The Sword Saint's true name was Pei Hanzheng.
"Manghan is the color of righteous chill, upright and unyielding."
Just from his name alone, one would assume he was an aloof man obsessed with the Dao of the sword, an ascetic swordsman devoid of sentiment.
But reality told a different story.
Behind the title of "Sword Saint" lay a saga: a youth who avenged his master with sword in hand, eradicating an entire clan; a young man who, fleeing from bounty hunters, took refuge in a Demonic Sect, only to be betrayed and framed as a righteous path spy, enraged, he obliterated the entire sect; a grown man who, seeking inner peace, hid his identity and enlisted in the military, and in the Northern Frontier, slew 300,000 Night Barbarians, pushing the frontlines a thousand li forward; and a man in middle age who comprehended the Dao and entered the Shore of the Great Dao, retreating into seclusion to attain sainthood on Void Chamber Mountain.
From this grand tale, widely passed down over many generations, it was easy to see that Pei Hanzheng did not possess a mild temperament. On the contrary, he was violent, easily provoked, and steeped in killing intent.
What's more, he possessed little in the way of moral clarity. Had there not been a "good person" within the Demonic Sect back then, the title by which the world knew him today might not have been "Sword Saint," but rather "Demonic Lord."
Thus, when Chen Kuang realized this man before him had not yet passed, his heart instantly tightened.
One couldn't blame him.
If Pei Hanzheng truly wished to prevent anyone from approaching, all he had to do was fully release his Domain of the Dao, and Chen Kuang would've been forced to stop at the foot of the mountain and respectfully announce his purpose.
But Pei Hanzheng had done no such thing.
On the contrary, he had even deliberately restrained his Dao Domain. The outer layers of Void Chamber Mountain contained only wisps of leaking pressure.
That was why Chen Kuang had mistakenly assumed Pei Hanzheng had already passed into death.
He had assumed the aura lingering on the mountain was merely residual power from the Sword Saint's remains...
Of course, the key point was that, according to every surviving record, the Sword Saint should indeed be sitting in final meditation right around this time.
But whatever shock Chen Kuang had initially felt was quickly eclipsed by something much more unsettling.
Because Pei Hanzheng had correctly identified the cultivation technique he practiced!
This moment in time was two thousand three hundred years ago. Pei Hanzheng could not possibly have known Huo Hengxuan, and thus could not have known what technique Huo Hengxuan specialized in.
And Chen Kuang didn't believe that the Sword Saint possessed mind-reading abilities that let him determine someone's cultivation technique at a glance.
That left only one possibility,
The "Song of Weed-Cutting" had some connection to Pei Hanzheng!
That did make sense...
After all, Huo Hengxuan had never told him where the "Song of Weed-Cutting" came from.
Chen Kuang mused: compared to Pei Hanzheng, Huo Hengxuan was just a minor figure, an insignificant junior. If Huo Hengxuan had somehow stumbled upon Pei Hanzheng's inheritance...
...that would be entirely plausible.
And if that were the case, then Pei Hanzheng's notoriously volatile and bloodthirsty temperament might also be explained.
Because the "Song of Weed-Cutting" was a technique that nourished qi through killing!
In that moment, a clarity swept through Chen Kuang's mind.
Perhaps... Huo Hengxuan joining the military hadn't just been because of his betrayal and expulsion from Garan Temple. Perhaps he, too, had been imitating Pei Hanzheng, finding a path to cultivate the "Song of Weed-Cutting" through the crucible of war.
However, if the "Song of Weed-Cutting" had been created by Pei Hanzheng himself, then Pei discovering a complete stranger using it would naturally lead to only one conclusion:
It had been stolen.
Given this man's lifelong disdain for rules and his slaughter-heavy ways, he would not be kind about it...
So there remained only one other possibility:
That the "Song of Weed-Cutting" was not created by Pei Hanzheng.
As Chen Kuang processed all this, his Blood Premonition remained silent, no danger was sensed, so he raised his head, looked directly at Pei Hanzheng, and cautiously responded:
"That's right... but I've only practiced one chapter of it."
What he had received from Huo Hengxuan was the Wither and Bloom Chapter of the "Song of Weed-Cutting".
