M49S Vol 1 Chapter 3. The Dance of Sword Qi

They walked together toward the outer veranda of the building. By then, the stars were already hanging low over the surface of the lake. Tu Youqiong stepped forward with his sword and stood at the railing. He raised his weapon and began with a move called Lone Cloud and Setting Sun, then said, “Please.”

This match had everyone’s attention. Although the Knock Upon the Immortal Gate Assembly had not officially begun, the rivalries among sects had never ceased.

Chen Boyan said, “Youqiong, your opponent is Cai Mu, the youngest disciple of Elder Qiuye from Beidou. He wields the Star Sword and is especially skilled in the second form, Stars Shift and Converge. You can counter it with the ninth form of the Gushan Sword Manual, A Glimpse of the Soaring Swan.”

Jiang Xie, who stood nearby, suddenly looked grim. Chen Boyan had not lowered his voice at all. Was it arrogance, or was he mocking them on purpose?

Cai Mu had already stepped onto the railing with his sword drawn. He could not help but glance back at his senior. Chen Boyan had always seemed like someone who kept his distance, yet he understood his words so well it caught him off guard.

“Ignore him. You’re older than that kid, and your cultivation should be stronger,” Jiang Xie said quietly. Even so, he had his doubts. He couldn’t say for sure whether his junior would be able to win. The Gushan Sword Manual focused on elusive and unpredictable moves that were difficult to counter, and Tu Youqiong, the youngest among their disciples, had never left the sect or faced real battle. His thoughts were impossible to read.

Cai Mu steadied his grip. With so many eyes on him, there was no room left to hesitate. He raised his sword and stepped forward.

The two shot off the railing at the same time. They were still midair when the clash began.

One was the youngest disciple of Gushan Sword. The other, a rising star from Beidou. The outcome could tip either way.

The clang of two swords meeting rang out from within the building, layered over a solemn melody from a guqin that seemed to play in perfect time with the clash. After one exchange, both retreated. Their first strike had been a test to probe each other’s strength.

Drawn by the duel, Yao Guan stepped up beside Chen Boyan. “Do you really think your little junior’s A Glimpse of the Soaring Swan can break Beidou’s Stars Shift and Converge? I’ve heard of Cai Mu. He defeated the rogue cultivator Zhao Li last year.”

“That was a narrow win,” Chen Boyan replied calmly. “It happened during the thirteenth move, when Cai Mu used Stars Shift and Converge. At the time, he wielded the Qinghui Sword and struck Zhao Li with seventy percent of his remaining strength. Zhao Li’s bonded weapon was just an ordinary iron sword. It could not match Qinghui and had to retreat slightly to avoid being broken. Zhao Li had the advantage in swordsmanship. He also had the advantage in cultivation. The one thing Cai Mu could rely on was his weapon.”

Yao Guan found himself impressed. That match between juniors had taken place a year ago, and Chen Boyan had been far away at Gushan. Yet he knew the details with such precision. Even more astonishing, he still remembered them now.

Meanwhile, Tu Youqiong and Cai Mu had already exchanged three rounds. Neither held the upper hand for now. But there was something interesting about the way they fought. Tu Youqiong, following Chen Boyan’s advice, had been trying to use techniques from A Glimpse of the Soaring Swan. Cai Mu, on the other hand, had been deliberately avoiding Stars Shift and Converge, the move he was best at.

That choice was beginning to cost him.

In holding back his strength just to avoid giving the opponent a chance to counter, he not only restrained his own abilities, but also lost momentum.

“Cai Mu, fight the way you always do,” Jiang Xie finally called out. If Cai Mu lost because of a single comment from Chen Boyan, it would not just be embarrassing. It would disgrace their entire sect.

Jiang Xie’s voice jolted Cai Mu awake. He adjusted his mindset at once. Tu Youqiong, after all, was still a boy. High on adrenaline, he had thrown himself into the match with all his energy. He never noticed the subtle shift in his opponent’s mood. All he remembered was that his senior had told him A Glimpse of the Soaring Swan could counter Stars Shift and Converge. So he kept waiting for that move to appear. When it never came, he started to get anxious.

“Where is it? Aren’t you going to use Stars Shift and Converge?” Tu Youqiong shouted.

Cai Mu knew Tu Youqiong had done it on purpose, but he still had to admit that one sudden shout had rattled him. He swung his sword, releasing a burst of qi that forcefully knocked Tu Youqiong’s blade off course. Their swords collided, and the scattered sword qi crashed into the surface of the lake, sending a line of waves rippling outward.

Tu Youqiong gave a genuine shout of praise. “Impressive.”

At that moment, Cai Mu saw an opening. A perfect moment to unleash Stars Shift and Converge. His mind cleared like never before. He had won many matches in the past, but he knew people whispered behind his back. They said he relied on a fine sword, on a powerful master. Maybe this match, difficult as it was, would become his turning point.

