Qin Jianglan was already considered the most serious and unsmiling person in the cultivation world.
But it turned out Luo Ying was even more so, maintaining an expressionless face from beginning to end, cold as frost. In comparison, that demoness of hers was always smiling every day—this was what they meant by “hiding a knife behind a smile.”
…
“Chen Tian of Feihong Sect greets Senior Luo. My master, Gu Honghua of Feihong Sect, has received kindness from Senior before.” Liu Zhen was made to tremble all over by Luo Ying’s single glance, too frightened to speak again. The older man beside her, with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, stepped forward from the crowd and respectfully performed a deep bow.
Chen Tian then continued: “Even if the seal has nothing to do with her, it’s true that someone cast a Soul-Losing Curse in the village well of Changning Village, and she can’t escape involvement in this matter.”
Heh, these two were the shameless pair from earlier. No wonder their voices sounded familiar.
Su Zhuyi slightly tilted her head, completely ignoring this topic, and instead said: “Big brother, big sister, I heard your voices earlier when I was on the ground. You followed the treasure-seeking mouse and discovered something that triggered the seal, didn’t you? Why don’t you tell us the details and see if we can find some clues?”
As soon as Su Zhuyi said this, several gazes fell on Chen Tian and Liu Zhen. Among them, a round-faced girl from Feihong Sect asked in an unfriendly tone: “When we asked earlier, why didn’t you say anything? We were all flying in the sky, but Liu Zhen insisted on going into the mountains to play around. What exactly did you touch that triggered the seal? The seal here is so vicious—if you took something you shouldn’t have, quickly take it out and put it back!”
Compared to the Soul-Losing Curse in Changning Village’s well water, everyone was more concerned about their current predicament.
“Stop talking nonsense! What treasure-seeking mouse!” Liu Zhen argued defensively: “I didn’t touch any seal. It must be you, little demoness, who schemed to trap us here.” However, her words carried no persuasive power, and even her fellow sect members didn’t trust her at this moment.
Being stared at by pairs of eyes, Liu Zhen couldn’t hold up anymore. She could only say: “We did see a treasure-seeking mouse…”
“Later, later…”
Seeing her voice getting lower and lower, appearing increasingly lacking in confidence, Chen Tian took over: “Later, we chased it to the fourth peak of Qilian Mountain, the shortest one. That mountain was very hot. When we flew over it from the sky before, there was nothing unusual, but when we stepped on the ground, we found it unbearably hot.”
Following the treasure-seeking mouse, they ran to a cave entrance where they saw many colorful small stones filling an entire cave. Although many stones had weak spiritual energy and couldn’t compare to Spirit Stones, some had abundant spiritual energy that wasn’t inferior to high-grade Spirit Stones.
Naturally delighted to discover such treasures, the two immediately took out magical artifacts to collect the small stones. After loading about half of them, a very long iron nail was exposed in the cave, covered with green rust and looking extremely ancient.
Originally, they had no interest in that iron nail and didn’t plan to touch it. Unexpectedly, the treasure-seeking mouse from earlier suddenly jumped out and impaled itself on the iron nail, dying instantly. Fresh blood flowed down the iron nail, and the rust seemed to be washed away and dissolved by the blood, revealing the original color beneath.
“After the iron nail became bright, my Fuyao Sword reacted, vibrating and humming constantly.” Liu Zhen touched her soft sword. “I discovered that the iron nail was made of Profound Essence Dense Iron, so in a moment of excitement, I wanted to take the iron nail back to forge an immortal sword.”
“As soon as my senior brother’s hand touched that iron nail, his palm was burned, branded with a very deep mark.” Liu Zhen’s voice trembled as she spoke. “The iron nail was smooth, but senior brother’s hand was branded with a strange rune. We were a bit worried and planned to exit the cave, but unexpectedly, as soon as we moved, the earth shook and mountains trembled.”
The entire cave collapsed instantly, and they fell directly into the underground crevice.
“If that iron nail was something that suppressed the seal, we didn’t damage it or pull it out.” Chen Tian said this while looking at Qin Chuan. “There seems to be a legend about Qilian Mountain here—it’s also called Seven Fairies Mountain?”
