Borrowing a sword

Chapter 76 The King of the Sword [Third update, please vote!]

At the foot of Cangling Mountain, Li Chunsong and the others looked up and saw Chu Huaixu walking briskly.

"The spiritual pressure from the mountain doesn't seem to have much of an effect on him," Nangong Yue said with a smile, speaking in her soft, gentle Wu dialect.

“That’s normal. This is only the foot of the mountain. That kind of slight discomfort is nothing to him,” Li Chunsong said.

Upon hearing this, Nangong Yue turned to look at him and asked, "Sixth Senior Brother seems to care about him a lot. Is it because you brought him and Shuangjiang up the mountain, or because he helped you win a bet?"

She was making a joke on purpose.

Surprisingly, this philanthropic gambling king was quite open and honest.

"I brought them up the mountain on my junior uncle's orders, which is definitely one of the reasons. Of course, the main reason is that he helped me win once, and I admire that kid!"

"Ninth Junior Sister, you know me, I always lose when I gamble."

"The last time we won was many, many years ago."

At this point, Li Chunsong looked at Nangong Yue and suddenly smiled.

Looking at the smile on his face, Nangong Yue couldn't help but recall that afternoon many years ago.

She looked at Li Chunsong smiling, but felt inexplicably sad, thinking of the person who was no longer alive.

Instead, it was this gambling addict who, with a comforting expression, gently patted Nangong Yue's shoulder.

They were once true disciples of the Taoist sect.

Within the Taoist sect, there are many inner disciples, but only thirty-three slots for true disciples.

The sect leader, along with ten elders, can each take on three disciples; this is the true essence of the Daoist tradition.

However, cultivation is a defiance of the heavens, and coupled with the turmoil in the Xuanhuang Realm and the scourge of evil spirits, it will inevitably bring death and injury.

Of the original thirty-three true disciples, only half remain today.

Li Chunsong, a guy who always loses at gambling, last won a bet twenty years ago.

It was a rather lively afternoon. All the true disciples of the Daoist sect gathered outside the main hall of Daowen Peak. Many masters and elders were also alerted and came to see what was going on.

That year, Junior Uncle was still an unruly middle-aged sword cultivator. Even he made a special trip over there, sitting on an ancient tree outside the main hall with a blade of grass in his mouth, holding his sword with both hands, looking down at the onlookers.

All the excitement stemmed from a single betting game.

"Sixth Senior Brother, I know you like me. Let's roll the dice together. No spiritual power is allowed, no cheating. We'll just compare the numbers, it's all based on luck. All our fellow disciples and teachers will be our witnesses! If your number is higher than mine, then I'll agree to be with you!"

The eleventh-ranked woman among the true disciples tilted her head back, looking lively and charming.

Upon hearing this, Li Chunsong was so excited that he wanted to roar to the sky and began rubbing his hands together frantically.

He had liked his eleventh junior sister for a very, very long time, so long that he himself might have forgotten how many years it had been.

The Taoist sect seems to never have that air of superiority. Whether it's true disciples or a group of masters, they all start to jeer and make a fuss.

Even the junior uncle sitting in the tree widened his eyes, spat out the foxtail grass he was holding in his mouth, and watched intently.

According to the sect rules, setting up a gambling den without permission requires paying a fine in silver, and it was Junior Uncle who insisted on bearing this cost.

Li Chunsong was stupid, and he was pushed and shoved by his fellow apprentices until he was in front of everyone.

He rubbed his hands together frantically like a fly, and kept breathing into his palms.

Unfortunately, how could someone be so bad at the game? With everyone's witness and encouragement, he managed to roll a 2 on the dice!
Li Chunsong slumped onto the stone bench, half of his soul gone.

The eleventh junior sister casually tossed the dice into the air, and it landed with a six!
Such luck is terrifying.

Unexpectedly, in full view of everyone, she openly used her spiritual power, flicked her finger, and turned the die into a 1.

She committed a foul, and she committed it so blatantly!

What happened to relying on luck?
But on that day, everyone, including Junior Uncle, said that Li Chunsong had won.

Dao Men Lao Liu had always lost at gambling throughout his life. The only time he won was twenty years ago, when the other party cheated openly, and the woman deliberately let him win.

Li Chunsong will never forget that day.

The woman's beautiful eyes sparkled, and the corners of her mouth turned up. She bowed to him with her hands clasped in a respectful gesture, and said with a cheerful smile:

"Sixth Senior Brother is amazing! Junior Sister is willing to accept defeat!"

Twenty years ago, it was a cloudy day.

After the gambling game ended, it rained heavily.

Li Chunsong looked up at the sky.

In his memory, that day was sunny and cloudless.

At this moment, Han Shuangjiang stood aside. She didn't know why the Ninth Elder suddenly seemed a little sad, while the Sixth Elder had a smile on his face.

The time it takes for an incense stick to burn is almost up.

She should be heading up the mountain soon.

Before she officially began climbing the mountain, she overheard two elders discussing something.

"Why is Chu Huaixu walking so slowly? He keeps stopping and starting. An incense stick has passed, and he still hasn't reached the area with the spiritual artifacts." Li Chunsong frowned.

At the foot of Cangling Mountain, there are 3333 stone steps. Starting from the 1111th step, magical artifacts will be placed on both sides for people to choose from.

If the disciples going up the mountain cannot withstand the pressure of spiritual energy, they will have to return empty-handed.

However, Li Chunsong seemed to have thought of something very soon.

