Chapter 261: A Sword From the Sea of Clouds (1)

Chapter 261: A Sword From the Sea of Clouds (1)

Zheng Dafeng took a glance at the sea of clouds above Old Dragon City, then suddenly complained, "Why isn't she wearing a dress?"

The Yin god slowly appeared in the courtyard, and it had no idea how to respond to this.

Zheng Dafeng turned to the Yin god with a smile as he asked, "You're not going to say anything no matter what I ask, right, Old Man Zhao?"

The Yin god shook its head in response. "To be honest, I don't know any more about Fan Junmao than you do. However, back when I was in the temple, I heard a rumor that may or may not be true from a deceased foreign sword immortal."

Zheng Dafeng was very intrigued to hear this. "Well, pray tell then. It's not like either of us have anything better to do anyway."

A cold sneer appeared on the Yin god's face as it scoffed, "You may be wasting your life away, but I'm really busy. Playing my role is no less difficult than fighting on a battlefield. Actually, that's not entirely fair, you're really busy every day as well, busy flirting with a bunch of women, that is! Given how good you are with your words, you should really go and take up a teaching position at Lake View Academy."

"Don't say such hurtful things, Old Man Zhao. The fact that we're together now clearly indicates that we're bound to each other by fate," Zheng Dafeng said with a smile.

"And what an ill fortune that is," the Yin god retorted.

Zheng Dafeng shook his head as he pointed up at the sea of clouds and corrected, "You and I are connected thanks to a stroke of good fortune, the ill-fated encounter is between me and her."

When Fan Junmao had entered the Dust Medicinal Shop, the Yin god had immediately disappeared on its own, both to conform to the rules and as a gesture of etiquette and respect. Hence, he didn't hear the conversation between the two, but it was clear that it had not ended on a positive note.

The first time Zheng Dafeng had met Fan Junmao, the latter had only been at the Cave Abode Tier, yet after returning to Old Dragon City from the Great Li Empire, she had already reached the Golden Core Tier. This rate of progression was clearly not something that could be attributed to outstanding aptitude alone.

It was so astonishing that it reminded the Yin god of a certain young woman who had grown up in Jewel Small World. Even the most stunning prodigy under the heavens couldn't match someone who was "born with intuitive knowledge."

The Yin god heaved a faint sigh at this thought.

Thankfully, even across all of nine continents, people like her were exceedingly rare.

"Hey, wakey wakey, Old Man Zhao! Quit daydreaming! What were you saying about the foreign sword immortal who perished in Jewel Small World? What secret about the Fu Clan's sea of clouds did he divulge to you?" Zheng Dafeng prompted. nove(l)bi(n.)com

"I don't want to tell you anymore. I have things that I need to do," the Yin god replied, then abruptly vanished from the spot.

Zheng Dafeng was rooted to the spot for a moment, then erupted into a fit of fury as he yelled, "You mother..."

Before he had a chance to finish, the bamboo curtain was suddenly lifted, revealing the tender and beautiful features of a young girl. It was the girl who always liked to sit beside Zheng Dafeng to eat sunflower seeds. She smiled as she asked, "Oh? You want me to be your mother, Shopkeeper Zheng?

Zheng Dafeng set down his pipe, then rose to his feet as he rubbed his hands together and approached the girl with a fawning smile. "I don't want you to be my mother, that would place way too much distance between us."

"How can we be any closer than mother and son?" the girl asked with a perplexed expression.

Zheng Dafeng reached out to place his arm across the girl's shoulders, but she ducked down and took a couple of steps backward with a mischievous grin on her face as she asked, "Do you want to marry me instead?"

Zheng Dafeng sheepishly retracted his hand and said, "Let's be brother and sister instead. That way, nothing will tear us apart."

He then rested his elbows on the counter, looking at the shop full of beautiful female employees as he mused, "What a wonderful sight to behold."

A smile suddenly appeared on his face as he continued, "Teaching one a skill is better than bestowing upon one wealth, but giving one a good name is even better than teaching one a skill. Have any of you heard this saying?"

The girl who Zheng Dafeng had stolen that book from was the only one of the female employees who was literate, but she offered no response. After Zheng Dafeng shamelessly borrowed that book from her, he refused to return it! The book was only worth several dozen copper coins, yet he refused to return it, and in the end, he simply told her that he had lost it!

She had been so enraged that she picked up a broomstick and began chasing him around the shop. In the end, Zheng Dafeng was forced to relent, telling her that he would add an extra 100 copper coins to her monthly wage as compensation for the book, and only then did she let him off the hook.

She had already read the book anyway, and it was doing nothing but gathering dust at home. Her parents displayed a great deal of favoritism toward her younger brother, so if they had discovered the book, they would've most likely reprimanded her for being wasteful.

With no one responding to his call, Zheng Dafeng was forced to pull out his trump card. "Do any of you want to know the name of the boy from the Fan Clan who regularly visits our shop?"

Ultimately, in the eyes of cultivators, they were pursuing themselves rather than the Great Dao; compared to cultivators, martial artists had far shorter lifespans, with even the most powerful ones living to only around 300 years of age.

Compared with Qi refiners, who refined themselves both on the inside and the outside, pure martial artists placed excessive focus on honing the physical body, which ultimately had a detrimental effect. The Martial Dao was simply too limited, and martial artists were too stubborn, to the point that they used solely their own power to refine their souls, drawing upon nothing more than the True Qi in their bodies for this purpose.

