Chapter 21

Lu Yan’s move had directly stunned all four people present.

Ying Sanliang did not know the difference, so he was still all right. It was just that this was his first time seeing someone catch lightning barehanded. Not only had Lu Yan not been injured, he had even dispersed the lightning with one strike. Ying Sanliang was so shocked he almost failed to keep hold of the bonded sword in his hand.

But Daoist Yiyue and Pojun knew better. This lightning was no ordinary lightning. It came from the Extreme Element space Lu Yan had personally made, and what covered the young city lord of Houtu City from head to toe was none other than tribulation lightning!

To be honest, Lu Yan might give other kinds of lightning a courteous bit of fear, but even when it came to the freshly released tribulation lightning that fell during ascension tribulations, not a single bolt had ever touched Lu Yan.

He was just that fearless.

Daoist Yiyue came to Lu Yan’s side. He had the same build as the original residents of Houtu City. He was very tall, and years of sword forging had filled every muscle in his body with a sense of power. Upon meeting his martial nephew for the first time, Daoist Yiyue enthusiastically slapped Lu Yan on the shoulder. “Little Bupo is actually this impressive. My Divine Creation Sect has a successor!”

The strength of a master swordsmith was fundamentally different from that of ordinary cultivators. Daoist Yiyue’s light pat made Lu Yan stagger on the spot.

The young city lord, still crackling with electricity all over, carefully stretched out his hand. In his palm lay several pieces of popcorn that had been blasted away by the lightning, pale and glossy. “Sorry. I said the wrong thing again. This is for you. It tastes really good!”

Lu Yan recognized that popcorn. It came from Spirit Rice No. 3, which he had cultivated. The spiritual-plant space was now the most beloved among cultivators. After all, the rice contained spiritual energy, was easy to cultivate, and could be reused again and again until the spirit stones were exhausted. The spirit rice from one mu of land could feed someone for one or two months. Calculated like that, it was far cheaper than a fasting pill that could only last three days.

The young city lord, who was more than two meters tall, looked pitiful and did not dare come closer. Because of the lightning, the people around the swordsmith shop had temporarily moved away. Even Daoist Yiyue’s apprentices had left as well, afraid they might be injured by accident.

Lu Yan had always yielded to softness, not force. The gloves he had put on to conceal his special constitution appeared, and he directly snatched the popcorn from the young city lord’s hand. Deliberately keeping a stern face, he said, “There won’t be a next time!”

The young city lord let out a “wow,” his eyes sparkling as he stared at the gloves, then nodded hard. “Okay!”

Lu Yan tossed a piece of popcorn into his mouth and smacked his lips, tasting it.

The tribulation lightning had popped it quite crisply. Too bad there was no sugar.

The young city lord of Houtu City was a fool.

That was what Elder Pojun said.

This was not a personal attack. Rather, the young city lord of Houtu City, Yuan Chi, had been born missing one aperture.

“Back when the city lord’s wife was pregnant, she was accidentally swept into a battlefield and was struck by a lightning-spirit-root cultivator, which caused premature labor,” Elder Pojun said. He sat on a low stool with broad, sweeping movements, without the slightest trace of the bearing he had displayed back when he debated Dao on Qionggu Peak. His clothes and arms were covered in marks left after being shocked, and it was obvious he had put a great deal of effort into restraining the lightning on Yuan Chi’s body. “That lightning-spirit-root cultivator called himself the Thunder and Lightning Dharma King and went everywhere causing trouble. Later, the city lord of Houtu City chased him for a thousand li and killed him body and soul. Fortunately, Yuan Chi was born safely. It’s just that his soul was unstable and he was missing one aperture. The city lord was so angry that he cursed the Thunder and Lightning Dharma King at home every day. This fool failed to learn anything else and only learned the four words ‘Thunder and Lightning Dharma King.’”

Lu Yan held a Supreme-grade spirit stone in both hands. He did not hurry to put it back into his storage bag, instead using himself as a display stand so that the inexperienced rogue cultivator Ying Sanliang could drool over it to his heart’s content.

