The Azure Sun Ruler

After Lin Zhishui left, Han Suxin settled down to wait in the shop.

Although simply waiting was rather boring, she dared not divert her attention to cultivation, much less browse or wander around the shop at will. If Senior Lin learned of such rude behavior, his opinion of her might suffer.

So she stood obediently beside the desk, ready to wait there until Senior Lin returned.

Of course, this also gave her a chance to study the character "Steadfast" that Senior Lin had bestowed upon her.

"This character, 'Steadfast'..."

Han Suxin gently touched the rice paper with her fingertips, trying to sense the wondrous Dao Resonance it contained and determine what sort of divine ability its principles and Dao Resonance would form.

An invisible force seeped into her body from the calligraphy, enveloping her body and soul in warmth and stillness.

"Hm?"

To her astonishment, Han Suxin discovered that her soul, which had been damaged by yesterday's shock, was now rapidly recovering under the influence of this invisible force!

In mere moments, her soul had fully recovered.

"Incredible... I thought it would take a year to recover, but it healed this quickly?"

Han Suxin murmured, then realized, "So Senior Lin already knew my soul was injured. That must be why he bestowed this character, 'Steadfast,' upon me as compensation..."

Now she finally understood a little of the divine abilities possessed by this piece of calligraphy bearing the character "Steadfast."

Its most obvious effect was to "steady the spirit." Simply carrying it with her would fortify her Dao heart, anchor her soul, stabilize her magic power, and steady her divine abilities.

Put simply, she would no longer be at risk of cultivation deviation, nor would she need to fear those strange and unpredictable attacks on the mind. Her magic power would circulate more steadily, her cultivation foundation would be firmer, and using divine abilities would become easier.

In the modern terminology she knew, it was a firewall bundled with an accelerator and a game script.

There seemed to be deeper divine abilities that had yet to reveal themselves, but at her current realm, she could not discern exactly what they were.

Even if such a precious treasure fell short of a supreme treasure, it was not far off!

"I should put the calligraphy away first."

After a brief hesitation, Han Suxin summoned wisps of cool wind to quickly dry the ink on the rice paper. Then she carefully pulled the calligraphy out from beneath the bluestone paperweight and put it away with a sweep of her sleeve.

Only after putting the calligraphy away did she breathe a sigh of relief. She could not feel at ease leaving such a treasure out.

Suddenly-

"Hm? This paperweight?"

Han Suxin suddenly noticed that the bluestone paperweight on the desk did not seem to be an ordinary object. There was a small ink stain on its surface, seemingly left by an accidental touch of Senior Lin's brush while he was writing.

But could someone with Senior Lin's cultivation really make such a mistake?

She had no time to ponder it, however, because the paperweight inexplicably began to tremble, giving off a faint glow as though it had sensed something.

While she was puzzling over it, her expression changed. She abruptly raised her head and looked toward the outside of the shop, her gaze sharpening.

"A cultivator?" Han Suxin frowned slightly.

With light taps of her fingertips, she lit fourteen brilliant, starlike points in the air. Then, following the patterns of their movements, she immediately began a Purple Star Astrology divination to determine whether this unexpected cultivator was friend or foe, and whether meeting this person would bring fortune or calamity.

"Danger days bring peril, holding days bring worry, baleful stars occupy the palaces..."

Before long, Han Suxin dismissed the fourteen stars with a wave of her hand, her brow tightly furrowed. "The visitor is neither my friend nor my enemy, but the signs of fate are ominous. Could they be here for Senior Lin?"

Mr. Lin had barely left before an uninvited visitor arrived.

How could she not worry?

Still, judging by her spiritual awareness, this uninvited visitor's cultivation was not particularly profound. She felt only a mild sense of threat, and their cultivation and attainment might not surpass hers.

She could not help finding it strange. With cultivation like that, how could this person dare make trouble for Senior Lin?

Could it be... that they did not know Senior Lin's true cultivation?

"No matter what, Senior Lin entrusted me with watching his shop. I absolutely cannot let anything happen." Han Suxin took a deep breath and slowly circulated her magic power, ready to awaken her Dharma Body at any moment.

In the secluded, silent alley.

Within a patch of shade untouched by sunlight, a particularly deep shadow slowly twisted and rose, gradually taking the shape of a tall, thin figure. He stepped out of the shadows, becoming a tall, thin man in his thirties wearing a black trench coat. His rakish, medium-length hair was tied behind his head, his features were sharply defined, and his eyes were as keen as a hawk's.

Wherever he stood, it was as though night had fallen. Even the golden morning light seemed to dim a little.

"The Flying Sword Message the ancestor sent before ascending landed here."

Cheng Buxiu kept one hand in his trench coat pocket and held a brass compass in the other. Following the direction of its needle, his sharp gaze settled on the calligraphy and painting shop in the distance called "He Mingxuan."

"He Mingxuan... So it really is here too."

He slowly frowned. "The place named in the signature on the calligraphy Qiyue brought home yesterday was 'He Mingxuan.' This should be the place. That girl took my Calamity-Breaking Compass out to search for the ancestor's Azure Sun Ruler, but after coming home yesterday, she suddenly gave up and said she was going into seclusion. Something must be wrong..."

