I Have a Sword

In a world of pitch darkness, a beam of light suddenly appeared. The light was dark silver and not particularly bright, yet it had the heavy texture of liquid mercury as it flowed slowly through the dark, parting the blackness as it crept forward. The light reached a figure, slowly climbing her body and drawing her out from the shadows. She wore plain cyan robes without ornament or pattern; even her long hair simply cascaded down naturally. Her entire being was pure as a ray of sword light, untainted by the slightest impurity. Zhang Sheng slowly opened her eyes, myriad glints of sword light surging in her pupils. She glanced around without showing any surprise or panic, calmly asking, "Which senior is present?" The dark-silver light on the ground rippled like stirred water. From the ripples rose a young girl. She was originally very pretty, but the corner of her mouth seemed fatally torn, leaving her entire chin drenched in fresh blood—an eerie, horrifying sight. In her hand, she held a woven yarn doll that also appeared to be in agonizing pain, frozen in a silent shriek. "I'm not your senior," the girl said. "If anything, the me of right now is your enemy." "The you of right now?" Zhang Sheng mused. "Yes," the girl replied. "Right now, this Dao Foundation version of me is an enemy you could never have dreamed of facing." "And who are you when you are not at the Dao Foundation?" "Once I take you away from here, you will naturally find out." Zhang Sheng smiled—not out of mockery, but genuinely finding it somewhat amusing. "We are both at the Dao Foundation, and yet you want to take me away?" "Because my Dao Foundation is different. This Dao Foundation no longer exists in the world today. It is one your human race used three hundred thousand years ago." Zhang Sheng raised her eyebrows slightly and asked seriously, "Humans of the Yuangu era? Did the Dao Foundations they used back then differ from those today? Shouldn't each generation of Dao Foundations be stronger than the last?" "You will see shortly. Oh, by the way, do you really intend to resist? You cultivate an Invincible Heart. If you clash with me, your Dao heart will shatter a second time." Zhang Sheng said calmly, "Since we are both at the Dao Foundation, and your current realm has not even reached perfection, I cannot lose." The bizarre smile returned to the girl's face. "I'm starting to like you a little. If you find yourself outmatched in a bit, admit defeat early. Otherwise, it will hurt a lot." Zhang Sheng stood up, her expression solemn. The surroundings suddenly began to brighten as dark-silver light surged in all directions, driving the darkness away. Now the two stood as if upon an immense plaza, two tiny black specks amidst the expanse. The girl stood in place without moving, while the plaza continued to expand boundlessly. Zhang Sheng gradually felt the surrounding world turn viscous, as though she were trapped in a mass of glue. Just lifting an arm took tremendous effort. It was the light... Zhang Sheng frowned slightly. This light was exceedingly strange, having condensed into a formless solid. Though it seemed like Lunar power, it was far from pure, mingled with many other elements while maintaining an uncanny equilibrium. This made things difficult for Zhang Sheng, who was accustomed to analyzing an opponent's Dao power attributes to strike at weakness with substance. Unable to determine the light's nature, for the moment she had no idea where to strike. Watching the ever-expanding plaza, she suddenly realized something: the light was coming from above! Zhang Sheng looked up, and there hanging in the sky was a colossal full moon! The moon was unimaginably massive, taking up nearly half the heavens! Looking upward, her entire field of vision was dominated by the lunar surface; not a shred of darkness remained visible! Moonlight flowed down like water, falling strand by strand to the ground and causing the plaza to expand continuously. Strangely, there was a tiny notch in the moon, like a small wormhole chewed into a flatbread. Though tiny, Zhang Sheng could see clearly that it was not a dark patch, but a piece that was physically missing. A sudden thought struck Zhang Sheng, and she, ever composed, finally lost her color. "This is your Dao Foundation?" The girl's smile actually took on a touch of sweetness. "Yes! Is she beautiful? It's not too late to admit defeat." The shock in Zhang Sheng's heart was beyond measure. How could the sun or moon become a Dao Foundation? That was like a three-year-old child trying to move a mountain—an utter impossibility! Yet this impossibility hung right before her eyes! Zhang Sheng said in a heavy voice, "Who on earth are you? And where are we?" "This is no illusion, but reality. Look at her again—she is real too. See, she is still turning." Looking closely, Zhang Sheng saw that the moon was indeed turning. Though very slowly, it was undeniably rotating, at the exact same rotational speed as the full moon of the Native Realm. The girl said, "In some otherworldly realms, the moon does not move, and living beings can never see its far side. Our moon rotates, though its axis is not completely vertical. "Therefore, there is a place on the moon that mortals can never see. That patch of eternal night amidst the radiance is me, Huiye. Right now, we are standing upon my body." "So it is Heavenly Shaman Huiye. No wonder. But even as a Heavenly Shaman, moving me silently to the Wu domain is something you cannot accomplish, is it? That exceeds the bounds of an immortal's power—after all, you are not the only immortal in this world." "It is indeed rather troublesome, but as long as you cooperate, we will reach the Wu domain in no time." Zhang Sheng said flatly, "Do you think I will cooperate?" "If you want your Dao heart to shatter again, then give it a try. I