Published: March 8, 2025
Wei Wuyan was filled with endless confusion: Could talking to his sister really lead to a breakthrough in cultivation? What kind of reasoning was that...
Unfortunately, his sister had passed away many years ago; otherwise, he would have liked to talk to her...
Otherwise, how could one explain Chu Yang's breakthrough? It was simply unfathomable.
That night, although the three of them said they would stay for one night, none of them actually slept. Wei Wuyan was astonished, pondering carefully what was happening. Could this be another type of epiphany during cultivation?
Using familial bonds for enlightenment? Or... using bloodlines for enlightenment? Wei Wuyan thought about it until late into the night. The more he thought, the more absurd it seemed, and the more restless he became. He felt dizzy and finally gave up.
Chu Le'er was thinking: The illness will be better soon! Hehe, the suffering of so many years will finally be over, hehe... Big brother is going to teach me poison techniques, hehe... Once I master them, I'll step out and shout: Grandma, I am Chu Le'er! Chu Le'er is Grandma! — Surely many people will be shocked on the spot, scared to faint, and then bow down like pounding garlic: Wow... Grandma, you are a master of the number one poison in the world...
As Chu Le'er thought, her big eyes squinted into crescent moons, her rosy lips twitching again and again...
Her petite tongue involuntarily poked out to lick her lips, excited and happy about the bright future she was envisioning, and... she couldn't sleep.
Chu Yang was entirely immersed in understanding his new realm, the fifth rank sword emperor.
Wei Wuyan felt he wasn't wrong; in sword path cultivation, the fifth rank sword emperor represented the mid-stage of this phase, famously known as: the sword unsheathed!
The sword is unsheathed but has not left the sheath. Its sharp edges radiate, and the killing intent is palpable; having just grasped the essence of the sword, one can command the spirit of the sword.
This was the fifth rank sword emperor.
At dawn the next day, they set off. Chu Yang and Wei Wuyan felt nothing unusual, except for the little girl Chu Le'er, who had panda-like dark circles under her eyes, yawning all the way...
By that morning, they had reached Black Mountain Pass.
Black Mountain Pass was the boundary point! It was also the most terrifying region in the entire southeast.
"Once we cross this Black Mountain Pass, we will have truly left the southeast," Wei Wuyan said, pointing ahead with a serious voice.
Chu Yang looked at the triangular intersection ahead, took a deep breath, and said, "Our Chu Family isn't too remote in the southeast. To the southeast of the Chu Family, there's still a vast area, and further southeast is a desolate place. Calculating it, we have actually walked nearly seven thousand miles from the Chu Family to this Black Mountain Pass! This means that the entire southeast has a straight-line distance of over twenty thousand miles. What a vast area this is."
Wei Wuyan said lightly, "And what you see in the southeast doesn’t even account for one-ninth of the entire upper three heavens! If we were to go from the southeast to the southwest, it would probably take a hundred thousand miles! And from due south to due north, even further!"
Chu Yang gasped, "The upper three heavens are enormous, many times larger than the middle and lower three heavens!"
Wei Wuyan chuckled, "A larger area is good! Heroes emerge, and it’s lively! If trouble arises, it’s easier to hide. Hence, the rewards for blood rewards are set higher."
Chu Yang laughed helplessly, "You’re just thinking about the rewards."
Wei Wuyan said, "However, the emergence of the Blood Reward organization has indeed made the upper three heavens much quieter. Otherwise... I really don't know how many bandits would emerge."
Chu Yang said silently, "I don’t think so. The emergence of Blood Reward has made this world even more chaotic. Bandits and Blood Reward have become intertwined; accepting tasks means you are a Blood Reward member, not accepting means you are a bandit. This makes it even harder for enforcers to act. Blood Reward is actually another kind of enforcer, dealing with those that are hard for the enforcers to handle. And now that they are mixed together, perhaps enforcers sometimes have nowhere to act. While there are certain benefits, from a certain perspective, it actually condones evil."