Chapter 1428: Memories of the Past (II)

The war between New Martial and the Earth Dwellers had raged for many years; New Martial lacked someone who could decisively wrench the situation around. Someone like Zhang Tao was a mainstay for humanity. He could not easily make a move as the slightest misstep might lead to defeat for all of mankind!

At this point in history, the young Human King had ventured into Earth Dweller territory. Although he caused no end of mischief and trouble, he also tangibly reduced the enemy’s strength at the same time. He managed to convince the enemy that he was just bumbling around and had gotten lucky with each of his attempts. That redirected Earth Dweller attention from Supreme Zhang and the others, which became the groundwork for New Martial’s eventual victory.

As Zhang An thought over the trajectory of future events to come and studied himself again, he could see that his past self did not accept the situation. The young Zhang An agreed to his grandfather’s arrangements, but also kept his head lowered without a word.

What the old Zhang An saw next made him pause with astonishment.

His grandfather was looking at the sullen past Zhang An. Slight anguish marred the old man’s features and the look in his eyes whispered of a soft sigh. There was an entreaty among them.

His grandfather had never revealed such an expression to him and young Zhang An had never seen it in his life. But this revisit of the past revealed everything.

There was hope and expectation lurking in Zhang Tao’s eyes, as well as an apology that said, “You are my grandson and the one I love most from beginning to end. But I also hope that you can see yourself clearly and recognize the straits we are in. I wish for you to make some friends who are kindred spirits with you...”

The look in his eyes was so complicated that it shocked the old Zhang An. His grandfather... had never displayed such an expression in front of him. So grandfather had held such hopes for him when he was young?

Zhang An was suddenly dejected and a bit lost. In his memories, his grandfather had only grown ever more strict and stern towards him as time went on. Anger and disappointment mounted in equal parts. He had never looked at Zhang An so softly!

His grandfather seemed to completely give up on him after everyone else continuously broke through when New Martial was firmly established. Why would he not? Zhang An was stuck in the Saint level!

Countless thoughts flitted through the old man’s mind. Meanwhile, Li Hao’s inner world wasn’t nearly as complicated. He studied Zhang Tao and sensed the past Zhang An’s emotional turmoil, then turned his attention back to Zhang Tao’s constantly increasing strength.

It was surprising, but also understandable. How interesting!

The supreme of this time period had already vaguely grasped the beginnings of the human emperor dao. The cultivation of the people helped his own cultivation. This kind of strength indicated that he’d obtained the trust, respect, and even faith of the people...

New Martial did not rely on the power of faith, but this person utilized his identity as a premier heavyweight to obtain everyone’s acknowledgement. That was quite impressive!

Zhang Tao did not display any of his abilities, but he stunned Li Hao all the same. This was a very interesting, very strong person. Taking one glance at him, even when he was in a weaker stage of life, resulted in quite the gains.

This time, Li Hao looked and interacted with him from a first person perspective. He suddenly found this era to be fascinating!

They had only one conversation with Supreme Zhang before time passed bit by bit. Li Hao experienced everything through the young Zhang An until he enrolled at Demonic Martial. This was the university that was renowned in the annals of history!

After setting foot through its front gates, Li Hao found that the campus was of moderate size. There were very few powerhouses walking through its grounds. In Li Hao’s eyes, these guys weren’t even on par with Sun and Moon. The strongest of them was barely Sun and Moon.

So this was the school that had been hailed as the highest institution of education back in the day!

The young man blinked with astonishment. He hadn’t seen the young man yet, but he saw someone unexpected—the Sword Sovereign!

......

The Sword Sovereign of this age seemed to have finished his decade of honing his sword. He was in fine fettle and his killing intent hard to suppress.

When Zhang An met the Sword Sovereign, the latter was training in his yard. He simply slashed, withdrew, slashed, and withdrew again!

Zhang An was here on his grandfather’s instructions to greet the Sword Sovereign. Although the Sword Sovereign wasn’t a major personage at this time and, in fact, rather weak in Supreme Zhang’s eyes, he’d instructed his grandson to meet this genius nonetheless.

Here was a young man who’d spent ten years honing one sword and strictly speaking, counted as the supreme’s junior. Zhang Tao quite valued him and felt that he would amount to a great deal in the future.

One had to say, Supreme Zhang’s eye for talent was exceedingly sharp, to say nothing of his other abilities. He was able to identify that the Sword Sovereign would achieve great accomplishments in the future when the latter was a nobody. One had to keep in mind that the Sword Sovereign had already passed the prime years for practicing the sword, and he wasn’t as lofty as Li Hao would later see him as.

He was just... rather ordinary at the moment, appearing as an old man with a sword on his waist. That was the legendary Eternal Sword! It wasn’t the weapon, but the sword intent.

Li Hao’s strength far surpassed the current Sword Sovereign. He simply glanced at the other’s weapon. It was far inferior to his, but so much purer!

The current Sword Sovereign had completed the mighty feat of bringing the three cavities and one bridge into his body. His strength ranked among the premier echelon of the age. But of course, there was still a noticeable gap between him and the supreme.

The Sword Sovereign wasn’t particularly polite about seeing Zhang An. He didn’t seem to care who Zhang An’s grandfather was.

“Your thoughts are too scattered and you like to put on heavy airs at such a young age. Because of this, you’ve lost the proud spirit that a young man should have.

