Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 264 - 257 Accidental Encounter Part 2

Chapter 264: Chapter 257 Accidental Encounter Part 2

"A steadfast heart simplifies all thoughts, seeking only to survive—that is but a minor path,"

"Only by not seeking to live can one truly live. Only by being placed in mortal danger can one truly emerge—that is the Righteous Path.

The ways of Heaven are vast and unremitting, yet there is always a glimmer of hope. Just as sole Yin does not generate life, nor does sole Yang bring growth—this principle extends the same to life and death."

The man surnamed Fang’s lips didn’t move, yet he was clearly speaking, his voice directly entering Lin Xin’s ears.

Lin Xin’s heart grew heavy, realizing he had met a master. The level of the other’s cultivation was beyond his perception, clearly possessing a superior ability to conceal his power or his cultivation was far beyond Lin Xin’s own.

"Are life and death also like Yin and Yang?" he pondered thoughtfully; this was an entirely new perspective. "So every desperate situation also has a thread of hope—is that the reasoning?" he similarly conveyed his thoughts without speaking aloud.

"Exactly so,"

laughed the man surnamed Fang.

"Only when placed in mortal danger can one unleash all potential. Otherwise, keeping a sliver of hope in one’s heart could never allow one to give their all. To be steadfast in the face of life and death threats, that is true perseverance."

"Then what is great fate?" Lin Xin asked next.

"The matter of fate is elusive and intangible, but I do have some minor insights," the man took a sip of his drink.

"Fate is destiny, it is the life course set for us, an inescapable arrangement. It is the numerous, large or small, strong or weak forces carrying you forward incessantly.

So for me, fate is the overarching trend; to go with the flow, find opportunities, and achieve twice the result with half the effort as if aided by the divine. Isn’t that what people mean by having good fate?"

"Going against the trend, facing obstacles everywhere, struggling exceptionally hard, achieving half the result with twice the effort—is that having poor fate?" Lin Xin followed his words. "What about being forced to go against the trend?"

"If you must swim upstream in a river, what should you do?" The man chuckled and did not answer directly.

"Jump up. Leverage. Jumping is breaking the norm, leveraging is maintaining balance." Lin Xin thought, then replied.

"Well said. That is exactly right!" The man laughed heartily, "Young brother, your thinking is exceptional, all you’re missing is a way to simplify the complex."

"Brother, you flatter me." Lin Xin suddenly had an epiphany.

At that moment, the man had already drunkenly collapsed onto the table, making a thud.

When Lin Xin looked over, the man was already snoring heavily, sleeping exceptionally soundly.

After a moment’s thought, he shook his head and raised his hand.

"Waiter, check please!"

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

The evening breeze was gentle as Lin Xin carried the unconscious teacher under one arm, wandering up and down the street. Soon, he found a small inn, dumped the man inside, and paid for a night’s lodging. Then, looking at the sky, he decided to stay in a room next door himself.

It was too late to return home; the island was likely under curfew, vessels were not permitted to dock at night, and inspections could be troublesome. It was better just to stay outside for the night.

The night deepened. The moon, distant and as small as a fingernail, cast a light veil of luminescence.

Lin Xin sat by himself below a window, gazing out through it. The street at night was deserted, the scene only illuminated by a lantern swaying under the wind-whipped eaves at the corner of the street, the coldness clear and sharp.

The wind repeatedly picked up leaves and debris from the ground, which rustled and rolled, adding to the silence.

Perhaps it was the influence of the wine, but Lin Xin felt his mind exceptionally clear, devoid of any hint of sleepiness. Recalling the words spoken by the man named Fang during the day, he felt an inexplicable moment of enlightenment, as if he suddenly understood many things that had previously baffled him.

Dingling, dingling...

Dingling, dingling...

Sitting and enjoying the breeze, Lin Xin suddenly heard a faint ringing of bells from the street.

From his second-floor window, Lin Xin looked down to see a group of people emerging from the fog-shrouded night.

A group dressed in long white robes, carrying a white coffin. The ringing of bells came from them.

Lin Xin frowned as he observed this group; these individuals had their eyes tightly shut, yet were able to carry the coffin forward accurately without seeing where they were going.

His gaze scanned and settled on a tall-hatted figure in white walking at the rear.

Just as his sight touched the man, that man suddenly raised his head and looked straight at him.

Lin Xin’s heart chilled.

’Such sharp sensitivity!’ Knowing he had encountered a master, he quickly avoided further eye contact.

Having been in the Central Prefecture for so long, he had come to understand its essentials. A once peaceful area was now stirred into turmoil by the rise of the Red Spine Sect.

This place had transformed into a superior sphere of Jianghu, where Taoist arts were less regarded, with divine skills and combat techniques taking precedence. Like a grand battleground of strife, if one could stand out here, their combat skills and divine techniques would reach an extraordinarily formidable level.

As for the Taoist arts that could prolong one’s life, in such chaotic times, they weren’t highly valued. With countless battles, without the capability to save oneself, one might not even live to see their natural lifespan, let alone extend it.

Therefore, what everyone should pursue now was the utmost in practical combat.

Feeling the man’s gaze, Lin Xin swiftly drew his head back, avoiding further contact.

The sound of bells continued, mingling with the wind, and stopped right outside the inn.

Thump.

The coffin was set down heavily, its impact throwing up a layer of fine dust around it.

"The person inside, do you come out on your own, or should the Sect Leader come in and invite you personally?"

A sinister, mysterious voice emanated from the coffin, drifting straight into the inn.

Instantly, everyone inside the inn, whether asleep or awake, rolled their eyes back, even the night-watch waiter; he collapsed with a thud.

A sensation akin to drunken stupor, yet also resembling a sleeping drug, similarly surged through Lin Xin’s mind.

