The New Chessboard

"He's gone."

The Wanhua Realm cultivator from Xingtian Gate said it nonchalantly, then smiled.

"He went somewhere very far away."

"Is he still alive?"

He Qingling asked.

"The last time you saw him, wasn't he already dead?"

The Xingtian Gate stall owner continued.

He Qingling fell silent for a moment. This Wanhua Realm cultivator from Xingtian Gate was definitely not as simple as he seemed.

"Who, pray, are you?"

He Qingling asked.

Although the other party's cultivation was a full major realm below hers, with even the divide between the Middle Three Realms and the Upper Three Realms separating them, she still addressed him respectfully.

"My name isn't important. I'm just a messenger, nothing more..."

As he spoke, the elderly man in a dark purple Daoist robe gently lifted the black and white swords in his hands, then set them on the table before him.

"What matters are these two swords, isn't that right?"

He Qingling's gaze fell once more on the two swords before her, swords she had seen countless times.

The face of that taciturn, weathered middle-aged man surfaced in her mind.

"You're selling these two swords?"

He Qingling asked.

"That's right."

The Wanhua Realm cultivator from Xingtian Gate replied.

"But the rights to these two swords should belong to Empty Mountain Sect."

He Qingling continued.

"I don't care. I'm only here to sell these two swords."

The elderly man in the dark purple Daoist robe replied.

He Qingling fell silent again. She thought for a moment, then asked:

"How much?"

"One Superior Spirit Stone."

The Wanhua Realm cultivator from Xingtian Gate answered.

One Superior Spirit Stone.

That price didn't seem like he was selling the swords so much as giving them away, asking only for a token Spirit Stone.

"Why?"

He Qingling asked.

"Li Haowen's belongings—who else