Immortal Soaring Blade

Everyone, welcome to 2021!  2020 has been an absolutely horrid year for many people on many levels, and I think many (most? all?) of us are glad to leave it behind.  With that said, I wanted to give everyone a preview for some of the things that are coming up in the coming few months for Wuxiaworld.

Front-End Site Redesign - This one has been a long time coming!  Historically, we've focused more on incremental changes and feature build-out rather than overhauling the site itself, but for quite a few months now...

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Two carriages were travelling side by side along the official road. They weren’t moving very fast, and the servants of the Yu family were walking alongside them. The Yu family's ancestral home was not far away, and it would be faster for Zhao Jiuge and the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery to walk. However, Yu Qingshan had to put on a show, and the two of them were too lazy to say anything.

The carriage was not very luxurious, but it was very spacious. When one sat in it, one wouldn’t feel it trembling at all. The dark yellow curtains were open, allowing one to clearly see the other carriage and the side of the road. Winter had just passed and the snow had melted, so everything was revived and the breath of spring had arrived. The greenery on both sides of the road was evidence to all of this.

In one of the carriage sat the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery and his disciple. Yu Qingshan, his wife, and eldest son were also in that carriage. Conversation and laughter could be heard from inside. Zhao Jiuge was happy to have some peace and quiet, but Yu Qiusheng and Yu Xiasheng had climbed onto his carriage.

Zhao Jiuge, being so young, looks much less reliable than the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery. This was why Yu Qingshen treated the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery with much more enthusiasm. Also, he didn’t mind more people willing to help the situation.

Compared to how lively the other carriage was, Zhao Jiuge’s carriage was much quieter. Zhao Jiuge had his eyes closed while he thought about what might happen and how to deal with it. This was the first time he was doing a mission, and now there was an old fox mixed in as well. It would be a lie to say that Zhao Jiuge was not nervous. Fortunately, he had already experienced dealing with strange things back at the unmarked graveyard.

Thinking about this, he understood why he disliked the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery so much—because he reminded Zhao Jiuge of Daoist Yi Qing. Ever since that incident, he had no good feelings toward Daoists. They were also in different factions, so there was natural competition between them.

The carriage was very quiet. Seeing Zhao Jiuge sitting there motionlessly, the brother and sister just stared at him. Seeing that Zhao Jiuge wasn’t moving, the two of them stared at each other.

Perhaps because Zhao Jiuge’s appearance was different from before, the brother and sister didn’t dare to break the silence. If it was like when Zhao Jiuge first arrived, Yu Qiusheng would have already spoken.

He was attracted by Zhao Jiuge’s Blue Plum Sword. He scratched his head and anxiously stared at the sword like a nervous monkey. Finally, he couldn’t endure it anymore and leaned forward. His right hand reached out past Zhao Jiuge’s shoulder to touch the sword.

Zhao Jiuge suddenly opened his eyes and coldly looked at Yu Qiusheng. This scared Yu Qiusheng greatly, and he subconsciously trembled. He smiled embarrassedly and moved back to his seat.

“Can I see the sword on your back? It's so pretty.” Yu Qiusheng’s voice was filled with envy, and he still stared at the sword while he spoke.

“I can tell you that this is just the lowest quality of flying sword.” After Zhao Jiuge heard about the flying swords, his eyes were opened completely. When he heard those words that hit his sore spot, his mouth twitched.

At this point, Yu Qiusheng became interested as well. He leaned closer to Zhao Jiuge, innocently looked at him, and said, “Aren’t you an elder immortal? Why are you using the lowest quality flying sword?”

Zhao Jiuge rolled his eyes and angrily said, “Do you think treasures are like cabbages? Just having a flying sword is already really good.”

Yu Qiusheng scratched his hair and smiled in embarrassment. On the other side, Yu Xiasheng’s beautiful eyes widened and she exclaimed, “Then doesn’t that mean you’re going to lose to the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery? He is indeed more dazzling than you.”

After she finished speaking, she seemed to remember something. She then muttered to herself, “It looks like you won’t resolve this matter. You are really letting me down.”

Zhao Jiuge felt helpless while looking at this.

Yu Qiusheng looked at Zhao Jiuge and quickly asked, “Do you have a solution to this matter? Don’t ruin my image of you in my mind.”

Zhao Jiuge pondered a bit and then slowly said, “Without knowing the exact situation, I have no idea. However, in terms of strength I’m not afraid of the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery at all. After all, a sword cultivator’s path is to kill.”

The little daoist boy in the other carriage was filled with disdain and arrogantly said, “Shameless! How can you compare to my master?”

His words suddenly attracted the attention of the people in both carriages. The Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery quickly shouted, “You can’t be rude!”

Although he said this, his face revealed a faint smile.

Zhao Jiuge was too lazy to be hypocritical like them, so his expression sank and he said, “Hmph, we’ll have to compete to find out. We’ll see if what comes out is really a horse or a donkey.”

