[A rare look of heartfelt joy appeared on Xuanji's face. It was the happiest moment he had known in thousands of years.]
[Your breakthrough to the eighth tier delighted him even more than his own ascent to that realm had.]
[You exchanged a glance with him. You had known each other for only a few decades, most of which you had spent cultivating in seclusion, yet somehow an unspoken understanding had grown between you, as though you had stood shoulder to shoulder for years.]
["Fellow Daoist Gu Xing, congratulations."]
[Xuanji addressed you as "fellow Daoist" with effortless ease, without a trace of awkwardness.]
[You answered with a smile, "Thank you for protecting my cultivation all these years, Fellow Daoist Xuanji."]
[You smiled at each other. Everything lay in what went unsaid.]
[Xuanji tucked the gourd artifact back into his sleeve, then stepped out of the heavenly grotto with you.]
[You surveyed your surroundings with mild curiosity and asked, "Was this method of opening a heavenly grotto the Sword Ancestor's work? Or is it a wondrous function of an artifact passed down from ancient antiquity?"]
[Xuanji considered briefly before answering, "It should be the Sword Ancestor's work. As far as I know, the only means of opening a heavenly grotto in this world is the legendary Heavenly Emperor's Treasury."]
["That treasury is said to contain a world of its own, where one can rear spirit beasts, cultivate medicinal herbs, and sit in meditation-a realm unto itself."]
[He paused, then added, "But the heavenly grotto within this gourd was created by the Sword Ancestor specifically for sword cultivators. It cannot yet be considered complete; it merely aids cultivation of the sword way."]
[The Heavenly Emperor's Treasury?!]
[The last confirmed ascension in this world had taken place during the "War of Ascension" twenty