"Satisfied?"
It went far beyond satisfaction.
Shen Zhu stared at Chu Yunfei, his heart still pounding fiercely.
The second floor was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
Those who had mocked Chu Yunfei earlier had all clamped their mouths shut. Some quietly retreated behind the sword racks, while others lowered their heads to pick up swords, none daring to meet Chu Yunfei's eyes again.
The martial artist who had declared he would eat the sword, in particular, had almost backed all the way to the stairs.
He was terrified someone would remind him it was time to eat.
Shen Zhu drew a deep breath, barely suppressing his excitement.
"Young friend."
His voice was much hoarser than before.
"Do you know this sword's origins?"
Chu Yunfei took the Abyss-Devouring Sword off his shoulder and casually rested it on the floor.
Thud!
The heavy blade landed, shaking the second-floor floorboards.
"No."
Chu Yunfei glanced down at the Abyss-Devouring Sword.
"All I know is that it suits me well."
Shen Zhu fell silent for a moment.
There was puzzlement in his eyes, along with shock he could not conceal, but he did not press further.
Making a sword blank that had lain dormant for years ring again, even causing an entire floor of spirit swords to bow, already spoke volumes.
As for what means Chu Yunfei had used, that was his secret.
Having lived so many years, Shen Zhu understood one principle very well.
It was best not to ask what one should not ask.
Especially when facing someone capable of awakening this ominous sword.
Shen Zhu straightened his robes, then solemnly cupped his fist.
"Since I gave my word, I will naturally keep it."
"From this day forward, this sword belongs to you, young friend."
"Free of charge."
"Thank you, Pavilion Master Shen."
Chu Yunfei smiled faintly, closed his fingers around the hilt, and lifted the Abyss-Devouring Sword with one hand.
The sword blank weighed several hundred jin, yet it remained perfectly steady in his hand. Its tip did not waver in the slightest.
The corners of several nearby martial artists' eyes twitched.
Earlier, they had been focused solely on the sword.
Only now did they belatedly realize that someone who could lift this sword with one hand was also a monster.
The more Shen Zhu watched, the more tempted he became.
The Abyss-Devouring Sword was a divine treasure.
How could someone who could make a divine treasure acknowledge him as its master be ordinary?
"Please wait, young friend."
Shen Zhu stepped half a pace forward and said earnestly, "If you would not disdain the position, would you be willing to become a Guest Elder Attendant of our Famous Sword Pavilion?"
"Just say the word, and you will have priority access to the pavilion's weapons and sword-forging materials, on the terms granted to our highest-ranking guest elders."
At these words, another wave of hushed exclamations rose across the second floor.
A Guest Elder Attendant of the Famous Sword Pavilion!
This was no longer recruitment.
He was plainly snatching up talent on the spot.
Countless experts in the Qi Condensation Realm and Spirit Martial Realm wanted to establish ties with the Famous Sword Pavilion but could find no way in.
Yet now, Shen Zhu was offering this status to Chu Yunfei of his own accord.
But Chu Yunfei merely considered it briefly before shaking his head.
"Thank you for your kindness, Pavilion Master Shen."
"However, I have no plans to become a guest elder for now."
Shen Zhu opened his mouth, but ultimately did not try to persuade him further.
Someone like this would not readily pledge himself for a few resources.
Insisting that he stay would only risk souring their relationship.
"In that case, I will not insist."
Shen Zhu took a black token engraved with a sword pattern from inside his robes and handed it to Chu Yunfei.
"However, the Famous Sword Pavilion's doors will always be open to you, young friend."
"If you ever need a sword repaired or forged, simply come with this token."
Chu Yunfei did not refuse and put the token away.
"All right."
He hefted the Abyss-Devouring Sword onto his shoulder, turned, and headed downstairs.
The crowd parted to either side of its own accord.
Even after Chu Yunfei's figure disappeared down the stairs, no one on the second floor spoke.
Only after a long while did Shen Zhu slowly exhale.
Looking in the direction Chu Yunfei had left, he murmured softly.
"Qingyang City..."
"May well be about to produce a dragon."
Chu Yunfei walked out of the Famous Sword Pavilion.
The midday sunlight fell upon the black blade, yet not a trace of light reflected off it.
The Abyss-Devouring Sword remained dormant.
It was as though the terrifying sword intent that had subdued an entire floor of spirit swords had never appeared.
Ignoring the awed and probing gazes behind him, Chu Yunfei soon blended into the flow of people on the street.
From the shadows at a street corner, a man in blue robes quietly followed him.
The man concealed his presence and stepped extremely lightly, maintaining a distance of several dozen zhang from Chu Yunfei.
He was another trusted subordinate Ling Feng had planted in Qingyang City.
When the Abyss-Devouring Sword awakened earlier, he had been unable to enter the second floor, but he had personally witnessed a streak of dark-gold sword light shoot out of the Famous Sword Pavilion.
Immediately afterward, every spirit sword in the pavilion had rung out in unison.
