The old ape took a single step and was before the girl. He raised his arm, clenched his fist, and swung it down in a wide arc toward her skull.
The girl raised her narrow saber in its green sheath to block, its edge aimed directly at the ape’s wrist, while her longsword thrust with lightning speed toward his chest, the tip targeting a specific point over his heart.
Unexpectedly, the rough momentum of the ape's descending arm transformed. His fingers, with surprising dexterity, clamped onto the saber's edge. Simultaneously, his other hand, perfectly in character with his true nature, seized the tip of the sword.
It was clear: the murderous intent was a feint; the true aim was to lure the girl into a rash thrust.
The mountain-moving ape from the Baoping Continent, the holy land of swordsmanship, recognized the sword's extraordinary nature at a single glance.
For this, the old ape did not hesitate to switch his breath for a second time.
Even as the sword's tip had already penetrated a fraction of an inch into the ape's chest, it was mere inches from his heart.
Seeing the situation turn dire, Ning Yao decisively released her grip on the sword hilt. With her other hand, she pulled the saber with all her might. The blade scraped across the ape's palm, producing a piercing, high-pitched metallic screech.
After freeing the saber, the girl leaned her body back, her feet never stopping as she retreated rapidly.
True to her expectation, the old ape turned sideways and flung the longsword behind him, sending it dozens of yards away.
He then kicked at the girl.
The girl, whose right hand had just been holding the sword, raised it to block. The kick landed with a thunderous boom, sending her flying seven or eight yards. Her back slammed into the ground, and she rolled several times before finally using the tip of her saber to anchor herself, driving it a foot deep into the earth to halt her slide. Fortunately, the soil along the stream path was soft, and the occasional stones were smooth, not sharp. Her back remained intact, avoiding a gruesome fate.
Without giving the girl a moment to catch her breath, the massive shadow descended from above.
This time, the girl didn't even bother with the extra motion of drawing her saber. She retreated again and again.
The old ape did not pursue her. Instead, he landed and stood still, one foot raised high, stepping on the hilt of the saber embedded in the road. When the girl looked up from a kneeling position, the ape pressed down harder, driving the entire saber deep into the ground until the hilt was level with the surface.
Purple-gold qi swirled slowly across the old ape's face, glowing brilliantly in the deep night. He sneered: "Saber and sword alike—neither donkey nor horse, utterly absurd! Such is the pathetic outcome!"
The girl rose, forcing down a mouthful of blood. "Is that all you have?"
The old ape shook his head and laughed. "That was merely giving you one last chance."
Ning Yao took a deep breath, her voice low and steady. "In my home, in a life-and-death battle, we never ask about one's parents. As long as you have the skill to kill me fairly and squarely, it means I was inferior. My parents, when they learn of the cause and process in the future, will at most come to the Baoping Continent to settle the score with you; they will never implicate Zhengyang Mountain. So you can rest easy and fight with all your might..."
This was the first time the old ape had heard the girl speak so extensively. Her garrulousness was a stark contrast to the quiet, veiled maiden he remembered.
Therefore, in the instant a chill crept up his neck, he snapped his head to the side.
A white streak grazed past his neck, its edge leaving a shallow wound.
Had he not turned his head, even if the sword couldn't have pierced through in one breath, it would have been a severe wound. A disaster in a ditch, one misstep leading to another. The thought of being forced to reveal his true form prematurely—thereby losing his moral high ground and leaving no room for negotiation with Qi Jingchun or Master Ruan, potentially forcing his young lady to face various crises alone in this realm—made the old ape of Zhengyang Mountain angry for the third time.
The flying sword did not return to its sheath. Instead, it circled the girl at high speed, as if showing off to its master.
Seeing this, the old ape laughed in his fury. "Good, good, good! My fight with Song Changjing was unsatisfying. Now, let's have some fun with you! But tell me, how many of your pounds of flesh can withstand my heavy blows?"
The girl carefully observed the purple-gold qi on the ape's face, her brows slightly furrowed. He had already used his divine powers three times, yet he clearly still had reserves left, not yet on the verge of the dam bursting and being forced to reveal his true form. Moreover, while burning one’s own cultivation was lethal to mortal cultivators below the fifth realm, for a mountain-moving ape, though painful, it was not as fatal.
The girl's fingers twitched, and her longsword spun nimbly. She smiled. "No wonder my father says your Zhengyang Mountain of the Baoping Continent is not worth mentioning. Always loud in words but low in skill, people are foolish but bold, and their sword qi is shallow."
The old ape's hair and beard bristled. "You seek death!"
He lunged at the girl, who seemed unaware of her own audacity.
