The Blood of Youth – CH 044

Chapter 44: Reason for Drawing Your Sword

“The snow-covered peaks, the white clouds at the waist of the mountain, a wonder created by Heaven, each revealing its majesty.”

This poem was written to portray Cangshan Mountain. The Cangshan mountain range had a total of nineteen peaks, and from north to south, the peaks are Yunnong, Canglang, Wutai, Lotus, Cloud, Heyun, Sanyang, Lan, Xueren, Yingle, Guanyin, Zhonghe, Longquan, Yuju, Malong, Shengying, Foding, Ma’er, and Sun-setting.

Between every two peaks, there was a stream that flowed down into Erhai Lake. They were the famous eighteen streams and in sequence: Xiayi, Wanhua, Yangxi, Mangyong, Jinxi, Lingquan, Baishi, Shuangyuan , Yinxian, Meixi, Tao, Middle, Jade Green, Dragon, Qingbi, Mocan, Tingming, and Yangnan.

Whether it was the names of the peaks or the names of the streams, they were all extremely elegant. But the most elegant of them all was still the one that could be seen the moment you looked up, the snow-capped peak of Cangshan. The peak was always covered in snow, even in summer, and was the most popular of the four sceneries of “wind, flower, snow, moon.” Lei Wujie hiked up the mountain, step by step. He didn’t know which peak the Snow Moon Sword Immortal Li Hanyi was on, and he was walking aimlessly because he knew that from the moment he stepped onto Cangshan, the only way he could find Li Hanyi was if Li Hanyi wanted to be found by him.

Lei Wujie didn’t know how long he had been walking until finally, he felt a little tired, so he sat down on a step and looked back down the path. Only then did he realize how far he’d walked. He looked down at Snow Moon City far below and suddenly broke into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” A sudden voice asked him.

“It suddenly occurred to me that the big and grand Snow Moon City looks like a tiny chessboard when seen from the top of the mountain.” Lei Wujie grinned.

“Do you like to play chess?”

Lei Wujie shook his head. “I don’t know how to play chess. I couldn’t sit still since I was a kid, but I often saw Shifu playing chess with himself.”

“Come up, then.”

Lei Wujie stood up, brushed off the dust on himself, and continued walking up the path. After walking for another quarter of an hour, he finally reached halfway up the mountain and saw a small straw hut. The Snow Moon Sword Immortal Li Hanyi, dressed in white with a gray veil, was sitting in front of the hut with his eyes closed.

“Shifu.” Lei Wujie suddenly fell to his knees and burst into tears.

Li Hanyi opened his eyes and nodded slightly.

It was at this meeting that the pair of master and disciple finally paid their respects.

At the foot of the mountain, in Snow Moon City, Xiao Se was still sprawled lazily in the sun. He had a blade of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth as he watched the sky, looking bored to death. Tang Lian sat on the roof and said obliquely, “Back when Lianyue-shifu sent me to Snow Moon City, he told me to wait in Snow Moon City for a person on behalf of the Tang Sect. Are you that person?”

“No,” Xiao Se answered bluntly.

Tang Lian chuckled. “I didn’t think so either.”

Xiao Se wagged the foxtail grass. “You’re a respectable young man, and you should be waiting for an exquisite lady as delicate as a flower and as refined as jade. What’s the point of waiting for an old man like me?”

“It’s true that I’m a respectable young man, but how did you become an old man? You look like a man of the world, as if you’ve left home for a while, but how old are you actually? You can’t be one or two years older than Lei Wujie,” Tang Lian said.

Xiao Se curled his lips. “None of your business.”

“I can’t be bothered with you, but someone will be in your business soon. Third shidi.” Tang Lian suddenly stood up, revealing a wicked grin on his face.

“Huh?” Xiao Se raised an eyebrow.

“Goodbye.” Tang Lian jumped forward and ran away.

Xiao Se whispered an “oh crap” under his breath, jumped off the bench, and was about to flee when a dark golden long spear was already attacking him. Xiao Se retreated frantically, and that long spear smashed the bench that he was lying on into powder.

Xiao Se exhaled a sigh. “Your Ladyship, do you intend to destroy all my chairs?”

With a beautiful appearance and a heroic expression on her face, Sikong Qianluo, the daughter of the Spear Immortal, put away her spear and returned a cold smile. “Hiding here being lazy again?”

“How am I lazy? I already told you people from the beginning that I don’t know martial arts. Now, I have to play three games of chess with your father every day and wake up at dawn to check the account books. It’s hard work, you know!” Xiao Se spat out the foxtail grass, a look of annoyance on his face.

“Bah, you’re just a parasite, all take and no give, and you want to collect eight hundred taels a month? How can you be worthy of being the Spear Immortal’s disciple?” Sikong Qianluo waved her spear and chased him down. “This lady is not letting you off so easily. Don’t you have your unsurpassed lightness skill? From now on, you’ll help this lady train my spear, got it?”