Even from across the entire street, that cold, unfathomable sword intent had chilled his hands and feet.
Even now, the back of his robe was still wet.
Only after confirming that Chu Yunfei had left the Famous Sword Pavilion did the blue-robed man duck into an alley and take a message talisman from inside his robes.
His divine sense poured into it, rapidly imprinting one message after another.
"Senior Brother Ling Feng, Wang Hu still hasn't sent word."
"Chu Yunfei is still alive, and he has appeared in Qingyang City completely unharmed."
"He just awakened a useless black sword in the Famous Sword Pavilion, causing an entire floor of spirit swords to submit."
"Shen Zhu, the master of the Famous Sword Pavilion, has given him the sword and even taken the initiative to invite him to become a guest elder."
After sending the messages, the blue-robed man clutched the voice transmission talisman, his palm covered in cold sweat.
Wang Hu had still sent no word.
Yet Chu Yunfei was alive and well.
The outcome was no longer difficult to guess.
Wang Hu, who was at the seventh level of Body Tempering, was most likely dead.
What unsettled him even more was that no one knew how Wang Hu had died.
Where his body was.
Who had done it.
None of it could be traced.
It was as though the man had never existed.
The blue-robed man wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. When he looked up again, Chu Yunfei's figure was about to disappear at the far end of the crowd.
He gritted his teeth and could only keep following.
The inner sect of the Azure Mystic Sect.
Inside a private courtyard rich with Spiritual Qi.
Ling Feng sat upright at a stone table, leisurely sipping spirit tea.
He was in a good mood.
Judging by the time, Wang Hu should have succeeded by now.
A piece of trash whose cultivation had fallen, even if he had luckily recovered some of his strength, could hardly stir up any waves before Wang Hu, who was at the seventh level of Body Tempering.
Once Chu Yunfei died, that old marriage agreement would become a thing of the past for good.
How could a fallen piece of trash lay a finger on a favored daughter of heaven like Situ Shuang'er?
Without Chu Yunfei being an eyesore, he might well win the beauty's hand with a little more effort.
At this thought, Ling Feng raised his teacup, his smile deepening.
Just then, the message talisman inside his robes lit up.
"Finally."
Ling Feng took out the voice transmission talisman and extended his divine sense into it.
The next instant.
The smile on his face froze completely.
Crack!
The white jade teacup shattered in his hand.
Scalding tea mixed with broken porcelain spilled across the ground, and several shards even cut his palm.
Yet Ling Feng seemed entirely unaware.
A cold presence spread from his body.
A layer of white frost rapidly coated the flowers and plants beside the stone table. Their leaves curled, and in the blink of an eye, they lost all vitality.
"Wang Hu hasn't sent word?"
"Chu Yunfei is still alive?"
"Ten thousand swords submitted, and Shen Zhu gave him a sword..."
Through gritted teeth, Ling Feng read out the messages in the talisman, word by word.
With every sentence, his expression darkened further.
Wang Hu was his trusted subordinate.
With his cultivation at the seventh level of Body Tempering, his mastery of the Flowing Cloud Sword Technique was respectable even among the outer sect disciples.
He had gone to intercept and kill a piece of trash merely at the Body Tempering third layer, yet he had vanished.
He had not returned.
He had sent no word.
Meanwhile, his target had appeared in Qingyang City safe and sound.
Ling Feng knew better than anyone what this meant.
Wang Hu was dead.
"Well played, Chu Yunfei."
Ling Feng lowered his head to look at the blood seeping from his palm and laughed in his fury.
"I underestimated you."
"If you could kill Wang Hu, it seems your cultivation hasn't fallen to the Body Tempering third layer."
"Deliberately pretending to be trash, waiting for someone to take the bait?"
Ling Feng slowly rose.
The chill within the courtyard grew increasingly severe, and even the ground developed a thin layer of ice.
"No wonder you dared to provoke Yan Guining at the Pill Pavilion."
"So you still had a trump card hidden away."
If it had merely been Wang Hu's death, Ling Feng would not have lost his composure to this extent.
What truly enraged him was that Chu Yunfei had not only survived, but had instead obtained a fortuitous opportunity at the Famous Sword Pavilion.
He had lost a trusted subordinate.
Yet Chu Yunfei had picked up a mysterious spirit sword for nothing.
With one loss and one gain, he had taken a crushing loss.
"But do you think killing Wang Hu makes you qualified to contend with me?"
Ling Feng picked up the handkerchief on the table and slowly wiped the blood from his palm.
"You're still far from it."
If working in the shadows failed, he would do it openly!
The outer sect's annual assessment three days from now would be the perfect opportunity.
In arena bouts, fists and feet had no eyes.
In past assessments, there had been people who suffered grave injuries or even died in accidents.
As long as the arrangements were made properly, even if Chu Yunfei died in the arena, no one would have anything on him.
Ling Feng discarded the bloodstained handkerchief and took out another communication jade talisman.
"Senior Brother Zhao, it's me."
A somewhat haughty voice soon came from the other end of the talisman.