Ning Yao did not linger in combat. She fled northward.
Along the way, it was a series of perilous escapes. Had it not been for the flying sword, which had absorbed two of the characters from the "Soaring Spirit Piercing the Dipper and Ox" plaque, its sword qi and spirit having surged simultaneously, and which was in perfect harmony with the girl's heart, moving as her will directed—the sword itself was like an existence that ignored all rules—she would not have been able to hinder the ape’s thunderous strikes again and again, helping her master barely escape at the last second.
If it were a life-bound item painstakingly nurtured by a swordsman, the old ape would not have been surprised by such harmony. But he clearly sensed that the unsheathed longsword was not the girl's life-bound flying sword.
She was more like an ordinary martial artist walking the world with a handy "divine weapon," requiring only a sharp edge. She had never walked the path of nurturing a sword-heart and birthing a sword spirit. Yet the girl's peculiarity lay in her not being entirely of the martial path, as for a grandmaster of the martial way who focused solely on tempering the body, the goal was "to remain indestructible even if heaven and earth collapse." If a weapon overshadowed the wielder, it became a heretical side path.
Throughout the chase, the reason the old ape had not been able to capture the girl was partly due to the flying sword's interference, but also because her learning was eclectic. She combined the sword, the martial way, and the Qi Refining path, her aura pure and enduring. The old ape truly could not fathom which sect in the Baoping Continent could produce such a bizarre junior, so he struck with increasing caution, trying to determine her true origins.
As long as he didn't approach the town, no matter how chaotic things got there, he had nothing to worry about here.
The fleeing girl's face grew increasingly pale.
"Your strength is flagging!" the old ape snarled with a grin. "Forget whether you can hold out until you reach the town—even if you succeed and find someone to help, do you truly believe this old man cannot kill you?"
The old ape leapt like a dragon from dry land, bypassing the flying sword and landing ahead of the girl, blocking her path north. He smashed the flying sword away with a single punch. Yet the relentless sword, like a gust of wind, was back in an instant, darting toward his head. Every time the ape tried to seize the sword, it retreated with preternatural caution, never staying to fight. It came and went like the wind, impossible to guard against. Though the old ape was tough and cared little for injury, he was beginning to look disheveled.
Unwilling to face the ape head-on, the girl veered toward the northeast.
The ape shifted laterally to match her, maintaining constant pressure.
He slapped away the flying sword from the side as if swatting a fly, driving it two feet into the ground. The sword, wiggling like a woman twisting her waist, eventually pulled itself from the mud, hovering in the air with its tip trembling violently, like an angry wild kitten, before darting back at the ape with renewed fury.
The old ape, growing tired of this, couldn't help but ask: "Why can this flying sword ignore the rules of this place? What is your relationship with Qi Jingchun or Ruan Qiong?!"
Ning Yao nearly had the ape's palm pressed onto her forehead. As she leaned back, she reached out and grabbed the sword hilt. She was then forcibly pulled out of the ape's range, her entire body sliding backward as if someone were dragging her by the arm.
After being pulled a distance away by the sword, the girl, for some reason, did not use the opportunity to retreat into the town. Instead, she stopped, stood upright, tilted her head, and spat out a mouthful of blood. The flying sword hovered beside her, humming—a confused child babbling incessantly to its elders.
The girl's right hand pressed against her left shoulder.
The old ape suddenly slowed his pace, laughing. "Just as I thought. The flying sword that recognizes you as its master may ignore the rules, but a flying sword is still just a flying sword. No matter how spiritual it is, it is not as good as you, little girl, directing it. It's a pity your body and soul were already damaged in the town and haven't healed. You simply cannot bear to command it. That's why the offense is intermittent and left to the sword's own judgment, as you've never truly intended to injure me, only using it as a defensive measure to preserve your life."
The girl finally spoke again. "You talk too much."
Her lips were blood-red, her face as white as snow, clad in a dark green robe.
In the middle of the night, the girl looked like a ghost or spirit haunting the countryside.
The old ape walked forward step by step, clicking his tongue. "A fine sword in the hands of a weak body. Weak trunk, strong branches—how pathetic! You and that alley boy did everything to force me to change my breath, hoping to trigger the heavens' counterattack. Little girl, why don't you guess—after this third breath is gone and I switch to the next, will it truly bring down the heavens' wrath? And can I withstand that torrential flood?"
The girl suddenly wore an enigmatic smile. She tapped her toe and jumped backward, rising no more than ten feet and covering no more than five.
The old ape, about to give chase, was momentarily puzzled. Fearing a trap, he continued to walk slowly, determined to wait and see.
