Sharing Honor and Disgrace, Part Three
The two beautiful sisters were on their way to a huge natural stone slab. From the entrance, it was a long walk to reach the slab. The slab was 108 zhang high and about 6 li long. In terms of height, it was less than half the height of the surrounding mountains, but in terms of span, it was much wider than the mountain peaks.
The surface of the stone slab was devoid of vegetation, the dark red rocks completely exposed to the atmosphere. The bare rocks were covered with grooves of varying depths, casting irregular shadows on the rock face under the sunlight.
When they were still quite a distance from the stone slab, about two hundred zhang away, there wasn't a single plant left beside Kim Ji-won and Kim Yoo-jung. Beneath their feet lay scorched earth, and white smoke could be clearly seen rising not far ahead. Looking down at the lower ground, they could see the air distorted and shimmering due to the rising heat from the earth.
This enormous stone disc is the massive lightning-attracting stone in Peach Blossom Spring. All the lightning strikes are concentrated around this area.
The trees, whose branches were originally elegant and graceful, appeared somewhat ferocious under the black cover. Those further away, seen through the heatwave, seemed to be twisting and writhing, ready to pounce.
The two of them felt as if they were walking through a giant steamer, and soon sweat began to pour down their faces. A fine layer of quicksand silently appeared under their feet, and Kim Yoo-jung felt much better, at least her feet were no longer being scorched by the 'hot pot'.
The surface of the stone slab is not entirely dark red; it has grayish-white mixed in. If you touch it, you'll find that some of the grayish-white areas are still dark red underneath, while some of the dark red areas are grayish-white underneath. It's hard to say which color is the original color of the mountain.
The lightning strikes left numerous pits on the surface of the stone slab. These pits, which are of different shapes, are interconnected, so they do not appear as a dense series of pits, but rather form the unique rugged appearance of the stone slab.
Among these many sharp, interconnected pits, there is a string of pits that stands out from the rest. Rather than pits, they are more like openings. These seventy-two openings, all identical in shape and arranged in a regular pattern, have smooth, rounded edges, clearly indicating that they are man-made doorways.
The entrance was about two people high. Entering through the entrance, one found oneself in an extremely spacious cave. Ten zhang (approximately 33 meters) above the bottom was the cave ceiling. At the ceiling were three naturally formed circular openings arranged in a triangular pattern, each seventeen zhang (approximately 33 meters) wide, through which one could see the azure sky above.
What a convenient place to get struck by lightning. Kim Yoo-jung thought to herself. Their footsteps echoed through the cave, and they made no attempt to conceal themselves.
At the far end of the cave was a straight stone wall, and in the very center of the wall was a long sword with a brownish-yellow blade. Beneath the sword was a man sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. The veins on his hands, which rested on his knees, were bulging, and his withered, bamboo-like fingers hung limply at his sides. This man was Wang Zimei, one of the four sword gods enshrined at the Supreme Sword God Hall of Ping'an Temple atop Mount Mashou in Wuling City, one of the four heroes of the reclusive sword sect Peach Blossom Spring, and also known as the "Sword Demon."
“It’s been a long time since anyone has come here.” The prince’s voice was booming, and his eyes, which had sunken with age, slowly opened.
Kim Ji-won bowed and said, "I have long heard of the Sword God of Peach Blossom Spring. Today, I have finally met you. You are indeed as slender as a pine tree and as strong as a crane, with an extraordinary bearing."
Seeing Kim Yoo-jung standing there casually, Kim Ji-won nudged her with her elbow. Only then did Kim Yoo-jung reluctantly begin to bow as well.
"Let's skip the formalities," said Wang Zimei. "Since you two have come from afar, why not show your true faces?"
The two exchanged a glance, and Kim Ji-won was the first to remove her veil. Seeing this, Kim Yoo-jung followed suit and removed her black veil as well.
Wang Zimei's lips moved slightly.
"It was my rudeness," Kim Ji-won said sincerely.
“You’ve seen the people, you can leave now.” Wang Zimei raised his hand and pointed to the side, where several longswords were embedded in the ground, and next to the swords were human bones. He said, “I don’t want to kill anymore.”
“Senior,” Kim Ji-won said, “we have come here to ask you for a favor.”
“I have nothing to give you,” Wang Zimei said coldly.
"Please lend me the 'Black Wind Sword', senior," Kim Yoo-jung said bluntly.
Wang Zimei's expression suddenly changed, and she said in an unassailable tone, "Get out now, or I'll kill you all if you utter another word."
Kim Yoo-jung drew her long sword from her waist and said, "Then we'll have to take it ourselves."
A streak of blue lightning reached Kim Yoo-jung's face in an instant, but even faster was Kim Ji-won's quicksand. The lightning shattered the quicksand, but did not harm Kim Yoo-jung in the slightest.
Wang Zimei clenched his right fist, and the violent blue lightning in his palm subsided and transformed into a sword.
~
After several exchanges, Kim Yoo-jung repeatedly leaped back to escape the center of the battle. Her body was covered in wounds, and blood seeped from her black robes, making the black appear even more oppressive.
Every attack had been blocked. Kim Yoo-jung was deeply puzzled. On the surface, the two of them clearly had the upper hand, but in reality, their wounds were constantly increasing. "If we don't find the cause, the situation will only get worse, and defeat will only be a matter of time," she thought anxiously.
