Chapter 654: Waiting for Guests at Sui Xie Valley

Xu Fengnian had three fine swords brought from the armory for Sui Xiegu, calling them the most expensive appetizers in the world. The old man, of course, wouldn't stand on ceremony with this young man. He casually picked up an ancient sword, its blade inscribed with seven characters: "Clouds parted, a moon disk emerges," and laid it across his lap. With his fingers, he snapped off a piece of the sword tip, put it in his mouth, and chewed it as if it were a soybean. As the young maid, whose name Xu Fengnian didn't even know, left the pavilion, her eyes wide with a peculiar charm, catching the shimmering reflections in her peripheral vision, leaving her utterly dumbfounded. Xu Fengnian didn't bat an eye. Instead, the sword-eating patriarch looked at the graceful woman, then glanced at the young man who had yet to reach thirty, his gaze seemingly asking, "Is there really a prince in this world as ascetic and dispassionate as you?" Xu Fengnian looked at the greenish lake water, occasionally catching a glimpse of a vibrant carp's back gliding by. Years ago, the old blade-wielding giant had been suppressed at the bottom of this very lake. When he resurfaced, Old Huang also reclaimed his moniker, Sword Nine Huang. At that time, his eldest sister was still in Jiangnan, his second sister was still studying at Shangyin Academy, Xu Xiao hadn't shown such clear signs of aging, and he himself was still full of aspirations and fantasies about the martial world.

Sui Xiegu ate quickly, drank quickly, and ate swords even faster. He quickly began on the second sword, "Myriad Ravines Thunder," which was even sharper. Looking at the distracted Xu Fengnian, he said with a hint of sarcasm, "The first time we met, you were trembling all over. Now that you've defeated Wang Xianzhi, you're truly like a beggar who's stumbled upon a mountain of gold and silver—unbelievably extravagant! Sitting in the same pavilion as me, and yet you dare to let your mind wander a thousand miles away."

Xu Fengnian picked up the last sword, "Yao Guang," which three hundred years ago was one of the three Talisman Swords of the Big Dipper from Longhu Mountain. It had been kept in its scabbard for many years in the Tide-Listening Pavilion, truly "hidden in the boudoir, unknown to all." Yet, once unsheathed, it still radiated brilliant light. Xu Fengnian thought for a moment, then waved the maid, who hadn't gone far, and asked her to retrieve two more good swords. Sui Xiegu didn't mind this, joking, "It's said that the Tide-Listening Pavilion has a sword rack holding six peerless famous swords, and this sword appraisal has two of them ranking among the top ten swords in the world: 'Spirit Medium' and 'Shu Path.' When will you let this old man feast his eyes on them? The more you hide them, the more I crave them. Be careful, or I might sneak them away sometime. Others can't get within three zhang of you, but for me, it probably wouldn't be difficult."

Xu Fengnian smiled, "It's not that I'm unwilling to bring out 'Spirit Medium' and 'Shu Path'; it's that I can't. Those two swords are my second sister's beloved possessions; she's been polishing them since she was a child."

Sui Xiegu finished eating the famous sword "Myriad Ravines Thunder," let out a burp, and squinted his eyes with a smile, saying, "If this old man insists on eating them, what then?"

Xu Fengnian smiled but said nothing.

The old man extended a finger, and his long, snow-white eyebrows, which hung down to his knees, coiled around it like spiritual serpents, their tips swaying.

The maid, standing sideways on the stone steps outside the pavilion, suddenly felt a chilling cold, as if someone had stuffed a handful of winter snow down her collar. She subtly raised her gaze, looking at the young prince who remained seated in the pavilion. For some reason, after seeing him, the biting cold she felt seemed to lessen slightly. For a maid like her, who didn't serve in Wutong Courtyard, this young man—who, she heard, would soon don the prince's python robe—seemed both within reach and yet impossibly distant. However, everyone on Qingliang Mountain was eagerly awaiting the day he would wear the robe sent by the Golden Thread Weaving Bureau, guessing its color: apricot yellow or the true blue of a great general? Would it feature a coiled dragon or an ascending dragon? Would the material be Shu brocade or silk gauze? Especially the women in the royal residence, regardless of age, believed that on the day he donned the prince's python robe, he would be the most handsome man in the world. They also knew that the imperial court had once sent a jade-white python robe through the chief eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, but he had only worn it once on the frontier before it was locked away at the bottom of a chest, completely forgotten.

