Chapter 1165: The Ice Jiao Tribe
At midnight, Xue Shilou closed his eyes and focused his mind, treating the rake in his hand as a sword. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and swung it forcefully, every movement following a coherent pattern.
Even the old masters at Muxue City, who excelled in rake techniques, would have found his display impressive. Xue Shilou’s performance was much better than theirs.
But Xue Shilou felt that this was far from enough.
Not fast enough, not fast enough; it needs to be faster, faster!
The rake left a trail of afterimages in its wake. In the end, he panted heavily. He planted the rake in the ground and leaned against it to keep himself upright, doing his best to maintain the elegant bearing of a sword cultivator.
Fellow Daoist Lu telling me to practice rake techniques must carry a deeper meaning. It’s definitely more than just teaching the students.
As Xue Shilou gazed at the rake, which handle bore deep finger marks, his mind wandered.
Rake, rake... Realization dawned upon Xue Shilou.
That's right. Why didn’t I think of this? When wielding a rake, its nine tines will strike the enemy together. Doesn’t this align with the principle behind “One Sword Into Ten Thousand Swords” and “Ten Thousand Swords Return to One?”
For a rake to simultaneously be in accordance with completely opposing sword techniques, could it be that these two share some connection?
Fellow Daoist Lu must have been hinting at this!
At this point, Xue Shilou felt that his mind had cleared. He waited at Lu Yang’s door early in the morning to express his gratitude.
“Many thanks for your guidance, Fellow Daoist Lu. I’ve comprehended it.”
Lu Yang was speechless. He had spent the entire night playing with the Everlasting Immortal Fairy, and his head was still spinning. Wait, what have you comprehended?
“Not bad. It’s good that you’ve comprehended it.”
~~~
Hunter Shi’s home...
Shi Yi had a long, long dream. He dreamed that he fell into an icy hole and was swept away by a rapid underground river.
Logically speaking, falling into an underground river should have felt freezing cold, yet he felt unusually warm, as if he was born to live there.
Shi Yi’s eyes flew open, and he found himself standing outside in the snowy plains. Though he was bare-chested, he didn’t feel cold at all.
“Hmm? How did I get here?”
Shi Yi felt an itch on his arm and scratched it instinctively, only to realize that something was wrong. He looked down and saw crystalline snake scales growing on his arm.
“Dad, look at my arm!” Shi Yi rushed inside to find his father. His father was a renowned hunter. Although he was a mortal, he had used traps to kill Level One and Level Two Qi Training demon beasts.
Hunter Shi was chopping wood. Seeing the snake scales on Shi Yi’s arms, the axe slipped from his hands and dropped into the snow with a thud.
“Sigh, so you’ve awakened after all?”
“Dad, what’s happening to me? You know, don’t you?” Noticing his father’s reaction, Shi Yi understood that the man had long anticipated this day.
“Does this have anything to do with my mom?”
Shi Yi had never met his mother. Although his father said that she had died in childbirth, Shi Yi had always felt something was off in his tone when he spoke about it. Shi Yi suspected there was more to the story.
Hunter Shi told his son to go inside and put on his clothes. Then the father and son sat down at the table.
“Your dad had originally planned to take this secret to my grave, but since you’ve inherited your mother’s bloodline, there’s no point hiding it from you anymore.” Hunter Shi took a drag from his pipe, his mind drifting back to events twenty years in the past.
“Twenty years ago, I was out hunting when I came across a woman in the snow, as beautiful as a fairy. She was badly injured, so I brought her home.
“When the fairy regained consciousness, she viewed me as an enemy. But as we spent more time together, her attitude gradually softened.
“She told me that she was at the Void Refinement Stage, her cultivation extremely unstable. She had been attacked while training in the outside world and had fallen unconscious from her injuries.
“You’ve probably guessed her identity by now. She was your mother, Bingwu.”[1]
“As time passed, we fell in love, and you were born. Our little family of three lived happily together.
“Unfortunately, good things don’t last forever. Your mother’s tribesmen came. They wanted to take her away and kill both you and me.
“That was when I learned that your mother wasn’t human. She was from the Ice Jiao Tribe.”
“The legendary Ice Jiao Tribe who turned their breath into ice?” Shi Yi jolted.
