A Single Sword

Yu Xiaogui squinted into the distance. The deep azure lake water mirrored a cloudless sky stretching for myriad leagues. Not far away, the perpetual thunder and lightning over Lake Central Islet intermittently illuminated a vast expanse of the waters, where a white speck floated lightly into view. As the distance closed, Yu Xiaogui finally made out that the figure was a white-robed man holding a sword, walking on empty air. Beneath his feet, the lake waters surged and roared, transforming into flood dragons, serpents, and sea beasts of varied forms that clustered around him as he drew near. "Father! Father!" Yu Mugao called out several times in succession, but saw Yu Xiaogui staring fixedly at the horizon, motionless. With a grim, sinister expression, his sleeves clutched tightly in his fists and his lips pressed into a hard line, the elder uttered not a word. Yu Mugao's heart sank, a heavy sense of foreboding rising within him. He hastily followed his father's gaze and peered into the distance, yet saw nothing. "Father!" Yu Xiaogui's aura surged violently, his cuffs snapping in the wind as his grey robes radiated a shimmering magical luminescence. Gritting his teeth, with a trace of dread in his voice, he rasped: "Li Tongya..." "Li Tongya? Li Tongya!" As though struck by lightning, Yu Mugao turned deathly pale. His body froze midair, his mouth opening, unable to form words. He lowered his eyes and muttered, "How is that possible? How is that possible?! That's impossible!" "Impossible... There is definitely something wrong with Li Tongya! There must be something wrong with him!" The sky gradually darkened as dark clouds, driven by the northern gale, gathered from the south. A fine, dense drizzle began to fall upon the earth. Yu Mugao widened his eyes, and indeed saw a white-robed man walking across the lake's surface. The man trod on empty air, yet rode upon flood dragons, serpents, and sea beasts. The waters of Lake Wangyue surged upward, and deep azure dragons and serpents bared their claws and fangs, lifelike and obedient, winding and slithering beneath his feet. He wore a simple white robe. His eyebrows were gentle and long, his cheeks gaunt, his shoulders broad, and his bearing magnificent and far-reaching. In his arms he cradled a sword, hidden within its scabbard with its shape concealed. "Rain... It shouldn't be raining right now... It has never rained on the northern shore..." The members of the Yu family looked up at the sky one after another. Fine, icy beads of rain struck their faces. Startled by this solemn, oppressive atmosphere, they halted their movements in unison, looking toward the lakeshore from afar. "Moon Crescent Sword Li Tongya!" "The Li family's ancestor... the Foundation Establishment sword cultivator, Li Tongya!" The cultivators of both families fixed their gazes upon this white-robed man, murmuring to one another in utter dread. Thirty-six Qi Refinement cultivators and over a hundred Embryonic Breathing cultivators were instantly intimidated by his sole aura, not daring to make a move. "It's raining..." Li Tongya merely halted at the shore, cradling his sword. He reached out a hand to catch the falling raindrops. They were piercingly cold to the touch, yet they did not freeze into frost or snow, but fell drop by drop by drop. Li Tongya rarely wore white robes, but the Huashang Fruit within his belly made his true essence surge and his battle intent difficult to suppress. He had never felt so good before; in rare high spirits, he had donned flowing white robes. His immortal foundation was unstable, his cultivation continuously leaking away. Relying on this precious herb at the cost of damaging his meridians and qi sea, he was propelled for a fleeting moment to an unprecedented pinnacle. Even the celestial phenomena were moved by the aura of the 'Vast Sea,' lending him something of the majesty of the Foundation Establishment peak. Midair, Yu Xiaogui's eyes were filled with dread. For a moment, he did not know what to say. He cautiously extended his spiritual sense toward him, only to perceive the person before him as vast as the open ocean, radiating boundless pressure. "What cultivation level is this... Middle Foundation Establishment? Late Foundation Establishment? How is that possible?!" Merely standing on the shore, Li Tongya had already caused the celestial phenomena to shift. Compounded by his renowned feat of slaying the Maha with his sword, Yu Xiaogui had already grown timid and felt an urge to flee. "Senior Yu." Li Tongya looked up at him, his bright eyes calm and serene. Taking light steps, he climbed into the sky step by step, stopping before the members of the Yu family. His tone was just as it had been back when he was at the seventh layer of Qi Refinement, meeting Fei Wangbai and Yu Xiaogui at the lake banquet—neither servile nor overbearing, steady and forceful. "Long time no see." The efficacy of the precious herb, the Huashang Fruit, dissolved across his internal organs, slowly washing the wrinkles from his face. His white hair turned glossy black, billowing freely behind him with dashing elegance. Li Tongya's countenance shifted from the burdened, worried look of an old man to the steady poise of middle age, before gradually returning to the handsome, sharp