3 Is this a flag?

Me and Hu Anjing walked together to see Yuan Jia, the matriarch.

The main hall of the sect is located in Sword Valley, rather than Sword Mountain.

Sword Valley is exactly what its name implies, it's a valley full of swords. These swords were either made by my sect's forge masters or were brought here by some means. There are also a few valuable swords, such as those from the sect's previous generation and one from each sect founder. There is also the mysterious sword, which was the reason that the sect was founded in this place.

This sword is told to have been dropped from a crack in the sky. About that day, there are many legends, but in the end, they are nothing but legends.

After the sword was plunged into the ground, it divulged its location with a strong sword Qi. This sword Qi was so strong that it was felt throughout the entire Divine Central Continent. There are also some records about sea beasts shrinking their borders and moving further from the divine central continent's shores.

The monster kind trusts their survival instincts, and even after countless evolutions, they know in their soul that they have come so far relying on this instinct.

However, unbridled greed that knows no bounds drives humankind instead of survival instincts.

Feeling this sword's Qi, instead of fearing how easily they could die in close proximity to it, they started daydreaming about the power that it could bring them.

Fortunately for humanity, six other objects fell from the cracking sky that day.

What was the source of this good fortune? because each of these objects was derived from a different type of martial arts practice. This prompted people to band together under a flag and fight not only to obtain the treasure, but also to keep it safe from other groups.

When there was only one kind of treasure, a sword, the swordmasters were happy, and the others were on edge to stop the swordsman from taking this sword and achieving new heights. But now everyone has something to gain and lose at the same time, so there won't be any rash movements.

Each faction sets some rules so that they can choose the owner of these artifacts. How would one know to which faction he or she belongs?

Like how you can detect the density of Qi in the air, you can do the same with weapon Qi like sword Qi, saber Qi, etc. In the same way that there is an attraction to a place with rich Qi, there is an attraction to weapon Qi, and it is said to be far more evident.

So in no time, seven factions were formed with little to no infighting. Why? Because as long as you can comprehend even a bit of profundity in the weapon Qi, you can go far in your path.

Years passed, and factions gradually transformed into sects, and with formations retaining the majority of the weapon Qi within the weapons, they transitioned from being a beacon that would attract people here to being pillars for these newly established sects.

As previously stated, seven weapons were created, and thus seven sects were formed: Blue Bulls Sect, which practices the way of the axe; Divine Arrow Sect, which practices the way of archery; Sky Pillar Sect, which practices the way of the staff; Heaven Reaching Spear Sect, and they practice the way of the spear; Temple of Emptiness, and they practice the way of Buddhism, and the weapon they are fascinated by is a horsetail whisk; White Moon Sect, and they practice the way of the Fan, and they are a female-only sect; and finally, we have the Heavenly Sword Sect, and we practice the way of the sword.

The name of our artifact is Mingyun; meaning fate, destiny, and weirdness. Fate, because the fate of the people who lived there was altered when this sword fell to the divine central continent. Destiny, because it was destiny that brought the prideful swordsmen under the same banner and made it possible to create the heavenly sword sect.

There was no one in the history of the divine central continent who could wield even one of these weapons. It is not like the world is short of geniuses who tried to claim them, but these weapons have sapience and they chose who can wield them.

So yeah, there is no one as of now who can move them, so we can use the sword Qi to train ourselves--

Wait a minute.

God fucking damn it.

Isn't this a flag?

It is like these weapons are saying, "Yo, handsome child of the plane. Can you pluck us from this cold earth and give us the warmth of your hand? Please?"

I might have gone a little overboard in my choice of words, but you get the gist of it.

'Hmmm... Let me think to see what this flag could be...'

~~ Inside Li Huang's mind, in his imagination ~~

"Young master of the heavenly sword sect, I, ******, am here to challenge you." said a black-haired youth.

Li Huang snorted, looked at the youth, and said nonchalantly, "The fact that you need to tell me your name means you are not qualified to talk to me directly, much less challenge me."

The youth gritted his teeth and said, with fury evident in his eyes, "Don't you dare look down on me."

Li Huang waved his hand dismissively: "I'm just stating the facts."

The youth, um, let's call him Tom, Tom was so angry that he started his attack before speaking.

After the attack hit the seemingly dazed Li Huang, Tom laughed while he said, "Hahahahaha... what is it? Do I qualify now? Hahahaha."

As the dust settled, you could see Li Huang there, without a speck of dust on him and unharmed.

He looked at Tom and said, "OK, let me finish it soon. I have places to be."

"Eclipse devourer sword art, piercing finger," he said, pointing a finger at Tom.

A moment later, there was a hole in Tom's chest, and he staggered backward.

With trembling hands, he looked at Li Huang "Y-you ..!"

After that, he dropped to the floor.

Li Huang didn't spare him even a glance and turned around.

The formation in the center of Sword Valley shocked him just as he was about to order others to clean up the fight scene.

Everyone in the heavenly sword sect was terrified as they looked in the direction of Sword Valley.

In a blink of an eye, the core formation was broken, and after that, the outer formations broke like paper in front of the power that was coming from within.

A sword familiar to everyone in the sect emerged from there.

It was Mingyun. The artifact of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Just as everyone thought it couldn't be any more weird, she moved toward the black-haired youth.

But it didn't harm him, instead, Tom's chest was getting repaired at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this, Li Huang was staring wide-eyed at Mingyun.

The moment that Tom was fully healed, he grasped the sword and looked at Li Huang coldly.

Immediately after, he attacked Li Huang.

Looking at the attack, Huang knows that he can not stop the power of this sword, so instead of dying while struggling, he clasped his hands behind his back, and there was a smile on his face: "Father, Mother, I'll be seeing you soon.'

At that moment, there was a shout from the direction of the sword mountain.

"Stop!"

But Tom paid it no heed and continued his attack.

In the next second, there was nothing left of Li Huang's body.

~~~

Coming back to reality from his overactive imagination, he nodded to himself.

'Yeah, something along these lines could happen, and after that, my grandpa can't kill him because he is the wielder of Mingyun and other grand elders stop him or some other bullshit.'

Rolling his eyes, he added in his mind, 'Well, I can't say this is a flag... This is a fucking landmine.'

'The best way to look at it is that "a known threat is no longer a threat," so I just have to be careful not to step on this land mine...'

Well, I should be careful not to let this happen in reality.

"Junior uncle, why are you so deep in your thoughts today?" Hu Anjing asked from the side.

"It might be my puberty making me feel dazed when you press yourself against me." I answered absentmindedly.

"This can be a problem, junior uncle, but don't worry; I would add a dose of myself to your daily life so that you can adjust to womanly touch sooner," she replied playfully.

Now it was my turn to be stunned. 'Give an inch, and she'll take a mile.'

"I might overdose with you; how about you focus on your training and I find someone else to give me lessons on 'womanly touches and how to adjust to them'?"

"...Now that I think more clearly, this subject might be over my head, so how about we consult with my master about it?" She said it with a caring face, but you could see it in her eyes that she was grinning inside.

'So this is how you want to play?'

"Let us first see what she has to say; after that, I will ask her about it..." I tried to play it cool, but you have to know that although Yuan Jia is like my big sister, she has a severe case of "brother" complex, so if she knows about it, well, let's not think about it...

Entering the main hall, we cupped our fists and bowed.

"Meet the matriarch."

"Meet the matriarch."

Yuan Jia looked at us with no emotion and said to me, "Junior brother, you are here at last. I have a mission for you."