Seeking Truth with a Sword

Chapter 369 - 321: Wielding the Sword

Why did I choose to practice the sword?

Sui Yi’s hair flew about as she closed her eyes, memories suddenly flooding her mind.

The happiest moments of her childhood, she reckoned, were spent herding cattle on the mountain. She would watch the cows sway their tails lazily as they grazed on wild grass, while she picked wildflowers and wild fruits from the roadside.

Mulberries, wild strawberries, Chinese dates, and even the nectar-filled morning glory flowers.

Until one day, her father fell gravely ill. Her family was forced to sell furniture, jewelry, pigs, and sheep, and eventually, the old cow that had plowed their fields for many years. From then on, she could no longer herd cattle on the mountain.

Her mother became reticent, and her father started drinking heavily. He grew increasingly bad-tempered, frequently beating both her and her mother.

When the beatings hurt, she would occasionally curse under her breath, wishing her father would just die soon.

The curse came true.

Her father went out to buy liquor and didn’t return. So, she and her mother borrowed a lamp from a neighbor and searched the whole village. They eventually found him lying in a roadside ditch, bearing the marks of being struck by a carriage.

The only one in the village who owned a carriage was the village chief.

The village chief was the Clan Chief of the village’s dominant family, while her own family were outsiders.

For a small mountain village, the Clan Chief was the law.

Her mother knelt in front of the village chief’s house, begging for two hundred wen to buy a coffin.

The village chief was busy preparing for his daughter’s wedding. Annoyed by her pleas, he opened the door and struck Sui Yi’s mother on the head with a wooden club.

Her mother passed out, and it took a while before she came to. She staggered home with Sui Yi in her arms. In the middle of the night, her mother grew feverish, talked incoherently, and then passed away.

She sat by the bed and cried until she had no strength left. The next day, she used the only cabinet remaining in their house as a coffin for her parents and buried them in the backyard. She was too young at the time; digging a hole had drained all of her energy.

On the third day, she stood at the edge of the fields, struggling under the blazing sun, swinging a hoe taller than herself.

Humans need to eat, and without tending the fields, no crops would grow.

Farming was hard, but facing an empty home was even scarier. Waking up in the middle of the night, she always hoped to hear some sound, even if it was just her father’s cough or her mother’s spinning wheel.

Later, a woman holding a Compass came to the village. She claimed Sui Yi had a unique talent and took her to the State Mansion, then to Chang’an, and finally to the Academic Palace.

The Doctors at the Academic Palace were very kind. They competed for the chance to teach her, gathering around and patiently asking what she wanted to learn.

After hesitating for a long time, she replied timidly, "The most powerful one."

The Doctors laughed heartily. The female Doctor, stroking her dry hair, said, "Then study the sword with me."

And so, she began practicing the sword.

She was acclaimed as the most talented in Sword Study in fifty years. Qi Sensing, Body Concealing, Rain Listening, Cloud Patrol—everything came naturally to her, almost without obstacles.

By the fourth year, none of her senior or junior fellow disciples could compete with her. The only one who could best her was He Siping, who was a year ahead.

I might indeed be quite impressive.

Having confirmed this, she took advantage of a holiday one year, left Chang’an, and returned to her hometown, sneaking into the village under the cover of night.

She silently climbed over the village chief’s wall, opened his window, and carefully studied him at his bedside.

She hadn’t seen him in years. The village chief had aged considerably, though the door latch remained unchanged—it was the same wooden stick that had killed her mother.

So, she opened the door, let the cold air in, placed her sword on the table, and sat quietly waiting.

The village chief and his wife were awakened by the cold wind. Amidst the chief’s cries of terror, she slowly lit the oil lamp and revealed her identity.

The village chief dropped to his knees, begging for mercy. She stood up and swung her sword.

A head fell to the ground.

There was silence in the village chief’s house thereafter, including his married daughter and son-in-law who still lived at home.

Was I a bad person? Perhaps.

She reburied her parents, returned to the Chang’an Academy, handed over her sword, and waited for the Mountain Master to decide her fate.

The informed Doctors shook their heads and sighed, questioning the necessity of her actions.

Indeed, she was about to become an Academic Palace Inspector. If she had just spread the word, or even hinted, countless people would have volunteered to help. They could have ensured the village chief’s family was executed through official channels or perhaps met with some ’accident’ silently, avoiding a major incident that would trouble the garrison.

But if not by her own sword, then what was the point of all her years of hard training?

She spent half a month in the Academic Palace’s dungeon. She wasn’t punished by having her Cultivation stripped or being expelled. Instead, she received a transfer order: she was to go to the Supervision Department to hunt demons in the Ten Thousand Desolate Mountains as atonement.

Her teacher had saved her once again. The teacher went to Sui Yi’s hometown to investigate and gathered enough evidence to prove that the village chief’s family deserved their deaths.

I wielded my sword for those who could not wield their own.

The memories were engulfed by the blazing Yinghuo fire before her eyes. Her palm clenched the sword hilt, its cold touch as reliable as ever. Her eyes snapped open, facing the golden city walls.

"Ten years to forge a sword,

Frost blade never tested.

Today I show it to you,

Who has grievances?"

She swung her sword, just as she had once decapitated the village chief.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

The ascending Yinghuo flames, following the trajectory of her blade, tore through the Golden Light Restriction.

Splashes of light scattered as the walls guarding the Floating Tower crumbled instantly, revealing the true form of the Buddhist Tower.

Her Qi Sea was nearly exhausted, her Spirit Vein almost halted.

Sui Yi staggered and nearly fell but managed to steady herself with Li Ang’s support.

Her lips were pale as she smiled at Li Ang and gave a thumbs up, "From here on, I’ll leave it to you."

"Understood."

Li Ang nodded earnestly and dashed into the Buddhist Tower.

Inside the Buddhist Tower, each square cell enshrined various items:

Relics, Golden Bodies, Magic Artifacts, Scriptures, utensils of special significance, even Mutated Objects.

Each item was enveloped in a small Prohibition.

Li Ang bypassed all these items, lacking time to break each Prohibition and search meticulously.

He needed only one thing: metals. And he found them.

There, the tenth layer of the Buddhist Tower was filled with rare metals:

Fine Gold, Mountain Copper, Mystic Iron, Serene Steel, Moonstone...

This was the Jialan Sect’s precious collection, accumulated over hundreds of years. Even the auction houses in Chang’an, three hundred years later, would not possess one percent of it.

He began.

Li Ang pushed his Qi Sea to its limit. Countless strands of Mo Si stretched out from his body, wrapping around him and forming a drill shape on his fist.

He punched!

With all his might, he shattered the Prohibition.

Li Ang released the limit on Mo Si, allowing the frenzied dark threads to devour the metals in the cells wildly.

RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE—

The sound of the Mo Si feasting was like thousands of ants devouring flesh.

Li Ang involuntarily knelt on one knee, his body trembling.

The Mo Si evolved too rapidly, madly proliferating inside his body, replacing his original bones and muscles, pressing against his organs.

It even fused with his skin, turning into some sort of bizarre fabric.

Li Ang’s body swelled continuously. With a tearing sound, his clothes were forcibly ripped apart, leaving only a few strips of fabric hanging on him.

He had transformed into a giant over two meters tall. His entire body was now covered in dark-gold Mo Si, and each movement exuded seemingly limitless strength.

Still... not enough.

Li Ang vividly remembered the might of the Demon Buddha. Even Situ Zhi of the Candle Cloud Realm, whom he had encountered in Suzhou, had not exuded an aura as powerful.

His gaze fell upon the iron box. He stared at the square iron box in his hand and then forcefully crushed it.