The maid slightly parted her lips. The pavilion, where the prince and the sword-eating old immortal had just been seated, was now utterly empty after her momentary lapse in attention. She hadn't even felt the slightest breeze. The two had simply vanished into thin air before her eyes.

On the lake surface between the lakeside Tide-Listening Pavilion and the pavilion in the center of the lake, Xu Fengnian glided backward, his back to the armory. Although his figure was merely a fleeting glimpse, to the hidden observers, it was still an indescribably elegant and unrestrained sight.

Three zhang in front of him was Sui Xiegu, his hand clasped behind his back. His two long, ethereal eyebrows, like dragon whiskers, fluttered in the wind.

Neither of them made a move. The elusive Xu Fengnian paused again after reaching the shore. Consequently, Sui Xiegu's slightly leaning forward figure also came into view.

These two figures, vastly different in age but both at the pinnacle of the martial world, still hadn't openly engaged in a full-blown fight. However, the distance between them had already narrowed to two zhang.

Third time's the limit.

Xu Fengnian stopped beneath the triple plaques of the Tide-Listening Pavilion, no longer retreating.

Sui Xiegu laughed heartily, yet he didn't forcefully enter the pavilion through its main gate. Instead, he merely tapped his toes, rising from the ground and soaring towards the upper levels of the pavilion.

Moments later, a strange scene unfolded. The maid in the pavilion stretched her neck to look, only to see the sword-eating, white-browed old immortal land back on the pedestal of the Tide-Listening Pavilion. He even extended his sole arm to pat his shoulder, as if dusting himself off.

Xu Fengnian hovered in the air, level with the sixth floor, looking down at the old man on the ground. A wisp of sword qi, reaching a state of formlessness, had sliced a gash in the robe under his arm. Formless sword qi, reaching wherever the mind wills it, was already considered a high-level mastery, capable of challenging top experts, though traces could still be found. However, truly perfected flying sword techniques, if both formless and untraceable, with movements so unpredictable that even gods and spirits couldn't fathom them, were truly troublesome. As for Deng Tai'a's flying sword technique, though it clearly used a physical sword, it surpassed formless sword qi, displaying the grand demeanor of a true sword immortal. No one, it was believed, would want to provoke this middle-aged Sword God who had borrowed a sword from Li Chungang from a thousand miles away and then returned from a visit to immortals in the East Sea. After Wang Xianzhi's death, even Tuoba Pusa wouldn't dare claim absolute victory, with success being at best a fifty-fifty chance. Xu Fengnian, at present, also lacked that level of power. And the centenarian Sui Xiegu was undoubtedly the second greatest sword master in the world after Deng Tai'a. Even if the old man had self-deprecatingly remarked, when journeying north with Deng Tai'a, that his hundred years had been "lived on a dog," after all, in hundreds of years of the martial world, only Li Chungang had pursued the path of the sword directly to the level of Lü Zu, while Deng Tai'a's sword technique had, despite being initially considered "inferior" by the world, elevated him to the ranks of sword immortals. Against these two, there was simply no reasoning. While Sui Xiegu's sword dao attainment was inferior to Li Chungang's, and he himself admitted defeat in sword technique to Deng Tai'a, who was several generations younger, this was no reason for anyone to underestimate Sui Xiegu.

Xu Fengnian stomped down on Sui Xiegu, who was attempting to ascend into the pavilion. Sui Xiegu, in what he considered a polite gesture, used sword qi to cut Xu Fengnian's robe.

The atmosphere around the Tide-Listening Pavilion instantly became extremely tense, as if swords were drawn and bows strung.

Xu Weixiong, in her wheelchair, appeared outside the steps and calmly said, "They are but external possessions; give them to him."

In her opinion, there was no need to anger the long-browed old sword master—whose name wasn't on the martial rankings but whose strength was more than enough to be—over two swords that she would never have the chance to draw herself again.

Xu Fengnian shook his head, "If they were mine, I'd give them away without hesitation. But since they are your favorites, Second Sister, no."

Sui Xiegu, having been stopped four times in a row, couldn't help but sneer, "What arrogance! Do you really think a local snake like you, injured and weakened, can defeat all the river-crossing dragons in the world?"

Xu Fengnian smiled, "This is what you asked for, Senior."

