The Sword Path to the Great Way

After leaving that bloody valley, Ye Xuan led Ying'er for another several hundred li through the Burial Abyss of Heaven.

The miasmic energy around them grew ever denser, nearly condensing into a tangible black fog, and the faint roars of ancient beasts echoed from the depths of the abyss. Yet everywhere Ye Xuan passed, the baleful aura—enough to reduce nascent soul or spirit transformation cultivators to ash—retreated like melting snow before the scorching sun, parting automatically to leave a broad, clear path.

At last, the two halted atop a solitary peak that pierced the clouds like a sword blade.

On the summit was a natural stone cave. The spiritual energy within was wrapped by the outer miasma, but inside, it formed its own miniature world, quite pure and tranquil.

"Let us rest here for a while," Ye Xuan said.

With a casual wave of his hand, a gray sword-qi traced across the cave mouth, instantly laying down a killing formation capable of withstanding the full-force strike of a peak void-refining cultivator.

"Yes, husband," Ying'er said obediently. Inside the cave, she spread a soft layer of spirit beast hide, then set several luminous pearls into the stone walls, turning the dim cavern bright as day.

Ye Xuan sat down cross-legged, and then, as if dumping out trash, he poured the dozens of storage rings he had snatched from those sacred-ground prodigies onto the ground in one heap.

With a crisp clatter, the once-empty cave was instantly filled with a mountain of treasure.

Top-grade spirit stones radiated a dense, hazy spiritual glow—over a million in total—piled into a glittering mound.

Pills of supreme quality held in vessels of ten-thousand-year warm jade and purple-gold gourd were scattered everywhere, their medicinal fragrance so potent that a single whiff made every meridian feel open and unobstructed.

But the most striking sight was the collection of multicolored magical treasures shimmering with spiritual light.

There was the Thunderfire Shield of the Purple Xiao Sacred Land, the Star-Shattering Flying Sword of the River of Stars Sword Sect, the Water-Cloud Silk of the Yao Chi Sacred Land…

No fewer than a hundred artifacts in total, the lowest-grade being supreme-grade spirit tools, and among them were even several magic weapons that had already birthed their own artifact spirits!

If any of these items were to leak into the outside world, even a single one would suffice to trigger a bloody feud between medium and small sects, and even elders of major sects would covet them.

Yet, gazing upon this ground full of peerless treasures, Ye Xuan's eyes were as calm as if he were looking at a pile of scrap metal.

"Husband, with so many treasures, should we sell them at the Ten-Thousand Treasures Pavilion?" Ying'er blinked her big eyes and asked curiously. In her view, though these artifacts were nothing compared to her husband's methods, they were still real spirit stones.

"Sell? Too troublesome." Ye Xuan shook his head, his tone laced with a hint of boredom. "Besides, these pieces of scrap metal aren't worth the effort to even ponder over."

"Then…" Ying'er was confused.

Ye Xuan did not answer directly. Instead, he slowly raised his right hand.

For an instant, his gaze shifted—the usual laziness vanished, replaced by a lofty, emotionless indifference, as if he were looking down at the myriad worlds from the highest heavens.

Fingers together, forming a sword.

"Break."

A single syllable devoid of any emotional inflection left his lips.

There was no grand spectacle, no blinding sword-light flash.

Only that same gray sword-thread that had slain Thunder Daoist now emerged at his fingertips. The thread left his hand, suddenly disintegrated midair into a hazy gray glow—like an invisible grinding wheel—and directly enveloped the mountain of treasures.

The next moment, a sight that made one's scalp crawl unfolded.

Over a hundred magical treasures, the instant they touched that grey halo of light, let out a chorus of mournful wails.

Those top-grade spirit artifacts and half-step Dao instruments that cultivators in the outside world regarded as indestructible—inscribed with countless defensive formations and sturdy Dao patterns—now crumbled like fragile snowflakes meeting molten lava.

The Water-Cloud Silk Sash of the Yao Chi Holy Land snapped apart into countless specks of dust; the Star-Shattering Flying Sword of the Star River Sword Sect cracked into fragments, its weapon spirit annihilated into nothingness in a single breath; the Thunder Flame Shield, capable of withstanding a full-force strike from an Incarnation-stage cultivator, didn't even last a single breath before exploding into a clump of iron filings!

