Gu Huaiwei as a Child
This was the third time Sang Ying had watched Gu Wangchuan practice swordsmanship. No matter how many times she watched, she still found watching Gu Wangchuan practice swordsmanship to be a pure enjoyment.
His movements were clearly skillful and simple, but it was precisely these simple movements that allowed him to unleash the full power of the Sever the Heavenly River.
Sang Ying didn't know what words to use to describe it. If she had to say, it would be that after watching Gu Wangchuan practice swordsmanship, she would know what true Swordsmanship in the world was like.
At that moment, Sang Ying felt as if her eyes had been opened to a whole new world.
Gu Wangchuan swiftly withdrew his attack, but the surrounding mountains were still in disarray.
"How's Heavenly River? Have I improved again?" Brushing the rocks off his body, Gu Wangchuan smiled smugly at the sword spirit.
The sword spirit merely glanced at the Spirit Stone in its Storage Bag and coldly replied, "These surrounding mountains have owners. Each mountain costs one hundred high-grade Spirit Stone. You destroyed five mountains... Very well, you're bankrupt."
Gu Wangchuan's gasp rang out clearly. After a moment of silence, he asked seriously, "Do you think it's too late for us to escape now?"
It was too late to escape now, so Gu Wangchuan obediently compensated the Aristocratic Clan patriarch. Fortunately, the patriarch knew how destructive this suddenly appearing sword cultivator was and arranged for him to use desolate rocky mountains as his training grounds. Otherwise, with the few Spirit Stone Gu Wangchuan had left, he probably wouldn't have been able to pay the compensation.
After completing ten years of cultivation and utterly destroying the cultivation grounds arranged for him by the kind-hearted patriarch, Gu Wangchuan embarked on a new cultivation journey with the Sever the Heavenly River.
Sang Ying, attached to the sword spirit's body, followed the two and saw many different landscapes and witnessed many strange and unusual things.
Gu Wangchuan was still the same as before, a busybody who would stand up for what was right when he saw injustice, not much different from how she remembered him.
But as Sang Ying looked at it, she felt something was off. According to Old Patriarch Bai, Gu Wangchuan should have left behind a few Sword Intent, so how could they be mixed with so many memories?
Moreover, she had already watched Gu Wangchuan demonstrate all the Sword Intent, and now all that was left was to comprehend it properly. But the Sword Intent did not leave her with the opportunity to comprehend it, but instead continued to take her through Gu Wangchuan's memories.
Sang Ying frowned and pondered for a moment. Could it be that there was something extremely important in Gu Wangchuan's memories?
With that in mind, Sang Ying suppressed her slightly restless thoughts and decided to wait and see, perhaps she would see something interesting next.
And the facts were just as Sang Ying had imagined.
After giving all the Spirit Stone he possessed to that Aristocratic Clan cultivator, Gu Wangchuan had no money to stay at an inn and could only make do with sleeping in the wilderness.
This time, he passed through a small village. Since the villagers were all ordinary people without Spirit Root, Gu Wangchuan was too embarrassed to ask for lodging and disturb them. So he found a straw pile outside the village and planned to rest and meditate for a while.
He now follows the path of ascetic cultivation, avoiding the use of Spiritual Power whenever possible. Most of the time, he looks like an ordinary person carrying a sword, nothing special.
Unfortunately, they were out of luck, as a light rain soon began to fall. With nowhere to hide, Gu Wangchuan saw the lights coming on in the village and decided to go inside to find a place to take shelter from the rain for a while.
He handed the Sever the Heavenly River to the Sword Spirit, and the two walked on the road, one in front of the other.
Not long after, a commotion arose, attracting their attention.
The sword spirit, with its keen hearing and sharp eyesight, quickly located the direction from which the sound came.
A group of teenagers were holding down a child and beating him, seemingly trying to steal something from the child.
The boys were simply dressed and lacked any Spiritual Qi; they were probably from the village. The bullied child, however, looked much more pitiful. His clothes were dirty and patched, and his hair was a mess, like a chicken coop, making him look like a little beggar.
But the child was very stubborn; even when he was being beaten by so many people, he didn't utter a single cry of pain.
"You little bastard, let go! If you don't let go, believe me, we'll beat you to death!" The tallest boy was trying his best to pry open the child's tightly clenched arms.
"Let go, you little bastard! Your parents are dead, you might as well die with them, why are you so stubborn?"
"A jinx, a jinx, a cursed star who brings misfortune to his parents! It'd be best to kick him out of the village as soon as possible!"
The child, who had initially been protecting himself, suddenly bit the leader's hand after hearing these words.
He used a lot of force when he bit down, and you could tell how much pain it must have hurt just by listening to the boy's scream.
The boy was furious and punched him even harder with his other hand. "Hurry up and beat him up, make him let go of his mouth. I'm going to pull out his teeth!"
Seeing that these people were getting increasingly violent, Sang Ying was getting extremely anxious. Finally, the sword spirit, who had been watching from the sidelines for a long time, made its move.
Even though Gu Wangchuan didn't intentionally kill anyone, his reputation and meddlesome nature meant he attracted a lot of trouble. Over the years, Sever the Heavenly River had been forced to drink the blood of many cultivators, thus accumulating a murderous Sha Qi all over his body.
Now, as soon as the Sha Qi was released slightly, the youths immediately sensed something was wrong. They turned to look at the woman carrying a sword walking out of the rain, and in their fear, they didn't dare to utter a sound before scattering and fleeing in all directions.
Only the child remained motionless, slumped on the ground, unaware that the biscuit in his arms had fallen to the ground.
He stared blankly at the woman walking in the rain, not even daring to blink.
"Tsk, could this be a silly boy? Why is everyone else running away, but he's the only one who didn't?" Gu Wangchuan's appearance interrupted their staring contest. He raised his hand to prop up a wooden plank and pulled the child inside.
The child was brought back to his senses by his words, but his gaze still kept drifting towards the sword spirit.
"Get up, your pancakes are getting soggy." The sword spirit's indifferent voice followed.
The child then realized this important point and quickly bent down to retrieve his pancake. Fortunately, the rain wasn't heavy, and there wasn't much water on the ground; the pancake was only slightly dirty.
Seeing this, the child instantly felt much more at ease.
This wasn't the place to talk, Gu Wangchuan quickly found a spot to take shelter from the rain and led the child and the sword spirit inside.
As the three were still admiring the rain outside, the child's stomach began to rumble.
Gu Wangchuan found this extremely strange. "Weren't you hungry? Why aren't you eating?"
"I can't eat it. I only have one pancake left. I'll save it for tomorrow." He glanced longingly at the pancake, but in the end, he endured his hunger and stuffed it into his clothes.
The sword spirit observed him for a while, then suddenly asked, "What's your name?"
"I have no name." The child's tone was casual. He had lost his parents when he was young and had always lived with an old beggar. But sadly, the weather was getting colder and colder, and the old beggar had also fallen ill and died.
He has no relatives now, and he has no name.
Gu Wangchuan clicked his tongue again and took out his handkerchief to wipe the child's face.
The grime on his face was gone, revealing a clean, slightly pale face. He looked up at the sword spirit, revealing that youthful face that Sang Ying knew so well...
He is Gu Huaiwei!