appearance of his sixteen-year-old self. That likeness had long ago been buried in the forgotten archives of his life, never shown to anyone. Back then, he had not yet embarked upon the path of immortality. Leaving early and returning late, he had often faced the morning sun thrashing wheat in the fields, sweating in the light mist with an easy smile. Li Xiangping would be chattering noisily at his side, while his eldest brother, Li Changhu, sat on the ridge between the fields, smiling. "G-greetings, Fellow Daoist..." Yu Xiaogui swallowed quietly. Feeling the overwhelming, mountain-toppling might emanating from Li Tongya, the panic in his heart was beyond words, making him stammer with trembling fear. Looking at Li Tongya in the guise of a sixteen-year-old youth, he felt as though he were beholding a venomous snake that had laid dormant for years finally baring its fangs, or a nest-guarding eagle finally freed from all attachments. Li Tongya simply stood quietly in the air, yet it was as if a white immortal sword hung suspended there, making every hair on Yu Xiaogui's body stand on end. Only then did Li Tongya snap back to the present. Letting his gaze sweep across the faces of the Yu family cultivators, he spoke in a mild voice: "The Fei clan is blameless. I ask that your esteemed family withdraw its troops." These words were domineering, despotic, and brooked no dispute. Falling from Li Tongya's lips, they seemed like the ringing keen of a great sword, quelling the hearts of the Yu cultivators with trepidation and dread. Yu Xiaogui's face flushed crimson, yet he dared not utter a single word of refusal. Yu Xiaogui's hands trembled incessantly within his sleeves, an agonizing sensation of being choked constricting his throat. The tension in the air was so heavy moisture almost seemed to condense from it. The Yu cultivators had already silently stowed away their magical artifacts and were exchanging nervous glances, when suddenly a man's voice roared: "He's bluffing! Attack!" "Li Tongya! You're bluffing! There is no way you can walk away unscathed! Cast your arts! What are you all staring at? Cast your arts!" This hysterical, sinister, and impatient shout detonated across the pin-drop silent sky above Hanyun Peak, jolting everyone alert. It was Yu Mugao, his eyes bloodshot and bulging as if tearing at the corners, shrieking: "Li Tongya! It's impossible! Stop putting on this act!" Li Tongya neither confirmed nor denied it, merely staring at him with composure. Jolted by his eldest son's reminder, Yu Xiaogui finally broke free from that overwhelming awe. Greed surged within him, a glimmer of wishful thinking flickering in his eyes as he gritted his teeth and declared: "My family must have Hanyun Peak. Fellow Daoist, pardon my offense!" With an abrupt wave of his sleeve, the fist-sized Jade Smoke Mountain floated out, swelling with the wind as it took flight. Right from the start, he unleashed his full strength; the artifact expanded to the size of a small hill and came crashing down head-on. "Command!" Li Tongya's white robe rustled in the wind. Confronted by the Jade Smoke Mountain blotting out the sky, a gentle smile graced his face. The Qingchi Sword in his embrace sprang forth by a foot. *Clang!* A bluish-white light blazed from the peak of Hanyun Peak. The world was dim and gloomy, devoid of sunlight. The ox-hair drizzle drifted down in dense sheets, while the intense bluish-white radiance stung the onlookers' eyes so fiercely they could not keep them open. Upon the northern shore, a bluish-white moon rose into being. *Boom—* Heavy as a mountain and capable of suppressing magical arts, the Jade Smoke Mountain paused in midair for merely half a breath before being sent tumbling head over heels by the surging bluish-white sword light, slamming viciously into the Cloud-Gathering Southern Sky Array and sending a tremor throughout Hanyun Peak from top to bottom. "What?!" The Jade Smoke Mountain spun rapidly, shrinking back down to the size of a fist like a deflated ball. Yu Xiaogui suffered terribly—before the sword qi even reached him, the backlash from his artifact caused him to spit a mouthful of blood. He cried out: "Fellow Daoist, spare my life!!" Yu Xiaogui slapped his storage bag, and three Foundation Establishment talismans saved over many years surged out, transforming into three magical shields of gold and white. Yet the sword qi arrived with torrential fury, obliterating all three shields in succession before lightly sweeping across his waist, cutting him in two. "Father!" The Yu family fell into chaos. Yu Mugao was thoroughly shaken, his vision filled entirely with that unbroken bluish-white sword light until Yu Xiaogui's shrieks of agony jolted him to his senses. He scrambled forward to catch both halves of his father's body, using his magic power to staunch the bleeding and piece them back together. "Fellow Daoist, spare my life!! Fellow Daoist, have mercy!!" Yu Xiaogui's eyes were filled with a blur of bluish-white, and he screamed repeatedly as if his soul had been scared out of his body. Li Tongya merely watched in silence as the Yu family scrambled to save him, his bluish-white sword lifting slightly. In an instant, goosebumps broke out on everyone across Hanyun Peak, a chill gripping their necks.