Chapter 714: Eighth Realm Sword-Tempering Stone, Sword-Gaze Observes the Phenomena (Combined Chapter)

Whoosh~ Whoosh~

A colossal warship hung across the sky, air currents churning.

At the highest point of the Ten Thousand Thunder Ship, Daoist Master Fujiu stood with arms folded, gazing levelly at the two intersecting Sword Sovereign sword-qi. His white robes stirred without wind, Dao rings weaving behind him, immortal light cascading like a waterfall.

"Senior…"

Unlike Daoist Master Fujiu's composure, the cultivators behind him had sweat beading on their brows, wanting to speak but holding back.

"Senior Brother, please rein in your aura!"

At that moment, an extremely burly great fellow strode out from the ship's cabin—muscles knotted like coiling roots, whiskers wild as scrub grass, his voice like a bronze bell, thunderously loud:

"If you draw the sword-qi down to slash, the two of us working together couldn't withstand it!"

"Nine epochs, over a million years, and not a scratch, not a wear—truly, the Dao of the Sword Sovereign is terrifying beyond measure!"

Daoist Master Fujiu withdrew his aura at the right moment; he had merely wished to try comprehending those two sword-qi at full strength, with no intention of testing them on his own body.

"Gods may fall but the Dao does not perish. Whether these two Sword Sovereigns are truly dead is still unknown—Senior Brother, it's better to be cautious."

The great fellow stepped closer, squinted to examine for a brief moment, then shook his head: "These two are strong, certainly, but they don't mesh at all with my 'Eight Wastelands Dao'…"

"That may not be so."

At a mere thought from Daoist Master Fujiu, the colossal warship transformed into a streak of flowing light and vanished into his brow.

"Quite a few familiar faces—people from the Mysterious Embryo Heaven, Dragon Transformation Heaven, and Scarlet Brightness Heaven have all come? Oh? Someone from Mount Mount Dongxuan too?"

"I'll go meet those senior brothers."

Daoist Master Fujiu vanished into the void, his voice lingering:

"Junior Brother Fuxiong, take Yunji and the others around for a look…"

"Mm."

The great fellow grunted in reply, then with a flick of his sleeve, had already brought the others into the Sword God Market.

……

"Daoist Master Fujiu."

Li Yuan toyed with his Tongshi Orb; searching the Grand Void Myriad Phenomena yielded no information on this true disciple of Jingshan, but the inner disciples of Mount Mount Dongxuan recognized him.

The moment he sent out his divine sense, the 'Mount Mount Dongxuan Inner Disciple' interface trembled constantly—several senior brothers were already replying to him.

Daoist Master Fujiu was born into a cultivation clan in the 'Jiujiang Realm'. When he was born, the heavens showed strange omens, and a divine sword came to seek him out—he possessed the exceedingly rare 'Sword Dao Sacred Body'.

Though this Sacred Body was not among the Nine Great 【Sacred Bodies】, it was a pure Slaughter Body. He was initially invited to participate in the 'Heaven-Maintaining Martial Exhibition', where he shone brilliantly and was valued by the Jingshan Sword Sovereign, who took him as a disciple.

It is said that before he refined the Dharma Heaven, he obtained a heaven-shaking fortune in the Opening Gui Xu and refined the Innate Sword Dao Sacred Body.

"A pure Slaughter Sacred Body."

Li Yuan committed this person's intelligence to memory.

This Daoist Master Fujiu, who had traversed twenty-three realms, was far stronger than that Vaidradya Great Vajra, and was extremely skilled in killing and combat.

Relying on his Innate Sword Dao Sacred Body, he shone brilliantly at every Heaven-Maintaining Martial Exhibition.

From time to time, cultivators from the Opening Gui Xu and other realms would attempt to assassinate him.

"This man acts brazenly and domineeringly—knowing full well there are assassins, every time he travels he does so with great fanfare. In the past five hundred years, he's been assassinated over a dozen times…"

"Junior Brother Li, keep your distance—don't get caught up in it!"

"He's a walking disaster. Every time he's assassinated, he's fine himself, but the cultivators caught in the crossfire have died in untold numbers…"

Seeing the warnings from his senior brothers, Li Yuan silently moved farther away.

"Martial Uncle, is there anything you'd like to purchase?"

Mu Qing inquired.

