Human-Shaped Flying Swords?

Other people wielded nothing more than cold magical artifacts or treasures.

But what he would wield in the future would be junior brothers and sisters who could grow without limit!

Once I mastered Myriad Swords Returning to Origin, my junior brothers and sisters who practiced the Sword Refining Art would have perfected their cultivation too.

Then every one of them would be a living sword, able to automatically seek out enemies and coordinate their attacks!

Even if we were ambushed, they could immediately come to one another's aid!

And they could keep growing stronger through cultivation, improving their own quality as flying swords.

I wouldn't even have to worry about replacing my treasures!

That would be incredible!

Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!!!!

"Junior Sister, imagine this."

"In a sect war of the future, ordinary sword cultivators might wield a hundred or a thousand swords at most."

"But what if the sword cultivators of our Gui Xi Sect took the field?"

"Then!"

"Those who answered our sword cultivators' call would no longer be lifeless objects!"

"They would be hundreds or even thousands of fellow disciples who had practiced the Sword Refining Art and shared a bond of understanding with us!"

"They would be the swords of our Gui Xi Sect!

"Every 'human sword' would have its own consciousness. It would know how to exploit an opening, coordinate attacks, and even... sacrifice itself in an explosion!

"This sword tide, united as one and forming a battle array with its own bodies...

"Who could stop it? What sect could stand against it?"

"This is the heaven-defying path that ordinary people like us have forged by banding together and supporting one another in desperate circumstances!

"It is the future of our Gui Xi Sect!

"And I truly believe that... it is the path best suited to you!"

Human-shaped... flying swords?

Su Ling'er stared blankly at Lin Qingfeng's earnest face.

Use people as swords?!

How could he even come up with that?!

Judging by his expression, he wasn't joking...

He really thought this way?!

Use an evil technique to erase his fellow disciples' wills and turn them into killing tools that obeyed orders alone!

No...

They might not even be as good as tools!

Tools could be repaired when they broke, but these people...

They were even expected to sacrifice themselves in explosions?!

So this was the true face of the Sword Refining Art?!

It wasn't merely a cruel body-refining technique. It was also a demonic art for cultivating living treasures and death warriors!

And people of mediocre aptitude, who would make little difference even if they died, were the perfect expendable materials for this technique!

Su Ling'er understood everything in an instant.

He had kept emphasizing how poor her aptitude was, not as a casual remark, but to make her face the cruel truth:

You have no right to follow the normal path of cultivation!

And you don't have the time or talent to slowly hone your skills!

With her aptitude, if she cultivated step by step until she reached Qi Refining Great Perfection, she would probably already be old and withered, with death at her door.

He praised this evil technique so highly because it had been made for people like her, whose aptitude was mediocre!

This was a dead end!

But for them, perhaps it was also a "way to survive"?

Because without this technique, people of mediocre aptitude could only spend their lives accomplishing nothing.

That was reality.

It was the cruel reality every disciple of mediocre aptitude had to face!

First he shattered her mind with a horrifying vision, then dressed up its core in gentle-sounding reason, and finally led her toward the fate she had to face...

He was going to personally cut off her last vain hopes and force her to understand that she had no other choice!

She could only gratefully lie down on that forging platform and become part of their evil technique?!

Or perhaps... become a sword?!

If she became a treasured sword, at least someone could wield her, and she would still be "alive."

But what about those who were used for their flesh and blood, turned into medicinal soup, and offered up as sacrifices?

She still couldn't recall what the disciple who had been used to offer up a sword looked like. She only remembered that he had seemed unremarkable.

Though she couldn't even say what made him seem so unremarkable.

But the image of his flesh dissolving alone was enough to make her shudder.

She still couldn't understand why that person would willingly become a sacrifice, turning into flesh and blood essence to nourish someone else.

Could it be...

That disciple's entire family had been threatened by this Demonic Sect, and he had to sacrifice himself to save them?

They truly were an evil demonic sect!

Su Ling'er's lips trembled as she managed to say:

"S-Senior Disciple Brother, this path is far too profound. Ling'er... needs more time to contemplate it.

"There are three thousand Great Paths, each with its own Karma of Destiny. Perhaps my understanding is still lacking. I don't think we should rush into this. Otherwise, it might easily give rise to inner demons, which would only make things worse."

Lin Qingfeng sighed.

It seemed that just watching wasn't enough. From an outsider's perspective, the forging process he had shown her before had looked as if it came within a hair's breadth of death. It must have left her with too much of a psychological shadow.

Since this girl was so afraid of dying, he'd take her to see how their sect forcibly pulled people back from the brink of death!

"Junior Sister has a point. The Dao heart is indeed the foundation of cultivation."

"In that case, let's not talk about cultivation."

"I'll take you to another place and show you another part of our Gui Xi Sect's deep foundations."

"Come on, let's visit Hundred Herbs Valley."

"There, you'll understand why our sect's disciples dare to face death again and again... only to come back to life!"

Su Ling'er followed Lin Qingfeng, step by step along a stone path through the mountains.

Where was he taking her now?

The Pill Cauldron Pavilion was a hell where living people were refined into pills.

The Artifact Refining Pavilion was a furnace where living people were used to forge artifacts.

Behind every name that sounded perfectly ordinary lay an abyss beyond anything she could imagine.

This "Hundred Herbs Valley"...

Its name carried the promise of life and the fragrance of grass and trees.

But in this demon den, the more beautiful the name, the more horrifying the decay behind it was likely to be...

An incense stick later, when she passed through a mist-shrouded valley entrance, her feet still came to a halt of their own accord.

Before her stretched an enormous valley.

A thin mist of Spiritual Power flowed through it.

In the distance, a mountain stream burbled, and waterfalls fell like white ribbons.

The scents of all kinds of Spiritual Plants, some familiar and some not, swayed in the gentle breeze.

This...

This really did look like an immortal's paradise.

But Su Ling'er's heart only tightened further.

When something was too good to be true, there was usually something wrong.

"Junior Sister, look over there."

Su Ling'er followed the direction of her Senior Disciple Brother's finger. In the distance, she saw several medicinal fields enclosed by arrays.

The Spiritual Power there was several times denser than elsewhere, and even the soil shimmered.

Several Spiritual Herbs were growing luxuriantly in the fields.

At that moment, two groups of disciples had gathered around the finest patch of medicinal land, arguing until their faces turned red.

"Why does this 'spiritual vein node' belong to you?! You planted there last month!"

"Because I spent more spirit stones than you! If you've got what it takes, save up for two months and then spend them all at once!"

As they spoke, the two sides began shoving each other. Spiritual Power clashed, spells flew, and they fought with gusto.

The disciples around them were already used to this. Some even stopped to watch with interest.

Lin Qingfeng smiled as he watched the scene.

"Junior Sister, do you see?"

"The struggle for the Great Path is everywhere."

"Even a tiny medicinal field is a battlefield."

"Spiritual Herbs grown at that spiritual vein node are twenty percent more potent than those grown in ordinary soil."

"Want them?"

"Then spend more spirit stones than anyone else."

"Or go fight for them, seize them, and take them by force!"

"Our Gui Xi Sect never raises flowers in a greenhouse.

"Resources are right there, laid out fairly before everyone.

"Those with strength claim them; those with ability win them. That is the simplest truth of this world."

He had to show Junior Sister what would happen if she didn't practice the Sword Refining Art: with her aptitude, she would eventually become one of the weak, ripe for exploitation!

He needed her to think it over carefully!

Senior Disciple Brother really... had gone to such lengths for her!