老汉色aⅴ

What was going on?

Had that guy just challenged the Legendary Swordsman, Ye Chang Feng?

Had he lost his mind?

All eyes turned to Xu Que and focused on him with amused disbelief, as if he was the biggest fool in the world.

Ye Chang Feng, the Legendary Swordsman of the Jade Sword Sect, was renowned throughout the Metal Nation. Someone would have to be living under a rock to not know him—he was quite simply the ultimate idol of the youth!

All young men dreamed of one day becoming as powerful as he was. In fact, some of them were willing to bash their heads against a wall if it meant getting accepted into the Jade Sword Sect—all because of Ye Chang Feng!

Yet now someone had appeared out of the blue, saying he wanted to challenge Ye Chang Feng?

Excuse me, brother, but are you insane?

How long do you think you’ll last against someone like Ye Chang Feng?

......

Everyone stared unblinkingly at Xu Que.

Even Zhang Li Yun was stunned. He hadn’t expected Xu Que to make this kind of demand.

A duel with Ye Chang Feng?

These people from Exploding Heavens Faction sure were extremely arrogant. First it was Ye Liang Chen, and now this... Takumi Fujiwara person. Did these bastards think that Chang Feng could really be that easy to bully?

"My friend, it’s..." Zhang Li Yun hesitated. Although he was slightly angry by that point, he was still forcing himself to stay as polite and gracious to Xu Que as possible.

He was afraid that one careless move might trigger this bastard in front of him to blow everything out of proportion.

"What’s the matter? Is he too much of a chicken to come out and face me? Don’t try to lie to me and say he’s not here! I’ve investigated the matter and I know he’s here today. Earlier on that day—"

"Calm down, my friend," interrupted Zhang Li Yun, his heart almost jumping out of his chest. "Listen to me. Yes, it’s true, Chang Feng really is here."

Zhang Li Yun almost burst out in tears as he stared helplessly at Xu Que. Goddamn it, couldn’t this bastard just keep his mouth shut? If he hadn’t paid close attention to what Xu Que was saying, he was sure that he was about to spill out everything!

Meanwhile, Xu Que was deliberately teasing Zhang Li Yun. He knew full well that these people from Jade Sword Sect were most afraid of exposing the ’incident’. That was why he was acting oblivious and extra arrogant today!

"Don’t be nervous, my friend!" said Xu Que, smiling as he patted Zhang Li Yun’s shoulders. "I know what you mean, but everyone’s out here to see something exciting, aren’t we? We go big or we go home, am I right?"

Zhang Li Yun was so angry that he wouldn’t be surprised if smoke suddenly came out of his ears. All that talk about going big or going home was just that, talk—he knew that Xu Que was teasing him on purpose.

"Well?" said Xu Que. "Since Ye Chang Feng really is here, then let him come out. I’m challenging him to a duel and we’ll decide once and for all who is the better swordsman—him or me. Whoever wins will be proclaimed the next Legendary Swordsman!" Xu Que was bursting with confidence as he uttered these words.

At that moment, everyone there almost snorted at Xu Que’s hubris.

What an utter imbecile!

This bastard had appeared out of nowhere and done nothing but brag from the moment he had first opened his mouth. And now he wanted to become the next Legendary Swordsman?

It was time for the Jade Sword Sect to teach this amateur a harsh lesson!

However, the situation once again took a turn that was beyond everyone’s expectations.

The burning rage had simmered down in Zhang Li Yun, and he could now speak with perfect civility.

"My friend Fujiwara," he said, "Chang Feng has entered the swordsmanship contest and passed the first round. He went in with the other talented swordsmen who passed the round as well, so there is no way we can get him back out here. Would you mind waiting for him for a while?"

"You want me to wait for him? Are you kidding me? No one has ever dared to let a member of the Exploding Heavens Faction wait for anyone else! Are you Jade Sword Sect people trying to rebel against the authority?" Xu Que sneered haughtily before falling silent for a while. "Hmph, you’re lucky though," he then continued. "Because I’m in a really good mood today. Had it been our brother Liang Chen, he would surely have blown all of you swordsmen up into smithereens!"

The crowd paid no heed to Xu Que’s threats, because they had never heard of this weird Exploding Heavenly Gang or whatever they called themselves. They took it for granted that Xu Que was bragging again.

But Zhang Li Yun knew better though. He almost jumped in shock at the mention of the name Liang Chen. He felt like his heart was about to beat out of his chest.

"My honorable friend Fujiwara," he answered immediately, "but there is nothing we can do!"

"Bullshit!" said Xu Que with his eyebrows raised. "Didn’t you say he’s in the swordsmanship contest? Good! I’ll go inside and find him there!" Xu Que then swiftly rushed towards the entrance.

Everyone’s expressions once again transformed in an instant. Zhang Li Yun was stunned, though he then smiled slyly as he turned to Xu Que.

"My friend Fujiwara," he said, "you haven’t received the approval from the Sword Spirit yet. You will not be able to enter the Sword Mound."

