Vice Magistrate He braced himself as if facing a great enemy, fearing some villain had arrived. Magistrate Kong also quickly dodged to the side.
Amid the flying sand and stones, several bailiffs were simultaneously blasted into the courtyard, landing at everyone’s feet, clutching their stomachs and howling in pain.
Following the bailiffs was a small-statured child. The child slammed a dark crimson long staff onto the ground with a resounding crack.
The intimidating staff strike sent the bailiffs on the ground scattering away on all fours.
The child had delicate features, bright eyes, and jade-like skin, yet was swift and agile. He looked around twelve or thirteen years old. After landing and retracting his staff, he raised his chin and spoke in a voice that, though youthful, was as clear as a bell: “Which one of you is the Number One Sword God Under Heaven, Li Weiyi?!”
Magistrate Kong: “…Here for revenge?”
Even if seeking revenge, one should pick their moment. Can’t you see someone just lost their entire family?
Whose kid is this? No, no, no manners at all.
Li Weiyi: “…”
He shrank back in social embarrassment.
No one told me this game would loudly and repeatedly read out my player ID in front of everyone.
Fu Mingxia, however, remarked, “This child’s staff technique is not ordinary. It carries Buddhist power. Although its level is rather low, he claims to be a cultivator, so he must be connected to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple.”
“Correct.”
The little monk was dressed in tight-fitting plain clothes for ease of movement, a string of prayer beads as lustrous as jade around his neck. “I received a letter from the City Lord of Xuzhou Prefecture in Xixu Prefecture. His son, the Number One Sword God Under Heaven, Li Weiyi, is being pestered by monsters. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple sent me especially to—”
Li Weiyi: “You really don’t have to say the full name every time…”
Qin Jinghan burst out laughing. “You? A kid at the Bright Hall level? It seems the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple truly has no one left.”
“What do you mean, kid? My Dharma name is Rechen!”
Though his face was still childlike, his pupils were as beautiful and spirited as black obsidian, and his words were just as blunt. “You’re only a bit older than me. It’s perfectly normal for your realm to be a little higher. When I reach your age, I’ll definitely be stronger than you!”
Qin Jinghan nearly drew his saber. “Say that again?”
There was only one person in this world who could scorn his cultivation speed.
This snot-nosed brat? He should check his own level first.
Rechen scrutinized Li Weiyi. “Those two over there are cultivators, but the rest of you are mortals. The two with the long beards certainly aren’t the one. It seems you are the City Lord’s son.”
He surveyed the bloodstains in the courtyard. “Still too late. The Devil Qi here has already dispersed, and your entire family is dead.”
Li Weiyi felt even he found the statement blunt. “You’re really observant…”
Rechen seemed completely unaware that what he’d just said was inappropriate. “However, my master instructed me that although you are born with Innate Sword Bones, you could also enter our Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple—”
Li Weiyi glanced at Fu Mingxia beside him and politely refused. “No, I’ve already decided to go to Fuxi Mountain!”
Rechen frowned. “Fuxi is nowhere near as formidable as the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple. Do you know that our Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, since its… since its… since its…”
He suddenly choked. After a moment, he pulled a small slip of paper from his waistband, carefully unfolded it, and then loudly read out: “Since its establishment, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple has performed good deeds, accumulated virtue, and subdued Demons while exterminating Devils. The temple has 31,900 ordained cultivator disciples and 112,500 lay disciples. Its reputation among the righteous paths is second only to… a certain mountain.”
You know how to censor your rivals.
“Our temple guides people onto the Dao. We have a strong faculty, with hundreds of Golden Core Chan Masters personally guiding your cultivation path, Nascent Soul mentors leading you in Dao comprehension and Chan contemplation, and countless Buddhist High Monks. For a thousand years, we have strived to ‘deliver people, deliver the self, and deliver all living beings’…”
To use Fu Mingxia’s later assessment of this performance — it was a loud reading completely devoid of any emotion.
Having finished reading, Rechen put away his little slip of paper and looked confidently at Li Weiyi. “Well? Are you moved? Come back to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple with me right now!”
Brother, your advertisement is way too pushy.
Li Weiyi: “…? Go there for what?”
Rechen swung his long staff. “To become a monk! To study Buddhist dharma, enter my Buddhist gate, cultivate diligently, and when you’ve achieved something, to go kill every Devil creature under heaven, to avenge your tragically deceased parents and family! To hack them all to pieces, purify and exterminate them! To save thousands of living beings from the suffering caused by monsters and Devils! Isn’t this what you want?”
Li Weiyi backed up a few steps. “The very first step of becoming a monk is already impossible. And besides, my little sister still hasn’t woken up…”
He looked at the objective displayed in his quest guide:
Retrieve the lost Soul Spirit of your little sister, Su Yun.
And besides, what you just said doesn’t sound like a proper monk at all!
Why do you sound even crazier than a Devil Cultivator!
Rechen’s small face immediately darkened. “Don’t tell me you’re going to go back to Fuxi with these two?”
