Borrowed Sword

Chapter 100: Rebellious Disciple of the Master?

Chu Huaixu died very peacefully.

In this incomparably realistic dream, he was about to step through the mist before him, to see the woman’s face clearly, and then ruthlessly take her, to avenge the sword strike just now!

The next moment, the sword light flashed, and he was once again engulfed by sword light, directly reduced to powder, cut down until only scraps remained.

In an instant, he died.

There was no time to make any response, let alone resist.

Her sword was too fast!

Even though it was clearly just a casual swing, it held such terrifying power.

That suffocating sensation from the level of the soul came again, and Chu Huaixu felt just like he had truly died.

Then, he lived again, standing once more at the very same place as before.

Chu Huaixu was thus caught in this endless cycle of…… dying and reviving?

This was clearly his own dream.

Yet he did not seem like the master of this dream.

He was already aware that he was dreaming, and by logic, he ought to wield supreme might, like a Creator himself!

By logic, as long as he willed it, he should be able to do anything he wanted to this woman.

But in the dream, he was merely a cultivator of the First Level.

And the dead woman across from him?

She was terrifyingly strong—so strong it defied the heavens!

Between the two, there was like an unbridgeable gulf!

Every time she swung her sword, Chu Huaixu felt the sword light could destroy the heavens and annihilate the earth.

And he himself was nothing more than collateral, reduced to ashes.

After this repeated ten times, he returned again to the starting point, standing still in the same position.

But the thick mist and the woman before him had disappeared.

Chu Huaixu now stood in a blank white space, gasping heavily.

His state at this moment was indeed very poor.

Because each shattering into ashes was so utterly real.

Between life and death, there lay great terror!

In such a short span of time, he had been shattered ten times in succession, yet he still could not take life and death lightly. Even now, his heart still throbbed with lingering fear!

"Why is this happening?" Chu Huaixu did not understand.

"Am I really dreaming?"

He began to fall into deep suspicion.

At this moment, with his temperament, of course he harbored resentment toward that woman in the mist, grinding his teeth with hatred.

If this truly was a drunken dream, he would definitely seek revenge madly, and would not stop until he had ravished this woman to the point of begging “Daddy, no more.”

"If I had the power, I would never kill her with one strike. I would torment her slowly!"

"Damn it, she killed me ten times in one breath!"

He sat down in this blank space with a dejected look, then glanced around, his expression filled with puzzlement.

Chu Huaixu was certain that after drinking the spiritual wine delivered by Elder Loli, he had indeed become drunk.

Moreover, this wine was a great tonic, seemingly carrying many effects that men longed for.

But why, after drinking, was this the result?

"Could it be that I practiced too much of the 《Sword Refining Art》 and 《Dao Canon》, and my preferences have become twisted?" Chu Huaixu absolutely refused to believe this.

Then, there was only one explanation left.

"Someone of profound cultivation has played some trick on me!"

At this moment, it seemed he could do nothing, as though he was trapped here.

Added to that, Chu Huaixu was indeed mentally exhausted, so he simply closed his eyes to rest.

His thoughts entered a rather hazy state. He wasn’t even sure whether this counted as sleeping.

Time passed, though Chu Huaixu did not know how long.

But suddenly, he opened his eyes!

Because that familiar, terrifying feeling had returned again!

At this time, when Chu Huaixu opened his eyes, he saw that mist again, dense and impenetrable.

That tall woman, holding a longsword, appeared once more in the middle of the fog.

"Wait!" he shouted.

The sword light devoured him before he could even curse.

Just like before, Chu Huaixu was slain ten times in succession.

When he returned once more to the empty blank space, his panting was even heavier than before.

The drain on his spirit was enormous.

This struck him as a little unbelievable.

"If this is my spiritual world, then that would mean…… I am inside the Sea of Consciousness!"

"The problem is, if this is inside the Sea of Consciousness, then I am 【Sword Heart Clarity】!"

"I am a 【Spirit Embryo: Heart Sword】!"

"I am one who can 【cut the body with the sword, and cut the soul with the heart】!"

"What in the world is this dead woman, to be able to torment me like this under such circumstances!"

Chu Huaixu’s thoughts, after being annihilated so many times, also began to grow sluggish.

He was too tired, too exhausted.

So much so that he no longer even had the energy to curse, sinking again into a muddled state.

The morning sun rose, its light spilling into the bamboo house.

Chu Huaixu, drenched in cold sweat, jolted awake from his bed, as though roused from a torturous nightmare.

He breathed heavily, then lifted the quilt, lowering his head to check his body.

He was utterly dumbfounded.

"How is this possible—my body and consciousness are in completely different states?"

Chu Huaixu’s body was still under the lingering effects of the spiritual wine.

But his spirit and energy had been utterly drained.

In that blank space, he had been swallowed by sword light a total of forty times!

Every ten times gave him a chance to breathe, but the final ten directly jolted him awake from bed.

Chu Huaixu opened the system interface to check the time.

"About three hours have passed?" he estimated.

Exhaling a long turbid breath, he began to search the system interface for clues.

After leaving that strange space, Chu Huaixu’s thoughts were no longer sluggish.

