Chapter Fifty-One: Annual Festival

  Outside Chaoyang Town

  Lu Qing sat quietly on his black horse, standing still on the main road, gazing at the serene Chao Yang Town in the cold wind. Lu Qing's heart was calm and peaceful, as if he had merged with the surrounding air. The trees, the flying sand and dust, and even the winter sparrows flapping their wings to forage for food seemed to have been there all along, natural and harmonious.

  This is the second day Lu Qing left Chao Yang City. After this trip to Chao Yang City, his gains were beyond expectation. Not only did he successfully break through his heart and refine his innate abilities to reach the Sword Yuan realm, but also with enough accumulation of Sword Yuan, he can naturally reach the Sword Guest Small Heavenly Rank. Moreover, the three days of hammering and tempering had a huge impact on him, bringing almost qualitative changes to his grasp of force.

  Lu Qing learned from the old man that when he was learning his hammer technique, he also learned the self-transformation of lightness and heaviness in it. This is a profound realm of swordsmanship. However, since he only grasped the realm of lifting heavy as if light, he couldn't truly apply this realm. But even so, it allowed Lu Qing to have a leap in understanding the realm of lifting heavy as if light, just like when someone tries to lift a thousand-jin boulder at first but can't, yet after practicing for a long time and then going back to lift the hundred-jin stone he lifted before, he will feel much lighter. It's the same principle.

  He reined in his thoughts and rode into the town on his black horse. With only three days left until the annual festival, Yangyang Town was gradually becoming lively. At this time of year, business in the streets was booming, as every household prepared food and offerings for the festival.

  The so-called annual festival is a tradition that has been passed down on the Sword God Continent for 50,000 years. It is mainly used to worship the ancestors of the family and use incense offerings to make the souls of the deceased ancestors peaceful in the underworld. Although no one knows the truth about the underworld, with more people believing in it over the past 100,000 years, it has become a reality.

  At this time, on the streets of Chaoyang Town, many four or five-year-old children were playing and celebrating the arrival of the annual festival. For them, the arrival of the festival meant that they would eat the best food of the year, get new clothes, and everything would be renewed. This was what they cared about most. As for ancestor worship, in their eyes, it was not as attractive as a fragrant rice cake.

  A smile spread across his face as he gazed at the warm scene before him. Lu Qing's laughter was so relaxed, but soon his smile was retracted. These were all his people in Chaoyang Town, and they would be his people too, although he had not yet officially become the town guardian. However, time passed quickly, and after the New Year's festival, it would only be three years' time.

  They must rise up for their own happiness and well-being. At this moment, Lu Qing looked at those happy smiling faces and said to himself.

  Lu Qing, leading the black-blooded horse, headed towards the Lu Mansion. The people in town mostly recognized him and paid their respects to him. Even some simple-minded villagers stuffed wild mountain chicken and other offerings into Lu Qing's arms. These were all people who had watched Lu Qing grow up. Additionally, some passing merchant caravans also cast curious glances at Lu Qing. Although Lu Qing was now calm and composed, he didn't feel like being gawked at. From a small alleyway, Lu Qing walked along the winding path back to the Lu Mansion.

  Yi Lao had been waiting at the door early, and he instructed his servant to lead the horse in. Yi Lao turned his gaze towards Lu Qing, but suddenly froze, because he discovered that Lu Qing's aura had completely changed. From its original grandeur, it became quiet and unnoticeable, just like an ordinary person without any cultivation. His skin was crystal clear like jade, and a refreshing fragrance emanated from his body, making people feel even more close to him.

  Of course, Lu Qing couldn't be an ordinary person, this was something that Yi Lao had known before, so now there's only one possibility left, it really is...

  A look of shock and incredulity appeared on his face, and Yi Lao's voice trembled slightly as he said: "Sword cultivators refine their prenatal state, after rebirth and washing the origin, their body will emit a fresh and clean fragrance similar to that of a newborn baby for a period of time. Young Master, you——”

  He nodded definitely and said: "Yes, I have arrived."

  "This..." Yi Lao was somewhat unbelievable, although he had already guessed the fact, but at this moment, hearing Lu Qing say it out loud was another kind of shock.

  Indeed, if the current Zixia Sect includes all inner sect disciples and guardians who have built their foundation and gathered their yuan, there are over two thousand sword cultivators. Among them, only about a hundred or so have reached the second level of the Sword Dao, entering the realm of the Sword Guest. The other nearly nineteen hundred sword cultivators may have four to five hundred whose cultivation is stuck at the Great Heavenly Stage, unable to break through because they cannot shatter their own heart's foundation, thus preventing their divine sense from guiding the sword yuan to burst through the Hundred Meetings Acupoint and being taken advantage of by the Heart Demon.

