Volume 1, Chapter 27: The Sword Casting Bureau Opens

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Li Yunrui grew increasingly puzzled and asked in a low voice, “What are they doing? Are they afraid the imperial court will blame them for causing a mess here?”

Zhao Wujiang shook his head, his swordlike brows drawing tighter and tighter. “If you had a great treasure, would you go around telling everyone about it?”

“I’d tell you.” Li Yunrui looked utterly innocent, her beautiful eyes shining brightly.

“Be serious.” Zhao Wujiang shot her a glance. “The Sword Forging Bureau secretly forged a Heavenly Sword without the imperial court’s knowledge. That should have been kept confidential, yet they dared to openly spread the news among the martial world. Why do you think that is?”

“They aren’t afraid of the imperial court? I’ll have my father send troops here at once!”

“It’s too late. I think the Director of the Sword Forging Bureau intends to risk everything. He spread the news and created these invitations precisely to lure people here and make them fight to the death. Then they can collect all the corpses afterward…”

Li Yunrui was even more bewildered. “What do they want the corpses for?”

Zhao Wujiang explained, “As the saying goes, when a Heavenly Sword is forged, ten thousand bones wither. During the final stage of its creation, the sword must be sacrificed to with human lives.”

Li Yunrui kept staring at Zhao Wujiang’s solemn expression. She pressed her red lips together. She truly had not misjudged him. Living deep within the Northern Pacification Prince’s residence, Zhao Wujiang actually knew so many strange and unusual things. He was certainly hiding his true depth.

“There are sounds of fighting, too.”

Li Yunrui had extraordinarily keen hearing. Like a seductive fox spirit, she seized the opportunity to cling tightly to Zhao Wujiang, hiding her head against his chest as she pointed in the direction from which they had come.

“Over there!”

Zhao Wujiang followed the direction of her finger and narrowed his eyes. At the main entrance of the Sword Forging Bureau, a group of martial artists dressed in the uniforms of various sects was surrounding and attacking a man and a woman.

The man was tall and powerfully built, while the woman was as cold and ethereal as an immortal.

The man was Long Zhan. Though the woman had disguised her appearance, Zhao Wujiang recognized her at a glance. Only Ling Qingxue possessed such a frigid expression.

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

Zhao Wujiang guessed that the two of them had come to seize the Heavenly Sword.

They simply did not know that the Sword Forging Bureau was deliberately directing the martial artists to fight at the entrance. By arriving so openly, they had clashed with people from the other sects.

“What an opportunity…”

Long Zhan and Ling Qingxue had schemed against Zhao Wujiang several times.

His expression shifted. When facing enemies, he had always been meticulous in settling scores and relentless in seeking revenge.

Besides, he and Li Yunrui were disguised now. They should not be able to recognize them.

“Brothers of the martial world!”

Zhao Wujiang stepped out of the inn and shouted in a different voice, “That man is Long Zhan, commander of the Light Cavalry Camp! He’s here to steal the Heavenly Sword from us!”

The martial artists of the world had never held much affection for people from the imperial court.

When Long Zhan heard someone expose his identity, he turned his gaze toward Zhao Wujiang, but he did not recognize him.

“So they really are imperial hounds!”

“Looks like the imperial court sent them to guard the Heavenly Sword! Brothers, kill them! Only then can we take the sword!”

“That’s right! Kill him!”

Long Zhan clenched his teeth and glared at Zhao Wujiang.

Who was this man?

How dare he deliberately set me up!

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Gloating, Zhao Wujiang added, “They even stole our invitations just now!”

Invitations? What invitations?

Long Zhan grew increasingly confused. Then, to his horror, he discovered that the martial artists surrounding him and Ling Qingxue suddenly seemed to have been set ablaze with fury. Their attacks became heavier and heavier, every move carrying lethal intent.

Ling Qingxue cast a cold glance at Zhao Wujiang as he turned and ran.

She herself was an expert at disguises.

She immediately realized that the man’s appearance was false.

So was his voice.

“Who is this man…? Hiding his head and concealing his face, and deliberately setting us up…”

Before Ling Qingxue could think further, she suddenly heard Long Zhan shout. Outnumbered, he had been slashed across the right arm by a martial arts expert.

Ling Qingxue had no choice but to gather her thoughts and rush over to help him.

“You’re so wicked!”

