Chapter 42 - Mechanical Sword

Chapter 42 – Mechanical Sword

Xue Qilin is rather far away from the Sword-casting Chamber. Of course, that is relative.

This distance is nothing to her. She flipped her body in the air and crossed two places separated by a precipice. Every time she propelled herself forward, the distance was greatly shortened.

Like a flying arrow that suddenly turns midway, Xue Qilin grabbed a branch, rotated her body around it, and changed direction, and then landed in the doorway of the Sword-casting Chamber.

“Heave-ho!” After landing, Xue Qilin shook like a wet kitten, shaking off the branches and leaves stuck to her.

Just as before, the Sword-casting Chamber is full of the unique scent of charcoal. But…

“Why isn’t there anyone here?”

Unlike the busy scene with people coming and going in the past, the Sword-casting Chamber is completely empty.

Xue Qilin closed her eyes and emptied her mind. In a split second, she felt her consciousness float out. It is a wonderful state where she felt like her body has fused with the world.

Her five senses expanded at once, and countless perception threads extended from her and covered virtually every corner of the Sword-casting Chamber.

It seems like even the formless wind can be touched. In this ethereal state, everything felt both virtual and real.

Soon, Xue Qilin caught the aura of people.

“In the backyard…” When she spoke, her consciousness condensed in an instant, and she walked towards the backyard of the Sword-casting Chamber.

Why are they all here? Xue Qilin has just come to the backyard, when she felt strange.

The yard that isn’t big to begin with is now crowded, and a red ponytail swaying energetically can be vaguely seen in the crowd.

Oh, she’s indeed here! With the iconic red ponytail, Xue Qilin recognized Li Wanting.

In order not to disturb everyone, she silently stood outside the crowd and waited for the right time.

As if an iron plate has hit the ground, a muffled sound suddenly stimulated Xue Qilin’s ears.

“It won’t do!” Someone said, dispirited.

Next, everyone jeered at the same time.

“Hey, didn’t I say… Even Uncle Teacher can just barely operate the mechanism inside the sword, much less you! Uncle Teacher is in the Earth Realm!”

Sword, barely operate, mechanism? What’s that? Xue Qilin crooked her head, puzzled.

“In the entire Merak Temple, I’m afraid that only the vice-Temple Master Ye and the Young Ancestor can freely wield this sword.”

“No kidding! The both of them are Heaven Realm masters!”

At this time, Li Wanting who has been silently watching the noisy crowd finally spoke: “Don’t make a fuss! This sword was made for the Young Ancestor to begin with, so it’s no wonder that you can’t use it!”

Her tone revealed some unique confidence.

“It is… So is my sword ready?” Reckoning that it was time to tell them that she was here, Xue Qilin asked, curious.

Probably not expecting to hear an ethereal child voice here, the people in the yard paused at the same time, and then cast surprised looks at Xue Qilin.

“You’re here, Young Ancestor.” Li Wanting reacted first.

“Greetings, Young Ancestor!” Coming back to their senses, everyone paid respects to Xue Qilin, and then made way for her.

“Hello everyone! Thank you for your hard work!” After Xue Qilin responded to the crowd, she looked at Li Wanting.

“Yeah, I have been standing here for a while.” With delicate steps, Xue Qilin approached Li Wanting and greeted her.

“I see.” Li Wanting nodded her head, and then looked around.

“What’s the matter?” Xue Qilin blinked her eyes and asked.

Li Wanting retracted her gaze, “Young Ancestor, where’s my disciple?”

The expression in Xue Qilin’s eyes suddenly darkened – what do you mean by that… She found this statement a little ambiguous, “What disciple?”

“The one that I sent to notify you.”

“Oh, I didn’t meet him.” Xue Qilin recalled Xia Xue’s words and explained, “I heard from Little Xue that you sent someone to look for me, so I just came here directly. At that time, I wasn’t in the Snow-facing Abode. We should have missed each other.”

“Ha-ha, you missed each other! But it doesn’t matter!” Li Wanting suddenly grabbed Xue Qilin’s hand. Perhaps because she worked with swords for a long time, but her hand is a bit rough, not as smooth as Qi Qiqi’s.

However, on second thought, Xue Qilin felt puzzled. As far as she knows, Qi Qiqi practices with her sword often. So how come her hands are so well maintained?

“Young Ancestor, your sword is finally ready! This is my greatest masterpiece!” Li Wanting was almost dragging Xue Qilin behind her.

