Firmament Sword

”My good sir, do we know each other?” Lin Luoxue maintained a calm expression, looking coolly at Xu Luo, but she was secretly laughing to herself.

Beside her, Nangong Yu Yan gave a somewhat helpless, bitter smile.

Xu Luo was taken aback at first, but then a thought struck him: ’Right, this little girl probably doesn’t want people to know what happened back then, so she’s pretending not to recognize me.’

With that in mind, Xu Luo slapped his forehead and said, ”My apologies. I must have the wrong person.”

Then, he glanced at Phoenix. ”Let’s go!”

Phoenix felt a bit strange. ’Xu Luo hasn’t had much contact with sect members before, and he’s never attended a sect assembly, so how could he possibly have an acquaintance here?’

Seeing that Xu Luo wanted to leave, Phoenix nodded obediently. Without giving Lin Luoxue’s group another look, she followed compliantly by his side. ”Alright, let’s go.”

Xu Luo offered the sleazy middle-aged stall owner a slight smile. ”Sorry, what you’re selling is too expensive. We can’t afford it.”

”If you can’t afford it, why are you looking? How annoying!” The middle-aged stall owner resentfully took back the hairpin, then glared at Lin Luoxue and Nangong Yu Yan and said angrily, ”This is all your fault! He would have bought it if it weren’t for you!”

Lin Luoxue hadn’t expected that after she just playfully teased Xu Luo, he would act as if he had genuinely mistaken her for someone else and turn to leave.

For some reason, her heart ached a little. She thought to herself, ’That ungrateful brat! The Storage Ring on your hand was originally mine!’

Just then, hearing the stall owner’s words, Lin Luoxue flew into a rage. She lifted her foot and stomped on the ink-black hairpin. With a SNAP... the hairpin broke.

Before the stall owner could erupt, Nangong Yu Yan quickly took out twenty Spirit Stones, gave them to him, and said, ”So sorry, so sorry...”

The stall owner took the twenty Spirit Stones. Even though he had made a profit, his expression was still ugly. However, he couldn’t say anything more. After all, they had paid for it; how they chose to dispose of it was their business and had nothing to do with him anymore.

Nangong Yu Yan dragged Lin Luoxue away, chiding her softly, ”Why are you throwing a tantrum again? Didn’t Master tell us to keep a low profile?”

”Hmph! Look at that brat! The moment he gets a woman, he forgets his old friends. And he even said he had the wrong person!” Lin Luoxue huffily kicked a pebble on the ground, then grumbled, ”So ungrateful!”

”You can’t really blame him for this.” Nangong Yu Yan had seen Xu Luo’s expression and knew that Lin Luoxue had misunderstood him.

”If it’s not his fault, are you saying it’s mine?” Lin Luoxue said huffily. ”Couldn’t he tell I was just joking with him?”

”He must have thought you didn’t want to reveal your identity. When you denied it, he said he had the wrong person.” Nangong Yu Yan gave Lin Luoxue a doting look and said with a smile, ”Just find a chance to explain later, and it’ll all be fine, won’t it?”

Lin Luoxue was still puffing her cheeks in anger, but she accepted Nangong Yu Yan’s explanation.

...

”You know that person?” Phoenix asked Xu Luo after they had walked a good distance away.

Xu Luo nodded. ”When I first started cultivating, I went to the Black Forest to train. I met her in Black Wind Town, and we went through a small incident together.”

Xu Luo said it casually. To him now, that incident was indeed nothing major, but for the Xu Luo of back then, it had been extremely dangerous.

”The Black Forest? Ah, I know. The Seven-Colored Light, right?” Phoenix’s smile held a hint of teasing.

Xu Luo nodded naturally. ”Yep, that was the time.”

”I heard that you and that Royal Princess grew up together like childhood sweethearts?” Phoenix asked tentatively.

Xu Luo glanced at Phoenix and said with a smile, ”What? Are you jealous?”

”You’re the one who’s jealous!” Phoenix rolled her eyes and quickened her pace to walk ahead of him. But her heart couldn’t help but start POUNDING, and a blush crept onto her cheeks. She asked herself inwardly: ’Am I really jealous?’

Back at their lodgings, Xu Luo and Phoenix went to Li Wenxi’s tent together.

Inside the tent, Li Wenxi, Qiushuiduan, and the other higher-ups of Merak were discussing something. Seeing the two arrive, Li Wenxi smiled at Xu Luo. ”So, how was it?”

Before Xu Luo could speak, Phoenix pouted and said, ”It was nothing special. Everything was so expensive; it’s a total rip-off!”

An Elder laughed. ”At the sect assembly market, first, you need a sharp eye. You must be able to distinguish what’s valuable among the dazzling array of goods. Second, you need to know how to haggle. If you take the first price they give you as the real one, you’ll either pay a high price or walk away because it’s too expensive. Doesn’t that just scream to everyone that you’re inexperienced?”

Li Wenxi also smiled and nodded. ”When I first attended a sect assembly, I thought the same way you do. Anything that caught my eye cost dozens of Spirit Stones, and I thought it was too expensive. You get used to it later. Elder Sun is right; you have to learn to haggle.”

Then, Li Wenxi looked at Xu Luo and asked, ”By the way, you don’t have any Spirit Stones on you, do you?”

Without waiting for his reply, Li Wenxi took out a pouch and handed it to Xu Luo. ”There are two hundred Spirit Stones in here. It’s not a lot, but it should be enough to buy a few things. Go out and look around more. You can still find some good treasures at the sect assembly market!”

