The old Daoist murmured:
"Chi Ling, every academic festival that follows a Yin year is the grand ceremony where the Academy's twelve lineages replenish their bloodlines and recruit new disciples."
"Yet throughout the ages, our Pure Yang Ruins manage to recruit a disciple only once every three to five festivals. Do you know why that is?"
"Master, this disciple does not know."
The little girl, Chi Ling, barely nine years old, still spoke with a tender, childlike voice.
The old Daoist continued:
"Those who make it into the academic festival are all the most outstanding prodigies of their generation, seeds of cultivation brimming with limitless potential."
"For the other lineages, taking them in always ensures decent training at the very least; they will not be delayed in their path."
"But we are different!"
"The legacy of our Pure Yang Ruins is unique. Only cultivators who awaken to a weapon-type Life Pattern at the Violet-Eyed rank or higher can bring our art to perfection."
"And among them, those with a Life Pattern tied to the sword are the best fit."
"Yet such rare destinies appear only once every thirty to fifty years."
"You, having awakened the Azure Shadow Sword at the Violet-Eyed rank, are already a once-in-a-century successor for our lineage."
Hearing this, Chi Ling asked:
"Master, if one wishes for a Life Pattern, wouldn't it be enough to refine one after Fatebinding?"
"In the Academy's library, I've read no fewer than thirty methods for refining Lifebound Destinies. Quite a few of them are sword-related."
The old Daoist shook his head with a smile.
"If an acquired, refined destiny could truly uphold our sect's inheritance, would our Pure Yang Ruins have fallen to where it stands today?"
"You must understand only a very few refined destinies can reach the Violet-Eyed rank directly."
"And even then, one must refine a corresponding piece of Violet-Eyed treasure material. Such things are far beyond what a Fatebinding cultivator can withstand."
"In all my years of cultivation, I have never once seen someone refine a Violet-Eyed destiny at the Fatebinding stage."
"For high-grade destinies, if one is not born with them, then even if later cultivation allows refinement, the most crucial stage of training is already lost."
"For the secret legacy of our sect, once a cultivator advances to Dragon-Elephant, all hope of true mastery is gone."
"That is why, among all the lineages, our Pure Yang Ruins walk the most difficult path."
Chi Ling replied firmly:
"Master, don't worry. With me here, once my cultivation grows, I will travel across the Twelve Upper States of the Divine Dynasty and the Twenty-Four Military States to bring you back more disciples."
Her expression was solemn, not like a child boasting.
"Hahaha, then you must keep your word."
"Cough, cough…"
The old Daoist coughed twice before continuing:
"Though our inheritance is so arduous and our disciples so few, we still hold a place among the Academy's twelve lineages."
"That is because once our sect's secret art is mastered, it possesses the greatest killing power, invincible among peers, and slaying across realms is nothing remarkable."
"Since I attained the Dao, I have slain two Cave-Heavens, shattered seven Stars, and countless enemies below Fifth Rank. None dare provoke my gate."
"When you too master this secret art, you will understand."
"Today marks three months since you entered the sect. Your Fatebinding tempering is sufficient, so I will now transmit to you our sect's secret art, the Hidden Sword Casket."
"This art does not raise cultivation, does not refine mana, does not lengthen lifespan. Yet it is the very foundation of our Pure Yang Ruins. Within it lies endless profundity."
"If you fail to cultivate the Sword Casket at the Fatebinding stage, then return to where you came from. But if you succeed, then you may inherit my mantle and one day become the head of the Academy's twelve lineages."
"This disciple understands. This disciple will surely cultivate the Sword Casket!"
Afterward, as the old Daoist spoke unhurriedly, the entire secret art of the Hidden Sword Casket was passed down to Chi Ling.
From that moment on, with Chi Ling's memories in his grasp, Jing Qian officially possessed the very first high-level cultivation method of his life.
This Hidden Sword Casket was extremely unconventional. Just as the old Daoist had said, it was by no means a proper orthodox legacy that could raise one's realm or cultivation base.
Instead, it was a peculiar method of Spiritual Construct Forging.
The Sword Casket that was cultivated through it could nurture sword-qi, amplify sword force, and greatly enhance the might of one's Life Pattern weapon.
If one could complete the Sword Casket during the Fatebinding stage, then Spiritual Construct Forging would naturally be achieved. Even after advancing to the Longevity realm, one could still perfectly suppress a second Spiritual Construct.
