Martial Cultivator

“What does it say?”

Autumn leaned over to glance at the book in Chen Chao’s hands, rather curious.

Chen Chao replied, “It’s about the construction process of this tower. Apparently, it took over three hundred years to complete.”

Autumn looked at him, expression calm, but the meaning was clear: That’s it?

Chen Chao understood what she meant but did not respond to her implied question. Instead, he muttered to himself, “This tower wasn’t built just to store texts or pass down teachings, that’s all superficial. Its real purpose was to conceal Heaven’s secrets...”

Chen Chao could not read the characters, so he could only glean fragments through the lingering aura of the one who wrote the book. But it was not complete. What exactly did it mean to “conceal Heaven’s secrets”?

What secrets needed to be hidden?

Why had this white tower been built at the bottom of a lake? There were no answers.

Autumn could not be bothered to overthink it and urged, “Look at the rest.”

It was not that she was unwilling to give Chen Chao time, it was just that by now, she could barely sense the flow of demonic qi within her.

“I know you’re in a rush, but don’t be so hasty...”

Chen Chao gave her a bitter look. You think you’re the only one anxious?

I need to find clues here too, don’t I?

Autumn said nothing. She simply walked to the far end and brought the rest of the books over.

Chen Chao set down the one in his hand and began leafing through the others. After a short while, he finally found a clue in one of them.

“This tower is the gate to a Divine Mountain. In other words, this is the sect’s entrance.”

Chen Chao spoke with astonishment. It was shocking that a sect’s gate would take the form of a high tower, and one buried beneath a lake at that.

“Divine Mountain? What Divine Mountain?”

Autumn narrowed her eyes, intrigued by the words Divine Mountain. Anything that could be called by such a name was certainly not an ordinary place.

“The book isn’t clear. It only mentioned those two words.”

Chen Chao set the book down. They had nearly finished reading everything here, and they had only uncovered two pieces of information:

This tower was an existence that served to conceal Heaven’s secrets, and it was a gateway to a Divine Mountain.

Autumn said, “Looks like we’ll have to find the passage into that Divine Mountain, and then look for another way out.”

With that, she turned and headed upstairs. Since the places they would already checked had yielded nothing, the answer had to lie in the places they had not yet explored.

Chen Chao did not speak. He simply followed Autumn upward.

The next few floors revealed nothing unusual. But after several more floors, their complexions began to pale. Their internal qi was truly running low now, and circulating it had become extremely difficult.

The two stopped on this floor. It was filled with countless bronze mirrors, all arranged in a highly ordered pattern, resembling the structure of some formation.

However, there was no spiritual energy flowing through the mirrors. They looked old, covered in dust, long since having lost their original function.

“To conceal Heaven’s secrets, that may have once been this tower’s purpose. But even then, I doubt it succeeded.”

It was a simple truth, if the attempt had truly worked, that so-called Divine Mountain likely would not have vanished from the world.

And there certainly would not be no one left to guard this place.

“Hard to say. It looks haphazard, but maybe that’s exactly why it could conceal Heaven’s secrets.”

Chen Chao was muttering to himself. Meanwhile, Autumn was quietly observing the surroundings.

After confirming there was nothing strange here, Autumn continued up the stairs. This time, they made it all the way to the top floor without encountering any further anomalies.

The top floor was completely empty, save for a single shelf placed at the very front.

Chen Chao stared at the shelf. Autumn did too.

Chen Chao said, “Looks like a sword rack.”

Autumn said nothing. She drew the slender flying sword from her hair. With a single thought, the sword returned to its normal form. She casually tossed it forward, and the sword landed precisely on the rack.

Nothing unusual happened.

Autumn sneered. “That’s all you’ve got? If you’re not going to use your brain, why not give it to me instead?”

Chen Chao snapped, “If you could figure it out, would you still need me?”

Autumn gave a cold snort and said no more.

Chen Chao also did not argue further. He stepped forward to examine the sword rack. The slender flying sword fit perfectly and there was nothing wrong with it. But why did nothing happen?

Chen Chao was puzzled.

Autumn remained where she was, watching Chen Chao for a moment. Then, she walked over rather impatiently, grabbed the sword, and was about to take it back when Chen Chao suddenly said, “Wait a moment.”

Although Autumn did not say anything, but at his words, she let go of the sword and did not remove it.

Chen Chao smiled. “This is definitely the key.”

Autumn glanced at Chen Chao, saying nothing, only raising an eyebrow.

Chen Chao continued, “Most likely, many years ago, someone was the master of this flying sword. They stood guard here as the gatekeeper. But for whatever reason, the sword ended up above, sealed inside the mountain god statue. As for the gatekeeper, they must have been dead for countless years now.”

“Then why doesn’t it open?” Autumn asked bluntly, not interested in his rambling, only the core issue.

Chen Chao looked at her and said irritably, “Are you a sword cultivator?”

