Whoosh~
High in the sky, True Person Xiaoning let out a sigh of relief.
He had thought it would be a simple mission. He never expected he'd nearly bought the farm.
He beckoned, and the Demonic Cultivator's severed arm and the unfinished Ten Thousand Soul Banner in the crater below flew into his hands.
Damn it!
That old monster had actually bullied someone weaker than him. Did he really think this Daoist had no one backing him?
Once he got back, he'd ask his Senior Martial Uncle to step in. He'd beat that bastard to a pulp!
Cursing inwardly, he made his way over to the unconscious body-cultivator fellow Daoist.
"Martial Uncle!"
Rays of light streaked across the horizon. They were the junior martial nephews who had come with him.
Perfect. Now he wouldn't have to do anything himself. He could just have them carry this fellow Daoist to the hospital.
"Martial Uncle, that last sword strike was so cool!"
"The sword intent was majestic and righteous. You could tell it came from a mighty expert. I never knew you had a friend like that, Martial Uncle."
"The power of that strike far exceeded the Void Return Realm. Martial Uncle, don't tell me you've been hiding your cultivation?"
Hiding my ass!
You've got some nerve. Of the twelve Spirit Transformation cultivators who came along, nine were only avatars!
The thought left a lump in his chest, but what pained him even more was that strand of Void-Evil-Breaking Sword Qi.
In recent years, the mighty sword cultivators who had been on good terms with his branch had left the Central Continent. Finding a strand of sword qi for refining techniques was harder than climbing to the heavens!
And yet, many of the great divine abilities passed down in his branch required sword qi from a sword cultivator as a refining material.
"Carry this fellow Daoist on your backs and take him to the hospital. We owe this time to..." True Person Xiaoning suddenly froze halfway through his sentence.
A strand of incredibly pure purple sword qi, every bit as powerful as the one before, had abruptly appeared in his sea of consciousness.
The Void-Evil-Breaking Sword Qi had come back?
And he hadn't sensed it at all!
With such methods, could that really be one of the four great elders of the Sword Sect—or even some old monster of the Supreme level?
In an instant, he understood a great many things. No wonder the shattered sword qi had become even stronger. Then a wave of lingering fear washed over him.
Everything proved beyond a doubt that the Sword Sect senior was nearby!
If he hadn't just used the sword qi brought by the purple sword talisman, that Sword Sect senior who had emerged from seclusion would probably have watched him get crushed to death by the mighty Demonic Cultivator who appeared afterward!
Meanwhile, after leaving the Third Mystic Sword High School, Xu Xing continued to wander aimlessly.
He only looked up when the mighty expert from the Supreme Dao Sect arrived in Mystic Sword City.
Before long, a terrifying Divine Sense, vast as an abyssal sea, swept across the entire city.
Xu Xing paid it no mind and stopped in front of a flying-sword customization shop.
The owner must have been too busy fleeing to shut the front door, but the sign beside it listed the available designs.
[Sword Qi Thunderclap Simulator 1.0: After customization, simulates the sound of a sword cultivator's sword qi thunderclap. Custom light effects cost extra.]
It was the same kind he'd seen at school earlier. All flash and no substance—a proper cultivation-world version of a tricked-out scooter.
Then there was version 2.0, which added the ability to intimidate evil spirits.
As for the price, it was staggering. It cost a full ten times as much.
Of course, there was also a full-fledged Sword Qi Thunderclap customization that could fully unleash the power of a sword qi thunderclap. It cost several times as much as the second option.
And then there was one more. This one was interesting.
[Swordlight Splitting Customization (Limited Edition): After customization, allows the user to split their swordlight three times. Sword Flying License required.]
Swordlight splitting was standard equipment for Golden Core sword cultivators in the Sword Sect, though some exceptionally talented cultivators comprehended this realm while still in the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Either way, it was a realm that took tremendous effort to reach. Yet with this, all it took was a single customization.
"Not bad."
