Seeking the Sword, Come Fight

Wang Xian shook his head. With a flick of his hand, a wooden sword appeared in his grasp.

Looking at the old woman, he asked, "Senior, do you mean this wooden sword? Master just carved it for me."

Dantai Xiaoxue reached out and took the wooden sword, holding it beneath her nose for a sniff.

She giggled. "This sword does not even have a trace of killing intent!"

The old woman's teeth itched with fury. Slapping the table, she shouted, "Old man, hand over your storage ring."

The Old Daoist laughed. "I can let you see it, but let us make this clear first. If you cannot find the Divine Sword, you must compensate me with three thousand spirit stones!"

"Pfft!"

The mouthful of tea the old woman had just drunk instantly sprayed out.

Furious, she cursed, "Have you gone mad from poverty?"

The Old Daoist shook his head and set his storage ring on the table. "You know full well that I am poor. If a Divine Sword truly fell from the heavens, I would have taken it down the mountain long ago to trade for spirit stones."

The old woman watched Wang Xian lower his head to write, then glanced at the Old Daoist's storage ring.

Without even reaching for it, she merely swept it with her divine sense. A look of disappointment appeared on her face.

She knew it as well. If the Old Daoist possessed a Divine Sword, he might hide it from others, but he could never hide it from her eyes.

Thinking of this, she could only let out an unwilling sigh.

Looking at Wang Xian, she smiled. "Little Daoist, what future could you possibly have following this old fellow? Why not come to the Sword Sect with me?"

Dantai Xiaoyu giggled. "Junior Brother, come back with me. I will have Master give you a spirit sword."

"Do you want to go?" the Old Daoist asked calmly.

"No. I do not have time!"

What filled Wang Xian's mind was the sword strike his master had sent soaring toward the heavens that day!

A single burning talisman paper had actually slashed out like a Divine Sword.

From that moment onward, there had been no room in his eyes for anyone else.

Seeing his master frown, Wang Xian jumped in fright.

He hurriedly replied to the old woman, "This junior has grown accustomed to peace and quiet with Master. I fear I cannot go to lively places."

The old woman frowned. "You think it is peaceful here? You still have that troublesome Senior Sister of yours. Once she returns, hmph!"

She did not say the rest, believing that the youth before her could understand.

Dantai Xiaoxue pursed her lips in a smile and said nothing.

The Old Daoist shook his head. "Do you master and disciple intend to come here and eat and drink for free?"

Bang!

The old woman slapped the table before her and said with a smile, "Exchange two moves with me. If you win, I will return your spirit stones."

The Old Daoist shook his head. "Those were yours to repay me in the first place!"

The old woman snapped, "I will add another five hundred!"

At those words, the Old Daoist burst into loud laughter.

He said to Wang Xian behind him, "Disciple, listen carefully. Your Martial Uncle Dongfang owes your master one thousand spirit stones."

Wang Xian froze. Master is really this poor?

Dantai Xiaoxue curled her little lips. Even I do not lack such a small amount of spirit stones.

It seemed the Daoist temple's Martial Uncle was truly poor.

The old woman stepped out of the main hall. The snow pines in the mountains trembled uneasily as an icy wind rose abruptly, sweeping up snow that filled the sky.

Amid the howling wind, the snowflakes in the sky instantly turned into waterfall-like snow mist, shrouding the Daoist temple.

She shouted coldly, "Come fight!"

"Do not be hasty!"

The Old Daoist took a single step and had already left the hall, standing a hundred zhang away from the old woman.

He laughed. "Do not make too great a spectacle of it and frighten my disciple!"

Without question, he did not care in the least about the old woman before him. What he cared about were the extra five hundred spirit stones.

The moment Wang Xian saw this, he set down his brush and slipped out of the hall to watch the excitement.

With Master making a move, he had nothing to worry about.

Dantai Xiaoyu was already standing before the main hall, quietly watching the scene amid the wind and snow.

When her master stood in the snow, with waterfall-like snow mist falling from the sky, the sight seemed to the two youngsters as though the old woman were an immortal.

