The spiritual light on the stone wall gradually dimmed, and the narrow fissure wide enough for only one person to slip through sideways slid silently open once more.
Lin Zhixue stepped out from within, the Guilan Sword hanging quietly at her waist. The water-patterned spiritual light on the scabbard had not yet fully subsided, flickering faintly in the dim canyon.
Her footsteps made a fine rustling sound against the gravel.
Rising from the boulder, Xu Muhe patted the dust from her hem. “So fast? What was inside?”
“《Autumn Water Sword Technique》.” Lin Zhixue came to a halt before her. “A water-attribute sword art.”
“Autumn Water Sword Technique?” Xu Muhe repeated the name. “That's a nice name. What grade is it?”
“It seems to be Earth Low-Grade.”
Xu Muhe drew in a soft breath.
An Earth Grade cultivation manual was already on par with the standard provision for core inner disciples within the sect, let alone a complete sword technique.
Looking at Lin Zhixue’s calm face, she suddenly smiled. “Others risk life and limb in the secret realm fighting over a single spirit herb, yet you went in and came out with an Earth Grade sword technique in less than half a shichen. Miss Lin, your luck... I don't even know what to say.”
“It wasn't luck.” Lin Zhixue looked down at the Guilan Sword. “It led me to it.”
Gu Yanqing leaned against the stone wall, listening to their conversation without interjecting.
His gaze fell upon Lin Zhixue, though what churned in his mind was another memory entirely.
In the original novel, Lin Zhixue had only obtained the 《Autumn Water Sword Technique》 in the deepest part of the secret realm after enduring many twists and turns.
The sword technique had nine layers in total: the first three corresponded to Foundation Establishment, the middle three to Golden Core, and the final three to Nascent Soul.
Now that she had acquired it much sooner, she would have ample time to hone the harmony between the sword technique and her sword intent.
He remembered clearly that once the first layer of the 《Autumn Water Sword Technique》 was mastered, sword qi could condense water-attributed spiritual power to project outwardly, capable of piercing through the defenses of opponents of the same rank in almost a single strike.
“Let's go,” he said, straightening up from the stone wall. “We still have plenty of time left in the secret realm. We can talk as we walk.”
The three continued forward along the canyon.
Lin Zhixue walked in the middle, silently digesting the mental cultivation method she had memorized in the stone chamber and deducing how to channel force for various sword strikes.
Walking up front, Xu Muhe paused halfway to brush a few spiritual runes onto a talisman paper. She then crouched at a fork in the path, rubbing the ground with her fingertips to carefully discern tracks.
“The spiritual energy here is stable. The other path most likely harbors a demon beast den.”
Gu Yanqing brought up the rear, casually gathering spiritual materials along the way. Stone Marrow Grass from the rock faces, spirit ore washed smooth by the stream, Gloomlight Mushrooms beneath withered roots—he swept them all into his storage bag.
“They're all ordinary materials, but even if I can't use them after leaving, they can still be sold.”
As they crossed a natural stone bridge at the end of the canyon, a frantic patter of running footsteps suddenly echoed from the woods ahead, mingled with hoarse beast roars and shouted curses.
Xu Muhe stopped in her tracks, pinching a talisman paper between two fingers from her sleeve as she listened closely for a moment.
“Three sets of footsteps, and one late Foundation Establishment demon beast. They're heading this way.”
Just as her voice fell, three figures came stumbling out of the forest.
Two men and one woman, dressed in Daoist robes distinct from those of the Yunxiao Sect, with a silver sword crest embroidered on their chests. They were disciples of another sect.
All three were injured, the male disciple running in front sporting a claw mark on his left arm that still oozed blood.
Hot on their heels was a massive, powerfully built black-scaled leopard.
Judging by its aura, it was around late Foundation Establishment. The scales on its spine glinted with a cold, metallic sheen in the sunlight, its slitted pupils locked dead onto the fleeing prey ahead.
The wounded male disciple was running the slowest. Tripping over an exposed tree root, he stumbled forward a couple of steps.
Seizing the opening, the black-scaled leopard pounced fiercely, its forepaw sweeping toward his back with the whistling screech of tearing wind. He closed his eyes.
Gu Yanqing had intended to tell the others to simply keep moving, but he saw that Lin Zhixue had already made her move.
A sword flash flared.
Lin Zhixue’s Guilan Sword thrust in at an angle from the flank, water-blue sword glow condensing into a razor-thin line at the tip of the blade that sliced cleanly and precisely into the wrist of the black-scaled leopard’s forepaw.
Roaring in pain, the leopard's pounce was wrenched entirely off course by the strike, its heavy body slamming into a nearby tree trunk and sending leaves rustling down in showers.
Xu Muhe’s talismans flew in right behind. Two explosive talismans detonated against the leopard’s belly in twin bursts of fire. Though they failed to pierce the scales, the shockwave threw it off balance once more.
Cutting in from the side while the black-scaled leopard was still unsteady on its feet, Gu Yanqing drove a fist directly into the seam between the scales at its hind knee joint. His body tempering strength surged into the joint crevice, producing a crisp, clean snap of breaking bone.