He swiftly circulated his spiritual energy, sweeping it through his entire body in search of anything unusual, but found nothing. Immediately, his mind was filled with dread and uncertainty.

If someone were to use such a Sound Wave Technique during battle, their strength would definitely decrease by twenty to thirty percent. Such Demonic Arts are indeed terrifying and dreadful.

"Eternal Slumber Nine Injuries? Having cultivated such Divine Technique to this extent, you are truly unprecedented in your sect. Why bother getting involved in this chaos?"

Suddenly, a calm male voice slowly emanated from within the inn.

Lin Xin felt a slight tremor in his heart, recognizing the voice as that of the scholar he had just been drinking with.

He gently poked a small hole in the window with his little finger and peered out.

He saw the middle-aged man surnamed Fang walking out from this side of the inn, standing with his hands behind his back, confronting the strange people carrying the coffin on the opposite side.

"I am Nangong Chengji, Sect Leader of the Nine Coffins Sect. Alliance Hierarch Huang has decreed that whoever can intercept and kill you en route will receive a handwritten copy of the Heavenly Mystery Earthly Sensation technique."

The coffin suddenly emitted several puffing sounds, and all its edge nails popped out.

The lid floated up and then fell to one side.

From inside, a gaunt man with eerie green eyes rose and floated up.

"So, it is the Nine Coffins Sect. I was wondering who it could be, capable of cultivating such Divine Technique to this level. But instead of staying out of trouble in the southwestern gaps, you run over here and get involved in the turmoil. Aren’t you afraid..."

"Alliance Hierarch Huang has shown me kindness. Having received the Hierarch’s command, I have traveled thousands of miles to get here, and it’s not to listen to you spout nonsense."

A small walnut-sized eerie green flame suddenly ignited at the man’s brow, flickering with some tiny fragments of something unknown within it.

"Very well, let me witness for myself the power of the Eternal Slumber Nine Injuries that has dominated the southwest for centuries!"

Fang surnamed man, too, couldn’t be bothered with words anymore. With one hand, he reached behind his waist, where, unbeknownst to everyone, a Broad Blade had appeared.

"Follow me!"

The individual from the Nine Coffins Sect soared into the sky, escaping towards the distance, with the Fang surnamed man closely following.

The pair quickly disappeared into the night sky.

Only then did Lin Xin feel the drowsiness in his body slowly dissipate.

"What powerful Demonic Arts... Eternal Slumber Nine Injuries, huh..."

If he still didn’t realize that the Fang surnamed man was an unparalleled master after all his years of experience, then all his years would have been wasted.

Thinking back to the recent battle on the water next to the Kunlin Sword Sect by the Black Wolf Gang. Recently, the Central Prefecture seems to be stirred up under a peerless weapon known as the Life and Death Knife.

Huang Yuerong, the unparalleled lord of the Red Spine Sect, has reached unprecedented heights, unified the Demon Path, and began reaching towards the Righteous Path. Meanwhile, the Sky Cloud Sect has become relatively weaker compared to before.

He had also heard these days that the strongest five masters in Central Prefecture, who had discussed Tao in a battle at a place in the Outer Regions known as Yin Ice Mountain, were thus collectively known as the Five Great Yin True Monarchs.

Yet among these five, not one was a Swordsman.

Even Lin Zun of the Sky Cloud Sect, ranked fifth, was famously known for his Formation Talisman Arts, specializing in defense.

The Sword Dao is weak, perhaps there are top Swordsmen available, but the strongest will ultimately be Swordsmen.

Whether it’s Huang Yuerong of the Red Spine Sect, the unrivaled lord, or Yuan Qiuque who burst through alone, both wield knives.

The former is acclaimed as the number one master under the heavens, and the latter, ranked second, has also never been defeated in any battle till now.

"The Sword Dao is weak, the Sword Dao is weak..." Lin Xin repeated. He hadn’t expected Central Prefecture to have such a situation.

At this moment, thinking back to the direction in which the man from the Nine Coffins Sect and the Fang surnamed man had left, he pondered for a moment, eventually changed his clothes, and leaped out of the window. His figure lightly touched the roof ledge and...

Whoosh!

He vanished into thin air.

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

The autumn wind was cold and bleak.

When Lin Xin arrived, the desolate field outside the town was already filled with scattered corpses.

The Fang surnamed man stood alone on the clearing, slowly sheathing his knife.

The surrounding ground looked as if it had been ravaged by a typhoon; everywhere was chaotic, whether it were rocks, soil, or anything else, everywhere one looked, nothing was larger than a fist.

The coffin itself was too rotten to be more rotten, entirely turned into scattered fragments of wood littering the ground.

"You’re here?" the Fang surnamed man turned back to Lin Xin and smiled. He raised the Broad Blade in his hand.

"Interested?"

"What do you mean?"

Lin Xin was momentarily baffled.

The other party didn’t speak for a moment, only walked over to a corpse, lifted it with the tip of his knife, and immediately a thin booklet made of silk fell into his hand.

"It seems you don’t often engage in Jianghu affairs. This is for you."

He threw the booklet with a swing of his hand, and it flew straight towards Lin Xin, arriving instantly before him and then, suddenly losing all momentum, drifted gently down, landing in his hands.

The cover clearly bore the words in Central Prefecture script, "Eternal Slumber Nine Injuries."

"Young brother, our meeting was unintentional, and perhaps this will bring misfortune upon you; consider this a compensation," the Fang surnamed man said composedly. "As I leave, let me offer you four words."

"I’m all ears," Lin Xin said seriously, as he was already vaguely guessing who the other person might be.

"Embrace all rivers."

As soon as the words fell, he suddenly disappeared from the spot. It was not a movement, not an Escape Skill, but simply because only an illusion had been here. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at qidian.com, and your support will be my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com)