Qin Chuan was a mortal who hadn’t begun cultivation. Despite his good aptitude, he was currently just an ordinary person. When he fell off the cliff, even though protected by his senior brother, he still broke his arms and legs. He had been very weak and exhausted, only managing to sit up reluctantly when he saw Su Zhuyi. Now, when Seven Fairies Mountain was mentioned, he immediately perked up and recounted the legend of Seven Fairies Mountain to everyone.
At the end, he also asked: “Could the legend be true? Is there an evil flood dragon suppressed underground? Are the shrieks we’re hearing the roars of that dragon?”
Upon hearing this, the Feihong Sect cultivators fell briefly silent. Su Zhuyi also remained quiet, only staring at Chen Tian’s hand, very much wanting to see what the burn mark branded by the iron nail on Chen Tian’s hand looked like. Only by seeing it clearly could she make proper deductions.
Unfortunately, she didn’t dare use her divine sense now—using it felt like ten thousand swords piercing her brain, causing unbearable pain. Chen Tian’s hand was hidden in his sleeve, so how could she see it?
Thus, Su Zhuyi subconsciously glanced at Luo Ying.
At that moment, Luo Ying spoke: “Spread open your palm. Let me see the brand mark on it.”
Since Luo Ying had spoken, Chen Tian naturally didn’t dare disobey. He walked to Luo Ying’s front, not crossing the frost at her feet, and stood at the outer edge of the frost to spread his palm open. He had originally wanted to extend it forward a bit, but when his hand entered the space above the frost, he felt bone-chilling cold wind. He could only quickly withdraw his hand and place it outside the frost boundary.
On Chen Tian’s palm was a rune, drawn in a single stroke and winding like a dragon.
Seeing that rune, everyone became somewhat convinced of the Qilian Mountain legend, thinking that an evil flood dragon about to ascend and transform into a dragon was indeed suppressed below. However, Su Zhuyi only pursed her lips slightly. Regardless of whether the others could get out alive, Chen Tian was doomed.
That rune looked like a dragon at first glance, but hidden within it was a human form concealed by array formations, and that human form was none other than himself. This type of rune was a brand, meaning he had already been marked as a sacrificial offering.
Su Zhuyi could see it, and so could Luo Ying.
She slightly lowered her gaze, then extended her hand, grasping at the air with five fingers. The flying sword in front of her, frozen like an icicle, trembled twice, hummed once, then flew into her palm. The moment the flying sword fell into her hand, the ice and snow around her melted, revealing the silver-bright sword body. Only then did Su Zhuyi discover that Luo Ying’s flying sword was carved with dragon patterns, and dragon shadows could faintly be seen swimming on the sword’s body.
She pressed her finger against the sword’s body and flicked it lightly.
The flying sword immediately emitted a light whistle, like a dragon’s roar.
The next moment, another sharp shriek came from underground, shaking the surrounding area so that rubble fell. The Feihong Sect disciples’ faces turned pale, and Su Zhuyi even had blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
But Luo Ying seemed to have received an even greater impact. The frost beneath her feet shattered completely, and the sword in her hand trembled incessantly, as if it had been struck by tremendous force and was about to break.
She gripped the sword with both hands, steadying the blade. After pausing for a moment, she said, “It’s not an evil flood dragon.”
Luo Ying gazed into the distance and slowly said: “It’s a sword.”
What was suppressed beneath Qilian Mountain wasn’t an evil flood dragon, but a sword.
Those sharp shrieks weren’t dragon roars, but sword cries.
“A sword?” Feihong Sect also had sword cultivators, and hearing that what was suppressed below was a sword, both sword cultivators’ eyes lit up.
Evil flood dragons were fierce spiritual beasts that killed without blinking, but swords were different—swords chose their masters.
Evil flood dragons meant bad luck; flying swords meant opportunity.
Luo Ying naturally noticed the burning gazes of these two people. She slowly shook her head: “It’s an evil sword.”
“If I’m not mistaken, it’s that Longquan Sword.”
