The First Sword of the Universe

Chapter 389 Giving the Fairy Sister a Dress!
The slanting moonlight cast many dappled patterns on the dark woods.

They found a sheltered spot, lit a campfire, placed the jade statue beside them, and sat down on the ground with Duan Yu.

*Sizzle!*

Oil dripped from the branches into the fire. The prey that Xu Xingchen had casually hunted had lost its usual liveliness, its body charred yellow, and it exuded a rich aroma of meat.

Beside the two were some wild peaches that didn't look very good. They were half red and half green, and tasted sour and astringent. They were completely natural and unpolluted.

When Xu Xingchen took the roasted meat off the campfire, tore off half of it, and was about to hand it to Duan Yu, she noticed that he was staring at the jade statue as if possessed, so she shook her head.

"I say, Brother Duan, instead of spending your time staring at your fairy-like sister, why don't you take some time to look at that scroll in your arms?"

“There are many pictures of your fairy sister on it, and each one is much prettier than this jade statue.”

Duan Yu snapped out of his daze, awkwardly accepted the roasted meat, took a couple of bites, and then looked up and said, "I...I'll watch it later!"

While eating the barbecue, Xu Xingchen said, "Actually, I know you don't want to learn martial arts. You think that if you learn martial arts, you'll definitely be fighting and killing, which completely contradicts the Buddhist principles you've learned, right?"

Seeing Duan Yu remain silent, Xu Xingchen continued, "Your thinking is wrong; look at your father, he is also highly skilled in martial arts, and your Duan family's One-Finger Divine Skill is renowned throughout the world; yet your father never engages in fighting and killing indiscriminately. At most, he would intervene if his women wanted to kill each other."

"My father didn't do that," Duan Yu said irritably, but when he thought of the new stepmother and younger sister he had just gained, his words became less assertive.

Xu Xingchen ignored Duan Yu's rebuttal and simply said, "As a member of the Dali Duan family, you will inevitably encounter many challenges and crises in the future; how will you, who are powerless, deal with them then?"

"Even if one day a powerful enemy comes and forces your Duan family to hand over the cultivation methods of One Finger Divine Skill and Six Meridian Divine Sword, what will you use to fight the enemy? Will you try to persuade them with just your words?"

Duan Yu retorted, "Although my Dali Kingdom is confined to a corner of Yunnan, it will not tolerate being looked down upon or bullied!"

Xu Xingchen sneered: "What if someone happens to dare to bully me?"

Duan Yu was speechless for a moment, but judging from his expression, he still looked stubborn and obviously hadn't listened to Xu Xingchen's words.

"Hmph! It's completely different for a person to have martial arts skills but not use them and to have no martial arts skills at all," Xu Xingchen said after uttering this profound saying, and then stopped trying to persuade him.

After the barbecue, wild peaches were there to soothe the throat.

After hesitating for a long time, Duan Yu finally took out the scroll from his pocket and began to read its contents by the light of the campfire.

In just a short while, his face turned red, his breathing became erratic, his eyes glazed over, and he didn't know what to do with his hands.
However, this kid had a tenacity; he quickly put aside the lifelike photos of Li Qiushui above and focused on watching the Qi circulation route.

Xu Xingchen ignored him.

After digesting my food for a while, I sat cross-legged and entered a meditative state.

Upon arriving in the new world, his state of oneness with nature was broken once again. At the same time, the bottleneck of his inner strength was broken again, allowing for a higher level of sublimation.

So he began his meditation practice, which he hadn't done for a long time!
The mysterious aura in this place is even more active and intense.

Xu Xingchen meditated for only an hour and felt that his internal strength seemed to have increased slightly.

This feeling of continuous progress is truly captivating.

However, his internal strength had already reached an extremely high level, so he wouldn't spend the entire night practicing internal energy cultivation techniques.

An hour later, he emerged from his meditation.

He glanced at Duan Yu, who was already fast asleep on the ground beside the campfire, clutching the scroll, and said nothing.

An ordinary person with no martial arts skills has encountered so many things these past two days, running around seeking help and sending messages back home.
It's perfectly normal to fall asleep when you're completely exhausted!

Xu Xingchen is different from him.

He already possessed profound inner strength and abundant energy; even if he traveled for three days straight without rest or sleep, he wouldn't be too tired.

I just finished meditating, and now I'm so energetic that I'm not sleepy at all.

Picking up some dry firewood from the side, Xu Xingchen added it to the now dimmed campfire. Watching the campfire gradually brighten, he pondered the cultivation method of the Northern Darkness Divine Art.

Normal martial arts practitioners cultivate internal energy from the inside out.

However, the Northern Darkness Divine Law is from the outside in, and its cultivation philosophy is different from that of the Star Absorbing Technique.

It can be considered a new martial arts system, and it will eventually become one of the materials to enrich Xu Xingchen's martial arts knowledge base.

During the process of thinking
Xu Xingchen discovered that the Qi circulation route of the Beiming Divine Skill almost covers the twelve regular meridians, the eight extraordinary meridians, and many acupoints and mysterious passes. Compared with the martial arts system of the last century, it has a deeper development of the human body's life potential and a closer connection with the energy of heaven and earth.

