Chapter 958: Small Intentions

"Many thanks to you, Senior, for the grace of saving my life."

"This junior is endlessly grateful. I wonder if you, Senior, might have the time to be a guest at our Shushan Sword Sect?"

Just as Zhang Liang and Gai Nie were finishing their exchange, Meng Chen'an moved, bringing his junior sister Shangguan Wanqian to Gai Nie's side, and bowed with a look of gratitude.

"You are a Sword Immortal, Senior, who cultivates the Sword Dao. Our Shushan Sword Sect happens to have many Sword Cultivators; I imagine that if you were to visit, you would certainly be able to discuss the Dao with them."

"My master is also a Sword Cultivator at the Golden Immortal level."

Meng Chen'an looked at Gai Nie cautiously.

Meng Chen'an was convinced of Gai Nie's strength, and from the way the other party had slain that fiend earlier, this Senior was a genuine Sword Immortal—a Golden Immortal-level Sword Immortal—which was something their Shushan Sword Sect did not even possess.

Meng Chen'an naturally hoped to recruit such a Sword Immortal to their Shushan Sword Sect. He knew that the gap between him and the other party was too vast and he was simply unqualified, but if he invited the former to visit the Shushan Sword Sect, then his master or the higher-ups of the Shushan Sword Sect could step in.

There would still be a significant chance of successfully inviting this Senior.

When that time came, as the person who made the introduction, he would certainly be rewarded by the sect.

Meng Chen'an's plan was quite sound.

However, it was a pity that his plan was destined to fall through.

"Shushan Sword Sect?"

Gai Nie glanced at the other party. The other party did have the rudiments of Sword Intent, but they were still far from the true Sword Dao.

As for the realm of a Sword Cultivator, he had likely only dabbled in it and could not be considered a true Sword Immortal.

As for the Shushan Sword Sect, Gai Nie had naturally heard of it and had even had dealings with it; after all, he had been in Nanzhan Buzhou for over two hundred years.

As a Sword Cultivator himself, he had once felt some yearning for the Shushan Sword Sect—not because he wanted to join it, but because he wanted to spar and discuss the Dao with the disciples of the Shushan Sword Sect to improve his own cultivation of the Sword Dao.

Later, he had indeed met a disciple of the Shushan Sword Sect, and it was actually in Xiniu Hezhou that he encountered one.

The other party's cultivation was the same as his, a True Immortal. When they met at that time, the other party was also fighting against the demon race to temper their own Sword Dao.

The two of them had exchanged ideas for several years and even sparred for a time.

He understood a bit about the Shushan Sword Sect; it was indeed a sect of the Sword Dao, but not many in the sect truly walked the path of bitter cultivation of the Sword Dao.

The Sword Dao itself had requirements for aptitude. For those without talent for the Sword Dao, even if they embarked on this path, getting half the result with double the effort was already quite good. In reality, for those without talent, if they practiced it by force, the improvement of their Sword Dao cultivation would be as slow as a snail.

Many people could not improve for their entire lives.

Yet for those with great talent, the improvement of their Sword Dao cultivation was as simple as drinking cold water.

This had led to a portion of the Shushan Sword Sect's disciples being unable to practice the Sword Dao.

Furthermore, practicing the Sword Dao was not so simple. To truly delve into the Sword Dao, one needed bitter cultivation, even abandoning many other methods for the sake of the Sword Dao, focusing entirely on it, and needing to temper one's sword at all times.

Only in this way could one truly embark on the path of the Sword Dao.

Those of the Sword Dao were almost all lunatics.

Therefore, even among the disciples of the Sword Sect, there were fewer and fewer of them.

From that person's mouth, Gai Nie also knew that the number of Shushan disciples who truly walked the path of the Sword Dao was becoming fewer and fewer these days.

After all, in the eyes of many Shushan Sword Sect disciples, those who practiced the Sword Dao were a bunch of lunatics; tempering the Sword Dao and fighting those demons was simply insane.

If things went wrong, one would perish and their Dao would dissipate. Many disciples who practiced the Sword Dao died in the process of tempering it.

More and more disciples were unwilling to walk this path.

Although they knew that practicing the Sword Dao and becoming a Sword Immortal meant that their combat power would far exceed that of cultivators of the same level, so what? Once an accident occurred during the process, it meant death and the dissipation of their Dao.

Whereas practicing other Daoist methods, one only needed to seclude themselves within the mountain gate, and their cultivation would slowly improve.

Moreover, compared to the Sword Dao methods, other Daoist methods were not inferior in the slightest; they were all Daoist methods inherited from the Human Teachings, which were themselves sufficient to cultivate to the Great Luo Realm.

And even if one cultivated to a Golden Immortal, that was enough to go to the Human Teachings to pay one's respects.

Since that was the case, why be so crazy and struggle so hard with the Sword Dao?

Gai Nie had no opinion on the choices of the Shushan Sword Sect; he had no relationship with them anyway.

However, Gai Nie did approve of that Sword Immortal from the Shushan Sword Sect. When he left Xiniu Hezhou, the former was still there, slaying demons and eliminating fiends, constantly tempering his own Sword Dao.

That was a pure Sword Cultivator.

Such Sword Dao cultivators were becoming fewer and fewer.

He also hoped that the former could, like him, break through to Golden Immortal and become a true top-tier Sword Immortal.

However, he knew the difficulties involved.

As for being a guest at the Shushan Sword Sect, he no longer had much interest in that at this moment.

If he hadn't broken through to Golden Immortal yet, he might have had some interest; after all, the Shushan Sword Sect was a sect of Sword Cultivators, and going there to exchange ideas with other Sword Cultivators would have been helpful for his own Sword Dao.

But he had already met one before and exchanged ideas for several years, so he already had a good understanding of the Shushan Sword Dao.

Now, even if he went to exchange and discuss the Dao with those at the Golden Immortal level, it would not actually be of much help.

Moreover, he had already embarked on his own Sword Dao.

The Sword Dao methods of their Guiguzi Lineage were actually not bad; the Guiguzi Lineage's Sword Dao was actually inherited from the Jie Sect.

Although the Guiguzi Lineage was much later than Taoism, the first-generation Ancestor had once associated with a Jie Sect expert and they were even close friends.

There was no need to mention the Jie Sect's Sword Dao; the Sword Dao itself was considered a method of attaining the Dao created by the Tongtian Shengren.

Although it could only be classified as a Heterodox Path—after all, anything that could not become a true Saint's Great Dao could only be considered a heterodox path.

But it was still a Sword Dao that could be cultivated to the Quasi-Saint Peak.

Without a doubt, when it came to Sword Dao methods, the Jie Sect was the strongest; even the Sword Dao created by the Taiqing Saint could not compare to that of the Tongtian Shengren.

The Taiqing Superior might have surpassed Tongtian in terms of realm.

But the Tongtian Shengren, with the help of the Zhu Xian Four Swords, had a deeper insight into the Sword Dao, and the Sword Dao focused on slaughter and the Law of Destruction.

And the Zhu Xian Four Swords were treasures of destruction, so one could imagine the strength of the Jie Sect's Sword Dao.

It was just a pity that most of the Jie Sect disciples did not choose this path.

The Ten Thousand Immortals of the Jie Sect were mostly disciples of the Ten Thousand Races; they were born with the talents of their own races, and practicing the Shangqing Immortal Method was enough to allow their talents to be unleashed.

Many Sword Dao techniques are merely used as methods to protect the Dao, so naturally, they are not treated with much seriousness.

Therefore, apart from Tongtian, the Jie Sect surprisingly lacks any powerful figures in Sword Dao.

It can be said to be extremely wasteful.