[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-borrowing-the-sword":3,"chapter-borrowing-the-sword-borrowing-the-sword-chapter-49":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Borrowing the Sword",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2214614,3888,"Chapter 49: Meeting Qingjun Again","borrowing-the-sword-chapter-49",49,"\u003Cp>Meeting Qingjun Again\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The Heart Restriction and the Fallen Leaf Restriction are both commonly used by the Shangqing Sect. Not only can they temper a disciple's spirit, but even if a True Person were to fall or the Shangqing Sect were to be destroyed in the future, such restrictions would never lose their efficacy and could still serve to pass on the Daoist lineage. It is much like those Inner Scene Heavens scattered throughout the Zhou Tian. You have already seen the Inner Scene Heaven of a Nascent Soul cultivator. At that time, you were a mortal, and Liu Yin had just fallen, so you only saw a single scene and walked out ignorant and unaware. Now, more than twenty years later, that cliffside should have been fully encompassed. For low-level cultivators, that is a semi-independent restriction array. Once inside, it is difficult to leave; one must pinpoint the nodes of the array's operation.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But if a Cave Heaven cultivator falls, it is different. When a Cave Heaven cultivator falls, the Cave Heaven they opened up does not necessarily collapse. Take, for instance, the Purple Void Heaven... no, no, take the Sect Master... no, no, take True Person Xu of the Pure Yang Performing Correct Heaven.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Panpan scratched herself lightly and muttered to herself, \"How did I become so clumsy with words after hanging around that silly deer Tianlu for so long?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci couldn't help but smile slightly. Wang Panpan glared at her, and after the human and cat fussed for a while, it continued, \"Take True Person Xu for example. He has achieved the Cave Heaven realm for thousands of years, and the laws within his Cave Heaven are perfectly evolved. If he were to perish now, the Pure Yang Performing Correct Heaven would still exist for many, many years. Even if the Shangqing Sect were to fall one day, or if someone were to shatter the Cave Heaven, if this treasure vault were lucky, it would not be annihilated. After several more epochs, when no one in the world remembers the Shangqing Sect, if someone were to obtain a fragment of the Pure Yang Performing Correct Heaven, this treasure vault would provide them with exactly what they desire and need most at that moment as they search. As they cultivate step by step and grow stronger, they are tempered by the Heart Restriction and the Fallen Leaf Restriction. Even if they were just a small cultivator when they first obtained the treasure, this vault could cultivate them step by step to the Nascent Soul realm. Only then could they fully control the vault and understand that they are inheriting the lineage of True Person Xu of the Shangqing Sect.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It turned out there was so much nuance within these seemingly ordinary restrictions. Ruan Ci listened intently, but after reflecting on it, she chuckled, \"Oh my, to perish is to perish; cultivators cannot be reincarnated. If I were to become a great power, I would never set such restrictions. If I die, I die. After I'm gone, let whatever happens happen; it won't have anything to do with me anyway.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Panpan’s eyes were round, and she tilted her head to look at Ruan Ci, laughing, \"Those are just silly words spoken before your cultivation has reached that level. Later, you will know how ridiculous you sound saying that.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci was about to retort when Wang Panpan meowed, \"Think first, what did we encounter in Liu Yin's Inner Scene Heaven?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Indeed, at that time, before the Inner Scene Heaven had even evolved, they had already seen Liu Yin's cloud-form incarnation. Ruan Ci recalled what Wang Panpan had said that day and felt dazed. Wang Panpan laughed, \"See? I said so much just to tell you that in the future, after you reach Foundation Establishment, you will inevitably have to train in the various dangerous and desperate places of the Zhou Tian. Many of the dangerous places in our Langhuan Zhou Tian are formed by the Inner Scene Heavens of cultivators, and some contain Cave Heaven fragments. When you get there, don't treat everything you see as a treasure.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Take this kind of treasure vault, for example. You get one, take it back, and hide it, thinking it's truly wonderful—it senses your mood and has everything. The process of seeking treasure is itself an excellent tempering. Hehe, you search for everything in the vault. When you reach Nascent Soul and open the vault to look, you'll be stunned—you took someone's treasure, but didn't do their bidding; how could there be such a good deal? The vault might contain stone tablets or records detailing the secrets of the vault owner's sect's destruction, or it might even hide an incarnation like Liu Yin's. You received so much help during your cultivation; you will inevitably have to take on the karma, avenge the vault owner, or help their incarnation find a body to be reborn. Going a step further, you might even have to offer up your own physical body to be possessed by a great power; it's all unclear.