Compared to three years ago, aside from her increasingly mature appearance, the biggest change in Mingtai was her eyes—bright as two sword tips, sharp and piercing.
"Senior Brother Lu Yang, I heard you survived the never-before-seen Invincible Divine Lightning as well as the number-one Qian Heaven Lightning Tribulation that one only encounters when breaking through to the Soul Formation stage, and reached the Soul Formation stage?"
Mingtai set down her great hammer and cupped her hands in greeting, delighted to see Lu Yang.
Although the people of the Sword Tower always praised her Sword Dao talent to no end, in her eyes, Senior Brother Lu Yang was the one who possessed the pinnacle of Sword Dao talent; she still fell short compared to him.
When it was her turn to undergo tribulations, if she ever ran into the Invincible Divine Lightning and Qian Heaven Lightning Tribulation, she was certain she wouldn't survive it.
"And this is...?" Mingtai noticed Yun Mengmeng, who had been standing quietly at the side without saying a word.
"Her surname is Yun. We met on the road, and she's traveling with me for now."
"So it is Miss Yun." Mingtai bowed politely, showing no disdain despite Yun Mengmeng's low cultivation base.
Yun Mengmeng felt that people in the outside world were actually quite nice, not at all like the terrifying, calculating schemers Granny had warned her about. Granny had even told her that while traveling outside, she had to keep a low profile, suppress her cultivation, and never expose her true strength before seeing Xiao Zhi.
"You're forging swords here?" Lu Yang noticed the heavy hammer Mingtai had just set down.
"This is a tradition left behind by the first Tower Master. He believed that sword cultivators could deepen their comprehension of the Sword Dao through forging swords."
"From then on, every disciple of the Sword Tower has had to learn the art of forging."
The first Tower Master was the Sword Tower Supreme—a genius of his generation who advanced triumphantly all the way until he halted at half-immortal and perished under the Immortal Ascension Tribulation.
Under normal circumstances, Mingtai called the Sword Tower Supreme "Master." However, the fact that she was the sword spirit of the Sword Tower Supreme was a secret known only to a few top figures in the Sword Tower. It was kept completely confidential from outsiders, so she could not call him that in front of Lu Yang.
Lu Yang knew Mingtai's origins, but only because the Immortal Fairy had told him.
"I see."
"Are you here to buy a sword, Senior Brother Lu Yang? The swords here were all crafted by our Sword Tower disciples, so they probably won't catch your eye."
"It's not that..." In front of Mingtai, Lu Yang was embarrassed to say that their swords were too low in grade to be worthy of him.
"Why not try your luck at the Grand Sword Inquiry Ceremony, Senior Brother Lu Yang? If there's a sword that resonates with you, it will naturally follow you."
"There's something like that at the Grand Sword Inquiry Ceremony?"
Although Lu Yang was a sword cultivator and the Grand Sword Inquiry Ceremony was the most important event for all sword cultivators, he really hadn't paid much attention to the details. He only knew it was a tradition left behind by the Sword Tower Supreme, held once every hundred years.
"Our Sword Tower frequently forges swords, you see. Across generations of Tower Masters and elders, there have always been a few fond of crafting spirit swords, occasionally producing blades endowed with spirituality."
"Once those Tower Masters and elders exhausted their lifespans, these swords became masterless. If forced upon sword cultivators who lacked affinity with them, it would only incur the swords' displeasure."
"Yet if they remain sealed away, covered in dust, their spirituality will eventually fade."
"Unwilling to let these spirit swords gather dust, our Sword Tower opened the sword vaults. If anyone can resonate with a spirit sword, they may take it, allowing it to shine brilliantly in the hands of a suitable sword cultivator. However, it can only be used by that sword cultivator personally—it cannot be sold or gifted away. And after the cultivator dies, the spirit sword must be returned to our Sword Tower."
