Old Master, Times Have Changed - Chapter 685 (Patreon)

Chapter 685: “Xu” Arrives in the Tai Xuan Realm

So this...

Yue Ling’s heart started itching the moment she saw it. Of course she knew what it was.

As a veteran player of Supreme Immortal Path, she’d already been drooling over it the instant she heard the news.

Too bad. During the few days when the preorders opened, she happened to offend Bie Xuening, and she didn’t even have time to get online and grab one...

“Did my liege buy this to give to her?” the cyan-gold longsword asked curiously.

Yue Ling’s eyes lit up.

But the very next second, Chi Jiuyu’s words shattered her hopes.

“Of course not. I bought this to play myself!”

As she spoke, she hugged the gift box, walked over to the sofa on the right side of the coffee table, sat down, and began tearing off the outer wrapping.

Get beaten up and then receive a present from me?

She really thought Ancestor Jiuyu was an idiot or something?

Yue Ling lay back on the beanbag, listening to the rustling behind her, feeling torn.

She wanted to say something, but thinking about how she’d just finished teaching the two of them a lesson, she couldn’t quite bring herself to speak.

She agonized for five seconds.

Then Yue Ling suddenly sprang up from the beanbag.

That startled Chi Jiuyu and her Natal Spirit Sword, and both of them tensed up immediately.

She isn’t going to fly into a rage and just snatch it by force, is she?!

“Y-you... what are you trying to do...” Chi Jiuyu’s voice even stuttered. “You’re not thinking of stealing my stuff, are you?! I’ll tell Shifu!”

The cyan-gold longsword was scared too, but it still stepped in front of Chi Jiuyu.

She had to protect her liege!

But no matter how you looked at it, the girl and the sword were putting on a brave front.

Yue Ling stared at them seriously.

“I’ll pay double what you paid. Sell it to me!”

As the Sword Sect’s ancestral sword, she obviously couldn’t do something like “robbery.”

But buying it was fair game.

Not long ago, she’d had Chi Jiuyu help her buy a Storage Ring, and she’d transferred a huge amount of spirit coins out of that “ancestral sword account.” After paying Chi Jiuyu her service fee, she still had plenty left.

With her spending habits, she wouldn’t need to go to Bie Xuening or Xu Xing for pocket money for a long time.

“Anyway, you hardly play anymore. You might as well sell it to me.”

“No. I’m still really interested in hidden instances. I’m keeping it to play myself.”

Same as before: she’d already gotten beaten up once. There was no way she was going to let Yue Ling have her way.

So the two sides just squared off.

…

…

Half an hour later.

Yue Ling walked out of Chi Jiuyu’s cave abode with a controller in her arms, her little face unable to hide her excitement.

That’s right. In the end, she got it.

Five times the price, plus canceling the self-criticism punishment.

And, after Chi Jiuyu “reasoned with her emotionally and logically,” they even reached a consensus that Bie Xuening was the real “big boss.”

Honestly, the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

Sure, Jiuyu wrote that Guide to Raising Sword Spirits, but who told her sword spirit to have that kind of personality?

She’d been punished by her liege, and taking her temper out on Jiuyu really was wrong.

That’s right!

It’s all because her liege is too stingy. Everything she said was obviously the truth!

She kept hypnotizing herself like that, and before long she arrived at the foot of the mountain where the Sword Sovereign Hall was located.

She couldn’t wait to experience the new Supreme Immortal Path instance!

However, after charging up the steps for only a few strides...

She saw two figures slowly walking down from above. Her movements froze, and her heart tightened.

“M-my liege?!”

Bie Xuening glanced at what she was holding and spoke flatly.

“Done teaching her a lesson?”

“...” Yue Ling blinked, then immediately pulled her face tight and said sternly, “Yes. I beat her up really badly!”

She couldn’t let her liege find out she’d made up with Jiuyu!

“Mm. Go back and write a five-thousand-word self-criticism. Put some effort into it. Hand it to me tomorrow.”

“Huh?!”

While Yue Ling was still stunned, Xu Xing and Bie Xuening had already passed her and continued down the mountain.

“My liege, Sword Ancestor, I...”

“Mm?”

A calm sound came from behind her.

“Nothing...”

Yue Ling instantly caved, her little face scrunched up in misery.

“I’ll write it.”

As she felt the two of them getting farther and farther away behind her, she felt awful.

She still wanted to play games!

She stood there for a while, but she couldn’t think of any solution. In the end, she could only continue up the mountain.

