Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 93 - 92: Return to Hometown - Part 2

Chapter 93: Chapter 92: Return to Hometown - Part 2

On the right bank of the river, a black-clothed, masked woman, covered in blood, clutched a long blade and repeatedly broke out from the encirclement amid the pursuit of more than ten Jianghu dressed individuals, sprinting frantically along the riverbank.

The woman was also holding an infant still in swaddling clothes, who was crying loudly at the moment. She had countless cuts all over her body and was already finding it hard to run.

"Jianghu feuds are common around here. You two should hurry inside. I’ll row the boat farther away to avoid getting involved and suffering misfortune." The boatman was not too fearful; his boldness even led him to advise the two passengers.

"Jianghu feud?" Lin Xin was indeed intrigued, as he had directly joined the Immortal Sect previously, so he had not yet experienced the secular Jianghu. Seeing it now, he felt a sense of novelty.

"Yao Qingxue, have you thought of escaping this situation?" A white-haired, youthful-looking old man suddenly floated lightly in front of the woman, effectively blocking her path.

"Talisman Witch!?" The woman halted abruptly and was immediately caught by the dozen or so people behind her, who surrounded her. The blade in her hand trembled slightly, emitting a soft buzzing sound that held back the surrounding people from attacking for a moment.

"Yao Qingxue, you killed my nephew, and you thought you could just escape? Would that not make me, Tu, appear incompetent?"

"What do you want?" the woman’s voice was icy cold.

"Paying debts is natural and righteous, let alone a life debt," the old man said coldly. "Your Mandarin Duck Blades have been famous for a long time. It would be good to see whether this old man’s Eagle Claw Skill or your Mandarin Duck Blades are more formidable!"

Lin Xin squinted at the old man.

"Looks like a master," he said.

Huang Shanyi was speechless.

"Of course he’s a master. Look at his temples. External masters focus heavily on eye power. Those lacking in eye power lose half the battle right away, so true external masters have prominently bulging temples."

Lin Xin looked carefully and indeed saw that Talisman Witch’s temples were bulging high, and both of his hands were sharp and lethal, like the claws of a gray eagle.

"Just how strong are these martial world external masters?" he muttered softly.

"How strong? You’ve never fought with them?" Huang Shan asked with surprise.

"Not much," Lin Xin shook his head, seeing that the others were about to start fighting. A thought stirred within him, as it was a good opportunity to test the power of Inner Qi.

"I’ll give it a try."

No sooner had he spoken than he reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small silver ingot, quickly channeling his Inner Qi into the silver ingot, then casually tossed it with a flick of his hand.

Hiss!

The silver ingot suddenly shot out, whistling like an arrow.

Talisman Witch extended his claws in a fierce attack against the woman, the attack extremely ruthless and rapid in both strength and speed.

Hearing the whistling sound, he fiercely pushed the woman’s curved blade back and reached out toward the whistling noise.

"Who!" he roared. After decades of practicing the Eagle Claw Skill, he fiercely reached toward the source of the sound.

His practice of the Eagle Claw Skill for many years had advanced his External Skills to the Transformation Realm. With a single grasp, he could easily crush hard wood and stone. Around the local Jianghu, it was hard to find an adversary to match him; had he been younger, he would have already earned the title of Eagle Claw King.

Bang!

The Eagle Claw caught a small object squarely.

With a dull sound, Talisman Witch’s body staggered, retreating several steps with a shocked expression.

Upon closer examination, he was horrified to find that the object that had been thrown was just a small piece of silver ingot, which had now rolled to the ground, shattered into finer pieces.

Following the direction from which the silver ingot had come, he fixed his gaze on the small boat on the river far away.

Two people stood on the boat, both dressed in white, with long hair held up with jade hairpins.

"Internal masters.... I’ve seen them before, but to repel my attacks from such a distance with just a small piece of silver..." Talisman Witch’s expression changed.

"Let’s go!" He waved his hand, and his subordinates, also startled, quickly followed, racing toward the forest on the riverbank.

The masked woman stood guard with her blade until she thoroughly saw that Talisman Witch showed no signs of turning back, then she turned and bowed deeply toward the fishing boat from afar.

"The young lady thanks you both for the rescue."

Lin Xin hadn’t expected that merely infusing a small silver ingot with some Inner Qi and throwing it would display such power.

"The guest actually is the legendary internal master, my apologies, my apologies!!" The boatman also continuously bowed in admiration. "I should have thought of it, who else but an internal master could so effortlessly wield a sword at the back of the boat?"

Huang Shan looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile.

"Has the junior brother taken a fancy to that woman? I see her figure is graceful and elegant; even if her face isn’t beautiful, I imagine she can’t be that bad."

"Senior Brother is joking," Lin Xin merely tested the uses of his Inner Strength. It was indeed as described in the novels he had read before, capable of being infused into other objects and launched with extraordinary power.

In the fishing boat flowing downstream, the two paid no heed to the woman and soon forgot her entirely.

The three quickly reached a town, changed to a bigger boat, and continued heading downstream.

Along the riverbank, they often encountered conflicts and fights in Jianghu. Lin Xin, occasionally moved by interest, would also throw stones and pieces of wood to test the power of his Inner Strength.