"Your sect is truly generous!" Lu Yang said from the bottom of his heart. It went without saying how precious a sword endowed with spirituality was; that the Sword Tower was willing to let outsiders wield them was an open-minded generosity that earned his admiration. The Sword Tower truly lived up to its name as a holy land for sword cultivators.
"We simply don't want the spirit swords to gather dust, that's all." As a sword spirit, Mingtai felt this most deeply.
"How about having the Sword Tower consider partnering with our Dao Seeking Sect?" the Immortal Fairy suggested in the spiritual space.
"Partnering?"
"See, the Sword Tower doesn't want the swords' spirituality to fade, and our Dao Seeking Sect happens to have the means to prevent that."
"The Fifth Elder is that amazing?"
"Not that kid. To keep a sword's spirituality from ever fading, it either needs to find a master or elevate that spirituality into a sword spirit. Look at our sect's river spirit—isn't that the latter method?"
Hearing this, Lu Yang roughly grasped what the Immortal Fairy had in mind. His eyelid twitched. "So, Fairy, you mean refining the prisoners on Prison Peak into sword spirits and fusing them with the Sword Tower's swords?"
"That's right! Isn't that a great idea?"
"No." Lu Yang rejected the Immortal Fairy's proposal flat out. That was not how an orthodox, prestigious sect did things.
Mass-refining souls with sinister winds howling and ghosts wailing... If outsiders saw that, wouldn't it make the Dao Seeking Sect look like a demonic cult?
"Besides, how would we settle the ownership of those spirit swords? Are we supposed to steal and rob all those swords for the Dao Seeking Sect? Our Dao Seeking Sect is the pinnacle of the righteous path; we can't engage in such behavior."
"That seems to make sense."
"What a pity. This Immortal was thinking of organizing a grand sword-spirit refining event and refining Guan Shanhai into your Green Blade Sword while at it. Then your immortal sword would have a sword spirit, making it a top-tier immortal artifact that not even Immortal Ying Tian could forge."
"Wait! It seems that to give your immortal sword a sword spirit, there's no need to refine Guan Shanhai." The Immortal Fairy had a brilliant idea that could take the Green Blade Sword to an even higher level.
"What do you mean?"
The Immortal Fairy smiled mysteriously. "Little Yangzi, take out the Green Blade Sword."
Lu Yang obediently did as told and retrieved the Green Blade Sword from his identity jade token, still unsure of what the Immortal Fairy meant.
The Immortal Fairy flew out of the spiritual space, slid down Lu Yang's arm, and slipped right into the Green Blade Sword with a whoosh.
"Now your Green Blade Sword is a top-tier immortal artifact with a sword spirit!"
Staying in the spiritual space all the time was getting dull; a change of scenery wasn't bad either.
The Immortal Fairy warned fiercely, "You can't put the Green Blade Sword back into your identity jade token!"
"...Fine."
Lu Yang casually swung the Green Blade Sword a couple of times. Although by the Immortal Fairy's logic the Green Blade Sword was now the most powerful weapon under heaven, Lu Yang didn't feel that way at all. It felt exactly the same as before.
"Senior Brother Lu Yang, why did you suddenly take out your sword?" Mingtai asked, puzzled. Senior Brother Lu Yang had looked possessed just now, as if taken over by an ominous entity, abruptly pulling out the Green Blade Sword and swinging it around like he was about to randomly slash a couple of bystanders.
"Nothing. Just bringing it out to get some fresh air."
"Oh." Mingtai could understand Lu Yang's behavior. Sword cultivators regarded their swords as their beloved, so having a screw loose was completely understandable.
"By the way, Fairy, is there anything off about this girl named Yun Mengmeng?" Lu Yang always felt that something wasn't quite right about Yun Mengmeng, though he couldn't put his finger on it.
The Immortal Fairy huffed unhappily. "You treated her to hot pot, then took her to listen to pingshu and eat snacks—what could possibly be wrong with her?"
Even she had never received such treatment!
Chapter 980