All the way to the front of the Sword Sovereign Hall.

Then, still full of gloom, she suddenly thought of something.

Wait!

She could get Jiuyu’s sword to write it for her!

Wasn’t she especially good at that?!

…

…

Time flashed by, and two days passed.

Aside from some trivial little matters, one thing happened that could be considered “important”—

Huo successfully used the Ascension Web to send the “ritual” extraordinary-system true god he’d captured, namely “Xu,” back to the Tai Xuan Realm.

He himself didn’t show up in person.

He simply used the power of the Ascension Web and delivered the person straight to the Sword Sect.

As for why he sent her to the Sword Sect...

First, his disciple Xiao Fan was currently in a city under the Sword Sect’s jurisdiction.

Second, the other Dao friends barely talked. The one who chatted with him the most in the group was Dao-brother.

He wasn’t even sure whether the other Dao friends had been reading the group messages at all...

So sending her to the Sword Sect was the safest choice.

Sword Sect inner sect.

The depths of the Disciplinary Hall prison.

Ever since the Tai Xuan Blood Calamity all those years ago, the Disciplinary Hall’s grand prison—used to hold prisoners at Integration realm and above—had not been used for many years.

But today, this special cage welcomed a “prisoner” of Soul Transformation level once again.

Inside a vast, flat, gray space.

All around, deep, dim gray mist churned. Every wisp carried a strange power.

The sea of mist rolled and surged. Even a Soul Transformation existence that could see through reality would become like an ordinary mortal who had never entered the Dao, unable to make out the boundary of this place.

The Dark prison.

As the name implied, it was a prison that could turn even a Soul Transformation being—one who could perceive the true nature of things—into someone muddled and blind.

At that moment, a massive, intricate formation sat within the surging gray mist.

Bright formation lines interwove as they traced patterns. Profound runes kept flashing, and in every instant, they changed an immeasurable number of times.

And at the very center of the formation lay a woman in luxurious robes, with a voluptuous figure, blonde hair, and green eyes. She was sprawled there motionless, eerily beautiful.

It was Xu.

She seemed unconscious. The true patterns that constituted “Xu” itself no longer flowed as they usually did.

The formation’s light fell across her deathly pale face, revealing a kind of mournful beauty.

No one knew how much time passed.

Thump, thump, thump...

A strange sound, heavy like a muffled drum, came from deep within. Just hearing it made the heart feel oppressed.

The gray mist filling every corner also changed, shifting from chaotic currents into orderly streams.

It parted into two sides, as if a straight corridor was being carved directly toward this place.

Not long after, a blurry outline appeared. It drew closer and closer until it finally became clear.

The instant the newcomer stepped into the formation—

Xu, who had been lying at the center, suddenly sprang up. Even though the Dark prison had suppressed her extraordinary traits to the limit, she still shot forward like an arrow, lunging at the newcomer.

In a thousandth of an instant.

The rune-needle in her right hand—formed from countless tiny symbols—was already near the newcomer’s brow.

It was about to pierce in.

“Oh?”

A voice sounded—questioning, yet not the slightest bit surprised.

In Xu’s perception, nothing had changed at all, yet the rune-needle stopped right before the brow. No matter how she strained, she could not push it forward even a fraction.

“As expected. Against a different system, the Dark prison’s suppression can’t be perfectly applied.”

After that calm remark.

Xu felt an unstoppable, landslide-like, terrifying force crash down on her.

It crushed through everything. In an instant, it shattered all her resistance. Her whole body was driven back by that immense pressure, flying uncontrollably.

Bang!

A muffled impact.

Perfectly, Xu landed right at the very center of the formation—the same spot where she had been lying before.

How is that possible?!

She snapped her head up, but before she could say anything, her expression changed sharply.

Her eyes filled with fear so tangible it seemed to leak out.

Something was changing.

Or rather, this gray space itself was changing!

She could feel it: the suppression that had once left loopholes—letting her retain part of her power and true-god traits—was becoming comprehensive and absolute due to that change.

Her true-god body was degenerating. Her extraordinary power sank into complete silence.

Weak. Hollow. Tiny...

Just like back when she had never touched the extraordinary at all.

She stared at the figure before her in disbelief.

Even the most top-tier true god could not suppress another true god to this extent.

So...

The one before her was an unsurpassed existence above true gods?!

“First meeting.”

The moment the voice reached her ears, a name surfaced in Xu’s mind on its own.

Sword Ancestor!

The progenitor of the sword path across the countless heavens and myriad worlds!

