After the old man finished speaking, he did not begin his tale immediately. Instead, he frowned and fell into deep thought, as though organizing his words—or struggling to recall those distant memories.
Lin Chuan did not urge him. The sea of consciousness beneath his feet slowly rose, condensing into a small meditation cushion in midair. Lin Chuan then sat down cross-legged and waited for the old man to speak.
After a long while, the old man first let out a faint sigh, then said gravely, "I'll start with Moonlit Beauty! I believe you've already sensed that this sword does not belong to the cultivation world!"
Hearing this, Lin Chuan's pupils contracted slightly, but he did not appear overly surprised.
Lin Chuan had long held suspicions about the sword Moonlit Beauty. Its power was simply too terrifying, even surpassing immortal artifacts. Yet it was fundamentally different from immortal artifacts. It possessed neither their overwhelming pressure nor their oppressive resonance with heaven and earth. Only when spiritual power was poured into it could it unleash attack power beyond that of an immortal artifact, yet it still lacked the pressure an immortal artifact should have.
Combined with what had happened to the presidents of the five great academies of the Southern Bright Continent, he had become even more suspicious of the sword's origins. Thus, the old man's claim that it did not belong to the cultivation world was not beyond Lin Chuan's expectations.
"In that great war long ago, the cultivation world was nearly destroyed, and Moonlit was the chief culprit. There were six of them in total, and they almost slaughtered every high-level cultivator in the cultivation world. Therefore, even after so much time has passed, the major first-tier cultivation forces still cannot forget this sword's vicious reputation. They have been searching