Chapter 53: Sword Intent of the Ice Heart

"Many thanks for your assistance, Uncle Ye!"

Ye Fan was ecstatic, looking triumphantly at Chu Lingyun trapped beneath the pile of rubble. "Chu Lingyun, this is a senior of my Ye family, a powerhouse in the Void Returning realm, and a figure of immense weight within the clan. Even if your master were here today, she would die right here."

"The Young Master flatters me."

Ye Ji smiled and waved his hand. "I am merely from a branch of the Ye family. There are countless people like me within the clan; I am hardly of any great importance."

Everyone from the Immortal Sword Sect was utterly shocked.

A Void Returning realm powerhouse would be revered as a Supreme Elder of a first-tier sect in the Great Xia.

Yet within the ancient Ye family, he was merely a member of a collateral branch, and there were countless others like him.

Is this the true foundation of an ancient clan?

It was simply terrifying.

The crowd cast pitying glances at Chu Lingyun, who had blood staining the corners of her mouth amidst the shattered sword stele. Now, even if her master came, there was no saving this breathtakingly beautiful and gentle-tempered fairy.

"Chu Lingyun, didn't you want to kill me?"

Ye Fan's tone was arrogant. "Come on then. I am standing right here. Let's see how you plan to kill me."

"Young Master, is she that illegitimate child who betrayed the Ye family?" Ye Ji scrutinized Chu Lingyun. "Her aptitude is decent, but according to the ancestral precepts of the Ye family, those who betray the clan shall be executed without mercy."

"Young lady, you must die today."

"Do not blame this old man; I am merely following the ancestral teachings of the Ye family."

With that, Ye Ji raised his hand, preparing to end Chu Lingyun's life.

"Stop!"

Yun Yao hurriedly intervened. "Ye Fan, if you kill her, I will never agree to become your Dao companion."

"Fine."

Ye Fan chuckled lightly. "Since that is the case, Uncle Ye, let's spare this wretched spawn's life for today."

"Since the Young Master has spoken, this old man naturally obeys."

"Chu Lingyun,"

Ye Fan sneered as he looked at Chu Lingyun. "Get lost now. In a short while, I will kill both you and that so-called master of yours together."

"Fairy Chu,"

Yun Yao stepped forward to support Chu Lingyun. "You should go back first. Tell your master about what happened today, and then find a secluded place to hide for a while."

"Hide?"

Chu Lingyun's face was deathly pale.

How could she be so utterly useless? Not a single task assigned to her by her master had she completed.

And now, she had to rely on Yun Yao's desperate pleading to salvage her life.

To slink back in disgrace.

If she returned looking like this, what face would she have to ever face her master again?

She could not let her master down.

Strength!

Must grow stronger.

However, in such a short span of time, how could she rapidly increase her strength?

The sword stele!

Chu Lingyun suddenly remembered what the male disciple of the Immortal Sword Sect had told her: as long as one comprehended the sword intent within the sword stele, one could rapidly elevate their cultivation realm.

Moreover, one could even become the Sect Master of the Immortal Sword Sect!

The sword stele! Sword intent!

Chu Lingyun abruptly grabbed the stones beside her, as if trying to divine some profound truth from the fragments.

"What is she doing? Has she lost her mind?"

"Most likely. She thought the Profound Dan Sect was invincible across the world, only to find that a mere collateral member of an ancient clan could snuff out her life. Unable to bear such a devastating blow, going mad is only to be expected."

"Ah, what a pity for such a gorgeous fairy to have lost her mind."

"Hahaha! Chu Lingyun, there comes a day when you go crazy too. This is far more amusing than simply killing you."

Ye Fan burst into wild, arrogant laughter.

"No,"

Ye Ji, standing nearby, noticed something amiss. "Young Master, she hasn't lost her mind. Those stones were originally a sword stele; she is trying to comprehend the sword intent contained within those fragments."

"Sword intent?"

"Hahaha..."

Ye Fan laughed even more uninhibitedly. "The Dao of the sword is immensely difficult. The strongest sword cultivator alive today is merely at the Nascent Soul realm. Chu Lingyun has practiced for barely a year and has never even touched the sword Dao, yet she dares to dream of comprehending sword intent from that. It is sheer delusion."

