Beichen Sword Sect's Headmaster's Secret Records

Chapter 475 Vitality
Drooping tassels, wide sleeves, blouse, overlapping skirt, ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), shawl, waistband, knee-covering, two-piece crotch, cloud-patterned shoes, bellyband, undergarment...

Tie Dan followed the dark mountain path, picking up the clothes, shoes, and socks scattered on the ground, and entered the cave with a helpless expression.

Ju Que told the truth, saying that Jian Jia was originally in seclusion in Tie Dan's cave when two women came to the mountain a month ago with the sect leader's token, saying they wanted to teach her the secret art of dual cultivation, which immediately enraged Jian Jia. So the three of them fought their way to the bottom of Jiuyin Mountain and hid in a cave for many days without showing their faces.

Tsk, this fight is a bit intense, but was it really necessary to strip so naked? And that Grand Princess is wearing way too much clothing...

Arriving at the stone cave where he had previously faced the wall, Tie Dan looked around but couldn't find a single person.

I've been picking up clothes all the way, so I'm probably completely naked now; taking any more off would be like skinning someone alive. But there are no signs of a struggle or tearing on the ground. The footprints stop here; I have no idea where they went.

Could it be that the fierce battle was so intense that they forgot themselves and rose to the highest peak, only to fall back to the deepest abyss?

Tie Dan peered down into the abyss, only to find it pitch black and bottomless. He scratched his head in disbelief. It was truly unbelievable that even a casually given side quest could ruin his save file…

But now the Shen family is blocking the door demanding her return, so I can't exactly go out and say, "I accidentally lost your daughter. Why don't you go back and have another one..."

We definitely have to find them, but there are no stars, no moon, no wind, no breath under Jiuyin Mountain. It's dark and bottomless, and we can't use our true qi. Climbing up and down will take who knows how many days. Tie Dan still has a crucial mission to complete for the Qingtang Sect. He doesn't have time to waste here.

So Tie Dan sat down in front of the stone wall, entered a meditative state, and his primordial spirit left his body, transforming into a blood shadow. Riding on the yin wind blowing from his skull, he traveled thousands of miles in an instant, heading straight into the abyss to search for people.

In fact, since receiving the true teachings of the Tiangang Sect Leader, Tie Dan had naturally mastered the Yuan Shen and Yuan Ying techniques of the Beichen Sword Sect. However, he still couldn't use the Sword Infant technique of Jiuyin Mountain.

After all, the so-called sword infant is the result of refining the golden elixir and sword embryo with essence, energy, and spirit into one, transforming the nascent soul into a flying sword that leaves the body. This is the renowned true teaching of the Nine Yin Sword Sect, the unity of man and sword.

However, Iron Egg's sword embryo was taken by my sword and forged during the Foundation Establishment stage. So far, the Primordial Spirit techniques have all used the Blood God Child cultivated through the Blood Jade Divine Art.

Yes, my sword, even after being forged to this point, is still just a sword embryo, with the infancy of becoming a fully formed sword a long way off. So in a sense, you could even say that Iron Egg is still in the foundation-building stage.

However, Tie Dan was also aware that there were no major obstacles in his path of the sword. After all, the sword embryo he had forged could hold at least a thousand years' worth of spiritual energy. If there was enough energy, he could simply forge a few more swords.

If there is any bottleneck, it is the lack of Heavenly Breath and Earthly Spring, especially the lack of Earthly Fiend Nether Spring. After all, Heavenly Breath can at least be obtained stably through the fusion of the Nine Luminaries and the refining of the Northern Star Sword Qi back to the Primordial Sword Qi. Now, Tie Dan has plenty of Qi in his belly, which is naturally enough to sustain him.

However, this spring can only be obtained by defeating the Heavenly Demon. If I can devour the Heavenly Demon, my sword will receive a forging upgrade. But if I accidentally fail, my sword might be devoured by the opponent, and then the Demon God will destroy the world, resulting in a loss of ten synchronization points.

Based on my experience so far, the Heavenly Demons on Chen Xuantian's side are indeed easier to defeat. On Tie Dan's side, the demons that descend are capable of destroying the world at any moment, and there are also a bunch of old Xuanmen members plotting against them. So, I have to be careful every day, level up as I go, and dare not push through the maps rashly.

However, sometimes even if you don't actively push through the maps, they will push towards you.

