Wu Long arrived in the evening to see a crowd of people around the gateway to Ye Ling’s living area where he stayed. Ye Ling was currently arguing with the soon-to-be family head of the Ye Family, her uncle Ye Fan.
He stopped not far from the gateway as he did not want to be in close proximity, as he expected some spit flying from shouting people soon. He was immediately noticed.
“This is him! This is the bastard!”
A handsome man with one ear and a bandage over the place the other one should be in, shouted loudly, pointing at Wu Long.
“This fucker!”
“How are you going to make amends for this?”
“You went too far! We demand an explanation!”
As he expected, around 10 men and women, presumably the family of the person with one ear shouted, causing spit to fly in all directions, not reaching Wu Long by a few steps though, as he was extra cautious. They shouted all at the same time, making it sound as a loud, incomprehensible and incoherent mass of noise.
The middle aged man who led them raised his hand to have some chance to at least talk, and gradually the noise died down.
The middle aged man and Ye Fan looked at Wu Long, with the middle aged man starting.
“You have hurt my son. But I am going to let the Ye family deal with you as we are their guests and you are also their guest.
I respectfully ask future patriarch Ye to give us a fair treatment, and explanation” he said heavily, but giving the Ye family priority as they could not just do as they please here.
“I thank patriarch Du for your patience and wisdom, and please forgive us, it seems we have not controlled the discipline very well. Please be assured that we will give you a fair treatment and get to the bottom of this.” Ye Fan first soothed the Du family patriarch and turned to Wu Long “Ling’er told me that you are her guest but no matter how I ask she refuses to tell me your status or background. Do you mind telling me yourself?”
Ye LIng had a worried look on her face as she looked at Wu Long with a warning in her eyes.
“I do not have any background to speak of and I am not some important person” Wu Long simply replied, which instantly brought sneers on all Du family members.
“Hmm, then, as punishment for inflicting an injury on young master Du, you will be…” Ye Fan furrowed his brows and started solemnly, but Wu Long interrupted him.
“Punishment? You are not qualified to judge me. You can be thankful that I did not kill him when he approached me with a sword. I only did so in consideration that this place is Ye Ling’s household, but don’t mistake my mercy for me being a kind person, as I never claimed to be one in my life”
He said with a cold voice.
“Presumptuous!”
“How rude!”
“What arrogance!”
This immediately caused a flurry of indignation from all of the Du family members as well as all Ye family elders, branch family members, guards and retainers who are gathered here.
“Silence!”
Ye Fan loudly shouted putting some Spiritual Qi behind his voice, and the place instantly turned dead silent, with only the echo of his shout reverberating to the distance. He looked at Wu Long with vicious eyes but he kept his fury cold, not exploding.
“You are quite arrogant”
He commented.
“I indeed am, but not in my words to you, as that is not arrogance but the truth. I am here only because Ye Ling is here, once she leaves, I will leave. I am not one of your people and not your subordinate, you hold no sway over me with any reasoning, and if you want to talk with no reasoning you have not enough power to do that” Wu Long simply stated.
“Hmm, if you do not recognize our authority I can understand that we have no way to make you willfully submit, but your second statement seems to either underestimate the power of the Ye Family, or overestimate yours” Ye Fan said with a cold sneer.
Wu Long simply took out his sword from the spatial ring, holding it sheathed in his left hand.
Ye Fan furrowed his brows at this action and all the people around instantly became tense, the guards all took fighting postures with their weapons and the people who had any strength prepared to react to the situation. 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂
“Are you…” Ye Fan started with irritation in his voice, but before he could finish, Wu Long’s right hand reached for the handle of the sword in his left hand which he also raised a bit to meet with his right hand in front of him.
Though this action occurred at normal speed, there seemed to be something ominous in the silence that this action took place in, as if the moment Wu Long started moving, the space around him became somewhat isolated, and his movements looked somewhat unnatural, as if not happening, despite clearly being seen.
A sharp aura enveloped the place, and anyone who was hostile to Wu Long felt as if a sharp blade was pointing at the center of their head.
This sensation was related to the fact that this place was where the Niwan Palace was located, it was the place where the soul resided, and for cultivators, once they reached Qi Manifestation Realm this was also the place where the Soul Sea was born which they would then also cultivate to greater heights.
