Ghost Sword

Ding-"

　　A dragon's roar sounded as JIETOU grabbed the long sword, which broke free from the wooden door frame and flew through the air.

　　This surprised me. I knew that this sword was a divine weapon that had never been seen before, and it was also the key to my victory. I absolutely could not let it fly away.

　　Therefore, I acted quickly and used all my energy to leap towards the flying sword and grab it in mid-air.

　　The speed of the sword was so fast that I wasn't completely confident in catching it.

　　But unexpectedly, when JIETOU tried to grab the sword, it flew away on its own. And when I reached out for it, it suddenly dropped down into my hand.

As soon as I held onto the hilt of the sword tightly, my whole body shook violently. A majestic dragon's roar surged like waves crashing against mountains and made me tremble uncontrollably. It felt like there were ghosts wailing with grievances inside me; an indescribable sadness flooded over me instantly causing my spirit to enter a state of infinite darkness and depression.

Tears mixed with rainwater making everything feel cold; My body kept trembling while muscles twitched involuntarily; Teeth chattered loudly as if at any moment they would collapse unconscious on top of each other.

"YiHeng,what happened?"

JIETOU ran up to help but recoiled back after feeling an electric shock-like sensation upon touching me.

"What's going on?" He frowned nervously after sensing heavy resentment emanating from me.

"Drunk Master-" Realizing something is wrong,Jietou immediately turned his head towards Drunk Master who stood far away in rain calling him over to check on YiHeng's condition.

"No! Don't call him!" Hearing Jietou's voice,I gritted my teeth and shouted at him, "This is also one of the tests. Being able to subdue a ghost sword is a reflection of one's character."

"Ghost Sword? What does that mean?" JIETOU asked in confusion.

"You have only been studying with Master for a short time, so he probably hasn't told you about this." I clenched the hilt of the sword tightly while trying to stabilize my mind against the backlash of resentment from the ghost sword. At the same time, I explained to JIETOU: "The so-called Ghost Sword is actually a weapon that condenses its owner's resentment. Divine weapons have souls; after their owners die tragically, their resentful spirits are absorbed by their swords' souls which then become cold and violent. If someone wants to use this Ghost Sword, they must first be able to withstand its attack and then subdue its soul before it can be used as their own."

"How do you feel now? Can you subdue this Ghost Sword?" JIETOU asked me doubtfully.

I can't do it for now, but I'm working on it. I have never seen a Ghost Sword before, but the resentment in this Ghost Sword is unparalleled in history. That's why I am here; otherwise, anyone who touches this sword would probably die immediately -"

As I spoke, the mercy sword energy in my palm slowly emerged and quickly suppressed the resentment of the ghost sword.

After being suppressed, the ghost sword suddenly trembled violently with a resounding dragon roar. It seemed to want to escape from my hand.

I gritted my teeth and held onto the ghost sword tightly while using secret techniques to penetrate its soul with my consciousness.

A scream of despair came as the spirit of the sword struggled and resisted against me trying to take control over it. It did not want to be easily subdued by anyone.

"Come on, don't resist anymore. Let me see your true appearance and let me see what you really are."

I exerted force with my consciousness as its spirit retreated step by step until it was about to be conquered when suddenly a voice came from afar: "The fifteen minutes are up! If you don't fight each other now then this round will be lost. With one win and one loss including wine tasting earlier we'll end up tied again."

"Damn!" Seeing this situation, I had no choice but to retract my consciousness temporarily and stop subduing that spirit.

"We're ready now; let me challenge you."

I stood up from the ground holding onto that ghost sword walking towards Chi Qing Shuai.

"Good," Chi Qing Shuai glanced at me then looked at his own longsword for a moment before smiling slightly: "This heroic blade has been treasured by me for many years without ever being able to conquer it myself yet today you hold it firmly within your grasp which shows that you must have great luck on your side. Maybe today you might even win against me with one move or half a technique."

Chi Qing Shuai paused for a moment then said to me: "Come on, show me your moves. I hope you won't disappoint me."

"Why do I need this ghost sword to defeat you?" I snorted coldly and didn't say anything more. The green light longsword in my hand was raised as I charged towards Chi Qing Shuai.

The secret techniques of the Ling Tai were activated, and the Qi condensed under my feet making my speed astonishingly fast. In an instant, I arrived at him and thrust my longsword directly towards his shoulder.

"Using female tactics to conquer male!"

Seeing what I did, Chi Qing Shuai stood still without dodging but instead lifted his own longsword up and rested it on mine which made our swords stick together while he deflected all of my attacking force away from him.

This situation surprised me because I felt that the sword in his hand was like a magnet, able to attract and hold onto my sword blade. What's going on? I took a step back and quickly realized the key to this. If I'm not mistaken, General Chi Qing's sword and mine are a pair of male-female swords with connected souls. So when I attack him with my male sword, he can easily dissolve my moves with his female sword. This made me hesitate as it seemed like holding this sword didn't increase my attack power but instead put me at a disadvantage.

However, then I remembered that the one in my hand is the male sword while he has the female one. Generally speaking, male swords defeat female ones - this principle remains unchanged throughout history. In ancient times during Spring and Autumn period, Mo Gan Zi (son of Gan Jiang) used his father's male Jian to defeat King Helu of Wu who had Mo Ye (the sister-sword). With this realization, I felt confident that victory would be mine.

The only thing bothering me now is that I haven't completely subdued the soul of this male sword yet which prevents me from fully controlling it at will; otherwise, maybe we could have already determined who wins or loses by now.

Since relying on gender advantage won't work here anymore, why should I stick to what Drunkard Jiuhua suggested? That would just fall into his trap! Now that I have possession of Ghost Sword according to our agreement for competition purposes only - how exactly do we define "winning" doesn't necessarily mean using Ghost Sword against him exclusively - so why not use other methods such as fists or kicks or even teeth if necessary?

Of course not! Those low-end tactics wouldn't work against someone as skilled as General Chi Qing. Instead, I plan on using more advanced techniques such as sneak attacking him with Mercy Sword – one strike will suffice leaving him speechless!