Outside the sword formation, no one knew what was happening within.
Yet during that time, several cultivators quietly attempted to approach it.
Before they could make any move, however, the seemingly stable sword formation suddenly turned violent, shearing great swathes of flesh from the cultivators who had crept too close.
“Wait—the swords are poisoned?” One of the injured cultivators tried to swallow a pill to heal himself, only to find black vapor still rising from his wounds. It was plainly a sign of poisoning.
“Why are our poisons different?” another cultivator cried out in alarm.
Following their voices, the crowd saw that one man’s wounds had turned purple, while the other’s had turned black.
“Not only are they poisoned, but they’re also tainted with demonic qi.” Yin Rushi stroked his chin. “Most of these weapons must have come from different demonic cultivators. Shu Xin not only failed to remove the demonic qi from these swords—she even added poison. The poison mixed with the demonic qi on the blades, producing this result. Strange. Don’t sword cultivators regard their swords as their Dao companions? Who would have thought a sword cultivator would coat their sword in poison?”
“Fellow Daoist Shu merely uses a sword; she is not a sword cultivator,” Qu Yougu said. “There is no need for your speculation. These two had ill intentions, and anyone who rashly approaches the sword formation can hardly be up to any good. Perhaps they are even demonic-cultivator spies. They have brought this upon themselves—what is there to discuss?”
“Junior Sister Shu truly is capable,” Long Ling could not help saying with a sigh. “To accumulate so many spirit swords, and even coat them with such poison, she must have been prepared to abandon them all.”
If spirit swords could not be cleansed of their former owners’ aura, and were further contaminated with such unnecessary additions, their spiritual nature would be severely damaged.
It was, in other words, an extraordinarily wasteful thing to do.
But its effectiveness was equally obvious.
Unless one bore Shu Xin a deep grudge—or possessed absolute confidence in one’s own abilities—after seeing the examples set by those two cultivators, no one dared provoke the sword formation again.
“Yin Rushi, do you think the treasured book might be in Junior Sister Shu’s possession?” Long Ling asked with a faint smile.
“Heh. Surnamed Long, there is no need to try to use someone else’s blade to kill for you. I know that trick better than you do,” Yin Rushi sneered. “Shu Xin has been on the battlefield from beginning to end. To seize the treasured book from the two of us without being noticed by the Immaculate Realm cultivators outside, she would need at least peak Immaculate Realm cultivation—perhaps even strength approaching the Mahayana Realm. If Shu Xin truly possessed such ability, I would never make an enemy of her. And if she does not, then the treasured book naturally cannot be in her hands.”
Anyone who could survive in the Blood Demon Sect without being killed by the Blood Demon Ancestor possessed, if nothing else, exceptionally sharp judgment.
When it came to reading the situation and adapting accordingly, Yin Rushi claimed second place—yet no one dared claim first.
“What a pity,” Long Ling said, sounding faintly disappointed. Yet the techniques he hurled at Yin Rushi grew ever more ferocious.
Demonic cultivators ought to obediently be exploited and eliminated, serving as stepping-stones for righteous cultivators to win fame and renown.
They should not be clever, capable of weighing the situation, able to fight, and able to survive.
If Yin Rushi were allowed to continue growing, he might one day become another Blood Demon Ancestor.
Although the clash between Shu Xin and Juechen briefly drew a wave of attention, everyone had their own matters to attend to.
No one wanted to fall behind, nor did anyone want to become a stepping stone for others to climb higher.
The future cultivation world was destined to be one where there were too many monks and too little gruel—a winner-takes-all struggle.
For every opponent eliminated, one’s own chances of advancing in the future increased by a fraction.
If they did not kill more of their future rivals now, were they supposed to wait until those rivals had grown strong before killing them?
Meanwhile, within the sword formation—
Juechen, who had been so high-spirited only moments earlier, now had half his body reduced to a bloody skeleton.
The Corpse Puppet at the Immaculate Realm was being madly devoured, its flesh consumed by a sword.
And as the Immaculate Realm Corpse Puppet gradually vanished, that bloodstained sword actually seemed to grow a little cleaner.
The change was subtle, but at least it no longer looked quite as unsightly as before.
Originally, Juechen had thought that he and Shu Xin would engage in a long, drawn-out battle of spells.
After all, she had even brought out a sword formation.
