The blade shrank back slightly, its tip drooping down involuntarily.
“No more slashing, no more slashing,” the Sword-man said, his voice unbelievably docile. “I've confirmed it. You definitely can't be him.”
“Oh? How did you confirm that?” Ren Yi floated forward slightly, his tone betraying neither joy nor anger.
The tassel on the sword shook violently.
Ren Yi felt that if the Sword-man were still in human form, the corners of his mouth on that pale face would probably be twitching uncontrollably right now.
After a long while, the longsword finally muttered a sentence.
“Well... why use a butcher's cleaver to kill a chicken?”
At this point, the Sword-man's voice suddenly grew warm, so sycophantic that Evans couldn't help but frown from the side.
“So, Big Bro, you're my true brother.”
“From today onward, if you say go east, I won't go west. If you tell me to slash someone, I'll slash them. If you tell me to kneel, I will never lie flat.”
“You're a sword. How exactly do you kneel?”
Evans sneered with his arms crossed, clearly not buying his empty promises.
“I can plunge myself into the dirt with my hilt pointing up to show my submission.”
“...You win,” Evans said, rolling his eyes.
The Sword-man fell silent for a moment, seemingly hesitating, and then asked somewhat timidly.
“Um, Big Bro, I don't know if I should bring this up.”
“How on earth did you meet that kind of... thing, and still survive?”
His tone clearly faltered, as if he were searching for a word that was both inoffensive and accurate enough, but failed to find one after looking for a while.
“That is not a ‘thing’,” Ren Yi corrected, his tone dropping slightly with a hint of displeasure.
The Sword-man's blade froze suddenly.
Then, he instantly understood!
“Big Bro is wise!” The Sword-man's voice suddenly became extremely serious.
“In that case, I—I have an extremely half-baked proposal, but one that would be good for all of us!”
“Speak.”
“The scenery in the City of the Sky Lake is actually quite nice. The air is fresh, the environment is elegant, and I know a few great sightseeing spots.”
“Why don't you... put in a word with the one behind you, and ask his venerable self to take some time to visit us? He could observe our local customs.”
In his inner world, Ren Yi's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He would love to call Him, but this world didn't even have internet, so he couldn't reach Him anyway.
But of course, he couldn't tell the Sword-man that.
He didn't answer, simply floating quietly in mid-air, using silence to express his stance.
“Well, it seems that existence looks down on our backwater place.”
The Sword-man was very perceptive and mumbled with great regret.
“But whenever he's in a good mood and wants to drop by for a visit, he's welcome anytime.”
“My treat! Free food, free lodging, and free pickup!”
“Alright, cut the crap,” Ren Yi coldly interrupted his endless babble.
“Since you've come to your senses, it's time for us to talk about serious business.”
“A few questions. Answer honestly, and don't play tricks.”
The Sword-man's blade trembled slightly in the air, and then it slowly descended with extreme docility.
It smoothly plunged most of its blade into the grayish-white ground on its own, leaving only a bare hilt standing upright.
“First question,” Ren Yi said.
“Who exactly are those ‘compatriots’ you mentioned? What is your origin?”
The Sword-man fell silent. The sword stuck in the ground remained quiet for a few seconds, as if organizing its thoughts.
“In terms of scope, most are the ‘People of the Abyss,’ but in essence, they are so-called Anomalies.”
“Much like me, they all used to ‘belong’ to that lunatic as his private property, or rather... a part of his body and magic treasures.”
Ren Yi didn't say anything. The cloud of white mist hovered quietly in mid-air, showing no emotional fluctuation.
“Pops too?” Evans suddenly chimed in from behind.
“Him? He's just a tattered bag!”
The Sword-man betrayed his companion without a shred of hesitation, swift and clean.
“He is all-encompassing and broad-minded—a must-have item for home travel, arson, murder, and petty theft.”
“Back then, aside from me, his soul-bound flying sword who was carried around by that guy every single day, the rest of the fellows usually lived inside this old bag's belly.”
“All-encompassing... is that what it means?”
Evans was dazed, Pops's wrinkled old face flashing through his mind. For a moment, he found it hard to associate him with a bag.
Ren Yi, however, understood.
Wasn't this the Cosmos Bag he had coveted for so long in cultivation novels?
So a Cosmos Bag could actually gain sentience?
This mental image was indeed something, so bizarre that he didn't even know where to begin roasting it.
“In the City of the Sky Lake, there are actually some things that belonged to that guy back then too.”
“They're all just mindless fools being controlled.”
The Sword-man continued, his tone carrying the lightheartedness of a student who knew all the answers.
“Alright, we can discuss those details later.”
Ren Yi waved off the pointless chatter. “Second question.”
“Tell me in detail about the ‘golden thumb’ during that mad Sword Venerable's rise back then.”
“Golden thumb?”
The Sword-man's tone was clearly confused.
The sword tilted slightly, and its tassel swayed twice along with it, as if performing an extremely anthropomorphic head-tilt in thought.
“He didn't really talk about any thumb.”
“He didn't have any special interest in body parts, except for how to use a sword to slash people.”
“Not a literal thumb,” Ren Yi explained patiently. “It's a metaphor.”
“I want to ask you: throughout that madman's entire journey from a mere mortal to being invincible under heaven, was there anything that was consistently different from normal people, or even logically absurd and strange?”
“For example... did his cultivation realm rise incredibly fast in a way that defied common sense?”
“For example, did he always have an extremely intense sense of purpose, always able to precisely locate extremely special, hidden resources in every corner of the world?”
“Or perhaps... in private, did he sometimes inexplicably talk to thin air, muttering jargon like ‘System,’ ‘Mission,’ ‘reward,’ or ‘transmigration’?”
As Ren Yi threw down this series of highly specific, leading questions, the Sword-man fell into a long silence once again.
The sword stuck in the ground remained quiet for a long time, so long that Evans grew impatient and shifted his stance.
“Come to think of it...” the Sword-man finally spoke up slowly, “he did have one very strange trait.”
“What was it?” Ren Yi pressed.
“Back then, he lived in an extremely clever way, being incredibly good at scheming and laying low.”
“But that cleverness didn't seem like normal high intelligence.”
“Rather... it was the kind of cleverness where he knew exactly what was going to happen next.”
Rate on N.U.
