...

...

As night fell, the carriage stopped on a high hill prairie, where various wildflowers and grasses flourished, some even as tall as one's knees. Strange insects buzzed around, causing the horses to snort occasionally.

Ling Xiaoxiao set up a simple hidden array and climbed into the carriage, only to see her senior brother sitting by the window with clear eyes, gazing far into the meandering stream through the distant canyon.

Those eyes were pure and clean, making Ling Xiaoxiao momentarily lost in thought.

"Senior brother, you..."

"I've recovered a bit."

"Why don't we go back and report to the Sword Elder?"

"Forget it, the world is a place for cultivation anywhere."

Ling Xiaoxiao wanted to persuade further but recalled the varied gazes of her senior brothers and sisters in front of the Zen Sword Studio hall yesterday, and the imposing presence of the female cultivator wearing a golden bell.

She couldn't help but shiver, feeling she could never belong in the same world as that female cultivator.

Too strong, too terrifying.

That female cultivator might crush her and her senior brother with just a finger.

Thus, Ling Xiaoxiao dismissed the idea of persuading her senior brother to return, thinking to herself: 'I'm a person without talent or disposition, but being able to bring a Purple Mansion Realm senior brother back to my race, isn't that like finding a guardian deity.

Father hopes I become a guardian; I can't achieve that, but senior brother surely can. When we return to the race, I'll live sweetly with him for a hundred years, and what's wrong with having children together?'

For a moment, various visions appeared before Ling Xiaoxiao's eyes.

Children surrounded from everywhere, while she and her senior brother sat in the middle hall, listening to those children call them father and mother; in a flash, there were more children, calling them "grandfather, grandmother"; in another flash, even more, calling "great ancestor".

Regardless of what experiences the children have, she would always be with her senior brother, through life and death, never leaving nor giving up.

Sweetness sprouted in Ling Xiaoxiao's heart, and she loved her senior brother even more, slyly moving to sit beside him, asking this and that to see if he had truly recovered.

But, as they kept talking, they suddenly stopped speaking, only breathing heavily, breaths quickening, fingers intertwining, slowly... skin coming into more contact, until they embraced in joy on this spring night in the wilderness.

...

...

The next day, morning.

The carriage continued down the winding mountain path.

Song Yan visualized the "Heart Demon Sword Prison Gate", his soul thought leaving the body and again arriving before the reflected pitch-black door.

After waiting a moment, today not a single wisp of gray aura flowed outward and no Sea of Suffering swordsman appeared before him.

Song Yan pondered slightly, stepped forward, reached the door, and lightly tapped the inverted pitch-black ancient door. With the tap, he felt a peculiar "buzz" in his divine soul.

The buzzing continued endlessly, morphing into countless strange whispers rushing toward him.

Song Yan, guarding his heart and mind, dispersed the strange noise.

The pitch-black door opened...

Revealing an extremely vast courtyard behind.

Behind the door was different from outside; in the courtyard walked hunched sword cultivators, surrounded by thick, oil-like evil thoughts, walking as if on black glue, with rusted swords embedded in various places on their bodies.

Compared to the former Sea of Suffering swordsmen, their faces were much clearer and varied, with men, women, old, and young.

When the elder closest to the door saw Song Yan, he drew a rusted sword from his stomach and approached swiftly, arriving before Song Yan in a blink.

The elder wielded the rusted sword, thrusting it toward Song Yan; the strength of this sword came from the elder's mental intensity, while the technique from his Sword Dao insights.

Good Corpse Song Yan raised his sword to meet.

Upon the first clash, Song Yan mostly understood the elder's power: Early Stage of Divine Infant, just a bit inferior to the Deceitful Demon Monk.

The two began a frenzied battle as if in a storm.

Suddenly, Song Yan noticed rust appearing on his sword and frowned slightly, deciding not to test further, then increased power, slashing the elder into two halves in one strike.

The elder split in two did not die; a flicker of clarity burst from his eyes, and he reached out both hands toward Song Yan, emitting a hoarse scream: "Save... save... me..."

The elder defeated, and new Sword Dao insights arose in Song Yan's heart. While the progress of "Little Heavenly Dao Texts - Introduction" did not leap forward, Song Yan could feel it advancing slowly.

Song Yan surveyed his sword once more.

The sword had already grown rust patterns like decaying peach blossoms, each strand of rust extending far, with faint muttering voices from afar.

At the same time, a new message surprisingly appeared on Song Yan's panel:

[Cultivation Technique]

"Sword-Devouring Transformation Technique" (Not entry-level)

Song Yan examined those bizarre decaying peach blossom rust.

The sword's rust there signified the rust in his Sword Heart, his thoughts.

Song Yan glanced at the elder, chopped in half and still pleading for help, and slightly frowned.

The next moment, he rapidly tapped his finger on the sword rust.

Every touch made rust fall.

Song Yan's eyes brightened, thinking: 'It's effective!'

Upon reflection, he instantly realized: 'The true use of selflessness is to specifically sever the cause and effect surrounding me; these corrosive thought rusts are essentially external causes, and can naturally be cut.'

As the last peach blossom rust disappeared, "Sword-Devouring Transformation Technique" (Not entry-level) also vanished from his panel.

Such an event Song Yan had never encountered; he glanced at the sword cultivators wrapped in tar, then at the elder, restored now slowly after being split by him, and slightly frowned, murmuring to himself: 'Evil Sect.'

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