Transmission of the Method

Originally, the Qi Family had plotted for a hundred years. By nurturing those five Blood Fetus Ghost Infants, they could have forged five Foundation Establishment Realm experts. But they were, after all, merely a Qi Refining family, with limited foundations.

If they could find a way to obtain the Little Five Elements Sword Sect's true inheritance techniques, they would instantly leap like a fish through the dragon gate, their fortune soaring. With both Foundation Establishment Realm combat power and the Little Five Elements Sword Sect's true inheritance techniques, it would be like adding wings to a tiger.

No wonder Qi Yuanzong and the others had pursued this man so relentlessly.

Even after torturing him to such a state, they had still kept him alive rather than killing him.

"The Qi Family's madness must be hereditary..."

"If I hadn't stumbled into choosing to guard the Ba Dong Town Mine area, they might really have succeeded..."

Zheng Yi could not help sighing inwardly. In his heart, he affixed a label to the Qi Family's three generations over the past century: a family of ambitious tyrants, with each generation producing another.

A cultivation family that was merely at the Qi Refining Stage had not only used the Nine Yin Gathering Evil Vein Termination Array to raise Blood Fetus Ghost Infants right beneath the Soul Devouring Sect's nose, but had even secretly imprisoned a direct disciple of the Little Five Elements Sword Sect, plotting to seize the techniques of a great sect.

No one would likely believe such a thing if it were told.

Who could have imagined that a tiny Qi Refining Stage cultivation family had begun plotting a century ago, each generation as bold as the heavens and utterly heartless—and that they had actually come so close to pulling it off?

This was practically the template of a demonic path force about to soar into the skies. Even Zheng Yi had to admire the courage of the Qi Family's leaders.

The Little Five Elements Sword Sect was no minor sect. Powerful Golden Core cultivators presided within it. It was a grand Golden Core Sect, and its standing on the White Path far surpassed that of the Soul Devouring Sect.

Its True Disciples held extraordinarily lofty status, and every one of them was a chosen child of heaven, destined to possess at least Foundation Establishment Realm strength in the future.

With aptitude like Zheng Yi's, he probably was not even fit to carry their shoes.

Yet such a chosen child of heaven, due to his own simple-minded nature and misplaced trust in a villain's slander, had been plotted against and secretly harmed by Qi Yuanzong and the others. He had been imprisoned in this sunless underground chamber and even turned into a Human Swine, a fate beyond miserable.

"Thank you for avenging me. I once swore that whoever destroyed the Qi Family would be my benefactor, and I could grant him one request."

"What Qi Yuanzong seeks is nothing more than the Little Five Elements Sword Sect's true inheritance techniques. Every generation has sworn a Heavenly Dao Oath, and there are sealing restrictions upon them. Never mind my current broken body—even at the height of my strength, I could not pass them on verbally to another."

The Human Swine's answer made Zheng Yi pause, and some answers quietly surfaced in his heart.

"However, aside from the sect's true inheritance core secret arts, the lineage of my master has been passed down for ages. It has existed since the founding of the Little Five Elements Sword Sect, and it possesses many techniques that do not fall under those restrictions."

"I can recite the catalog for you. Choose for yourself, and I will pass on three techniques to you."

"But there is one condition: after you have heard them, give me a swift death."

"In my current state, I have disgraced my sect. I have long been too ashamed to cling to life in this world. I seek only death—die early, reincarnate early!"

It had to be said that the Qi Family had been too ruthless, and it had instead produced the opposite effect.

This True Disciple of the Little Five Elements Sword Sect was filled with boundless hatred, his resentment towering to the heavens. Even after suffering such devastating torment, he had refused to reveal even a shred of secret information to Qi Yuanzong and the others.

But upon hearing that Zheng Yi had destroyed the Qi Family Main Lineage, he was willing, in exchange for death, to trade secret arts as a gesture of thanks.

