usenovelonline Chapter 540 - 41: There Is No Love Without Reason
Chapter 540 - 41: There Is No Love Without Reason
As the new academy director, Wang Jiu was very generous to his researchers. Those who applied to try out the Sword Dao were all welcomed without exception. He personally led them into the Illusory Arena, guiding them hand-in-hand to wield fierce sword techniques and experience the joy of Sword Dao.
In the arena, all sorts of opponents appeared: the chubby neighbor bully from their past, senior martial brothers who arrogantly belittled them, and even attacked the bookish ones, and the sect elders who scoffed at their scholarly air.
Overall, many of the cultivators from Cyan Lotus Academy carried deep-seated grudges from their childhoods and teenage years, harboring one or two adversaries they’d love to flay alive.
For various reasons, they had been forced to bury their hatred for many years.
It wasn’t until today, when they had the trust of the academy director, who personally guided them to cut down their heart demon with their swords, that years of hatred were finally swept away.
By that evening, most of the researchers who applied had experienced the profound Sword Dao of the Celestial Divine Sword. Immersed in the bloodbath of their enemies, their old worldview underwent a complete transformation.
"I never thought that in my lifetime, I’d be able to wield such exquisite sword techniques..."
"The past few decades were lived in vain, cultivating Half-Immortal Power without knowing how to use it."
"The Sword Dao is indeed fascinating. We were truly blind before, thinking of it as a boring study."
"Hahaha, how gratifying, truly gratifying! I’ve lived over 60 years and only now realized how satisfying it is to chop an enemy into pieces and tie up and trample on a woman who once betrayed me!"
"...Wait a minute, this arena doesn’t have adult features, does it?"
"I’m just imagining it, is that not allowed?"
Inside and outside the arena, the scholarly lads, who had been reading books for decades, were like baboons in heat, thumping their chests and roaring.
On the other side, Wang Jiu held the Sword Group’s real-time monitoring form, watching the subjective motivation values about to overflow. He was more or less certain that his encouragement for the Sword Group had completely worked. As long as he regularly conducted such trial events, the work efficiency of the Sword Group would definitely see a significant increase.
At this moment, Zhao Chenlu’s voice sounded in his ear.
"I didn’t expect you to have this move. These stubborn bookworms, psychologically twisted and dead set in their ways, are something Sang Yue and Sang Jing have been troubled by for decades. They held all sorts of mobilization meetings, countless discussions, and wrote many dissertations on the supremacy of Sword Dao, yet couldn’t make them like Sword Dao. This problem was solved at your hands with ease."
As she spoke, Zhao Chenlu’s illusion gracefully descended beside Wang Jiu—only he could see this remote projection—but she affectionately took Wang Jiu’s arm, posing with extreme intimacy.
Wang Jiu found Zhao Chenlu’s enthusiasm for such illusions’ intimate behaviors rather odd, but having known her for so many years, he no longer questioned her preferences. He simply continued the previous topic, saying, "That’s because Sang Yue and Sang Jing also didn’t grasp the essence of Sword Dao. Humans’ affection for Sword Dao is rooted in human nature’s instinct, not from acquired knowledge and education. Therefore, attempting to persuade others to love Sword Dao with theories is an act of putting the cart before the horse."
Zhao Chenlu said, "You got that right. Affection isn’t proven through theories. But... I really didn’t expect you to have such a good grasp on human nature. I initially thought, in reorganizing the Sword Group, you might need my help."
Wang Jiu said, "I encountered similar issues during my human days. My love for the Sword Dao is innate, while half of maintaining that love comes from acquired experiences."
"Oh?" Zhao Chenlu instantly became interested. She had known Wang Jiu for so many years but had rarely heard him speak of his human life.
Due to the Nameless Sword God’s rather uneventful human life—learning the sword and comprehending the Dao almost constituted his entire existence—if it weren’t for a chance encounter later, where he fell out with the elders of the Myriad Immortals Alliance, sparking a bloody war, and subsequently meeting the Jiu Immortal Venerables, he might have remained just a Wandering Swordsman traveling across the Jiuzhou Continent until the Immortal Demon War arrived.
"The experiences of these researchers in the Sword Group are quite similar to my own early experiences... Mainly due to my upbringing, I didn’t enjoy interacting with people since childhood. As long as I could quietly study the Sword Dao, I didn’t care about anything else."
Zhao Chenlu giggled, "So before meeting me, you didn’t even have a first love."
Wang Jiu said, "According to the rules of human society, the girl most likely to become my first love unfortunately died the day after meeting me."
"Wait, the girl who was most likely to become your first love!? Why haven’t I heard about this!?" Zhao Chenlu immediately grew tense, "What exactly happened?"
Wang Jiu said, "The specific details have become blurry. Human-era memories were never the focal point..."
"They’re very much a focal point to me!"
"At that time, I should have been 12 years old, winning against the favorite in the Cloud Sword Branch of the Celestial Pool Sword Assembly..."