He winked at Han Shuangjiang beside him, clicking his tongue repeatedly.

"Is this kid waiting for you on purpose? Hmm?" He started playing matchmaker again.

And for some reason, he was particularly interested in this today.

Even Nangong Yue smiled at Han Shuangjiang after hearing this, as if she had returned to that afternoon.

The coldness on Big Ice Block's face vanished instantly. Under the gaze of his elders, he couldn't help but lower his head slightly, his face flushed.

"How would I know why he's walking so slowly!" she thought to herself.

She never understood what that damned fox was thinking all day long.

Finally, Nangong Yue suppressed her smile and gestured, "Alright, it's Frost's Descent, you can go mountain climbing now."

"Yes." Han Shuangjiang accepted the order and walked up the stone steps. She paused for a moment when she reached the first step.

She experienced what spiritual pressure is.

The physical pressure felt was secondary; the main pressure came from the mental level, which put pressure on the mind.

Fortunately, this discomfort was very mild for her.

The large ice block remained unfazed and began to rise rapidly upwards.

"Maybe if I walk faster, I can really catch up with him?" she thought to herself.

When Li Chunsong saw that Han Shuangjiang had also started climbing the mountain, the gambling addict immediately began rubbing his hands together.

"Ninth Junior Sister, let's go! Let's hurry to the main hall!"

Nangong Yue sighed helplessly, knowing that her sixth senior brother was probably going to clamor for another gamble.

The two flew through the air and began their journey to the main hall of the Daowen Peak.

Sect Leader Xiang Yan and the others were already waiting for them in the main hall.

On the other side, Chu Huaixu had already reached more than nine hundred steps.

“I remember a post saying that the spiritual pressure increases every 111 steps on the stone steps of Cangling Mountain.”

Therefore, he kept stopping and starting along the way, carefully experiencing the journey.

An incense stick's time had passed, and they still hadn't reached the place where the magical artifact was kept.

"This is really strange, how come I don't feel anything at all?" Chu Huaixu said, puzzled.

He felt absolutely no discomfort whatsoever.

He even felt refreshed and invigorated standing on this mountain!
"It's very comfortable, a kind of comfort that's hard to describe."

"It's like going from a heavily polluted city to a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters after a long time."

"It's not like the air itself is sweet, but you feel so relaxed and happy!"

Chu Huaixu knew very well that spiritual pressure would put pressure on both the physical body and the sea of ​​consciousness, with the pressure mainly concentrated on the latter.

The disciples of Shangzang Lingshan are all only at the first level of cultivation. With his physical strength, I wouldn't say he's unprecedented, but he's definitely one of the best.

He will not experience any physical discomfort, which is to be expected.

So he began to calm down and observe his own sea of ​​consciousness.

The small black sword in his sea of ​​consciousness still looked sickly.

As his cultivation level continued to improve, the condition of the small black sword also improved, but it remained lifeless, with only subtle changes.

"But he seems more energetic than usual?" Chu Huaixu thought to himself.

He was in perfect harmony with the black sword, and he could notice even the slightest changes.

"【The sword severs the flesh, the heart severs the soul】."

"Perhaps it's because of this that these spiritual pressures targeting my sea of ​​consciousness don't pose any threat to me." He vaguely had some answers in his mind.

"After all, its status is actually very high, and it already has the [Sword Heart Clarity] skill."

Once he had this thought, he stopped studying it in detail and decided not to continue his journey.

Chu Huaixu quickened his pace and headed up the mountain at an extremely fast speed.

He didn't even intend to glance at the spiritual artifacts in the area at the foot of the mountain.

"The giant ice block should have already started climbing, right?"

"Hmph! I'd better hurry!"

"You big ice block, you'll just have to follow me around and eat my farts!"

Chu Huaixu laughed heartily and began running wildly up the mountain.

The wind blew his black robe, making it flutter loudly.

The more he ran, the better he felt; it was as if the stronger his spiritual pressure became, the more excited he became.

Soon, Chu Huaixu ran up to the 1111th stone step in one go.

Starting from here, as you ascend the stone steps, magical artifacts are scattered haphazardly, without any particular pattern.

According to his original plan, he would just sprint all the way up the mountainside.

He had no intention of acquiring the magical artifacts placed there; he was too lazy to waste his time.

But he still stopped.

Chu Huaixu stood on the 1111th stone step, gazing upwards into the distance.

Thick fog blankets Cangling Mountain year-round, allowing you to see only a dozen meters ahead before the fog becomes increasingly obscured as you ascend.

At this moment, he was somewhat lost in thought.

Because right next to the steps in front of him was a sword.

This sword is nothing special; it looks similar to the Qingfeng sword found in the mortal world.

A few sections up, there is another sword, and a short sword.

Even in the thick fog that he could vaguely make out, the outline of a sword seemed to be faintly visible.

These swords are all trembling!

Chu Huaixu's five senses have been enhanced, and his hearing is far superior to that of an ordinary first-level cultivator.

He listened carefully, and from the thick fog above, which he couldn't see, there were also constant trembling sounds, and there were many of them!
The reason for this was simply because the small black sword within his sea of ​​consciousness trembled slightly.

This alone caused all the spirit swords in the entire area to tremble! And they kept trembling without stopping.

It's like a king sitting high on the throne of swords.

Although it was listless and sickly, just one lazy glance downwards was enough to terrify everything kneeling down.

(P.S.: Third update, 10,000 words, please vote with monthly tickets!)
(End of this chapter)