Mu Qing and Mu Huo were a pair of fraternal twins, born in the 'Spirit Void Gate' of the Bei Dou Fa Jie. A century ago, they took Daoist Daoist Tongqing as their master, were at the eighth heaven of the Divine Palace realm, and had each refined eight Gold-Natured 【energies】.

Were it not for this Sword God Tomb, they could have attempted to forge a superior-grade Longhu Longhu Dadan thirty years earlier.

"Let's take a look around first."

Li Yuan gathered his thoughts and did not refuse the goodwill of these two martial nephews, who were a good deal older than himself.

"Yes."

Both were very respectful.

Though they had taken Daoist Daoist Tongqing as their master, strictly speaking they were not disciples of Mount Mount Dongxuan, let alone members of the Da Luo Heaven.

Facing this Junior Martial Uncle—praised to the skies by their master and possessing a Chaotic Sacred Body—they felt nothing but envy and awe, not daring the slightest disrespect.

The Sword God Market was not large in scale; at a glance, there were fewer than a thousand people, and most of the stalls were run by spirit puppets, with few cultivators personally manning them.

Yet the stalls were by no means lacking in extremely fine heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

At a single glance, Li Yuan saw—even though most treasures were protected by divine prohibitions—vast swathes of treasure-light, making his heart race.

"There are even people selling supreme-grade divine treasures!"

Gazing at the interwoven treasure-light beneath his eyes, Li Yuan clicked his tongue inwardly. He did not rush to buy, still unhurriedly looking over every stall.

Then he compiled the many spiritual materials that interested him, and finally took stock of his own wealth.

Thanks to his first place on the Combat Ranking, his income over the past five years had been considerable. Though his expenses were also great, he had still accumulated nearly nine thousand Xiao Gong!

"Nine thousand Xiao Gong may sound like a lot, but these stall-keepers are all cultivators above the sixth realm…"

After roughly calculating the prices in his mind, Li Yuan immediately felt that the wealth he had saved up was still far from enough.

"I can only purchase part of them, and I must also reserve a portion to see if I can later buy some control objects related to the Five Extremes Great Scripture from my senior brothers."

Li Yuan had a plan in mind.

Seeing him only look and not buy, the Mu Qing siblings exchanged a glance, feeling that this Martial Uncle knew the ropes—clearly giving them a chance to curry favor.

Immediately, Mu Huo transmitted his voice:

"Is there anything Martial Uncle has taken a fancy to, Martial Uncle?"

"There are some, actually."

Li Yuan knew what he was thinking.

But as their martial uncle, it was unthinkable for him to accept gifts from his martial nephews on their first meeting — that would be far too beneath his dignity.

With a plan in mind, Li Yuan walked straight toward the row of stalls, haggling where he could, haggling slowly where he couldn't, money flowing out like water; before long, three thousand Xiao Gong had already been spent.

This portion he mainly used to purchase divine patterns, spirit treasures that helped stack talents, and some controlling objects useful to him.

More than seventy percent of it went to spirit treasures.

Most of the remaining thirty percent went to high-grade divine patterns; as for those broken controlling objects from other realms, most were priced very low.

Of course, there were expensive ones too.

Like the one Li Yuan had his eye on.

【Dry-Gold Lei Chi (Fourteenth Grade)】

【... A divine treasure forged by the Dry-Gold Realm cultivator 'Kong Yao,' who gathered the qi of ten thousand Dry-Gold and three hundred sixty kinds of Lei Guang, mixed with a drop of Qi Jing Bai Hu blood. The small grotto-heaven within is broken, its origin damaged...】

【... Dry-Gold divine thunder can be used for slaughter; condensed into Lei Shui, it can nurture spirit plants, enlighten spirit plants, and cleanse the body and spirit...】

【... In this treasure's damaged grotto-heaven, the various qi are mixed and impure; among them, one wisp seems slightly strange, as if a cultivator's remnant soul lingers within...】

【Controlling Condition One: Eighty-one strands of Metal-attribute magic power】

【Controlling Effect One: Dry-Gold Lei Chi (Fifth Layer), Bai Hu True Form】

【Controlling Condition Two: Bai Hu True Form, Dry-Gold magic power】

【Controlling Effect Two: Dry-Gold Light (Di Liu Zhong)】

"Dry-Gold Light!"

Li Yuan looked at the palm-sized Lei Chi, his heart stirring somewhat.

