NEBM Chapter 63: Sword Remnant

After the silence was restored, Si Fei looked at the flowers scattered everywhere. His smile faded, and he sighed.

Only when the bald monk hiding in the shadows saw Shen Zhixian disappear did he dare to walk out, his face showing a look of shock. “I saw him put the sword to your neck and was afraid that, if his hand shook, you would…”

Si Fei spread his hands indifferently. “If I could die like that, that would be all the better.”

The bald monk remembered something, touched his bald head, and stopped talking.

Si Fei felt that the atmosphere had suddenly become serious. He tilted his head and looked at the bald monk with a relaxed smile. “Shen Zhixian is not like Yan Jin, who would initiate a crazy attack, as if he wouldn’t even recognize his own relatives. He won’t kill me. Don’t worry…You should worry more about that person in the wasteland.”

He waved his hand and the pile of flowers displayed an image.

Inside the image, the light was dim and the barren field was faintly visible, displaying the wreckage of demon beasts and fiends scattered everywhere. The area was thick with devil qi. A person had his back to them. His body exuded oppressive, murderous energy as he slashed his sword, cutting the attacking demons into pieces.

—It was Yan Jin.

He was too fierce. Except for some irrational little demons who came forward to die, the bigger demons were somewhat hesitant to engage him.

These demons were not completely stupid. The more powerful the demons, the more they knew how to keep their lives. As long as Yan Jin stayed there, killing as many demons as possible with fierce means, he would become more and more powerful and would quickly rise through the ranks.

Several demons and fiends in the wasteland looked at each other, then bowed their heads unwillingly before him and made a gesture of surrender.

Yan Jin didn’t have the slightest expression on his face, only showing a look of indifference and savagery. He declined to react as demons swore allegiance to him left and right. As if sensing that someone was peeping at him, he turned sharply and looked right at them, his blood-red eyes heavy with oppression. It was as if he could see them and would make a move at any moment to attack the bald monk and Si Fei.

He carried his sword, the blood on it still dripping. His body was thick with devil qi.

The bald monk shivered. Although he knew that Yan Jin couldn’t see them, he subconsciously hid behind Si Fei. Carefully popping his head out to look , he said, “Oh, don’t look at me, don’t look at me. This bald monk is very timid. So scary…Why did Yan Jin look so terrifying after he turned into a devil? More fierce than the last time I saw him…”

He rubbed his hands nervously and said worriedly, “There’s no second strain of Soul Tracing Grass–What’s that?!”

Because he was so shocked, his voice was a bit sharp. He looked in surprise as Yan Jin suddenly raised his hand, and a ray of green light spread out on his palm.

It turned into a small grass bud.

The grass bud bounded in his palm. It was difficult to hear what it was saying, but the heavy oppression in Yan Jin’s eyes actually dissipated. The murderous aura, which was thick enough to be tangible, also slightly lessened. He flipped his wrist and the small grass bud burrowed into his sleeve.

The flowers landed, and the image disappeared.

The shock on the bald monk’s face still remained: “Soul Tracing Grass? Why did Yan Jin have another Soul Tracing Grass?”

He subconsciously tried to reach for something in his sleeves. After patting for a while, he smacked his head. “Chen Lie snatched my book!”

Si Fie heard what he said and frowned in disapproval.

The bald monk’s smiled looked like a grimace. “Ah, A’fei, the monk can’t beat the ice cub. You go and help the monk get the book back.”

Si Fei flatly refused. “No. Too lazy. Don’t want to fight.”

The bald monk twisted a bit. “Otherwise, A’fei, how about you go and play the beauty scheme… As the saying goes, once the hero is sad about the beauty…”

Si Fei’s face turned green, and he knocked angrily on the monk’s bald head. “Get lost!” He cursed with a laugh, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes.

As the monk was about to say something, his expression suddenly froze. Something cold had landed on his head. He reached out and touched it, then watched as a large swath of snow suddenly fell from the sky and soon covered the ground.

