Temple

6:30 in the morning.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes.

His limbs and knees were a little sore, but it did not affect him much.

He got out of bed, dressed, picked up the practice sword by his bed, and quietly slipped out the front door.

The morning light was still cool. At this hour, office workers were still sleeping soundly. Other than retired elders exercising, breakfast-shop owners, and the scant few sanitation workers, the neighborhood streets were empty. The park was even more so.

He found an unoccupied flower bed.

Clang!

A bright silver sword light flashed forth. With himself as its center, it cut out an almost perfectly regular circle.

"Preparatory Form... Sword Unfurling Form..."

In the silent park, an inexplicable feeling welled up within Jiang Ding.

Perhaps the Preparatory Form should not be a sword form deliberately emphasized on its own, but a state—a relaxed yet orderly state outside combat, one that could instantly tighten when needed.

"Arm Sword Form!"

The sword form changed. All 639 muscles flowed and shifted like running water. The force from countless small muscles converged into larger muscles, finally gathering in the arm gripping the sword. The sword light's speed abruptly rose by another level.

"Step Sword Form!"

That excessively extreme concentration of force did not throw him off balance. His left foot slanted aside, his body ghostlike as he carried the sword with his body and sliced a fallen leaf in two. The cut was smooth.

"Organ Sword Form!"

Sword after sword, silver sword light appeared and vanished.

A translucent pale-blue human figure emerged in Jiang Ding's mind. Every muscle was a mechanical formula of varying size. They rotated and converged at different angles, ultimately producing a total value that changed every moment. Any twist or shift in any single muscle could alter the magnitude of that final value.

"Turn, harmonize, charge, conceal..."

The silver sword light withdrew, its sharpness sheathed within.

"It's much smoother?"

Jiang Ding gripped the hilt, asking in surprise.

Though he had always been diligent and his teachers had pointed him in the right direction, practicing swordsmanship had always felt like looking through a layer of fog. No matter how much he trained, he was merely mechanically imitating the Array-Spirit Computer's guidance.

But just now, with every sword stroke, threads of inspiration had surfaced. The sword forms had flowed with incomparable smoothness.

Clang!

His sword came free, sword light dancing. There was even a hiss as the blade cut through the air. He completed a full set of sword moves.

"It wasn't an illusion!"

Jiang Ding took a deep breath and touched the Rusty Sword Tip in his pocket.

Even without the training room's real-time display, he could clearly sense that his Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art had improved by a small measure.

A supreme treasure!

This was absolutely an enormous stroke of fortune!

After practicing his sword for nearly an hour, he sheathed it and went home.

The sky was fully bright now. People streamed through the streets, and the entire city had completely come alive.

By the time he returned home, Jiang Yuan was already up, washing up with a yawn, her hair a complete mess. Lin Wanqiu was preparing breakfast.

Jiang Ding took a shower, changed into clean clothes, packed his schoolbag, and sat at the dining table.

"Mom, Brother, where are my red-and-white shoes?"

Jiang Yuan ran back and forth with her messy hair, her slippers making pattering sounds.

Jiang Ding closed his eyes to rest and ignored her.

"Look at you!"

Lin Wanqiu placed breakfast on the table, found a pair of shoes in Jiang Yuan's room and handed them to her, then tidied her hair with a helpless sigh. "Can't you learn from your brother? He gets up at six-thirty every day and has everything done."

"He's a freak."

Jiang Yuan rolled her eyes.

After breakfast, the family parted ways at the bus stop, each heading to their own destination.

There was a different bus driver today. He did not take a detour, driving straight through the place where the incident had happened yesterday.

Jiang Ding's pupils contracted.

A seven-story building had been sliced diagonally in half. One side had collapsed to the ground, its cross-section smooth as a mirror.

Near the severed building lay one deep crater after another, each several meters wide and spreading outward in a radial pattern. The ground within had completely vitrified, and from time to time, patches and smears of faint red could still be seen.

It was as though flesh and blood had been flattened beneath the crushing weight of ten thousand tons. Even after repeated cleanups, traces remained.

"What a sin!"

"A Foundation Establishment cultivator..."

The bus passengers discussed it among themselves. On Blueglow Star, there was no divide between immortals and mortals; much knowledge was openly available.

"Those marks look rather like the work of cultivators from the Outer Realm Black Tortoise Heavenly Palace. They've always been hostile toward the Immortal Sect..."

"They could only blame their bad luck..."

Bad luck?

Jiang Ding tightened his grip on his sword hilt and did not join their discussion.

When he arrived at the classroom, he put the schoolbag containing his longsword and pistol into the classroom's combination locker—students were not allowed to carry weapons within the school.

Li Junhao had arrived long ago and was working through practice problems. His eyes stayed fixed on his test paper, never glancing aside.

"The atmosphere in class seems a little gloomy?"

Jiang Ding did not think much of it. After putting his things away, he quietly asked.

