Golden Page (Fifth Update, Please Subscribe)

Li Mu frowned. A damaged copy should not have emitted such a dazzling glow, so he picked it up and flipped through it for inspection.

The old man did not think much of this nameless sword manual.

"This sword manual was something I happened to pick up from someone a few days ago. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I read it, it was obscure and difficult to understand, and it seemed to be incomplete. Young sir, you're the only customer I've had these past few days. Just two taels of silver, and this nameless sword manual is yours..."

Li Mu ignored the old man's rambling and silently flipped through the pages.

Then, halfway through the manual.

A dazzling golden light suddenly burst from between its pages!

"Gold." Li Mu was utterly stunned when he saw the extraordinarily resplendent ball of golden light.

The source of the light was a thin sheet of folded yellow paper tucked inside the nameless sword manual!

That folded sheet of yellow paper was actually glowing golden!

[Beginningless Sword Intent, entry talent requirement: ???? (Gold)]

[Qi and blood requirement: ??? Soul requirement: ???]

[Talent requirement unmet, soul requirement unmet, unable to discern]

"This sheet of yellow paper is actually a sword manual!" Li Mu could hardly believe it as the Sword Register information fully appeared.

So the nameless sword manual had emitted a whitish-yellow glow without displaying any information because it was originally an incomplete copy, with a golden sword manual page tucked inside?!

Who would have thought that he would truly pan out a grain of gold from the endless yellow sand!

"Beginningless Sword Intent... Gold-grade..." Li Mu's heartbeat quickened, and he could not suppress the surging excitement in his heart. The true teaching fits on a single sheet of paper; false teachings fill ten thousand volumes.

This "Golden Page" was worth a fortune!

Gold... What rank of sword manual was that? Even Hidden Sword Manor likely possessed very few manuals like this, right? It had requirements for both qi and blood and the soul, yet those requirements could not even be displayed. Clearly, Li Mu had not even reached the threshold to perceive its talent requirements.

That meant cultivating this Beginningless Sword Intent required not only exceptional talent, but also a powerful physique, perhaps even a soul beyond that of ordinary people!

"It actually has a soul requirement... Could this be an immortal art?"

"So immortal arts really exist in this world?"

This was the first time Li Mu had seen a sword manual that listed requirements for soul, qi and blood, and talent before it was even opened.

He felt that his guess was most likely true. Otherwise, how could there be a sword manual contained on a single sheet of paper, one that no one had recognized and bought?

If not for the enhancement of Clear Sword Eyes, he would never have discovered that this utterly inconspicuous sheet of yellow paper concealed such mysteries.

Li Mu suppressed his excitement slightly and unfolded the yellow page.

A long string of strange, tadpole-like characters leaped into view. These characters formed the shapes of several tiny swords.

Li Mu's heart trembled again. These were clearly some kind of talismanic script!

This... looked very much like the Great Expansion Sword Register!

However, he could clearly sense that this "yellow talisman" was far simpler and could not compare to the profound mysteries of the Great Expansion Sword Register.

Only two characters could vaguely be made out.

[Sword Pavilion]

"This superior martial art came from the Sword Pavilion?!" Li Mu could barely contain himself. He had actually stumbled upon a true inheritance of the Sword Pavilion.

"Someone must have condensed and inscribed the complete contents of the sword manual onto this yellow talisman. But a Gold-grade sword manual should be extremely precious and never casually passed on. Why would it end up in Azure River County in this form..."

Naturally, Li Mu could not mutter such things aloud in front of others. His thoughts merely raced through his mind.

At that very instant, something astonishing happened.

The wind stopped, the air stilled, and everything froze in place.

Heaven and earth became incomparably silent.

Li Mu could neither speak nor move. He could hear only the sound of his own thoughts.

Then, golden light blazed from the yellow page, completely submerging his consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, Li Mu found that he was no longer on the ground. Clouds and mist swirled around him, mountain peaks rose and fell in the distance, and though no sun was visible, heavenly light filled the air.

