Chapter 14: The Emperor of Swords

In Zhao Rucheng's mansion, which occupied nearly ten acres, two figures flashed in and out of the sword light.

Clang!!

The sword in Zhao Rucheng's hand trembled, and the long sword flew out. Jiang Wang's long sword was stopped beside his neck, looking at him with a smile.

"So powerful!" Zhao Rucheng exclaimed, "What kind of swordsmanship is this?"

There was a certain gap between his swordsmanship and Jiang Wang's, but it wasn't too big. In past sparring matches, he could always win three or five out of ten matches, but today, after twenty matches, he hadn't won a single one!

Jiang Wang smiled and sheathed his sword. This swordsmanship was indeed a profound method of entering the Dao through martial arts. It had a total of nine training stances and five killing stances. He had only mastered four training stances and one killing stance, but his understanding of swordsmanship was already far superior to before.

He thought that his combat power was already good enough. If he were to encounter the demon that attacked him that night again, he would definitely be able to fight.

"I obtained this swordsmanship by chance, and it doesn't have a name. Rucheng, you are proficient in both literature and martial arts, what do you think it should be called?"

Zhao Rucheng pondered for a moment, "This is the Son of Heaven among swords, it should be called... Purple Qi Comes From the East."

"Purple Qi Comes From the East..." A strange light flashed in Jiang Wang's eyes, "What a good name!"

At that moment, he seemed to see a kind of grand aura on Zhao Rucheng that he hadn't seen before.

But it was probably an illusion, because Zhao Rucheng picked up the fallen long sword in the next moment, jumped in front of Jiang Wang, and was still that rascal, grinning and saying: "Third brother, teach me!"

"Okay." Jiang Wang smiled brightly.

Both of them were masters of swordsmanship in the mundane world, and they couldn't possibly not understand the preciousness of the Purple Qi Comes From the East Sword Art. It was completely different from those martial arts techniques circulating in the secular world, but rather a transcendent sword manual that could lead to the Dao through martial arts.

Those powerful sword cultivators were by no means inferior to Daoist masters.

Such a sword manual would be enough to cause a bloody storm in the Jianghu. But one of these two people frankly wanted to learn it, and the other casually taught it. It seemed that this sword manual was unimportant.

...

It was late when Jiang Wang returned to the Daoist Academy.

Except when he had classes, Zhao Rucheng generally didn't stay in the Daoist Academy, he was a complete纨绔 (Wankua- spoiled brat).

His mind was filled with pondering the mysteries of the Purple Qi Comes From the East Sword Art, so much so that when he walked to the door of the inner courtyard dormitory, he saw Li Jianqiu standing with his sword in his arms.

"What are you thinking about, so absorbed?" Li Jianqiu said with a smile.

"Some problems with swordsmanship." Jiang Wang frankly replied, and asked: "What brings Senior Brother Li here?"

"No wonder Junior Brother Jiang's swordsmanship is amazing." Li Jianqiu casually praised, and then said: "Master Dong asked you to go to his place after the morning class tomorrow. I saw that you were not in the dormitory, so I waited for a while."

"Ah, I was at Rucheng's mansion all afternoon." Jiang Wang was a little embarrassed, "How dare I trouble Senior Brother Li to wait? You could have just left a message with the attendant."

The inner disciples had dedicated servants who took care of their food and clothing, so that these seeds of the Daoist sect could concentrate on cultivation.

"Since Master Dong ordered me to inform you, I can't entrust it to others. And I'm not some noble, so noble that I can't even wait for someone."

Jiang Wang lowered his head slightly, "Junior Brother is apprehensive."

He was indeed apprehensive, because Li Jianqiu was two grades higher than him, and he was one of the few outstanding people in that grade. He was definitely going to the Qinghe County Academy for further studies in the future, and he was one of the most outstanding talents in the entire city academy.

And such a person was standing in front of the dormitory door waiting for him, without any impatience.

Li Jianqiu patted Jiang Wang on the shoulder, "I think Junior Brother Jiang's future is limitless, don't be so distant."

After saying that, he turned and left.

...

Nothing happened overnight. The next day, as soon as the morning class ended, Jiang Wang went to Dong A's residence.

In addition to Li Jianqiu, there were two other people in the small courtyard. One of them was also a senior brother, named Zhang Linchuan. He came from the Zhang family, one of the three major families in Fenglin City. He was one of the strongest among the city academy disciples, and his reputation was quite high.

He was not very handsome in appearance, but he was tall and slender, with his own demeanor. His clothes and ornaments were exquisite and appropriate.

At this moment, he was standing in the courtyard, listening to what the person next to him was saying.

And the other person in the courtyard was actually Fang Heling.

When he caught sight of Jiang Wang entering, he deliberately raised his voice, "Brother Zhang! Yesterday, the hunters in my village sent me a pair of good bear paws. Tomorrow, I'll ask the chef at Wangyue Tower to prepare them properly, and we'll taste them together."

Zhang Linchuan nodded with a smile.

Fang Heling turned his head and invited, "Senior Brother Li, come along too!"

Li Jianqiu didn't want to offend him, so he just smiled, "I'll go if I have time."

Before Fang Heling could continue to flatter him, Li Jianqiu walked a few steps towards the courtyard gate, "Junior Brother Jiang is here?"

He even went out of his way to greet him.

