Zhang Ze feels very empty.
Even emptier than after hearing Guan Qi's story, “Silent Before Mo Jingchun.”
Although that story was bland, it was still a story.
But Zhang Ze's current feelings can be summed up by a book title.
《As a top-tier Second Generation heir, My Cheat Reincarnated at Eighty and Started as a Street Vendor》
There was a contrasting beauty to being so full that he had nothing better to do.
The System indeed had not screwed him over.
The three bizarre things were indeed three swords, and quite excellent Sword Embryos at that.
They even came with bound Cultivation Methods.
It was just that none of them were of much use to Zhang Ze.
The Demon Subduing True Lord was a series of Achievements, with rewards Distributed at every stage.
The reward for completing the second stage and entering the third stage was actually a choice among three Cultivation directions.
Three Different paths of growth.
The first sword.
【Mountain-Worshipping Tai Sui】
【Tai Sui, a Primordial object of Heaven and Earth, without spirit or intelligence.】
【Hidden within the Earth Veins of Spring Mountain, nourished by Yin energy, it can extinguish life and see death.】
【After a hundred years of sacrificial nourishment, its form resembles a Longevity Peach. It opens one eye and is called Mountain-Worshipping.】
【After a thousand years of nourishment, its form resembles a human head. It opens two eyes and is called Earth Soul.】
【One nourished for ten thousand years has never been heard of.】
【Consume it, and a Sword Embryo will form within you. After reaching the Golden Core Realm, you can transform the Golden Core into a sword.】
【The sword is named Life-Slashing.】
【The sword slashes flesh and blood, devours souls, and seizes spirits. This is the Life-Slashing Cultivation Method.】
After reading the Information before him, Zhang Ze glanced at the Longevity Peach.
Fine, if the System says it is a Longevity Peach, then it is a Longevity Peach. If the System calls that thing Yi Mu, then it is Yi Mu.
But eat this thing, then transform the Golden Core into a sword...
“Forget it. Whoever wants to eat it can eat it.”
The second sword.
【Nether Void】
【In the northern darkness lies an abyss called Returning Void.】
【Within Returning Void lives a fish named Void, which does not die upon leaving the water.】
【Void devours moonlight and swallows astral souls.】
【Its flesh is white and boneless, possessing only one sword bone.】
【Take the sword bone and forge a sword; the sword is called Nether Void.】
【Consume its flesh to discern the positions of the stars and constellations and investigate the Five Elements and Earth Veins.】
【Observing the sea-dragon patterns shining through the bone reveals the Dragon-Seeking Cultivation Method.】
This fish was actually pretty decent, specializing in finding treasures.
Although it had recently visited somewhere it should not have.
Still, it could be used after a good washing.
It was just that Zhang Ze remembered something Grandpa Wang had said while chatting nonsense with him.
“Try to learn as few Spells for observing the heavens and discerning the earth as possible. Learning them damages the Heavenly Dao, and your destiny will be missing something.”
“Look at those Daoist priests from Dragon Tiger Mountain. Most of them cannot even find wives.”
“Although their Sect rules do not include a ban on marriage, nearly all of them are old Boy Servants.”
Recalling Grandpa Wang's earnest teachings, Zhang Ze threw the fish aside.
“Forget it. I don't like eating fish.”
The third sword.
【Sword Core】
【Ancient Dragonwood, its branches form the Sword Core.】
【Nourish the sword through battle and refine the heart through courage.】
【Enter the Dao through martial arts.】
【Wield the Sword Core and never retreat from a deadly battle to obtain the Dragon Courage Cultivation Method.】
It seemed that the Steel Bar growing into this shape was most likely just a coincidence.
But Zhang Ze still felt that this thing was unsuitable for him.
“Most people who never retreat from a deadly battle are dead.”
If Zhang Ze's identity after transmigration had been that of a Rogue Cultivator, he would definitely have chosen that Big-Eyed Fish.
But the problem was that Zhang Ze was a Disciple of the Sword Sect, the second-largest Sect under Heaven.
He was also a Sword Sect Disciple with boundless prospects.
Thus, these three Sword Embryos, whose bound Cultivation Methods made it difficult to unleash their full Power, were quite useless at this point.
To him, they were merely three Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that could be exchanged for money.
A Cultivation Method was different from a Cultivation Method. Even Zhang Ze had to cultivate cautiously and could not switch casually.
If he had to make an analogy.
The mind method was equivalent to a computer operating system, while the cultivation method was equivalent to downloaded software.