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Tianlu was also very learned, he was ultimately the spiritual pet of Wang True Person, and there were many things he didn't think to tell Ruan Ci. Ruan Ci was also used to listening to both sides; hearing the same thing from Tianlu and Wang Panpan often revealed two different flavors. However, although Wang Panpan was outside the Shangqing Sect and spoke with a broader perspective, she was also more troublesome than Tianlu. While chatting aimlessly with Ruan Ci, she didn't forget the main point, \"However, you haven't reached Foundation Establishment yet. What could you possibly need to specifically request from a True Person and go to the Western Wasteland vault to retrieve? Only very valuable treasures require 'sweeping the courtyard.' The things you need now, Tianlu can just hand to you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci said, \"Perhaps the True Person is just stingy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that she had left the Purple Void Heaven, she could speak ill of Wang True Person without restraint. However, Wang Panpan dared not follow suit. Ruan Ci was usually unbridled, not caring about sensing or not, calling people by their full names, but she was very careful about Wang True Person. She spat, \"Don't talk nonsense. The True Person must have given you something very precious; it's just that you lack the experience to know how rare it is.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci had no psychological burden about lying to it, but she had to consider whether Wang Panpan would see through it at a glance. Everyone around her came with their own motives. Wang Panpan's motive seemed the clearest: to ensure she could live until Xie Yanhuan returned to successfully return the sword. But it was hard to say whether Xie Yanhuan had given her any instructions in private. She thought for a moment and said, \"It's that I ate that Dream-Returning Immortal Fruit. The first one was delicious, but the second one had no taste. When I talked about it with Tianlu, he said that time-based spiritual objects are most effective the first time. He wanted to get me more to eat, but the True Person said I had to go to the vault to get them myself.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tianlu always sent good things from the Purple Void Heaven to Zhuoyue Cliff, so Wang Panpan didn't doubt her, meowing with a laugh, \"What did you get?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci showed her, \"It's a treasure gourd. The True Person said this is an external medicine useful when advancing to Nascent Soul.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh, this treasure gourd is truly rare. It's fortunate that there aren't many disciples in the Purple Void Heaven, and the current ones don't really need it...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Panpan knew the old stories of the Shangqing Sect very well. As the two talked, Ruan Ci learned a lot of common knowledge about cultivation, as well as some unwritten rules of the Shangqing Sect. The Shangqing Sect did not provide external medicines for advancement to disciples; this was to leave room for favors among various forces. Often, the connections between different peaks relied on exchanging these essential yet forever rare external medicines. However, where Cave Heaven True Persons went to search for these external medicines was not something Ruan Ci's current cultivation level could know.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A Qi Refining disciple should focus on cultivation. When Wang Panpan heard that Wang True Person had told Ruan Ci to reach Foundation Establishment in one year, she called it harsh, but didn't think it was absurd. She said, \"My cultivation isn't high enough to see clearly, but the True Person must have seen that you were slacking off. If he said you could reach Foundation Establishment in a year, then you have that ability. From today on, don't delay even for a day; hurry up and work hard.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saying this, she stopped delaying Ruan Ci's cultivation and jumped out of the quiet room. Ruan Ci could still hear her shouting at the servants, telling them to prepare to serve Ruan Ci during her seclusion and not to disturb the main room at will.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saying not to disturb at will, but wasn't the one making the most noise this cat? Ruan Ci smiled helplessly, with a hint of affection. She rested on the bed for a few hours, feeling the spirit she had consumed in the Western Wasteland vault courtyard gradually recover. Only then did she get up to activate the array, sat cross-legged in the room, and silently recited the *Yin Jun Dan Ge Zhu* in her heart, pouring her spirit into the mysterious scripture that seemed to contain the ultimate truths of the Dao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The moon is full in the sky, the human spirit permeates the body, the sun and moon have their times, reverse the yin and yang, the Great One has a lord, within the heart's scene, who can see it, it cannot be measured...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a trance, that Great One Lord flew out from the jade pool again. Last time it was faint and ethereal, like condensed clouds and mist, but this time it was draped in jade pool golden dew and hair wreathed in dantian purple Qi. Its eyes opened slightly. Ruan Ci looked up and met its gaze; a sense of awe seemed to emerge instinctively, but in the next instant, it was dispelled by her. She just waited calmly for the moment when her eyes would sting and her consciousness would be swallowed by the Donghua Sword.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her response might be rare among those who cultivate the mind. The Great One Lord stared for a moment, and the corners of its lips seemed to change slightly. Ruan Ci followed the gaze, but before she could see clearly, she felt a pain in her eyes, as if she had stepped into empty air. When she looked up again, the scene around her had changed. She was standing in a corner of a Great Heaven, looking up at the sky, seeing cranes crying everywhere, countless white cranes passing through rainbows, and bamboo sounds rustling like rain. The spiritual energy around her was thick, as if substantial, rushing into Ruan Ci's body, even giving her the illusion that her cultivation was growing with every breath. She didn't know when she had returned to some era millions of years ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first time she saw Qingjun, Ruan Ci was still a mortal, had not opened her meridians, and