Chapter 53 It Has Four Heads (Bonus Chapter with 12,000 Nutrient Solution)
Yu Sui raised her hand to block the shockwave from the sword spirit's attack, and looked with difficulty at Li Jinshuang in the eye of the storm, asking Xue Mushi, "Is she in a stable state or out of control?"
"I don't know, I have to go and take a look!" Xue Mushi flew several Qi-stabilizing talismans and waited in place, just in case there wasn't enough Five Elements Qi to open the divination and leave.
The two bypassed the attacking demons and approached Li Jinshuang.
On the massive skeleton, one of the heads noticed the two approaching and swung its sword again, forcing Yu Sui and Xue Mushi back.
Xue Mushi wiped his face and said, "...It looks like it's out of control."
Yu Sui was thrown back by the sword energy. After landing and regaining his footing, he took a deep breath and shouted, "Li Jinshuang!"
Hearing the sound, Li Jinshuang turned her head and looked at Yu Sui with a very complicated expression.
Yu Sui couldn't help but think that the sword spirit going out of control was completely different from Li Jinshuang's. Li Jinshuang didn't go out of control halfway through using it; she was unable to control her sword spirit from the very beginning.
Her sword spirit is far stronger than me.
Its power and momentum are comparable to those of a thirteenth-level master; it can even frighten away some of the evil spirits in the special-grade armor formation.
Perhaps the power was too great for Li Jinshuang to control, or perhaps the sword spirit was too strong and unwilling to be controlled by the weak.
Regardless of the approach, we must first stabilize Li Jinshuang's position.
Yu Sui and Xue Mushi did not want to risk whether Li Jinshuang's sword spirit would still be there after they left the formation.
Try to make it disappear within the ranks of soldiers and armor.
The two reached a consensus and their bodies ignited with golden energy of the five elements for protection.
“Sword spirits are also a kind of materialization of the five elements. They can be drawn from the five elements. Your Ghost Daoist’s Death Talisman can restrain the Military School’s sword spirits.” Xue Mushi pondered. “Sword spirits coexist with the Military School’s master. Even if the sword spirit’s five elements are drawn from it by the Death Talisman, it will not die. Only when its master is killed will it be considered dead.”
So there's no need to worry about using the Death Talisman causing any damage to the Blade Spirit.
Yu Sui sighed and said, "I'll give it a try, but I can't guarantee whether the Death Talisman will work."
There was no other way. Standing there and waiting for Li Jinshuang to handle it herself wouldn't work either, or she would be killed by the indiscriminate sword spirit.
“There are four,” Xue Mushi added. “It has four heads.”
Yu Sui looked at him in surprise: "Is the number of sword spirits calculated per head?"
Xue Mushi hesitated and said, "I've only ever seen other people's sword spirits with one head, never four, and with eight arms. Just in case, I'm prepared to deal with four sword spirits."
Yu Sui was confused by what he said. Only when Li Jinshuang's sword spirit re-emerged and threw the long sword forward with a deafening roar did she turn her gaze away: "Alright, four death talismans, that's a bit difficult for me."
"Wait until it throws two more swords, and then the four hands on the left are unarmed. Then we'll break through from this side, and I'll cover you." Xue Mushi analyzed carefully. When it came to this important matter, he also perked up and began to think and act.
Yu Sui intently observed the sword spirit's every move. The pale skull revealed no expression or emotion, and it remained silent. Dark golden light shone from its black eye sockets, appearing and disappearing intermittently, adding to its sinister aura.
Li Jinshuang also closed her eyes and focused her mind, trying to communicate with her sword spirit and beg it to obey, at least not to attack her own people.
The speed at which the sword spirit killed the evil spirits was matched by the speed at which the evil spirits caught up. As it threw out its fourth longsword, Xue Mushi's copper coin flew out, encircling the sword spirit within his divination range. At the same time, he signaled Yu Sui, and the two of them set off to rush towards the sword spirit using the Wind Riding Technique.
Just when they thought the skeletons were unarmed, one of the white skeletons moved and looked at Yu Sui and Xue Mushi. Its four arms made an attacking motion. As the two used their wind manipulation technique to dodge the shockwaves from the sword energy, a long sword suddenly appeared in the skeleton's hand and blocked their way, almost grazing their skin.
Suddenly, the sword spirit, having summoned its weapon once more, swung its sword at the two of them.
