The Villain's White Lotus Halo

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! 中秋节快乐!

Our art today isn’t related to the chapter, but special art that was done for the Mid-Autumn Festival. I’ve put both at the bottom, below the page navigation.

Syn

Chapter 30 – Seeing the Ocean

In the next few days, Yin Biyue’s party of three only went to see Zhong Shan’s fight; the rest of the time was spent focused on cultivating.

Until today, when it was Yin Biyue’s turn to battle.

His opponent was Lian Jian Zong’s Chen Yi, a disciple under Lian Jian Zong’s Sage.

This was following Duan Chongxuan’s battle with Cheng Tianyu; the second time a disciple of the Sword Saint did battle with a sage’s disciple.

Chen Yi’s luck in the previous lot drawings was very good. The gap between him and his opponents were too big; therefore he did not have to reveal powerful techniques to win easily. Those few battles weren’t very spectacular and didn’t cause any big stir.

Now this match was his first time encountering a powerful enemy.

Chen Yi and Chu Huan, one a martial cultivator and one a spiritual cultivator, were Lian Jian Zong’s most likely candidates to win the grand prize of the Flower Picking Festival.

For whatever reason, this day around the stage, there was an especially large number of Lian Jian Zong’s people.

Purple robes underneath the stage melded into one, like an ocean of blue waves.

The seating on the viewing platform also changed, because a powerful cultivator halfway into the Greater Vessel Stage had arrived from Lian Jian Zong.

The important figure’s sudden arrival should have attracted attention, but unexpectedly, nearly everyone was looking behind that female Lian Jian Zong elder.

Standing there was a young lady.

The wide sleeves of a dark reddish-purple robe drifted in the morning wind; the sunrise cast a faint light with a touch of gold on her white jade-like face. She was like a small lilac with a flower bud waiting to blossom, not quite ready to bloom but still fragrant enough to stretch to all corners of a room.

With the lofty viewing platform tall and distant, many people could only see a blurry silhouette.

In spite of this, they had an inexplicable feeling , believing that she was a one-in-a-thousand beauty.

“So this is Qu Duiyan?”

“Truly very beautiful... is she here to watch her Chen shixiong?”

The Lian Jian Zong disciples all displayed proud and honoured expressions.

The Qing Lu Sword Sect’s attending disciple also saw this faraway beauty and momentarily forgot to announce the start of the match.

As for the two leads about to battle, it was as if the entire world forgot about them for the moment.

The two stood there, facing off, and it was a very fitting time to say something.

Chen Yi was the first one to open his mouth,

“Yin shixiong, I recognize you. Two years ago after I finished school at Lan Yuan Academy, I apprenticed under my teacher, and while I was at the Academy, I once read your ‘Critical Thinking’ essay Miscellaneous Practical Theories.”

Yin Biyue silently listened and nodded his head in acknowledgement. An opponent bringing up the past, right before a match, naturally did not intend to form a closer relationship.

Chen Yi continued, “I have not yet been an apprentice for two years. Therefore today, if I lose to you, it is not that my shifu did not teach me well, but that my own studies at the Academy were inferior to yours.”

Yin Biyue said, “Reasonable.”

It was indeed reasonable.

Just like how he had never even seen the Sword Saint’s face, his sword practice and cultivation were all reliant on studying on his own. If he was defeated by someone else, naturally it was also not considered that the Sword Saint taught poorly .

Chen Yi laughed.

His temperament was mild, and his facial features were not outstanding in any way. Even Lian Jian Zong’s slightly flashy robes became prim and proper when worn by him.

This kind of person, if he was out on the street, would never have anyone suspecting that he was a sage’s disciple.

“Be that as it may, if I lose, it would always be a matter that damages my shifu’s reputation...” He laughed, suddenly creating a radiance that couldn’t be looked at for too long, an incomparable confidence and pride, “Therefore, today I must defeat you.”

Yin Biyue didn’t say anything, only turning his gaze to the elm trees beside the stage.

After his battle with He Lai, the lofty elm tree branch had half withered away; later, it was subjected to the effect of Chu Huan’s Spring Returning to a Withered Tree, once more glowing with life.

Now the tender green sprouts trembled gently in the morning breeze, as if they had returned to early spring.

The mid-Greater Vessel Stage cultivator had come, as did the pressure of his Greater Vessel Stage Divine Sense.

