The Jianmen Mountain Range stretched for thirty-one thousand li. Located in the northeast of the human domain and the southeast of the Liao domain, it demarcated the border between the human and Liao territories in this region and was also the highest mountain within the borders of Northern Qi. The mountain gate of the Sword Palace, founded over ten thousand years ago, stood atop its main peak.
Prior to the rise of the Palace of Grand Beginning, the Sword Palace had always been the sacred ground for sword cultivators across the realm. That was until the Founding Ancestor of the Palace of Grand Beginning made his sudden, world-shaking appearance, seizing the title of the world's foremost sword cultivator in a single battle.
Had that been all, it might still have been tolerable. The crucial point was that in the subsequent battles—especially in the world-shaking clash where he slew the First Heavenly Shaman—the Founding Ancestor swept up the titles of the world's foremost magic cultivator and foremost Dao cultivator as well, leaving only body cultivation unclaimed. Yet until the day the Founding Ancestor fell, no one in the mortal realm dared call themselves the foremost body cultivator.
Now the Sword Palace could remain calm no longer. If another sect occasionally produced a peerless sword cultivator, that would have been one thing. The problem was that the immortal sword was merely one among this man's many means. That he could snatch the title of foremost sword cultivator under such circumstances—and with the universal acknowledgment of the immortal realm—left everyone in the Sword Palace, high and low, mortified.
From then on, the Sword Palace gradually quieted down.
Generation after generation of Palace Masters were naturally unwilling to accept this, so they strove for governance and endured hardships, bent on surpassing the achievements of the Palace of Grand Beginning's Founding Ancestor back then.
Though the Founding Ancestor of the Palace of Grand Beginning had already fallen many years prior, the entire Sword Palace regarded the loss of the title of the world's foremost sword cultivator as a monstrous disgrace, single-mindedly yearning to duel the Founding Ancestor across time and space.
After years of keeping a low profile and biding their time, talents emerged in great numbers from the Sword Palace, adding three entire Heaven-reaching Dao Paths alone. Yet no matter how peerless a sword dao genius might be, when confronted with the four plain and unassuming immortal swords of the Palace of Grand Beginning's Founding Ancestor, they always fell just a hair short.
Just as the Sword Palace was burying its head to chase after the Founding Ancestor, completely unexpectedly, the Fourth Palace Master of the Palace of Grand Beginning made her brilliant entrance!
In a remarkably brief span of time, she crossed the immortal gate, ascending to immortality as easily as eating and drinking. Unsurprisingly, she swept across the contemporary world and casually claimed the title of the world's foremost sword cultivator.
And so, facing reality, the Sword Palace gave up aiming too high and instead shifted their sights to surpassing the Fourth Palace Master.
Yet the Sword Palace's geniuses had only just begun their bitter forbearance when the Fourth Palace Master fell to a villain's treachery, leaving the Sword Palace's many geniuses wallowing in melancholy and a sense of void.
And yet, as expected, the unexpected occurred again.
Not long after, the Fifth Palace Master, Bao Kongqing, completed his cultivation and emerged into the world. In the guise of the realm's foremost magic cultivator, he swept away the assembly of immortals. Yet to commemorate the Fourth Palace Master, he cultivated immortal swords in passing—and then casually took over the title of foremost sword cultivator as well.
After the Fourth Palace Master fell, this title had briefly returned to the Sword Palace's hands. Before they could even warm it, it had fallen into the Fifth Palace Master's grasp.
The trouble was that whether it was the Fourth or the Fifth Palace Master, the immortal sword was merely one of their means of slaughter, never their sole pursuit.
The Fifth Palace Master's sole purpose in stepping into the world had been to avenge the Fourth Palace Master. To that end, he went on a rampage across the world, and among the ghosts who perished beneath his sword was an immortal from the Sword Palace.
