Imperial Cultivation

Chapter 1258 - 1254: Threat

Lu Gengshen returned the broken sword with a smile: "Nephew, you’re just teasing us!"

"We’re really not capable enough," Li Xinhe self-deprecatingly said, "Couldn’t discern its threat."

Qi Qingmei’s intuition is sharp, needless to say, so is Chu Zhiyuan’s.

The two of them couldn’t sense anything amiss, not because of their righteousness, but because of their dulled senses.

Chu Zhiyuan took the broken sword and gently tossed it.

The broken sword soared straight up, flying up to ten meters high before stopping, then it began to fall.

Chu Zhiyuan sealed with both hands and pointed at it.

A palm-sized ball of golden light condensed, bright as a copper mirror, heading for the broken sword.

"Buzz!"

The golden light collided with the broken sword, as if a giant copper bell in the void was struck hard.

Li Xinhe and the others suddenly felt the earth shaking as if the Earth Dragon was turning over, unable to keep their balance.

The faces of two middle-aged men standing upright turned instantly pale, blood gushed from their seven orifices, and in a moment, they were already dead.

Lu Xiaolu and the others operated their powers with all their might, barely maintaining their footing.

Above Chu Zhiyuan’s head, the Demon Suppressing Divine Tree appeared in the void.

The transparent Divine Tree swayed in the wind, gently scattering starlight.

Everyone suddenly felt invigorated, the sense of weightlessness dissipated instantly, and they regained their footing.

The starlight fell into their bodies, like the Ganlin Technique dropping into their minds, with a refreshing sensation entering their brains.

They looked up at the broken sword flying in the air.

The broken sword collided with clusters of golden light, soaring each time, emitting a huge sound each time.

The Four Sects’ experts in the distance fell one after another, sitting cross-legged as they exerted their powers to resist.

Chu Zhiyuan sealed several times, and after several clusters of golden light, the Golden Sword at his waist suddenly emerged from its sheath, trembling a few times in the air, expressing excitement, eagerly rushing toward the broken sword.

"Whoosh!"

The piercing shriek seemed to pierce everyone’s eardrums.

The Demon Suppressing Divine Tree above Chu Zhiyuan’s head swayed quickly a few times in the void.

Dense starlight scattered like snowflakes.

The starlight invigorated everyone, making the piercing shriek feel just noisy and unpleasant, without other sensations.

The Four Sects’ experts in the distance, when the shriek entered their ears, rolled their eyes and directly fainted.

The Golden Sword pierced the hilt of the broken sword, releasing a dazzling golden light that enveloped the broken sword.

After a moment, the golden light retracted back into the Golden Sword, while the broken sword shattered into several pieces, falling to the ground.

Chu Zhiyuan smiled.

"Is it destroyed?" Lu Xiaolu floated over, examining the fragments on the ground.

She bent down to pick up a fragment, scrutinizing it.

The fragment was dim and dull, as if coated with a layer of ash, no longer as bright as before.

She tossed it, clapped her hands, and shook her head: "It’s already useless."

The fragment had no chilling air that made her heartbeat, it was just an ordinary iron piece.

The Golden Sword returned to its sheath, Chu Zhiyuan flashed through the valley.

Nearly every expert from the Four Sects was slapped on the back by him, infusing True Yuan.

When Chu Zhiyuan returned, they opened their eyes one after another, bewilderedly looking around.

Lu Gengshen laughed: "Nephew Chu, your technique is no less than Old Li’s Ganlin Technique!"

He grinned at Li Xinhe: "How about it, Old Li?"

Li Xinhe laughed.

Lu Gengshen chuckled: "Looks like Old Li, you’re not convinced."

Li Xinhe snorted: "Old Lu, can you not be such a petty person?!"

Zhou Chongming said: "Wonder if other Evil Sects have similar evil artifacts, Zhiyuan, you must be careful."

Lu Xiaolu chuckled, dismissively: "Doesn’t he sense them sooner, leaving them with no chance to use their evil artifacts?"

Their evil artifacts hadn’t been used yet before he detected them, seizing the advantage.

Chu Zhiyuan solemnly said: "Uncle, don’t worry, I’ll be very cautious."

Zhou Chongming nodded.

Qi Qingmei said: "Junior Brother, you can go now. Don’t worry about the aftermath here."

"Thank you, Senior Sister." Chu Zhiyuan nodded and bowed to Lu Gengshen and Li Xinhe: "Thank you, Uncles."

"Nephew, why be so polite? It’s just a small matter." Lu Gengshen laughed.

