Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 55 Parting Ways Part 1

Chapter 55: Chapter 55 Parting Ways Part 1

On the outskirts of Peacock City.

At the side of a grey-white stone bridge.

The arched bridge, from a distance, looked like a dirty rectangular stack of ten blocks. Below, the water surface was mirror-like, only dotted with many tiny yellow leaves.

Lush forests flanked both sides of the bridge, with only a pale yellow roadway winding through the body of the bridge.

There were three figures standing on the road at that moment—Lin Xin with four swords on his back, Shu Luoyi carrying a small bee tied up with Luoyi, and Yu Chang, looking pale and not yet fully recovered.

"This is the place," Shu Luoyi said coldly. She had tied up the six-winged honeybee with a transparent fishing line, leading the trio to fly here, finally coming to a stop at such a location.

"Let’s go! It’s just across the bridge!" She strode towards the bridge.

"Wait a minute," Lin Xin stopped her. "Let’s check out the situation first; I have a feeling there’s something off about this bridge." Lin Xin noticed the bridge was covered in a thick layer of dust, as if it hadn’t been crossed in a long time.

With its proximity to Peacock City and its conspicuousness, how could it be that no one used it for such a long time? Moreover, considering the frequent winds and rain here, the dust... was clearly abnormal!

"What’s wrong?" Shu Luoyi asked, frowning.

"The Resentment Talisman is reacting," Lin Xin said, holding a talisman paper that was slowly starting to burn in his hand.

"The strength of the opponent is unknown; it’s best for the three of us to stick together and not separate," he warned in a low voice.

"You don’t need to tell me that. I know," Shu Luoyi said impatiently.

"We’ve even made it through the Four Directions Yin Gathering Formation; are we going to be scared of a little set-up like this?" she said, stepping forward and drawing the Green Jade Dagger, which radiated a soft green glow like phosphorescence.

"You two ran off too quickly earlier at the clothing store. I’m just reminding you," Lin Xin frowned as well, "Although I also want that thing, you’re being a bit too eager for quick success, and such impatience might lead to danger."

"I know my own limits; you talk too much," Shu Luoyi said, somewhat displeased.

"I think we can cross the river from somewhere else. We don’t have to take this bridge," Lin Xin said, feeling increasingly uneasy about the bridge. Moreover, his vision was starting to be speckled with white dots again, a sensation that preceded trouble on the last two occasions.

"If you’re scared," Shu Luoyi replied coldly, pausing after every word, "then you don’t have to go!"

"Isn’t that a bit too much?" Lin Xin’s expression turned cold.

"Too much? Back at the clothing store, Yu Chang and I were still inside, and you were the only one safely outside, without a scratch. It’s hard for me to believe that you weren’t the first to run out and avoid disaster," Shu Luoyi accused, having been dissatisfied with Lin Xin before.

Lin Xin also felt displeased, but because they were barely acquainted, he found it inappropriate to continue advising her. He could clearly sense Shu Luoyi growing more and more impatient, as if racing against time.

"Anyway, I’m not crossing this bridge; do as you will," he said brusquely. Stepping back, he gripped the hilt of his sword.

Shu Luoyi snorted and, along with Yu Chang, stepped onto the stone bridge without any issue.

She turned her head back to give Lin Xin a cold glance.

"See? Isn’t everything fine? With the high-level Resentment Talisman and Green Jade Dagger, what could mere spectres do to me?"

Lin Xin furrowed his brows in confusion.

He wanted to explain his abnormal behavior just now, but, feeling discontent with Shu Luoyi at the moment, he doubted she would listen to him.

"Are you going or not?" Shu Luoyi shouted from ahead. Seeing Lin Xin still stand still at the edge of the bridge, she turned and continued forward, leaving Yu Chang in an awkward position between the two of them. But eventually, he too decided to follow Shu Luoyi.

At that moment, Lin Xin’s eyelids once again flickered with a multitude of white dots.

He quickly took out a stack of Resentment Talismans and Poison-Avoidance Talismans, and as he channeled his Inner Qi into them, the talisman papers swiftly ignited.

Suddenly, the white dots on his eyelids dissipated.

"These things really are unexpectedly troublesome," he opened his eyes only to see that Shu Luoyi and her companion, who should have crossed the bridge just now, were nowhere to be seen—not even a trace of them.

Directly across the bridge was deserted; one could see hundreds of meters down the roadway, but there was no sign of them.

Feeling a chill in his heart, Lin Xin’s right hand reached for his waist and gently grasped the hilt of his sword.

He felt a prickling sense of threat coming from all around him.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound came from behind, as if something was swiftly approaching him.

Lin Xin turned around and saw a white shadow flying towards him from the forested roadway, its speed so fast it was upon him in an instant.

The white shadow’s form was unclear, just a hazy human shape with an indistinct face.

"Hmph!" Lin Xin swiftly drew his sword, sweeping it forward.

His Inner Qi followed the Flameless Swordsmanship circuit, quickly spreading out.

With a whoosh, several invisible currents of heat surged from around the sword, charging at the white shadow.

