Chapter 620: What If I Break Through Again Next Time?

Qi Jinghuan went completely berserk.

He couldn't figure out how a Foundation Establishment sword cultivator could become a Nascent Soul sword cultivator in just two short months.

He also couldn't understand how, under such completely unreasonable circumstances, Tang Xuanzang managed to establish a foothold in the Qing Tian Sword Sect and successfully become an elder.

Qi Jinghuan was indeed a member of the Mie Jian Alliance, but his position within the alliance was not as high as he had shown to Tang Luo and the others.

In his mind, the list of spies within the Qing Tian Sword Alliance, excluding Tang Luo and the other two, totaled five people.

Of these three, he personally sent them in—two were inner disciples, and the other was a sect steward.

The other two were one Golden Core and one Nascent Soul.

As for the innate sword bone that had made the sect a subsidiary sect back then, it was certainly not a spy.

Others were proper sword cultivators.

The Golden Core spy—Qi Jinghuan held a slightly higher position than him and contacted him unilaterally.

The Nascent Soul sword cultivator, however, knew Qi Jinghuan, and they maintained two-way contact.

Qi Jinghuan did not know whether there were any higher-level spies within the Qing Tian Sword Alliance.

Reason told him it was impossible—above Nascent Soul were Divine Transformation sword cultivators.

Which Divine Transformation sword cultivator in the Qing Tian Sword Sect wasn't someone who had grown up within the sect and possessed great achievements?

When those Divine Transformation sword cultivators earned their meritorious service for the sword sect, Qi Jinghuan had not even been born yet—indeed, the Mie Jian Alliance might not even have been established.

How could they possibly become spies of the Mie Jian Alliance?

Although Qi Jinghuan kept telling Tang Luo and the others, as well as other non-sword cultivators, that the power of non-sword cultivators far exceeded the imagination of sword cultivators,

he himself knew clearly that the future was bright, but the road was winding.

In his lifetime as a Golden Core cultivator, he estimated he would never see non-sword cultivators rise up in revolt and overthrow the high-pressure, terrifying rule of sword cultivators.

Moreover, a Nascent Soul sword cultivator could not possibly vouch for another Nascent Soul sword cultivator.

More importantly, regarding the intelligence that Tang Xuanzang and the three were spies, Qi Jinghuan had not passed it on to any other spies at all.

Even if he were to secretly look after them a bit, there was no need to do so so early.

Qi Jinghuan had made a five-year plan for Tang Xuanzang and the three, but he never expected that the Qing Tian Sword Sect would later announce such shocking news.

It was no longer a matter of plans failing to keep up with changes—rather, changes came like a surging wave, directly shattering Qi Jinghuan's plans.

Qi Jinghuan fell into all kinds of speculation.

Under these circumstances, he himself must have been extremely cautious, and as Tang Xuanzang's recommender, he estimated he had also been targeted.

Of course, being cautious did not mean hiding like a mouse in a deep burrow.

On the contrary, he had to be high-profile—after the news spread, Qi Jinghuan began appearing in various settings, loudly promoting the Qing Tian Sword Sect's newly emerged peerless genius, namely that he had introduced Ji Jibaqi into the sect as its sect master.

He gained a bunch of followers who flattered him constantly, just like the Old Monster Xingxiu.

A few days later, Qi Jinghuan encountered an envoy sent by the Qing Tian Sword Sect specifically to find him, who gave him some rewards.

A flying sword, sword techniques and divine abilities, as well as materials for forging swords—thanks to Ji Jibaqi's contributions to the Qing Tian Sword Sect.

The Qing Tian Sword Sect would not be stingy toward any affiliated sect that had made contributions to the sword sect.

They took Qi Jinghuan and his sect as a model and gave them extensive publicity.

During this time, the envoy also inquired about Tang Xuanzang's background, and Qi Jinghuan spoke truthfully, saying he had met him in a city near the Qing Tian Sword Sect, found him exceptionally talented, and thus introduced him to join the sect, and even gave his two companions a token to participate in the outer disciple recruitment assembly of the sword sect.

