Volume One: First Steps on the Path Chapter Ninety-Two: The Sword Immortal

The sword floating before Ye Junze gave off faint wisps of intent. Feeling that presence, he could not help but give a silent nod, and with it came a few more degrees of confidence in his heart.

He murmured to himself, “With my current strength, perhaps I really can give it a try.”

What he meant, of course, was the long-anticipated art of directing a sword, and riding it through the air.

Long ago, Ye Junze had dreamed of slaying enemies from a thousand miles away with a single sword. Otherwise, he would not have pleaded with Meng Yuan to teach him sword control the moment he obtained the Void Spirit Sword. As for riding a flying sword through the heavens, like a carefree sword immortal, that was a scene he had imagined countless times.

“Why not just begin?” A look of anticipation appeared in Ye Junze’s eyes, and his voice trembled with excitement.

Having said that, he recalled the method of sword control he had learned earlier. He attached his divine sense and spiritual power to the Void Spirit Sword, and the sword that had stood upright before him instantly toppled forward, its point facing ahead. Seeing this, Ye Junze formed a hand seal, his fingers shaped like a sword, and began to guide the little blade.

Sensing his command, the Void Spirit Sword shot forward with great obedience, carrying a tremendous might. Watching from a distance, Qi Yi and the others could feel a powerful force emanating from the tiny sword. Compared with the techniques Ye Junze had used before, this force seemed far stronger, faintly surpassing them all.

Seeing this, Wen Yu could not help but say in shock, “Brother Qi, why do I feel like Brother Junze is not just an ordinary cultivator? Could he also be a sword cultivator?”

Qi Yi had been staring intently at the little sword, which was now flying back and forth in the air under Ye Junze’s control. Hearing Wen Yu’s words, his gaze did not shift, but he answered, “That’s not impossible. It seems this senior is far more than what we see on the surface. If he truly is a Nascent Soul sword cultivator, then he is even less someone we can afford to provoke. Looking at it now, our earlier concerns about you were indeed necessary. Fortunately, this senior seems to have a very good temper. Otherwise, if it had been some other old monster of the Nascent Soul stage whose temper we did not know, heaven knows what would have become of the two of us just now.”

“Oh, Brother Qi, you always worry too much. Aren’t we fine now?” Wen Yu cooed.

Qi Yi looked at her helplessly, thinking that he would have to teach her more carefully in the future, and said indulgently, “All right, all right. Don’t watch for now. Let’s gather the rest of the materials, and this mission will be about done.”

“Got it, I’ll listen to Brother Qi,” Wen Yu replied obediently.

Then the two of them returned to their own tasks and no longer watched.

As for Ye Junze, while he focused on controlling the Void Spirit Sword, he too experienced many different sensations as the one guiding it. During this attempt, he discovered that the feeling was utterly unlike the first time he had learned it. If the Ye Junze of that day, just after learning sword control, had been like a toddler taking his first unsteady steps, then now, with the aid of the mighty spiritual power and divine sense of the Nascent Soul realm, the sword control he performed was like a pilot at the helm of an aircraft. Both the power and the speed of the flying sword had multiplied many times over.

Discovering these changes, which were wholly unlike before, a smile could not help but appear on Ye Junze’s face. Clearly, he was very pleased inwardly.

At this moment, under Ye Junze’s control, the Void Spirit Sword seemed to have gained a touch of lively spirit. Like an extension of his own arm, it kept changing direction in the air, sometimes streaking straight across, sometimes circling back and forth in the sky, like a nimble bird flying freely and unrestrained.

Seeing this, Ye Junze smiled in satisfaction and withdrew the Void Spirit Sword. Thinking of how effortless it had felt just now, he once again marveled at the power of the Nascent Soul realm.

Remembering how easy sword control had been, Ye Junze turned his thoughts to another matter: riding a sword through the air.

“Just flying through the sky was something I could do a moment ago, but sword-riding really leaves me with no clue,” he thought, looking at the small, quiet Void Spirit Sword before him.

Rubbing his chin, Ye Junze pondered, “Maybe I should just try to fly like I did before?”

“But the Void Spirit Sword is so small—how could I possibly stand on it?” Looking at the little sword before him, he quickly thought again, “And I’ve never learned any true sword-riding technique.”

This time, Ye Junze’s face showed difficulty, as though he had fallen into some predicament.

His earlier surge of excitement seemed to have been doused, and his mood sank. Perhaps it was because he had realized that he still could not do the sword flight he had longed for, and so he felt disappointed.