Greatest masterpiece?

Just as Xue Qilin was surprised that the other party has spent so much thought on her sword, Li Wanting corrected: “… one of my greatest masterpieces.”

Suddenly feeling that the other party has wasted her gratitude, Xue Qilin couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Li Wanting who walked in the front naturally didn’t notice Xue Qilin’s reaction.

“Take a look!” Li Wanting spoke in a confident tone.

“Mhm.” Xue Qilin voiced her assent and looked in the direction Li Wanting was pointing.

In the center of the crowd, there is a wooden sword rack, and the thing placed on it attracted her gaze deeply.

Massive. That was Xue Qilin’s first impression of the think on the sword rack.

The dark gray body faintly emits chills and glows with a very dull light, giving off the misconception that it fragments the sunlight.

Looking overwhelming, it’s far longer than Xue Qilin is tall and so wide that it can cover her and then some.

That thing is really too big. It took a while for Xue Qilin to understand what it is – a sword, a big sword.

“Little Ting… Is this my sword?” Her voice was unstable due to shock.

Although Xue Qilin said that she wanted a big sword, but the sword that Li Wanting created exceeded her imagination by far.

It’s just too large.

“Young Ancestor, give it a try.” Li Wanting urged, looking like the head of a household giving a treasure to their child and looking at them with expectation.

Still in shock, Xue Qilin issued an absentminded sound, and then grabbed the hilt.

“Oh oh! She picked it up!” A disciple exclaimed, and everyone showed looks of admiration.

In the watchful eyes of others, Xue Qilin simply lifted the sword. But…

The sword is a bit heavy. Xue Qilin doubted that she could freely wield the sword without using true qi.

Let’s give it a try! Xue Qilin thought.

Holding the sword with both hands, she tilted the large sword down until the tip was just about to touch the ground, and then waved violently.

A deep whistle of air being sliced rang.

The dark gray sword swung horizontally clearly hasn’t touched the ground, yet the snow on the ground was scattered as if there was a violent gust of wind.

Just a simple wave resulted in a sword pressure that blew at everyone’s clothes.

So fearsome. Even Xue Qilin who made the swing was astonished.

Nevertheless, the sword met her initial requirements.

Because Xue Qilin isn’t proficient in swordsmanship, and can only perform the most basic sword moves like swinging, stabbing, and slashing, she wanted a big sword.

As the sword is heavy enough, just waving it can produce tremendous destructive force through inertia.

Breaking skill with force, overcoming softness with hardness.

“How, how is it! The sword…” Li Wanting asked in a trembling voice.

Xue Qilin didn’t answer. She raised the sword and looked at it carefully.

Just now, she discovered the anomaly about the sword. The sword isn’t a single piece. It isn’t an ordinary big sword.

On the uneven surface, chinks as well height differences between pieces of metal can be seen.

This sword has an unusual structure, a complex structure.

“Little Ting, is there a secret mechanism inside this sword?” Unable to stop the doubts in the heart, Xue Qilin just voiced them.

Li Wanting was silent at first, and then her eyes widened. “Young Ancestor, you can make it out!?”

“Oh… I guess.”

Next, Li Wanting’s action left Xue Qilin dumbfounded.

She gripped Xue Qilin’s hands excitedly and opened her mouth several times without saying a word. Then, under Xue Qilin’s astonished gaze, she let go of her hands and walked around her happily, her face lit up like a scholar who has passed the imperial examination.

In the end, Xue Qilin suddenly saw Li Wanting rush at her with open arms, likely to embrace her.

What the hell!

One of the disadvantages of martial practitioners it that their reaction is often faster than their thought process.

When Xue Qilin came back to her senses, she has already thrown Li Wanting over her shoulder.

Bang! Li Wanting fell flat on her face.

Dragging the big sword behind her, Xue Qilin hastily ran towards Li Wanting who has been thrown five meters away.

But before she reached her, the other party jumped up with a kip-up.

“Hey, Little Ting.” Xue Qilin didn’t know if she should help Li Wanting pat off the snow from her body, “Sorry, it was a reflex, a reflex!”

“YOUNG ANCESTOR, do you take me for a ferocious beast?” Li Wanting rubbed her buttocks and fiercely spat out the words Young Ancestor.

