A Young Man's Lofty Ambitions; Madam Hua's Sword Qi Blossoms as She Asks for a Sacred Token

A streak of sword light rose from level ground, like a great roc soaring skyward on the wind, sweeping aside spring rain and evening clouds. In the sunlight pouring down behind it, it flashed like swift lightning.

Incomparably brilliant, incomparably dazzling—the resplendent Sword Qi nearly bewildered the eyes.

Below the mountain foothills, countless people stared in shock at the sword light shooting into the heavens, their hearts struck again and again like bells and stone chimes.

The youth gripped his sword. Though he was not like a Peerless Sword Immortal controlling a sword through the skies, the moment he held the Ink-Colored Azure Blade, Sword Qi burst forth. Like a meteor tearing through the night sky, it carried him upward, its radiant tail flickering as he plunged straight into the clouds, possessing a brilliance all its own.

"Who is that?"

Someone spoke in astonishment, and doubt soon flooded their heart like a cascading waterfall.

Most cultivators did not recognize this youth who had arrived alongside Lin Manor's carriage.

A youth whose cultivation could not be discerned, carrying a Tattered Bamboo Sword and pretending to be a Swordsman—previously, no one had thought much of him. They had merely assumed he had followed Lin Manor's carriage to broaden his horizons.

The one truly renowned within Lin Manor was Lin Zhuifeng. Yet the sword had not carried Lin Zhuifeng away, but an obscure, unknown youth.

When An Le was swept up by the sword and soared straight upward—

Lin Zhuifeng and Lin Qingyin were equally stunned. The two women raised their heads, their black hair whipped into disorderly dance by the hurricane stirred up by the sword. Their eyes were filled with disbelief and... shining radiance.

Watching the youth obtain the sword and soar into the sky, they seemed to realize something as well.

That most impossible thing had fallen onto the youth's head like a pie dropped from the heavens.

Young Master An... had actually caught the eye of the Sixth Mountain Lord standing atop Qingshan!

The word fate was wonderfully inexplicable!

Lin Zhuifeng gripped her fire poker and grinned. "Could it be that the Mountain Lord's taste is as pure as mine, and he likes Young Master An simply because he is handsome?"

Hearing Lin Zhuifeng's words, Lin Qingyin could not help covering her mouth and laughing softly.

The high officials, nobles, and dignitaries all around them wore complicated expressions.

Many could no longer remain seated. They lifted the curtains of their carriages, raised their heads into the sunlight, and watched the youth ascending to heaven. Curious, they ordered their subordinates to investigate the youth's background.

The youth had once been utterly obscure, but after obtaining the Mountain Lord's sword, he naturally rose as though ascending to heaven.

Moreover, the youth was connected to Lin Manor. This put many forces whose relations with Lin Manor were less than harmonious on alert, eager to uncover the youth's origins and identity.

Within the mountain forest, mist was cleaved apart on both sides. Sword Qi lingered in the air, preventing the rain-soaked fog from closing again.

Luo Qingchen stood amid the mountains. The stabbing pain in his hand left his entire being somewhat dazed.

He felt that what had been cut apart was not his palm, but his state of mind.

That extraordinarily confident state of mind.

The Sixth Mountain Lord... had actually not chosen him?!

His talent in swordsmanship might not match that of Li You'an, the Legendary Scholar, nor that of Hua Jiebing, the Jade Guanyin, but... it was still worthy of praise. Who present could compare to him? Why had the Sixth Mountain Lord overlooked him?

The sensation of nearly reaching the absolute pinnacle, only to be knocked back into the dust, left Luo Qingchen so dejected that he nearly coughed blood.

Suddenly, cries of alarm erupted from the mountain foot like exploding thunder.

A chilling streak of sword light rose, piercing the heavens and scattering the drifting clouds!

Fresh blood dripped from Luo Qingchen's palm. Without bothering to stop the bleeding, he looked up and saw a youth gripping a sword, wrapped in sword light as he soared upward and crashed into the sea of clouds halfway up the mountain.

How could Luo Qingchen forget this youth?!

With his cultivation, he had actually lost out to a youth who had only just entered Spirit Refinement Fetal Respiration and did not even know more than a few sword techniques!

