Chapter 63: What connection does the Sword Armor have to him?

Before leaving home, the final conversation went like this.

"You don't need to call me master from now on. Husband, my lord, or master of the house—any of those will do."

"Then... what if I just call you by your name?"

Yin Tingxue didn't want to use any of the terms he suggested.

"That's fine too."

Chen Yi agreed.

Stepping out of the courtyard, Chen Yi let out a breath. Feeling the chilly wind after the start of winter, he realized that, almost imperceptibly, winter was nearly upon them.

At that moment, Chen Yi finally looked at the system panel and injected twenty years of true qi into each of the two cultivation techniques.

[Through twenty years of hard work, you have mastered the secrets of alchemy and captured the qi of heaven, earth, the mysterious, and the yellow, infusing it into your pills. Although the path of alchemy is long, the Purple Medicine Alchemy Manual is now entirely meaningless to you.]

[Purple Medicine Alchemy Manual (Consummate Perfection)]

[Over twenty years of spring and autumn, relying on your profound comprehension of blade techniques, even practicing the White Willow Blade has yielded twice the result with half the effort. Vaguely, you have captured a wisp of enlightenment within the White Willow Blade, realizing that this was precisely what Huang Liuqing was about to comprehend before his death. By continuing to explore, you might just create something new.]

[White Willow Blade (Entering the Chamber)]

"Another brand new cultivation technique? A solid harvest," Chen Yi smiled.

However, glancing at the remaining ten years of true qi, Chen Yi chose not to go all-in with this reserve.

After injecting the qi into the techniques, Chen Yi turned his attention to the newly expanded talent tree on the panel.

It was an illusory and ancient giant tree, resembling the mythological ancient *Dachun* described in *Free and Easy Wandering*.

Chen Yi looked at the two strands of true essence generated by the Yin-Yang Art.

The Yin-Yang Art could condense one strand of true essence for every month of dual cultivation, and each strand of true essence could be injected into this illusory *Dachun*, solidifying a specific part of it.

Every Qi cultivator and Taoist practitioner possessed a *Dachun* tree of fate, though they could not see it directly. They could only sense it vaguely, exploring step by step as they crossed the river of time, which was why the *Dachun* was also known as the Bridge of Longevity.

At present, at the very base of the *Dachun*, there were only three roots capable of receiving the true essence: "Consolidating the Dao Foundation," "Initially Opening the Grotto-Heaven," and " Wielding Objects with Qi."

Without a moment of hesitation, Chen Yi injected the first strand of true essence into "Consolidating the Dao Foundation."

As the true essence poured in, Chen Yi suddenly felt the acupuncture points all over his body expand slightly. The primordial qi of heaven and earth rushed into them, circulated throughout his entire body, and was then exhaled in one long breath—repeating in an endless, living cycle.

Through this, Chen Yi realized that he was now capable of utilizing Taoist magic via primordial qi.

Although, due to his martial artist's true qi, the primordial qi circulating within him was far inferior to that of ordinary Taoists, let alone the freakishly talented rare few.

"I need to find a way to acquire some Taoist spells; otherwise, I won't be able to handle Elder Lin who has suffered a deviation in cultivation, nor will I be able to deal with the emergence of Mount Tu," Chen Yi mused, then looked at the other two roots.

Initially Opening the Grotto-Heaven, as the name suggested, meant opening an invisible grotto-heaven at the dantian within the body to further accommodate the primordial qi of heaven and earth, and eventually even constructing a small independent world of one's own, much like the Buddhist concept of a flower containing a universe.

However, every advantage had its drawback. After opening the grotto-heaven, an inner lake of the mind would form. If one were careless for even a moment, it would easily lead to a deviation in cultivation, causing violent storms in the lake of the mind. This was why Qi cultivators placed special emphasis on tranquilizing the mind and nurturing the spirit, or even detaching themselves from worldly emotions like the Supreme Dao.

This was not the time for peaceful meditation. After a moment of thought, Chen Yi's gaze finally settled on "Wielding Objects with Qi."

Wielding Objects with Qi, simply put, was the art of telekinesis. Although it was far more than just telekinesis, at his current level of cultivation, all he could do for now was manipulate objects.

In martial arts combat, the first consideration was realm, and the second was weaponry. "An inch longer is an inch stronger" was an immortal truth in the jianghu, and Chen Yi estimated that Wielding Objects with Qi would allow his weapon to leave his hand by three feet, vastly expanding his range of attack.

"It feels kind of like... a flying sword..."

Chen Yi thought about it, his eyes lighting up.

Just imagine killing someone with a flying sword, taking an enemy's head within the span of a single breath—how cool would that be?

Strength didn't matter; looking cool was all that counted.

After a moment, Chen Yi looked down at the embroidered spring saber at his waist, shook his head, and laughed ruefully:

"Still, I suppose it should be called... a flying knife."

In the end, Chen Yi poured that strand of true essence into Wielding Objects with Qi.

***

The moment Chen Yi stepped into the West Depot, Superintendent Wu hurried over to greet him.

Before Chen Yi could even react, Superintendent Wu cupped his hands and praised with genuine admiration:

"Congratulations, Commander Chen, on your feat of hanging your sword and slaying the river dragon."

Chen Yi was stunned for a moment before he caught on.

"It wasn't me who slew the dragon, it was—"

Before he could finish, Superintendent Wu interrupted with a rhetorical question:

"What kind of talk is that? The story of you hanging your sword and slaying the dragon has already spread like wildfire all over the capital, and the common folk near the Northern River even saw the dragon's corpse. Your achievements are plain for all to see; why be so modest? Even Her Majesty the Empress Dowager wishes to see you. Follow me into the palace shortly."

