The night was falling, and the window was as quiet as a stagnant pool of water. There was not even the sound of wind or insects. Only the candlelight in front of him flickered twice. Wen Yun casually took the stick beside him and poked the wick.
The pressure was getting closer and closer, and her hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
The candlelight suddenly went out and the whole room fell into darkness.
A kind voice sounded softly: "Don't be afraid, little girl. I will help you ascend."
He is the Eastern Supreme Elder.
He didn't say much, just smiled and raised the sword in his hand that was flashing a faint green light in the dark, and stabbed directly with a slow movement. This sword was like a mountain pressing down on one's head. Swords attacked from all directions, and Wen Yun had almost no way to avoid it.
However, she did not sit there and wait for death. Instead, she took out a thick stack of magic scrolls from her side. Elements of all kinds ran rampant, and countless low- and medium-level magics mixed together and exploded.
"Fireball!"
"Light Arrow!"
"Water barrier!"
Elder Dongfang exclaimed and put down the sword in his hand: "So your so-called sword will transformation is actually a talisman. No, there is no spiritual power fluctuation at all. This is not a talisman!"
These low-level magics were like tickling him. Instead of resisting, he studied them with great interest. He muttered to himself as he watched, his curiosity growing stronger and stronger: "This is really strange. I have never seen such a strange thing. It seems like the product of another cultivation system..."
Wen Yun did not dare to speak to distract herself. At the moment when the other party's attention was diverted by the talisman, a faint light flashed from the elderberry wand in her hand -
"Curse!"
The spell containing powerful mental pressure came out coldly, causing Dongfang's thoughts to suddenly slow down and leave him blank for a moment.
Very short, like a fleeting moment, but enough!
Wen Yun was about to crush the last magic scroll when he found that the person who was standing next to him was gone.
Her heart sank and she paused in pinching the scroll.
In just a short moment, Elder Dongfang regained consciousness. He realized that something was wrong and quickly reached out to grab Wen Yun's neck.
However, the next moment, a cry of pain suddenly came out of his mouth, and his five fingers, as dry as dead wood, curled up and trembled, and finally hung limply in front of Wen Yun's eyes.
Wen Yun looked up in surprise, and with the help of the light from the magic scroll, he saw the man in white clothes he had just been looking for standing quietly in front of him.
In his hand he held a cedarwood wand, the other end of which had been inserted into the old man's back. Blood flowed along the wood, so thick that it almost sank into the night.
"It's you... it's you..."
Elder Dongfang roared something incoherently, his voice trembling with fear, as if the appearance of the man in front of him brought him far more fear than the fatal wound in his dantian.
Ye Shubai said in a very cold voice: "You shouldn't have come tonight."
The Eastern Elder's voice trembled: "If I knew you were here, I would not come here alone..."
He will definitely bring all the people from that time with him and completely wipe Ye Shubai out of this world!
"No, you shouldn't have come to kill her."
Elder Dongfang's consciousness was gradually dissipating. He murmured: "She?"
Ye Shubai replied softly: "She is the one I want to protect."
What was held in the hand did not seem to be wood, but rather the sharpest sword. A simple stab actually shattered the opponent's entire Dantian, and the Nascent Soul was also turned into powder, leaving only a small piece that fell into the palm of his hand.
One of his hands was already stained with dirty blood, but the other hand was still white and clean. He used the clean hand to pull the stunned Wen Yun over.
He said calmly: "You are still young, you shouldn't watch these."
She wanted to say that she was not young and had seen many bloody scenes, but his hands had already covered her eyes without any resistance.
The man's palms were slightly cool, and a faint scent of white plum blossoms lingered between Wen Yun's nostrils from his sleeves. The smell was very light and clear, but it somehow dispelled the heavy smell of blood in the room.
The voice of the Eastern Elder was broken and he seemed to be begging for something, but no one responded.
After a while, the whole courtyard returned to silence.
Ye Shubai stuffed a piece of white jade into Wen Yun's hand and said, "Take it. I'll be back soon."
Then he warned seriously: "Don't open your eyes."
Wen Yun: “…”
Is this sapling drifting? How dare he speak to her in such a tone? Does she look like someone who would listen to you
Wen Yun had just opened his eyes, and before he could see the situation around him clearly, he saw the man with his back to him said coldly without even turning his head: "Shut it."
Wen Yun: Okay, a good master should occasionally respond to the sword spirit’s request.
Ye Shubai came back very quickly. He had returned to his previous elegant appearance in white clothes. There was no trace of blood on his hands. He even cleaned the cedar wood wand.
