I Have the Martial Arts Heavenly Eye in the Storm Riders

This strike, if it were to cleave a mountain, would cause it to crumble; if it were to cleave the earth, would cause it to crack.

however--

Faced with this earth-shattering blow, the lone fisherman's expression remained unchanged.

He didn't even lift his eyelids.

A hint of disdain, made without any attempt to conceal it.

Do not dodge, do not avoid, do not block.

He even casually placed the fishing rod on his lap, freeing his hands to cross in front of his chest—facing this desperate, all-or-nothing attack with the utmost nonchalance.

The raging dragon of blade energy slammed into him with its claws outstretched.

There was no earth-shattering noise.

There was no bloodshed or carnage.

Even the small boat beneath their feet didn't rock at all, and the lake water didn't ripple even slightly.

The terrifying blade energy, powerful enough to split mountains and shatter rocks, vanished the moment it touched the lone fisherman's body, like a drop of water hitting the ocean.

It disappeared without a sound, completely and utterly.

It was as if it had never existed.

The wind stopped, the waves calmed, and a deathly silence descended upon the world.

The lone angler remained seated steadily at the bow of the boat, his raincoat unmoved, his straw hat upright, and his arms crossed in the same posture.

It was as if what had just hit him wasn't the deadly strike of the greatest swordsman of Japan, but merely a gentle breeze.

shore.

Huang Ying froze.

He remained motionless, wielding his sword, like a stone sculpture.

The madness in his eyes froze, turning into a fear and bewilderment he had never felt before.

The flame that had reignited in his eyes was extinguished again at this moment—extinguished even more completely than it had been in the previous six months.

"This...how is this possible..." Huang Ying murmured, her fingers loosening one by one, shock slipping from her palm.

With a loud clang, it crashed onto the rubble on the shore, the sound sharp and piercing.

His prized sword energy couldn't even lift the corner of his opponent's clothes.

This isn't a difference in martial arts skill level; it's a world of difference, a difference between heaven and earth.

The lone angler glanced down at his sleeve.

It was spotless, without a single speck of dust on it.

He picked up his fishing rod again, but his gaze didn't fall on the water; instead, he glanced at Jingji lying among the rubble on the shore.

"What a pity about this knife."

The voice was extremely soft, as if talking to oneself.

Huang Ying's pupils contracted sharply—he realized that the appreciation in those words was directed at Dao, not at him.

The lone angler slowly lifted the hookless fishing rod in his hand, his movements unusually slow, as if every inch he moved required an eternity.

"A knife is not just for killing people."

"Killing someone is easy, but cutting off time is difficult."

As he said this, he finally looked Huang Ying in the eye.

The indifference in his gaze was gone, replaced by a condescending scrutiny.

Like someone who has reached the end of the sword path, watching a junior who is still struggling to climb halfway up the mountain.

"Since you desire death, I will grant you a fatal blow."

As soon as he finished speaking, he swung the fishing rod.

There was no earth-shattering blade light, no piercing shriek that tore through the air.

This stroke of the rod was unremarkable, like autumn wind sweeping through fallen leaves, or like the setting sun sinking behind the western mountains.

But in Huang Ying's eyes, the world had changed.

A fishing rod is no longer just a rod—

It is not a ceaseless river, but a torrent of time that no one can reverse!

Time flies!

An indescribable sense of heaviness instantly enveloped Huang Ying.

I tried to hide, but my body felt like it was rusted, and I couldn't move.

Trying to block it is futile, as the sword intent is formless and intangible, leaving no place to defend against it.

He tried to bend down to pick up Jingji, but his hand froze in mid-air halfway out—as if time itself had been sucked away from him.

"call--"

An invisible blade of intent gently brushed past.

There were no wounds, no blood.

However, the next moment, Huang Ying trembled violently and let out a scream that was extremely shrill:

"ah----!!!"

Then, a scene that sent chills down your spine appeared.

Huang Ying's jet-black temples were visibly turning white at an alarming rate.

Like ink being drawn bit by bit from a cloth, the color spread from the temples, mixed among the black hair, frighteningly bright.

Several deep lines appeared on his face, and his once firm skin visibly loosened, making him look more than ten years older in an instant.

One stroke of the sword, and ten years have passed.

This strike didn't cut through flesh and blood—

It cuts off life! It cuts off lifespan!

The intent behind the sword dissipated.

Huang Xiang lay limp on the ground like a lump of mud, panting heavily, no different from a fish thrown ashore.

He instinctively raised his hand to support himself—and then he saw his hand.

The skin on the back of my hand was much rougher than before, with prominent veins and larger joints, as if it had been severely rubbed by the years.

He suddenly grabbed the strands of hair that were falling over his shoulders and pulled them in front of his eyes—strands of white hair were mixed in with the black hair, which were particularly glaring between his fingers.

My mind and spirit have completely shattered.

"My hands... my hair..."

His voice trembled so much it was almost inaudible, and his eyes were filled with extreme fear of the unknown.

"What did you do to me?! This can't be swordsmanship!! There's no such swordsmanship in the world!!"

The lone angler did not answer.

He simply sat back down at the bow of the boat, placed his fishing rod back on the water, and resumed his original solitary fishing posture. It was as if nothing had happened.

A long time later, a sentence drifted across the lake on the wind, so faint as to be almost inaudible:

"Let's go."

It was as calm as when I first said those two words.

But the meaning is completely different now.

Huang Ying, dragging his body that had aged ten years in an instant, staggered as he picked up Jing Ji and moved step by step toward the valley entrance.

After walking a few feet, he suddenly stopped without looking back.

