Green Mountain

The lake water closed up behind Wu Kezhi, and the splash shot more than ten feet high.

That Jishan cleaver opened waves like it was splitting mountains; in the water it actually swam faster than a fish, needing less than 15 minutes to reach the golden light at the lake’s heart.

Luo Yunlin said worriedly, "Could the one breaking into the Mountain Gate already have stepped into the Divine Realm? Can Uncle Wu handle it going alone?"

Aunt Qiu Bai consoled, "Relax. Your Uncle Wu’s got life‑saving tricks the Mountain Master gave him. Even if he can’t beat a Great Grandmaster, he can still get out and call for help. With so many of us here, we might not be helpless against the other party. But if that guy hasn’t entered the Divine Realm yet, then he’s in for it—all it’d take is twisting his head off."

Uncle Changsheng was squatting on the ground yanking his hair. "How can there be Five Sounds of Martial Arts? What has to happen for there to be Five Sounds of Martial Arts? Use that thick skull and think!"

After thinking for a long time, Changsheng suddenly snapped his head up. "There’s actually someone whose talent can surpass mine!?"

Aunt Qiu Bai kicked him in the shoulder, knocking him back onto the ground.

Just then, Uncle Changsheng suddenly asked, "Wait a sec, have you seen Biaozi?"

Aunt Qiu Bai said thoughtfully, "No. Normally around this time he should be at the bottom of the lake comprehending the Soldier Master’s Blade Intent... He’s at the bottom too!"

At the bottom of the lake.

Wu Kezhi, holding Jishan, drew ever closer.

Chen Ji was still sitting cross‑legged. The five longswords before him each turned into sword ash, drifting through the dark lake water. Though the sword forms had scattered, they left behind a strand of pure, blazing, yang Sword Intent that flowed into Chen Ji’s chest.

Among the eight stripes between his chest and abdomen, new sword seeds were once again being nurtured, and the original three Brass Sword Seeds, as the Sword Intent entered his body, all transformed into crystal‑clear silver, like quicksilver flowing along those markings.

Eight sword seeds.

Chen Ji had not heard the Martial Arts Roar in the heavens; he was wholly focused, feeling the Sword Intent surging in his chest, circling again and again.

He did not notice the seven hundred and twenty stoves on his body gradually dimming, on the verge of exhaustion, going out one by one. Nor did he notice a figure rapidly swimming toward him, already within ten steps.

The ten‑plus‑foot golden Sword Intent in the lake turned, pointing at the newcomer.

Yet when it saw who had come, it actually retreated a bit, revealing Chen Ji’s figure.

When the man came close and saw Chen Ji’s face, he froze on the spot, as if he had never imagined he would see Chen Ji at the bottom of the lake.

He hesitated for a moment, then slid the short knife in his hand into the belt at his lower back, killing intent gone.

The newcomer was not Wu Kezhi, but Wu Hongbiao.

Wu Hongbiao swam to Chen Ji’s side, looking over the stoves on Chen Ji’s body that were going out one after another. He stepped forward and shook Chen Ji, then pointed behind him, indicating danger was coming.

But Chen Ji still kept his eyes tightly shut, deaf to everything.

Wu Hongbiao wondered why Chen Ji still wouldn’t wake up. The next moment, he saw all the external stoves on Chen Ji’s body go out, and the lake bottom once again sank into darkness.

He reached to touch Chen Ji, only to feel a surge of cold from Chen Ji’s Dantian spread through his own body, as if it were about to freeze even the lake water solid.

Wu Hongbiao pulled his hand back and hesitated for two breaths. Gritting his teeth, he forcibly endured the cold and hoisted Chen Ji up, groping his way toward the edge of the Heavenly Pool in the dark.

...

...

Not long after the two left, Wu Kezhi arrived with Jishan in hand. In the darkness he barely managed to look around, listening to the sound of the water to judge the direction in which Chen Ji had departed.

