Saber-Nurturing Valley

Biodata

Standing and Influence

• Imperial standing: Even the Great Qin imperial family treats Saber-Nurturing Valley cautiously. Its Land Immortal backing gives it what Great Qin calls Immortal Status 25 26.
• Wei Kingdom: The kingdom itself rose with the valley’s support. Its imperial family and the Lu Immortal Clan send descendants to the sect’s recruitment trials 74.
• Regional recruitment: Branches recruit talented disciples across the states, sending the best candidates to headquarters 73.
• Prestige through membership: Han Tianling’s admission strengthened the Han Household’s position against the Ye Household and made connections with his family attractive to other clan heirs and sect disciples 26 27.
• Protection of disciples: The Huang Lineage Peak Master states that the valley’s backing would deter the Wang Clan from using elders against Xu Fan, though it would not prevent challenges from his own generation 79.

Headquarters and Facilities

Organization

Four Lineages

The four lineages jointly control resources and authority; no single lineage governs alone. They remain united on major sect affairs but compete over their own interests and allocations 73 81.

Disciple Ranks and Challenges

• Nine True Disciples: Su Qiang describes the minimum qualifications as Divine Intention Peak, exceptional combat strength, and an age no greater than twenty-four 73.
• Reserve True Disciples: Pagoda qualification grants a favorable starting position, not a guaranteed True Disciple seat. Inner disciples can also rise through challenges 78.
• Replacement by victory: A sufficiently strong disciple can challenge a current True Disciple and take the position upon winning 78.
• Cultivation restriction: Higher-cultivation disciples cannot challenge lower-cultivation disciples unless the latter initiate the contest 79.
• Protected settling-in period: A disciple who wins a True Disciple seat cannot be challenged for six months 80.
• Resource advantage: A True Disciple’s regular allocation exceeds a Reserve True Disciple’s by more than three times 79.

Recruitment and the Fallen Star Pagoda

The pagoda adjusts its trials to a challenger’s age and cultivation. A remnant of the first Weapon Lord’s spirit produces phantoms to test entrants 73 74.

• Higher-floor opponents: The tenth-floor projection faced by Xu Fan possesses Early Primal Core strength. From the tenth floor onward, Xia Luanyin also experiences continuous tests of her state of mind 74 75.
• Starlight tempering: Defeating upper-floor phantoms rewards Xu Fan with pure starlight that strengthens his physique, Divine Sense, and cultivation 75 76.
• Twelfth-floor distinction: Xu Fan is recorded as only the eleventh person to reach that floor. His name appears beside Shentu Yun’s on the stele 75 78.
• Conscious phantom: Unlike the earlier projections, the twelfth-floor phantom can converse and retains a trace of the first Weapon Lord’s consciousness 75 79.

Martial Arts and Divine Weapon

Saber-Nurturing Technique

The valley’s closely guarded signature secret art stores power in an internal divine saber rather than an ordinary physical blade 47 75.

• Method: Condense a divine saber in the Dantian with Divine Intention, then nourish it daily with True Essence and Divine Intention 47.
• Accumulation: Its power increases with nurturing time, which is ordinarily measured in decades 47.
• Historical feat: A Land Immortal used a saber nurtured for three hundred years to kill a Half-Step Celestial Person with one slash, dying in the process 47.
• Cost: Releasing its full power can demand the user’s remaining lifespan 75.
• Access: Normally reserved for True Disciples; Xu Fan receives it through the twelfth-floor trial before formally entering the valley 73 75.
• Internal restriction: Its use in contests within the valley is expressly forbidden unless the participants are mortal enemies, because it is a mutually destructive killing move 81.

Sea-Overturning Saber Technique

Chen Cuo’s principal saber art uses successive forms that rise in power like increasingly high waves 47.

• Chen gains insight into two additional forms after meditating on the tides for two years 47.
• Its sixth form gathers his Divine Intention and surrounding phenomena into one concentrated strike, defeating Shen Guan 48.
• After reaching Primal Core, Chen can use eight forms, though he still lacks confidence against Xu Fan without resorting to the Saber-Nurturing Technique 80 81.

