Ancient Artifacts

Second fierce wind body tempering, [Exploration Distance: Two hundred thirteen meters, Ranking: One thousand two hundred eighty-first place.]

Third fierce wind body tempering, [Exploration Distance: Two hundred eighty-nine meters, Ranking: One thousand one hundred thirty-sixth place.]

For the remaining three months, Su Qing stayed on the Body School mountain peak, conducting her second and third sessions of body tempering.

She could have gone further, but her steady mindset ultimately surpassed her desire for competition, allowing her to disregard appealing rankings and choose to meticulously take each step, striving for gains with every move.

After the third body tempering session, Su Qing found that the muscle mass she had lost in the Myriad Beast Forest had finally been restored.

This was normal, after all, she moved step by step every day with the arduous effort of moving mountains, enduring fierce winds. Moreover, during recovery, she didn’t shortchange herself; top-quality resources were consumed.

Therefore, being able to strengthen her muscles while tempering her body was perfectly normal.

Whenever she felt satisfied with her current self, she would then think of Senior Sister Zhu Xu, and an unsatisfied hunger would still arise in Su Qing’s heart. This was perhaps a form of role model influence.

She would treat her junior sisters and brothers in the same way her senior sisters treated her.

The heritage of the Body School continued in this ordinary daily routine.

The Sword School’s unique specialty, the Yin Chen Qi Replenishing Grass, had always been an excellent spiritual herb for body tempering with fierce winds. Su Qing ate it daily like a regular meal. After several cycles of physical tempering and nutritional replenishment, in addition to the vaguely visible wind paths, her skin and bones underwent subtle changes.
This change was difficult to describe. In Su Qing’s own words, it became “tougher.”
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She transformed from a Body Cultivator with firm, delicious flesh into a Body Cultivator with firm, but unchewable flesh.
For her third body tempering, Su Qing was quite severely injured. She didn’t stay on Body Peak, but returned to the main peak dormitory to heal first.

The dormitory was very quiet. Tian Ning was guarding the central arena.

Tang Yueling had gone to the Pill School to research the matter of Earth Fire fusion.

The third secret realm was approaching, and every first-year student was on edge, preparing early to increase their chances of survival.

Su Qing glanced into her storage bracelet. Man Qing Sword was still in seclusion.

Its once sharp blade had apparently melted into a silvery expanse.

The captured curved saber was submerged in the silver liquid, almost silently.

Only the occasional tiny bubbles rising to the surface showed that the scene was not as serene and peaceful as it appeared, but rather a one-sided devouring and digestion.

It seemed it was very satisfied with this meal; it hadn’t swallowed it whole.

Su Qing didn’t disturb it. She thought for a moment, then took out a small Tier 3 low-grade sword and a Tier 3 mid-grade dagger.

Both items were obtained from the evil cultivator’s storage ring.

The small sword was as sharp as an awl, its tip a pinpoint of starlight, capable of cutting hair.

The dagger, though thin, was sharp; its blade’s thinnest point was like a cicada’s wing, its shadow cast on the wall like a hissing viper.

Su Qing rolled up her sleeve, revealing her arm. Her arm had mostly healed, her flesh and skin intact. A wind-brushed pattern remained on her wrist.

Once she completely recovered, these wind patterns would disappear, only resurfacing when she consciously desired to reveal them.

Su Qing first took out the awl-like small sword and gazed at it for a moment. After a brief lowering of her gaze, she deftly aimed the sword tip at her skin, tracing it along her arm to her wrist.

After she finished retracting the sword, she unexpectedly found that her skin was practically unharmed, save for a white mark.

It was, after all, a collection of a Nascent Soul evil cultivator.

It was certainly not fake. Su Qing took out a piece of ore and casually stabbed the awl-like small sword into it.

The small sword smoothly plunged into the stone as if cutting through a melon, leaving only a section of its hilt exposed on the stone surface.
Looking at it this way, it was indeed genuine.

Only then was she satisfied. After this experience, ordinary Tier 3 low-grade blades would find it difficult to easily injure her.