Thus, every cultivator of the Pure Yang Ruins was a Child of Spiritual Construct.
But the Hidden Sword Casket, if it only achieved Spiritual Construct Forging, would not be worthy of being called the fundamental secret art of the Pure Yang Ruins.
Its most unique, most terrifying power lay elsewhere.
Once a cultivator of the Pure Yang Ruins forged their Sword Casket, they could, according to the secret method, use it to link with other Lifebound Destinies.
With each pattern linked, the Sword Casket's power would evolve.
The stronger the pattern linked, the greater the casket's enhancement.
Since weapon-type Lifebound Destinies were already sharp and lethal, once strengthened by the Sword Casket, they immediately gained the ability to slay enemies across realms.
If still more powerful destinies were linked to it, stacking the enhancements further, then the rise in battle power could not be measured by common reason!
All cultivators of the Pure Yang Ruins built their entire cultivation systems around the Sword Casket, seeking to break realms and overwhelm opponents.
This was unlike other lineages, which sought balance across their destinies to form powerful Dharma Manifestations, aiming for steady progress and longevity.
The Pure Yang Ruins walked an extreme path instead of pursuing only whether a pattern could maximize the casket's killing might.
On one side was the balanced, steady, majestic road.
On the other hand was an all-offense, no-reserve slaughterer's demonic path.
Yet it was precisely this extreme and twisted path that gave rise to the Pure Yang Ruins' fierce and unique style. Within the entire Academy, and even across the Divine Dynasty, none dared provoke them.
When Jing Qian absorbed Chi Ling's years of experience cultivating the Hidden Sword Casket, he realized this was the method most perfectly suited to him.
The Qingping's End was a Sword Dao pattern, one born for battle, capable of cutting down Longevity.
It naturally matched the Spiritual Construct Forging of the Sword Casket.
Chi Ling herself had cultivated all the way to the Dragon-Elephant Grand Completion realm, and yet had only managed to fuse a single Violet-Eyed, three Blue-Blooded, and one Azure-Winged pattern.
Even so, that had pushed her Azure Shadow Sword to an extraordinary height, rendering her nearly invincible among her peers in the Academy, able to cut down even ordinary Longevity cultivators with a swing of her blade.
Jing Qian, looking at the magnificent array of destinies he possessed, felt boundless anticipation for the power of the Sword Casket.
He immersed himself in the Void Realm, using the Worldly Resolution to quietly digest Chi Ling's memories, breaking the Hidden Sword Casket down piece by piece, grinding it to dust, and fully absorbing it.
Gradually, he established an intuitive understanding of this secret art.
It was a Dao Scripture-grade auxiliary method, the highest tier of cultivation secrets.
When it came to amplifying the power of Sword Dao, it stood alone as an unmatched extreme.
Moreover, this auxiliary method stood independent of a cultivator's main legacy and could be practiced alongside any orthodox path.
Even if Jing Qian continued cultivating the Morning-Dusk, Dawn-Breaking Fate Scripture, and condensed the Soul-Weaving Spider Dharma Manifestation, it would not interfere with his practice of the Hidden Sword Casket in the slightest.
For a lineage like the Pure Yang Ruins to take an auxiliary method and elevate it above their orthodox path, treating it as their very core inheritance and pouring their greatest efforts into it, was utterly unique, a style seen nowhere else.
At first, Jing Qian could not understand it. He thought it was like choking on food, abandoning the root for the branch.
But once he had fully comprehended the Hidden Sword Casket, he finally understood the key.
This was a Spiritual Construct with an extremely low floor but an unfathomably high ceiling.
If one failed to link destinies during the Fatebinding stage, the Sword Casket would be so weak it wasn't worth suppressing for advancement to Spirit-Subduing.
And if it could not be cultivated to its utmost, granting the ability to kill across realms, then it was better to abandon it from the start and cultivate another orthodox art.
To use an easy analogy like the competitive sports road Jing Qian had walked in his past life:
If your talent is lacking, it's best left as a hobby, something to dabble in, not worth years of effort.
But if your talent is overwhelming, and you train with all your might, then becoming a world champion brings fame, fortune, and full rewards for your dedication.
Jing Qian knew himself well. When it came to the Hidden Sword Casket, his compatibility with it was absolute.
And this wondrous method fit perfectly with his own battle system.
