Chapter 1000: A sword cast from human bones (1/2)

Seeing Long Feiye’s stunned expression, Han Yunxi realized that the ancient sword beneath the lake was a very precious thing.

So we found a treasure before ever tracking down the Qi Sha dagger?

“What could it be?” she asked urgently.

“The Moye sword spirit!” Long Feiye declared.

“Moye sword spirit?” Han Yunxi echoed blankly. She had heard of the Moye sword (莫邪宝剑). Mo Ye herself was the wife of the swordsmith Gan Jiang (干将). The couple had accepted the King of Wu’s orders to cast a sword, which Gan Jiang did by gathering iron essence from the five mountains, and metal essence from the six valleys. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to succeed even after three months. The King of Wu would take Gan Jiang’s life if he was late, so for the sake of protecting her husband, Mo Ye threw herself into the furnace and broke the sword into pieces. The results yielded two separate blades, with the male named Ganjiang and the female Moye. [1]

Gan Jiang secretly hid the Gan Jiang sword for himself and only gave the King of Wu the Moye blade. Once the king discovered the lie, Gan Jiang was ordered to commit suicide. His soul thus attached itself to the Ganjiang sword. Moye and Ganjiang were both ancient treasure swords; what’s more, they were a pair. Han Yunxi only knew of the legend, but never heard of something like Mo Ye’s sword spirit.

“I heard my master said that the Moye sword had been destroyed hundreds of years ago. However, its sword spirit lived on. Moye was originally filled with killing intent, so that only intensified once it lost its sword body. If someone could quell its sword qi, then they’ll have to get rid of the killing intent first,” Long Feiye explained.

“And what about Ganjiang? Was it destroyed?” Han Yunxi asked curiously.

“Ganjiang is in Celestial Mountain’s forbidden grounds. The three Honored Elders are watching over it,” Long Feiye muttered. This was a top secret of the sect that no one besides him, his master, and the three Honored Elders knew.

“No one in Celestial Mountain Sword Sect’s been able to quell Ganjiang yet, right?” Han Yunxi asked quickly.

Long Feiye didn’t answer, but his helpless smile revealed it all. Could this woman be any smarter?

In truth, even the combined strength of the three Honored Elders wasn’t enough to subdue Ganjiang, so all they could do was hide it away. Long Feiye had witnessed Ganjiang’s sword qi in person. With Moye as the female and Ganjiang as the male, the latter’s killing intent was even more ferocious. However, the fact that Moye’s blade had been destroyed only increased its hatred and resentment over its killing intent. Thus, Moye’s current sword qi was no less inferior to her partner.

“Long Feiye, Moye only has a sword spirit left. How are we supposed to quell that?” Han Yunxi wondered.

“It needs to be sealed within a sword body first, then quelled,” Long Feiye replied.

“So we need to reforge a brand new treasure sword?” Han Yunxi couldn’t believe it. “Who can do that?”

Then she gave a start as she recalled something. “Long Feiye, quick! Go find that one-armed man! He’s very suspicious!”

“Why?” Long Feiye didn’t understand.

“Let’s go first, I’ll explain on the way!” Han Yunxi urged.

Baili Mingxiang didn’t dare to delay and instantly delivered them on shore. Long Feiye then took Han Yunxi to hurry their way to True Love.

“Long Feiye, the only reason Mo Ye succeeded in finishing the swords after she jumped into the furnace was because human bones bane be used to craft swords! The phosphorus and calcium found inside is enough to suck up impurities in molten iron and leave the metal purified,” Han Yunxi explained.

Long Feiye didn’t completely understand what phosphorus and calcium were, but he more or less got the general idea. He immediately recalled the one-armed man at True Love. Before, they couldn’t fathom why a swordsmith like him was working at a bone ornament shop, but now they were certain he had added human bones into the mix while forging his swords!

Since the murderer was a bone collector and knew the lake had a whirlpool, then it was likely she wanted to cast a sword out of human bones to house the Moye sword spirit! As for how that related to the Qi Sha dagger and the seven female victims, Han Yunxi wasn’t sure. Her present conjectures were only a guess, so she had no way to verify whether the one-armed man and the proprietress were the suspects. Still, it was better to be wrong than miss this chance! All Long Feiye had to do was test their fighting skills to see if they were guilty.

But by the time Long Feiye and Han Yunxi reached True Love, they saw that the shop was empty and nobody was in the back courtyard. Had their probing raised suspicions? If that was the case, then the one-armed man and proprietress were even more likely suspects! Long Feiye instructed the shadow guards to investigate all people with connections to the shop while he brought Han Yunxi back to Yinyang Lake. Unlike last night, they found a place to hide instead of waiting by the shore. As long as the Moye sword spirit was still here, the culprits would definitely drop by. There was no escaping them!

The duo finished their nightly dual cultivation before continuing to keep watch. That night, the murderer didn’t show up. Early next morning, Xu Donglin came to deliver a message.

“Your Highness, this subordinate has already found that the owners of that store never interact with outsiders. All of the jewelry inside the store was made by the shopkeeper, and they’ve never needed the services of bone collectors from the city.”

“What are their origins?” Long Feiye asked.