Qi Refining Practitioners of High Antiquity

He was neither a sword immortal nor Devil Cultivator, but Rogue Cultivator.

High Antiquity Rogue Cultivator.

The Jade Slip contained the life story of a cultivator Old Immortal Pine Wind.

In his time, even the founding patriarchs of the great innate sects might not have appeared yet, let alone any major sects, or the three paths of righteousness, demonism, and Buddhism. The cultivation world at that time was a Savage Wilderness, without rules, without lineage, and without distinction between good and evil. There were only solitary cultivators, each exploring the Great Dao in various spiritual mountains and grotto-heavens.

The Old Immortal Pine Wind resides in a branch of Kunlun, in a place called Ancient Pine Shade Ravine. He is skilled in playing the zither and understands the Way of Pine Breeze. His Higher Vehicle is among the best in the world. He is on friendly terms with an ancient sword immortal from Heavenly Gate Mountain. That ancient sword immortal's swordsmanship is already approaching the highest realm pursued by sword cultivators of later generations.

The two often exchanged views and discussed the Dao, which could be considered a bond between Daoist friends.

That day, the Old Immortal Pine Wind visited a friend at Heavenly Gate Mountain, just as Extraterrestrial Heavenly Devil invaded.

The account of that great battle in the Jade Slip was fragmented, suggesting that when the Old Immortal Pine Wind wrote this passage, he was already extremely weak and only managed to jot down a few scattered fragments—the sky was filled with Demonic Qi that obscured the heavens, the ancient sword immortal used a long sword to confront the void demonic tide, he helped his friend slay the demon, was swept away by the demonic tide, and ended up in two different places with the ancient sword immortal. When he struggled out of the Demonic Qi, he was already deep in the Void Devil Field and could no longer escape.

With no hope of escaping, he sat cross-legged amidst the Demonic Qi, took out his personal Jade Slip, inscribed his life story and what he had learned, and placed his two personal ancient treasures along with the Jade Slip beside him before quietly passing away.

One of them is called Radiant Separation Righteous Yang Mirror, which is an ancient bronze round mirror with sun patterns engraved all over the back. It can generate Pure Yang Dao Light and burn away evil spirits.

One of them is called Clear Resonance Chime. When struck, it can produce a clear sound to shake off demons and dispel confusion.

These were the two treasures that Hu Mang had taken from the corpse: a bamboo slip and a chime.

Hu Mang silently watched Wei Du'e, whose lips twitched slightly as he forced a smile.

"Since it was agreed beforehand, this senior's legacy and treasures should naturally be handed over to my junior brother."

Hu Mang smiled broadly, "Senior brother really doesn't want to share?"

"Junior brother is joking. We sword immortals never betray our true nature once we take up a sword; otherwise, what's the point of practicing swordsmanship?"

Wei Du'e turned and left, but his steps were somewhat unsteady.

The Demon Cave was originally a void passage, without any sense of east, west, south, or north, not to mention the Void Devil Field that occasionally disrupts the void.

Therefore, each time a disciple of the Divine Sword Sect enters, the entry point is not fixed; they simply rely on their sword intent to sense the direction.

According to Wei Du'e's thinking, this sealed place of Grand Gate Mountain was not the first place he had entered. Many disciples of the Divine Sword Sect had entered it over the years. Even if there were really treasures, they should have been picked up by others long ago, and what was left were the defective products that the predecessors did not want.

Who would have thought that they would actually find the legacy of an ancient immortal?

Heartbreaking!

As for Hu Mang, he was happily admiring the two newly acquired antique treasures.

The ancient treasures of the Azure Mysterious Realm are not the same as the ancient treasures of the Heavenly Gate.

The Heavenly Gate Ancient Treasures can only be called antiques at best.

The ancient treasures of the Azure Mysterious Realm are the true ancient treasures, whose power far surpasses that of current Law Treasure, and is comparable to Innate Law Treasure of a destructive nature.

The only drawback is that it consumes a huge amount of Law Power.

Hu Mang tested it out and found that the Pure Yang Dao Light emitted by the Radiant Separation Righteous Yang Mirror could even wipe out a Void Devil Field with a single strike.

It was far more powerful than the swordsmanship that Senior Brother Wei unleashed with all his might.

However, this attack directly depleted eighty percent of the Law Power within the Hu Mang's body, startling him.

This ancient cultivator's treasure consumes an extraordinary amount of energy.

According to the Jade Slip, this Old Immortal Pine Wind was only of average Law Power among the High Antiquity Qi Refining Practitioner.

If this were a different High Antiquity Qi Refining Practitioner's lineage, it would probably drain him dry with just one use of an ancient treasure.

These so-called "Qi Refining Practitioner" are what these ancient immortals call themselves. After all, according to the Jade Slip, there was no such thing as heavenly tribulation in the High Antiquity times of this world. Whether it was ascension or the descent of immortals, it was a very simple matter. At that time, there really were immortals who would come down to stroll around when they had nothing to do.

To claim to be an ancient immortal in front of a true immortal is practically suicide.

Meanwhile, Xu Nuoning led Lu Shuichan on a wild scramble across the mountains and fields. As a result, perhaps due to the effect of the "Fortune Virtue True Body," he actually stumbled into a cave abode of someone who had lived there before.

It was a bare rock face, its surface covered with signs of weathering, indistinguishable from the surrounding mountains.

Xu Nuoning tilted her head and looked at it, then suddenly squatted down and pulled out a fist-sized pebble from a crack in the rock at the foot of the wall, which was covered by vines.

The pebbles were round and smooth, standing out from the mountain surface, clearly placed there intentionally.

The moment the pebble was moved, a door silently cracked open in the rock wall.

