Chapter 0021

Chapter 21: One Move Humbles Long Ling Yun

Zhou Tong laughed as he leaped onto the arena: “Finally my turn.”

Long Ling Yun tilted her head in faint surprise: “After seeing my strength, you still didn’t run and even came closer to me?”

Zhou Tong answered without courtesy as he reached to his side and drew the Red Dust Sword from the little demoness’s waist: “If I don’t come close, how am I supposed to beat you up?”

The little demoness pumped a tiny fist and warned with a grin: “Teach that woman a lesson. If you lose, I won’t forgive you.”

Zhou Tong waved it off: “Guaranteed win.”

Tang Qi sneered from below: “Such big talk. Even I could not beat her. You won’t take even one move.”

Heads nodded all around. It wasn’t that Zhou Tong was too weak. It was that Long Ling Yun was too strong.

Zhou Tong ignored them and stared straight into Long Ling Yun’s eyes. What he felt in those clear pupils was a certain kind of innocent foolishness. He asked her in a mild voice: “Can you read?”

Long Ling Yun flushed with anger at once: “Stop with the useless nonsense. We are dueling swords.”

Zhou Tong’s heart settled on an answer. No wonder she could wield sword momentum. She was born with the legendary Wordless Root of Wisdom. Those with this root cannot read words, yet by seeing forms they grasp meaning; by looking at the ten thousand things they awaken; by glancing at a book they catch its essence. It is a heaven-defying gift. The old Sword Saint had this very body. So his successor does too.

Long Ling Yun snapped as she moved: “What are you staring at? You dare get distracted in front of me?” Her eyes flashed. She ran the Wordless Root of Wisdom and opened her Sword Eye. In her sight, Zhou Tong turned into dry, stiff lines with no flow of sword qi at all. [He really is an ordinary man who does not understand the sword. I got excited for nothing.]

She lifted her sword, ready to end it with a casual strike.

Zhou Tong slowly opened his starting stance.

Long Ling Yun froze. In her mind a thousand bolts of thunder exploded at once. It was an extreme danger sign. She tried to rouse her sword momentum on instinct, but it was already too late. Zhou Tong became like an abyss. His posture leaked nothing and showed no openings. She began to tremble. It felt like a mountain had fallen across her shoulders. A stronger sword momentum was pressing her down completely. [I cannot even fight back.]

Only then did she understand. Zhou Tong was not ignorant of the sword. He was unfathomable.

Zhou Tong warned in a soft voice: “I’m going now.” His blade moved. The sword light flowed like water and brushed across her throat. She stood there like a puppet and could only let it happen. Light and shadow swapped places as their bodies crossed. They stood back to back. Stillness returned.

Silence fell. Those who could not understand wore blank looks. Those who could understand were drenched in sweat.

Someone muttered: “Who won? Who was it?”

After a long moment, an old man sighed: “This is the strongest sword I have ever seen. Plain, yet beyond surpassing.”

“Whose sword?” another asked, and then saw Long Ling Yun fall to one knee on the stage.

“I lost. I lost completely,” she said herself, stating the truth of strength and defeat. Seeing her stunned and empty look, people found it hard to breathe. What kind of loss made a person so shaken? It had to be a gulf so wide there was no hope at all.

“I don’t believe it,” someone shouted.

Ge Hong Qiu cried out with red eyes as she glared at Zhou Tong like a sworn enemy: “This must be fake. It’s acting. How could a cripple do this?”

Ying Shao Xuan spoke up and slapped the doubts away: “It is real. His sword momentum is higher, far beyond Long Ling Yun’s. You simply failed to notice.”

Tang Qi’s face turned iron-blue. He could no longer hold his pure, gentle image. A violent aura rose off him. The one who had beaten him in a flash had just been beaten in a flash by Zhou Tong. It was a clean, satisfying crush.

People finally understood that even with his cultivation ruined, Zhou Tong’s peak was not something you surpass by chance. Some sects that disliked the Jade Purity Sect did not even try to hide their joy. Their disciples and elders laughed out loud. They said the Jade Purity Sect’s leaders must have had their heads caught in a toilet seat to make such a brainless choice and expel Zhou Tong.

Mo Liu Su spoke with a hard voice: “The Sword Dao is only a small path. Only hard power matters. The Jade Purity Sect will never take back a hidden danger, and it will never take back a cripple.”

Tang Qi calmed down at last. Mo Liu Su was right. Zhou Tong was ruined. Why should he compete with Tang Qi? In his heart he felt sure that in a normal fight Zhou Tong would not last a single exchange.

Zhou Tong only shrugged. He did not care what anyone thought. The farce was over. It was time to leave. He did not want to stay here a second longer.

“Wait,” Long Ling Yun called out, stopping him.

He turned his head: “What is it?”

She answered without hesitation: “By our agreement, I lost to you, so I will join your sect.”

Hearts jumped across the crowd. The Joyous Union Sect was about to defy the sky. A demoness, a little demoness, the once number one among the young, and now Long Ling Yun too. People murmured that the Joyous Union Sect was becoming a nest of monsters.

An elder from the Jade Purity Sect stepped out to persuade her and drew open scorn: “Girl, do not be misled. They are not a righteous sect and will be wiped out soon. If you want to stand at the peak of martial arts, stay in the Jade Purity Sect. We will give you the best resources.”

Long Ling Yun looked back at Mo Liu Su and her disciples, then said coolly: “Sorry. I am not good at schemes, and I am not interested in the weak.”

The Jade Purity Sect exploded with anger. She had basically pointed at their noses and called them both petty and weak, without leaving them any face.

Ignoring their looks, Long Ling Yun walked to Mu Rong Ya, went down on one knee, and asked: “Senior Mu Rong, may I have the honor of becoming your disciple?”

Mu Rong Ya beamed and did not delay for a second: “To find a rare talent and raise her is exactly my wish.” She added with a little laugh: “But you will be wronged. My Joyous Union Sect has already fallen. Counting you, there are only three disciples.”

Long Ling Yun looked pleased: “That is even better,” she said as she pointed at Zhou Tong: “It means I can spar with him on the Sword Dao anytime.”

The little demoness coughed twice, face turning stern in an instant: “You can join, but you must follow the rules. From today, I am your senior sister, and Zhou Tong is your senior brother, understood?”

Long Ling Yun nodded: “Understood. I will respect you both.”

The little demoness shook her head: “No, you do not need to respect me, but you are not allowed to bother your senior brother.”

Long Ling Yun’s face tightened: “I will try.”

“And one more thing,” the little demoness said with perfect seriousness: “You may not spar with him more than two shichen each day.”

Long Ling Yun agreed at once: “Of course. Senior brother also needs time to train and rest.”

The little demoness corrected her without blinking: “No. The other ten shichen, he has to help me cultivate. He swore to it.”