During the Qin Dynasty, he was in charge of the net.

On the dark, shredded silk were a few dozen small characters, the contents of which were:

To my west stands a towering locust tree, upon which burns an old, ever-burning lamp.

The lamps were covered in dust over the years, and those who came to hold them did not know how to do it properly.

I have thoroughly cleaned the lamp grime, straightened the wick, and calmed the surrounding wind disturbances; the lampstand is now stable and unobstructed.

You are skilled at holding your breath and guarding the light, and at calming the wind in the dark; you are most suited to take charge of this lamp.

The old matters can be temporarily set aside, and the detailed rules and regulations for lighting can be determined in person.

The matter concerning the lamp is mysterious; please destroy it after reading.

Although the explanation wasn't very detailed, Li Ji understood it.

At this time, many ancient locust trees were planted in the palaces of the seven kingdoms. The locust tree was Lü Buwei's way of referring to the inner part of the palace.

The ever-burning lamp symbolizes the power to monitor the court and the people, and to inspect the palace.

The one who holds the lamp is a metaphor for the commander of the Shadow Guard.

As for cleaning the lamp smudges and straightening the wick, it's likely that Lü Buwei had already arranged his identity and cleared away any obstacles in the shadows.

It had only been about ten days since their previous conversation.

This alone demonstrates just how powerful Lü Buwei is in the Qin state.

At this point, it is estimated that only one or two steps remain before Li Ji becomes the commander of the Shadow Guard, and these last one or two steps will naturally require his personal cooperation.

Without further ado, Li Ji prepared to set off today.

He stretched out his right hand and placed it on the dark silk. Then, with a gentle wipe, a layer of water blurred all the small characters on the silk book, making them unrecognizable.

When Li Ji removed his hand, there were no words left on the silk scroll; it was so clean that it seemed as if no words had ever appeared on it.

Li Ji then put the dark silk cloth into his sleeve.

At this moment, a hurried and somewhat tense voice entered Li Ji's ears.

"Lord Duanshui, now that you've read the letter, you should believe what I'm saying. Everything before was a misunderstanding."

Upon hearing this, Li Ji calmly raised his eyes and glanced at Wen Lin, who was locked in Wu Nian's restraints:

Sometimes, a person's eyes can cause trouble.

The reason why people are born with double eyelids is so that they can close their eyes in time when faced with things they shouldn't see.

Unfortunately, many people don't understand this principle.

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Ji placed his right hand on the Broken Water Sword and slowly pulled it out.

"bite--"

A clear, crisp sound rang out, and the long, straight, gleaming Broken Water Sword appeared before Wen Lin.

Wen Lin's legs went weak. If it weren't for Wu Nian's chains binding him so tightly, he would have already knelt on the ground.

Li Ji drew his sword, but did not rush to attack.

He held the sword, Duan Shui, across his chest, and gently stroked the blade with his left index finger, sensing its emotions.

He had stopped Wu Nian in time, preventing him from killing Wen Lin directly, because he sensed Duan Shui's emotions; it wanted to be unsheathed.

Can a sword have emotions?

Maybe yes, maybe no.

To outsiders, a sword is of course an inanimate object.

But for a very few like-minded users, the sword has a life of its own.

It is not necessary to have independent consciousness and be able to act freely in order to be considered alive.

Like a tree, it sprouts, grows, bears fruit, and withers; it goes through the process from birth to death, which is also a kind of life.

A sword, from its forging to its exposure to blood and eventual breakage, is perhaps also a kind of life.

Humans may not care about these other kinds of life, but natural disasters like fire, water, and wind do not care about human life either.

At this moment, Li Ji not only sensed the life of the dried-up water, but also its emotions.

It was yearning for something from Li Ji, just as tree roots yearn for water from beneath the earth.

Some swords crave blood.

Some swords yearn for clash.

Some swords yearn for battle.

Duan Shui is an extremely special sword.

Li Ji sensed that it longed for death.

Among the eight swords of the King of Yue, the Sword of Broken Water was the one that underwent the most tempering and the longest tempering process.

When Duanshui was forged by Ou Yezi, each time the sword was heated to a bright red, it would immediately sink into a icy pool that had stood for millennia.

The extreme heat and extreme cold clashed and were repeatedly tempered tens of thousands of times, causing the surface of the Broken Water Sword to develop dense, visible cracks.

Each time it is thrown into the eternal icy pool, a new crack appears on the blade of the Broken Water Sword, and the malevolent aura surrounding the sword intensifies.

On the 13,704th time, Ou Yezi discovered that the iron chains that had been used to submerge the water in the cold pool had broken at some unknown time.

This means that the Water-Severing Sword has most likely sunk to the bottom of the pool, and its location is unknown.

Ou Yezi pulled up the fine iron chain and found that the break was extremely smooth and even, and no animal could have done that.

The answer is already obvious: the malevolent force of the severed water supply has exceeded the imagination of this swordsmith.

How difficult would it be to find a sword whose location is unknown and which is extremely malevolent in this pitch-black, bottomless pool?

Whoever jumps into the pool to search for it may pay with their life.

But Ou Yezi couldn't bear to throw such a peerless sword into the deep pool.

He knew that the Broken Water Sword was cracked on the outside but solid on the inside. Although it appeared broken on the outside, it was actually a whole piece inside. Its sharpness might have surpassed that of the True Steel Sword, ranking first among the swords he had forged.

Under these circumstances, Ou Yezi decided to jump into the water himself to find the Broken Water Sword.

Ou Yezi's apprentices all thought he had gone mad.

No one knows how Ou Yezi found the Broken Water Sword, nor does anyone know what happened to him in that icy pool.

But when Ou Yezi retrieved the broken water, he immediately sealed the sword-making furnace, thus bringing the project of forging swords for the King of Yue to an end.

Meanwhile, as the last sword to be forged, the Broken Water Sword should have been ranked last among the eight swords.

Strangely, Ou Yezi placed cutting off the water supply as the second priority.

As for the number one, it is naturally the Sun-Covering Sword, which consumed the most materials and was the most beloved of the King of Yue.

For Li Ji, he didn't care about the past of the Broken Water Sword; what he cared about was the feeling that Broken Water Sword brought him at this moment.

This sword yearns for death.

It's a bit strange, but that's really the case.

This incredibly strange and malevolent sword, capable of severing the life force of all things, actually yearns to be completely destroyed.

Perhaps, the Water-Severing Sword also suffers some kind of pain.

Li Ji's slender fingertips gently caressed the cool spine of the Broken Water Sword, a glint of cold light gleaming at the tip, and the soft rubbing sound echoed in their ears.

He felt its pain and understood how to alleviate it.

That is severance—severing life, severing death, severing everything.

Until the sword that cuts through water encounters something it cannot cut, perhaps that will be the time when the sword will break.

Li Ji was willing to face the long process in between with the Broken Water Sword.

As Li Ji gently stroked the longsword, he remained silent throughout.

This made Wen Lin, who was opposite him, feel extremely tormented.

Although it was less than the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, Wen Lin felt as if every second was an eternity, as agonizing as a death row inmate awaiting interrogation.

Finally, Li Ji made a move.

Because right now, there is a way to alleviate the pain of the Broken Water Sword.

Li Ji suddenly twisted his wrist, and a sharp sword light shot straight towards Wen Lin's face.

Seeing the sword light, Wen Lin felt a chill run down his spine, realizing that his death was imminent.