“Look, look—” A girl lowered her voice and tugged her companion’s sleeve, pretending it was by chance as she pulled her toward the sea. “That cosplayer, oh my god, he’s so handsome!”
“Where, where?” Her companion followed her gaze, and a majestic, abyss-like aura pressed down heavily, making her knees go weak involuntarily. But at the very moment awe welled up, her face-lover instinct struck back fiercely. She sucked in a breath, and her breathing was held in by that face.
“Is he an actor hired by the scenic area? Shall we go ask if we can take a photo together?”
“I don’t dare… will you come with me?”
“I, I don’t dare either…”
Countless gazes fell on the man, eyes glinting with eagerness to try, but not one person dared to step forward for a photo.
“No way, if I miss the chance to take a photo with a face this divine, I’ll regret it my whole life.”
The girls turned their heads to look for someone to give them courage, but saw the man walking over unhurriedly, and the girls who had just been whispering suddenly fell silent.
The whole beach seemed to hold its breath at that moment.
Dusk spread out behind him, and the streetlights came on one after another as he passed. Light and shadow crisscrossed on his white clothes, and an inexplicable sense of oppression enveloped the whole scene.
Under the nervous and expectant gazes of the two, that snow-white figure finally reached them, but stopped in front of Jiang Yuhuai, who was beside them.
The man’s eyes were like water as he quietly looked at Jiang Yuhuai, his robes stirring without wind, as if a layer of cold moonlight enveloped his whole body.
Jiang Yuhuai’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He instinctively clenched his fingertips, and his voice was a little tight: “You…”
The man held out a piece of paper in front of Jiang Yuhuai, his voice clear as a spring: “Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to this address?”
【”Wrong, wrong! Sect Master, you’re asking the wrong question! A born sword bone! This is a born sword bone! You should be getting him to join our Wenxin Sect!”】 The paper fox, behind Lu Xiuyuan’s ear, was so anxious he wanted to pull his hair, and his shrieks nearly pierced Lu Xiuyuan’s eardrums.
【”Sect Master, this is the thread of life the divination spoke of. The sect’s life and death are in your grasp. Sect Master, I’m begging you, quickly take the sword bone as a disciple!”】
Lu Xiuyuan turned a deaf ear and kept up his appearance of an immortal air and Daoist bearing, watching Jiang Yuhuai take out his phone and, following the navigation, wave his arms and point out a pile of directions: “From here you go straight to the intersection, then turn right and walk to the next intersection, then toward the front left, then…”
In the end, Jiang Yuhuai asked a question the girls didn’t dare to but very much wanted to: “Teacher, can I take a photo with you?”
The paper fox’s shrieks stopped abruptly, then turned extremely excited.
【”I know, I know! ‘Teacher’ means master! As expected of the Sect Master, with just a slight move he gets a born sword bone begging to join our Wenxin Sect!”】
Lu Xiuyuan, in white clothes and black hair, dressed as a sword cultivator, was not impatient like the paper fox. Instead he lightly knitted his brows and said in puzzlement, “Teacher? My cultivation has not even reached the Mahayana stage. How would I dare to take disciples recklessly? If my casual guidance made your cultivation go astray, that would be my sin.”
The paper fox was about to faint. Speed-running from Qi Refining to Mahayana in four hours? He didn’t even dare say that with the Sect Master’s spiritual root he could reach Golden Core before dying of old age.
He had no choice but to remind him: 【”Sect Master, we only have four shichen. If we still can’t find a disciple, in four shichen Wenxin Sect will be gone QAQ.”】
“However, you do have some affinity with my Wenxin Sect.” Lu Xiuyuan turned his palm over, and a simple, antique jade tablet appeared. “This is the Wenxin Trial Jade Tablet. If you can pass the entrance trial, then this affinity may turn into a true master–disciple bond between you and me.”
Jiang Yuhuai was stunned. He had never thought that this cosplayer, who looked so aloof, would get so deep into character, oh no, would be so dedicated!
“Huh?” Jiang Yuhuai scratched his head. “Is this the scenic area’s immersive storyline? But I have to go home, I don’t have time to play.”
Having thought of something, Jiang Yuhuai’s eyes flashed, and he cleared his throat: “Mage is handsome, body cultivator is mighty, alchemist is rich, healer cures all illnesses, what does the sword cultivator have? Sword cultivators, not even dogs would learn!” Heaven and earth were his witness; he liked playing sword cultivators best in games, but wasn’t he in a hurry to get home! In order not to go OOC, he had also made the great sacrifice of playing a vicious cannon-fodder for once!
Before Lu Xiuyuan could speak, the paper fox was already jumping up and down, pointing at Jiang Yuhuai’s nose and cursing: 【”Pah! You thing that looks down on sword cultivators with dog eyes! @%￥#%#…”】
Although the paper fox badly wanted to take a disciple quickly so that Wenxin Sect could escape the fate of vanishing, he absolutely would not allow anyone to look down on the Sect Master like this! The Sect Master’s bone structure was a bit poor, his spiritual root a bit useless, and his cultivation a bit low, but, but the Sect Master was the face of their Wenxin Sect! He absolutely would not allow anyone to humiliate the Sect Master like this!
Lu Xiuyuan took back the jade tablet: “In that case…”
His words had not yet finished when a cry for help came from far away.
