The monkey king stood dumb as a wooden chicken.
In its eyes, Chen Jin had beckoned, and the precious sword had flown to him.
Such a feat clearly belonged to a sword immortal of legend.
Yet it had actually doubted Chen Jin earlier, and had even rudely shoved him.
That was already a way to court death.
Awe and fear mingled in the monkey king's heart. It involuntarily drew its head in, wondering whether to flee.
Fortunately, it saw the immortal master wave a hand, signaling them to withdraw.
As though granted a great pardon, the monkey king turned and led the mountain monkeys swiftly down the tree, back to the heap of junk below the slope.
After some thought, it led the troop out again to see whether there were any lone weasels they could beat like dogs fallen into the water.
They could collect spoils along the way.
The carrying chair left by the weasel ancestor was quite nice. They could carry it back, and whenever the immortal master went out, invite him to sit in it and carry him along. That would be a fitting display of grandeur.
In addition, the monkey king made up its mind that in the days ahead, unless summoned by the immortal master, it could no longer go up there casually.
For one thing, it needed to recover from its wounds; for another, it had come to feel that Chen Jin's might was unfathomable, and no longer dared act presumptuously.
Once the monkeys left, Chen Jin suddenly felt as though he had been hollowed out. He plopped down on the crown of the tree, the precious sword in his hand becoming so heavy he could barely lift it.
Seizing the sword from a distance just now had nearly exhausted the little True Qi in his body.
His success in a single attempt had been due not only to the True Qi, but also to his recent work clearing and connecting the three hand yang meridians.
And, most importantly, to some mysterious connection between him and this sword.
For the moment, he could not quite distinguish exactly what sort of connection it was.
Dark clouds piled up overhead, the wind rose, and lightning began to flash amid rumbling thunder.
From the look of things, another lightning tribulation was coming.
Chen Jin dared not linger. Holding the precious sword, he jumped stiffly down.
Though he had practiced this jumping motion repeatedly, it remained rigid, unable to match a living person's agility.
This was because his three foot yang meridians and three foot yin meridians were shriveled and withered.
Chen Jin had only just begun clearing the three hand yang meridians and had no time to spare for his legs.
The road of cultivation stretched on and on, a heavy burden over a long journey.
He slipped into the shrine with practiced ease. Before long, silver snakes danced wildly.
Crack!
Sure enough, lightning struck down, hitting the crown of the tree squarely and setting it ablaze with lightning fire.
Was it specifically coming to strike me? Or was the old banyan itself simply prone to attracting lightning?
Chen Jin pondered inwardly.
Either way, he would just hide.
For the next several days, wind and rain darkened the skies, without a single fine day.
Neither the sun nor the moon came out.
Unable to absorb the essence Qi of moonlight, the corpse monster stayed obediently in the stone house, resting and recuperating while studying the precious sword he had obtained.
This sword had a name.
Words were inscribed on both sides of its hilt: "Slay Evil" on one side, and "Su Zhen" on the other.
Taken literally, "Su Zhen" was a person's name, while "Slay Evil" was the sword's name.
Chen Jin felt he had heard the name "Su Zhen" somewhere before, but could not remember where.
He went down the slope to ask the monkey king about the origins of the Slay Evil Sword.
Surprised and delighted by the immortal master's arrival, the monkey king hurriedly gestured and described everything it had seen in the stockade that night.
So Su Zhen had already been killed by someone.
Chen Jin thought that if he had the chance in the future, he must visit that stockade.
But now was not the time.
He continued examining the Slay Evil Sword. Its cold blade was four feet long, its central ridge slightly raised. The watered patterns on the blade overlapped like fish scales, threaded with winding red strands that resembled meridians and blood vessels.
For some inexplicable reason, Chen Jin actually felt a closeness to those red strands, as though they were joined by blood.
Could this actually be my own blood? But how could that be...
He was struck speechless. Shaking his head, he set those stray thoughts aside.
This was no ordinary sword, but a magical sword-and one of considerable quality.
