"Oh crap, I bonded with the wrong thing."
Lu Yang finally figured out the reason: over the past three days, he hadn't been communicating with the Seven Stars Sword Set, but with the Sword Cleansing Pool!
"Little Junior Brother, you..."
Because her eyes were closed, Third Senior Sister perceived the movement in the outside world through her senses. It took her a moment to process what her little junior brother had just done.
He had abducted the Sword Cleansing Pool!
"Wait, hold on, this was an accident! I can explain!" Lu Yang shouted hastily, frantically trying to sever his connection with the Sword Cleansing Pool in secret.
Yet how could three days of mutual affection between him and the Sword Cleansing Pool be cut off just like that?
After several fruitless attempts, he had to admit one thing—the Sword Cleansing Pool had latched onto him.
*Brother, is this really necessary? Can't you go follow someone else? I'm just a nobody of humble strength; I don't dare take you in!*
Brazenly claiming sect property for oneself—no matter where you went, that just wouldn't fly.
Third Senior Sister wore an expression that said there was no need to explain. "Eldest Senior Sister said long ago that Little Junior Brother has transcendent talent, only it leans a bit crooked. Seeing you today proves she was right."
She hadn't had the chance to witness it in the Demon Domain, but now she had finally seen it.
"..." *Eldest Senior Sister, can't you say anything good about me?*
"It was just a slight accident while communicating, not that my training went crooked," Lu Yang said earnestly, correcting Third Senior Sister's mistaken view.
"Fairy, why didn't you remind me that I was communicating with the Sword Cleansing Pool the whole time?" If Third Senior Sister didn't notice anything amiss, couldn't the Fairy have noticed?
"Ah? I thought you wanted to control the Sword Cleansing Pool first, and use it to control the Seven Stars Sword Set."
"...Come to think of it, that actually works."
Following the Immortal Fairy's train of thought, Lu Yang realized he could indeed control the Seven Stars Sword Set by controlling the Sword Cleansing Pool.
The comfort the Seven Stars Sword Set felt in the Sword Cleansing Pool was real. Having experienced it once, they would definitely want to experience it again.
And if they wanted to experience it again, they would have to be obedient!
"Never mind, let's just go report this to Eldest Senior Sister."
Things having reached this point, they couldn't forcefully tear him and the Sword Cleansing Pool apart anyway.
Lu Yang gathered the spilled pool water back into the Sword Cleansing Pool, then stored both the pool and the Seven Stars Sword Set into his identity jade medallion. His movements were as deft as someone clearing up a crime scene.
The two retraced their steps. When they passed the great grassland, Lu Yang held out his identity jade medallion, and indeed, the demon beasts no longer attacked.
By this time, Eldest Senior Sister and Jiang Lianyi had finished touring Prison Peak. The ancient cultivators imprisoned there were trembling in their boots.
Just what was the Dao Seeking Sect's background? How had they dug up the Phoenix Ancestor, who had disappeared for hundreds of thousands of years?
If they had previously looked down on the Dao Seeking Sect because of their own status as ancients, then this last shred of pride was now completely gone.
When it came to being ancient, who could compare to the Phoenix Ancestor?
Even if you dragged the Four Ancient Celestials over, they were merely of the same era as the Phoenix Ancestor, with neither predating the other.
As for the Grandmaster, his reaction was hardly any better than Elder Tao's. Especially when he heard Eldest Senior Sister recount that the Phoenix Ancestor had been dug up by Lu Yang, the expression on his face became outrageously magnificent.
The pupil truly surpasses the master! This kid Lu Yang could stir up far more trouble than his master ever could.
The Grandmaster felt fortunate that he had retired. Had he still been occupying the Sect Master's seat, he would never have been able to settle the messes Lu Yang kicked up.
...
"You're saying you refined the sect's Sword Cleansing Pool?"
Even Eldest Senior Sister was momentarily stunned upon hearing her little junior brother's report.
