The Legend of Futian

Ye Futian returned to the Cottage and told everyone about his meeting with the queen.

All from the Nine States were shocked. Queen Xiao was something indeed. If she were to simply order Ye Futian to keep his hands from Xiao Sheng, she would not have been able to budge Ye Futian at all.

However, at present, the queen was taking the soft approach. She simply rewarded him and never mentioned anything about Xiao Sheng. That ended up dissipating Ye Futian’s intent to kill Xiao Sheng altogether.

Despite wanting to kill Xiao Sheng still, it would have been a lot more difficult.

The queen gave him plenty of face and rewarded even the people of the Nine States. Her actions of compensating them was actually an act to have them spare Xiao Sheng’s life. Ye Futian simply was unable to do anything about it.

His only backing would have been Emperor Xia and Xia Qingyuan, even if he intended to make a move against Xiao Sheng, he needed both of them to back him.

But then again, everyone knew what Queen Xiao’s identity was—the beloved woman of Emperor Xia and Xia Qingyuan’s biological mother.

“Brothers, what do you make of that?” Ye Futian asked his Eldest Brother and Third Brother.

“It was very sincere of her to summon you for a meeting. If you were to refuse her offer and intended to still make a move on Xiao Sheng, you would have appeared insolent. Furthermore, if you were to offend Queen Xiao simply to take Xiao Sheng’s life and things were keep developing from there, there would be no telling if both Emperor Xia and the princess would be displeased with you.” The Sword Saint said to Ye Futian, “Xiao Sheng’s life is worth less than that. Better put it aside for the moment.”

“The news that was spread all over the place seemed to have been pulled intentionally by those from Emperor Li’s Realm, and it was done none other to instigate you to kill Xiao Sheng, eventually pitting you against the Xiao clan and the queen. It’s an extremely disadvantageous turn of events for you, and they sure know how to pull something so devious.” Gu Dongliu added, “Xiao Sheng should have been punished by death for what he did in the Battle of Empty Realm. But then again, he wanted to have you killed due to jealousy nonetheless. Now that his future path is in shambles because of that, you’d irk him further by getting better with your own life. There is no need for hurry.”

“Any training methods in the Golden Hall of the Lotus, if you were to seriously take your time to select, would have been worth considerably more than Xiao Sheng’s life. What is there to refuse?” A voice was heard and Ye Futian turned around to address the woman walking in. He then called, “Yaya.”

What Xiao Sheng did involved more than just Ye Futian alone, so it was not something that he could have simply decided on his own. At present, however, it seemed that no one agreed to him making a move against Xiao Sheng.

Even Yaya shared their opinions on the matter.

He understood without doubt, that if he were to insist on killing Xiao Sheng, it would have simply meant that he was letting his emotions do the talking. But if he were to truly weigh the pros and cons, it became obvious that Xiao Sheng’s life was not worth it.

“There is a training method in swordsmanship in the Golden Hall of the Lotus called the Taixuan Sword Sutra. The training method in swordsmanship is suitable for any swordsman and resembles the training methods of the Swordmaster of Lihen in certain ways. Copy the methods and make it into one of the ten, and you could make it something to be passed down in the Holy Zhi Palace,” Yaya said to Ye Futian.

“Alright then.” He did not have anything further to say, since Yaya had put it that way.

Furthermore, there were actually many swordsmen training in the Holy Zhi Palace to begin with. If he were to count those by his side, Yaya, the Glass Saint, the village chief, Qin Zhuang, Wuchen, Xu Shang, the Sword Demon, Zui Qianchou and some others were all practitioners of the arts of the sword.

The Holy Zhi Palace indeed lacked a power training method in the way of the sword.

“Would there be any need of other training methods?” Ye Futian then asked Yaya.

“If you were to see Huangting Fist Will at the eighth floor, feel free to take it. I don’t know much about the others, but since you could now come and go as you like, you could take your time and browse the training methods. Decide for yourself which of them would prove useful,” Yaya said.