He considered himself diligent already. Other than necessary sleep, cooking, and the like, he spent all his time practicing the sword and pondering swordsmanship-related knowledge. Yet compared with Li Junhao, he still fell short.

Jiang Ding even suspected that Li Junhao slept less than four hours a day.

"A student from the class next door... died yesterday." Li Junhao sighed, neither his eyes nor hand leaving the test paper. "We mortals are far too weak compared to cultivators."

Jiang Ding fell silent.

The morning consisted of two classes each of language arts and mathematics, covering the principles of runes and cultivation arts, array structures, naturally occurring rune patterns between heaven and earth, and so on.

Jiang Ding was delighted to find that he could understand part of classes that had once seemed like heavenly scripture. He no longer had to force himself again and again to maintain concentration; he naturally immersed himself in the teacher's lecture.

At noon, he ate in the school cafeteria, practiced his sword for a while, then took an hour-long nap—Jiang Ding insisted on getting sufficient sleep every day.

The afternoon brought geography, followed by the fixed final two cultivation classes.

The moment school ended, Jiang Ding rushed home impatiently, quickly cooked for Jiang Yuan, then entered his room.

He put on his helmet and checked his camouflage uniform, drone, gloves, sword, pistol... one by one. Once everything was in order, he entered the other world again.

Light and shadow shifted, and a figure silently appeared in a corner beneath a tree.

Jiang Ding vigilantly swept his gaze across the surroundings but found no suspicious people or objects.

He backed away several steps and hid among the bushes nearby. The colors of his camouflage uniform changed, quickly taking on the appearance of branches and leaves. Without a careful look, no one would notice the human figure at all.

At the same time, his tactical helmet connected to the drone overhead, and footage from the previous nearly twenty-four hours rapidly flashed before his eyes.

A moose appeared and vanished. Several forest wolves followed in its tracks, disappearing and appearing. The blazing sunlight gradually turned into dusk, then night. The infrared view still monitored the land at all times.

"Stop!"

Jiang Ding's gaze sharpened.

In the surveillance footage, an image of a woodcutter and a child carrying firewood flashed past.

"There really are people!"

Jiang Ding was uncertain and startled. It was not merely traces of people—he discovered that he could actually understand the woodcutter and child's speech.

It was a language that sounded entirely unlike the Immortal Sect's language, harsh and awkward to the ear, yet he understood it without the slightest obstruction. He even felt that he ought to be able to speak it himself. It was incredibly strange.

A supreme treasure indeed! Jiang Ding rejoiced inwardly.

Besides the woodcutter, several armed people had passed by the ruined temple and rested there for a time.

No matter what, he still needed to collect specimens. This was the only stable source of income currently in sight.

He toiled away for two hours beneath the blazing sun. Even with his growing proficiency, he barely managed to dig up eight plant specimens. Turning them in would earn him eight points, still impossibly far from ten thousand points.

At sixteen points a day, ten thousand library points would take nearly two years!

He would miss the college entrance examination.

The college entrance examination was the greatest opportunity for Immortal Sect citizens without connections to step onto the immortal path, the only chance in a lifetime.

If one stepped through that gate and proved sufficiently outstanding, one could even receive treatment comparable to a nominal disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

If he missed it, the immortal path would be severed. He would have to spend his life obediently shining and giving off heat as a foundation stone of the Immortal Sect. Even with a supreme treasure in hand, the difficulty of pursuing the immortal path would increase at least tenfold.

"This won't do."

After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Ding sent the processed specimens, tactical helmet, backpack, and other items back home. He contacted Little Kingfisher to retrieve them, then charged the drone whose battery was nearly depleted.

He put on contact lenses and confirmed that he could properly receive the footage from the three drones in the sky. He tucked his pistol into a concealed pocket and put on a wig prepared in advance.

The color and style of Jiang Ding's camouflage uniform rapidly changed, ultimately becoming an ancient-style azure robe. Its color then fixed in place, no longer changing with the environment.

After taking one last look around, Jiang Ding left.

Yes, he intended to make contact with the local natives.

There were risks, but if he missed the college entrance examination and failed to enter a cultivation department, he would still have to perform military service and guard an Immortal Sect military base beyond the realm. Without strength, he would face risks there as well.

This was the obligation of every adult citizen. There was no escaping it.

Eastspirit Mountain was steep and treacherous, stretching across several provinces. Mountain ginseng, ancient medicinal herbs, rare beasts, and exotic creatures appeared there from time to time.

This attracted countless herb gatherers and wandering martial artists deep into its depths. Should they luckily obtain some rare treasure, the various gangs, martial halls, sects, and even the lords in the Eastspirit Prefecture Governor's Office would purchase it at a high price, allowing them to rise to the heavens in a single step.

This ruined temple was the last place to rest before entering Eastspirit Mountain. Herb gatherers and wandering martial artists passing through would usually choose to pause here for a short rest.