On one hand, they could be praised for their self-reliance, which allowed them to not have to count on external forces, but on the other hand, such a practice ultimately limited the height of their ceiling.

In contrast, Qi refiners had to erect bridges of immortality, which served as bridges between the body and the outside world. Thus, they could absorb the abundant small world between heaven and earth to hone their souls, and with the power of heaven and earth on their side, it naturally became far easier to live much longer.

Right at this moment, a burst of excruciating pain arose in Chen Ping'an's soul, pain that rivaled the agony of tearing his own skin and plucking his own tendons.

However, he remained as still as a mountain in his stance, much to Ma Zhi's surprise.

Even though he had held back significantly, he was still a Golden Core Tier swordsman. From his perspective, a fourth tier martial artist had as many weaknesses and holes as a leaky bucket. Hence, the nod that Chen Ping'an had given had presented an opportunity for him to strike. He had already done his best to overestimate the foundation of Chen Ping'an's physical constitution, but as it turned out, he had still severely underestimated him.

Chen Ping'an's body had been pounded into its current condition by the Deity Drumming Technique unleashed by a 10th tier martial artist that was Cui Chan's grandfather, while his three immortal souls and seven mortal forms had been pummeled into shape by the Rain Evaporation Technique and the Heavy Cavalry Formation Shattering Technique, all of which were the manifestation of the essence of the old man's martial arts ability.

Even after reaching the pinnacle of the 10th tier, those were still the three techniques that he was most proud of.

In order to endure the Deity Drumming Technique for longer, using the Eighteen Stops Technique had become second nature to Chen Ping'an. After that came the torment of stripping his own skin and plucking his own tendons, and it could be said that his physical constitution had been honed on the basis of more pain than anyone should've had to experience in ten lifetimes!

The end result still wasn't anywhere near as the impregnable vajra body attained by seventh tier martial artists, but that sliver of sword Qi from Ma Zhi wasn't enough to breach the holes in Chen Ping'an's physical constitution, unless it were to barge its way in through brute force.

Such was the power of the strongest third tier martial artist under the heavens.

Ma Zhi's competitive spirit was ignited a little by Chen Ping'an's lack of reaction to his attacks, and this time, he pulled off three more strips of sword Qi from his bonded flying sword, then sent them flying into Chen Ping'an in unison. Surely, Chen Ping'an's three immortal souls weren't truly impregnable, were they?

Chen Ping'an remained completely still, and he wanted to say something but decided to refrain from doing so in the end. He didn't dare to request Ma Zhi to use more of his power as he felt like doing so would be an insult to the old swordsman. The three streaks of sword Qi were tearing through his body like oxen plowing a field, forcibly tearing three trenches into his heart.

For the average person, this would've been unbearable agony, but compared with what Chen Ping'an had been forced to endure in the bamboo building, this was nothing more than an appetizer.

Ma Zhi could see that Chen Ping'an was largely unaffected, and he was forced to reassess his appraisal of the young martial artist once again.

He took a glance at Shade, which was trembling slightly as it hovered in mid-air in front of him, and he took a deep breath before declaring, "Chen Ping'an, for this strike, I'm going to make Shade adopt an insubstantial form and force its way into your soul. Be prepared for an immense degree of pain. If it's too much for you to bear, then make sure to speak up.

“Even though Shade is my bonded flying sword, it'll be concealed by your soul once it enters your body, so my spiritual connection with it will be compromised. In battle, this wouldn't be a problem as I would simply allow it to wreak havoc as it pleased in the body of my opponent, but of course, that's not my objective here, so make sure you don't bite off more than you can chew."

Chen Ping'an offered no response, merely taking a step backward to adopt an ancient fist stance with one fist pressed over his own heart while his other fist was raised high above his head.

If he were to raise one of his legs as well, then he would bear a strong resemblance to a heavenly king statue worshiped in Buddhist temples, but the resemblance was only in appearance, while the true intent was vastly different. This was the same Rain Evaporation Technique that he had unleashed to force back those golden flood dragons twice back at the Sun Clan's ancestral residence.

After adopting this new stance, Chen Ping'an's aura completely changed.

From Ma Zhi's perspective, he was no longer the bright and optimistic young boy who had been joking around with Fan Er, nor was he the focus and restrained young boy practicing his walking or standing meditation.

Instead, he was giving off the aura of a truly seasoned master martial artist. It wouldn't have been a surprise to see such a formidable aura from the few seventh and eighth tier grandmaster martial artists in Old Dragon City, but their auras had been honed over the course of decades, even centuries, during which they had endured countless life and death battles. In contrast, how old was this boy?

Ma Zhi had been shocked so many times on this day that he was feeling a little numb.

At this point, Chen Ping'an had already entered a completely immersive state, and he could no longer see Ma Zhi standing before him, nor could he see Shade hovering in mid-air.

Instead, he was seeing Cui Chan's grandfather chortling with glee as he administered the most horrific punishments while denouncing Chen Ping'an as a weakling, a frail lass. Those insults weren't just directed solely toward Chen Ping'an. Instead, they were also partially directed at this entire world.

With this punch, he was determined to force the deities that had descended from the heavens back to the Heavenly Court!

His fist was going to serve as a pillar between heaven and earth!

"Please enlighten me!" he blurted out without thinking.