Over this matter, bad blood simmered between the Sword Palace and the Bao family for a full millennium. The Bao family's Old Ancestor had once traveled in person to the Sword Palace to demand an explanation. What transpired was never made public; all that was known was that after the Old Ancestor returned, he rarely took action again. Meanwhile, the Sword Palace's Palace Master of that era fell two hundred years later, his life cut short by half compared to normal.
In the years that followed, staggering prodigies would appear from the Palace of Grand Beginning from time to time. All of them were like shooting stars—brief yet incandescent enough to tear through an eternity of dark night.
The Sword Palace never fell outside the top three, but rarely did they ever reach the peak.
With all this history of entanglement between them, the gazes Xuanyue endured as he stood before the Sword Palace's mountain gate were naturally hostile in the extreme. Many young sword cultivators had no idea who Xuanyue was, but simply seeing the insignia of the Palace of Grand Beginning upon him made them thoroughly displeased.
Sword cultivators all prized clear thoughts and facing hardship head-on, so even a few Dharma Idol sword cultivators grew eager to try their hand against True Monarch Xuanyue. After all, if they lost, their sect elders stood behind them.
True Monarch Xuanyue knew his own situation. He had come to ask for a favor, so his stature was naturally diminished by three notches. He could hardly lower himself to dispute with these clueless juniors, either, and could only suppress his nameless anger.
Another reason was that True Monarch Xuanyue was dressed shabbily, the Daoist robe on his body still being cheap goods.
Sword cultivators, by nature, cared deeply about bearing and appearance. If they had money, the first priority was naturally buying a sword, and next came clothes and attire. It was commonplace for sword cultivators to eat chaff and greens for years on end just to buy an expensive robe or a pair of gleaming magical boots.
Having spent immortal silver, they certainly wouldn't walk in fine silk in the dark. Thus, for those sword cultivators flitting about in short-hemmed robes, the most expensive item on their person was bound to be their boots.
Presently, any above-average Dharma Idol cultivator from the Sword Palace was dressed more respectably than Xuanyue. Seeing how shabby his outfit was, they became even more fired up, strutting back and forth before Xuanyue in their gleaming glory, whether intentionally or otherwise.
Several times, Xuanyue was infuriated almost to the point of striking out. Had this trip been for his own sake, he naturally would have dispensed with courtesies long ago. But this time he had come on Zhang Sheng's behalf, and Xuanyue discovered that his temper could actually be so mild.
Xuanyue waited at the mountain gate for a full quarter of an hour before two female sword cultivators flew down and said coldly, "You're Xuanyue, right? Grandmaster has some free time now. Follow us."
These two female sword cultivators were quite young, yet both were already at the pinnacle of the Dharma Idol realm. Their talent and innate bone structure were remarkable, but they were also exceedingly impudent, addressing Xuanyue directly by name.
Only then did Xuanyue realize that he could swallow even this insult.
Moments later, Xuanyue stepped into a side hall of the Sword Palace.
Five sword cultivators sat in the hall. In the seat of honor was a fair-skinned, harmless-looking, slightly plump sword immortal who resembled an affluent gentleman of the mortal realm. Two sword cultivators sat on either side of him. Among those present, only the weakest was slightly inferior to Xuanyue.
At this moment, the female sword cultivator seated first on the left raised her eyebrows steeply and barked, "Xuanyue, you went back on your word! You swindled away the Dao sword that our Sword Palace can only nurture once every century, making all sorts of excuses not to return it!
"If you had stayed in hiding, that would have been that. Out of respect for the Founding Ancestor of the Palace of Grand Beginning, we wouldn't have hounded you to death. But you actually dare show your face at our doors! Do you take our Sword Palace for pushovers? Never mind that we merely bruised your dignity today—even if we detained you and locked you away, Yanshi wouldn't be able to say a word!"
This female sword cultivator's aura was completely concealed. Sitting there, she looked just like a mortal, without a shred of sword qi discernable. In truth, her cultivation was superlative, a notch above even Xuanyue's. She had long been capable of ascending to immortality and was currently just polishing her dao heart continuously in pursuit of perfection.