Then, while still in the air, the girl tapped her toe again, this time with more force and a twist of her ankle. She did not jump straight back but toward the right.
As it turned out, before she could even descend, the flying sword had shot to the spot beneath her feet at the peak of her jump. With each precise landing, she propelled herself higher and further back.
Even the old ape, who had seen much of the world, stared in disbelief. The sight was bizarre and comical.
The girl looked like a small fawn playing hopscotch, leaping and bounding with light grace, quickly disappearing into the night sky.
Perhaps fearing the ape would launch a mid-air ambush, her jumps were extremely erratic—left and right, high and low, forward and back.
The old ape's lips twitched, his eyes filled with a complex mixture of emotions. "What an antelope's leap."
But he did not simply watch her escape. He kicked up a stone, gripped it, and hurled it through the air.
More stones were flicked from the ground in rapid succession, finally launching from his hand with the power of rolling thunder and lightning.
Though most missed, seven or eight stones still posed a severe threat, forcing the girl to command the flying sword to shatter them.
In the night sky, the sounds of explosions rang out like spring thunder.
The old ape's eyes were dark.
Either the girl was crazy or simply too stubborn. She could have commanded the sword to soar to a height where the stones would lose their power. Instead, she maintained roughly the same altitude, like a light cavalry skirmishing at the edge of the battlefield, luring the enemy's archers to exhaust their arrows and strength.
Unknowingly, they had approached the west side of the town.
The old ape briefly calculated his remaining qi—not much was left. He picked up two stones as large as a child's fist, one in each hand, stepped forward with one foot, and swung his arm. His muscles bulged grotesquely. The stones he launched tore through the air with a screeching sound, trailing a streak of sparks like two slender fire dragons ascending to the sky.
"Come down!" the old ape bellowed.
From high above, a brilliant flash of light appeared, followed by a thunderous boom.
The girl groaned, and her entire body began to plummet.
The flying sword, swaying like a drunk, whimpered in distress but still darted desperately toward its master.
The old ape ignored both girl and sword, his narrowed eyes fixed on the western rooftops of the town. When a dark shadow burst forth, he stamped his remaining foot down and hurled the last stone with a triumphant laugh: "Let the rescuer die first!"
The girl, spitting blood, screamed: "Don't come out!"
Already heavily wounded, she couldn't bear to look. In that moment, she felt a flicker of despair. She gripped the sword hilt with difficulty, and when one arm failed, she switched to the other, doing so repeatedly to slow her descent.
Ning Yao never thought that her own cleverness might have cost the boy his life.
The boy who wore straw sandals, carried a basket on his back, and a fish-basket at his side, always rushing about like the wind, busy earning money and brewing medicine.
Ning Yao felt it was wrong for such a boy to die like this!
After the girl landed, swaying on her feet, she pressed two fingers together like a sword against her forehead, her teeth gritted: "Come out! Cut open this heaven and earth for me!"
A thin golden line appeared between her eyebrows, spreading downward.
Like an immortal opening the celestial eye!
Beneath the ancient stone arch, in what was now the gallery bridge.
A rusted sword-blank, which had pointed at the pool for perhaps thousands of years, gave a small tremor, as if waking from a long sleep.
The rusted tip of the sword swayed slightly.
And so the gallery bridge swayed slightly.
The entire stream swayed slightly.
The entire small chiliocosm swayed slightly.
Deep in the mountains, a dust-covered Qi Jingchun and several others were leaving the mountains together. This leisurely walking teacher paused, his foot raised and about to slam down, but then he smiled and lowered it gently.
At the back of the Yang family shop, Old Yang was dozing by the oil lamp. Startled awake, he tapped his old pipe against the tabletop.
The Great Li vassal king, Song Changjing, was inexplicably cursing in his office.
In the sword-forging room of the Ruan family smithy, Ruan Qiong actually missed a hammer strike, while the girl holding the sword-blank, her hair in a ponytail, looked on in shock.
Ma Kuxuan, the boy from Apricot Blossom Lane whom everyone thought was a fool, was lying on a rooftop looking at the night sky when he suddenly sat up, his killing intent boiling.
Just then, a familiar voice called out in a frantic rush, growing closer by the second: "Ning Yao, what are you standing there for?! Run! I'm not dead—that was just a piece of clothing I took off! That old beast is getting senile, but why are you acting stupid too?"
The girl’s mind was already hazy. At the very moment her command was nearly complete, she felt herself lifted onto someone's shoulder and carried at a run into the alleys of the town.
Ning Yao was suddenly jolted awake, her body bouncing along with the boy's shoulder, feeling uncomfortable and humiliated. She was completely bewildered: "Eh?"