Chapter 1: The Remnants of the Sword Furnace
In the fall of the eleventh year of Yuanwu of the Great Qin Dynasty, a rare rainstorm swept across the entire Changling, and the lead-like heavy clouds accompanied by horrible thunder made this capital city of the Great Qin Dynasty feel as if it had fallen into the demonic realm.
Outside of the city, in the harbor of Wei River, countless officials and soldiers in black uniforms stood densely, letting the storm blow and beat, their bodies were like a nail nailed to the ground, motionless.
In the midst of the monstrous turbid waves, a huge iron-armored ship suddenly sailed in!
A lightning bolt that stretched across the sky dangled down at this moment, illuminating the ominous, iron-armored giant ship in a snowy white.
All the officials and soldiers who stood at the edge of the harbor turned horrified.
The battering ram of this iron-armored giant ship was actually a real aulong head!
Even though the head of the beast, which was even bigger than a carriage, had been chopped off by the neck, its crimson pupils still flashed with crazy killing intent, and its monstrous ferocity was even more astonishing than the shocking waves.
Not waiting for the huge boat docking, three officials directly flew across dozens of meters of the river, such as three hammers fell on the bow deck.
Let these three officials heart even more shocked is, this huge ship above the boat everywhere is horrible gap and broken things, looks do not know how many fierce battles, and they put their eyes, the only one wearing a straw raincoat, the old servant-like old man ghost-like standing in the corner of the boat side, can not see them waiting for the figure of the person.
"Lord Han, where is the head of the night division?"
These three officials saluted in unison, forcing themselves to hold back their shock and asked.
"There's no need to be polite, the Night Division Head has already gone to the hiding place of the remaining members of the Sword Furnace." The old servant-like old man slightly owed a return salute, but in between words, in the midst of the torrential rain, it was impossible to see the old man's face, but his eyes were exceptionally deep and cold, radiating a shocking overbearing aura.
"The Night Division Head has already gone?" The three officials' bodies shook at the same time, and they couldn't help but look back towards the city at the same time.
The entire Changling Mausoleum had been shrouded by torrential rain and twilight, with only the shadow of a tall corner building looming.
At the same time, a black umbrella suddenly appeared above a river in the south of Changling City.
The person holding the black umbrella was walking on the surface of the raging river as if he were walking on the ground, walking towards an ugly alley on the bank of this big river.
There were six black-clothed officials holding the same black umbrella, of different heights and shapes, whose faces could not be seen under the cover of the black umbrella, quietly stationed on the bank waiting for this person.
After this person disembarked, the six officials did not make any extra movements, nor did they make any noise, they just dispersed in silence and followed behind.
In the ugly alley, there was an ordinary square courtyard that gradually became the center of these black umbrellas that began to emit a solemn aura.
The sound of water dripping, mixed with the sound of food being chewed.
A middle-aged man dressed in a rough ebony garment with rolled up cuffs was eating his dinner under the rainy eaves in the square courtyard.
This man's clothes were worn out, his messy hair was tied up with a straw rope, the soles of his shoes were nearly worn through, and his hands were covered in dirt between the nails, his face was ordinary, and he looked no different from the ordinary pickers in the neighborhood.
His dinner was also very ordinary and simple, just a bowl of coarse rice, a dish of vegetables, a dish of dried beans, but this middle-aged man ate extraordinarily sweet, each mouthful has to chew dozens of times, before slowly swallowed.
After chewing the last ball of rice, the middle-aged man reached for a wooden ladle hanging under the eaves of the house, scooped a scoop of water from the side of the tank, a mouthful of water, which satisfied with a hiccup.
At the same time that he let out a belch, the black umbrella in the forefront happened to stop at the entrance of his small courtyard.
A snow-white official boot protruded out from underneath one of the black umbrellas, looking exceptionally eye-catching in the heavy black color.
After the official boot, there was a snow-white long skirt, wantonly flowing green silk, thin lips, and eyebrows as faint as distant mountains in the rain.
From the waves of the river like an idle walk, is actually a very scholarly, waist exceptionally moving beautiful woman.
