Chapter 43 Kill the Dragon

“There are many famous mountains and great rivers in Yanling. This empire owns nearly one third of the world’s land and exists thousands of years. Apart from anything else, only the history book of the historiographer has the records about six thousand years ago. Yanling has one million armed soldiers and countless excellent leaders in the army. In fact, as long as the emperor is willing to, other countries wouldn’t exist in its territory, but such an empire still has to be controlled by the Yanling Confucian Temple. It can be seen that no matter how powerful an empire is, it should bow and listen to cultivators. Even though Dazhou has backbone, it would have a bad ending. Now they can’t destroy Dazhou once, but they would try the second and third time in the future, and it might be unable to resist.”

While walking northward, in order to get rid of boredom on the trip, Li Fuyao and Qing Huai would talk about this human world’s current situation occasionally. However, after mentioning the relationship between Yanling and the Yanling Confucian Temple today, Li Fuyao looked unusual, but Qing Huai didn’t mind. She just thought it might be because he was born in Luoyang City and had stayed in Baiyu Town for many years.

Li Fuyao stayed silent for a long while and then stated peacefully, “Cultivators are outsiders and the empires can’t discipline them, but they should mind their own business. However, some cultivators would hurt people in the world, like those by the Luosang River. The empires can do nothing to them, let alone Dazhou, a small remote country.”

Qing Huai said in a low voice, “You can do nothing to it but go farther on the way of swordsmanship. If one day you can be at the same level as that Sword Immortal, you can naturally protect Dazhou. Believe me, none of the residents in the human world or the demonic land and the principals in Confucian academies or Taoist temples or the sages staying secluded is willing to offend a Sword Immortal, especially for a small country. Both the sages of big demons are unwilling to try at this cost. The Sword Mountain exists because of that. If the three religious sects are determined to destroy the last inheritors of swordsmen, Chao Qingqiu would bring his sword and go to reason with the twelve sages. It is not that the sages can do nothing to this Sword Immortal, but they care about how to become immortals. How would they miss the chance to become immortals because of the Sword Immortal? Of course, if the Sword Immortal becomes a real immortal earlier than the twelve sages someday, it would be taken by surprise. Then apart from anything else, nobody would dare to offend the swordsmen in the human world. After all, how can the sages defeat a Sword Immortal who has broken through the Ocean Stage?”

Li Fuyao turned around and glanced at the machete on his back. He was tempted, but he didn’t say any proud words. Now he hadn’t reached the Sword Mountain and didn’t go down the mountain after climbing it as Chen Sheng said, so he couldn’t be called swordsman. More directly, he hadn’t even owned a sword, and how could he be a swordsman? But these days, he often heard the Sword Immortal’s name and knew that he might be on the Sword Mountain, so he really wanted to see this gifted man who could make the swordsmen’s heritage continue depending on his own power. After all, in the past six thousand years, some people from the three religious sects entered the Ocean Stage and became sages, so there were twelve sages in the human world, but since the war ended six thousand years ago, only Chao Qingqiu among swordsmen was almost a Sword Immortal. It was a fact that the way of swordsmanship was rough and difficult to take, but it could show how amazing that Sword Immortal was.

There was such a master standing in the distance on the way of cultivating, and anybody would feel proud genuinely.

Although they decided not to enter Luoyang City, when they made a detour, far away from the magnificent city, they could still see its outline, which made Li Fuyao think a lot. He was born in the capital of Yanling, one of the top three empires, and his family was not too rich but was well-off. If the masters from the temple hadn’t found him or wanted to take him to the temple for education, he might have grown up in this huge city and then found other jobs, but most probably, he would inherit his family’s restaurant and become the young master. Then he would get married and have children to carry on the ancestral line.

“Li Fuyao, what’s that tall building?”

When he was lost in thought, Qing Huai suddenly grabbed his sleeve and pointed to the magnificent city in the distance.

Li Fuyao was at a low stage and couldn’t see anything in the distance, but hearing the words “tall building”, he knew that Qing Huai was talking about the Star Building in Luoyang because other buildings in the city were shorter than the city wall. Only the Star Building was much taller than the city wall, reaching to the sky. Qing Huai was at a higher stage and it was not surprising that she could see it.

