Ancient Immortal

After returning to the residence.

Chu Zeming began his closed-door cultivation.

This trip to the secret realm had yielded a great harvest. Not only had he obtained the broken sword and the Azure-Blue Pearl, but the barrier between the early and middle stages of his Golden Core cultivation had also shown faint signs of loosening.

Spiritual energy circulated through all the meridians in his body for thirty-six cycles. Chu Zeming held his breath, focused his mind, and concentrated on breaking through the bottleneck.

He sat in the pool within the residence's inner chamber. The icy water reached his chest, yet Chu Zeming felt not the slightest chill. Heat rose from his entire body, a thin layer of sweat had already seeped across his forehead, and pain showed on his handsome, striking face.

Breaking through was no easy matter.

If he used the Azure-Blue Pearl, perhaps it could lessen the obstacles to his breakthrough. But the Azure-Blue Pearl was exceedingly precious, and there was only one. This breakthrough was merely a minor realm, so unless forced into a desperate situation, Chu Zeming did not wish to use that hard-won pearl.

The pain lasted for roughly two full hours.

Then, all at once, the spiritual power that had been stalled and clogged suddenly found an opening and surged forth. It was as if floodgates had opened, spiritual power pouring out like a raging flood. The pain vanished in an instant, replaced by an unprecedented sensation that filled his entire body. Chu Zeming felt the injuries within him disappear, and strength brimmed through every inch of him.

A breakthrough.

Middle Golden Core.

Chu Zeming opened his eyes and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

His black hair had long since been soaked with sweat, strands clinging to his forehead. His entire body was covered in black grime... impurities forced from his body during the breakthrough.

After washing the sticky black substance away in the pool, Chu Zeming rose and put on the dark robe that had been prepared beside the pool.

During the days Chu Zeming had spent in closed-door cultivation, Xiao Hei seemed to have overeaten after devouring the dragon spirit. It had been sleeping on the cold jade bed the entire time.

Chu Zeming stared at its newly grown head and recalled the nine-headed black shadow that had fought the dragon in the cave.

There was no doubt that Xiao Hei was powerful, powerful enough to battle a dragon. But... no matter how he looked at it, it did not seem like any proper spirit pet.

Malice covered its body, vicious aura clung to it. Calling it a spirit pet would be less accurate than calling it a terrifying ferocious beast.

No wonder it had refused to form a contract with him at the Spirit Realm Platform.

He wondered whether, once Xiao Hei grew nine heads in the future, it would be able to defeat Yue Lian's Little Azure Dragon.

Chu Zeming rose and left the room. He set up a barrier around Xiao Hei so it could sleep properly, then headed toward the sect's Artifact Refining Hall.

Every sect had an Artifact Refining Hall. Within it burned inexhaustible earthfire, while countless cauldrons stood above the flames, specifically for sect cultivators to forge their natal artifacts.

Chu Zeming intended to reforge the Luminous Glaze Sword.

Yet only a few steps after leaving the residence, Chu Zeming saw Ling Yunzi standing quietly in the distance, seemingly waiting specifically for him to emerge from seclusion.

Chu Zeming's first instinct was that nothing good could come of this. He wanted to pretend he had not seen him and take another route. Yet the next moment, Ling Yunzi's noble, cool gaze fell upon him.

Chu Zeming: "..."

He could no longer keep pretending to be blind, so Chu Zeming respectfully walked over. "Master."

Ling Yunzi's gaze swept over Chu Zeming before he said flatly, "Congratulations on your breakthrough."

Chu Zeming replied, "It is all thanks to Master's excellent teaching."

Ling Yunzi stiffened.

That perpetually noble, cool gaze rarely revealed such discomfort. Chu Zeming's flattery was painfully unskilled, and Ling Yunzi even suspected that he was deliberately speaking this way to disgust him.

After a moment of silence, once the awkwardness had eased slightly, Ling Yunzi spoke again. "According to the secret realm elder, you did very well on this trip to the secret realm. Everyone returned laden with rewards. After leaving the secret realm, Ling Tian gained nothing, yet you gave him a magical artifact."

