Muttering to himself was one thing, but Li Fengping still quickly sent them both the relevant information about the Secret Realm.
It was an affiliated Secret Realm, dependent on the present world but hidden from it. Even its entrance could only be opened with a special method. The only known entrance lay halfway up a mountain on the outskirts of Mystic Sword City.
According to the records, the area surrounding the Secret Realm was covered in Mystic Profound Grass with sword attributes. This was why the elder had judged it to be a Sword Nurturing Ground.
"A sword capable of creating an entire Secret Realm... Its master must have been a mighty sword cultivator in life, at the very least." Jiang Jing gave her assessment after reading the information. "This trip will be dangerous."
Li Fengping nodded and continued explaining.
"Senior Sister is right. With our abilities, retrieving the sword cultivator's sword would indeed be dangerous, so all we need to do is gather information."
"Besides the basic contribution points for the mission, the sect will also award extra points based on the value of the information we provide."
As the core of the Sword Sect's current mission board, the Ancestral Sword was absolutely impartial.
That sounded reasonable. If things proved impossible, they could always withdraw in time.
"Why do you all think that sword cultivator is no longer alive?" Xu Xing suddenly asked. "Maybe the sword cultivator is still alive."
The group fell silent.
"..." After a few seconds of silence, Li Fengping gave a wry smile. "Senior Brother Sandao, don't scare me. The records say that the Sword Nurturing Ground has existed for over fifteen hundred years. Even a mighty sword cultivator—or one whose cultivation surpassed that—wouldn't leave their sword away from them for so long, would they?"
If the master of this Sword Nurturing Ground was still alive...
Hiss~
"If the sword's master is still alive, why didn't he show himself to stop the elder when the elder entered the Secret Realm?" Jiang Jing reasoned calmly.
The Sword Sect's elders were all in the Void Return Realm. Even a sword cultivator at the Dao Integration Realm, or beyond, wouldn't let a Void Return sword cultivator enter their Sword Nurturing Ground without doing anything, would they?
"Fair point." Xu Xing smiled. "Maybe I was overthinking it."
"How long do Senior Brother and Senior Sister need to prepare?"
"I'm ready to go at any time," Jiang Jing said coolly. "How about you, Junior Brother Li? How long will you need to recover from your injury?"
"These are just superficial wounds. They're nothing."
Li Fengping tugged at his bandages, slicing them apart with a wisp of Sword Qi. They fluttered down around him.
Only then did they see that his head had swollen to twice its size, like a pig's. Bruises covered it, and his right eye had been squeezed shut by the swelling.
"That look of yours is pretty amusing. Even funnier than before," Xu Xing remarked.
Jiang Jing nearly laughed when she saw him, but managed to hold it in. "Was the person who attacked you a body cultivator?"
"Yes."
If the attacker hadn't been a body cultivator, Li Fengping would have recovered from these injuries long ago.
Every body cultivator practiced a special method for generating force, so the injuries they inflicted were exceptionally difficult to heal, especially external ones.
Whoever had come up with that method must have been completely deranged!
"But it's fine. The body cultivator who attacked me gave me a pill. These superficial wounds will still take some time to heal, but they won't affect my combat strength anymore."
Li Fengping took out fresh bandages and wound them around his head, layer by layer.
He might as well have kept the old ones on.
"Does Senior Brother Sandao need time to prepare?"
"No."
A few minutes later, the three left the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall building. Once they reached an open area, they soared into the sky.
Nascent Soul Cultivators flew much higher than Foundation Establishment cultivators. Looking out, one could see only streaks of light darting past.
Li Fengping led the way, Jiang Jing followed close behind, and Xu Xing trailed at the rear without hurry. Among the streams of light passing back and forth, the three were not especially fast.
It wasn't that Li Fengping had poor control over his sword flight. The Sword Sect's sword-flying technique was unrivaled beneath the heavens, far surpassing ordinary object-manipulation techniques. They were going slowly mainly because the two senior brothers had been caught speeding...
