The Mount Lao Sword Sect

Evening.

Li Yu sat in his room, tablet in hand, looking up information on immortal bones.

In the Galaxy Alliance, cultivation actually required no spiritual roots. Anyone could get started as long as they worked hard. Compared with Mountain Sea, the Alliance placed greater importance on comprehension.

After all, spiritual-root aptitude could be improved later in life. For example, cultivating the Heaven-Tier Cultivation Method, Ancient Desolate Dao Body, and obtaining the power of the Primordial Nine Dragons would grant one a Mahayana Immortal Body.

Even the most basic Purple Glow Art could, upon reaching Integration, fuse purple qi into the meridians, upgrading the body's eight extraordinary meridians into "Violet Collateral Sky Meridians." Not only could these withstand more violent circulation and bursts of True Essence, they also allowed one to begin refining the supremely yang and unyielding Great Sun Purple Qi.

Those with substantial family wealth could even go to the Heavenly Hospital for modifications. Whatever spiritual roots, Dao bodies, immortal bones, or sword meridians they wanted could be replaced or implanted. Getting all the packages would give them the aptitude of a peerless prodigy outright. The only drawback was that such manufactured aptitude could not be inherited.

Comprehension, however, was innate and very difficult to fake.

Take the Heaven-Tier Cultivation Method "Thousand Mechanisms Evolution," for instance. With insufficient comprehension, even if someone cheated their way through Immortal Path Foundation Establishment, the subsequent One That Eluded and four hundred eighty million formations could expose a false genius's true colors at every step.

Li Yu had also found the closest match to Jin Ling's condition in the Galaxy Alliance.

It was called the "Golden Luminary Spirit Body."

Born of supreme white metal essence, once awakened, it would attract the Metal-Affinity Spiritual Energy between heaven and earth at every moment. It was a superior aptitude ideally suited to a Sword Cultivator.

In the Galaxy Alliance, she might still have needed to take an examination to assess her comprehension. Here in the Eastern Lands, however, it was regarded as a Spirit-Communing Sword Body, allowing her to enter the Mount Lao Sword Sect directly as a True Disciple.

The Mount Lao Sword Sect was one of the Ten Great Sects of the Mystic Dao in the Eastern Lands, and the second-ranked Sword Cultivator sect across Mountain Sea's four lands, surpassed only by the Sword Sect of the Southern Lands.

Knock, knock, knock...

Just then, a knock came from outside. Li Yu put away his tablet and opened the door to find Jin Ling.

She held a bowl of rice topped with two slices of meat, offering it to him rather timidly. "Immortal sir, would you like some?"

Thinking of Old Master Lu the previous night, Li Yu accepted the bowl with a smile. "I'll take this bowl of rice as your tuition gift. Come in. I'll teach you a little about immortal cultivation."

At those words, Jin Ling's little face blossomed into a smile.

Li Yu sensed Shi Sang standing in the doorway next door, listening to what was happening here, so he left his door open. As he ate, he began explaining the basics of the Mystic Sects in the Eastern Lands.

"Your disciple pays her respects to Master..."

Once Li Yu finished eating, Jin Ling moved to kneel and perform a formal bow, but he stopped her with a wave of his sleeve.

"Your aptitude is extraordinary, but I'm not a Sword Cultivator. At most, I can teach you some basic knowledge of the Mystic Sects. There's no need to formally become my disciple." Li Yu would not remain in the Zhao Kingdom for long, and he had a great secret of his own. He had no intention of keeping a disciple by his side, so he made that clear in advance.

"But..." Only five years old, Jin Ling was dumbfounded by this and stood there at a loss.

"Just call me Teacher from now on," Li Yu said.

Jin Ling nodded.

Li Yu then explained the condition inside Jin Ling's body. "You possess a Golden Luminary Spirit Body. Once your body has matured, you can go to the Qing Kingdom and join the Mount Lao Sword Sect. For now, because your spirit body awakened prematurely, it constantly draws the free-floating metal qi between heaven and earth into your body. That's an enormous burden for you."

