When Sheng Ge woke up, she realized that compared to thousands of years ago, the spiritual energy in this world was pitifully scarce.
As the number one cultivation sect in the past, the Wuji Sect naturally had plenty of standard setups like sect-protecting formations and various barriers.
That was also why, when the apocalypse descended more than a year ago, the area surrounding the Wuji Sect had escaped disaster and why no mutated animals or plants had appeared there during that entire year.
Because of the sect-protecting formation.
But whether it was formations or barriers, besides relying on the spiritual energy originally poured into them by the creator, they also needed people to continuously replenish them with spiritual energy or spirit stones in order to maintain operation.
Once spiritual energy became insufficient, the effects of the formations would gradually weaken until they disappeared entirely.
Over the thousands of years, as spiritual energy dried up and inheritances were lost, no one knew when the people of the sect had either forgotten—or simply become powerless—to maintain the sect’s formations.
So by now, all the other formations and barriers in the sect had long since failed. Only the sect-protecting formation personally set up by her master and the elders, along with the Sword Tomb barrier, still remained.
But even they were already on the verge of collapse.
If Sheng Ge had not awakened, the sect-protecting formation might have been able to barely last a few more years.
But now…
The final trace of spiritual energy left in the formation had already been subconsciously absorbed by Sheng Ge the moment she woke up.
Mm…
So…
The mutated animals that had never appeared for over a year… finally appeared.
Their Wuji Sect…
Was truly about to disappear.
“Aooo~~”
Sheng Ge was mentally exhausted, but that did not stop the group of mutated rabbits from wanting to tear them apart. More than ten mutated rabbits charged forward together, smashing apart grass, trees, rocks, and anything else in their path.
“Grandma Grandmaster, be careful!” Ah Bao shouted anxiously.
But Sheng Ge stood calmly in front of him. She raised a hand toward the Sword Tomb, and over a dozen swords shot into the air. Following the movement of her fingers, they swiftly harvested the rabbits’ heads.
In just a few seconds, the entire rabbit pack was wiped out.
“It… it’s over?” Ah Bao stared blankly at the corpses of the rabbits falling one after another, still unable to process what had happened.
Sheng Ge rolled her eyes at her useless little disciple-grandson. She could only say that people thousands of years later truly knew nothing about sword cultivators.
Too lazy to bother with him, she walked toward the corpses of the Huosha Squad. Beside one of the bodies, a pile of items had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
If she remembered correctly, this was the person who had used that strange black weapon to attack her earlier.
Sheng Ge walked over to the pile of items. There were many things there—mostly food and daily necessities, along with the weapon the man had been holding before, some knives and clubs, several colorful stones, and many strange objects Sheng Ge had never seen before.
“So he was a space-type ability user!” Ah Bao ran over excitedly and immediately began rummaging through the pile.
A huge amount of rice, flour, soybeans, white sugar, brown sugar, compressed biscuits, all kinds of canned food, instant noodles, ham sausages—
Ahhh! There was even self-heating hotpot!
There were also several chickens and ducks along with all kinds of fresh vegetables.
Though those looked like the ones he and his master had raised.
Hmph, robbers!
Clothes, blankets, tents, flashlights, gasoline, and so much medicine!
There were also guns and bullets!
Ahhhhh! And so many crystal cores!!!
“Grandma Grandmaster, I think we struck it rich!”
Ah Bao practically wanted to scream like a groundhog.
Although during the past year, thanks to his master and the old mountain villagers, he had never lacked food or water, he still knew how scarce supplies had become outside. These things absolutely counted as a huge fortune.
The Huosha Squad: We worked our asses off for so long to save all this up! Of course there’s a lot!!
“Space-type ability user?”
“Mm-hmm. It means they have a storage space that can hold items. When they die, all their supplies drop out. I didn’t expect that creepy-looking guy to actually be such a rare space-type ability user. No wonder he was the only one among them using a gun,” Ah Bao explained seriously.
“Rare?”
“Of course it’s rare! This is basically owning a whole storage space! With this kind of ability, you can hoard supplies anytime and anywhere. This is standard protagonist equipment in apocalypse novels!” Ah Bao argued confidently.
“Hmph. Ignorant child.”
