Chapter 795: Chapter 018 Ganjiang Sword
This youth named "Yang Qingtan"...
Zhou Yan didn’t know whether he had any connection to that Yang Qingtan from the Canglan City, after all, the real Yang Qingtan had failed to accept the inheritance and had already died.
Now, the Heavenly Sword Daoist on Earth in some ways resembled that Yang Qingtan, yet there was a fundamental difference.
Essentially, the two were completely different people, but because of his brother Lee Ran, Zhou Yan had paid some attention to this matter.
"Senior Lee Ran did not accept me as his disciple, but Yang Qingtan’s achievements today are due to the guidance and teaching of Senior Lee Ran. Thus in my heart, Senior Lee Ran is the mentor I respect the most. Senior Lee Ran’s brother is naturally my respected uncle," Yang Qingtan solemnly said.
He seemed to believe that everything about this matter should be held sacred.
This was a devotion bordering on madness, but such a mindset had a significant impact on the person concerned.
Zhou Yan silently gazed at this Heavenly Sword Daoist, and in his eyes, Zhou Yan saw perseverance, obsession, and a determination and will resembling that of martyrdom.
In some aspects, he really did resemble that once Yang Qingtan.
But Zhou Yan had already determined, the two were merely similar.
Perhaps, his brother Lee Ran had valued this Yang Qingtan’s bloodline and character, extracted his bloodline, and finally used it in that other world allowing a Zhou Yan and a Yang Qingtan to live in the next generation.
However, in that other world, Yang Qingtan ended up as a trial’s failure, vanishing completely. Yet, the Yang Qingtan in this world was still living a normal life.
He knew nothing.
Zhou Yan fell silent for a moment, thought of many things, and finally nodded slightly, saying, "Brother would be very pleased to know this about you."
"Thank you for the praise, Uncle-Master."
Yang Qingtan was extremely respectful, and this scene left all the older cultivators present somewhat amazed.
After all, before this, the Heavenly Sword Daoist Yang Qingtan was someone who acknowledged no one else, always acting independently. Even inviting him over for the matter of the Yu King’s Nine Cauldrons was difficult, yet unexpectedly, he was almost obedient to Zhou Yan.
"Uh-huh."
Zhou Yan nodded his head, then continued speaking, "Then the cultivators’ preaching will proceed as you all have described. Later on, gather up your magic treasures and the like. I’ll help you repair their damages, flaws, and unstable elements, allowing them to unleash even greater power."
"Of course, my current realm is limited, and I can barely repair divine artifacts and holy artifacts. If it were my own creation, it would merely reach the level of a low grade holy artifact. The power of a holy artifact... even the lowest grade, with a casual strike, can easily slay a cultivator thousands of times stronger than Taoist Qiu."
Zhou Yan made a comparison, appropriately describing the current levels and power of the magic treasures.
Only in this way, could he during artifact refining, examine the ancient airs within these old magic treasures, and then develop a unique understanding of the Xuanyuan Sword Soul, no longer so passive.
Zhou Yan found that the Xuanyuan Sword Soul in this world was far more difficult to detect than he thought, not simply a sensation that could be felt, but entirely hidden, to be collected by means.
This undoubtedly increased the difficulty for Zhou Yan to find the Xuanyuan Sword Fragments.
The path westward was severed, making the Xuanyuan Sword Fragments even harder to find, this journey to the Earth Ancestral Land was truly challenging.
"Hisss—"
All the cultivators present were somewhat shocked looking at Zhou Yan and gasped in awe.
A holy artifact, to be that powerful?
The strength of Taoist Qiu was recognized, aside from the secluded Immortal Sects and ancestral holy lands, he was among the strongest cultivators in the world, yet the most inferior holy artifact could possess such power, isn’t that comparable to an ’Ancient Divine Weapon’?
"Zhou, Fellow Daoist Zhou Yan, is what you said really true?"
An old cultivator in a gray daoist robe was very excited, stuttering as he asked, while already taking out a broken sword that looked extremely dilapidated, corroded like scrap iron, but containing fierce divinity within, imbued with an ancient undying aura that was soul-shaking.
"This too is a nearly immortal weapon, its Artifact Soul has died, yet it left behind an undying will, similar to the undying will of the Xuanyuan Sword Fragment."
Zhou Yan was inwardly shocked as he took the broken sword; a chilling breath flashed through his body in that instant, and at that moment, Zhou Yan’s soul as if seeing three glaring, unaccepting eyes from dead heads suddenly flew out from the broken sword attacking his own soul.
Zhou Yan’s mind quivered, suddenly coming to his senses, unaffected by the breath’s impact on his soul.
Zhou Yan accumulated Soul Power, sensing towards the sword. With this sensing, Zhou Yan immediately discovered that the sword contained the aura of the Supreme Dao, possessed ancient bloodline power flowing within it, and also contained complex emotions.
Affectionate Sword Dao!
Lifeless Sword Dao!
Remarkably, it was all contained within this broken sword.
Zhou Yan was finally moved. These Sword Daos were all manifested within an ancient broken sword, exactly as he had perceived from the Affectionate Sword Dao and the Lifeless Sword Dao on the Sword Burial Ancestor Star.