But the speed of the white shadow suddenly burst forth, more than doubling its initial pace. It now moved ghost-like and reached Lin Xin in a blink, dodging the heat currents, and its white sleeves slammed towards Lin Xin’s face.

Clang!

Lin Xin barely managed to raise his sword to shield his face; even the explosive power of three layers of Inner Strength seemed barely fast enough.

A crisp sound of metal clashing was heard.

The white shadow shot flying, incredibly looping back around, and pounced toward him again.

The heat flow of Flameless Swordsmanship couldn’t keep up with the opponent at all, only shooting out about ten meters before it naturally dissipated.

Lin Xin stood at the edge of the stone bridge, only able to parry left and block right, desperately defending.

From a distance, by the edge of the stone bridge, a white shadow, seemingly weightless, kept circling around him at high speed. Each collision emitted a crisp clanging sound of metal on metal.

Clang clang clang clang...!

The continuous impacts echoed through the woods.

Finally, the white shadow seemed to realize it couldn’t break through Lin Xin’s defense. Though it was fast, Lin Xin was just lifting his sword to block a small area, and he could keep up with that.

The white shadow stopped attacking and began to circle and dance around Lin Xin instead.

Incredibly, it flew up in the air like a kite, circling around Lin Xin continuously.

Soon, more shadows in varying shades of red flew out from the depths of the woods, their speed, though not matching that of the white shadow, was still much faster than Lin Xin’s.

These ten or so shadows also began to circle around Lin Xin at high speed.

Whoosh!

A shadow suddenly swept past the tree branches, the whistling it generated blew down several yellow leaves.

Lin Xin narrowed his eyes, being pressured to move forward by the more than ten shadows.

Unknowingly, he had been pushed to the very center of the stone bridge.

The massive number of circling shadows gradually sped up. The whooshing sounds of them cutting through the air grew louder and louder.

Lin Xin held the sword in one hand while slowly gripping the hilt of the Solar Yang Talisman Sword behind him with his other hand.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the opportunity, the best chance to unleash the full power of his Talisman Sword....

Standing on the stone bridge, sharp whistling noises filled his ears as the trajectory of the shadows blurred out of sight.

The more than ten shadows sped up increasingly, becoming more and more frantic.

After an unknown amount of time, in the blink of an eye, all shadows paused mid-air, simultaneously forming a large ring, encircling Lin Xin in the middle. All of the shadows stopped in the air as if weightless.

"The one I pine for is not here~~~the expected~~doesn’t come~~~" A woman’s voice, singing in the style of a Jingju Opera, slowly rose in the woods.

Yet the voice wasn’t stable at all, trembling and warping severely, like a tape with issues, fluctuating between high and low.

Whoosh!!

At that moment, all shadows lunged at Lin Xin at the center.

At the same time, the hand that Lin Xin had on his Solar Yang Talisman Sword also thunderously unsheathed it.

Boom!!!

Golden flames exploded, reflecting a massive golden circle on the water’s surface beneath the stone bridge.

The air twisted and turned transparent in an instant, expanding in all directions.

With Lin Xin at the center, the surrounding shadows were hit hard by the ring of fire, letting out wails and igniting into flames, then after drifting mid-air for a bit, landed lightly in the woods and on the water’s surface.

Lin Xin’s expression unchanged, raised the Talisman Sword to check it, the sword’s surface had developed even deeper cracks.

Hiss... slowly, he sheathed the Talisman Sword.

Only then did he start looking around; the more than ten shadows blown away turned out not to be humans at all, but were just over ten sets of various colored clothes!

The clothes soon burned to ashes in the scarlet flames.

Lin Xin’s expression shifted slightly and upon closer inspection, he discovered that the first white shadow that appeared was not present among them. The clothes burning all around were of other colors; white was the only one missing.

"Ran away? It seems that strong power is really the key," he mused. The chance to obtain the human-faced fruit was too precious to give up. He had intended to assess the enemy’s strength and give up if they were too strong. But now, it seemed he could still manage.

However, catching them off guard with the Solar Yang Talisman Sword combined with his own Flameless Swordsmanship’s ultimate move, the Three Suns Sword, unleashing such a powerful blow, and still not managing to keep hold of that white shadow....

"The power of that move was almost equivalent to Zhou Jing’s Dragon Whisker Needle, perhaps even stronger. It was already an Innate-level skill, and yet, it wasn’t enough to keep that thing..."

He looked around but found no signs of any movement, then crossed the stone bridge and chased in the direction of Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi.

As he moved forward, he finally allocated the two attribute points he had been reserving, adding them all to his Defense.

His offensive power was sufficient, and his speed was barely adequate for blocking. However, he always felt uneasy when fighting because he lacked any potent defensive abilities. His physique was only slightly better than that of an ordinary person. Just one hit might cost him his combat effectiveness.

So to handle the current situation, he needed to increase his Defense first. Otherwise, one hit could cause his average physique to suffer severe damage.

As soon as he allocated the attribute points, he immediately felt his body swell significantly.

At the same time, a cool current began to flow out from somewhere within him, spreading to every part of his body, continuously nourishing every inch of muscle.

And the most abundantly flowed to and concentrated in was his eyes.