A Maiden-pure Man

Uncontrollable laughter rang out once again from the cavern's upper level.

Only Elder Whitebrow felt a dull ache in his heart, nearly coughing up a mouthful of blood.

Amid everyone's irrepressible amusement, Lan Yue looked up again and scratched her head in confusion.

"Are the missions the senior brothers are talking about really that funny?" Lan Yue felt tempted.

Should I secretly look them up with the Gossip System? With my mental strength, I can still enjoy one more sweet piece of gossip!

Just as Lan Yue hesitated, Li Bai hurriedly caught his junior sister's sleeve.

"Junior sister, there's a time limit in the Hidden Sword Pavilion. Let's find our spirit swords first."

The little figure inside Li Bai's mind wiped away a bead of sweat. He was terrified that, while digging for gossip, his junior sister would discover that several senior brothers were watching the fun too.

Of course, the most important people to conceal were the sect master and the elders.

His master had just sent him a voice transmission, saying that the sect master and elders had all arrived and telling him to cover for them.

The thought of all those people watching them from overhead made Li Bai's scalp prickle.

"Right, right, we haven't found our spirit swords yet." Lan Yue nodded repeatedly. The senior brothers' affairs could wait. The spirit sword she had yet to meet was what mattered most!

The three walked forward side by side. With Lan Yue no longer enjoying gossip in her thoughts, the entire cavern grew much quieter.

Instead, Yun Chong and the elders above found themselves rather unaccustomed to it.

Though they could no longer hear any gossip, the man involved was right beside them. They remained intensely interested and turned toward him one after another with teasing looks.

"Elder Lu, I never imagined you had so many lovely Dao companions. What a surprise!" The sixth elder loved watching a spectacle more than anyone, and he had laughed the hardest earlier.

"Elder Lu, what does it feel like to have an entire sect's worth of Dao companions? Tell us." Another elder sidled over to ask.

He looked puzzled, as though he simply wanted to understand Elder Lu's feelings, but inwardly, his heart was blooming with delight.

Previously, this fellow had spent his days boasting around the sect about how beautiful and understanding his Dao companions were, making everyone green with envy.

Well, this served him right. Let him try showing off again!

"Exactly, Elder Lu. Apparently, half of them are male cultivators. Did they all wear women's clothes when they met you? Just how beautiful must they have been to haunt your dreams?" The sixth elder edged closer too.

The other elders said nothing, but quietly pricked up their ears.

Lu Heng: "..."

How was he supposed to answer that? Admit that he could not tell them apart either?

The thought that half of his lovely Dao companions were men-male cultivators in skirts acting coy with him-made him shudder involuntarily.

No. This was far too terrifying!

Once he returned, he would sever his relationships with them! This could not go on!

Damn it! Among all those lovely beauties, not a single one truly loved him!

Just thinking about it left a mouthful of blood lodged in his throat, unable to go up or down.

Elder Whitebrow: _(´ཀ`" ∠)__

"Little Lu, you ought to exercise some restraint. How could you grant eighteen Dao companions official standing all at once? How irresponsible toward those female cultivators!" The sect master held the Immortal-Binding Cord, his expression full of anguish.

The Immortal-Binding Cord in his hand even tightened considerably, forcibly squeezing its captive down a size and nearly strangling him.

"Sect master, it wasn't just female cultivators. There were male cultivators too," the sixth elder reminded him.

Yun Chong could not stop the corners of his mouth from secretly curling upward. Turning back, he once again looked utterly grief-stricken. "Even if they're male cultivators, you still have to take responsibility for them! Male cultivators are maiden-pure men too. Look at you! Is this something a decent human being would do?"

Elder Whitebrow could no longer hear anything that followed. His mind was now filled with nothing but "maiden-pure men."

Maiden-pure men, maiden-pure men...

At last, Elder Whitebrow could endure no more. The mouthful of blood lodged in his throat burst out, and his eyes rolled back as he fainted.

How he hated them!

Meanwhile, Lan Yue had no idea she had drawn such a full measure of hatred. She was still accompanying the female lead and her eldest senior brother as they searched for spirit swords.

Watching the female lead release her spiritual energy and draw countless spirit swords flying toward her, Lan Yue felt immensely proud.

Her darling girl was just that amazing!

Of everyone in the Protagonist Group, the female lead was her favorite.

Though the female lead had witnessed darkness and been schemed against and framed, she still strove to embrace this world. She seemed cool and aloof on the surface, but her heart was warm!

"Let's go. I've chosen mine." A cool voice reached her.

Lan Yue instinctively looked up and saw the female lead walking toward her with a lacquer-red longsword.

"We're leaving already?!" Her eyes widened in shock.

No, no, no! Female lead, hurry back! Your Life-Bound Spirit Sword is waiting for you! Why did you come over with some unfamiliar spirit sword?