knew you wouldn't obediently listen, so I specially prepared a Dao Foundation. It is enough." Zhang Sheng said, "Is a Dao Foundation enough, or is a Dao Foundation all you can bring forth?" "Is there a difference?" "A very big difference." A figure separated from Zhang Sheng—a swordsman nearly identical to her, carrying an ordinary sword. Yet though the sword was ordinary, the swordsman was extraordinary. Holding the sword, the figure soared into the air, treading upon the silken rain of moonlight and charging toward the full moon above! In that moment, the moonlight turned lethal. Countless moonbeams instantly transformed into threads, piercing through the swordsman and riddling him with holes. Yet before dissipating, the swordsman struck with all his might. The sword light was not particularly bright, possessing only the standard of an ordinary Dao Foundation cultivator in the mortal realm. Yet it pressed forward relentlessly, cutting upstream against the torrential moonlight until its final gleam faded. Zhang Sheng stood with hands behind her back. This time, two swordsmen walked out from her. They looked at each other, nodded, and charged shoulder-to-shoulder toward the moon above. Yet both were merely ordinary swordsmen; even flying together, they only traveled slightly farther than the first. Zhang Sheng's expression did not waver. Four more swordsmen stepped from her. The four bowed to one another, then flew into the sky side by side, treading the moonlight to strike at the moon! The girl merely sneered, but when eight swordsmen walked out from Zhang Sheng, flicking their blades in harmony before advancing together, her expression finally shifted slightly. "All endowed with innate spirituality?" Zhang Sheng said impassively, "What else? Did you think I was faking it?" The eight swordsmen surged upstream, already past the halfway mark. Close behind them came sixteen, then thirty-two swordsmen! The girl's complexion turned grave. The moonlight cascading from above had grown noticeably thin. The swordsmen were almost upon the moon! She found it unbelievable—this should have been utterly impossible. Though both were at the Dao Foundation level, Huiye was a Heavenly Shaman reincarnated into a borrowed vessel, whereas Zhang Sheng was merely at the Dao Foundation. Never mind that Huiye had brought out a Yuangu Dao Foundation—even with an ordinary one, she still possessed an immortal's will, knowledge, and experience, as well as divine abilities usable at the Dao Foundation realm. An ordinary dharma idol cultivator facing her would have been cut down in a single blow. Huiye had investigated thoroughly: not only had Zhang Sheng never cultivated a dharma idol, her Dao heart had even shattered once, and she had survived only through a rare immortal treasure. Ordinarily, such people were inferior even to common cultivators. Huiye had assumed such an opponent would be easy pickings. She never expected Zhang Sheng to be this stubborn and formidable. Had this battle actually become... difficult? Sixty-four swordsmen formed a sword array, singing as they marched, finally scattering the moonlight and leaving over a dozen sword scars upon the full moon. Huiye froze in disbelief. She had never imagined that in a clash against a junior who had cultivated for less than a thousand years, she would actually be wounded! Then came one hundred and twenty-eight swordsmen. Exchanging quick greetings, they formed an array and flew upward. Then two hundred and fifty-six swordsmen manifested, assembling into a grand array. At the array's core, a swordsman flicked his longsword and called out boldly, "'Alone I turned and fought across eighty thousand miles...'" Before he could finish the poem, the swordsmen swarmed toward the moon like a dark, dense cloud of bees. An array of two hundred and fifty-six—Zhang Sheng hadn't figured out its structure yet. The crowd of swordsmen landed on the moon and began hacking and slashing wildly. Even the swordsman who had recited "'Alone I turned and fought across eighty thousand miles'" was furiously gouging the earth with his blade, completely devoid of dignity. Watching this rabble fighting each for himself, the girl felt a chill run through her. Did every one of these swordsmen possess self-born spirituality? She turned to Zhang Sheng and asked, "These still can't kill me. Do you have more?" "'...one sword's light chills nineteen provinces.'" Finishing the verse, an ordinary sword appeared in Zhang Sheng's hand—bearing not a shred of supernatural might, giving off neither light nor heat. She said, "There is one last sword. I have a sword; that is enough." Huiye looked at the sword and suddenly said, "I lose." Zhang Sheng replied calmly, "Losing was only to be expected." Fury flared in Huiye's eyes, barely kept in check. Only now did she realize that Zhang Sheng actually possessed yet another sword—the sharp blade of her tongue. The girl gave a cold sneer. "If I were truly only at the Dao Foundation, I would indeed have lost. Unfortunately, I am Huiye. I have decided: I will take your sword in exchange for this." The weight in Zhang Sheng's hand suddenly vanished. Looking down, she found that her longsword had been replaced at some point by that woven calamity doll. The girl vanished into thin air, and Zhang Sheng returned to her secluded cultivation chamber beneath the Nether Iron Mountain in the Nether Cold Realm. But within her Dao Foundation, that sword was truly gone! It had not vanished—it had been taken away. At that same moment, Wei Yuan slowly opened his eyes. Gazing at the dark-silver light spreading beneath his feet, he frowned slightly. He looked up, gazing at the full moon suspended in the sky. Only, at this moment, the moon looked... somewhat battered? Thrust into the lunar surface was a sword, impossible to see unless one looked very closely.