Firmament Sword

Little Nannan tilted her head, looking at the ancient, broken stone stele. She paused, a thoughtful expression on her face. ”I’ve seen you before! But why have you gotten so small? I was born right next to you back then…”

As she spoke, Little Nannan frowned, then added, ’Why would I say something like that? I’ve never seen you before…’

No one heard Little Nannan’s words, and the ancient, broken stone stele remained utterly silent, not making a single sound.

Little Nannan looked at Xu Luo’s increasingly pale face and the nearly collapsing world around them. Biting her lip, she made a decision.

A small, shimmering silver knife appeared in her hand out of nowhere. She sliced her own wrist, and a stream of golden liquid immediately flowed out, emitting a tremendously powerful wave of energy.

Tears streamed down her face as well, dripping onto the ground.

”Little Nannan is the bravest… Little Nannan isn’t afraid of pain… BOO-HOO!”

Through her tears, she brought her wrist to Xu Luo’s lips.

The golden liquid flowed into Xu Luo’s mouth. Soon, a trace of color appeared on his frighteningly pale face, then slowly spread like a spreading dye.

Little Nannan stood there, unmoving, letting her blood flow into Xu Luo’s mouth.

When Master Tao and Song Banban arrived, they found the world was beginning to stabilize again. The sky at the world’s edge was no longer collapsing, and the twisted laws were gradually returning to normal.

But a fissure in the earth that nearly spanned the entire world… still remained.

It reminded all the living beings within the Bronze Divine Hall World that everything that had just happened… was not a dream!

Xu Luo’s complexion had become rosy, but Little Nannan’s face had turned deathly pale.

Still, she remained standing there. Her small figure, before the cross-legged Xu Luo, looked so frail and thin it was a heart-wrenching sight.

”What happened here?” Master Tao was startled by the scene, not expecting things to be so serious. Looking at the stone stele, he muttered, ”This stele is so strange. Just looking at it makes me feel uncomfortable!”

Song Banban walked over, frowning at the stele. ”It seems to have a scripture carved on it, something beyond our ability to comprehend. Young Master Xu must have ended up like this because he was trying to comprehend it.”

Master Tao grumbled, ”Damn stele… it almost destroyed this world! This is our beautiful home!”

With that, he bent down and picked up the semi-conscious Little Nannan. He looked at the wound on her wrist with heartache and said, ”This child has lost too much energy. Song Banban, take out some pine nuts to help her recover!”

This time, Song Banban didn’t argue with the Ancient Peach Tree. He unhesitatingly took out a large amount of pine nuts and fed them to Little Nannan one by one.

Compared to the Ancient Peach Tree’s Chaos Peaches, pine nuts were more suitable for the weakened Little Nannan.

”What about this kid?” The Ancient Peach Tree knew Xu Luo well. He frowned, looking at the cross-legged Xu Luo, whose vital signs were normal, but who had yet to awaken.

”Young Master Xu has likely entered a state of enlightenment… We can’t interrupt him. Let’s just stand guard for him here,” Song Banban said seriously.

Master Tao thought for a moment and nodded. Although this world was under Xu Luo’s control, his current state was very worrying.

In the Small World that had merged with the Bronze Divine Hall World, not all creatures were benevolent…

Not to mention, there was also the unconscious Little Nannan… a Holy Medicine that had lived for several million years!

...

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Xu Luo felt as if his entire being had arrived in a mysterious space. There was no light, only chaos all around. He couldn’t see anything, only an ancient voice continuously reciting a scripture.

As Xu Luo listened to the scripture, his once-agitated heart gradually calmed.

He followed the sound, heading in its direction.

After passing through layer upon layer of chaotic mist, Xu Luo had no idea how long or how far he had walked. He just kept moving forward until, finally… the space ahead was no longer a chaotic mist, but had become completely clear!

A titanic figure sat with its back to him, reciting a scripture.

His voice echoed throughout the heavens and the earth, as if it had traveled across the river of time, eternal and unchanging.

Gradually… these sounds became the very sound of the Great Dao in Xu Luo’s ears!

Every single word… embodied a wondrous aspect of the Dao, each resonating with a unique rhythm of the Dao.

The scripture contained only three thousand words, and the titanic figure recited it endlessly, over and over.

The three-thousand-word scripture transformed into three thousand Great Daos, continuously purifying Xu Luo’s soul.

Upon seeing the figure’s back, Xu Luo felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity well up inside him. Even he… didn’t know where the feeling came from.

’Could it be… that this resonance is because it absorbed my endless Spiritual Power?’ Xu Luo wondered.

