74: Chapter 70: How to Inscribe_1 74: Chapter 70: How to Inscribe_1 Li Jianqiu stood motionless beneath the massive rock, only the fire of the Flamesword flickered in the mountain breeze.

Jiang Wang walked to his side and made out the inscriptions on the rock.

“In the twelfth year of Yongtai, after a hundred battles steeped in blood, hands behind the back, undefeated, these words are left for posterity to admire!”

The signature was Wu.

It seemed incomplete, for there was a single stroke nearby, obviously just the beginning of a character.

Yongtai is the era name of the current ruler of Zhuang Country, and now it is the fourteenth year of Zhuangli Yongtai, or the year 3917 in the Dao Calendar.

This meant that the inscription was from two years ago, during the time when the Vertical Brush Peak was first thoroughly swept clean.

After vanquishing the Fierce Beasts, Li Jianqiu did not boast of his exploits, nor did he summarize them, nor did he continue onwards.

Instead, he stopped before this conspicuously storied inscription, falling silent.

This atmosphere caused the usually boisterous Huang Azhan to also shut his mouth.

Li Jianqiu, silent for a while, dispersed the Flamesword in his hands, and finally for the first time in the presence of Jiang Wang and the others, he slowly drew his sword from his waist.

This was the first time Jiang Wang had seen this sword unsheathed.

It was bright and splendid, the first adjectives that came to mind, which typically did not complement a weapon, yet on this sword, they were so fitting.

Li Jianqiu, holding the sword in one hand, added a few strokes to that inscription.

Wu Shan.

The name was rather common, but it must have been the predecessor who seemed to have the makings of the undefeated.

Li Jianqiu moved the sword tip, starting a new line on the rock: “The junior has come to pay respect!”

And then another line, writing down his own signature: “The prodigal dog Li Jianqiu.”

Stone powder fell like rain, as if hiding some emotions within the dust.

“Let’s go,” Li Jianqiu turned and said, “We’re heading to the mountaintop.”

Passing by the giant rock, the group tread on fallen branches and decaying leaves, making their way forward amidst the jagged mountain stones.

There might have been a path here once, but over two years, it had reverted to its original state.

There is no path in the mountains, but the path lies underfoot.

“I saw that your sword broke earlier.

By completing the cleaning of the Vertical Brush Peak on our own, we can exchange for a Magic Artifact Longsword.

It shall be yours,” Li Jianqiu casually mentioned.

“How can that be?” Jiang Wang waved his hand and said, “It’s not like I was the only one who put in effort, and besides, senior brother, you were the main force…”

As a cultivator accustomed to using swords, Jiang Wang’s desire for a good sword went without saying.

If this mission had just been him and Zhao Rucheng, he wouldn’t have been shy.

But after all, his ties with Li Jianqiu, or even Huang Azhan, were not that deep yet.

Li Jianqiu patted the sword at his side: “I have Peach Twig.

I don’t need any other weapon.”

So this sword was named Peach Twig, Jiang Wang thought to himself; such an appropriate name, so bright and resplendent.

Li Jianqiu added, “A sword of this caliber is probably worth around six hundred Dao merits.

You can simply share out a hundred Dao merits to each of us.”

By this calculation, Jiang Wang would still come out ahead.

But for the others, it wasn’t really a loss either, after all, Dao merits were a firm currency, and they might not necessarily need the physical items obtained from the mission.

“Alright,” Jiang Wang no longer demurred.

The other two had no objections either.

Li Jianqiu then turned to Huang Azhan and said, “Judging by your Dao Technique, it seems you follow the same path as Shen Nanqi.

Only one focuses on the metal element, and the other on fire.”

Huang Azhan scratched his head and chuckled, “Just fumbling around on my own, without a complete system.”

“Fire-based Dao Techniques are fierce.

You need to pay more attention to the control of the Dao Techniques themselves.

Take the Flame Bullet Technique, for instance.” Li Jianqiu made a Hand Gesture and formed a Flame Bullet.

“When and how it explodes, its scale, its speed—you must control them all with ease.” The Flame Bullet under Li Jianqiu’s manipulation darted back and forth, expanding and shrinking, then abruptly accelerated and shattered a rock.

