Chapter 128: The Battle of the Soul Sea

“Not convinced?”

Qin Ning’s words caught Shen Qingyun off guard. In the past, if anyone had dared say something like that to him, Shen Qingyun would have slapped them against a wall so hard they could not have been pried loose.

“I’m not convinced.” Qin Ning shook her head.

The people who came to study the qin in Qin Garden were all women. That was not to say no men ever came, but they lacked the patience for it. They also had to endure that irritable instructor. Unless they were genuinely determined to learn the qin, no one could remain there.

As time passed, the male students who came under the pretense of studying the qin merely to strike up conversations with the female students stopped coming of their own accord.

“Then watch closely.” Shen Qingyun raised an eyebrow without offering any explanation. Only true ability could win people’s trust; verbal explanations were ultimately powerless.

Qin Ning glanced at him. Seeing that he genuinely intended to play, she stepped aside, though she was still only half convinced. Shen Qingyun sat down in the space she had vacated and gently brushed his ten fingers across the strings.

At the instant his fingers plucked them, his entire bearing seemed to change. He became tranquil and elegant, and his already handsome features now appeared even more dazzling.

Watching him, Qin Ning could not help nodding. He did seem to have the makings of a true musician.

His slender fingers moved over the strings. The moment the music rang out, Qin Ning froze.

A cool breeze seemed to arrive with the melody, lifting her long hair. Before she knew it, she had become completely immersed in the world evoked by Shen Qingyun’s music.

Even long after Shen Qingyun stopped playing, Qin Ning remained unable to tear herself away from the melody’s profound atmosphere.

Shen Qingyun looked up at her and shook his head with a smile. It seemed that, having gone so long without playing, he had momentarily lost control and failed to stop in time.

Yet this also offered a faint glimpse of how terrifying one could become after cultivating the qin to the point of entering the Dao. By shaping an illusory realm through the meaning within the music, one could trap another person’s spirit within it. If that person’s mental strength was not powerful enough, they would remain lost in the melody indefinitely. So long as the player did not stop, the listener would be unable to regain control of himself.

How terrifying would such an ability be in battle?

This time, Shen Qingyun had merely played in his leisure hours and had harbored no ulterior motive. Even so, Qin Ning had still fallen helplessly into the melody’s realm.

“A melody that has passed beyond the mortal world. Savor it well.”

With a faint smile, Shen Qingyun did not awaken Qin Ning. He left Qin Garden alone instead. Once she came back to herself, she would likely gain some insight into the Dao of the qin.

As Shen Qingyun descended the mountain path, a sudden gleam flashed through his eyes. From the foot of the mountain, a streak of multicolored light shot toward him like a meteor.

Shen Qingyun offered no resistance, allowing the radiance to bore into his forehead. But soon, his expression grew solemn, and his figure swept into the darkness like a phantom.

When he returned to the pavilion, Shen Qingyun rushed into the room in a panic. He saw a chubby child whose body shimmered with seven-colored light, but he did not ask who the child was. His gaze immediately fixed upon Feng Chuxun.

He hurried to Feng Chuxun’s side. As though sensing his presence, the child raised his head and gazed at Shen Qingyun with large, watery eyes, seemingly pleading for help.

“What happened?” Shen Qingyun asked.

A strand of seven-colored radiance emerged from the child’s forehead and entered Shen Qingyun’s own. A moment later, Shen Qingyun furrowed his brow and looked at the child.

“It suddenly became like this?”

The child nodded repeatedly, his anxious expression suggesting that he feared Shen Qingyun would not believe him.

Shen Qingyun’s brows relaxed. He said softly, “Go stand guard at the door for me. Leave the rest to me, all right?”

The child nodded and floated to the doorway. Turning around, he waved his chubby little hand, and the door quietly closed.

Shen Qingyun stared at the shut door for a while.

Using the sword as its vessel and transforming into a being akin to a sword spirit—this should count as successfully surviving the tribulation, should it not?

