Check out my new translation!
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Li Sushang's mother, Suyi, had never seen the Taixu Sword Deity before, so she naturally couldn't judge Li Sushang's sword aura level at a single glance.
But there was one thing she knew with absolute clarity, and that was that clans folk who had only mastered the Fourth Realm [Soul Resonance] could never release sword aura on such a massive scale.
Let alone doing it as effortlessly as Li Sushang had—even if three [Soul Resonance] experts used their personal blades, working together, squeezing out every last drop of strength, they still wouldn't even come close!
Yet her daughter had done it with nothing more than a casual flick of her finger?
Suyi felt her head spinning. Was the one dreaming actually herself?
Had she simply been yearning too desperately for her daughter to soar high, and thus dreamed of it at night?
While Li Sushang wasn't paying attention, she secretly pinched her own arm.
Sss~~
That sharp pain—there was no mistaking it. Everything before her eyes was real!
"Scatter!"
Seeing that her demonstration was about enough, Li Sushang gave a crisp shout. The sword aura in the sky immediately dispersed, vanishing without a trace, as though it had never existed.
There was no doubt about it now! To control sword aura to such a degree—this had to be the Taixu Sword Deity.
Suyi's eyes grew ever more firm.
All usage of Path-power followed the same principle: once the bowstring was drawn, the arrow could not be taken back.
Once power had condensed to a certain point, how could it simply disappear? And how could a lethal attack filled with killing intent suddenly fall silent and peacefully return to the body?
That was why, when most experts reached this state, they had no choice but to fling their attacks into an uninhabited area to avoid hurting others.
Only the absolute peak—those at the very summit—could knead and mold their Path-power however they pleased, shifting its form at will.
And the Taixu Sword Deity just so happened to be in that tier!
An overwhelming wave of joy crashed through Suyi's mind.
But her first urge was not to laugh—it was to cry.
A pursuit spanning nearly a thousand years for the clan, a lifelong oath of her own heart… all of it, without warning, had become reality in a single instant.
Countless memories flashed through Suyi's mind. From the very first day she taught Li Sushang the sword, she had vowed to pour every resource she could command into her daughter. What she could not obtain, she would fight tooth and nail to acquire.
No matter the cost, she would restore the Taixu Sword-Qi to its former glory!
She had prepared herself mentally: perhaps Li Sushang would stop at the fourth resonance, perhaps she might barely brush the fifth one day, but such progress would take untold years—years Suyi might never live to witness.
But she had never imagined that in barely a little over twenty years, Li Sushang would achieve something she herself might not accomplish even in a lifetime!
From form to soul to divinity—three full realms—in just a few months?
This was beyond genius. This was monstrous.
But no matter what she was, she was Suyi's daughter—her closest blood.
"Heheh, Mother, you believe me now, right?"
Li Sushang was extremely pleased with her performance.
At this level of sword aura, aside from herself, only the long-fallen heroes of the Xianzhou might have been capable of such feats.
Even today's Xianzhou—its generals included—could not reach this level of swordsmanship!
"Is that so? That sword aura just now, you were the one who released it?"
Suyi spoke with doubt on her face. She glanced around and added, "You didn't hire someone to help you put on a two-person act to fool your mother, did you?"
"Mother!"
Seeing that her mother still didn't believe her, Li Sushang stomped her foot in frustration.
What two-person act? Did she look like she had the brains for that—no, wait—did she look like that kind of person at all?
She had only wanted to show off in front of her mother! Why was it so difficult?!
"Hahaha."
Seeing her daughter genuinely hopping mad over one sentence, Suyi laughed so hard her shoulders trembled, the clear sound ringing like jade tapping against silver bells.
"Mother?"
Hearing the laughter, Li Sushang looked up in confusion.
In her memories, her mother had always been the stern type. She had never once seen her laugh so freely, so joyously—almost like a young maiden in her springtime.
Suyi laughed with delight, laughed wholeheartedly. The feeling of relief and release filled her entire being, to the point she almost felt the same age as her daughter.
After laughing, she spoke in the same gentle voice she used to sing lullabies to Li Sushang when she was small: "Sushang, Mother believes you. Mother believes you truly did it. You are Mother's proudest treasure—even if you never mastered the Taixu Sword Deity, you always would be."