After he finished speaking, Zhao Jiuge waved his right hand and the dark golden curtain on the carriage rolled down, blocking the view of the outside.

“What nonsense. He only has such weak cultivation at his age and thinks he is so great. I can’t wait to see just how powerful Daoism really is.” The curtain blocked out the sun, making Zhao Jiuge’s expression even more gloomy.

Looking at the angry Zhao Jiuge, Yu Qiusheng didn’t dare to say any more. He knew that the youth before him was young, but that was not just for show. He didn’t dare to provoke Zhao Jiuge right now.

“Then you have to work hard, I’m cheering for you.” Yu Xiashang didn’t seem to be afraid of the angry Zhao Jiuge, and she had a big smile on her face.

When Zhao Jiuge saw this, he felt a sense of helplessness in his heart. He decided to close his eyes and stop thinking about it. He then began to cultivate instead.

Just like this, the carriage slowly moved toward the Yu family's ancestral home dozens of kilometers away.

…

……

The group took about one hour to reach the Yu family's ancestral home, arriving in the afternoon.

After going through the unpleasantries from before, Zhao Jiuge could not stand Yu Xiasheng and Yu Qiusheng’s chatter, so he sat outside the carriage.

At this point, he could see the village house in the distance. This made a sense of familiarity appear in Zhao Jiuge’s heart. He had once lived in a village like this, and the scenery before him was such a familiar sight.

He was still him, but everything else was different.

The carriage had driven onto the muddy road that led into the village. Zhao Jiuge couldn’t help but stand up and look toward the village.

The warm, spring, afternoon sun shined on Zhao Jiuge’s body. When the brother and sister in the carriage looked at the back of the young man looking at the village, they couldn’t help but become silent.

At this moment, even the bright Blue Plum Sword was overshadowed by this youth. It was like a painting—everything seemed to freeze at this moment.

After arriving at the entrance of the village, Zhao Jiuge jumped off the carriage and observed the environment of the village. The others quickly followed suit. Yu Qingshan was no longer smiling; he now had a serious expression and even a bit of fear. He didn’t dare to step forward, and there was a trace of panic on his face as he helplessly looked at Zhao Jiuge and the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery.

Yu Xiasheng tightly grasped her mother’s arm, while the bold Yu Qiusheng couldn’t hold it and began walking forward. Only Yu Chunsheng remained the same and stood beside his father. The remaining people from the Yu mansion all looked very nervous and were trembling. If not for the otherworldly-looking Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery being here, they wouldn’t have dared to come here.

Normally, it should be very warm since it was spring and the mid afternoon. However, Zhao Jiuge only felt a coldness that chilled him to the bone. Zhao Jiuge was a bit surprised. He thought for a while but couldn’t figure it out. He just felt like there were spirit force fluctuations coming from the village.

After getting off the carriage, the faint smile on the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery had faded. He stood in front of everyone and carefully looked at the village. His disciple stood closely behind him, with the wooden sword in his hands and a purplish-gold bag around his waist.

Zhao Jiuge wasn’t able to see anything different after a long time, but he could feel the spirit force fluctuations. He believed that these spirit force fluctuations were the culprit to this problem.

On the other side, the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery became more and more gloomy as he observed, and his brows were tightly furrowed. Suddenly, a gust of wind came from the village—it was extremely chilly!

Yu Qingshan, feeling uneasy, asked, “Elder Daoist, what should we do? Once we enter the village, strange things will happen. Wouldn’t it be bad for us to directly enter?” His expression was ugly and he still had lingering fear from the last time he was here.

The Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery silently shook his head and stared at the village. After a while, he said, “This matter is a bit tricky. The yin energy here is too strong. Let me take a look first to learn about the situation. We will have to stay the night at the village. The cause of all this will only appear at night.” After he stopped talking, he raised his right hand and opened it.

Seeing the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery’s action, the boy immediately took something out from the purplish-gold bag on his waist. It was a palm-sized disk, an Eight-Triagram Disk. The center of the disk had a black and white Tai Chi symbol. Its shape was an octagon with eight large characters written in gold in each corner. The edges of the words were bordered by brownish red paint.

The Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery stepped forward and his right hand turned once along his wrist. Spirit force surged out from his hand and into the Eight Triagram Disk, causing it to buzz. It seemed the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery was preparing a spell.

The dozen people in the Yu family were filled with panic, surprise, and even a little excitement as they watched the Lord of the Qing Feng Monastery prepare a spell.

Only Zhao Jiuge watched coldly from the side, but he did feel like he was a bit fortunate. If he were by himself, he wouldn’t really know how to resolve this problem.

The Eight-Triagram Disk buzzed even louder. Zhao Jiuge stared at the disk—he wanted to see what was so mysterious about Daoist spells.

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