Peacock Spirit Race

Gu Mo asked, puzzled, "Possessed by a ghost? Why put it that way?"

Qi Tianchu glanced at Gu Mo and chuckled. "Because he's a lot like you. All of a sudden, he started displaying a whole host of powerful martial arts.

"Back then, after I defeated Wang Yunshen and took Azure Wave Mountain, Wang Yunshen disbanded the Misty Sword Sect and took his family to Qingyang County. Less than a year later, he died a bitter, despondent man. His son's martial arts were passable, but he was barely first-rate. Forget restoring Wang Yunshen's glory—he nearly lost the family home.

"It wasn't until Wang Dongli grew up that the Wang family's name spread again. Strangely, though, he didn't rebuild the Misty Sword Sect. Instead, he founded the Dongli Sect and named it after himself.

"But at the time, the Four Directions Sword Sect branches in Qingyang County were joined at the hip and looked out for one another. The Dongli Sect had little room to grow and remained tucked away in a county town. Wang Dongli showed no great ambition in those years, either. He was known throughout the martial world for his gentle temperament.

"Then, five years ago, while investigating the Cat Demon Case in Qingyang County, you uncovered the Four Directions Sword Sect's sordid dealings. The sect fell apart overnight, and only then did the Dongli Sect emerge and seize a sizable territory in Qingyang County.

"Even then, nothing about Wang Dongli seemed unusual. His martial arts were somewhat stronger than the martial world had estimated, but that was perfectly normal. The Dongli Sect had spent years in its little corner, and Wang Dongli rarely fought. It was only reasonable that people had misjudged his abilities.

"But starting last year, something was wrong.

"Wang Dongli's personality changed overnight. The gentle man he'd been became obsessed with martial arts and began challenging people everywhere. He was forceful about it, too. If someone refused, he'd camp outside their door until they were sick of him and finally fought.

"Fortunately, although he went around forcing challenges on people, he limited himself to blocking their doors and saying provocative things. He never stooped to threatening them by abducting their wives or daughters. That's one reason I agreed to fight him.

"Beyond his change in temperament, the greater change was in his martial arts. Since last year, he's challenged more than forty experts in Yunzhou and used at least ten completely unrelated martial arts. None belonged to the Wang family, but no one has found traces of any other sect's or family's martial arts in them, either."

At that, Qi Tianchu looked at Gu Mo. "Does any of that sound familiar?"

Gu Mo smiled. "He does sound a lot like me."

"You go around hunting wanted criminals, while Wang Dongli goes around challenging experts," Qi Tianchu said. "He started with Super-Class Experts, then moved on to Grandmasters, and now he's challenging me. Even though we've already agreed to fight on the ninth of this month, he's arranging another match today.

"Look at him: if he isn't fighting someone, he's on his way to fight someone. As for you, if you aren't killing wanted criminals, you're looking for them. Then there are all the strange, mysterious martial arts the two of you keep pulling out. Did you stumble into the same kind of fortuitous opportunity?"

Hearing Qi Tianchu put it that way, Gu Mo did begin to wonder.

Could I really have run into someone like me?

"Interested now?" Qi Tianchu asked with a smile.

Gu Mo nodded slightly. "I'm a One Who Knows From Birth who awakened past life memories."

Qi Tianchu looked startled. "There really are people who know from birth?"

"What's so hard to believe?" Gu Mo said. "Everyone knows Emperor Xiao Zhaolin of the Chu Kingdom was born with Double Pupils. He's an Innate Sage too. If someone can be born with Double Pupils, why would someone who knows from birth be strange?"

"It is strange," Qi Tianchu said. "How could it not be? Double Pupils are a special physical trait. Unusual, yes, but understandable. Awakening past life memories, though—that's truly extraordinary. Is reincarnation real? Are there really past lives and present lives?"

Qi Tianchu's questions piqued Gu Chundong's and Shen Bai's curiosity as well.

Rumors that Gu Mo was the legendary One Who Knows From Birth had circulated through the martial world for a long time. Later, after he more or less acknowledged it himself, he became the third widely known Innate Sage after Xiao Zhaolin and Ye Chen.

But hearing rumors was one thing. Hearing Gu Mo say it himself still filled them with shock and questions.

Gu Chundong, meanwhile, could not help growing nervous.

She had heard long ago that Gu Mo had awakened past life memories. Worry had kept her from asking him about it, and she had always pretended not to know. Now Qi Tianchu had raised the question, and her nerves tightened.

Red Clothes was the only one present who seemed unconcerned. Her knowledge database contained information about people who knew from birth, so she found nothing remarkable about it.