This was it.

Cai Mu snapped his wrist. The sword in his hand gave off a sharp vibration. Light gathered at the tip like the glow of stars. Tu Youqiong squinted at the glare, just as Cai Mu’s figure split into a blur. In the blink of an eye, he had vanished from sight and reappeared behind Tu Youqiong.

That was Stars Shift and Converge. Tu Youqiong’s scalp tingled at the sudden pressure. Without a second’s delay, he launched the first form of A Glimpse of the Soaring Swan.

Treading Snow!

His foot barely touched the water as he turned midair, his movement as light as falling snow and as fluid as flight. Cai Mu’s blade sliced through the edge of his robe, but not his skin. Before the sound of tearing fabric had even faded, Tu Youqiong’s sword came slicing down from above.

Cai Mu reacted instantly, surging spiritual energy along his blade. Light burst outward, and the two swords met in a blinding clash. One struck from above, the other rose to block, and their opposing energies collided with such force that each time it spilled over, the lake erupted in sprays of water.

Inside the building, the guqin had grown louder, no longer soft or melodic, but ringing with the sound of battle, each note crisp and hard, like weapons clashing in rhythm.

Tu Youqiong felt his blood surge. He poured everything he had into his sword. Just as the stalemate broke, Cai Mu’s figure shifted again. But this time, Tu Youqiong followed closely behind, refusing to fall behind even half a step.

The crowd watched as the two figures flickered across the lakeside. One moment, they were on the eastern edge. The next, they had crossed to the west. Swordlight wrapped around them, streaking through the dark beneath the silver glow of the moon.

Their next clash sent a metallic cry echoing across the water. Both were thrown back by the impact.

The onlookers murmured in admiration. Gushan Sword Sect truly lived up to its name. Even their youngest disciple was not someone to take lightly. Beidou Sect, too, had proven its strength. As one of the fiercest rising powers in recent years, even a single disciple among them could hold his ground.

It was fortunate that the elders were all attending a banquet at the Wang residence today. If they had been present, a round of scolding would have been unavoidable.

For the moment, the two fighters seemed evenly matched. But several people began recalling Chen Boyan’s earlier remark, and faint frowns appeared across their faces. The phrase “can be countered” had not been a simple observation. More than anything, it carried a quiet but absolute confidence, the kind that came from someone who had been shaped by Gushan’s teachings.

Yet watching the fight now left a different impression.

The crowd whispered again. Yao Guan looked around, then paused as something came to mind. A subtle smile touched his lips. It seemed Gushan had remained silent for far too long. These younger cultivators had already forgotten just how intricate the Gushan Sword Manual truly was.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd slapped the railing with a loud smack, as if struck by a flash of insight. “I remember now!”

“What?” The people nearby jumped in surprise. But just then, something on the lake shifted.

The fight had taken a sudden turn.

Cai Mu was being driven back, forced to rely more and more on Stars Shift and Converge just to keep up with Tu Youqiong’s relentless pressure. He changed positions again, expecting Tu Youqiong to chase him as always.

But this time, Tu Youqiong didn’t follow.

Had he given up?

Breathing heavily, Cai Mu allowed himself a moment to relax. Yet inside Chanhua Pavilion, every spectator was nearly shouting from their seats. Their eyes were fixed on the scene above him.

Tu Youqiong was right overhead.

The movement technique from the Gushan Sword Manual was known for its subtlety and brilliance. Elusive and weightless, it was unlike anything else in the world. Even if Tu Youqiong had yet to master it fully, it was more than enough to throw Cai Mu off his rhythm.

Now, suspended midair, Tu Youqiong formed the sword seal with his fingers. His blade pointed downward, and in an instant, a dozen streams of sword qi burst out from the lake below. Each one shaped like a miniature sword, aimed straight at Cai Mu, surrounding him from all sides.

“It’s Tracing Shadows,” the man who had slapped the railing explained, finally putting words to what everyone else had been watching in stunned silence. “This is Tracing Shadows. Every step in Treading Snow leaves behind a mark of sword qi. Without even realizing it, the opponent ends up inside its net. The older version of this technique was even stronger. It created a full force of sword intent that could slice a man apart. That version was called Without a Trace.”

Several young cultivators who had never seen the former glory of Gushan Sword Sect inhaled sharply. To kill without leaving a trace was far too ruthless.

Their eyes turned to Cai Mu, who had clearly lost the match. Some even began to feel a touch of sympathy. Fortunately, Tu Youqiong’s cultivation was not high enough. If it had been, this would not have ended so mildly.

But Jiang Xie and the others from Beidou did not see it the same way. Watching Cai Mu return with a hollow look in his eyes, as if he still had no idea how he had lost, they felt a rising frustration. That frustration, however, remained buried. No one let it show.