The Human Swine's will also earned Zheng Yi's deep admiration. After being tortured for so many years, he had not yielded a single word.

Zheng Yi knew he could not have done the same, which made him admire such unbending backbone all the more.

"Agreed!"

Zheng Yi considered the agreement briefly before accepting it.

No one could ignore a transmission from the core true inheritance of a Golden Core Sect.

Moreover, Zheng Yi's Spirit Root was not particularly good, and his aptitude could only be considered average. His foundations were shallow. Otherwise, after cultivating in the Da Yi Immortal Domain for so many years, he would not have remained a low-level Qi Refining Stage Three cultivator.

He desperately needed more cultivation methods to broaden his horizons.

What this man was offering was, to Zheng Yi, like sending charcoal in the snow.

Only after receiving Zheng Yi's affirmative reply did the man nod.

Then a string of secret art names and cultivation method entries was received by Zheng Yi's divine sense.

As he looked at the long lists of secret methods in his mind, sprawling like an old woman's foot-binding cloth, Zheng Yi could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

They were simply too tempting.

Someone like him had exhausted every hardship to enter a sect, survived several trials of life and death, and begged bitterly for a single high-tier cultivation method, only to be unable to obtain one.

Yet this seemingly miserable sect disciple had opened his mouth and produced an entire string of them. He had probably only memorized the cultivation essentials of many of them and had never practiced them himself.

One truly had to marvel at the profound foundations of a Golden Core Sect, something far beyond what bottom-tier Rogue Cultivators could imagine.

"Pity I can only choose three."

But Zheng Yi was already more than satisfied.

He swept his divine sense across the catalog and ultimately selected three.

At once, a passage of profound and intricate secret text entered Zheng Yi's mind.

After reciting it back to him and receiving the Human Swine's confirmation that there were no errors, Zheng Yi shattered his life force from afar, granting him complete release from this world that had heaped so much suffering upon him.

He then released a ball of flame and directly incinerated the corpse, its final traces dispersing into the air.

Zheng Yi had fulfilled his promise, allowing the Human Swine to disappear from this world completely and utterly.

Once everything had settled, Zheng Yi turned and left the underground room, instructing Qi Lin to seal the place off completely.

Leaving Qi Lin to handle the aftermath, Zheng Yi returned to the place where he had been cultivating in seclusion.

"Little Zhou Tian Sumeru Sword Array."

"True Essentials of the Lesser Five Elements Sword Escape."

"Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method."

"As expected of a Golden Core Sect's inheritance. Though they are not core techniques, these scriptures are already top-tier among cultivation methods."

"Especially the last one, the Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method..."

"It is actually the legendary Magical Item Foundation Establishment art, using a sword artifact embryo as the foundation for Foundation Establishment. Such a thing would have been unimaginable to me when I was a Rogue Cultivator in Profound Sky City."

After studying this secret art from beginning to end, Zheng Yi finally opened his eyes after a long while and could not help murmuring.

In the Da Yi Immortal Domain, cultivation methods were divided into four grades for each realm: Heaven, Earth, Mystic, and Yellow, representing the profundity and power of the methods.

But to cultivators, the most important thing was how far a cultivation method could ultimately be cultivated. A Qi Refining Stage technique was naturally nowhere near as valuable as one that could be cultivated to the Foundation Establishment Realm, and the same held true beyond that.

The more advanced the realm a cultivation technique could reach, the more its value increased geometrically. But that was too far removed from Zheng Yi, so he did not know the specifics.

Of the two cultivation methods the Human Swine had passed to Zheng Yi, whether it was the "Little Zhou Tian Sumeru Sword Array" or the "True Essentials of the Lesser Five Elements Sword Escape," both were exquisite treasures among their inherited techniques.

Yet the one that truly set Zheng Yi's heart ablaze was the "Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method."

This secret art did not belong to any cultivation method grade. Rather, it was a Foundation Establishment method, an exceedingly unusual secret art for achieving Foundation Establishment through a technique.