Phoenix Feather Gold

The old man and the young girl stared in shock, their hearts pounding again and again!

They were dead!

The four experts who had chased them until they had nowhere to flee, neither in the heavens nor on earth, had died just like that!

Then what of the more than thirty lives lost in their Cui Family?

Before the two could recover, Yu Xiu had already taken the wooden box from the old man, who held it out with both hands.

He opened it, and a streak of crimson immediately caught his eye.

It was a strange metal he had never seen before, crimson all over, with naturally formed lines running across it. Looking closely, they resembled the feathers of some unknown bird!

Yu Xiu couldn't identify the metal, but he could sense its spiritual nature. It was likely quite potent!

"What is this?" Yu Xiu asked.

The old man surnamed Dong snapped out of it and hurriedly replied, "Phoenix Feather Gold. It can be forged into a spirit weapon to be passed down through the generations. If properly maintained, it'll last a thousand years without wearing out!"

The twelve- or thirteen-year-old Cui Xian beside him kept her gaze fixed on Yu Xiu, her eyes full of curiosity, envy, and longing!

She wanted to become an invincible swordswoman like him, too!

But throughout Yan Province, no one's sword—not even the sword of any sect—could surpass that of the Qingwei Sword Sect!

I want to join the Qingwei Sword Sect!

I have to!

A seed that would be hard to bury took root in Cui Xian's young heart!

Phoenix Feather Gold! Yu Xiu accepted it without hesitation.

It was the price of the old man and girl's lives. He had earned it.

In return, he had saved both their lives.

Likewise, in return, he had also taken the lives of four Qi Sea cultivators.

Now the Phoenix Feather Gold belonged to him.

"Wait here." Yu Xiu turned to leave.

Cui Xian suddenly knocked her head against the ground. "Young hero, please wait! I want to join the Qingwei Sword Sect. Please help me."

Yu Xiu stopped. "The Qingwei Sword Sect opens its gates to recruit disciples every year. This year's recruitment is coming soon.

"If you have the talent, you can go and try."

He looked at Cui Xian's face. She was still young, but she was pretty, with eyes like autumn waters and an oval face, though she was a little dirty.

Once she grew up, she would surely be a beauty to behold.

But that wasn't the point. More importantly, Cui Xian's Root Bone was actually quite good. He just didn't know whether she was suited to the sword. The Qingwei Sword Sect had its own standards for taking disciples, and Yu Xiu didn't know the ins and outs.

He thought about it. The Phoenix Feather Gold was quite valuable, probably worth far more than the Jade Cyan left behind by the Demonic Beasts he had slain earlier. So he offered her one more piece of advice: "If you do join the Qingwei Sword Sect one day, remember this: nothing matters more than a solid foundation."

Once your basic sword forms reached perfection, you could develop Sword Sense and vaguely perceive whether your sword arts and techniques had truly reached perfection.

A short while later.

"You're saying these four weren't even in the late stage of the second Ascending Dragon realm, Qi Circulation, and yet they tried to ambush you, a third-realm Qi Sea cultivator?" The middle-aged captain of Qingwei City's patrol team, clad in iron armor, glanced at Xu Fang and the other three, who lay motionless and had already lost half their lives, then at Yu Xiu, who was completely unharmed.

His eyes were full of disbelief.

The second Ascending Dragon realm was Qi Circulation; the third was Qi Sea. Each realm was a whole world apart. Even ordinary people knew that. There was no way an Outer Court disciple of the Qingwei Sword Sect wouldn't know. He'd sooner believe the sky was falling.

Ambushing a third-realm Qi Sea cultivator from the second realm? They might as well have been rushing to their deaths!

As for the four men who had chased the grandfather and granddaughter, no one bothered with them.

In Qingwei City, anyone bold enough to commit murder deserved to die.

Yu Xiu had prepared his explanation in advance. "Captain Cen, do you remember Fang Jibai, who tried to break through with an unorthodox method a year ago?"

The iron-armored patrol captain was an old acquaintance of Yu Xiu's. His name was Cen Kang.

Back then, when Fang Jibai had tried to break through using an unorthodox method in Qingwei City, Cen Kang had been the first to arrive after Yu Xiu noticed something was wrong. Otherwise, with Yu Xiu's strength at the time, he couldn't have survived ten breaths, even if Fang Jibai had been on the verge of breaking through.

