My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 656 - The Outlaws Compete for the Crown; A Casual Gesture Becomes a Legend - Part 2

Chapter 656 - The Outlaws Compete for the Crown; A Casual Gesture Becomes a Legend - Part 2

The next morning.

When Guo Qin stirred, the boy had stopped drawing. He now sat quietly at the edge of the cliff, bathed in morning light, gazing out into the distance. His eyes held a kind of ancient sorrow, a depth far beyond his years.

She stood and walked over, then glanced down at the stick figures he’d drawn.

After a moment of studying them, she let out a soft exclamation of surprise. “Huh?”

The boy didn’t turn around. “After watching your Skygale Sword Style last night, I realized something. It turns out the footwork of my family’s art was always meant to pair with the Skygale sword forms. You should try blending the two.”

“Mhmm.” Guo Qin quietly replied, utterly captivated by what she saw.

Li Yuan stood up and, in no time at all, had caught a few wild rabbits. With practiced ease, he skinned them, rinsed them in a mountain spring, and brought them back to the cliffside to roast over the fire.

The aroma drifted over, and Guo Qin’s stomach betrayed her with a loud grumble. She turned her head and saw the golden-brown rabbits sizzling over the flames, and couldn’t help but swallow hard.

Li Yuan handed her two skewers of freshly roasted meat.

Without hesitation, she dove in, chewing happily as she mumbled through a mouthful, “How’d you cook this? There’s no gamey taste at all.”

Once she finished, Li Yuan nudged her to go back to studying the footwork.

By midday, Guo Qin finally grasped the true essence of it. She suddenly cried out in surprise, “This footwork of yours...how can it be like this?”

She’d been running it through her mind, over and over. Each step of the routine was exquisitely crafted, refined to perfection. And yet, strangely, her Skygale Sword Style seemed to counter it at every turn.

This footwork could dodge the trickiest, most unpredictable moves under the sun. But when matched against the Skygale Sword Style, it was like it deliberately veered into danger. Almost like it was throwing itself into the sword.

Guo Qin stood there dazed for a while, then suddenly asked, “Do you know whether the ancestor who created this footwork of yours was a man or a woman?”

Li Yuan replied, “Of course, a man.”

Guo Qin burst out laughing.

“That explains everything! I bet your ancestor and our sect’s founder had a story together back in the day. I just don’t know which came first, the footwork or the swordplay. But I think the footwork came first. Your ancestor must’ve developed this brilliant movement skill, and our founder couldn’t stand being outdone, so she created a sword style specifically to counter it.”

Li Yuan clapped his hands and said, “That must be it. Our Li ancestor may have had unmatched footwork, but in the end, he still couldn’t escape a single strike from your founder, Xie Yu.. She truly was the better of the two.”

He let out a hearty laugh. “It only clicked for me after I saw the Skygale Sword Style myself.”

Guo Qin added with a smile, “And have you noticed? If you actually combine your Li Clan’s footwork with our Skygale Sword Style, the way they fit together is like heaven and earth coming into perfect harmony.”

The moment she said it, she realized how it sounded. Her cheeks flushed red.

“I mean...if you use the footwork and swordplay together, the synergy might be really powerful.”

Li Yuan nodded. “Then let’s try. You practice, and if anything about the footwork is unclear, I’ll help.”

Guo Qin nodded softly.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A month had passed.

Guo Qin had spent the entire time atop the mountain, training.

They switched to blunt bamboo practice swords.

Guo Qin wielded the sword; Li Yuan used the footwork, circling and weaving in front of her. But because the footwork had a habit of seeking its own doom, he kept walking right into her sword.

Sometimes he’d take a clean strike to the chest from the Skygale Sword Style.

Other times, even when Guo Qin’s bamboo sword clearly moved aside, Li Yuan’s body would suddenly shift and lean in just in time for a flawless execution of neck meeting sword.

In short, this exquisite footwork amounted to nothing more than a series of perfect collisions with the Skygale Sword Style.

Guo Qin couldn’t stop giggling.

It was just too ridiculous.

She was a martial heroine herself, well-versed in the ways of the jianghu. The more she practiced, the clearer it became. This Li Clan footwork was undoubtedly top-tier, one of the finest martial arts in the world.

And yet, it was utterly, hilariously suppressed by her own sect’s swordplay.

She couldn’t help but wonder just how much her venerable founder must’ve hated that ancestor of the Li Clan.

Still, whatever those ancestors had going on, it wasn’t her business. She kept the speculation to herself.

Under Li Yuan’s guidance, she gradually learned to blend the footwork and swordplay together.

In this low-spirit era, the effects of martial training showed up quickly, especially when the skill was powerful.

It reminded Li Yuan of those old wuxia novels from before he crossed over, things like how the Violet Cloud Divine Art practiced for decades would still lose to someone who just learned the Dugu Nine Swords in two weeks.

In a low-tier martial world, skill was everything. If your martial arts were strong enough, you could suppress the entire field.

And the footwork Li Yuan had created? It was beyond top-tier.

With this footwork in hand, Guo Qin felt as if she’d stumbled upon a divine skill. Her strength surged, not by a little, but by a lot.

Before long, she completely forgot that this whole encounter had begun as a not-so-subtle matchmaking scheme to pair her off with the quiet young man on the mountaintop. She was entirely absorbed in this fusion of sword and step, intoxicated by the birth of something new.

Now that she had mastered the footwork and fully integrated it with her sword style, she couldn’t wait to test it out. She practically bounced down the mountain in excitement.