Cheng Buxiu could not make sense of his daughter Cheng Qiyue's strange behavior either, so he had followed the clues and come here specifically to investigate.

Perhaps he could find a clue to the ancestor's supreme treasure, the Azure Sun Ruler.

The ancestor, the Cheng Family's sole pillar of support, had already ascended.

Of the ancestor's many treasures, almost every one had been clearly allocated, apart from the Azure Sun Ruler.

The ancestor had left some of those treasures to the family.

Others he had given to his powerful friends, asking them to look after the Cheng Family's younger generations.

Only the supreme treasure, the Azure Sun Ruler, remained missing. The ancestor had not even used it during his tribulation, seemingly overcoming the perilous heavenly tribulation through his own strength alone.

When someone asked about this, the ancestor had said, "After I ascend, the younger members of my Cheng Family will not be able to safeguard a supreme treasure like the Azure Sun Ruler. Leaving it to them would only make them targets for possessing it. It would bring disaster, not fortune."

The family elders had originally believed that the ancestor had given the Azure Sun Ruler to some powerful expert.

But a few days earlier, when the chief elder used a drop of blood essence left by the ancestor to sense the genuine ruler's condition through an Imitation Azure Sun Ruler, he discovered-

The ancestor's supreme treasure, the Azure Sun Ruler, was still without a master!

If the ancestor had given the Azure Sun Ruler to a powerful expert, a supreme treasure with such abundant sentience would surely have submitted of its own accord long ago. Once it submitted, it would draw upon its master's magic power to acknowledge them. How, then, could the elders still have sensed the genuine ruler's condition?

Its lack of a master meant that the ancestor had not given the Azure Sun Ruler away, but had merely hidden it.

After discussing the matter, the family elders began to speculate that the ancestor might have said those words deliberately, simply to make others believe the Azure Sun Ruler was no longer in the Cheng Family's possession. As for hiding it, he had probably hoped his descendants would secretly recover it.

That way, outsiders would not know the Azure Sun Ruler was still with the Cheng Family. It could serve as the family's guardian treasure, a trump card to be used at a critical moment.

Moreover, before ascending, the ancestor had deliberately left a Flying Sword Message whose contents were unknown, further strengthening the Cheng Family elders' suspicions.

Perhaps the letter within the Flying Sword Message revealed where the Azure Sun Ruler was hidden?

Once the family elders discovered this, they strictly forbade anyone from spreading the news. Only members of the Cheng Family knew about it.

Thus, the Cheng Family's descendants began secretly searching for the Azure Sun Ruler.

As a direct descendant of the ancestor, Cheng Buxiu also possessed the Magic Treasure "Calamity-Breaking Compass," bestowed by the ancestor. Naturally, he could not let this opportunity pass.

However, he had happened to have urgent business yesterday, so he had given the compass and a drop of the ancestor's blood to his daughter Cheng Qiyue, instructing her to trace where the ancestor's Flying Sword Message had gone.

What he had not expected was that, after returning home yesterday, his daughter would say she no longer wanted to search and suddenly enter seclusion to cultivate. She had also brought back an ordinary piece of calligraphy from somewhere and deliberately hung it on the wall in her room.

He had questioned her twice, but Cheng Qiyue refused to reveal a single word.

This had made Cheng Buxiu suspicious.

Could it be... that his daughter had already found the Azure Sun Ruler?

Perhaps she had merely discovered that her cultivation was insufficient: she could neither gain the Azure Sun Ruler's acknowledgment nor forcibly refine it. That was why she had pretended to give up and returned home to cultivate in seclusion, striving to break through as soon as possible. Then she would have a chance to refine the Azure Sun Ruler, earn the family's recognition, and gain the approval of her stern father.

It was a very reasonable and logical conjecture.

Most cultivators had rich life experience, and their lofty perspectives broadened their thinking. How could they not be adept at speculation and filling in the blanks?

"If that really is the case, Qiyue cannot forcibly refine the Azure Sun Ruler, but I can."

Cheng Buxiu glanced at the nearby calligraphy and painting shop. With a turn of his hand, an ancient azure wooden ruler appeared in his left hand. He lightly tapped it against the compass in his right, and a drop of fresh blood immediately seeped out of the compass's surface.

The blood quickly merged into the Ancient Azurewood Ruler.

This Ancient Azurewood Ruler was an imitation of the Azure Sun Ruler, while the drop of blood belonged to the ancestor.

The ancestor's blood could temporarily activate the resonance between the imitation and the genuine Azure Sun Ruler. If the genuine ruler was within a hundred zhang and had yet to acknowledge a master, it would inevitably produce a response.

Cheng Buxiu watched the Imitation Azure Sun Ruler in his hand expectantly.

The next moment, after absorbing the blood, the Ancient Azurewood Ruler began to tremble. Like the attraction of a magnet, a faint, inexplicable pulling force arose from it.

And it pulled toward the nearby calligraphy and painting shop named He Mingxuan.

"The genuine Azure Sun Ruler really is here!"

Cheng Buxiu's eyes suddenly lit up, his piercing gaze fixed on the little calligraphy and painting shop.