Iron Egg Blood Shadow Swiftness moved with lightning speed through the abyss, finding the first person in an instant.

Iron Sword Goddess Ciyun
Actually, Ciyun's appearance is no longer recognizable, but Tiedan still remembers the 'long-horned beetle' he saw in Huangfu Yi's dream.

Yes, although we don't know what happened, Ciyun has gone mad and become a demon.

There was no longer any Iron Sword Goddess, only a 'longhorn beetle' made of mutated human organs and tissues, lying on the cliff face of the abyss of Jiuyin Mountain. Its two legs swung like whips, and six bloody arms seemed to grow out of its overturned belly, clinging to the rock wall. Its sucker-like mouth was wriggling up and down with a rock spike-like stone spike on it, sucking on the stalactites on the cliff.

Tie Dan stood on the rock wall and studied it for a while before he understood.

It is a spring.

Even when he was in solitary confinement, he had already noticed that there was no earth vein spiritual energy in the abyss at the bottom of Jiuyin Mountain.

It now appears that the mineral veins at the bottom of the mountain contain the essence of the earth's springs. Although the amount is extremely small, it is enough to quench the thirst of this demonic monster.

So that's how it is. So if he really did go into seclusion and cultivate under the Nine Yin as in the dream, he could actually upgrade and break through my sword's limits along the way...

So Tiedan continued to fall into the abyss and soon found the second person.

Grand Princess Wuyang
In the dream, only the upper body was left after being hacked to pieces; the lower body is still intact now. But how to describe it... a termite queen?
From the waist down, the torso swelled up like a giant balloon, transforming into a cocoon-like mass of white flesh saturated with thick fluid. The flesh continuously oozed a viscous, oily mucus, clinging firmly to the rock face.

Upon closer inspection, the upper body also exhibits demonic changes, with membranous wings growing from its back, its eyes having degenerated and gone blind, and its chewing mouthparts inserted into the rock wall, using some kind of acid to corrode the rock layers and extract stalactites.

Seeing the two people's miserable state, Tie Dan had a premonition. After a moment's hesitation, he turned and leaped away to continue searching for the third person.

found it.

Swallow Cave Shen Jianjia
She lay on her back at the foot of the rock wall, on a protruding platform. It seemed she had fallen from a great height, her blood and brains splattered everywhere. Her abdomen was ripped open, her intestines spilling out and scattered like flowers. Her flesh, bones, internal organs, and blood had all shattered from the impact, leaving her a mangled, gruesome sight.

But she's not dead yet.

Yes, even in this state, he's still alive and breathing steadily. But it's too late to save him.

Because she too was undergoing a transformation, she too was becoming a demon. Her intestines, her flesh, like the roots of a plant, the vines that climb mountains, like capillaries, spread all over the mountain, clinging to the cliffs, greedily absorbing the dark stalactites on the rock walls, as if trying to extract life from this desolate darkness.

It's just that it was probably smashed too badly, and its body hasn't completed the mutation and reconstruction yet, so it can't move around freely like those two monsters above.

Even if this shell can be saved, will the one that comes back to life still be Jianjia?
Tie Dan stared at Jianjia's dilated pupils, looking at the death of his junior sister who was always scheming and plotting, and felt as if there was a hole in his heart.

In reality, they were not Daoist partners, let alone romantic partners.

Tie Dan suddenly realized that there was no one left in Swallow Cave on Guangxia Mountain.

The heavens and earth are vast and boundless, the empty mountains cast no shadows.

From then on, he was all alone in the world.

Even a person has to keep moving forward.

After a moment of silence, Tie Dan flew back to the top of the cliff without looking back to retrieve his sword.

However, when he returned to the top of the cliff, he found that the person facing the wall had changed.

"Don't."

The old man facing the wall said,
"Give her a chance."

Tie Dan frowned.

"What kind of opportunity is this? Once she transforms into a celestial demon and destroys the world, we'll still have to kill her."

"Not necessarily."

The old man stared at the wall.

"Even if it's corrupted, there's still a 50% chance it can restore humanity. It's a 50/50 chance!" Tie Dan rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, it's fifty-fifty. Don't I understand? It's all or nothing! Get out of the way!"

The old man roared angrily.

"Give her a chance! How many chances can I give you! She only has this one chance! Is that too much to ask?!"

Iron Egg is cold.

