The seven forms of the Blade of God were clearly written on the wall, in unsophisticated yet vigorous characters.
He scanned through them and quickly them engraved them in his mind.
One slash of the long blade and rock dust dislodged. It wasn’t long before the place was smooth and flat. The seven forms of Blade of God had now completely disappeared from the world.
He hovered out of the cave. The other end that he exited through was a little hole in the bushes. It was even camouflaged with green vines that made it impossible to discover.
He quickly appeared in front of Lee Hanyan.
Lee Hanyan had already fallen asleep with her arms wrapped around her shoulders. After being tormented by hours of sorrow, fear, anguish, pleasantly surprised, sorrow, she had finally nodded off out of exhaustion.
Her delicate face was pale as sweat drenched her forehead. Her refined brows were tied in a knot as she mumbled, “Grandfather… Grandfather…”
Chu Li sighed and shook his head.
He felt horrible. It was a shame that he arrived too late and was unable to save the old man. The Spirit Blessing Pill was also no use, even hoodwinking couldn’t revive him.
“Ah!” Lee Hanyan let out a cry and sat up abruptly.
Chu Li handed her a cloth package, “Bad dream?”
“Big brother Du.” Lee Hanyan relaxed when she saw him.
Chu Li smile, “The Godly Knife Faction has been vanquished. Your grandfather’s death has been avenged.”
Lee Hanyan nodded lightly.
“There are some clothes in the package. Change and I will escort you to become a formal apprentice of the martial arts.” Chu Li said as he left the cave.
Lee Hanyan bit her lip and opened the cloth package. There were six or seven sets of female outfits, complete with innerwear.
She changed to an all green outfit and slowly walked out of the cave.
Chu Li was sitting by the entrance looking toward the direction of the Godly Knife Faction. He seemed to be at peace.
“Big brother Du, I want to take a look.” Lee Hanyan said.
Chu Li nodded and extended his hand to grab a hold of her wrist. Then, they glided to just outside of the Godly Knife Faction hall.
In just this short period of time, everyone had left, and the audience hall had shut its door tight.
“In there.” Chu Li gestured at the entrance to the hall.
Lee Hanyan looked at him before proceeding to push open the doors.
The heavy stench of blood washed over her as her pupils widened. She stared blankly at the piles of headless corpses and scattered heads. The ground was caked in darkened blood.
“URGH!” She bent over to puke.
Chu Li smiled. This was enough to flush away her sorrows.
Lee Hanyan continuously vomited until her guts were emptied. She vomited until her throat was stinging was stinging from all the stomach acids, and then some. The earlier sight had given her an unimaginable shock.
Chu Li went up to pat her on the back and an aura starting to spread within her body. The feeling was as though she was soaking in a cooling fountain as the discomfort slowly started to disappear.
“Let’s go.” Chu Li said.
Lee Hanyan nodded.
He grabbed her wrist and hovered out of the base of the Godly Knife Faction.
——
In order to ensure Lee Hanyan was well taken care of, Chu Li made sure not to push her. They traveled by day and rested by night.
One evening, they arrived at a run-down temple.
The Buddha status was nowhere to be seen, all that was left was a desolate place which didn’t even have a proper door.
It was early winter, and blankets were necessary at night. Because of this, a run-down hiding hole was still a much better than the open wilderness.
Chu Li lit a fire and the blazing flame illuminated Lee Hanyan’s rosy cheeks. She seemed to be feeling better.
They had been on the road for five or six days and she was starting to calm down.
Chu Li felt that the mood was right and decided not to hold off any longer. In a low voice, he said to her, “Tonight I will perform a technique for you to help you build your base.”
“The Nine Transformation Meridian Reforming Technique?” Lee Hanyan asked.
“What do you think?”
“I’ll be troubling you, big brother Du”
Chu Li smiled, “You’ll be able to start learning martial arts after I perform the technique.”