The Dry-Gold Lei Chi and Bai Hu True Form were one thing, but the Dry-Gold Light was different — this was a Gu Gu Shentong, and a purely offensive one at that.

Not only could he cultivate it himself, he could also use it to refine his life-bound Demon-Slaying Immortal-Execution Sword!

Metal-attribute divine light was the best match for a slaughter sword.

But the price...

"Your Lei Chi is badly damaged, even the small grotto-heaven within has been destroyed — it's worth at most a top-grade spirit treasure. Asking three thousand Xiao Gong for it is really too expensive."

Li Yuan haggled.

The stall-keeper was a second-realm spirit puppet; its two thin whiskers trembled:

"Although it's broken, it still has the foundation of a top-grade divine treasure. Even if you took it apart and sold the various spirit materials separately, you'd still get at least a thousand Xiao Gong..."

The spirit puppet was very lively, and refused to budge, holding firm at 'three thousand Xiao Gong.'

"Where's the stall owner?"

Li Yuan saw that reasoning with it was pointless, and knew this was the stall owner's fixed price.

"The master, he..."

The spirit puppet was about to speak when it suddenly sensed something, turned, and bowed: "Master!"

The void trembled slightly, and a burly great man walked out, his voice low:

"How much did you offer?"

A familiar face!

Li Yuan recognized the stall owner at a glance — it was the very merchant from whom he'd bought the Fate-Defying Tortoise earlier, named Zhang Zhang Hai Long, a sixth-realm cultivator.

"One thousand!"

Li Yuan offered earnestly: "Dismantling a divine treasure is extremely tedious; this junior would be glad to do the honors."

"..."

Zhang Zhang Hai Long wasn't annoyed at the words, he just sized up the bronze ghost-masked Daoist before the stall: "The lowest is two thousand eight hundred Xiao Gong!"

"Too high."

Li Yuan shook his head and kept grinding the price.

"To snatch this Lei Chi, I nearly died in the Dry-Gold Realm. If the price is too low, I'd rather not sell — keeping it as a memento would be fine too!"

Zhang Zhang Hai Long shook his head as well.

"..."

The two haggled with great enthusiasm; Mu Qing and the other exchanged a glance, both seeing the astonishment in each other's eyes.

Their prodigy martial uncle was simply too practiced at this, like someone who'd knocked around in the secular world. If it were them, they probably couldn't bring themselves to haggle so shamelessly.

"One thousand eight hundred Xiao Gong — can't go any lower."

After a long while, Zhang Zhang Hai Long relented, stating this was his bottom price.

"One thousand eight is still a bit much."

Li Yuan was clearly not satisfied, yet still nodded reluctantly, and pointed at a black tortoise shell on the stall:

"Throw in this tortoise shell?"

"You've got a good eye."

Zhang Zhang Hai Long was somewhat surprised: "This is the shell of a fifth-realm Fate-Defying Tortoise. Back in the day, I nearly died in Yong Ye Fa Jie for this shell!"

"It's yours!"

Zhang Zhang Hai Long didn't hesitate — he'd been trying to sell this shell for years without success, and keeping it was useless.

"Many thanks!"

Li Yuan reached out and grabbed the tortoise shell.

【Fate-Defying Tortoise Shell (Thirteenth Grade)】

This tortoise shell was also very high grade, and what was even rarer was that both of its major controlling enhancements were exactly what he needed.

【Control Effects: Thirteenth Order: God-Burning Fate-Reversal, Fate-Reversal Turtle Form】

Of these two control effects, God-Burning Fate-Reversal can help him alter his innate constitution, while the Turtle Form can help him nurture the Fate-Reversal Turtle.

"There really are a lot of good things."

Pocketing the turtle shell and Lei Chi into the Soldier-Gathering Space, Li Yuan was in high spirits. Counting this turtle shell, he had gathered another ten top-grade spirit treasures capable of stacking innate constitutions.

"Once I return to Huishan this time, perhaps I can push the Chaotic Physique up to the level of a Divine Physique!"

Buoyed by the feeling of a bountiful harvest, Li Yuan took down another dozen or so ancient scriptures and spirit treasures from the Ruins-Realm Otherworld, all of which possessed remarkable control effects.

Only afterward did he go back to seek out Master Master Fufa.

……

Outside the Sword God Collection, a cave dwelling woven from nine colors.