Lin Xin also tried his hand at hunting some ferocious beasts he encountered to see if the Demon Talisman Seed would react, but regrettably, there was no response whatsoever.

He then targeted the most formidable individuals among those he encountered in Jianghu, hunting down any he found disagreeable directly.

The Flameless Swordsmanship was almost invariably lethal.

However, the deaths of these individuals did not induce the slightest change in the Demon Talisman Seed; the anomalies experienced before did not occur again.

Lin Xin had no choice but to restrain his thoughts.

Flowing along the river, he visited a threatening spot recorded on the map, incidentally stopping at a place where a creature called the Blueback Wolf resided; it was a significant threat level point on the map.

Lin Xin detoured to hunt there, killing several Blueback Wolves and discovered that these wolves, over a meter tall, posed a nuisance and threat to ordinary people and even second-layer martial artists. However, for him, an Innate master of the Fifth Layer, they were hardly a concern. Without even needing to use Talisman Swords, ordinary Flameless Swordsmanship left these giant wolves powerless to resist, only necessitating he mind his expenditure of Inner Qi, with no real safety concerns.

The Demon Talisman Seed, naturally, had no response either.

Seeing this, Huang Shan guessed that Lin Xin wanted to find powerful adversaries to kill, possibly to hone his sword technique.

One day on the boat, the three sat on the deck playing chess. With only them and the boatman on board, they had chartered the entire boat and could speak freely.

"There are hardly any formidable creatures in the Mortal Realm, only near the Sects where some Demon Kings reside. Those are usually in league with elders from the Sect, who would rear some potent clans of creatures. But here, far from the Immortal Sects, such high-level creatures simply don’t exist," Huang Shan softly persuaded.

Lin Xin also tried too much along the way. He was somewhat disheartened.

"It seems, we Innate masters, once out of the Sect, hardly see worthy opponents," he lamented.

"Naturally," Huang Shan nodded, "The ones stationed outside are formal disciples who are mostly engaged in Qi Cultivation. It’s common for them not to leave for years. Innate masters, except when on missions, are almost always in secluded cultivation within the Sect. Those who leave usually cluster in affluent big cities enjoying their riches and honors, rarely venturing into these remote wildernesses. Besides, even if you encounter an Innate, with your skill, unless they are Eighth Layer or above, or you’re unfortunate to meet a formal disciple, would you need to fear them?"

Lin Xin nodded.

Lingling, who was nearby, curiously asked.

"Why does Brother Lin seek powerful adversaries?" After many days of being together, she had come to trust him completely and was entirely relying on Lin Xin.

Lin Xin smiled. "I was just thinking I could find some powerful opponents to sharpen my swordsmanship skills, but I never imagined it would turn out like this." He still did not mention the matter of the Demon Talisman Seed; it was far too significant, not because he distrusted Lingling but as a precaution, the fewer who knew, the better.

"Junior Brother, you really underestimate yourself too much," Huang Shan laughed. "Any formal disciple set out can dominate a region. Just think how vast each region managed by a few dozen formal disciples within Great Song Country can be."

Lin Xin nodded.

"At the very least, each rules over the scope of hundreds of small cities."

"That’s right. If not for Foundation Establishment Cultivation, many would spend a lot of time just traveling, preferring not to meet in person, visiting the Sect even less, and many simply end up dying where they are stationed. Interaction between two formal disciples might occur once every several decades, mostly reliant on carrier birds for communication," Huang Shan explained.

"So, how should I proceed if I want to find sufficiently formidable hunting targets?" Lin Xin placed a chess piece and asked.

"Hunting?" Huang Shan was slightly startled but didn’t inquire why Lin Xin would ask such a peculiar question. "As an Innate master, you already possess the strength to dominate a region by yourself. It’s just that with so many masters within the Sect, it’s not noticeable. In local areas, even in the big cities of Song Country, you would be among the top masters."

"Furthermore, these areas are all occupied by fellow Sect members, and formal disciples are absolutely forbidden from fighting one another, else severe punishment would be meted out—either ruining their cultivation at the least, or costing them their lives at the worst," he added.

"Thus, your request, don’t even think about it. Unless occasionally some Demonic Cultivator strays into your territory, or some bizarre creatures leak through after a Yang membrane breach. But such chances are minimal. Those dangerous places are guarded by the strongest formal disciples, and it wouldn’t be your turn to act."

Lin Xin was taken aback.

"Then are we not just confined to rigorous cultivation with hardly any real combat?" he said.

"You’ve taken a liking to fighting, haven’t you?" Huang Shan looked at him oddly. "Who among the formal disciples, having struggled out from the ranks of the recognized disciples, still wants to fight to the death? Most live just like this. However... lately, the Demon Sect has been unusually active. Recently I heard that our formal disciples have also been continually ambushed by the Demon Sect, losing many, with some masters who have been stationed for decades going missing."

"That’s precisely why we have the chance to fill those gaps, right?" Lin Xin realized.

"Exactly."

"So, if you want to fight, there are opportunities aplenty. Trouble is brewing recently," Huang Shan smiled.

Lin Xin suddenly also remembered the Red House Witch, who had injured him and then escaped, hopefully alive.

He thought to himself, otherwise who would he seek to repay that blow?