Chapter Sixty-Three: Green Mountains May Not Belong to the Mundane World, Generations of Martial Champions Aid in Performing the Five Beasts

Outside the prefecture of Lin’an.

The Sixth Mountain.

Halfway up the mountain, a tranquil pavilion shrouded in curling mists.

A spring breeze drifted by, bringing with it the lingering chill of the mountains.

Two figures sat across from each other in the pavilion, their wide sleeves billowing as they played a game of Go. Beside the master of the Sixth Mountain rested his enormous pinewood sword case, while his opponent, who placed his pieces with calm deliberation, was none other than the legendary top scholar, Li You’an.

Back and forth the two of them went, black and white stones falling onto the board.

Suddenly, both sensed something amiss; their hands froze mid-move.

The Master of the Sixth Mountain glanced at his pinewood sword case. From within, the swords’ energies clashed and rang, eager to break free, as if celebrating. Li You’an, meanwhile, raised his hand, conjuring a sword of light from a thousand flickering lanterns.

“Did you sense it too? The sword energy from that bamboo blade,” said the mountain master.

Li You’an tapped his finger, dispersing the sword of light, and smiled. “It’s the energy of the Green Mountain Sword, erupting in tandem with the blood aura of the Martial Command Stone. There’s always been a fateful bond between sword and stone,” he said. “Fortune finds the young as well.”

The master placed a palm firmly on the sword case, and at once the clamor within subsided.

He nodded slightly. “Never having captured Green Mountain in my case is the regret of my life.”

Li You’an laughed gently. “Your sword case holds three thousand blades, said to gather all the dust of the mortal world. Green Mountain may not belong to the mortal world—why regret?”

The mountain master cast him a cool look. “My longing for Green Mountain is as a hungry man’s desire for a feast.”

The mysteries contained in the Green Mountain bamboo sword were a fatal temptation to any swordsman.

Li You’an only smiled and returned to the game.

Zhao Huangting had wielded Green Mountain for five hundred years, yet never fathomed all its secrets. How long had the boy held that sword, and already its energy overflowed of its own accord? How could they hope to win its favor over him?

If the sword reveals its beauty for the boy, then that is fate.

In the mountain pavilion, the master of the Sixth Mountain also smiled coolly and let the matter rest, dropping a stone onto the board.

The mountain fog thickened, and the rising sword energy gradually faded away.

…

A strange red stone, tightly bound in a web of chains, hung suspended between two cliffs. The blood aura it exuded swirled and spread like a dense mountain mist.

Throughout heaven and earth, sharp sword energy still surged, answering the blood force erupting from the stone.

By now, An Le’s mind was clear. Unaware, he had drawn within ten meters of the Martial Command Stone. The massive stone loomed, and in the swirling crimson mist, vague figures took shape—some burly, some domineering, some exuding heroic vigor. Each presence thundered with overwhelming force, threatening to unseat the mind.

These shadowy forms were avatars of past Martial Champions, their will forged into the stone with their blood. Though many had fallen to the passage of years, their spirits lingered within the Martial Command Stone.

An Le kept his mind tightly locked within the sword furnace at his brow, not daring to let his spirit stray.

Around him, the avatars floated in a circle, their voices raised in fierce debate—at times correcting, at times instructing.

Meanwhile, the strange stone cast his reflection, revealing him practicing the Five Beasts Form. Yet, as he moved, the practice diverged ever further from the Five Beasts Body-Tempering Technique he knew.

It was as if, under the guidance of those shadowy blood-formed avatars, his technique underwent a complete transformation.

First, the Tiger Form—his movements conjured visions of something more than a mortal beast, but rather, a primordial, celestial fiend; a tiger of legend whose roar shook the heavens and brought stars tumbling from the sky.

Then the Bear Form: as his blood surged, visions appeared of an ancient demon bear, standing unshakable as mountains trembled, thunder splitting around it without moving a hair.

The Deer, Ape, and Bird Forms too ceased to resemble mere beasts of the mundane world.

The deer became an ancient demon stag, swift as cloud and lightning, vanishing from the eye in a flash.

The ape transformed into a primordial demon monkey, its movements leaving endless phantasmal echoes, leaping mountains and rivers with ease.

The bird evolved into an ancient celestial crane, soaring upward like an unsheathed divine sword, its radiance cold enough to chill nineteen provinces, able to cleave the very sun and moon from the sky!

Grand, heroic, magnificent, and overwhelming!

An Le was left reeling by what he saw.

Could these still be called the Five Beasts?

The Five Beasts Body-Tempering Technique was founded on the observation of mundane creatures, seeking the essence of their movement.

But now, under the guidance of the Martial Command Stone’s avatars, the forms had become modeled on ancient monsters—could it still be called the Five Beasts?

He found this hard to accept—how could mortals have ever witnessed such creatures as the primordial demon tiger, the fiendish bear, the demon stag, the demon monkey, or the celestial crane?

Yet remembering the demon-refining jade at his waist, and the existence of monsters in this world, he found it plausible after all.

Perhaps these ancestral champions, whose will filled the Martial Command Stone, had truly seen such monsters, or even battled them, allowing them to pass on such knowledge and reshape the body-tempering arts.

An Le even saw the shadowy avatars break into violent argument, nearly coming to blows.

