Chapter 467: Sword Casting Ancient Scroll

Regardless of how they were making a scene, over at Huashan, Huo Can'er had already brought the people from the Sword Casting Villa.

The person who came was none other than Gongye Xingyun, one of the Seven Earth Immortals of the Sword Casting Villa.

Although the Sword Casting Villa had a reputation in the Jianghu—no, that's not right, it was famous throughout the various Heavens of martial arts, almost on par with forces like the Black Wind Stronghold.

But after all, it was a martial arts sect that had transitioned to immortal cultivation, and being a family enterprise, its sect management, while grand in scale, lacked deep foundations.

Huo Can'er had come in person with Yang Spirit cultivation, and also carried the Dutian Liehuo Zushi inheritance; it was hard for them not to be tempted.

Furthermore, Gongye Xingyun had a prior agreement with Xu Jia.

The Seven Swords of the Sword Casting Villa, to tell the truth, had all reached a bottleneck; to charge toward a higher realm, or to ascend, they still needed to settle and refine further.

If they had a master to provide guidance, and another better cultivation method to use as a reference to deduce a Daoist practice inheritance suitable for themselves, they would be able to break through these final shackles.

Although Huashan's reputation wasn't very good... it was, after all, a path.

The Sword Casting Villa had not failed to approach other sects.

But while those sects were willing to take the sons and daughters of the Sword Casting Villa's masters and Elders as disciples, they would not pass down high-level cultivation methods, and instead demanded a tribute of a batch of flying swords every year.

Especially Shushan, which had a massive demand for flying swords, not to mention Shushan's plan to set up a branch in Wuliang Mountain in Dali.

Shushan's intention was for the Sword Casting Villa to join Shushan entirely, becoming the subordinate "Shushan Sword Casting Hall," and they would send a significant Elder to provide guidance.

But this was actually just a greedy move, wanting to take over such a large, profitable industry without spending a single cent.

The Sword Casting Villa was in Luling, Jiangxi, which was far away from Sichuan, so they had less contact; even if they were to have contact, it would be with the few major sects local to Jiangxi.

But Jiangxi was the base camp of the Talisman Sect; the use of talismans lay in the deities, but the deities had been beaten down so thoroughly they couldn't turn over, becoming synonymous with swindlers; the Register Text only had the use of text and could no longer communicate with the Heavenly Court or the underworld; only the talisman remained, which was dismantled into the immortal path, serving as a tool for Dharma Power and Daoist practice.

However, even so, when truly facing the Three Pure Ones and the Four Sovereigns, these supreme great gods, these immortals did not disparage them, but if it were someone more grounded, like a Mountain God, City God, or Earth Deity, they would be detained at will and treated like slaves.

It was a fortunate thing that the Sword Casting Villa rose in Luling, as there were no powerful sword sects nearby to annex them, but it was also an unfortunate thing, as the Talisman Sect could not protect them from being annexed by the Sword Sect.

A breakthrough in technology could never compare to a breakthrough in cultivation; if one's strength was insufficient, one would inevitably be pushed onto the dining table.

This was why, even though the Western Regions were far away in the extreme northwest, Xu Jia could still see a disciple of the Sword Casting Villa from the Jiangnan water towns, Gongye Lingxue; she had come precisely to see if it were possible to obtain a fortuitous encounter in the Western Regions, such as the Dharma of the Golden Buddha Kingdom...

The world was becoming increasingly precarious; although they, as Earth Immortals, did not necessarily perceive the Heavenly Secrets, they could still feel that the major sects were accelerating the extraction of Spirit Machine from the earth by the Cave Heaven Blessed Lands, and the competition was becoming more and more intense; the Sword Casting Villa's Blessed Land was also having some difficulty supporting seven Earth Immortals.

If not for the fact that the Sword Casting Villa relied on the technology of sword casting to collect a large amount of cultivation resources every year, they would have been unable to hold on long ago.

An ordinary Innate Qi Refiner without a background would have to work as a guest for the Sword Casting Villa for at least thirty years, collecting various spirit ores and spirit grasses, just to buy a decent second-rate flying sword...

