She tossed me a line: "That's it? Holding hands? My protagonist's first chapter is already like that."
When I looked at it again, oh dear, it seems a little too innocent! I'm so sorry everyone.
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2022-02-01 22:05:47 and 2022-02-02 23:15:13!
Thank you to the little angels who threw landmines: .、 and 習然1;
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: Xiaoran (5 bottles);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter Seventy
Cangyun Sect Side Story, Buy with Caution
At Xingjian Peak in Cangshan Mountain, a young girl practices her swordsmanship atop the snow-capped mountain, with a small house with a courtyard behind her.
The gate to the courtyard was wide open, and there were two children, one older and one younger, inside the small courtyard.
A slightly older child, carrying a book in his hand, slowly walked out and loudly asked the girl practicing swordsmanship:
"Senior sister, I've forgotten how to swordsmanship again. Could you please give me some pointers?"
Xu Yi sheathed his sword, turned around to look at the girl holding the book, and nodded gently, "Mm."
"Thank you, senior sister."
Xu Yi entered the courtyard, where the little girl was using a wooden sword to chop at the sword practice stake in front of her. Things from the immortal realm are never so simple. The wooden stake, which looked as ordinary as could be, was full of hidden secrets. The little girl chopped at it several times but could not touch it at all.
Undeterred, she fought with increasing ferocity, the wooden sword in her hand subtly radiating a sword intent.
This scene caught Xu Yi's eye, and her eyes sparkled with admiration for the little girl.
"Agitation overcomes cold, stillness overcomes heat, and tranquility is the way to order the world."
"Great perfection seems flawed, yet its use is inexhaustible."
"Your mind is in turmoil, your temper is too impatient, and you only see the enemy, not the sword in your hand. Stop. Continuing to practice will only lead to this point."
Xu Yi spoke up to remind her, fearing that Xu Shang might damage her spirituality if she continued practicing. After all, she had already unleashed her sword intent, yet she herself was completely unaware of it, which showed that she had not yet established any connection with the sword in her hand.
“My name is Xu Yi. My master forged the Dao with the sword, and the sword is trained in intention, not form. My master instructed me to always keep the sword intention in mind, to call the sword heart without the form of a sword, and when the heart is there, the intention arises. There is no sword in the hand, which is better than having a sword.”
“Xu Shang, you are impatient and restless, so you cannot sense the sword intent. No matter how well you practice, you will only be a spiritual cultivator. You cannot cultivate the Dao with the sword.”
The wooden sword in Xu Shang's hand suddenly broke, and she was still holding the broken half of the sword.
"Your name is Xu Yi? Why am I called Xu Shang?" Xu Shang threw the broken sword in his hand at Xu Yi's feet and asked indignantly.
Xu Yi was silent for a while, then said, "I don't know. You can wait for your master to return. Perhaps he can give you the answer."
Within the Demon Realm, various forces are stirring up trouble, and hundreds of small-scale battles have already broken out on the border between the immortals and demons. My master went to the Loose Cultivator Alliance to discuss matters, and this departure has lasted for over a hundred years.
Xu Shang, early stage of Golden Elixir.
Xu Liang is in the middle stage of the Golden Core stage.
Xu Yi is in the late stage of Nascent Soul.
Time flies quickly in Cangshan. For cultivators, a hundred or even a thousand years is but a fleeting moment.
The master has still not returned, but the immortal servants have sent back many children.
They were all disciples accepted by their master. Some were inner disciples, some were sent to the outer sect, and some directly became their direct junior sisters.
The last one delivered was a disheveled young girl.
When Xu Yi first met her, the girl was very hostile towards her, or rather, the girl was very hostile towards everyone, and her aura was also very chaotic.
Xu Yi was only at the Nascent Soul stage at that time, so his judgment was not accurate. He could only sense various auras, including those of immortals, demons, gods, and monsters, from the chaotic aura.
Even the aura of ancient ferocious beasts exists within her body.
He is a complex person, yet also very simple. After staying in Cangyun Sect for a while, he gradually accepted everyone.
Those were the children Master brought back from the battlefield between immortals and demons.
Some say it is the orphan of a senior immortal, others say it is a demon's offspring, and still others say it is a hybrid offspring of a demon and a monster.
The people of Cangshan didn't care who she was. Once you enter Cangshan, you're all one family. Here, race and bloodline don't matter. They only know that they are all disciples of their master and disciples of the Cangyun Sect.
Xu Yi's cultivation had stagnated at the Nascent Soul stage for many years. She vaguely sensed that cultivating within the sect could no longer help her break through. The only way was to leave the Cangyun Sect and venture out into the world. She wanted to challenge her limits and break through the bottleneck that was holding her back.
Xu Yi made preparations and investigated thoroughly. In the Northern Illusionary Sea City, a secret realm was about to open.
The spiritual energy there is not pure enough, making cultivation extremely difficult and arduous for cultivators. However, the magical beasts bred there are of very high quality, making it an excellent resource for alchemy and weapon crafting.
The local area is wealthy, but lacks power, and is often raided by neighboring sects and immortal kingdoms.
But those were all done behind closed doors.
