A shocking piece of news had swallowed up another piece of news that was already shocking.
The latter was written by Deputy Administrator Song Dongming, who was called "illegitimate" outside of Beiliang. He submitted a memorial to Great Peace City, which shook the court of Liyang. Hsu Fengnian, the King of Beiliang, actually requested to send troops to pacify Guangling Dao when Beimang's army was clearly pressuring the border. There were many people who speculated that Beiliang was finally going to rebel. Perhaps they had already received the personal promise of the Empress of Beimang. Pacifying Guangling Dao was just an excuse to invite the wolf into the house. The new King of Beiliang, Hsu Fengnian, had such evil intentions! But soon, another piece of news that had nothing to do with the political situation but was even more interesting for the officials and the common people to chew on began to spread. It quickly spread all over the country, especially in the capital. The level of enthusiasm was no less than when Wang Xianzhi left Martial Emperor City and when Qi Yanglong entered Great Peace City.
The Sword Tomb of the Wu family, which had always been focused on swordsmanship, not only did someone openly leave the sacred place of death in the hearts of countless outstanding swordsmen for hundreds of years, but also sent out nearly a hundred people in one go!
The Sword Tomb of the Wu family was a place of death because if the swordsmen of the world wanted to truly make a name for themselves, they had to go through the Wu family and compete with the Wu family or their sword slaves. Only those who could walk out of the Sword Tomb with a famous sword from the Sword Tomb could be considered accomplished in swordsmanship. Even the previous leader of the Dongyue Sword Pool, Song Nianqing, lost to Wang Xianzhi in his youth and caused the reputation of the Dongyue Sword Pool to plummet. The real opportunity for the Dongyue Sword Pool to return to the pinnacle of the martial arts world was when Song Nianqing went to the Sword Tomb in his prime and returned safely. Even if he did not pull out a famous sword from the Sword Tomb, he still helped the Dongyue Sword Pool rise again. Although there were people close to the Sword Pool who often said that Song Nianqing's return meant that his swordsmanship was better than the Wu family's, most people only treated it as a joke. Song Nianqing had never said such words in the latter half of his life.
The Wu family had been famous for eight hundred years and could be traced back to the Great Qin Dynasty. After that, there were several great dynasties that sought to dominate the Central Plains. For example, the number one swordsman from six hundred years ago was the Wu family's Sword Crown, Wu Qiang, who had dominated the martial arts world at the age of thirty-one. The number one swordsman at the founding of the Great Feng Dynasty was still the leader of the Wu family, Wu He. It was rumored that on his deathbed, he laughed and said, "I've waited for sixty years, but there is still no sword in the world." It was enough to show his pride and confidence. Therefore, no one in the martial arts world could deny the fact that no matter how many swordsmen there were in the world, there were only two Sword Forests. One was the Wu family, and the other was for all swordsmen outside of the Wu family.
There were sword geniuses who were famous in every generation of the martial arts world. Every hundred years, there would be countless new talents of the martial arts world and experts who believed that their swordsmanship was unparalleled in the martial arts world who would go to the Wu family to prove themselves. They wanted to prove that the Wu family's swordsmanship was inferior to the world's swordsmanship.
However, except for a very small number of swordsmen who succeeded in their swordsmanship and retired, the vast majority would remain in the Sword Mound as slaves of the Wu family for the rest of their lives, practicing the legendary Sitting Sword Technique and Withered Sword Technique. After the Wu family set down this extremely unreasonable and harsh rule, only a few people left the Sword Mound, and all of them were top-notch swordsmen who had made a name for themselves when they returned to the martial arts world.
As a result, the Wu family's Sword Mound was said to be a land of death for swordsmen.
However, it was normal for the Wu family to become the holy land in the eyes of all the swordsmen in the world. The Wu family had passed down their legacies and collected their treasures. Their famous swords had already been piled up into mountains, and they had countless rare and unique sword manuals that had long been lost. If they could retrieve any sword or manual, not only would they be able to benefit from it for the rest of their lives, entering and exiting the Sword Mound was also a shortcut for a swordsman to climb to the top of the Sword Forest overnight.
Two hundred years ago, the Wu family had defeated ten thousand cavalry with nine swords, greatly damaging the vitality of the Sword Mound. Most importantly, it had forcefully severed many of their lineages, causing the Wu family to still be unable to fully recover. However, in the recent hundred years, two generations of swordsmen, Li Chungang, had gone to the Wu family's Sword Mound and obtained the wooden bull. Đồng Thái had even come from the Wu family and was half a member of the Wu family!
In the end, the truth could not be contained. Even though the imperial court and the local officials along the way wanted to suppress the news, the sensational truth of the Wu family's hundred cavalry and hundred swords leaving the Sword Mound still slowly began to surface. The news grew more and more intense. More and more well-informed people of the martial arts world began to count people, counting just which senior swordsmen had been unlucky enough to become slaves of the Wu family in the past hundred years and which swordsmen still had hope of being able to make it out of the Sword Mound this time. Along the way, the swords used by those swordsmen and the unique skills they had all became the most interesting topics of the imperial court.
Six years ago, Zhang Luantai had risen to fame in Liaodong and was known as the best left-handed swordsman in the world. He was an expert who had withstood a hundred moves from the old Minister of War and the new pillar of the country, Gu Jiantang. After going to the Sword Mound of the Wu family, there had been no news of him. This time, he might be able to see the light of day again.