Chu Zeming nodded.

Yet he found it strange that Ling Yunzi had come to speak to him about this.

Then, in the next moment, Chu Zeming learned Ling Yunzi's true purpose.

Because Ling Yunzi continued, "You and Ling Tian have never gotten along, yet you were willing to give him a magical artifact. Why did you not give one to your junior martial brother as well?"

Chu Zeming: ????

Hearing Ling Yunzi's words, Chu Zeming's mind filled with question marks. If he had to use something to describe his current mood, it would be the "confused Black guy meme."

What an oddball.

A truly outrageous oddball.

But this oddball was a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, the master of a sect, and also the original owner's nominal master. Chu Zeming could not directly snap back at him, so he raised his head apologetically and looked at Ling Yunzi. "Master, to be honest, Junior Brother Ling Tian failed to find any opportunities entirely because I believed there was treasure in the cold pool, causing him to waste five days and leaving him unable to seek opportunities. That was why I felt indebted to him and gave him the magical artifact I found."

Ling Yunzi's eyes flickered as he said softly, "So that was the reason. I did not know this. But among all the disciples, only Lian'er failed to obtain even the slightest opportunity. As his senior brother, you..."

He left the sentence unfinished. Clearly, he still meant for Chu Zeming to give something away.

Chu Zeming was furious. His expression hardened as he said coolly, "Master, every opportunity I obtained in the secret realm was won through immense hardship, with my life nearly on the line. Yet with just a few words, Master wishes for me to hand what I gained over to my junior martial brother... I am sorry, but I cannot do that."

He refused outright.

Ling Yunzi had not expected Chu Zeming to be so unyielding. He could not help but freeze, several traces of astonishment appearing on his face, fair as moonlight and clear as wind. He felt somewhat displeased, but he could not force Chu Zeming to yield his secret realm treasures. Thus, Ling Yunzi coldly said a few more useless things about working hard and caring for fellow disciples, then flicked his sleeve and left.

Watching Ling Yunzi's aloof, cool figure from behind.

Chu Zeming found it somewhat strange.

Because he had read the novel, Chu Zeming had always believed Ling Yunzi treated Yue Lian well out of love. From the very beginning of the book, the powerful master had spoiled and cared for the pure, delicate bottom in every way, their relationship growing sweeter and more cloying by the day.

But after entering the book, Chu Zeming had clearly felt the differences between reality and the novel.

Because Ling Yunzi's kindness and care toward Yue Lian... seemed more like ingratiation.

At that moment, a faint feeling arose in Chu Zeming's heart.

Nothing was as simple as it appeared, and that ridiculous novel, Master Above, Me Below, compared to this real plane, was like a pirated book. It could only serve as reference, not as a guide.

Upon reaching the Artifact Refining Hall, Chu Zeming paid a certain amount of spirit stones, selected a cauldron fueled by high-grade earthfire, then summoned the Luminous Glaze Sword from within his body and tossed it inside together with the broken sword obtained from the secret realm.

Sitting cross-legged before the enormous cauldron, Chu Zeming drove the spiritual power in his body to make the earthfire beneath it burn even fiercer.

Forging a natal artifact took a long time, and he could not allow himself to be distracted.

It took a full thirty-six hours before the Luminous Glaze Sword took shape once more within the cauldron. After fusing with the broken sword, the Luminous Glaze Sword gained four parts steadiness and ancient vastness amid its sharp, flamboyant aura. It seemed to contain the flavor of heaven and earth's laws.

The Luminous Glaze Sword rang sharply, even producing a deep, terrifying hum. Chu Zeming pressed a drop of his essence blood onto it, deepening the bond between himself and the Luminous Glaze Sword. Only then did it finally settle down.

Elder Han, who oversaw the Artifact Refining Hall, had been drawn over by the commotion some time ago. Standing beside Chu Zeming, he clicked his tongue in admiration at the Luminous Glaze Sword, radiant with flowing light and incomparably beautiful. "If the Artifact Refining Hall's formation were not suppressing the newly born sword spirit, I'm afraid your sword would have flown away already."

