Firmament Sword

”Back then, we were just a bunch of kids, a few martial brothers and sisters who ran off to the back mountain to play. Qiushuiduan was the most lively and mischievous of us all. He’d always go to places no one else would dare.”

”There was a pool on the back mountain, hidden beneath a thick patch of overgrown grass. That rascal ran over, found the pool, said there were fish inside, and just jumped right in...”

Cao Tianyi had a strange expression on his face. He smiled wryly. ”We were all scared to death. None of us knew how deep that pool was. We just crowded around the edge, afraid something had happened to him.”

”But after a while, he surfaced, holding two huge fish, and cheerfully told us there was a secret passage at the bottom of the pool. You know how it is with teenagers—we had no resistance to anything mysterious.”

Cao Tianyi said with a laugh, ”We were all so excited. And to our biggest surprise, Li Wenxi, who was like a goddess to us, eagerly said she wanted to go exploring too. She was the youngest among us, but she was probably the bravest!”

Cao Tianyi recalled, ”So, we mustered our courage and all jumped in. The pool was deep and the water was freezing. We swam down seven or eight meters before we saw a small opening in the side wall. And it was Qiushuiduan, of course, who led the way and squeezed inside.”

”To be honest, I was already thinking of backing out. ’What if there’s a dragon in that cave... and we wake it up?’ I thought. ’Wouldn’t it get angry and eat us?’ But everyone else followed him in, so I had no choice but to bite the bullet and go too.”

”Once inside, we found that most of the cave wasn’t flooded. There was even a small path, like it had been carved by hand, leading upward to who-knows-where. We were all stunned! So, we decided to follow that path through the heart of the mountain and explore!”

”And so... we walked for hours. The path twisted and turned, seeming to have no end! I wanted to give up several times, but nobody else was willing to turn back. So we just kept walking up and up until... we reached... the exit... at the summit!”

Xu Luo couldn’t help but laugh and asked Cao Tianyi, ”So you didn’t get anything out of it?”

”Get anything? We got jack squat!” Cao Tianyi said, his face ashen. ”That place was near the summit of Divine Maiden Peak! It was freezing cold! Covered in snow all year round, with swirling clouds and terrifyingly strong winds... Below us was a bottomless abyss. Even a Sword Venerable would be smashed to pieces if they fell!”

”Hahaha, to work so hard for that outcome, you guys must have been devastated, right?” Xu Luo asked with a laugh.

”Of course! Wouldn’t you be? But before we could complain to that kid Qiushuiduan, Wenxi said, ’This isn’t so bad. I wonder which senior was powerful enough to carve a path like this. Let’s just keep it as our little secret! We might even be able to use it someday!’”

As Cao Tianyi spoke, a nostalgic look appeared in his tiger-like eyes. He sighed softly, ”If you’re really going to Merak, you should take this path. When you have the chance later, tell me if the path has changed at all.”

...

Xu Luo held up a torch and walked for several hundred meters. The flame burned brightly, a clear sign that there was no lack of air in the passage.

Xu Luo looked around, marveling internally at the great power who had managed to carve out this path. The steps under his feet and the rock walls on either side were all made of incredibly hard stone.

’If it were me,’ Xu Luo thought, ’I probably couldn’t carve a path like this in a hundred years. For someone to hew a tunnel through a place like this... their cultivation must have been unimaginable!’

After walking about a third of the way, Xu Luo suddenly felt a tremor from the Shaking Light Star Soul in his Dantian.

The sensation was stronger than anything he had ever felt before!

”Hm? Could there be some kind of hidden secret here?” Xu Luo wondered aloud.

”Why does Master Mao suddenly feel a chill?” Miaomiao’s voice suddenly transmitted to Xu Luo’s mind. ”Hurry up and walk faster, it’s cold here!”

”Cold?” Xu Luo raised an eyebrow slightly and said softly, ”Could there... actually be a treasure in a place like this?”

”Treasure my ass! I think there’s something wrong with your brain! Aaaah, hurry up!” Miaomiao urged, sounding agitated.

Just then, Xu Luo suddenly felt a faint warmth in his Dantian. A quick internal inspection left him utterly dumbfounded.

The Kaiyang Star Soul, right next to the Shaking Light Star Soul, had actually flickered for a moment!

Although the light vanished in an instant, Xu Luo had seen it with perfect clarity!

It was definitely not a trick of the eyes!

The Kaiyang Star Soul... had actually lit up!

’What does this mean?’

At the same time, the Shaking Light Star Soul began to flash with light, sending wave after wave of tremors deep into Xu Luo’s consciousness.

Ignoring Miaomiao’s clamoring, Xu Luo began to feel around on the wall.

The stone wall was ice-cold and not very dusty. Xu Luo searched carefully, inch by inch, following the guidance of his Shaking Light Star Soul until he finally stopped at a bend in the passage.

”Aaaaaah, you bastard! Kid, it’s freezing in here, let’s go, let’s go! Don’t stop, aaaaaah!” Miaomiao’s voice was now tinged with a hint of terror.

”No. There’s something here,” Xu Luo said with conviction.

”Damn it, go find it yourself then! Master Mao will wait for you down below!” With that, Miaomiao scrambled out of Xu Luo’s pocket and vanished down the passage in a flash.

