Chapter 311 – Polishing the Blade on a Tranquil Sea; Formless Nine by Nine Formless Blades - Part 1

Li Yuan, already a little tipsy, had been matching drinks with the young woman from the Tang Sect lodge.

It didn’t take long for Tang Pang to slump over the table, wheezing, “No more, no more! I can’t hold another drop!”

Li Yuan chuckled and moved to the window. Moonlight poured in; the night sky shimmered like a silver sea... Just another evening in what promised to be an endless life.

A thousand years from now, ten thousand, even a million...will these mountains still stand? Who will be sitting across from me then?

If he meant to avoid the loneliness of eternal life, he first had to wrest meaning out of the centuries—and that started with strength enough to strip away the world’s mysteries one layer at a time. Only when no one outmatched him and no secret eluded him would he decide how to spend eternity.

The prospect thrilled...and frightened him.

Li Yuan imagined making homes with many different people, pouring his heart into each one. He pictured slipping into new identities, acting out dazzling lives. But what if, one day, he simply grew tired? What if an ageless body carried a jaded soul? Then what?

The thought left him staring blankly into the night.

Everyone you know will eventually die. What’s the point of living on?

Li Yuan used to have this thought when reading novels about the ageless Immortals in his past world.

Now, he realized such talk was just sour grapes from those denied the fruit. True Immortals were always eager for the next chapter. Give anyone an extra hundred years and they’d never say,

One lifetime is enough.

Would he ever grow weary? Li Yuan didn’t know. What he did know was that for now the road ahead still filled him with anticipation.

Everything was only beginning, waiting for him to explore and witness.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Dawn spilled molten gold across the courtyard.

Li Yuan practiced with Azure Serpent just outside the lodge’s door.

Tang Pang, still half asleep, yawned, then froze. She pressed herself to the oiled-paper window, hoping to steal a glimpse of his technique.

Everyone inside the Tang Sect’s restricted grounds was dying to know who this man was. Why did their iron-willed matriarch treat him with such deference?

Sunbeams cut through the clouds like crystal pillars. Li Yuan moved within them, agonizingly slowly.

Tang Pang almost laughed aloud.

At that speed, even a complete beginner can flatten him with one punch!

Yet the slowness was deliberate.

Heavenly Thunder Form!

Li Yuan’s body crackled lightly with a faint glow as he then pressed his ancestral seal into his heart. He forcefully pushed himself into early fourth rank, drawing out every drop of his power. His blade vibrated so fiercely it should have vaporized the surrounding moisture and scattered light. Yet inside his languide slash, all that force was perfectly contained.

Everything turned inward, unremarkable...until anything brushed the edge. Then even the hardest alloys would crumble.

When the glacial routine ended, Li Yuan withdrew his ancestral seal, drew a long breath, and wiped sweat from his brow.

Truth be told, it was exhausting, like slow, controlled reps at the gym in his previous life.

Tang Pang could hold back no longer. She shoved the window open with a squeak, casting a broad shadow on the mottled wall.

“Hey, Boss! Err, Mister Li, how can you be sweating after something that gentle?”

Since Tang Nian had introduced him as an executive of the Flying Nimbus Group,

Boss

was the only title the direct disciples could think of.

Li Yuan sighed. “Swinging the blade this way is tiring.”

“Really?” She arched a brow.

She drew her own blade and burst outside. In the morning light it flashed like a silver butterfly, loops and whorls whipping up little whirlwinds.

When she finished, she sheathed the blade without a single gasp, chin high, face tilted to the sun.

Li Yuan laughed and clapped. “Superb, far better than me.”

Tang Pang flushed. “Don’t think I’m fooled. Whatever you were doing must be some profound art. I just can’t read it. I’m just casting some bait, hoping you’ll bite and explain what you were really practicing.”

“I see, I see.” Li Yuan let out a soft chuckle.

These youngsters might not sit very high on the ladder of cultivation, yet each carried a mind full of clever turns; it was hard not to like them.

Li Yuan replied, “Chubby, you’re practicing your clan’s own technique, right? Once you break into seventh rank, your shadow bones will lock in; you can’t simply switch to another martial art. Your master’s puppetry lessons are really just ways of stretching power inside seventh rank.”

“Then what rank are

you

?” Tang Pang asked curiously. By now, she’d given up arguing about the nickname

Chubby

. She wasn’t fat, so why bother?

“Sixth rank,” Li Yuan answered.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

“I’m jealous! Why couldn’t my family have left a sixth rank technique?” Tang Pang cried out, envy lighting up her face.

Li Yuan waved it off. “Mine’s a piecemeal sixth rank—a long forgotten manual, with the road ahead cut short. It’s not that impressive.”

“An extra hundred years of life, though. I’m still jealous.” Tang Pang sighed.

A brief silence fell over the two.

Then, Tang Pang leapt up. “Class time, I’m off! Next round of drinks is on you, Boss!”

He gave her a parting wave and headed out. Once the layered peaks hid the little lodge, he rose into the air and angled toward Noblereach.

Today he needed the bustle of the mundane world, not just to sharpen his blade, but to steady his heart. The chaos triggered by keeping the 10-blade ancestral seal pressed to his heart was fierce; without a tough enough mind, he’d surely spiral into madness.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

An hour later.

Li Yuan arrived at the Springcharm Palace for his usual shift.

“Morning, sir!”

“Morning, sir. You look splendid today.”

The brothel hadn’t opened yet, but every worker nodded to Li Yuan as he walked in. The madam, still yawning, straightened at once.

Yesterday’s quiet inquiries had told her all she needed. This

chef

had dropped from the sky, and even the clan that placed him knew only that the Tang Sect had only sent a warning not to offend this individual. One look at his knife work convinced her he was no mere chef.

She hurried over with a respectful smile. “Sir, shall we try a different parlor today? I can have a few girls play and sing for you. If our usual line-up won’t do, I can bring a finer courtesan.”

“Siqin! Siqin!” She clapped.

A young woman descended the stairs, zither in her arms. She wore white silk with pale-pink blossoms hugging a wasp waist and rounded hips, classical and dangerously alluring.

She cast a shy glance at Li Yuan and felt an odd pull. It wasn’t the empty charm of a pretty face, nor the brute magnetism of a soldier, but something layered and almost spell-like. His gaze was intent, as though he weighed matters far beyond the room.

“Sir.” Siqin gave a delicately formal bow. Then she noticed those eyes settle near her chest and flushed. “What are you looking at...?”

“Your zither.”

“Oh!” Siqin blushed at the misunderstanding. She thought to herself,

If I must give myself someday, giving the first time to him wouldn’t be so bad...

She lifted a sleeve, pirouetting like a butterfly. “Do you prefer the zither, or the girl who plays it?”

“The carving on that zither is far too crude,” Li Yuan said. “Let me recarve it for you. If I ruin it, I’ll pay.”

“Huh...?” Siqin’s eyes went wide.

Li Yuan followed her upstairs.