Ye Futian nodded. It was actually rather difficult to just pick ten to pass down as legacies. He needed to first take the training of the people around him.

All of those people around him were people who followed him through thick and thin, establishing the foundations of the Holy Zhi Palace. If he were to pick training methods to pass down, he would have naturally needed to take their needs into consideration.

The Taixuan Sword Sutra would be useful for the swordsmen. As for other methods, he would have needed to take his time and select carefully.

“The one that I acquired for Luo Fan back at Xuanji Mountain is useful enough for me. There is no need to find another for me in this trip of yours.” You Chi spoke first after seeing Ye Futian eyeing the crowd. He was only allowed to take ten methods, and any one that he would have taken would have been invaluable.

“Futian, there is no need to deliberately consider for everyone’s needs here. It would suffice to pick that you deem the most powerful,” Douzhan said as well. He too, was willing to put his own interests aside and consider for the Holy Zhi Palace.

“If the difference in power proves great enough, then I shall pick the strongest there are. If there are those suitable for some of you here and those methods are powerful enough on their own, I don’t see any reason to not take them.” Ye Futian continued, “Relax. I know what to do.”

“Right.” Everyone nodded hearing what Ye Futian said.

…

Ye Futian came to Emperor Xia’s Palace several days later.

Xia Qingyuan walked with him after knowing that he came, heading for the deeper parts of Emperor Xia’s Palace.

Emperor Xia’s Palace was a very big place. Palaces shrouded in mists and ancient halls stood tall everywhere. Despite having been there before, he had only been to Xia Qingyuan’s residence and nowhere else.

He came to a place and saw many steps in front of him. Clouds shrouded the sky of that place, like a paradise on Earth. There was a golden ancient hall that resembled a lotus on top of those steps, and the place was none other than the Golden Hall of the Lotus, which was also the library of Emperor Xia’s Palace.

There were no guards around the Golden Hall of the Lotus, as if anyone could have came and went as they pleased. But everyone around knew that it was one of the most important places in the palace. No one dared to step foot inside without orders.

Xia Qingyuan said to Ye Futian, as they stood before the hall, “The Golden Hall of the Lotus had a myriad of books and all of them were saint level training methods. You can’t find anything lower than that. You could say that it is the most important treasure trove in Emperor Xia’s Realm. Not only would you be free to pick any that you find suitable for yourself, you could also study other methods as well, comparing them and advancing your training further.”

Ye Futian nodded. He naturally understood that he needed to incorporate his own understanding in his path of training. The Halberd of Nothingness that he created was one that incorporated the understanding that he developed back in the Endless Ocean, as well as training in the Nine Heavenly Attacks.

His own understanding of things became even more important after breaking into Saint Plane.

“Let’s head inside,” Xia Qingyuan said and she went into the Golden Hall of the Lotus together with Ye Futian. She was at the pinnacle of Sage Plane herself and needed to make a breakthrough into Saint Plane.

It was without doubt beneficial for one to further their training by reading a myriad of books.

Furthermore, she could have provided some opinion for Ye Futian as well. She was very familiar with the Golden Hall of the Lotus after all.

Ye Futian was quickly enamored by the ocean of training methods laid out before him after stepping inside the Golden Hall of the Lotus. He seemed to have lost track of time as he went on to further his understanding within.

At that moment, Ye Futian came to a row of books at the seventh floor of the Golden Hall of the Lotus, flipping through the pages of the training methods available.

All training methods available there were specifically that of speed, suitable for cultivators training in the power of the great path with wind and space attributes. Most of them were spells at saint level which proved useful for enhancing movement speed.

However, there was one that seemed rather special. It was one on footwork.

“Footwork of Xuanyuan.” Ye Futian frowned at the name of the training method. Does this have anything to do with the Xuanyuan Palace?