“I’ve learned much,” Huang Azhan bowed respectfully, expressing his gratitude.

Li Jianqiu waved his hand dismissively and then spoke to Zhao Rucheng, “You are very clever.

I said earlier that among you, Du Yehu’s combat talent was the highest, but it seems I overlooked you.

Your combat talent is not inferior to his, only he relies on natural combat intuition.”

He tapped his head, “You rely on this.”

Zhao Rucheng laughed it off, “Really?

If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have known.”

Huang Azhan pondered for a while, “That’s not right, Brother Li.

Among these three people, am I the only one who needs guidance?”

Li Jianqiu smiled without saying a word.

In the intense battle that had just occurred, he was so familiar with every detail of each person’s fight that it was enough to show his ease and proficiency.

However, for some reason, his performance on the Three-City Dao Conference at that time did not match his strength.

A wolf hair brush, with its handle straight and upright, its head full and round, and its tip sharp as a fine awl.

Turned upside-down, it resembled the general shape of the Upright Brush Peak.

Beyond the waist of the mountain and up further, was the location of the brush tip, also the broadest cross-section of the entire Upright Brush Peak.

This place was also the main base of the fierce beasts of the Upright Brush Peak.

While still far off, everyone could already hear the roars of beasts.

As they drew closer, restless fierce beasts burst forth.

This seemed like some kind of signal, and immediately, like a hornet’s nest being disturbed, all sorts of oddly shaped fierce beasts swarmed over.

Wind Centipedes, Rock Snakes, tiger jackals, mountain spiders…

Even in such a situation, Li Jianqiu still had the leisure to approximately count the numbers, “Not bad, less than a hundred, far from being on a large scale.”

He stepped forward, and his peach branch unsheathed!

Sword light brilliant, Sword Qi vast.

The whole person, amidst a magnificent crimson, plunged into the tide of beasts.

As if with the arrival of spring, peach blossoms bloomed.

The peach blossoms were the color of blood, and what bloomed were souls.

Li Jianqiu, like a red tide, swept through the beast tide.

Jiang Wang and the others didn’t even have the chance to take action, they stood dumbfounded watching the scene unfold.

As the red tide receded, all the roarings and howlings came to a halt.

Only the slender figure of Li Jianqiu stood upright.

One man, one sword, a ground full of beast corpses.

Such a picture, what a grand freehand brushwork!

“Li…

Brother Li,” Huang Azhan said in shock, even forgetting to butter up, “You’re this powerful, why did you need to bring us along?”

Li Jianqiu, with peach branch in hand, gazed toward the waist of the mountain, and amidst these corpses of fierce beasts, suddenly let out a long howl!

The sound shook the high cliffs and echoed through distant mountains.

It was as if all his pent-up frustrations had been released, indescribable exhilaration and boldness surged through him!

After his howl, he sheathed his sword and said, “The person who wrote those characters in the stone, he loved to show off in front of others, boasting about his achievements.

I brought you here to fulfill his wish to be admired by his junior disciples.”

Jiang Wang hesitated, “Was that Brother Wu Shan…

also a disciple from our Fenglin City Dao Institute?”

“Should be about the same cohort as Master Zhu, but his strength was much lesser.

His strength back then was far from being on par with mine now,” Li Jianqiu shook his head, his expression a mix of nostalgia and sorrow.

“Have I told you?

All my team members died.”

Li Jianqiu paused for a moment, then continued, “They died under his leadership.”

He turned to look in the direction of the summit of Upright Brush Peak, or perhaps just to turn his back to Jiang Wang and the others.

His voice echoed in the mountains, “He was very weak.

But when the tide of beasts suddenly erupted and broke through the defenses, he stood before the beast tide.

He said we, people from Fenglin City Dao Institute, couldn’t let the people of Three Mountains City look down on us.”

“All of them stood before the beast tide, and I ran.”

Jiang Wang and the others looked at his back, a silhouette made particularly lonely by the mountain wind.

Suddenly, they understood the significance of the signature he carved, ‘Waster Li Jianqiu.’

These characters, they had probably been etched into his heart for two years, over seven hundred days and nights.

And only after he truly carved these characters into the stone wall and slaughtered all the fierce beasts of Upright Brush Peak, could he finally reconcile with himself.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep