Rebirth of The Strongest Swordsman

Chapter 7

Elder Guanyan stopped her broom, her nose twitching as she sensed the silver Divine Sword Qi vibrating along Lin Feng's spinal column.

Elder Guanyan raised her sightless eyes toward Lin Feng's face. "A servant carrying a thirty-five-pound iron sword, wielding a long-lost divine technique. Three hundred years ago, I felt that exact cold aura atop Heavenly Sword Peak. Who are you, brat?"

Lin Feng stopped ten feet from Elder Guanyan, his right hand resting firmly on the linen-wrapped hilt of the thirty-five-pound black iron sword while cold mountain fog rolled through the stone archway behind him.

Elder Guanyan tapped the wooden handle of her bamboo broom twice against the flagstones, her sightless white eyes turning directly toward Lin Feng's position.

"A servant does not possess refined silver Sword Qi inside his spine, nor does an unranked mortal carry thirty-five pounds of black iron without Dantian strain. Liu Tianba, placed your name on the death match roster to execute you on the central stage in three days."

Lin Feng stepped past her onto the stone threshold, keeping his tone flat and even. "Liu Tianba lacks the physical capability to execute me, so I came for the geographical records of the Fallen Sword Valley."

Elder Guanyan turned her withered frame forty-five degrees to the right, stepping aside to reveal the cavernous doorway of the Scripture Pavilion. "The central archive on the second floor contains the historical maps, but do not touch the restricted scrolls on the third floor."

Lin Feng crossed the stone threshold into the main hall of the Scripture Pavilion, where tall wooden shelves housed over two thousand bamboo scrolls and leather manuals. Heavy cedar scent filled the quiet air, blended with the damp odor of aged parchment and drying ink.

An outer disciple named Qiu Mo stood near the stairwell leading to the upper archives, holding a blue record ledger in his left hand while blue Qi vibrated through his lower meridian. As a practitioner at the Second Layer of the Sword Meridian Realm, Qiu Mo guarded entry to the restricted texts.

Qiu Mo stepped onto the bottom wooden step, blocking the stairwell with his heavy leather boot while locking his eyes onto Lin Feng's frayed cotton tunic.

"Unranked servants are restricted to the entrance lobby, so turn around before I break your legs! You disabled Shadow Corporal Meng on the mountain trail, but you stand inside my jurisdiction now!"

Lin Feng continued his forward stride without slowing his pace. "Move off the stairs!"

Qiu Mo sneered, channeling his blue internal Qi into his right forearm while his knuckle joints popped. He lunged down the step, driving a straight right punch toward Lin Feng's chest at a movement velocity of six feet per second.

Lin Feng calculated the trajectory instantly, tracking the alignment of Qiu Mo's shoulder joint and the forward tilt of his upper torso. When the fist reached within three inches of his chest, Lin Feng shifted his weight onto his left heel and pivoted his torso three inches to the right, allowing the fist to pass harmlessly through empty air over his shoulder.

Before Qiu Mo could retract his extended arm, Lin Feng drove his left thumb directly into the brachial plexus nerve cluster located beneath Qiu Mo's right armpit while grabbing Qiu Mo's wrist with his right hand.

THWACK!

Qiu Mo screamed as forty pounds of physical pressure collapsed his nerve cluster. His blue Qi flow halted instantly, leaving his right arm completely limp as Lin Feng twisted the wrist joint downward by forty-five degrees.

BANG!

The sharp physical leverage slammed Qiu Mo's face flat against the hard oak step, shattering his nose bone upon impact and spilling red blood across the wooden floorboards.

Lin Feng released the limp wrist, stepping past the bleeding disciple without hesitation.

"I warned you to move."

Qiu Mo clutched his bleeding face, weeping in physical agony as he scrambled backward up the stairs on his hands and knees. Three outer disciples studying near the adjacent bookshelves froze in terror, staring at Lin Feng in shock as he stepped over the fresh bloodstains without looking down.

Lin Feng walked up the wooden stairs to the second floor, navigating the narrow aisles until he reached the geographical archive shelf. He pulled a dusty bamboo scroll titled Topography of the Fallen Sword Valley from the third rack and unrolled the parchment across a wooden reading table.

His dark eyes scanned the detailed structural map, registering the geographical coordinates and geological depth. The diagram revealed an ancient sealing array located eighty feet beneath the central canyon of the valley, housing an ancient sword intent core at the center of the subterranean chamber.

'The ancient sword intent fragment from my previous life remains intact below the subterranean rock layer,' Lin Feng calculated mentally, rolling the scroll closed. 'Supervisor Hu Lang and Liu Tianba wish to seize the valley to extract that energy for the Canglan Sect.'

Lin Feng returned the scroll to its rack and sat cross-legged on the wooden floorboards near an open window shutter. He pulled the small jade bottle from his tunic pocket, unstoppered the cap, and swallowed the second Blood-Refining Pill.

The moment the pill dissolved in his stomach, a surge of thermal energy exploded through his internal digestive tract. Lin Feng immediately activated the internal incantation of the Nirvana Sword Sutra, forcing the thermal energy straight into his spinal marrow to shatter the remaining barrier.

The third spinal node collapsed entirely under the internal thermal pressure.

Silver Divine Sword Qi erupted along his third vertebra, flowing through his central spinal column and filling his physical frame with three hundred pounds of kinetic output force. His physical vitality expanded rapidly, solidifying his cultivation at the Third Layer of the Sword Meridian Realm.

Three days passed in continuous meditation within the quiet archives.

The morning sun rose over the central peaks of the Qingyun Sect, casting bright light across the stone pavers of the Central Main Square in Zone 2.

A massive crowd of eight hundred servants, outer disciples, and inner elders surrounded the high stone platform, their excited chatter creating a heavy acoustic roar across the grounds.

Elder Liu Tianba stood on the stage wearing his purple administrator robes, his broad face filled with arrogant confidence. Beside him stood Supervisor Hu Lang from the Canglan Sword Sect, resting his right hand on his golden sword hilt while surveying the crowd.

In front of the stage stood three elite Outer Disciples selected by the Canglan Sect. Each disciple held a refined steel weapon, their bodies radiating dense Third Layer Sword Meridian Qi that kept the surrounding crowd at a distance of twenty feet.

CLANG!

The heavy iron bell chimed three times from the high tower, signaling the official start of the death match.

Elder Liu Tianba stepped to the edge of the stage, channeling his internal Qi to amplify his voice across the square. "The three-day deadline has arrived, so step onto the death stage or accept immediate execution for cowardice!"

The crowd of eight hundred parted instantly as heavy, rhythmic footsteps echoed against the stone pavers.

Lin Feng stepped into the central aisle, carrying the thirty-five-pound black iron sword across his right shoulder while silver Divine Sword Qi vibrated sharply along his three unlocked spinal nodes. "I am here."