Chapter 139: A Hundred Rivers Startled 

“Wonderful! We’re all alive!” An Nu let out a shaky sigh of relief. Twin ghost-fires flickered in his hollow sockets, trembling like tear drops. “It all happened in the blink of an eye, yet I could swear I’d been trapped in it for years. Brother Jiang, Brother Luo—come down now!”

Jiang Zhuo said, “Brother Luo, you heard him. Let me down.”

But Luo Xu’s arms didn’t loosen. His voice was muffled, tight. “The curse hasn’t fully dissipated. Even if you call to heaven, no one will answer.”

“Heaven’s not mine to call,” Jiang Zhuo replied lightly, slipping his fingers free and letting Luo Xu’s black hair run through them. His tone was soft and wicked, meant only for the two of them. “This world—only you answer to me. Therefore—”

He stopped there. The unfinished whisper coiled like a whip, lashing straight into Luo Xu’s chest before wrapping tight around his heart.

Therefore—

I only… call… to you.

Those amber eyes didn’t blink, holding Luo Xu in their gaze. His hand let go, but the chain binding them only drew tighter. A soul vow, a binding of hearts: no escape, no regrets. Face-to-face, heart-to-heart—they could never flee from each other’s grasp again.

“Should’ve sent you to West Xikui Mountain,” Luo Xu muttered, tearing the Blood Shackle Curse as if it were paper. “Every disciple of Posuo Sect is rotten to the core.”

When the two of them landed, Jiang Zhuo turned to An Nu. “Everyone’s back to normal. Why are you still shaking?”

An Nu held up a splintered leg bone as proof. “This leg shattered from fright, and a few ribs too. Of course I’m wobbling. Don’t worry, they’ll grow back soon enough.”

Master Lianxin had no time for their bickering. She rushed to the pool’s edge. “Look—the Shan Hu Sword is trembling violently. It must have sensed Li Xiangling’s spirit weakening again.”

Within the pool, Li Xiangling and Tian Nanxing sat cross-legged, a sword across each lap. Shan Hu’s rebellious aura was already leaking out, on the verge of bursting free from its scabbard.

An Nu cried, “No good—our Xiao Shimei looks pale!”

Master Lianxin’s voice was grim. “She’s anchoring the sword for Li Xiangling, pouring her spirit into it. The fiercer Shan Hu grows, the greater her peril.”

“Can’t they stop?” An Nu asked. “The dogs of the Tianming Division are still outside—we don’t know when they’ll break through.”

“Any other weapon, maybe. But not the Shan Hu.” Jiang Zhuo’s folding fan twirled in his hand, its tip pointing toward the blade. “Once it followed Li Jingdao, feared neither god nor spirit. After he slew the Great Fish by mistake, Ming, lord of the Ming clan, laid the Moon God’s blessing upon it. With that power, it could not only slay deities, but also command heavenly thunder. The inscription carved into its body is no empty boast. Among all weapons in the world, only this one truly deserves the title ‘First Under Heaven.’”

An Nu grew anxious. “But I heard from the High Priestess that divine blessings aren’t so hard to obtain. Why is this one so ferocious?”

“Because this blessing is no ordinary boon.” Luo Xu’s gaze lingered on the sword. For a heartbeat, it stilled, but soon its violent tremors returned. “This one was originally enshrined in the temple of Peidu’s Divine Palace.”

When Cui Ruiquan entered the capital, he dared to strike the sovereign within the temple precisely because he knew the Moon God's blessing there was a counterfeit. The genuine one had long been bestowed by Ming Han upon Li Jingdao. Later, when the Three Mountains entered the capital and confronted the sovereign in the Hall of Divine Manifestations, their words confirmed this very fact.

After Luo Xu ascended godhood, becoming Tai Qing, he heard of a sect in Central Plains called the Leigu Sect. Its leader not only wielded the Shan Hu Sword but also worshipped the Hui Mang. Luo Xu surmised that this sect leader was the “Gatekeeper” he had encountered twice before.

