Chapter 347 - [Six Moons]
Elegantly, his sword drew sparks.
Excellent sword, excellent sword! Ai Hui praised the sword in his heart.
Even though it was not as good as the Silverfold Plum, it was still a premium sword. The colors of snow and cherry blossoms fused together, giving the body of the sword a rarely-seen faint pinkish glisten. The sword was so light and graceful that it felt weightless, extremely suitable for a girl to use. The sheath of the sword was exquisite and gorgeous, clearly the work of a famous swordsmith. On the sheath, there were two words written in seal script, "Snow Cherry."
Ai Hui estimated that this sword could be sold for three hundred Heaven Merit Points without much difficulty. There were very few swordsmen, but even fewer good swords. Karakorum Savant was truly the chief of Karakorum, anything she gave was of high quality.
Should I sell it while I give swordsmanship lessons? Ai Hui pondered to himself.
A good sword like this belonged to whoever was destined for it!
If one did not have at least four hundred Heaven Merit Points, how could he or she be destined for it?
Ai Hui stretched his shoulders. In order to sell the Snow Cherry for a good price, he decided to put on a good performance and promote Karakorum’s swordsmanship. He did not want to let down Karakorum Savant.
After stretching his shoulders, Ai Hui sat down and asked Hua Kui, "It sounds like it will be far away. Which residence are we going to?"
"You will know when the time comes." Hua Kui had an irritated look on his face.
"Actually, all of you don’t need to send me. Can’t you just give me the address? I can go there myself." Ai Hui wasn’t annoyed by Hua Kui’s tone.
The Fiery Floating Cloud beneath his feet wasn’t any ordinary product. It looked very normal and ordinary from the outside, but as for the inside, one could tell that its master paid great attention to design and quality when making it.
"Who says we are sending you off?" Hua Kui rolled his eyes. He was beginning to regret his decision to become this scumbag’s guide.
"Xiao Shuren is being kept in the trunk?" Ai Hui asked.
"You are quite sharp." Hua Kui was slightly surprised.
Even though Hua Kui had not said anything, Chu Zhaoyang still knew that it was Xiao Shuren. He felt rather impressed.
"This Fiery Floating Cloud is more luxurious than the Auspicious I destroyed last time. Furthermore, you are here as well. Why would Karakorum spend so many resources? Xiao Shuren can be the only reason."
Hua Kui nodded his head. Just as he was about to praise Chu Zhaoyang for being smart, Chu Zhaoyang changed the topic. "So now we have to talk about the escort fee. You see, I have gone to great lengths to accompany you in escorting Xiao Shuren. What a big risk I’m taking! I’m a rookie and a poor man…"
"Get lost!" Hua Kui could not stand Ai Hui and flew into a rage.
"Hey, hey, hey, don’t think you can scold me just because you’re my guide." Ai Hui widened his eyes.
Hua Kui decided to close his eyes and ignore this scumbag.
Very soon, the Fiery Floating Cloud landed in an unadorned and serene courtyard.
This place was not located in the centre of Silver City. Instead, it was located in a remote corner of Silver City. A simple and unadorned manor like this was rarely seen in the extravagant and lavish Silver City.
Even though Ai Hui did not know which family this residence belonged to, he could sense the aura of a rich and powerful aristocratic family coming from within.
Ai Hui descended from the Fiery Floating Cloud. The green ceramic tiles beneath his feet looked extremely old. The surrounding walls were overflowing with aged vines and green moss. Everywhere was filled with traces of extreme aging.
A long-established family.
This was the first thought that came to Ai Hui’s mind.
A butler that had been waiting for their arrival bowed slightly and greeted Ai Hui respectfully. "Are you Mister Chu? You must have had an arduous journey. Your living quarters have already been prepared. Do you want to take a rest first? Madam is currently out on business; she will be back by tonight. Madam hopes to have dinner together with Mister Chu, will you be able to make it?"
"No problem." Ai Hui nodded. "Bring me to my living quarters first."
"Okay." The butler nodded at a servant on one side. That servant quickly came forward and the butler instructed him, "Bring Mister Chu to bamboo garden."