"What did you tell me back then? Some people can't be saved! Some sacrifices are necessary!"
I fucking held back and walked away, leaving them behind! You wouldn't have been able to! Go to hell! Get out of my way!

The old man roared,

"If they can't save him, then they won't! Isn't it still the same path I'm on? Nothing has changed!"

Tie Dan fell silent for a moment and stopped walking.

The old man sighed and slowly began to speak.
"The way of Heaven is constant and the natural order is orderly. Without the protection of gods and Buddhas, one will be trampled underfoot for a lifetime. How difficult it is to climb mountains and ascend to heaven."

If mortals want to defy fate, they can only resort to deception, fraud, and perverse actions, seizing these life-or-death opportunities.

The Shen family's bloodline was inherently flawed, making them experimental waste products. Without any luck to protect her, she was doomed to die sooner or later.

However, if she can comprehend my Dao and obtain my Dharma amidst life and death, and absorb a few more customized high-quality wet items to replenish her own form and exchange her life for another, perhaps there will be a glimmer of hope...

You can just seal her up here and treat it like raising a Gu worm. One cycle of sixty years, only one cycle of sixty years.

If she can't find her true self after sixty years... then you should eat her up..."

Tie Dan frowned, seemingly understanding but not quite, and speculated.
"So this whole thing was your doing? You wanted to use Ciyun and the princess... to raise Jianjia?"
And you just said you were raising poisonous insects? What if they end up being the ones raised to become poisonous insects? What are you going to do then?

The old man remained silent.

That's true, no matter what you raise, you'll still have to feed it to a sword.

Tie Dan thought for a moment,
"What kind of Dao did you pass on to her? Can it really help mortals defy fate and change their destiny? Can you let me see it?"

The old man reached out and wiped away the dust from the wall, revealing scriptures written on it.
"This book is not yet ready to be published. As the heavenly order remains unchanged, practicing it would mean certain death."

Only for specific types of wet parts, in specific locations, is there a glimmer of hope.

For example, this place is the starting point of our enlightenment, a beacon on the Dirac Sea.

The Nine Yin Mountains of all the heavens and myriad realms are connected through this point.

Therefore, we can have stable communication without using the Kun (a mythical fish).

Therefore, we can try our luck by changing the observer on the membrane.

So get out of here as soon as possible, and don't come down again until the truth comes out.

Tie Dan hesitated for a moment, then asked,

"Since you know how to save her, what about the others?"

Can you just tell me what to do next?

"I don't know. Didn't you see? I didn't actually save a single person..."

The old man paused for a moment, then shook his head.
"Time is a jerk; every fluctuation changes its trajectory, but sooner or later it will reach its destined end."

So, I can't answer your questions about what I don't know. What I do know, you'll find out sooner or later, or even if you do, it won't matter.

Besides, even if my life were replicated, I couldn't save a single person, so what would be the point?

Just follow your own ideas, keep moving forward, and try out those unprecedented possibilities.

There might still be a chance; we'll save as many as we can.

Saving one person is better than nothing... Is it really that tragic...?

"Ask your questions quickly, and then get out of here! The longer you stay, the more variables there are, and the lower the success rate!"

The old man grew impatient.

Tie Dan thought for a moment,
"Alright, one last question, what's the deal with the Mysterious Woman?"

The old man was taken aback.
"What's going on with this 'Mysterious Woman'?"

Tie Dan recalled,

"I remember Kun forbade me from cultivating the Faceless Immortal's magic, right? But... Xuan Nu has no face either..."

The old man facing the wall fell silent for a while, remaining speechless for quite some time, almost like a stone statue.

Just when Tie Dan thought the other person had logged off, he slowly spoke.

"...That's right. If you can't see the face, it means that the being on that shrine has been defeated in the final battle and devoured by the Heavenly Demon."

Therefore, the path she passed down was also assimilated by the Heavenly Demons, becoming the demonic path and a dead end.

"Devour? Assimilate?"

Tie Dan was taken aback, then suddenly realized what he was talking about.
"Wait! The Mystic Maiden has been defeated!? The Tai Chi Dao is doomed!"

Then the old man suddenly turned his head, revealing a hollow skull, as black as an abyss.

"Stop meddling in other people's business! Forge your own sword!"

Chen Xuantian then opened his eyes and woke up from his dream.

(End of this chapter)