“You should attend Capital Martial—now there’s a bunch of ancient pedagogues and protectors of old rules and customs. Your grandfather, Director Zhang, was one person who could jump out of the confines that we operated in.

“Unfortunately for him, his descendants are each more steady and stable than the last. As such, they grow weaker and weaker with each generation. In this age, being level-headed is a crime! There is no peace to be found in the world and it’s not like we can stick to defense. What use is being slow and steady in conquest??” the Sword Sovereign spoke very bluntly!

Although the young Zhang An felt insulted and angry at being underestimated, he continued to play the part of being mysterious and coolly composed.

The Sword Sovereign could see what Zhang An wished to portray himself as, but didn’t say much. Perhaps he was keeping in mind who Zhang An’s grandfather was—Zhang Tao was also his direct supervisor.

“Forget it,” the Sword Sovereign shook his head. “Since you’re here, there’s no need for chitchat. Take one of my blows and treat it as me showing face to your grandfather!”

His sword flew out of its scabbard!

The young Zhang An was incredibly weak and only sensed a massive impact coming for him. He was furious about the turn of events—the Sword Sovereign was formidable, how could Zhang An stand to receive one of his blows?!

As expected, just the sword qi alone made Zhang An back away. The old Zhang An and Li Hao blinked in unison. They could sense a unique sword intent from the move, even an aura. This was the kind of aura that could only be found in Silver Moon!

Both of them had seen countless auras in their life, so they only needed to sense it for a split second to glean some comprehension from it. Li Hao’s heart shook. This sword intent was so pure and one with everything! Had all daos become one with this sword intent?

The young man’s heart quailed mightily!

In Li Hao’s eyes, the Sword Sovereign was quite mediocre and commonplace in this time period. But his sword move flared with the budding intent of a myriad of daos as one!

Ah...

The old Zhang An also blinked, his soul stirring. This was the will of sword dao and an obvious desire to pass on dao! But his younger self was full of anger and resentment, and thus failed to notice what the Sword Sovereign was doing.

The Sword Sovereign frowned slightly with disappointment and quickly withdrew his sword.

“Your potential is not bad,” he said placidly. “It’s on Fang Ping’s level. But... what a pity! You may go. Reflect on my move when you have time.

“Also, you’re too young at the moment. You’re just 18, don’t try to imitate the airs and bearing of an 81 year old. You should be doing whatever you wish to do in life. Your grandfather did not accomplish his achievements through being a stable and stern person. He was just the same as Fang Ping when he was young, perhaps even more wild and willing to commit all manner of mischief...”

A cold snort sounded by Li Hao, Zhang An, and the Sword Sovereign’s ears.

“Li Changsheng, I’d smack you to death with my palm if it wasn’t for your accomplishment with the sword!

Li Hao started. The Zhang supreme... had been eavesdropping all along, and he hadn’t noticed it!

“Why don’t you try?” The Sword Sovereign was unperturbed. “Am I breaking a law in telling the truth? My teacher mentioned that when you were young... Well, okay, I guess I’ll leave gossip and even worse stories off the table.

“But back to my point, which is that your grandson isn’t like you. I suppose that means you put on too good of an act. You look all prim and proper, which caused your grandson to imitate you. If you ask me, you shouldn’t take this tack. You should let your true self out to play for a bit in front of your grandson. Aren’t you the height of shamelessness in front of us and Fang Ping?”

“......” The Zhang supreme appeared to be irked by these words and sniffed, “Don’t try that with me. My grandson has wonderful potential, he’ll comprehend the true meaning within your sword sooner or later!

“And to

my

point, which is that you seem to be deviating from core origin dao. It’s very strange and your tattered little sword seems to be producing some of its own character. It can finally cut off my fingernail now!”

Li Hao listened to the conversation with an odd look on his face. Was this how the premier entities of New Martial interacted with each other? How... unexpected!

“Can your grandson sense anything from my sword? If he can, I’ll... Forget it, you’re older than me and the same generation as my master. If he can, I’ll hang off my feet from a beam and eat shit!”

“Who the hell are you looking down on, huh?!”

“Your grandson!”

“You’re holding me in contempt, aren’t you?! Don’t think I don’t see your true thoughts, Li Changsheng! Keep yourself in check or I’ll smack you to death with one palm strike...”

“Go ahead! If you smack me, that random disciple I picked up will smack you in return!”

“Smack your ass... and does he count as your disciple? Are you giving up Lu Fengrou for the dead?”

“......” The two took their conversation offline, blitzing each other with insults through transmission.

The old Zhang An stared off into blank space, coming back to his senses with immense dejection.

I... was never able to grasp the true intent behind that blow. It looks like I let grandfather down.

As for past Zhang An, the youngster was too weak to speak of and overflowing with anger. He cared even less what there was to learn from the situation.

Li Hao wanted to laugh, what an interesting scene! New Martial powerhouses were a fun bunch. Was this how they interacted with each other? Following each other from the shadows and shamelessly eavesdropping, then airing dirty laundry out in the open... Was this the modus operandi of the legendary Supreme Zhang?

And that coolly aloof Sword Sovereign could give as good as he got! He only checked himself that little bit because the supreme was older, had a higher status, and was the same generation as his teacher.

What caught Li Hao’s eye was that the Sword Sovereign still walked the path of core origin at this stage, but there were signs of a myriad of daos becoming one. The supreme and also reached the step of collecting all daos.

These New Martial powerhouses were already different when they were so weak. It was incredible!

With that interlude...