Song of Adolescence

Chapter 396 Challenge All Under Heaven

Inside the First Tower Under Heaven.

"This plaque… Is it the one above the city gates?" Lei Wujie tapped the plaque with his sword curiously. "How did it get here?"

Li Fansong's reaction was far more exaggerated. He widened his eyes and brushed his fingers across a crack on the surface that was caused by a sword. He shook his head and answered, "No, this isn’t the one above the city gates. At least, it’s not the one presently above the city gates, but from sixty years ago!"

"White Feather Sword Immortal!" Lei Wujie suddenly realised.

Sixty years ago, there was a prince living in hiding among the commoners who became the disciple of one of the sword immortals in the martial world. Later, the prince returned to Heavenly Revelations but was maligned by traitors. On the execution round, just before he was to be beheaded, a sword came from the west. The sword cut through tens of spears on the execution ground and rescued the prince from the hands of three thousand soldiers of the Wang Li Heavenly Army and sixteen top martial experts in Heavenly Revelations City. When he left, the sword immortal swung his sword at the plaque of Heavenly Revelations to serve as a warning for these people to never look for the prince again.

"I thought this plaque had been destroyed. Who would have thought it was actually hidden here," Li Fansong said, moved with emotion.

"But what does this plaque being here mean?" Lei Wujie was puzzled.

"Everything in this tower was left by our ancestors, and what's etched on them are, without a doubt, representing the realms of these seniors. This plaque is not as simple as it looks." Xiao Se looked at the mark left by a sword. "What could be the message hidden in this sword mark?"

"I can't tell." Li Fansong shook his head after looking at it for a long time.

"If it were so easy to figure out, wouldn’t everyone become a martial expert?" Lei Wujie was very calm, in fact, and he sat down casually, took out one of the sweet pancakes and split it into three pieces. He handed a piece each to Li Fansong and Xiao Se. "Eat a pancake and look at it slowly."

The three of them sat there, eating the pancake while observing the sword mark. Before too long, the three of them suddenly felt the prickle of cold sweat rising gradually on their backs.

It was a sword intent.

Sixty years had already passed, but the plaque still carried the sword intent of that one sword move. How powerful was the White Feather Sword Immortal back then? What realm had he attained to be able to leave a sword intent behind that lasted sixty years?

"No wonder they said this sword move was able to force the Xiao Clan imperial family to give up their hunt for the prince in hiding." Li Fansong gasped in a soft voice. "This sword move is way too scary."

"This is not just a sword mark, it’s a word." Lei Wujie closed his eyes.

Xiao Se also closed his eyes. "It's not a word, it’s a… phrase?"

"Heart." Lei Wujie gasped heavily, and the Heart sword in his hand had already left its sheath before hearing the command. It flew towards the plaque and Lei Wujie reached out hurriedly to grasp the hilt of the sword, intending to control it, but he instinctively swung a sword move with it.

And there was a sword aura that was fighting against him.

It was that remnant wisp of sword intent left on the plaque.

"Alright, then. Show me, what word did you leave behind!" Lei Wujie decided to go all in and without a second thought, he picked up his sword and confronted that wave of sword intent. "Even if you were once an ultimate sword immortal, I'm whole and hearty and standing right here. Think I can’t beat your sword intent?"

Lei Wujie stood where he was and swung thirteen sword moves before he retreated, panting heavily.

"Sometimes the difference in realms is like the difference between Longqiu waterfall and a little creek. Even if sixty years have passed, a higher realm is still high and a lower realm is still low?" Xiao Se laughed and walked closer to the plaque. Then, he lightly pressed his hand on the plaque, leaped over it, and walked up towards the second floor.

"What did he mean?" Li Fansong didn’t get it.

Lei Wujie curled his lips in annoyance. "He understood it."

"The two of us specialise in swords and we didn’t understand, but he uses a staff and understood it instead?" Li Fansong flapped his hand. "I don’t accept this. Drunken Song!" He gripped his peach wood sword and stepped forward to test his sword.

But as soon as he swung his sword, he was hit by that sword intent and the sword flew out of his hands.

"Looks like that wooden sword of yours is not up to it." Lei Wujie grinned.

"Azure Empyrean!" Li Fansong’s fighting spirit was ignited. He reached out a hand and yelled out loud.

Outside the door to the First Tower Under Heaven, Fei Xuan, who was sitting with Zitong and eating their sweet pancakes, suddenly felt the bookcase next to him start to shake violently.

"What's going on?" Zitong asked curiously.

"He’s already summoning for Azure Empyrean? Looks like what they’re facing inside is really hard to challenge." Fei Xuan lifted the cloth on the bookcase. "Go, then. Go help little shishu."

A ray of light flashed passed, and the Azure Empyrean sword unsheathed itself and flew into the First Tower Under Heaven.

"It’s been a long time, Azure Empyrean sword." Qi Tianchen smiled and looked at the sword.

"Come on." Inside the tower, Li Fansong grabbed the Azure Empyrean sword and went straight for the sword intent.

Outside the First Tower Under Heaven, Qi Tianchen gestured at Zitong and Fei Xuan. "Come here."

After Fei Xuan and Zitong finished eating their sweet pancakes, they thought Qi Tianchen would give them new ones, so they ran over immediately. But all he did was rubbed their hands and nudged them towards Xie Xuan. "The two of you stay here with Mister Xie Xuan and prevent the tower door from closing."

Xie Xuan sighed. "State Preceptor, considering your present condition, why don’t you call a few of the celestial masters from your Directorate of Astronomy to come over."

"The Directorate of Astronomy is the Directorate of Astronomy, and Qi Tianchen is Qi Tianchen. I’m helping Xiao Se for selfish reasons and I shouldn’t even be opening this First Tower Under Heaven for him. How can I drag the Directorate of Astronomy into this?" Qi Tianchen stood up, and gently dusted off his own robes.

Zitong suddenly looked at the wall, and his eyes flashed with purple, revealing a trace of light. "Shifu!"

"Zitong, no matter what happens in a while, don't move. Shifu is here. These people can't hurt us." Qi Tianchen shook his horsetail whisk lightly.

A sharp screech sounded.

Seven people in black robes landed inside the courtyard.

All of them had pale faces, but their eyes were bright red. In the night, they looked somewhat eerie and horrifying.

"Sure enough, they are the medicine men of Western Chu," Xie Xuan remarked solemnly. "Be careful, State Preceptor. They will not feel pain nor do they experience fear."

Qi Tianchen just said evenly, "Such aberrant methods."

Inside the First Tower Under Heaven, Li Fansong and Lei Wujie lowered their swords at the same time.

They had only been testing their swords for one stick of incense, but they were so tired they felt as if they’d been training their swords for a whole year. They also felt a sense of… satisfaction.

They had never encountered such a boundless sword intent. Neither of their masters, Li Hanyi or Zhao Yuzhen, could have matched the vastness or broad-mindedness of that sword intent.

Through this sword intent, they really saw two words - under Heaven.

Xiao Se was right. The sword mark that had been left on the plaque was not a simple mark made by a sword, nor was it a word. It was a phrase.

"Challenge all under Heaven." Lei Wujie and Li Fansong exchanged a glance and spoke the four words in unison.

Back then, the White Feather Sword Immortal used this sword move to leave these four words on the plaque of Heavenly Revelations City.

Challenge all under Heaven, who could ever wield a sword as ultimate as this.

Challenge all under Heaven, who could stop me, the White Feather Sword Immortal, as I am one man with one sword.