Sui Xiegu's lips twitched, and he said darkly, "Oh, so the boy is truly getting presumptuous? This old man originally thought it was just a game. Since you're being so unappreciative, I'll take this opportunity to properly establish the reputation of swordsmen everywhere. With Wang Xianzhi gone, the title of 'number one under heaven' should rightfully fall to a wielder of the sword."

Xu Fengnian said calmly, "After my battle with Wang Xianzhi, I gained a few insights and comprehended three new moves. If Senior can withstand them, let alone 'Spirit Medium' and 'Shu Path' delivered into your hands, even this entire armory will be yours."

Having said this, Xu Fengnian raised his hand, and the royal residence's elite deathsworn, lurking in hidden spots, began to retreat swiftly. The dazed maid was even carried away on the spot and directly thrown to the opposite bank of Tide-Listening Lake.

Sui Xiegu closed his eyes to conserve his energy, waiting quietly.

Xu Weixiong didn't move; she simply rested her chin on one hand, tilted her head, and gazed up at her brother, who was suspended high above. A faint smile touched her lips.

It seemed she truly couldn't beat him up like before anymore.

A mighty wind begins with a gentle breeze.

Along the edge of Tide-Listening Lake was a patch of reeds. The autumn reeds had turned grey-white, their stalks fallen askew, and their fluffy leaves, clustered together, were gradually withering.

The wind began to rise, and catkins started to fly.

If one looked closely, they could even see the hollow reed stalks, growing by the water's edge, beginning to snap inch by inch, haphazardly.

In this late autumn reed patch, the flying catkins resembled falling snow.

Simultaneously, Tide-Listening Lake, nestled on the mountainside of Qingliang Mountain, whose green water had once been a tranquil, mirror-like surface, shattered into countless tiny fragments. It was as if innumerable hammers were tirelessly striking the water mirror. Occasionally, a brocade carp would leap from the water, only to instantly turn to dust.

The brightly colored wooden pavilion in the center of the lake began to show countless mottled cracks. The two rows of Chinese scholar trees and willows along the path to the lake pavilion also began to emit dull cracking sounds.

Eventually, the shore at the foot of the Tide-Listening Pavilion was also affected. From the water's edge to the open ground beneath Xu Fengnian's feet, transient, momentary patterns of airflow crawled across the surface. However, this undercurrent, intentionally or unintentionally, bypassed both Sui Xiegu and Xu Weixiong. Yet, their situations differed: the current naturally flowed around Xu Weixiong, while the old man, like a boulder in the middle of a river, forcefully cleaved through the torrent.

Xu Fengnian sat cross-legged "in the air," looking down at the unmoving Sui Xiegu.

Both men, in their comprehension of the sword, whether in techniques or intent, were among the most outstanding figures in the world today. Xu Fengnian had also, on several occasions, simply imitated Li Chungang's "Sword Come" stance atop the Great Snow Plains, summoning swords in a grand display, sometimes hundreds at a time. However, Xu Fengnian knew clearly that while such a large-scale sword summoning technique was both visually impressive and practical against ordinary martial artists—because the power of each sword and wisp of sword qi, even when distributed, was still considerable—no one would ever squander their vital energy and spirit in such a way when facing an equally matched opponent like Sui Xiegu, or one whose strength differed by only a fraction. Just like on the East Sea surface near Wudi City, when Li Chungang and Wang Xianzhi met again decades later, the leather-clad old man's mighty sword flow, though seemingly chaotic as it rushed towards Wang Xianzhi, was in fact one sword linking to another, their qi tightly connected. At this moment, Xu Fengnian, creating momentum over Tide-Listening Lake, did the opposite. Although he made the first move, it wasn't a "my move, your move" exchange. Instead, he yielded the initiative to Sui Xiegu, much like a host welcoming a guest: "I've laid out a lavish spread of food and wine; whether you eat it depends on whether your appetite is big enough!"

This move contained the essence of Li Chungang's "Sword Come," Xue Songguan's pipa beats in the rainy alley, the core of Deng Tai'a's "Thunder Pool," and even a touch of Zen from Monk Longshu.

Once Sui Xiegu, now "confined to a marked area," made a move, it would be a situation where "one hair moves the whole body," making him an enemy of this small world.

Whether Sui Xiegu sought to affirm his own sword technique or the reputation of swordsmen worldwide, he first had to break free from this cage, which resembled a Buddhist "small chiliocosm."

Just as Sui Xiegu was about to make his move, Xu Fengnian turned to glance at Xu Weixiong, smiled, and then slowly and casually tossed a chess piece high into the air.