Chương 173: I am Wu Kangming - Disciple Of The Sword Saint

Wu Kangming was by the stream in a meditation pose with his plain sword laid across his knees, but his mind was nowhere near peaceful despite how calm he looked from the outside.

The mist was curling around him in patterns that only he could read and interpret, each tendril of it was an extension of his spiritual sense that he was using to monitor everything happening in his surroundings without having to visibly move, which was a skill that his master had drilled into him over and over again until it became second nature.

"Two of them," his master's voice came through in his thoughts.

"Their spiritual signatures are wrong. Like paintings of people rather than people." Wu Kangming kept his meditation pose intact even though internally he was already working through everything his master was telling him.

"Wrong in what way, Master?"

"Their souls have been bound and then reconstructed," the ancient sword spirit answered him.

"I've encountered this before though it was a long time ago, thousands of years at least. Someone out there is collecting souls and then placing them into artificial bodies that they've made." That was disturbing information to receive. Wu Kangming had heard stories before about powerful cultivators who were capable of capturing souls, but binding captured souls to new bodies was something that went beyond what you could call cultivation techniques and into territory that was darker than that.

"The woman is setting up some technique that uses toxins as its base," his master kept going.

"The man is more interesting, his sword dao has something to it, it's incomplete but the potential is there, he's trying to embody nothingness but he doesn't understand what nothingness is at a fundamental level."

"Should I go ahead and engage them?" Wu Kangming asked.

"There's no need to rush into it, let them make the first move because that will tell us more about what they're here to do than anything else will. Besides this is good practice for you. Show me how you handle multiple opponents who are both using unusual techniques." Wu Kangming suppressed the urge to sigh because of course his master would find a way to turn what was an ambush into a training exercise, that was how the old sword spirit operated.

He couldn't argue with the results though because the methods had proven themselves to be effective even when they seemed unnecessarily dramatic. He felt the woman's technique activate, it was some kind of black flower that released waves of poisonous spores into the surrounding air, and at that same moment the man came bursting out of cover with impressive speed and his sword was aimed at a point on Wu Kangming's body that would have paralyzed the majority of cultivators who encountered it.

Wu Kangming didn't move his body because he didn't have to. His sword lifted itself off of his lap and moved through the air in a pattern that his master had drilled into him so many times that it had become pure reflex at this point. The black spores stopped existing wherever his sword passed through the air, and the man's strike met nothing but empty space as Wu Kangming's body shifted slightly to one side in a movement so small that it was barely visible to anyone watching.

"That was good," his master said approvingly.

"You're starting to grasp the concept of minimal motion. Your sword work could still use some refinement though, the third stroke was off by half a degree." Wu Kangming had to stop himself from sighing out loud at that. Half a degree. He knew better than to argue about it though because arguing with his master on technical points like this never went anywhere productive, so instead he opened his eyes and looked at the two people who had tried to ambush him.

"Interesting," he said out loud.

"You two aren't who I was expecting to show up here. Your spiritual signatures are off somehow, hollow I guess is the word for it." He paused for a moment, thinking back to what his master had told him.

"Though I suppose that makes sense considering what you both are." The man, who was tall and had features that might have been called proud if his eyes hadn't been so hollow looking, took a step back from Wu Kangming.

"Our master sent us to bring you in. Come with us willingly and this doesn't have to turn violent."

"Bring me in?" Wu Kangming raised an eyebrow at that.

"That's an interesting way to phrase it. And what happens if I say no to this collection?"

"Then we take you by force," The woman, who had pale skin and eyes that occasionally flashed red when the light hit them said, her voice dripping with pleasure as she spun her dagger around.

"Though honestly, I'm hoping you fight back. It's much more fun for me." Wu Kangming looked back and forth between the two of them, frowning slightly.

"I'll give you both one chance to go back to your master. Alive. I don't know what level of control he has over you two, but I have my own path I'm walking. I'm not interested in being anybody's collection piece."

"We don't get a say in this, not anymore," the man let out a hollow laugh.

"Our souls already belong to him." His sword shifted into the opening stance for the Hollow Sword Dao.

"And pretty soon, yours will too."

"We'll see about that," Wu Kangming replied.

