Chapter 230

Chapter 230: Put Me Down! (4000 words, two-in-one)

“Drip, drip”

In a cave of unknown depth on Three Stone Peak, water droplets fell one by one from the stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling.

The stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling were very high, and when the water drops hit the ground, they shattered into pieces.

On the icy cold ground, Xuenuo’s eyebrows twitched slightly, her long and curved eyelashes fluttered lightly. In her dazed state, Xuenuo didn’t feel the hardness of the ground beneath her but instead felt something akin to the sensation of a human body.

As Xuenuo’s consciousness gradually returned, she suddenly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Ming’s face.

Xuenuo realized she was lying on top of Ming.

Startled, Xuenuo quickly checked Ming’s breathing.

Feeling the breath under Ming’s nostrils with her fingers, Xuenuo’s heart, which had been suspended, slowly settled down.

“Hey, wake up! Ming, wake up, wake up…”

Xuenuo gently patted Ming’s cheeks, trying to wake him up.

After seven or eight breaths, Ming frowned slightly, and Xuenuo’s eyes lit up instantly.

Ming slowly opened his eyes and saw the delighted young girl lying on top of him.

It seemed like in his eyes, he had almost died.

“You’re finally awake. I thought you were dead,” Xuenuo said some ominous words right off the bat.

Ming smiled. “Dying isn’t that easy. But could Miss Jiang please get off me?”

“Ah?”

Only then did Xuenuo realize that she had been lying on top of Ming all along, and she quickly moved off him.

Ming sat up, shook his head, and looked around.

The surroundings weren’t pitch black where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. You could clearly see the environment around you, but you couldn’t figure out where the light source was coming from.

“What is this place?” Xuenuo asked a question that was almost redundant.

“Who knows?” Out of politeness, Ming still answered her. “What does your Life-Bonded Flying Sword say?”

This young girl had mentioned that her Life-Bonded Flying Sword could sense certain presences, and the reason she came here was because it led her.

Xuenuo shook her head. “It’s completely silent now. I tried calling it just now, but it’s like it’s asleep.”

“Hmm.” Ming stroked his chin thoughtfully, stood up, and said, “Let’s go. Since we don’t know where we are, let’s just walk around.”

Xuenuo nodded and followed behind Ming.

The two aimlessly walked forward. This place was incredibly spacious, like a small plain, making it easy to get lost.

But for Xuenuo and Ming, since they didn’t know the way anyway, getting lost wasn’t even an issue.

This place was eerily quiet, except for the occasional sound of water droplets hitting the ground, there was no other noise.

You wouldn’t doubt for a second if something might suddenly jump out from the darkness.

“Roar!”

Neither Xuenuo nor Ming knew how long they had been walking.

Suddenly, a roar came from ahead of them.

Both Ming and Xuenuo’s hearts jolted.

Then another roar sounded.

They realized these roars were chaotic, as if there was a mixed group of monster beasts ahead.

Additionally, they heard sounds of stones breaking and colliding…

Ming and Xuenuo glanced at each other.

Though they didn’t speak, they eventually decided to go check it out.

Xuenuo and Ming each held a long sword in their hands, cautiously approaching step by step.

Soon, they saw in the vast expanse ahead, a giant scorpion covered in sharp spines battling a three-headed red hound.

A python with skin like rock was fighting a chicken that was over three meters tall.

A water buffalo-like beast with an elephant trunk was being devoured by a swarm of green ants.

From the outermost layer of skin, to the flesh, and finally within ten breaths, it was reduced to a white skeleton.

Various bizarre and unnamed monsters were continuously fighting each other.

If one pair of fighting monsters got involved with another pair, all four would end up in a fight.

In short, chaos reigned ahead.

Ming didn’t even know what they were fighting for.

As far as his eyes could see, there were no rare treasures.

If any single monster were taken out individually, Ming and Xuenuo indeed had confidence they could take it down.

But with so many monsters gathered together, Ming and Xuenuo worried that if they angered them, they’d be trampled to death by the monsters.

However, Ming wasn’t willing to leave just like that.

Such an abnormal place definitely indicated that something was here.

Or perhaps, if they managed to pass through this group of monsters and move forward, there would surely be something.

These monsters couldn’t have appeared here for no reason.

“Hold my hand,” Xuenuo said to Ming beside her.

“What?” Ming thought he might have misheard.

Xuenuo rolled her eyes at Ming. “Don’t you want to go? Hold my hand; I have a way.”

Ming glanced at the girl’s delicate, pale little hands and felt somewhat hesitant.

But then he thought, if the girl doesn’t mind, why should I, a grown man, care? Ming extended his hand and grasped hers.

That soft, boneless feeling was indeed pleasant, though Ming could feel some slight calluses on the girl’s palm—calluses formed from practicing sword techniques regularly.

Xuenuo, upon feeling Ming’s hand, took a deep breath, steadied herself, and focused her spiritual energy onto her longsword. With a powerful swing forward, a fierce sword qi surged forth.

Ming’s heart leapt in shock.

Wait, won’t this one strike make all the monsters charge towards us? Is this really your plan? Ming already regretted trusting her.

But the next moment, Ming realized he was wrong.

The girl’s sword qi hadn’t attacked the monsters.

Instead, it merely split the space in front.

This sword qi was like a strong wind trapped in a bottle, only able to swirl and toss about endlessly.

“Boom!”

The space in front of Ming shattered into fragments.

Xuenuo pulled Ming forward a step.

Ming felt his body gradually becoming ethereal, an indescribably mysterious sensation, as if he was about to enter another different dimension.

Soon, Ming confirmed his feeling was correct. He truly entered another space.

This space had the sky and earth connected, everything around was a vast white expanse, as if nothing existed in this space, clean like freshly fallen snow in the sky. “Sword Realm!”

