Raise a sword!

Late at night, on Biwu Peak.

Jiang Peng sat cross-legged in front of the cliff behind the mountain, the moonlight shining on him.

A palm-sized black magic sword hovered in front of him, with purple flames constantly merging into it. During this process, the magic sword would tremble from time to time, emitting a faint sword chime.

Jiang Peng could sense that his magic sword contained an extremely sharp and fierce aura, and this sharpness was constantly trying to break free from the sword's edge and cut off everything in its path.

"This is sword intent. Ever since that sword strike, my magic sword has been imbued with sword intent, but I, the master of this magic sword, do not possess such a sharp and fierce aura."

Thinking of this, Jiang Peng took a deep breath, and his aura gradually became sharp and piercing.

As her aura changed, the magic sword in front of her trembled more and more noticeably, and judging from the amplitude of the tremor, it even merged with Jiang Peng's breathing, producing a mysterious and profound resonance.

"Man and sword as one? No, I'm far from that point... but at least I've finally grasped the true essence of sword nurturing and know how to move towards the state of man and sword as one."

"Master Lü is right. You are not just a magic weapon, but my means and trump card against my enemies... You are me."

With Master Lü's guidance, Jiang Peng has gained a new understanding of the ancient sword cultivators' sword-nurturing techniques.

There are two paths to sword cultivation: true refinement and concealing one's edge.

"True refinement is both forging a sword and refining the body; concealing one's edge is both accumulating power and deliberately refining one's spirit."

"So I'm at the late stage of Qi Refining, while you're at the top-tier first level."

"What if you become a top-tier first-level character?"

The magic sword in front of him actually trembled slightly, as if responding to Jiang Peng's self-talk.

It seemed eager to advance, to become sharper and more formidable.

"Alright, then I'll start tempering your body next." Jiang Peng said to himself, "I have a fire elemental root, and you are constantly being tempered by the Purple Flame, so I'll find fire-elemental materials to integrate into your body, making us more compatible."

"But before that, there is something even more important... It was my oversight that I only regarded you as a magic sword, thinking that since you had cultivated the Heavenly Chen Sword Nourishing Technique, you should be called the Heavenly Chen Sword."

"I forgot to give you a catchy name."

After pondering for a moment, Jiang Peng suddenly had an inspiration.

"How about Xuanyuan? This is the path I came from, and it is also my expectation for you."

Shine——

The resounding clang of swords echoed through the back mountain.

Jiang Peng raised his hand and grasped the magic sword, golden characters flashing before his eyes.

[Xuanyuan Sword: Tier 1, Superior Grade, Sharpness, Magic Breaking, Sword Intent]

The magic sword now has the 'sword intent' attribute, but Jiang Peng didn't pay any attention to it.

He already knew that the Sword Nourishing Technique was actually the same as Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core—a path to enlightenment.

In that case, the magic sword before him was no longer a simple magic weapon in his eyes.

Glossary entries and such are not that important.

......

For the next few days, Jiang Peng stayed in seclusion to study weapon crafting.

Although he had inherited a second-tier weapon-refining skill from the Heavenly Crippled Daoist, his knowledge was still somewhat superficial.

However, Jiang Peng did not intend to achieve success overnight. In the past few days, he has been studying the material properties of magical artifacts to prepare for Xuanyuan's advancement.

Ultimately, he selected three materials that could be incorporated into the Xuanyuan Sword.

Earth Flame Crystal, Red Sun Stone Marrow, Fire Jade.

These three materials can be used as the main materials to forge first-tier top-grade magic weapons. The magic weapons made from them are suitable for cultivators with fire spiritual roots. They can amplify the spiritual power of cultivators with fire spiritual roots and also increase the sturdiness and sharpness of magic weapons, etc.

This is arguably the most suitable material for the advancement of the Xuanyuan Sword.

After determining the required materials, Jiang Peng first went to the main peak of the Cangshan Sect.

The Affairs Hall, responsible for assigning sect missions, sect contributions, and the sect's treasury, is located here.

Because there was no shortage of cultivation resources, Jiang Peng had never been here before. Even the Purple Jade Nourishing Pills needed by the sect were personally collected by disciples of the Pill Hall and then delivered to the sect's treasury.

When they arrived at the Affairs Hall, there were many disciples coming and going, all of them looking hurried.

It wasn't that anything major had happened in the sect; this was simply how the disciples of the Cangshan Sect truly were on a daily basis.

The vast majority of disciples in the sect are busy with cultivation resources, training and accumulating cultivation materials through one sect mission after another.

On the contrary, it is people like Jiang Peng who are the odd ones out.

A queue formed at the place to exchange sect contribution points. Jiang Peng was originally obediently at the end of the line, but unexpectedly, the disciple in front of him turned around and glanced at him, and then his expression suddenly changed.

"Senior brother, true disciples can go over there." He raised his hand and pointed to the empty window on the side.

Jiang Peng was taken aback. He looked at the true disciple's waist token that he had just received a few days ago, and then he realized what was going on.

Thank you for letting me know.

Jiang Peng turned to leave, but he heard some murmurs behind him, though he paid no attention to them.

Arriving at the empty window, I handed over my waist tag.

Soon, the disciple on duty behind the window respectfully said, "Senior Brother Jiang, you still have 34,000 in sect contribution points."

This is already a huge sum of money.

This is already a huge sum of money.

Some of it came from sect missions to suppress evil cultivators, but most of it was actually accumulated by Jiang Peng slowly by refining Purple Jade Nourishing Pills for the sect.

In other words, a considerable portion of these gate tributes were actually Jiang Peng taking over Qin Yuan's job and earning his master's gate tributes.

"Is there a catalog of the treasure vault?"

"Yes." The disciple at the window handed over a jade slip.

Jiang Peng examined the contents of the jade slip, but unfortunately only found two materials: Earth Flame Crystal and Fire Jade.

Among them, the Earth Flame Crystal requires 3,000 tributes, while the Fire Jade requires 4,000 tributes.

"Exchange for Earth Flame Crystals and Blazing Fire Jade." Jiang Peng handed over the waist token. "Send it to Azure Mist Peak."

After deducting the gate contribution, Jiang Peng got his waist token back, and someone would then deliver the items he had exchanged to him.

After all, the sect's treasury cannot be open all the time. Instead, every few days, the sect will collect the disciples' needs and then take them out of the treasury to distribute them.

Therefore, delivering goods to the sect's treasury is also a sect mission.

Back at Biwu Peak, Jiang Peng thought long and hard before finally sending a message to Lan Yingying, mentioning the matter of the Crimson Sun Stone Marrow.

I was hoping to use the business's channels to inquire and see if I could gain anything.

Not long after the message was sent, Jiang Peng heard a knock on the gate of her residence.

Upon opening the door, the graceful figure standing outside was none other than Lan Yingying.

"I heard that Senior Brother Jiang displayed great power, slaying a Foundation Establishment cultivator with his sword." Lan Yingying's tone was sarcastic.

Jiang Peng was taken aback.

Then came the soft warmth of her embrace.

"You damned fool, what could possibly be worth fighting so desperately for? That's a Foundation Establishment cultivator; he could crush you with a single finger!"

"I..."

"What do you mean, 'what do you mean'? Come inside and talk."

Amidst the pushing and shoving, Jiang Peng didn't even have a chance to speak before inexplicably being ushered into the house.

Then came a long, harmonious chorus of dragons and phoenixes, too numerous to recount.