Jin Ling was only five, and her meridians had yet to fully take shape. If metal qi continued entering and eroding her body over a prolonged period, it would not merely damage her foundation-it could even endanger her life.

Li Yu had already asked Ji Ganlin, whom he followed on the Galaxy Platform, about this. She had suggested several solutions. The simplest was to wear a Sealing Talisman to sever the connection between the spirit body and the metal qi of heaven and earth. Alternatively, Jin Ling could take a Children's Meridian-Guarding Pill every morning and evening. Surgery could also reseal her spirit body.

None of those options were available in the Eastern Lands, however.

With no other choice, they could ultimately only return to the most direct method: Body Tempering.

But Jin Ling had never cultivated before, so even getting started with the Purple Glow Art would take her a long time.

Until she got started with the Purple Glow Art, she would need Li Yu's help.

He could use "Yi Light Condensing Edge" to draw away the metal qi Jin Ling gathered unconsciously.

For Li Yu, this was a good thing as well.

With his water, wood, and earth spiritual roots, it was very difficult for him to sense the killing metal qi between heaven and earth. He had even been planning not to cultivate "Yi Light Condensing Edge" during the Qi Refining stage at all.

Now, with Jin Ling serving as a human metal-qi receiver, it was as though he had connected an additional superior metal spiritual root, multiplying his efficiency several times over.

After firmly committing everything Li Yu said to memory, Jin Ling could not help asking a question. "Teacher, why is the Mount Lao Sword Sect the second-greatest sword cultivation sect under heaven?"

"Because the Mount Lao Sword Sect doesn't merely possess sword cultivation methods," Li Yu said. "Its talismans, pills, formations, restrictions, and divine-sense inheritances are all first-rate in Mountain Sea. It takes its name from the sword because it enshrines three divine swords: Supreme Clarity, Jade Emperor, and Bright Heaven. Each was left behind by ancient sages and immortals, and each possesses unfathomable mysteries and boundless power."

Jin Ling's face filled with longing as she listened, but another question occurred to her. "If the Mount Lao Sword Sect is so powerful, who's ranked first under heaven, with an even greater sword Dao?"

"In the Southern Lands, there's a Sword Sect founded by the descendants of Emperor Yu's tomb guardians from the Tianxia Dynasty," Li Yu said. "The earliest sword of Mountain Sea's human race is there."

Emperor Qi had founded the human race's first dynasty. Before Emperor Qi, kingdoms had stood in great numbers throughout Mountain Sea, and there had been many ancient sages. Among them, eight had been acclaimed by the many ancient kingdoms as sovereigns of all under heaven. They were collectively known as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

Emperor Yu was Emperor Qi's father and, like the Zhao Kingdom's ancestor Young Emperor Hao, one of the Five Emperors. He had died in the Southern Lands while touring the vast wilderness of Mountain Sea.

"Even someone like that could die? Isn't reaching the Primordial Spirit realm supposed to make you immortal?" Jin Ling asked.

Li Yu did not know how to answer that question either.

"The sun's just about to set. I'll guide you in sensing the Great Sun Violet Heaven Floating Sun Qi." Changing the subject, Li Yu took Jin Ling up onto the earthen mound.

Jin Ling's comprehension was fairly good, and she soon sensed the purple qi. But because her mind had not yet condensed into a focused thought, she was still unable to draw the qi outside her body into herself.

Lacking teaching experience, Li Yu could only have her use the clumsy method of trying again and again.

While Jin Ling concentrated fully, the free-floating metal qi around them also began flowing toward her. Prepared for this, Li Yu circulated Yi Light Condensing Edge to intercept it.

Before long, the sun had sunk completely below the mountains.

Jin Ling's first cultivation session ended in failure, and because she had exhausted too much

mental energy, her little face was filled with fatigue.

Li Yu felt a faint pang of sympathy as well, thinking that once he returned, he would go on the Galaxy Platform and learn how to teach.

Just then, Old Master Lu appeared not far away. Seeing Jin Ling sitting cross-legged on the earthen mound, he looked slightly surprised.