A West Depot commander hanging his sword and slaying a river dragon had long since become a hot piece of gossip in the teahouses and wine shops. At first, no one took it seriously, but seeing the dragon's corpse split cleanly in two early this morning, who dared treat it as mere gossip anymore? The well-informed storytellers had been beating their clappers since dawn to weave it into tales, and listening to the dramatic accounts was immensely gratifying.

As for the dragon-slaying incident, let alone ordinary mortals, the news had spread among the Taoists as well. The Empress Dowager, who controlled the Magpie Pavilion, learned of it early the very next day.

Earth-warmers kept the vast palace pleasantly warm. Empress An waited for Superintendent Wu to bring Chen Yi to the Jingren Palace.

"Nanny, does he truly possess the capability to slay a dragon?" Empress An frowned and asked.

"To cut a dragon cleanly in two—where would he get such monstrous killing power?"

It was fine if ordinary mortals saw the dragon corpse and believed a mere commander had slain it, but Empress An held a lofty position and had witnessed countless extraordinary people and strange phenomena. Yet, she had never heard of a fifth-rank martial artist completely ignorant of Taoist magic who could slaughter a dragon.

"Does Your Majesty not believe he could slay the dragon?" asked the nameless old nanny.

"If he truly had the power to slay a dragon, could he possibly be the True Wu Emperor descending to earth to undergo a tribulation?"

Empress An sneered.

"Someone powerful must be backing him from the shadows. Nanny, has it been investigated?"

"Yes..."

The nameless old nanny paused, then uttered words that made Empress An's pupils constrict:

"The Sword Armor of Yin Jian Mountain—the river is filled entirely with her sword intent."

Empress An's eyelids twitched as she lowered her voice:

"It really is the ninth on the Martial Ranking... the Sword Armor... True Person Tongxuan Zhou Yitang?"

The old nanny's words sounded far more reasonable than Chen Yi slaying a dragon himself, but upon further reflection, it was infinitely more terrifying than the former.

Two hundred years ago, the so-called Martial Ranking was merely compiled by idle busybodies. Wu Buyou, the undisputed number one in the world back then, had sneered at it. Most senior veterans of great weight in the jianghu felt similarly, and few younger generations brought up the rankings. However, as vicissitudes transformed the world, a heavily influential Taoist Heavenly Being took over the Martial Ranking, and the number of those who held the rankings in disdain dwindled by more than half. Ever since Wu Buyou defected from the Shangqing Taoist Sect, he had fallen deeper into deviation, unable to ever recover his initial flawless and impenetrable state of mind.

A century passed in the blink of an eye. In the Battle of Danyang Lake, Xu Qi—then a rising star and now the world's second-ranked "True Heavenly Being"—had forcefully shattered Wu Buyou's momentum and thunder-pool of sword energy that he had cultivated and purified for years, smashing the latter's soaring sword-immortal aura along with his title as the number one in the world into pieces. Since then, the old sword demon had wandered among mortals, his whereabouts unknown, and none of the prominent heavyweights in the jianghu dared to disparage the Martial Ranking ever again.

Today, everyone in the top ten of the Martial Ranking was an existence the imperial court had to treat with utmost seriousness.

"Your Majesty, Heavenly Being Xu once remarked that Sword Armor Zhou possesses the aura of a sword immortal. If it truly was the Sword Armor who slew the dragon, while not entirely surprising, still..."

It had been a very long time since the nameless old nanny had felt a trace of terror.

"...The Sword Armor killed the dragon for him. Then what on earth is the relationship... between the Sword Armor and him?!"

Yet now, the old woman could not help but shrink back slightly.

Even though she guarded the imperial city, standing atop the dragon vein where she could borrow the momentum of heaven and earth and the destiny of the Great Yu to climb to the realm of a Grandmaster of the First Rank, if the Sword Armor were truly to fight her way into the palace to the death, she only had a seven-tenths certainty of stopping her.

Chen Yi actually managed to enlist a Sword Armor to slay a dragon...

If he could slay a dragon today, would he... slaughter a dragon tomorrow?

The nameless old nanny subconsciously thought a step further.

This was not only due to the sensitivity borne of years guarding the imperial city, but also because... Empress An had planted a strange poison within Chen Yi.

If Chen Yi were severely injured or even killed in the future, and the Sword Armor came seeking bloody vengeance at the cost of her life, leaving the nameless old nanny powerless to stop her, how would she... retaliate against Empress An?

Empress An remained silent in deep thought, then offered a charming smile a moment later:

"Nanny, your anxiety has clouded your judgment. A few months ago, he was nothing more than a nobody, while the Sword Armor has been in secluded cultivation on Yin Jian Mountain for years. What connection could he possibly have with the Sword Armor?

From my perspective, it was merely a coincidence. Realistically speaking, apart from the night before last, the two of them probably hadn't even laid eyes on each other once."

Empress An stood up, her demeanor experienced and steady.

"Why worry about the Sword Armor? He is afflicted with a fatal poison, and apart from myself, who else can cure it? Either way, he cannot escape my control."

Hearing Empress An's confident and profound words, the nameless old nanny felt somewhat more at ease.

Just as the voice fell, speaking of the devil, the figures of Chen Yi and Superintendent Wu appeared in the distance outside the palace gates.

Staring at Chen Yi, Empress An lowered her gaze in thought. Even though she had been so composed just moments before, a trace of unusual emotion still flickered across the corners of her eyes.

That emotion was wariness.