"How should I explain it?"

Gu Mo thought for a moment. "Since I've awakened past life memories, there must be past lives and present lives, and there must be reincarnation. But it isn't like the underworld and registers of life and death in folk tales."

As he spoke, Gu Mo turned to Qi Tianchu. "You should remember what happened to your master, Senior Yu Jinghong. Normally, people have consciousness and a Nascent Soul after death.

"They don't persist for long, though. Unless someone uses special means involving a forbidden object like the White Jade Capital, or reaches the Ascension Realm, their consciousness soon fades after death. Their Nascent Soul returns to the void and becomes the substance of life in this world.

"Then, through certain coincidences, those substances recombine and form a new life that is born. That completes what people call reincarnation.

"So strictly speaking, after reincarnation, the person has no connection to their previous life. They're someone else entirely—in body and soul, in mind and will.

"Still, countless people are born through reincarnation every day. Over decades or centuries, the number is impossible to count. With so many births, accidents are bound to happen. Perhaps the substance of life didn't return completely to the void. Or perhaps, once in countless trillions of cycles, the way things work inevitably produces someone who suddenly remembers a previous life. That's awakening past life memories: what people call a One Who Knows From Birth."

Gu Chundong hurriedly asked, "Brother, what does it feel like? Are the emotions from that life strong?"

Gu Mo shook his head. "They're almost negligible. Awakening past life memories is like having a dream—just a clearer, more complete one.

"Someone might remember how they felt in a dream, but no one lives within those feelings. It's like watching someone else's life as a spectator, like watching a play or scenes flashing past."

Gu Chundong quietly breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. As long as my brother is still my brother!"

Understanding dawned on Qi Tianchu. "So those martial arts of yours came from your previous life? But no one in the martial world can find any trace of them."

"Has it occurred to you," Gu Mo said evenly, "that my cultivation might be high enough for me to have devised them all myself?"

"That's possible too, haha!" Qi Tianchu chuckled. "Hey, in that case, could Wang Dongli be a One Who Knows From Birth like you?"

"I can't say," Gu Mo replied. "In theory, it's unlikely. But judging by what Wang Dongli has shown, it's certainly possible."

What Qi Tianchu had described did fit an Innate Sage. Gu Mo had only recently learned from Venerable Monk Huineng that the Book Spirit of the Great Sun Demonic Art was constantly searching for Innate Sages. Given the Great Sun Demonic Art's nature, it would be perfectly normal for Wang Dongli to undergo a transformation in a short time.

Qi Tianchu grinned. "Your cultivation is high, and you're an Innate Sage. When the time comes, watch Wang Dongli carefully and see what's going on with him!" Then he looked at Gu Mo. "You aren't in a hurry to leave this time, are you?"

"Probably not," Gu Mo said.

"Excellent." Qi Tianchu laughed and gave his fishing rod a sudden yank. A silver fish three feet long burst through the ice. "Shen Bai! Take this fish and stew it. And bring out that aged brew you stole from me. Today, the two of us will share a proper drink with Great Hero Gu!"

Shen Bai's face stiffened. "Father-in-law, you knew?"

Qi Tianchu snorted. "Do you think I don't know my own daughter? Would that girl clean my room for no reason? If you hadn't put her up to stealing my wine, would she have gone in there? She's complained that my room stank since she was little. Ah, a married daughter really is water thrown out the door..." Fuming, Qi Tianchu swatted Shen Bai with his fishing rod. "And you're no good either, you bastard. Getting your wife to steal her father's wine..."

Clutching the silver fish, Shen Bai fled in a flash.

Watching from the side, Gu Mo burst out laughing!

Time flew. In the blink of an eye, the ninth of May arrived.

A great commotion swept Azure Wave Mountain.

The summit of Tianqin Mountain was normally a scenic spot in the Azure Wave Mountain range, a place of quiet. Now it rang with voices. Wang Dongli, the Great Grandmaster who had risen so suddenly over the past year, was to fight Qi Tianchu, once Yunzhou's foremost martial artist and now its second.

Renowned martial artists from Yunzhou and the surrounding regions, sect leaders, family heads, and wandering heroes drawn by the news packed the snow-covered summit.

The Six Doors had also sent its best personnel, led by a commander, to maintain order and prevent the crowd from turning chaotic.

Anticipation, excitement, and tension mingled in the air.

Even the wind and snow seemed to take the hint and ease. Only a scattering of fine snowflakes drifted down, lending the coming Grandmaster Battle an added edge of killing intent.