Yet once the formation sealed off the area, Juechen realized just how wrong he had been.
Shu Xin, who had been evenly matched with him just moments ago, seemed to have become an entirely different person.
Her presence was overwhelming, and the two swords in her hands had somehow become one.
A bloodstained sword, so caked in grime that only a small section of its blade could be seen near the tip.
Yet this was precisely the sort of sword no one would bother picking up even if it had been thrown by the roadside—and still, it filled Juechen with immense pressure.
Shu Xin merely drew the sword. She had not even made a move yet.
But Juechen could already feel the spiritual energy in his body rapidly draining away, while the Corpse Puppets seemed faintly inclined to escape his control.
No—the Corpse Puppets were not trying to escape his control.
They were trying to get away from that sword. From that person.
Like mice before a cat, when faced with a natural predator, even Corpse Puppets that had been dead for ages would tremble in accordance with the instincts they had possessed in life.
Even the Immaculate Realm Corpse Puppet was no exception.
In fact, the Immaculate Realm Corpse Puppet trembled the most violently of all.
Before Juechen had the chance to say much of anything, the army of Corpse Puppets before him had already been swept away in great swathes.
Shu Xin merely blew gently across the blade. “Mm. It really does consume less spiritual energy than before.”
[That’s because you’re at the Grotto-Heaven Realm now. You’re a little stronger than you were at the Nascent Soul stage.]
[And my blade has become cleaner, so I can control my power more precisely as well.] The Sword Spirit could hardly wait to show Shu Xin what it was capable of. [Of course, you’ve also made great progress with the Sword Scripture. You wield me much more smoothly than you did before.]
The Sword Spirit secretly praised Shu Xin a little, lest she become too arrogant.
To be honest, even the Sword Spirit found it astonishing.
Back at the Longevity Dao Sect, whenever Shu Xin, then at the Nascent Soul stage, used it once, she had to drain every spirit stone she possessed and exhaust all the spiritual energy in her body just to unleash a strike powerful enough to wound even an Immaculate Realm cultivator such as Ning Weixuan.
Yet now, less than ten years after advancing to the Grotto-Heaven Realm, she was already able to control its power and keep its spiritual-energy consumption within a range she could bear.
That was not reasonable.
I’ve barely restored my true form even a few times, and she has hardly used me at all.
The Sword Spirit was utterly baffled.
Back when it served its former masters, they had practically needed to practice swordsmanship ten thousand times a day just to achieve even a sliver of coordination with this supreme immortal sword.
What the Sword Spirit had never considered was that the way it treated Shu Xin was completely different from how it had treated its previous masters.
In the hands of its former masters, it had merely been a weapon—nothing more than a sword spirit. All it had needed to do was charge forward and cut people down. How the sword was wielded and how much spiritual energy it consumed were matters the Sword Spirit had never needed to concern itself with.
But now that it was with Shu Xin, the Sword Spirit was forced to think, to accommodate her, and had even been cut in half just to keep her from being discovered.
Without realizing it, the understanding between it and Shu Xin had long since surpassed that of an ordinary sword master and sword spirit.
In fact, more often than not, it was not Shu Xin wielding it—it was the Sword Spirit taking the initiative to work with her.
“A dead Immaculate Realm cultivator is much easier to fight than a living one.” As Shu Xin swung her sword, she casually compared the Immaculate Realm corpse puppet before her with the Immaculate Realm cultivators she knew.
The Immaculate Realm cultivators she knew best were none other than Ning Weixuan, who might soon have recovered from his injuries; Xu Guan, her bargain-basement master; and the Lin family ancestor, who had been dead for many years.
Yet even the weakest among them, the Lin family ancestor, had been far stronger than the corpse puppet before her.
For a demonic cultivator at the Grotto-Heaven Realm to control a corpse puppet whose cultivation far exceeded his own, being able to draw out even a third of its strength would already be impressive.
In other words, Juechen really was such a nice fellow.
Shu Xin only had to expend enough strength to deal with one-third of an Immaculate Realm cultivator, yet she would gain an entire Immaculate Realm cultivator’s corpse.
“You... you...” Seeing Shu Xin fight the Immaculate Realm corpse puppet evenly while still finding time to sweep through his other corpse puppets, Juechen felt his heart sink to the depths.