As he spoke, he took out a box of needles and gestured at her to position herself in a cross-legged posture. The gold, silver and wooden needle then darted toward her, and in the blink of an eye, she was covered in them.
She was held in place by the acupuncture, which was totally restraining her movements. Her body lost its sense of touch and control as she sat there helplessly.
Chu Li added threw a block of wood into the fire, “You’re going to the Snow Lunar Pavilion. It is a first-rate faction in the martial arts world and is deeply rooted. If you cultivate yourself diligently, you will one day be a martial art master.”
She could barely open her mouth to reply, “Is big brother Du from the Snow Lunar Pavilion?”
Chu Li shook his head, “No, I’m not.”
“Then what relation do you have with the Snow Lunar Pavilion?”
“Relation…” Chu Li burst out laughing. He stared at the flicking flames as he grew absent-minded.
Lee Hanyan sighed at the sight. While traveling, she had come to realize that big brother Chu Li would sometimes have this expression, as if reminiscing about a certain someone.
She assumed that this person may be in the Snow Lunar Pavilion, which is why he became like this at the mere mention of the Snow Lunar Pavilion.
She did not interrupt his reminiscence. Instead, she stared at him quietly.
The shadow of the flame joyously flickered on his face while his mind and spirit flew elsewhere.
She wondered which lady would have gotten big brother Du longing for so much. She must be extremely gorgeous.
Chu Li’s mind was filled with Siao Qi’s face.
He had slowly come to realize the weakness of his photogenic memory. He could recall every single moment he shared with Siao Qi so clearly that he could not forget. Certain slices of his life would suddenly come to mind and like a blade, it would pierce his heart.
By the time Chu Li returned to his senses, it was already dawn. He had sat there blankly through the whole night.
He turned his head to look at Lee Hanyan. A layer of black ash masked her mask and she was really starting to smell awful. She looked like an ancient statue.
Laughing out loud, Chu Li removed the needles with a wave of his arm, “There’s a river down below. Go and have a wash.”
Lee Hanyan immediately ran out.
“Catch!” Chu Li tossed her a cloth wrap.
She caught the cloth wrap and continued running. The thought of her face covered in carbon was too embarrassing, she wanted to crawl into a hole to hide!
She also never realized how smelly she was!
Whilst running, she noticed the changes in her body.
Light footsteps, faster speed; she was filled with vigorous energy as if one punch could crush a stone.
As she neared the river stream, she decided to take a swing. Her knuckles bounced off the stone swollen and red while the stone remained unscathed.
After aggressively scrubbing her body clean, she changed into new clothes and let out a sigh of relief, despite the fact that an odd odor was still disturbing her nose. She rubbed her nose and suspected that it may have been damaged by the stench.
“Today, I will teach you a heart technique and a knife technique.” Chu Li took her to a dirt road and exclaimed.
Lee Hanyan eyes widened in excitement, “Thank you big brother Du.”
Even if she had yet to witness it herself, she knew how good Chu Li’s knife technique was. In her eyes, the Godly Knife Faction was high and mighty, yet they were completely exterminated by this man. His knife technique must be beyond imagination.
Chu Li explained, “You have potential and mastering this heart technique would suit you. As for the knife technique, once you are at the Snow Lunar Pavilion, you can move towards mastering swordplay.”
He wanted to hand the Crescent Cryptic over to Lee Hanyan.
Lee Hanyan had high potential, surpassing that of Xue Ling by multiple folds. If Xue Ling required a few years to master the art than Lee Hanyan only needed a year, maybe even less.
It was the evening and the both of them did not seek shelter. Instead, they sat down in the woods.
Chu Li passed down the Crescent Cryptic and helped her to channel ut. It wasn’t long before a wave of Crescent Cryptic inner energy was born. Her path to self-cultivation would now be a lot easier.
On the evening of the second day, Chu Li gave her the seven forms of the Blade of God.
By the afternoon of the third day, they were standing in front of a mountain stronghold, carefully observing the camp.