"Mother."
Hearing those words, Li Sushang's nose suddenly prickled with heat. Any desire to show off vanished completely.
She understood her mother's struggles and hopes. The discord between her parents had always been a thorn in her heart—and it was also why she had never resisted her mother's strict training.
But now, with her martial arts perfected, all those past shadows would finally fade away.
She wanted to leap into her mother's arms like she did when she was a child—cry or laugh—it didn't matter. She wanted to release everything.
But the woman before her was only a projected image. Doing so would be meaningless.
"All right, all right, you're a big girl now. Don't let others call you a crybaby."
Suyi instinctively raised her hand to pat Li Sushang's head, but stopped midway.
She could only use her soft gaze to comfort her instead.
Not wanting her daughter to fall back into sadness, she suddenly remembered something Li Sushang had said earlier. "Sushang, didn't you mention something about a sixth? What was that about?"
"Ah? That? It's just…"
Li Sushang proceeded to explain everything about obtaining the golden Curio from the trash can shop.
Suyi's almond eyes widened, and her scalp tingled.
"A conceptual attack that always hits, and sword-might that severs the soul?"
She hadn't expected an offhand attempt to change the subject to reveal something this astonishing.
Understanding the legendary fifth resonance alone was enough to rival an Emanator. If Li Sushang could deduce a sixth resonance that surpassed the entire system… what kind of spectacle would that be?!
Suyi didn't even dare imagine it. She feared a single stray thought would become disrespect toward the greatness of the Reignbow Arbiter.
But worry rose in her heart again.
Her daughter had made it clear—she had reached the sixth resonance, but to actually build a complete system, she would have to summarize and formalize it herself.
Yet with her daughter's… book-burning, scholar-disposing level of academics…
Could she even recognize all the characters in the sword manuals for the first five resonances?
Suyi had no confidence in that.
If she couldn't even read, how was she supposed to deduce the sixth resonance—and write it into a sword scripture? Wouldn't that be nothing but a fleeting illusion? An impossible dream?
If such a heaven-sent opportunity flashed only for this one generation and then faded forever, wouldn't that be far too wasteful? Their ancestors would be furious enough to come back to life!
She hesitated and asked, "Sushang, do you think you can truly do it?"
"Of course!"
Li Sushang replied without hesitation.
Having convinced herself that she had deduced the laws of trash cans, her confidence in her own intellect now surpassed even her confidence in her swordsmanship.
Suyi looked at her doubtfully. "Then repeat after Mother: ten is ten, four is four. Do not say fourteen when you mean forty, and do not say forty when you mean fourteen."
"That's easy!" Li Sushang's little mouth fired like a machine gun as she rattled off the tongue-twister: "Ten is four, four four ten, don't turn four four into four four, and don't turn try try into truth truth."
It was over.
Suyi covered her face with her hand, utterly unable to watch.
It all crumbled. Aside from the word "don't," not a single character was correct.
And she wanted to deduce the unknown peak of swordsmanship? She should go repeat kindergarten first.
Thinking that such a heaven-sent opportunity was about to slip right through their fingers, Suyi sighed deeply. "If only that little shop had a Curio that could increase intelligence…"
"Eh? It actually does!"
Li Sushang took out a crystalline stone glowing with a faint blue light and said excitedly, "Mother, let me tell you—this stone is incredible. It can enlighten living beings and awaken wisdom. I was planning to use it on the Xuanyuan Sword. Once it develops a sword spirit, its power will definitely grow tremendously!"
"Awaken wisdom?"
Hearing this, hope surged within Suyi once more. "Sushang, listen to Mother. Do not waste the stone on the Xuanyuan Sword. Good steel belongs on the blade's edge. Something this precious should naturally be used where its effect is greatest."
Afraid her daughter wouldn't understand, she said directly, "You're not like others. Using the stone on yourself would be far more valuable than anything else."
"Hm."
Li Sushang, as always obedient to her mother's teachings, nodded instinctively.
"Hm?"
But then she suddenly froze.
Using it on her… would be more effective than using it on the Xuanyuan Sword?