Putting away the Luminous Glaze Sword, Chu Zeming raised his eyes and asked, "A formation?"

Elder Han stroked his beard. "The Heaven and Earth Universe Formation, laid down by the founding patriarch."

After thinking for a moment, Chu Zeming asked, "Elder, do you know much about formations? I once saw a strange formation, but I did not recognize it. I would like to learn what kind of formation it was."

With that, Chu Zeming walked to a table nearby, rolled up his sleeve, picked up a brush, dipped it in some vermilion ink, and drew on a clean sheet of rice paper the formation he had seen in the secret realm palace.

Chu Zeming said, "I do not remember the details very clearly, but it should roughly have looked like this."

Elder Han stood beside Chu Zeming, frowning as he stared at the formation he had drawn. After pondering for a long while, he slowly said, "This should be a sealing formation. Where did you see it?"

Chu Zeming answered, "I went to the Extreme Sea Secret Realm some days ago and saw it in a ruined palace within the secret realm. At the time, there was also a terrifyingly powerful man at the center of the formation."

"Wait here for me first and help keep an eye on the Artifact Refining Hall..." Elder Han suddenly said. He took the formation Chu Zeming had drawn and walked out while studying it.

Before half an incense stick's time had passed, Elder Han returned.

He was carrying a treasure box in his hands.

He sat at the table, set Chu Zeming's drawing aside, then solemnly opened the box. Inside lay a tattered, blackened ancient text. Carefully opening the ancient book and searching for a while, Elder Han smiled. "Found it. This is it. The oldest sealing formation, specifically used in ancient times to seal immortal great powers. It is very rare. Your luck is truly good—you may have encountered a living ancient immortal in the secret realm."

A living ancient immortal?

All at once, Chu Zeming felt that he understood many things.

—Ling Yunzi might know something about Yue Lian's origins. The reason he fawned over Yue Lian might be because he wanted to gain the favor of that Black Lotus.

After all, no matter how one looked at it, the White Lotus and the Black Lotus surely shared blood ties.

After thanking Elder Han, Chu Zeming left the Artifact Refining Hall. All along the way, he felt a little headache coming on.

Back then, after being kissed, he had lost control for a moment and stabbed that man with a sword. Now, Chu Zeming regretted it deeply.

On this trip to the secret realm, he had made an enemy whose strength was terrifyingly formidable.

He did not know whether that person had emerged from the secret realm by the day the Extreme Sea Secret Realm opened. Chu Zeming felt faintly uneasy, and that unease manifested in his increasingly frantic cultivation.

Chu Zeming could not bring himself to imitate Ling Yunzi and fawn over Yue Lian to avoid retaliation from a powerful figure. He would rely on himself to protect himself.

After the Extreme Sea Secret Realm ended, Chu Zeming's reputation within the sect improved. Learning from Eldest Senior Brother became a trend, and the entire Nine-Clear Haoran Sect was like a crow's nest that had been poked open—every two or three steps, one would encounter someone dressed in black.

The sect elders were helpless about this, but they turned a blind eye.

After all, their idol was a cultivation maniac. The entire sect had rarely entered such a state of striving to outdo one another in cultivation.

It was a good thing.

Amid this trend of diligent cultivation, the five-yearly Joint Grand Tournament of the cultivation world was about to begin as well. The competition would be held at the cultivation world's foremost sect in Cangzhou, Lu Yu—Returning Origin Sect.

Beside the training ground, Chu Zeming and Xuan Mo sat side by side beneath the shade of a tree.

Looking at the communication jade talisman in his hand, Xuan Mo sighed repeatedly. "They're sending us to compete again this time... If we do not go, people will mock the sect for having no one. If we go and lose again, they will still mock us."

Chu Zeming ignored Xuan Mo's resentment.

He stared at the jade talisman in his hand, his mind filled with the reward for this Joint Grand Tournament—an ancient secret treasure.

Author's note:

Chu Zeming: An ancient secret treasure... I need to find a way to get it.

Yue Lian: I truly wish I could become a treasure myself, so Senior Brother would seize me by force.