IS Chapter 105

Chapter 105

Ever since the master of Qiong Tong Temple cast those three divinations for Xiangtian Villa, the villa had been closed to guests for a long time.

At this time, the only people who could still enter the mountain gate were a few close friends and relatives of the villa, and the swordsmith was one of them.

As everyone knew, he was a good friend of the young master, Yun Xiangxi. Apart from Yun Xiangxi himself, he was the only one who could casually touch Xiangxi’s sword.

How did they meet? It wasn’t difficult to know. When the number one swordsman in the world wanted to forge his Life-Bound Sword, he would naturally find the number one swordsmith in the world, and the swordsmith would naturally gladly accept, becoming famous throughout the world along with the sword.

As for how he became “friends” with the naturally indifferent Yun Xiangxi, there was no need for much investigation. The number one swordsmith and the number one swordsman in the world, when they met, it seemed natural that they should become friends.

Therefore, the swordsmith naturally cared for and loved the son of his friend. Besides, Yun Xiangzhuo was much more interesting than his father.

The swordsmith picked up the paper on the desk and carefully read it. “There’s already a sword form in the words. Tsk tsk, Xiao Zhuo, how are you so amazing.”

He praised him very earnestly, but Yun Xiangzhuo was an unperturbed little thing and didn’t react.

“Xiangzhuo.” Yun Xiangxi stepped out from the pavilion.

Yun Xiangzhuo got up. He took the paper from the swordsmith’s hand and gathered it together with other papers full of writing, a neat stack. He gave it to Yun Xiangxi. Yun Xiangxi looked through them one by one before putting them away.

At this time, Yun Xiangzhuo stood quietly beside him, they were under the same tree.

“I’ve brought everything you wanted.” The swordsmith said to Yun Xiangxi, “If you want to forge a sword for Xiao Zhuo, I can forge it and send it over. You insist on forging it yourself, I think you want to steal my job.”

“I understand him better.” Yun Xiangxi was concise, leaving the swordsmith speechless. He snorted and threw everything to Yun Xiangxi.

Yun Xiangxi accepted it and took out a jade box. Inside the jade box was a slender and exquisite white small sword.

“Hold this.” Yun Xiangxi said to Yun Xiangzhuo.

Li Yuan looked at it. So, what Yun Xiangxi had been carving just now was this small sword, about a foot long. The cold, icy white color was exactly the same as Xiangxi’s sword, seemingly from the same source. Sensing its aura, it was still a semi-finished product, a newly formed sword blank. To make a sword for a sword cultivator, it still needed to be forged together with many auxiliary materials.

Yun Xiangzhuo took the small sword and gently made a sword flourish. Such a length was just right for him to use now.

Yun Xiangxi flicked his sleeves and half-knelt down on one knee. He held Yun Xiangzhuo’s hand, teaching him how to adjust his grip on the sword, and asked how heavy it felt when he held the sword.

The swordsmith stood aside with his arms crossed, watching with envy. Indeed, Yun Xiangxi understood Yun Xiangzhuo better than him. This was a child he had personally raised. He, this friend, never entrusted anything related to Xiao Zhuo to others.

Now, even the sword was the same.

This was naturally not a Life-Bound Sword. Life-Bound Swords had to be forged after one grew up. The sword used temporarily when learning the sword would be discarded when it could no longer be used.

The newly entered disciples of Xiangtian Villa used heavy wooden swords, and when they got older, they used fine iron swords. If they broke, they would be replaced. They were all produced in a uniform style by the villa’s sword-making workshop. Sword cultivators had to break a few swords when they first started.

How could it be like Yun Xiangxi, who was forging a practice sword for Xiao Zhuo according to the standards of a Life-Bound Sword?

The main material was the extremely cold ice veins left over from forging Xiangxi’s sword back then, and he also wanted the auxiliary materials to be the same. Even the length and weight had to be the most suitable.

At this time, Yun Xiangxi had already watched Yun Xiangzhuo use a few stances. The sword shape still needed to be adjusted, and it would be changed together when forging the sword.

He hung the sword on Yun Xiangzhuo’s waist.

The child was still small, only a little bit tall. He had to kneel on one knee to do these things so that he could almost look at Yun Xiangzhuo at eye level.

Yun Xiangxi didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. His movements were unhurried.

“Heavy?”

“Not heavy.” Yun Xiangzhuo said.

The swordsmith quietly watched this scene. He smiled slightly, not knowing what he was smiling at.

Perhaps he was thinking that if outsiders saw such a Yun Xiangxi, they would probably think they were dreaming.

Having tried everything that needed to be tried, Yun Xiangxi already knew how to forge this sword. He put away the sword blank and took Yun Xiangzhuo to a place very close to the tree trunk, comparing his height.

At a place four fingers higher than Yun Xiangzhuo’s current height, Yun Xiangxi carved a mark with his sword energy.

“What are you doing?” The swordsmith asked.

“Next year, he’ll be four years old, growing to here.” Yun Xiangxi said, “The sword he uses will also be a little longer.”

As he said that, he carved another mark at a higher place. So, this would be when he was five years old.

Yun Xiangxi was a perfectionist.

Therefore, Yun Xiangzhuo would have a perfect sword for every year of his life.

There was a slight daze on the swordsmith’s face. He watched Yun Xiangxi carve twelve marks on the tree trunk in sequence. This was Yun Xiangzhuo’s next twelve years. After twelve years, Xiao Zhuo would be fifteen years old.

At fifteen years old, he could pick up a real sword, and his sword path would have already taken shape.

The swordsmith looked at Yun Xiangzhuo, wondering what he would look like when he was fifteen, and then looked at the last mark.

“Don’t tell me,” the swordsmith said, “you want to forge twelve swords for Xiao Zhuo, until he’s fifteen.”

