Azure Cloud

"Senior, does that mean I can only—live for three months?"

Yang Xiao forced down the panic in his heart and asked unwillingly.

"Kid, your muscles, bones, and skin are all as hard as iron. The reason you still aren't dead now is because the medicinal power you absorbed since childhood still has remnants in your meridians, and hasn't been completely absorbed."

"Within three months, if you don't fight anyone, you'll be safe and sound."

"But if you do fight someone, it will speed up the dissipation of the medicinal power in your meridians, making you die even faster."

Lying on the rattan chair, the old man looked at Yang Xiao with pity.

"Senior, is there really no way at all to solve this problem of mine?"

Yang Xiao asked tentatively.

"It's not that there's no way, only..."

At this point, the old man suddenly stopped, as if wanting to speak but holding back.

"Senior, your silver dropped again."

Yang Xiao wasted no words and directly shook a pile of broken silver from his sleeve.

This time, the old man stopped pretending and struck out with a palm.

At once, a bone-piercing cold wind rose out of thin air, sweeping up all the broken silver on the ground and letting it drift lightly into the old man's palm.

After briskly putting away the broken silver, the old man looked at Yang Xiao, and a smile could not help appearing in his eyes again.

"Fine then. You're not bad, kid. This old man finds you pleasing to the eye, so giving you a pointer or two won't hurt."

"Please enlighten me, Senior." Yang Xiao hurriedly bowed.

The old man did not waste words either. "Kid, actually, this illness of yours isn't that rare. The current sect master of the Azure Cloud Sect, 'Qingyunzi,' was in the same situation as you."

Qingyunzi had been sickly since childhood and had always been nourished with medicinal herbs. Gradually, his muscles and bones became as hard as iron, and he was known as "invincible beneath First Blood."

However, back then, many people had not thought highly of Qingyunzi. They all knew he did not have long to live, that it was only a moment of glory.

Unexpectedly, however, the worldly clan behind Qingyunzi had not hesitated to smash the pots and sell the iron, continuously gathering medicinal herbs and forcibly piling Qingyunzi up to the First Blood realm.

From then on, Qingyunzi shed his mortal body and remade his bones, successfully extending his life.

Only then had there been the subsequent inspirational legend of his rise step by step, ultimately becoming the sect master of the Azure Cloud Sect.

"Kid, don't overthink it either."

"The worldly clan behind Qingyunzi was the number one aristocratic family in Qingzhou, the Li Family!"

"In order to treat Qingyunzi's illness, the Li Family's foundation accumulated over thousands of years was all exhausted because of it."

"If not for that, how could the Huo Family have had the chance to come from behind and rise against the wind?"

Seeing that Yang Xiao was rather tempted, the old man poured another basin of cold water over him.

"Senior, I understand what you mean. As long as there are enough medicinal herbs to keep hanging on, one can defy the heavens and change one's fate?"

Yang Xiao asked tentatively.

"Though that's true, you're merely an ordinary waiter. You have neither the support of a great aristocratic clan behind you nor the patronage of a noble benefactor. For you to successfully exchange blood, the resources required would be a hundred times greater than those of an ordinary martial practitioner."

"Such a vast amount of resources could completely pile up a Second Blood expert. Who would be willing to give them to you?"

"Not to mention, Qingyunzi's aptitude and bone structure were both superior, while yours are only inferior!"

The old man said irritably, a faint trace of impatience in his tone.

"Many thanks, Senior, for pointing me through the maze."

Yang Xiao knew he could not keep asking, but he still asked tentatively, "Senior, then the Azure Cloud Sect... is it an immortal cultivation sect?"

Pfft!

The moment he heard this, the old man immediately laughed. "Kid, don't bite off the stars when your feet haven't left the ground. Perhaps there are immortals in this world, but they are absolutely not something you can imagine!"

"Yes, sir!"

Yang Xiao asked no more. Once again, he bowed respectfully to the old man, then turned and walked into the Scripture Pavilion.

"Kid, if you're truly interested in the Azure Cloud Sect, you can go to the left side of the second floor, bookshelf A-Fifty-Three."

"The bamboo slips on that shelf were all, back when the Founding Emperor campaigned across the realm, seized from the Azure Cloud Sect... ahem, what this old man means is, the Azure Cloud Sect voluntarily offered them to the Founding Emperor..."