Its body looked enormous, yet its movements were incredibly sharp and fast. Its arms, twice the length of a human's, were incredibly flexible, able to rotate at various angles, and it even possessed countless sword techniques. With its flexible wrists and speeds that were difficult for the naked eye to perceive, it forced Xue Mushi back in just a couple of moves.
Xue Mushi touched his cut cheek, and as soon as he looked up, he saw Yu Sui dodge the sword spirit's attack, which stunned him.
How did he manage to dodge it at that speed?
Xue Mushi's expression was strange as he stared intently at Yu Sui.
The sword spirit wielded more than one longsword. Even when Yu Sui had landed on its massive skeletal body, its slender, monkey-like arms could still nimbly and accurately find her and strike her again.
It attacks very quickly, each sword strike carrying killing intent, but Yu Sui always manages to catch its intentions just before it moves and then dodges precisely.
The moment Yu Sui saw the flash of the blade, everything around her seemed to slow down, as if they were being suppressed by gravity and began to stop, but the only thing that continued to accelerate was Yu Sui herself.
This reminded her of the feeling when she first saw a communication array as a child.
As the massive mountain of numbers rotated, countless characters and runes appeared one after another on the disc. A vast amount of information poured into her brain from her eyes, yet it was incredibly clear. Each one was firmly memorized by her eyes, and they, like now, moved with incredible speed.
Yu Sui dodged the sword spirit's attack once again. The longsword grazed her nose. As she bent over to avoid it and fell from the skeleton's shoulder, she used the Wind Control Technique to stabilize herself. She moved quickly and, as another sword came down, touched the blade with her toes and used the momentum to return to the skeleton's shoulder.
She is always one step ahead of Blade & Soul.
When facing Li Jinshuang's extraordinary and incredibly powerful sword spirit, the Divine Eye of Heaven unexpectedly activated itself.
Yu Sui didn't rush to destroy Li Jinshuang's sword spirit. Instead, she continued to probe and maneuver against it.
From Xue Mushi's perspective, the afterimages created by Yu Sui's Wind Control Technique and the sword shadows unleashed by the sword spirit's attacks intertwined, dazzling the eye. Even with the enhanced vision from the Bagua Life Technique, it was difficult to capture the speed and reaction.
However, he did not know that Yu Sui was testing the waters. Instead, he believed that Yu Sui could withstand the sword spirit, so he prepared to help suppress the sword spirit and give Yu Sui a chance to use the Ghost Daoist Death Talisman to draw out the sword spirit's five elements and destroy its material form.
So Xue Mushi directly used the Seven Killings hexagram, the first one being strangulation.
Countless fine, long lines flew out from the holes in the copper coin, connecting and interlocking with each other, emitting a low sound as they pierced through the sword spirit's skeletal body.
The divination technique's fine strangulation thread precisely bypassed Yu Sui and Li Jinshuang, only piercing and surrounding the sword spirit's skeleton.
The skeleton's arm, which was holding a long sword, was also wrapped and pulled by thin threads filled with the power of the five elements. One of the heads turned and looked at Xue Mushi. This glance made Xue Mushi's heart sink and an ominous premonition arose. He put his hands together to form a seal and strengthened the power of the Seven Killings hexagram once again.
Fine, spiderweb-like threads attacked from all directions, from above and below.
The sword spirit stared at Xue Mushi, then twisted its wrist, turning the longsword, which had been pointing upwards, inverted so that it faced the ground. As the sword spirit released its grip, the longsword fell downwards, its blade burning with flames. It plunged straight into the divination threads, igniting a large area of flames that burned away all the divination threads binding the sword spirit.
The copper coins, suspended in mid-air, trembled gently, emitting a pleasant sound.
Xue Mushi stared blankly at the completely burned divination threads.
While pursuing Yu Sui, the sword spirit threw a sword at Xue Mushi, causing him to instantly regain his senses and dodge. The sword spirit then swung another sword at the four copper coins that were in place.
This sword spirit... seems to have its own consciousness.
Xue Mushi and Yu Sui noticed at the same time that the four skulls had eyes and ears that could see in all directions and react extremely quickly, able to attack both of them at the same time before destroying the divination formation.
The time to go into battle is fast approaching.
