We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? Chapter 672: What Does It Mean to Have High Skill in the Sword

The morning after they buried the Village Chief and the others, the third day since Ningxi had pulled Xiao Mo out of the snow.

The sky had only just begun to lighten when Xiao Mo came out of his room.

He found that Elder Sister Ningxi was up before him.

At that moment, Elder Sister Ningxi was at a whetstone, sharpening a long sword.

"Elder Sister, are you a swordswoman?"

Xiao Mo walked over and asked with curiosity.

Hearing his voice, Ningxi turned to look at him, then poured a ladle of cold water onto the whetstone and went back to sharpening, her voice drifting over her shoulder. "Something like that."

Seeing how intently Elder Sister Ningxi was focused, Xiao Mo did not want to disturb her, and waited to one side, watching.

Less than half an incense stick's time later, Ningxi poured another ladle of water over the blade, then drew out a piece of coarse cloth and wiped it clean.

The flat of the sword now carried a faint sheen.

Ningxi looked at the sword she had found in the village and gave a small nod.

Though Ningxi was the Master of the Hall of Reincarnation, her primary weapon had always been a sword. She was genuinely uncomfortable without one close at hand.

She had, in fact, two swords.

One was her companion sword, born alongside her. But the companion sword that had emerged with her from primordial chaos was one that barely any divine spirit in the entire Divine Realm had the standing to see drawn. The weak existences of the mortal world were far beyond that consideration.

Beyond this, the God-Sovereign had issued an edict: the nine great God-Sovereigns were not to freely draw their companion artifacts. To do so would cause a shift in the very appearance of heaven and earth, and might even disturb the fundamental laws of the great Dao.

Because the nine great God-Sovereigns could not draw their companion artifacts, the God-Sovereign had arranged for the divine spirit who commanded the art of forging to fashion new weapons for each of them. Ningxi's second sword had come from that divine spirit's hand.

The weapon the God of Forging had made was genuinely impressive, and it was the one Ningxi used most often. When fighting with it, she did not need to worry about misjudging her strength and accidentally knocking the sky in but even that sword was not suitable to draw here in the mortal world. A single sweep of its sword-qi would leave nothing alive within ten thousand li in every direction.

That morning, while Ningxi was wandering through the village, she had come across a long sword.

It had been left behind by someone, rusted in places, but serviceable enough for present purposes.

"Is Elder Sister's skill with the sword very high?"

When Ningxi had finished sharpening and stood up, Xiao Mo came forward to ask, hoping to get on better terms with her.

He had decided that though Elder Sister Ningxi was somewhat cold and detached, she was in fact a good person.

"In your view, how high does one's skill with the sword need to be before it can be called high?" Ningxi turned her head toward him.

"Well..." Xiao Mo scratched his head.

"I do not know much about it, truthfully. Only what the Village Chief used to tell me. He said that in the world of wandering fighters, those who practice the martial arts are ranked in nine grades. Above the ninth grade is the Grand Master."

"Grand Masters are celebrated heroes renowned throughout their regions. They can found schools and sects of their own. A single sword-stroke can cleave a boulder in two, and with lightness skill they can run across the surface of water and leap between treetops."

"Is that what is called high skill in the sword?" Ningxi looked at him with a puzzled expression, and for once her tone held no mockery, only a kind of genuine curiosity about the mortal world's understanding of the martial arts. "And what is there above a Grand Master?"

"That... I'm not entirely sure." Xiao Mo found himself stuck.

"I suppose there is nothing above a Grand Master? Perhaps the divine spirits? They can travel between heaven and earth freely. I imagine they could split a mountain with a single sword stroke?"

"Split a mountain?" Ningxi gave a mild shake of her head. "That is not high skill in the sword either."

"Then Elder Sister Ningxi, what does it mean to have high skill in the sword?" Xiao Mo asked with genuine curiosity.

Ningxi considered, then raised her head and looked toward the horizon, vast and beyond reckoning.

"To split open the sky with a single stroke." She said it slowly.

"That is what barely qualifies as high skill in the sword."

Xiao Mo had nothing to say for a moment.

He had the distinct feeling that Elder Sister Ningxi was boasting but he did not dare say so.

"Stay here and do not wander. I am going out to hunt. If you run off somewhere and manage to get yourself killed, I will not come looking for you."

Ningxi paid no attention to whatever was going through Xiao Mo's mind, put away the sword, and walked out of the courtyard.

In less than one and a half incense sticks' time, she came back carrying two wild rabbits and a pheasant.

Xiao Mo stepped forward to take the catch from her hands, then helped to skin and pluck them.

Once the animals were prepared, he skewered the rabbits and the pheasant on sticks and set them over the fire to roast.

Over the next day or two, Ningxi continued going out to hunt and coming back with game for Xiao Mo to eat.

After several days of meat, Xiao Mo felt his body had recovered more or less to its normal condition. But he had begun to feel that the current arrangement was not right.

He could not rely on Elder Sister Ningxi to bring home the hunting every single day. What did it matter if he ate his fill for now? In roughly a month's time, winter would be ending. After that, Elder Sister Ningxi would leave.

He needed to find a way to survive on his own after she was gone.

"Elder Sister Ningxi."

One morning, Xiao Mo called out softly toward Ningxi.

"What is it?" Ningxi, who had been about to head out, turned to look at him.

"Elder Sister Ningxi, would it be all right if I came along with you today?" Xiao Mo asked, with a look of quiet pleading in his eyes.

"You want to come?" Ningxi confirmed.

"Mm." Xiao Mo nodded with determination. "I feel a lot stronger now. I have energy again. Elder Sister Ningxi is so skilled at hunting, and I want to learn. Then after the month is up and winter passes and Elder Sister Ningxi leaves, I can hunt for myself. I will not go short of food."

Hearing Xiao Mo's words, Ningxi's slender white fingers moved along the hilt of the sword in her hand.

She had genuinely not thought of this.

In her mind, she was simply helping him through the winter, and then she would leave. What happened to him after that was not her concern.

"Then come up the mountain with me."

Ningxi did not refuse. She walked straight out of the courtyard.

"Thank you, Elder Sister Ningxi."

Xiao Mo's heart lifted, and he hurried after her.

Walking into the mountains, Xiao Mo fully intended to study how Elder Sister Ningxi tracked prey.

What he watched instead was Ningxi walking directly to a particular spot and then simply finding a rabbit sitting there.

Ningxi picked up a stone and threw it at the rabbit with a single, practiced motion.

The rabbit died on the spot, struck squarely on the head.

"That is how it is done. Do you understand? Have you learned it?" Ningxi turned toward the small boy at her side.

Xiao Mo stared at the dead rabbit in speechless disbelief for a long moment.

"Elder Sister Ningxi... is there... something simpler... something I might actually be able to learn?"

Xiao Mo's expression was rather complicated.

There was no way he could do that. If he could do that, would he be worrying about going hungry?

"You cannot even learn this?"

Ningxi's brow furrowed. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"How strange. It really is quite simple."