Erm...
Better to play it safe.
Even so, Nascent Soul cultivation was no low level, and they were still moving extremely fast.
Before long, they reached the mountain on the outskirts of Mystic Sword City where the Secret Realm was located.
The mountain was lush with vegetation, and birds called to one another. Tigers, wolves, and apes roared together. They even saw giant snakes as thick as barrels slithering through the undergrowth. But these were all ordinary beasts; no demonic creatures or spirits were hiding there.
The three slowed down and descended into the mountain forest.
They continued up the mountain path until they reached a massive boulder jutting out from the slope.
By then, many beasts had noticed their arrival and were quietly following them, greed in their eyes. Cultivators absorbed spiritual energy, and their flesh and blood held a powerful allure for beasts and demonic creatures.
"Hmph!"
A cold snort rang out, and the pressure of Nascent Soul-level magic power spread through the area. The beasts were instantly terrified by the dreadful aura. Their fur stood on end, and they turned and fled in every direction.
Only after all the beasts lurking nearby had fled did Li Fengping withdraw his aura.
"Most of the beasts on this mountain show signs that they could gain sentience and become demons, yet not one has done so." Jiang Jing noticed something amiss.
It made no sense. The spiritual energy here was abundant; it shouldn't be like this.
Besides, she had never heard of anyone regularly clearing demonic creatures from this mountain.
She'd noticed the problem so quickly. Not bad. Xu Xing, impressed with this promising junior disciple, didn't mind explaining a little more.
"Because their fortunes have been severed."
Jiang Jing froze. "Senior Brother Sandao, you know how to read auras?"
"I know a little." Xu Xing smiled faintly and continued explaining. "And the cause of all this is precisely the reason for our mission."
"The Secret Realm?"
"Exactly. When the elder who issued the mission opened the Secret Realm all those years ago, a trace of its aura leaked out. Perhaps the sword disliked demonic creatures and spirits, so it severed their fortunes, cutting off their chance to become demons."
Jiang Jing considered this. Then she suddenly looked up, light flowing in her eyes.
A dense green aura roiled and stretched for miles: the fortune of the whole mountain and every living thing on it.
In theory, an aura stretching for miles should have been enough to give rise to a great demon comparable to a Nascent Soul Cultivator.
But above that rich, heavy green aura shone a dazzling streak of Red Radiance, sharp and chilling. It forcefully suppressed—or rather, severed—the fortune of the entire mountain and every living thing upon it.
Under the suppression of that Red Radiance, not only could the beasts on the mountain never become demons, even the mountain itself could not develop the slightest hint of sentience.
Before long, Jiang Jing felt a stabbing pain in her eyes and had to withdraw her divine ability.
While she rested with her eyes closed—
"Junior Brother Li, why are you just standing there? Hurry up and open the Secret Realm," Xu Xing urged.
I'm standing here listening to you two, aren't I?
And what you just said counts as part of the mission, too.
Li Fengping grumbled to himself, took out a talisman, infused it with magic power, and tossed it forward.
The talisman drifted through the air, then quickly burst into flame. The space in front of them began to twist and cave inward, the collapsing area growing larger and larger until it formed an oval vortex wide enough for three people to pass through.
Gray mist churned inside the vortex, and faint Red Radiance glimmered through it, giving it an eerie appearance.
"It's open. I'll go in first. Follow as soon as you can."
With that, Xu Xing walked straight in and vanished into the churning gray mist.
Senior Brother Sandao really was fearless.
Jiang Jing opened her eyes and saw the gray vortex shining with Red Radiance. She couldn't help frowning.
Even a single wisp of sharpness leaking out had severed the fortune of an entire mountain. This Secret Realm was certainly no ordinary place. And Senior Brother Sandao had somehow identified the cause immediately...
She drew her long sword and gripped it. Feeling calmer, she stepped into the gray vortex.
Both of them had gone inside. Li Fengping glanced around to make sure nothing seemed amiss, then followed them in.
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