This time, a secret realm will appear in the miasma forest near Illusion Sea City. Knowing that this will attract other cultivators to plunder it, the city lord of Illusion Sea City simply auctioned off the poison-avoidance pills for entering the miasma forest.
It's equivalent to selling entry slots for the secret realm.
With a legitimate way to get in, those righteous cultivators who cared about their reputation stopped making underhanded moves. Instead, they praised the city lord of Illusion Sea City for his righteousness while eagerly scrambling to buy up the spots.
Of course, Illusionary Sea City also reserved fifty slots for itself, hoping that the cultivators in the city could go in and take something out, so that they wouldn't all be snatched up by outsiders.
However, the strength of Huanhai City is really low.
There is only one Nascent Soul Ancestor stationed in the city, and he is in seclusion most of the year.
The only ones available are the city lord's left and right protectors, both of whom are in the late Nascent Soul stage.
Although the surrounding sects were in a similar situation, they were ultimately outnumbered, so the city lord hired guest advisors at high prices.
Xu Yi accepted this task in order to undergo the trial.
Four other people were traveling with them: three men and one woman.
The woman's surname is Gu.
Because she was special, Xu Yi remembered her vividly.
No one knows how high a woman's cultivation level is. Her appearance must have also been changed. She looks extremely ordinary in a crowd. If you glance at her briefly, you might not remember her face.
The city lord gathered everyone together so they could get to know each other and prepare for entering the secret realm.
Xu Yi only knew herself as Xu Yi, the devoted Xu Yi.
The woman chuckled softly, without any malice, but it made Xu Yi feel a little uncomfortable.
When traveling, using a pseudonym is just as common as changing one's appearance; is there anything wrong with one's own name?
Xu Yi looked at her, but the woman didn't explain. She only said, "My surname is Gu."
She didn't say a word else, so everyone called her Miss Gu.
Miss Gu gives people a friendly feeling, like a hot spring in a deep abyss, and those who are close to her can always feel the gentle and hopeful power in her.
Xu Yi, however, strongly rejected this feeling.
She is a sword cultivator, a sword cultivator who entered the path of immortality through the ruthless path. To put it bluntly, she is a completely different person from Miss Gu. Her aura is sharp killing intent, and she also has an indifferent and cold look due to the ruthless path.
On the day she entered the secret realm, she and Miss Gu were teleported to Demon Rock Island together, along with seven cultivators from Illusion Sea City.
The monsters on Demon Rock Island suddenly became enraged, and the surrounding sea was filled with scorching and poisonous lava, which even she, with her Nascent Soul cultivation, struggled to withstand.
Miss Gu, however, was able to ignore everything on the island, not only calming the enraged monsters but also quelling the rolling lava.
They led the team away from Magic Rock Island.
On the way, Xu Yi became curious about her.
Xu Yi couldn't help but ask her about her Dao heart, as the kind of Dao heart one should have to embark on the path of immortality is the most important thing for a cultivator.
"Xu Yi, who has entered the path of immortality through the ruthless path, has become curious about a stranger. This is not a good thing."
The smile on Miss Gu's face was something Xu Yi had never seen before, and something she had never been able to understand.
Xu Yi sensed a danger, not from the woman beside her, but from within herself.
She didn't understand this danger, which made her extremely uneasy and gradually made her irritable.
Another wave of beasts attacked, and Xu Yi drew his sword to fight.
Just as they were getting into the swing of things, Miss Gu's voice came again.
"Xu Yi, the sword in the hands of a sword cultivator is equivalent to the Dao heart of a ruthless Dao cultivator. You are abusing your sword; has your Dao heart also become chaotic?"
Xu Yi heard this, and her frustration grew even more. She pretended not to hear it and simply vented her emotions.
After the killing was over, [the person's] emotions were calmed down.
The lake of my heart, which had been stirred up not long ago, has returned to calm.
Several months later, demonic energy appeared in the secret realm.
The secret realm is littered with the corpses of cultivators, all of whom are imbued with demonic energy.
Xu Yi then realized that this woman had come for these demonic energies.
Demonic energy raged, monsters rampaged, and the secret realm underwent earth-shattering changes.
It turns out that this secret realm was the core of an ancient divine array used to suppress evil gods. Over time, the spiritual energy within the array core circulated and spontaneously created a small world, thus giving rise to this secret realm.
The demons learned the truth and, using cultivators and demon beasts as bait, began a blood sacrifice that defied the laws of nature.
The demons are attempting to release an evil god, an ancient evil god. Although the ancient evil god was also on the opposite side of the demons millions of years ago, things are different now.
They had a common enemy: the righteous path of spiritual cultivation, the so-called Way of Heaven.
Miss Gu was the one who came to stop all of this.
The secret realm has changed.
This was the first time Xu Yi had ever seen such a terrified and uneasy expression on a woman's face.
This shouldn't be happening; Xu Yi couldn't bear to see her like this.
The world within this secret realm is crumbling little by little. From a distance, it seems as if the power supporting this land is being drained away, and every place that has lost its support is visibly collapsing.
The power of evil spirits permeated this space, and the spiritual power that cultivators could use gradually diminished until it disappeared.