It was the restriction seal that had been in effect for thousands of years. It’d finally broken down. The seal had turned into flakes of snow, falling down and down.

“A’fei, the restriction is broken…”

“Yes…those things are coming out.” Si Fei looked blank for a moment, then he soon revealed a sly smile. “Did you say just now that Chen Lie is still guarding outside?”

The bald monk hesitated.

“Mmmn. Very good. He’ll work hard.”

The fat and thin figures disappeared quickly.

In a secret room somewhere in the city, Shen Zhixian had just merged the Soul Tracing Grass. His expression was absent-minded.

He already knew that Xiao Caoya was very special. But, he never imagined that it was…the Soul Tracing Grass who probably initiated his rebirth.

In the last life, he’d failed to survive in Yan Jin’s hands. Then, was the rebirth in this life due to the Soul Tracing Grass?

Who found the Soul Tracing Grass and worked so hard to regenerate him—No, Yan Jin was also reborn. Could it be related to him?

There was only a handful of soil left. The small wooden plague on which the characters “Soul Tracing Grass” was written had turned into powder soon after Shen Zhixian absorbed and merged the grass into his body. He circulated his spiritual power, and his mood turned complicated as he carefully examined his heart pulse.

The moment the Soul Tracing Grass merged with the half scale, the injuries to his heart and veins were completely repaired. This long forgotten sense of comfort made him anxious to go out and find someone to fight with.

Once he found Yan Jin, he must have a good fight with him. Before, because he was suppressed by the heart ailment, he couldn’t fight.

There were walls on all sides with a single, closed door. Shen Zhixian pushed open the door without hesitation. The moment he stepped outside, he became blinded by the snow.

He tilted his head slightly to avoid a snowflake and found himself standing on a long street.

This place was no different from other ordinary towns. It had brick buildings, hanging red lanterns and limestone streets. The only difference was that the residents here were at all not human.

In the cold wind, several little demon cubs wrapped in thick, cotton jackets laughingly ran past Shen Zhixian. Cute, fluffy ears flickered in the wind.

Was this…Undead City?

Shen Zhixian looked around and saw an old tree demon with its back turned toward him. The demon was struggling to pull up its roots. After changing into a more comfortable position, it shoved the roots back into the soil and saw Shen Zhixian. “Oh, a new young man.”

Shen Zhixian turned back to look at it. There was a dry, wrinkled old man’s face on the trunk of that old tree demon. It happily hummed half a tune and, seeing that Shen Zhixian was looking over, it sighed and said kindly, “Still getting used to this place?”

Shen Zhixian’s face showed a little doubt, pretending to be puzzled. “What’s this place?”

The blankness on his face was just right. The old tree demon believed him and said, “This is Undead City. We also called it Carefree City, where you won’t have troubles, and you’ll be happy every day. ”

At this moment, a few more demons passed by, and the old tree demon greeted them happily. Shen Zhixian took the opportunity to talk to them. The demons and monsters here didn’t even know Si Fei, let alone the bald monk.

Shen Zhixian thought that this was strange. The creature here didn’t seem to understand what trouble was. Every face was smiling, and there didn’t seem to be any negative emotions. How could this be possible. Even if it was a newborn baby, it would also cry and make noises!

He also noticed that the engraved pattern of the Wanggui flowers could be seen everywhere. Under the eaves of every door was the flower’s engraved pattern. There was a faint breath flowing in the pattern, and when Shen Zhixian carefully observe it, he realized that it was a little familiar.

—This was very similar to the moonlight that flowed from the flower on Si Fei’s fingertips.

He strongly suspected that Si Fei had carved these patterns.

The Undead City should be connected to the so-called Wasteland border. Based on Si Fei’s attitude, it was likely that Undead City was the last line of defense in this wasteland.

For thousands of years, the restriction seal had long been riddled with cracks. The bigger demons couldn’t pass through those cracks, but there were many smaller demons who could.

The reason Si Fei built Undead City here was probably to deal with the smaller demons who’d escaped.