He exhaled slowly and returned his gaze to the Martial Command Stone, following the “self” reflected in its surface as he practiced the new Five Beasts.

Upon the chains, the youth trained tirelessly, running through the Five Beasts Body-Tempering Technique again and again, his body—freshly baptized by the energies of the Green Mountain Sword and the Martial Command Stone—roaring with surging blood, echoing the tumult of the river below.

Once, twice, thrice…

With the Dao Fruit of [Talent of the Ages] strengthened by twenty threads of time’s energy, An Le entered an unprecedentedly wondrous state as he trained, gradually incorporating the new Five Beasts as guided by the avatars, merging the spirit of demon-beasts into the form itself.

In every movement, the ferocity and might of ancient monsters flickered into being.

Blood mist drifted from the Martial Command Stone, coiling gradually around An Le, as if each phrase of scripture were being engraved upon his flesh.

…

Sword energy receded; the blood aura stilled around the Martial Command Stone.

But the earlier disturbance had not gone unnoticed. Powerful cultivators from Lin’an sent their spirit forms drifting on the spring wind to investigate.

Yet from within the Martial Temple, surges of blood energy rose like true dragons, as figures strode step by step into the air, shining as brilliant as the sun.

They were the temple’s body-tempering champions; their aura was so fierce that the spirits of Lin’an’s other cultivators dared not approach, forced back by its scorching intensity.

“The Martial Temple is sacred ground. Withdraw!”

A cold voice thundered out from the temple’s jade towers, shaking the heavens.

Many spiritual forms felt the pressure and had no choice but to retreat, hovering outside the Martial Temple, not daring to come closer.

The speaker was one of the two living Martial Champions who presided over the temple.

Throughout the generations, the Martial Champions had their ranks, but none were weak.

In particular, the spiritual forms from the Academy, long used to facing off with the Martial Temple, now felt the glare of two eyes like blazing suns from within the towers, their gaze burning at their very souls.

As soul-refining experts of the Academy, they had contended with the Martial Temple for countless years. Now, with such a great anomaly within the temple, they could not help but want to take a look.

But barred by the living Martial Champions, they dared not trespass, hanging in the air beyond the temple, curiosity gnawing at their hearts.

On the cliff’s edge, the crowd watched in silence. Ye Wenxi’s eyes sparkled; Ye Chong and Zhong Shunchao, among the temple’s mighty warriors, were itching with curiosity, wondering what An Le had done to provoke such a phenomenon from the Martial Command Stone.

“Though the blood mist obscures the view, it’s clear that Young Lord An has stepped within a hundred meters of the Martial Command Stone…” Zhong Shunchao exhaled, loosening his grip on the iron bow slung across his back.

“A pity. Through the thick blood mist, one can just make out that Young Lord An is practicing the Five Beasts—he’s refining his own martial arts, using the Martial Command Stone to aid him. It seems he has not received the Tongkui Martial Canon.”

The Tongkui Martial Canon—by its name, it would allow one to break directly into the realm of the Martial Champion. Of course, even so, success still depended on the individual.

Ye Chong’s eyes also held some regret. “Still, with such rich blood energy from the stone to temper his martial path, it’s an opportunity impossible to seek.”

“That sword energy that triggered the Martial Command Stone’s eruption—perhaps it came from that Mo Pond Sword containing the Lesser Sage’s Command, which in turn awakened the spirit of the stone?” Ye Chong ventured.

Zhong Shunchao agreed; he’d thought the same.

Ye Wenxi, however, merely smiled, saying nothing.

Was it really the Lesser Sage’s Command?

She doubted it. Her eyes shimmered as she gazed with interest at the green-robed youth practicing within the swirling mist.

Suddenly, a mighty aura appeared at the cliff’s edge, a figure landing with a force that made the entire escarpment tremble.

“Chief Di.”

Ye Chong and Zhong Shunchao straightened at once, fists clasped in salute.

Ye Wenxi, Lin Chuifeng, and the others also bowed respectfully.

“No need for ceremony. The Martial Command Stone stirred, and I felt compelled to come. The souls of those old Academy fellows have all been barred from the temple; once you leave, speak nothing of what you saw.”

The newcomer wore armor, his frame massive, muscles like coiled dragons, his face marked with tattoos that added a savage air. The restrained power within him was as dazzling as the noonday sun suspended in the sky.

“Yes, sir,” the group answered in chorus.

The Martial Champion surveyed the scene, his gaze piercing the blood mist to see the avatars of past Champions circling, and the green-robed youth lost in the Five Beasts.

He had little interest in the boy’s martial arts, glancing almost idly—until he did a double take.

These Five Beasts…what on earth?

…

Chains trembled, force wrung from marrow and bone, blood surging beneath the skin.

An Le’s body shone, scripture seeming to inscribe itself upon him, each phrase flowing and shifting with his blood.

Empowered by the [Talent of the Ages], An Le practiced the new Five Beasts with rapt abandon.

Suddenly, as if an ancient bell tolled.

At last, An Le completed a full round of the revised Five Beasts Body-Tempering Technique. In his mind, the scripture formed itself in an instant.

At the same time, a window appeared before his eyes; in the skill list, the Five Beasts Body-Tempering Technique was replaced by a new scripture, derived through the guidance of the Martial Champions—The Ancient Demon Five Beasts Canon.