The secret of the Starlight Sword

A rising star of the martial world,

the Starlight Sword Master had died.

His death had been utterly meaningless.

"He came looking for me just to feed me a kill?"

Thinking back, Yang Chen had made quite a name for himself in the martial world and had been an idol to countless youngsters just starting out.

He had returned to his hometown alone, challenged his Grandmaster father to seek justice for his mother, then seized the Starlight Sword from a crowd of experts and become its master, decisive in his killing.

He had fought his way through every obstacle, challenging experts from all quarters-a textbook protagonist template.

A tragic past, a fortuitous opportunity, the martial world's public enemy, a peerless young hero...

That was the formula for the male leads of martial arts novels in earlier years, with winning a beauty's heart and other experiences still to come.

Unfortunately, he had died too soon.

Zhang Qingyuan dug a large pit nearby and buried him in it. Searching his body, he found only a dozen or so taels of silver.

Where was the sword manual?

Zhang Qingyuan held the Starlight Sword and examined it closely. Why was there no sword manual or accompanying internal cultivation method?

What made the Starlight Sword unique was that it required a specific sword manual and specific internal cultivation to unleash its power. Otherwise, it was merely a treasured sword much like the Questioning Heart Sword.

Li Qiuran stood beside Zhang Qingyuan, watching him heap earth over Yang Chen's grave.

That had scared her half to death.

She had thought Zhang Qingyuan was about to die before her eyes, and her heart had even stopped for a moment.

"Tell me, why do people in the martial world care so much about rankings?"

He recalled watching Little Li's Flying Dagger in his previous life. When the young A Fei first entered the jianghu, his greatest dream had been to become famous and earn a place in Baixiaosheng's Weapons Register.

"People of the jianghu, travelers of the jianghu. Everyone who practices martial arts spends their entire life training hard for nothing more than to leave their name in this world."

"Ah!" Zhang Qingyuan sighed and began to recite:

"From our generation rise the world's winds and clouds; once in the jianghu, the years hurry us on.

Imperial dominion and grand ambitions pass in laughter and talk, worth less than one drunken spell in life.

Sword raised, astride a mount, we sweep through ghostly rain; white bones pile like mountains, startling birds into flight.

Worldly affairs surge like tides, people flow like water; one can only sigh-how many return from the jianghu?"

"Hmm, did you write that poem?" Li Qiuran suddenly asked. The poem was richly evocative, capturing the rises and falls of those in the jianghu, as well as the desolation of those reduced to dry bones halfway through their journeys.

Zhang Qingyuan turned to her. "Of course I wrote it. What, you don't believe I can write poetry?"

"No, I don't," Li Qiuran said bluntly.

With his personality, he did not look like someone who could write poetry no matter how she looked at him.

Zhang Qingyuan pursed his lips. Anyway, this poem has never appeared in this world. If I say I wrote it, then I wrote it.

A literary plagiarist, that's all.

I've only done what every transmigrator would do.

Seeing Li Qiuran leave, Zhang Qingyuan followed her.

Burying Yang Chen instead of leaving his corpse exposed in the wilderness had already been an act of kindness on his part. Am I supposed to recite a Rebirth Incantation for him too?

Back on horseback, Zhang Qingyuan handed the Starlight Sword to Li Qiuran. She accepted the treasured sword and asked curiously, "Why are you giving it to me?"

"I already have the Questioning Heart Sword. This thing isn't much use to me."

Li Qiuran's sword had been left to her by her master. It was no precious blade, merely a standard-issue sword from the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Pavilion back then.

Looking at the treasured sword in her hands, Li Qiuran felt a little more warmth in her heart.

There was no shortage of people in the jianghu who killed for treasure. Even fathers and sons or husbands and wives turned against each other over a secret manual or a divine weapon. It was hardly anything rare.

And this was the Starlight Sword, a peerless treasured sword that had sparked a struggle in the martial world four months ago!

Seeing that Zhang Qingyuan was not putting on a show of generosity but was genuinely untroubled, Li Qiuran put the sword away and murmured, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Zhang Qingyuan winked at her.

To be honest, Zhang Qingyuan really had no particular interest in the Starlight Sword. In terms of quality alone, the Questioning Heart Sword was no worse.

Besides, his talent template was Zhang Sanfeng. The Heaven Sword had sat at Wudang for so many years-who had ever seen Zhang Sanfeng take it to heart?

