Zhao Ruilin forced a bitter smile.
"What, can't bear to part with it?" Zhu Lingyun looked at him blandly.
Zhao Ruilin sighed. "Divine Venerable, if I said the Giant Spirit Sword was lost, you wouldn't believe me, would you?"
"What do you think?!" Zhu Lingyun snapped irritably. "Why didn't you lose yourself instead?!"
"Senior Brother, the Giant Spirit Sword is a Spirit Artifact you refined," Sun Haoyang said, puzzled. "Even if it was lost, you should be able to sense it, right?"
"It was stolen," Zhao Ruilin said.
Hu Chengxiang frowned. "The one capable of stealing the Giant Spirit Sword... couldn't it have been that guy?"
He looked at Zhu Lingyun. "Divine Venerable, could you steal Senior Brother's Giant Spirit Sword without him noticing?"
Zhu Lingyun nodded.
Hu Chengxiang said, "Then it must have been that guy!... Sneaking around in the shadows—truly infuriating!"
Zhu Lingyun's expression turned even uglier. He said coldly, "It really was lost?"
Zhao Ruilin gave a bitter smile. "No matter how bold I am, I wouldn't dare deceive you, Divine Venerable. My connection with the Giant Spirit Sword has been completely severed. Its whereabouts are unknown."
"Looks like it was him." Zhu Lingyun sneered. "Courting death!"
After a brief moment of thought, he said calmly, "Bring me a sword. The finer the better."
Zhao Ruilin drew the longsword at his waist. "This is the longsword I used before. It is also a precious sword."
The flawless blade gleamed with flowing snow-white light.
Zhu Lingyun said, "Refine it once using the Giant Spirit Sword's refinement method."
Without another word, Zhao Ruilin activated the refinement method and refined the sword as though it were the Giant Spirit Sword.
A moment later, a faint layer of red light surfaced across the blade.
Then the red light sank into the