Li Fuyao explained, “The Star Building is the tallest building in Luoyang City and might be the tallest in the human world. When it was built, the emperor of Yanling recruited eight hundred thousand people and it took three years to finish it. It was named Star Building probably because the emperor thought that when he stood on the high platform at the top of the building and reached out his hand, he could touch the stars. As the busybodies in Luoyang City said, it is used to worship God, but I think it’s not so simple. I have been there once when I was a child, but I didn’t go upstairs. The imperial court doesn’t allow anybody irrelevant to go upstairs.”

Before Li Fuyao finished his words, Qing Huai retorted, “It’s ridiculous to say that it is used to worship God. Behind Yanling is the Yanling Confucian Temple, and behind the temple is the Confucianism. If the Star Building is used to worship God, the wooden statues of the Confucian sages should be put on the high platform.”

Li Fuyao didn’t know what secret there was. He just laughed and brought up another thing, “In the year when the temple chose me, there was no outstanding child. A child whose family name was Li had better talent, but it was not very good, so that year, there was a saying in Luoyang City that the second Star Li couldn’t be found in the city. But I really don’t know who Star Li is. I think he must be a master from Luoyang City. Maybe the Star Building was named after that master.”

Afterward, Li Fuyao didn’t forget to add, “The child who had better talent is not me.”

Qing Huai showed a smile and didn’t say anything.

Without looking at her, Li Fuyao continued, “There are always powerful people in stories. You won’t hope that you have something to do with those people, right?”

This time Qing Huai asked in reply, “Then why can’t you become that kind of powerful person? Li Fuyao is inferior to nobody.”

Hearing that, Li Fuyao had a smile, the same as Qing Huai did a moment ago.

The emperor of Yanling returned to the imperial palace after going downstairs. As the decision-maker of an empire, he took on heavy responsibilities and didn’t have much private time. Every day, he needed to make decisions for some things in the empire, such as the two things before him. As for the war in Dazhou, he had decided in the Star Building to let both sides of the Chen Country and Dazhou suffer great losses. Later, no matter which country won, he would tell the powerful generals in the army to put the army flags of Yanling in the two countries and then wipe off all those small remote countries from the world’s map. They were part of Yanling originally. He didn’t mind in the past, but it was natural to take them back now. He hadn’t decided whether he would send people to capture those two teenagers. More than ten cultivators below the Fundamental Stage were a great fortune in outsiders’ eyes, but in the emperor’s opinion, it was not a large number. He owned such a big country and could drive more than so many people. However, the empire’s dignity was what he needed to consider.

According to the report, the two walked northward and obviously wanted to go out of Yanling, heading to the Dayu Empire, without doing anything else to damage Yanling’s foundation.

After pondering for a long while, he wrote an imperial decree at the table in the imperial study. Soon somebody sent it to the government involved.

He checked some more reports at the table and then put down the brush pen with red ink. Afterward, he came to the imperial garden outside the study and looked up helplessly.

But when he looked up at the east, the emperor’s face changed a little, and he showed a doubtful expression.

In an instant, he seemed to be out of his wits and shouted, “Changgu, you are really a man of great talent.”

On the Star Building with a height of three hundred meters in the east of Luoyang City, it was raging like a storm.

The top of the tall building faced the cloud which was originally peaceful. But somehow, it was unusual now. The cloud undulated and was changeable, sparking under the sunshine.

Li Changgu who was sitting with his legs crossed on the high platform with the sword on his knees looked calm, and the book of poetry next to him was blown by wind with whistling.

Thunder and lightning started to show up above his head.

The thunder seemed to burst beside Li Changgu’s ears, and ordinary people might be scared out of wits.

What had never happened in the past seventy years in the Star Building happened now. The forbidden rules set by the Yanling Confucian Temple were disturbed, which caused the current situation.

In the cloud with thunder and lightning, there seemed to be a golden flood dragon swirling, which was dazzling under the sun.