Longquan Sword! Hearing these three words, Su Zhuyi’s heart trembled. She had seen the name of this Longquan Sword in ancient texts. If the Liuguang Mirror was a Dao artifact, then this Longquan Sword wasn’t far from being a Dao artifact either. The master who forged the sword back then was a madman who used the finest materials and spent a thousand years forging a single sword. However, he wasn’t satisfied with that. First, he made his wife and children jump into the furnace to sacrifice themselves to the sword, then he sacrificed his entire clan, and finally threw himself into the furnace as well. On the day the sword was completed, flying sand and rolling stones turned a thousand li radius into dust. An entire cultivation city was instantly obliterated by the sword’s might, and in just one moment, it drank the blood of a hundred thousand people.
This extremely inauspicious sword threw the cultivation world into bloody chaos at the time. As for what happened afterward, there were no records in the books.
She never expected that in this new life, she would encounter the Longquan Sword!
That’s right—the sword in Luo Ying’s hand was called Qianlong. It was made with the same materials and forging methods as the Longquan Sword, also crafted for a thousand years. It was forged by later generations imitating the Longquan Sword, but since no one sacrificed themselves to it, it wasn’t an evil sword. Even so, this sword was one of the finest immortal swords in the cultivation world. After Luo Ying’s death, the Qianlong Sword’s whereabouts were unknown.
Luo Ying held Qianlong in her hand. If she said it was the Longquan Sword, then it was close to certain.
Su Zhuyi noticed that the Feihong Sect disciples all looked bewildered, clearly not knowing the reputation of the Longquan Sword. She was too lazy to explain and found a corner to sit down, feeling somewhat irritated and restless.
If it were the Longquan Sword, then this was troublesome. It had been dormant and waiting for a long time, constantly using resentful, malevolent energy to assault the seal, finally waiting for the seal to loosen. A wisp of malevolent energy leaked from the seal, transforming several ordinary wild beasts in the mountain into its minions to help it find sacrificial offerings. After all, the seal wasn’t broken, so the malevolent energy it released was too weak to control wild beasts and could hardly influence humans in a short time.
Originally, since Seven Fairies Mountain was located in a remote area, it rarely encountered cultivators passing through underground, so it wasn’t easy for it to find suitable sacrificial offerings. When it encountered Su Zhuyi, a small cultivator with some spiritual energy, how could those spiritual beasts be willing to give up? They chased her every day, but she was too smart and wouldn’t be tempted at all.
She had already recovered and previously dealt with the eagle that was good at tracking. She was planning to continue and eliminate that wolf. Once she dealt with the wolf, she could leave smoothly without encountering this mess. Who would have thought she’d run into two idiots from Feihong Sect who were lured into the cave by a little temptation, not only shaking the seal but also placing themselves on the sacrificial altar. Yet he wasn’t dead—what was the Longquan Sword waiting for?
In her previous life, she had never heard of the Longquan Sword emerging into the world. There were no disturbances at Qilian Mountain either, proving that the seal ultimately wasn’t broken and the Longquan Sword was thoroughly suppressed again.
Previously, it was the Seven Immortals who suppressed the Longquan Sword. This time, it was Luo Ying’s turn? So she died?
Su Zhuyi didn’t know the process, but she understood the outcome. Although she felt safer staying close to Luo Ying, she was also worried about being cursed with bad luck and getting implicated by the doomed Luo Ying. Therefore, she huddled in a corner, maintaining a moderate distance from Luo Ying—comparatively speaking, she was even slightly closer to the Feihong Sect disciples.
“Senior Luo, since what’s buried underground is a sword, shouldn’t we go search for it? If we can subdue that flying sword, wouldn’t all problems be solved?”
“To subdue a flying sword, one generally needs to engage in sword intent competition.” The other Feihong Sect sword cultivator pondered: “Senior Luo was just injured by the shock. It might be very difficult to subdue the flying sword.”
“But if we don’t try, how else can we get out?” As the two were arguing, Chen Tian suddenly groaned. His palm was seized with intense pain, as if being burned by raging flames. At that moment, Luo Ying raised her sword and struck, slashing toward Chen Tian’s arm with one stroke.