A "magical sword" was an object possessing spirituality, a weapon cultivators sought to wield.
Strictly speaking, a magical sword and a flying sword were not the same thing.
A magical sword was merely the basic version of a flying sword. It was ordinarily kept in a sheath and required little maintenance.
A flying sword, by contrast, was stored in a specially made sword case.
Once a flying sword had been fully nurtured, it became a sword pellet that could be stored within the body's acupoints. It moved at the heart's command: soft and rounded when withdrawn, swift as the wind and lightning when released, taking a person's head from a thousand miles away.
That was a true sword immortal!
Demon Beasts like the monkey king had seen little of the world and thought that drawing a sword through the air made one a sword immortal.
They could not exactly be called wrong; their level of understanding was simply different.
Chen Jin's understanding, however, came from a cultivation method mnemonic he had recently remembered:
"Nine Chapters of Sword Exegesis."
That was why, when he had drawn a sword on the ground last time, he had truly been hoping that, given the chance, he could obtain a sword as a weapon and gain some ability to protect himself.
Now his wish had come true, and he could begin practicing swordsmanship.
It was "practice," not "learning," because he already knew it.
Like the "Dragon and Tiger Inner Concealment Profound Chapter Scripture" and the "Eight Scenes Contemplation and Visualization Method," this "Nine Chapters of Sword Exegesis" was branded into his mind, without the slightest discrepancy.
Chen Jin thus thought that perhaps he really had once been a sword immortal...
Swish!
A blade whistled through the air, thrusting toward a withered leaf drifting down.
But the falling leaf followed the wind, drifting unpredictably. Though not alive, it moved better than a living thing and was not so easy to strike.
Swish! Swish!
Several thrusts in succession all missed.
Chen Jin brought the sword before him, gazed at its keen tip, and let out a quiet sigh.
The "Nine Chapters of Sword Exegesis" was undoubtedly an extremely profound sword Dao method formula. Cultivated to great mastery, it allowed one to fly on a sword and refine a sword into silk.
But at present, all he could perform were the sword moves.
These moves were exquisite too, containing hundreds upon thousands of variations. Unfortunately, constrained by his bodily shell, with stiff wrists and fingers like claws, he could not bring out any of those variations.
Even the finest sword moves became clumsy and sluggish. How could they strike a drifting leaf?
But Chen Jin was not discouraged in the least. He practiced earnestly, each movement precise and methodical. He firmly believed that if he kept practicing hard, one day, once he had fully connected and opened all three hand yang meridians and three hand yin meridians, he would wield this sword as naturally as his own arm, drawing it in and sending it out at will.
There lay his hope.
To live, a person very much needed hope to sustain their convictions.
The monkey king ran up and stood obediently at the edge, craning its neck and peering around. It dared not get too close, afraid that the sword might fly over and strike it. Would that not leave its head parted from its body?
While it could imitate sitting in meditation like copying a gourd from a model, faced with Chen Jin's sword practice, it had not the slightest thought of secretly learning it.
It could not learn it, and dared not try.
Although Chen Jin's sword moves looked slow and crooked, unable even to strike a falling leaf, the monkey king was convinced that the immortal master must have a deeper meaning in doing this.
Chen Jin's feat of beckoning the sword into his hand had been far too astonishing!
And far too frightening.
From then on, the monkey king harbored not the slightest doubt. It would go through boiling water and fire, at his every command.
For no other reason than that it wished to remain beside the immortal master to learn and seek the Dao. Even serving as a mere attendant boy would leave it perfectly content.
After finishing his sword practice, Chen Jin returned the sword to its sheath and looked over.
The monkey king hurried forward, chattering as it began gesturing.
"Hmm? That bunch of weasels came again?"
Chen Jin paused, thinking that perhaps his display of might that night had not been enough, and the other side had refused to submit and come sweeping back.
Their thieving hearts truly would not die.
Somewhat angry, he picked up the Slay Evil Sword and strode outside.