A Highly Enlightened Monk

The moment the immortal sword broke, the Fifth Elder had already planned out the rest of his life.

Zhou Xin diligently cultivated for two thousand years, finally reaching a realm only one step away from the Tribulation Transcendence stage. He became the Peak Master, possessing countless patents and bringing enormous wealth to the Ask Dao Sect every year.

Whether he has enough money accumulated over a lifetime to buy a celestial sword is hard to say, as celestial swords are extremely difficult to forge; they are weapons exclusively for immortals.

The immortal sword is different from the immortal treasures of the Immortal Sect. The immortal treasures of the Immortal Sect are at most half-finished immortal artifacts, while the immortal sword in Lu Yang's hand is a genuine immortal artifact, with worlds apart in power.

Legend has it that when a celestial artifact was formed, its quality was so high that it was not tolerated by heaven and earth. All kinds of hardships were imposed on the artifact. If left unattended, the artifact would surely collapse. In order to protect the artifact, the immortals had to fight against the great power of heaven and earth. The difficulty of this was no different from becoming an immortal again, and the dangers were indescribable.

It took countless hardships to form, so the value of a celestial artifact is unimaginable; it's something a mere Nascent Soul Body Integration Realm like him could never afford to lose.

Optimistically speaking, if he works his whole life, he should be able to afford a magical artifact.

Seeing the Fifth Elder's amusing expression, Lu Yang coughed awkwardly.

"Fifth Elder, this immortal sword isn't as hard as you think. According to my research, this immortal sword should be a sword that an immortal specially forged to overcome a difficult situation. It looks like a true immortal weapon, but it actually has little power."

This immortal sword was forged by Ying Tianxian, who was in charge of the lightning tribulation, specifically to deceive the geniuses of the Dragon and Phoenix clans, both of whom were powerful beings at the half-immortal level.

If they could fool those two, they could certainly fool the Fifth Elder as well.

"Is that so?" Hearing Lu Yang say this, the Fifth Elder breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Then, worried that Lu Yang would try to exonerate him, he began to study the matter carefully.

Divine Sense scanning, tempering and refining, metal forging... After a series of tests, the Fifth Elder finally figured out the structure of this immortal sword.

"What lunatic forged this sword? It scared me to death!"

"First, the two materials, fire stone and mountain peak Spirit Stone, are mixed and refined into a sword embryo. Then, using some unknown method, the sword embryo is quickly shaped into a spirit sword. Finally, immortal gold powder is applied to the spirit sword to make it look like it has been struck by lightning, so that even someone as knowledgeable as me would mistake it for a real immortal sword. No, not only me, but even someone in the Tribulation Transcendence stage would think the same."

"If you don't touch it with your own hands, but only look at it with your eyes or Divine Sense, this sword is a celestial sword!"

The Fifth Elder turned to Lu Yang and asked, "You just said that this immortal sword was used by a certain immortal to overcome a difficult situation. What difficult situation? Did the immortal need money and try to scam someone?"

Lu Yang: "..."

Although Qilin Immortal tricked me into eating dirt, it wouldn't be good to spread the news that Qilin Immortal lied to his wife.

Lu Yang believed in unilateral enmity.

Furthermore, Fifth Elder, do you know that the lunatic you just cursed is High Antiquity immortal who controls the Heavenly Tribulation?

"You just said you wanted to forge a sword? Fine, leave it to me!" The Fifth Elder looked at the immortal sword in his hand, his anger burning. He wouldn't be a Zhou if he didn't forge this broken immortal sword into something else!

"This layer of immortal gold powder is useless; it's just used to disguise a celestial sword. The fire-infused stone and mountain-top Spirit Stone, however, are excellent materials, perfect for you."

"How so?"

"You are currently at the Golden Core stage. With your talent, defeating Nascent Soul Realm is no problem. The Fire Stone and the Mountain Peak Spirit Stone can be used to forge a Nascent Soul level spirit sword."

Given the Fifth Elder's status in the weapon-refining world, forging a Nascent Soul level spiritual sword would be a waste of his talents. In the past, he would always delegate such tasks to his disciples. He only agreed to do it this time to vent his anger.

"By the way, do you want a spirit sword or a magic sword?"

Spirit sword involves directly using a sword in combat, while magic sword uses a sword as a medium to Law Technique. Both fall under the category of sword cultivation, but Lu Yang has only learned spirit sword so far.

"Spirit Sword, please."

"Good."

The Fifth Elder led Lu Yang to his weapon-refining room. Before even stepping into the room, Lu Yang felt a wave of heat hitting him, as if this was not a weapon-refining room, but an erupting volcano.

The Fifth Elder casually explained, "Originally, someone of your level wouldn't be able to enter here, but you possess a true fire that can protect you from the scorching heat of the weapon-refining room."

"I have established a rule here: the collision of true fire will not cause an explosion; and the combination of various true fires will help me refine Law Treasure."

The room is spacious and semi-circular, with small bottles of various colors displayed on the walls.

The Fifth Elder casually took a small blue bottle from the wall, uncorked it, and a ball of flame emerged, turning the blue bottle jade white.

The small bottle was originally white, but it changed color after being burned by the flame.

"I have traveled the world and collected 88 of the 108 kinds of true fire. The seeds of the true fire are all stored in specially made small bottles, which I take out whenever I am refining weapons."

"Later, twelve more types of true fire were collected, which led to its current scale."

Lu Yang was amazed. The Fifth Elder truly lived up to his reputation as a master craftsman in the weapon-refining world. Just the collection of these true fires alone would make countless weapon refiners envious.

The Fifth Elder continued, "Unfortunately, the remaining eight types of True Fire are either extremely difficult to collect—I offered a high reward but no one responded—or they are prohibited items and cannot be collected."

"Is real fire considered a prohibited item?"

"For example, the 'true fire' of lust in 'true fire' only needs a tiny spark to arouse a person to the point of being unable to stop, and if they don't release it, they will suffocate themselves. The imperial court felt that this kind of 'true fire' was too dangerous and ordered a ban on its collection."

"Of course, I could find it if I wanted to. Some secret brothels use this fire, but it's useless for refining weapons, so there's no need to collect it."

The Fifth Elder held a blue flame in his hand and said with a faint smile, "I wonder if you have heard of it? This is the True Fire of Desirelessness, which corresponds to the True Fire of Passion. It comes from the Golden Buddha Kingdom. Igniting this fire in your heart will allow you to be free from desires and wants, to have a clear and empty mind, and to focus your mind on the Dao."

"When I was young, I traveled to the Golden Buddha Kingdom with my third brother, hoping to find the true fire of passion in a brothel. Unfortunately, we were unlucky and did not find the true fire of passion in the brothel. Instead, we met a highly enlightened monk in the brothel."

"A high monk saw that Lao San and I had a deep Buddhist nature and felt that we were destined to meet, so he gave me the True Fire of Desirelessness. The high monk also demonstrated the Arhat Fist to Lao San. Lao San had a great enlightenment and went back to create the Six Forms of Heaven-Shaking."

Lu Yang: "..."

I vaguely remember that the Third Elder was beaten up with Arhat Fist in the Golden Buddha Kingdom, and after returning home, he worked hard and created the Six Heaven-Shaking Techniques?

"Why is this highly virtuous monk in a brothel?"

The Fifth Elder was not surprised; he had asked the same question, and the high monk had answered, "Oh, that high monk also explained that."

He said it was called "wearing naked in a brothel, keeping Buddha in one's heart."

The second update will be around 11 PM.