In fact, faint suspicions had already formed in his heart.

From the standpoint of suspicion, Chu Yinyin was the most suspicious, since she had come to the bamboo house last night.

But in truth, Chu Huaixu had immediately ruled her out.

The reason was simple—he thought this Second Master of his was too weak, unable to pull off something of that scale.

Before long, Chu Huaixu found the answer in the mission interface.

"So it really was her!"

"Unbelievable—I didn’t even hear the system notification? Or was it because I passed out drunk, so I didn’t notice it at first?"

At this moment, another long-term mission had appeared in his mission list.

That mission was called—【Shen Man’s Sword Domain Trial】!

【Sword Domain】, something only a Sword Cultivator of the Seventh Level might possibly cultivate!

In the Xuanhuang Realm, the First, Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth—these odd-numbered realms—each brought about a qualitative transformation.

The First Level was easy to understand: the Spirit Embryo Secret Store opened, and the body began to store Spiritual Energy.

At the Third Level, cultivators had a chance to comprehend 【Artistic Conception】!

For sword cultivators, this manifested as Sword Intent.

Among those who birthed Sword Intent, some might even give rise to a Sword Heart!

The Fifth Level was called the realm of Major Cultivators. On one hand, because overall strength took a qualitative leap, becoming much stronger than the Fourth Level—

  Moreover, one could begin to soar through the skies.

On the other hand, among Major Cultivators of the Fifth Level, some awakened 【Spirit Embryo Divine Ability】.

As for the Seventh Level, its strength lay precisely in the 【Domain】.

Chu Huaixu now understood why, despite being 【Sword Heart Clarity】 himself, he could still be abused in that consciousness-like space.

The answer was simple: because the other side was also Sword Heart Clarity.

A Seventh Level Sword Heart Clarity who possessed a Sword Domain!

That was one acknowledged across the Xuanhuang Realm as the strongest of the Seventh Level!

"So, this was a trial deliberately created for me by my future First Master?" Chu Huaixu thought.

"She was showing me the mysteries of the Sword Domain again and again, attempting to make me gain some insight?" he guessed wildly in his heart.

"No! Is this really how you teach disciples—by killing them over and over?" Chu Huaixu felt a mix of frustration and amusement.

In his heart, he even came up with a lousy pun:

"Is this a Sword Domain, or is this just a prison to torment me!"

He recalled that back view he had seen within the Purple Bamboo Forest.

For some reason, he always felt that his First Master was not such a kind of person.

"But why would she train me like this?" he wondered in confusion.

Every death he experienced felt far too real.

It was strange—though he knew clearly he would not truly die, he still felt unbearable torment.

In just one night, forty cycles in a row, and yet he did not get used to it at all! Instead, the mental torment only compounded!

What made Chu Huaixu most despairing was that this long-term mission had a duration of thirty days!

He didn’t need to do anything actively—just endure for thirty days, and the mission would be considered complete.

"The premise being that I can endure it, without collapsing completely," he thought.

The reason why he speculated that Shen Man wanted him to gain insights within the dream was because the system’s mission reward was +1 Comprehension!

System rewards were generally logical and patterned.

Moreover, this mission also had a grading system.

If Chu Huaixu could obtain an A-rank evaluation, then he could even comprehend 【Sword Intent】!

"That reward would be utterly outrageous," he was deeply moved.

Sword Intent—something only among Third Level sword cultivators could be comprehended.

It was the prerequisite for forming a Sword Heart.

Chu Huaixu had long thought that his own 【Sword Heart Clarity】 was a Spirit Embryo Divine Ability, a power hidden within the Black Small Sword.

So, was it possible for him to form a Sword Heart of his own?

At that thought, his heartbeat began to race.

"But the problem is, how do I achieve an A-rank evaluation?"

"Each time, I’m instantly killed, annihilated in an instant."

Chu Huaixu had no clue for the moment.

At the same time, he found it somewhat funny.

Because in his dreams, he had entertained countless improper thoughts about the woman in the mist.

When it came to having spring-dreams, Chu Huaixu did not feel ashamed.

Because such things could happen to both men and women—it was instinct, human nature.

If in your dream there was a specific person, then perhaps you should reflect carefully whether you truly harbored feelings for that person.

But most of the time, spring-dreams didn’t have any specific target.

Put crudely, just like when people shouted “grass mud horse,” they didn’t truly mean to “grass” a mud horse. The “mother” in there was not literally one’s own mother, not a concrete “mother.”

Likewise, a spring-dream was just a spring-dream, representing nothing more than youthful vigor.

At first, Chu Huaixu didn’t think the woman in the mist was any real person.

Now that he knew who she was, he naturally had no thought of “riding his master’s master.”

After all, that day in the Purple Bamboo Forest, he hadn’t even clearly seen Shen Man’s true appearance. He didn’t even know what she looked like.

At this moment, Chu Huaixu even felt a bit relieved—thank goodness he was instantly slain, thank goodness he didn’t have the ability to do as he pleased.

"I couldn’t really become some rebellious disciple against my master, right?" Chu Huaixu thought.