“Xu...” Her voice trembled. “Greetings, Sword Ancestor.”

Another existence above true gods...

What in the world have I run into?!

“Y-you... I...”

Xu wanted to say something, but she didn’t even know what to say.

Because she understood perfectly:

Before such a great existence, the very first glance would lay bare everything about her. Secrets simply did not exist.

So whatever she said would be pointless.

“No need to be nervous,” Xu Xing said calmly.

The moment he saw her, Xu Xing noticed that this “Xu” carried some of Huo’s methods on her—she’d clearly received some “fortune” Huo had given.

It just needed a bit more time before it took effect.

“I only want to understand a few things, and make some arrangements along the way.”

As the first being to arrive in the Tai Xuan Realm with a level above Integration realm, how he dealt with her...

Would influence certain plans in the future to some extent. Naturally, he couldn’t decide carelessly.

“...” Xu took a deep breath. “I will follow your will.”

Respectful. Humble.

That attitude surprised Xu Xing a little, and it also let him infer something about her original world.

For example, that unknown Dao-attaining being was very likely not someone easy to deal with.

Of course, that was only a guess.

He would have to understand personally before making any judgment.

So...

“Before that, I need to make you remember some things.”

As the words fell—

A strand of firelight swirled in his palm, transforming into a longsword of pure crimson, divine light flowing across its body.

A concealment from that unknown Dao-attaining being.

Without understanding their Dao, using Yue Ying directly was the safest.

Xu: “...”

Looking at the obviously extraordinary sword in front of her, she was panicking so badly she could barely breathe.

When this great existence said “make you remember some things,” he wasn’t going to use that sword to chop her, was he?!

“You can just ask me directly!”

Whatever you want to know, just ask!

I promise I won’t hide anything!

“What I want to understand is something you don’t remember right now,” Xu Xing said.

Then how about you ask first?

Xu’s survival instinct was practically overflowing. She had just opened her mouth to keep pleading when—

Weng!

In the clear, ringing sword-hum, everything within her perception fell into an eternal silence!

Only a single line of sharpness remained, blazing like firelight—splitting heaven and earth, cutting yin from yang, severing all things in the cosmos, slicing away countless karmic ties.

Boom!

Crimson radiance surged up, drowning everything, cutting off everything!

The four Tai Void swords—Sword of Interception!

Xu felt an invisible shackle deep within her soul snap apart.

In a daze, entwined around every “true pattern of Xu” that formed her “true-god body,” wisps of strange divine flame congealed into glowing embers—and were rapidly erased.

Memories that had been blocked, that had been wiped away, returned.

I am “Xu”...

A witness to the world’s end, a pinnacle true god of the “Gui Xu” lineage, one of the ten great lineages, serving the supreme...

No!

That’s not right!

I am the wandering true god, Xu, here to subdue a special world...

Almost instantly, Xu clutched her head. Her expression twisted again and again. Her rune-constructed “true-god body” showed signs of collapsing, and she looked like she was in extreme pain.

Yet she still gritted her teeth without making a sound.

Because the correct memories returning were mixing with the memories that had been distorted and rewritten.

Her mind was in chaos. Even she couldn’t tell, in that moment, which set of memories was real.

Xu Xing watched in silence. Crimson light flowed along the sword in his hand, but he showed no intention of swinging again.

Three minutes passed like that.

Xu’s eyes gradually cleared.

“Hah... hah...”

Panting, she forced herself to stand.

After calming herself down a little—

“Xu, witness to the world’s end, greets Your Eminence.”

Under the effect of the Sword of Interception, the negative state of “erased memories” had been severed away. She had successfully recovered her memories.

“I do not know what Your Eminence wishes to learn. Xu will answer truthfully.”

Abandoned...

I was abandoned!

Why?!

Why did the supreme take Chi away, but abandon me?!

I stayed near that domain all this time so the supreme could recover!

I kept running around for the supreme’s recovery...

Hatred that could drown everything churned inside her, nearly burning through her rationality.

Worry for the original world?

Loyalty to the supreme?

Screw all of that.

“No need. I already understand what I needed to understand,” Xu Xing said calmly.

The crimson sword dissolved into a wisp of red light and vanished.

What he wanted to know didn’t require Xu’s answers.

It was just that...

A Dao-attaining being’s status was extraordinary.

Even though he had restored Xu’s memories through the Sword of Interception, certain key information—like the name of that world, and the true name of the unknown Dao-attaining being—still could not be obtained.

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