“Hey, there is some resemblance!” Xue Qilin blurted out without thinking, and then immediately regretted it. She peeked at the look on Li Wanting’s face, ready to turn around and flee at a moment’s notice. Qi Qiqi has beaten a sense of fear into her.

Fortunately, Li Wanting didn’t assume any expression that would cause Xue Qilin fear, and sighed instead.

“I was too excited.” Li Wanting took some time to choose her words, “I’m like this… occasionally.”

“Ah… it’s nothing, it’s nothing.” Xue Qilin smiled and showed her pearly white teeth.

There is no lack of weirdos in the Merak Temple! She was already used to it.

“You’re right, Young Ancestor, there is indeed a secret mechanism inside.” Li Wanting stared at the sword in Xue Qilin’s hands and uttered, her voice overflowing with emotions from the bottom of her heart.

Xue Qilin felt that the emotions were of satisfaction and fulfillment.

“What is it?” Following the flow, Xue Qilin asked. Of course, this sword is made for her, so she needs to ask anyway.

“Young Ancestor, take a look at the hilt.”

Xue Qilin did as she was told and found out that there are four obvious grooves on the cylindrical hilt, There are two sets of groves, the groves of each set placed separately on either side of the hilt.

“Try to inject true qi into one of the grooves. You should feel some obstruction. But don’t worry, just keep infusing true qi until true qi flows back into your body from the groove on the other side.”

“In other words, there are true qi channels inside the sword?”

“Yes! You’re really smart, Young Ancestor!” Li Wanting praised.

Feeling a little uncomfortable, Xue Qilin looked away.

In fact, Li Wanting’s words confirmed Xue Qilin’s conjecture that there are some kind of true qi channels built in in the sword, which required her to extend the circulation of true qi from her body into the channels in the sword.

Xue Qilin chose a groove and injected true qi into it.

Soon, she felt the obstacle that Li Wanting has mentioned, blocking in front of her true qi. Xue Qilin continued to infuse true qi and formed a thrust force in the limited space.

Like pushing a gate open, the wall moved.

Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka – concentrated sounds suddenly sounded.

Then, an amazing change happened.

In an instant, the hilt extended and the blade shot away from Xue Qilin. Before the sword extended by half, the blade seemed to be pulled apart from both sides. The arrowhead-shaped tip and the two parts that extended from the sides formed a cross-shaped structure. The two parts suddenly crooked into two crescent moons.

At the same time as the sword completed its transformation, true qi flowed back into Xue Qilin from the grove on the other side.

“It really deformed!” “Is this a mechanical sword?!” “Awesome!”

The people in the surroundings commented, but Xue Qilin ignored them, her eyes glued to the big sword that has lost its sword shape.

“This is Halberd of Moon Slash!” Li Wanting’s voice rang beside Xue Qilin.

Halberd, the sword actually turned into a halberd. Xue Qilin stared blankly at the halberd. The sword exceeded her imagination.

She withdrew her true qi absentmindedly, and the halberd reacted and recovered the shape of a sword at once. Then, she changed to the other set of grooves and inject true qi.

This time the hilt didn’t extend. Instead, the blade unfolded on both sides, yet it didn’t form the cross-shaped structure.

“This is… a shield?”

“Shield of Black Tortoise [1]! I am confident that even bolts shot by arcuballistas [2] won’t harm it!”

“… what’s the name of this… sword?”

“Empyrean Universe.”

Xue Qilin finally moved. She turned her head sluggishly and faces Li Wanting’s confident gaze.

“This sword… is made for me?”

“Yes. The mechanical sword Empyrean Universe will be your weapon to defeat enemies, Young Ancestor!” Li Wanting looked straight Xue Qilin with limpid eyes.

“What if I inject true qi into two grooves at the same time?”

Li Wanting nodded, the abyss of her eyes hiding some kind of radiance, an unclear dazzling radiance.

“Sword of Military Defeat, a rainbow that can run through everything!” Dignified and awe-inspiring, Li Wanting’s words conveyed an unshakable conviction.

Her big sleeves lying on the ground rose with the wind, and Xue Qilin’s Gaze fell on Empyrean Universe again.

“Little Ting, why did you make such a sword for me?”

Li Wanting was silent at first, and then her eyes revealed a resolute look, “I hope the sword I made can be a force.”

Xue Qilin finally looked up, “What force?”

Li Wanting showed a rare gentle smile, like that of a mother, and then whispered softly…

[1] – Black Tortoise

[2] – Arcuballista