Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 172 - 165 Conclusion Part One

Chapter 172: Chapter 165 Conclusion Part One

Heavy snow flurried through the air.

The two walked through the sky filled with swirling snowflakes, directly onto the frozen surface of the lake.

Xiao Lingling, while walking, turned back from time to time with a smile beaming like flowers, looking at Lin Xin who was catching up.

Suddenly, she slipped and almost fell, but Lin Xin moved like lightning, catching her in his arms.

"Are you alright? Be careful—it’s slippery here."

However, Xiao Lingling didn’t move again, looking up at his face from within his embrace, gently reaching out to touch it.

"Xin Ge, if one day I were to leave, would you be sad for me?"

"What are you talking about?" Lin Xin’s heart trembled as he smiled, "Why would you leave? We still have a long journey to walk together... Don’t say such silly things."

Xiao Lingling did not smile, but cast her eyes downwards. With a sudden jerk, she freed herself from his embrace, and her body slowly twirled on the ice, like a prima donna, gliding lightly away.

She unfolded her dance steps, her white coat like a cloud of mist, swirling and traversing on the ice in a dreamlike manner.

Lin Xin gently lifted the jade flute and played a deep, clear tune that rose slowly in rhythm, his gaze softening as he watched her.

She appeared like a jade sculpture, the flute sounding crisply as if the entire manor resonated with their presence.

"Thousands of mountains covered in snow, lantern light like smoke, that is the domestic smoke of the human world...."

"The weight of affection and kindness, the beauty of the fine hour, all seem as transient as an epiphyllum....."

Within her ethereal and melodious singing, Xiao Lingling’s swallow-like dance reflected gently in Lin Xin’s clear pupils.

He unconsciously closed his eyes, immersing himself in the interweaving of song and flute.

A gust of breeze blew through, and suddenly, countless yellow withered leaves from the big tree in the courtyard, along with the accumulated snow, loosened and fell gently like raindrops.

Xiao Lingling’s lips curved slightly, no matter the dance, her eyes always looked towards Lin Xin.

Countless specks of light began to emanate from her, and her corporeal body started to gradually turn translucent, yet she felt nothing of it.

Her mind recalled the very first moment she saw Lin Xin.

Through the crowd, that clean and gentle scholarly man.

In the trial, the tender glance by the campfire.

Gently holding her waist, the way he looked soaring and fighting enemies all around.

All those countless moments of knowing and being with each other over the years.....

"Xin Ge..."

Slowly stopping her dance, she walked gently towards Lin Xin.

"I’ve never regretted, everything that happened during that trial... never regretted...."

Finally, with a faint smile, Xiao Lingling suddenly exploded into countless white specks that began to scatter across the ice.

Lin Xin didn’t dare to open his eyes and just gently played the flute, tears slowly streaming down from his eyes.

The lake’s flawless surface echoed with the sound of the flute, for how long, no one knew.

By the lake and among the flower bushes, Lin Xinyuan had also stood for who knew how long, watching Xiao Lingling slowly dissipate with one hand subconsciously grasping a flower stem, her eyes getting moist.

Looking at Lin Xin standing at the center of the lake, she remembered the moments Xiao Lingling had mentioned during her last days.

"Don’t worry... Sister, I’ll take good care of big brother..."

*********************

The sound of the flute came to a soft halt, and upon opening his eyes, Lin Xin looked tenderly at Xiao Lingling in front of him.

"Are you tired from dancing?"

Xiao Lingling just smiled and nodded lightly.

"Let’s go back...."

Lin Xin whispered. Taking Lingling’s hand, he walked towards the backyard room where they lived.

"Big brother."

Lin Xinyuan and all the elders of the manor were already standing by the lake. Lin Xin glanced over and saw a trace of worry in his father Lin Xinwen’s eyes and his mother Zhao Yu Niang’s hair had also turned white, her expression also carrying concern. Even everyone else looked worried as they watched him.

"What’s the matter with you all? Lingling and I were just enjoying the snow and practicing dancing, why all these expressions?"

"Big brother...." Lin Xinyuan stepped forward, "Sister Lingling, she... she’s already...."

"Isn’t she standing right behind me?" Lin Xin interrupted, tears already uncontrollably welling up in his eyes. "She’s always been right behind me, hasn’t she?"

He held onto Xiao Lingling’s hand behind him tightly, his face still adorned with a tender smile, but the tears just wouldn’t stop falling.

"Big brother..." Lin Xinyuan bowed her head and covered her mouth, turning away as she couldn’t bear to look at him any longer.

"Thousands of mountains covered in snow, lantern light like smoke, that is the domestic smoke of the human world...." Lin Xin slowly repeated, turning his head only to see Xiao Lingling still gazing tenderly at him, as beautiful and alluring as ever.

Spiritual energy rushed crazily through his body as if he understood many of the breakthroughs he hadn’t achieved for so long on the Heart Eye Sword Path.

One barrier after another seemed to receive divine assistance, progressing rapidly as the spiritual energy in his body began to circulate at high speed following a strange and mysterious path.

The Extreme Yang Scroll, the Return to Origin Art, the Heaven’s Will Sword Art, the Slaughter Sword Path, and many other sword techniques, all merged into the path in a peculiar way.

"The weight of affection and kindness, the beauty of the fine hour, all seem as transient as an epiphyllum....."

Lin Xin’s eyes alternated between clarity and haziness, as if he had come to understand something, yet as if he understood nothing at all.

He smiled tenderly at Xiao Lingling and simply walked into his courtyard with her in front of everyone.

