“Sw-sword flight?!”
“Oh my god, I knew there was cultivation in this world!”
“Master! Master, look at me! I’m your disciple, lost for many years!”
They forgot who they were and where they were. Only one thought was burning wildly in their minds—
Cultivation is real.
No one was afraid, no one was in awe. Everyone, as if driven by some primal instinct, swarmed in a rush toward that figure standing in the air. It was as if, if they could just touch a corner of his clothes, this life would have been worth it.
However, no matter how they surged forward, they all stopped short at the same spot, two meters away from him.
It wasn’t that they didn’t dare, but that they couldn’t.
An invisible wall of air separated the crowd, making room for the three who had drowned, two big and one small.
That invisible barrier wasn’t sharp, and had not even a trace of oppression. But it firmly engraved the difference between immortal and mortal in everyone’s heart, impossible to cross.
“So this is a cultivator…” Although they had seen it many times in novels, only reality could give such a shock.
Lu Xiuyuan stood in the air, with the three drowned and unconscious people below.
He did not rebuke the crowd for their rudeness and chaos. He only gave a slight nod and cast a glance at the clamoring crowd.
With that one look, the boiling beach seemed to have had the mute button pressed by some invisible force.
No one shouted “Master” anymore, and no one pushed forward anymore.
“Master, I’m good.” A man in his fifties blinked and said this in a put-on voice. At any other time it would surely have drawn a round of retching, but at this moment everyone was thinking the same thing, and even hated that they hadn’t been the first to cry out.
“Slap!”
The semiconscious Zhou Xingjian was thrown onto the sand. Even with his consciousness sunk into a haze, his hand still gripped tightly the child, whose life or death was unknown.
“Cough, cough…”
That collision with the Earth was no light one. Zhou Xingjian coughed up a mouthful of seawater, and his consciousness barely woke in the severe pain.
Sa-saved. Zhou Xingjian instinctively raised his head—
A white shadow stood before his eyes.
That person stood on the sea, with the parted waves on both sides behind him. The angry waves roared but could not break through the confinement no matter what, and water splashed everywhere, yet the white-clothed sword cultivator didn’t get a drop on him. He simply stood there quietly, his gaze calm, without arrogance, without compassion, without any emotion at all, just looking, like an immortal who had walked out of an ancient painting, separated from this world by an invisible barrier.
But Zhou Xingjian’s head was still not clear at this moment. Such a bizarre, unscientific scene was instinctively ignored by him, and in his eyes there was only a doctor dressed in white.
“…Doctor!” He was like a man who had grabbed a lifeline. “Doctor, how is this child? Can he still be saved?”
The man in white didn’t speak.
He only lowered his eyes and glanced lightly at the child in Zhou Xingjian’s arms.
—That gaze was too faint, so faint that it seemed less like looking at a dying life than like looking at a fallen leaf or a drop of dew.
Then he moved.
He was not seen walking over. Only his right arm was seen to rise and his fingertip to tap lightly, and then the long sword hovering at his side turned lightly and flew toward Zhou Xingjian.
The sword light made Zhou Xingjian instinctively want to dodge, but the sword came too fast, and his body couldn’t even react. He only saw the sword hilt knock on some spot on the child’s back—
“Cough cough cough cough cough cough—”
As if some mechanism had been triggered, the child, who had been utterly silent, suddenly began coughing, coughing heart-rendingly, coughing up a big mouthful of seawater he had choked on.
Zhou Xingjian was stunned.
He looked down at the child suddenly alive in his arms, was dazed for a moment, and only then did wild joy rise in him, belatedly.
“Al-alive…”
Zhou Xingjian raised his head and his lips moved, instinctively wanting to give thanks—
His gradually clearing mind made his “thank you” stick in his throat.
Huh? A doctor? Is knocking on someone’s back with a sword some newly released miraculous treatment?
Zhou Xingjian suddenly realized that this person seemed… not to be a doctor.
That white clothing, and that long sword flying back and forth, both fit perfectly a stereotype—
A sword cultivator.
Zhou Xingjian held the child, frozen on the spot.
While Zhou Xingjian’s brain was being barbecued, Lu Xiuyuan had not forgotten that Wenxin Sect urgently needed disciples to prolong its life.
His gaze was still calm, but looking closely one could see the corners of his mouth had risen three pixels, and his tone had gained 0.1% more gentleness: “Your temperament is excellent and matches my Wenxin Sect. Are you willing to join my Wenxin Sect?”
Zhou Xingjian’s brain was overloaded by now, and since the other was his savior, he instinctively nodded.
【Ding—】
Zhou Xingjian’s data suddenly appeared in the bare disciple column, and all sorts of pop-ups jumped out, dazzling Lu Xiuyuan. But he had no time to look at them closely just then, and after closing them with a thought, he still maintained his posture as an aloof sword cultivator.
The jade tablet fell from the air and floated in front of Zhou Xingjian.
Lu Xiuyuan’s gaze warmed by another 1%: “I give you this Wenxin Trial Jade Tablet. If you can pass the trial, I will assess you personally.”