"Yes," the servant replied respectfully.
The butler turned back and spoke to Ai Hui once again, "If Mister Chu needs anything, feel free to tell me."
Ai Hui smacked his lips in silence. This was his first encounter with such a meticulous and strict butler. Ai Hui did not really like such aristocratic families, but fortunately, he just needed to put on a good act as a teacher. The most important thing for him to do was to sell the Snow Cherry for a good price. Oh, wrong, he had to find the one destined for Snow Cherry.
For Xiao Shuren to be sent to this place, this family must have a deep relationship with Chief...
As Ai Hui followed the servant to bamboo garden, he asked the servant curiously, "May I know the surname of this family? I have come in haste and Chief did not have enough time to brief me."
As the servant continued to lead the way, he replied respectfully, "Our family’s surname is Ye."
Ye? Ai Hui racked his brain. He did not know of any aristocratic families in the Silver Mist Sea that had the surname Ye. From the looks of it, however, this family was definitely a first class aristocratic family.
After replying to Ai Hui, the servant did not speak anymore and focused on leading the way. Ai Hui also did not ask anymore questions. He began to focus on training with fusion elemental energy. With the fifty fusion elemental energy beans, his training efficiency would improve significantly. Besides this, he also hoped he could find Senior Xiao’s notes sooner so that he could leave Silver City. For some reason, he had a premonition that a maelstrom was approaching Silver City.
The ancient manor was extremely huge; Ai Hui followed the servant for more than ten minutes before arriving at the bamboo garden.
Ai Hui silently trembled with fear. Every plot of land in Silver City was extremely expensive. He did not expect this residence to be so gigantic.
Bamboo garden was a lone court. The surrounding bamboos were swaying slightly, looking especially elegant. The necessities provided were comprehensive. The things that satisfied Ai Hui the most were the customized meditation room and the training arena. Even though they were not really huge in size, they were more than enough for Ai Hui alone.
Since Ai Hui was alone and had not brought a lot of luggage, he began to start training.
As for where Xiao Shuren was placed or how powerful the Ye Residence was, Ai Hui did not care at all. The Ye Residence was far more quiet than he’d expected it to be. This was a good place for training. It just so happened that he had a premonition that a maelstrom was going to hit Silver City. As such, he was exceptionally happy to have a quiet and serene place to train.
After developing his fusion elemental energy, entering the Grass Hall, and completely depleting his fusion elemental energy in the Hall of Ancient Records, Ai Hui headed to the training arena in the courtyard to practise his swordsmanship.
He was not at all surprised that Karakorum Savant was a master swordsman.
He had finished reading the inheritance compiled by Karakorum Savant, and even though there were several areas which were vague and unclear, he could sense that Karakorum Savant had found the essence of swordsmanship.
He was slightly envious of her.
Despite this, he did not immediately practise his swordsmanship according to the inheritance. It was not that Ai Hui was prideful and wanted to create his own absolute art, but rather, this inheritance was far from completion.
Ai Hui estimated that Karakorum Savant would need at least twenty years to perfect eighty percent of this absolute art. The remaining portion would have to be constantly polished and improved by the future generations.
This was where the strength of the absolute arts of aristocratic families lay. Their absolute arts had been polished by many generations and continued to develop, becoming nearly perfect.
Even though Karakorum Savant’s inheritance was still crude and incomplete, it could serve as a verification for Ai Hui’s theories and stimulate him. Ai Hui’s level of swordsmanship was not low. Furthermore, after a long period of trial and error, he gradually formed his own style of swordsmanship.
For example, Ai Hui’s elemental energy sword pills were extremely unique. He was the only one who had come up with the idea; it hadn’t been done before.
Karakorum Savant’s inheritance provided Ai Hui with great revelations. Her outlook towards swordsmanship was very systematic. There were a few times where Ai Hui exclaimed in admiration. Her ideas were well-explained and were justified by various teachers. Ai Hui could tell that Karakorum Savant had compiled everyone’s knowledge in this inheritance, no, this swordplay encyclopedia.
She was trying to revive swordsmanship...