Wen Yun didn't dwell on why Elder Dongfang wanted to kill her. After all, she had lived for hundreds of years and had seen all kinds of strange things. In her previous life, she was hunted down for more than a hundred years just because she had black hair and black eyes.
Both worlds are the same, they will not talk to you about laws and morals.
She only cared about the man's whereabouts: "Is he dead?"
He obviously didn't want to elaborate, so he just nodded, then took the piece of jade-like fragment from Wen Yun's hand. It was obviously a very small piece, but the spiritual energy contained in it was as vast as the ocean, and even mixed with some energy that made Wen Yun feel familiar.
Wen Yun was puzzled: "What is this?"
Ye Shubai answered frankly: "He stole it from me."
"Were you chopped by him before?"
He was silent for a moment, and did not correct the statement: "I guess so."
The fragments gradually glowed in Ye Shubai's palm, and then turned into a ball of mist and completely merged into his body. Even though Wen Yun had no spiritual energy, he could feel that his aura had changed at this moment.
Wen Yun didn't care about the fragment. She frowned and said, "We have to leave Qingliu Sword Sect quickly, otherwise we won't be able to escape if we are discovered."
Ye Shubai stared at Wen Yun and said something that could barely be called comforting: "He sealed off this world when he came, and no one knew when I took him away, so just treat what happened tonight as if it never happened, and don't worry."
Wen Yun: "I'm not worried."
She was really not worried. Although she could not break through the tribulation period now, she could still escape. She just didn't expect that he could seize that fleeting opportunity and decisively kill Elder Dongfang. Now thinking about it, if she was not careful at that time, she would be doomed.
She just felt it was bizarre. He was one of the top figures in the world of cultivation. How did he kill him with just one sword... No, it was just one stick? This was obviously not something an ordinary sword spirit could do.
Ye Shubai avoided mentioning his identity this time and said calmly: "If you want to learn this sword technique, I can teach you."
Wen Yun: "No need, I'm learning swordsmanship under Senior Ye. I heard from my senior brother that he is the best swordsman in the world..."
"I can kill the calamity with one sword."
Wen Yun still hesitated: "I don't have spiritual power, so I'm afraid it will be difficult to achieve success in swordsmanship..."
"I can kill the calamity with one sword."
Wen Yun had no choice but to tell the truth: "I don't want to get up early."
Most of them, magicians, practice in the underworld in the middle of the night, and they really can't stand the sword practitioners' habit of getting up early to practice sword in the mortal world. If they practice magic at night and sword during the day, she would probably die suddenly before ascending.
Ye Shubai pretended not to hear and arranged for her: "Since you want to learn, then get up before sunrise tomorrow morning to practice swordplay."
Wen Yun was dissatisfied with his attitude: "Please be more respectful to your master."
Ye Shubai disappeared, leaving only a faint sentence: "You take a rest, I will call you tomorrow morning."
A magician who doesn't want to practice both magic and martial arts is not a good swordsman.
Wen Yun was forced by her own sword spirit to get up early and practice swordsmanship for half a month. During this period, she was extremely vigilant and carried the last magic scroll with her, but she never heard the news of Elder Dongfang's death, only the news of his retreat.
"A master in the Tribulation Crossing Stage is a sect's trump card." Ye Shubai stood beside Wen Yun and explained to her, "Even if he dies, it will not be made public, otherwise the other two sects will probably take the opportunity to seize the resources."
After he finished speaking, he tapped the back of Wen Yun's hand with the cedar wood wand: "Not fast enough, try again."
Wen Yun, who was woken up at dawn, could no longer bear it and asked, "Have you heard of magic?"
Ye Shubai: "No, is it you who used the magic?"
Wen Yun: "I'll teach you."
Ye Shubai vaguely felt that her tone was wrong.
Wen Yun: "As my backup staff spirit, you have to understand magic. I will give you a book of spells and you should memorize it."
Ye Shubai: "Okay."
Wen Yun was waiting for this sentence. She immediately threw a thick collection of spells over to him without saying a word. The words on the book were all obscure and strange dragon language. She wanted to see if it would take this guy hundreds of years to memorize them all.
However, before dawn the next day, Ye Shubai came to her with a book in his hand.
"You go practice swordplay, and I'll read here."
"… "
Damn!
Three days later, news spread from the sect that Elder Dongfang was in seclusion. At the same time, news also spread that the sect leader was in seclusion preparing to break through the tribulation period. The affairs of the sect were temporarily handled by Elder Ouyang.
Some people were saying that they saw Elder Ouyang and the Sect Leader fighting with swords in the back mountain last night, and it seemed that a huge dispute had broken out.
But these have nothing to do with Wen Yun. Ye Shubai does things very carefully and cleanly, and no one has yet traced her back.