Since the gatekeeper used a flying sword, then naturally, they must have been a sword cultivator. Autumn did not have even a trace of sword qi in her body, so of course she could not turn this flying sword into that so-called key.

Autumn sneered, ”Saying it like you’re a sword cultivator.”

Chen Chao looked at Autumn and shook his head. “Of course I’m not a sword cultivator either, but producing a trace or two of sword qi isn’t difficult.”

Chen Chao narrowed his eyes. Within the white mist in his body, there was actually some sword qi. This was thanks to his previous climb up Sword Qi Mountain. Amidst the myriad sword qi, he had retained some in his body. Ordinarily, since he was not a sword cultivator, it should have dissipated, but because he had white mist in his body, and had once listened to Liu Banbi lecture on Sword Dao in the Divine Capital, he had truly managed to preserve a bit.

Autumn’s face remained expressionless, but there was some ripple within her heart. By now, she understood why this young man’s killing power was so terrifying, he himself was a patchwork, having learned many different things.

What surprised her was that this person was supposed to be a martial artist. How could he have such fortune?

Chen Chao did not say more. He focused on guiding the qi within his body. Only after a long while did he finally force out a trace of white mist from his fingertip, then reached out his finger and began to extract and peel it apart.

Within the white mist in his body now, there were actually quite a few things, apart from the original qi of a martial artist, there was also the shattered jade talisman from his orifice, which was the legacy of a great daoist sage, along with some residual sword qi. Trying to extract just one of these was no easy task.

But right now, Chen Chao had no other choice. If he did not come up with something, even if the two of them did not die immediately, they would still fall into an extremely troublesome situation.

Very soon, Chen Chao was drenched in sweat. If this were during a time when his qi could flow normally, it would not be such a big problem. But under the current conditions, he could only grit his teeth and persist.

Autumn was uncharacteristically quiet, saying nothing, just waiting for Chen Chao to separate the sword qi.

Several minutes later, the white mist at Chen Chao’s fingertip dispersed, leaving only a wisp of sword qi lingering around his finger. Then, drenched in sweat, he walked toward the flying sword. By now, he was honestly feeling somewhat uncertain. Even though there was that trace of sword qi, he did not know whether this flying sword still needed to recognize its master.

Regardless, at this point, he had no choice but to treat a dead horse like a living one.

Chen Chao infused the sword qi at his fingertip into it. The flying sword remained still and silent.

Chen Chao let out a sigh.

Autumn asked, “It didn’t work?”

Chen Chao opened his mouth, just about to respond, when the flying sword suddenly began to tremble. In the next instant, the entire white building began to shake.

Was this a blind cat running into a dead mouse?

Amidst a rumbling sound, the ceiling of the jade building above them slowly opened. Yet no lakewater poured in, which looked rather strange.

Autumn went to grab the flying sword and was about to leap up, but Chen Chao pulled her sleeve and frowned. “I just thought of something, it seems this gate to the divine mountain was entered a bit too easily. Could there be a problem?”

At this point, Chen Chao was starting to hesitate. If there really was a problem, the two of them might just be walking from one dead end into another.

“There’s not much difference, there’s no better choice anyway.”

Autumn glanced at Chen Chao. “Do we have any retreat left?”

Chen Chao gave a bitter laugh and shook his head. Sometimes, he had to admire this woman before him, she was truly too decisive. Of all the people he had ever met, perhaps only Xie Nandu could match her.

Autumn leaped through the opening above.

Chen Chao gripped his saber hilt, stood in silence for a moment, then followed.

......

......

After leaping up, there was no obstruction, but Chen Chao still found himself inside the lakewater, which left him a bit confused. Could this not be the actual entrance?

He did not dwell on it. Chen Chao swam upward and finally surfaced. But the moment he emerged, he was stunned. Not far ahead, a towering, multicolored divine mountain stood silently.

Chen Chao swam to the shore and slowly climbed onto land. Not far away, Autumn was already standing there.

Looking at the majestic divine mountain ahead, Chen Chao lamented with vicissitudes of emotion, “Sure enough, anything called a divine mountain has its reasons.”

Autumn looked toward the mountain and suddenly asked, “Do you think there’ll be immortal herbs in this mountain?”

Chen Chao was taken aback, then smiled. “Hard to say. Maybe.”

Back at Rongshan Sect, he had once discovered an immortal medicine. But he had only possessed it briefly before it was taken by that girl in white.

Thinking of this, Chen Chao felt a bit of a headache.

That white-robed girl was probably the one closest to the previous era, she might have even been a cultivator from that era. If he could meet her again, perhaps he could learn many things he wanted to know.

He shook his head, dispersed those thoughts, and turned back to casually tease Autumn, “Maybe there’s not just immortal herbs, maybe even the legendary divine herbs.”

It was just an offhand comment, but to his surprise, after hearing it, Autumn stood still, seeming a bit dazed.

No one knew what this woman was thinking.