterly silent, without making the slightest sound.

At last, as if guided by some invisible force, all the tiny sword shadows abruptly converged upward!

A palm-sized card, flickering with a strange azure-gold sheen, appeared out of thin air.

It floated silently three inches above Yun Hu's head.

The image upon the card was perfectly clear.

It showed a towering verdant mountain wreathed in clouds and mist, immortal aura swirling through the air.

At the mountain's foot stood a white-haired, white-bearded old man, a gentle smile on his face.

Behind him stood an ancient mountain gate.

The three large characters upon its lintel, written with the soaring grace of dragons and dancing phoenixes, were unmistakably: "Qingcheng Mountain"!

The scene was exactly the same as what Yun Hu had seen in his dream, without the slightest difference!

Yun Ji had been so terrified that his soul had nearly fled his body. For a time, he thought his worries had become too heavy and he was hallucinating.

Forcing down the tempestuous waves in his heart and steadying his trembling body, he had immediately rushed out of the courtyard.

He hurriedly called over Yun Long, who had been cultivating through breathing exercises in the ancestral hall.

When Yun Long arrived, the card glowing with azure-gold light was still quietly floating there.

A monstrous wave rose in Yun Long's heart as well!

A conjecture buried deep within his heart, one he had scarcely dared touch, received incomparably clear confirmation at that moment!

The three siblings had indeed all fused with a mysterious Inheritance Card!

When he himself had broken through to the Qi Refining Stage, the phantom of a similar card had flashed through his mind as well.

It had merely been far less solid and weighty than the one above Yun Hu's head.

Nor had it ever manifested itself outside his body like this!

Now, it seemed that the card within Yun Hu possessed wonders far beyond his imagination!

It had actually surfaced on its own and revealed its true form!

When the card's glow gradually faded and finally turned into a streak of light that shot into Yun Hu's brow, Yun Ji and Yun Long finally seemed to awaken from a dream. They let out long breaths, their backs already soaked in cold sweat.

After Yun Hu heard his father and elder brother's disjointed yet still excited account.

And then recalled that incomparably real dream of his.

A towering wave rose in his heart as well, refusing to settle for a long time.

He recounted the Qingcheng ancestor's instruction from the dream word for word.

He especially emphasized the line—"first learn ten thousand different kinds of mundane swordsmanship."

Yun Ji and Yun Long were left dumbfounded, exchanging horrified looks.

A long silence followed.

Even the air seemed to have frozen.

Suddenly, Yun Ji slapped his thigh!

An expression mingling wild joy, excitement, and a desperate, all-or-nothing resolve surged onto his face!

Under Yun Long and Yun Hu's puzzled gazes, he abruptly spun around and staggered toward the ancestral hall.

"Ancestor! Great Ancestor!"

With a thud, Yun Ji dropped heavily to his knees before the Yun Clan's ancestral tablets.

Tears and snot streamed down his face as he cried out in a hoarse, grief-stricken voice, "Since you have already revealed your spirit and blessed my son Yun Hu, then please guide this useless junior as well!"

"The Yun Clan is now battered by wind and rain. I, Yun Ji, am incapable and trapped without progress! I beg for Ancestor's mercy!"

"If you refuse to care for me, I'll kneel here forever! I beg you, Ancestor!"

As he repeatedly slammed his forehead against the bluestone floor, each impact produced a dull thud.

He muttered incessantly, over and over again repeating the same few heart-rending pleas.

Yun Long and Yun Hu stood at the entrance to the ancestral hall, looking at each other.

They did not know whether to laugh or cry, yet an indescribable bitterness welled up in their hearts.