“Yes. And your mother was the Holy Maiden of the Ice Jiao Tribe, the one with the greatest chance of transforming into a dragon in the past thousand years.”
“Marrying me and giving birth to you was a violation of the tribe’s taboos. It represented misfortune. Only when your mother threatened to take her own life did the Ice Jiao Tribe spare the two of us.
“The scales on your arm are the mark of the Ice Jiao Tribe.
“I thought you would never awaken the bloodline and live out your days in peace, just as your mother wished. I never expected... I never expected you would eventually awaken the Ice Jiao Bloodline after all.”
Shi Yi clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, his knuckles turning white. “Where is my mom?!”
Hunter Shi sighed. “She’s likely imprisoned in the Ice Jiao Tribe’s forbidden grounds. Before she left, your mother told me to make sure you never entertain the thought of rescuing her. Even the higher-ups of Muxue City have to show some deference to the Ice Jiao Tribe. How could you possibly stand against them?”
Shi Yi fell silent, his heart bleeding, acutely aware of how powerless he was.
“That’s enough. Look at the time. Go to class.”
~~~
The Ice Jiao Tribe had a lifelike ice sculpture of an ice dragon. Suddenly, one of the dragon scales on the statue shimmered. The tribesman guarding the ice sculpture immediately reported it to the tribe chieftain.
The Ice Jiao Tribe Chieftain was persuading a stunningly beautiful married woman. “Bingwu, if you obediently marry my son, the strongest bloodlines will be combined, and perhaps your child will be born with dragon blood.”
“Dream on!” the beautiful woman refused coldly.
Just then, a subordinate came to report. Upon hearing that the ice dragon sculpture’s scale had glimmered, the tribe chieftain was somewhat surprised. “Oh, another tribesman has been born?”
He hadn’t heard of anyone in the tribe being pregnant.
He went to the ice sculpture, did some calculations with his fingers, and muttered something under his breath as his expression turned into one of displeasure. “So it’s that bastard child Bingwu left in the outside world.
“To think that mongrel would actually awaken our tribe’s bloodline. How absurd. It’s a defilement of our bloodline.
“Bingwei, BingWu,[2] where are you?”
“Your Excellency!” Two jiao-dragons appeared and knelt before the tribe chieftain.
“Go to Muxue City and kill that bastard child called Shi Yi.”
“As you command!”
~~~
Bingwei and BingWu were the tribe chieftain’s trusted confidants. They were biological brothers, both at the Advanced Divine Transfiguration Stage. Together, they were unbeatable by anyone below the Fusion Stage.
“That mongrel is here.”
Bingwei and BingWu had inquired about Shi Yi’s whereabouts and learned that he was studying fist techniques and rake techniques at a martial arts school.
“How pitiable. Mortals’ worldview is so limited. They try every method to become stronger, yet in the end, they only end up learning some fake tricks at a martial arts school.”
Bingwei and BingWu were exceedingly haughty and had no qualms about killing in public. In fact, slaughtering Shi Yi in public would be perfect to demonstrate the Ice Jiao Tribe’s might.
They kicked open the martial arts school’s front door and swept their arrogant gazes over the students, who were chanting “hey!” and “ha!” as they swung their rakes, practicing some incomprehensible movements. Shi Yi was among them, soaked in sweat as he put his all into the training.
All the students turned to look at Bingwei and BingWu.
Looks like the standard of the teacher here is just...
“X-Xue...”
Why is that killing star Xue Shilou here?
Xue Shilou frowned as he sized up the two Ice Jiao. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
The moment Bingwei and BingWu laid eyes on Xue Shilou, they froze. The Ice Jiao Tribe was born immune to cold, yet in this moment, they felt as if they had become mortals drenched from head to toe by a basin of ice water.
Obsequious smiles crept onto their faces as they slowly backed away, propping up the door they had broken with a kick, attempting to put it back in place.
“We heard the martial arts school’s door was about to break. Indeed, it’s so old that it fell apart at the slightest touch. We’ll fix it right away.”
1. Bingwu translates directly to “ice dance.” ☜
2. Though both “wu” sound the same, the characters are different. The “wu” here means “martial.” I’m using “BingWu” here to distinguish it from “Bingwu.” ☜
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