This thought flashed across Ai Hui’s mind, but soon, he thought of the word "Karakorum" and felt at ease. If Karakorum Savant did not want to revive swordsmanship, why would she name her school "Karakorum"?
The crudely compiled swordplay encyclopedia gave Ai Hui endless inspirations. He felt he’d had a revelation.
Indistinctly, he could sense a new sword move forming in his mind. He had sensed this faintly discernible feeling on more than one occasion when he’d been flipping through the swordplay encyclopedia.
This made him excited.
He was familiar with this kind of feeling. Holding Snow Cherry in his hand, he jumped into the training arena.
Without much deliberation, he brandished his sword according to that feeling.
Time passed bit by bit and he became completely lost in his own world. Sometimes, he would stop what he was doing, furrow his brows, and ponder without moving his body for a long time. Sometimes, he might engage in a disarrayed swordplay, staggering everywhere.
Gradually, the sun began to set. The bamboo garden was dyed orange by the afterglow of sunset.
Suddenly, a sharp glint flashed across Ai Hui’s eyes. He took an explosive step forward and unsheathed his sword!
A blurry energy ripple swept up to the tip of the pinkish Snow Cherry. The air surrounding the tip of the sword became distorted. Six palm-sized crescent moons shot out from the energy ripple.
A piece of bamboo leaf that had been swept up by the wind was slashed by the six fleeting, weird sword glints. This was only the beginning. The biting cold sword glints suddenly gathered and burned fiercely, engulfing the piece of bamboo leaf.
The bamboo leaf-turned fine green powder vaporised into a green smog in the air. It gradually became faint and disappeared completely.
The six fine crescent moons swirled around Ai Hui’s body. His eyes lit up like the stars in the sky.
[Crescent Moon] was a very practical move, but it was too straightforward and was easily seen through by his opponents. Furthermore, as Ai Hui became stronger, [Crescent Moon]’s destructive power became increasingly insignificant.
Ai Hui brandished Snow Cherry lightly and the six crescent moons flew along with it. He flicked his wrist and pointed the sword downward.
The six crescent moons combined into one and Ai Hui felt his elemental energy freeze, following which, a brilliant and powerful sword glint suddenly appeared.
A paper-thin sword gash appeared on the ceramic ground beneath Ai Hui’s feet. If one did not look closely, he or she would not see it; however, no one knew that this gash was actually more than thirty meters deep.
Holding the sword in his hand, Ai Hui flicked his wrist upward. A powerful sword glint shot out from the gash on the ground and separated into six crescent moons once more, then danced around Ai Hui.
Not bad, not bad. Ai Hui was very satisfied. Regardless of strength or flexibility, this move was much better than [Crescent Moon].
Furthermore, Ai Hui discovered that he had used a very small amount of elemental energy to execute this move.
This move shall be called [Six Moons]. Ai Hui was already thinking about how to utilize [Six Moons]. For example, he could use it as a diversion tactic. Or maybe he could combine the six crescent moons into one and split them up before making contact with his opponent’s weapon.
Suddenly, Ai Hui felt some movement from the ground beneath his feet.
Eh?
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Surging water gushed out from the gash in the floor, completely soaking Ai Hui.
Ai Hui immediately responded to it. His sword move must have hit an underground spring.
It was his first day here and he’d already spoilt something… Things were not going well...
Ai Hui was flustered. The water flow was very strong and it was very difficult for him to clog up the gash. If only Lou Lan was here, he could have solved this problem within a second.
Suddenly, Ai Hui heard footsteps approaching. Not caring about anything else, he clenched his teeth and stomped his foot. Boom. A two-meter wide crevice appeared.
It was finally clogged up.
Having arrived at the doorstep a moment ago, the servant was startled by the loud boom. After a while, he began to speak, "Mister Chu, it’s time for dinner. Madam and the guests are already waiting for you."
When the servant saw Ai Hui’s drenched appearance, he was flabbergasted.
"It’s dinner time? Let’s go, let’s go, it just so happens that I’m hungry now." Ai Hui gave him an innocent smile.
With a blank look on his face, the servant followed Ai Hui as he walked out of the courtyard.