Martial Uncle Yiyue was a very honest man. His swordsmith shop was called “Divine Creation Sect Yiyue Swordsmith Shop,” an extremely plain and unadorned name. The shop took up a large area and was scorching hot. Everywhere was filled with the sharp aura that belonged to blades and swords.

The walls were lined with combinations of blades and swords of all sizes. Their edges reflected light, and one could tell the owner treasured them greatly.

Among the previous generation of senior brothers in Divine Creation Sect, Daoist Yiyue was the fifth. He did not look gloomy like the third, Daoist Yizhu, nor was he as shameless as the fourth, Daoist Yichen. Even less did he resemble the youngest, Daoist Yiwen, who looked like an exiled immortal at a glance. Daoist Yiyue was much livelier. His booming voice could be heard from a li away, and when giving gifts, he did not know how to give anything else. He only knew how to give money.

For example, the Supreme-grade spirit stone Lu Yan was holding was Daoist Yiyue’s first-meeting gift to his young martial nephew.

Ying Sanliang wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth. He was so envious his eyes were about to turn green, and he tried hard to stabilize his Dao heart so his sinful hands would not go and snatch that glowing Supreme-grade spirit stone. “Does your Divine Creation Sect still accept people? I don’t want anything else. Just let me bask in your Martial Uncle Yiyue’s glow!”

In the corner, there were also signs of electric shock on Yuan Chi’s exposed skin. He worked hard to curl himself up inside a tiny isolation array. That isolation array had been drawn especially ugly, its strokes intermittent and broken, barely managing to connect. It probably would not be long before the array completely fell apart, and then, following all the conductive metals in the swordsmith shop, it would crackle and discharge indiscriminately in every direction.

Pojun hated that he did not live up to expectations. “I’ve lived for several hundred years and have never seen someone who can’t even control his own spirit root. Truly bizarre!”

Yuan Chi obediently curled up there as though he could not hear what Pojun was saying. Lightning rose from beneath his feet to the top of his head in one bolt after another. Every strand of his hair stood straight up, exploding into an unruly afro.

It looked a little like Senior Sister Fuyi when he had first met her.

While Lu Yan distractedly listened to Pojun ramble, he observed this young city lord.

Pojun’s expression changed. He cleared his throat and naturally turned to Lu Yan. “Bupo, do you have any way to teach that fool how to control it?”

So this was what he had been waiting for.

Lu Yan raised a brow and looked over. “I’m not a lightning spirit root.”

Elder Pojun had traveled Central Continent for ten years. After repeated hammering, his glass heart had long since turned into diamond. Lu Yan’s tiny bit of gaze could not penetrate Pojun’s thick skin at all. “To be honest, Yuan Chi once saved my life. That was why I bought the Extreme Element space to cleanse his spirit roots. Young friend Bupo is a prodigy of unparalleled talent. Perhaps you have some method. In the future, whatever dirty or tiring work there is, your martial uncle will take care of it all for you!”

Lu Yan thought for a moment, then said unhurriedly, “I actually do have a method.”

The Extreme Element space had been created by Lu Yan singlehandedly, and he understood its pros and cons perfectly. The first ultimate geng-metal element mainly emphasized sharpness. Fuyi was a sword cultivator, and she benefited more from that sharpness than she suffered from the pain it inflicted on her body. The second ultimate wood element was much gentler, but the agony of spirit-root cleansing could not be endured without willpower beyond that of ordinary people.

The third ultimate thunder elemental space was very special. The tribulation lightning’s extremely high status was practically a dimensional strike against the spirit roots inside a cultivator’s body. When Yuan Chi cleansed his spirit roots, the process must have been exceptionally simple. The tribulation lightning would grant a certain measure of power to the lightning spirit root originally existing within his body, while the other weak spirit root would naturally be erased. But what followed was that Yuan Chi simply could not control the tribulation lightning that came from the Heavenly Dao!

As soon as Elder Pojun heard that there was a method, his eyes lit up, and flattery poured endlessly from his mouth. “I knew young friend Bupo’s talent was extraordinary, unprecedented and never to be repeated. Meeting you is truly the good fortune of our generation!”