Aside from the limited-edition Swordlight Splitting and full-fledged Sword Qi Thunderclap customizations, most of the other designs were much the same: flashy, impractical things meant to satisfy the vanity of young cultivators.
After glancing around, Xu Xing went inside.
Some already-customized flying swords hung on the walls, while the transparent glass cabinets held various customization materials.
At the very back stood a desk, with a computer and half a bowl of cold noodles on it.
Perhaps the owner had left in a hurry, because the computer was still on. But the internet had been cut, and the image on the screen was frozen.
It showed a ravishing female cultivator, with exquisite features and a seductive figure. She wore a thin, bright-red dress that left just enough to the imagination.
A line of small text appeared in the upper-left corner. The information was simple.
Zhong Jiajia, Dao Integration Realm cultivator of the Joyous Union Sect.
The Dao Integration Realm was also known as the realm of the mighty. Even within an Immortal Sect, such cultivators were pillars of the sect, each capable of killing hundreds of Void Return Realm cultivators like True Person Xiaoning with a single slap.
Ahem...
Life was hard. Even mighty experts had to sell their talents.
Xu Xing simply sat down and took out two Spirit Stones, setting them aside as payment for internet access. He studied the setup for a while; the way it worked was much like he remembered.
He tapped the screen. The frozen image went black, then brightened again after loading for a moment.
Amid the melodious music, the mighty expert of the Joyous Union Sect appeared in a revealing outfit, a zither resting before her.
It was a tune Xu Xing had never heard before. Its melody was gentle, but paired with the woman playing it, it stirred the heart and set the mind adrift.
"What would everyone like to hear? Just let me know."
Her voice was soft and lilting, tugging at the heartstrings. It was clearly an extremely advanced seduction technique.
The comments beside her kept flashing by, with thousands appearing in just a minute.
At that moment, he felt a strange suction coming from the screen, as if it wanted to draw away a wisp of his essence and desire.
But in the end, it couldn't find a target and could only fade away helplessly.
"Interesting..."
No wonder the Joyous Union Sect had managed to whitewash its reputation and join the righteous path. This method of absorbing people's essence through the internet must have had something to do with it.
After closing the livestream, Xu Xing searched for information about the Joyous Union Sect's technique.
The relevant information wasn't hidden. This method of absorbing desire and essence through the internet had been developed by a talented Joyous Union Sect cultivator after the Spirit Net appeared.
Most Joyous Union Sect cultivation methods involved absorbing desire, essence, or harmonizing yin and yang.
In ancient times, most Joyous Union Sect cultivators had to find cauldrons and drain them to reach higher realms.
That was why the Joyous Union Sect had been branded a demonic path sect.
But ever since the Spirit Net appeared and the technique for absorbing essence and desire through the internet was created, the practice of draining cauldrons had gradually fallen out of use.
This method was not only safe, but also yielded far more essence and desire than draining a single cauldron.
Not long after, the Joyous Union Sect negotiated with the Six Great Immortal Sects and killed a batch of stubborn, wicked cultivators within its ranks. It was then officially accepted as a righteous sect and became the seventh great Immortal Sect of the Great Profound Realm.
Now it was the most popular of the Seven Great Immortal Sects, and the sect most beloved by the younger generation of cultivators.
The reason was obvious to anyone who knew.
And the Joyous Union Sect cultivators didn't hide the fact that this method absorbed desire and essence.
In other words, everyone knew that watching a Joyous Union Sect cultivator's livestream would cost them a wisp of essence and desire.
But... who cared?
It didn't harm the body. At most, you'd enter a sage-like state for a while. Wasn't that what happened after watching other risqué content, too?
For such a small price, you got to watch a lofty Dao Integration Realm expert perform. What a bargain!
With essence and desire this impure, they definitely won't use it directly. The Joyous Union Sect must have a method for purifying it.
But that part hadn't been made public.
After reading everything, Xu Xing opened the livestream platform again and returned to the Joyous Union Sect cultivator's stream. He let it keep playing, then got up and walked out.
Before you continue