Chen Zhibao slowly opened his eyes as if he had sensed the strange phenomenon in the small courtyard. He did not have the slightest awareness that he was in a dangerous situation. Instead, he leisurely looked around carefully. The pond was filled with lotus flowers, swaying gracefully.
These lotus flowers should be the materialization of Hsu Fengnian's spiritual will.
The young vassal king who had once inherited Gao Shulu's celestial physique needed to use this kind of celestial method that did not require the use of Qi to face the enemy. It seemed that the battle at the Dragon Eye Plains had indeed damaged his foundation.
Chen Zhibao's line of sight looked past the lotus flowers in front of him and saw the nine pocket-sized flying swords hovering in front of Hsu Fengnian. He was probably afraid that this thunder pond would not be able to trap him, so he needed to rely on these flying swords, which also did not require the use of Qi, to guard against the sudden killing of the plum wine in his hand.
He did not know if these nine small objects were a gift from the legendary Peach Blossom Sword God, Đồng Thái. It was said that Đồng Thái had given him twelve of them in one go. After that, Hsu Fengnian had lost some to the enemy outside Shenwu City, cat Han Shengxuan, as well as in the battle with Wang Xianzhi. Could it be that they had not been replenished?
Hsu Fengnian's face grew paler and paler. He lowered his head and stared at the nine flying swords hovering in front of him. They were not a gift from Đồng Thái as Chen Zhibao had guessed. Instead, he had asked the great master of the Mohism of Mount Qing Liang to forge them.
The Peach Blossom Sword God had once talked about the process of him forging and nurturing the flying swords. Đồng Thái had grown up in the sinister sword mountain of the Wu family's sword tomb, where countless swords were buried. The first ancient sword he had pulled out was Tai 'e. However, Tai' e had long decayed and broke as soon as it was pulled out. Đồng Thái still used the sword's name as his name. After that, he successively found eleven swords that had a mysterious resonance with him. Because he hated the Wu family that had abandoned him and left him to fend for himself on the sword mountain, Đồng Thái did not bring any of the ancient swords out of the tomb. After he left the sword tomb empty-handed, he only took twelve sword wills and finally forged twelve flying swords that were stored in a small box. They were respectively Xuan Jia, Childhood Sweetheart, Morning Dew, Spring Water, Peach Blossom, Moth Mei, Vermillion Bird, Huang Tong, and Golden Thread Tai 'e.
Hsu Fengnian had returned to Beiliang after the battle with the Imperial Astronomer and forged nine swords according to this method.
Fengdu, Old Flood Dragon. These two swords were a pair. One was reminiscent of Fengdu's Green Pao Er, and the other was the old man wearing a sheepskin fur coat who had once said on the river, "The only sword in my life, where there are flood dragons, slay flood dragons."
Moose Fish. The first time he heard of this name, it was the state scholar teacher from Tide-listening Pavilion who said that Hsu Fengnian was a kind of bookworm. According to legend, it liked to live among piles of old books.
Water spirit. It was because before Hsu Fengnian forged the swords, he thought of the huge turtle at the Spring God Lake who had lived for an unknown number of years.
Beautiful beard. Liyang imperial court once had a tailor. He had a purple beard and blue eyes. In his later years, his integrity was not guaranteed. Although he was Beiliang's great enemy, from Xu Xiao to Li Yishan to Hsu Fengnian, they all respected him from the bottom of their hearts.
Childish interest. He still remembered the first time he went to Beimang and passed by the Tuma Pass at the border of Youzhou. There was a child who longed for the Jianghu who plucked up his courage and reached out to him, saying that he wanted to touch Hsu Fengnian's saber.
Wild fox. Once, he chatted with Ju Zi Xu Beizhi. This strategist had once teased him that the new Prince of Liang cultivated the Wild Fox Dhyana, which was not orthodox and would inevitably be plagued with misfortune.
Mutton fat. It was because Hsu Fengnian thought of the servant girl in Wutongin who liked to put on scarlet rouge. He didn't know if she was doing well in Dunhuang. He also didn't know if Huyan Daguan would be able to persuade her to return to Beimang and bring her home this time after entering Beiliang's hinterland.
Yi Shen. A dead tree is fragrant. What about a dead person? Hsu Fengnian had been to many places, met many people, and seen many sceneries. But in the end, he still liked the barren and cold Beiliang the most. He liked this place where every family once wore white clothes.