Even just by the name, it was clear the technique was incomplete.
Pei Hanzheng nodded and asked:
"Which chapter have you practiced?"
He intended to offer guidance!
Chen Kuang's heart jolted. He cupped his fists and respectfully replied:
"Wither and Bloom Chapter."
To receive even a single sentence of instruction from a man who had attained Sainthood through Sword Dao, for someone at Chen Kuang's current level, that would be of immeasurable benefit.
Pei Hanzheng's expression froze for a moment.
Then, suddenly, he shook off the snow covering him and stood up sharply.
"'Wither and Bloom Chapter'?"
Chen Kuang blinked, unsure of the reaction, and nodded.
"Yes, Wither and Bloom Chapter."
He paused, then recited:
"To kill is to cut the grass; withering and blooming in a single breath... A living sword must taste death; to slay others is to slay myself."
This was the Sword of Nourished Qi, and Chen Kuang had already cultivated it to the threshold of a bottleneck.
His Killing Sword, which had taken shape within his divine sense by feeding on blood and slaughter, had not undergone a change in quite some time.
Chen Kuang could sense it, this sword now sought a chance to transform.
And simply killing more people... was no longer enough.
To advance further, it needed that sword sheath lying within the River of Time in the Ancient Battlefield of Meditation.
He didn't yet know the precise relationship between the Killing Sword and that sword sheath, but some instinct told him, they may once have been one.
And now, the only way to re-enter the River of Time, was through Pei Hanzheng's other path of the Great Dao.
This sword technique had been passed on freely, if he now wanted guidance, there was no avoiding deeper contact.
Moreover...
Chen Kuang's gaze fell on Pei Hanzheng's now fully-exposed body.
The middle-aged man, having cast off the snow, revealed a body so withered and emaciated it resembled rotting wood, skin clinging tightly to bones, every limb frail and brittle, as if it might snap at any moment.
He was already a lamp with dried oil, a flame at its final flicker, awaiting the very end of his life atop Void Chamber Mountain.
No wonder his attitude had seemed so unusually gentle... It turned out Chen Kuang had not remembered incorrectly; it was just that he might well be the last person the Sword Saint would ever meet while still alive.
Pei Hanzheng's body wavered unsteadily, barely supported by the Tai A Sword in his hand.
He coughed twice, eyes burning as he looked straight at Chen Kuang:
"I thought I would go to my grave never seeing the General Prologue of the "Song of Weed-Cutting"."
Chen Kuang's pupils contracted.
"General Prologue?"
Pei Hanzheng nodded, sighing with emotion:
"The Wither and Bloom Chapter is the General Prologue of the "Song of Weed-Cutting". It governs the subsequent Charred Ink Chapter and Luxuriant Growth Chapter.
"When I first came into contact with this cultivation technique in my youth, no matter how I cultivated it, I could never grasp its essence. Whether it was vital qi or death qi, both merely developed on their own, never forming a proper cycle."
"I knew how profound this cultivation technique was, which made its incompleteness all the more frustrating. I believed the General Prologue had been lost. Never did I expect that... you would come to me at this moment."
Pei Hanzheng laughed:
"Haha... could this be fate?"
Chen Kuang was greatly surprised.
So, Pei Hanzheng had never seen the Wither and Bloom Chapter before, which meant that Huo Hengxuan's chapter did not come from Pei Hanzheng?!
Then where exactly had Huo Hengxuan obtained the Wither and Bloom Chapter?
"Young friend, may I ask you to transmit the Wither and Bloom Chapter to me?"
Pei Hanzheng actually adjusted his robes, leaned tremblingly on his sword, and cupped his hands in a full bow toward Chen Kuang, his eyes shining brilliantly:
"I, Pei Er, am willing to exchange all I have learned in this life for it!"
Chen Kuang hastily replied:
"I wouldn't dare! If Senior wishes to learn it, of course I am willing to share everything I know."
To have the Sword Saint, a legendary figure, bow to him, he truly couldn't accept it.