He realized that he was no match for the person before him.
He wanted to flee, but this sword formation was a cage that bound him.
How could he possibly escape?
“I... I surrender.” Juechen forced himself to speak. “I can make the corpse puppets stop attacking you. Let’s call it a draw, all right?”
Before he had even finished speaking—
Shu Xin’s sword had already pierced through the chest of the Immaculate Realm corpse puppet.
“Huh?” Shu Xin looked at Juechen with amused mockery written across her face.
“Only when the fire reaches your doorstep do you remember to put it out? I’ve already come to kill you, and now you want to make peace?” Shu Xin released the sword in her hand, allowing the Sword Spirit to deal with the Immaculate Realm cultivator’s corpse on its own.
Then, in an instant, she appeared before Juechen and drove her fist hard into his scarred eye.
Bang—
Juechen was sent flying into the sword formation. Sword qi sliced open his back, and the poisonous miasma seized the opportunity to invade his body.
“Pfft.” Juechen had never expected that the strength in Shu Xin’s single hand would nearly rival that of a body cultivator.
How could there be such a terrifying cultivator in this world?
Yet all he could do was watch in despair as Shu Xin slowly approached him.
“Now then, it’s time for us to have some fun.” Shu Xin smiled. “I’m a woman of my word. Once I say something, I mean it. I said I’d make you die painfully, so I can’t very well let you go easily.”
“Aaahhh—!” Juechen let out a scream of agony.
Even now.
[My dear Sword Master, could you ask this demonic cultivator whether he has another corpse puppet from the Immaculate Realm?] The Sword Spirit gazed longingly at the corpse of the Immaculate Realm cultivator before them.
There was so much demonic energy in it that it felt as though its blade had grown lighter.
If it could get a few more like this, it could recover at least a tenth of its former strength.
And if they could kill a few Great Ascension cultivators or Earthly Immortals, returning to its peak would be just around the corner!
“Hey, you from the Loan-Sharking Sect. Do you have any more corpse puppets of Immaculate Realm cultivators? Or does anyone else in your sect carry one around with them? Since you’re about to die anyway, why not tell me? I can kill a few more people to keep you company down there.” Shu Xin casually tapped Juechen’s face with her sheathed sword.
“Kill… kill me.” Juechen panted heavily, his eyes filled with despair and terror.
The female cultivator before him was simply too terrifying!
He had no idea where she had found so many strange and grotesque devices, all of which she had used on him.
His body would heal, only to be damaged again. And after it was broken, she would force-feed him pills to repair it.
But as his flesh mended, excruciating pain seeped deep into his bones.
At first, Juechen had screamed himself hoarse. But when the pain reached its peak, he could no longer make a sound. He could only breathe in ragged gasps, as though that might lessen the agony, even a little.
“These are all spoils of war I confiscated from the demon dens you people built.” Shu Xin bent slightly at the waist. There was a smile on her face, but it never reached her eyes. “Because they were invented specifically to torture people, no one would even take them if I tried selling them on the black market. Back then, I thought that if I ever caught any of you, I would test every last one of these things on you.”
It wasn’t as though she had lost faith in this world the moment she arrived in it.
She had simply seen too much.
The people who lived in those demon dens could no longer truly be called human.
They were nothing more than piles of rotten flesh—creatures that had once been people.
Demonic cultivators would divide them into skin, bones, blood, flesh, and souls. Every part could be used for cultivation.
And whatever was of no use could still be used for torture and amusement.
Shu Xin had destroyed many demon dens and killed many demonic cultivators.
Yet they could never be completely eradicated.
While she did her best to kill them here, in every moment and every corner of the cultivation world, cultivators were choosing to fall into the demonic path—whether in pursuit of greater power or to escape those hunting them down.
But once someone entered the demonic path, no matter how kind they had once been, they would grow accustomed to the life of a demonic cultivator and become cruel and bloodthirsty.
Demonic cultivators were corrupted by demonic energy, and their temperaments gradually changed beyond recognition. To preserve one’s Dao heart required far greater effort than it did for an ordinary cultivator.
Yet those who fell into the demonic path were often precisely the people whose Dao hearts were weakest. It was a vicious cycle.
There was only one exception she knew of.
Even so, Shu Xin could not be certain that, once he had avenged his great wrongs and no longer needed to suppress himself, he would not be consumed by his inner demon.