Otherwise, they might be attacked by the Black Armored Cavalry of the Thirteen Realms. It was previously speculated that the attack would not be triggered if no one crossed the river, but last time no one crossed the river, they still attacked.
Yu Sui calculated the time and began to attack the sword spirit. She closed her eyes and then opened them, capturing the flow of the five elements in the world before her. With the separation of her self from the second level of soul control, her seven senses perceived everything around her: smells, wind and fire, damp earth, turbid water, gloomy sky, flashing lightning, heavy and shocking thunderous armor formations. Whether dead or alive, as long as they existed, they could be perceived and observed.
She searched for runes in the world she perceived that represented herself, and everything became simple and transparent.
Yu Sui saw the twisted black runes on the sword spirit's skeleton, with each head bearing a different rune mark.
Xue Mushi was right; four death talismans were indeed needed.
Yu Sui used the Wind Control Technique to accelerate her approach to the sword spirit.
Xue Mushi glanced at the demons in the armored formation who were still trying to get closer to join the battle. One of the sword spirits ignored Yu Sui and Xue Mushi the whole time and was attacking the demons that approached, which made things easier for Yu Sui and Xue Mushi.
He took a deep breath and formed another hand seal to stabilize the copper coins that were trembling from the sword spirit's sword energy.
The second hexagram is "Broken Ice".
A thin mist carrying a chill rose, and frost climbed up the sword spirit's skeleton from the ground, instantly freezing it completely. Before the sword spirit could shatter the ice, Yu Sui came to its shoulder, and with a wave of his hand, he grasped the five elements of the materialized sword spirit. With a clench of his five fingers, the sword spirit shattered the ice. As ice shards flew, one of the sword spirit's heads exploded with a bang, and a black death talisman appeared and disappeared silently.
The ice fragments shattered by the sword spirit floated in the air in thousands upon thousands, transforming into sharp ice blades that turned and attacked the sword spirit.
The longsword was frozen again the moment it touched the ice blade. The sword spirit shattered the ice pillar again, but only more sharp ice shards were created, and this process repeated itself.
Yu Sui and Xue Mushi worked together seamlessly. Without exchanging words, they understood each other's intentions through their respective Nine Streams Techniques. Interfered with by the Seven Killings Divination, the sword spirit's movements became hesitant. Yu Sui seized the moment the sword spirit paused, approaching and destroying the second death talisman symbolizing the sword spirit once more.
The third and fourth rounds.
When she reached the sword spirit's head and destroyed the last death talisman, Yu Sui paused. She stood on the frozen longsword and looked into the sword spirit's dark eye sockets. The originally dark eyes seemed to reflect an orange-gold light, becoming magnificent.
In that instant, Yu Sui successfully used the Divine Eye for the first time. It was not to observe what ordinary people could not see with the naked eye, but rather the third soul that separated after reaching the third level of Soul Control. It was an eye that transcended the self and the physical body, peering into everything in the darkness.
Yu Sui failed to destroy the fourth death talisman. Under the pressure of the Divine Eye of Heaven, the sword spirit's last head shattered, and the five elements that it had materialized disappeared the moment they were seen through.
After dealing with Li Jinshuang's troublesome sword spirit, Yu Sui and Xue Mushi did not stop. They immediately drew upon the five elements of the armor formation to disrupt its balance and accelerate its demise.
Yu Sui also used the Divine Eye of Heaven this time, but failed to break the formation. While she was having doubts, she had already appeared in the Yin-Yang Five Elements Field.
Xue Mushi and Yu Sui both exhausted a lot of the Five Elements Qi. After realizing they had left the formation, they both breathed a sigh of relief and then turned to look at Li Jinshuang, who was lying unconscious on the ground. They couldn't help but frown.
"Is everything alright?" Yu Sui asked.
She crouched down and gently poked Li Jinshuang's face. "Hey, wake up."
He didn't appear to be injured, but his five fingers were still gripping the sword hilt tightly.
"It seems she just fainted, or perhaps she was influenced by the sword spirit and was communicating with it in the deepest part of her self-awareness." Xue Mushi also squatted down and tapped Li Jinshuang. Feeling that there was nothing seriously wrong, he stood up again to check the sky and estimate the time.
He said, "This time, about three hours have passed, and it's almost dawn."
Yu Sui remained squatting, cupping her face in her hands as she looked at the unconscious Li Jinshuang: "I didn't expect that the most troublesome thing this time wasn't the puppets of the armored formation, but her sword spirit."