Xuanyue knew her words were actually giving him an out. He gave a bow and said clearly, "My visit to your mountain this time is indeed for this matter. I did not anticipate that the Dao sword would actually merge into my grand-disciple's dharma idol. This was indeed my fault, and compensation is certainly due."
A plain-looking middle-aged man seated first on the right opened his eyes and said slowly, "Who doesn't know that your Sky Azure Hall is as poor as dirt? Compensation? What could you possibly compensate us with?"
This man was Feng Hanzhou, one of the two contemporary sword immortals of the Sword Palace.
With this man speaking up, True Monarch Xuanyue had to take him seriously. Moreover, back when Wei Yuan was undergoing the Karma Great Curse, he had received the aid of one of this man's sword strikes. Had that sword strike not severed a portion of the karma, Wei Yuan would certainly have had no hope of survival.
Thus, from the perspective of past karma, Xuanyue owed Feng Hanzhou an immense favor.
True Monarch Xuanyue cleared his throat and said, "Though my Sky Azure Hall is poor, our word is our bond! My visit today has two purposes: first, to state that this debt shall definitely be repaid; second, to let you all know that using that Dao sword in my grand-disciple's dharma idol has not disgraced the Sword Palace in the slightest."
The female sword cultivator on the left sneered, "Don't tell me he stumbled upon some bizarre dharma idol by fluke and now treasures it like a masterpiece?"
True Monarch Xuanyue snorted heavily, his voice resounding through the entire Sword Palace as he declared word for word, "This old Daoist has only one thing to say! Compared to my grand-disciple, though the Sword Palace has many immortal sword dharma idols, they are all trash!"
The moment these words left his mouth, the Sword Palace erupted! Countless sword qi soared into the heavens, and even Feng Hanzhou's face betrayed a look of fury!
At that moment, the contemporary Palace Master of the Sword Palace, who looked like an affluent mortal gentleman, suddenly opened his eyes. A gleam flashed deep within his narrow, slit-like eyes, and he sneered, "Morals deteriorate by the day, and hearts are no longer pure! Even Xuanyue has learned to be cunning! This old Daoist has run into a crisis he cannot resolve and came all the way here specifically to claim kinship. Men, see our guest out! In the future, whenever he shows his face near our mountain gate, hack him out with a flurry of swords!"
Xuanyue was greatly alarmed. He had not expected the Palace Master of the Sword Palace to see right through his little scheme in an instant! The old Daoist was utterly baffled; he considered himself exceptionally shrewd and guarded, and couldn't see where he had slipped up.
Yet the Sword Palace's Palace Master acted with ruthless efficiency. Refusing to listen to any explanation from Xuanyue, he joined two fingers of his left hand into a sword gesture and flicked them casually. The scenery shifted before Xuanyue's eyes—he was about to be displaced right out of the Sword Palace!
In this critical moment, Xuanyue roared aloud. The power of his dharma body, tempered over countless years, was unleashed in full force, actually withstanding the Palace Master's sword qi!
Seizing the sliver of opportunity he had fought for, Xuanyue reached out with a large hand, upon which manifested the dharma idol of Sword Families Under Heaven!
This miniaturized dharma idol contained a wisp of sword qi taken from Zhang Sheng, its aura indistinguishable from Zhang Sheng's true dharma idol.
A heavy breath seemed to ring out within the hall!
Xuanyue's vision blurred once more. Somehow, the Palace Master of the Sword Palace had appeared right beside him, staring at the three Daoists—old, middle-aged, and young—his small eyes curved into narrow slits.
Clutching Xuanyue's wrist, he used his overwhelmingly formidable True Immortal cultivation to pull Xuanyue's hand aside and said with a beaming smile, "Familiar as we may be, rules are still rules. Now, first take your hand off the dharma idol of my direct lineage mantle!"
Chapter 988