On a neighboring peak, a young cultivator was turning to look at Zhou and the people around him when he suddenly sensed that everyone had fallen silent.
He turned back in bewilderment and asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"
"Dead!" his companion murmured beside him.
"What do you mean, dead? Who?"
"A Grandmaster!"
"A Grand... master? Are you joking? It hasn't even started... huh?"
He finally made out the situation below.
Chu Wusheng leaped over and caught Jiang Hongguang's corpse. At the sight of the wound that pierced his skull through his right eye, his whole body went cold, a chill spreading down his back.
This was terror!
How many years had it been? Since becoming a Grandmaster, he had scarcely experienced that emotion again.
This was a Grandmaster, one of those who stood at the very pinnacle of the Great Qian Dynasty, yet he had been slain in the blink of an eye! It looked no different from the gulf between them and Origin Scholars.
Faced with the being on the mountain, Chu Wusheng could scarcely muster even a trace of fighting spirit. All he felt was profound fear.
Qin Wuya raised his head toward the peak, his gaze solemn. Anyone who could kill Jiang Hongguang could kill him with a single sword strike, too!
From this moment onward, it seemed the entire landscape of Great Qian's Cultivation World was about to change.
Above the waterfall, the hemp-robed old man stared blankly, his mouth hanging open to expose a set of large yellow teeth.
From up here, he could clearly see everything on the opposite cliff. He had seen that Flying Sword leave the Scenery Pavilion, then return to it.
He could not be certain whether someone else was concealed there, but with such cultivation, bordering on invincibility, what need would there be to hide?
Then the expert Beyond Grandmaster on North Spring Mountain was that young man across from him?
Gu Yuanqing himself was surprised. He had never expected to kill his opponent with one strike. The power of his Sword Control was too weak, after all. Even the first strike, the most powerful, was only at the level of the Profound Martial Ninth Layer.
That strike had been more of a probe. He had even prepared for the man to charge up North Spring Mountain, ready to fight him with the full strength of his cultivation.
It seems I still underestimated the control I have over my Residence as the North Spring Mountain Master. Even a Grandmaster has no power to resist this ability. The so-called Mountain Master isn't merely a title, either. Perhaps it truly means the master of a mountain. Whether Mountain Observation, Object Control, or this hidden ability, all are extensions of the power behind that title.
At that moment, Gu Yuanqing gained a clearer understanding of what it meant to be bound to his Residence, vaguely discerning a trace of what lay hidden behind this ability.
By observing the mountain, he could understand it, and his consciousness could become one with it.
Object Control meant commanding objects, just as a person commanded his own body.
The empowerment granted by these abilities was gradually guiding him toward grasping the mysteries contained within the title of Mountain Master.
Thought after thought rose in his heart. His insights into Mountain Observation and Object Control intertwined in his mind, as though something would break open with the slightest touch.
Gu Yuanqing drew a deep breath and pressed all those thoughts down into the depths of his heart.
Clearly, this was not yet the time to ponder such matters.
Bracing both hands on the Scenery Pavilion's railing, he looked down and met Qin Wuya's eyes.
Despite the hundreds of zhang between them, each could still see the other clearly.
Qin Wuya's face was expressionless, his demeanor indifferent, but his eyes held a swordlike sharpness, an edge that could sever anything and made the eyes ache.
This is Great Accomplishment Sword Intent, a will nurtured by decades at the pinnacle of the sword path!
Gu Yuanqing did not look away, even as that concealed Sword Intent seemed to follow their gazes and plunge into his consciousness.
The next instant, Sword Intent erupted from Gu Yuanqing and soared skyward, as though answering a challenge from afar.
A trace of puzzlement flashed through Qin Wuya's eyes. He withdrew his gaze, and his Sword Intent vanished without a trace. Turning to Sword Demon Chu Wusheng, he said mildly, "Fifty years ago, you wouldn't have lost your composure over this. It seems your sword has grown dull."
Chu Wusheng froze. He looked down at Jiang Hongguang's corpse, then at the Heavy Sword in his hand. An inexplicable sense of sorrow and desolation rose within him.
The next instant, he sheathed the sword on his back and leaped toward the top of the Hongyan Mountain Waterfall with the corpse. Only when he was nearly at the summit did he turn and shout, "Qin Wuya, I hope that sixty years from now, when your allotted span draws to an end, you can still remember what you said today!"
Chu Wusheng reached the top of the waterfall and looked up to see the hemp-robed old man.
At first, he paid him no mind. Only after passing him by several dozen zhang did something suddenly occur to him.
He turned to look, but the old man on the green stone had already vanished.
Was it him? Could I have seen wrong? He can't possibly still be alive!
Puzzled, Chu Wusheng sped away over the treetops.
Yuan Yingsong, Deputy Commander of Divine Eagle Guard, arrived beside Qin Wuya.
"Senior, those two just now... were they both Grandmasters? May I ask who they were?"
"Old Man Tianzhu Jiang Hongguang of Star Sea Valley, and Sword Demon Chu Wusheng of the Heavenly Fiend Sect!"
Yuan Yingsong exclaimed in shock, "Those two? Aren't they both over two hundred years old?"
"Merely clinging to their last breaths."
The Sword Intent around Qin Wuya had fully receded, and he once again bore the air of a scholar. He glanced up at North Spring Peak once more and said mildly, "There is no longer any need for me here!"
As he spoke, he swept his long sleeve, leaped onto the treetops, and drifted away toward the royal capital.
"Farewell, Senior!"
Yuan Yingsong cupped his hands in salute. Only after Qin Wuya had gone far away did he look up at North Spring Mountain. While following him here, he had arrived just in time to witness Jiang Hongguang's death.
A Grandmaster had died beneath a sword just like that. He could scarcely believe his own eyes.
Still, he breathed a sigh of relief. After this, surely few would dare trespass on North Spring Mountain.
Meanwhile, the Martial World spectators gathered in the surrounding mountains exchanged bewildered looks.
"The... battle between Grandmasters is over just like that?"
"I suppose so. They've all left!"
"Damn it! I've been eating wind and sleeping under the dew around North Spring Mountain for nearly ten days, and all I got was a glimpse of a few figures before it was over?"
"You had it good. At least you saw the Grandmasters. Look at those fellows."
They turned to see several people hurrying toward them.
Before those newcomers even arrived, they called out from afar, "Brothers, has the battle between Grandmasters begun? Can you see it from this hilltop?"
Someone laughed loudly. "You're too late. Go home."
"Oh, it's the Hu Family brat. Don't try to fool me."
He had barely finished speaking when he saw many of the people on the hill use their movement techniques to leave. He froze on the spot.
Gu Yuanqing watched Qin Wuya disappear beyond the hilltop, and a sudden flicker of regret passed through his heart.
Had I known, I wouldn't have struck like that. I should have let that man come up first. What happened just now must have frightened everyone below. Just like that, my chance to fight a Grandmaster is gone. Who knows whether I'll ever get another opportunity like this in the real world?
Ah, never mind. At least this battle has brought peace and quiet back to North Spring Mountain. I won't have to worry constantly about someone sneaking up here. It's only a Grandmaster. I'll encounter one in the Spiritual Mountain Trial sooner or later. The North Spring Sword Sect must have had quite a few Grandmasters throughout its history. Perhaps that Old Man Tianzhu Jiang Hongguang will also be imprinted within the Spiritual Mountain Trial.
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