Even as Shen Zhixian was making countless guesses in his heart, his face showed none of his thoughts. As he was about to say goodbye to the old tree demon, the old tree demon suddenly let out a whine, shook its tree body, scattering many dead leaves. “Who hit me?!”

It pulled out one of its roots and used it to pick up a stone that had rolled over

There was a small piece of paper tied to the stone with a red string. After looking at it for a long time, the tree demon handed it to Shen Zhixian. “I don’t know how to read. You take a look.”

Shen Zhixian took the stone and paper. He undid the string, unfolded the paper, and saw the first sentence at the top: “To Immortal Master Shen.”

He froze slightly and continued to look down at the paper.

The paper was thin but long with a rolled up paper attached. Looking at the writing style, it seemed like that bald monk was the writer. In the first half, he expressed his apology and only in the second half did he carefully mention Yan Jin.

The paper said that the Wasteland had been sealed for thousands of years, and there were countless demons and devils imprisoned within. They were difficult to deal with. The reason why Yan Jin was sent to the wasteland was because Yan Jin was a natural born devil, and only he had the ability to live there long term.

It was like sending a lion into a forest to invade the entire forest and disallow the beasts within to arbitrarily leave.

Shen Zhixian’s hand clenched, crushing the stone into powder, which caused the old tree demon to shrank back.

He continued to read the last bit on the paper. It also said that the restriction seal on the wasteland would soon shatter and allow numerous demons to escape. They also asked Shen Zhixian to help in destroying these demons.

As for where Yan Jin was at this moment, they already…didn’t know.

Shen Zhixian’s face sank. The old tree demon was curious but, looking at his cold aura, it decided to keep its mouth shut for the sake of survival and only watched silently as Shen Zhixian left.

Seeing Shen Zhixian’s back disappeared, the old tree demon yawned lazily and nearly nodded off before a sound jerked him awake.

“Very bad. I forgot to unlock the spell!” A bald monk ran anxiously in front of it, his fat hands waving in panic. After a while, he sighed with relief. “But, fortunately, this calculation actually took a turn for the better…”

He slowed down and walked away.

The old tree demon stared at him stupidly, watched him walk away, and this time, it completely closed its eyes and fell asleep.

But on Shen Zhixian’s side…

In fact, Shen Zhixian hated Si Fei’s actions very much. He squeezed the paper scroll tightly with his fingers, wishing to shred it all over their faces. But he couldn’t find Si Fei and the monk, nor could he find Yan Jin.

He did have the idea to use the contract to locate Yan Jin. He didn’t know if it was because Yan Jin was too far away or for whatever reason. But, when he urged the contract, he could only feel that Yan Jin was safe and secure. He couldn’t ascertain his position at all.

Fortunately, at least he could sense that Yan Jin was not injured; otherwise, Shen Zhixian would have already overturned the Undead City.

In that case…he might as well return to Qingyun Sect first.

If Yan Jin wasn’t in trouble, he’ll eventually inquire about Shen Zhixian and would learn that he’d returned to Qingyun Sect.

This would save them both from looking for each other and completely missing each other.

From the moment he’d met Yan Jin, he’d become used to them working together on all kinds of things. Now, without Yan Jin, he always felt upset.

Shen Zhixian hesitated, his fingers rubbing the paper subconsciously. He felt a little strange when he touched it.

He raised his hand for a moment and carefully opened the paper scroll. The paper looked thin and fragile, as if it would break when touched. But, in fact, it was extremely durable.

But there was nothing on it.

Shen Zhixian rubbed the paper carefully, and a familiar aura faintly circulated on the paper, making him instantly remember Sect Leader Wen.

He frowned and carefully confirmed it. Indeed, there was the lingering breath of Sect Leader Wen on the paper. More specifically, it was precisely the scent of Sect Leader Wen’s sword.

Sect Leader Wen failed to promote several years ago, resulting in his death, and his sword had also shattered. It’d been so many years. Why was he now sensing the lingering breath of Sect Leader Wen and his sword?

