Chapter 138: Self-Introduction

The sky.

The eastern, southern, western, and northern parts of the sea of clouds were cleaved into four sections, glowing with a blood-red hue as they churned and rolled.

It was as if an ocean of blood had been inverted above everyone’s heads.

When Fan Li completed his final stroke, everyone assumed this terrifying celestial phenomenon was finally coming to an end!

Little did they know, this was merely the beginning!

Four divine swords of similar shapes, as majestic and colossal as pillars of heaven, slowly descended from the four quadrants of the blood-red sea of clouds toward the mortal realm.

Gale-force winds whipped up!

Dark clouds gathered densely!

The four swords materialized from the sea of clouds, plummeting from the heavens into the mortal world as though bringing forth endless slaughter!

The Confucian scholars looked up, feeling a sense of inexplicable horror.

They wanted to flee, but the last remnants of reason in their minds kept reminding them that this was merely a celestial phenomenon, that it would not harm anyone—truly, it would not harm anyone!

Some wanted to drop to their knees to seek solace.

Yet they immediately realized that kneeling would not make the four swords show mercy.

Where were the swords of a gentleman?

What happened to the weapons of a true king?

This was the Sword Dao—a Dao that existed purely for slaughter!

Was Master Yichuan’s understanding of the Sword Dao truly as naive as this?

It had almost led all of us more than a thousand Confucian cultivators astray?!

Bah!

What kind of Great Confucian was he?

Sovereign Hanyue was also lost in a trance.

She gazed up at the sky, finding it impossible to accept that after immersing herself in the Sword Dao for many years, her comprehension of the sword had actually lost to Fan Li.

The four swords—Execution, Slaughter, Ruin, and Annihilation—were felt by Hanyue even more vividly than by the ordinary scholars!

The Immortal-Executing Sword: Sharpness!

The Immortal-Slaughtering Sword: Demise!

The Immortal-Ruining Sword: Desire!

The Immortal-Annihilating Sword: Malice!

"Ah~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!"

Sovereign Hanyue suddenly let out a miserable cry.

Immersed body and soul in the sword intent, she felt as though the four swords in the sky were descending upon her all at once to strike her down.

She was powerless to dodge, nor was it possible to escape.

The phantom images of the four swords slashed her tens of millions of times in the blink of an eye!

And then, they resurrected her tens of millions of times.

Caught between life and death, Hanyue repeatedly comprehended the four sword intents of Execution, Slaughter, Ruin, and Annihilation!

Though it took only a fraction of a second for others, Sovereign Hanyue was already drenched in cold sweat, her mind on the verge of collapse!

Yet, how precious was an experience like this?

If one could not endure it, it meant destruction.

If one could endure it, the path of the Sword Dao would advance by leaps and bounds, reaching an even higher realm!

Finally!

Sovereign Hanyue endured her final spiritual resurrection from death, and she actually broke through!

Her bottleneck of many years at the third grade of the Mahayana Realm surged in a single bound into the fourth grade.

Spiritual power, turbulent and vast like a tidal wave, spewed forth from within her body and surged straight into the firmament.

A scene that the gathered Confucian scholars would never forget in their lifetimes unfolded.

Visible spiritual energy split into four parts, merging into the sea of clouds where the Four Immortal-Slaying Swords had been born.

The four streams of spiritual energy condensed within the sea of clouds into four precious swords, shaped identically to the Four Immortal-Slaying Swords!

Formed at last, the spiritual swords descended from the heavens and returned into Sovereign Hanyue’s body.

She opened her eyes, and her entire aura transformed abruptly!

In a daze, everyone felt as though she had fused into one with the four swords!

Sovereign Hanyue’s own emotions were extremely complex as well.

From this moment on, she had become the purest sword cultivator in the mortal world—so pure that even her spiritual energy had condensed into the form of swords!

From now on, the path of the Sword Dao was a broad and smooth highway for her.

Unless she perished halfway, Sovereign Hanyue was utterly confident that she could ascend to immortality through the Sword Dao!

And all of this credit was actually owed to Fan Li?

"The Mahayana Realm?!"

"You are actually in the Mahayana Realm?"

Master Yichuan was the first to sense that something was amiss.

The breathtakingly beautiful woman standing beside Fan Li turned out to be a sword cultivator in the Mahayana Realm?

Who on earth was she?!

Master Yichuan almost instantly guessed that a female cultivator of such formidable strength beneath the heavens could only hail from the Pure Land of Sanskrit Sounds!

The Confucian scholars were also dumbfounded.

The celestial phenomenon of heaven and earth was gradually dissipating; before they had even recovered from the shock brought by Fan Li, they had witnessed the breakthrough of a Mahayana Realm expert?!

"She actually broke through?"

Fan Li was the only one present who was unsurprised, yet he felt quite depressed.

Are you kidding me?

I painted a picture, so why is Hanyue the one breaking through?

