“Deceive you? I really didn’t lift a finger. You threw yourself onto my sword and died. How is that my fault?” Su Twelve said expressionlessly.
This fellow had wanted him dead from the very start, and his cultivation was far superior to Su Twelve’s. Sparing him would be like letting a tiger return to the mountains.
Though he was tempted by the Vermilion Fruit, he had not lost his mind.
Talking so much had simply been to make the other party lower his guard entirely. Saving a little more strength meant having a better chance against whatever dangers might suddenly appear.
“Ah! You… you bastard! You’ll die a horrible death!” The young man in the silk headband screamed hysterically as blood poured from his mouth.
After a few breaths, he fell flat on his back, his life force nearly spent and his body utterly weak. His unfocused gaze settled on Su Twelve, and he began to beg. “Please! Save me! I don’t want to die! I still want to Aspire to the Great Dao…”
But whether he cursed or begged, Su Twelve stood coldly to the side, paying him no heed.
A few minutes later, the young man in the silk headband lay motionless, no longer breathing. His eyes remained wide open, as though he could not rest in peace.
Su Twelve drew his White Mist Sword and sent out a few strikes from a distance. Only after confirming the man was thoroughly dead did he let out a breath of relief and step forward.
He was really dead! Su Twelve stood there, somewhat dazed. It was his first time killing someone. Beneath the relief of surviving a calamity, he felt an emptiness in his heart.
However, he had killed countless Demon Beasts over the past few years, and his will had grown remarkably resilient.
He only lost focus for a moment before snapping back to his senses. He quickly gathered all the useful items from the corpse and the ground, then tossed out a fireball to burn the remains to ashes. With his spoils secured, he hurried away.
Although this area was remote, the commotion from their battle had not been small. Someone might come to investigate.
If anyone discovered him, it would be the end of his life.
Private brawls between Sect disciples were a major taboo, and killing a fellow disciple was a capital offense.
Half an hour later, Su Twelve returned to his dwelling.
He meditated silently for a while to calm his mind and restore his True Essence. Only then did he take out his spoils and examine them one by one.
The first thing he picked up was the young man’s identity token. It clearly bore six small words: Tianhua Peak, Meng Tianyi.
“He was actually from Tianhua Peak? That makes sense. According to the sect manual, most of its disciples are sword cultivators. Since he claimed to be one, it’s only natural that he came from Tianhua Peak.”
Su Twelve muttered softly. He flicked his finger, sending out a fireball to burn the token to ash as well. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Once that was done, he picked up a round shield.
Devoid of True Essence, the shield had shrunk to the size of a palm. Its surface was marked with patterns resembling a tortoise shell, and three faint words could be seen: Tortoise Pattern Shield.
“No wonder this round shield blocked an attack from a High Grade Magical Artifact—it’s actually a Middle Grade Magical Artifact. Thank goodness I attacked at close range. If he had managed to activate this Tortoise Pattern Shield in time, who knows which of us would have won!”
“It’s a pity it’s cracked, though. I wonder if the mysterious pill furnace can repair the damage during refinement.”
Lowering his head, he inspected the shield and noted a long, narrow crack along its surface. Su Twelve felt both fortunate and a little pained.
After a moment’s thought, he took out the mysterious pill furnace. He injected a sliver of True Essence into it, expanding the furnace until it was slightly larger than the shield.
He then tossed the Tortoise Pattern Shield inside.
Just like when he had refined the White Mist Sword, the Tortoise Pattern Shield was immediately enveloped in a faint azure light.
A few breaths later, the transformation ceased. Su Twelve carefully put away the mysterious pill furnace before reexamining the Tortoise Pattern Shield.
Following its refinement, the shield was now only half its original size. Its entire body had turned translucent, with the sand-brown surface faintly radiating a crystalline luster.
“This… it actually became a Top Grade Magical Artifact?”
Su Twelve’s eyes went wide with wild joy. In the world of Cultivation, defensive Magical Artifacts were even more precious and rare than offensive ones.
And a Top Grade defensive Magical Artifact was on par with ordinary spatial artifacts in value.
With such a treasure in hand, his chances of survival had vastly improved.
“If I had this treasure earlier, Meng Tianyi’s sword qi would never have been able to scratch me!”
“Still, I suppose I should thank him for delivering such a fine gift just before the Newcomer Trial.”
“It’s a shame the crack on this Tortoise Pattern Shield remains. It seems the mysterious pill furnace can only refine treasures and raise their grade, not repair damage.”
Forcing down his rising excitement, Su Twelve admired the Tortoise Pattern Shield a moment longer before carefully tucking it into his robes.
Despite the damage, a Top Grade Magical Artifact provided an immense boost in defensive power. The cracks were only a minor flaw.
Stowing the shield, Su Twelve also stored away the two Low Grade Qi Gathering Pills and the three Escape Talismans he had looted.
Only then did his gaze shift to the final item he had retrieved from Meng Tianyi’s body.
The book was battered and old, entirely missing its cover. The pages were yellowed, and many of the words were faded and blurry.
But since the man had guarded it so closely, Su Twelve knew it had to be valuable.
When he flipped open the pages and read the contents, Su Twelve’s pupils violently constricted.
In a flash, veins bulged across his body as fury and agitation washed over him.
Panting heavily, he rapidly flipped through the text.
Most of the book was devoted to a sword-cultivation manual known as the Skeleton Sword Art.
Only cultivators at the sixth layer of Qi Condensation or above could practice this art, and the manual covered only the sixth through ninth layers.
Furthermore, its cultivation required the use of abundant yin-attribute treasures and the corpses of the dead.
Once mastered, the practitioner could unleash a unique Skeleton Sword Qi that devoured the blood essence of the living. The more blood essence it consumed, the stronger the sword qi became.
This description instantly brought to mind the man in black who had murdered his grandfather and the other villagers.
He remembered it with agonizing clarity. On that day, the sword qi unleashed by the man in black had taken the shape of a skeleton—almost exactly as described in this book. If anything, its power had been even greater.
“The Skeleton Sword Art! Could it be… that man in black is hiding on Tianhua Peak?”
“But even though Meng Tianyi had this manual on him, I can’t rule out the possibility that he found it somewhere else.”
“It seems tracking down that man in black will take a considerable amount of effort. No matter where he is, I will drag him out into the light sooner or later. But right now, my priority must be raising my own strength.”
Su Twelve sat on his bed in a daze for a while before finally pulling himself together.
For the past four years, although he had been bitterly cultivating in the Waste Pill Room, he had also been secretly investigating the whereabouts of that man in black.
Unfortunately, he had found absolutely nothing.
While he still lacked any direct clues, he at least knew the name and properties of the sword art the man had used.
Taking a deep breath, Su Twelve picked up the battered manual once more and continued to read.