The Living Flora

Time passes quickly, as if there were a wind...

The dragon's reverse scale, the qingluan's plume, and the tail of an Immortal Fox were refined into the tower.

The fourth floor rose.

The doors opened,

The wind was born,

The boy entered the Sword Mound once more, stepped into the Divine Sword Pool, and saw another sword, reaching out to grasp it.

In an instant, the stars shifted, the landscape transformed, and the flora withered and flourished.

Summer approached as spring deepened,

Autumn ended as spring was hidden,

Winter departed as spring returned,

Like being bathed in a spring breeze...

Xu Xian saw a thatched hut where a person emerged at dawn and returned under the stars and moon, shedding sweat in the fields.

The cycle repeated year after year, day after day, from morning to evening, through every passing year.

It was a very different scene,

There was no grand magnificence like the Heaven-Burning Sparrow, no vast transformations like the Yellow Spring Burial, and no world-swallowing aura like the Nishui Han...

There was only one person, one hoe, and one thatched hut, working through the three meals and four seasons.

It was plain and simple.

It was very peaceful, and Xu Xian's world was equally tranquil.

As the cold came and the heat went, as spring left and autumn arrived, Xu Xian watched the mountain flowers bloom again and again, the fruit ripening and falling, falling and ripening.

The flora withered and flourished...

One year,

Ten years,

A hundred years,

A thousand years,

Ten thousand years,

The green mountains remained as they were.

In the world outside the mountains, dynasties changed, and species rose and fell.

The youth in the mountains did not age for tens of thousands of years.

At first,

Xu Xian thought he was just an ordinary farmer.

Now,

Xu Xian knew he must be an immortal, a mountain immortal...

Time continued to accelerate, the four seasons jumping wildly as blue, green, yellow, and white competed to alternate.

The trajectories of history overlapped incessantly.

Until a certain moment, time slowed down. The spring breeze rose again, the mountains and rivers turned fresh green, and another year began its cycle.

The youth stood at the mountain peak, looking up at the firmament, murmuring in a voice like heavenly music.

Xu Xian's consciousness could not help but draw closer, and closer.

He listened intently...

"Grass and wood wither and flourish, endless vitality."

"My sword dao should be the same."

He slowly closed his eyes, and the spirit qi around him dispersed, sweeping across the landscape. Grass and trees grew on the green mountains, a hundred flowers competed in beauty, and blossoms clustered tightly.

He welcomed the end of his life, refining himself into a sword, a jade-green sword.

On the hilt, three ancient symbols were carved...

The sword intent followed the wind, scattering into the heavens, the earth, and the Star Sea.

At that moment,

He had found the sword dao that belonged solely to him.

And he had left it behind.

Xu Xian was dazed and shaken. To validate one's dao with life was the ultimate act.

This was a madman, a madman who spent tens of thousands of years pursuing a single sword intent.

A madman who was willing to offer his own life just to preserve this wisp of sword intent.

He was calm, indifferent, determined, and fearless.

How paranoid could one be?

The sword stood there as stars fell and day rose.

Three years later...

The fields went fallow.

Ten years later...

The thatched hut collapsed.

A hundred years later...

A towering tree crashed down.

Another hundred years later...

Where the tree had fallen, an even larger tree stood tall...

One thousand years,

Two thousand years,

Ten thousand years,

Grass withered and grass grew,

Flowers faded and flowers bloomed,

Trees shed and trees lived,

New leaves covered the old, and new soil pressed upon the old...

Thunder had fallen, fires had blazed across the plains, and mountains and rivers had collided.

There had even been powerful beings who fought a great battle there...

The sword had long since vanished from sight.

The courtyard of the past left no trace.

Everything was changing.

But despite the passage of time and the vicissitudes of the floating world, the only thing that remained unchanged was that whenever a wisp of mountain wind blew through the ravine, fresh green would always enter one's eyes.

Through ten thousand years of change, the flora remained, with endless vitality.

At that moment.

Xu Xian seemed to understand what sword dao he was pursuing.

He also understood,

The true meaning of the three characters on the hilt.

A sword dao of endless vitality, a sword of endless vitality.

He subconsciously spoke the name of that sword.

"The Living Flora!"

In an instant, the world before his eyes collapsed. The boy opened his eyes, standing atop the Divine Sword Pool.

