Chapter 452: Receiving the sword

Translated by: La0o9

Proofreader: Arya

Tian Shan Ye gave him two jade tags.

One of them contained his entire life’s worth of sword and blade techniques.

The other was a jade tag he picked off the ground to record his understanding of the realm demon.

Gu Qing Shan caught the first one.

This jade tag was shining and glittering, obviously nurtured for countless years.

Jade tags are originally a milky pure white color, only the ones that contain particularly valuable information are kept by the cultivators’ side for them to check and use at their convenience.

During this process, the cultivator’s spirit energy will unconsciously flow into the jade tag, slowly increasing its quality throughout the years.

This was a very common occurrence in the cultivation world.

That was also why most people would feel curious about what information a particularly high-quality jade tag contains.

Gu Qing Shan was holding the tag quite tightly in his hand.

A line of glowing text showed up on the War God UI.

[This is a cultivation scripture written by a combination of two people, split into two parts: Sword and Blade]

This message appeared very quickly and it was even blinking.

Almost as if it was urging Gu Qing Shan to look.

Glancing over it, Gu Qing Shan confirmed a theory he had.

Before Ascended realm, a cultivator can use as many weapons as they like and study multiple expertise.

But after the Ascended realm tribulation, a cultivator must choose a single weapon as their main Dao(path) to cultivate.

It was because of this that Gu Qing Shan gave up Lightning-elemental spells as well as Bow-and-arrow, to become a true single-minded sword cultivator.

And the Sword was the Dao with the strongest sense of monopoly.

Once they chose the path of the sword, they must discard all other paths.

The last time Gu Qing Shan returned to Reality, after helping Ye Fei Li cause a scene at the election, he went to the Masala desert to breakthrough.

At the time, Gu Qing Shan chose to be true to the Sword.

In the cultivation world, there would frequently be rumors of people who can cultivate two weapons at once, but that was only because they did not choose the path of the Sword.

A true sword cultivator knows better than anyone that the duo-cultivation of weapons wasn’t possible when it came to the sword.

But Tian Shan Ye’s solid and sharp sword qi displayed that he was a true sword cultivator through and through.

Then how did he duo-cultivate the Blade as well?

Truthfully, it wasn’t only Gu Qing Shan but the cultivators of this world 1000 years ago didn’t understand this either.

But the records of 1000 years ago were very clear.

This included every battle Tian Shan Ye participated in, every time he attacked, and every move he used to win.

At the time, so many people didn’t understand how Tian Shan Ye achieved the Sword and Blade double mastery either.

But no one managed to probe into his secrets in all those years.

Tian Shan Ye was the strongest cultivator.

As long as Tian Shan Ye didn’t want to tell, no one could force him.

Gu Qing Shan muttered: “Two people… fortunately I saw this, otherwise I would’ve been fooled as well”

Gu Qing Shan turned to look at the other jade tag in midair.

Tian Shan Ye said that his view of the realm demon was recorded there.

Compared to the secret scripture jade tag that Gu Qing Shan had, this realm demon jade tag gave off a sense of being much simpler and relaxed.

Qing Rou reached out her hand to take it.

Gu Qing Shan immediate grabbed her hand.

“Gongzi?” Qing Rou asked hesitantly.

Shannu suddenly disappeared right where she stood.

A split second later, she reappeared by the jade tag in the air.

For such a short distance, she actually used the Divine Skill, [Ground Shrink]!

Light a flash of lightning, Shannu grabbed and stored the jade tag into an Inventory Bag.

This happened in a single moment.

Before the two girls managed to react, the second jade tag had already been stored away.

The jade tag didn’t have time to react either.

Shannu fluttered as she descended.

“Well done” Gu Qing Shan praised her.

Seeing how the two girls weren’t too clear, Shannu explained: “Gongzi sent his voice telling me to store the jade tag away as fast as possible”

The two girls were a bit stunned at that explanation.

It was as if he was being cautious against them, not wanting them to read the jade tag.

Gu Qing Shan doesn’t trust me?

They both thought the same thing.

Wan Er stared straight at Gu Qing Shan, asking him carefully: “Don’t you trust big sis Qing Rou? She wouldn’t tell your secrets to any outsider”

Qing Rou pursed her lips, clearly dejected.

Our lives rest on his hand so I was honestly helping him as much as possible, but it turns out he didn’t trust me at all.

Seeing that Gu Qing Shan felt a headache coming along.

He had to explain: “This was really complicated, and I didn’t want the two of you to get caught in the middle”

As brilliant as Qing Rou was, she only needed to think about these words for a bit to understand: “Before, gongzi said that between sword cultivator, there are only swords”

She muttered: “And when swords are drawn, life and death must be decided”

“Which means, gongzi was receiving his sword”

“You really are smart, Qing Rou” Gu Qing Shan praised her.

“A Heart Sword?” Qing Rou looked at him and asked.

“A Heard Sword”

Gu Qing Shan explained: “Sword and Blade dual mastery, such a grand name it is. This sort of scripture jade tag can easily incite a person’s greed”

“And the second jade tag recorded information that I am in a hurry to find out”

“Since the first jade tag didn’t have any traps and actually contained a world-renowned scripture, once I confirm that there was nothing wrong with it, I would feel relaxed and let down my guard, even if only a little. This is human nature”

“At this time, I will then collect the second jade tag. Because of how much I wanted to know the information in it, I will probably not hesitate to pour my inner sight inside to check it and find out the secret of the realm demon”

Gu Qing Shan inhaled.

