Once Upon A Time, There Was A Spirit Sword Mountain Prologue

Prologue

The Blue River Region was founded on high land, where the mountains extended across the horizon. If anyone was to ask where the tallest mountain was, the locals would immediately point towards a certain place.

It was a tall mountain shaped like a blade which pierced through the clouds. Dwelling on the mountain was a sect called the Spirit Blade Sect. It was one of the largest sects in the Xiuxian world, and occupied the entire Blue River Region. As such, the mountain was called the “Spirit Blade Mountain”. [TLN: Xiuxian (修仙) refers to cultivators, often with supernatural powers]

At the peak of the Spirit Blade Mountain, an elderly man sat inside a small bamboo room. His hair was held up in a bob by a sword-shaped hairpin. He stared into the bright, starry sky, his hands holding a gleaming silver sword. The blade of the sword reflected the starlight, and the intricate and mysterious symbols on the blade began to swirl like water. They travelled upwards from the hilt, until they reached halfway to the top of the sword.

The elderly man frowned, sensing a premonition of an ill event.

“The light of the blade stopped at halfway, the sign of a calamity. Senior brother, are you reading your own fortune?” A voice sounded out behind him. It was a barefooted woman wearing a white robe, dangling an earthen yellow wine gourd by its strap on her wrist. In her other hand, she held a green bamboo sword. Smelling of wine and smoke, she appeared behind the elderly man gazing at the stars.

“Fifth junior sister, please knock before entering in future.”

“But I did knock before leaving my home.”

“I’m talking about my door, not yours.”

The head elder sighed, “Why are you here?”

“To borrow money.”

“… If I remember correctly, you still owe me 20,000 spirit stones.” The senior brother said, his expression serious and earnest.

The woman said with a pained and sorrowful voice, “Ai, isn’t it because our Spirit Blade Sect is so poor. Me, the honourable fifth elder, the number two expert in the whole Sect, gets a measly 500 spirit stones per month. Who knows how many years it’ll take to repay this debt. But if senior brother lets me become the head elder, I can embezzle some money to repay the debt…”

“Junior sister, if you really want to be head elder, then…”

“Then you’ll resign? Wow, senior brother, you’re so kind!”

“What I was going to say, was that if you really want to be head elder, then you need to get rid of your bad habits of getting drunk, go into closed door training for three to five years and be at least at the Yuanying Stage.”

The white robed woman pretended that she hadn’t heard anything, “Senior brother, lend me some money.”

“……”

“… By the way, who were you telling the fortune for? The one with the impending calamity.”

The head elder replied with a low voice, “Spirit Blade Sect.”
The colour of the fifth junior sister’s face changed, and promptly forgot about the money, “No way?! The Spirit Blade Sect is going to be destroyed?!”

“Not just the Spirit Blade Sect. I’m afraid what this sword is referring to is the entire Xiuxian world. Remember that prophecy about the Age of Chaos? Ai, this sword’s light is broken in one third of the places, I’m afraid that there are only three to five years of peace left in the Xiuxian world. It seems that the only way to avoid this is to give one billion spirit stones to support the Ten Thousand Celestial Alliance to fix those five ancient Celestial Ships.”

“The Spirit Blade Sect’s Stellar Fortune-telling is one of the few fortune-telling techniques in the entire Xiuxian world, and senior brother is an expert who would not make such a big mistake. However, the Celestial sword that senior brother is using doesn’t seem to be the “Year” Sword.”

The head elder was shocked, “Not the Year Sword?” He looked closely at the sword. On the hilt was not the “Year” character, but rather……

In the next instant, the elderly man who was acclaimed and feared as a god in the whole Blue River Region let out terrifying roar, “Why is it the Tea Sword? Doesn’t this mean that the Age of Chaos, the Calamity, will come in the time of three to five cups’ of tea?!” [TLN: cups of tea time = time it takes to drink a cup of tea, approximately 1 minute].

The fifth junior sister also became shocked; her wine gourd fell to the ground. Although the golden wine started to leak out, she did not notice or care at all.

“Senior brother, I’ve told you so many times to wear your glasses. You couldn’t even tell the difference between “Year” and “Tea”… forget it, seeing as the Calamity is going to happen in the time of a few cups of tea, hurry up and resign from head elder so I can die with a smile on my face.”

“… Even if I die, I won’t let the Spirit Blade Sect suffer such a humiliation.”