The Heavenly Pool had no living water flowing in; it was still. Even the faint sounds of water were exceptionally clear at the lake bottom.

But before he could hear clearly, a strand of golden Sword Intent burst up from the lake bottom. Wu Kezhi raised Jishan and met it head‑on, only to be blasted back several zhang by the Soldier Master’s Blade Intent.

By the time Wu Kezhi had set his blade stance, that strand of Blade Intent had already hidden itself once more in the dark lake water, nowhere to be found. Shocked and suspicious, he did not understand why the Soldier Master’s Blade Intent had ambushed him. The Soldier Master’s Blade Intent protected this Heavenly Pool and cut down all intruders—so why strike now, yet not cut down that sword‑stealing fellow?

At this point, when he tried again to discern the direction Chen Ji had gone, he could no longer hear anything.

Wu Kezhi swam upward and broke the surface. His gaze swept around, but the surface of the Heavenly Pool was once again shrouded in thick fog; beyond a single zhang nothing could be seen.

At the edge of the Heavenly Pool, Wu Hongbiao carried Chen Ji out of the dense fog on his back, stepping over gravel as he slowly walked ashore, shivering so hard his upper and lower teeth were chattering.

He muttered under his breath, "How’d it end up being you? I was thinking that once I’d taken in the Soldier Master’s Blade Intent, I’d go to the Ning Dynasty to show off to you. When the time came, I’d flash my Blade Intent in front of you—look, this is the Soldier Master’s Blade Intent—and you’d be dying of envy... then you go and pop off with Five Sounds of Martial Arts, so what am I supposed to do? Where the hell am I supposed to get myself a Martial Arts Roar?"

Chen Ji had no way to answer.

Wu Hongbiao kept muttering in a trembling voice, rambling on, "You brat actually cultivate the Sword Seed Path. Back then when I saw you being all secretive, I knew something was off, but who would’ve thought you were hiding something this big. A sword seed... it’s actually a sword seed. Where did you learn it from, did Lord Lu secretly teach you? Do you want to go see Lord Lu once? No, no, with such a big commotion, I’m afraid the entire Temple of Martial Arts will want to hunt you down—no, the whole Jing Dynasty will be after you."

"Hey, how did you end up in the Temple of Martial Arts, did you come alone? Do you have any helpers or anything, if you do, hurry up and call them out, I can’t save you by myself!"

Wu Hongbiao finally reached the shore and let out a long breath. He unloaded Chen Ji onto the bank, tested Chen Ji’s breath—still there, thankfully.

He didn’t dare linger. After quickly discerning the direction, he carried Chen Ji on his back and fled south toward Korea.

But he had barely taken two steps before stopping again, standing on a pile of jagged rocks and looking back toward the thatched hut. If he just left like this, what about cultivation? This was a chance Lord Lu had wrung out for him with great difficulty. When he went up the mountain, he swore he would reach the Seeking Dao Realm before going down, make his name, build his fate.

Once he left, the Temple of Martial Arts would definitely suspect something. He would surely never be able to return there. He probably wouldn’t be able to go back to Lord Lu’s side either. Maybe he wouldn’t even be able to go home...

Everything would be over.

Wu Hongbiao stood with his head lowered in the cold wind, his expression swallowed by the thick fog. Just like that day when Chen Ji stood in the pouring rain outside the old shop in Luocheng City, pressing the tip of his blade against Wu’s neck, his expression hidden under the shadow of his bamboo hat.

After a long while, Wu Hongbiao let out a self-mocking laugh. "You didn’t fail me, I won’t fail you. In Luocheng City you saved my life, so today counts as paying that back. After this I don’t owe you anything. Next time we drink, you’ll have to pour me three cups... no, three bowls! Three jugs!"

His face grew solemn again. He lifted his head to glance at the sky. Dawn was about to break; in a few more two hours the fog might begin to disperse.

