Chapter 298 : Who Shielded the Heavenly Secrets for Him!

Chapter 298: Who Shielded the Heavenly Secrets for Him!

“Shared Master of All Spiritual Swords Under Heaven!”

Situ Cheng chewed over these four words, and boundless astonishment gradually surfaced on his face.

His first reaction, in truth, was displeasure.

“Our life-bound swords—on what grounds should they serve him as master!” he said aloud.

Such an attitude was understandable.

A life-bound sword was the very lifeline of a sword cultivator.

From the moment blood was used to bind it, the sword cultivator would nurture it day and night.

Behind every powerful spiritual sword lay the painstaking effort of its wielder.

So what did this mean now?

It was like half of one’s own wife’s butt suddenly belonging to someone else.

Oh, you’re the Shared Master of All Spiritual Swords Under Heaven—did you ever ask us, the owners of these spiritual swords, for our opinion?

At this rate, not only might you become the shared master of all spiritual swords between heaven and earth—you might also become the common enemy of all sword cultivators!

The middle-aged Confucian scholar looked at his frowning junior brother and said with a smile, “It’s not quite what you think.”

His gaze drifted leisurely toward the direction where Chu Huaixu resided.

“He may have stepped onto an unknown path of the sword.”

Within the Academy, in the back mountain.

The Old State Preceptor, Ming Xuanji, as an Eighth Realm expert, naturally sensed the sudden anomaly.

His brows could not help but knit slightly.

“What is the reason for this? What has happened on the Dao Gate disciples’ side?”

“How can it draw so many spiritual swords and produce such a phenomenon?”

Moreover, when his divine sense probed in that direction, he could not find Chu Huaixu at all.

“Has Jiang Zhi deployed a restriction?” Ming Xuanji easily deduced this.

Thus, everything must have been caused by Chu Huaixu.

He subconsciously raised his hand, preparing to perform a divination.

Then, he stopped.

The reason was simple.

After attempting to strike at Chu Huaixu from thousands of miles away last time—and failing—his lifespan had already dwindled to near exhaustion.

The current Ming Xuanji was like a pauper whose savings were nearly depleted.

Even spending a bit had to be calculated carefully, striving to use every bit where it mattered most.

And moreover, Cheng Yuyan had only just left.

That troublemaker, who delighted in stirring things up, had relayed Chu Huaixu’s words verbatim.

—Perhaps one day, this junior might make him die midway while divining me.

After saying this, Cheng Yuyan had gently shaken her folding fan and said to Ming Xuanji:

“Old Ming, I always feel that when he said this, he wasn’t boasting behind your back—he knew I would pass it on to you.”

“Or rather, what he wanted was for me to pass it on to you.”

“What do you think—could that be the case?”

“What he wants is for you, every time you divine him, to involuntarily recall this sentence.”

“And yet, you won’t be able to stop yourself. You’ll still have to divine him.”

Cheng Yuyan narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at those hollow eyes before her.

The blind State Preceptor listened in silence, saying nothing, as if he did not take it to heart.

The scholar skilled in manipulating hearts, Scholar Cheng, seemed to find this somewhat regrettable.

How dull, how dull.

After sighing, she took her leave.

At this moment, Ming Xuanji sat before the table, hesitating.

Chu Huaixu’s breakthrough tonight within the Academy did not cause as great a commotion as in the Dao Ancestor Inheritance Secret Realm.

It was even limited only to sword cultivator disciples within the Four Great Sects.

None of the disturbances spread to the people of the Moon Country within the Academy.

Yet, with Ming Xuanji’s cultivation, he could still sense the abnormality of the sword spirits.

“Why would others’ life-bound swords submit to him?”

Would all of this affect the future? Affect the greater situation?

In the Old State Preceptor’s heart, this was no longer a trivial matter.

The karma involved might be immense!

He let out a soft sigh and began to divine.

The color gradually drained from the old man’s face. A visage that had once been fairly vigorous instantly turned somewhat pale.

His body hunched further, and his head of white hair became increasingly frizzy and dry.

Ming Xuanji continued his divination, murmuring incantations under his breath.

However, as time passed, his expression grew increasingly grave—until, in the end, it even became somewhat ferocious!

“Pfft—!”

In the next moment, a mouthful of black blood spurted from his lips. When it splashed onto the table, wisps of black smoke even began to rise from it.

Gravely injured, Ming Xuanji’s withered hands began to tremble slightly.

His voice was hoarse, filled with boundless unwillingness.

“Shielded the Heavenly Secrets!”

“Someone has shielded the Heavenly Secrets in this matter!”

“Who! Who is it!!!”

This Old State Preceptor believed himself to be the most proficient in divination of this era.

He believed himself to be the only one capable of窥探天机 (窥探 the secrets of Heaven).

Yet just now, when he attempted to divine Chu Huaixu’s sword path, he obtained nothing—and even suffered a violent backlash!

If the previous backlash had been due to using Huo Dingyi’s birth date and eight characters, causing an error at the very root—

Then this time, it was as if an invisible hand had directly pressed him back!

This is not something you should divine!

Ming Xuanji slumped halfway over the table, his white hair falling loose and covering his face.

Black blood continued to drip from his mouth.

A conflicted expression began to appear on the old man’s face.

There was a trace of ferocity—but also a hint of dejection.

Suddenly, a sentence echoed in his ears.

The very words Cheng Yuyan had relayed to him—spoken by Chu Huaixu.

“Die midway while divining him, is it?” Ming Xuanji muttered to himself, disheveled.

Inside the room, Chu Huaixu sat on a meditation cushion and slowly opened his eyes.

After letting out a long breath, a trace of joy appeared on his face.

“Sword Heart Minor Mastery!”

He was extremely satisfied with this.

Without the Dao Ancestor’s assistance this time, during his breakthrough, he had not been able to draw tens of thousands of spiritual swords at once.

He could actually faintly sense all the swords here!

But due to the limitations of his cultivation and divine sense, he was unable to extend his “grasp” toward them.

This tyrant among swords could only seize the “grass close to home.”

Spiritual swords that were too far away remained beyond his reach.

“What a pity. Little Xu is so close to me—his sword case is right there—but I still can’t establish a connection with the Bronze Sword.”

It seemed its rank was simply too high.

Additionally, without the Dao Ancestor’s assistance this time, Chu Huaixu had also failed to sense Jiang Zhi’s sword.

That sword, possessing an aura capable of destroying heaven and earth, had not appeared within his range of perception.

Recently, he had already begun to realize that he might have underestimated the power of the sword Jiang Zhi had nurtured.

“It seems everyone is wary of that sword,” he thought.

It was like everyone knew Jiang Zhi could only strike once—

Yet no one believed they were qualified to withstand that single strike!

“My grandmaster… how is he like carrying a nuclear weapon?” Chu Huaixu joked inwardly.

Aside from Jiang Zhi’s sword, there was another sword he had not sensed.

—The Sword Sovereign!

However, this breakthrough also brought Chu Huaixu other unexpected gains.

He sensed a very special sword.

It was far, far away—so distant that he could only perceive its existence, unable to draw it or form a connection with it.

The reason this sword felt special was that the moment he sensed it, he also sensed a grand formation!

A formation so vast it was unimaginable!

This formation covered the entire city!

“That is the grand formation protecting the Imperial Capital,” Chu Huaixu immediately realized.

“So, the core of the Imperial Capital Grand Formation… is actually a sword?”