While swirling, the flood dragon with a length of more than thirty meters even lingered next to Li Changgu.

While the one caused it just sat on the high platform silently.

Such a scene was really shocking.

Before the emperor went downstairs, Li Changgu had said that someday he would break this building with a sword. In fact, since seven years ago, he didn’t get out of his body to wander downstairs anymore, so his stage was steady gradually. Even under the forbidden rules, he had reached the peak of the Sanctification Stage with difficulty and was close to the threshold. Then he could go back to the Dawning Stage.

So after the emperor went downstairs, Li Changgu tried to return to the Dawning Stage, but unexpectedly, it made the forbidden rules in the Star Building launch at the same time, and they became a flood dragon to trap him.

Looking at the golden flood dragon, Li Changgu laughed, “All people in the world have never seen a dragon. I even doubt if there is something like this.”

As expected, since Li Changgu spoke, he seemed to have irritated that golden flood dragon. Although it didn’t do anything, it moved closer to surround him.

Li Changgu shook his head and suddenly unsheathed the iron sword in his arm.

With a clear sound, this ordinary iron sword went into the cloud with boundless sword Qi and confronted the flood dragon.

That flood dragon’s mustache floated, and it seemed to ask why Li Changgu dared to unsheathe his sword even though he was at such a low stage.

Li Changgu laughed heartily, “Why not?”

As a matter of fact, in the Star Building, the Confucian cultivators’ method would be much more effective than the swordsmen’s skill, but after Li Changgu left the temple, he was determined to stop using any skills he had learnt in the temple, so he did nothing but raise his sword.

Staring at the dragon, Li Changgu expressed impassively, “Today I just want to enter the Dawning Stage and can’t go downstairs. But you need to check how powerful this swordsmanship is.”

Before he finished his words,

The iron sword flew to the dragon’s huge head.

There was peaceful sword intent.

As soon as the iron sword met the dragon, there was dazzling golden light on the sword. The iron sword was full of rust, but in the golden light, the rust started to fade, and the blade became bright.

This abandoned sword was picked up by Li Changgu under a cliff and named Short Day, but it didn’t fear that golden dragon at all.

Li Changgu counted down three words in his heart.

Afterward, he got up.

At this time, this swordsman who was trapped in this building for more than seventy years returned to the Dawning Stage.

There was sword Qi overwhelming in the Star Building.

Li Changgu grabbed the Short Day and waved it, with sword rays flashing.

The iron sword went deep into the dragon’s neck. No scale flew, and no fresh blood poured out. Only the dragon turned into golden light and returned to the cloud slowly.

Li Changgu stood with his sword, looking like the man who went down from the temple alone more than seventy years ago.

That day, he stood at the foot of the Jingkou Mountain and talked to himself, “Since the scholars would become sanctimonious in the end, I will just grab my sword and hope to feel no shame while examining myself.”

Right, this scholar who learnt swordsmanship halfway didn’t meet a master who could teach him, but he just thought the sword could express his feelings, so he started to practice swordsmanship.

He didn’t ask for anything else. In fact, one of the reasons why the temple trapped him in this building instead of choosing to kill him was because they hoped that he could be aware that he had strayed from the right path and would return someday.

Standing on the high platform in this building, Li Changgu suddenly thought of the poem he had written when he was a teenager, so he couldn’t help but recite softly, “If you want to walk for one thousand miles, you should focus your eyes first. The magical horse is locked up temporarily, and the immortal goes up to the colorful building.”

After reciting, he laughed, “Are there immortals in heaven?”

There was no class in the temple on the Jingkou Mountain today. In fact, there were many days like this. After the students entered the temple, they learnt from their masters most of the time and seldom took classes together, so it was not strange that there was no class today.

