Half an incense stick's time later, a burly figure arrived in haste at the deepest reaches of the Sword Tomb — none other than Ye Cheng, the Master of the Hidden Sword Manor!
Someone had infiltrated the Hidden Sword Manor silently, and after searching the grounds without finding anything, Ye Cheng had naturally turned his thoughts to the forbidden grounds and rushed over to investigate. Along the way, the shadow guards who should have been lurking in the darkness were utterly silent, which made his heart sink.
When he reached the forbidden grounds and raised his eyes to look, his face changed drastically.
The Qingxu Sword was gone!
The four elders — Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter — stood in a wide circle around the stone platform, frozen in their sword-drawing stances as if someone had cast a binding technique on them. None of them moved a muscle, and every face wore an expression of shock and fury.
In the void above, faint ripples of residual combat energy still lingered.
Ye Cheng's arrival seemed to have triggered some hidden trigger. With a series of tearing sounds, four jets of blood sprayed from each of the elders, and they all slumped to the ground simultaneously!
Ye Cheng was horrified. He stepped forward quickly. "Elders, what in the world happened? Where is the Qingxu Sword?"
An unhealthy red flush spread across Elder Spring's face as he forcibly suppressed his churning qi. With a look of shame, he said, "We failed the Master's trust. The Qingxu Sword... was stolen."
Ye Cheng was stunned. "Who could possibly have the ability to take the Qingxu Sword right from under the four of you!" His shock was entirely justified — the four elders before him had each reached the absolute pinnacle of cultivation. Any one of them alone could be called an invincible existence in this world, let alone when all four fought together.
Elder Summer shook his head. "We don't know. The intruder's features were unclear, and the voice sounded like a man's, but his methods were utterly unpredictable. We... were no match."
A chill ran down Ye Cheng's spine. From Elder Summer's words, it was clear that the intruder had not only wounded them and stolen the Qingxu Sword — they hadn't even managed to get a proper look at what their enemy looked like.
Had he not trusted the four of them completely, Ye Cheng would have suspected them of stealing it themselves.
"That man took the Qingxu Sword and probably hasn't gone far, Master. Please dispatch pursuit forces immediately — we must track down the Qingxu Sword's whereabouts. A divine weapon... must not fall into the hands of outsiders! We need a moment to recover our breath, and then we'll follow!" Elder Winter waved his hand. "Go quickly!"
Ye Cheng nodded firmly. "Understood!"
He turned and strode away.
At the same time, a thousand li away, Yang Kai soared through the sky, the Qingxu Sword gripped in one hand, channeling his own spiritual power to slowly refine it.
Reflecting on the battle just moments ago, Yang Kai felt genuine admiration for the four elders — Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Those four old men had truly reached the absolute limits of this realm. With the four of them fighting in unison, there was no one in this world who could withstand them. Even with his mastery of the Space Laws, he had nearly been wounded by them.
He'd had no choice but to counterattack.
Fortunately, the Qingxu Sword was now in his possession. Yang Kai had intended to store it in his spatial ring, but the ring simply couldn't contain the item. Thinking about it, that made sense — this sword was formed from ten percent of the origin power of the entire Divine Weapon Realm. How could a spatial ring possibly hold something like that?
He could only carry it in his hand.
After a moment, Yang Kai shook his head slowly. He was now at the eighth level of the Spirit Stage, his cultivation incomparable to what it had been in years past, yet refining the Qingxu Sword was still agonizingly slow. After a brief attempt, he had the faint sense that fully subduing it would take no fewer than several years.
By nightfall, he had already returned to the Profound Pill Sect, slipping quietly back to his own Summit of Infinity. He entered his private chamber and devoted himself to refining the Qingxu Sword.
Although the Hidden Sword Manor had sealed off news of the incident immediately, word that the divine weapon Qingxu Sword had been stolen spread throughout the entire Divine Weapon Realm in an astonishingly short time.
No one who heard it could believe it. The Hidden Sword Manor's lineage stretched back millennia, and its ranks were packed with powerhouses. Moreover, the ones guarding the Qingxu Sword were said to be the long-retired four elders of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, whose cultivation had transcended mortal limits. Who in this world could possibly steal the Qingxu Sword?
But paper can never wrap fire. The Hidden Sword Manor's unusual silence — devoid of any denial — combined with the frequent sorties of their disciples over the following months, allowed perceptive observers to read between the lines.
After the news had fermented for the better part of a year, the world finally accepted one undeniable fact: the Qingxu Sword really had been stolen.
The entire realm was thrown into an uproar!
People were stunned that even a top-tier power like the Hidden Sword Manor had been breached and the Qingxu Sword taken, and they burned with curiosity about the thief's identity.
Who possessed both the skill and the audacity to pull off such a feat?
Unfortunately, the thief never surfaced, so no one could draw any conclusions.
On the Summit of Infinity of the Profound Pill Sect, Dan Chengzi sat across from Yang Kai. A tea set rested between them as they savored the fragrant brew.
Dan Chengzi had come today to consult Yang Kai on certain alchemy techniques.
Now that Yang Kai was an Elder of the Profound Pill Sect, his generation rank was a full tier below Dan Chengzi's, but in terms of status and standing they were considered equals. The sect's older generation of alchemists, driven by their devotion to the Dao of Alchemy, saw no need to worry about matters of pride and frequently sought him out to discuss various questions.
Yang Kai, for his part, was more than willing to share his knowledge.