Li Yunrui had witnessed the entire scene. Though she said this with her lips, she was filled with boundless admiration for Zhao Wujiang.

With just a few words, he had caused Long Zhan to be mobbed by a crowd.

As expected of the man she had chosen.

Why does she call me wicked while looking at me with such admiration?

Could it really be that women love bad men?

Zhao Wujiang was baffled.

Soon afterward, however, the main entrance of the Sword Forging Bureau opened.

“Zhao Wujiang, let’s hurry inside!” Li Yunrui said excitedly.

But Zhao Wujiang replied, “Not yet. Wait a moment. Let’s return to the room first.”

Li Yunrui did not understand, but she obediently followed him.

Once they returned to the room, she asked, “Zhao Wujiang, why did we come back? When are we going into the Sword Forging—”

Before she could finish speaking, Zhao Wujiang struck her beneath the jaw with the side of his hand. She collapsed and fell instantly asleep.

He had judged the force perfectly: enough to knock her unconscious, but not enough to injure her.

To prevent Li Yunrui from suddenly waking, Zhao Wujiang also gave her a small dose of knockout powder.

She would need at least one or two hours before waking on her own—more than enough time for him to visit the Sword Forging Bureau and return.

After knocking Li Yunrui unconscious, Zhao Wujiang lifted her up, placed her on the bed, and pulled the blankets over her.

“The inside of the Sword Forging Bureau is about to become a battlefield of slaughter, with everyone fighting and countless dead and wounded.”

There was no way he could let Li Yunrui follow him inside and cause trouble.

What if she were caught in the chaos?

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Li Zaiyuan would surely charge the blame to him.

“What a damn nuisance.”

Zhao Wujiang felt helpless.

“And there’s Long Zhan, that fated protagonist. In the middle of the melee, he’ll somehow manage to spit a mouthful of blood onto the Heavenly Sword, have it acknowledge him as its master, and become the greatest winner of all.”

“Being the protagonist really is wonderful. Unlike a minor villain like me, who has to proceed with caution at every step… I wonder what would happen if I spat blood onto the Heavenly Sword before he did?”

Zhao Wujiang pondered this as he left the room.

To prevent anyone from breaking in and harming Li Yunrui, he repeatedly reached into his robes, taking out various sleeping powders and poisons and scattering them across the floor and around the doorway.

Anyone who entered during this time would either die or suffer serious injury unless they were an expert.

In theory, no expert would come here anyway. Their attention would all be focused on the Heavenly Sword.

He then slowly closed the door, touched the two small tufts of hair on his upper lip, lowered the brim of his hat, and walked out of the inn.

…

Inside the Sword Forging Bureau.

The air was thick with the smell of metal—the scent of iron being smelted.

Even the temperature here was considerably higher than in the other parts of the capital.

But the strongest odor was the stench of blood.

By now, the main entrance of the Sword Forging Bureau stood wide open.

Even the guards who had been stationed there earlier were gone.

It gave the distinct impression of a trap inviting anyone to walk straight in.

So the claim that one needed an invitation to enter had all been utter nonsense from the Sword Forging Bureau.

Still, Zhao Wujiang preferred to err on the side of caution. Rather than use the main entrance, he leapt over the wall at the side.

Inside the Sword Forging Bureau, the oppressive atmosphere that had been there before had completely vanished.

Yet from one direction, the sound of voices grew louder and louder. It seemed that everyone had gathered there.

Zhao Wujiang looked over. He remembered that, in the original story, there was a hidden sword-nurturing pool within the Sword Forging Bureau.

The Heavenly Sword… was there!

Concealing his presence, Zhao Wujiang quietly followed.

The Sword-Nurturing Pool.

Unlike an ordinary pond, it was neither round nor square. Its shape resembled a wave, with the two ends slightly pointed and the middle broadest, like the proud curves of a woman’s body. At its center, it narrowed like a woman drawing in her waist.

The water was divided down the middle, each side distinct from the other, like the two paths of yin and yang. The water on the left was deep blue, while that on the right was blood-red.

Swords of every shape and style had been planted all around the Sword-Nurturing Pool.

Yet across the entire pool, only at the exact center where the two colors met stood a single sword. Its blade was razor-sharp, its hilt uneven and jagged, its form resembling a sword carved from a weather-beaten, pitted mountain stone.

The Heavenly Sword!