Ying Sanliang considered this, then asked uncertainly, “Aren’t the generations off?”

Daoist Yiyue’s angle was unusual. “It’s that old boy Pojun who lowered his seniority.”

Ying Sanliang: “…”

As expected of a master swordsmith. Sound reasoning and solid evidence!

Lu Yan briefly explained what made tribulation lightning special. “…The method is very simple. Put him back into the space and have him cultivate for a few more days. Let the tribulation lightning strike him a few more times so it can adapt to his meridians and body.”

Pojun remembered the power of tribulation lightning during tribulations and asked, “It won’t… it won’t break him, right?”

“When you cleansed his spirit roots, you didn’t ask whether it might cleanse him broken,” Lu Yan retorted, then said, “It won’t break him. If the tribulation lightning adapts well, it will also benefit his future tribulations. Houtu City has something sealed beneath it, doesn’t it? That thing fears tribulation lightning most.”

Having received a definite answer, Pojun rolled up his sleeves, pressed down on Yuan Chi’s head, and directly stuffed the young city lord into the Extreme Element space.

Daoist Yiyue had stayed too long in the honest and straightforward Houtu City, so he did not detect the private agenda mixed into Lu Yan’s words at all. Instead, he asked cheerfully, “Your master told you all about it?”

Lu Yan was utterly calm, lying without the slightest change in expression. “He did. When I passed over Houtu City in the sky, I saw a sealing grand array. It was somewhat old, and the techniques used were quite ancient.”

Pojun came from Heavenly Evolution Sect, and most of the cultivation world’s development records were stored in his sect. Hearing part of this, he said, “The Houtu City line claims to be descendants of Xuanyuan. They use the power of their entire clan to suppress the gate to the Demon Realm. Even their surname evolved from the two characters of Xuanyuan.”

Ying Sanliang finally pulled his attention back from the Supreme-grade spirit stone and asked in confusion, “There’s really a Demon Realm?”

“Brat,” Elder Pojun snorted. He was nearly two hundred years older than Ying Sanliang, so of course he could call him brat. “Humans, gods, demons,demon race, and ghosts. Humans anddemon race live in the mortal realm. Ghosts wander the underworld. Gods are in the heavens. As for the demon race, they are everywhere.”

Ying Sanliang asked, “Everywhere?”

Pojun said casually, “Otherwise, where do you think heart demons come from? It’s just that the gate to the Demon Realm was sealed by Houtu City, so they can’t come out, and the influence of heart demons has become weaker as well. It’s just that the cultivation world now seems to be in decline. A couple of days ago, Senior Brother Wenqu sent me a message, and it made me somewhat worried…”

Something strange was happening with Sirius. A major event was likely about to occur.

Lu Yan asked without betraying anything, “What did Martial Uncle Wenqu say?”

“Nothing much.” Pojun kept his mouth tightly shut and did not say a single thing that should not be said. “Why are you asking about these things at such a young age? You youngsters should eat when you should eat, drink when you should drink, and cultivate properly. If the sky falls, there are still a few old fellows like us to hold it up.”

Daoist Yiyue expressed agreement. “Pojun is right. Once the Medical Valley leadership handover is complete, Bupo, you can travel through Central Continent for a few years and see its local customs. If you don’t have enough spirit stones, come find me. Your martial uncle has plenty!”

That final sentence was simply deafening and enlightening, enough to make one not dare look at him directly!

Ying Sanliang was so shaken that solemn respect rose in him, and he completely forgot the question he had wanted to ask. Instead, he summoned his bonded spirit sword, his eyes glittering like stars. “Martial Uncle Yiyue, if I serve as Bupo’s guard while he travels Central Continent, can I get a little discount from you when I reforged my spirit sword? I guarantee I won’t let Bupo get hurt one bit!”

Lu Yan: “…”

Pretty good at seizing openings, little comrade.

Daoist Yiyue possessed the Divine Creation Sect’s ancestral protectiveness toward their own. With a sweep of his large hand, he said, “Fine!”

