How Is This Not a Way?

Nine Secrets Heavenly Book?

Before this, that name would not have stirred him at all. What did the number-one immortal object in the human world have to do with a mere subordinate guard like him?

But the voice he had heard last night had clearly mentioned something about the Realm of the Nine Secrets.

No way.

Yu Wenlong... no, Brother Long, you weren't making such a huge move, were you?

His heart thumped twice. After calming himself slightly, he asked without betraying anything, "What exactly is this Nine Secrets Heavenly Book? Is it really that impressive?"

"I don't know what it specifically does. I only know that ever since the Immortal Object Ranking came into being, the Nine Secrets Heavenly Book has always held first place without ever wavering. They say the Heavenly Book may consist of nine parts, and only when all nine pages are united does it become the unrivaled number-one immortal object in the human world." Chen Ju said, "But one thing is certain: if something is listed on the Immortal Object Ranking, it must be in someone's possession. Things hidden away somewhere that have never emerged into the world are not included on the list."

"I see." Liang Yue nodded.

"Something like this..." Chen Ju pointed at the next name, "is the biggest change in this edition of the Spirit Cliff Three Lists."

"Second on the Immortal Object Ranking: the Enlightenment Tree."

"There have been three Saints of utmost importance in human history. In ancient times, Li Sheng opened the heavens and shattered the shackles of cultivation in the world. In antiquity, Chu Saint split the earth, opened up the land of Nine Yangs, and even struck down Illusion God Peak, which had accompanied the Ten Great Immortal Seeds. Three thousand years ago, Saint Zhuang stabilized heaven and earth, ended humanity's ten thousand years of darkness, established the order of the human dynasties and the Mystic Sect Eight Veins, and that order has endured to this day."

"Of the Ten Great Immortal Seeds that Chu Saint struck down, the Enlightenment Tree is universally acknowledged as the strongest." Chen Ju's face was full of reverence. "They say that merely standing beneath this tree for a moment can make a person wiser. If you can pluck a leaf and brew it into tea, drinking it will directly elevate your aptitude. And if you can cultivate day after day amid this tree's spiritual energy, your comprehension will become peerless—even the Immortal Realm would benefit."

"In the great war three thousand years ago, the Enlightenment Tree was damaged. It was said that divine fire unleashed by another Immortal Seed, Zhu Rong Seed, scorched it. Its trunk was ruined, while its tree soul fled into the earth. There had been no trace of it ever since, and it had not appeared on the Immortal Object Ranking."

"But this time, the Enlightenment Tree has returned to the Immortal Object Ranking and vaulted straight into second place. Everyone thinks the tree soul repaired itself and has reappeared in the world!"

That reminded Liang Yue of what he had read in the letter before.

Could the treasure said to be about to emerge south of Dragon Abyss City have something to do with this?

But he had no way to verify it. They were merely baseless guesses.

He quietly stored all this away, then smiled and shook his head. "These things are far too distant from us. No matter what, they won't affect my few hundred coppers a month."

After chatting for a few more moments, someone called from over there, "Liang Yue, Commander Hu wants you."

"Huh?"

Ever since Old Hu learned that he had mastered Cloud Dragon Nine Manifestations, he had been so excited that he had nearly tried to turn heaven and earth upside down. After that, whenever Liang Yue came to the station, he avoided Hu Tiehan, afraid that the man would hatch some bizarre little scheme again.

Now that Old Hu had suddenly summoned him of his own accord, Liang Yue could not help feeling uneasy.

"Brother Hu, you were looking for me?" Liang Yue walked in with an awkward grin.

"Little Liang." Hu Tiehan's bearded face was full of smiles. "I heard your younger brother got into the Sword Dao Academy. Congratulations."

"Thank you, Brother Hu." Liang Yue nodded politely.

Hu Tiehan continued, "Your Liang Family has such an outstanding scholar to carry on the family line. If your ancestors knew beneath the Yellow Springs, they should be more than satisfied."

"I suppose so. Xiao Peng really is outstanding." Liang Yue had no idea what he was scheming, so he could only answer nervously.

"Tell me, since your younger brother is enough to carry on the family line, your family probably wouldn't object if you became a live-in son-in-law, right?" Hu Tiehan finally revealed the dagger behind the map, making his true intentions clear.

"Hm?" Liang Yue immediately became alert and looked him straight in the eye. "Brother Hu, what do you mean by that?"

"It's like this, hehe." Hu Tiehan laughed. "I have a niece. She resembles me by seventy percent, and she can truly be called beautiful as a flower. She's about your age, and her family is wealthy. Having you become a live-in son-in-law would not wrong you. After you marry into the family, you won't need to change your surname, but you'll still be a member of the Hu Family from then on. What do you think of this arrangement...?"

"Brother Hu!" Liang Yue sprang to his feet. "I suddenly remembered there's soup simmering at home. I need to go check on it."

Before his words had even faded, he was already outside the station.