"I know." Zhao Chenlu said, "The Sect Leader of the Sword Sect’s most cherished young daughter, a 16-year-old prodigy, hailed as a once-in-a-century Sword Dao genius, then at the Celestial Pool Sword Assembly, easily knocked to the ground by you, four years younger, and regarded by the Sect as an imbecile servant two years ago. That was also the real beginning of your fame at Celestial Pool Sword Sect... Are you trying to say she was your first love!?"
Wang Jiu said, "Of course not, I never established any personal contact with her, but according to the usual storytelling, the proud young lady, after being defeated by a commoner, would often quickly fall into a reluctant love affair."
"... Hmph, ridiculous!"
Wang Jiu curiously said, "Didn’t you experience signs of being in heat after being defeated by me?"
"Hey, how can I be compared to those flashy and cheap women!? No, back to the main point, what happened with her later?! The historical records I found about her are incomplete, don’t tell me you..."
Wang Jiu said, "Later, she was eager for revenge, forcibly seeking a breakthrough in Sword Dao, unfortunately, during seclusion, she lost herself to a Heart Demon, and died as her Sword Qi exploded."
"..." Zhao Chenlu was speechless for a long time before asking, "What does this have to do with inspiring your love for Sword Dao?"
Wang Jiu said, "If my Sword Dao Cultivation was more advanced at that time, I could have made her realize that, given her aptitude, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t possibly compare to me, and she wouldn’t have rushed into seclusion."
"... You really ought to tell this to Shen Qingming, that bear child; with her aptitude, it’s better to give up Immortal Dao and go home to farm."
Wang Jiu continued, "Moreover, if I had a deeper understanding of the Sword Manual from the Celestial Pool Sword Sect at that time, I could have discovered the omissions in the Cloud Flipping Realm Chapter, and while repairing the related incomplete records, I could have compensated for it, preventing her Sword Qi from going astray and leading to her explosion during seclusion."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Chenlu was a bit unhappy, "You care so much about her affairs?"
"Because at the time, the Sect Leader accused me of causing his daughter’s death, deducted my Sword Assembly rewards, and prohibited me from studying the subsequent Chapters of the Sword Manual."
"... Such petty Sword Sect deserved to die in the first wave of impact during the Immortal Demon War, but how did you endure the subsequent years after living at the Celestial Pool Sword Sect for 10 years?"
Wang Jiu said, "They only prohibited me from studying the subsequent Chapters of the Sword Manual, but didn’t prohibit me from deducing Swordsmanship on my own, nor did they cut off my cultivation resources, so I soon designed a better Swordsmanship, my cultivation efficiency increased a lot compared to before. And limited by the Sect Leader’s rules within the Sword Sect, no one would disturb my Sword Dao cultivation, instead I felt more relaxed."
"Then why did you later decide to leave the Celestial Pool Sword Sect?"
"Because once while practicing with my sword at the Sword Pool, I achieved resonance with a lost Ancient Sword. After re-refining it, it unveiled Divine Techniques comparable to Immortal Treasure... then the Sect Elders and Sect Leader wanted me to offer the Ancient Sword."
Zhao Chenlu was instantly annoyed, "Those people are sick?! Ignoring you for the past ten years, and now they want to seize your treasure after you found it yourself?"
Wang Jiu said, "Because the Sword Pool belongs to the Sword Sect, according to the rules at the time, any treasures found within the Sword Pool, indeed the Sect has priority rights to them, their demand for me to offer the treasure was justified by the rules."
"... But if not for you, they would probably never know there’s an Immortal Treasure hidden in the Sword Pool."
Wang Jiu said, "But rules are rules, their claim over the Ancient Sword had its reason."
Zhao Chenlu asked, "So did you hand over the Ancient Sword?"
"I wielded the sword and charged through the sect gates, broke the protective mountain formation of Celestial Pool Sword Sect, killed 5 out of the 13 presiding Elders, severely injured 8, and the Sect Leader didn’t dare to stop me, only allowing me to leave the mountain."
"So it was you!" Zhao Chenlu said, "The records I saw stated that that year Celestial Pool Sword Sect collectively performed sacrificial refining at the Sword Pool, interfered by a Celestial Demon leading to major casualties, turns out that Celestial Demon was you!"
Wang Jiu said, "Since then, I further realized the joy of Sword Dao, as long as I hold a sword in my hand, there’s no need to care about what’s right, just follow my heart."
Zhao Chenlu paused for a moment, then laughed, "Exactly, you’re the spirit of the sword, when have you ever cared about human laws and rules."
"Afterward, while traveling through Jiuzhou, I encountered many similar events, some tried to cheat me out of money, some attempted to refine me into a puppet, some developed forced reproductive feelings for me... every time I defended my interests with the sword in my hand... I’m rather dull, the numerous rules of human society can only be memorized, but I can’t adapt them flexibly, so playing by human societal rules, I always end up suffering. Later I realized, the rules of human society are set to protect the interests of ordinary people, my interests can only be safeguarded by Sword Dao, this is why in my first fifty years, despite being in a human body, I could always passionately pursue Sword Dao."