True Solution of the Sword Dao

"Do you want to practice swordsmanship?" Jiu’er asked with great interest as she followed along.

Lin Fei couldn’t be bothered with her and lightly drew his longsword, its blade as smooth as a mirror, clearly reflecting his own image.

"Your sword is so pretty!" Jiu’er leaned in, wanting to take a look, but Lin Fei immediately withdrew the longsword.

Suddenly, for a moment, he felt as though he had overlooked something. But when he tried to think carefully, he couldn’t recall what it was. He often had this feeling recently.

"How did you join the society?" Lin Fei suddenly asked.

"I forgot." Jiu’er replied very candidly. But without any substantial content.

"Do you know Yan Shi?"

"Yan Shi? Who’s that? You must have remembered wrong; it should be Yan Shisan."

Lin Fei was speechless; he didn’t detect any pretense on Jiu’er’s face.

"Perhaps her acting is too clever," he said to himself.

He wasn’t planning on carrying out Shunyan’s plan; he didn’t trust that the other party wouldn’t scheme against him. Rather than place his hopes on others, it was better to control everything himself. Sis’s progress was slow, and after more than a month, there was still no news. The updates Shunyan occasionally sent back only showed that he was still in the United Kingdom. And the experts dispatched by the higher-ups were about to arrive. They seemed to value renowned fighters like Sis quite highly. According to the information, the dispatched experts were two C-rank fighters.

Two C-rank fighters should be enough to deal with Sis, Lin Fei thought to himself.

"Ding ding ding..." A series of urgent beeps from a cellphone suddenly erupted.

Lin Fei took out his phone, which displayed a new text message.

"A C-rank battle has broken out in the coastal city, the support that was coming will head there first." The timestamp of the message was today at 14:32.

"Does that mean I can’t count on support from above?" Lin Fei murmured.

Suddenly, an urgent ringtone rang again, and at this time, it was Shunyan’s call. Lin Fei had set a unique ringtone just for Shunyan to distinguish it.

"Hello, this is Lin Fei."

"The intelligence was wrong, Sis has already departed!!" Shunyan was frantic over the phone. "Damn it! You’re on your own, my plan was discovered by the higher-ups, I have to save my sister Chris!" The call was abruptly hung up.

Lin Fei’s mouth curved into a slight smile: "Your grudge with Sis is so deep, it would have been strange if it hadn’t been discovered."

"Did you say something?" Jiu’er asked from the side.

"It’s nothing."

Click, the door of the practice room was opened, and a female attendant carefully walked in to deliver towels, but her glances at Lin Fei were quite strange.

Looking at Jiu’er beside him, Lin Fei guessed it might be because he always had Jiu’er with him.

He refocused and began to wholeheartedly cultivate the Tracing Shadow Sword Art. He was not worried about Jiu’er stealing the techniques, because just by practicing the sword moves alone, the Tracing Shadow Sword Art was merely a second-rate sword art. But when combined with the guidance of True Force within the body, it could instantly reach a super-level stature, as Zhang Yuan originally described.

As days passed, Lin Fei finally broke through to the third form of the Tracing Shadow Sword Art, and the speed of his movement technique increased by more than half. It seemed that for each form of the complete Tracing Shadow Sword Art that was mastered, the speed would increase by half from its original foundation.

"With my current state, even if I cannot defeat that Andrew, I should be able to leave with ease," Lin Fei confidently thought. Recently, the hallucinations no longer plagued him, and his relationship with Jiu’er was growing closer, while Wang Qing often encountered them on their way back home from the society. Wang Qing seemed to take good care of Jiu’er, as if he was a brother to her.

Every time Jiu’er clung tightly to Lin Fei’s hand, Wang Qing would stand aside with a smile on his face. Lin Fei had also exchanged mobile numbers with him. Wang Qing had a peculiarity about him, that being his gift of the gab. He could talk at length about anything and everything. Lin Fei waited like this for the arrival of Sis. This time he needn’t worry about his family; Sis’s goal was clear, which was to kill him. Him alone. With Jiu’er by his side, his headaches gradually ceased, and his swordsmanship was greatly improving. The speed increase from mastering the third form of the Tracing Shadow Sword Art often made him dizzy and disoriented. A distance of more than twenty meters could be crossed in an instant, and with one step, everything around would blur and become indistinguishable. It required time to adapt to fighting at such speeds.

Fortunately, by the time Lin Fei had completely adapted to it, Sis still had not appeared.

Practice Room, November 14th

"Beep beep!" Jiu’er took out her phone while standing on the side.

"Ah!"

The sword technique in Lin Fei’s hand suddenly paused. He turned his head to look at Jiu’er.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Something has happened to Wang Qing!" Jiu’er said anxiously.

"The location! Tell me on the way!" Lin Fei’s expression darkened, his longsword went back into its sheath, and he attached the Bear Claw back to his waist. He glanced out the window; it was already night. Recently, he often practiced swordsmanship until the evening, though he told his parents he was staying late for self-study.

