One-Armed Elder

One-Armed Elder, the ninth floor.

This was the final level of the Unfixed Pagoda.

Lu Yun had originally thought he was about to face an even more difficult battle.

But unexpectedly,

he had been up here for seven or eight minutes already, yet he had not even seen the shadow of a black-clad man.

"What is going on?"

"Could it be that this level is actually empty?"

Just as Lu Yun was feeling somewhat puzzled, a rather weathered voice reached his ears.

"Stop looking. There are no more black-clad men. Continue another twenty or thirty meters ahead, and you will see a wooden door. Enter it, and you will see me!"

"Who are you?"

Lu Yun was completely at a loss.

"Why ask so much? Once you come over, everything will naturally become clear."

The man did not answer Lu Yun's question.

"Alright, wait a moment!"

Following the voice's instructions, Lu Yun walked another twenty or thirty meters forward and indeed saw, on his right,

a wooden door.

He pushed it open and entered, only to find that it was actually a study.

He glanced around casually and saw that the bookshelves were packed with all manner of martial arts manuals.

Directly before those bookshelves was a relatively open space, where a one-armed elder was currently sitting cross-legged.

"Lu Yun, you are quite impressive!"

"I truly did not expect that, after more than thirty years, I would be able to wait for a martial arts prodigy like you after Baili Yuchen failed."

"Could it be... that all of this is fate?"

The one-armed elder muttered to himself, seeming to recall some past event.

"Senior, may I ask who you are...?"

From the moment he entered, Lu Yun had already sensed a terrifying fluctuation of energy.

The pressure it brought him even far surpassed that of the black-clad man on the eighth floor.

Therefore, when he saw the one-armed elder, he was already certain that this elder's identity was anything but ordinary.

"Could he be... above the Star-Gathering Realm?"

"No!"

"It does not feel like the absolute suppression of a major realm, but it is not far off. If he is also in the Star-Gathering Realm, just how many spiritual power stars has he condensed?"

It could be said that

Lu Yun was filled with curiosity toward the one-armed elder before him.

"Hehe, I know you must be full of questions."

"For example..."

"Why are there no black-clad men on this floor, and only a worn-out old man like me?"

"What is my cultivation level? How many spiritual power stars can one condense in the Star-Gathering Realm? Does a higher martial arts realm exist within the current martial arts system?"

"And..."

"Does the Unfixed Pagoda conceal some secret?"

"It is alright!"

"In the future, I will certainly answer each and every one of these questions for you."

The one-armed elder seemed to recall some sorrowful past. Tears glimmered in his clouded eyes.

"I personally witnessed that battle back then. Although my cultivation was too low for me to count as having truly participated, those terrifying scenes still remain as clear as yesterday even now."

"What happened?"

Lu Yun could not help pressing him.

He could now basically confirm that, whether in cultivation or status, this one-armed elder surpassed the Pagoda Spirit.

Or rather...

he could be called the night watchman.

But why had he remained on the ninth floor all this time?

There had to be a world-shaking secret within that could not be revealed to outsiders.

Just as he sank into thought, the one-armed elder's gaze suddenly turned sharp, and he said,

"Kid, the situation here is even more dangerous than you imagine."

"First tell me, how old do you think I am?"

Hearing this question, Lu Yun could not help but freeze slightly.

Ever since spiritual energy had revived two hundred years ago, humanity had continuously tempered their bodies through cultivation, greatly extending their lifespans.

Especially those with extremely high realms; some could even live to one hundred seventy or eighty years old.

But...

since the one-armed elder had raised this question, the answer was certainly not so simple.

Could it be...

that he was an expert from the first generation after the spiritual energy revival?

At this thought,

Lu Yun tentatively answered, "Could it be that you are around two hundred years old, Senior?"

"Two hundred years old? Hahahaha!!!"

The one-armed elder seemed to have heard something extraordinarily amusing and burst into loud laughter.

After a long while...

he slowly looked at Lu Yun again and said, "In truth, I am already four hundred ninety-nine years old by nominal age this year!"

"What? Impossible!"

Lu Yun blurted out before he could stop himself.

It had only been a little over two hundred years since spiritual energy revived on Sky Net Star. Before that, no matter how strong a human's physical constitution was, they could at most live to one hundred twenty or thirty years old.

What a joke!

How could this be possible?

Someone actually claimed that he could live for over four hundred years?

Could it be that although this one-armed elder still possessed his cultivation, his mind had actually become muddled?

Otherwise,

how could he fabricate such an absurd lie?

Lu Yun's thoughts involuntarily showed on his face, and the one-armed elder clearly noticed the change in his expression.

At this moment, he merely let out a long sigh.

"Your expression right now is exactly the same as Baili Yuchen's back then. More than thirty years ago, when I told him the truth, he wore the very same expression."

"However..."

"Although he later learned the truth, his martial arts talent was truly too limited, and he still failed to complete the mission!"

Lu Yun's eyes widened.

He felt that he had received far too many shocks today.

Someone actually claimed that the martial arts talent of Baili Yuchen, the Martial God and foremost expert of humanity, was insufficient.

If those words spread outside,

everyone would certainly think that person was insane.

The one-armed elder ignored Lu Yun's expression and merely continued in a distant voice,

"The world knows that the Martial God Baili Yuchen is the strongest expert of this age, but no one knows that I am his master."

"And..."

"After he failed his mission back then, I was also the one who had him voluntarily reveal the Unfixed Pagoda's exact location to the world."

Lu Yun only felt even more confused now, and he could not help asking,

"Senior, what kind of mission could even the Martial God not accomplish? And since you are his master, could you not accomplish it yourself either?"

The one-armed elder shook his head and sighed.

"Easier said than done! Back then, neither I nor Baili Yuchen had any way to accomplish it."

"However, as the third person in all these years to reach the ninth floor, you may not be without a chance."

"It is merely that the odds of success are not high!"

Lu Yun's scalp tingled as he listened. He vaguely felt that the mission the one-armed elder spoke of had to be of hell-level difficulty.

The one-armed elder said calmly, "You need not belittle yourself either. When I was young, I truly saw far too many peerless, breathtaking top geniuses."

"But in this current age of declining dharma, that kind of glory from back then can indeed no longer appear."

"However..."

"There are some secrets that you truly should not know yet. With strength as low as yours, knowing too much would instead do you no good."

"I will not say much more now. I will only ask: are you willing to become my disciple?"

Lu Yun was somewhat speechless. He felt as though he had been led around by the nose.

But...

there did not seem to be any harm in agreeing.

"Alright!"

Lu Yun nodded, then respectfully bowed three times to the one-armed elder.

Since he had already come this far, and the other party's cultivation was clearly higher than his, perhaps aside from learning certain secrets, he could also learn quite a few things from him.

"Haha! Good, good, good!"

"Good disciple, your master's Daoist name is Qing Yuanzi. I am the fifty-third generation disciple of the Mirror Moon Sect."

"Since you were able to come here, it proves that your cultivation is already not low. There is not much that I can teach you, so today I will pass down our sect's secret manual, the Heavenly Sword Art, to you."

As he spoke,

Qing Yuanzi formed a hand seal and pointed. A stream of light instantly shot into Lu Yun's sea of consciousness.