In the yard, the big tree that seemed to have vanished without a trace, leaving only fallen leaves and accumulated snow.

Standing in front of the big tree, Lin Xin looked up at the empty space.

He closed his eyes.

And opened them again.

The big tree was still there, standing tall in its original place, lush and sturdy as ever.

"Lingling, look, you’re perfectly fine, aren’t you?" he said with a smile.

But there was not the slightest sound behind him.

His vision blurred and the big tree vanished without a trace; he swiftly turned around to find Xiao Lingling was also nowhere to be seen.

The cold wind blew through, and for a moment, there was only the rustling of tree leaves in the air.

A profound sense of grief surged in his heart, slowly gathering with the tumbling spiritual energy. Lin Xin closed his eyes, and Xiao Lingling reappeared. When he opened his eyes, everything disappeared.

"Hehe..." He couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Illusions and reality overlapped and repeated incessantly, his gaze sometimes blurry and sometimes clear.

The blood-red spiritual energy spread unconsciously, and the flowers and trees it touched withered and blackened as if scorched by flames.

As the spiritual energy spread wider, its color gradually turned black.

Boom!!

The spiritual energy exploded into a black vortex, rotating at high speed around Lin Xin’s body as its epicenter.

Those who were watching him from a distance in concern were also startled and quickly retreated further away.

Countless leaves, branches, and pebbles were caught up in the spiritual energy, spinning rapidly around Lin Xin.

Chiang!!

The sound of the sword alarmed the entire manor.

"Master!" Nan Shunqing flew over from the distance, and was instantly shocked by the sight. "What’s happening with this spiritual energy!?"

In another courtyard not far away.

Lin Duan also slowly walked out of her room, looking at the swirling spiritual energy in the inner courtyard. "Teacher..."

She looked down at the half-finished embroidery of flowers and birds in her hand, her eyes also filled with melancholy.

Lin Luo slowly emerged from the shadows, silently watching the black spiritual energy.

"Do you see it?" Lin Zhen appeared behind him, "I’m envious... of father and mother..."

He hid his face behind his fan, and no one could see his tear-streaked face beneath.

"Aren’t you going?" Lin Luo turned to look at him.

"What good would it do to go? We all actually know... today is mother’s last day, it’s only father who is kept in the dark," Lin Zhen said softly.

"I promised mother that today would belong only to the two of them."

"Do you know what I promised?" Lin Luo suddenly spoke, his voice devoid of warmth, but if Lin Duan were there, she could have sensed his extremely suppressed emotions.

"You don’t need to tell me. I don’t want to know," Lin Zhen turned away, folding his fan, "Mother is passing peacefully, we should be happy about it, what’s with all these mournful faces?"

"......" Lin Luo didn’t know how to comfort him.

"Who would have thought I, Shan Gongzi, would have such a wretched day?" Lin Zhen suddenly couldn’t suppress a laugh, but from his chin, tears dripped down, unbeknownst to him.

Bang!

Suddenly, the black spiritual energy in the distance collapsed.

At the center, Lin Xin held the Red Flower Sword, the blade now having mysteriously turned pitch black with a red line extending from the hilt to the tip. A thick sense of sorrow emanated from the blade.

"Heart Eye Sword Path..." Lin Xin looked at the blade in his hand, momentarily at a loss for words. The Red Flower Sword had once been named by Xiao Lingling herself; she was most fond of red flowers, hence the name. But now, it seemed to be absorbing the black mutated spiritual energy like a vortex.

The Red Flower Sword, refined with heartfelt sacrifice, was slowly resonating with the altered spiritual energy from the Heart Eye Sword Path, reflecting the changes occurring within his own body.

"Emotion, heart, sword." He raised the longsword horizontally, his fingers slowly tracing it, as rune after rune began to light up on the Red Flower Sword, casting a faint red glow upon his face.

A mysterious and indescribable feeling flashed through his heart, as if affection was a mirror, reflected by the inner self and then cast onto the sword.

"Is this the Second Realm of Sword Dao... Sword Intent..."

The painting of emotions like a sword, the Red Flower Sword unsheathed soundlessly, transforming into a red glow quietly surrounding Lin Xin.

*********************

Several months later...

Plum Blossom Sect, White Feather Cliff

In a dim cave mansion.

An Ying sat quietly beside a flickering lamp no larger than a bean, with a slowly rotating white stone disc behind her, its surface dotted with faint, delicate formation patterns and a triangular black crystal embedded in the middle.

Wisps of black qi emanated from the disc and entered An Ying’s mouth and nostrils from either side of her body.

"Master..."

A red-dressed girl with a ponytail walked out of the shadows, concern evident as she glanced at the jade slip in her hand.

"Master, the monthly report you requested has arrived..."

"Why haven’t you brought it?" An Ying opened her eyes, glaring at her sternly.

"But..." The girl hesitated to say more, but the jade slip was already snatched by An Ying’s outstretched hand.

As An Ying probed the jade slip, her expression suddenly turned to shock.

The atmosphere in the dark room instantly solidified.

"Dead...dead?"

With a snap, the jade slip in An Ying’s hand shattered, and a vicious sword qi tinged with enmity began to slowly spread. That, too, was Sword Intent.

"Master..." Another red-dressed woman emerged from the shadows, looking worriedly at An Ying.

"Hehehe... to think that he would meet such an end... it’s right, too..." An Ying’s face showed hatred, joy, but more than that, a hint of pity.

"Back then, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t understand why he chose an ordinary person with wasted cultivation... now I seem to understand somewhat..." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)