The Sword Dynasty

Book 8: Chapter 44: Madman

As blood rushed up their heads, these palace attendants and guards flushed red. However, their consciousness was very clear, and their energies had never been so vigorous. Looking at their fellows who had frozen into black statues around them, these attendants and guards even had a wondrous and terrifying feeling that the vitality of these people had been moved to them.

Terror and awe came from the same source. For most of the nobility and cultivators present, these attendants and guards were sacrifices, just suddenly making the ceremony more solemn and grand. Such a dark wind was the method that the sect used in the past to defend against foreigners. In the past, the cultivators who had practiced the yin and ghostly path had been harmed greatly, and their methods to defend themselves were even crueler.

At the tail of the hundreds of young cultivators moving along the river to the black mountain, there was one cultivator who appeared odd. He was dressed differently from the young cultivators, appearing much more grand. Even more importantly, when the dark wind swept over, he did not freeze like the palace attendants and guards, but his face turned snowy white and he trembled.

This young person had been very famous recently. He was Su Qin. He had come here along with the Qi cultivators who had returned on the ships. Also, because of his special status in the Chu capital, even the people around the Qi Emperor easily recognized who he was.

“Your Majesty, why allow him to enter the ancestral hall?”

One old person in black robes who had stood respectfully in the Qi Emperor’s shadow frowned and asked.

This old man’s beard was very long, down to his waist. He was He Meijing, the retired sect master of Celestial Capital Sect. After Yan Ying’s death, he was like Qi Siren in being recognized as one of the strongest cultivators of the dynasty. Also, because he was an academian of the palace, he had retired and given up the position of sect leader in order to protect the emperor. So in the world of cultivators and also in court, he had extraordinary status.

In the hundreds of young cultivators, five young people came from Celestial Capital Sect. For such a ceremony, this ratio was a great honor to any sect. But he still could not tolerate someone from Qin, a foreigner, entering the ancestral hall to study.

The relationship between the Qi Emperor and He Miejing was no different than the one between Yuanwu and Xu Fu at this time. So he had no need to conceal anything. He did not turn his head. He said softly, his lips barely moving, “Problems have occurred between Zheng Xiu and Yuanwu. The two do not have the same opinions. But Yuanwu cannot suppress Zheng Xiu completely in the short term or eliminate Zheng Xiu directly. For a very long time, Su Qin will still be the true ruler of the Qin Dynasty in Chu, and he may be the only channel between us and Zheng Xiu. He is very important to us.”

After a pause, the Qi Emperor said coolly, “Also, the main reason that I agreed for him to visit the ancestral hall is because he cultivates a method not related to yin energies. So even with the help of medicines and seal weapons, he cannot stay long in the hall, much less truly learn something.”

He Miejing looked at Su Qin’s trembling back, nodded and fell silent.

In the eyes of the hunters, even the strongest beast was just prey. The Qi Emperor and He Miejing did not see, the closer they came to the black mountain, the greater the scorn at the corners of Su Qin’s mouth.

At this time, there was no more dark wind, the formation had clearly finished adjusting. The strange defensive power had completely covered the mountain. There was only one opening on the stairs ahead of them. The gap that could allow two or three people to go through seemed to have an odd light flashing around the edges. It was like a blade was gilded with a special metal, like a crack had appeared in the void.

The formation had lost its power for only a very short time, the only time it was possible for people to sneak in. But Su Qin believed that it would not be hard for Bai Shanshui. Because from a certain point of view, Bai Shanshui who dared to sing and fight and Changling, and fought the Nether Float fleet when the Chu capital was conquered was not just too arrogant, she seemed insane.

Even though these Qi grandmasters were not very different in cultivation from mad people like Bai Shanshui and Zhao Si, in Su Qin’s view, these grandmasters were much lesser and innately different.

Because often, only mad people could accomplish crazy things.

**

In any era, an invincible being was awe inspiring, no matter if it was the You Emperor of the past You Dynasty, or this grandmaster who had turned the ghostly path that the world did not tolerate into mainstream. So even to a conspirator like Su Qin, when he truly stepped on the stone stairs of the mountain, the scorn on his lips completely disappeared, and his eyes narrowed.

The stairs were very dry, and had no moisture, but moss grew vigorously in the cracks between the stairs. The moss here and the trees along the way usually did not see sunlight for years. But they absorbed another kind of energy from the mountain. Over time, they had turned into an inky black crystal.

Many trees would be petrified after they died and buried in the ground, and even turn to jade. But that was after death. All of the trees, grasses, and even moss here on the mountain were different. Even though they looked like black crystals, they were still living, and still growing. This was a powerful method of living through death.

In Su Qin’s view, just looking at the plants on the mountain was enough for many cultivators to change their views of the ghostly path. Ahead of him, the breathing of the young cultivators who had been selected from the entire Qi Dynasty yew heavier. However, their bodies were lighter, their vitality stronger, and they even felt enthusiastic from within their calm nervousness.

Su Qin sensed a kind of hostility from the stone stairs and the plants on both sides. Around him, some obvious black lines appeared and approached his skin. He breathed slowly. In his uncrippled right hand, he gripped a stone seal within his sleeve. When he channeled in vital energy to the stone seal, it gave off a dark and yin energy which slowly spread around him.

The black lines which appeared around him like steel needles did not disappear, just advanced very slowly.