My Wife Is A Sword Immortal

Chapter 75: Chapter 64: Who is Li Ji?
 

Ancient era, the first female Sword Emperor.

At this moment, Zhao Rong was standing solemnly under the moonlight, holding the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace in both hands.

He chewed over it carefully.

What sort of person was a Sword Emperor, he had some idea.

Sword Cultivators were known for their lethality, and the Sword Emperor had surpassed the typical Great Emperors of antiquity.

Jiang Taiching, the second emperor of the Human Clan, was a Sword Cultivator who ascended to emperorship. He was also considered by later generations as the most prideful hero of the entire Xuanhuang Human Clan. Some books describe Jiang Taiching as having the highest lethality ever among the Human Clan Cultivators, capable of competing with, or even surpassing, the ancient powers from the mythological era.

This was because he was a Sword Cultivator, he was a Sword Emperor.

Therefore, one can imagine the difficulty Sword Cultivators faced in becoming emperors.

As for the Ancient era, it was a time before the Human Clan reached the zenith, with myriad clans standing tall.

And a woman of unknown clan origins, was able to trample on the heads of myriad clan men with a mere Three-foot Sword, soaring above thousands of beings, and proclaimed herself emperor.

Her achievement and the difficulty were as high as the heavens.

And for men of her era, it was a sort of unique sorrow.

“Li Ji,” Zhao Rong whispered softly.

Gui spoke playfully, “What, have you started to admire her?”

He then expressed regret, “Ah, it’s a pity, she and you, young master Zhao, are not from the same era. Otherwise, wouldn’t she be taken down by young master Zhao’s mere gaze, foregoing even the Deity of the Moon’s position, and run recklessly down from the Nine Heavens Moon Palace into young master Zhao’s arms?”

Zhao Rong spoke seriously, “Don’t talk nonsense, I need to write this down and take it back to encourage Su Xiaoxiao, to set an example for that girl so she doesn’t continue living in confusion.”

Zhao Rong nodded, “I have concocted the motivational story. Hmm, Li Ji was also a silly young girl in her childhood, lazy and indulgent, neglecting her cultivation, fond of romantic tales. Then, one day, she met a warm and handsome older brother just like me, who after thoroughly educating her, suddenly realized her errors, gritted her teeth, decided to completely reform, and reformed her ways to become a reborn person… wait, is she from the Human Clan?”

“No, she was a woman from the Ancient Li Clan. Enough, stop making things up!” Gui, reminded of its own childhood sword practice which it took as inspiration from the existence mocked by Zhao Rong, felt a bit angry.

“Li Ji, is this her real name? It doesn’t sound like a name.”

“No, Li Ji is a term for a group of people.”

Gui explained softly, “The Ancient Li Clan are descendants of the Moon Palace. Every so often, they would send a group of Li Clan women to the Nine Heavens Moon Palace to serve as slaves or maids, and only a very few of them were selected. As for those who weren’t selected, they could never return. Even those chosen were just the lowest-ranked maids in the Moon Palace… This group of Li Clan maids was known as Li Ji, and Emperor Li was once among them…”

“People, other than Emperor Li, could only refer to her as Li Ji.”

“Emperor Li had no name or surname, and her dates of birth and death are unknown. Women from that era, unless of extremely noble status, did not possess formal surnames and were only known by domestic or intimate names, which only their relatives and spouse were privy to. Emperor Li was such a person, but her intimate name is now unknown.”

“After her proclamation as emperor, given her exalted status, no one was dignified enough to directly address her by her name, thus, the need for a name ceased to exist, and so…”

“In retrospect, throughout her life, Emperor Li was just someone without a name or a surname.”

Gui’s tone softened, and through Zhao Rong’s third eye chakra, it gazed at the moon that had hidden countless celestial matters and witnessed numerous terrestrial joys and sorrows.

It remembered its own youthful sword practice when, despite being peerless within its clan, it was unrecognized, and the clan elders pinned all their hopes of revitalizing the clan on those lesser than it. They didn’t believe it could lead the clan to new heights; in their eyes, it would eventually become an outsider.

It remembered graduating from the Taiching Four Mansions, matching the fastest record of the Golden Core Realm of the Human Clan, but this didn’t bring much joy; instead, it brought more troubles.