She stepped out from under the black umbrella, letting the autumn rain drench her green silk, and walked into the middle-aged man's square courtyard with light footsteps, then made a curtsy to the middle-aged man and said softly, "Night Ce Leng has met Mr. Zhao Qi."
The middle-aged man slightly raised his eyebrows, and with just this raising of his eyebrows, his facial angles all over seemed to steeply become vivid, and his body began to emanate an unspeakable charm.
"I've been in Changling for three years, and it's still the first time I've met the Head of the Night Division."
He did not return the salute, but only smiled slightly, but his gaze swept past the woman's body and plunged into the streets and alleys that overlapped in the autumn rain in the distance.
"Changling is really boring after seeing it for a long time, it's just like your Qin people's swords and people, straight and straight, horizontal is vertical, four-flat, even the street walls are either gray or black, no sense of aesthetics whatsoever. Today to see the style of the head of the night division, but let me bright eyes, and this Changling but seems to be very out of place."
His words were light and clear, just like the casual exclamation when chatting with people on weekdays, however, as soon as these words were spoken, all the people under the black umbrellas outside the courtyard were suddenly chilled in their faces.
"Daring! Sword Furnace Remnant Zhao Chop! The Night Division Head is here in person, you still don't tie your hands and even dare to say this heartbreaking words!"
A cold, stern cry suddenly rang out from under a black umbrella that was parked in the distance.
Obviously intentionally trying to let the middle-aged man and the white-skirted woman see clearly, the voice of the umbrella holder raised the umbrella surface, which was an exceptionally handsome young man, with red lips and white teeth, a complexion like jade, and a gaze that flickered like cold electricity.
"Oh?"
A light eep sounded.
The middle-aged man's slightly furrowed brows dispersed with a relieved expression, "No wonder your aura is too much weaker than the others... So you're not one of the six major offerings of the Supervisory Heavenly Division... In that case, you should be an official of the Divine Capital Supervisory."
The hands of this handsome-faced black-clothed young official were originally trembling imperceptibly and slightly, his previous actions seemed to have consumed a great deal of his courage in itself, and at this moment, when he heard the middle-aged man say that his aura was too much weaker than that of the several umbrella-holders in the rear, some anger flared up in his eyes, but his breathing couldn't help but be a little more rapid.
The middle-aged man's gaze, however, had already detached from his body and landed on the white-skirted woman as he smiled faintly at her and said, "To have already half-stepped across the fourth realm at this age, he should also be considered a rare talent in your dynasty."
The white-skirted woman smiled, revealing two shallow dimples on her cheeks, "Mister is right."
"He should just be admiring you and wanting to leave some impression on you." The middle-aged man looked meaningfully at the white-skirted woman, "Wouldn't it be a bit of a pity?"
"What... what do you mean?" The handsome-faced young official's face suddenly turned incomparably snow-white, his heavy coat was drenched in cold sweat, and a bad premonition suddenly rose in his heart.
The white-skirted woman turned her head to look at him and smiled faintly, giving the impression that she seemed to have no ill feelings towards the handsome young, yet a drop of rain that fell on her side was suddenly still.
Then the drop of rain began to accelerate, accelerating to a terrifying degree, in the process of accelerating naturally elongated into a thin small sword.
"Snort" a light sound.
The inside of the black umbrella was filled with blood paste, and the head of the handsome young official detached from his neck and landed on the ground along with the flying black umbrella, his eyes dead open, unable to believe that this was true.
"Good spirit!"
The middle-aged man high-fived and cheered, "Actually even the people from the Divine Capital Supervisor who were monitoring your actions were directly killed with a single sword, the Head of the Night Division is really good and bold, but to kill one of your own rare cultivators for the sake of a single word of thought, the Head of the Night Division doesn't seem to have much of a heart."
The white-skirted woman slightly mocked, "What kind of heart does a woman need, having breasts is enough."
The middle-aged man was slightly stunned, he hadn't even expected the white-skirted woman to say such a sentence.
"Makes sense."
He laughed as if mocking himself, "A figure like Night Division Head, no matter what he does or says, he really doesn't need to care too much about the opinions of bystanders."
The white-skirted woman's eyelashes fluttered slightly, her lips slightly opened, however, right at this moment, she sensed something, her brows slightly knitted, but she no longer uttered a sound.