Ying Sanliang presented his bonded spirit sword and the meteoric iron Lu Yan had given him with both hands. “Thank you, Martial Uncle Yiyue. It’s just that my sword is a little badly damaged.”

Yiyue picked up the Wenchen Sword and lightly flicked the blade with his finger, listening to the sound to identify its material. Then he inspected it all the way from hilt to tip. When he saw the notch, he said it was a piece of cake. “This? Among the bonded swords I’ve seen, this level of damage counts as medium.”

Ying Sanliang set down half his worries.

Daoist Yiyue spun the meteoric iron around in his hand, tested its weight, then shook his head. “This piece of meteoric iron isn’t enough. I can make up the difference for you, but given that you sword cultivators are all poor in a highly consistent way, I want to ask: are you still reforging it?”

The half of Ying Sanliang’s heart that had just settled immediately rose again.

He gazed tenderly at the Wenchen Sword. The hilt’s original color could no longer be seen. The blade was covered in all kinds of scratches, its edge had curled up a tiny bit, and a notch had been chipped out of its tip.

Was this still a sword? This was a sword cultivator’s life!

The reforge was clearly within reach, yet because of the spirit-stone problem, it was separated from him by the farthest horizon!

Lu Yan took a small piece of meteoric iron out of his storage bag. Without saying a word, he sat there silently, tossing it up and down in his hand and catching it, making faint slapping sounds.

Ying Sanliang turned back.

Lu Yan revealed a row of small white teeth.

Ying Sanliang took a deep breath and said with the expression of a hero cutting off his own arm, “Fifty years as your guard!”

Lu Yan continued tossing the meteoric iron up and down, sighing. “My hummingbirds, my grand array, my Gundam.”

Three key words, all debts Ying Sanliang owed.

Ying Sanliang hardened his heart. “Add another hundred years. One hundred and fifty years in total!”

Lu Yan tossed the meteoric iron to Ying Sanliang. “Deal!”

Houtu City, the city lord’s residence.

City Lord Yuan Shuo gestured for the guards to withdraw, then gazed through the window lattice at Houtu City’s walls from afar.

With the city walls as the boundary and the city lord’s residence as the array eye, they formed the guardian grand array that sealed the gate to the Demon Realm. And now, Yuan Shuo suddenly felt unable to keep up.

The Yuan family were descendants of Xuanyuan. Yuan Shuo had an earth spirit root. Since childhood, his father had taught him that Houtu City had been born for the earth, and so had Yuan Shuo.

Yuan Shuo had been in charge of Houtu City for more than five hundred years. He was at the Nascent Soul stage. If his cultivation realm could not rise, that meant his life would one day come to an end. But starting twenty years ago, the sealing grand array had begun to tremble. After being suppressed slightly ten years ago, it had begun to tremble again.

It was as though the thing on the other side was constantly slamming against the grand array, and the force was becoming greater and greater. The grand array required more and more spirit stones. If it continued moving like this, then perhaps…

The city lord’s wife quietly came up behind Yuan Shuo and handed him a cup of tea. Yuan Shuo took the opportunity to hold his wife’s hand. At last, he let out a sigh and said, “The guards said that Lu Bupo of Divine Creation Sect entered the city and is currently at Master Yiyue’s place. Elder Pojun also had someone pass on a message saying that Lu Bupo has a method to restrain A-Chi’s spirit root.”

“Really?” The city lord’s wife excitedly held her Dao companion’s hand in return, not knowing what she herself was saying. “We must properly thank young friend Bupo. Let’s invite him to the residence for a meal another day. I wonder what flavors he likes…”

“My wife,” Yuan Shuo said, patting the city lord’s wife’s hand. His eyes seemed to look somewhere unknown. “For the Medical Valley leadership handover, an invitation was once sent to me. I plan to have A-Chi go with Fellow Daoist Bupo to Medical Valley to observe the ceremony.”

The city lord’s wife seemed to sense something, and her voice trembled faintly. “Has it already reached that point?”

Yuan Shuo forced out a faint smile and comforted her. “Not necessarily. It is only to guard against the unexpected.”

“I hope that unexpected event never comes.”

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