The Contracted Sword That Secures Victory (Part I)
Between the luscious greens, the purple horned beast was running.
Tons of birds flew in chaos after being frightened by its thunderous footsteps.
A man in a black blademaster outfit and a sword sheath rode on the purple horned beast as they leaped forward.
“Rascal, where are you going?”
The sword lady seemed lonely in the sword sheath. She flew out directly and sat behind Su Yun, her two slender fair and jade legs lightly swayed.
“I’m going to get the Aqua Meteorite.”
Su Yun replied.
“Aqua Meteorite? Ah, I remember I have a bottle of that in the past. Although it isn’t any high leveled item but for brats like you with low cultivation, it must be very precious.”
Slap!
Before the sword lady finished her sentence, her small, porcelained face was squashed by Su Yun’s big hands.
“Who’s a brat?”
Su Yun squashed her face tightly.
The sword lady tried to break free from those demon claws. Her cheeks was turning red from the squashing. She said furiously: “You, you son of a bitch, bullying someone whose cultivation are all in a sword? I, I will kill you one day. Just wait!”
“Are you threatening me?”
Su Yun squashed her face tighter and said: “You’re serving me right now. If you say another word like this, I’ll throw you down!”
“Shameless!! Didn’t you say you don’t want me?”
“I took you in because I pity you. If you offend me, I’ll abandon you!”
“Bastard!”
“Oh, yes, I’ve known you for so long yet I don’t know your name! What’s your name?”
“Tsk, a person like you wants to know my name? Dream on!”
“No? That’s fine. Since you’re a sword, I’ll call you a slut!”
(TN: 剑人 is sword person, but has the same pronunciation as 贱人, which is slut)
“You’re the slut! I’m Ling Qing Yu! Remember my name, understand?”
The sword lady, known as Ling Qing Yu said sarcastically.
“Hehe, your cultivation is so high but why is your temperament and attitude so lousy? In your entire lifetime of cultivation, have you never cultivated your temperament?” looking at this girl, Su Yun could not contain his laughter.
“What do you know?”
Ling Qing Yu snorted: “I’ve lost all my cultivation. My temperament and attitude is like an ordinary person. It’s logical that I’m acting like that!’
“What kind of secret technique of converting cultivation into a sword is that amazing? You even ripped yourself off of you temperament and mental state?” Su Yun never heard of such a secret method. In actual fact, he had never heard of such a thing in Sky Martial Continent.
“This secret technique was passed down from my Master. He said it’s the only thing my father left for me.”
“You father? Who is he?”
“I don’t know!”
Ling Qing Yu shook her head lightly: “The reason why I cultivated was so I can roam the entire regions to find my father. But after so many years, I think he’s passed on.”
“Oh.”
Su Yun fell silent.
While the purple horned beast continued advancing.
“Yes, you say you have a bottle of Aqua Meteorite. Where is it?”
“It’s been thousands of years. Who knows if it still exists? Also, there were a lot of changes. I don’t even remember where it is.”
“Is that so? Then do you know where Sacred Sky Mountain is?”
“Sacred Sky Mountain?”
Ling Qing Yu touched her bottom lip with her fingers and thought for a while then she exclaimed: “I remember now. It seems to be at the Bountiful Southern Mountain Range!”
“Bountiful Southern Mountain Range?” Su Yun was in doubt: “And where is that?”
“It’s hard to explain but do you want to go?”
“Mhhm!”
“Hehe, if you beg me, I might bring you there!”
Su Yun turned right away and extended his crude hands towards Ling Qing Yu’s soft face.
Frightened, Ling Qing Yu turned quickly and said: “I’ll bring you there!”
Seeing that, Su Yun kept his hand.
The purple horned beast flew and walked for a total for 4 days and 3 nights. They left the Savage Range and was getting close to the northern range before they stopped.
Riding on the purple horned beast, Su Yun walked on a green mountain and headed to the peak.
On his sides were luscious trees and greenery. The birds chirped in the air above him. The air was fresh and the flowers fragrant
Ling Qing Yu obviously loved this place. Swinging her legs behind Su Yun, she enjoyed this serenity.
At the peak of the mountain, the purple horned beast stopped. Su Yun got off and stood right before the cliff.
“Are you jumping!” Ling Qing Yu asked out of curiosity.
“Going to a side.”
Su Yun muttered. He crawled onto the cliff’s edge as though he was observing something.
“You’re so rude to girls! Brats will always be brats! I’ll settle the score with you next time.” Ling Qing Yu said to herself, after which, she couldn’t be bothered with Su Yun anymore.
“Qing Yu!”
Then, Su Yun shouted suddenly.
“What happened?”
Ling Qing Yu shot him a look.
From his bag, Su Yun took out bottles of stuff and laid them on the ground. After that, he started mapping out his array as he shouted to Ling Qing Yu: “I need your cooperation on this!”
“Cooperation? Of what?”
Su Yun stared at his hands and said seriously: “I’ll be setting up a bait array and a tear-provoking array. You just have to be in charge of starting it!”
“Bait array? Tear-provoking array? What does that mean?”
“Do you know what place is this?”
“Nope!”
“Right ahead is the capital of Sky Blue Nation. We’re already in Sky Blue Nation!”
“So what?”
“Then do you know where the Aqua Meteorite comes from?”
“Nope.”
Ling Qing Yu shook her head. All spirit cultivators knew of such ingredients but they never knew about the source. That was very common. It was the same as how people knew how to eat, yet they did not know how to cook. They didn’t understand how the food they were eating came about.