After a brief and awkward silence,
Li Weiyi: “…? I said that from the very beginning!”
“Ah, I’m so envious of you. You stumbled upon the Fuxi opportunity right as you enter the Dao.”
The previously arrogant Rechen wilted instantly, even trotting over. “Hey, let’s make a deal. I’ll let you go back to Fuxi with them, and you help me get Duan Nanyun’s autograph…”
Li Weiyi: “…?”
You’re pulling this stunt too?
Wait a minute, weren’t you just recruiting for the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple a second ago?
“Anyway, you’re not going to go, and I’ve already finished the recruitment procedure my master asked me to do,” Rechen said, touching his own head. “Now it’s time to plan for my own interests.”
He was in a hurry; otherwise, he wouldn’t have blasted his way in just because a few bailiffs stopped him.
Li Weiyi was silent for a moment. “…Your big plan is to ask for Duan Nanyun’s autograph?”
Qin Jinghan also sneered from the side. “Absolutely no ambition.”
“What does a mortal like you understand?”
Rechen raised his head to glare at Li Weiyi. “Last year, I had the fortune to see him from afar. What is an Immortal? Those who work for the imperial court behind you, or the ignorant commoners on the street, they call any cultivator they see ‘Immortal,’ never mind how weak they really are.”
Magistrate Kong: “…”
Thanks, I feel personally attacked.
Rechen continued, “Before Duan Nanyun, how many Sword Immortals had emerged from Fuxi Mountain over hundreds or even a thousand years? Just in the last hundred years, there were twenty or thirty! But they were all self-proclaimed, each one more watered-down than the last!”
Fu Mingxia nodded rarely. “That’s true.”
“I thought he was the same, until I saw his Foundation Establishment Single Strike. Only then did I understand what a true Sword Immortal is!”
Qin Jinghan said, “Then you’ve still seen too little.”
Provoked by him, Rechen, who had been about to stop, couldn’t help but blush and retort, “Before Duan Nanyun established his foundation, with just the body of the Bright Hall realm, he climbed the Twelve Immortal Mountains of Kunlun. The Kunlun disciples couldn’t stop him. They watched as he plucked the most spiritually potent Spirit Feather from the wings of each of the Twelve Mystic Birds of Kunlun and drifted away. Afterward, Duan Nanyun made the Spirit Feathers into a belt, capable of riding the wind, lightening the body, and providing an unending flow of Spiritual Power.”
Rechen’s gaze fell on Fu Mingxia’s waist, his expression excited. “Yes, yes, it’s that very belt! The Frightening Feather Mystic Bird Belt!”
He had finally seen the real thing today!
Qin Jinghan snorted coldly. “He lost a bet to Mingxia and owed her a treasure. Being a poor wretch with no money to buy one, he went to Kunlun to pluck bird feathers and made this handicraft to fob her off.”
Li Weiyi: …?
The Kunlun Mystic Birds, a fob-off?
Do you have any idea what “fobbing off” means?
Rechen continued his proof: “On the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Heaven Stone of the precipice at Sword Gate Prefecture, he carved twelve verses of ‘Sword Breaks Nine Thousand Autumns’ into the rock with his Sword Qi. Every word is a gem. Afterwards, any Sword Cultivator who went there to comprehend it was moved. If he’s not a genius, then what is he?”
Seeing Rechen’s starry-eyed adoration, Qin Jinghan said in exasperation, “He did that to pay off the massive debt he racked up from a previous treatment. He specifically turned it into a pay-per-view tourist attraction. Haven’t you heard that any Sword Cultivator who goes there has to pay an additional two mid-grade Spirit Stones as an observation fee?”
Rechen sighed. “To witness the sword scars of a true sword genius for just two Spirit Stones, how lucky they must be!”
Even Li Weiyi wanted to type out a string of ellipses at this point.
Rechen’s eyes were filled with pure worship for the strong. “Every time Duan Nanyun breaks through a realm, he comprehends a new sword move. When his Spiritual Light was unsealed, ‘Flying Sword Dividing Clouds’ was unstoppable. In the Bright Hall Realm, he had the sword move ‘Sun-Chasing Sea-Patrol,’ which possessed the grandeur to swallow mountains and rivers. At Foundation Establishment, with ten thousand people from the Three Great Sects watching, he comprehended a move called ‘Meteor White Feather,’ which shocked the world. For a hundred li around, the sun itself was eclipsed by the brilliance, and the matter even made the headlines of the Cultivation Daily!”
Rechen: I was there! I became a fan on the spot!
Qin Jinghan was tired of talking. “…That brat had all his move names chosen by Mingxia. The names he originally gave those moves were things like — ‘Get Down Here,’ ‘Full-Screen AOE,’ and ‘Crow Riding an Airplane’.”
Rechen finally couldn’t help but curse out loud. “You anti-fan, shut up! I will not believe your malicious rumors and slander!”
Li Weiyi nodded impartially from the side. The names Duan Nanyun originally chose were indeed simple and easy to understand.