Chapter 362: The Divine Marquis of Jun Mountain (3)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
After defeating Kuang Yazi, Xuanyuan Chao had been sitting in the position of Saber Chief for more than 40 years. He seemed to have unlimited glory, but in fact, his life was far less fulfilling than it was before he was 30 years old.
Because without an opponent like Kuang Yazi, he didn’t know for whom he should practice the saber in his hand from then on.
Back then, Xuanyuan Chao had been very disgusted with Zheng Feng and didn’t show him much mercy. One of the reasons was that he wanted his daughter to enter the palace.
Another reason was that Zheng Feng was too mediocre. He had even practiced the Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade crookedly. He was unworthy of this saber that he had worked so hard to catch up to for thirty years!
And this young saberman in front of him looked a little stronger than Zheng Feng.
After Xuanyuan Chao glanced at the Hornless Dragon Saber, he looked up at the young saberman in front of the wordless stele. “Are you Ye Jingtang?”
Ye Jingtang had arrived at Jun Mountain Terrace in the wee hours of the morning. He had been secretly watching the battle just now. When he saw that Qiu Tianhe was at a disadvantage and might be hacked to death, he came out to disrupt the situation.
Ye Jingtang had grown up hearing the name ‘Xuanyuan Chao’. Now that he saw the current Saber Chief, who was more than two meters tall, up close, he indeed felt pressured. But his expression was very natural as he replied calmly, “Ye Jingtang from Liang Province. My father is Zheng Feng.”
Buzz!
As soon as these words were spoken, the Jianghu people on the lake who heard it were in an uproar.
Zheng Feng was not very famous. But with the title of the Three Heroes of Cloud Lake and the matter of Qiu Tianhe attacking the marriage envoy team and kidnapping the bride, the saber users of Jianghu basically knew a thing or two about the whole story of the storm back then.
Back then, Xuanyuan Hongzhi had secretly provoked and instigated various people. Xuanyuan Chao had killed a junior who was clearly far weaker than him and came to propose marriage. He was still disgraced to this day.
Now that Zheng Feng’s descendant was here, it went without saying what he wanted to do.
All the people present focused their gazes, sized up Ye Jingtang, and quietly asked about this child’s background.
Although Xuanyuan Chao’s son had died, there was no anger on his face. He only said calmly, “I crippled your father, and you killed my son. Do you want us to take revenge on each other, or do you want the Imperial Court to be the peacemaker and write off the past between us?”
Xuanyuan Chao’s words seemed to mean that he wouldn’t pursue his son’s death and wanted to end their grudges, but this was actually not the case.
This was because Xuanyuan Chao knew how his son had died. His son had hired people to kill Ye Jingtang, but they had failed and died because he had been blind and took the initiative to find trouble instead of it being Ye Jingtang’s revenge. It had nothing to do with the enmity of the past.
Ye Jingtang’s foster father had been crippled, and he had been assassinated by the people of Jun Mountain Terrace. Not only had he not taken revenge, but his hatred had even intensified. How could he agree to write it off?
Xuanyuan Chao had spoken so generously that he wouldn’t pursue his son’s death and only said it in front of tens of thousands of people for the Imperial Court to hear.
Ye Jingtang had the Prince of Jing backing him, and Xuanyuan Chao was a founding marquis. Whoever killed the other would arouse the dissatisfaction of the Imperial Court.
Xuanyuan Chao first proposed to shake hands and make peace, but Ye Jingtang refused and insisted on taking revenge. It wouldn’t be reasonable for the Prince of Jing to pursue Jun Mountain Terrace’s responsibility afterward.
Ye Jingtang had always known that it would be difficult for the Imperial Court to handle this matter. He also understood Xuanyuan Chao’s plan and directly said, “You crippled my father and made him die young. Your son came to kill me and almost buried me in Baywater Town. How can 1 write off such great hatred?”
“In that case, there can only be revenge.” Xuanyuan Chao’s long hair fluttered in the wind as he examined Ye Jingtang with a condescending gaze. “You’re just like your father. You’re too rash and straightforward. If you want revenge, you should have the strength before you come. Coming here now, you’re just paying with your life for my son’s.”
Since Ye Jingtang was already here, regardless of whether he could win or not, he had to be firm in his words. “I’m afraid that in two years, you won’t be able to carry your saber, and my revenge won’t be satisfying.”