Fengdu, Yi Shen, Moose Fish, Water spirit, Old Jiao, Beautiful Beard, Childish Interest, Wild Fox, and Mutton Fat.
Not only did Hsu Fengnian give these nine flying swords a divine will, they also contained the spirit in the depths of Hsu Fengnian's heart.
Chen Zhibao narrowed his eyes as he looked at the nine pocket-sized flying swords with different divine wills. It was like he was looking at the life of this young vassal king.
In reality, Chen Zhibao had already looked on coldly like this for more than twenty years.
When he first saw Hsu Fengnian, Chen Zhibao was just a youth who had just entered the Manjia Battalion. He wasn't even fourteen years old. At that time, his dream was to one day be able to wear armor and ride horses under the heavens with a long spear in hand. When he carefully took the child lying in swaddling clothes from wangfei's hands and looked at that young and tender face, Chen Zhibao smiled very happily. His son, Xu Xiao, had helped the Zhao family of Li Yang establish the Central Plains. The white-clothed War Saint, whose name had spread throughout the capital, had given up the title of king and had silently followed the Xu family army to Beiliang. Especially after wangfei's death, this man had become even more taciturn, neither too far nor too close. Looking at the young heir surnamed Xu, who had abandoned all restraint in Wutongin and idled about outside Qingliang Mountain, the young heir's carefree and unfettered manner, compared to the smoke of the wars of the Spring and Autumn Period. That young man's reputation was too disreputable, while the old soldiers of the Xu family died too nameless. There was a stark contrast. Chen Zhibao naturally did not have the slightest favorable impression of such a young man. But to say that Chen Zhibao had long harbored killing intent towards Hsu Fengnian, or to say that he harbored thoughts of rebellion against Beiliang, he had overestimated Hsu Fengnian and underestimated Chen Zhibao.
This was because Chen Zhibao had never regarded Hsu Fengnian as a worthy opponent.
In the past, his only opponent in Jianghu was the Spear Immortal Wang Xiu, and on the battlefield, there was only the Spring and Autumn Period weapon Ye Baikui.
Chen Zhibao suddenly thrust his spear like a dragon, thrusting his spear toward Hsu Fengnian, who had a courtyard full of lotus flowers and nine flying swords lined up in front of him. His momentum was like the Guangling River flowing into the sea.
Wherever the spear passed, the lotus flowers, created by Hsu Fengnian's spiritual will, shattered.
Hsu Fengnian's body did not move at all. He only raised one hand, his index finger gently spinning. Nine flying swords flashed and disappeared, drawing nine slender trajectories in the air.
The nine collisions between the flying swords and the spear were crisp and pleasing to the ear, like the sound of wind chimes under the eaves of a pond of lotus flowers in a house.
Although the flying swords were small, their strength was enormous, their momentum heavy, so much so that Chen Zhibao's plum wine deviated from its straight trajectory several times before it approached Hsu Fengnian's throat.
At the critical moment when the spear was about to pierce Hsu Fengnian's throat, he tilted his head and bent his knees slightly. The tip of the plum wine's spear scraped a bloody groove on the left side of his neck. Leaning forward slightly, Hsu Fengnian seemed to have picked up the plum wine on his shoulder, and then suddenly charged forward.
Chen Zhibao's wrist trembled, and the plum wine pressed down. Hsu Fengnian's shoulder made a loud bang, but his forward momentum did not stagnate in the slightest.
Chen Zhibao's wrist swayed slightly to the right, and the plum wine that smashed into Hsu Fengnian's shoulder seemed to have the power to sweep away an army of a thousand soldiers.
Hsu Fengnian, who continued to charge forward, fell to the right, but did not fall, just in time to avoid the plum wine that was trying to cut off his head.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
The difference of a hair's breadth was the difference between life and death.
Hsu Fengnian raised his elbow to block the plum wine, preventing the spear from changing its move. Then, he sent a palm strike toward Chen Zhibao, who had left a large gap in front of him.
Chen Zhibao looked as if Xu Fengnian was about to close in on him, but he didn't withdraw his spear or retreat, nor did he intend to use the plum wine to change his moves. He directly exchanged a punch and a palm with Xu Fengnian.
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