It was like a cloud cliff in an immortal realm.

As he looked around, Li Mu immediately discovered that he was not alone.

Not far to one side, a girl in a pale blue-green dress sat alone at the edge of the cloud cliff. Her dark hair cascaded like a waterfall, loosely pinned up with only a jade hairpin before falling to her slender waist.

The clouds and mist thinned, revealing the profile of her face, exquisite as white jade.

Her clear eyes gazed out over the sea of clouds, the corners of her lips faintly curved upward. With both hands braced against the edge of the broken cliff, her bare, flawless feet swayed amid the cloud sea.

Bathed in the faint heavenly light, the girl possessed an ethereal, almost immortal air. She was breathtakingly beautiful and unworldly, like a celestial maiden of the Ninth Heaven.

This scene.

Immortal sky and cloud sea, clouds and rosy mists, a celestial maiden before him.

Li Mu stood frozen, suspecting that the yellow page truly was some kind of guiding talisman that had led him into a realm beyond the heavens.

"Ah..." The girl in the pale blue-green dress suddenly gasped and sharply turned her head. She had finally realized that an uninvited guest had entered her domain.

Surprise appeared in her clear, bright eyes, as though Li Mu absolutely should not have been here.

Li Mu saw her face clearly. She was far more beautiful than the image that had flashed through his mind a moment earlier, and her voice was pleasant as well.

But the softness on her face vanished at once, replaced by a trace of embarrassed anger.

Li Mu immediately sensed trouble and was about to speak when he saw the girl focus her gaze and point a finger. The countless strands of heavenly light flowing around them instantly condensed into an immensely vast sword intent that came slashing toward Li Mu!

Li Mu exploded.

More precisely, the instant countless sword intents pierced through him, Li Mu's consciousness exploded.

A violent pain instantly tore through his mind. When he recovered, he found himself back at the black market, standing before the old man's stall with the nameless sword manual in his hands.

It was as though everything just now had merely been a momentary daze, like drifting into a fantastical dream during a brief nap.

"Incredible..." Li Mu pinched the yellow paper in his hand and discovered that his mind had formed a subtle connection with this "Golden Page."

It seemed that if he poured his mind into it again, he could return to that immortal realm above the cloud sea.

But he did not dare try again for the moment.

He feared that the girl would point him to death again.

For now, Li Mu had no desire to endure that agonizing pain of his mind shattering once more.

Had everything just now been real or an illusion? Did that girl truly exist? Raising a finger to condense heavenly light into a sword was already far beyond mortal means.

Was this "Golden Page" carved by that girl? What status did she hold in the Sword Pavilion...

Li Mu's worldview had suffered a tremendous shock. Too many questions filled his mind.

Was obtaining this "Golden Page" a blessing or a curse?

[Soul: 10.1↑ (under sword intent tempering)]

Li Mu froze slightly when he suddenly saw the Sword Register notification.

His soul had actually increased, and the unmistakable words "sword intent tempering" confirmed one thing for him.

Whether what had happened just now had seemed illusory or real, this tangible increase in his soul was not false in the slightest!

He took back what he had thought earlier.

What true man fears ten thousand swords piercing his heart!

But just as the thought arose, his connection with the Golden Page suddenly vanished.

Jiangnan Commandery.

Sword Pavilion.

Inside a quiet chamber, calming incense burned silently in a bronze censer.

The girl in the pale green dress, seated cross-legged on a bed of dark crystal, abruptly opened her clear eyes.

Jiang Qingxue awoke from meditation, a faint trace of embarrassment and anger still lingering on her face.

How could someone enter her secluded cultivation realm? And he had even stared at her feet.

A sudden breeze swept through the room, sending several blank yellow sheets of inscribed paper drifting through the air.

She suddenly realized.

The Beginningless Sword Intent talismans her father had made her continuously draw over the past ten years had been scattered throughout Great Qian in all kinds of ways. Perhaps they had truly begun to bear fruit.