  This also makes every person who can become a swordsman have a certain status and identity throughout the sect. For example, the executive of the Purple Mist Sect needs to have the cultivation of a swordsman, while the guardian needs to have the cultivation of a sword master. These are all real power holders in the sect, mostly holding the power of life and death in one side.

  So, in the various forces and aristocratic families of the entire Zixia Sect, if there is a swordsman or sword master sitting in town, it would be an unbeatable big family or force. Like the five major aristocratic families today, they have their current status because each has a sword master figure as a guardian.

  Now that Lu Yun, the master of the Lu family's swordsmanship, has passed away, many people will be eyeing the Lu family's accumulated wealth and power over a thousand years, even with Yan Ruyi's Tian-level cultivation suppressing them. However, with the emergence of Lu Qing, a young swordsman, at least no one will dare to have designs on the Lu family again. At the very least, if the five major families want to make a move on the Lu family, they will have to bring out their top swordsmen.

  Lu Qing was welcomed in, and although the shock on Yi Lao's face had not yet dissipated, an excited expression began to emerge. The current Lu family's power was unstable, with repeated turmoil, and even their businesses in various places were suppressed. However, as soon as Lu Qing's identity as a sword guest spread, everything would immediately settle down, for no one wanted to oppose a sect pillar who might rise within the inner sect.

  After walking through several courtyards and corridors, a group of servants were busy sweeping away the old hanging screens that had been used for a year, replacing many utensils with new ones. Only the central cast sword house was left untouched due to previous orders. The wooden door that had been broken the day before had already been repaired after Lu Qing's departure. However, the bright new color of the door clashed with the color of the surrounding stone walls. When Lu Qing saw it, he seemed to have touched a deep chord in his heart and pushed open the door to enter.

  It is still the same square cauldron, and the hundred-pound fire jade hammer is quietly placed on a nearby case. The pincers, casting mold, quenching pool, are all exactly the same as before, even the position of placement has not changed.

  These were all done by Mother, Lu Qing thought to herself. Although Mother had been resentful of Father's obsession with sword-making in the past, there was still a deep affection between them that couldn't be shaken off. Otherwise, she wouldn't have made such gestures, trying to hold on to yesterday.

  After taking a look around, Lu Qing felt something in his heart and didn't stay any longer. He gently closed the door and left, while Yi Lao followed behind him, but couldn't help letting out a soft sigh. He had been following Lu Qing's grandfather since he was a child and had watched Lu Yun grow up from a young age. To Lu Yun, he was like a son, taking care of all the affairs of the Lu family, allowing him to focus on his sword-casting skills without worrying about anything else. Now, in just half a year, everything had changed, and the vicissitudes of life were really making him sigh involuntarily.

  Afterwards, upon seeing Yan Ruyi, Yan Ruyi was also shocked by the changes that had occurred to Lu Qing. However, she immediately burst into tears of joy, rejoicing at Lu Qing's current accomplishments, and crying for Lu Qing's tender age, having already experienced so much. Throughout the generations of the Purple Mist Sect, which genius didn't achieve their breakthrough after years of training and accumulating human emotions and experiences? Even those inner sect disciples had to experience the ups and downs of life in the sword arrays before they could break through. And yet Lu Qing was only thirteen years old now, able to achieve such accomplishments, one can imagine how much weight he carried in his heart.

  Three days passed quickly, and the annual ceremony began. The ancestral hall of the Lu family was filled with incense, last year's offerings, worship, sweeping the hall, keeping vigil, and other activities. They also had to accompany Yan Ruyu in receiving New Year's visits from the townspeople and business owners from outside the city, among other things. Lu Qing didn't have any complaints; he knew that these were all things he would need to deal with three years later.

  It wasn't until ten days after the annual festival that things gradually calmed down. During this time, Lu Qing also stabilized his previously broken boundary, and the infantile fragrance of Lian Xiantian on his body slowly dissipated. At night, he began taking silver ginseng and purple ganoderma to enhance his sword yuan force. His cultivation progressed rapidly, and in just half a month, the sword yuan deficiency in Lu Qing's body had been elevated from the initial entry-level Tian rank to the great Tian rank of a swordsman, and he also mastered the use of sword energy separation.

  The so-called sword energy separation is a new ability mastered when entering the second realm of the sword path, the sword yuan realm. Because the Baihui acupoint is opened, people and the heaven and earth yuanqi are connected, so they can borrow the heaven and earth yuanqi to recover the sword yuan at any time. It's like being nurtured in a mother's body, and can absorb yuanqi at any time. Therefore, swordsmen of the sword guest stage are often called pre-heavenly sword guests. Sword energy separation is the sword guest using strong recovery ability to absorb heaven and earth yuanqi and shoot out sword energy outside the body. Only by reaching the sword guest stage can this ability be used. Without connecting with the heaven and earth, even if it's a great heavenly swordsmen who exhausts all their sword yuan, they can only shoot out one sword energy before being exhausted.