He broke off a length of elm branch and couldn’t help but wonder what should be done if he encountered Zhong Shan in the future.

Would he have to pluck a branch once again to fight?

But currently, he didn’t want his opponent to misunderstand, explaining, “I don’t mean to insult you at all.”

These words perhaps would not have been believed by other people, but Chen Yi, like him, came from the Academy, and he had also read the essay Yin Biyue had written. At this moment, he looked at his opponent’s eyes and thought his opponent must have had some difficulty or reason where it wouldn’t be convenient for him to draw his sword; therefore he said, “No worries, it’s actually to my advantage.”

The Qing Lu Sword Sect attending disciple yelled, “Cang Ya’s Yin Biyue versus Lian Jian Zong’s Chen Yi–”

The two people formally bowed.

The people below the stage finally shifted their gazes to the competing parties and were surprised to discover that the Sword Saint disciple was actually still did not intend to use a sword.

But because of Yin Biyue’s display in his previous battle, this time nobody said he was overestimating his own abilities; instead they felt that this was a kind of confidence and pride.

Luo Mingchuan slightly frowned; he had a feeling that shidi not drawing his sword was not pride, but that there would be a problem with drawing his sword.

The female Lian Jian Zong elder on the viewing platform also knitted her brows and said to the young woman behind her, “Even if you are confident that you are unmatched, you should still not give up your advantage. In the future, do not learn from him.”

“Aunt, I understand.” The young woman gave a slight smile that was like a dazzling pearl, but not so dazzling that it was gaudy; it just gave people a feeling of incomparable comfort.

With her cultivation she had no reason to be standing at this spot, but she was there, observing the battle alongside the elders on the viewing platform that were at least of the Lesser Vessel Stage or higher. No one dared to challenge this; they were even itching to give her a seat.

Because she was Qu Duiyan.

Sage Qu Jiang’s only daughter, Lian Jian Zong’s unofficial princess.

On the surface, Qu Duiyan appeared to agree, but as she looked at the white-haired youth on the stage holding the branch, she thought he looked truly bold and carefree. Of course, her shidi Chen Yi unsheathing his saber and giving it a swing was also extremely cool.

Cheng Yi used the saber.

The saber was four feet long, forged with the fragments of a fallen star and steel refined ten thousand times, dubbed ‘Shuang Lan.’

In the thousands of years after the Sword Saint gained fame, cultivators everywhere took on the sword, and the other kinds of weapons declined. If it wasn’t for the ‘Duan Shui Saber’ Yan Xing, the world wouldn’t be able to find a strong cultivator who used the saber.

Chen Yi’s saber was like his person; from exerting power to unsheathing, it conformed to convention, neither fast nor slow, without mistakes yet also without flair.

Across a distance of over ten zhang, he slashed straight towards Yin Biyue.

This sort of saber move, as the opening move in a battle with so many eyes watching, honestly left people feeling a little disappointed in their hearts. Nobody was like Qu Duiyan, seeing things like extreme ease and confidence.

In the face of the saber’s point, Yin Biyue’s expression was a bit severe.

From the instant Chen Yi started exerting his power, an incomparably strong qi overflowed from the edge of his blade, like an enormous wave crashing into one’s face.

Though the saber was not fast, bottomless waves rose on the ground, emanating from the blade; in a flash, they overtook the entire stage.

Yin Biyue stood on the stage, holding his elm branch horizontally in front of him, like a lone boat in the middle of a raging ocean, the only light in a long dark night.

In this moment, he clearly realized, even if he was able to escape unscathed from He Lai’s Bao Pu Eight Trigrams Sword, he would be unable to evade Chen Yi’s strike of ‘Broad Sea’.

Since he couldn’t avoid it, he naturally had to make a move.

Yin Biyue flew on the tips of his toes, scattering the tender new leaves off his elm branch, but he was impeded in midair by the raging qi, slowing his descent.

Amid the violently dancing leaves filling the sky, the feeble, slender tree branch crossed with the sturdy saber.

Bang–

The saber and branch collided with a loud bang, like stormy waves beating on the shore!

For those under the stage with slightly weaker cultivation realms, their eardrums were immediately hurt by the quaking, and they hurriedly used core energy to ward it off.