"You're awfully confident for someone who's outnumbered two against one," the woman laughed.

"I am Wu Kangming," he said simply.

"Now then," his master's voice had taken on that edge of excitement that Wu Kangming had learned over the years was a sign he should be at least a little bit wary of.

"Show them why." Wu Kangming moved and his sword blurred forward in a thrust that was designed to look deceptively simple from the outside, which was the first iteration of Thread Cutting, and as his master had spent months making clear to him, true sword arts weren't about being complicated, they were about being efficient.

The man barely got out of the way in time and his sleeve parted with a quiet sound as the spiritual pathways inside it were severed clean through, and his eyes went wide because he clearly recognized what had almost happened to him just now.

"Thread Cutting," Wu Kangming said quietly.

"First iteration."

"Better performance than before," his master commented.

"You're still telegraphing the technique slightly though, you need to remember that by the time they can see the blade moving toward them, it should be too late for them to do anything about it." The woman didn't bother with any more talking.

Her black flower shattered into dozens of smaller blooms that spread out through the air around them and filled it with a combination of poisonous pollen and razor sharp petals all at once, which was an impressive technique when Wu Kangming thought about it and showed both skill and a certain kind of creativity in how she was applying her cultivation method. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"It's unfortunate that she's bound to this collector of theirs," his master said in a tone that sounded a bit regretful.

"That's quite an interesting way to apply demonic cultivation, look at how she's layered the different effects on top of each other, the petals are designed to push you into positions where the pollen clouds are waiting for you." Wu Kangming's sword moved through a complex pattern in response to all of it.

"How are you—" the woman started saying and then had to throw herself sideways as the sword changed direction halfway through a swing and nearly took her head clean off.

"Thread Cutting, second iteration," Wu Kangming explained to her as the petals and the pollen stopped existing around him.

"The first cuts physical connections. The second severs the bond between spiritual energy and its manifestations."

"Stop being theatrical about it," his master told him.

"Though I'll admit some explanation of techniques during a fight is traditional I suppose... Pay attention to your left side, the man is attempting something." He was right, a blade had appeared out of nowhere aimed at Wu Kangming's spine. Without turning his body around or giving any visible indication that he had sensed the attack coming, he split his sword into three identical copies of itself, which was a technique that had taken him several months of frustrating practice to learn.

Two of the copies kept up the pressure on the woman while the third one moved to intercept the surprise attack, and when the blades met the resulting clash sent shockwaves through the clearing that uprooted several of the smaller trees and created visible ripples in the stream nearby.

"Sword Spirit Manifestation," Wu Kangming said, and he watched the man's eyes go wide when he heard the name of the technique.

"My teacher says your Hollow Sword Dao has potential but that it's incomplete, you're trying to embody nothingness without understanding what nothingness is."

"Now you're being condescending," his master said and he did sound a bit amused by it.

"Focus on what's in front of you, they're about to change their approach." And they did, the woman called out "Switch!" and they traded positions in a smooth practiced motion. The woman took the opening that the position switch created and went into what was her most powerful technique, her hands were moving through a series of seals as she pulled out three more black seeds from somewhere.

"Bloom of the Hundred Poisons!" The seeds exploded into a dense growth of vegetation that had no business existing in nature, thorny vines whipping through the air in every direction and flowers that shouldn't have been able to grow anywhere were spraying clouds of toxins in colors that didn't correspond to anything Wu Kangming had seen before.

"I'll give credit where it's due," his master said.

"Though the technique has a fundamental flaw built into it. Can you identify what it is?" Wu Kangming watched the technique while defending against it at the same time.

"The energy pattern holding it together is unstable. She's forcing effects to coexist that shouldn't be able to coexist, and she's doing it through sheer force rather than through refinement of the technique."

"That's correct. Though keep in mind that unstable techniques can be the most dangerous kind because you can't always predict what they'll do." The man was pressing his own attack at the same time, and his Hollow Sword was streaming with void energy as he came at Wu Kangming from multiple angles in a series of strikes that each came from a different direction and forced him to split his attention between two different threat types simultaneously.

"Interesting combination," Wu Kangming said as his swords were working through increasingly complicated patterns to keep up with both of them.