He pulled out that sword, a sword that was jade-green throughout.

In that instant,

A gushing force of life swept through the boy's entire body.

All sorts of fatigue vanished into thin air.

Xu Xian looked at the sword in his hand, momentarily lost in thought, his mind wandering far away.

Xu Xian did not know who had drawn this sword before.

Nor did he know how this sword came to be in the Sword Tower.

Just as he did not know why that sword immortal had refined himself into a sword.

Was it because his life had reached its end?

Or was longevity as lonely as snow?

The only thing he knew was the name of this sword,

【The Living Flora】

A sword of life that still possessed endless vitality even after being suppressed for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years.

A wisp of spring breeze within the sword.

When the wind rose, all things were renewed.

There was no overbearing sword pressure or restless sword intent, only a thick sword aura that fed back into his body.

He could even,

Feel the sword immortal within the sword giving him a slight smile.

Xu Xian said, "This is a gentleman's sword!"

The little Shuer nodded in agreement, saying against its better judgment, "Yes, so this sword was born to belong to you, Master. After all, a good sword suits a gentleman, and a gentleman's sword suits a good sword."

Xu Xian chuckled, "Exactly!"

At the same time, the moment the sword was drawn, a similar bizarre scene played out once more on the Wendao Sword Sect after several years.

Only this time, it was different from before.

This time,

Everything happened quietly and imperceptibly, to the point that the disciples in the mountains only looked toward Zhujian Peak after the fact.

There was no sky-piercing sword intent or deafening sword hum.

It was a gust of wind.

Very light.

After rising from the Sword Mound, the wind slowly blew in all directions. Wherever the wind passed, flora was renewed, and flowers bloomed a second time.

It silently dispersed the chill and awakened the withered wood.

The wind continued to blow outward, butterflies fluttered their wings, birds and beasts chirped softly, and withered wood met spring...

People were in a daze, feeling lost.

Spring,

It had come again.

"This is?"

"Sword intent..."

"Such gentle sword intent..."

"Comfortable!"

Someone took a deep breath with a face full of pleasure, while another's throat moved as their eyes grew misty.

Looking at the fresh green covering the mountains, their hearts felt inexplicably peaceful.

With their minds clear, they reached a moment of sudden enlightenment. With the help of this wind, the barriers that some disciples in the mountains had been unable to cross suddenly became clear in an instant.

Some were ecstatic.

Some were sentimental,

Each was different.

Everyone was immersed in this spring breeze, enjoying the lush growth of the flora and the unceasing vitality...

Inside the Ancestral Mountain.

Lei Yunche walked out of his cave dwelling, his eyes fixed on the fresh green hanging from the solitary lightning-struck wood in front of his door, filled with disbelief.

Withered wood meeting spring can still be seen?

But when has a dead tree ever sprouted branches?

"How miraculous..."

"Such miraculous sword intent..."

He had pursued the sword dao his whole life and had even questioned the world with his sword in his youth, but this was the first time he had seen such sword intent.

He considered his own lightning sword dao to be incredibly fierce and overbearingly extraordinary, unsurpassed by the three thousand sword daos of the world.

But today,

Within this wisp of spring breeze sword intent, he felt a threat for the first time.

Lightning sword dao was fierce, but it was far from the sword intent before him, which was continuous and possessed endless vitality.

...

In the Peach Blossom Immortal Abode.

Ye Xianyu was dancing gracefully in the sea of peach blossoms, smiling very sweetly.

The peaches on the trees had just ripened, but when the wind rose, the blossoms bloomed again, even more beautiful than the fragrance of April.

"Two springs in one year,"

"The peach blossoms bloom again."

"I can eat two seasons of peaches now. Little Eleven, well done..."

On Burial Sword Peak,

Jiang Wanyin rested her chin on her hand, looking affectionately at the broken sword and ruined stele before her, murmuring to herself, "A wind sword intent can give life to flora. If Master were here, he would surely gain some insight from it."

"Little Eleven is moving so fast."

"Goodbye."

"He will truly be at the eighth stage when we meet again..."

In the Zuiwan Residence,

Li Qingshan sat on the eaves, looking at the fresh green on the mountains and the blooming landscape of midsummer. He took a gulp of old wine and clicked his tongue, "Tsk tsk, it is getting more and more ridiculous!"