The First Sword of the Universe

Chapter 317 The Old Rascal: Ahhh, my nose is bleeding!
The peach blossoms are in full bloom, extremely beautiful.

Pink petals stand gracefully on the branches of peach trees, one next to the other, forming a pink curtain that then extends into the distance, creating a pink ocean.

The salty, damp sea breeze swept through the peach grove, carrying with it the fragrance of peach blossoms, instantly enriching the aroma in Xu Xingchen's nostrils.

He was wearing tattered trousers, carrying the Dragon-Slaying Sword in his left hand, and wandering casually through the peach grove, a hint of curiosity and leisure on his face.

"According to the description in the book, the Peach Blossom Formation was a formation set up by Huang Yaoshi using peach blossoms as the array's core, following the principles of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams."

"Ordinary people, when caught in the peach blossom maze, will lose their way and be unable to find a way out."

Even if someone who accidentally enters is proficient in the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams Formation, if they are not as skilled as Huang Yaoshi, they will find it difficult to escape.

Xu Xingchen set her sights on one direction and walked straight ahead, but as she went, the orderly arrangement of the peach trees subtly caused her to deviate from her course.
As a result, he walked around for a long time, seemingly wandering aimlessly like a headless fly, unable to find his way out.

"Wonderful! This Peach Blossom Formation is incredibly powerful in bewitching the mind; even I cannot see through it."

Xu Xingchen sighed inwardly, then leaped up and landed on the top of a peach tree.

Looking around
I was surprised to find that this peach orchard covered an unbelievably vast area, like a pink ocean.

The striking, towering stone mountain he had seen before entering the Peach Blossom Formation was actually like a Peach Blossom Island in a pink ocean, at least twenty or thirty miles away.

Besides that extremely distant stone mountain, there was also a green bamboo forest in the equally distant east direction, and in several other places, I saw flowers of various colors.

Xu Xingchen raised an eyebrow slightly: "This Peach Blossom Formation possesses the power of martial arts essence, which can have a great influence on a person's mind and spirit, thereby blinding their senses and mind."

"Moreover, this influence affects entire areas and has a wide-ranging impact, making it far more terrifying than the essence of martial arts."

"In this way, even top masters like Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng would find it difficult to escape once they are trapped in this peach blossom forest."

"I wonder how high up this peach blossom formation can affect?"

After a moment's hesitation, Xu Xingchen's figure flickered, soaring from the top of the peach tree into the sky, reaching a height of three zhang.

At this height, the upward momentum has ended, and according to the laws of nature, the body will begin to fall towards the ground.

At this moment, Xu Xingchen stepped into the void with his right foot, and a three-foot-sized white cloud immediately bloomed under his foot, which then slowly dispersed amidst the surging tide.

Using this momentum, Xu Xingchen bent his knees and leaped, rising another three zhang (approximately 10 meters) into the air; when the momentum ended, he stomped his left foot hard, and a three-foot-long cloud of energy once again burst forth from the sole of his foot.
He stepped on a cloud on his left and a cloud on his right, pushing his body ever higher into the sky.

After stomping ten times in this manner, he left behind a trail of drifting clouds in the air, rising step by step like a ladder to heaven, soaring straight up to a height of thirty feet.

With a moment of mental disorientation, he finally broke out of the influence range of the peach blossom formation.

Xu Xingchen stepped out of several more clouds of white mist, propelling his body to a higher place. Then, he spread his limbs out, face down, and let his body fall freely while looking down at Peach Blossom Island.

At this moment, he saw the scene from when he first arrived at Peach Blossom Island again.

The peach orchard, with its blooming pink flowers, covers an area of ​​four or five miles, almost completely filling the coastal area of ​​Peach Blossom Island.

Besides this area, other directions are also filled with peach groves of all sizes, forming one pink ocean after another.

Beyond the peach blossom grove, there are lush green bamboo groves or other colorful flowers.
The towering stone mountain he had seen earlier was located in the center of the island, about four or five miles away from where he was now.

Looking down from the sky, the layout of Peach Blossom Island is clearly visible.

Xu Xingchen let her body continue to fall, crashing once again into the area thirty feet above the ground.

In a moment of distraction, the peach blossom forest below stretched out endlessly in all directions, transforming once again into a pink ocean.

If Xu Xingchen were to measure the area with his eyes again, the peach blossom forest would probably cover an area of ​​two or three hundred li.
The scene was vastly different from what I saw from thirty feet away in the air!

Stepping on clouds, Xu Xingchen hopped and skipped back to the ground in the peach grove. He looked at the surrounding peach trees and fell into deep thought.

"The range of influence of this peach blossom formation is truly astonishing. No wonder my mind was affected even before I entered the formation in the woods, causing me to unconsciously step inside."

"Even with Hong Qigong's Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, which allows him to soar through the sky, he probably couldn't send his body thirty zhang into the air."

"Even Ouyang Feng, the Western Poison, couldn't do that."

"Therefore, if the two of them want to break through the formation, they have no other way but to cut down and destroy these peach trees one by one."