"The Young Master is entirely correct."

Ye Ji fully agreed. He had seen geniuses who soared overnight, but a genius who comprehended sword intent overnight? He had never even heard of such a thing.

Watching Chu Lingyun frantically searching through the stones, Yun Yao also shook her head.

As a disciple of the Immortal Sword Sect, she understood the difficulty of comprehending sword intent far better than anyone else. She had practiced for over a dozen years and had yet to comprehend even a shred of sword intent from the sword stele.

Furthermore, the sword stele was already shattered.

It was all the more impossible.

"Fairy Chu,"

Yun Yao watched for a long while before once again speaking with a hint of reluctance. "Go back. Sword intent is not so easily comprehended, otherwise..."

"I've comprehended it! I've comprehended it!"

Suddenly, Chu Lingyun was overcome with wild joy.

Yun Yao, Jian Batian, Ye Ji, and the others all changed color drastically.

They saw the aura around Chu Lingyun suddenly transform. A gale of fierce Qi swirled around her, resembling tens of thousands of sharp swords.

The surrounding fragments of the shattered stele began to tremble and fuse, slowly reassembling into a massive stone stele once more, radiating an unprecedented luster.

It was as if it had been given a new lease on life.

"She actually comprehended sword intent?!"

Yun Yao was stunned into speechlessness.

"It's the Heart-Ice Sword intent!"

"I, Jian Batian, began practicing the sword at age 10 and am hailed as a once-in-a-millennium sword Dao genius. Yet, it took me two hundred years of sword practice just to comprehend the first thread of ordinary sword intent from the sword stele."

"And she has never even touched the sword Dao, yet in less than the span of an incense stick, she has comprehended sword intent—and not just any intent, but the supreme Heart-Ice Sword intent of the sword Dao!"

"How can this be possible!"

Jian Batian stood dumbfounded, his jaw slack.

"Heart-Ice Sword intent..."

"There is actually such a sword Dao genius in this world! Never having touched the sword Dao, yet capable of comprehending such profound sword intent in half an incense stick's time—this matter must be reported to the clan. No, I must bring her back right now."

Ye Ji's expression was stirred with intense excitement.

Even as a member of an ancient clan, he had never laid eyes on a sword Dao genius like Chu Lingyun.

If she could be brought into the clan, the Ye family was destined to produce an unmatched peerless sword Dao genius at the Dao-Enlightenment or even Tribulation Transcendence realm a few millennia from now.

As for killing Ye Fan?

He had previously mocked Chu Lingyun, never expecting her to be such a monstrous anomaly who truly comprehended sword intent from a pile of rubble.

Furthermore, Ye Ji now intended to take her back to the Ye family.

Given Chu Lingyun's terrifying aptitude, the Ye family would undoubtedly attach supreme importance to her. What would happen if Chu Lingyun sought vengeance against them then?

He now deeply regretted not killing Chu Lingyun sooner.

"Hahaha,"

Ye Ji's tone abruptly turned deferential. "Miss Lingyun, is it? There has been a slight misunderstanding just now. Since Miss Lingyun carries the bloodline of the Ye family, it is only right that she returns to the clan and acknowledges her ancestors."

"With Miss Lingyun's heaven-defying aptitude, she will surely receive the utmost focused cultivation from the clan."

"In the future, she might even become the clan's successor."

As his words fell, everyone was consumed by intense envy. Not only was she breathtakingly beautiful and blessed with monstrous aptitude, but she even had the chance to become the heir of an ancient clan.

The heavens were truly unfair.

"What damned successor? What damned Ye family? In this life and this lifetime, I am only ever the disciple of my master."

Chu Lingyun stood back up, her aura growing even sharper and more piercing. "Today, the only thing I want is for Ye Fan to die!"

"Miss Lingyun, you should still come with me. Even though you have comprehended sword intent, you cannot defeat me."

Ye Ji stated calmly, "You are merely at the Foundation Establishment realm, while I am in the Void Returning realm."

Whether Chu Lingyun killed Ye Fan or not was no longer of any consequence to him; that was their personal grievance.

However, Chu Lingyun's aptitude was too monstrous.

She had to be brought back to the clan.

"If my cultivation is not enough, then I shall raise it!"