Two words suddenly popped into Ming’s mind.

Sword cultivators possess Life-Bonded Flying Swords.

Each sword cultivator’s Life-Bonded Flying Sword has special abilities.

Some cultivators’ swords can resonate with flowers and grass.

Others can condense blocks of ice with just sword qi, freezing hundreds of miles of land.

Still others are like marbles, where this sword can shatter into hundreds of fragments, and every flick sends a longsword shooting out with immense killing power!

When the Life-Bonded Flying Sword awakens its divine powers, taking one more step forward, with your understanding of sword qi, sword intent, and sword dao, you will gradually form your own sword realm.

Every sword cultivator’s sword realm is a culmination of their sword qi, sword intent, and sword dao, representing all their insights into the “sword.”

Most sword realms manifest externally.

Dragging enemies into your sword realm for battle is the most common operation.

The appearance of a sword realm is linked to the abilities of the Life-Bonded Flying Sword.

But!

This girl’s sword realm! It was internal!

Her sword realm had formed a miniature world!

This was something Ming had never heard of before! Xuenuo continued to lead Ming forward, and Ming felt himself drifting between the girl’s sword realm and the real world.

None of those monsters noticed them.

At this moment, Ming understood how the girl had entered.

She probably used a similar technique.

She created a gap in the array, and with that gap, it was enough. She could drift between the gaps of the two worlds, making her body seemingly present yet not, and then enter Three Stone Peak through the array gap.

This wasn’t something any sword technique could achieve.

At least, Ming didn’t think there was such a sword technique.

Only this girl’s Life-Bonded Flying Sword could accomplish this level.

Previously, the fatal blow the girl delivered to the black bear likely stemmed from her application of her Life-Bonded Flying Sword’s divine powers.

It could only mean that the talent of this girl’s Life-Bonded Flying Sword involved the spatial level.

Anyway, according to all the novels, anime, and movies Ming had read in his past life, any ability involving the spatial level was extremely broken!

Actually, this wasn’t even the most shocking thing for Ming.

Generally speaking, a sword cultivator who could form their own sword realm must have reached at least the Nascent Soul Stage.

But this girl’s cultivation level was probably only at the Dragon Gate Realm, right?

A cultivator at the Dragon Gate Realm opening a sword realm—what kind of genius was this?

“Wait…”

Suddenly, in Ming’s mind, the image of a little girl surfaced.

If one were to talk about a sword dao prodigy, she would undoubtedly be the one.

Even though they hadn’t seen each other for nearly a decade, he still occasionally heard about her.

“Could she be…”

Ming looked at the girl’s profile, full of doubt.

But Ming also felt that the possibility was low. If she really was Xuenuo, why wouldn’t she tell him her real name? Logically speaking, after so many years without seeing each other, shouldn’t they be excited? Even if she wasn’t overly excited, she shouldn’t deceive him and make up a random name, right?

If she really was Xuenuo, Ming couldn’t comprehend why she would lie to him.

And just as Ming was guessing her identity, he felt the girl’s steps becoming increasingly unstable.

Sweat was dripping from her forehead, and her breathing grew heavier.

Consequently, Ming and Xuenuo’s bodies couldn’t maintain that state of semi-presence, and once, they even completely detached from the spatial gap and ended up standing under a large elephant covered in long hair.

If the girl hadn’t promptly activated her sword realm again, they would’ve almost been noticed by the elephant-like monster.

Ming guessed it was probably because this technique was very energy-consuming and spirit-draining. After Xuenuo brought him along, the consumption doubled.

Not to mention, the place where the monsters were battling was simply too large.

Ming felt like he had walked two li ahead, yet the monsters were still fighting.

“Are you exhausted? Let go of me, leave this place first, and I’ll figure it out myself,” Ming said to Xuenuo.

“No!” Xuenuo directly refused Ming. “If I leave you here, these monsters will definitely notice you, and you’ll die for sure. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, no problem.”

“This can’t continue. We two will…”

“Pfft!”

Before Ming finished his sentence, Xuenuo spat out a mouthful of blood.

This was the side effect of overusing her spirit energy.

Xuenuo couldn’t sustain her sword realm anymore.

Instantly, the spell that had been cast on both of them disappeared completely.

Ming and Xuenuo appeared among the group of monsters.

A giant wolf enveloped in black flames noticed these two intruders and immediately pounced toward them.

Ming originally intended to kill the black-flame giant wolf with one slash of his sword, but he feared the blood would attract the attention of other monsters, so he knocked it unconscious.

However, no matter how much Ming restrained himself, the commotion was bound to be significant.

More and more monsters noticed Ming.

Normally, even if the monsters discovered outsiders, they wouldn’t rashly attack. Most would just observe for a while, especially since many monsters were busy fighting each other.

But these monsters were like bulls seeing a red cloth, all charging toward Ming.

Ming stopped restraining himself, slicing a rock-skinned giant snake into two sections with one stroke of his sword, then picking up Xuenuo and running forward quickly! Various monsters blocked Ming’s path, but he didn’t linger in battle. If he could kill, he would kill; if not, he would repel them; if unable to repel, he would evade.

As long as he wasn’t overwhelmed by the tide of beasts, he’d be fine.

Moreover, Ming didn’t believe that!

These monsters would chase him until the end of time! But there were too many monsters.

The commotion Ming caused was too great, and the monsters ahead also noticed him, blocking his way.

“Get lost!”

Ming put away his sword and unleashed a punch forward.

The massive force of the punch shattered all the monsters in front into minced meat, creating an extremely bloody scene.

Some monsters kept gnawing on the corpses of the monsters killed by Ming.

But more monsters were unfazed, determined to kill Ming!

“With me on your back, we both can’t escape!” Xuenuo weakly said on Ming’s back. “Put me down!”