The black-scaled leopard howled in agony and rolled onto its side. It struggled twice but failed to rise, and the three joined forces to finish it off.
From the moment Lin Zhixue struck to the beast's collapse, fewer than twenty breaths had elapsed.
The rescued male disciple sat sprawled on the ground, panting for a long while before recovering his wits, then was helped to his feet by his companions.
He walked over to Lin Zhixue, his eyes sweeping over the Guilan Sword in her hand before lingering on the Yunxiao Sect robes she wore.
His voice was somewhat hoarse, tinged with the daze of a narrow escape.
“Thank you three for lending a hand. I am from the Cangyun Sect. Are you disciples of the Yunxiao Sect?”
“Mm.”
“That sword strike of yours just now...” He paused, seemingly searching for the right words. “It was incredible. Truly, I didn't even see how you drew your blade.”
The female disciple beside him nodded along, whispering, “Thank you all.”
Looking at their sincere expressions, Lin Zhixue sank into thought.
Back in Canglan City, she had only ever been the one envying others.
Envying the cultivation of her fellow clan members.
Envying other cultivators who possessed fine techniques and artifacts.
Envying Jiang Yinglan for speaking so effortlessly of vast worlds she had never seen.
Yet standing here now, disciples from another sect were looking at her with gratitude because of her sword.
She lowered her head to look at the water-patterned glow rippling serenely across the Guilan Sword.
“No need for thanks,” she said.
Xiaoyu drifted out from the jade pendant, floating beside her shoulder with its arms crossed, its tone brimming with smug pride.
“Hmph, now you know how amazing our Zhixue is, right? That strike just now was merely the opening stance of the Autumn Water Sword Technique’s first layer! If it’s this formidable before she’s even mastered it, imagine how terrifying it’ll be once she has! That Cangyun Sect fellow has quite an eye, at least.”
Lin Zhixue could not respond to it in such a setting, so she simply returned the Guilan Sword to its scabbard. The blade slipped home with a crisp click.
Time passed quickly within the secret realm.
When the first ray of silver light from the teleportation formation cascaded down from the horizon, the three were standing at the edge of a cliff, taking inventory of their gains.
The silver light grew brighter and brighter, illuminating the entire secret realm as if it were broad daylight.
The familiar sensation of weightlessness lasted only a moment before solid ground met their feet. They were already standing on the teleportation formation platform in the square.
All around them were disciples who had likewise just been teleported out. Some were excitedly waving newly acquired spiritual materials before their companions, some sat dirt-faced on the ground gasping for breath, and a few who were injured were being assisted to the Medicine Hall by deacon disciples.
Standing beside Lin Zhixue, Xu Muhe looked down and sorted through the talismans in her sleeve, the majority of which had been depleted.
Picking out the last few intact protective talismans, she drew two and held them out to Lin Zhixue.
“Not many left, but take these two. I’ll have to draw another batch once I get back anyway, and keeping these old ones around will just take up space.”
Lin Zhixue took the talismans and looked into Xu Muhe’s eyes.
Those almond-shaped eyes were curved in a smile as always, yet deep within them was a hint of something she had never seen before...
She still could not tell what it was.
She recalled the first time she had met Xu Muhe at the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion. She had smiled just like this then—gentle, proper, and remarkably approachable.
Yet that smile back then was not quite the same as now. She could not put her finger on what was different.
“Thank you for guiding the way in the secret realm,” Lin Zhixue said.
Xu Muhe waved a hand and turned to walk toward her own residence.
A fleeting smile surfaced at the corners of her lips, identical to every time she had bidden farewell before.
Xiaoyu drifted out from the jade pendant and stretched lazily in midair, its pale azure spiritual body standing out vividly in the night.
“Finally out! That bored me half to death! The spiritual energy in that secret realm might have been rich, but the air was so stagnant it felt suffocating just floating around in there.”
It floated over in front of Lin Zhixue, drifting backward so it could face her directly.
“Zhixue, how did it feel entering a secret realm for the first time?”
Lin Zhixue pondered for a moment.
“When I obtained the sword technique earlier, I was indeed quite glad, and coordinating with Senior Sister Xu felt very natural. As for saving those people, I didn't think much of it—it was simply the right thing to do.”
“All in all, quite the harvest,” Xiaoyu said, doing a flip above her head and floating on its back facing the sky. “Still, you’ll have to spend some time properly digesting it all.”
“Mm.”
...
By the time Gu Yanqing returned to his residence, the sky had turned pitch black.
Placing the few pieces of spirit ore he had gathered from the secret realm onto the table, Gu Yanqing shed his outer robe and sat cross-legged on the bed.
Closing his eyes to look inward, he circulated his spiritual power through his meridians for a few cycles, and the barrier began to loosen.
The foundation left behind by his prior body tempering was far sturdier than that of cultivators of the same rank. After three full days of exertion in the secret realm, his meridians repeatedly scoured by spiritual power, the bottleneck had already worn paper-thin.
He gathered all the spiritual power in his meridians into a single torrent and slammed it fiercely against that translucent barrier.
The barrier shattered on impact. Spiritual power surged through his meridians at more than double its former speed, and the reserves within his dantian climbed steadily.
Late Foundation Establishment.
Rate on N.U.