Cen Kang caught on and pointed at Xu Fang and the other three, who lay unconscious. "They're Fang Jibai's accomplices?"

Yu Xiu corrected him. "They're from the same little circle in the Outer Court. This time, I concealed the fact that I'd reached the third realm, Qi Sea. They didn't know beforehand."

Cen Kang understood. A teasing look entered his eyes as he glanced at Yu Xiu. "So you're a schemer, too."

No wonder second-realm Qi Circulation cultivators had dared to ambush someone in the third-realm Qi Sea. Yu Xiu had deliberately baited them, and the four idiots had taken the hook. He'd found his chance and crippled them on the spot.

But Yu Xiu was hardly to blame. If those idiots hadn't harbored wicked intentions, he could never have lured them in.

They had brought it on themselves.

Even if the Law Enforcement Hall found out, it wouldn't blame Yu Xiu. Especially after Fang Jibai's attempt to break through with an unorthodox method, Xu Fang and his companions would only meet a worse fate if they fell into the Law Enforcement Hall's hands.

You wanted revenge on Yu Xiu?

Once you were stronger, would you go after the Law Enforcement Hall next?

You dare to defy the Law Enforcement Hall? You must have a death wish!

Breaking the law knowingly only made the crime worse.

Yu Xiu smiled but said nothing.

"All right, leave this to me. Once they wake up, if things are as you say, the Law Enforcement Hall will deal with them." Cen Kang looked at the old man and the girl. He considered asking a few more questions, then decided it was better not to invite trouble and let it go.

At a glance, Cen Kang could tell the four men Yu Xiu had killed had been at the third or even fourth level of the Qi Sea realm.

Yet in the hands of Yu Xiu, an Outer Court disciple who had only just entered the first level of the Qi Sea realm, they hadn't been able to withstand a single sword strike.

What did that mean?

It wasn't that these outsiders were weak. Yu Xiu's swordsmanship was simply astonishing—so good he could ignore a gap of three whole levels and kill his enemies.

Not every third-realm Qi Sea Outer Court disciple had such ability!

For a promising disciple he already knew, Cen Kang didn't mind doing Yu Xiu a favor.

"Captain Cen, this girl is Cui Xian. She hopes to join the Qingwei Sword Sect in a while. Sorry for the trouble—please look after her." Yu Xiu glanced at the girl and added a word on her behalf.

As he spoke, he slipped a banknote into Cen Kang's hand without drawing attention.

The banknotes had been taken from the four men.

Together with the silver he'd taken from Xu Fang and the other three, Yu Xiu had gotten more than three hundred taels in silver and banknotes.

Considering the Phoenix Feather Gold, Yu Xiu didn't mind offering a little extra help. It was an easy thing to do.

"That's a good thing!" Cen Kang tucked the banknote away with practiced ease and grinned. "You two have only just arrived in Qingwei City, so there's a lot you don't know. To apply for admission, you need to submit proof of your household registration in advance, along with details about your family..."

With Cen Kang, a local with influence, looking after them, Yu Xiu didn't linger. He returned to the mountain.

The old man and the girl weren't actually grandfather and granddaughter. The girl was Cui Xian, from the Cui Family of Donghe Prefecture in Yan Province. The old man was Dong Chi, an elder of the Cui Family.

A member of the Cui Family had previously been possessed by a Shadow Demon while breaking through, and after it was slain, the family acquired something as precious as Phoenix Feather Gold. But the news had failed to stay secret, and the family had been wiped out.

Fortunately, the Cui Family had anticipated trouble and scattered their children far and wide. Cui Xian had been brought to Qingwei City by Dong Chi, along with the Phoenix Feather Gold.

Demonic Beasts were appearing everywhere in the world, and people's hearts were just as treacherous. Yu Xiu couldn't manage the affairs of the whole world, so he soon returned to the Outer Court.

After Yu Xiu had gone far, patrol captain Cen Kang looked at the four dead men and smiled knowingly. That Yu Xiu sure knows how to handle things.

Four Qi Sea Rogue Cultivators were dead, but Yu Xiu hadn't taken their weapons.

Their weapons were worth more than the silver they carried.

Ordinary Rogue Cultivators would often exhaust their entire family fortunes, or even borrow money, just to get their hands on a suitable weapon.

And now Yu Xiu had left all four weapons for him.

Outer Court, Bamboo Cottage.

Four days from now, I'll enter the Inner Court. Yu Xiu took a light breath.