Indeed, this chubby and seemingly adorable child was the new form that Ancestor Lotus had evolved into by taking the Scarlet Snow Sword as its vessel.

Day after day.

For now, however, the urgent matter was determining why Feng Chuxun had suddenly become like this.

Feng Chuxun appeared to have fallen unconscious. Sweat poured down his forehead in streams, yet even in his unconscious state, his brows remained tightly furrowed. His expression suggested that he was enduring an agony that gnawed at his very bones.

After hesitating briefly, Shen Qingyun sat down cross-legged and concealed his aura. A tiny golden Shen Qingyun emerged from his forehead, leaped to the ground, and gazed at Feng Chuxun, who was as vast as a mountain in his eyes.

Without the slightest hesitation, he plunged directly into Feng Chuxun’s body.

The golden Shen Qingyun was the essence of Shen Qingyun’s soul. For Feng Chuxun, he was actually willing to go this far. Once the essence of one’s soul was damaged, the path of cultivation itself could be severed!

The space was dark. The appearance of the golden Shen Qingyun added a single strand of color to it.

“The Soul Sea… How could it be this dark?”

After appearing, the golden Shen Qingyun looked around before frowning and speaking in a low voice.

A radiance flickered ahead. Shen Qingyun could not help walking toward it.

Only when he drew closer did he clearly see that, within Feng Chuxun’s Soul Sea, two rays of light were intertwined and colliding. Every collision caused the Soul Sea to tremble faintly, as though mountains were being shaken.

Shen Qingyun recognized one of the lights. It was Feng Chuxun’s spiritual manifestation, a massive broad-bladed sword.

But where had the other broken sword come from? Why was it fighting within Feng Chuxun’s Soul Sea?

It seemed that this was the reason for Feng Chuxun’s suffering.

“Stop!”

Shen Qingyun roared.

The light formed by the giant sword and the broken sword halted at the sound of his voice, each occupying one side of the Soul Sea.

What Shen Qingyun had not expected was that, after stopping, the broken sword actually spoke.

“Oh? How did a little brat get in here? Have you come to fight this old man for territory as well?”

“It can speak?”

Shen Qingyun’s gaze darkened, and his expression grew even more solemn as he looked at the broken sword.

A spiritual manifestation possessed its own intelligence, so Shen Qingyun was not worried that Feng Chuxun’s manifestation would attack him. He only needed to focus on the broken sword.

“Who are you?” Shen Qingyun asked coldly.

“Who am I?”

The broken sword let out two strange, mocking laughs.

“After all these years, a broken sword has finally become an immortal. I am the Immortal Sword! If you have any sense, get out of here. Once this old man destroys that spiritual manifestation and takes over the boy’s body, I can be reborn!”

Hearing that the broken sword intended to seize Feng Chuxun’s body, the giant sword immediately erupted with a fierce radiance, causing the Soul Sea to tremble once more.

Shen Qingyun’s expression also turned grim. This was Feng Chuxun’s Soul Sea, and everything that happened within it could be seen and heard by Feng Chuxun. He had no idea what Feng Chuxun felt upon hearing the broken sword’s words. He was surely furious—and suffering terribly.

“Wishful thinking!” Shen Qingyun shouted coldly.

“Heh heh. Whether it is wishful thinking or not, you shall soon see. Since you refuse to leave, I will deal with you after destroying it. For the sake of rebirth, what harm is there in killing one more person?”

The broken sword gave a sinister laugh.

“Book of the Sword God—Intimidation!”

With a slight movement of his will, an invisible force of imprisonment spread outward from Shen Qingyun.

This was Feng Chuxun’s Soul Sea. Using Intimidation here was the most effective method, and one that would not harm him.

The Book of the Sword God contained four techniques. Intimidation was not merely capable of shaking an opponent’s spirit; with a different application, it could also be used to imprison one. Shen Qingyun had chosen that very application.

“You—who exactly are you? How could you possess such an ability?”

The broken sword cried out in shock.

“You can even speak. It seems you are not ordinary after all.”

Shen Qingyun replied with calm indifference.