“The Aqua Meteorite is actually the tears of the Indigo Phoenix, they are very rare in Sky Martial Continent. Maybe there were a few but as of right now, most of the Indigo Phoenix were caught in the Sky Blue Nation. Three hundred years ago, the king of Sky Blue Nation captured an Indigo Phoenix and crowned it the national treasure. For years, they collected the tears of the Indigo Phoenix and sold it to other nations and sects. Every year, they would only produce one drop of Aqua Meteorite and each drop is worth sky high prices! According to rumours, different sects would come around this time of the year to bid for the Aqua Meteorite! I can’t rely on finance to get it so I can only rely on my skills.”
“Will the Indigo Phoenix produce tears at this time of the year?” Ling Qing Yu asked.
‘Yes, I’m very lucky. Coincidentally, Sky Blue Nation is setting up an altar at this time of the year to collect the Aqua Meteorites.” Su Yun sighed and said: “Actually, it’s not difficult to obtain a million spirit coins in such a short period of time but the king of Sky Blue Nation is very scheming. Every year, he would investigate which sects have the possibility of getting the Aqua Meteorite and so, invited them for the auction. Each drop of Aqua Meteorite could reach sky high prices!”
“Can this king be called scheming? He made used of Aqua Meteorite to bring wealth to this country. The ones who should be benefitting should be the commoners!”
“That is if the commoners benefitted from it. But the problem arises when the king used the money he got from the auction to repair the halls, and buy in ladies, and spent on things for his enjoyment. The money he earned from the Aqua Meteorite had never once affected the commoners one bit.”
Su Yun drew as he explained. Very quickly, an array was formed.
“Oh? Then why treat the King so nicely?” Ling Qing Yu smiled: “What do you plan to do?”
“It’s a very simple method! I’ll lure the Indigo Phoenix and you’ll just have to activate the bait array and tear-provoking array by cooperating with me to force it to cry!”
“What level is the Indigo Phoenix at?”
“Probably a Spirit Soul Realm but it is super gentle. Unless it is a fatal attack, it usually would not attack human beings!”
“Tsk, you’re just a Spirit Intermediate Disciple and yet you want to set up an array to lure a monster of the Spirit Soul Realm? Are you getting ahead of yourself?” Ling Qing Yu was in disbelief.
Su Yun remained quiet as he continued to work his array.
The array work continued for two days and the two arrays looked complete in the initial stages.
Then, Su Yun rode on his purple horned beast and went to the nearest city to purchase some ingredients before he headed back to the green mountain and continued setting up his arrays.
Seeing how focused Su Yun was, Ling Qing Yu did not disturb him.
And so, everyday, Su Yun went up the mountain to set up the array and down the mountain to purchase ingredients.
The patterns on the arrays started filling up. Ling Qing Yu’s look of disdain started changing.
On the tenth day, the big array was finally completed.
When Ling Qing Yu looked over, she was surprised.
That big array was very complicated.
The big array was dense. It was filled with trails and patterns which covered the entire peak of the mountains. On the array, there were birds, beasts, fishes, human beings, mountains, water bodies, woods and all sorts of bushes. Basically, it had everything it should have.
Then, that was just a small portion of it. Within the array, there were several talisman, words, characters. Each drawings were made from the most expensive spiritual powder. Each stroke were filled with thick, strong Profound Spirit Qi. Although all these ingredients could be bought from the market, Su Yun combined them together, making them looked extraordinary. All of their effects seemed to be maximised.
Not just that, the two arrays were linked together with their borders touching one another as though they were rings that were hooked together.
Interlinked array!
This required amazing skills. Once a big array had been interlinked, there was a possibility of conflict. As such, the two arrays would not work, but if he succeeded in linking them without any conflicts, then the big array’s power could rise to an astonishing level. This had to do with a person’s knowledge and skills towards arrays. He had to make use of the borders of the two arrays to fill them up and made use of all the patterns of the array.
But once he interlinked the big arrays, the patterns could be saved later on. In actual fact, the patterns used to interlink was high level.
Even though she knew nothing of big arrays, she never thought this brat was this good? She thought only an expert with Spirit Soul Disciple could pull off something like that? How was he so familiar with the structure of arrays?
Ling Qing Yu asked herself in her heart.
It was not an easy task to set up an array. Not only did it required a person’s profound knowledge of arrays, it also needed perseverance and mental strength support. Many low level cultivators had weak mental strength. Before the array was complete, they would have fainted. And once they completed, they would usually be affected by the array. Time was not a factor in setting up a big array for them.
“Done!”
Finally, the pale looking Su Yun stood up and stopped what he was doing.
Sighing, he took out two pieces of stones towards Ling Qing Yu.
“What’s these?” Ling Qing Yu caught and touched the limestones.
“These two are the array essence of the arrays!”
Su Yun swallowed a pill and meditated after he replied.
“These two arrays are modified from experts who had created them before. Such arrays have very low expectations from the owner yet they are super effective. Plus, with the two arrays interlinked, their power would increase. Handling the Indigo Phoenix will not be hard. Wait till I lure the Indigo Phoenix here, you shall fill the array essence up. Once the big array is completed, activate the big array and trap it in. After that, activate the tear-provoking array and then, we’d be done!”
Ling Qing Yu nodded proudly: “Then what will you be doing?”
“Obviously, I’ll be luring the Indigo Phoenix!”
“That must be difficult. After all, there aren’t many who think like you. So the guards around the Indigo Phoenix must be very tight.”
“Usually, it’d be hard but on the day they prepare the altar where they collect the tears, there might be a slim chance.”
Su Yun set his gaze on Ling Qing Yu and suddenly he stated: “Maybe it’s time I used your sword.”