Su Qing put away the awl-like small knife and took out the Tier 3 mid-grade snake-shaped dagger, then proceeded to cut her arm as usual.
Both were Tier 3, but a one-grade difference could sometimes not be underestimated.

The awl-like small sword had only left a white mark, but the snake-shaped dagger, though struggling, had indeed left a long bloodstain on her flesh.

The weapon, seeing blood, was like a cold-blooded beast awakened.

The snake shadow reflected on the wall suddenly flicked its tongue, coiling towards Su Qing’s arm, seemingly attempting to use it as a breach to devour her.

Su Qing had long anticipated the malevolence of evil cultivator weapons. She calmly clenched her fist.

The power of wood and metal surged in her spiritual meridians, exploding along her taut arm, forcibly tearing the sinister snake shadow into fragments, which then frantically retreated back into the dagger.

‘So dishonest, feed it to Man Qing Sword.’

Su Qing threw the snake-shaped dagger into her storage bracelet. Eating one was eating, eating two was eating, so she might as well eat them all.

She observed the faint bloodstain. In a few breaths, the bleeding had stopped and clotted, showing signs of healing. Still feeling it wasn’t enough, she took out a Tier 3 top-grade long sword and directly slashed her arm.

The blade smoothly embedded itself into her elastic skin, but it felt like cutting into a rushing current, as if encountering an indescribable resistance.

Su Qing injected spiritual energy. The long sword hummed, radiating brilliant light. The blade emitted a sharp aura. With Su Qing’s forceful slash, it smoothly cut open her flesh, to a depth of about an inch.

A slight pain. Su Qing wiped away the blood without changing her expression.

And the long sword, perhaps having been dormant for too long, gave rise to a hint of unwillingness.

It no longer cared that Su Qing was someone with a destined sword. Leveraging the blood remaining on its blade, it released a burst of brilliant light, and intricate patterns even appeared on its body—a sign that a sword contract was about to form.

Su Qing’s face changed dramatically. This sword was too unpicky. She was a married woman!

Her hand trembled. She quickly threw the long sword into her storage bracelet, intending to prove her loyalty to Man Qing Sword.

The moment the long sword fell into the silvery metallic liquid, Man Qing Sword stopped eating both the curved saber and the snake dagger.

It immediately enveloped the long sword, pulling it down.

The liquid surface suddenly bubbled fiercely.

This was both the struggle of the long sword and the protest and dissatisfaction of Man Qing Sword.

Su Qing wiped her temples; she had also broken out in a cold sweat.

A sword cultivator who quarreled with their destined sword was not a good sword cultivator; they would incur the wrath of the heavens.

Fortunately, she reacted quickly, which allowed her to defuse this crisis in time.

Since her trip to the Nine Heavens Pavilion, Su Qing’s family fortune had become quite substantial.

To be precise, the Nascent Soul evil cultivator’s fortune was so immense that it inadvertently elevated her along with it.

The resources in those three storage rings alone could rival the treasury of a medium-sized cultivating family.

There were thousands of various inheritances, and tens of thousands of talismans and pills.

Jade boxes filled with spiritual plants, beast cores, and other heavenly treasures and earthly wonders piled up in one storage ring. Su Qing was dazzled just by counting them, unable to keep up.

Even the most precious cultivation arts among the Four Arts of Cultivation—array formation inheritances and high-grade array disks—numbered over a hundred, not to mention the demonic cultivation techniques that evil cultivators excelled at.

Each item was more shocking than the last.

Su Qing had always known that the distribution of resources in the cultivation world was uneven.

Aristocratic families and less than one-tenth of high-level cultivators monopolized ninety-five percent of the resources, while the remaining half a percent of resources were fought over by thousands upon thousands of low-level cultivators across the world.

But it wasn’t until she personally experienced it that she realized this statement was far bloodier than reality.

Su Qing had originally intended to sell all these unused resources, but she was dissuaded by the appraisers.

That day, it happened to be the turn of the third-year seniors to be on duty.