Until Yin Biyue had drawn his branch, people hadn’t been aware of the strength of Chen Yi’s move.

No speed, no brilliance, no sharpness, only strength.

Raw strength.

A lot of people were just now beginning to catch on to the ease Qu Duiyan had seen. Hence they were stunned into silence, unable to say a single word.

How could a lone boat block the expansive sea? How did a lone fire light up the entire night?

Yin Biyue flicked his wrist, dragging the elm branch across the saber’s edge, sparks and wood dust scattering like ocean spray.

Parting the sea and cutting through waves; in the breath of a moment the cacophony reverberated endlessly. Because it was too quick, it sounded like only a single sound, as if someone was forcibly cleaving through the sea.

He had already cut forth with twenty-one strikes, yet Chen Yi had only used one move.

Lian Jian Zong’s elder concisely praised, “Good move.”

The Mid-Greater Vessel Stage cultivator naturally wouldn’t be moved by a Breakthrough Stage saber’s strike.

What she saw was saber intent.

Unlike the sword, the saber was the earliest weapon that had ever been in the hands of humankind, because it was simple.

Chopping wood and hunting used sabers; killing livestock used sabers.

Chen Yi’s move was very simple, but sometimes, that sheer simplicity meant strength.

Qu Duiyan also thought this saber strike was very good.

As a fellow disciple taught by the same shifu, she naturally knew that this was Chen Yi’s strongest saber strike.

But she didn’t expect that he would have brought it out with no hesitation right at the beginning of a battle.

It had to be said, the best is the good timing.

Only with abundant core energy and blazing fighting vigor would he be able to perfectly apply the saber’s power.

Like a tiger still using its full strength when fighting a rabbit, since this was a battle, the first move ought to be the strongest move.

This proved that he not only understood the saber, but he also understood battle.

Luo Mingchuan was one of the earliest to see that expanse of an ocean.

His face remained calm and motionless, his eyes fixed on the stage; his hands covered by his wide sleeves clenched tightly into fists.

When the saber and branch separated, the elm branch in Yin Biyue’s hand was shortened, by not even the breadth of a knuckle, yet he still saw.

The huge waves retreated, the brown reef and winding beach revealing their originally fierce appearance.

The power of Chen Yi’s first strike had ended, but the second strike had yet to arrive

This slim interval was already enough to let Yin Biyue’s figure disappear and escape from under the blade.

His entire body’s core energy poured out, Divine Sense rapidly being consumed; not only his body, but also his presence thoroughly disappeared from the stage!

Alarmed cries and gasps echoed in succession, “Traversing Peaks and Rivers!”

So this was the true and genuine Traversing Peaks and Rivers.

In his battle with He Lai, Yin Biyue had not used even a tenth of it.

Chen Yi’s expression didn’t change, and there was no hesitation in the angle and the speed of his saber withdrawing.

It was as if in his eyes, whether his opponent faded away or not was none of his concern.

In his eyes was only the saber.

He pulled his saber back and held it vertically in front of his body.

If in the past millennium, only ten people had read the Academy Library’s Introduction to Traversing Peaks and Rivers, then Chen Yi must have been one of the ten.

Whether it was unraveling the mysteries of space or tracking the trajectory of the stars, it was all based on the Academy Director’s most powerful method – calculation.

He wasn’t able to master ‘Traversing Peaks and Rivers,’ but he understood it. This was enough.

He knew that at Yin Biyue’s current cultivation realm, this degree of severe Divine Sense consumption wouldn’t last for half the time it took to steep tea.

The blade of the saber was as bright as a mirror, shining upon the vast clear sky, silky threads of clouds flitting by.

After ‘Broad Sea’ was ‘Vast Sky’.

Countless lights launched outwards, sharp and acute lines splitting every inch of the space onstage.

During the time when Yin Biyue was unceasingly calculating innumerable steps, forget about making mistakes, if he was even one step too slow, a light would immediately arrive in front of him, cutting him into a bloody figure

This saber strike complemented the heavens and flowed with nature, befitting a cultivator’s aesthetic.

Everyone thought that Chen Yi’s response was the pinnacle of ingeniousness.

Under the clear sky, where could you possibly hide?

霜岚 is the name of the sword. If translated, it would be named Frosted Mist

Let’s play a game. Take a shot every time Luo Mingchuan clenches his fists under his sleeves :^)