Chapter 69 The Sword Is Straight

Li Fuyao stayed at the foot of Sword Mountain in a peculiar way, but he didn’t live in the shabby temple with the three masters. In fact, as Liu Yibai said, there was something unspeakable in the temple and if Li Fuyao stayed inside, it wouldn’t be helpful to his swordsmanship. After all, not everybody was at the same stage as them and could ignore those things. As a matter of fact, as the three disciples of the old master on Sword Mountain, no matter Liu Yibai who was dandiacal or Xie Lu who was distant or the gentle Xian Chunan, their talent wouldn’t be inferior. Especially Xian Chunan, he was good-tempered, but his will of swordsmanship was pure. He had almost never met any choke point on the way of swordsmanship. He walked on the road of cultivation, and he didn’t promote his strength too quickly, but not slowly. More importantly, his cultivation completed naturally and he never tried to make the rice shoots grow, so he had more attainments in swordsmanship than the other two. However, because he stayed on Sword Mountain for a long time, he was not famous. As for Chen Sheng who had been travelling around the world for many years, he was thought of as the most arrogant and ambitious one by the old master on Sword Mountain since he started to stay on the mountain, so after he stayed on the mountain for a short period, he felt bored. He never stayed in a place for too long when he travelled around the world these years. Instead, he travelled everywhere and didn’t fall behind in swordsmanship. He had even been to the demonic land boldly and killed some Demonic cultivators at high stages. If the demons on the demonic land didn’t fear Chao Qingqiu, they might have told somebody to slip into the human world and kill this arrogant swordsman.

In the big war six thousand years ago, Confucianism was awe-inspiring and righteous, and Taoism was skilled in defeating demons, but neither of them had more deterrent effects than the swords of the swordsmen and their overbearing sword Qi. The stupid swordsmen with only one sword on the waist for each had the powerful military strength, which made all demons on the demonic land in great trepidation. In fact, if there were not so many Sword Immortals, the war might not end so soon.

After the war, the world was in chaos and the two parties signed an agreement, which was catalyzed by the sages of the three religious sects and the big shorts on the demonic land personally, so it caused the situation that two parties lived in peace, but since those Sword Immortals had died on the battlefield, this agreement couldn’t restrain the swordsmen. So even though Chao Qingqiu and the other swordsmen went to the demonic land, they didn’t break the rules. In fact, even if the cultivators from the three religious sects went to the demonic land, as long as they didn’t act too ostentatiously, nobody would say anything. This agreement was just to restrain the sages of the two parties. After all, if the sages of both sides fought against each other, nobody in the human world or on the demonic land wanted to see that.

Li Fuyao had known something about swordsmen before, but he just knew a little. Chen Sheng learned swordsmanship quickly, and he was a genius and promoted his strength quite fast, but if he had to explain those things in detail, he would have a headache, so what he taught Li Fuyao in the past mainly focused on the spirit, not the form. As a result, Li Fuyao just knew roughly about many things, so somebody needed to give him lectures carefully. Although Xie Lu was absorbed in swordsmanship, if she was asked to give lectures, it would baffle her. So after sitting for half a day with boredom, Xie Lu left Li Fuyao to Xian Chunan. This gentle senior fellow apprentice didn’t think it troublesome. He sat with Li Fuyao on the ground in the open space in front of the shabby temple and then asked, “What is a sword?”

In the novels which were popular in society, when the swordsman masters accepted a disciple, they would ask some unfathomable questions, such as “Why do you want to practice swordsmanship?” “What is a sword?” But since swordsmen were cultivators different from warriors in society, they should act in a different way. However, the truth was that Xian Chunan asked a common question, so when this question came out of his mouth, Li Fuyao was surprised.

It was down to earth.

He kept silent for a while and then raised his head, answering seriously, “A sword is a weapon and the friend of a swordsman. If we have to make a sword represent something, I think it’s being straight.”

Xian Chunan asked gently, “Why is it being straight?”

“Because the sword blade is straight.”

