Vol.2-Chapter 18 – The First Mission

The sleeping Luo Xie was awakened by the commotion outside and walked out while still confused. When he saw the sword energy Zhao Jiuge had created, he was completely awakened. He didn’t know what kind of feeling he had, but he thought about how he had spent his first day being lazy and sleeping while someone else was cultivating hard. Even though it was only the size of a thumb, Zhao Jiuge had successfully created the sword energy.

Thinking about this, Luo Xie felt ashamed and shook his head. A rare trace of calmness appeared on his face as he secretly vowed to work hard in the future.

“Congratulations, Jiuge. I fell asleep by accident earlier, but now I’m going to go back to cultivate.” Luo Xie felt a bit embarrassed as he spoke, and his face was slightly red.

“Okay.”

Zhao Jiuge nodded lightly, but he could not hide his joy. After cultivating the sword energy, he believed he would soon reach the Mysterious Heaven Elucidation and understand. He returned to his room to continue studying the sword art, then he would cultivate his spirit force once more. After all, spirit force was the foundation. The stronger the spell, the more spirit force it required to work.

While Zhao Jiuge was still feeling happy about creating the sword energy, in the rooms nearby, people were also studying hard, and several people were equally ecstatic.

The entire mountain was for the outer sect disciples to live in, and it was said that once they successfully entered the inner sect, each disciple would have their own cave. Those with high status can even occupy an entire mountain peak to themselves.

After returning to his room, he sat down on the wooden bed.

He carefully read the sword art but still couldn’t find a clue. He had cultivated sword energy, but without the proper understanding, there would be no sword intent and no power. His understanding was too shallow and the sword energy he had condensed could only cut flowers and grass.

Thinking about this, Zhao Jiuge suddenly smiled and exited his practice state. He found that his heart was still pounding—the excitement from successfully creating sword energy had not faded.

He wondered how many people had managed to create sword energy after just one night. Would Instructor Zhou, who was cold to the point of being terrifying, praise him before everyone at class tomorrow?

The 15-year-old Zhao Jiuge had his own pride, but due to his reclusive personality, he was not good at expressing himself and didn’t like to act out. He would only occasionally think about this kind of stuff when he was alone. After fantasizing about random things for a while, he was interrupted by the snoring from the bed on the other side of the room.

He saw that Luo Xie, who had been in high spirits to cultivate just earlier, had fallen asleep again!

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Zhao Jiuge looked at Luo Xie, who was drooling and sleeping soundly, and his snoring got louder and louder. Zhao Jiuge felt somewhat helpless as he thought that Luo Xie was not really cut out for cultivation.

However, even silly people had their own silly fortunes. While they were talking, Zhao Jiuge got to know Luo Xie’s family situation and how he had stepped onto the path of cultivation.

Luo Xie came from a poor family. Aside from a few brick houses, they only had an old, yellow cow. The family had seven sons, and he was the youngest. Because the family was so poor, the first two sons died at birth and then Luo Xie was finally born. Instead of crying like other children, he had a somewhat evil smile on his face. His parents were not educated, so they simply named him Luo Xie.

After Luo Xie was born, it caused the food shortage to become even worse. Luo Xie had said that his favorite thing to do was sleep because sleeping meant he wouldn’t feel the pain of hunger. He could also dream of various foods, which was very addicting because it felt like he actually got to eat them.

This kind of life lasted until Luo Xie was 10, when it changed greatly. Luo Xie’s family had a distant uncle who didn’t ?have any descendants and wanted to adopt Luo Xie. He had a lot of money and said he would take Luo Xie to a good place to live. Luo Xie’s family was very happy about this and didn’t ask much before they agreed.

Luo Xie was taken away like this. In truth, this distant uncle was just a disciple accepted by some second or third rate evil cultivator. He had specially taken in this disciple to abduct children to cultivate evil methods and use as sacrifices.

The abducted children were raised in captivity and were imparted shallow cultivation methods to cultivate spirit force. After a few years, most of the abducted children would at least reach the Spirit Detecting Realm. The evil cultivator would then kill the children and refine their blood for this evil cultivation method. When it was Luo Xie’s turn, some senior passed by and found this evil cultivator. The senior went on a rampage, and Luo Xie was fortunate enough to live through it. However, due to trauma and spending so much time with the evil cultivator, his personality changed a bit to its current state.

After being rescued, Luo Xie had come into contact with the path of cultivation and didn’t want to return to the life where he couldn’t even have a proper meal. He wandered all the way to the capital and managed to reach the Spirit Transformation Realm with the shallow cultivation method. Due to luck and coincidence, he ended up in the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect. It was unknown if it was because his life had been so hard or if he was naturally lazy that his first day of practice ended like this.

With a sigh, he stopped looking at Luo Xie and calmed his mind to enter the state of cultivation.

Although he had cultivated sword energy, he was still confused about the meaning of each of the moves.

After thinking for a long time, he still couldn’t figure it out. Zhao Jiuge decided that instead of wasting time, he would go ask Instructor Zhou tomorrow. After all, it was only one night, and cultivation wasn’t something that could be done overnight. Zhao Jiuge firmly believed that as long as he put in the effort, he would have a harvest. As long as he dared to strive toward a goal, he would achieve it.

After successfully breaking through to the mid stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm yesterday, Zhao Jiuge felt like the spirit force in his body had reached a limit in its brightness. The fog-like spirit force gradually became solid. After cultivating for this long, along with what he had experienced with Su Su and entering the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect, Zhao Jiuge was no longer as naive as he was back when he first stepped onto the path of cultivation.