Jiang Wang hurried a few steps and greeted, "Sorry, I'm late."

He walked to Li Jianqiu's side and bowed to Zhang Linchuan, "Greetings, Senior Brother Zhang."

He simply ignored Fang Heling.

"You too." Zhang Linchuan nodded with a faint smile, seemingly unaware of the undercurrents between Jiang and Fang.

But some people just have to highlight their existence.

"Humph." Fang Heling snorted extremely abruptly, and then said in a strange tone: "Master Dong gave instructions, and even Senior Brother Zhang and Senior Brother Li arrived early. I didn't even have time to go to the morning class, and I came as soon as I got up. I don't know what kind of virtue and ability some people have, that they dare to let Master Dong and the two senior brothers wait for him?"

Jiang Wang still ignored him, but cupped his fists to Li Jianqiu and Zhang Linchuan, "Junior Brother came as soon as he finished the morning class, and he definitely didn't neglect the master's order. It's just that morning and evening classes are for chanting scriptures and practicing breathing exercises. The morning bell and the evening drum, I dare not slack off even for a moment."

Li Jianqiu patted Jiang Wang on the shoulder again to show his closeness: "It doesn't matter, we came early, not you came late. The path of cultivation really doesn't allow for laziness. Although Senior Brother Zhang and I don't need to go to the scripture hall to chant scriptures with the junior brothers, we also do the morning class in our rooms."

Fang Heling was even more annoyed, but with Li Jianqiu's statement, he didn't dare to fan the flames anymore.

At this time, he only heard a creaking sound, but it was Dong A who pushed the door open and walked out.

"Everyone's here?" He looked around, dignified without anger.

The four of them performed the Daoist salute, "Master Dong!"

Dong A waved his hand. He was a decisive person and didn't like to procrastinate. He immediately said: "I called you here today to entrust you with a mission. You should all know about the incident where a demon attacked the outer courtyard and killed an outer disciple. The Criminal Investigation Department has been investigating for so long without any results. We don't have to wait for them to handle the matters of our City Daoist Academy, so I'm assigning you to investigate this matter, and the merits will be calculated according to the standard of an eighth-grade mission."

Different from outer sect missions, inner sect missions begin to be graded. Usually, the grade is determined by the strongest combat power encountered in the mission. And the unit of measurement for rewards is no longer contribution points, but Dao merits.

The difficulty is worlds apart, and the rewards are naturally like clouds and mud. Take the Opening Meridian Pill as an example. A huge amount of outer sect contribution points are required to exchange for it, but only one hundred Dao merits are required.

Of course, one hundred Dao merits are not easy to obtain either.

Speaking of this incident of the heretical demon attacking the outer courtyard, the strength displayed by the demon was only within the range of the ninth grade. Dong A setting it as the eighth grade was obviously encouraging.

"Jiang Wang and Fang Heling are currently the only two disciples in this class with obvious Dao veins, so they must be well tempered. Linchuan and Jianqiu, you have cultivated for a longer time, so you can take the two junior brothers to investigate separately. The mission rewards are divided into 10%, whoever finds out first gets 90%."

Zhang Linchuan and Li Jianqiu both bowed, "We respectfully obey the master's order."

Dong A waved his big sleeve and went back to his room on his own, obviously not planning to intervene in what happened next.

Zhang Linchuan obviously came prepared. After a little thought, he said: "I have friends in the Criminal Investigation Department. There are two clues that are most useful in this demon attack incident. One is that the demon stayed in Fulai Inn for three days before the attack, so there should be some clues left. The other is that a family was exterminated in Tangshe Town, and there was corpse qi left at the scene, which is similar to the demon that attacked our outer courtyard. Senior Brother Li, which way do you choose?"

Li Jianqiu said: "This is Senior Brother Zhang's information, so naturally I will let Senior Brother Zhang allocate it."

Zhang Linchuan was not surprised. If Li Jianqiu had any brains, he would not compete with him at this time. He said these things just to go through the motions. He nodded immediately, "In that case, I will go to Tangshe Town, and Senior Brother Li will go to Fulai Inn."

Fang Heling, who was standing next to Zhang Linchuan,'s eyes lit up, "With Senior Brother Zhang's presence, where can a mere heretical demon hide?"

After speaking, he glanced at Jiang Wang, quite得意 (Déyì- pleased with himself).

Everyone with discerning eyes could see that Tangshe Town was more suitable for demons to hide, and the clues were clearer. In Fang Heling's view, he would take the lion's share of this first eighth-grade mission.

At this time, Zhang Linchuan said to Li Jianqiu again: "Senior Brother Li, how about I take Jiang Wang?"

Li Jianqiu said without showing any emotion, "Alright."

In fact, the positions of the people before had already tacitly agreed on the divisions. Jiang Wang was more familiar with Li Jianqiu, while Zhang Linchuan and Fang Heling came from the same three major families.

Although he didn't understand why Zhang Linchuan didn't choose Fang Heling, who was closer to him and more familiar with him, Jiang Wang didn't have the right to choose, so he politely said: "Then I will trouble Senior Brother Zhang."

Zhang Linchuan and Li Jianqiu were both experienced and quickly made mission assignments, as well as some supplies that might be used for the mission. Jiang Wang also consciously helped with the preparations.

Only Fang Heling stood there, his face alternating between green and white.

He did have some opinions to express, but he couldn't say a word.