All he could do was mutter, “Void Spirit, oh Void Spirit, if you truly possess a spirit, then grow larger and let me see. You should know that I want to be able to ride you through the skies.”

He kept muttering like that, not caring whether the Void Spirit Sword could hear him. At this moment, he seemed almost to have given up in frustration after discovering he could not do it.

After grumbling for a while and unable to think of any other way, Ye Junze shook his head and was about to put the sword away.

Then, suddenly, something changed.

The Void Spirit Sword burst into brilliant light, as if it had truly heard all of Ye Junze’s complaints and could no longer bear them. Without any warning, the little sword underwent a miraculous transformation as the light flared.

When the radiance faded, Ye Junze looked carefully and saw that a longsword, several times larger than the little blade before, had appeared before him.

If the Void Spirit Sword had once been no more than the size of an infant’s arm, it was now as large as half an adult’s body.

Looking at the sword before him, which had changed in nothing but size, Ye Junze’s eyes filled with delight. It was as though he had not expected the Void Spirit Sword to truly hear his words and transform into its present form.

His earlier low spirits rose once more, and with anticipation in his eyes, he said, “Then can I try sword flight now?”

As though it had understood him again, the Void Spirit Sword slowly descended on its own until it reached Ye Junze’s feet, then trembled slightly. It looked as if it were urging him to step aboard quickly and experience sword flight.

Ye Junze could not help but smile and softly said, “Thank you.”

Then he stepped onto the little sword. But just as he did, as if he had thought of something, he bent his knees and sat down cross-legged, seemingly unwilling to trample the Void Spirit Sword beneath his feet.

After he sat down, the little sword seemed moved by what Ye Junze had done and trembled faintly, while Ye Junze inexplicably felt a surge of emotion coming from it. Sensing that feeling, he reached out to stroke the sword and softly said, “It’s all right. Your sword spirit will surely recover.”

As soon as his words fell, the sword body quivered slightly, as if answering him.

Ye Junze smiled, then said, “Then let me see what sword flight is like.”

With that, he began to gather spiritual energy into the Void Spirit Sword. As he did so, he was astonished to discover that the sword itself was also continuously absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy, prompting yet another round of praise in his heart.

Once enough spiritual energy had been gathered by both Ye Junze and the Void Spirit Sword, the entire sword suddenly rose upward in an instant. Ye Junze, caught off guard at first, nearly fell off by accident. He quickly steadied himself, composed his thoughts, and devoted himself earnestly to controlling the sword, setting aside all else for the time being.

Thus, sitting steadily upon the sword and focusing on its control, Ye Junze indeed bore, from afar, a bit of the legendary bearing of a sword immortal.

As for whether he truly was one, only Ye Junze himself knew.

Wen Yu, who could never sit still for long, happened to look up and saw Ye Junze seated upon the sword in the sky. She cried out in surprise, “Wow, Brother Qi, look! Is Brother Junze riding a sword? He looks so cool. I’m starting to think more and more that he really is a sword immortal.”

Qi Yi had been bent over, carefully gathering materials. Hearing Wen Yu, he wanted to rebuke her for not being serious enough, but after a shake of the head, he let it go with a helpless sigh. He gave Wen Yu an indulgent glance, then lifted his head to look at the sky as she had said.

The moment he looked up, he saw exactly the scene Wen Yu had described. At the sight, longing appeared in Qi Yi’s eyes, and he thought to himself, The bearing of a Nascent Soul cultivator really is extraordinary. If only one day I could do that too, how wonderful it would be.

Shaking his head, Qi Yi gave a bitter smile. “I’m wandering again. Nascent Soul is not something so easily attained. Setting aside talent in cultivation, with the Shangyang Continent as it is now, reaching Nascent Soul is terribly difficult.”

After watching for a while, he scattered the thoughts in his mind and murmured, “Better to finish what is in front of us first.”

Then he called out to Wen Yu beside him. “Yu, stop watching. We’ll be done soon. You can look again after that.”

“Understood, Brother Qi,” the girl replied sweetly.

Meanwhile, not far from the Wandering Star, a ship-like object was racing at full speed toward the planet’s location.

“Boss, we’re almost at the place where Wandering Star is,” a voice said.

“Is the information reliable?” came a calm, steady male voice.

“It should be correct. Word is that the Qi family only sent two greenhorns here this time, with no one else accompanying them,” the first voice answered.

“Good. Spread the word and tell the brothers to get ready. This time we’re going to make a big haul.”

“Yes.” Having said that, the speaker turned and left, presumably to carry out the boss’s orders.

A crisis was quietly drawing near.

Whether it was truly a crisis, however, these people would soon find out.