Randomly switching mind methods could easily burn out the motherboard.
The Sword Sect's Cultivation Method had been deduced and verified by countless generations of Sword Sect Big Shots.
Cultivation proceeded gradually, making it safe and reliable.
Once Zhang Ze obtained the Sect Master's True Inheritance in the future, the Sword Sect's Cultivation Method could be said to be number one under Heaven in both Power and safety.
Although the six Sects of the Righteous Path all claimed that their Cultivation Methods were number one under Heaven.
Being tied for first still meant being first.
Zhang Ze did not know whether anyone would abandon the Genuine number-one Cultivation Method under Heaven to practice these three-no Pirated Secret Manuals.
In any case, he would not. If he suffered Qi Deviation, there would be no one to reason with.
Moreover, based on Zhang Ze's deduction, the Demon Subduing True Lord task line should be a series of tasks designed for starting as a Rogue Cultivator or in a Minor Sect.
Rogue Cultivators lacked Resources. To succeed, they either needed a fortuitous encounter or had to eat people.
For a proper Great Sect Disciple to kill enough people—160 of them—in a short time, with every one of them belonging to the Demonic Path...
That would be truly Perverted. Even if Lin Feng came, it would be difficult.
If he really did that, his daily routine would basically be eating, sleeping, Cultivation for a while, finding people, killing people, and eating.
Continuing to kill like that would certainly change a person's State of Mind.
They would basically take one of three paths.
If they became Obsessed with slaughter, the System would give them Tai Sui, and they would begin Cultivating Immortality as a gangster.
Eating, eating, eating, and killing, killing, killing all day long.
For those who liked the cautious treasure-hunting route, if they endured until their seventies or eighties before gathering enough people, the System's reward would be eating the Big-Eyed Fish.
From then on, they would walk the immortal path alone, killing people and seizing treasures—a virgin's Cultivation of Immortality.
If they were the type of heroic and fierce Figure, the System would give them the Steel Bar.
The story would become Cultivating Immortality by Slaying Demons and Eliminating Devils.
But the problem was that Zhang Ze had obtained this Achievement through intelligence and a series of coincidences.
If he had not been Sly, he could never have infiltrated this Demonic Stronghold.
Without that Spirit Snake Statue,
Spirit Snake Daoist would not have piled up so many Spirit Stones there.
Nor would he have summoned Almost all his subordinates back, only for them to be wiped out in one fell swoop.
If Zhang Ze had not been in the Sword Sect and built a good relationship with his Master and Chen Qin,
even if he had blown up that Statue, Spirit Snake Daoist would have swallowed him alive, torn him apart, and excreted him as feces long ago.
Thus, apart from feeling that he was brilliant, mighty, wise, and courageous,
Zhang Ze had Comprehended absolutely nothing.
【Reward two: one sword, choose for yourself.】
This absurd System Information was actually not absurd at all.
Because the System did not know what to give him either.
The System may as well have told him outright: Reward two is useless to you. Hurry and take reward one; that is my compensation to you.
Unfortunately, Zhang Ze was Obsessed with Loot Box Opening and simply could not control his hands.
“Forget it. Getting all three swords by Exploit a bug is still a profit.”
“They are just useless before the Golden Core.”
Putting away the fish and the Longevity Peach, Zhang Ze carried a lantern in one hand and the Steel Bar in the other, humming a little tune as he left the room.
However, halfway there, Zhang Ze Discovered that he was lost.
He felt Somewhat regretful, regretting that he had not asked the Pavilion Master to take him out while he was at it, instead of hurriedly looking for a place to open his Loot Boxes.
Many routes in the Secret passage of the Stronghold had been blocked because of the explosion.
Wang He's Map had become completely useless.
As for Lin Feng, who was likewise trapped underground...
Zhang Ze was not worried about him at all. He believed that with Brother Feng's Luck, even if he were buried beneath Five-Finger Mountain, he could crawl out backward.
Just as Zhang Ze was Thinking about whether to go back for Lin Feng or use the Jade Pendant to call for help,
a ray of light appeared before him.
Someone pried open a stone beam blocking the tunnel with their bare hands.
Senior Sister Qiao Lezhi appeared before Zhang Ze with a Luminous Pearl above her head.
“Junior Brother, what a coincidence.”
“Senior Sister, what a coincidence.”
“I got lost. Take me out, will you?” x2
Qiao Lezhi, who had been sent into the Stronghold to search for remnants of the Demonic Cult but had gotten lost, and Zhang Ze, who was likewise lost, stared at each other in silence.