If he still failed to devote himself fully to cultivation now, then he truly would deserve heaven's wrath.
Awakening from meditation, Jing Qian stepped toward a corner of the Void Realm.
There, a bronze sword casket lay quietly. Sword-qi coiled endlessly around it, and nothing within three feet dared approach.
This was the Pure Yang Sword Casket, carefully refined by Chi Ling, the very core of her cultivation system.
In her memories, Jing Qian had personally experienced the process of this sword casket's forging, from nothing to completion.
One could say he was the most familiar stranger to this sword casket.
Rubbing his hands, Jing Qian squatted before it.
He would use this sword casket as material to forge a casket of his own.
Once he succeeded, he would truly command a Spiritual Construct, completing Construct Forging, and his strength would surge once more.
He was filled with confidence!
Not only had he absorbed all of Chi Ling's experience, but with the divine might of the Worldly Insight, he had dismantled and analyzed this secret art down to its last detail.
Everything was ready.
Jing Qian summoned forth Qingping's End. The life pattern sword manifested in physical form, like a bamboo leaf, the length of a palm, its body lustrous, as if carved from glassy emerald jade.
He guided Qingping's End to circle the Pure Yang Sword Casket.
The radiant Dao-rhyme of the life pattern sword is intertwined with the sword-qi coiling about the casket.
Suddenly, the casket trembled like a living creature. Its sharp sword-qi erupted, transforming into a phantom azure flood dragon that lunged at him.
It was Chi Ling's decades of nourished sword resonance, resisting a new master.
Clang!
Qingping's End quivered gently, rippling with sword life patterns.
The flood dragon met its natural nemesis, its scales of sword-qi shattered piece by piece, releasing a silent scream.
Jing Qian had successfully drawn out the sword-qi stored within the casket's surface, then cut it apart with a single strike.
With his Worldly Insight unleashed to the fullest, the bronze casket's inner structure was laid bare before his divine sense.
He pressed two fingers together as a sword. Qingping's End turned into a verdant streak and pierced precisely into one of the casket's nodes.
The casket split open at once.
Seventy-two strands of Dragon-Elephant sword-qi burst forth, like trapped dragons leaping from the abyss, yet the instant they touched the jade leaf, they softened into docile streams.
With overwhelming force, Qingping's End rushed into the torrent of sword-qi, shredding them completely.
The Void Realm suddenly poured with rain, the color of jade-green, the dissolved essence of shattered sword-qi.
Stepping through a sword-stance, Jing Qian moved around the casket in a ritual circle.
His life pattern's power surged outward. With Qingping's End, he scattered streams of sword-qi mist to envelop the Pure Yang Sword Casket.
He was using his own sword-qi and power to erase and replace the traces Chi Ling had left behind.
This was a delicate, painstaking labor like grinding stone with water. Yet with the aid of Worldly Insight, Jing Qian worked as though carving flowers on tofu: light, precise, flawless.
Every adjustment, however minute, was tempered by countless refinements.
As time passed, Qingping's End began merging with the casket, forming a brand-new cycle of power.
The bronze casket slowly began to jadeify its material, shifting from bronze into emerald.
At the moment the transformation was completed, Jing Qian's mind-sea pulsed violently. The life pattern of Qingping's End flew out, circling the casket three times.
Each revolution released a rumble of wind and thunder through the jade shell. Leaf-like cloud patterns surfaced upon it, while the sword-qi within gained a piercing shriek that split the void.
"Swift!"
Jing Qian drew his fingers across the casket. A drop of blood seeped from his fingertip, staining the jade lines. From the cloud patterns spread crimson veins.
The once-clear sword cry sank into a low roar, as though countless battle souls pounded their drums within the casket.
Then, Qingping's End plunged headlong into the casket. The casket itself turned into a stream of light and shot into Jing Qian's mind-sea.
His heart and spirit shook violently. A vast surge of sword-intent coursed through his inner sea.
Immediately, his body collapsed within the Void Realm, falling into a deeper level of seclusion.
The Hidden Sword Casket was now cultivated. All that remained was for his own unique casket to finish gestating.
When that moment came, Qingping's End would house the Spiritual Construct, and he would complete Construct Forging at last.
From this moment on, he, too, could be addressed with respect as a Child of the Construct.
...