It saw jealousy and fervor in the eyes of its peers, and in its mentors’ eyes, it didn’t see pride or satisfaction but only contentment and pity, as if appraising an item carefully crafted but ultimately to be sold for a good price!

If it wasn’t for that woman.

If it wasn’t for that woman who took on the fate of being “merchandise” for him, its sword could no longer soar above the Ninth Heaven! Its Dao could never become another peak of the Xuanhuang Sword Dao!

It had become the sharpest sword in the family, severing all obstacles that stood in its way!

Finally, it led the family to unprecedented heights, a scene its venerated ancestors had never witnessed.

Yet, after experiencing the mortal world, upon reflection,

it found that the most important relative to it, the woman who had taken on its fate, was not happy!

It felt that it had lost everything.

After finishing its words, Zhao Rong fell silent, having nothing to say. Gui seemed to understand Li Ji’s affairs well.

He lowered his head to gaze at the bright moon at the bottom of the furnace. He freed one hand and slowly reached into the furnace. Seeing that Gui did not stop him, he continued to reach in and lightly touched the moon inside with his fingertips.

The touch was slightly cool, and the next moment his fingers passed through, touching the cold furnace wall below.

This “moon” was as illusory as Mirror Flowers Water Moon.

Zhao Rong suddenly withdrew his hand because his fingertips felt a slight prickle of pain. After removing his hand, his fingertips were a bit numb. This electrifying sensation came from the thunder patterns on the furnace wall.

At this moment, the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace bathing in the moonlight seemed to be quietly performing alchemy.

Suddenly, Gui said, “Do you know what I like most about Li Ji?”

Zhao Rong did not speak, knowing that it just wanted someone to confide in and did not expect a response from him.

“Despite the unfair fate bestowed upon her, despite the heavy responsibilities given by her race and family without hope, despite the cold radiance of the Nine Heavens Cold Palace, despite her relatives not believing that she, a mere girl, could fulfill such an ethereal mission, despite being one step away from total ruin… she remained fearless, full of courage, without regrets or complaints, tirelessly breaking through with a single sword.”

“This is her Sword Dao,” it murmured to itself.

“This is her Sword Dao,” it said aloud.

“This is the Sword Dao of the first female Sword Emperor of Xuanhuang, the strongest Deity of the Moon in the history of the Ancient Moon Palace!”

Zhao Rong stopped what he was doing, thought for a moment, and was about to speak when he suddenly heard a dripping sound and felt his fingertips go cold.

He lowered his head and to his astonishment found a milky white handprint on the furnace body, slowly melting and dripping down the furnace wall as a milky liquid.

Zhao Rong curiously pinched it with two fingers, finding it thick and…warm.

Zhao Rong suddenly recalled the Blood Handprint. It was right here!

So the milky white handprint under the moonlight was indeed that Blood Handprint, and this milky liquid was…the blood of that unknown person!

At this moment, his left palm was covered in warm, milky white blood. He stared blankly as drops of blood fell from his fingers, like dew on a lotus leaf, not sticking to anything.

Zhao Rong’s hair stood on end, and he instinctively wanted to throw down the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace, but Gui’s voice stopped him.

“It’s okay… I was not wrong in my predictions. The owner of this Blood Handprint is a descendant of the ancient Li Clan, this is the blood of a Moon Palace Descendant, reacting with the moonlight. You must catch the blood quickly or else it will melt away into the moonlight. It’s the final ingredient needed to complete the Li Ji Sword Pill.”

Relieved, Zhao Rong thought he had encountered something eerie.

He quickly put down the Thunder and Rainbow Purple Gold Furnace, fetched a porcelain bottle, and poured all the dense, mercury-like milky white liquid into the bottle.

Zhao Rong shook the bottle, now unsure if the owner of this Blood Handprint was the person who conducted the alchemy or…was used as an alchemical material.

Zhao Rong curiously asked, “What is the use of the Li Ji Sword Pill?”

Gui, with his mood slightly dimmed from the reminiscence, responded in a somewhat sullen tone,

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. The Li Ji Sword Pill is made using the material manifestations of the Sword Dao Laws that scattered around when Li Ji ascended to emperorship through the Dao. Strictly speaking, it is not an elixir to be consumed. Exist between the real and the unreal, its purpose is to… permanently elevate the grade of a Sword Cultivator’s Lifebound Flying Sword.”