Ten years ago, Liu Jianzhi, who had competed with Qi Jiajie for the title of the best swordsman in the capital, was definitely among them.
Eighteen years ago, the famous young master of the Apricot Sword Furnace in Gangnam-do, Yue Zhuowu, was also an important person who had gone to the Sword Mound to ask for swords but had disappeared without a trace.
Twenty-seven years ago, Xie Chengan, who had been nicknamed "Han Banjian" after losing to the Sword Emperor of Xishu by only half a sword by a hair's breadth, was also very likely to go to Liangzhou with a sword on his back.
More than thirty years ago, there was Cui Mei, who had the two reputations of "Bodhisattva Sword" and "Sword Monk". Before he shaved his head and became a monk, he was once a prodigy of the Cui family in Qinghe.
More than forty years ago, Gongsun Xiushui, who came from a humble family in the Southern Tang Empire, was not only the best swordsman in the Southern Tang Empire, but also the best swordsman in the Southern Tang Empire. Although he did not have a famous nickname, Gongsun Xiushui's domineering swordsmanship was praised by many Jianghu veterans. This person's reason for going to the Sword Mound of the Wu family was also very interesting. I, Gongsun Xiushui, was born at the wrong time. Since I could not see Li Chungang's true face, I went to the place where Li Chungang had walked before. As a result, something happened and I could not leave the Sword Mound of the Wu family. At that time, the Emperor of the Southern Tang Empire had personally written a letter to the Wu family in a very respectful manner. Unexpectedly, the Wu family still did not pay any attention to this human emperor.
Counting further back, there were naturally many famous swordsman talents. However, in today's Jianghu, there was no way for them to appear in the world alive. After all, those who were arrogant enough to go to the Wu family to ask for a sword were already quite old. Otherwise, they would not have dared to go to the Wu family. Even if they were thirty years old, they should be seventy or seventy years old now.
Between Zhang Luantai and Gongsun Xiushui, who were the most talked about, there were also six or seven female swordsmen who were mentioned a lot. Perhaps their swordsmanship was not as good as these two, Liu Jian, Xie Cheng 'an, and the others. However, before these female swordsmen entered the Wu family, which was as deep as the ocean, they were all favored in Jianghu. They were all once the young Jianghu men of every generation admired them for a long time. Who knew how many Jianghu men were willing to kneel under their skirts? Of the six or seven women, the last one, the "Literary Sword" Nalan Huaiyu, who had unfortunately entered the Wu family's Sword Catacomb, was the most imaginative. After all, it was not too long ago, and she was a woman who had made it onto the rankings and won the Rouge Rankings twice in a row. Even now, many of the Jianghu masters who had made a name for themselves would smile when they talked about this outstanding swordswoman. Then, they would smile to their juniors and say something about the same thing. "Somewhere in Goddess Nalan's territory, there is a perfect combination of movement and stillness. The scenery is beautiful." If these martial arts masters had their wives by their side, most of them would glare resentfully.
From the Wu family's Sword Catacomb in the heart of the Central Plains to Beiliang, countless people raised their heads in anticipation, waiting bitterly, just to catch a glimpse of the hundred Withered Swordsmen of the Sword Catacomb gathered together.
Even though the local government had received orders from the Imperial Court to prohibit officials of all ranks from participating, there were still many officials who took off their official robes and traveled on light carriages, choosing a good spot to quietly wait for the sight of the hundred riders crossing the border.
However, many of the rumors were false, and the group of Withered Swordsmen naturally did not stop. The Wu family had dared to treat the emperors of previous dynasties coldly. Even in the peaceful Liyang Dynasty, when the Emperor of the Zhao family invited the current head of the Wu family to leave the mountains and enter the capital, he was still treated with respect. This caused many people on the line to miss out on an opportunity, and they all beat their feet and stomped their chests, feeling regretful. If a normal person wanted to ride a carriage and ride a horse to catch up to this strangest group of riders in the world, it would be a fool's dream. Which of the one hundred riders wasn't a top-notch expert in Jianghu? Even if a Jianghu expert could barely keep up, he would only dare to watch from afar, not dare to get close to disturb them.
This was also the most breathtaking event in Jianghu. As long as one was in Jianghu, no matter if they were a true expert in their own province or someone who could beat someone with a brick and say they were a true Jianghu hero, everyone rushed like a flock of ducks. This was especially true for the young men and women who were new to the world. Those who had money would naturally spend a fortune to buy a famous steed with outstanding speed, or spend a large amount of money in exchange for accurate information, just to catch a glimpse of the Withered Swordsmen. Those who were shy of money could only settle for the second-best, and try their best to follow behind the backs of the Jianghu celebrities.
However, there were indeed many lucky people who were fortunate enough to see this scene, and it would be unforgettable for the rest of their lives.
Yunxia Town, on the border of Beiliang's Youzhou, was very lively. Many markets had opened at the last minute, and there was no place to sit in the restaurants and tea houses. The inns were even more packed. Many guests had racked their brains to come from Liangzhou and Lingzhou to join in on the fun, because there was exciting news from the neighboring Hezhou that the Wu family swordsmen were about to enter the border. As for which province or county, and who would be lucky enough to encounter them, everyone would have to depend on their own luck.
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