"The void energy disrupts spatial relationships while the demonic plants attack through multiple vectors at the same time. Against most opponents this would be checkmate."

"My disciple, this would be an excellent moment to test your Domain." Wu Kangming's silver eyes took on a gleam as he started gathering his power together.

"Unfortunately for you, my teacher specializes in dealing with this type of situation. Sword Spirit Art: Absolute Territory!" The air in every direction seemed to crystallize all at once and everything within a ten meter radius of Wu Kangming became sharp as if reality itself within that area had been transformed into something with infinitely many cutting edges.

It was one of his master's signature techniques and Wu Kangming knew he could only manage something that was a pale shadow of what his master could do with it, but it was still more than enough. The woman's demonic plants wilted and fell apart and got cut into pieces so small that they ceased to exist in any meaningful sense.

"Fall back!" the man shouted at his companion because he clearly understood what was happening and how dangerous it was. But the woman was too slow to respond to the warning. One of Wu Kangming's sword copies caught her in the shoulder and passed through her flesh with an ease that was disturbing to witness, and she stumbled backward with black substance spraying from the wound.

"First blood," Wu Kangming said, watching the strange black substance that seemed to serve the same function as blood in their artificial bodies.

"Though I suppose that's not blood is it, more like the essence your Master used to construct your vessels." The man's voice was sharp when he called over to his companion.

"We need to end this now. Go all out, hold nothing back!" They both came at him at the same time after that, the woman throwing her entire remaining arsenal of demonic techniques at him all at once while the man pushed his Hollow Sword Dao to what was its limit right now. The void energy around the man's blade intensified until it was eating away at the physical reality around it and creating patches of nothingness that even Wu Kangming's domain was having some difficulty dealing with.

"They're not bad at what they do," his master said and there was something that might have been respect in his voice.

"In a different life they might have become formidable cultivators in their own right. But the way they are now... Show them what separates a true sword dao from what they're doing. Show them the difference." Wu Kangming smiled.

"Thank you for this fight, my teacher says I've learned enough now so let me show you what a sword path looks like. Sword Spirit Art: Azure Edge!" His blade blurred forward and left a trail of blue light behind it that seemed to be cutting through the concept of distance itself rather than just through the physical space between him and his targets. One moment he was still on the defensive and then the next moment everything changed.

A line of severance passed through everything that was in its path without making any distinction between what it cut through. The woman didn't have any time to react. The Azure Edge reached her while she was still mid-technique, it passed through every defense she had as though they were not there, and her body came apart and dissolved into small motes of black energy that faded out of existence.

"Her soul is going back to their master," his master said.

"Their existence is a pitiful thing when you think about it." Wu Kangming felt regret about it because these two hadn't chosen any of this for themselves, they had been bound and twisted into something they were never supposed to be by someone else's choices and that was a sad thing.

"I am sorry about your companion," he said to the man who was still standing, and he meant every word of it.

"But you left me no choice. Will you retreat now? I would prefer not to destroy another soul today." The man's face went through several different expressions in a short period of time and Wu Kangming could see grief in there and resignation and also something that might have been a strange kind of appreciation for being spoken to.

"I can't leave," he said.

"The contract compels me to keep going until I either capture you or am destroyed in the attempt, free will isn't something the Masked One allows his servants to have." Wu Kangming nodded because he understood obligation and the weight of being bound to something better than most people would expect him to.

"Then let us end this, I promise to make it clean." The man gathered everything he had left into one final charge, his blade blazing with void energy as he came forward, for a brief stretch of time their swords met in a series of exchanges that was impressive on the man's part, every strike aimed at a vital point and every defense calculated to create a counter opportunity in the same motion.

"He does have potential in him," his master said and he sounded regretful about it.

"In another life he might have found his way to understanding what void truly means. But as things are right now..." The Azure Edge came forward one more time and the man's body started to come apart. As the light in his eyes started fading out, Wu Kangming caught something in his expression in that last moment, and it wasn't fear of death that he saw there, it was terror of something else, something that the dying man's eyes couldn't name.

As his opponent's artificial form dissolved into black motes, Wu Kangming was left standing alone in the clearing that had been devastated by the fight, or at least he thought he was alone.