Chapter 290: True Sword Qi
Jian Chen and Ming Dong continued to walk, after walking for a little while longer they quickly came across the other person. The man looked to be a tall but skinny middle aged man that was dirty looking all over and quite miserable. The tree branches had already cut away at his clothes, revealing the bloody scratches underneath. Clearly, he had taken a large amount of pain from the environment.
When the middle aged man noticed there was someone around, he instantly grew alert. In the next second, he took out his Saint Weapon, but the moment he saw that the two in front of him were merely youngsters, his vigilance immediately lowered.
“Haha, after half a day, I’ve finally come across people. I must say, this place is so large that even after walking for half a day, I came across no one else. Just how strong of a person does one have to be to create such a place like this?” The middle aged man brandished his sword with a smile. His face had slackened as his eyes stared at Jian Chen and Ming Dong with a strange glint.
Jian Chen laughed as well before saying, “That’s right. This place is truly large, after walking for half a day, we’ve finally come across a lone person.”
“It seems that we were fated to meet. Fellow brothers, just what is your name?” The man began to smile in a seemingly harmless way.
“Seeing how we have never met before, it would be inconvenient to tell sire my name.” Jian Chen laughed.
“Fine then!” The man replied casually. Looking to and from Jian Chen and Ming Dong, “This Gathering of the Mercenaries isn’t a good place to be, there are many hidden dangers to be experienced. This isn’t the place for two youngsters to be most especially. You two would find it best to immediately leave this place. Of course, the two tokens you both have will bring you trouble. Why don’t you hand them over to me so I can bear the responsibility for you?” With that, the middle aged man lifted his sword and started to walk over to Jian Chen and Ming Dong.
Jian Chen let out a thoughtful smile before taking out the token from within his Space Ring. Waving it at him, Jian Chen smiled, “If you want it, then you’ll have to take it.”
Seeing the token appear within Jian Chen’s hand, the middle aged man’s eyes began to shine. Immediately looking at Jian Chen’s hand, he saw the Space Ring that was adorned on his finger.
“A Space Ring!” The man cried out in shock. Growing serious, his eyes couldn’t conceal the pure greed behind them.
“No, little brother. That Space Ring currently in your possession will bring you trouble as well. Why don’t you hand both the Space Ring and the token over to me. I’ll keep the both of them safe, I can guarantee their safety if you do. Not only that, but it will be one less danger to your life.” The middle aged man couldn’t help but smirk. Even his voice began to tremble at the sight of the two prizes in front of him. To him, Jian Chen and Ming Dong were both easy targets because of their age. No matter how strong the two might be, he was already dead set on pursuing them.
Jian Chen laughed involuntarily before looking at the man in the eye and sneered, “You couldn’t even cheat a three year old child with your words.”
“You must be rotted in the brain to think that we are such idiots.” Ming Dong cursed at him from the side of Jian Chen.
The man’s eyes began to flash dangerously as he revealed a cold smile, “Fellow brothers, I was only just thinking what was best for you. Those items aren’t safe on you.” With that, the man walked even closer so that he was ten meters away now. With the giant sword in his hand, it began to radiate energy as he began to prepare to attack.
Jian Chen looked with disdain at the man. He was only a Peak Great Saint Master; someone not worth being worried about. “The items are in my hand, if you have the ability, come and take them.”
The man’s eyes flashed dangerously as he laughed, “So it seems you two are quite obstinate. Then allow me to come and take them.” The Saint Weapon in his hand began to fluctuate wildly as it flew at Jian Chen’s heart. His action was meant to kill without remorse or second thoughts.
A small sliver of killing intent leaked from Jian Chen as the Light Wind Sword immediately appeared in Jian Chen’s hand. In another moment, the sword disappeared in a flash and broke the other man’s Saint Weapon with a large metallic sound.
With his Saint Weapon broken, the man spat out a mouthful of blood as his face grew white before falling to the ground.
Jian Chen had snapped his Saint Weapon in two with a single strike. This was the equivalent to crippling the man’s dantian, causing him to lose all of his cultivation as well as causing a tremendous amount of damage to his body.
“H-ho-how….how is this….po-possible..?” Seeing the broken remains of his Saint Weapon, the man’s face was shocked. This was too strong of a strength, causing him to be stunned. To make matters even worse, the one responsible for breaking his Saint Weapon was only a twenty year old youth.
Even Ming Dong who was standing by Jian Chen’s side was shocked to the point of disbelief. Seeing just how Jian Chen was able to break a Peak Great Saint Master’s sword in two was just too frightening for him.