She also boarded the cloud boat to the sword-fighting conference, ready to leave the Qingliu Sword Sect.
This year's sword-fighting competition was held on Chuixue Island, about half a month's journey from Qingliu Sword Sect, so the disciples who went to participate boarded the cloud boat engraved with a spirit stone array.
Among the people traveling with her, she only recognized Shen Xinghai, and didn't recognize any of the others.
However, all the inner disciples from other peaks knew her. When they saw Wen Yun, they all bowed and greeted her, "Junior Sister Wen."
"Junior Sister Wen, I am Zhu Erchong, a disciple of the Second Peak."
"Junior Sister Wen, I am Bao Pilong, a disciple from the Fifth Peak."
…
The First Peak had great power in the sect. Normally, if disciples from other peaks had frictions or disputes with their people, they would definitely suffer the loss and consider themselves unlucky. This year, they were very happy to see the First Peak fail in the competition.
Of course, Shen Xinghai doesn't count. As someone who came in from the outer gate, he was already a marginal figure in the First Peak. This time when he went to the sword-fighting conference, the First Peak didn't even bother to send an elder to accompany him.
The disciples from all the peaks witnessed with their own eyes how Wen Yun defeated Liu Luoyin fairly, so they admired Wen Yun very much. Even the disciples from the Ninth Peak, who were often forced to do chores by the Third Senior Brother, were quite friendly to her.
After the beautiful Senior Sister Meng Ran from the Sixth Peak took out some fruit wine and gave it to everyone to drink, the atmosphere on the Cloud Boat became even more harmonious. Everyone took out some food to share, and Wen Yun also took out the roast chicken that Senior Brother Two had specially prepared for her last night...
Well, actually it’s roasted crane.
Wen Yun nibbled on the roasted, tender crane claws, took a sip of fruit wine, and watched the floating clouds passing by the cloud boat. Just as he was about to try a crane wing, he suddenly heard the clear cry of a crane from afar.
"That's the Xie family's Yunzhou." Senior Sister Meng Ran explained, "It is said that Junior Brother Xie brought Senior Sister Liu to participate in the sword competition, using the Xie family's quota."
Someone sneered: "As expected, having a good family background makes a difference. Even if you lose the competition, you still have another shortcut."
"Hey, Junior Sister Wen, your roasted crane tastes really good. Where did you get it from?"
Wen Yun answered vaguely: "My senior brother gave it to me. I don't know anything about it."
When the two cloud boats were sailing side by side, Xie Mi'an on the boat bowed to his fellow disciples with a warm smile, and his eyes naturally fell on the figure with his back to him.
He paused, and before he had time to think, the golden elixir in his dantian suddenly became hot and burned him so painfully that he had no time to take a closer look at the familiar figure.
With a frown on his face, he reluctantly went back into the house to rest for a while, and Liu Luoyin hurried over.
"I heard that you didn't look well. Is your wound hurting?"
Xie Mi'an raised her head and smiled comfortingly: "Mi'an, everything is fine. Thank you for your concern, Senior Sister. You are also injured, why don't you rest in your room?"
Liu Luoyin's face darkened: "I just saw the sect's cloud boat, and that girl was on it."
Xie Mi'an had heard that Liu Luoyin was defeated by a little girl from the Tenth Peak, but he had been recuperating in his own villa for the past few days and did not know the details.
He soothed her gently, "Victory and defeat are common in the military. Senior sister, don't worry about the success or failure. I've seen that your swordsmanship is superb. I'll definitely beat her by several points next time."
Liu Luoyin, who was always arrogant and proud in the past, frowned at this moment and said hesitantly: "Brother, you don't know that her swordsmanship has reached a level that ordinary people can't reach... Have you ever seen someone who can transform sword spirit into a physical form when he is in his teens?"
Xie Mi'an was silent for a while, his pale face was a little dazed, and then his voice was a little hoarse: "I have actually seen one."
This time it was Liu Luoyin's turn to be shocked: "Is he from your Xie family?"
The man's gentle face showed a rare look of bewilderment, as if he recalled something, and his slightly thin lips curled into a very shallow smile: "Yes, when she was fourteen years old, she touched the true meaning of swordsmanship. Few people of our generation, no, even among my elders, can draw swords faster than her."
"What happened next? What level is he at now?"
"Later..."
She died, killed by his sword.
Xie Mi'an lowered his eyes, with a faint sadness on his face: "Later, when I went out to train, I was killed by a demon cultivator."
Liu Luoyin was speechless. He whispered an apology and stopped talking.
"Nothing, let's not talk about these sad things." Xie Mi'an smiled softly: "By the way, Senior Sister, what is the name of the girl you mentioned?"