Tell me... who are you?

His voice was hoarse and broken, carrying the last vestige of his obsession.

He lost; a single stroke of the rod wiped out ten years of his lifespan, and his spirit was utterly shattered.

But as a swordsman—even if he's shattered into pieces—he must know who defeated him.

The lake was very quiet, and it had been quiet for a long time.

Huang Ying thought he would never get an answer.

Then, a voice drifted faintly from the center of the lake, as faint as a wisp of smoke:

"The Sword Emperor".

Just two words, light and airy, like announcing the name of a dish.

Huang Ying shuddered violently.

The supreme master of swordsmanship in the Central Plains—the Sword Emperor!

He finally understood just how utterly he had lost.

Guanzhong, Qixia Town, Tongfu Inn.

The lobby was bustling with noise, and the sounds of clinking glasses filled the air.

The waiter, with a white towel draped over his shoulder, moved nimbly between the tables and chairs.

The greasy table was piled high with peanuts and braised pig ears, and the cloudy wine was foamy. The heat and the smell of wine mixed together, making the whole inn cozy and warm.

"Have you heard? Something terrible has happened! Something catastrophic!"

A pockmarked wanderer slammed his foot on the bench, nearly dropping his wine bowl and spilling half of it onto his trouser leg without even noticing.

He was spitting as he spoke, his expression exaggerated as if the sky had fallen.

"What major event could it be?"

The fat guy next to me, who was eating sunflower seeds, rolled his eyes and said lazily.

He cracked open the sunflower seeds and spat the shells onto the table, piling up a small mountain of shells in front of him.

"Could it be that Li Dazui has invented some new dish again? Or is it going to rain gold?"

"Go away, get down to business!"

The pockmarked man slammed his hand on the table, making the bowls and chopsticks jump and peanuts roll all over the table. He lowered his voice, his eyes darting around furtively.

"The 'Beyond the Heavens' has issued a challenge to hold a martial arts tournament at Mount Tai—the very place where the emperor performed the Fengshan ceremony! They say they want to re-rank the martial arts world!"

"Mount Tai?!"

The fat man's hand trembled, and he dropped all the sunflower seeds on the ground. His mouth was wide open, and he couldn't close it for a long time.

"Good heavens, that's royal territory! These people are incredibly audacious!"

He snapped out of his daze, quickly bent down to pick up the sunflower seeds that had fallen to the ground, blew off the dust, and put them back in his mouth, mumbling as he asked:

"Speaking of which, who exactly is this 'Heaven Beyond Heaven'? It sounds like a 'celestial being descending from the heavens,' is it edible?"

"Tsk, you're really ignorant!"

A scholar at the next table, waving a tattered fan, suddenly unfolded it and came over, looking like he was the only one who was sober in a world of drunks.

The landscape painting on the folding fan had faded by half, and two fan ribs were missing, but it didn't stop him from waving it vigorously at all.

"Those are the guys who used to be based on the old site of the World Society. They've been holed up on the top of Tianshan Mountain for over a decade! But they're usually very secretive, like sheltered young ladies who never leave their homes, and they rarely show their faces in the martial arts world, which is why everyone finds them unfamiliar."

"Oh, you seem to know quite a lot." The fat man glanced at him sideways. "You've been to the Tianshan Mountains?"

"No, not at all." The scholar blushed, fanning himself even faster, and quickly added,

"However, I have a distant cousin's second aunt's husband's godson who is a sworn brother of someone who once delivered a batch of grain to the outer heavens—"

"Stop, stop, stop, stop!" The fat man choked on a sunflower seed, coughing for a while before he could catch his breath, his face completely bewildered.

"What, your cousin's second aunt's husband's neighbor... Say it again?"

"No, stop talking, it's giving me a headache!"

The people at the surrounding tables burst into laughter, with one laughing so hard he slammed his hand on the table: "This relationship is so complicated, it can't even be written in the family tree!"

The scholar was so embarrassed that his ears turned bright red. He covered half his face with his fan and mumbled something unintelligible.

"cut--"

In the corner, a burly man with a thick beard carrying a nine-ringed broadsword sneered disdainfully. His voice was like the sound of a large bell, making the wine bowls on the next table buzz.

He had one leg on the bench, a toothpick in his mouth, and was swinging his leg back and forth.

"Who do I think I am, some kind of 'heavenly being'? I'm just a sucker for scraps. Just because I occupy a latrine doesn't make me a hot commodity. Do I really think that just because I'm sitting on the dragon throne, I'm the emperor?"

Shh! Keep your voice down!

The pockmarked man quickly made a shushing gesture, looked mysteriously around for a moment, and then lowered his voice to say:

"I heard this is going to be a huge event... Who would dare to make such a big fuss if they didn't have some real skills?"

"You'll just go if you invite them?"

The bearded man, still looking disdainful, grabbed a large piece of beef and stuffed it into his mouth, his cheeks bulging like a toad's, as he mumbled a sarcastic remark:

"I even invited the Jade Emperor to dinner, did he come? In my opinion, this is like 'a toad yawning—what a boastful tone!'"

"If the heroes don't show up, and a bunch of people just go to watch the show, that'll be a laughing stock!"

After saying that, he even pulled the toothpick out of his mouth and blew it lightly on his pockmarked face, looking just like a smug schoolteacher.

"Hahaha! You're right! You're right!"

The lobby erupted in laughter.

The fat man laughed so hard he slapped his thigh, the scholar laughed so hard he dropped his fan, and even the shopkeeper behind the counter, who was calculating with an abacus, looked up, then shook his head and looked down again.

These people are always like this.