Li Xinhe waved his hand with a smile.

Chu Zhiyuan looked at Lu Xiaolu: "Senior Sister, I’m leaving now."

Lu Xiaolu said: "You haven’t forgotten what I mentioned, have you?"

"Understood." Chu Zhiyuan smiled.

He bowed to everyone again and disappeared in a flash.

"That Qinggong..." Lu Gengshen shook his head.

Li Xinhe sighed: "Can’t come close to it."

"The matter is not finished yet," Zhou Chongming laughed: "Let’s move quickly to another place."

Lu Gengshen quickly said: "Yes, yes, we need to hurry before the news leaks and they escape, causing big trouble!"

"Let’s hurry over there!"

...

Chu Zhiyuan returned to his small courtyard at the Heavenly Sword Branch, pacing with hands behind his back.

In the void of his mind, a ball of pitch-black brilliance was enveloped by Miao Jing Spirit Water, slowly shrinking.

The fist-sized black light ball was shrinking at an extremely slow pace.

This black light ball was contained within the broken sword, extremely cold.

If it weren’t absorbed by the Golden Sword and stored in the Miao Jing Spirit Water, spread out, probably everyone in the valley wouldn’t survive.

In an instant, it could destroy their souls, causing their deaths.

This ball of black brilliance was the power of death, pure death energy.

He didn’t know how this death energy came to be, but he knew it was cultivated by Wanxiang Sect.

Wanxiang Sect, through secret techniques, collected the evil qi and grievances of the experts they killed, converting them into death energy, condensed in this broken sword.

Causing the death energy within the broken sword to grow stronger and more formidable.

No wonder they were confident in killing him.

He paced with hands behind his back, shaking his head.

This death energy had transcended martial arts. Without Miao Jing Spirit Water, no matter how high one’s cultivation, they couldn’t resist the day energy’s erosion, dying with withered souls.

With Wanxiang Sect having such sinister and vicious evil objects, what about other Evil Sects?

...

At dusk, the remnants of the sunset.

Huang Zhengyang’s small courtyard.

The gentle twilight enveloped the small courtyard, as well as Chu Zhiyuan and Huang Zhengyang sitting in front of the flower beds in the courtyard.

The two sat facing each other across a stone table.

"Sigh..." Huang Zhengyang set down the teacup and sighed again.

Chu Zhiyuan quietly sipped tea, smiling: "Brother Huang, this is your tenth sigh."

Huang Zhengyang shook his head with a bitter smile: "Director exhausted his lips, still couldn’t persuade the four Princes."

"No need to force it," Chu Zhiyuan smiled, pointing to the broken sword fragments on the table: "What exactly is this evil artifact?"

Wanxiang Sect wasn’t clear about this evil artifact’s origins.

Zhou Chongming and the others didn’t know, and none of the Four Great Sects knew its origins.

Huang Zhengyang picked up a piece, turned it over a few times, and finally set it back on the stone table: "I need to go back and check, ask someone."

"Then please, I’d like to know about this."

"It’s a small matter, a mere effort... does it truly hold such power?"

"Reportedly, it does." Chu Zhiyuan said, "But we extinguished Wanxiang Sect first, giving them no chance to use it."

"I haven’t heard of Wanxiang Sect having such evil artifacts." Huang Zhengyang’s expression was gloomy: "Wanxiang Sect has them, what about other Evil Sects?"

"Giant Spirit Sect doesn’t have them," Chu Zhiyuan said, "Of course, it might be they didn’t have time to use it before being extinguished."

Huang Zhengyang again picked up a fragment, examining it for a while, and finally shook his head: "Haven’t seen or heard of it... I’ll go inquire."

Chu Zhiyuan said: "I reckon that even if not every Evil Sect possesses them, there are definitely quite a few."

"Very troublesome," Huang Zhengyang’s face was somber.

Such evil artifacts are rarely used on ordinary experts, too wasteful, applied on top experts or significant figures.

He is one of them.

If truly confronted with such evil artifacts, could he escape?

Escape once, twice even several times, but as long as not once, he’d likely die.

This threat is too great.

This thought left him unable to sit, he stood up abruptly.

"Brother Chu, sit here, I’ll be right back."

He swept all the fragments on the stone table into his sleeve, turned, and strode away.

Chu Zhiyuan watched him leave, closed his eyes, focusing on the small Black Pearl in his mind.

The ball of black light had already shrunk to a small Black Pearl, grape-sized, deep and mysterious.