762 The Real Thing (2/2)
He looked at Ye Qingxuan expectantly. ”Why don't you try me?”
”Why do you say I've been bullying children? It's more like a group of kids are bullying me.” Ye Qingxuan curled his lips and shook his head. ”Besides, your position in your family is so high, isn't this like the strong bullying the weak?”
”But I don't presume to be your better.” Yuan Changqing pressed his hand against the ropes on the sword's hilt, and his eyes narrowed slightly. ”You are better at managing your fear than your father was.”
Ye Qingxuan was indifferent. ”If you hadn't brought him up, I'd be a little happier. Maybe I'd have even agreed.”
”Then let me see, you unfilial son who burned away all of his inheritance, what's the difference between you and him?” Yuan Changqing grinned and no longer looked like a kindly old man, but like a man-eating beast, full of savagery. ”There, I've said it. If you can't avoid it, you will really die—”
Bang! The sound of metal scraping suddenly burst forth, and a ray of blazing light emerged from in front of Yuan Changqing, gathering together into a ray of harsh light and soft sound. It was like a bird, turning thousands of times each time you glimpsed at it. The sharpness of iron and the softness of steel were combined in the ray. It rose into higher dimensions and then fell.
No one saw the simple, illusory sword in the old man's hands until it fell. It was like silken music theory gathered together in the empty air, outlining the Cutting Sword Movement, revealing its pure form in the physical world. But it was also erratic and transparent. Only in the interplay of light and shadow could one see its terrible blade.
Music theory spread out from the sword and fell into the void, binding Ye Qingxuan like a chain.
Ye Qingxuan had already taken a step back.
Dust rose up amid the sound of the house collapsing, and everyone was cowed by the fierceness of the image of the sword movement. They dared not rise up as they crawled meekly on the ground.
The outline of the New Testament Sword appeared in Ye Qingxuan's hands.
A white scar appeared on the primitive yet elegant ridge of the sword, the mark left by Yuan Changqing's sword. The scratch slowly closed, but the killing intent left in it could not be dissipated. It floated in the air, causing a crack to appear in the thawing frozen ground.
They stood ten paces apart. 19 sword marks crisscrossed vertically and horizontally.
Ye Qingxuan looked down and looked at the sword marks under his feet. He sighed softly.
It was just like Yuan Changqing had said: If he couldn't avoid it, he would have died.
”Are we really doing this, old man? So annoying.” He rubbed his forehead impatiently. In a flash, an illusion sprang out from beneath his feet, and then, with the New Testament Sword as a fulcrum, an endless sea appeared beneath him. This was not only the Ocean Abyss Symphony. The many illusory mysteries that the musicians of the Illusion Islands had created over the centuries appeared, forming out of thin air and covering Yuan Changqing layer by layer.
In a flash, matter was distorted and the boundary between reality and illusion was blurred. Using the methods of orthodox musicians, he defended his advantageous position tenaciously and confined Yuan Changqing within illusions.
Then music theory unfolded from within, layering over itself and wrapping around Yuan Changqing's sword movement. It was like the rising and falling of the tides. It pushed, it pulled, making a single battle turn into thousands with respect to everything from the overall situation down to the details. In a flash, Yuan Changqing was attacked from every direction.
This was truly a fatal move.
He was still not willing to face Yuan Changqing's cutting sword, so he pulled the irascible old man into the kind of music theory battle he was best at instead. A battle of countless details, pulling his whole body in, and giving him the feeling of being trapped in a net.
But soon his expression changed.
At this moment, among the thousands of conflicts, it seemed like there were thousands of skilled swordsmen responding to his attacks. Thousands of different sword spirits and sword movements had emerged from the Chun Jun sword.
After dividing the sword that had been condensed as much as possible, he had never thought that one enemy would become a thousand, each one totally different from the next, but each of them equally hard to deal with and frightful.
The sound breaking glass rang out.
Then the illusion of the endless ocean abyss was broken with a roar.
Yuan Changqing walked out from under 10,000 tons of pressure without any injury, and smiling mockingly at Ye Qingxuan, who had suffered a heavy loss.
”You don't think the Yuan family are all a bunch of boors who only know how to draw swords, do you?” He tilted his head and looked at Ye Qingxuan. ”Actually, no matter if it is swordsmanship, movements or music theory, as long as it something that can kill someone, we can do it. So how long do you want to keep playing these sissy tricks?”
Ye Qingxuan looked downcast for a moment. This old man was really despicable and annoying. And his words were poison, every sentence that he said was worse than the last. But the power under his control was ridiculously solid, and he could even use his sword technique to respond to a music theory attack, almost leaving Ye Qingxuan rolling in the gutter.
If he hadn't merely been counterattacking and breaking his illusions, Ye Qingxuan feared he would be even more troublesome.
Now, Ye Qingxuan was finally irritated.
”Alright.” He raised the New Testament Sword and grinned at Yuan Changqing. ”You want to see the real thing, then let's see if you can take it!”
A mighty melody sounded.
Countless stars shone on the New Testament Sword's blade, sending out a dazzling light. They appeared behind Ye Qingxuan, and layer after layer of murderous intentions locked onto Yuan Changqing.
From the New World.
After being separated from the Net of Aether by the Great Wall, Ye Qingxuan could not draw upon its massive stores of power. All that was left to him was the movements that he had prepared himself.
In any case, the New Testament Sword's load capacity had not been used up, and the movements could be held for six hours. In order to be prepared for any eventuality, Ye Qingxuan had put movements into the blade when he had free time, not fearing that they would go to waste.
Now it was Yuan Changqing's turn to enjoy them.
”Yeah, that's right.” Facing the hundreds of blazing lights, Yuan Changqing laughed and cheered. ”This is how it should be!” He raised Chun Jun, and it turned into a vast and mighty sun. A sword movement as fierce as blazing sunlight rose from his body and fell towards the endless stars!
Blazing light pierced everyone's eyes.
[1] A Chinese two-stringed instrument