The Flying Sword
1,249 words
To the onlookers, the burly man who was attacking so ferociously held an absolute advantage. Yet no one knew that this seemingly mighty warrior was secretly crying out in his heart.
With every punch he landed, the golden light caved inward, and the entire golden barrier trembled, as if tearing through this layer of protection was only a matter of time.
But what they did not know was that whenever his hands or feet touched the golden light, they were met with a resilient rebounding force. As he increased his strength, the rebound grew more severe. His hands and feet were already aching terribly; he estimated that as soon as he dissolved his cultivation, they would immediately swell up.
Furthermore, this layer of golden light possessed incredible tenacity. The places he struck would sink inward, but once he withdrew his hand, they would instantly return to their original form, as if they had never been hit. Even if he repeatedly attacked the same spot, he could only keep that area sunken—he could not penetrate a single inch deeper.
And so, the burly man’s assault continued for some time. The golden barrier still appeared to tremble perilously, as if it could break at any moment.
But by now, everyone’s opinion had done a complete one-eighty. They all understood that this man could not break through the barrier. His immense strength could at most make it shake, but could never destroy it completely.
Thus, not only did Jia Tianlong abandon any thought of sending another man, but the dwarf himself grew calmer.
However, having been embarrassed earlier, the Brilliant Gold Elder’s expression shifted to one of fury. His gaze toward the man grew even more venomous. But because the continuous attacks made it impossible for him to steady himself, he kept making mistakes in his spellcasting. So he simply stopped forming hand seals, fixed his eyes on the opponent, and began cursing under his breath in a dialect no one else could understand.
As for the man, he seemed oblivious to all of this, still madly attacking the golden barrier. Everyone assumed he would not stop until he was completely exhausted.
“Bang! Boom!” After unleashing two full-powered punches and a kick, the man suddenly turned and bolted backward. For such a massive body, his speed was surprisingly fast.
The man’s action startled the bystanders, and then a wave of uproar spread.
The Brilliant Gold Elder was stunned for a moment, then flew into a thunderous rage. He hurriedly sat down cross-legged, placed the black box across his lap, and began to mutter incantations. He raised his hands to his chest, arranged his fingers into an odd posture, and began moving them with great effort. Judging by the strain of the trembling, it seemed as if each of his fingers was bearing a thousand jin of weight.
By then, the man was only a few steps away from the Seven Mysteries Sect’s formation, about to rejoin his comrades. Suddenly, a loud “Rise!” rang out from behind him. Then he saw Wang Juechu and the others’ expressions shift dramatically, and they all shouted almost simultaneously, “Watch out!”
The man’s heart jumped. He hurriedly dodged to the left, twisting his body to look back.
A blur of grey light, like lightning or a spark, shot past the spot where he had just been standing, brushing past his shoulder.
The man’s heart tensed, but then relaxed. Since he had dodged that hidden weapon, he could now regroup with his two senior brothers. He would be safe.
Before this thought had even finished forming, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm. He instinctively looked down, but before he could see anything clearly, another wave of shouts came from the crowd, including the voices of his two senior brothers, filled with anxiety.
The man was a little dazed and somewhat baffled. At that moment, a flash of light appeared before his eyes, and a grey beam pierced straight through his chest. Its shape was exactly the same as the hidden weapon he had dodged moments before.
The man was both shocked and furious. He tried to say something, but his body pitched forward and crashed to the ground with a thud. Only then did he realize that his right arm had been severed at the shoulder without him even noticing, and blood was gushing out.
“What happened?” With a belly full of questions and unwillingness, his vision went black, and he knew no more.
This man died without ever understanding what had just occurred. But the onlookers from the Wild Wolf Gang and the Seven Mysteries Sect had seen it all clearly.
They saw that as the dwarf finished his incantation and hand seals, a “Rise!” rang out. A strip of grey light flew out from the black box, circled once above the dwarf’s head, and then shot straight toward the man, following the direction of his pointing finger.
The man had been quick-witted enough to sidestep, dodging the first strike that would have pierced his chest. But as the grey light brushed past his shoulder, his arm silently slid off. The light was so sharp that the man had not even felt it happen.
Then came the most chilling part. After missing its target, the grey light followed the flick of the dwarf’s finger. When it was about a zhang past the man, it made a sharp U-turn and shot back at him. The man, completely unprepared, was easily killed.
Everyone was stunned dumb by the sight. Almost as one, their gazes converged on the grey light that had flown back to hover above the dwarf’s head, circling unsteadily.
The word “flying sword” surged unbidden into most people’s minds. Although these men did not know of the existence of Immortal cultivators, they had all heard plenty of legends about flying swords in various stories.
This grey beam was astonishingly similar to the flying sword of the legendary Sword Immortals—almost exactly the same.
Could this unremarkable dwarf actually be a Sword Immortal from the legends? Most of the people now looked at the Brilliant Gold Elder with reverence and awe in their eyes. After all, the title of Sword Immortal could still intimidate many mortals.
The Brilliant Gold Elder now puffed out his chest, utterly arrogant. Flaunting his skill, he manipulated the grey light to dance up and down above his head, spinning it into a long, grey python. This drew a wave of exclamations from the Wild Wolf Gang’s side, while the Seven Mysteries Sect’s side fell into a deathly silence.
If, among those present, Jia Tianlong’s side had their morale raised by having a Sword Immortal on their side, and the Seven Mysteries Sect had fallen into despair and lost much of their fighting spirit, then Han Li was the only one on the field whose heart was leaping with joy at the sight of that grey light.
He had realized that the incantations and hand gestures the Brilliant Gold Elder used to drive the grey light were exactly the same as the “Telekinetic Art” he had learned. He did not know if that grey beam was actually a flying sword, but the Telekinetic Art was used to control exactly this kind of object—there was no mistake.
Right now, Han Li’s mind was filled with nothing but thoughts of murder and treasure seizure. It seemed his interest in the ways of Immortal cultivators was growing stronger and stronger.