The middle-aged man's face smiles right at this moment convergence, a few tiny wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, were some strange fluorescent light moist and flat, body hair and skin began to flash jade luster, a rolling heat, making the sky drifting down all the rain turned into white vapor, a strong killing breath, began to fill this small courtyard.
"Although there is a difference in the main cultivation, but the world cultivators are divided into nine realms according to the realm of strength, and each realm is divided into three grades, your Emperor's Majesty, which realm has he reached now?" At the beginning when the white-skirted woman whose status was obviously transcendent saluted him, he did not return the salute, but at this moment, he was serious and bowed deeply, asking solemnly.
"I don't have much of a heart, so I won't answer a question like yours without much benefit." The white-skirted woman looked at him with a calm face and said in a non-negotiable tone, "One person, one question."
The middle-aged man pondered slightly and raised his head, "Good."
The white-skirted woman didn't even deliberate on the order of precedence, and directly opened her mouth first and asked, "Sword Furnace disciples cultivate deadly swords, and don't even have their own lives in their eyes, but in these three years of lurking around, you that is, you don't assassinate my dynasty's practitioners, you don't secretly form a party and camp, and you don't try to steal my dynasty's cultivation textbooks, so what are you really wanting to do?"
The middle-aged man looked at her and sighed softly, "Even if the secret vaults and martial collections of those places of cultivation of yours were stronger, could they be as strong as what that person left behind?"
His rhetorical question was very short, he didn't even mention the name "that person", however, these two words were like a taboo, the five officials under the black umbrellas outside the courtyard didn't have the slightest emotional fluctuation under the bloody scene of the previous decapitation with a sword, at this moment when they heard this, the black umbrellas in their hands slightly trembled at the same time, and countless poplar-like water splashes shook out from the surface of the umbrellas. Water flowers.
The white-skirted woman was instantly a bit displeased, as she sneered, "It's been so many years, and you guys still don't give up, you still want to see if that person left anything behind?"
The middle-aged man didn't say anything, but only looked into the depths of her eyes like he was interested, waiting for her next answer.
The white-skirted woman looked at this middle-aged man who appeared more and more charismatic, she suddenly sympathized with the other party a little, and softly said, "His Holiness had already reached the upper grade of the seventh realm five years ago, and had not made any more moves in these five years, I don't know if you're satisfied with this answer?"
"Five years ago, you have already reached the upper grade of the seventh realm, five years for breaking the mirror, should also be enough. In that case, it really might have reached the eighth realm?" A deep strand of disillusionment and sorrow appeared within the middle-aged man's brows, but in the next moment, it all disappeared, all of it turning into sharp sword intent!
His entire body began to glow, like a supreme sword that had been hidden in its sheath for many years, suddenly coming out of its sheath!
All the dry and growing artemisia grass on the walls and ridges of the small courtyard were all chopped into several pieces by the sharp breath and fluttered outwards.
"Please!"
The middle-aged man took a deep breath, and the world in his eyes seemed to be only left with the white-skirted woman across from him.
"Sword Furnace Seventh Apprentice Zhao Chop, receive the Night Division Head Autumn Water Sword!"
When a voice like his rang out, the white-skirted woman was still silent, seemingly without any reaction, but the five black-clothed officials outside of the courtyard all let out a murmur, their figures abruptly strolling the five corners outside of the courtyard, the black umbrellas in their hands spinning violently at the same time.
On the round shield-like black umbrella, with the sharp rotation, instead of spilling out countless drops of rain, countless strips of powerful qi were shot out.
Boom!
The entire small courtyard seemed to bulge outwards like paper mache, instantly exploding into countless burning pieces.
A muffled grunt resounded continuously under the umbrellas, and these burning fragments contained an astonishing amount of power, causing the soles of the five umbrella-wielding officials' shoes to make ear-piercing friction noises against the wet stone path.
The dense energy formed an impenetrable wall, few of the burning fragments pierced out, and the rolling hot air and burning sparks were forced to vent towards the sky above, and from a distance, it was like a huge furnace had been erected steeply between heaven and earth.
