An Enlightened Monk

The moment the immortal sword snapped, the Fifth Elder already had the rest of his life mapped out. To think that he, Zhou Xin, had cultivated diligently for two thousand years, finally reaching a realm just one step away from the Tribulation Transcendence stage, becoming the peak master of Hundred Refinements Peak, holding countless patents, and bringing immense wealth to the Dao Seeking Sect every year. Whether a lifetime of his savings was enough to buy an immortal sword was hard to say. Immortal swords were absurdly difficult to forge—they were weapons exclusive to immortals. An immortal sword was not like the immortal treasures of the Immortal Cult either. The Immortal Cult's treasures were, at best, semi-finished immortal artifacts, whereas the sword in Lu Yang's hand was a bona fide immortal artifact, worlds apart in power. Legend had it that the moment an immortal artifact took shape, its quality was so transcendent that heaven and earth could not tolerate it. Countless tribulations would rain down upon the artifact, and if left unattended, it would inevitably crumble. To preserve it, an immortal had to contend against the mighty power of heaven and earth—a feat no less arduous than achieving immortality all over again, fraught with indescribable perils. Having to endure such tribulations just to be forged, the value of an immortal artifact was easy to imagine. How could a mere Body Integration stage cultivator like him ever afford to compensate for it? By an optimistic estimate, working as an indentured laborer for the rest of his days might just let him afford one. Seeing the kaleidoscope of expressions on the Fifth Elder's face, Lu Yang gave an embarrassed cough. "Fifth Elder, this immortal sword isn't actually as sturdy as you think. From what I've gathered, it was specially crafted by a certain immortal to overcome a crisis. It looks just like a real immortal artifact, but in reality, it doesn't have much power." This immortal sword had been forged by Immortal Ying Tian, who oversaw lightning tribulations, expressly to deceive the prodigies of the Dragon and Phoenix clans—both of whom were half-immortal mighty figures. If it could fool those two, it could naturally fool the Fifth Elder. "Is that so?" Hearing Lu Yang say this, the Fifth Elder breathed a slight sigh of relief. Then, worried that Lu Yang was merely making excuses to comfort him, he examined it closely. Scanning with divine sense, quenching and refining, Geng metal forging... After a series of tests, the Fifth Elder finally figured out the construction of this immortal sword. "Which psycho forged this sword? Scared the life out of me! "First, mixing stone in fire and summit spirit stone to forge a sword embryo, then using some unknown technique to rapidly shape the embryo into a spirit sword, and finally coating the spirit sword in immortal metal powder to fake the appearance of having undergone lightning strikes! It fooled even an expert like me into thinking it was a real immortal sword. No, not just me—even if a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator were here, they'd be fooled just the same! "Without physically touching it, judging purely with the naked eye or divine sense, this thing is an immortal sword!" The Fifth Elder turned to Lu Yang and asked, "You just said this sword was used by some immortal to get through a crisis. What kind of crisis? Was an immortal strapped for cash and running an extortion scam?" Lu Yang: "..." Even though Immortal Kirin had tricked him into eating dirt, publicizing the fact that Immortal Kirin deceived his wife wouldn't reflect well on anyone. Lu Yang believed in holding one-sided grudges in private. Besides, Fifth Elder, do you even realize that the "psycho" you just cursed is an ancient immortal who controlled the heavenly tribulations? "You said earlier you wanted to forge a sword? Easy! Leave it to me!" The Fifth Elder looked at the broken immortal sword in his hands, fuming with rage. If he didn't reforge this shoddy piece of junk into something else, his family name wasn't Zhou! "This layer of immortal metal powder is useless—it was only applied to disguise it as an immortal sword. But the stone in fire and summit spirit stone are top-tier materials, perfectly suited for you." "How so?" "You're currently in the Golden Core stage, and with your talent, fighting Nascent Soul stage cultivators is no problem. The stone in fire and summit spirit stone can be forged into a Nascent Soul-grade spirit sword." Given the Fifth Elder's status in the artifact forging world, crafting a Nascent Soul-grade spirit sword was massive overkill. In the past, he would have handed such a task to his disciples; he had only agreed to it personally now to vent his frustration. "By the way, do you want a spirit sword or a spell sword?" A spirit sword was used directly for combat, whereas a spell sword served as a medium to cast spells. Both fell under the domain of sword cultivators, but Lu Yang had only learned how to use spirit swords so far. "A spirit sword, please." "Fine." The Fifth Elder led Lu Yang to his forging chamber. Before they even stepped inside, a scorching wave of heat hit Lu Yang in the face, as if this were not a forging chamber, but an erupting volcano. The Fifth Elder explained casually, "Normally, someone of your realm wouldn't be able to step inside. However, you command a type of True Fire, which protects your heart from being scorched by the heat of this chamber. "I established rules here so that collisions between True Fires will not cause explosions. Different True Fires working in concert help me forge treasures." The interior was vast and semicircular, its walls lined with small bottles of various colors. The Fifth Elder casually took down a teal bottle from the wall and uncorked it. A plume of flame slipped out, and the teal bottle turned jade-white. The bottle had originally been white; it had only changed color under the scorch of the flame inside. "I traveled the world and gathered eighty-eight of the one hundred and eight True Fires. The True Fire seeds are stored in specially crafted bottles, and whenever I forge artifacts, I bring them out. "Later on, through various means, I gathered another twelve, bringing my collection to its current scale." Lu Yang marveled. The Fifth Elder truly lived up to his renowned reputation in the forging world. Just this collection of True Fires alone would drive countless artifact refiners green with envy. The Fifth Elder added, "Unfortunately, the remaining eight True Fires are either extraordinarily difficult to obtain—unclaimed despite the exorbitant bounties I offered—or are contraband that is forbidden from being collected." "True Fire can be contraband?" "Take the Lust True Fire, for instance. Just a tiny spark can throw someone into heat, leaving them utterly unable to stop. If not vented, they would literally suffocate themselves to death. The imperial court deemed this True Fire too dangerous and strictly banned its collection. "Naturally, if I really wanted to collect it, I could still track it down. Certain illicit brothels use it. But since it's useless for artifact forging, there was no need to gather it." Holding the teal flame in his palm, the Fifth Elder smiled faintly. "I wonder if you've heard of it: this is the Desireless True Fire, the counterpart to the Lust True Fire. It originates from the Golden Buddhist Kingdom. Igniting this fire in your heart purges all desires and cravings, making your mind pristine and clear, dedicated entirely to the Dao. "When I was young, Old Third and I traveled to the Golden Buddhist Kingdom together. We wanted to search for the Lust True Fire in the brothels, but luck wasn't on our side. We didn't find the Lust True Fire in the brothels, but we did encounter an enlightened monk there. "Seeing that Old Third and I possessed profound Buddhist affinity, that monk felt fated with us and gifted me the Desireless True Fire. That eminent monk even demonstrated a set of Arhat Fist techniques to Old Third. Old Third experienced great enlightenment, and once we returned, he created the Heaven-Shaking Six Forms." Lu Yang: "..." Why do I remember it as the Third Elder getting beaten to a pulp with Arhat Fist in the Golden Buddhist Kingdom, which spurred him to work hard and create the Heaven-Shaking Six Forms? "Wait a second—why was an enlightened monk in a brothel?" The Fifth Elder wasn't surprised; he had asked the exact same question back then, and the monk had answered. "Oh, that monk explained that point as well. "He said it's called: walking naked through the brothel, while the Buddha remains in the heart."