Martial Cultivator

Originally, that Skyglow Armor was something the young martial artist intended to bring personally the next time he met Xie Nandu. When giving a gift, it mattered that it be handed over in person to show sincerity. What was more, it would give him an excuse to travel thousands of miles again to see the girl he loved.

But later, Chen Chao reconsidered. Xie Nandu was in the Northern Frontier, where the situation was extremely dangerous. At any moment, she might run into a great demon, or even a demon lord.

Thinking of this, Chen Chao had the Skyglow Armor sent to the Divine Capital early on. After that, he had Song Lian personally rush to the Northern Frontier to deliver it.

Thus there was the travel-wearied Song Lian, arriving in haste and leaving in haste.

A single piece of treasured armor did not come with many words explaining just how precious it was. But since it warranted a Nepenthe martial artist to personally deliver it, its value naturally spoke for itself.

Liu Banbi narrowed his eyes and examined the golden armor for a moment before taking the initiative to speak. “Junior Sister, let Senior Brother try it?”

Xie Nandu shook her head.

The meaning was very clear. Whether or not the claims were exaggerated did not matter. Since that young martial artist had urgently entrusted someone to send it over, she believed him. There would absolutely be no problem.

Liu Banbi sighed and said, “Junior Sister is devilishly intelligent, yet when it comes to that punk, how is it that you are unwilling to use even a bit of your brain?”

Xie Nandu smiled and said, “He is also very clever, he just does not like to think too much. But if he truly sets his mind to doing something, then I would not need to worry at all. He would naturally do it well.”

This had already been proven long ago, back when he schemed against Daoist Yinli. Not to mention all the schemes he had made over the years in foreign lands. Without some depth of character and some scheming ability, how could any of that have been accomplished?

Liu Banbi thought for a moment and, rarely, said something nice about Chen Chao. “That kid is indeed not bad. Being able to raise his middle finger at the Demon Emperor, ordinary people would not dare.”

Xie Nandu smiled and said, “He suffered a huge loss at the Demon Emperor’s hands, and he suffered it in front of the girl he likes. Given his temperament, he has long since held a grudge. Just wait. When it comes to killing the Demon Emperor in the future, no one will be able to compete with him.”

If it were anyone else, Liu Banbi would not necessarily believe they could one day kill the Demon Emperor. But when it came to that young martial artist, he could not help but believe it.

This generation of young people was like wildflowers blooming freely in the mountains and fields, a hundred flowers competing in splendor, each blossoming in its own way. But if one truly had to choose the most beautiful flower, the one that bloomed the most luxuriantly, it would still be Chen Chao.

No one else.

Liu Banbi said, “There really is no second young person in the world right now who is better than him. Junior Sister’s eye for people is indeed good.”

Xie Nandu smiled and did not speak.

Was liking that man proof that her eye for people was good? It seemed that it really was. But compared to his current high position, great authority, and boundless prospects, what Xie Nandu liked even more was that after reaching his present realm and status, that young man would not only send golden armor, but would also send small, worthless little trinkets.

Thinking of this, Xie Nandu softly murmured, “I want to eat.”

Hearing this, Liu Banbi joked, “Junior Sister wants to eat? But if it’s something Senior Brother grills, Junior Sister definitely wouldn’t like it.”

Xie Nandu just smiled and said nothing.

She drew her thoughts back and said in a low voice, “Move out. Continue north.”

As Xie Nandu spoke, the cavalrymen all swung themselves onto their horses and turned northward.

Xie Nandu did the same, lightly pressing her heels to the horse’s flanks and heading north.

This trip into the desolate north, aside from conveniently clearing out many demon race cavalry units that roamed the region, had one most important purpose: to understand the terrain of the desolate north as thoroughly as possible, in preparation for the great battle to come.

It could be said that everything Xie Nandu was doing now was purposeful. There was absolutely nothing she did on a whim.

......

......

The demon race royal city, within the Parasol Palace.

After the start of summer, that parasol tree had grown ever more lush and verdant, pleasing to the eye, like a woman dressed in a green skirt, poised and graceful.

The demon race princess Autumn, who was seated cross-legged beneath the parasol tree, slowly opened her eyes and glanced at the flying sword embedded in the ground before her. On the sword hilt, a fallen leaf still rested.

Her injuries had long since healed. In that battle in the desolate north, she had been seriously wounded, but the most critical issue was the strand of sword qi inside her body that had seized the opportunity to erupt, crashing wildly through her meridians and causing her injuries to worsen with time.

After returning to this Parasol Palace, in the early days she tried various ways to suppress that sword qi, but later discovered that the results were not ideal.

After further consideration, this demon race princess made a bold decision: to reopen a new meridian path within her body and cultivate anew.

She originally possessed two demon hearts. In the past, demonic qi filled her body, and she walked a purely demonic cultivation path. But after that day, she freed up half of her meridians, carving out a clear divide from the demonic qi she had cultivated before, and devoted them entirely to cultivating the sword dao.

From then on, the two paths were sharply separated.

In other words, if Autumn were to be split in two at this moment, one would find that this demon race princess had one half that was a pure sword cultivator, and the other half a demon cultivator.

