Up in the skies above, Jiang He had turned into a Sword Qi, streaking through the air.
Even so, he looked gloomy.
Yes!
What if the ancient daemon cultivators refused to lend him their plant-life cultivation?
“Fine, keep it to yourself. I could just create a cultivation method on my own… but most importantly, what about the Feral Kings? Surely I can’t go overseas again… they must loan some to me!”
Shoosh!
The long trail of Sword Qi continued streaking through the skies and landed on Mount Kunlun at seven times the speed of light.
Taking out his jade charm and infusing some of his mystic energy, the jade charm shone brilliantly. In the next instant, at a temple within Taixu Sect’s Secret Realm beneath the great array shielding Mount Kunlun, Elder Mo’s face twitched as he took out his own jade charm and exclaimed, “Chieftain, Supreme Venerable Elders and Ancestral Masters… Jiang He has come!”
The many figures in the great temple rose to their feet.
It was no exaggeration that the Penglai Sect and the Ten Thousand Swords Sect acknowledged their inferiority to the Taixu Sect, because the Taixu Sect’s background and ability definitely far surpassed either sects.
Others aside, when it came to Sufferance elites alone, the Taixu Sect already had twelve of them, four of whom already had seven or eight retributions—including the Taixu Sect chieftain himself. Even the weakest of the other eight already had three retributions.
Still, their Yuan Spirit and Convergence elites were mostly equal in number with the Penglai Sect and the Ten Thousand Swords Sect.
After all, they had rarely gone out of their way to recruit disciples in the last few hundred years.
Nonetheless, the many Sufferance and Mahayana supreme venerable elders and ancestral elders who had confined themselves behind close doors for decades and centuries, rarely showing their faces, had all stepped out early in the morning once they learned that Jiang He was visiting. They waited out at the grand temple and rose to their feet when Elder Mo notified that Jiang He had arrived, even going out to welcome him.
“Open the mountain archways wide,” one Mahayana elite said. “And send orders to the other elders and disciples to prepare a banquet with our best food, and treat Jiang He as best as they can.”
Someone activated the array then, and with a resounding rumble, the array covering all of Mount Kunlun slowly faded. At the same time, a bright radiance shone within the Taixu Sect, forming bright arcs out of thin air that stretched over dozens of kilometers.
Outside
Boom…
Just like an earthquake.
The array covering Mount Kunlun dispersed then and Jiang He could now see the entire Taixu Sect.
It was unlike the Penglai Sect, which refined the Penglai Island into a Secret Realm that they kept hidden beneath the seas.
On the other hand, the Taixu Sect’s Secret Realm floated above Mount Kunlun and their mountain archway was built into the Secret Realm as well. The array usually covered and concealed their presence all year long, and with the array faded, the sight within the Secret Realm was utterly revealed.
From the distance, it resembled a godly realm that hovered up in the skies.
There were forests, pavilions, and grand temples, outside of which mists swirled and kept those places vaguely visible, adding some extent of mystery and beauty to it.
Jiang He could not help chuckling…
Just as he had expected, power was what counted among cultivators.
He was an average, even inferior Yuan Spirit novice the last time he visited the Taixu Sect, which was why they had merely opened a passage for him to enter. Now, however, their mountain archway was wide open and their array utterly nullified, which was a far cry compared to the last time.
That was when a twilight radiance shone from within the Taixu Sect. It was extremely dazzling, and it laid out a luminous path in front of the mountain archway that extended to beneath Jiang He’s feet before finally coming to a stop.
Many figures were also flying toward him from along the luminous path. There were four Mahayana cultivators, twelve Sufferance cultivators, the Taixu Sect chieftain, Elder Mo, and several Convergence cultivators.
From the distance, one could hear the Taixu Sect chieftain laughing loudly. “Please forgive us for not coming out further to receive you, Brother Jiang He… this way, please.”
Everyone had reached Jiang He even as they spoke.
As the Taixu Sect chieftain gestured invitingly, Jiang He strode forward upon the mystical path of twilight radiance. It felt soft to step on and incredibly comfortable, as if one was stepping on top of clouds, although it felt quite firm. Jiang He even felt that he would have to use ten percent… no, half of his power to crush the luminous path.
Watching as the many Taixu Sect elites smiled as they welcome him, Jiang He put fist to palm in salute and addressed them brothers in return. Still, he could not help thinking, ‘If I suddenly go all out right now and go on a warpath, could I kill off these four Mahayana cultivators?’
Probably…
It just might work.
Jiang He had a feeling that with his physique and qi both cultivated up to full-fledged Sufferance, along with the immortal sword in his possession, none of the Sufferance cultivators would be able to stop him if he launched a sneak attack.
When he had the free time, he would make inventory of the hundreds of soul items he possessed, as well as melt off whatever he did not need for materials to forge into stronger sage flying swords. After that, he would reorganize his Sword Array of Nine Skies Thunderflame and the Sword Array of Ten Realms and Infinity, so that it would not be as difficult as killing the White Brows Daoist the last time, even if he had to fight Mahayana elites directly…
It took him a dozen minutes to actually kill the White Brows Daoist, and that was only because the Penglai Sect was blown to bits, which wrecked the man mentally and affected his combat ability. Otherwise, they would have been fighting for several dozen minutes instead.
Meanwhile, the other members of the Taixu Sect had no idea what Jiang He was thinking as they ushered him into a great temple.
Inside, Taixu Sect disciples had put up tables full of spirit fruits and gourmet food, which left Jiang He a little taken aback…
Has the Taixu Sect always been this passionate?
Why did I only meet the chieftain and Elder Mo the last time I came?
Are they treating me this well only because I have the power to kill them all?
As he drank some wine, ate some spirit fruits, and had some idle conversation, Jiang He smiled. “Chieftain, the reason I’ve come here is to complete the trade we had agreed on last time…”
“Trade?”
“What trade?”
The four Mahayana cultivators and the supreme venerable elder were clearly unaware of the trade.
Nonetheless, the Taixu Sect chieftain smiled as he explained himself, and he spread his hands to reveal a crystal-clear pearl shining with moonlight hovering over his palm. With a gentle shove, the pearl appeared before Jiang He and he explained, “That pearl is called the Bright Moon Pearl, and I crafted it by gathering moonlight essence and frosted dark iron, after which it was refined for over seven hundred years until now. Though it could be used for both attacking and defending, its capacity for both is lacking compared to mystic treasures of the same tier, and I can’t use it for Sufferance either. That is why I gifted it to Brother Jiang He.”
Putting away the Bright Moon Pearl, Jiang He then took out a superior-grade sage flying sword, superior-grade sage moonblade, and two sets of combat armor, both of which were superior-grade sage items too. “We have mutually agreed to the deal in the first place,” he said, “so how could I take what you treasure? Chieftain, these two superior-grade sage weapons are offensive mystic treasures, and take the one which you prefer.”
“And there are two combat garments with different style and hue. Which one would you prefer?”
Jiang He then smiled. “To tell the truth, I know a thing or two about item refinement as well, though I could not ignite my furnace to start forging recently since I was busy. If you don’t like these items, Chieftain, you could ask for something you prefer—I’ll forge them for you after I’m done with the tasks I have on hand.”
The Taixu Sect chieftain was speechless.
Shocked and perplexed, he asked, “You had learned item refinement as well, Brother Jiang He?”
No way, right?
According to the information that the Taixu Sect gathered, wasn’t Jiang He supposed to be just twenty-five?
He is already so overwhelmingly powerful at that age, and the arrays he laid out was an utter mystery to the chieftain himself. And now it turned out that he knew item refinement too?