Sheng Ge snorted coldly and swept her hand across the pile of items. In the next moment, everything disappeared.
Rare?
Couldn’t anyone do this with a storage ring?
The world thousands of years later had really regressed terribly.
“Waaah… Grandma Grandmaster, you’re also a space-type ability user!” Ah Bao looked shocked and full of admiration.
Sheng Ge did not bother explaining. Instead, she turned to look at the pile of rabbit corpses—or more accurately, the swords stuck in them.
Only then did Ah Bao remember the strange issue.
How could mutated animals have appeared in the Wuji Sect?
Sheng Ge briefly explained the matter of the sect-protecting formation to him. After listening, Ah Bao became depressed.
“So, Grandma Grandmaster… does that mean we’re going to lose our home?”
Ah Bao was heartbroken.
He had grown up here and rarely even went down the mountain.
To him, the Wuji Sect was his home. It was his entire past life and every day he had spent together with his master.
But now he was being told that his home would gradually be overrun by those ugly mutated animals and plants outside.
He truly could not accept it.
Sheng Ge did not comfort him.
The Wuji Sect meant even more to her—it was engraved into her very bones.
But she also understood more clearly that the Wuji Sect did not only exist on this mountain.
It also existed within her heart.
Wherever she went, the Wuji Sect would be there.
Sheng Ge recalled all the swords back into the Sword Tomb and said to Ah Bao, “Go in. Pick one.”
“Huh?” Ah Bao looked surprised, but also strangely excited.
“You don’t want one?”
“Yes yes yes! I want one! I’m going right now!”
Afraid Sheng Ge would take back her words if he hesitated, Ah Bao immediately rushed inside. He had always used wooden swords before, and he had long dreamed of owning a real sword.
He hurried in fear that if he was even a second slower, his sword would fly away.
The divine sword of his dreams, his martial arts dream—he was coming!
But swords passed down from the cultivation world were obviously not something just anyone could wield.
Ah Bao excitedly ran inside and grabbed one sword.
He pulled.
Nothing.
He tried another.
Still nothing.
After trying more than ten swords without pulling out a single one, Ah Bao began wondering whether Grandma Grandmaster was messing with him.
Sheng Ge could barely stand watching anymore.
“Swords are spiritual. You must use your heart to sense them and find the sword most suited to you—not yank at them like you’re picking through trash!”
“Oh, okay okay.”
Ah Bao nodded as if he understood, then calmed himself and carefully tried to sense the swords.
But after a long while, he still sensed absolutely nothing.
Just as he thought his martial arts dream was about to shatter, he suddenly felt a sword beside him trembling slightly.
This sword was noticeably shorter than the others, almost like the kind of sword a Hobbit would use in The Lord of the Rings.
Ah Bao instantly fell in love with it.
Carefully, he wrapped his hand around the hilt and finally succeeded in pulling it out.
The moment he unsheathed the sword, he seemed to form some kind of connection with it. However, since he had not yet stepped onto the path of cultivation, he could not clearly sense it and only assumed it was his imagination.
When Sheng Ge saw the sword Ah Bao had ultimately chosen, her gaze flickered slightly.
“This sword is called Fanshuang. From now on, treat it well.”
“Yes, Grandma Grandmaster.”
A sword cultivator’s wife—he understood.
Ah Bao hugged Fanshuang dearly, already faintly displaying the moral character expected of a sword cultivator.
Ah Bao’s sword issue was resolved, but what to do with the remaining swords became troublesome.
The Sword Tomb barrier had been destroyed, so they definitely could not remain there. The sect-protecting formation also would not last more than a few days, meaning nowhere was truly safe for the swords anymore.
Sheng Ge had a headache over it.
At that moment, all the swords seemed to sense her thoughts and began trembling one after another.
Sheng Ge: …You want to come with me?
Unable to think of a better solution, Sheng Ge finally stored all the swords inside her storage ring.
Coincidentally, her current spiritual power was still too weak for her to summon her natal sword anyway.
As she left the Sword Tomb, Sheng Ge suddenly felt a little guilty and subconsciously touched her dantian.
“Wife, believe me. I truly only love you. All those other ‘confidantes’ were just fleeting encounters!”