The other day, the gifted scholar Gu Yuan broke through the Awakening Stage and entered the Fundamental Stage in front of the worship hall, and so many days had passed, but all people in the temple were still delight in talking about it. Besides, the scholar from Dazhou became a handyman in the library after climbing the mountain, which caused an uproar. It was a handyman’s job, but the handyman in the library was different from the handymen somewhere else. The master who was in charge of the library, Zhou Xuance, was superior and had so many important treasures inside. A lot of students hoped to attract this master’s attention, and they were even willing to serve tea to him every day, let alone being a handyman. Unfortunately, the master was a weirdo and didn’t want outsiders to work here these years, and now he finally made an exception, while it was the scholar from Dazhou who had just entered the temple unexpectedly. It was naturally surprising.

In the afternoon, Huang Jin stepped out of the library and came to an open space in the front. He opened a book of poetry he had found in the library. When he cleaned up inside earlier, he had read this book and seen one sentence in it, “I have lost my soul, and it can’t be called back. When the rooster crows, a new day breaks.”

He thought it was nice, so after he finished his job, he brought this book out and read it. But after he turned only a few pages, Zhou Xuance who was closing his eyes and resting his mind under a tree in the distance stated leisurely, “The temple didn’t like the writer of this book. If you want to read it, you can only hide it and read it secretly. It’s fine if other students find that because they don’t know the story, but if other masters find it, you might suffer a lot.”

Hearing that, Huang Jin stopped paying attention to this book. He turned around and looked at Master Zhou who was said to be horribly superior, asking with a smile, “Master Zhou, did the writer really do something wrong?”

Zhou Xuance didn’t open his eyes and laughed, “It’s uncertain if he did something wrong, but even if he did many things correctly, the last thing he did was absolutely wrong.”

Huang Jin expressed, “I am all ears.”

Zhou Xuance explained patiently, “That guy climbed the mountain like you did, but before he climbed, he walked for thousands of miles, from Luoyang City to the Jingkou Mountain. It seems no big deal, but he was only eight years old then, so after he reached the mountaintop, even I wanted to teach him. After all, not everybody is Yan Yu, the lucky guy, who can meet a gifted scholar when he travels. I want to teach a student, and nobody dares to fight with me, but that guy refused me. Can you imagine that an eight-year-old child dares to refuse me? Fine, it’s not a bad thing to be refused, so I wanted to see how far this guy could go as he was so bold to reject me. But later, I found that he was really capable. Before he went down the mountain, he was at the Dawning Stage. He was so talented, so he had the qualification to be arrogant. However, this guy was too stubborn. He had seen something that was wrong in his opinion in the temple, so he obstinately believed that it is useless to be a scholar, and then he started to practice swordsmanship. It was the roughest road to cultivate swordsmanship and a long way. I don’t know why this guy practiced it, so it was naturally a big mistake. At last, the guy didn’t regret, so he was imprisoned. It was more than seventy years ago. I wonder if he repents in that building.”

Huang Jin asked in surprise, “Master Zhou, as you said, it’s a mistake to practice swordsmanship?”

Zhou Xuance responded furiously, “It’s not a mistake, but I am angry as he chose a mule path.”

Huang Jin laughed. He liked this master’s temper a lot.

Zhou Xuance sighed, “He had a chance to walk farther and farther on the way of cultivating. I won’t be surprised even if he becomes the fifth Confucian sage in the future. What a pity!”

Huang Jin suddenly interrupted, “What if that master doesn’t feel it is a pity?”

Zhou Xuance was stunned. Right, with that guy’s character, he could leave the temple and quit school as he liked. How would he feel it was a pity?

After a long while, Zhou Xuance turned to Huang Jin and threatened, “I remind you. If you are obsessed someday and insist on practicing swordsmanship, don’t blame me when I send you to accompany him.”

Huang Jin didn’t mind, “I am not as broad-minded as that master, but it is great if I can meet him.”

The unusual scene on the Star Building was covered with the forbidden rules set by the temple, and outsiders couldn’t see clearly. Even all people in Luoyang City just thought that there was a storm on the building and didn’t see the golden dragon. Li Fuyao and Qing Huai who were dozens of miles away from the city certainly couldn’t see it clearly. But when Li Changgu unsheathed the sword, Li Fuyao suddenly had a feeling and looked at the Star Building, murmuring, “Why do I feel that the Sword Immortal is in the neighborhood?”