Earth Character Twenty-One, the Bamboo Grove courtyard.
Hum-
Sword Qi swept and surged, sending bamboo leaves whirling through the courtyard.
Xiao Ju was controlling her flying sword, locked in fierce combat with a black-robed figure.
The black-robed cultivator wore that ancient, hideously fearsome Nuo Mask, with a black talisman bearing gold lettering stuck to it.
Xiao Ju shifted her sword fingers, and several Sword Shadows formed, wheeling around the black-robed cultivator like tigers eyeing their prey.
It was the opening stance of Sword in the Clouds.
The black-robed cultivator remained unruffled, as unmoving as a mountain. Each movement was extremely slight, always narrowly evading the lethal strikes of Sword Qi.
The two exchanged blows with great gusto.
The battle raged on this side.
On the other side of the courtyard, however, an entirely different, leisurely scene unfolded.
"Two thousand... seven hundred..."
"Two thousand eight hundred?"
Song Yan lay sunning himself on a woven bamboo recliner, casually leafing through an ancient book in his hand.
Snake Treasure sat on him, playing with the little mechanical figure Xiao Ju had given her.
While recuperating his Divine Soul some time ago, Song Yan had whittled this recliner from some Spirit Bamboo in the courtyard, modeling it after Granny Qin's.
It was wonderfully comfortable to lie on.
No wonder Granny liked lying on this thing so much.
"Anyway, around three thousand years ago..."
Song Yan studied the ancient book's contents for a long while before deciding not to agonize over it.
He would just take it as around three thousand years ago.
Since refining the Soul-Nourishing Pills, he had focused on recuperating his Divine Soul, enjoying a rare stretch of leisurely days.
He often visited the inner and outer sect Library Towers, searching for information about the Immortal Dynasties of High Antiquity.
But there