*If memory serves, I told you to go to the Sword Cleansing Pool to refine the Seven Stars Sword Set, not to refine the Sword Cleansing Pool itself.*
"It was an accident," Lu Yang repeatedly insisted, emphasizing that there was an explanation.
Even so, Lu Yang was still in the wrong here. Seizing sect property for oneself warranted punitive measures no matter how you sliced it.
"I recall that you promised me, Cult Master, that I could take anything from this sect?" Jiang Lianyi stepped forward voluntarily to bail out her Senior Brother.
"In that case, how about I take the Sword Cleansing Pool?"
"Of course."
And just like that, the matter was made justifiable.
Eldest Senior Sister's original intention had simply been to find an excuse to grant the Sword Cleansing Pool to Lu Yang fair and square.
To the Dao Seeking Sect, the Sword Cleansing Pool was expendable. In two thousand years, only two sword cultivators had ever emerged, so the pool was used pathetically seldom.
It just couldn't be handed directly to Little Junior Brother, as that would make a mockery of the sect's rules and regulations, which was detrimental to sect unity.
"Very well. Since you have already acquired the Sword Cleansing Pool, in just a few days you will master the Seven Stars Sword Set and meet the fundamentals for practicing sword formations."
Eldest Senior Sister produced a booklet from inside her robes.
"This was spoils of war I seized after encountering an enemy. It happens to contain a sword formation. This is the first level; take it and study it first."
Lu Yang took the booklet. When he saw the name of the sword formation, his hands shook, nearly dropping it.
*Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation*.
"Can this sword formation really exterminate an immortal?" As Lu Yang asked this, his voice trembled.
It seemed a rhetorical question; if it couldn't exterminate immortals, why would it be named that?
"It can't. He probably just gave it a formidable name to bolster his courage."
Lu Yang: "..."
What lunatic came up with this name?
"I don't know who he was either," Eldest Senior Sister recalled. "I discovered him by chance. He was secretly plotting a major scheme back then; had he succeeded, all of Great Xia would have been turned upside down. The situation was critical, with no time to seek backup, so I was forced to take action—and then I did him in."
"He was an ancient cultivator without a doubt, though I'm not certain whether he was from Great Yu or Great Qian."
"This sword formation, as well as your Green Blade Sword, belonged to him."
"I've tested the power of the sword formation. It can't exterminate immortals, but its might is still quite impressive. What you're holding is the first level; once your cultivation realm improves, I'll give you the rest."
"Was he a sword cultivator?"
"No, he just knew how to use a sword. It felt like he dabbled in talismans, arrays, and the like, but his mastery wasn't very refined. Bullying half-immortals with his cultivation realm was fine, but he couldn't hold up when facing someone on his own level."
"...Wait a second, he was an immortal?!"
Eldest Senior Sister didn't understand why Lu Yang was reacting so strongly: "Of course he was an immortal. A half-immortal wouldn't dare give his sword formation a name like that."
"He can be considered the weakest immortal I've encountered, even slightly weaker than the one I ran into at the Immortal Cult."
Never mind Lu Yang—even Jiang Lianyi couldn't keep her composure.
Eldest Senior Sister made it sound so casual. He was the weakest immortal, but the weakest immortal was still an immortal, and yet you killed him just like that!
The Immortal Fairy recalled the aura of a Dao fruit she had sensed deep within the Dao Seeking Sect's treasury. It must have belonged to that person.
"Tsk, it's just killing an immortal. You talk as if no one else could do it. It's only because I haven't had the chance; otherwise, I could kill one too."
Lu Yang was just about to thank Eldest Senior Sister and set about fostering feelings with the Seven Stars Sword Set so he could begin cultivating the sword formation and become a qualified sword cultivator, when he noticed an unusual reaction from his Nine Nether Token. Someone from the Nine Nether Cult was contacting him.
He read the text on the Nine Nether Token, his expression turning odd.
"What is it? The Nine Nether Cult contacted you?" Eldest Senior Sister asked.
"The Nine Nether Cult told me that the Shining Sun Cult Master wants to meet with me."
Chapter 640