Sword Intent, in truth, was an obscure power, more like a concept, and in actuality it did not have any physical damaging effect. It was a comprehension of the sword’s intent and held the swordsman’s comprehension toward the sword.
The soul felt the Sword Intent most acutely, and definitely more so than the physical body felt it as it was an abstract concept residing in the intangible world, not a physical entity residing in the physical world, thus the feeling of the sword pointing at the center of the forehead.
What actually cut someone when an attack using sword intent was used was either the sword wind, the sword blade itself, or Sword Qi, in the order of increasing level of severity of damage dealt.
What Wu Long was using before was usually sword wind, the least threatening of the damages, as it was using the movement of the sword as an inductor, and the environment between the sword and the target as a conductor of the attack. The sword blade itself is self-explanatory, but Wu Long did not currently have a weapon that could withstand such a taxing role. And the Sword Qi was basically Spiritual Qi that was released in the form of an energy blade, an extension of the sword’s real blade of sorts that could cut the target in almost any distance and in some cases, where the level of skill in Sword Qi was high, was vastly more powerful than the attack of the actual sword blade itself.
All three types of these attacks could be released by people who did not comprehend Sword Intent, even Sword Qi was something quite common, as it just required some practice and control of Spiritual Qi. The three types of sword attacks were just worlds apart in terms of quality between people who comprehended Sword Intent and those who did not.
Someone who comprehended Sword Intent could use any of the three attacks to break the laws governing the world and cut something that someone in his or her realm and with his or her physique was not supposed to be able to cut. They could challenge people one or two major realms above them and cut them in half with one attack. It all depended on comprehension levels, as people with better comprehension of the sword could challenge people across not just one or two major realms, but more or for some, across entire great realms.
Wu Long did not have the ability to use Sword Qi until recently as one had to be in at least Qi Manifestation Realm to do that. But, he now was in a Qi Gathering Realm, meaning he could store and use Spiritual Qi in its pure form, not as part of his body’s energy like in Body Transformation Realm, and even had a Qi Manipulation Ring.
Normally, a Qi Manipulation Ring was not useful in combat because it required an astonishing level of control, both over one’s own Spiritual Qi but also over the ring itself as it was releasing and manipulating the Spiritual Qi outside the body for the user as a medium between the two. But with Wu Long’s control over Spiritual Qi manipulation, and his experience with the Qi Manipulation Ring, as well as his level of skill in Sword Qi, this tiny amount of Spiritual Qi he could release would become the deadliest Sword Qi this secluded world has ever seen since the ‘great calamity’.
Though it still required him to use a sword as a medium and guiding tool, as with his skill in sword qi and comprehension of the sword he could release it with bare hands, if only he was in Qi Manifestation Realm.
Normally, he could use sword wind as he had done before, but in this case, he decided to use sword qi since he wanted only to warn them. He was still in Ye Ling’s household, so unless she was willing him to, he did not want to turn this place into a bloodbath. Sword wind was too straightforward, and lacked the finesse and control sword qi had, which he required for what he was going to do.
Wu Long unsheathed the sword half-way in a smooth and graceful motion and then resheathed it placing the hands back to their original position and resuming the posture he had before. The place was deathly silent and slightly colorless for the moment the sword blade could be seen, and then it turned back normal.
Everyone, except Ye Ling, was looking with eyes wide as full circles at Wu Long, some dumbfounded and not comprehending what happened at all, some terrified at his sword intent and yet still not comprehending why did he stop and did nothing.
Ye Ling merely looked at all this with a feeling of pity. She warned her uncle that he should not provoke Wu Long but he did not listen.
“Tshhh”
A soft sound of something soft falling to the ground took them out of their daze. And as they looked for the source of the sound, gasps started sounding in the surroundings as the sound repeated with increasing frequency.
The sound was made by flocks of hair falling to the ground. Strands of hair were falling from the hair of all the Du household members, as their heads quickly started to become barren lands, as smooth as a marble. Some hair was scattered by the air pressure from falling and went in different directions but most were falling in full chunks. The Du family members tried to keep the hair with their hands but they only quickened the process as now the hair that had been touched instantly fell.
Wu Long placed the sword back into the storage ring space and placed his right hand in front of his chest, slowly bowing.
“Amithaba”
After he greeted the new ‘monks’, he calmly proceeded to move to the gateway and then disappeared inside among the silent and dumbfounded crowd.