But as they sucked the blood of the bottom-tier cultivators, there were naturally those at higher levels sucking their blood. Previously they could maintain things somewhat, but recently the amount of flying swords required by the sects that the children of the Elders and masters had joined was increasing, while the prices were dropping lower and lower, leaving almost no profit; when they purchased corresponding cultivation resources from those sects, it was often much more expensive than the internal sect price, and sometimes even ten or twenty percent higher than the market price.

Such a trade deficit forced the Sword Casting Villa to suck blood from below even more, recruiting disciples extensively; not only did they start painting pictures for Post-Heaven Realm martial artists, letting them take out loans to buy flying swords, but they also researched divine weapons and sword implements that Post-Heaven Realm martial artists could use; after buying this sword and using it for twenty or thirty years to accompany you to advance to the Innate Qi Refinement Realm, the sword would have gained a bit of spirituality, and the Sword Casting Villa would then buy back the second-hand sword at a high price, allowing for a trade-in to buy a new Innate Qi Refinement Realm flying sword more cheaply.

And the Post-Heaven flying swords that had developed a bit of spirituality would undergo the Sword Casting Villa's special craftsmanship to be promoted into true flying swords.

In short, there were currently many martial arts practitioners in the Jiangnan region carrying the burden of Sword Casting Villa flying sword loans.

But this was all a bubble, and there would be a day when it burst.

Originally, when Huo Can'er came to make contact, the Seven Earth Immortals of the Sword Casting Villa did not believe it, thinking it was just another person coming to suck blood, and were planning to push out some master's or Elder's son or daughter to send off to learn the craft, temporarily stabilizing the Huashan Sect.

But they didn't expect Huo Can'er to speak directly, offering to exchange the Dutian Liehuo Zushi inheritance for the Sword Casting Villa's sword casting technology.

A Heavenly Immortal Great Method...

Although it was only a side-door level Heavenly Immortal Great Method, not a Taiyi Profound Gate level one, and certainly not a Great Luo Orthodox level one, it was indeed a marvelous method that led directly to the Heavenly Immortal realm.

Even to verify its authenticity, Huo Can'er showed them the entire cultivation method for the Innate Qi Refinement Realm, and even revealed two lines of the incantation for the Earth Immortal realm.

It was indeed incomparably exquisite...

But to trade it just like that? It was truly too much like child's play, and to tell the truth, the Sword Casting Villa also felt uneasy; what if they were just being tricked into handing over their own first? Even if the cultivation method was real, what if there was falsity mixed into the truth? Furthermore, in the eyes of the Sword Casting Villa, the Sword Casting Villa's technology was all commoner technology, not high-end at all; first-rate flying swords were only Earth Immortal technology, and top-tier first-rate flying swords could reach the Yang Spirit level, but compared to Heavenly Mansion Rare Treasures, Ancient Immortal Relic Treasures, and various peerless flying swords, they were still far behind.

Could they really trade for a Heavenly Immortal Great Method?

After careful consideration, the seven Earth Immortals decided to have Gongye Xingyun take the Sword Casting Villa's most core treasure, the "Sword Casting Ancient Scroll" left behind by the Jiang State from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, to Huashan, for the Ancestor to view personally; they would treat it as a gift, not asking for a direct path to the Heavenly Immortal Great Method, but if they could obtain a breakthrough to the God Immortal Realm from it, that would be enough.

This Sword Casting Ancient Scroll had a history; the most famous line from it was, "Without that sword, I can still annihilate the enemy army!"

The Jiang State, a small state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, was weak in both state and military.

But it had forged a Magic Sword; the birth of the Magic Sword was accompanied by a sacrifice that wiped out a city and a state...

And the reason for the destruction of the Jiang State was the sword casting manual; this sword casting manual was obtained by the Yue State that destroyed the Jiang State, and it held the name of the Yue King Eight Swords... even some fragments that flowed out from the manual led to the emergence of sword casting masters like Ou Yezi and Gan Jiang and Mo Ye.

And the Sword Casting Villa was founded by the descendants of the disciples of Ou Yezi from back then...

Gongye Xingyun looked at Xu Jia cautiously, his heart filled with horror; he could not see any connection between Xu Jia and the Huanglian Daoren from the Liuli Fudi back then, after all, this agreement was made with the Huanglian Daoren, not the Dutian Liehuo Zushi who had descended to the altar.

(End of chapter)