The terrain of Hunzhou was peculiar. Though its fifteen Fate Islands were scattered like stars, when viewed from above, they aligned into the shape of a crescent moon.
And nestled within the bay of that crescent lay a vast stretch of sea.
When a Yin Year arrived, this place became a paradise for Yin Ghosts.
The flourishing marine life attracted them in swarms far more than in any other sea region.
On this particular day, a chorus of toadlike croaks rose and fell. Amid the turbulent waves, a silent channel suddenly appeared, a stretch of sea utterly calm, without wind or tide.
Upon that channel, thirty-eight treasure ships converged and sailed slowly into the waters.
They carried cultivators of the thirteen Fate Islands of humankind.
Each of the thirty-eight ships was at least of eighth grade, and gathered together they exuded an awe-inspiring presence, vast and mighty.
After reaching the place, the treasure ships slowly spread out, forming a semicircle. Then they cast anchor and waited patiently for the appointed time.
Before half a day had passed, a surge of demonic qi rose into the sky from afar.
From the fleet, the Divine Roc and Spirit-Warding Bird took flight, hovering high above to watch.
Their sharp eyes soon caught sight of a massive sea serpent, its scales shimmering with five-colored radiance, dragging a thick iron chain as it swam across the sea.
Bound upon that chain were thirteen weakened eighth-grade Azure-Winged sea beasts.
The serpent swam to the fleet, released its mana, and the chain fell away, freeing the beasts.
Then, this seventh-grade sea serpent sent forth a voice of power toward the human fleet:
"This year's grazing has officially begun. You humans should seize this opportunity well and cherish the grace of our Sea Clan."
Having said this, it turned and left without looking back.
Upon the waves remained only thirteen Azure-Winged sea beasts.
Though freed of their chains, they did not move. They simply floated there as if corpses.
The human cultivators watched, none stepping forward to investigate.
But though they held back, other beings had already set their sights on the beasts' bodies.
One Yin Ghost, invisible to the naked eye, glided silently through the air and slipped into the body of an eighth-grade sea beast.
Immediately, its aura shifted, weakness fading, strength beginning to grow. A sinister green light flashed in its eyes as the ghost fully took over the beast's soul.
The surrounding human cultivators stiffened. They knew well what this meant: the Yin Ghost was beginning to devour the sea beast's life force, preparing to transform it into a Corpse of Yin.
Still, they did not yet move, continuing to wait.
And that first ghost was but the herald. Soon, one after another descended, until all thirteen Azure-Winged beasts had been seized.
In an instant, thirteen Corpse Beasts began their transformation.
The Yin Ghosts possessed strange properties. Whenever they took over a living body, they forcibly elevated its essence by one grade, evolving it into a corpse stronger than its original self.
The countless ninth-grade Corpse Beasts that Jing Qian had once hunted were all Yin Ghosts inhabiting great fish of the mortal seas.
But this time, with eighth-grade Azure-Winged sea beasts as vessels, all thirteen Corpse Beasts advanced to the terrifying seventh-grade Blue-Blooded level.
A tide of overwhelming power surged upward from that stretch of sea.
At that very moment, thirteen treasure ships broke formation like arrows loosed from a bow, each charging toward one of the seventh-grade corpses.
A great battle between humans and Corpse Beasts erupted!
Not long after, a massive pink softshell turtle also arrived, dragging an iron chain across the waters.
It repeated the serpent's actions, casting down another fourteen Azure-Winged sea beasts before turning back to sea.
Soon, yet another fourteen seventh-grade Corpse Beasts arose, entangling themselves in combat with fourteen more treasure ships.
High above the clouds, the Divine Roc and the Spirit-Warding Bird exchanged words. The elder, Zhu Shou, spoke first:
"This year is strange. The Sea Clan has given us twice the bait of previous years!"
"If this continues, the number of seventh-grade Corpse Beasts will surpass a hundred!"
Ling Mingji also noticed the anomaly, replying:
"Yang Jia is probing us. Someone has leaked Zhi Continent's intelligence to him."
"We must not hold back. Since the Sea Clan has offered such sweet bait, let us swallow it whole!"
With that, the Divine Roc transformed into a streak of lightning and plunged toward one of the Corpse Beasts.
The Spirit-Warding Bird shook its head slightly. From the bronze lamp pendant upon its chest, a small flame suddenly kindled. Its body trembled, its aura soaring skyward, and then it too struck at a Corpse Beast.
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