Compared with the Old Daoist,

the old woman appeared refined, yet she possessed an otherworldly, drifting grace that even made her seem somewhat gentle.

As for the Old Daoist, standing there, he was like a snow pine.

"It seems we have not exchanged moves in ten years."

Looking at the old woman amid the snow mist, the Old Daoist's laughter gradually faded. "Make your move. Once we are done, we can drink."

The old woman said nothing and merely took a step forward.

But in Wang Xian's eyes, it was utterly shocking.

All at once, he could no longer understand.

He felt that the old woman before him had become an entirely different person. No, it would be more accurate to say that she had transformed like an immortal.

The old woman he could not fathom became a peerlessly beautiful woman.

Her slightly graying hair turned from white to black the instant she stepped forward.

From the snow mist that seemed to fill the heavens emerged black hair, gradually falling to her shoulders...

Startled, he asked the girl beside him, "Senior Sister, is Martial Uncle an immortal?"

The girl had clearly never seen her master like this either. So shocked that she covered her little mouth, she said softly, "Shh, do not speak."

Through the waterfall-like snow mist, the Old Daoist watched the changes taking place upon the old woman and let out a long sigh. "Time is merciless. You have actually returned to the past..."

Before he could finish, his voice stopped abruptly.

His gently furrowed brow followed suit.

For the aura around the old woman before him was still changing, still rising!

The cold wind howled. In the blink of an eye,

the white-haired old woman had transformed before his eyes into a breathtaking woman of no more than thirty...

Within the world's most mysterious Kunlun Sword Sect, this woman was the most low-profile. Few people even knew of her existence, apart from the Old Daoist.

It was said that the Sword Sect possessed a Heavenly Book.

It recorded mysterious cultivation arts that could restore youth, preserve beauty, and even grant immortality. Yet no one had ever cultivated them successfully.

Thus, no one in the world knew the truth.

Even someone like the Old Daoist had never believed such a thing.

For the Kunlun Sword Sect on the North Slope was a miraculous place...

Even if the old woman before him turned into a young girl, he would not find it strange.

Thinking of this, he waved to Wang Xian before the hall. "Disciple, your Martial Uncle's great name is Dongfang Nishang."

Wang Xian glanced at the girl beside him and replied, "This disciple will remember it."

"Do not try to claim familiarity with me. It is useless!"

Gazing at the Old Daoist in the snow, Dongfang Nishang, clad in a floral dress, said, "You may surrender now if you wish."

The Old Daoist was slightly taken aback, then immediately laughed loudly.

"Surrender before we have even fought? How am I supposed to face my disciple then?"

The Old Daoist's laughter slowly faded. Shaking his head, he said, "The two youngsters are staring with their eyes wide open. You are leaving me no way to save face!"

Before his words had faded, a whirlwind rose before him and swept forward.

Like a divine dragon, the wind rolled up the waterfall-like snow mist before and behind Dongfang Nishang into the sky, howling as it rushed toward the mountain ravine a hundred zhang away.

Before long, a series of rumbling sounds came from afar.

Before making a move, the Old Daoist transmitted his voice to Wang Xian:

Dongfang Nishang before them was the most dazzling genius the Kunlun Sword Sect had seen in a hundred years.

Whether it was the Sect Master or several Supreme Elders, all had wanted her to inherit their legacy.

Yet her eyes held only that Heavenly Book. Again and again, she had refused the inheritance of the sect master...

She had chosen a path that no one had ever succeeded upon.

She cultivated the ultimate art that no one in the Kunlun Sword Sect had managed to master in a thousand years.

Thus, Kunlun's finest and youngest genius of the past gradually vanished from the eyes of the world, until she was buried in the river of time.

From some unknown day onward, she became Kunlun's most mysterious cultivator.

Until today, when she appeared before the master and disciple.

At this point, the Old Daoist sighed again.

With a bitter smile, he said, "Junior Sister, can you lend me that Heavenly Book for a look?"