"I hope she can tame her sword spirit soon, otherwise it will be a disaster for her or others." Xue Mushi touched his face, which was scratched by the sword energy. He paused and then said in a low voice, "The military strategist would not like a sword spirit that can turn against its master."
Yu Sui looked up and said, "Could it be another one of those scenarios where I'll be expelled from the academy or hunted down if the military strategists find out?"
“It’s not so much about being kicked out of the academy or being hunted down.” Xue Mushi scratched his head, racking his brains for a suitable adjective, “It’s just that I feel she’s unlucky… and useless, unable to even control her own sword spirit.”
“Oh, that’s gentler than the farming and Taoist schools.” Yu Sui nodded.
For Li Jinshuang, being expelled from the academy and hunted down was better than being recognized as a good-for-nothing and a weakling.
This would be an even greater humiliation for the Li family.
After a moment of silence, Xue Mushi said, "Her sword spirit is very fast; you're able to hold on."
Yu Sui smiled and praised him: "Your Seven Killings Divination is also very powerful. It can freeze her sword spirit, making it impossible for her to wield her sword later on. Otherwise, I would not have been able to destroy the Death Talisman."
After the awkward compliments, there was another period of silent contemplation.
After a moment, Xue Mushi spoke first, saying, "Should we wait for her to wake up?"
"Let's wait. We can't just leave them here unattended," Yu Sui nodded.
After hearing this, Xue Mushi sat down in the Yin-Yang Five Elements field, and stared blankly at the shimmering Milky Way on the ground.
This time it was Yu Sui's turn to ask him, "Why does your cousin also have the surname Xue?"
Xue Mushi scratched his face and said, "She grew up in the Xue family, so her surname is Xue."
Yu Sui propped her face up with one hand, tilted her head and looked at him, her eyes seeming to say, "Can you explain this more clearly?"
Xue Mushi struggled to squeeze out some words from his mind: "Because his parents died early and he had no one to raise him, he was brought to my home and raised as a child of the Xue family."
"Your home has such a lovely atmosphere," Yu Sui remarked softly.
Seeing that she seemed to be sincere, Xue Mushi looked at Yu Sui with some confusion.
“Your cousin seems to be well taken care of. Even though she’s a child we adopted from relatives, she’s treated like her own.” Yu Sui noticed his confusion and explained, “Besides, I think you siblings have a good relationship.”
Xue Mushi said in a low voice, "It's alright."
He couldn't help but think carefully about what Yu Sui said. Xue Jiayue was indeed not mistreated in the Xue family. Although her parents died early, she grew up in the love of the elders of the Xue family. She had no worries about food and clothing and was given whatever she wanted. Even though she was a little spoiled, everyone was willing to pamper and indulge her.
It's really good.
"Your family doesn't seem to have the same atmosphere of backstabbing and exploitation as mine, so why did you learn the forbidden Taoist arts that are only for killing?" Yu Sui asked Xue Mushi in a gentle tone.
Xue Mushi remained silent for a moment, then lowered his head further and said in a muffled voice, "It's hard to say."
Yu Sui didn't expect him to give an answer immediately.
Xue Mushi countered, "Is the atmosphere in your home one of backstabbing and mutual exploitation?"
Yu Sui innocently explained, "Yes, the Prince's Mansion is involved in the court and officialdom. I also have three older brothers. Although my fourth brother is not my biological brother, my parents treat him like their own son. I used to be a commoner, but they are all more outstanding and capable than the last."
Xue Mushi tilted his head to look at Yu Sui: "Are you siblings competing for the throne?"
Yu Sui nodded.
Xue Mushi thought for a moment and then said, "I heard that you also possess the Farmer's Breath Soil, which is why you are being hunted down by the Farmer's Clan."
“Yes, that’s right.” Yu Sui nodded with a smile.
Xue Mushi looked at her with a hint of sympathy: "Being hunted down and having to worry about your brothers taking your place, that's really quite miserable."
Yu Sui: "Yes."
This person is easier to fool than I thought.
Xue Mushi seemed to be influenced by Yu Sui's topic, feeling that since the girl had endured such a difficult life, he felt he had to say something as well.
So he tried hard to recall, and said hesitantly, "My family members are all very talented, but I am not talented. I learn things very slowly. There are some things I just can't learn, but others I can learn very quickly."