They candidly said, “Although these are miscellaneous and scattered, having many things doesn’t weigh you down. If you’re not in a hurry to exchange for resources, keep them. Who knows, they might come in handy someday. Besides, having these resources will make it easier for you to advance your studies later.”

They emphasized the words “advance your studies,” seeming to hint at something.

It seemed it was related to the exam.

The senior sisters’ experiences were all summarized from the pitfalls they had personally encountered. Su Qing had no reason not to listen. Moreover, she wasn’t lacking resources at hand, so she kept them for now.

Besides these substantial treasures, this evil cultivator also left her many unexpected resources.

For example, disciple tokens and token of passage from various large and small sects.

These tokens were not the kind stripped from the dead, but rather fake identities arranged by the Heavenly Secret Alliance.

Although this Nascent Soul evil cultivator’s specific name was unknown, he was probably a not-so-low-ranking leader of the Heavenly Secret Alliance.

Therefore, his storage rings naturally contained lists of contacts within the Heavenly Secret Alliance and various secret locations.

Unfortunately, these were all self-contained writing systems, which Su Qing couldn’t decipher yet.

In addition, there were well-categorized and neatly organized excavation tunnels. Without exception, these tunnels were shaped like wooden fish. The top of the fish bodies were specially marked with characters. These marks were obscure and difficult to understand. Some Su Qing could guess and deduce, while others were utterly perplexing.

But the tunnels would automatically activate when dropped into a secret realm. Su Qing planned to see then.

She had already promised Tian Ning that until she grew strong enough to protect herself, she would stay as far away from this organization as possible.

Starting over wasn’t easy.

Although she also had moments where she had to fight for her life, that didn’t conflict with her cherishing her life.

After generally browsing through the evil cultivator’s storage rings, Su Qing began to study the fragments related to the Ten Rakshasa Blood Flower Array.

Speaking of the Ten Rakshasa Blood Flower Array, ever since it was soaked in the beast blood of the fish monster last time, the originally dim array disk gradually revealed some of its true form.

The remaining parts of the array disk were partially restored, increasingly showing its ancient and profound aura.

If this item were in its current state, Xu Wenqing would surely not have acquired it so easily back then.

Su Qing observed it carefully for a long time but couldn’t find any clues. With a “what if” mindset, she took out the Ten Rakshasa Blood Flower Array and placed it together with the five fragments of varying sizes.

She originally had the mentality of treating a dead horse as if it were still alive, but she found that in the blink of an eye, a brilliant red light enveloped the array disk and fragments. When she looked closely again, there were no fragments; clearly, only an array disk remained.

The array disk was opaque black, its surface covered with filamentous spiritual patterns, like blood vessels.

In fact, these spiritual patterns were the grooves it used to draw blood.

Ancient characters and marks were engraved on the disk, possibly ancient divine language.

Su Qing couldn’t understand them. Perhaps these traces would become clearer when she collected more array disk fragments.

A corner of the remaining array disk was once again mended, stripped of some mottled traces, as if peeling away stone skin to reveal the unpolished jade beneath.

A gigantic phantom of a red spear flashed on the disk, followed by a bronze-colored hand gripping a spear and a strong arm—

The muscles of the arm bulged in sections, displaying terrifying strength, yet the lines were fluid, as if forged by the wondrous craftsmanship of nature, exhibiting a stunning beauty due to its power.

It was just a section of an arm, merely a faint, barely formed phantom, yet its aura was so terrifying that it inspired awe, freezing one’s body, utterly daring not to move, as if one had glimpsed something primordial.

Fortunately, this phantom only lingered for a brief breath before dissipating on the spot. Su Qing breathed a sigh of relief, only then realizing she had been holding her breath.

Her heart lurched, and she understood that she must have glimpsed a part of the array disk’s original form.

The Blood Flower Array could originally only summon a divine spear with blood.

Now that she had partially restored it, it could reveal the weapon owner’s arm.

If it could be fully restored, could the shadow left by the owner be fully summoned?

And what was the owner’s identity?

Su Qing suddenly felt that many mysteries still awaited her to solve in the future.