The scene before him resurfaced: the youth standing tall in the spring rain beneath his pressure, his back straight and unyielding, refusing to bow or bend. It lingered without end, nearly overlapping with the sight of the youth now soaring into the sky, borne aloft by the sword.

Like two heavy hammers, they smashed viciously into his heart.

The spring breeze swept through the mountain forest, scattering peach blossoms from the Peach Trees lining both sides of the mountain path. Though it was spring, it carried the bleak severity of autumn, and Luo Qingchen suddenly felt a biting chill. His body swayed involuntarily.

He felt that this time... his Dao heart might truly have been veiled in dust by this youth.

"Why? On what grounds?!"

Luo Qingchen refused to accept it. Silver Sword Qi rose around him as he ascended from the forest toward the heavens. Yet halfway there, he caught sight within the sea of clouds of that familiar Ink Bamboo painting—drawn with white clouds as paper and Sword Qi as ink...

At that moment, Luo Qingchen's mind seemed struck by thunder god's chisel and hammer, rousing furious lightning and roaring thunder!

He understood.

Why had the Sixth Mountain Lord suddenly opened his mountain? So it turned out...

The Mountain Guardian had long since been chosen.

This so-called selection was merely a sedan chair prepared for the youth, one that would allow him to enter the Sacred Mountain openly and honorably!

Luo Qingchen looked at the cut across his palm.

Then he suddenly gave a lonely, bitter laugh.

Who, by the force of the road, raised one into the blue clouds?

An Le merely felt his vision blur before he entered the sea of clouds. He roamed through it with unrestrained delight, free as a fish leaping through a boundless sea. When he saw the Ink Bamboo painting of heaven and earth, he could not help drawing a breath in amazement. To paint with the sea of clouds as paper and Sword Qi as ink was truly a spirit soaring to the skies!

Yet this Ink Bamboo painting faintly plucked at a string in An Le's mind, and he seemed to understand something.

No wonder the sword had come straight for him. So he had taken the back door—because someone stood above him.

Remembering Old Man of the Imperial Ancestral Temple's words that he would take him somewhere in three days, everything now connected, and realization dawned on him.

The Sixth Mountain Lord knew of his Ink Bamboo painting. Perhaps... Old Man of the Imperial Ancestral Temple had spoken to him beforehand?

An Le held the sword, his body floating in midair. Looking into the distance, he saw a quiet pavilion halfway up a jagged sword peak.

A middle-aged man in azure robes stood within the pavilion, a Pine Wood Sword Box at his side, gazing toward him.

An Le's gaze met his.

The ink-black sword in his hand trembled gently, and An Le immediately understood that this man was the legendary Sixth Mountain Lord, whose single sword box concealed all the swords beneath heaven!

An Le held his sword and cupped his hands, bowing deeply toward the sea of clouds.

The middle-aged man's stiff lips lifted slightly as he nodded. Extraordinary light flickered repeatedly in his eyes. His palm rested on the sword box, and he could feel the swords within clang and tremble, as though all of them had been drawn to the youth in the clouds.

That youth... possessed an innate resonance with swords, as though he had been born for the sword.

He was a naturally formed jade embryo for the sword, untouched by the sculptor's chisel!

If the youth's Ink Bamboo painting, the feeling of the youth's backbone and Sword Qi, had moved the middle-aged man to take him as Mountain Guardian, then now, seeing the youth in person and sensing the trembling and cheers of his old companions within the box, the middle-aged man understood that he might have found a treasure!

"Excellent!"

Even the middle-aged man's stiff smile softened somewhat as he spoke.

Only two words, yet they made his fondness for An Le plain to hear.

To a Mountain Lord, a Mountain Guardian was more akin to the relationship between disciple and master. Thus, the middle-aged man was rarely moved enough to reveal his emotions.

"Are you willing to enter my Sixth Mountain?"

The sea of clouds churned, and the Ink Bamboo painting rustled.

The man stood in the quiet pavilion halfway up the mountain, facing the spring rain that filled the sky as he sincerely asked the sword-wielding youth.

Sword Qi bore the youth aloft upon the clouds. Faced with the middle-aged man's invitation, the smile on his face faded. Yet he did not immediately agree, instead falling into solemn contemplation.

The position of Mountain Guardian, one that countless cultivators in Lin'an Prefecture had gone mad over, now lay before An Le, within easy reach.