Flawless—unless the other side dispatched Soul Elders to search souls, no flaw would be detected.

As for suspecting severe torture and interrogation—

Qi Jinghuan felt no fear at all, because the Mie Jian Alliance had passed down a special cultivation method that could temporarily completely discard pain.

This cultivation method was learned by most spies—including Zhu Weneng and Ao Yulie.

As for Tang Xuanzang, he had not yet learned it; originally, Qi Jinghuan planned to wait a while before meeting Tang Luo again, and then pass it on.

This way, he could better make the other feel grateful.

Ensuring the loyalty of spies was also a skill.

But now it was impossible—Qi Jinghuan did not plan to meet Tang Luo again in the short term, to avoid the other accidentally revealing a flaw.

He did not want to bear the risk.

But what exactly was the Qing Tian Sword Sect's attitude?

Suspicion—there definitely was some, but they had not taken any action, instead mainly observing.

After all, sword cultivators had plenty of time—they could slowly observe in secret.

The Qing Tian Sword Sect itself was also torn—on one hand, they felt Tang Xuanzang was abnormal; on the other, they felt it was impossible for someone with ill intentions to be so high-profile—perhaps he was truly just a genius?

At the same time, they also wondered whether he was exploiting their psychology.

It felt like schizophrenia.

Of course, more people felt that since the Divine Lord had met Tang Xuanzang and given him exceptional treatment, there must be no problem.

They had not even considered the possibility of a spy.

Even those who doubted never thought in the direction of non-sword cultivators—at most, they suspected other sects were up to mischief.

To many sword cultivators, non-sword cultivators were already a rather distant term.

All sword cultivators knew the iron rule passed down for many years: "Upon encountering a non-sword cultivator, kill them."

Yet many sword cultivators had never seen a non-sword cultivator in their entire lives.

At most, they had heard related news, and much of that news was false accusations planted after murder and robbery.

Non-sword cultivators were like beautiful women on the real-world internet—seemingly everywhere, yet most were not real.

Two months after Tang Xuanzang took on disciples.

His residence, originally a basic mansion, had become magnificently beautiful, like a heavenly palace of immortals.

This had nothing to do with Tang Xuanzang himself—he occasionally communicated and exchanged sword insights with Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation elders, and often walked around the Sword Pavilion to look around.

Acting like a standard cultivator, if one ignores his exaggerated cultivation advancement speed, Tang Xuanzang is still utterly ordinary.

The person who turned the manor into the number one most beautiful manor of the Soaring Heaven Sword Gate is Tang Xuanzang's second disciple, Ao Yulie.

This person was formerly an old acquaintance of Tang Xuanzang, and is now the Soaring Heaven Sword Gate's number one romantic and dashing Golden Core sword cultivator.

That's right, two months after joining the sect, this Foundation Establishment sword cultivator became a Golden Core sword cultivator.

Fortunately, before joining the sect he had already been stuck at late Foundation Establishment for a very long time, so it was merely the performance of an ordinary genius.

After experiencing Tang Xuanzang's tempering, the Soaring Heaven Sword Gate from top to bottom all expressed: Ao Yulie, not bad.

After all, ever since Tang Xuanzang appeared and his reputation spread, a saying emerged:

There are two kinds of genius monsters in the cultivation world, one is called Tang Xuanzang, the other is called all other geniuses.

This saying naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the other six major sects.

So only your Soaring Heaven Sword Gate's geniuses are in a class of their own?

The most intense reaction naturally came from the Hidden Sword Manor: when you say these words, have you never lifted your heads to look at Sword Maniac Yixin atop the peak?

Achieved Void Refinement in five hundred years, with two hundred years left to catch up to Daoist Fengxian and Divine Lord Yue Wushuang.

A man who stood at the pinnacle of the cultivation world in seven hundred years.

Before him, someone actually dares to claim the title of genius?

Have you asked the sword in Sword Maniac Yixin's hand?

Jumping beam clown!

The Soaring Heaven Sword Gate immediately counterattacked: Senior Yixin is very strong, that's true, but our Elder Xuanzang reached Golden Core in one month, Nascent Soul in two months.