”What on earth could scare Miaomiao this badly?” Xu Luo frowned, studying the stone wall in front of him.

The wall was covered in chisel and axe marks. Who knew how many years had passed, yet the sounds of its creation seemed to still echo in the air.

”This wall is just one solid piece. The chisel marks are imposing, but there’s no sign of a secret door or anything!” Xu Luo grumbled, patting the stone wall repeatedly.

Then, he moved up and down, back and forth, testing the reaction of his Shaking Light Star Soul, and finally confirmed: This was the spot!

Xu Luo was getting annoyed. ’This stone wall is so hard that the chisel marks are still here after all this time,’ he thought. ’Could there really be some kind of treasure behind it?’

With that thought, Xu Luo suddenly did something extremely bold. He mobilized all the True Essence in his body, channeling the power into his arm, and let out a low roar, ”Breaking Army Seven Kills!”

”Great Mountain Collapse!”

BANG!

He smashed a fist into the stone wall before him.

Immediately after, with a deafening crash, the stone wall blocking Xu Luo’s path... shattered!

The ground beneath Xu Luo’s feet trembled violently, and a wave of light washed over him!

Xu Luo was instantly stunned by the sight before him!

Behind the shattered wall was an enormous stone chamber!

Inside, a brilliant light shone, its source unknown, illuminating the vast chamber as if it were broad daylight!

It was even a little dazzling!

In a daze, Xu Luo saw a person sitting cross-legged in the center of the chamber, their back turned to him.

Then, a series of violent tremors from the Shaking Light Star in his Dantian jolted Xu Luo back to his senses.

Looking again, Xu Luo couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. That wasn’t a person at all—it was clearly a skeleton, sitting cross-legged with its back to him!

The skeleton was draped in a black cloak, which, despite being made of some unknown material, was still perfectly intact.

At the same time, the skeleton emanated a majestic pressure!

It was the kind of pressure that made one instinctively want to kneel and bow. If not for the Shaking Light Star Soul in his Dantian constantly stimulating him, Xu Luo would be having trouble even standing firm!

The pressure was immense!

”Junior Xu Luo, I was not aware this was Senior’s place of seclusion. Please forgive my abrupt disturbance!” Xu Luo bowed respectfully to the skeleton’s back.

In any case, he was the one who had broken the tranquility of this place. Otherwise, it might have remained undisturbed for hundreds, even thousands of years.

As Xu Luo spoke, he stepped inside. Strangely enough, after he bowed, the immense, formless pressure lessened considerably, becoming almost negligible.

This skeleton sat there quietly, its bones emitting a lustrous white glow. Upon closer inspection, they looked as if they were carved from white jade, giving them an unreal quality.

”My apologies, my apologies,” Xu Luo muttered as he looked around. He first noticed the ceiling dome, which was inlaid with at least ten thousand Luminous Pearls of all sizes, arranged like a star-studded sky!

Looking closely, Xu Luo discovered the Big Dipper among them!

Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Tianquan, Jade Balance, Kaiyang, and Shaking Light... these seven stars were represented by seven enormous, brilliant Luminous Pearls, arranged in their celestial positions and shining brightly.

”What a grand display!” Xu Luo couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration as he looked at the star-filled dome.

Afterward, Xu Luo scanned his surroundings and found that aside from the Luminous Pearls arranged like constellations on the ceiling, the only other thing in the massive stone chamber was the lustrous white skeleton in the black cloak.

Besides that, there was nothing!

But the Shaking Light Star Soul in his Dantian was still throbbing. Xu Luo’s gaze fell on the skeleton, and with a twitch of his lips, he said, ”Don’t tell me it’s the cloak? That’s not right...”

A moment later, Xu Luo said, troubled, ”This is a bit much, isn’t it? One should respect the dead. What kind of person would I be if I stripped a corpse of its clothes?”

After hesitating a little longer, Xu Luo gritted his teeth and said, ”Whatever. This senior has been dead for many years anyway, so it’s not like he needs this cloak anymore. At worst, I’ll just give you a proper burial afterward!”

”Yeah, shameless it is, then. ’Treasures are left for the fated’… isn’t that what they always say?”

Muttering to himself, Xu Luo slowly walked toward the skeleton.

When he was still a dozen or so steps away from the skeleton, Xu Luo stopped and murmured, ”Why am I having these thoughts? Damn it... who is influencing me?”

Suddenly, the skeleton in the black cloak slowly turned around.

Although the skull’s eyes were just two empty sockets, Xu Luo could feel a thick sense of mockery coming from them!

”It’s... alive?” As Xu Luo spoke, his whole body trembled, and a chill rose from the depths of his heart.

CRACK!

Just as Xu Luo was focusing his mind, warily and cautiously watching the jade-like skeleton, the skeleton facing him suddenly made a sound of clattering bones. CLATTER... It fell apart, landing on the ground as a pile of broken bones!

Then, the pile of broken bones slowly transformed into countless points of light!

The points of light danced in the air and gradually formed the figure of a person. It was an old man with the air of a celestial immortal, wearing a strange smile as he looked Xu Luo up and down...