Even if he had mastered the Sword Domain Swimming Dragon Movement Technique, putting it into motion would probably have been no faster than that.

Good grief.

Now they wanted him to become a live-in son-in-law.

He did not even dare imagine how flower-like a woman who closely resembled Old Hu would be. Asking even one more question would have been disrespectful to that face full of beard.

By nightfall, Liang Yue was standing in the courtyard practicing again.

Although his last contemplation of the "Sword Domain Swimming Dragon Movement Technique" had failed, he had felt that his Divine Sense improved a little afterward.

Cultivating Divine Sense was somewhat like increasing physical strength. Only after exhausting oneself and breaking through one's limits could one make some progress. That was the purpose of cultivating more techniques in the Contemplation Realm, and it was how cultivation advanced at this stage.

This time, he stared at the contemplation diagram and quickly immersed himself in that expanse of mountains and seas again.

The green-robed Daoist still sat steadily beside the jade-blue lake. When his eyes opened, sun and moon lost their color.

Boom—

The sea of swords filling the sky rose from the lake once more, howling past and shaking heaven and earth. The white dragon darted through the sword sea without suffering the slightest harm, as if it had merged with that endless ocean of swords.

Liang Yue vaguely gained an insight. The most important thing was not the white dragon's form, but the subtle tremor that seemed to ripple through heaven and earth whenever it moved.

This was the power of Dao resonance—the laws of heaven and earth.

With its aid, even the narrowest sliver of a gap could be entered. The world was vast; I could roam wherever I pleased.

This was the Swimming Dragon!

Whoosh—

When the Daoist unleashed his second sword and fully activated the sword domain, almost nothing could be seen amid the light and shadows that filled the sky. Only a streak of white light remained, seeming as though it would be swallowed by the vast Sword Qi at any moment, yet it never vanished.

Liang Yue's Divine Sense struggled to follow it, but he could only make out a blurred shadow. The Daoist was just about to fully unleash his third sword.

Just as he struggled to pursue it, a sudden stabbing pain erupted in his mind again.

His Divine Sense had dried up once more.

"Ah..."

Liang Yue fell backward again, seized by dizziness.

Only after a long while did he regain consciousness. He slowly raised his right hand and—hiss.

He slashed with his blade, and wisps of white vapor accompanied both sides of its edge, carrying a faint, chilling sharpness.

Ordinarily, martial artists could only transform their force into aura and launch long-range attacks after reaching the Fourth Realm, the Aura Realm. Yet certain methods allowed one to condense force in advance and achieve the same effect.

Sword Qi was one of them.

Within that sword domain filling the sky, the contemplator's Divine Sense was mainly focused on the ever-changing white dragon, but it inevitably came into contact with some of the surrounding Sword Qi as well.

To others, it might have been no more than a trace of Dao resonance in the background. For Liang Yue, however, that was already enough.

Many people believed Sword Qi belonged exclusively to Qi Refiner sword cultivators, but that was not the case. So long as a martial artist comprehended that sharp and piercing Qi Channels, he could likewise release Sword Qi beyond his body.

After that slash, he suddenly smiled. Using a saber to unleash Sword Qi—how was that not a kind of...

No.

What amused him was that he had not even fully grasped his movement technique, yet he had incidentally comprehended a few points of the Sword Qi that filled the sky. It really was interesting.

Though what he had learned was Sword Qi, when unleashed, it ought to be called saber qi instead.

With that thought, he flipped his wrist and slashed again.

Hiss—

A white gleam swept past, and black cloth fluttered through the air.

Looking closely, he saw that it was his own robe hem, sliced into scraps by the saber qi.

Although he could unleash saber qi, he had failed to control it properly, causing its sharpness to spill outward. The main reason was that his Divine Sense had given out today; the contemplation just now had consumed too much of it.

He had overdrawn himself again.

"Alas." Liang Yue let out a deep sigh of helpless exhaustion and lowered his head.

As he looked at the scraps of cloth on the ground, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

Oh no.

His mother had only bought this fabric a couple days ago and made this outfit for him to celebrate his meritorious service and official appointment.

He had only worn it for a few days, and now he had cut it to pieces himself.

Li Caiyun was a tailor with excellent craftsmanship. The clothes she made for the three Liang children had always been beautiful, and they all took great care of them. Whenever his younger brother or sister was careless, he would even scold them a little. Yet today, he himself had become the naughty child.

For families like theirs, cloth and clothing were still rather precious.

But fortunately...

He suddenly remembered the two-hundred-tael banknote he still carried on him. With that money to back him up, these scraps of cloth were nothing much, and he would not need to feel too upset.

He would not spend those two hundred taels, but merely thinking of them made him feel secure.

Now he just needed to think of an excuse that would keep Mother from getting angry.

"Wait..."

Suddenly, as he looked at the scraps of cloth, Liang Yue seemed to think of something else.

"Cloth?"