Heart's Knot, Changes

Before them stretched a sea of bamboo, emerald as jade.

A fresh breeze rose, brushing past the bamboo tips and setting layer after layer of leaves rustling. From above, it looked as though waves of emerald rolled through the bamboo forest.

Then, amid those surging "green waves," a flash of snowy white suddenly appeared, gone in an instant. The white stood in stark contrast to the surrounding green.

Li Shuangmu stood atop the bamboo tips, his body seemingly weightless as he rose and swayed with the stalks. His eyes were naturally closed, his expression as tranquil as an ancient well without ripples. The short beard above his lips and beneath his chin lent him an even more mature and dignified air. His long hair, tied in an ancient-style topknot, flowed loose behind him in the wind. His pristine white robe fluttered softly in the breeze.

His hands rested behind his back. He held a longsword the blazing color of the sun, half-hidden amid his loose black hair. The sword looked extraordinarily sharp, capable of severing hair with a single breath, yet not a single strand fell.

Suddenly, a tender green bamboo leaf was swept up by the wind and drifted before Li Shuangmu's eyes. The instant it obscured his gaze, his eyes snapped open. A strange gleam flashed through them.

With a sharp swish, like a blade slicing thin paper, the green leaf split down the middle into upper and lower halves.

Scarlet sword shadows, seemingly moving with extreme slowness, drifted from behind Li Shuangmu to before him. He spun the sword in a flourish like a fiery lotus, then raised it high above his head.

Then he slashed down diagonally in an instant.

At the same time, he lowered himself and pivoted right on the tips of his toes.