“During this 1000 years, he certainly didn’t slouch at all. Being capable of using the heart as a sword”

“But I won’t give him that chance”

Qing Rou understood, but now she was wondering about a different thing.

“Why are you sure that the scripture jade tag wouldn’t have a trap?”

“Because it has to. If I become suspicious about it right away, none of Tian Shan Ye’s following plans would be possible”

“Then why did Shannu have to take the second jade tag away so quickly?”

“Because he definitely had a lot of unknown tricks infused into it, but once inside a Inventory Bag, it’ll be in a completely different space. Which means he wouldn’t be able to do anything to me unless he can get out from Shannu’s Inventory Bag”

The two girls looked back to see Shannu keeping her hand tightly on the opening of the tag.

“No matter what techniques he uses, he won’t be able to get out of my hands” Shannu declared without worry.

Wan Er also realized what was going on and looked at Gu Qing Shan: “Which means, you never trusted him from the start”

Qing Rou also asked: “Just now when you said there would be no schemes, that was on purpose for the jade tag to hear?”

“Of course, I can’t rouse his suspicion in the final moments”

“Since when did you notice that he didn’t mean well?” Qing Rou’s eyes were practically glittering as she asked.

“It was because he was sealed inside a powerful attack formation”

Gu Qing Shan looked at Shannu.

Shannu nodded: “Beside me, none of you would’ve been able to get out alive”

“With Wang Hong Dao’s personality, this was very normal, so Tian Shan Ye definitely didn’t have a chance to meet anyone from the outside”

Gu Qing Shan explained: “But when I announced myself as the Hallmaster of Zwei Wei Hall, he never asked who I or my master was”

“That is certainly strange” Qing Rou agreed.

“First he mentioned Wang Hong Dao’s dark history of killing his master, then guessed that I wasn’t Wang Hong Dao’s disciple, why is that?” Gu Qing Shan asked her back.

“Maybe… it was to have an excuse to teach you his Sword and Blade techniques?” Wan Er asked.

“Exactly. As long as I felt the greed of wanting to learn his techniques, I have to declare that I wasn’t Wang Hong Dao’s disciple”

“Just like that, I would’ve taken his bait”

Wan Er shook her head: “But his guess was accurate, you really weren’t Wang Hong Dao’s disciple”

“Then how did he guess?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

Wan Er recalled: “He said that Wang Hong Dao doesn’t know how to use the sword, only Blade techniques and corpse manipulation, so Wang Hong Dao couldn’t have a sword cultivator disciple like yourself”

Gu Qing Shan continued: “Zhao Wu Chui is a Virtualized realm Martial cultivator, would he also not be Wang Hong Dao’s disciple?”

Wan Er couldn’t refute that.

Qing Rou sighed: “Using the truth to incite a lie, as long as a cultivator wanted to get his scripture, regardless of who they really were, they would admit his ‘deduction’ to be correct right away, how devious”

Gu Qing Shan followed up: “After that, he took advantage of this world’s cultivators’ fear of the realm demon and created the second jade tag. Just like how Guang Yang sect sacrificed people of another world to probe the realm demon’s weaknesses, everything came from their desires to survive”

“One jade tag to rile their greed, the second to rile their desires to survive, then he demanded a staggeringly high price as compensation for learning his scripture, giving me the illusion that I was the one asking him for the jade tag and not him giving it to me”

“Even if I didn’t swear the oath to kill Wang Hong Dao, he would’ve thought of another condition to entice me to learn his technique, it would’ve been a condition that wasn’t too easy, but just enough within my capabilities”

Wan Er held her head, muttering: “How could a single person be so calculating, it’s so terrifying”

“But even so, he wasn’t calculating enough to win against Wang Hong Dao” Qing Rou commented.

The two girls exchanged glances, seeing the fear in each other’s eyes.

They were both knowledgeable great cultivators, but never have they met such an advanced mind battle (psychological warfare) before.

If it was either of them, they would’ve fallen for it.

And there was still Wang Hong Dao who was even better at this waiting to be defeated.

What should they do now?

“Desperation can drive people mad” Gu Qing Shan muttered.

He looked down at the jade tag in his hand.

Written in here was the world-renowned secret of becoming a Sword and Blade dual master.

But this was the Suspended world, a place where desperation had already driven people to madness, a place where the people’s hearts are full of schemes and cruelty, where indifference is the key to survival.

Can I actually trust and practice the method written here?

Of course not.

Gu Qing Shan sighed regretfully.

At this time, lines of glowing text scrolled past the War God UI.

[Jade tag information transcription completed]

[Information analysis completed]

[98.7% of information provided in the jade tag is unusable]

[Discarding the majority of mistakes, false substitutes and omitted content, only 1.3% of the jade tag’s content is complete and without fault]

[Would you like to see this information?]

Gu Qing Shan just dejectedly confirmed: “Yes”

New lines of text showed up on the UI.

[Discovered a complete and correct sword saint technique of this world]

[This has been confirmed to be the only information in the jade tag that is accurate, practice with without worry]

[Sword saint Secret Art, Sword Array: Taiyi]