“I don’t want to die with only a salary of five hundred spirit stones per month! I won’t die a happy death!”

In the time they spent arguing, the time of three cups of tea crept past.

The peak of the Spirit Blade Mountain was the closest place on the Blue River Region to the stars. The starry sky tonight was particularly dazzling, and the stars seemed to start to spin. Every star in the sky seemed to be trembling. It was a sight that had never appeared before in the Nine Regions.

The senior brother and junior sister looked at each other, their hearts both full of surprise and fear.

The Stellar Fortune-telling indeed was not wrong. The Age of Chaos was about to descend to the Nine Regions. Everything in the Xiuxian world would be swept away.

In the last moments, the senior brother opened his mouth to speak, “Junior sister, there’s something that I’ve always wanted to say to you but I’ve never had the chance. Today, since the Calamity is coming…”

The head elder’s elderly, yet attractive voice contained his true feelings. The trembling of the stellar bodies became even more intense.

“I wanted to tell you my true feelings.”

In the final moment, the revolving of the stars increased to its peak, and the stars shone with a light that made it seem like it was day. A broom-like meteor swept across the sky.

That was the comet of the legends, the Halley’s Comet, which signified the end of days. When the comet crashed into the earth, the spiritual energy in the heavens and earth would dry up, resulting in the Age of Chaos, the end of the Xiuxian world… The peak of the Spirit Blade Mountain was rocked by massive winds, and seemed like the sky was going to fall down.

The white robed woman eyes spun, and she lazily pointed her bamboo sword upwards. The bamboo sword released a curtain of light that seemed to cover the entire sky, which almost seemed like it was going to pick up the falling sky.

However, in the end, there were no further changes after that. After countless meteors flew across the sky and the stellar bodies ceased their movements, everything became peaceful again.

The fifth junior sister confusedly swung the bamboo sword around, as if checking if there were any changes in the spiritual energy in the heavens and earth.

“It seems… that nothing changed?”

The woman turned to the head elder for confirmation. Her senior brother’s cultivation was higher than hers by a whole two stages. Although she would not be scared to fight him, but the difference in their spiritual sense was quite great.

The senior brother seemed very disappointed as he replied, “At least it’s not the Age of Chaos.”

“Oh? The Stellar Fortune-telling can be wrong? Although, it’s good that nothing happened. Senior brother, why do you seem so disappointed?”

“No reason.”

“It’s not every day we avoid a Calamity, how about you cut some of my debt as a celebration.”

“……”

After the threat of the Calamity passed, the senior brother thought of his outburst of passion, and let out a long sigh. Apart from that, his heart was filled with many questions.

The Stellar Fortune-telling was not errorless, but the premonition he had about the Calamity was absolutely not wrong. It seemed that the Nine Regions really did just narrowly avoid the Calamity.

Facing this Calamity that suddenly appeared, and had disappeared even more suddenly, the head elder was completely stunned.

However, one thing was for sure- its effects would slowly affect and change the Nine Regions.

The head elder gazed at the river of stars, and gave a sigh. His hands once again fiddled with the sword under the starlight, “It is said that surviving a calamity will bring fortune in future. After escaping from this crisis, it’s very likely that a Golden Age of the Xiuxian world will be ushered in… that’s right, when was the last time we held a Celestial Gathering?

The fifth junior sister widened her eyes, “Raw, raw and fresh gathering?” Saying these words, she almost started to drool. [TLN: the words said by the head elder are ‘升仙’/Sheng Xian, meaning Celestials. The fifth junior sister uses 生鲜/Sheng Xian, meaning raw and fresh].

The head elder ignored her, and did some calculations with his fingers, “It has been at least one hundred years. For the next one, let’s set it after twelve years.  At that time, any changes should have appeared. Let’s not hope for too much though. If we can return to the glory of one hundred years ago, the Spirit Blade Sect will have hope again.”

Upon hearing about the Sect returning to its formal glory, the fifth junior sister’s smile immediately disappeared, and was replaced by a yawn. In response, the head elder let out a bitter laugh.

“We missed the glory days from one hundred years ago, and the only ones left from the previous Golden Age are the ten of us. This time, no matter what…”

The fifth junior sister could not even yawn anymore, so she left after giving a cold ‘humph’.

At the same time, under the Spirit Blade Mountain, in an unknown corner of the Blue River Region, an infant with a piercing cry had been born.

————

Chapter end