Xu Luo actually had a lot of Spirit Stones. Spirit Stones weren’t exclusive to sects; the great clans of the secular world used them too. Previously, those two, Master Mao and Sister Ying, had plundered the vaults of many great clans, so Xu Luo had no less than two thousand Spirit Stones in his ring!

Even among sects, this was already considered an astonishing fortune!

Xu Luo didn’t refuse Li Wenxi’s kind gesture. He smiled and said, ”Thank you for your generosity, Master.”

Everyone else in the room looked at Xu Luo with a hint of envy. Two hundred Spirit Stones wasn’t a huge amount, but it wasn’t a small sum either. More importantly, the Sect Leader’s treatment of this new Registered Disciple seemed anything but ordinary!

As more and more sects arrived at the foot of the Celestial Break Mountain Range, the plain eventually became covered with tents as far as the eye could see.

All told, there were over ten thousand people!

”I’m only just realizing there are so many sects in the world!” Xu Luo remarked to Phoenix beside him.

”This is my first time seeing so many sect disciples too. I heard this is the biggest turnout ever. They must all be here for the Ancient Ruins deep within the Celestial Break Mountain Range,” Phoenix said softly.

”With so many sects, is there really no interaction between them on a normal day?” Xu Luo asked, finding it a bit strange.

”There’s definitely interaction, but you’d never see it in the secular world.” Phoenix then gave a self-deprecating laugh. ”To be honest, in the eyes of many sects, Merak is just a very small school.”

”By the way, I’ve noticed that many sects seem to be named after the Big Dipper. Do you know why?” Xu Luo asked, seemingly at random. ”Look, you guys are Merak, and then there’s Tianquan, Dubhe, Kaiyang...”

”About that... I heard Master mention it once. It seems the founding patriarchs of our sects greatly revered the stars in the sky, especially the Big Dipper...”

Phoenix continued, smiling at Xu Luo, ”Revering the stars isn’t an exclusive right of your Cangqiong Empire, you know.”

”I see.” Xu Luo felt that Phoenix’s explanation wasn’t quite complete, but he couldn’t figure out the real reason either.

Over the next few days, many of the acquainted sects began visiting and interacting with one another. Li Wenxi was also busy visiting the sects that were relatively friendly with Merak.

As a result, Xu Luo and Phoenix also got to know—and hear about—many of the talented disciples from other sects.

”Have you heard? Lin Luoxue, the Saintess of Dubhe, is devastatingly beautiful, and her power has already reached the Transformation Realm!”

”The peerless genius of Kaiyang Sect, Jiang Tianhai, is only eighteen this year! His power has reached the Transformation Realm, and he’s already a Tier Two Sword King!”

”Xu Qing from the Jade Balance Sect isn’t just beautiful; her strength has also reached Tier Two Sword King, making her one of the prodigies of the younger generation!”

”The talented disciple from Shaking Light Sect, Ancient Star, is twenty years old but has already reached Tier Three Sword King! He’s a strong contender for the number one spot among the younger generation at this sect assembly!”

”Xiaohai from the Black Water Sect is the strongest! He’s only sixteen, and he’s already a Tier Two Sword King!”

”The head disciple of Willow Leaf Sect, Liu Wushang, is also very powerful! He’s twenty-eight and a Tier Three Sword King!”

”The Saintess of the Celestial Cauldron Sect, Ji Bingyu, is the true strongest of the younger generation! She has already surpassed countless elders. At only seventeen, she is peerlessly elegant and already a Tier Three Sword King!”

”Actually, besides these geniuses at the very peak, there are many other young disciples who are also very powerful!”

”I heard the Sect Leader of the Celestial Cauldron Sect found his long-lost daughter! I think her name is Lianyi, and she’s also reached the Transformation Realm! She’s a national beauty, and along with Ji Bingyu, they are called the Celestial Cauldron Twin Beauties!”

”Besides Jiang Tianhai, the Kaiyang Sect has another peerless beauty. I heard she’s from a secular empire and holds the title of Princess. Although she’s only at the Tier Seven Sword Venerable realm, she has only been cultivating for two years!”

Amidst all the news, Xu Luo finally heard about Lianyi and Qiqi. Learning that Lianyi’s strength had reached the Transformation Realm and that Qiqi was already a Tier Seven Sword Venerable, Xu Luo was overjoyed.

Phoenix also knew of Huangfu Shishi and Lianyi. She just hadn’t expected them to have improved so much in less than two years. While she was happy for them, she couldn’t help but feel a little dejected.

She had cultivated desperately, and on top of that, her master had funneled a large amount of resources to her after taking back control of the sect, yet she had only just reached the realm of a Tier Nine Sword Venerable. Compared to those true geniuses, the gap was simply too large.

Xu Luo could also see Phoenix’s disappointment. Although he really wanted to see Qiqi and Lianyi right away, he couldn’t bear to see Phoenix looking so unhappy.

”The Merak Sect has limited resources. You’re already outstanding enough, so why compare yourself to them?” Xu Luo comforted Phoenix. ”As long as the right opportunity arises, you’ll definitely be able to surpass them. Think about your master—how hard was it for her to enter the Transformation Realm?”

Phoenix nodded sadly, then smiled at Xu Luo. ”You don’t have to comfort me. True geniuses do exist in this world. It’s enough for me to just be myself!”

Xu Luo laughed. ”That’s more like it. Why compare yourself to others? Those geniuses built up with resources... aren’t necessarily as strong as they seem!”

Just then, the voice of a disciple who served Li Wenxi suddenly came from outside the tent. ”Senior Sister Phoenix, Junior Brother Xu Luo, this is bad! People from Tianquan are here with a major sect... to propose a marriage!”