Jiang Xie glanced coldly at Tu Youqiong, who was now bouncing around and grinning in high spirits, then turned without a word and left with his group.

Tu Youqiong, riding the thrill of victory, snorted and made a face at their backs, then went right back to enjoying the praise and congratulations from the surrounding cultivators and his senior brothers and sisters.

“Senior Dai, you better not forget you promised to let me ride your crane!”

Dai Xiaoshan gave a helpless laugh. “I remember, I remember. I won’t forget.”

Chen Boyan seemed to be pondering something else entirely. He called over a servant from the Wang household and asked, “Who was playing the guqin earlier?”

“It was one of the residence musicians,” the servant replied respectfully.

Chen Boyan narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced toward the partially open window. Beneath the plum tree, the space was already empty.

Elsewhere, Tu Youqiong was still floating on cloud nine, but as soon as Chen Boyan cast a look in his direction, he fell completely silent.

The crowd soon began to disperse. Yao Guan, having enjoyed the spectacle, no longer brought up the matter of Meng Qiqi. Meanwhile, the disciples of Gushan Sword Sect were still brimming with curiosity about their newly arrived junior sister. Questions came from all directions, directed at her and at their little martial uncle. In the end, it was only thanks to Song Ru, the sole female disciple among the five, that the girl was finally rescued from their barrage. She fixed her face into a stern expression and gave a sharp reprimand.

“Whatever you want to ask, save it for tomorrow.”

Though still in the bloom of youth, Song Ru carried a natural air of authority that made her seem more severe than even Chen Boyan. As their senior, her word was final, and none of the younger disciples dared disobey.

When everyone had gone off to rest, Song Ru returned alone to speak with Chen Boyan.

“What is Little Martial Uncle trying to do? Where is he now?”

At the moment, Chen Boyan was the only one who knew that Meng Qiqi had returned. But even he had no way of guessing what that man truly intended. The thought brought back memories from years ago, questions he still could not answer.

The name Meng Qiqi had always carried an air of mystery within Gushan. Among all the disciples of the sect, only a few had ever seen his face. What was even stranger was that, for several generations now, Gushan Sword Sect had witnessed a recurring pattern. No matter how outstanding the other disciples were, the one with the highest cultivation was always the Little Martial Uncle.

The Little Martial Uncle of the previous generation had been a genius beyond compare, his name known across the lands. It was he who brought Meng Qiqi back to Gushan, yet for some unknown reason, Meng Qiqi did not become his disciple. Instead, he was accepted by the sect Master of the time and eventually became the current Little Martial Uncle.

Chen Boyan had entered Gushan four years ago. At the time, he had hoped to take Meng Qiqi as his master. It was partly because of that strange pattern, and partly because Meng Qiqi alone had mastered the most intricate move within the Gushan Sword Manual, Lotus Bloom.

But Meng Qiqi had rejected him without even granting a meeting.

It was the first time in Chen Boyan’s life that he had tasted rejection. He had knelt respectfully before the small building known as Deep Within the White Clouds and listened as that man’s voice drifted out from inside, calm and distant.

“You may leave. I will not take you as my disciple.”

That voice had sounded impossibly far away, unreachable like mist. Chen Boyan had raised his head to look toward the building, its door tightly shut. Through the thin paper windows, he could just make out the shifting silhouette of gauze curtains within. Behind that faint veil, the figure inside was blurred, like a cloud hanging at the edge of the sky.

Chen Boyan had once asked him why, but he gave no answer and never came out to meet him. Even when Meng Qiqi’s senior brother, who had just taken over as sect leader, came to persuade him, he remained silent.

At the time, the previous sect leader had just passed away. Soon after, Meng Qiqi entered closed-door cultivation, which made it even more impossible for Chen Boyan to see him. A year later, when he appeared, he left again almost immediately, carrying the late sect leader’s ashes to return them to the ancestral tombs in the Northern Sea. He did not come back for three years.

Chen Boyan had only seen him once, on the day he departed. The only others present were his master and a few martial uncles. Meng Qiqi wore a veiled hat, his face hidden behind gauze, just like the day he had spoken from behind the screen in that quiet building. Once again, Chen Boyan found himself shut out, unable to see him clearly.

He had only ever learned bits and pieces about Meng Qiqi’s appearance from his master’s vague descriptions. And now, the man who had refused to take him as a disciple had suddenly appeared again, this time bringing a junior martial sister?

The question rose again in his heart. Why? Was he truly not as worthy as this young girl?

“Senior Brother?” Song Ru’s voice broke his thoughts. She was surprised to see him so lost in them.

Snapping back to the present, Chen Boyan let out a quiet sigh. He was slightly frustrated with himself for letting this old matter unsettle him again. “Little Martial Uncle must have his reasons. Let’s just wait and see.”