As host, Qi Tianchu had reached Tianqin Mountain's summit early. He stood motionless in the wind and snow, letting the flakes cover him until he resembled a snowman.

Farther away, Gu Mo, Gu Chundong, Red Clothes, and Shen Bai sat around a small stove in a pavilion halfway up another mountain. They were all martial arts experts and had no fear of the cold. The stove was there purely because Gu Mo had lately developed a fondness for Qi Tianchu's treasured century-old brew. Warming wine in the snow while watching a duel had a charm all its own!

"Brother, Old Sect Leader Qi won't lose, will he?" Gu Chundong asked. "I heard Wang Dongli challenged four Grandmasters in a row recently. Even Yunzhou's third-ranked Grandmaster lost to him. His sword momentum must be terrifying by now!"

Gu Mo slowly poured himself a cup of wine. "Old Sect Leader Qi's sword is terrifying too. Even Su Qianqiu and Old Celestial Master Zhang can't gauge his limits."

Gu Chundong glanced at Qi Tianchu in the snow. Just as she was about to speak again, a commotion rose from Tianqin Mountain. Someone shouted, "Wang Dongli is here!"

The crowd parted on both sides.

Wang Dongli emerged slowly from the sea of people and made his unhurried way up toward the summit.

Gu Mo rose too and stepped to the edge of the pavilion to look.

Wang Dongli appeared to be in his forties, with a lean face and slender build. He wore a blue-gray cloth robe faded from washing. He looked nothing like the bitter avenger burdened by a blood feud Gu Mo had imagined.

Wang Dongli walked with steady steps and a calm gaze that even held a trace of warmth. An unremarkable longsword of simple, old-fashioned design hung across his back.

If not for the contained bearing of a Grandmaster about him, as deep as a still pool and firm as a mountain, one might have mistaken him for an ordinary schoolteacher.

He was utterly calm. He had not even gathered his strength. It was as though he had come to Tianqin Mountain to enjoy the view rather than issue a challenge.

Wang Dongli walked to the open space reserved at the center of the frozen lake. He looked up calmly at Qi Tianchu, who stood on the opposite summit with his hands clasped behind his back. Wang Dongli cupped his fists and bowed, his clear, steady voice carrying across the grounds.

"Wang Dongli of the Dongli Sect in Qingyang County greets Old Sect Leader Qi. Thank you for agreeing to this fight."

His opening words caught everyone off guard. There was no furious accusation, no heated reproach, not even the faintest hint of resentment.

Before today, word of the grievances between Wang Dongli's family and the Azure Wave Sword Sect had already spread throughout the martial world. Everyone was telling the story of a Wang descendant who had endured for decades until a gifted heir finally arose to seek revenge.

Most people had assumed today's fight would be the tale of an avenger drawing his sword against his enemy.

The martial world had always loved a story like that.

But now, Wang Dongli's courtesy left many spectators disappointed.

Even Qi Tianchu looked surprised. He slowly opened his eyes, and the snow covering him scattered in an instant. Looking down at Wang Dongli, he said, "Sect Leader Wang, your grandfather's death back then was indeed caused by my youthful recklessness. I wronged the Wang family."

"You misunderstand, Old Sect Leader Qi. I did not arrange today's duel over an old grudge."

Wang Dongli's voice was not loud, yet everyone heard him clearly. "My grandfather, Wang Yunshen, lost to you in a fair martial contest. He was the lesser fighter and accepted defeat. His despondency in his later years came from a knot in his own heart, not any fault of yours. No one in the Wang family has ever regarded that defeat as a blood feud."

An uproar swept the crowd. Many had traveled from far away hoping to see a fierce clash fueled by a blood feud. They had never expected Wang Dongli to say this.

"The Wang family has also been able to live peacefully in Qingyang County all these years in part because the Azure Wave Sword Sect kept the demonic path in check and the martial world stable," Wang Dongli continued, still calm. "I've come to challenge you today for matters of the martial world, nothing more. First, I want to bring the Wang family back to Azure Wave Mountain. Second, I want to make a name for myself. After all, what else does one seek while roaming the martial world but fame and fortune?"

His open, forthright words and remarkable bearing won the goodwill and respect of many in the crowd. Even Qi Tianchu's eyes showed a flash of surprise and approval. He gave a slight nod and said clearly, "Since you put it that way, Sect Leader Wang, I have nothing more to say. Show me what you can do!"

The moment his words fell, a Killing Aura surged!

Without another word of ceremony, both figures moved almost at once.