In the center of the furnace, the middle-aged man Zhao Zhan's hand had a small crimson sword in his hand at some point.
This sword was no more than two feet long, but the blazing true fire emanating from the sword body and the tip of the sword formed a fireball that was several meters long!
The white-skirted woman in front of him, whom he called Night Division Head, had already disappeared, and the only thing that remained were thousands of thin raindrops, such as countless small swords caged towards him.
......
At the instant the five officials holding black umbrellas struck, dozens of swordsmiths wearing various types of longswords also surged into the ugly alley like ghosts.
These swordsmiths all had the same aura as that of the five umbrella-wielding officials, and in such a storm, the raindrops that fell around their bodies all flew away in fear as if they were alive, and a transparent air mass was isolated out of nowhere outside of each of them, like a separate world.
Such a picture could only mean that they, like those five black umbrella officials, were rare in the world, cultivators with unimaginable means.
However, at this moment, as they listened to the constant roaring in the small courtyard and looked at the water droplets that kept splashing in the puddles around them due to the vibrations of the ground, they, who couldn't even sense the general circumstances of the exchange inside at all, were turning increasingly white, and the cold sweat in their palms was also increasing.
They were already very clear about what kind of existence Zhao's Sword Furnace was, but today they finally realized that their prediction of the Sword Furnace was still too low.
In a very short period of time, so short that even the people in the neighborhood only thought it was thunder and didn't react to what it was, the black umbrella curtain surrounding the small courtyard suddenly let out a strange crack.
A black umbrella couldn't support itself and drifted to the side for nearly a hundred meters.
The black-clothed officials wearing unsheathed iron swords scattered around the periphery of the small courtyard changed color in horror at the same time, and the four black-clothed swordsmiths located at the back of the several black umbrellas suddenly let out a sharp shout in unison, drawing their swords to block in front of their bodies.
Dang dang dang dang four heavy sound, four long swords of various colors at the same time bent into a semi-circular shape, these four black-clothed swordsmiths feet shocked, want to force to hold on, but in the next instant, these four black-clothed swordsmiths are sprayed out of the mouth a mouthful of arrows of blood, have disheveled as broken wings of the bird crashing backward out.
From the crack of the black umbrella curtain this wave of air surging out of the remaining momentum, through a vegetable garden, even destroyed two hedge walls, and then through a wide street, surging to the opposite side of the street of a perfumed oil store.
There was a loud explosion.
Fragrant oil store doorway leaning against a number of door panels first burst into countless small pieces, and then half of the store was hard to collapse, roof tiles clattered and smashed on the ground, surging up a large area of dust and clamor.
"Which God damned rushes the car on a rainy day without eyes, and also rushes so fast! Destroyed my store!"
An ear-piercing scream exploded from the half-collapsed store, a middle-aged woman holding a grease spoon rushed out in grief and indignation, making a gesture to hit someone, but the moment she saw the scene in front of her, the grease spoon in this middle-aged woman's hand fell to the ground, letting out an even more ear-piercing scream.
"The Supervisory Heavenly Division is on the case!"
A black-clothed swordsmith who had been shocked to the point that blood arrows sprayed out of his mouth crashed down on the verdant stone path right in front of this store, and hearing this middle-aged woman's scream, he gritted his teeth and leaned on his longsword that was bent like a crescent moon to forcefully stand up, and let out a stern yell with a biting, murderous intent that caused that middle-aged woman to tremble, and her screams to pause.
Also at this time, let the face of the harsh black-clothed swordsmith froze is, collapsed half of the incense and oil store, but out of a young man carrying a bottle of oil, at most thirteen or fourteen years of age, however, stained with dust on the tender face, actually did not have half a bit of fear of the color of the face.
He just looked at the black-clothed swordsmith with a curious face and clear eyes, then his gaze crossed over the black-clothed swordsmith's body and fell towards the back of the two destroyed hedge walls.
In his line of sight, a woman in a delicate white dress was walking out of the gap in the black umbrella curtain.
"Bury him thickly."
The white-skirted woman's dress was already soaked through, and she seemed exhausted to the extreme, as several black oil umbrellas gathered up to help her block the falling rain above her, she just whispered these three words.
