This Is Also a Flying Sword

A gun?!

An Jing was stunned for a moment, finding it hard to believe. But he immediately scanned his surroundings warily. "Everyone with a gun died here. Is this ruin really that dangerous?!"

"And what kind of world is this? Sword Spirit... What should I call you? My lord, or Your Excellency?"

"We're helping each other, so there's no need to call me 'my lord,'" the Sword Spirit said. "I don't know what kind of world this is either, but my fragments are here."

"Still, I recognize this ruin... It feels familiar. It should have something to do with my era."

After looking around for a while, the Sword Spirit still couldn't be sure. He was quite frank. "But I'm broken, and I've forgotten many things."

"Most of those skeletons had reached the Internal Breath Like a River Realm. The leaders were probably at least at that level when they were alive. The thing that killed them seems to have used some kind of Soul-Seizing Technique."

"This place is indeed dangerous. Break through to the Internal Breath Realm as soon as you can, then go back."

An Jing nodded slightly. If so many gun-wielding Internal Breath cultivators had died here, this ruin was probably even more dangerous than Xuanming Manor.

And danger was only one concern. He also had to get back to the manor quickly and pretend he'd been asleep.

This was the unspoken understanding between him and Manor Master Yao. He had to act as if nothing had happened and not let anything slip.

He had to get full marks on this test.

Manor Master Yao would never imagine that An Jing would return at the Internal Breath Realm!

As for whether breaking through to the Internal Breath Realm might give him away... With the Sword Spirit and Qingjing Sword Temple, An Jing was confident that ordinary people would never see through his true strength. At the very least, Manor Master Yao wouldn't.

But... An Jing thought of Manor Master Yao's own strength.

He was at the Internal Strengthening Realm and had already "given birth to Divine Anomalies," possessing all kinds of extraordinary abilities and strange skills beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Even though he was now terribly old, with his vital essence depleted, he was still a formidable foe.

Unless...

An Jing lowered his head and looked at the guns in the hands of the corpses.

Since they'd died from a Soul-Seizing Technique, they probably weren't poisoned, right?

After asking the Sword Spirit and receiving confirmation that they weren't, An Jing began rifling through the corpses without the slightest hesitation.

There wasn't much else among them, mostly bullets and guns. The group of leaders had more equipment, including some damaged communication terminals and pills, but all of it was completely ruined.

The skeletons were in such a state that they must have been dead for at least seven or eight years. That was plenty of time for even sturdy things to grow brittle and rot away.

The guns and clothes were visibly decayed, and even the strange little daggers hanging from the corpses' waists had completely rusted away.

The gun in the leader's hands, however, was different from the ones held by the others.

It was about the size of an ordinary rifle, and looked like two metal rails with a white crystal in the middle, very much like "jade." This strange gun hadn't decayed. It wasn't exactly pristine, but it was only covered in dust.

"This is a Dharma Artifact."

The Sword Spirit glanced at it, a little surprised. "Dharma Artifacts and Spirit Artifacts; Dharma Treasures and Spirit Treasures."

"Dharma Artifacts are low-grade implements, only capable of carrying Daoist Techniques, but they still have their uses. This one should be a Dharma Artifact for releasing some kind of attack technique."

"This Dharma Artifact requires at least the Internal Breath Realm to use, and its Spirit Core is nearly depleted. It won't work... Hmm, there's another one to the left that still works."

An Jing looked at the intact Dharma Artifact the Sword Spirit had pointed out and picked it up. He saw a faint glow still flowing through the white jade at its center. "Then I'll hold on to it."

After searching all the bodies, An Jing came away with quite a haul—not only a Dharma Artifact gun, but also two intact gunpowder weapons.

The two gunpowder weapons had been kept in cases, probably as someone's backups. They had large calibers and tremendous firepower, and still worked.

An Jing collected a good number of bullets that seemed intact, then cautiously fired one to test it. Its power was astonishing. After a thunderclap of a gunshot, it left a dent nearly as deep as a palm in the rocky ground.

The guns were loaded with an enormous amount of gunpowder, and their muzzles seemed to be reinforced with Dao Patterns. Their destructive power seemed far greater than even the guns he remembered from his previous life.

"Flying Swords?"

Seeing the guns' power, the Sword Spirit exclaimed in surprise. "These are Flying Sword Boxes? But this is the first time I've seen such a fragile, single-use Flying Sword."

"This isn't a Flying Sword. It's a firearm." An Jing was about to explain, but the Sword Spirit seemed quite puzzled. "Forged from metal, with tremendous power and incredible speed. It wounds through piercing and armor-piercing, and can easily kill cultivators weaker than its wielder—look, isn't that just a Flying Sword?"

An Jing blinked. He thought it over, then immediately saw the point. "You're right. It is a Flying Sword."

"This path of the Flying Sword has developed quite well. Even ordinary people without Internal Breath or Spiritual Energy can use them."

The Sword Spirit was surprisingly enthusiastic about this. "It seems Artifact Crafting is highly advanced in this world."

An Jing didn't reply. He wasn't sure what to say. In any case, he collected plenty of bullets and carried some with him, leaving most of them where they were. "I don't need that many. I can't hide them all."

Two guns, and one Dharma Artifact gun. He wasn't strong enough to use the Dharma Artifact gun yet.

The two handguns were enough. He only had two hands, after all.

Besides, for some reason, An Jing found that he was pretty good with guns. What had I done in my previous life? How could I know everything from astronomy to geography—and now even how to use a gun?

Putting that doubt aside, An Jing didn't forget the reason he'd first come to this otherworld.

Breaking through to the Internal Breath Realm.

"To be honest, I don't know much about the path of Martial Cultivation in the Huaixu Realm. In my era, everyone followed the Orthodox Qi Refining Path."

In response to An Jing's question, the Sword Spirit got straight to the point. "But I think that even if it's been tens of thousands of years or several eras, as long as we're still the same kind of people in the same world, the fundamentals can't have changed that much."

"Ultimately, it's all about grasping Innate Qi and using it as a foundation, building it up from wisps until it fills the whole body."

"The question now is, which method do you want to use to advance? The Method of Yang, or the Method of Yin?"

"The Method of Yang and the Method of Yin?"

An Jing understood at once that these were other names for the "Method of Motion and Stillness."

He couldn't help asking, "I'm more familiar with the Method of Motion... Didn't we cross into another world so we could advance beyond the Demonic Cult's reach? Or is there something special about the Method of Stillness?"

"The Method of Motion lets you break through in battle. The Method of Stillness is safer."

The Sword Spirit quickly grasped the concepts of motion and stillness, yin and yang. He thought for a moment, then said, "But it's best to have both motion and stillness, and unite yin and yang."

Now An Jing was curious. "What do you mean by that?"

An Jing actually knew a little about the Method of Stillness. The An Clan Martial Scripture had once recorded that there was an unusual sect in Xibo Kingdom, in the South Sea, called the Baiju Sect.

Its disciples were skilled at entering the Dao through dreams. They slept all day, circulating their energy through the circuits of the body in their dreams.

If that were all the Martial Scripture had to say, it would be no more than a collection of folk tales. What mattered most were its annotations. According to them, the Baiju Sect possessed a special visualization method that could strengthen the spirit to an extreme degree, allowing one to capture "inactive but stable Innate Qi," and thereby master Internal Breath.

All roads led to Shenjing. The Way of Motion and Stillness were both orthodox paths; this was simply another way.

The disciples' all-day sleep was merely a form of meditation to maintain a state of "stillness." They might not be skilled in martial arts, but their Internal Breath was exceptionally powerful.