Book 2 - Fame Spreads - Chapter 28.1 - The Road Back Home

After leaving the Xie Residence, He Yiming didn’t take the mountain road again and instead followed the official road, heading towards Heaven Sieve country.
While leaving, he refused all the gifts except for a colt from Luo family- a reputed breed of horse in the north.
This horse named ‘Red Silk’ was only two years old. It was an exceedingly rare red-colored breed, which didn’t have a single hair of different color on its body. Its ability to bear weight was outstanding. It didn’t seem to be going through any trouble while carrying both He Yiming and that three hundred jin heavy broadsword.
Even an idiot could tell that this horse was precious and rare. However, only because this was the case had He Yiming accepted it.
Travelling merely five days on the horse, He Yiming left the borders of Fire Crow country, arriving in the Gold Forest country.
Actually, if he’d used Red Silk’s speed to its limit, he certainly wouldn’t have required five days. However, He Yiming was travelling for the first time on the road after all- unlike the previous instance when he could move as he pleased in the forest. As such, in order to avoid taking a wrong turn, he’d no choice other than to steer the colt slowly.
In the northwestern countries, apart from those three powerful countries, the rest didn’t contain more than five county districts individually, among which there was no lack of those that only contained a single county and county town.
The Gold Forest country only had two counties and was ranked in the far back among the northern countries. Moreover, currently, He Yiming wished to return as soon as possible. As such, he’d no interest in stopping here.
Turning at a mountain road, He Yiming pulled the reins. As his gaze fell down, he couldn’t help but reveal an astonished expression.
On this road, ten corpses were lying around. All the corpses were covered with bloodstains, clearly indicating that they had been killed in battle.
He Yiming was not seeing such a scene for the first time. Be it the massacre in the Cheng family, or the Cheng family returning the favor to the bandits, in both the cases, there were far more deaths than the scene currently laid out before him. Therefore, He Yiming didn’t panic at all, and rather inspected the scene before him with creased brows.
Around these corpses, weapons were randomly lying around. It seemed that this battle had already been over for quite some time. However, He Yiming couldn’t figure out why nobody had sorted out the scene.
He Yiming thought for a bit. As he was looking at the weapons on the ground, his heart suddenly stirred.
Ting Liferay had said that ordinary weapons couldn’t sustain the Xiantian True Qi. He’d not verified this fact for himself.
Sitting on the horse, He Yiming reached out with his hand. Immediately afterwards, a steel sword on the ground suddenly stirred and went into his hand.
He Yiming softly waved it. Although he couldn’t tell this weapon’s standard, he’d a feeling that this sword was the best among all the weapons lying here.
The Blaze technique immediately operated inside his body, carrying the True Qi to the sword through the meridians of his arm.
Imbuing with Internal Energy could increase the weapon’s might. This wasn’t strange. However, True Qi was grossly different.
At first, there didn’t seem to be any change in the sword. However, after a few minutes, it started to turn red. By touching the sword, He Yiming could even tell that the interior of this sword had begun to rupture. With a sigh, he threw the sword down. However, as soon as the sword’s body touched the ground, it exploded into pieces.
He Yiming faintly shook his head, astoundedly looking at his palm before his gratitude for Ting Liferay slightly increased.
Regardless of the value of the Magnetic Steel Source that the old man had given him, it was a treasure that solved a desperate situation for him. This favour must be paid back in the future.
His thoughts slightly stirred before he unwrapped the bundle on the horseback, picking up the first section of his weapon.
Compared to the two bare rods, this one meter long blade seemed to have a peculiar luster. He Yiming was convinced that if his grandfather were to see this blade, he might not be able to sound his recognition.
After all, after the Magnetic Steel Source had seeped into it, the broadsword had gone through some transformations and simply couldn’t be associated with the original one.
Bit by bit, pure Xiantian True Qi entered the broadsword. He Yiming’s movements were quite cautious and prudent. This was, after all, his own broadsword. Although Ting Liferay had said that after being modified by the Magnetic Steel Source, there should be no problems, if it still failed to sustain the Xiantian True Qi and was destroyed as a result, it would be too late to cry.
With the continuous imbuement with True Qi, the entire broadsword began to emit a faint, red glow. This red glow was vastly different than the red color that had appeared on that sword a few moments ago. It seemed to carry a trace of spirituality and vary according to the amount of True Qi being subjected upon it.
He Yiming’s eyes shined. This blade could truly sustain the Xiantian True Qi without crumbling apart. Moreover, it could even conduct the True Qi, bringing about a sword radiance within a certain range.
He casually swung the sword towards the ground. Amidst the flickering sword radiance, a deep cut appeared on the ground. Like a hot knife through butter, the cut seemed extremely smooth without a bit of resistance.
He was exceedingly pleased. His thoughts again shifted before a red-colored light-sword slowly protruded out from the center of his left palm. This sword didn’t have any substance to it, and was rather purely made from the True Qi inside his body, which in turn, stimulated certain energies in the external world.
Raising the broadsword in his hand, he lightly bumped it into the light sword on the other palm.
The light-sword immediately dissipated whereas the broadsword remained unaltered.
He Yiming let out a sigh. He’d understood that although the True Qi allowed him to create a light-sword, its strength was limited. In simple terms, it was extremely frail.
Before a stationary tree, it might seem majestic but before a weapon in the hands of a Xiantian cultivator, the outcome was evident. If he clashed with his light-sword head-on against a weapon in the hands of an expert of the same rank, he wouldn’t even know how he died.
As he was inwardly sighing with emotions, he indistinctly heard sounds of horses rushing towards him.
He Yiming collected his thoughts and placed the broadsword back in the cloth before slowly urging the horse. He slowly moved forward, not minding the corpses lying on the ground at all.
As he turned at a corner, he saw seven or eight horses sweeping past him. The riders of the horses had robust statures and were assuming cold faces without a trace of a smile. The moment they crossed paths with He Yiming, all of them threw a quick glance at him; their eyes gleaming with cold and fierce expressions.
However, the strength of these men didn’t fall into He Yiming’s consideration. He simply ignored them completely and kept going unconcerned. Of course, under his control, Red Silk slowed down; not much quicker compared to the donkeys at his home.
Not long after, the sounds of horses once again echoed from his behind. Those few riders again went past him but from behind this time. The moment they crossed paths, they all threw glances filled with malice at him. However, they didn’t create any trouble and continued onward.
However, He Yiming had already seen three of the horses carrying a corpse each. The attire of the corpses seemed somewhat similar to these individuals’. He immediately understood that three among those corpses were companions of these riders.
These riders had hurriedly come and hurriedly returned, seeming quite affectionate with these three corpses.
He lightly kicked with his legs. The horse immediately picked up a little speed. Since these riders didn’t find any trouble with him, he’d no reason to stay here either. As for the remaining corpses, someone from the authorities would deal with it.