If that day came, then she could only honor the agreement they had made long ago—and grant him a swift death.
“After all, this is exactly what you did to others back then. I even had the sudden urge to forge a Myriad Souls Banner, using the souls of you demonic cultivators as materials. What a pity—I’m a disciple of the Dao Sect, after all. I can’t exactly carry something so steeped in demonic aura around with me.”
Still, it was something she could consider in the future.
These demonic cultivators were like weeds in a field—one gust of wind, and they sprang up everywhere.
“Please… kill me.” Juechen was in such agony that his features had nearly twisted out of shape. His eyes were filled with pleading as he looked at Shu Xin. “Give me a quick death, and I’ll tell you where my fellow disciples are. We have a secret method for keeping in contact—I can tell you. Kill me. Kill me!”
“I refuse.” Shu Xin yawned. “Mm, hang in there a little longer. No reason the people you used this thing on before could endure for months without dying, while you can’t, right? You should learn from them. Don’t go around thinking you can’t do this or can’t do that every day. If I say you can do it, then you can. If I say you can’t, then that’s when you truly can’t.”
[Hearing you say something like that to a demonic cultivator... I actually think it sounds pretty good.] The Sword Spirit could not help sighing.
If Shu Xin spoke to it that way, it would only want to argue with her. But hearing her say it to a demonic cultivator made it want to praise her to the skies.
“I think it sounds pretty good too.” Shu Xin shrugged. “No rush. There’s plenty of fighting going on outside. Using the sword formation once costs quite a bit, too. I’ll rest properly here for now, and you can take the opportunity to wipe out those corpse puppets. Once the battle outside is nearly over, I’ll head out.”
Shu Xin saw the situation clearly.
It was rather too much to hope that those people outside would treat her as one of their own.
For all she knew, once she activated her sword formation, they might “accidentally” let an enemy slip through and kill her when she was exhausted.
It couldn’t be helped. She was too great a threat.
The current arrangement was perfect. She did not need to move at all; she could simply lie here, eat, drink, and take it easy.
Once the fighting outside had mostly ended and the outcome was decided, she could emerge pretending to have fought bitterly. By then, she would be full of energy while they were utterly spent. As for who ought to fear whom—that was another matter entirely.
Their expressions then would surely be quite entertaining.
[It’s fine. The people outside are having a wonderful time fighting.] The Sword Spirit checked on the situation outside and carefully suggested, [I think using me just now consumed quite a lot of your spiritual energy. Why not take out some spirit stones and cultivate for a while?]
Shu Xin considered the Sword Spirit’s suggestion seriously, then agreed.
She did not particularly enjoy sitting in meditation to cultivate, but while everyone else was fighting desperately outside and she was leisurely cultivating in here, that was an entirely different matter.
The Sword Spirit was so touched it nearly cried.
Shu Xin had actually listened to advice?
What day was it today? How could its luck be so good?
Everlasting Life Dao Sect.
“Welcome, Elder Ning, on your emergence from seclusion.”
“Congratulations on leaving seclusion, Master.”
...
Before Ning Weixuan had even stepped through the doors, the two disciples he had previously accepted were already waiting obediently outside.
Besides them, he also saw two junior brothers with whom he was on good terms.
“Senior Brother, you’ve finally emerged from seclusion.”
“Senior Brother should have come to see you, but the timing is rather awkward.” The two junior brothers stepped forward. Worried that Ning Weixuan might be upset, they hesitated, unsure how to continue.
“What happened?” Ning Weixuan had only just repaired his Dao foundation. Seeing the uneasy expressions on his two junior brothers’ faces, he could not help but grow curious.
“Senior Brother has entered seclusion to attempt a breakthrough to the Mahayana stage. In addition, Senior Brother Gong and Junior Brother Zong have also chosen to enter seclusion.”
“Senior Brother Ning, you may not know this, but the Profound Spirit Dao Sect has been destroyed. Both of its Mahayana cultivators have perished, leaving two Mahayana positions vacant.”
“Senior Brother Ning, you can only wait for the next opportunity.”
If Ning Weixuan had not been injured, then with the strength of his foundation and accumulated cultivation, he too could have competed with Gong Changshou and Zong An for the remaining Mahayana position.