So long as he nodded, he could enter the Sacred Mountain, become a Mountain Guardian, and soar into the heavens in a single bound.

Suddenly, An Le's mind stirred, and he looked down beneath the sea of clouds.

At the mountain foot.

The uproar had surged for a long while. Most cultivators seemed to have already learned whom the Sixth Mountain Lord had chosen as his Mountain Guardian.

Lin Manor had produced a Mountain Guardian. Whether or not that youth belonged to Lin Manor, he had emerged from Lin Manor's carriage in full view of everyone. That could not be denied, so naturally he was marked with Lin Manor's name.

Many gazes swept over Lin Manor's carriage—some envious, some complicated, some surprised. Every kind of emotion descended like a sudden storm.

Then suddenly, the breathing of those looking toward the carriage halted.

For a pale, jade-white hand extended from behind the carriage curtain.

A graceful, alluring, and dignified figure emerged with measured steps.

Skin flawless as luminous jade, embroidered skirts and brocade sleeves glowing like rosy clouds.

Jade Guanyin of the Heart Sword, Hua Jiebing of Lin Manor!

As the woman stepped from the carriage, her delicate brows lifted slightly, as though she had thought of something delightful. A smile hung upon her red lips.

The next moment, a vast surge of spiritual force crashed down like an overturned mountain, weighing heavily upon every cultivator present.

The woman flicked her slender finger, and a streak of sword light shot out, lifting her lovely figure straight into the blue clouds. She drifted into the sea of clouds, stepping like a lotus as she appeared beside the deeply bowing youth.

A delicate fragrance brushed his face. An Le was slightly startled. Turning his head, he saw Madam Hua.

Madam Hua curtsied to the Mountain Lord, then looked at An Le and smiled lightly. "There were some things I did not finish saying in the carriage. Though becoming a Mountain Guardian counts as entering the Sacred Mountain, it also means losing the right to enter the Sacred Mountain, speak with the Sacred Teacher, become a Mountain Lord, and open a mountain gate."

"I can seek an opportunity for you. Whether you become a Mountain Guardian or continue forward through hardship and attempt that faint hope of opening a mountain gate upon the Sacred Mountain, the choice is yours."

At the quiet pavilion halfway up the mountain, the Sixth Mountain Lord's expression remained unchanged, and he did not speak to interrupt.

An Le sank into thought once more.

Becoming a Mountain Guardian also meant losing the qualification to become a Mountain Lord.

Though the youth's cultivation had only just begun, today he had watched the Sixth Mountain Lord utter merely the words "open the mountain," and the world had been stirred.

A thousand-foot wave crossed the river; ten thousand bamboo stalks bent as it entered the grove!

Such spirit, such influence, filled him with yearning.

A youth bore bold spirit; the time to strive fiercely would come.

With a tiger hidden in his heart, his grand ambition could tower above the clouds. An Le had a thought: his future would certainly not end with being a Mountain Guardian.

Perhaps many would consider An Le unable to recognize favor, but he truly did not wish to stop here.

After pondering for a long time—

An Le exhaled, raised the Ink-Colored Azure Blade with both hands, and slowly extended it toward the quiet pavilion halfway up the mountain in a deep bow.

"Madam Hua, Mountain Lord, An Le is willing to try the difficult road. Perhaps one day, I may open a mountain gate upon the Sacred Mountain."

Heaven and earth abruptly fell silent. Only the spring breeze and spring rain brushed softly by, along with the youth's words of lofty ambition.

After a long while—

The azure-robed figure in the quiet pavilion halfway up the mountain suddenly laughed aloud. Looking at the youth, he understood his aspirations, and his eyes were filled with appreciation.

Madam Hua also smiled in satisfaction.

"Young Master An, do you still remember the gift of a painting I promised you?"

"Today, I shall give it to you."

As her words fell—

With a springlike smile across her face, Madam Hua looked toward the Sixth Mountain Lord in the quiet pavilion halfway up the mountain.

She formed a lotus with her fingers, and Sword Qi bloomed like flowers behind her.

"Sixth Mountain Lord, in the name of protecting An Le's path, Jiebing asks for a Minor Sacred Token."

Everyone, please be sure to read through to the end and help Old Li make a push for next week's Three Rivers recommendation. Please send recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Old Li offers his thanks!