This reception took place once again outside Qingming.
The moment Wei Yuan stepped out of Qingming, the surrounding light dimmed instantly. A night curtain hung low, dotted with emerging starlight. Wei Yuan merely snorted and activated the Pupils of the Six Realms. Beams of gaze surged like sharp blades, whirling up and down, once again slashing the night curtain to ribbons.
From within the night, Cui Wantong stepped forward slowly, murderous intent gleaming undisguised in her eyes.
Wei Yuan met her gaze squarely, without retreating an inch.
The two stood facing each other, yet within a hundred li, their divine abilities clashed with mad ferocity.
The night curtain grew steadily heavier and the starlight brighter. Wei Yuan was clearly at a disadvantage, yet he still possessed the strength to strike back. Six beams of gaze crisscrossed, shattering the starlight and night sky as soon as they took form, preventing them from ever coalescing into a true killing blow.
Cui Wantong did not press any further, merely attempting to suppress Wei Yuan's Pupils of the Six Realms. After a brief stalemate, Cui Wantong suddenly withdrew the night curtain, and Wei Yuan's Pupils of the Six Realms dissipated right at that moment as their power was exhausted.
Yet at this moment, an obvious layer of cyan light rippled around Wei Yuan's body—the glow of mortal fortune. Only a short time had passed since the last great battle, and Wei Yuan had already accumulated another million of mortal fortune.
Cui Wantong raised a hand and flicked lightly. A patch of the cyan glow around Wei Yuan vanished into thin air, leaving his chest exposed. A point of starlight still lingered on her fingertip. She made a feigned flick toward his chest, but did not actually unleash it. Instead, she dispersed her divine ability directly and turned to leave.
After a brief moment of thought, Wei Yuan gave the order to halt the publication of all storybooks concerning Cui Wantong, while offering a high price to buy back those already in circulation. Beyond this, he took no extra measures. However, scholars were adept at divining the intentions of their superiors. From Wei Yuan's buyback of the storybooks, they naturally discerned something, and many of them quietly ceased mentioning Cui Wantong's name.
As for outside Qingming, regarding the projects aimed at the Yan-Chen Cui family, once the Qingming Development Bureau stopped paying its retainers to the scribes, the hounds would naturally know to bark at a different target.
Having seen Cui Wantong off, Wei Yuan saw a middle-aged man of peerless poise suddenly appear on the distant horizon. He gave Wei Yuan a slight nod, then vanished into thin air.
Though he said nothing, one could tell that Xiaoyu's brow and eyes vaguely resembled the man's features. Xiaoyu was merely far prettier, whereas the man possessed a cleaner, more masculine bearing. Without a doubt, this had to be the Xiao Family Immortal Ancestor.
This was the first time Wei Yuan had ever laid eyes on the Xiao Family Immortal Ancestor. In the past, even when Xiaoyu had skipped his dharma idol ceremony to rush ten thousand li to Qingming, this immortal of the Xiao family had never shown himself. During the previous battle, he had also been one of the few noble family immortals who never appeared.
While Wei Yuan was still pondering what deep significance lay behind the Xiao Family Immortal Ancestor's sudden appearance, his heart stirred as he sensed a chilling sword qi from ten thousand li away.
Wei Yuan promptly straightened his robes, stood in solemn readiness, and notified Zhang Sheng to come.
Sword immortals were renowned for their flight speed; ten thousand li took merely a few moments. In the blink of an eye, an immortal sword cleaved through the air and came to a halt several zhang before Wei Yuan.
Only after the immortal sword came to rest did an immortal materialize upon it, dressed in plain robes with wide sleeves, a sword jade hanging at his waist. His long hair was disheveled, loosely bound with a simple strip of cloth, projecting an unkempt yet uninhibited grace.
The moment he appeared, Wei Yuan bowed in greeting. "Greetings, Palace Master Feng!"
Feng Hanzhou gave a hearty laugh and said, "No need to be so distant with me! Come, come, let me see your Beginning of One Sword first!"
Wei Yuan felt a bit embarrassed and replied, "Junior was merely speaking carelessly."
Feng Hanzhou straightened with a solemn face. "How can one speak carelessly of the Sword Dao! That you could utter the four words 'Beginning of One Sword' clearly means you have grasped a shred of its true meaning. Cut the nonsense and show it quickly. Must I beg you?"
Wei Yuan did not dare dawdle, yet displaying his sword intent before one of the world's foremost sword cultivators felt somewhat shameful.
It would have been fine if he were passably decent, but over the years Wei Yuan had hardly used a sword at all. The true intent of his Sword of Ten Thousand Generations and Autumns had grown practically moldy from disuse. Its origins were shrouded in mystery, and Wei Yuan instinctively avoided meddling with it too much.
Just as he was fretting over what to do, Xihe's cold snort sounded in his ear, followed immediately by a mote of sword intent flying out from the Fourth Grotto-Heaven.
Wei Yuan was overjoyed inwardly, but on his face he adopted an awe-inspiring solemnity. His posture snapped straight, his aura soaring skyward! Extending a finger, a mote of sword intent lit up upon his fingertip.