Thinking of this, he came to a peach tree, reached out and touched it, then tapped it with his fingers. He found that the peach tree was very tough, and it would take a lot of internal energy to break it with his palm.

If ordinary swords or other weapons were used, they would likely break after only a few trees.
"If Hong Qigong and Ouyang Feng truly intend to break through the formation by destroying this peach grove, they'll likely exhaust their internal energy before even reaching the halfway point." "At that time, when Huang Yaoshi intervenes, he'll be able to easily defeat them."

Thinking of this, Xu Xingchen suddenly drew his sword, a flash of cold light, and then sheathed it again.

A moment later, the peach tree in front of him split in two, and its upper body slowly tilted to the ground along the diagonal side cut by the sword.

Seeing this, Xu Xingchen finally laughed: "Although Hong Qigong's jade bamboo staff and Ouyang Feng's strange snake staff are not afraid of the sharpness of my Dragon-Slaying Sword, in terms of the convenience of chopping down these peach trees, my Dragon-Slaying Sword is far superior to their weapons."

With two methods to break through the formation at his disposal, Xu Xingchen's restless heart finally calmed down, and he began to wander around the bamboo forest.

He was also well-versed in Taoist classics and had extensive knowledge of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, the Five Elements and Four Symbols, Yin and Yang, and Tai Chi; however, he knew nothing about how to apply this knowledge to Qimen Dunjia.

Neither the world of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer nor the world of The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber contains any records of the art of Qimen Dunjia.

In this world, only Huang Yaoshi, the Eastern Heretic, is proficient in this kind of magic.

Xu Xingchen was extremely interested since she had finally encountered this opportunity.
As he walked, he carefully discerned the location of the surrounding peach trees, analyzing why they were distributed in this way, why they were arranged in this way, and why they could exert such an influence on people's minds.
After walking for a long time, he was still seeing things through a fog, like trying to see the moon's reflection in water, only managing to make out some blurry outlines.

Many things were obscured and hidden by the formation created by the Peach Blossom Formation, making it impossible for him to see clearly or understand them.

One can't help but exclaim, "This Huang Yaoshi is truly a learned man of unparalleled talent! I admire him! I admire him!"

As darkness fell, Xu Xingchen stopped to observe the layout of the Peach Blossom Formation.

He didn't know where he was now, nor did he have the mind to use the Cloud Escape Technique again to rush into the sky and look down at his location.

Choking!

He drew his sword and chopped down a peach tree in front of him; then, the sword light bloomed like a flower, and the entire peach tree was cut into countless pieces of firewood of various sizes.

The pink petals that were originally standing gracefully on the branches detached themselves and floated in mid-air, following the flickering sword light of the Dragon Slayer Sword, dancing and wandering, gradually forming a long pink ribbon that circled around Xu Xingchen.

Beautiful, dazzling, and incomparably magnificent!
choke!
As the Dragon-Slaying Sword returned to its sheath, the fluttering peach blossom ribbons swooped down from beside Xu Xingchen, landing on the ground to his left, instantly spreading out a pink carpet.
With a stretched-out palm, a ball of flame landed on the stacked matches.

The damp wood evaporated a lot of moisture, and soon it burst into flames with a loud bang.

Xu Xingchen sat by the fire, placed the Dragon Slayer Sword across his knees, remained silent for a while, and then suddenly slapped his forehead with his palm.

"Oh dear, I don't have any food to grill, what's the point of starting this fire?"

"It's summer now, the weather isn't cold at all."

Whoosh!
A sound like the fluttering of a garment rang out from the nearby peach grove.

Xu Xingchen turned her head and saw a glimpse of clothing disappear quickly behind a peach tree.

Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The figure leaped and bounded behind and above the surrounding peach trees, moving with the speed of the wind and making very faint noises. It seemed to be a highly skilled martial artist hiding in the shadows, spying on Xu Xingchen, the uninvited guest who had entered Peach Blossom Island.

However, due to his slightly inferior martial arts skills, he was unable to completely eliminate the faint sound of his clothes fluttering.
But is that really the case?
Xu Xingchen saw a hint of mockery in that rapidly moving figure.

"On this Peach Blossom Island, besides Huang Yaoshi and his daughter Huang Rong, there is also the Old Urchin Zhou Botong."

"Ah, now we should include Hong Qigong and Guo Jing, Ouyang Feng and Ouyang Ke."

"The others were all deaf and mute servants."

"This figure's martial arts skills are probably no less than those of Huang Yaoshi, Hong Qigong, and Ouyang Feng; he is definitely not one of those deaf-mute servants."

"Given the personalities of those three, they wouldn't do something so pointless."

"In that case, the person who came can only be that old rascal Zhou Botong."

Thinking of this, Xu Xingchen suddenly called out, "Ying Gu!" as the figure swept past from the side again.

Snapped!
The figure leaping through the air suddenly lost control and crashed headfirst into the peach tree in front of it.

A moment later, the figure that had been clinging to the tree like a meat pie slowly slid down and fell backward onto the ground with a thud.

"Ahhh!" the figure screamed, jumping up from the ground, clutching its bright red nose from which two streams of blood were flowing, and yelling, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, my nose is bleeding!"

(End of this chapter)