Do the math — it should be one Tang Xuanzang equals one hundred and fifty Sword Maniac Yixins.

Sword Maniac Yixin was reduced to a unit of measurement.

While the disciples' long-distance cursing matches kept escalating, friction also kept intensifying.

The other sects were happy to watch the excitement.

The high-level leadership of the two sects also did not step in to stop it, counting it as warm-up preparation for the Seven Sect Grand Competition one year later.

Yes, intra-sect competitions, inter-sect competitions, all count as basic operations.

The cultivation world is a situation of overall peace with local struggles; the Seven Great Sects, as the seven strongest sects, also suppress all kinds of competition and friction below a certain degree.

Everyone cultivates for the sake of cultivating immortality and longevity, not for killing and fighting; even sword cultivators are the same.

But for a sect to develop, for an individual to development, competition is necessary.

All kinds of competitions thus arose in response to the times.

The Mountains and Seas Realm is the same; if many sects gather in one place, this situation will appear.

The Seven Great Sects hold a Grand Competition every two hundred years to determine the distribution of mutual interests for the next two hundred years.

This situation has been going on for many years.

It also allows other sects to challenge any one of the seven — the prerequisite is having a Void Refinement sword cultivator.

As long as your Void Refinement sword cultivator defeats the Seven Great Gates' Void Refinement sword cultivator, then the Seven Great Gates' position will be yielded with both hands.

This kind of thing has happened once since the rules were established.

That time Daoist Fengxian defeated a former member of the Seven Great Gates, bringing the Shu Mountain Sword Sect to the summit.

Afterwards, the two sects went to all-out war, ending with the Shu Mountain Sword Sect completely exterminating the other sect.

Since then, not even a second challenger has appeared.

The Seven Gates Grand Competition also trended toward peace, but deaths are still unavoidable.

Even so, the Seven Gates Grand Competition is still the cultivation world's greatest grand event, bar none.

Beneath the Seven Gates, there are also many minor sects that spontaneously hold competitions.

However, they are not as formal as the Seven Gates Grand Competition; all kinds of underhanded tricks and petty schemes emerge endlessly, ultimately developing into two-sect wars, mutual destruction, even sect extermination tragedies.

This situation has appeared quite a few times, truly bloody.

Many people are looking forward to seeing what kind of brilliance the legendary sole-genius Tang Xuanzang will bloom with at this Seven Gates Grand Competition.

Is it a stage, a staircase upward, or a graveyard that buries geniuses?

"Master, this Grand Competition, we must participate." Inside the manor, Ao Yulie said to Tang Luo and the others.

"One year later." Zhu Bajie asked, "Does our mission time still have enough left?"

Everyone reasonably speculated the mission time is one year.

Right now they have already stayed in the mission world for nearly half a year.

"I heard a piece of news." Ao Yulie said mysteriously, "The Seven Gates Grand Competition not only concerns future interests, but also concerns the ownership of a certain extremely important object."

"You mean, the Divine Sword?" Zhu Bajie said.

Their mission is to find the Divine Sword.

Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie have been relatively diligent during this period; all told, over a hundred "Divine Swords" passed through their hands, not a single one was the mission-required Divine Sword.

There were two that belonged to equipment, but in the sect's "Sword Forest," you can't just take them because you want to.

Of course, for Zhu Bajie and them, it actually is take-if-you-want, but there's no need.

If the Seven Gates Grand Competition really has something to do with the Divine Sword, then their mission time will definitely "reach" that time.

"Fine, then I'll just reach Spirit Severing first." Tang Luo said, his aura beginning to surge; if acting, do the full set.

Tang Luo's acting skills are quite good.

Outside the manor, a streak of sword light flew over, revealing Lei Zhengyang's figure at the gate.

"Elder Xuanzang, in this Seven Gates Grand Competition, you will be our sect's most important Nascent Soul combat power, is there anything..." The Sect Master came personally for pre-battle mobilization.

Then, he stopped halfway through his words.

Such vast and domineering Sword Yuan aura!

"Uh—how about I break through next time instead?"

Tang Luo's voice sounded innocent.