Li Yuan watched her vanish into the distance, then turned toward the grave behind him. In the howling mountain wind, his expression grew complicated.

He bent down and gently brushed his hand over the stone inscription carved into the weathered tomb.

Tomb of the Red-Clad Sword Immortal, Founder of the Skygale Sect.

After a long pause, he murmured softly, “Yu’er...do you feel better now?”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Back at the rebel camp, Yang Jiang chuckled. “That girl’s basically living on the mountain now. Brother Guo, I’d say it won’t be long before we’re drinking wedding wine. Hahaha!”

Guo Xi waved his hand and said, “That’s fine by me! Truly fine!

“Young Hero Li’s strength is unfathomable, and his character seems upright. If he truly has feelings for my Qin’er and wishes to marry her, then as her father, I’d finally be able to breathe easy. I could head off to the Green Forest Alliance gathering without any worries.”

Yang Jiang nodded. “With all 18 rebel factions gathering in one place, it’s inevitable we’ll need to choose a leader.”

Guo Xi’s voice rumbled like a drum. “I think you’d be the perfect choice, Big Brother.”

But Yang Jiang shook his head and said gravely, “The other 17 factions aren’t exactly easy to deal with. And in terms of sheer power, let’s not even talk about those far-off sects. Just around here, we’ve got the One-Armed Vajra, the Ghost Tiger, Mute Granny, Mr. Coffin, plus the Four Blade Kings and Five Generals. Any one of them could rival you.”

He clapped Guo Xi on the shoulder. “Still, even though we’ll be choosing a leader, we can’t let it turn into infighting. We’re gathering as allies. If we fracture from within, with so many outside forces eyeing us like wolves... the consequences could be disastrous.”

Just as he finished speaking, the door creaked open with a soft squeak.

Guo Xi froze.

He hadn’t sensed anyone approaching at all.

Whoever it is... they’re strong. He immediately gripped his sword, stepping protectively in front of Yang Jiang, face hard with vigilance.

But then he looked again and saw a green-robed girl standing in the doorway, sword in hand, smiling at him.

She watched his expression shift from stern and guarded to utterly dumbfounded, then laughed and called out, “Dad!”

Guo Xi opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word in, the girl added brightly, “Dad, let’s spar a little!”

Yang Jiang chuckled. “Looks like your daughter picked up a few tricks from Young Hero Li and now she’s back to show off.”

Guo Xi, still stewing over being caught unaware when the door opened, snorted.

“You little rascal. Been training with Li Yuan for a few days and you’re already getting cocky? You need a good lesson.”

Guo Qin grinned mischievously. “Be careful, Dad~”

“Heh.” Guo Xi gave a hearty laugh. “All your swordplay came from me. You think you’ve learned anything new in just two weeks?”

Guo Qin stuck out her tongue and stepped back into position. The two took their stances while Yang Jiang stood to the side, ready to watch.

In the blink of an eye, Guo Qin made her move.

She twisted, glided forward with ethereal lightness, like a fairy dancing on rippling water. Her movement followed a baffling path, and in a flash, she was right in front of Guo Xi. Her sword flicked upward in a move that Yang Jiang immediately recognized. It was Sword Hung Like a Billowing Sail, the most ordinary opening form of the Skygale Sword Style.

Only...it wasn’t ordinary at all anymore.

Somehow, with her new footwork, the basic move had transformed into something strange, elusive, and nearly impossible to block.

Guo Xi was stunned. It was a sword form he himself had taught her, yet now, he couldn’t see a way out of it.

He instinctively stepped back, but in that brief instant, her figure blurred. And the next moment, the sword was at his throat.

Guo Qin beamed at him, then gently lowered her sword.

“Again...” Guo Xi muttered.

Guo Qin bowed lightly and said, “Please, Father.”

And then came the relentless thrashing.

Her swordplay was now flawless, so flawless it felt like she wielded a demon’s blade or a divine weapon.

At this level of martial skill in a low spiritual energy world, duels between masters were like two top students writing test questions for each other. Whoever posed the harder riddle, won.

That’s why every sect guarded their best moves like treasure. Reveal them, and enemies could study them. Counter them.

Guo Xi had kept plenty of his own tricks hidden within the eighteen forms of the Skygale Sword Style.

But just now, even after pulling out all his hidden cards, he was still effortlessly dismantled by his daughter.

He stared at her, stunned, then tossed his sword aside in defeat. “I’m done.”

Guo Qin smiled sweetly. “All thanks to our little hero. Pretty funny when you think about it, right?”

Guo Xi shot her a glare. “What’s so funny?”

So she told him everything, from the Li Clan’s ancestral footwork, to how it was perfectly countered by the Skygale Sword Style, and how the two arts, once enemies, merged together into something beyond perfection. She was about to demonstrate, but Guo Xi stopped her at once.

“You listen here. If Young Hero Li taught you that footwork, it means he cares about you. He trusts you. You can’t go around sharing it!”

“But Dad, before I left the mountain, He already said I could teach it to anyone I want. He said it’s fine if people know about it, that the Li Clan’s ancestral steps were broken by our founder’s sword,” Guo Qin said. “But even so, when the Li Clan footwork and the Skygale Sword Style are combined, it’s like they were made for each other. Perfect. Flawless.”

Guo Xi was stunned.

Yang Jiang was too.

It suddenly dawned on them. Was the Li Clan ancestor and the Skygale founder, Xie Yu, once a pair of lovers? Did they part ways after a falling-out, too proud to reconcile?