Zhou Xingjian caught it instinctively, and when he looked up again, he saw only the back of the sword cultivator flying away on his sword.
Faintly, he seemed to hear a heart-rending wail: “Master! Me, me, what about me too, Master, I also want to take the devil trial and assessment of our Wenxin Sect—”
As Lu Xiuyuan left, the parted seawater, as if finally daring to be angry, came crashing back with a “whoosh” in a giant wave, soaking everyone.
Zhou Xingjian wiped his face, which was covered in seawater, knocked on his own head, and asked the onlooking tourists: “Am I hallucinating? Why did I see someone flying on a sword? Has modern technology already made flying aircraft?”
The onlooking tourists, who had found that the air wall blocking them was hilarious, immediately swarmed up, all talking at once.
“Little brother, I pulled that rope really hard just now, don’t forget me when you get rich!”
“Little brother, do you still need a sweeping servant? Take me along, I beg you!”
The shrieks woke the speedboat owner, who had swallowed some water but was otherwise fine, and he asked in a daze: “Why are there so many people?”
“Not having immortal fate is like this,” someone said with a calm smile, as if they themselves were the one chosen to go to Wenxin Sect for the sect assessment. “Boss, don’t feel too sorry. This sort of thing can’t be forced.”
Dozens of gazes fell on him, some sympathetic, some sighing, some gloating, and some with a faint trace of relief.
The boss felt uncomfortable all over, pricked by these gazes.
He didn’t understand. Everything had been fine just a moment ago, so how had he become the one being pitied in the blink of an eye? He had bravely saved someone. Although his memory had a bit of a blank, his bravery was a fact. Even if he wasn’t treated as a hero, he shouldn’t be pitied, should he?
He instinctively looked toward the raging sea. The night was dark and he could see nothing, only hear the sound of the waves.
—He didn’t even know what he had missed.
Only when a few heart-rending wails pierced the sea wind, cutting at his eardrums like a blunt knife, did he come to his senses belatedly.
“Master, don’t abandon me—”
A girl clutched her head and screamed: “Oh my god, oh my god, why wasn’t I braver! If I had gone up just now, I’d be the divine-faced handsome man’s eldest disciple! The Dao of the heartless is missing just me, an outstanding graduate, wuwuwuwu—”
Another girl dropped to her knees with a thud: “Heaven above, mountains and rivers as my witness—”
She raised her finger, her eyes extremely resolute: “Your disciple swears here: if Master does not forsake me and takes me in, your disciple will exhaust my heart and mind and not fail your expectations! Even as a registered disciple, even as a sweeping servant, in this life and the next, with this body and heart, I will be loyal only to the sword, loyal only to the Dao!”
“Ah-ba, ah-ba—”
Her companion looked at her in shock: Girl, when did you get so cultured behind my back?!
Anxious, she hurriedly knelt down as well: “Me, me too!”
While the two girls regretted and grieved over their lack of courage, Jiang Yuhuai had already gone mad.
Jiang Yuhuai pointed at himself, then at Lu Xiuyuan flying away on his sword. Many words were stuck in his throat, but his chest simply couldn’t make a sound.
It was several seconds before he cried out as if weeping blood: “Master! It was my loose mouth; I had eyes but couldn’t recognize Mount Tai! You can cut me into a thousand pieces, crush my bones and scatter my ashes, but please don’t not want me, Master—”
He looked at his empty palm, and thought of that exquisite trial jade tablet, and that mysterious, powerful, handsome sword cultivator master, and tears gushed out.
“Your disciple was wrong, truly wrong… Beat me, scold me, punish me, anything; I only beg you not to leave me behind… Master! You can’t abandon me, Master—” His cries were blood-weeping with every word, and hearing them filled people with sympathy and broke their hearts.
Jiang Yuhuai scrambled and stumbled running in the direction Lu Xiuyuan had flown, but how could a mere mortal on two legs catch up with a sword-cultivator master who had flown on his sword until even his back had vanished!
Seeing Jiang Yuhuai about to rush into the sea to kill himself, the tourists immediately grabbed at him with all hands: “Don’t think of ending it! None of us were picked! You don’t have immortal fate, it’s nothing, so many of us weren’t picked either!”
Jiang Yuhuai’s eyes were bulging with fury: “Who says I don’t have immortal fate?! Master was just about to take me as a disciple!”
That was close, he’d almost set foot on the immortal path.
The warm-hearted crowd didn’t listen and only kept comforting him: “If you miss this time there’s a next time. As long as you’re alive there’s still hope!”
Jiang Yuhuai struggled: “Let go of me! I want to go with Master! There is no next time! If I miss this time, I can never cultivate again!” There was no next time. He had not only refused the trial invitation but also belittled sword cultivators. If this misunderstanding couldn’t be cleared up, he’d never have another chance!
Jiang Yuhuai went mad, Jiang Yuhuai wept, Jiang Yuhuai screamed: “Maaaaster—”
The two girls exchanged a glance, and their hearts seemed to hurt a little less.
People really do need comparison.
Their own missed chance was a pity, of course, but the unlucky guy next to them had personally refused a sword-cultivator master’s trial invitation!