Wang Dongli turned his wrist, and his old-fashioned longsword slid silently from its sheath. Swordlight flashed. Rather than the elusive, shifting strike one might expect, it carried a strange weight. His sword momentum unfolded like an antelope hanging by its horns, its path cunning and uncanny. As the tip trembled, it drew in the surrounding snow and wind, turning them into countless dense whirlwinds of Ice Crystal that swept toward Qi Tianchu and blotted out the sky!

The swordsmanship was strange, its force uncanny, its angle unexpected. Not one person present could name it. They felt only the biting cold and the killing intent concealed within.

Yet Qi Tianchu faced the unfathomable attack with effortless ease.

He did not draw his sword. He merely held two fingers together like a blade and swept them out at will. Peerlessly sharp Sword Qi sprang into being wherever his fingertips passed, each strike landing precisely on the weakest point in Wang Dongli's sword momentum, where its next change had yet to take shape.

His movements looked slow but were as fast as lightning. He shifted within inches, as relaxed as if strolling through a courtyard, yet always evaded the fiercest killing blows by a hair's breadth.

Clang, clang, clang...

The collisions between Sword Qi and blade came as thick as rain.

Each clash of Sword Qi against steel or the storm of ice sent out a visible ring of force.

The waves carried shattered Ice Crystal and snow outward like white shock waves. They slammed into the rock along the frozen lake with thunderous booms, shaking loose great sheets of snow.

The solid ice bore the aftershocks of the two experts' power with groaning cracks. Weblike fissures spread rapidly from where they fought in every direction.

Their power churned the wind and snow into a frenzy. No longer falling naturally, it formed huge, chaotic vortices under the pull of their surging true qi and sword intent. At times it shot skyward; at others it swept low across the ice. The whole summit of Tianqin Mountain seemed to become a raging domain ruled by snow, ice, and Sword Qi.

Qi Tianchu's sword intent was pure and vast, bearing the authority of a Grandmaster who saw through all things and controlled the entire battle. However strange or changeable Wang Dongli's swordsmanship became, Qi Tianchu dissolved and suppressed it by the simplest, most direct means.

For all the strangeness of his sword momentum, Wang Dongli remained trapped beneath Qi Tianchu's seemingly casual but impenetrable net of swords. Unable to break through, he was forced back step by step, defending far more than he attacked.

The spectators watched in a daze of fascination. Every move in a Grandmaster Battle held a profound understanding of the martial dao, and they learned much from it.

Gu Mo watched calmly from some distance away. Shen Bai and Gu Chundong stood beside him, somewhat tense. Red Clothes frowned slightly, as though sensing something.

"Three more moves, and Wang Dongli loses!"

Gu Mo drained his cup of wine and sat down.

Sure enough, just as three moves had passed, a sharp light flashed in Qi Tianchu's eyes. The motion of his paired fingers changed abruptly. He turned his hand into a palm and pressed lightly through the air.

A vast, unstoppable sword intent gathered in an instant. It was as though he had drawn in the chill of every snowfield on Azure Wave Mountain and forged it into an enormous sword of ice, honed to its utmost. Bearing the power to freeze all things, it crashed down toward Wang Dongli!

There was no avoiding this strike!

Wang Dongli's expression changed slightly. He raised his sword to block.

Boom!

A tremendous crash rang out. Vigorous Energy burst in all directions, and the hard surface of the frozen lake split into a web of cracks. Wang Dongli grunted as though struck by a great hammer. The force hurled him backward, a vivid spray of blood spurting from his mouth. He slammed down onto the ice more than ten yards away. His old sword flew from his hand and stuck nearby, still humming. He struggled to rise, but another mouthful of blood welled up. His chest split open, blood seeping through.

The victor was decided!

Silence held the crowd for a moment before deafening cheers erupted.

Yet just as everyone thought the dust had settled, Wang Dongli raised his head with difficulty. He wiped the blood from his mouth. Far from defeated, his eyes burned with an almost mad intensity. Panting, he spoke in a hoarse but remarkably clear voice.

"Old Sect Leader Qi... your martial arts verge on the divine... I admire you! But... I still have one sword strike... Please... judge it!"

Before his words had faded, an entirely different aura erupted from him.

Gu Mo, who had been about to pour more wine, stood again and looked closely. He saw something astonishing: Wang Dongli's blood froze in an instant and burst into icy flame. His wound healed at once.

Wang Dongli did not retrieve the sword on the ground. He merely raised his right hand with difficulty, held two fingers together like a sword, and pointed at Qi Tianchu from afar!

The gesture looked perfectly ordinary.

But the instant his fingertip extended, Gu Mo murmured, "Nascent Soul Power?!"