“Help…”
“It’s terrible! Someone’s been swept away! Where’s the lifeguard? Come quickly and save him!”
The beach instantly erupted.
“It’s too late, these waves are too big…”
The receding tide was fierce and terrifying, and, even more fatal, the sea surface under the setting sun glittered painfully bright, making it impossible to see where the person was.
Zhou Xingjian took off his clothes and ran toward the sea. The man beside him grabbed him: “Are you crazy?! The waves are this big. If you can’t save them, you’ll die in the sea too! You’re still so—”
He said nothing, pulled over the rope of a sun umbrella, wrapped it around his waist, and shoved the other end to the man: “Uncle Li, help me hold it.”
Before he had finished speaking, he had already jumped into the sea with a “splash.”
“Hey, you!” Uncle Li didn’t have time to scold him either, and hurriedly shouted to the tourists around, “The rope isn’t enough, help find more rope!”
The beach was in chaos. Shouts, the sound of waves, and the footsteps of people looking for rope mixed together, and Jiang Yuhuai and the two girls also ran to help look for rope and pull the rope.
A few steps away, Lu Xiuyuan stood quietly, cold and aloof, seemingly not moved at all by the passing of two lives.
The paper fox watched Jiang Yuhuai’s departing back with tearful, blurry eyes and wailed: “It’s over, everything is over, Wenxin Sect and the trillions of living beings of Blue Star will all become food for the heavenly demons from beyond the realm!”
Lu Xiuyuan plucked him, soaking wet, off from behind his ear: “Wait here obediently for me. The chance of life given by the newbie gift pack is only now about to begin. But before that—”
Lu Xiuyuan looked at 【Immortal Fate: 1】 on the panel. He hadn’t wanted to use up the immortal fate so early, but it involved human lives, and he had no room left to feel sorry about it.
He tapped convert without hesitation.
Immortal Fate 1 → Spiritual Power 9999
Add the 1 point of fame—
10,000 points, exactly enough for a ten-pull.
Sect Warehouse, open—
A vortex visible only to Lu Xiuyuan appeared in the air, and ten rays of spiritual light flew out of it and landed in front of Lu Xiuyuan.
Nine white lights, one colored light.
Lu Xiuyuan first checked the colored light. It was a secret manual that countless sword cultivators dreamed of, the Swallow-Roaming Sword Art (Heaven grade), but for him now it was of no use.
Sword Embryo X5
Qi-Gathering Pill X10
Basic Sword-Riding Technique X1
Basic Spirit-Gathering Formation X1
Blank Jade Slip X100
Spirit Stone X10
Wind-Riding Talisman X10
Li Fire Pearl X10
Basic Water-Avoiding Talisman X10
Sword Intent X1 (Damaged)
The paper fox put on a mournful face: “Why are they all junk, I mean basic supplies? Sect Master, your luck…”
Lu Xiuyuan took his draw quite well. He smiled and curled his lips, and the two jade slips, Basic Sword-Riding Technique and Swallow-Roaming Sword Art, shattered into points of starlight at his fingertips. In an instant, countless insights into sword-riding rushed into his sea of consciousness like a flood through opened gates, every sword move seemed to have been practiced a thousand times over the years.
Lu Xiuyuan opened his eyes and returned to reality. Feeling empty at the nearly nonexistent spiritual power in his dantian, he gave a wry smile and looked at the resources he had just obtained: “It seems none of these things can be kept.”
“Glug…”
The oxygen in his lungs was nearly used up.
Zhou Xingjian had lost his sense of direction in the sea. The rope tied around his waist bound him, but also held him back—Zhou Xingjian stretched out his hand, just a few meters short, yet he could no longer get any closer.
Five minutes.
That small body no longer struggled, drifting up and down with the waves like a piece of trash.
On shore they were still shouting, still pulling the rope. But he knew the child couldn’t wait anymore.
Zhou Xingjian opened his eyes and looked at the figure getting farther and farther away. He didn’t know whether the other was still breathing; he only knew that if he didn’t untie the rope now, for the rest of his life…
“Where is he? Did you save him?”
“Found him, found him, the child’s been found!” a woman holding binoculars cried out in delight. “Quick, pull! Pull them back!”
The crowd on shore at once became as if pumped with adrenaline, but no matter how they pulled the rope back, the figure of Zhou Xingjian holding the child did not come any closer.
Someone murmured: “The rope, the rope’s broken…”
“Quick! Take a boat out there!”
They hadn’t taken a boat earlier out of fear of drawing the child into the engine, but now that they had found him, they could use modern technology.
The speedboat rushed into the waves, but a big wave struck, and Zhou Xingjian and the child vanished from the sea surface again.
Even the speedboat was flipped over.
“It’s over, this time…”
Just as the crowd despaired, a figure in white came treading on the air.
He stood in mid-air, his robes stirring with the wind, and his thin lips parted: “Break!”
With that one word, heaven and earth fell solemn.
Before the crowd could recover from the fact that someone could actually fly, they saw a sword light slash down from the heavens—
“Whoosh—”
The raging sea surface was actually cut open by a single sword.
The tide drew back to both sides with a roar, revealing the bare continental shelf, and the few drowning dark shapes were swept up by the sword light and landed steadily back on shore.