This must be the simplest answer Xian Chunan had heard. Li Fuyao wasn’t deliberately mystifying or even thinking much. He just said that the sword blade was straight. If it was somebody else, Xian Chunan would even think that this man was brainless and could hardly accomplish something. But it was Li Fuyao, so he continued to listen patiently.

“I think the word ‘straight’ is very important. A sword is straight. The cultivators from the three religious sects might think a lot about the human world, but I think when a swordsman waves his sword, it must be because he wants to unsheathe it and the emotions in his chest don’t need to be hidden. He will express his feelings with his sword. In the final analysis, because of the word straight, the swordsmen are different from the cultivators from the three religious sects.”

Li Fuyao smiled and added softly, “Master, maybe I was wrong, but I think that the person I have met before must think so.”

Xian Chunan looked at Li Fuyao and thought of the sword Qi on the path of Menchen Mountain, so he asked, “Is it Sword Immortal Chao?”

Xian Chunan thought he would get a positive answer, but Li Fuyao shook his head. “He is not named Chao Qingqiu but Chao Fengchen. It is a man who wants to be himself, but now he might have disappeared in the human world. He stayed on Menchen Mountain for ten years, and it seems that he lived for ten years as Chao Qingqiu. So when he went down the mountain, he thought he should be Chao Fengchen. I could feel that he was really happy.”

Xian Chunan stated peacefully, “Sword Immortal Chao is naturally the most awesome swordsman in this human world, but as you said, Chao Fengchen should be not inferior to him in some aspects. After he took that step, he would be very happy. However, different people understand the road of swordsmanship in different ways. You think the sword is straight, and I don’t think there is something wrong, but every swordsman who left Sword Mountain would remember that no matter what happens, he should be worthy of the sword on his waist.

“He should figure out why he unsheathes the sword.”

Li Fuyao nodded in high spirits.

“There are only two ways of cultivation in the human world, the cultivators and the swordsmen. In fact, there is no big difference between the two, but the difference is not little. The ancestor who brought the swordsmen to the road of cultivating didn’t follow the cultivating way of the cultivators from the three religious sects but turned from a warrior in society, so the swordsmen are more down to earth. In fact, it is true, and the sociability isn’t decided by the road we take but is closely related to our own characters. Even though the Confucian sages became the cultivators on the big road then, they were still willing to stay in society to teach or reason with others, and they never thought that they were superior. However, everything has changed now, and all the cultivators want to live forever and become Immortals, so they don’t have extra energy to care about the people under the mountain.

“In fact, the war broke out in order to protect the people in the human world from being slaughtered by the demons.

“People should do some things that they think nice, and no matter what others think about, it must be something nice. So those Sword Immortals died on the battlefield and didn’t care if it was worthwhile. It was enough if they were worthy of their swords.”

Hearing about these Sword Immortals’ stories, Li Fuyao suddenly thought of the two swordsmen he had met on the path when he climbed the mountain, the charming woman in red and the man dressed in a white robe who seemed aloof.

So Li Fuyao asked in confusion, “Master, are the two swordsmen on the mountain path the illusions of Swords Immortals?”

Xian Chunan replied, “You are right to some extent, but it’s not exactly correct. The two were Sword Immortals who died in that war. The female Sword Immortal is Xie Lu’s ancestor, and the family name of the man in white was Lu. After the two Sword Immortals died on the battlefield, their remaining souls came back to Sword Mountain and were nourished by a lot of sword Qi on the mountain. Although they can’t disappear, they don’t have the cultivation base, so they can’t go down the mountain.

“Every Sword Immortal in the world is very proud. For the swordsmen, the two left their souls and abandoned their pride as Sword Immortals. You have to know that the swordsmen nowadays are in an unfavorable situation.

“We need many young people to show the swordsmen’s charm again and make the swordsmen’s voices reappear in this human world.”

Li Fuyao noticed the radiance in Xian Chunan’s eyes, which was dazzling and made people feel warm. After being in a daze for a while, he nodded.