The mystery of his death seemed to be getting larger and larger. At that time, when Sect Leader Wen died, Shen Zhixian’s body had already been seized by the half-devil and so he was completely ignorant of the details surrounding his death. Song Ming and the other elders were the ones who had dealt with it.

Shen Zhixian calmed down. Making up his mind, he left Undead City and rushed back to Qingyun Sect.

Along the way, as the note had said, there were many demons and fiends on the road. Although Shen Zhixian was in a hurry, whenever he see these demons causing trouble, he would stop to deal with it.

That day, Shen Zhixian was thinking about the blank paper. As he passed by a forest, he saw another immortal cultivator besieged by several fiends. The cultivator was pitiably outnumbered.

After Shen Zhixian beheaded two to three fiends, the cultivator turned around to thank him. Shen Zhixian whispered, “Immortal Master Su Cheng?”

Wasn’t this Su Cheng, the disciple from Xuanji Pavilion that he’d met by chance?

Shen Zhixian was still wearing Sui Xian’s face. At first, Su Cheng looked startled, then he greeted him in surprise, “Are you also a cultivator?”

Shen Zhixian smiled slightly and mildly said, “At that time, there was some trouble and I had to hide my identity. Please don’t be angry”

Su Cheng waved his hand and laughed, “Aiya, I understand, I understand. It’s not a big deal. I’m not angry. I want to thank you for saving my life.”

Shen Zhixian turned sideways to half-evade his bow, smiled, and started talking to him. Now that they’d met again, he asked a few more questions about the current situation.

Su Cheng said, “Recently, there has been a faint resurgence in demons, some of which had been running rampant. Although I’m not very powerful, it’s still okay to cut off a few little demons and devils.”

The two hurriedly exchanged a few more sentences and, since each had their own important matters, they turned to leave. However, as he was turning around, Su Cheng happened to see the piece of paper in Shen Zhixian’s hand and blurted out in surprise, “Destiny paper?”

Shen Zhixian turned his head to look at him.

Su Cheng knew that he’d been rude and apologized. He said, “I’m sorry… I suddenly saw this long lost destiny paper and was shocked for a moment… Can I ask where this paper came from?”

Shen Zhixian thoughtfully passed the paper to him. “It was a gift from someone. You recognize this paper?”

Su Cheng carefully grasped the thin paper and turned it over in careful study.  “This is indeed the destiny paper! It has the breath of that uncle!”

Shen Zhixian asked, “Your martial uncle?”

Su Cheng abruptly shut his mouth, obviously somewhat annoyed with himself. However, the words had already been spoken out and, in front of him, was the one who’d rescued him. He looked around, saw that there was no one else, and whispered, “He’s not considered a martial uncle. He was a grandmaster from a long time ago who was expelled from Xuanji Pavilion…our sect. He uses destiny paper.”

He paused, revealing an expression of embarrassment, which indicated that he didn’t want to say any more. Shen Zhixian didn’t embarrass him and said, “Then, do you know what’s wrong with this paper?”

“Destiny paper can reveal the past or the future. But, you need to be extremely talented in order to use it. There’s a spell on it. Although I can’t completely unravel it, I can still make the content reveal itself.” Su Cheng was obviously very confident about his skill. He asked, “Can I give it a try?”

Shen Zhixian made a gesture for him to proceed.

Su Cheng responded with an “okay” and, after performing some complex signs, he pushed the spell on to the paper. Sure enough, an image gradually emerged from above the paper.

Su Cheng was an honest person. When he saw that a faint pattern had appeared, he immediately looked away. “Good.”

Shen Zhixian looked at the pattern, took a deep breath, and kept his face calm. He thanked Su Cheng, who waved away his politeness. The two said goodbye to each other and left in opposite directions.

After waiting for a while, Shen Zhixian stretched out his hand. The piece of paper in the palm of his hand had a pattern of a sword painted on it, which flowed with a faint aura.

The pattern was Sect Lord Wen’s sword.

And in it was a remnant of the sword spirit.