This Gatekeeper was Li Sanshan, originally the son of the Lord’s mother. After her death, the Lord concealed him within the palace, sustaining him with provisions from Chancellor Hua. Under the Sovereign's tutelage, he attained spiritual enlightenment and mastered thunder-commanding incantations. Upon reaching adulthood, he was released from the palace. After leaving the palace, he remained grateful for the Lord’s kindness and did not venture far from Peidu. Instead, he joined a nearby minor sect.

Though termed a minor sect, it housed no disciples beyond a lame, blind old man. By day, the old man sat at the lane entrance begging; by night, he taught Li Sanshan swordsmanship. Though blind, his hearing was acute. Li Sanshan's poor aptitude meant the slightest error drew the old man's furious curses and beatings.

When the old man had drunk, he would call himself Li Jingdao, boasting of his youthful dominance across the Six Prefectures, where he had known no equal. He claimed to have suffered only three defeats in his life. The first came beneath Beilu Mountain, where he lost to Jiang Sigu, then leader of the Posuo Sect. The second occurred in the Boundless Heavenly Sea, where he was bested by the Tianhai Imperial Consort. Because both these defeats had come at the hands of women, he later avoided women entirely during his travels through the Six Prefectures.

"Others mock me for fearing women, yet they know not that I once held them in utter contempt. The path to divine enlightenment is perilous indeed. To awaken their spiritual potential, women all emulate Empress Ming Yao, training their soft, beautiful hands until they grow coarse and ugly. Go observe those women outside—all of them behave wantonly and immorally. I find it utterly intolerable. A woman ought to look the part. If she cannot be virtuous and domestic, washing clothes and cooking meals, then surely she should at least groom herself, be docile and obedient?

But alas! Others were not wrong! I've grown truly afraid of women! Ever since I was born on Beilu Mountain, I've been surrounded by them. If just one had been resolute, that might have been bearable. But they were all like that—asking about the Way as if their lives depended on it, drawing their swords to decide life and death! After my first defeat, I refused to concede. After my second, I still refused. Do you know how many times we fought? Thirty-six times in total! Had she mocked me or sneered, I could have held a grudge. But she never laughed at me. Not only that, she offered to explain her sword techniques to me. I was outmatched in the way of the sword, and in character, too. I lost with complete conviction!

As for that Tianhai Imperial Consort, she was never any great shakes to begin with—merely a fisherwoman supporting the Heavenly Sea. Think about it: what could a mere fisherwoman possibly achieve, were it not for marrying the Tianhai Imperial Lord? Her place was at home, dutifully tending to her husband and children. Yet there I was, drunk and reckless in the sea, wielding my skill to slaughter indiscriminately. That sentient great fish perished unjustly, claiming three lives in one death. Had the Consort not subdued my cultivation with Yin-Yang Coins, striking me seven or eight times across the face to rouse me, who knows what colossal blunder I might have committed."

Li Jingdao harboured deep remorse over the great fish's wrongful death, bringing it up whenever he drank. Yet strangely, he remained utterly silent about his third defeat, never mentioning it.

Over the years, Li Sanshan's cultivation improved slightly, while Li Jingdao's health deteriorated to the point of terminal illness. On his deathbed, the old man handed the Shan Hu Sword to Li Sanshan, imparting only one piece of advice.

‘Should you encounter any bearing the Ming surname in this lifetime, never draw this sword.’

Li Sanshan understood implicitly, assuming his master, like himself, had received imperial favour from the Ming dynasty. After burying his master, he felt the world held no place for him and returned to Peidu, becoming a gatekeeper for the sovereign.

Several years later, when Sanshan entered the capital, Luo Xu abducted the sovereign. Left alone to defend Peidu, he fought numerous battles against the various sects. Ultimately, he was no match for the Incense God Wenle, summoned by the Shaman Sect, and was captured and imprisoned. Soon after, the sea breached its banks. He and the other sects worked to contain the flood, leading to the reemergence of the Leigu Sect in the martial world.

Luo Xu’s voice fell to a hush as his eyes settled on the figure in the pool. “When Shiyi first became sect master, she entrusted an abandoned infant to Li Sanshan. She named her Xiangling—hoping she would be as boundless as the heavens, commanding as the elements themselves. You know the rest. That child grew to shake the world, raising the Leigu Sect from ashes into renown.”

His words struck like steel.

“A sword to startle a hundred rivers— The first under heaven.”

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