First Elder

Within Luo Chen Sword Palace stood only a single ancient tree. This tree was fully twenty-three thousand years old, transplanted from God Continent. It was said that the ancestor of Luo Chen Sword Palace had planted it with his own hands before ascending as an immortal. Over the tens of thousands of years since, it had been steeped in the Sword Qi and tempered by the Sword Intent of generations of Luo Chen Sword Palace disciples, and had already changed. Unlike other ancient trees, it had no tangled, gnarled roots. Its trunk grew straight, and its roots spread straight as well. Every one of its leaves was shaped like a sword and contained a faint Sword Intent.

Luo Chen Sword Palace had even specifically developed talismans made from this ancient tree's leaves, capable of summoning a powerful strike.

Mei Sicheng, the First Elder of Luo Chen Sword Palace, loved this ancient tree most of all. He had even carved out a stone table before it, and whenever he was not in seclusion, he would come here to drink a cup or two.

Normally, no one else came here. Ordinary people did not dare disturb the First Elder's refined enjoyment. In all of Luo Chen Sword Palace, only the Second Elder, Zhao Xiangshen, occasionally dared come here to share a drink or two with the First Elder.

Yet today, the First Elder's private drinking table welcomed an uninvited guest.

"Third Elder?" Mei Sicheng looked at his fellow sect member, confusion in his eyes.

Ru Tianqi lived up to his name, nearly forsaken by heaven. His soul was completely immersed in a realm of bleak suffering, yet within that bleak suffering he preserved a thread of vitality, seeking life amid death. Such a person would never indulge in pleasure. Or rather, if