"Junior Brother Ling Feng?"
"What do you need?"
"For the outer sect assessment in three days, I heard Senior Brother Zhao will be handling the drawing of lots?"
"That's right."
"I'd like to ask you for a small favor."
Ling Feng lowered his voice and explained his arrangements.
The other end of the communication talisman fell silent for a moment.
"Junior Brother Ling Feng, isn't this against the rules?"
"Rules are dead. People are alive."
Ling Feng said coldly, "Besides, I only want two outer sect disciples to draw each other. It's not as though I'm asking you to take action yourself."
"Once it's done, that bottle of Blood Burst Pills I have will be yours, Senior Brother Zhao."
At the mention of the Blood Burst Pills, the other end immediately went silent.
Several breaths passed before a soft chuckle came through the communication talisman.
"You're being far too formal, Junior Brother Ling Feng."
"It's only a matter of adjusting the order of the draw. Hardly anything major."
"Leave it to me."
"Then thank you, Senior Brother Zhao."
Ling Feng cut off the communication.
Standing amid the shattered porcelain and withered plants strewn across the ground, he gradually reined in the anger on his face, leaving only an icy malice.
Didn't Chu Yunfei want to return to the inner sect through the outer sect assessment?
Then he would arrange an opponent at the eighth level of body tempering for Chu Yunfei.
And an outstanding fighter among those at the eighth level of body tempering, at that.
If Wang Hu couldn't kill him, he would find someone stronger.
He would see whether Chu Yunfei could still walk out of that arena alive.
"Chu Yunfei."
"This time, I'll make you lie sprawled like a dead dog in front of everyone."
For the time being, Chu Yunfei knew nothing of Ling Feng's arrangements.
After leaving the Famous Sword Pavilion, he did not return to the Azure Mystic Sect immediately. Instead, he headed straight for the largest market in Qingyang City.
He now had a total of six thousand low-grade spirit stones.
One thousand of them was an advance on his share of the Blood-Replenishing Pill profits from the Pill Pavilion.
The other five thousand was his consultation fee for suppressing Wen Jiao's Heavenly Yin Baleful Intent Physique.
With the money in hand, he naturally had to turn it into strength as soon as possible.
Spirit stones sitting in a storage pouch were nothing more than a pile of rocks.
Only strength refined into his body truly belonged to him.
"Fifty stalks of blood-clotting grass."
"Thirty bone-tempering flowers."
"Ten jin of scarlet sun stone powder."
"And another twenty green-patterned vines."
Chu Yunfei moved from stall to stall, buying nothing but low-grade spirit herbs and body-tempering materials.
None of these items was worth much on its own.
But he bought such large quantities that his storage pouch was soon stuffed to the brim.
Quite a few stallholders secretly clicked their tongues at the sight.
Anyone who didn't know better would have thought he was stocking up for an apothecary.
In less than an hour, half of the six thousand low-grade spirit stones he had just received was gone.
Chu Yunfei hefted his noticeably deflated storage pouch, but felt no pang of regret.
If he couldn't bear to spend resources, how would he improve his cultivation?
Besides, with the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate, these low-grade materials would be worth at least several times as much in his hands.
After leaving the market, he turned into a secluded alley.
Xiaoxiao Dragon's voice promptly rang out in his sea of consciousness.
"You brat."
"The spirituality in these materials is pitifully low. Buying so much at once-aren't you afraid whatever you refine won't be worth three thousand spirit stones?"
Chu Yunfei kept walking.
"A single stalk on its own is worthless, of course."
"But blood-clotting grass replenishes Qi and blood, bone-tempering flowers strengthen the sinews and bones, and scarlet sun stone powder enhances medicinal potency."
"Put them into the divine cauldron in the right proportions, remove the impurities, and fuse their essences together, and the effects won't be a simple sum of the parts."
Xiaoxiao Dragon gave a soft snort.
"You certainly make it sound convincing."
"But don't you know nothing about pill refining?"
"I really don't know how to refine pills."
Chu Yunfei was perfectly unabashed.
"But I have the divine cauldron."
"If I can refine them straight into Origin Essence Liquid, why bother rolling them into pills?"
Refine pills?
Even a dog wouldn't bother.
Xiaoxiao Dragon fell silent for a moment, actually unable to find a reason to argue.
Chu Yunfei patted the storage pouch full of materials at his waist.
Three thousand low-grade spirit stones seemed like no small sum.
But as long as they could push his cultivation to the seventh level of body tempering, or even higher, this transaction would yield a sure profit.
Only three days remained before the outer sect assessment.
There was not much time to spare.
But for him, it was enough.
Toward evening, Chu Yunfei returned to the Azure Mystic Sect.
He did not go back to his shabby lodgings.
Instead, he avoided the disciples patrolling the mountain and took a seldom-used path, making his way upward under cover of darkness.
Before long, a peak wreathed in clouds and mist appeared before him.
Flowing Cloud Peak.
Lin Wanyin's residence was up there.
Chu Yunfei looked up, then silently crept up the mountain.