“You… just how could you have so much strength at such a young age? Are… are you a wolf in disguise?” The man looked at Jian Chen with hatred as if he had been unjustified, but as he spoke his voice was growing weaker and weaker.
“We are not hiding in disguise at all, this is the result that you have brought upon yourself.” Jian Chen laughed. Then walking up to the man, he said, “Bring out your things immediately, this way, you’ll at least have a chance to live. Otherwise, I’ll kill you right now.”
The man’s mouth began to drip with blood as he looked at the broken parts of his Saint Weapon. With a face full of regret, he slowly pulled out his Space Belt and placed it to the side.
Jian Chen picked at the Space Belt with his sword before grabbing the token from within. He didn’t see anything else of value, confirming that the man was truly poor.
Shaking his head in dejection, Jian Chen threw the Space Belt on the floor before leaving with Ming Dong.
“Jian Chen, just how strong are you now for you to be able to break the Saint Weapon of a Great Saint Master with one strike? This is something only an Earth Saint Master could do.” On the road now, Ming Dong finally asked the question that he had been holding in for so long.
Jian Chen laughed, “Back when I left the Tianqin clan for some time, I made a breakthrough to become a First Cycle Earth Saint Master.”
“What, you’ve already made a breakthrough?” Ming Dong asked with shock, he didn’t dare believe his ears. An Earth Saint Master was the result of a Great Saint Master risking death to cross over. The passing rate was only ten percent to become an Earth Saint Master, but this youth had somehow managed to do it. With Jian Chen’s age not even reaching twenty five and becoming an Earth Saint Master by then, this was truly an earth breaking achievement. If news of this were to spread, then it would cause an undeniably large boom of shock.
After he spoke, Ming Dong was confused so he asked, “What does it mean to be a First Cycle Earth Saint Master?” He had no idea that the Earth Saint Masters were categorized differently.
Jian Chen began to explain. “Saints up to the Earth Saint Masters are categorized into three different tiers; primary, middle, and peak. The moment one becomes an Earth Saint Master, the categorization becomes different. There are six different parts, the lowest class is the First Cycle while the strongest class is the Sixth Cycle.
Ming Dong looked on with understanding, “I didn’t think that even Earth Saint Masters would be classified in such a way. If you didn’t tell me, I never would had known about it.” Suddenly, Ming Dong had a thought, “Ah, Jian Chen, just what attribute do you have?”
Hearing this, the Light Wind Sword immediately appeared in Jian Chen’s hand as he showed off the shiny gleam. The Light Wind Sword began to emit a hazy silver glow that continuously glowed in the sky. It was almost as if it was forming an insanely sharp sword with Sword Qi, and the moment the Sword Qi touched Ming Dong’s body, he immediately felt as if thousands of swords were cutting into him for an undesirably painful feeling.
“My Saint Force doesn’t have any attribute, this is all pure Sword Qi.” Jian Chen said. Sword Qi wasn’t rare by any means, practically everyone knew of it. it was just the swords equivalent of Saint Force and had a tremendous killing power that could make a long distance attack.
This was what true Sword Qi looked like. What many others had was only what the sword made, thus was not strong enough to be called Sword Qi, it could only be called energy. This was because the energy was not strong enough nor had the same sharpness of Sword Qi.
Jian Chen’s Sword Qi was incomparably sharp, intense, and quite potent. True Sword Qi was able to strike at a further distance than condensed energy that replicated Sword Qi. Furthermore, true Sword Qi didn’t require a sword to use, instead, one could used their finger to cut a tree or rock.
Jian Chen didn’t know when his Saint Force had been able to turn his energy into true Sword Qi; it seemed to be an innate thing. The credit could only be given to the Sword Spirits within him.
“What a strong amount of Sword Qi, it’s completely different from all the rest. It felt as if it were as strong as a fire Saint Force attack.” Ming Dong gasped.
The two began to talk for another four hours as they continued to walk around the forest until they reached a recent battleground. The ground was filled with blood and there were two corpses nearby filled with injuries. From the injuries, it could be seen that it was done by humans. And not too far away were their Space Belts.
Ming Dong looked at their Space Belts before saying, “Their tokens aren’t in here, just a few things. There’s nothing of value, it would appear someone else has already taken them.”
Looking all around himself, Jian Chen noticed that there were multiple footsteps leading in a single direction.
“Let’s go, it’s best for us to first find out just what was calling you. My intuition says that whatever is calling you, it’s for a good thing.” Jian Chen said.
“Okay then. I too wish to find out just what was calling me. To think I was unable to control myself and came here!” Ming Dong spoke with anticipation.