Wow, there really is treasure!

Xu Nuoning's face was flushed, clearly showing her excitement, and she strode in with her short legs.

"There really is one?!"

Lu Shuichan blinked, and to be on the safe cave abode, he quickly followed.

Upon entering, there is a narrow stone passageway without any trace of human carving, as if this passageway had naturally existed inside the mountain.

Several pearls embedded in the stone wall emit a soft light, and although they have endured countless years, they remain as bright as new.

Reaching the end of the passageway, a bright and open space suddenly appeared.

A stone chamber, over a hundred feet in diameter, came into view.

The floor was paved with a warm, milky-white jade, and the room was filled with white light. In the very center was a three-foot-high stone platform, on which sat a sword.

The sword was not sheathed, but stuck straight into the surface of the stone platform.

The sword is entirely pale blue, like a tender willow in spring. A layer of extremely soft light flows across the blade, like moonlight shining on the water. Even from a distance, one can feel the calm and profound sword intent.

Unlike the sharp and aggressive style of the Divine Sword Sect, it possessed a gentler yet more profound sense of oppression, as slow and irresistible as spring water melting ice.

The walls of the stone chamber are covered with densely packed ancient characters, each character penetrating the stone wall by about an inch, with vigorous and archaic strokes.

Lu Shuichan glanced at it and found that it was a complete sword manual inheritance, with detailed records from the beginning to the advanced stage. The words exuded a calm and composed demeanor, as if the predecessor who left these words back then had not met with misfortune, but calmly engraved his life's learning on the wall, waiting for the destined person.

"The Nameless Sword Scripture, the Clear Moon Treasure Sword."

Lu Shuichan knew that there was such a tradition among the High Antiquity sword immortals.

That is, unless one's swordsmanship has reached its pinnacle, one will not easily name a swordsmanship technique.

Therefore, the High Antiquity sword techniques with names and origins that are available on the market are basically fabrications and embellishments by later generations.

"He left behind a sword manual, but not his name, which means his swordsmanship is quite good."

Lu Shuichan went straight to the bottom, to the very last sentence of this sword manual—

Once the Sword Manual is perfected, one can enter the seventeenth level of the Thirty-Three Heavens of the Sword Dao, the Three Sovereigns Helpless Heaven.

Upon hearing this, even Lu Shuichan's expression changed.

If he remembered correctly, the highest level of the Divine Sword Sect's fundamental sword scripture was only the fourteenth level, the Heart Devil No Delusion Heaven.

This is why the Divine Sword Sect places great importance on the ability to subdue the "Sword Demon," and has even rejected many promising talents for this purpose.

Because of the Divine Sword Sect's lineage, if one cannot subdue the Sword Demon from the beginning, one will inevitably Qi Deviation in the future.

Although the High Antiquity sword path has thirty-three levels, there are only differences in cultivation level, not in the strength of the Sword Realm.

But this random wandering led him to stumble upon a sword manual that leads directly to the High Antiquity path of swordsmanship.

"If that old man Yan knew about this, he'd be furious," Lu Shuichan muttered.

Generally speaking, High Antiquity cultivators valued their swordsmanship highly, and even if they left behind a legacy, it would still require numerous trials.

But for some reason, this High Antiquity cultivator didn't seem to face any challenges.

Or was it because of the invasion of Extraterrestrial Heavenly Devil that there was no time to leave a test?

Little Xu Nuoning wasn't interested in the sword manual or the flying sword; she was simply absorbed in the joy of finding the treasure, hopping and skipping along.

Suddenly, the Clear Moon Treasure Sword on the stone platform transformed into a beam of light and landed on Xu Xiaoya's back, even automatically shrinking to half its original size.

"Oh no, if old man Yan sees this, he'll be furious."

Lu Shuichan watched this scene with a strange expression.

Xu Nuoning only doesn't know swordsmanship, she can't even write the word "swordsmanship".

Not again!?

After Wei Du'e once again cleaved open a Void Devil Field with his sword and found yet another cultivator's corpse, he admitted that he had been too arrogant before.

Even if we don't split the treasure 50/50, a 30/70 split is fine too, as long as I get 30%.

However, when Junior Brother Hu leaned over and poured out a bunch of magical ritual supplies from the Storage Bag, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"So they were members of the demonic path," Wei Du'e said, stepping forward to examine the cause of death.

"He must have sneaked into the seal, forcibly absorbed the Void Devil Field to refine his techniques, but misjudged the concentration of Demonic Qi here. While cultivating his Devil Cultivation Method, he was invaded by a celestial demon, his sea of consciousness exploded, and he died a violent death."

Judging from the opponent's physical body alone, there seemed to be no injury at all. However, Wei Du'e clearly sensed that the opponent's Upper Dantian had been completely annihilated.

Hu Mang emptied the other party's Storage Bag, only to find that there were no demonic Cultivation Method, no Spirit Stone or treasures, and not even an identity token. He could only give up with regret.

"Senior brother, what should we do with this corpse?"

Wei Du'e remained expressionless, his sword flashing repeatedly as he cleaved the opponent's body into seventeen or eighteen pieces. He then unleashed a ball of Devil-Subduing True Fire, which landed on the remains, causing the flames to rage and the corpses to visibly turn into charcoal.

"Just in case, it's best to destroy the evidence."

"I like to nip it in the bud!"

Hu Mang gave a thumbs-up.

"I've already sensed the sword intent of 'Slay Ghost God,' I'll have to trouble you later, Junior Brother."

"Of course, of course."

Not long after the two left, the body, which had been lifeless and reduced to charred remains, suddenly seemed to be imbued with a hint of Demonic Qi.