Chen Kuang moved forward to help support Pei Hanzheng, but the latter suddenly flicked his sleeve with force, his eyes round with stubborn fire:
"I'm not so old that I need someone to help me just to stand! If you're tired, say so, I'll support you!"
Chen Kuang: "..."
This old man was... really quite stubborn!
Since Pei Hanzheng had made his stance clear, Chen Kuang could only follow his lead.
He transmitted the Wither and Bloom Chapter to him. Pei Hanzheng closed his eyes in contemplation and meditated for three days and nights. Chen Kuang had just begun to suspect he might have passed into final meditation when,
The middle-aged man suddenly opened his eyes.
"So that's it! So that's it!"
Pei Hanzheng jumped to his feet, waving his arms and legs with unrestrained excitement, then grabbed his Tai A Sword, and began demonstrating a series of brilliant, exquisite sword techniques.
Snow swirled over Void Chamber Mountain, merging seamlessly with the sword-light, yet not a single flake was harmed.
Each stroke of his sword was the pinnacle of the Way of the Sword.
Chen Kuang, though overwhelmed by the dazzling display, was inwardly shaken to the core.
Pei Hanzheng executed exactly three thousand sword techniques before finally stopping. Staring up into the sky, he murmured:
"I spent three thousand years, wracking my brain to figure out where the Dao lay. And in the end, I discover..."
"There was never a path ahead."
"This world... has no Dao at all! Hahaha, the world is without Dao!"
Pei Hanzheng burst into laughter beneath the swirling snowflakes, his voice echoing across the mountain.
Chen Kuang, worried the man might laugh himself to death, quickly said:
"Senior! Please, teach me the Dao of 'Time'!"
Through the falling snow, Pei Hanzheng looked back in astonishment:
"You are already within it, why ask me for guidance?"
"Wha...?"
Chen Kuang froze, only to suddenly realize he had been engulfed by the wind and snow.
Beneath his feet, the thick white snow was gradually giving way to a rising layer of sticky crimson liquid.
A massive bloody sea rose up, waves surging forward and smashing apart everything in front of him!
Pei Hanzheng, Void Chamber Mountain, all were instantly torn to shreds!
The snowstorm vanished.
With another blink, the entire world had changed. He was still in that Sea of Blood, drifting up and down.
Countless images emerged and dissolved in the waters, turning into bubble-like illusions.
Within one such bubble, a scene flashed by,
Pei Hanzheng, atop Void Chamber Mountain, catching a snowflake between his fingers, then imprinting the "Song of Weed-Cutting" into it before releasing it into the world to fall naturally among the snowfall.
At the final moment of his life, Pei Hanzheng sighed:
"Go now... and find your own fate."
That tiny snowflake drifted through the endless passage of time, becoming wind, becoming rain, becoming dust, becoming morning dew, completely unnoticed.
Eventually, it became an ordinary snowflake again.
Two thousand three hundred years later,
That snowflake, swept along by the coarse, bitter wind, floated gently over a blood-soaked battlefield and landed upon the cracked, parched lips of a young soldier, half-buried beneath corpses.
The snowflake melted into a droplet of water, blending with the taste of blood, and was swallowed down.
That soldier's helmet sat crooked atop his head, revealing a scalp just beginning to grow its first stubble of hair.
He was, a monk.
Chen Kuang's pupils shrank violently.
Through the haze of memory, that soldier's familiar brow and eyes overlapped in his mind with the aged face of Huo Hengxuan.
Huo Hengxuan, had obtained the "Song of Weed-Cutting" like this?!
In other words, the conclusion of this web of karma... was none other than Chen Kuang himself!
"RUMBLE-!!"
Within the Sea of Blood, a sound like the cry of a whale and the roar of thunder erupted. It was as though the entire River of Time had begun to sing with joy.
Chen Kuang's will stirred, his ancient Killing Sword was already in his grasp.
The waves of the Sea of Blood split to either side, while those behind him pushed him forward.
And there, just ahead, a mysterious sword sheath floated mid-air, as if waiting for the return of its master.
Chen Kuang drew in a deep breath, shot forward, and seized the sheath with one hand.
In the other, he held the Killing Sword.
With a single motion, he joined them as one.
"Ka-chak!"
A perfect fit.