"On the highway in the eastern suburbs, I know where it is, it’s not far from here!" Jiu’er said urgently.

As they left the society, Lin Fei followed behind Jiu’er. They quickly left the city area, and watching Jiu’er in front of him, Lin Fei was already using half of his speed, but Jiu’er was still running ahead. A hint of doubt rose in Lin Fei’s heart. Jiu’er’s speed was so fast, how had he not noticed before?

"Jiu’er, where exactly is it?" After running for quite some time, Jiu’er in front hadn’t said a word.

"Almost there!"

They finally reached the highway, surrounded by darkness, with no sound to be heard. A mist hung in the air that made everything hazy, and Lin Fei suddenly felt the surrounding environment was very unfamiliar. It was as if he had never been to this place.

"Is there such a place near headquarters?" He started to feel something was amiss and abruptly stopped in his tracks. "Jiu’er! Wait!"

But Jiu’er ahead didn’t utter a word and kept running forward. There was a corner up ahead, and just as Lin Fei came to a stop, he saw her turn at the bend.

He hastily followed, his figure charging past the corner at full speed in an attempt to stop Jiu’er.

The sound of footsteps abruptly ceased. It was eerily silent all around, without a hint of noise.

"Jiu’er?" Lin Fei called out softly, facing a long road with no branches, which he could see down to the end. The next turn was at least a few hundred meters away, but in that brief moment, the figure of Jiu’er had completely vanished.

No one answered.

Lin Fei walked forward slowly and gently. Even the slightest step sounded exceptionally clear in the dense fog and echoed back at him.

"Click." Suddenly a slight noise came from behind. Lin Fei swiftly turned around, only to see the same straight road ahead. The spacious highway extended from under his feet into the thick fog in the distance.

"No! Wasn’t there just a corner here?!!" Lin Fei exclaimed in surprise. He distinctly remembered having only walked a few steps.

All of a sudden, the phone rang. Lin Fei fished out the phone; the caller ID showed it was Xiao Ling.

"Xiao Ling?"

"President, where are you right now? I saw you rush out just now," Xiao Ling said confusedly.

"I don’t know," Lin Fei replied helplessly. "Jiu’er suddenly received a text message saying Wang Qing had an accident, so I ran out after her."

"Jiu’er? Who’s Jiu’er?" Xiao Ling’s tone was very strange.

"The girl who’s always with me, one of the new members who joined this year. Didn’t you bring her and Yue Sa to meet me initially?" Lin Fei asked, puzzled. It was bizarre that Xiao Ling didn’t know. A twinge of irritation began to rise in his heart.

Silence fell on the other end of the phone.

"What’s the matter, Xiao Ling?" Lin Fei thought his phone had run out of battery.

"President, what on earth are you talking about? That day I only brought Yue Sa by himself to meet you."

"Impossible!" Lin Fei shivered all over, panic started to swell from deep within him. "I’ve been with Jiu’er all this time!! Almost every day, I’ve been going home with her."

"That can’t be. I’ve seen you going back alone more than once. Stop joking around, President," Xiao Ling laughed, thinking Lin Fei was making a joke.

"You’re the one joking, Xiao Ling. Stop messing with me," Lin Fei tried to laugh, but the panic inside him made it impossible to muster even a faint smile.

"I’m not joking though. But speaking of which, President, lately you’ve always liked muttering to yourself," Xiao Ling suddenly said.

"Muttering to myself?" Lin Fei was taken aback.

"What? Don’t believe me? I knew you’d deny it, but I’ve recorded it!"

"Snap!" Lin Fei abruptly hung up the phone. A feeling of extreme frustration surged from the bottom of his heart.

"No! Wang Qing also knows about Jiu’er, Xiao Ling must be joking with me." He dialed another number to the club. A few days earlier, he had asked the members to collect information on Wang Qing, and considering the efficiency of the intelligence department, there should be a response by now. He suppressed the panic in his heart.

"The information you requested on Wang Qing? It’s been compiled," the head of the intelligence department immediately began to pull up the files.

"Tell me Wang Qing’s recent whereabouts!" Lin Fei demanded sternly.

"Recent whereabouts?" The tone on the other end was perplexed. "President... Wang Qing died of a congenital heart condition at the age of seventeen."

Lin Fei could no longer restrain himself and violently hung up the phone.

At this moment, he finally realized what was amiss.

No wonder Xiao Ling completely ignored Jiu’er at first....

No wonder that during the encounter with Wang Qing, only he had coffee among the three of them....

No wonder Jiu’er’s speed was hardly any less than his own...

No wonder the server at the cultivation room gave him that strange look.....

And when Jiu’er leaned over, the reflection he saw on the blade only showed himself, nothing else....

Nothing at all.....

.......

......

...

There was nothing around, no houses, no passing cars, no good friend Wang Qing. Everything was an illusion. All around was darkness and dead silence, him standing alone on the road, darkness as far as the eye could see both ahead and behind.

A wave of extreme gloom emerged from Lin Fei’s heart.

He tasted blood in his mouth as trickles of fresh blood seeped from the corner of his lips.