It was said that the ancestor of the Xuanyuan Palace was a Renhuang.

Ye Futian started flipping through the pages. There were introductions to the footwork at the beginning. The Footwork of Xuanyuan was created by the Renhuang of Xuanyuan all those years ago. It was of formidable might, enabling one to take to the skies with a single step, melding with the great path. It was lost in the generations and there was no detailed explanations on where the footwork originated from actually.

“The footwork belonged to the Xuanyuan clan. After it was lost in the generations, my father felt it a pity to see it fade from history. As such, he went on to combine his own understanding with any records left by the Xuanyuan clan and created this new breed of Footwork of Xuanyuan. It paled in comparison to the original created by Emperor Xuanyuan all those years ago, however, as everyone developed different understandings in their training after all. There is a copy of it in the Xuanyuan Palace as well, bestowed by my father,” Xia Qingyuan explained.

Ye Futian nodded. If it was something created by Emperor Xia himself, then it would have been extremely formidable regardless.

Understandings developed by a Renhuang would not have been common things after all.

He flipped through the pages detailing the essences of the art and extended his spiritual powers to the jade scroll at the side, seeing immediately a blurry figure standing tall in the sky. Every step the figure took seemed to have been able to crack the heavens and the earth, bringing down the sky. The strength of the steps compounded as they were merged with the great path.

Ye Futian sensed pressure beyond his tolerable limits and the footwork took a turn after melding with the great path, conjuring many mirages and making it looked like that of a matrix, enabling the user to appear in any corner at will. Every single step taken remained terrifying.

“If the footwork were to be merged with the great path, especially that of suppression and space, then it would have enabled a perfect melding in the arts, enabling defense and offense to be carried in a single move. Even when used for escape, it would still have demonstrated impressive offensive might.” Ye Futian felt shaken after his spiritual powers were rescinded.

Even though it was a lost art that Emperor Xia built from scratch again, it was still terrifyingly formidable.

“This is it.” Ye Futian said. He reserved a spot in the ten for the Footwork of Xuanyuan.

Ye Futian put Footwork of Xuanyuan aside for the time being and continued to browse other training methods. The reading process actually took him months.

There were simply too many books to be found in the Golden Hall of the Lotus and all of them were of great depth. If one were to truly spend time understanding every single training method to be found within, it would have taken years and yet one would not have yet been able to finish, let alone spending just months. As such, at later stages, there were many methods that he did not take more than a look of.

As time passed, he selected quite a number of very powerful methods. He was rather undecided what to take and left the decision at the very end.

Ye Futian saw the Huangting Fist Will at the eighth floor. There were 33 layers to the art, one layer being stronger than the one before. If one were to be able to train in all 33 layers, one would have been able to break through the great path itself.

Furthermore, he discovered that Huangting Fist Will was an offensive art that Xia Qingyuan trained before. It was no wonder why Yaya asked him to pick that up. It was obvious that she knew how powerful it would have been. The further one proceeded with their training in the art, the more terrifying it would have became.

Huangting Fist Will was very suitable for furthering his and Yu Sheng’s training.

He continued reading the others without stop and quickly reached where the Taixuan Sword Sutra was.

The Taixuan Sword Sutra was one that trained the heart of the sword and tempered the will of the sword. He extended his spiritual powers into the jade scroll of the Taixuan Sword Sutra and immediately found himself in another space.

Swords were everywhere in there.

The sword of the great path rained down and fused within his will. The sword merged with the great path and conjured different sword will of the great path.

There was one extremely formidable figure standing tall in the void, who waved about with his hand and swords appeared. Every single sword was an embodiment of a way of the sword. When the swords were launched, the heavens and the earth trembled.

At that moment, Ye Futian felt as if he was coursing with sword will all over him. The World Tree in his Life Palace swayed. Sword will seemed to have begun to develop and continued to grow.

It went on until his entire Life Palace was shrouded by the sword will.