"Have I somehow become Hanyue's system?"

"The Strongest Free-Rider System?"

The celestial phenomenon triggered by the sword scroll did surprise him somewhat, however.

After all, the commotion was simply too massive.

In this lifetime, there were no historical records whatsoever concerning the Four Immortal-Slaying Swords, at least not in the State of Chu.

Fan Li had originally harbored slight concerns that the Scroll of the Four Swords might fail to trigger any celestial phenomenon.

Fortunately.

His celestial phenomenon completely crushed Yichuan.

"How shall we judge this victory and defeat?" Fan Li asked.

Even a blind person knew the outcome had been decided.

Yet who could guarantee that Master Yichuan wouldn't renege on his word?

Hanyue could.

"Hmph!" The woman let out a cold snort, her gaze directed at Master Yichuan filled with unmistakable hostility.

Terror gripped Yichuan's heart; abandoning all pretense of pride, he bowed deeply to Fan Li until his back was parallel to the ground.

"Sir possesses boundless talent; this old man admits his inferiority."

All the Confucian scholars fell silent.

In this round, the Great Confucian had suffered an unquestionable defeat, leaving behind yet another suspense.

"May I ask, sir... who on earth are you?"

Master Yichuan actually wanted to ask about Hanyue's identity.

However, seeing her standing behind Fan Li with the demeanor of a subordinate deferring to her master, Master Yichuan had no choice but to address Fan Li first.

"I..."

"Oh my!"

Just as Fan Li was about to introduce himself, someone in the distance let out a startled cry. It was a Confucian cultivator clad in official robes, hurrying over toward Fan Li.

Upon recognizing the newcomer, the Confucian scholars were shocked once more.

"The Vice Academy President has arrived?"

"It's actually the Vice Academy President? He must have been drawn here by the celestial phenomenon just now!"

"We're in trouble, we're in trouble. This fellow student ultimately offended Master Yichuan; let's hope he doesn't incur the Vice Academy President's reprimand."

Fan Li also recognized the newcomer.

The State of Chu esteemed the Imperial Academy and appointed erudites; the newcomer was indeed wearing the official robes of an Erudite.

An Erudite of the State of Chu held a rank comparable to a six-hundred-shi official, which could only be considered a mid-to-lower-level official.

However, the Vice Academy President of Luming Academy happened to occupy precisely this tier.

*Thump!*

The Vice Academy President ran all the way up to Fan Li and dropped directly onto both knees.

"This subordinate, Zhang Qiuming, Vice Academy President of Luming Academy, pays his respects to Your Excellency."

An uproar swept through the crowd!

Watching the expressions of the Confucian scholars whose jaws practically dropped to the ground, Sovereign Hanyue couldn't help curving her lips into a faint smile, feeling a sense of shared glory at Fan Li's impressive clout.

"The Vice Academy President called him Your Excellency?"

"So he wasn't our fellow student after all, but a superior official?"

"So young, yet already holding a position at court? He is simply a role model for us scholars, wuwuwu!"

Master Yichuan was also dumbfounded, his aged face flushing red and white in turns.

Upon coming to the State of Chu and lecturing at Luming Academy, Master Yichuan's ultimate goal had been to leverage his lectures to build a renown and get summoned into the Chu court as an official.

He had long since heard that the illustrious Great Confucian of the School of Commerce, Sang Yang, had been recommended to court as a commoner and appointed directly as one of the Nine Ministers—the Grand Agricultural Minister!

Who in the world didn't know?

The State of Chu had a powerful chancellor named Fan Li, who single-handedly wielded the authority of the Three Excellencies; the State of Chu had abolished the post of the Three Excellencies long ago!

In the State of Chu, the Nine Ministers were already considered to have reached the pinnacle of a subject's career!

If Sang Yang could ascend to the summit in a single day, why couldn't he, Yichuan?

Now, forget about entering court as an official; he hadn't even secured his footing at Luming Academy yet, and he had somehow offended a high-ranking minister of the court first?

Judging by the Vice Academy President's posture of prostration, this young man probably held a rank at least equivalent to the Nine Ministers.

"Ahem!"

Master Yichuan let out a soft cough to attract Fan Li's attention.

He forced out a smile and said respectfully, "This humble one is a disciple of Master Guigu of Mount Yunmeng, Cheng Yichuan of the Zhongshan Cheng clan, a first-grade Mahayana Realm Confucian cultivator. I have yet to ask for your esteemed name, Your Excellency..."

Fan Li rolled his eyes.

Such courtesy—he was like a completely different person compared to moments ago!

With a forced smile, he replied, "My surname is Fan, given name Li, native of Pengcheng. I am the Chancellor of the State of Chu, enfeoffed as the Duke of Jin, bestowed with the Nine Concessions, ranking above all dukes, and holding the imperial mandate to exercise supreme command over all military and political affairs of the State of Chu."