Time Travel: I'm a Flower Thief

The two of them passed through several deep alleys one after the other, and finally stopped in front of a thatched house in the western corner of the city.

Hua Youwu pushed open the door and entered. The room was simply furnished with a wooden table, two bamboo chairs, and several jars of old wine piled in the corner.

"Let's find a place to sit."

Hua Youwu casually picked up a jar of wine, broke the mud seal, and took a sip.

"I heard from the old fortune teller that you are Hua Tianyi's apprentice?"

"The old fortune teller?"

"He's just a charlatan who's really good at fortune telling. Don't ask any more questions, just answer me directly."

Seeing that his cultivation level was extremely high, Xie Xiaoyi dared not be rude and immediately clasped his hands in a respectful bow:

"Disciple Xie Mo, a disciple of Hua Tianyi. Since you address me as my master's uncle, may I ask your esteemed name?"

"Hua Youwu, Hua Tianyi's uncle, you should call me grandmaster grandmaster."

Hua Youwu?

Xie Xiaoyi seemed to have remembered something.

"Senior, are you perhaps Hua Youwu, the 'Drunken Sword Immortal'?"

Hua Youwu gently shook his head, a hint of melancholy flashing in his eyes:

"I never thought that anyone would still remember this nickname these days."

"That old codger is practically buried in the ground, why are you still talking about the banished sword immortal?"

Xie Xiaoyi was deeply shocked.

No wonder he could overpower me with just one finger.

So he was the legendary Hua Youwu, who roamed the martial arts world thirty years ago, challenged the masters of the seven major sects with his sword, and could cleave a river with a single sword when drunk.

"Back then, the senior broke through the imperial city with a single sword, killing more than 500 imperial guards. His prowess was unmatched."

"You only say the nice things. Back then, I, the old man, messed things up because of drinking, which is why I missed out..."

His words came to an abrupt halt as he thought of his apprentice, Mei Xingyao, as if a thorn had been gripped in his heart, and his face instantly darkened.

Xie Xiaoyi rubbed his nose, wisely refraining from pressing for details about the unfinished sentence, and changed the subject:

"Master...Grand Uncle, your 'Kenpachi' is so powerful, why are you selling it at a stall?"

Hua Youwu snapped out of his reverie and hummed casually:

"The manuals I sold were, to put it bluntly, just empty sword techniques."

That book in your hand is just something I did when I was bored, I casually drew the lines of qi and bone as if they were clothing folds, it's just a random doodle.

"You're quite perceptive, kid; you actually figured something out from this graffiti."

Xie Xiaoyi suddenly realized that he had accidentally learned the "Eight Sword Styles" that had enabled him to "break through the imperial city with a single sword" back then.

"By the way, where is your master?" Hua Youwu brought the wine jar to his lips and gulped down a large mouthful of wine.

"Eighteen years have passed in the blink of an eye. How's that kid doing these days?"

"Master..." Xie Xiaoyi choked up, feeling as if a sword had been stabbed in his chest.

"It's gone."

He died at the hands of the alchemist to protect the people of Qinghe Town and to save me.

The moment the words left his mouth, the air in the thatched hut seemed to freeze.

The smile on Hua Youwu's face vanished instantly, and his hand gripping the wine jar tightened abruptly.

With a "crack," he crushed the rough porcelain wine jar.

The next moment, a vast and powerful sword aura burst forth from within his body!

The wine jars piled in the corner clattered, and the rough porcelain bowls on the table trembled.

Hua Youwu stepped forward and grabbed Xie Xiaoyi's collar with such force that he almost tore it to shreds.

"What did you say?!"

How could that brat Tianyi be dead?!

A Qi Master?

What alchemist?! How did he die?!

Xie Xiaoyi gritted his teeth and recounted the tragedy in Qinghe Town and the actions of Xuanjiu.

Hua Youwu remained silent throughout, only taking the wine gourd from his waist and continuously pouring wine into his mouth.