“What?” Xiao Se was shocked, his figure flashed, and he ran for the door.

There are countless lightness skills under Heaven, such as Wudang’s Cloud Ladder Leap, Tianshan Sect’s Trekking Snow Without a Trace, and Flying Cloud Pavilion’s Eight Step Seeking Cicada. These were all top-rated lightness skills. However, Cloud Step Wind Riding skill was rated as the number one lightness skill under Heaven, because ordinary lightness skills could only be used as an enhancement, but Cloud Step could be trained side-by-side with other martial arts skills.

“Hmph, you can’t escape from me!” Sikong Qianluo caught up with her spear.

Last time, Sikong Qianluo rolled up all the wind on the main street and ruined one of Xiao Se’s sleeves, only because his aim was to hold her up at the time and he wasn’t trying to avoid her. The situation was different now. Now that Xiao Se was determined to run away, unless the Spear Immortal came in person, catching him was not an easy task. With one step, Xiao Se had already flashed out of the courtyard. But Sikong Qianluo wasn’t giving up that easily. With a wave of her spear, she immediately chased after him.

A youth in blue robes and a young lady in black, the two began this tireless and endless chase through Snow Moon City.

At the same time, Luo Mingxuan was playing dice with his master, Yin Luoxia, and losing into a pulp. He hurried out of the hall and saw the two figures flash past. He rubbed his eyes and exclaimed, “Heavens! What is this lightness skill? How can he be so fast?”

Behind him, Luoxia Fairy, having the face of a young girl despite being over thirty, frowned slightly. “Cloud Step?”

Luo Mingxuan smirked, finding joy in the other’s misfortune. “Looks like little sister Qianluo has someone to play with her from now on. This will save the rest of us from a lot of trouble. Speaking of, I wonder how that fellow is doing. Hanging out with the eccentric Second Citymaster must be tough.”

Meanwhile, on top of Cangshan, Li Hanyi suddenly asked a question, “Lei Wujie, why do you draw your sword?”

Lei Wujie was stunned and hesitated for a long time. In the end, he still had no answer.

Li Hanyi continued, “Some people draw their swords because they want to be heroes and use the might of their sword to confront all the injustices under Heaven. Others draw their swords out of fear because if they don’t draw their swords, other people will, and if they don’t want to die, they must draw their swords. Then Lei Wujie, let me ask you, why do you draw your sword?”

Lei Wujie still didn’t know how to answer.

“Back then, why did you pick up a sword?” Li Hanyi looked at him.

Lei Wujie thought about it for a while and replied, “One day, I saw Shifu wave his long sleeve, and a fiery red long sword flew into the sky, and a beam of red light dyed all the clouds a brilliant red. That was the first time I saw such mystical sword arts in my life. Shifu asked me if I wanted to learn the sword. I didn’t hesitate at the time because I was captivated by the beauty of that sword.”

“Yes, the sword is the most beautiful thing in the world. If your shifu hadn’t seen the beauty of a sword, he wouldn’t have ended up in that state now. But, you’re talking about practicing the sword. I’m asking about drawing your sword. They’re not the same thing. Sword practice can come from talent, but drawing your sword can only be a matter of life and death!” When Li Hanyi said the last sentence, his brows were furrowed and his voice was somewhat intimidating.

Lei Wujie shook his head. Life and death? Yes, in the martial world, life and death was a fine line. For instance, a mere disagreement could lead to both sides drawing their blades and going at each other. A blade or sword across the neck, and death was a certainty. But Lei Wujie had heard so many stories about the martial world, and no matter how fascinated he was with that world, he couldn’t agree with such a martial world. Victory and defeat were commonplace in the martial world; what was the point of life and death? Lei Wujie slowly said, “Drawing a sword is about the way of the sword, not life and death.”

“You don’t want to discuss life and death, but if others draw their swords and want you to die, are you going to give up and die like that?” Li Hanyi asked.

Lei Wujie’s mind was muddled and confused, and he still didn’t know how to answer.

Li Hanyi scoffed coldly, and with a light wave of his right hand, a long sword flew out of the straw hut and stabbed into the ground in front of Lei Wujie.

“This sword is called Rainfall. It’s my gift to you for entering the sect.”

Lei Wujie took a step forward and picked up the sword. It was an exquisite and beautiful long sword, incredibly graceful, and he could barely feel its weight in his hand. He was still wondering why Li Hanyi suddenly changed the subject when he felt a sword aura surrounding him. He raised his head quickly and saw Li Hanyi’s white robes fluttering in a dance, and a faint murderous intent appeared between his brows!

“Come, draw your sword at me!” Li Hanyi said loudly.