Hou Niao suppressed his excitement and examined the slips one by one. He knew this was exactly what he had been looking for!
His Forward formula was part of the comprehensive Forward formula here. There was no doubt about it; he only needed to open the comprehensive Forward formula and glance through it to see that clearly.
Rather than rushing to study it, he quickly went through the hundred-odd ancient sword manuals. He found that most were variations on this set of ancient sword manuals, trying to make the Body Sword Technique more readily accessible, yet not one had succeeded.
He understood why the attempts of countless accomplished predecessors of the Quanzhen Sect had come to nothing: their changes had not been thorough enough. They lacked the absolute resolve of "I am the sword, and the sword is me," nor had they witnessed demonstrations by Sword Souls like those he had encountered in the Soul Realm. The transmission of the Body Sword Technique had thus died out.
His good fortune had come from many directions: his own vague dissatisfaction with mainstream flying sword techniques, his natural talent for close-combat swordsmanship, and the teachers he had encountered one after another in the Soul Realm-Sword One, Sword Two, Sword Three, and perhaps Sword Four and Sword Five in the future.
With a plan in mind, he stopped picking and choosing and took the nine ancient slips straight to the Golden Core cultivator guarding the tower. "Martial Uncle..."
The Golden Core cultivator interrupted him, casually tossing over nine brand-new Jade Slips. "You can't take the originals. Copies have been prepared here for your investigation. Mm, nine mid-grade Spirit Stones. That's the cost."
Hou Niao looked and found that they were indeed exact copies of the originals. His expression turned awkward. Clearly, he was