This was a road no one before her had walked. Of course, that was also because no one before her had possessed two demon hearts as Autumn did.

And for Autumn, carving out this new path came with unique advantages. First, she had two demon hearts, allowing the two systems to operate independently without interfering with one another. Even if something went wrong in cultivating the sword dao, she could cut her losses in time, at worst wasting some time. Second, there was the residual sword qi left within the flying sword now known as Tower-Outside Autumn.

That sword qi had unquestionably been left behind by a Fuyun sword immortal who had surpassed Nepenthe. Its abundance was something no ordinary great sword immortal could compare to. The current Sword Sect’s Sect Master had such capability, but would the only Fuyun sword immortal of the present age really do such a thing?

Impossible.

Moreover, there was another point worth pondering. On that day, the sword immortal who left behind that sword qi had done so with a casual strike, whereas the Sword Sect’s Sect Master would likely have to exert his full strength.

The disparity between them spoke for itself.

Because of the existence of that sword qi, after casually finding a sword manual and beginning sword practice, Autumn encountered very few obstacles.

After all, the fact that Autumn Beyond the Tower had been willing to choose Autumn back when she was not yet a sword cultivator already proved one thing: this demon race princess did, in fact, possess talent in the sword dao, and not a small amount of it.

Now, judging purely by sword dao cultivation, Autumn had already reached the Bitter Sea Realm.

With two more realms to go, she would be able to step into what the world called the sword immortal realm.

This was not something Autumn cared much about. It was only a matter of time. Only reaching the great sword immortal realm at the end of Nepenthe would take a bit more effort.

But it was not some great difficulty either.

For cultivators in the world, when it comes to the path of cultivation, it is obvious that if they have ten parts of strength, they will use all ten. But in the eyes of a very small number of people, cultivation? Is it not as simple as drinking water and eating meals?

So when many cultivators talk about those most outstanding young people in the world today, they can only sigh endlessly. Damn it, comparing people really does make one furious.

Moreover, there was another point that could be stated with certainty. If one day she were able to break through the end of Nepenthe on both the demon cultivator path and the sword cultivator path, she would be stronger than the current Demon Emperor.

There was no doubt about this.

The Demon Emperor was already regarded as the strongest demon race figure of the past thousand years, yet she could become even stronger. It really made... no sense at all.

Autumn raised her head and glanced at the parasol tree, thinking of her mother, though the thought flashed by only briefly. She quickly withdrew her gaze. Now everything was on the right track. She believed that the next time she encountered that young martial artist, she would not lose.

But as for whether she could win, that was harder to say. It was obvious that the young martial artist could not be judged by ordinary standards either. Thinking carefully, in fact, apart from their first encounter, in every subsequent clash, the other side had at least been able to remain undefeated. This matter looked simple, but in reality it was not so simple.

This meant that from their very first meeting, Chen Chao had never fallen behind her, and had even faintly held the upper hand.

Autumn was indeed proud, but there were some things she acknowledged.

This was simply the truth. What was there to say about it?

But so what if she acknowledged it? She did not believe that Chen Chao would always stay ahead of her.

The Great Dao was long. Sooner or later, someone would kill Chen Chao. When that time came, she would hang that person’s head on this parasol tree and observe it day and night.

That thought, too, flashed by in an instant. Autumn looked toward the gates of the Parasol Palace, where a figure clad in emperor robes had already appeared.

The tall Demon Emperor arrived there, glanced at Autumn, and said with approval, “Your injuries are fully healed, and your cultivation has improved somewhat. Not bad.”

Autumn said softly, “Thank you for your praise, Royal Father.”

There were some things she had never told this royal father of hers. One of them was her current dual-cultivation method.

So to this day, the Demon Emperor still did not know that she had already opened up a new path. He only thought that she had resolved her previous problems.

As for the reason why, it was actually hard to explain. Autumn was simply acting on instinct.

The Demon Emperor smiled and said, “That defeat from before, do you still dwell on it?”

Autumn shook her head. Her state of mind was untroubled.

The Demon Emperor said calmly, “If it were before, We would not have deliberately come to remind you of this. But now things are different from before. At his hands, you have already been defeated more than once.”

Autumn nodded.

The Demon Emperor said evenly, “It would be best if there is no next time.”

“The next time I meet him, I will take his head.”

Autumn replied calmly.

The Demon Emperor nodded. After speaking with Autumn for a while about cultivation matters, he soon departed.

The demon race was about to convene a court assembly that might affect the entire history of the demon race. He had only taken the time to come here for a brief visit.

Autumn watched her royal father leave without speaking. She merely reached out, plucked a parasol leaf, placed it in her palm, then with a slight movement of intent, let the sword qi within her body spill out and grind the parasol leaf in her palm to pieces.

Afterward, she watched as the fragments of the parasol leaf fell from her hand to the ground.

“Lil’ Au, you are in quite the mood.”

A voice sounded from outside the Parasol Palace.

Autumn raised her head and looked toward the newcomer. Her lips moved slightly. “Royal Brother.”

The newcomer smiled faintly.

“Why has Royal Brother come here?”

Autumn asked.

“I have something I want to tell you.”

The man glanced at Autumn. “It concerns your consort mother.”