Zhou Yan’s expression grew solemn by a few degrees as he sensed the flaws of the sword clearly. At the same time, he also saw an almost undying "Divinity" within it, similar to the Ice Soul Stone.
This was a broken sword possessing its own will.
"What do you think? Can it be done, Fellow Daoist Zhou Yan?"
The old man wasn’t deliberately targeting Zhou Yan by passing him the sword, as he himself had no issues handling it. He felt that Zhou Yan was stronger than all the other cultivators present and wouldn’t have any trouble either; it was an instinctive gesture of passing the sword.
Zhou Yan, of course, understood this well, and precisely because of that, he didn’t blame the elder for almost damaging his soul.
Had this happened on the Sword Burial Ancestor Star, Zhou Yan would have presumed that it was a deliberate trap and would have harbored a killing intent immediately.
The inquiry from the old man also caused the rest of the cultivators to gather around Zhou Yan, all watching him with expectant eyes.
Because every old Daoist there had three to five ancient, damaged magic treasures, most of which could only unleash a fraction of their power and were in tatters, yet they couldn’t bear to discard them, hoping one day they could be restored.
Now, having encountered someone with such abilities, they were naturally filled with great hope.
Zhou Yan did not answer directly but pondered a bit before speaking, "This sword should be the Sword of Gan Jiang, yet it also contains the heart’s blood of Mo Ye within it. It even contains three unyielding souls—the Skulls of Souls."
"Killing intent, resentment, obsession, emotions, etc., are very intense—this is an exceptional weapon of slaughter."
"It is said that Gan Jiang and Mo Ye were husband and wife who forged swords for the King of Chu, which took three years to complete. The King of Chu, disliking the time taken for the forging, killed Gan Jiang. Mo Ye gave birth to their son Chi, who, for revenge, severed his own head and gave it to a hermit. The hermit killed the King of Chu then fell upon his own sword, and all three heads were placed into the furnace, melded into the Sword of Gan Jiang, refining the King of Chu into the King’s Soul."
"Therefore, this sword must have come from the ’Three Kings Tomb.’ The day it was unearthed, a murderous aura filled the land, surely resulting in countless deaths."
Zhou Yan deduced.
These revelations alarmed all the cultivators present and greatly moved them.
Because everything Zhou Yan said was correct, yet this incident happened ten years after Lee Ran had left.
With Lee Ran gone, and Zhou Yan absent as well, how could Zhou Yan know this hidden truth?
"God! Truly marvelous, indeed as such, this sword has a dense and strong aura of slaughter, but also contains rich feelings of kinship and love. For an old man like me, who has seen through the world’s affairs, weapons are neither good nor evil, thus any weapon can be used.
The distinction between good and evil lies in the heart of the user. Knowing it’s a fierce weapon, I still use it calmly, treating it like a lover, like a close friend," said the old man with a sigh.
His words were filled with respect for Zhou Yan.
"When this sword was unearthed, many ordinary people died, their bodies decaying. When I went there, in order to prevent chaos in the ordinary world, I suppressed that scene, made the ordinary people who died disappear, and sealed off that area, making it a mystery in the ordinary world.
When the Three Kings Tomb was opened, one of the bodies lacked a head but remained preserved through the ages without decaying, full of the power of vitality, standing in the tomb without falling—that must have been Gan Jiang’s son Chi.
This sword was in his hands."
"I knew this legend, but after careful analysis, I said: ’Gan Jiang and Mo Ye lived only to forge swords and died for it. Now that you have fulfilled your desire and slain the King of Chu, you can let go of this karma and rest peacefully with a smile in the hereafter. Your parents would surely be comforted by this.’ But after saying so, the standing corpse remained still, yet the sword in his hand trembled and buzzed."
"Thinking of forging, I realized his dying wish must have been to not let this sword be buried. So I then said, ’I will take the sword to shine once again in the world, I swear on my life and soul, if there is an opportunity, I will let this sword unleash its peerless radiance and become famous once again.’"
"After saying this, the sword flew out on its own and fell into my hands, and that headless corpse suddenly shattered into nothingness, finally dispersing through transformation."
"Later, I discovered that this sword, having fused with the King’s Blood and refined the essence of both swords of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, underwent a transformation. I named it the ’Red Blood Sword,’ symbolizing ’Chi’s’ ’tears of blood,’ which is why this sword could resonate with me."
"In the following ten years, I earned the title of ’Red Blood Daoist,’ and my original name ’Ye Kongxing’ and the title ’Konghang Daoist,’ just like ’Yang Qingtan,’ gradually faded from people’s memory," the old man Ye Kongxing said with a wistful sigh.
"Indeed... Wait a moment, Taoist Konghang, and I can repair it immediately, but due to the constraints of celestial materials and energy, we can only restore about thirty percent for now. The rest, I’m afraid, will have to wait until we leave this Star Domain."
Zhou Yan mused.
"Thirty percent?! To be able to restore so much! I initially thought, if we could restore even one ten-thousandth, it would have already been a great surprise! I did not expect it could be restored this much! I spent over ten years and only managed to restore a hint of its Spiritual Wisdom, not even one in a billion... Fellow Daoist Zhou Yan truly has astonishing strength!"
Ye Kongxing the old Daoist nearly jumped up in excitement, saying exuberantly.