There was no explosion—all the violent energies were ruthlessly suppressed and crushed by that grey sword-light halo.

In less than three breaths' time, the mountain of treasures that had stood there vanished completely, leaving behind only a fine layer of powder.

And above that powder floated five masses of origin-qi, each a different color, pure to the extreme: the white of Metal, the green of Wood, the black of Water, the red of Fire, and the yellow of Earth.

The fundamental materials of those hundred-plus treasures—whether Nine-Heavens Meteor Iron, Ten-Thousand-Year Thunderwood, Deep-Sea Mystic Ice, or Earth's Core Flame Essence—had all been stripped of their artificial formations and forms by Ye Xuan's single sword strike, forcibly reduced to their base state, restored into the purest Five Elements origin-qi!

"This..."

Ying'er's mouth hung open, her face full of disbelief.

Shattering over a hundred top-tier treasures with one sword wasn't hard. But to restore them so perfectly into pure Five Elements origin without any loss—that level of mastery over power and law went far beyond the norms of the cultivation world!

"Come here." Ye Xuan gently beckoned with a hand.

The five masses of thick, almost liquid origin-qi flew toward him like chicks returning to their mother, swirling around his fingertip.

Then, that slender grey sword-light appeared at his fingertip once more. Like a greedy black hole, it gave a sudden suck, devouring all five massive clumps of origin-qi in an instant!

"Humm!"

After absorbing the vast quantity of Five Elements origin, the grey sword-light, which had been no thicker than a strand of hair, shimmered with a faint, profound glint across its surface. Its color deepened by a barely perceptible margin, but the aura it exuded grew far deeper, far more terrifying—as if a single gentle tremor from it could tear this very realm apart.

Ye Xuan retracted his sword finger with satisfaction, drawing the transformed sword-light into his dantian.

Seeing Ying'er still frozen in shock with her adorable look, Ye Xuan smiled gently and pinched her fair cheek.

"Do you think it's a waste of treasures?" Ye Xuan asked in a warm voice.

Ying'er shook her head and said seriously, "Husband must have his reasons for doing this. It's just that Ying'er doesn't quite understand—what is that grey sword-qi? How can it directly devour the very essence of magical treasures?"

Ye Xuan took Ying'er's hand and sat her down beside him. He gazed into the boundless abyss beyond the cave, his deep eyes carrying a hint of nostalgia and pride as he slowly began:

"Ying'er, remember this. The Great Luo Unrestricted Sword-qi is a monstrous sword-path divine ability that points directly toward the realm of Great Luo Golden Immortal."

"Golden Immortal?" Ying'er's heart shook violently. In the understanding of cultivators in the lower realm, ascending to the immortal realm was the end point of cultivation, and a Golden Immortal was an existence that only appeared in the vague and ethereal ancient myths—a supreme being truly as eternal as heaven, imperishable through countless calamities.

"Exactly." Ye Xuan explained patiently, "In the eyes of cultivators of the lower realm, the sword is a weapon of slaughter, and sword arts are methods of defeating enemies. They pursue the sharpness of sword qi, the realm of sword intent, and the complexity of sword formations. But all of those are nothing more than inferior techniques."

He paused, and his gaze became unfathomable: "Strictly speaking, the Great Luo Boundless Sword Qi is not a sword art at all—it is a divine power. It does not require you to painstakingly comprehend sword intent, nor to deduce sword moves. It only needs to devour the raw materials of the Five Elements, and it can undergo countless transformations."

"The Five Elements form the foundation of this universe. The Great Luo Boundless Sword Qi feeds on the primal essence of the Five Elements. The more it devours, in quantity and higher in grade, the metal and objects of the Five Elements, the sharper its edge becomes, and the stronger its nature grows."

"When its devouring of the Five Elements' primal essence reaches the extreme, it is no longer sword qi, but the Great Dao itself. Those so-called sacred ground treasures, before it, are nothing more than fine nourishment."

Listening to Ye Xuan's account, Ying'er felt as though a grand and unprecedented door to the world was suddenly thrown wide open before her eyes.

She finally understood why her husband looked upon those lofty sacred ground prodigies as if they were ants.

Because the heights on which the two sides stood, and the worlds they perceived, were simply not on the same dimension!