Seeing the situation inside his body, Zhao Jiuge knew that after reaching the late stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm and absorbing enough spirit force to saturate his body, he would no longer be able to gather any more. At that point, he would have to condense his foundation formation and reach the Foundation Realm. The foundation formation would decide the direction of his future cultivation because it would determine the prosperity of his spirit force. When forming a spirit foundation, one also had to rely on a spirit vein. The stronger the spirit vein, the more abundant the spiritual energy, which could help form the foundation formation and also give it a strong property.

There were some strange spirit veins with built-in properties such as the Earth Heart Li Fire Vein, the Nine Flame Hurricane Vein, the Heavenly Dipper Mysterious Wind Vein, the Nine Yin Seven Fiend Vein, the Cold Ice Flying Spring Vein, and many other different types. There were some spirit veins with no names. These spirit veins not only carried their own properties, they also contained large amounts of spiritual energy. One had to rely on a spirit vein to form one’s foundation formation. Those great powers or holy lands all occupied their own spirit veins.

Therefore, not only did stronger powers control more spirit veins, they also controlled stronger spirit veins. This allowed them to train more powerful disciples and create a cycle where the sect grew even stronger.

The Mysterious Heaven Mountain occupied by the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect contained a lot of spirit veins left behind by Old Man Mysterious Heaven. Nowadays, the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect could only rely on the formation the ancestor had left to guard their home as their prestige gradually declined.

Zhao Jiuge didn’t know what direction he would go. He was only an outer sect disciple at the moment, so he wouldn’t get the treatment an inner sect disciple would. He hoped that once he entered the inner sect, he could find a good teacher, not someone like Ye Wuyou, who had left him an inheritance and dissipated, leaving him to his own fate.

No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t think of anything, so he could only take it step by step. He would first practice the sword art and then increase his spirit force. If he displayed a good performance, it should increase his chance of entering the inner sect.

Then his breathing gradually became stable and he began to cultivate. The spiritual energy was abundant in the night, and it all flowed toward Zhao Jiuge’s body. The fluctuations of the surrounding spiritual energy were almost visible to the naked eye—they were like ripples on the surface of a calm lake. The spirit force inside Zhao Jiuge slowly grew.

When he cultivated, time passed by very fast. When he opened his eyes, he found that the sun had already risen into the sky. He stretched his arms and saw that Luo Xie was still sound asleep. Zhao Jiuge felt like he couldn’t do anything about this roommate of his. Suddenly, his childish heart stirred.

After getting off his bed, he quietly crept toward Luo Xie’s bed and forced himself not to laugh. Zhao Jiuge reached out to pinch Luo Xie’s nose. He thought Luo Xie would wake up once he had trouble breathing, but who knew that the moment his right hand touched Luo Xie’s face, Luo Xie’s eyes would open up. A Spirit Transformation cultivator was much more perceptive than an ordinary person.

Not only was one’s physical body strengthened after the Blood Movement Realm, one’s perception would change too. It was said after reaching the Foundation Realm, one wouldn't need to eat or breathe for a long time to survive. Then, after forming a spirit core, there would be an even greater change, and one would gain hundreds of years of extra lifespan.

Luo Xie’s eyes suddenly opened and shined brightly. When he saw that the person before him was Zhao Jiuge, his tense body relaxed. After experiencing the evil cultivator as a child and then drifting through the world on his own, he was always on high alert as part of his habit. “You scared me to death. What are you sneaking around for?”

After he finished speaking, he noticed that sunlight had already entered the room and exclaimed, “How is it morning already?!” He remembered how he had made up his mind to properly cultivate but then fell asleep again. Luo Xie was too embarrassed to say anything.

Zhao Jiuge had completely given up all hope regarding Luo Xie. He rolled his eyes and said, “Let’s go, it’s time for class. Today, I have to ask what Elucidation really is and see what will be taught.”

After he finished speaking, he simply packed up his things and didn’t wait for Luo Xie’s reaction. He was filled with excitement and anticipation as he walked toward the teaching hall.

When the two of them arrived at the teaching hall, most of the 30 seats had been filled and almost everyone was here. Even though Instructor Zhou was still standing there with that cold expression, it could not dampen the mood of these youths wanting to learn. Everyone was talking about the wonders of the Sword Energy Elucidation and their progress in cultivation.

Zhao Jiuge just quietly listened to what everyone said but didn’t say anything himself. He was also curious about how far others had cultivated.

The youth with the dimples that had taken the lead up the stairs was the most excited. His spit was flying as he talked about his cultivation progress yesterday. Talking wasn’t enough, so he stood up and began moving his hand and feet around.

Finally, when the youth with the dimples was excitedly talking, a questioning voice echoed, “Are you just bragging? If you have the ability, show me.” A beautiful girl with a look of doubt on her face questioned the youth with the dimples.

The youth with the dimples was a bit angry from being interrupted while he was excitedly talking. When others began to question him, his face turned red. When more and more people questioned him, he stubbornly shouted, “If you all don’t believe me, then let me show you.”

After he finished speaking, he calmed his heart and used the same method he had used yesterday to display it once more.

A ray of sword energy a few inches long burst out toward a thin-looking youth. Instructor Zhou waved his sleeve and that ray of sword energy disappeared.

“Now you should believe what I said.” The youth with the dimples looked very proud after he successfully released the sword energy.

“What are you doing!? Randomly sending sword energy toward people!”

A roar came from Instructor Zhou’s mouth, and his face was beyond horrifying, looking as if he was going to erupt like a volcano. Although the talent of these children was not bad, which made him very happy, their personalities made him a bit angry.

Seeing the children suddenly quiet down, Instructor Zhou continued with an ugly expression, “This morning, I’ll continue to explain sword energy, and this afternoon, all the new disciples will gather at the square to participate in the first mission the sect will give you!”

At this instant, the originally quiet teaching hall erupted with talk once more. Everyone was filled with excitement and doubt.

1. Xie here means evil