Perhaps feeling that he had taken a great deal of Yang Xiao's broken silver but had not helped much, the old man hesitated for a moment, but still spoke up and pointed something out.

Yang Xiao turned and bowed again, his figure vanishing completely at the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion.

"I actually said that much to someone doomed to die, who won't live past three months?"

The old man shook his head, closed his eyes, and continued dozing.

As for the zither music still resounding through the underground world, the old man turned a blind eye to it, as if he could not hear it at all.

Vermilion Bird Tower · Back Courtyard of the Kitchen.

Uncle Mute lay in the dry straw at the corner of the courtyard, his eyes so dark and gloomy they were terrifying.

Uncle Mute had secretly tampered with Song Qingshan.

But just now, Uncle Mute had discovered in shock that Song Qingshan's aura was actually gone.

"The Grandmaster Dao Discussion is close at hand, and Song Qingshan dies by accident? What trash!"

The more Uncle Mute thought about it, the more furious he became.

As for whether Song Qingshan had leaked any secrets, Uncle Mute was not worried.

Song Qingshan had sworn a blood oath; there was absolutely no possibility of him leaking secrets.

It was just that with Song Qingshan dead, Uncle Mute's contact with the outside world had been cut off from this moment on.

Fortunately, all the plans had long since been arranged securely. Although Uncle Mute was angry, he was not worried anything would go wrong.

It was only that this sudden change put Uncle Mute on alert, making him even less willing to leave the rear courtyard.

Splash—

Suddenly, a loose wanted notice came drifting over the outer wall with the wind, floating lightly down at Uncle Mute's feet.

"There's actually a brand-new wanted notice this early in the morning?"

Uncle Mute was taken aback. He casually picked up the wanted notice and swept his gaze over it curiously, his face gradually turning warm red.

"Who on earth is it, daring to impersonate this old man twice?"

"First killing someone in an alley yesterday, and today killing someone in a residence?"

"This old man—fuck your mother!"

Crack!

He suddenly crushed the wanted notice into powder. Uncle Mute was so angry his liver fire shot straight up; his fury had reached the extreme.

Yang Xiao, who had no idea he had framed Uncle Mute twice, walked up to the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

The Scripture Pavilion was built like a Buddhist pagoda. Looking up from outside, it grew narrower the higher it went.

Yet after truly stepping onto the second floor, Yang Xiao was surprised to find that the second floor was broader than the first. There were even more bookshelves, packed densely together, numbering in the thousands upon thousands.

Every bookshelf began with the name of a "sect"!

"Could it be that when the Great Yan Founding Emperor campaigned across the realm, he trampled every sect under heaven flat? Otherwise, how could there be such a vast sea of sect secret manuals here?"

Yang Xiao looked as he walked, and the more he saw, the more alarmed he became.

Those famous ultimate arts of the great sects outside, here on the second floor, were like rotten-street stall goods, placed about at random for anyone to read.

However, strong though these ultimate arts were, they all lacked the matching internal cultivation methods and only contained moves.

Clearly, relying solely on the Black Iron Martial Introduction in Yang Xiao's hand, he could not see the complete ultimate arts. He could only feast his eyes for a while.

Yang Xiao did not mind this. Soon, he walked to the row of bookshelves marked "Azure Cloud Sect."

Unlike the other bookshelves, although the Azure Cloud Sect's shelf was large, there were only a scant few bamboo slips on it—just a dozen or so scrolls.

Yang Xiao picked them up one by one and casually flipped through them quickly, discovering that these bamboo slips were not martial arts secret manuals at all, but merely some materials concerning the Azure Cloud Sect.

In the end, Yang Xiao's gaze fell upon the only bamboo slip on the Azure Cloud Sect bookshelf that clearly had a cultivation method written on it.

"Azure Cloud Mental Method."

Sweeping a glance over the name on the bamboo slip, Yang Xiao's heart stirred, and he began to read carefully.

This bamboo slip was perfectly ordinary, copied out by hand rather than an original.

Yet when Yang Xiao's gaze landed on the Azure Cloud Mental Method—

After merely sweeping through a few lines, Yang Xiao's entire body suddenly shook.

His heart began to pound violently, wildly...