Yun Xi, who had been about to nod, suddenly stopped. She glanced at the spirit sword in her hand, then at Lan Yue's anxious expression, and decisively put the sword back.

Yes, yes, yes, that's right! Darling girl, your Life-Bound Spirit Sword can grow stronger along with your cultivation. It has saved you so many times at crucial moments. You absolutely have to find it!

Listening to that rambling inner voice, Yun Xi felt warmth bloom in her heart, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.

She began examining the spirit swords again, pondering as she walked.

Since it was her Life-Bound Spirit Sword, surely there should be some resonance between them?

Yun Xi sensed a tremor to her right, along with a faint, elusive feeling in her heart. She reached out and picked up the Gilt Long Sword.

Darling girl, don't be fooled by how splendid this longsword looks. It'll break after cutting down just a handful of people. It wants to get close to you so it can latch onto a rich patron and make you spend a fortune replacing its decorations!

This sword is actually terribly scheming. It's even worse than Elder Whitebrow. It's had eighty-eight masters in total!

Look at all those elaborate formation patterns on it. They were made with powdered supreme-grade spirit stones, then embellished with colors extracted from natural spirit fruit juice!*

Look at those dazzling chips of high-grade ore on it. The sword spirit tricked its previous master, and all the masters before that, into inlaying them!

Damn it, this spirit sword is richer than the whole of Spirit Moon Peak!

That thought nearly made the sect master and elders above die laughing.

Looking at the spirit sword in her right hand, which was almost blinding even in the dim light, Yun Xi's mouth twitched.

She drew a deep breath and put the Gilt Long Sword back, even leaving it in a particularly conspicuous spot.

Hopefully, this sword would find a suitable master.

Before long, she came across a spiritwood sword. Its luxury was understated, with mysterious patterns carved into its hilt.

Even before drawing close, Yun Xi could sense an unfathomable aura that made her heart stir.

On the cavern's upper level, the elders were quietly discussing it too.

"I suspect this spirit sword is our niece's Life-Bound Spirit Sword," the second elder said with certainty.

"Ever since the Grand Elder brought this spirit sword to the Hidden Sword Pavilion, it has never manifested its spirit. Now that it's done so of its own accord, it must have been dazzled by our niece's talent."

"Indeed. This spirit sword was already in the Hidden Sword Pavilion when I first joined the sect, yet no one has ever moved it. Yun Xi's talent must be even more astonishing than we imagined."

There was also something everyone tacitly understood: if Lan Yue, who possessed an immortal artifact, called Yun Xi the female lead, then Yun Xi might well be the heaven-chosen daughter of the entire cultivation world.

A niece favored by the Heavenly Dao was naturally extraordinary. Perhaps she even had some hidden mission, such as saving the cultivation world.

"Speaking of this spiritwood sword, it should have come from the immortal realm. The ruins Master entered back then were a burial ground for immortals. Unfortunately, his cultivation was too low at the time. He could only watch the mighty experts around him fight until heaven and earth darkened, unable to venture deeper into the burial ground."

"Otherwise, our Southern Spirit Sect might have gained another immortal artifact."

As Yun Chong spoke, he deliberately glanced in Lan Yue's direction.

They had deduced over several months that Lan Yue possessed an immortal artifact. Every person who refused to believe it had received a beating from that artifact.

Yun Chong in particular had needed three months of secluded cultivation to recover.

However, this immortal artifact had already bound itself to its master. Apart from warning them, it could only be used to uncover secrets of the cultivation world.

That was truly regrettable. If this immortal artifact had been a weapon-even merely a defensive one-their sect might have poured all its resources into nurturing her.

What a pity. Such a pity.

"If Yun Xi's Life-Bound Spirit Sword can improve alongside her cultivation, it might be an immortal sword. With an immortal sword to rely on, perhaps we'll be able to preserve the Southern Spirit Sect's complete legacy when the second cataclysm arrives," the fifth elder said gravely.

His words weighed down many hearts.

Whenever this approaching cataclysm was mentioned, everyone's heart grew heavy.

While the elders exchanged quiet voice transmissions, a change occurred below. A dazzling light flared, and fierce winds swept through the cavern, sending its dirt swirling into the air.

"Let me see who has awakened me." An aged voice drifted out.

The voice was steady and deep, as though steeped in thousands of years.

That voice alone convinced the elders on the cavern's upper level that their guess had to be correct this time.

"You are..." Yun Xi was startled and uncertain.

Could the Life-Bound Spirit Artifact Lan Yue had mentioned be this spiritwood sword?

"I am the sword spirit of the Cangwu Wooden Sword. Your spiritual energy happened to awaken me today, rousing me from my slumber."

"Child, what era is it now?"