Having experienced the highs and lows of life, extreme sadness no longer shows on one's face.

After a long silence, he slowly spoke:

"That Qi Refiner calls himself the Mysterious Sacrificial Master? He should be one of the four great sacrificial masters of the 'Mysterious Qi Orthodox Sect'."

"The True School of Profound Qi?" Xie Xiaoyi's heart skipped a beat. "This disciple has never heard of this sect!"

"What kind of righteous Qi cultivators are they! They're just a bunch of parasites stealing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth!"

"Grandmaster Uncle, how...how did they steal the spiritual energy of heaven and earth?"

"Using domineering techniques, extract the primordial spiritual energy from the mountains and dragon veins, refine it, and make it my own!"

"It sounds mystical, but is spiritual energy really that important to a place?"

Hua Youwu rolled his eyes at him, then explained:

"After they drained a mountain, the vegetation withered and nothing grew for three to five years."

They defiled a river, causing its waters to dry up and fish and shrimp to disappear!

The area around Qinghe Town is probably a treasure trove of spiritual energy, which is why it's being targeted!

Upon hearing this, Xie Xiaoyi unconsciously gripped the hilt of the sword "Guan Cang Hai".

"The Xuanjijiu is dead, but the Xuanqi lineage still exists..."

Hua Youwu looked at him with disdain and said, "You want to seek revenge for your master by finding the Xuanqi Orthodox Sect?"

Xie Xiaoyi nodded.

Hua Youwu suddenly smiled, a very contemptuous smile:

"The Xuanqi Orthodox Sect has been entrenched in the Northwest for three hundred years, and its influence is deeply entrenched."

The sect is divided into four halls: Heaven, Earth, Mystery, and Yellow. The hall masters are all ruthless characters capable of moving mountains and filling seas.

Not to mention their leader, Zhang Ruoxu, who is known as the "Qi Venerable".

It is said that he has cultivated to the 'Heaven-Seizing' realm, and ordinary martial artists are not even ants in his presence!

After hearing this, Xie Xiaoyi finally understood why his master had been defeated by that old Qi cultivator; it turned out they were incredibly powerful.

"Grandmaster Uncle, but I'd like to give it a try."

"You want to try? Don't even mention your fifth-grade cultivation!"

Even a ninth-grade peak 'Vajra Saintly Guardian' realm cultivator would be nothing more than a death sentence before those high priests.

"Does Grandmaster mean that martial artists can never truly defeat Qi cultivators?"

"No." Hua Youwu stood up and patted the top of his head.

"If you can surpass the ninth rank and enter a higher realm, you may be able to fight against a top-tier Qi Refiner."

Xie Xiaoyi was startled and looked up abruptly: "Above the ninth rank... there are even higher realms? This disciple has never heard of them!"

Hua Youwu raised his hand and tapped him on the forehead.

"Your cultivation level is nothing, kid. The world you've been involved in is just a small part of the lower levels."

"Like a frog at the bottom of a well, confined to its small space, it has never even seen what the true martial arts universe looks like, let alone heard of it."

Xie Xiaoyi exclaimed as if he had discovered a new continent: "Grandmaster Uncle, could you tell me about it?"

Hua Youwu looked at his infatuated expression, then nodded and began to explain:

"Martial arts cultivation levels increase sequentially, from the first to the ninth rank."

The peak of the ninth rank, known as the "Vajra Saintly Guardian" realm, is a physical body that is impervious to external qi, representing the pinnacle of mortal existence.

Everyone believes that this realm is the pinnacle of martial arts, but that is not the case.

Above that, there are five more realms, known as the "Upper Five Realms," which are, in order, Star, Moon, Sun, Earth, and Heaven.

Xie Xiaoyi's breathing quickened as he listened, his heart surging with indescribable shock and longing.

So the path of martial arts has a hidden world within it?

"Then, Grandmaster Uncle, just how profound are these Five Realms?"