Moreover, the Qi circulation route of the Beiming Divine Art is very similar to that of the final magical talisman.

It seems to be an enlarged version of the talisman of magical arts!

There was another thing that puzzled Xu Xingchen: where would the talisman of the mysterious technique be located after it was formed within his body?
Is it the lower dantian?

Or is it the middle dantian?
Or perhaps the upper dantian?
The many unsolved mysteries here greatly piqued Xu Xingchen's interest in research!
A night passed quietly. Xu Xingchen woke up the sleepy Duan Yu, covered the campfire that had turned to ashes with mud, and carried the jade statue on her way.

Soon, they returned to the Good Man's Ferry Iron Chain Bridge.

After crossing the bridge, we traveled for another ten miles or so and arrived at a market town.

As soon as they entered the market, the jade statue that Xu Xingchen was carrying on his shoulder attracted everyone's attention.

Bathed in the morning light, the jade statues placed across Xu Xingchen's shoulders shimmered with dazzling brilliance.

Regardless of gender or age, everyone who sees the jade statue's stunningly beautiful face falls into a state of fascination.

As a result, their progress was greatly hindered!
"Looks like I can't keep carrying this thing around like this!" Xu Xingchen muttered to himself.

Duan Yu's eyes lit up, and he quickly nodded in agreement, saying, "That's right! The fairy sister is too eye-catching; we shouldn't have brought her out at all. Let's put her back in that stone chamber!"

Xu Xingchen glared at him, annoyed, and said, "You wish! This thing is mine now. I can take it wherever I want. Right now, I should buy a piece of cloth and wrap it up. That way, even if passersby are curious, they won't be able to see what's inside."

At this point, Xu Xingchen asked again, "Do you have any money on you?"

Duan Yu, whose plan had failed, shook his head.

Before Xu Xingchen traveled to another world, he had fought against the raging winds and rain on the sea, and the little silver he carried had already been given to the Sea God.

After enduring numerous hardships, Duan Yu was left with tattered clothes and his wallet nowhere to be found.

Their gazes both fell upon the jade statue.
Before Mr. Xu could speak, Duan Yu interjected, "You're not allowed to pawn the Fairy Sister. I still have a jade pendant on me."

The two arrived at a pawn shop.

The waiter saw that although the two men were dressed in rags, each of them was carrying such a large piece of jade beauty worth a thousand gold pieces on their shoulders. He knew that these two gentlemen were not only rich, but also had unimaginable martial arts skills. He dared not offend them at all.

Although the shopkeeper couldn't tell whether the jade pendant in Duan Yu's hand was good or bad, he still offered a good price and gave him five taels of silver.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the two first entered a cloth shop, took out three lengths of black cloth, and had a tailor sew it into a large hooded cloak, which they then put on the jade statue.

The black cloak had an opening at the chest, revealing the jade statue's arm and long sword.

The two walked out onto the street again.
Although Xu Xingchen's look is still eye-catching, it no longer attracts attention.

However, the news that a young man was carrying a jade beauty statue on his shoulder also spread like wildfire.

After hearing the news, many people looked at the obvious black cloak on Xu Xingchen's shoulder, and the jade-like arm and long sword sticking out of the cloak. How could they not guess the connection between the two?

A group of local thugs, relying on their few days of martial arts training, blocked the two's path and threatened to make Xu Xingchen lift her black cloak so they could see just how stunning and breathtakingly beautiful this jade beauty truly was.

Xu Xingchen didn't bother with them. As he strode forward, he reached out and, like an eagle catching chicks, grabbed them one by one and tossed them all away.

He crashed to the bluestone pavement not far away, groaning in pain, and couldn't get up for a long time.

Having learned from this experience, no one dared to block their path again.

The two went to the other end of the market, found a restaurant, and prepared to get something to eat.

He placed the jade statue on the ground, sat down at a table, and ordered a few dishes and a pot of tea from the waiter.

The waiter glanced curiously at the jade statue wrapped in a black cloak, and just as he left, a man and a woman walked in.

These two people.
The man was tall and strong, with a touch of heroism in his brows; the woman had a few freckles on her face, but she was still beautiful.

Both men carried long swords and exuded the aura of martial artists.

They originally wanted to come in and get something to eat, but when they saw Duan Yu sitting at the table, they couldn't help but sneer and move closer.

The man said coldly, "So, you're not dead after all, and you even made it here."

With the martial arts master Xu Xingchen by his side, Duan Yu's courage grew, and he said provocatively, "What? Do you want to kill me to silence me?"

Xu Xingchen glanced at the two men and asked, "Brother Duan, who are these two? They seem to be trying to make things difficult for you!"

Duan Yu said, "Brother Xu, these two are the culprits who forced me off the cliff. They are also two disciples of the Boundless Sword Technique. The man is called Gan Guanghao, and the woman is called Junior Sister Ge."

Xu Xingchen suddenly realized: "Oh, so it's that pair of star-crossed lovers who took a shortcut to escape the Shennong Gang's encirclement and were planning to elope?"

"Damn it!" Gan Guanghao and Junior Sister Ge were both furious. They drew their longswords, and two sword lights slashed towards their necks like a whirlwind.

His attack was ruthless and merciless; he intended to kill the two of them on the spot!

(End of this chapter)