"For example, the Seven Killings hexagram, which is easy to learn?" Yu Sui asked.
Xue Mushi hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Mm."
That really is... a misplaced talent.
Yu Sui praised him: "Having talent is good, it's better than me being a layman for more than ten years."
Xue Mushi glanced at her in surprise, not expecting that they could compete like this.
When he was young, all the children around him were highly talented geniuses, especially his fiancée, who was the most talented one. She was the center of attention from a young age and was given special training by the Yin-Yang sorcerers of Taiyuan Kingdom.
Although she herself didn't mind her ordinary fiancé, those who had high hopes for her were very concerned. Every time the Holy Maiden stood with Xue Mushi, people felt that Xue Mushi's presence was extremely annoying.
Xue Mushi felt somewhat inferior in the face of his outstanding fiancée.
But the saintess smiled and said, "Why? If having the talent to cultivate the Nine Schools of Arts is considered an advantage, then you just don't have this advantage, it's not your weakness. Besides, you have a talent that no one else has, none of them have it, only you do."
The boy asked blankly, "Me...? What talent?"
The saintess whispered in his ear, "In my eyes, you have the most adorable talent."
Xue Mushi came to his senses and said softly, "Actually, I'm not much different from someone who has been a quack for more than ten years."
Compared to those outstanding children, he was just an average person.
“A true practitioner of martial arts wouldn’t be happy to hear that,” Yu Sui said with a slight smile. “Like me.”
Xue Mushi looked at her and said, "You are no longer a person of Ping Shu."
"Oh." Yu Sui blinked. "Yes."
She added, "But when I took talent tests before, I was not qualified for any of them. I had no talent, and even when I took the tests at the academy, I only got 10%."
Xue Mushi said, "I'm about the same."
Yu Sui asked him, "About how much?"
Xue Mushi honestly said, "My talent level is very low in any of the divination methods, and the compatibility is also very low. The only Taoist divination method that I could barely pass muster was the one I learned after I started studying the Seven Killings Divination."
The two inexplicably found common ground and started chatting back and forth.
Li Jinshuang remains unconscious.
Deep in her consciousness, she desperately wanted to connect with the sword spirit and earnestly tell it that she wanted to have a proper talk.
After waiting in the void for an unknown amount of time, several lights lit up in the darkness, illuminating the space. Only then did Li Jinshuang realize that she was in a familiar place:
It was the dimly lit little room where her grandmother often gave her lectures. On the square, low table, there was only a single candle. Because of her grandmother's imposing presence and cold reprimands, Li Jinshuang would often lower her head, her eyes fixed on the flickering candlelight, as if it too was trembling with fear.
Sitting opposite Li Jinshuang at this moment was her sword spirit.
The enormous body shrunk to the size of a normal human, the four skeletons still leaning on each other, kneeling on the ground in the same posture as Li Jinshuang, their heads, which were small compared to their bodies, slowly turned and silently looked at Li Jinshuang.
Li Jinshuang, kneeling on the ground, slowly raised her head and looked at the sword spirit. Her gaze faltered slightly, and she spoke with a hint of bitterness, "Why... are you unwilling to obey me?"
The rotating sword spirit's head suddenly changed, and now it resembled Li Jinshuang's grandmother, who uttered a threatening and oppressive statement: "Because you are weak."
Li Jinshuang was shocked to hear this.
Turning back to Li Jinshuang's head, transforming into her mother, the woman sobbed with a sorrowful expression, "You refuse to acknowledge your true self, have lost your sense of self, yet still dare to dream of wielding power?"
When the third head turned around, it became her deceased father. The man said solemnly, "You are a weakling who cannot even see himself clearly, so you are not worthy."
Li Jinshuang's face turned deathly pale, and she said in a trembling voice, "I'm not!"
The fourth head turned to look at her, transforming into the appearance of Li Jinshuang, but its male and female forms flashed rapidly, even its voice alternating between male and female: "Tell me, who gave birth to this power?"
"Is it a man or a woman?"
Li Jinshuang felt as if her throat was being choked, her lips trembled, her mind went blank, and the sword spirit opposite her spun rapidly. She could no longer distinguish the appearances of her grandmother, father, mother, or herself. Was it the sword spirit speaking, or were people speaking?
[Author's Note]
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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