Eight Heavenly Saber Methods

Shentu Yun’s self-created saber methods establish his reputation as an exceptional offensive talent 78 81.

• Their creation stirs the Great Wilderness Demon-Slaying Saber 78.
• Upon first entering the Divine Intention Great Grandmaster realm, Shentu Yun defeats the previous first True Disciple, Lu Yuanzhi 78.

Great Wilderness Demon-Slaying Saber

A Celestial Person Divine Weapon kept in the valley’s forbidden grounds 75 81.

• Master: Acknowledges Shentu Yun, making him a Weapon Lord 81.
• Inheritance: Supplies inherited experience and guidance from past Weapon Lords, improving its master’s combat ability 81.
• Strategic importance: Its awakening gives the Peak Masters confidence that the valley can suppress a future internal threat 78.
• Competition: Fu Yuanwu considers Shentu Yun effectively unbeatable in the coming Great Reversion Pill contest, even under rules forbidding Divine Abilities 81.

Resources

Notable Members

• Shentu Yun — Heaven Lineage’s first True Disciple, second on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, and master of the Great Wilderness Demon-Slaying Saber 73 81.
• Fu Yuanwu — Hong Lineage’s third True Disciple; sends Chen Cuo to test Xu Fan rather than personally suppressing someone a major realm below himself 47 73.
• Lu Shaotian — Fifth True Disciple and Xu Fan’s intended challenge target 81.
• Chen Cuo — Hong Lineage’s seventh True Disciple; advances from Divine Intention Peak to Primal Core and repeatedly seeks a rematch with Xu Fan 46 73 78 79.
• Lin Qingshu — Ninth True Disciple, still at Divine Intention Peak when Xu Fan joins; temporarily protected by the six-month settling-in rule 80.
• Han Tianling — Hong Lineage True Disciple killed while attempting to avenge his younger brother and household against Xu Fan 37 38 39 75.
• Xu Fan — Huang Lineage Reserve True Disciple; reaches the pagoda’s twelfth floor despite his earlier conflicts with the sect’s disciples 75 79.
• Su Qiang — Earth Lineage inner disciple who introduces Xu Fan to the sect’s admission requirements 73.
• Su Ya — Reaches the pagoda’s ninth floor and goes to register with the Earth Lineage 78 80.
• Lu Yuanling — Outer disciple from the Lu Immortal Clan assigned to attend Xu Fan and explain the valley’s resource system 80.
• Lu Yuanzhi — Former first True Disciple from the Lu Immortal Clan, defeated by Shentu Yun 78.

Story Role

Conflict with Xu Fan

Han Tianling leaves his teacher’s branch establishment with permission to avenge Han Tianhao and the destroyed Han Household. His confrontation with Xu Fan attracts observers from several powers, but Xu Fan suppresses his Divine Intention and kills him almost immediately 37 38.

Fu Yuanwu subsequently sends Chen Cuo to test Xu Fan. Chen first defeats his longtime rival Shen Guan, then challenges Xu Fan at the Mystic Yang Sect and loses despite his Divine Intention Peak cultivation 47 48 50.

Xu Fan’s Admission

Xu Fan chooses Saber-Nurturing Valley to obtain a Great Reversion Pill and investigate its signature technique. Rather than use another sect’s recruitment token, he enters the Fallen Star Pagoda openly and reaches its twelfth floor 72 75.

The Peak Masters accept that disputes among younger disciples do not justify excluding him, but remain concerned about his motives and potential disloyalty. They assign him to Huang, whose Peak Master formally grants him Reserve True Disciple status 78 79.

Challenge for a True Disciple Seat

After joining, Xu Fan announces that he will challenge Lu Shaotian for the fifth True Disciple position in one month. The announcement spreads throughout the nine peaks; Chen Cuo estimates Xu Fan has an eighty percent chance of winning 80 81.

Shentu Yun’s emergence as a Weapon Lord complicates Xu Fan’s larger goal. Fu Yuanwu and Chen Cuo believe the awakened divine weapon leaves neither themselves nor Xu Fan a realistic chance of obtaining the Great Reversion Pill 81.