This mote of sword intent was on the verge of forming yet not fully realized, possessing the spirit of a sword without its physical shape. It remained frozen in this state, leaving anyone unable to guess what it would evolve into next.
Feng Hanzhou watched with his breath caught in his chest. Only after a long while did he exhale a breath of turbid air and say, "Good! What a fine sword! Though it is not the Beginning of One Sword, this true intent of the Sword Dao is far beyond what Old Feng here can muster!"
Hearing this, Wei Yuan immediately cursed inwardly—it seemed he had overdone the act.
He should have pushed this sword intent a bit further along, letting some clues emerge while toning down the realm a bit, so it would match his current sword cultivation level. Instead, Wei Yuan had brought out the sword intent Xihe gave him completely untouched. As a result, it even overwhelmed Feng Hanzhou. Anyone with discerning eyes would know instantly that this sword intent did not belong to Wei Yuan at all.
Feng Hanzhou said with profound meaning, "This sword has benefited Feng immensely; Senior Brother Bai will surely comprehend even more from it. This journey was truly not in vain!"
He then turned his gaze to Zhang Sheng and looked her up and down carefully before praising, "Seeking to fuse all the sword daos under heaven into one—what grand spirit! Truly worthy of being Where Ten Thousand Swords Converge!"
Having praised Zhang Sheng, Feng Hanzhou said, "Well then, what needed seeing has been seen, and what needed saying has been said. I shall take my leave!"
With that, he rode his immortal sword and vanished into the distance in a flash, not lingering for even an instant. He was truly uninhibited to the utmost, bearing a peerless elegance.
Only after the sword light vanished at the horizon did Wei Yuan lower his bowed hands and sigh, "As a senior who traveled ten thousand li to visit, how could he come empty-handed?"
Zhang Sheng chuckled. "Sword cultivators are not bound by worldly courtesies."
Wei Yuan sighed. "I would rather seniors bound themselves by a bit of worldly courtesy."
Zhang Sheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Stop speaking nonsense! All right, someone is still waiting for you. I will head back first."
Wei Yuan nodded, clasping his hands behind his back, and waited quietly.
Meanwhile, in the Splendor of the Many Realms, Xihe was sitting in Yin-Yang's courtyard drinking tea. Yin-Yang was toying with a tiny immortal sword, studying it over and over.
After studying it for a long while, Yin-Yang finally spoke: "This sword intent grotto-heaven is ingeniously conceived, and the materials used seem exceptionally rare. Outside, this would surely be a supreme treasure, wouldn't it? How could he bear to give this to you?"
Xihe looked serene and said, "That strand of sword intent I gave him earlier compensates for his shortcomings in the Sword Dao. Consider it a return gift."
Yin-Yang looked up and asked, "During that great battle that day, Elder Sister, you revealed your true form, fought Cui Zhengxing to the death, and refused to withdraw even at the risk of falling. Did you see something?"
Xihe nodded. "The situation back then was essentially a dead end. Without a variable, fleeing ten thousand li would likely have been the only option left."
"A variable..." Yin-Yang pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "So Elder Sister's desperate fight that day was to force that person to appear and assist?"
Even though Xihe had achieved a lucid sword heart in her youth, she was considerably startled at this moment. "Of course not!"
Yin-Yang said placidly, "If Elder Sister says it wasn't, then it wasn't. In any case, aside from fighting, I don't understand anything."
Xihe frowned slightly, feeling that she could never truly see through the girl before her. By all logic, she ought to understand nothing, yet Xihe's intuition told her that Yin-Yang might understand more than anyone else.
She felt that something was amiss. Suddenly, a scene flashed across her mind! It was from when she was constructing the Fourth Grotto-Heaven: as she traced the foundation of the mindscape world, she had glimpsed certain scenes preserved within the world's origin.
One of them showed Wei Yuan inspecting Yin-Yang, after which the girl's clothes fell to the ground on their own.
Back then, Xihe had not thought much of it. But recalling it now, she noticed the anomaly: her clothes had fallen first, and only then had Wei Yuan thought to inspect her. Though it was a split second difficult to detect, the order of events was clear. A difference in sequence made the nature of the act entirely different!
A ray of sword light flashed through Xihe's mind. In an instant, she felt she had uncovered the truth. Beneath Maiden Yin-Yang's blank, innocent facade, it turned out that...
*Knock, knock, knock!*
A sudden knocking at the door cut through Xihe's train of thought.
The knocking came with no forewarning whatsoever. Xihe and Maiden Yin-Yang exchanged a glance, both seeing gravity in each other's eyes. At that moment, the courtyard gate swung open without any wind, and a woman in black walked straight into the courtyard. First, she glanced around, taking in the entire yard, and then began scrutinizing Yin-Yang and Xihe.
Xihe narrowed her eyes slightly. Without making a move immediately, she asked, "May I ask who you are...?"
The woman in black replied indifferently, "Someone wanted to see me, but I only wanted to come see you."
Chapter 1154