But Ning Weixuan had been wounded. Even after repairing his Dao foundation, it would take him several times longer than usual to prepare for another breakthrough.
Attempting to reach the Mahayana stage was already a race against time—an absolutely critical juncture in which not the slightest mistake could be tolerated.
Thus, even if Ning Weixuan emerged from seclusion now, it would be better for him to wait until the matter of the Mahayana cultivators had been settled before making an appearance.
It had to be said that Ning Weixuan’s luck in this regard was truly poor.
After listening to his two junior brothers, surprise, anguish, and regret flickered across Ning Weixuan’s face in turn.
At the same time, his hatred for the Mahayana sword cultivator who had injured him deepened until his teeth itched.
“Have you found any trace of the person who injured me?” Ning Weixuan could not help asking.
There were only twelve Mahayana cultivators in the cultivation world. Identifying one of them should not have been difficult.
“No. On that day, nearly every Mahayana cultivator was still in seclusion within their own sect.”
“Actually, Senior Brother Ning, have you considered that the one who injured you might not have been a Mahayana cultivator at all, but an avatar of a terrestrial immortal?”
As far as they knew, there was only one Mahayana sword cultivator. Yet at the time of the incident, that sword cultivator had been attending a banquet hosted by another Mahayana cultivator, tens of thousands of miles away. Even if a Mahayana cultivator could move at a thought and arrive at the Longevity Dao Sect in the blink of an eye, there was no reason Wuweizi, their master, would have failed to notice.
Therefore, the culprit must either have infiltrated the Longevity Dao Sect long beforehand—or perhaps they had never been a Mahayana cultivator at all, but a terrestrial immortal!
“A terrestrial immortal?” Ning Weixuan recalled the person who had injured him, feeling that something had indeed been amiss.
“That’s right. In fact, we already have a suspect.”
“Who?”
“The Blood Demon Ancestor,” the two junior brothers answered in unison. “We received word that the Blood Demon Ancestor has ordered the Immaculate Realm cultivators of the Blood Demon Sect to focus their efforts on dealing with the Immaculate Realm cultivators of our sect. Under no circumstances can both Mahayana positions be allowed to fall into our sect’s hands. What is more, not long ago, cultivators from our sect personally saw an avatar of the Blood Demon Ancestor. He had already emerged from seclusion long ago!”
“Exactly, Senior Brother. The person who injured you was a Mahayana cultivator, a demonic cultivator, and a sword cultivator. Among the Mahayana cultivators we know of, there is simply no one like that. But if the culprit was an avatar of the Blood Demon Ancestor, then everything makes sense.”
“But Master has never been on good terms with the Blood Demon Ancestor. If it truly was an incarnation of the Blood Demon Ancestor, how could Master have failed to notice?” Ning Weixuan could not help but argue.
“Master… Master has ignored us for decades already. He became too deeply entangled in karma before, and now he needs rest. It is possible that he simply overlooked it for a time.”
“If it was not the Blood Demon Ancestor, then who else does Senior Brother suspect?”
For some reason, Shu Xin suddenly came to Ning Weixuan’s mind.
“What happened to Shu Xin? Have you captured her? I said I wanted to take her as my disciple.” Ning Weixuan changed the subject.
At once, his two junior brothers’ expressions grew even more uncomfortable.
“Shu Xin has already left the Everlasting Dao Sect.”
“She is now Xu Guan’s disciple at the Inquiry God Sect, and she has already reached the Grotto-Heaven realm. Senior Brother, your judgment of her was indeed excellent.”
“Xu Guan?” Ning Weixuan frowned when he heard the name. “The only one in the entire Inquiry God Sect worth noticing is that sect’s Book Spirit.”
His two junior brothers could only laugh awkwardly, unsure how to respond.
“If I remember correctly, doesn’t our sect still have Shu Xin’s fiancé?” Ning Weixuan continued. “Bring him here. I have something to ask him.”
“That may not be possible either.”
“He has left the Everlasting Dao Sect as well?”
“Oh, no. That is not it. Senior Brother Gong has taken him as a disciple. Senior Brother Gong is currently in seclusion, and without his orders, none of his disciples are permitted to leave the mountain range where he resides.”
For a moment, Ning Weixuan found himself at a loss for words.
Perhaps he should not have emerged from seclusion at this time. Why did it feel as though nothing was going his way?