This was Li Qiuran's first time thanking someone, and she felt very unaccustomed to it.

After putting the sword away, she hurriedly changed the subject. "Right, how did you dodge that strike just now? Even if you deliberately showed him an opening, with the speed of his sword, you still couldn't possibly have dodged it, could you?"

Zhang Qingyuan took out a Daoist scripture and said as he leafed through it, "Simple. None of you know just how fast I am when I use the Lotus Steps to their fullest.

"After I left the Three Purities Temple, the Lotus Steps were the first martial art I improved apart from the Yin-Yang Limitless Art.

"As I see it, how can anyone drift through the jianghu without taking a blade?

"And with how recklessly I act, I'm bound to stir up trouble. If an expert stronger than me ties me up in a fight, I have to have my escape skills honed to keep my little life intact.

"Everyone thinks I'm good at using my Taiji diagram, Taiji Fist, and Twelve Immortal-Slaying Forms. Actually, the martial arts I've trained best are the Jade Purity Lotus Step and the lightness skill Ascending the Clouds."

Seeing how he took pride in it rather than feeling ashamed, Li Qiuran could not help inwardly grumbling. Was it really all right to talk about running away so openly and righteously?

Zhang Qingyuan had learned this from a monkey, who had possessed just two Divine Abilities when he first came down the mountain.

The Seventy-Two Transformations to cause trouble, the Somersault Cloud to escape!

Zhang Qingyuan continued, "There is indeed a gap in quality between the Twelve Immortal-Slaying Forms and Starlight Swordsmanship. But as I said, sword moves are dead; people are alive.

"There is no strongest martial art in the world, only the strongest person!"

"No strongest martial art, only the strongest person..."

Li Qiuran mulled those words over and over. They made so much sense.

She realized how shallow her previous understanding of Zhang Qingyuan had been. From that poem just now to this philosophical saying, her impression of him had been refreshed time and again.

At their first meeting, she had thought him a wanderer of the jianghu. Later, she learned that he also had a chivalrous heart.

But the impression of his glib tongue, humor, and unrestrained ways had remained in her mind.

Until today, when Li Qiuran changed her view of him once again.

Indeed, the moment a boy became mature was truly captivating.

"Starlight Swordsmanship may be brilliant, but it still depends on who uses it. If its first-generation master were here, I'd drop to my knees and beg for mercy immediately.

"But Yang Chen? He couldn't unleash the Starlight Sword's power at all.

"I wasn't lying when I said that to him just before he died. He used Starlight Swordsmanship against me twice, and every move came in the same order. He didn't even know to change the sequence of his sword moves. Just how rigid could a person be?"

Zhang Qingyuan closed the Daoist scripture and stretched.

"After two rounds of his swordsmanship, I'd already adapted to his rhythm and knew his next move in advance. How could I still fail to dodge it?

"By the latter half of the second round, I wasn't even using the Twelve Immortal-Slaying Forms anymore. I was just anticipating his moves and countering whatever he threw at me.

"Now you understand, right?"

Li Qiuran nodded thoughtfully. "So you'd already worked out the pattern of his moves. After deliberately showing him that opening, you were confident you could dodge his next attack, right?"

"Of course. When you face an opponent in the future, remember this: don't memorize sword moves by rote. Learn to use them flexibly.

"For example, if the Sword Immortal encountered Yang Chen here, and Yang Chen used his Starlight Swordsmanship while the Sword Immortal casually used some commonplace jianghu swordsmanship-the lowest-grade kind-who do you think would win?"

"The Sword Immortal, I suppose," Li Qiuran said after thinking it over.

"Why?"

"He's the Sword Immortal, after all," Li Qiuran said.

"But he's only using commonplace stuff, the sort even the lowest jianghu roughnecks know," Zhang Qingyuan pressed.

Li Qiuran suddenly smiled. "I understand."

The Sword Immortal was not the Sword Immortal because he knew the Green Lotus Sword Song.

It was because whatever swordsmanship he used, it became the Green Lotus Sword Song in his hands.

Zhang Qingyuan smiled and went back to reading his Daoist scripture.

Li Qiuran drew the Starlight Sword and began digesting the principle she had grasped, stroking the patterns on the blade and studying their lines.

The two horses walked side by side for a long while. Suddenly, she gave a soft exclamation. "Look, quick! I found the Starlight Swordsmanship manual!"