Inside the cave, Wang Zimei and Jin Zhiyuan's sword intents intertwined, lightning flashing and dust swirling, like the beginning of chaos. Amidst this flash of light and smoke, intense bursts of light occasionally erupted—that was where the two clashed.
Kim Yoo-jung kept her eyes glued to the center of the battlefield, not daring to relax for even a moment. She knew in her heart that the longer the battle dragged on, the smaller their chances of winning would become.
At this moment, Kim Ji-won had launched a full-scale attack, because she found that no matter how she defended, her wounds continued to worsen. Only by attacking could she slow down Wang Zi-mei's pace and buy Kim Yoo-jung more time. She was almost resigned to self-destruction as she fought back against Wang Zi-mei.
Although each time it was only for a fleeting moment, Kim Yoo-jung still managed to capture the way the blue light stretched and curved.
"It's a whip, Senior Sister!" Kim Yoo-jung exclaimed in realization, shouting to Kim Ji-won, "He's not using a sword, he's using a whip!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Prince Mei's unrestrained laughter echoed from the chaos. The cyan light, no longer feigning its presence, rapidly shifted, transforming into a long, gleaming whip that spun like a vortex and swept forward, sparks flying like scattering embers.
~
The whooshing sound was incessant, and sparks flew and shattered on the stone floor, as if someone had disturbed the Milky Way in the stream.
Before the black and white whetstone, Li Letian's face flickered in the firelight. Red sparks fell again and again, along with water droplets from who-knows-where.
“Brother Letian,” Tao Youan stood in front of the tightly closed wooden door, listening to the continuous grinding sounds coming from inside the shop, and asked worriedly, “Are you alright?”
Tao Youan hadn't seen Li Letian for many days, and he came to inquire out of concern. Although others might find it absurd, he did indeed faintly hear the sound of farewell amidst the repetitive grinding sounds.
From a young age, he dreamed of becoming a unique blacksmith, believing he was born to be one. For four thousand days and nights since he could remember, Tao Youan had always kept his longsword by his side. He could hear that both the sword and the whetstone were weeping, accompanied by a kind of determination that he could not reach.
"How is Uncle Meng?"
The people inside the house did not answer him.
~
Kim Ji-won danced gracefully amidst the falling sparks, her long blue whip resembling flowing sleeves. Kim Yoo-jung leaped into the fray, deflecting the whip that was about to strike Kim Ji-won's back with a single sword stroke.
"Senior sister, how are you?" Kim Yoo-jung asked worriedly.
"Thanks to you," Kim Ji-won said firmly, "Now that we know his methods, let's finish this off in one go."
Back to back, Kim Ji-won launched a full-scale attack, while Kim Yoo-jung blocked all the whip strikes from all directions. United as one, the sharp blade continued its relentless advance towards Wang Zi-mei.
As the advantage of the long whip distance gradually diminished, Wang Zimei suffered a series of defeats!
Wang Zimei shouted, his long silver hair suddenly stood on end, and the long whip in his hand shattered, turning into thousands of "meteors" that rushed towards Kim Ji-won and the other person with a thunderous sound.
"Yoo-jung!" Kim Ji-won shouted with all her might. Even so, only a faint sound penetrated the thunder and reached Kim Yoo-jung's ears. Kim Yoo-jung was acting entirely on instinct.
Kim Ji-won brandished her longsword, and wherever the blade passed, white quicksand spread out in perfect curves. Kim Yoo-jung wielded her longsword, wild and unrestrained flames engulfing the entire blade, leaving a long, red trail of fire.
The two stood close together, back to back, wielding their longswords around their spines in a circle before returning to their original positions. All the quicksand was enveloped in flames, forming a giant sphere that surrounded them at the center.
Suddenly, a meteor roared in. The flames Kim Yoo-jung had created vanished at that moment, leaving the two of them exposed to the starry sky without any cover.
Wang Zimei clenched her fist, and the meteor's speed suddenly increased, leaving the two people in the center of the star cluster with nowhere to escape.
However, even though the lightning struck like a torrential downpour, advancing with overwhelming force, it exploded just a step away from the two, unable to advance any further. The massive bursts of lightning flashed, outlining the barrier's contours, clearly revealing it to be a perfectly formed sphere.
The continuous explosions caused the temperature to drop to an incomprehensible level instead of accumulating. What Wang Zimei didn't know was that even the scorched earth outside "Thunder Mountain" was experiencing a continuous drop in temperature, with all the heat flowing towards the cave at the center of the battle.
Even so, he still felt the cold firsthand.
The sphere of light at the center of the grotto gradually dimmed, and with a crisp sound, the light rippled outwards like a shattered moon reflected in a well. This time, the two girls were no longer back to back, but rather, with their longswords pointing forward, they emerged from the light shoulder to shoulder.
From this moment on, the roles of offense and defense have reversed.
~
At this moment, two hundred feet away from the cave, another footstep stepped onto the scorched ground. The man carried a bundle of six swords. The swords were covered in old marks; these were longswords collected from the bottom of the Burial Sword Canyon, haphazardly bound together with vines.
The black, menacing tree was covered with ice crystals pointing towards "Thunder Mountain," making it appear as if translucent branches were sprouting from the dark wood. Sensoryly, this softened the scene considerably, even evoking a sense of pity.
The man touched the ice crystals; the unseasonably cold touch excited him. He grabbed the end of the vine, swinging the bundle of longswords, and quickened his pace toward "Thunder Mountain."
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