However, he quickly cast the thought aside. These three thousand Great Daos were unfathomably profound, and Xu Luo needed to concentrate all of his being to comprehend the rhythms of the Dao within…

The days passed. Guarding the entrance to the final floor of the Scripture Pavilion, Elders Yuwen Ji and Zuo Mingyu drank countless cups of wine. After resolving all the misunderstandings from their past, their relationship seemed to have returned to the innocent days of their youth, becoming as close as ever.

However, Zuo Mingyu never revealed who was truly responsible for the misunderstanding between Yuwen Ji and Qiaoqiao, and Yuwen Ji never asked again. It was as if… the two had never brought up the issue.

They often drank and reminisced about their glory days, laughing and crying in turn. Those years were long gone, and now, they were both old men.

Zuo Mingyu offered to help Yuwen Ji recover to the Venerable Realm, but Yuwen Ji refused.

Although the old friends had buried the hatchet, advancing from the Great Saint Realm to the Venerable Realm… was not so easy. Even with Elixirs, the cost would be astronomical!

It would be enough to empty Zuo Mingyu’s entire savings… and might still not be enough.

As for Yuwen Ji himself… having bought a Nether Flower Seed, he no longer had the funds to spend on himself.

The two of them stood guard there… for thirty-eight days!

By the end, Yuwen Ji was growing anxious. He even wanted to go inside himself to see if his precious apprentice was alright.

But Zuo Mingyu stopped him, looking at him seriously. ”You know as well as I do, the Soul Scripture isn’t something just anyone can comprehend. The fact that he’s been in there for so many days without a sound means he must be making progress! At a time like this, there’s only one thing we can do: wait! Wait for him to come out on his own.”

Yuwen Ji sighed, ”I understand… but I’m worried! I’m worried he’ll be like those peerless geniuses in the legends who spend their entire lives trying to comprehend it, only to fail, wasting their best years for nothing!”

Yuwen Ji didn’t tell Zuo Mingyu about Su Qianqian, as it was Xu Luo’s private matter. Moreover, it was something absolutely forbidden by the rules of the Celestial Brilliance Sect.

Even Xu Luo’s ability to comprehend the Soul Scripture was only thanks to the Medicine King. Otherwise… even with Yuwen Ji and Zuo Mingyu reconciled, it would have been absolutely impossible to let Xu Luo access the Soul Scripture!

After all, the strict rules of Celestial Brilliance were set in stone. Even if the Sect Leader himself wanted to change them… it would be an extremely difficult task.

Back then, a previous Sect Leader had changed the rules after countless geniuses were ruined by the Soul Scripture. Although the change was passed, it caused a huge backlash at the time. Not long after, that Sect Leader stepped down and departed gracefully.

Otherwise, how could that Sect Leader, who was in the prime of his life, have relinquished his position so early?

If this was the case for the leader of a Supreme Great Sect, what more could a mere Elder do?

Zuo Mingyu said, ”This disciple of yours… on the outside, apart from being handsome, he doesn’t seem all that special. But he was able to gain the recognition of the Medicine King Ring… It really makes him hard to figure out. By the way, have you looked into his background?”

As he spoke, Zuo Mingyu seemed to remember something. ”Right, you found him using the Heart Inference Skill. That means there shouldn’t be any problem with his origins. In that case…”

Before Zuo Mingyu could finish, he saw Yuwen Ji give a bitter smile. Surprised, he asked, ”What… could it be the kid has a problem?”

With that, Zuo Mingyu couldn’t help but stand, wanting to open the stone chamber’s door.

”What are you doing!” Yuwen Ji grabbed him. ”I haven’t said anything! Why are you reacting so strongly?”

”I… I’m just worried! The Soul Scripture is in there! What if the kid really is a problem and he destroys the Soul Scripture?” Zuo Mingyu’s mouth twitched as he looked at Yuwen Ji.

Yuwen Ji waved his hand. ”The fact that I dared to take him as my disciple means he’s not a problem!”

”You scared me to death! If there’s no problem, why are you being so serious!” Zuo Mingyu breathed a sigh of relief and complained.

”He’s not the problem… Celestial Brilliance is!” Yuwen Ji sighed and muttered, ”I pray that glimpse I saw… was an illusion!”

”You… what did you see?” Zuo Mingyu looked at Yuwen Ji in shock. With so many years of friendship between them, they knew each other as well as they knew themselves. He knew Yuwen Ji was not one to make baseless claims.

”I saw… a great disaster befalling Celestial Brilliance!” Yuwen Ji sighed and muttered, ”And the one who can preserve a thread of its legacy… is my disciple!”

”Nonsense!” Zuo Mingyu retorted angrily. ”That’s complete bullshit! Our Celestial Brilliance is the most powerful Supreme Great Sect in all of Xi Hezhou, with an unimaginably deep foundation. Who… could possibly destroy us?”

Yuwen Ji sighed and pointed a finger toward the heavens. ”That.”