at that time had no heart to observe spiritual energy. But this time, everything was very different from the last. The first experience was like a dream, she couldn't control it, as if only her consciousness was peeking from outside the sky, her field of vision could be near or far as she wished, and there was no self-sensing. But this time, Ruan Ci's consciousness was much clearer. Looking down, she could see her fair white hands, as if she were truly here. Even the feeling of spiritual energy being absorbed freely was extremely real. She had experienced this feeling of unobstructed spiritual energy absorption in the identities of Chang Chunfeng and Qu Pingting, but until now, she didn't know that with her aptitude, in a Great Heaven without the spiritual rhyme of the Dao Ancestor, the speed of absorbing spiritual energy would be so astonishing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But perhaps it's because the spiritual energy here is extremely pure... it's not that my aptitude is superior.\" She quickly thought, \"Last time I fell into this scene, I saw Qingjun. This time I am alone in the deep mountains. Is something going to happen? Or is it not as I thought, that every time I cultivate the mind, I trace back to an arbitrary time, and it's not always related to Qingjun?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly felt someone laughing beside her. Ruan Ci turned her head and saw a woman with a tall figure and long, trailing sleeves; it was precisely the Qingjun Dao Ancestor she had seen in her dream last time. She didn't know how long she had been watching Ruan Ci from the side, but only now, when her heart moved and her Qi was drawn, did she appear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's you again.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qingjun's appearance was indescribable to Ruan Ci. She was clearly staring at her, but as soon as she looked away, she forgot everything, leaving only a faint sense of intimacy. She smiled and said, \"Thirty-eight thousand six hundred and thirty-two years from now, I will see you for the first time. What is your name?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, everything around her felt less and less like a dream to Ruan Ci. She had experienced the dreams of Chang Chunfeng and Qu Pingting, and although she knew all their secrets, she could not interfere with their actions, and the feeling of being a bystander was still strong. At this moment, she was absolutely in this heaven, no longer confused or muddled. Even the true name and speech spirit that Tianlu spoke of, and all the taboos and considerations, were right before her eyes. And the power of the Dao Ancestor could be seen from this single sentence of Qingjun. Thinking about it, her existence might already be beyond time, knowing the first meeting thirty thousand years later. If she gave her true name, her connection with all things in this universe might be within Qingjun's field of vision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, for Ruan Ci, this question was not difficult to answer. She did not hesitate and said frankly, \"My name is Ruan Ci, but this is not my true name.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Donghua Sword could suppress the thoughts of the sword envoy, but this move was only for others. Qingjun was a sword spirit, so the Donghua Sword naturally did not guard against her. Ruan Ci was already unfamiliar with the Heart-Cleansing Mantra, and in front of the Dao Ancestor, there was even less need to mention it. Qingjun only needed one glance to see through her thoughts, but for some reason, Ruan Ci had a feeling that Qingjun didn't seem to do so. She didn't care about Ruan Ci's answer either, just nodded and smiled, \"You are a very interesting child.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci asked, \"Am I the first one to come see you?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qingjun nodded, \"Up to this moment, yes.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her words were full of mystery. Ruan Ci felt something in her heart and couldn't help but ask, \"Is there anything special about this moment that could attract me to come?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qingjun laughed, \"You should ask yourself, what is special about me that allows you to find me again and again in the long river of time?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci was also stumped by the question and muttered to herself, \"Hmm, what am I doing when I come back...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is it that those who originally cultivate the *Yin Jun Dan Ge Zhu* see their past selves every time they operate the technique, and can explain some things that only they know? And although I also cultivate this technique, I am just taking a shortcut. I am not retrieving my previous cultivation, and since I have no past life, I have no way to anchor myself, so I followed the sword spirit's induction and returned to Qingjun's side?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The soul memories she sensed when taking time-based spiritual objects were also hidden in the Donghua Sword, and since the soul was also stained with Qingjun's true spirit, it was normal to have this induction. However, Ruan Ci thought that if she continued to cultivate the *Dan Ge Zhu* later, she would inevitably break into Qingjun's Daoist field again and again. She couldn't help but blush, feeling that she was very rude, and didn't know how to explain it. This matter was really a long story, and besides...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was actually very curious about this point. Thinking that she would probably be unable to resist sooner or later, she gave up resistance, looked up, and asked, \"Then, then... do you know that by the time I come, you are already dead?