At this point, there was no need to say anything else.
All around Jun Mountain Terrace fell silent again.
Qiu Tianhe had already sheathed his saber. Perhaps he was afraid that Ye Jingtang would be careless and end up like Zheng Feng, so he went over to Ye Jingtang and prepared to fight two against one if the situation turned bad.
Xuanyuan Chao didn’t care about this and turned to look at the lake.
On the lake, the boat that had almost been overturned was lying on the shore.
An ‘accompanying concubine’ dressed in white with a veiled hat on her head carried a few weapons and jumped onto Jun Mountain Terrace.
Xuanyuan Chao glanced at the weapons a few times. His gaze first landed on the five-foot-long saber, and surprise appeared in his eyes. “This Muqing Saber is a weapon researched by the Heavenly South’s ‘Saber Freak’ Sun Muqing. Sun Muqing first used a light saber but lost to Kuang Yazi. Later, he changed to a heavy saber but lost to me. He knew that he had no hope of becoming the Saber Chief and lived in seclusion in Yellow Springs Town. He spent his life researching how to break these two saber techniques and forged this saber. Are you going to use this saber against me?”
When Ye Jingtang heard this, he understood why the lady boss had been very unhappy when the shopkeeper said that he would give him the saber. If he guessed correctly, this saber should be a relic of the late shopkeeper.
He had indeed borrowed the saber to see if he could study the method to break the Dragon Slaying Decree. But even so, it was impossible for him to use it to deal with Xuanyuan Chao with the proficiency he had gained in one night.
When he practiced his saber skills last night, he realized that this saber was too long. Drawing the saber with his left hand wasn’t smooth enough, and the move used to receive the Dragon Slaying Decree was too light. Although the attack range had doubled, and he could even use moves such as Yellow Dragon Crouching and Azure Dragon Claw, there was not much point in using them like this. Using them with a spear would be even more powerful.
After seeing Daoist Xuanji’s martial arts attainments of ‘a basic attack is a big move, and people can even form their own style with a foxtail’, he thought for half the night and felt that his train of thought regarding the saber should be wrong.
For a saber technique to reach the next level, the focus was on the ‘technique’ rather than the ‘saber’.
A truly good saber technique should indeed walk the path of the doctrine of the mean, but it should be ‘it can be long or short, fast or slow, heavy or light’. With a wooden stick in hand, one could also have the power to split mountains, and with a heavy saber in hand, one could also be as agile as the wind.
To achieve this effect, it depended on the person using the saber, not the style of the saber.
Hearing Xuanyuan Chao ask, Ye Jingtang shook his head. “My previous thoughts were the same as the senior who forged this saber. 1 thought that if I wanted to break all the saber techniques in the world, my saber had to be neither heavy nor light, long nor short, fast nor slow.
“In the end, 1 realized that everything was possible, but nothing was perfect.
“I can use this saber to break your Dragon Slaying Decree, and I can use the Jun Mountain Saber to break Monk Shenchen’s golden body. 1 can use this saber to break Kuang Yazi’s Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade, and the Hornless Dragon Saber is probably faster than Lu Taiqing.
“This saber is a good saber, but those who are not capable can’t use it well, while those who can use it well don’t need it anymore.”
Daoist Xuanji, who had been quietly acting as a pretty face, tilted her head slightly when she heard this, her eyes revealing some surprise.
After all, she had only casually said, ‘That’s not how you use a saber’ last night when she was drunk. Unexpectedly, after she woke up, Ye Jingtang really had some new insights.
Xuanyuan Chao commented, “Good comprehension. However, you haven’t practiced to the level of ‘no saber is better than having a saber’. Without this saber, what can you use to break the Dragon Slaying Decree?”
Ye Jingtang held the hilt of his saber with his left hand and raised his bamboo hat slightly. “Among all the martial arts in the world, only speed can’t be broken. The Eight-Steps Frenzied Blade is the fastest saber technique in the world, so it’s naturally the strongest saber technique. There shouldn’t be any opponents. To be targeted and interrupted, it can only be said that the user isn’t fast enough, not that the saber technique isn’t good enough.
“The fact that you could break Kuang Yazi’s saber meant that Kuang Yazi’s saber hadn’t reached the pinnacle of speed. It’s not that your saber technique is better.
“I’m different. My saber is faster than Kuang Yazi’s..”
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