Gu Mo clearly sensed an intensely concentrated Spiritual Power imbued with the power of shattering. Like an invisible, razor-sharp spike, it ignored the distance between them and pierced straight toward the Sea of Consciousness between Qi Tianchu's brows.

Yet this strike was not pure Nascent Soul Power.

Gu Mo could clearly sense Wang Dongli's blood freezing within him at that moment, though he could still move. The frozen blood released streams of sword intent that drove his Nascent Soul to leave his body—something only an Ascension Realm cultivator should have been capable of.

In that instant, Wang Dongli's Nascent Soul, which should have remained firmly anchored in his Sea of Consciousness, was forcibly pulled from his body. It became a Nascent Soul Sword and flew at Qi Tianchu.

At that moment, most of the crowd felt only a heart-stopping chill pass through them, with no idea why. Only a handful of Top Experts, such as Shang Buyu, dimly sensed an indescribable terror descending.

Facing that uncanny, lethal strike aimed directly at his Nascent Soul, Qi Tianchu's eyes suddenly blazed. "A fine sword strike!"

Before his voice faded, a terrifying sword intent surged skyward from him, as though it would tear open the heavens and destroy all things.

The sword intent was violent and absolute, filled with an Aura of Destruction that would shatter jade and stone together and return all things to the void.

It made him a different man from the peaceful figure who spent his days fishing!

He held two fingers together like a sword and thrust them toward the invisible spike of Nascent Soul Power!

There was no earthshaking sound, only a sense of annihilation that froze the soul!

Space seemed to warp faintly before Qi Tianchu's fingertips.

At that moment, Gu Mo and Red Clothes saw something extraordinary.

The Nascent Soul Sword, formed from the last of Wang Dongli's strength, was in theory power of the Ascension Realm. Energy below that realm could not touch it; it should have been able to ignore the martial arts of the mortal world.

Yet the instant it met the destructive sword intent at Qi Tianchu's fingertips, it melted away like snow beneath a blazing sun. It dispersed without a sound, without raising so much as a ripple, and was utterly erased.

Only then did Gu Mo understand why both Zhang Daoyi and Su Qianqiu had held Qi Tianchu in such high regard. Though Qi Tianchu could not even place among the top five on the Qian Kingdom's Heavenly Ranking, they believed he could drag anyone in the world down with him.

When Qi Tianchu fought with his life on the line, his sword intent could grow so powerful that its energy rose to another level. He could meet Nascent Soul Power with Martial Dao True Intent.

Everyone knew that only Qi Refiners could reach the Ascension Realm.

Only Qi Refiners could cultivate to the point where their Nascent Soul separated from their body.

Now Qi Tianchu seemed to have found a new path toward ascension.

"Pfft!"

Wang Dongli looked as though lightning had struck him. His already grievously injured body shook violently, and thin threads of blood seeped from all seven of his facial orifices. His eyes were full of disbelieving horror and bewilderment as he stared at the fading, heart-stopping Aura of Destruction around Qi Tianchu's fingertips. "What... what sword strike was that...?"

Qi Tianchu slowly lowered his hand, and the sword intent receded like the tide. A trace of weariness showed on his face. "That strike is called Born to Die. You're the fourth person in the world to survive it."

"Who were the other three?" Wang Dongli asked.

"Jiang Ruoxu, Su Qianqiu, and Zhang Daoyi!"

Wang Dongli paused, then spat out a mouthful of blood. He cupped his fists toward Qi Tianchu. "Thank you for sparing my life, Old Sect Leader. Farewell!"

With that, Wang Dongli picked up his sword and staggered down the mountain.

In the pavilion on the other side, Red Clothes suddenly said, "My lord, that last strike of Wang Dongli's... it used his bloodline as a conduit to force his Nascent Soul into action. The method came from Penglai Island. Someone of the Peacock Spirit Race devised it with the aid of the White Jade Capital!"

Gu Mo raised an eyebrow. "The race that guards the Seven-Colored Peacock?"

Gu Mo had read about the Peacock Spirit Race at Dragon Tiger Mountain. Each of the world's four Divine Beasts—the Azure Dragon, Fire Kirin, Black Tortoise, and Seven-Colored Peacock—had a spirit race that guarded it.

"That very Peacock Spirit Race!" Red Clothes said.

Gu Mo brightened. "So Wang Dongli might be one of them?"

Red Clothes nodded slightly, then added, "Also, my lord, do you remember the divination I performed for you? To find Tie Tou, you needed to head east. Wang Dongli's name also contains the word 'east'!"