"The approval from the Sword Spirit?" asked Xu Que, voice full of suspicion.

As soon as he uttered those words, the crowds looked at him in a disapproving expression.

"Young man, don’t you know what kind of place the Sword Mound is? How dare you challenge the Legendary Swordsman, Ye Chang Feng! It’s time someone put you in your place!"

"That’s right! I guess you don’t even have the qualifications to enter the Sword Mound! It’s a sacred place which can only be entered by those who have been approved by the Sword Spirit and hold ancient swords, so don’t even dream about it, boy!"

"And the Sword Spirit will only approve a limited amount of people, only a hundred ancient sword holders per century! Right now there are already 90 swordsmen who have entered the Sword Mound, so there are only 10 places left!"

"Yeah, so don’t even think about going in there if you don’t get chosen for a place in the Sword Mound!"

......

Even though everyone was busy hurling insults at him, Xu Que only calmly listened to them.

Once everyone settled down, he turned back towards Zhang Li Yun, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing standing there?" he said. "Didn’t you hear what they said? Hurry up and get me a place inside the Sword Mound!"

Zhang Li Yun’s jaw dropped to the ground.

The crowd’s eyes opened wide as saucers.

What was going on? Why was he demanding a place from the Jade Sword Sect now? Since when had anyone ever made such a promise? And in any case, why would the Jade Sword Sect do such a thing for an imbecile like him?

But once again, the crowd was surprised by Zhang Li Yun. The conflicting emotions on his face right now were infinitely fascinating—he looked wrathful yet helpless, staring daggers with eyes that could have killed a dozen men, yet he was also trying with all his might to maintain a polite smile.

No ordinary man could have worn such a peculiar expression on their face!

"But my friend Fujiwara," he managed to say. "There is only one place left for us in Jade Sword Sect, so you..."

"Ah, great! So you do have a place left!" said Xu Que with a big smile. "I was just testing you, but who would have thought that you would be so kind as to relinquish the last place to me! Great! Since you insist upon it, then I’ll humbly accept this place. This way, I won’t have to waste my time fighting others for their place!"

In that instant, Xu Que had become the embodiment of ’thick-skinned shamelessness’.

Only then did the people in the crowd realize how thick the human skin can be. What Xu Que had just demonstrated would have put the infamous sly fox Duan Jiu De to shame!

At that point, all Zhang Li Yun could do was relent and blame his own big mouth. Why had he mentioned that there was one last place left? Why couldn’t he have just lied and said the places had all been filled up and there was nothing they could do, so deepest apologies and goodbye? Damn it all to hell!

After a moment of silence, Zhang Li Yun gritted his teeth and said in a defeated tone, "alright, my friend Fujiwara, then... why don’t you go ahead and go through the test? There’s a cave over there with many restriction signs in front of it. There will be innumerable ancient swords inside the cave, and all you need to do is stand outside and summon an ancient sword. If there is one that is fated to belong to you, the ancient sword will fly towards you by itself. Then you just have to to hold that sword and enter the Sword Mound."

"It’s that simple?" asked Xu Que, his eyes blinking in disbelief.

"Yes..." answered Zhang Li Yun, although he was sneering inside.

Simple, huh? Ha, so you think that the Sword Spirit will recognize just about anybody, you idiot? Even the venerable Lao Zi had failed to get the approval of the Sword Spirit, so what hope could you have of succeeding? Let’s just see how humiliated you’ll get when you stand there waiting like a fool!

Even the people in the crowd were shaking their heads. In their view, Xu Que was obviously an ignorant and airheaded young man who thought too highly of himself, even though he was nothing but an amateur.

This type of person was unlikely to ever be able to cultivate proper swordsmanship, let alone be recognized by the Sword Spirit!

Xu Que was oblivious to these people’s small view on him. He walked confidently in the direction of the sacred cave. Had it not been because he wanted to save his Acting Tough points, he would have just used a trick to break his way into the entrance of the Sword Mound.

However, he saw this moment as an opportunity to act tough and earn more points, so naturally he was going to just go along with this method.

To his surprise, though, Xu Que was met with an astonishing sight as he approached the cave entrance.

The interior of the cave was simply immense! He couldn’t see where the cave ended as he looked into it—it was all a vast expanse of twilight shrouded in a dark mysterious fog. What a breath-taking place this was!

And there inside the cave, masses of swords densely covered the cave floor. The sight was so eerie that it sent a shiver down Xu Que’s spine. These swords had obviously been there for a very long time—in fact, Xu Que thought it possible that they’d been there for up to a thousand years!

With this many ancient swords abandoned in the cave, some people might have mistaken this place for the actual Sword Mound, when in fact this was just a little test for those who would be entering the real Sword Mound!

If a simple testing cave was this terrifying, how much worse would the real Sword Mound be?

In that instance, Xu Que suddenly felt excited and curious about the place called the Sword Mound. He couldn’t wait to enter such a mystifying place!