Wu Hongbiao drew in a deep breath, then carried Chen Ji and continued running down the mountain. Yet he had barely taken a few steps when he heard a sound of something cleaving water behind him. He turned to look and saw more than a zhang-long Lord of War’s Blade Intent tearing through the air, hacking down at him from above.

His face changed. There was no way he could dodge this strike.

In that instant, Wu Hongbiao shielded Chen Ji behind him, clenched his teeth, and shut his eyes. But when the Lord of War’s Blade Intent cleaved down to his forehead, it suddenly turned into a thread of golden light, stabbing into the space between his brows, leaving behind a vertical, pupil-like bloody mark there.

Wu Hongbiao belatedly opened his eyes, then immediately cried out in pain and dropped to his knees. At that moment, the Lord of War’s Blade Intent was rampaging through his meridians, washing his tendons and cutting his marrow, remolding his body.

It felt as if his insides were being sliced open again and again, only to be reforged each time, until after roughly thirty minutes it finally began to subside.

Wu Hongbiao wiped his face, only then realizing his whole body was beaded with tiny droplets of blood. When his hand brushed across his cheek, he actually wiped off a fine layer of blood. "This..."

He didn’t have time to think it through. He carried Chen Ji and sprinted down the mountain, his body light as a swallow.

On his way down, Wu Hongbiao deliberately picked his path over rocks without accumulated snow. Just as he was running, he heard footsteps ahead in the thick fog, coming straight toward him.

He slowly came to a stop, staring fixedly into the fog before him.

Who was it? As long as it wasn’t Wu Kezhi, Uncle Chang Sheng, or Aunt Qiubai, he still had a chance.

Just then, a black silhouette emerged from the dense mist. The figure froze upon seeing Chen Ji on Wu Hongbiao’s back. "Who are you? What happened to him?"

Wu Hongbiao sized the person up from head to toe, but her features were completely hidden behind the black gauze of her veiled hat.

He backed away, wary. "And who are you?"

Mrs. Lu could see the protectiveness in Wu Hongbiao’s stance, and she immediately softened her voice. "Was that Martial Arts Roar just now caused by him? Give him to me. I’ll take him out through the Korea harbor right away, otherwise we won’t make it in time."

Wu Hongbiao asked in a deep voice, "How am I supposed to trust you? You just open your mouth and expect me to hand him over? It’s not that easy."

Mrs. Lu watched the still-retreating Wu Hongbiao in silence for a long moment, then took off her veiled hat, revealing her face. The world fell quiet. "I’m his mother."

Mrs. Lu’s delicate features carried their own heroic air. The crow’s-feet at the corners of her eyes looked somewhat out of place on that face, and her almond-shaped eyes held a touch of weariness.

Strangely, a faint knife scar ran horizontally across the bridge of her nose, its origin unknown.

Wu Hongbiao stood there dumbstruck. "So you’re still alive. You really are still alive."

Mrs. Lu frowned. "You’ve heard of me..."

She immediately put it together. "You’re with the Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Department too?"

Wu Hongbiao didn’t have time to explain. He put Chen Ji down on the ground and bolted off. "Hurry and take him away. The Temple of Martial Arts has a way to fix people’s locations within Changbai Mountain. Get him out of Changbai Mountain first, then talk."

He ran a few steps, then stopped and turned back to look at Mrs. Lu, retreating step by step toward the Heavenly Pool. "Auntie, my name is Wu Hongbiao. I’m Chen Ji’s brother. Please tell him that once I step into the Seeking Dao Realm, I’ll go to the Ning Dynasty to drink with him. Before then, he absolutely must not die!"

With that said, Wu Hongbiao turned again and shot off at a dead run.

Mrs. Lu went to Chen Ji’s side, helped him onto her back, and started down the mountain. When she looked back, she saw Wu Hongbiao had already sprinted back to the edge of the Heavenly Pool. He leapt in with a single bound, vanishing beneath the surface of the lake.

...

There’ll be one more Chapter tonight, read it tomorrow morning.