Yun Xiangxi nodded: “When he’s fifteen, he should forge his Life-Bound Sword.”

“…”

The swordsmith didn’t say anything, but Yun Xiangzhuo understood their conversation. His father was going to forge twelve swords for him, each made of the same materials as Xiangxi’s sword.

He thought about it, raised his hand, and grabbed the corner of Yun Xiangxi’s clothes.

Yun Xiangxi looked down at him.

He saw Xiangzhuo looking up at him, looking into his eyes.

“Thank you.” Yun Xiangzhuo thought for a while and said, “Father.”

It seemed that no one had taught him these human etiquette. Perhaps he had heard it in other places in the villa. He would learn whatever he heard.

Yun Xiangxi didn’t say anything, he reached out and brushed the snowflakes from Yun Xiangzhuo’s hair. Sparse new snow began to fall from the sky.

“Then I should forge the Life-Bound Sword, right?” The swordsmith said.

The more he looked at him, the more adorable he found him. He picked up Yun Xiangzhuo: “Xiao Zhuo, come find me to play when you grow up, I’ll forge the best Life-Bound Sword for you. I heard that there will be meteor crystals descending in the next two years, and all the sects are preparing to seize the treasure. Xiao Zhuo, I’ll find a way to get it for you to use as the main material for your Life-Bound Sword, how about it?”

Yun Xiangzhuo looked at him, his delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed, and finally, he reached out and pushed the swordsmith’s face away.

“Put me down.” He said.

“I won’t.” The swordsmith said.

The desolate courtyard finally seemed to have some vitality. Yun Xiangzhuo wanted to go down, but the swordsmith wouldn’t let him go, and Yun Xiangxi stood quietly under the tree, with twelve sword marks on the trunk beside him.

Li Yuan watched them from a distance. Perhaps Yun Xiangxi was a good father. At least, for now.

Li Yuan suddenly felt a sense of confusion rising in his heart, not knowing where it came from or where it was going. If it could always be like this, it would seem to be a peaceful and tranquil life without days or months in the mountains.

The swordsmith finally put Yun Xiangzhuo down, because he and Yun Xiangxi were going to the sword-making room to light the furnace and forge the sword.

Before leaving, Yun Xiangxi placed a few books on Yun Xiangzhuo’s desk. “Finish reading these.” Yun Xiangxi said.

After that, Yun Xiangzhuo was the only one in the courtyard again.

No, not one. Li Yuan firmly believed that there were two people now.

Yun Xiangzhuo quietly read, and he just sat beside him.

The snow gradually fell heavier. Raising his head, the world was a scene of jade fragments and flying snow.

What did it mean to Yun Xiangzhuo when it snowed? Would he feel the wind and snow were cold, or would he think the wind and snow were beautiful?

“Is it cold?” Li Yuan asked him. Regardless of whether Yun Xiangzhuo could hear him, he just wanted to ask.

But Yun Xiangzhuo seemed to have heard his words. He saw Yun Xiangzhuo raise his head in his direction, and the child reached out, as if to touch his face.

Li Yuan looked at him: “Ye Zhuo?”

Yun Xiangzhuo didn’t speak, just looked quietly in his direction.

His fingers stopped very close in front of Li Yuan, it turned out he was going to touch a snowflake that flew between them.

The snowflake landed on his fingertip, melting into a crystal clear drop of water.

Li Yuan smiled and also reached out his finger, touching his fingertip. He seemed to feel the touch of the cool water drop as well.

And the warmth of his finger.

A small child, so soft.

Li Yuan had never had contact with anything smaller than himself. In the Dragon Clan, he was the youngest.

He had seen cubs, small Jiaos, and there were a few newly hatched little turtles in the Abyss Sea Palace, but he disdained playing with things smaller than himself. His golden dragon elder brother had already been beaten by him to the point of hiding in the Cloud Sky Pavilion and not coming out.

But if it was this one—if it was Yun Xiangzhuo, if it was Ye Zhuo at such a young age. Li Yuan felt that he could play with him forever. Not learning sword manuals, not reading books, he would take him to the three thousand worlds, traveling the blue sea in the morning and Misty Green Peak in the evening.

Li Yuan reached out, he also wanted to brush away the thin snow from Yun Xiangzhuo’s hair, wanting to tidy up his fluffy collar. He leaned down, pretending that he could hold him, he felt that he could feel that faint warmth.

If only this wasn’t a heart demon illusion. Li Yuan thought.

He lowered his head wanting to get closer, but he touched a piece of mist.

Raising his head, he saw the desk, the sword manual, and the twelve marks on the tree had all turned into nothingness. A little coolness on his fingertip called back his consciousness. He saw Yun Xiangxi putting the forged sword in Yun Xiangzhuo’s hand, and Yun Xiangzhuo grasped the sword hilt.

There were two words engraved on the sword, Xiangzhuo.

And the illusion changed at this moment. Li Yuan seemed to no longer be watching from the sidelines. The wind and snow howled past his side, and he seemed to feel the coolness of the sword blade in his hand. He seemed to be able to understand a little of Yun Xiangzhuo’s state of mind and feelings.

Yun Xiangxi leaned down, and the frosty and snowy aura on his body instantly got closer. He grasped Yun Xiangzhuo’s hand from behind, and he swung the sword like this, one sword after another.

Point, stab, chop, cut, lift, pierce, intercept, slash, twist, pick.

He learned one hundred and eight stances, connected into three thousand six hundred moves.

What was Yun Xiangzhuo’s world like? Li Yuan wondered.

In Yun Xiangzhuo’s world, there was only Yun Xiangxi, and in the world that Yun Xiangxi gave him, there was only the sword.