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Qingjun's eyes, sword Qi rose like mist. Ruan Ci couldn't help but feel a sense of intimacy toward this sword Qi; this was the very Donghua Sword Qi that had once almost killed her and was warmed in her visualization diagram every day. It turned out that from ancient times to the present, after so many trials, it had not changed in the slightest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I know now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She seemed to be attracted by this sword Qi and, against her will, threw herself into Qingjun's eyes. Before her consciousness became blurred, she only heard Qingjun's laughing sigh, and the changes rippling out as if water droplets had fallen on the three thousand Dao laws in the dark. It seemed that another Dao incarnation had manifested in the Qinghua Myriad Things Heaven, but Ruan Ci could not yet recognize it before her consciousness drifted away and she fell into a peaceful sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she woke up again, she had returned to the quiet room. She only felt the fluctuation of magic power in her dantian, and her meridians were also swollen and bursting. Looking inside, the small lake was full and about to overflow. With a slight ripple, the magic power spilled into the meridians, causing bursts of impact. If she hadn't been tempered by sword intent, I'm afraid this fluctuation of magic power alone would have left small hidden injuries in her meridians.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No wonder Qu Pingting didn't want to wait for that Young Master Sheng. Just for a little while, I felt uncomfortable. Forcibly delaying the timing of Foundation Establishment for three years is definitely not a good thing for her own cultivation.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci carefully experienced her own situation and thought, \"Although in the dream I felt that I had as much control over Qu Pingting and the others' situation as my own, after truly reflecting the cultivation onto myself, the feeling is still different.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's like when I was in the dream, although I could feel Qu Pingting's liking for that Senior Brother Liang, as soon as I woke up from the dream, I felt that the affairs of men and women, love and affection, were very ridiculous... Dreams and reality are, after all, different.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmm, also, when returning to Qingjun's side, although it was also a spiritual journey, the feeling was very different...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After carefully pondering the differences between the various illusions—Ruan Ci even felt that they shouldn't be called illusions, but rather strange realms—Ruan Ci felt her spirit gradually recover and also felt that this situation of overfull magic power was really uncomfortable. She simply made up her mind, took out the treasure gourd, examined it, held it under her tongue, and thought, \"I can't care about embarrassment anymore! Let's have a few days of visits! I hope Qingjun won't find me, this rude guest, annoying!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having cultivated the Flawless Golden Body, her control over her body was becoming stronger and stronger. Even a martial arts master could control their sleep at will, and Ruan Ci was naturally no exception. She fell onto the pillow and fell asleep in an instant, which was also a familiar routine. She didn't know how long she slept, but when she woke up, she saw water rippling beside her. She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of a vast expanse of green waves, drifting with the current on a lotus flower. In the distance, someone called, \"Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, the Patriarch has summoned you. Hurry up, don't miss the time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ruan Ci was now extremely capable of self-control. Although she was still immersed in the dream, she had the energy to consider the information obtained in the dream. She digested the many memories that flooded into her mind one by one, and her heart couldn't help but jump.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—The matter of mind cultivation, the reason she carefully hid it even from Wang Panpan and never intended to tell anyone, was because she was worried about this situation. And now, her worries had come true. This time, what she sensed was the soul of a sword seed selected and raised in the Qingling Sect, one of the three pillars of the Central Continent's Sheng Sect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Updated, sorry for the long wait, everyone. This chapter is a bit mysterious. I'll be sending out red envelopes in the comments for this chapter!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I'm going out to eat at noon today, iron pot stew, so I updated before leaving~~~~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I watched *North and South Groceries* yesterday, it's so good! This is the infrastructure novel I wanted to see!!!!!! It's good, it's good, it's good! Except for the romance (which I personally don't care about in infrastructure novels), everything else is very much to my taste!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>. Thanks to the little angels who cast overlord votes or irrigated nutrient solution for me between 2020-08-08 12:00:03 and 2020-08-09 11:06:00~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thanks to the little angels who cast landmines: Dao Dao, Li Heping (3); 19452101, Yu Wanyao, I and the Cat Don't Go Out, Time's Delusion, Human Border, Shuang Xu (1);\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: The Ghost Upstairs (40 bottles); Su Dahuan (15 bottles); Fatty Crab (10 bottles); Spring Water Dingdong, Xunxi, Unfathomable Lower Limit, Ginaaaaaa (5 bottles); Above the Blue Clouds, Nine Cranes Crying (2 bottles); baby Le Yao (1 bottle);\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thank you all very much for your support, I will continue to work hard! ===== CHAPTER 54 =====\u003C\u002Fp>",3739,"2026-06-17T08:48:53.797Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","39aa997031de855f274dfe3327bd6a2270418f907d132b89caba23b6b7d35a2b","borrowing-the-sword-chapter-50","borrowing-the-sword-chapter-48",286,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fborrowing-the-sword-cover.jpg"]