The sound of footsteps drew a few glances from those inside the temple.

A delicate-looking youth slowly walked in. His jet-black hair reached his waist, and he wore an azure robe and cloth shoes. The fabric was smooth and fine, while a longsword in a black scabbard hung at his waist.

Not a speck of dust stained his entire body. There was not the slightest trace of wind, frost, or road dust upon him. He carried himself with an elegant and dashing air that was utterly out of place in these surroundings.

Which wealthy young master had come out for a stroll?

The people in the ruined temple glanced at him, then withdrew their gazes.

When traveling outside, it was best not to meddle in unnecessary affairs.

"I..."

Jiang Ding had originally wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth and silently found a corner to sit in.

He swept his eyes around the area.

There were not many people, only seven or eight, roughly split into two groups.

On the left were a grandfather and grandson. They wore rough hemp garments, tattered and patched. Their faces were dark and thin, weathered by wind and frost. Two herb baskets sat beside them.

On the right were five or six burly men, all carrying weapons and dressed uniformly in black fitted martial attire. The most conspicuous was the bearded man in the center, a crescent-shaped axe of refined steel resting on the ground before him and gleaming with cold light.

Two bonfires crackled in the open space, roasting things such as dried meat and sweet potatoes.

Several red lights flashed in his contact lenses.

"Three at the Internal Qi Realm."

Jiang Ding's peripheral vision flicked over the bearded man and two people beside him. He slightly tightened his grip on the sword hilt, feeling somewhat nervous.

These were powerful figures a full realm above him.

After a brief silence, voices once more filled the ruined temple.

"Lin'er, look at these Blueglow Butterfly wings. The blue stripes must be complete for them to fetch a good price. Mountain ginseng is the same—dig out every root bit by bit..."

Beside the fire, the old farmer held a pair of butterfly wings and quietly explained something. His little grandson, whose face was reddish-black, nodded from time to time.

On the other side, the burly men's voices boomed like oxen, and they frequently burst into loud laughter.

"The Seven Profound Sect of Eastspirit Prefecture was actually wiped out by the Golden Saber Sect. That was a great sect with centuries, perhaps even a thousand years of history. Its history might have been longer than that of today's foremost martial powers, Prajna Temple and Azure Ox Monastery. What a pity."

"What's there to pity? What use is living long? In the martial world, strength is what speaks in the end."

"Exactly. The Golden Saber Sect truly deserves to be one of the world's six great sects. Just their chief disciple, Wei Xian, the 'Sea-Splitting Saber' ranked ninth on the Dragon-Phoenix Ranking, could wipe out an entire sect by himself. He can now enjoy the countless gold, silver, jewels, martial arts manuals, and secret scriptures accumulated by the Seven Profound Sect over many years. Better yet, he abducted beauties into his arms and can play with them as he pleases. Now that is a true hero of the world!"

Amid the laughter, someone took out a gourd of wine. By the firelight, they passed it around, one mouthful after another.

"Beauties? I heard that the Flying Snow Fairy, ranked ninety-eighth on the Dragon-Phoenix Ranking, came from the Seven Profound Sect. They say her skin is white as snow and her bearing like that of an immortal. Could it be that Wei Xian has already taken her into his chambers..."

"Not only her. I heard her mother's beauty surpasses hers by far, and she has been captured as well."

"This... what a beast!"

The burly men's eyes revealed longing and yearning.

Jiang Ding clicked his tongue inwardly.

Murdering an entire sect, seizing its wives and daughters, plundering its wealth—these people saw nothing wrong with any of it. Did the authorities of this world not care?

Beep, beep!

Suddenly, several red dots appeared in his contact lenses, rapidly increasing to more than ten.

Jiang Ding's heart jolted.

He focused his gaze. Five kilometers away, a group of people was entering the drones' surveillance range one after another. There were dozens of them, and more than ten had triggered the drones' alerts.

They were swiftly closing in from every direction, their target seemingly this very ruined temple!

Have I been exposed?

Panic surged through Jiang Ding. He had not done anything at all!

No! Impossible. If I had been exposed, it wouldn't merely be mortal martial artists coming to hunt me down.

It must just be a coincidence.

Jiang Ding quickly calmed himself. He rose to his feet and turned toward the ruined temple's entrance.

The people inside were puzzled.

This person was truly strange. He had come in without saying a word or even taking a sip of water.

The sweet potatoes were cooked through. The old farmer peeled back the charred black skin, revealing fragrant flesh, and handed one to his grandson. He himself roasted a piece of dried rations and swallowed it in large bites.

Jiang Ding paused, pity rising in his heart.

"Elder, if there is trouble at home, you should return at once."

After saying that, he paid no heed to how the old man might answer and quickly left.

The old farmer was stunned.

The burly men around them exchanged flickering looks. Cold gazes occasionally turned toward him, but in the end, they did nothing.

.