Raise a sword!

Late at night, in the Valley of Heartlessness.

In the Chen residence.

An elderly man with a refined appearance stared expressionlessly at the two corpses in the morgue.

Beside the old man, a younger member of the Chen family was explaining something in a low voice.

This junior was one of the four who had previously tried to intercept Jiang Peng. Because he was too slow, he escaped being killed by Jiang Peng.

The young man complained indignantly, "This person entered the ruins in less than a day; he must have gained something."

The group of people who dared to openly block the road outside the Valley of Heartlessness must have something to rely on.

They were all collateral descendants of the Chen family.

As the royal family of the Chen Kingdom, the Chen family has branched out and multiplied over the centuries, with countless collateral branches.

Such a large clan has made it increasingly difficult for the collateral branches to make ends meet in terms of cultivation benefits.

Therefore, within the territory of Chen State, a considerable number of collateral branches of the Chen family, such as the Wuqing Valley branch, rely on their own bloodline to engage in the business of making money by blocking roads.

Moreover, the Chen family branch in Wuqing Valley is quite capable.

The jade pendants they distributed were indeed of inferior quality and had no miraculous properties whatsoever.

However, the jade plaque has special markings that record the time it was issued.

They have always relied on such methods to determine whether the independent cultivators exploring the ruins have gained anything.

Generally, independent cultivators stay in ruins for at least three to five days after entering, and if they explore further, it is not uncommon for them to stay for half a month.

Those who enter the ruins, come out after a day or two, and then hurriedly try to leave again become the targets of this group of Chen family members.

The old man listened quietly to the younger man's story.

After a moment, he shook his head slightly and said, "It shouldn't be the work of the Li family... The Li family has long been in cahoots with our Chen family's main branch. Even the 'Golden Flame Technique' was obtained from the South China Sea through the main branch's connections."

The old man's voice sounded increasingly ethereal, as if he were pondering something as he spoke.

"The relationship between our main branch of the Chen family and the Li family is not simple. This matter involves plans concerning the future of the Chen Kingdom... After all, our Chen family has been managing the western side of this mountain range for many years and has already reached a bottleneck, with no possibility of further progress."

"Don't even think about going south. It's close to the overseas. Even if the Chen family went there, we would have to be careful and discreet. The only place we could possibly plot is the spiritual vein on the northern slope of the Earth-Ringing Mountains."

Upon hearing this, the young man's eyes widened slightly.

"Uncle, what do you mean?"

"The Li family has only been in the Chen state for a short time, and they have a close relationship with the main branch, so they are more sensible than you and I imagine."

At this point, the old man narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The transformation of spiritual energy into fire is merely an outward appearance; many fire techniques have similar effects... It's possible that some faction in our Chen Kingdom is secretly plotting something, deliberately posing as a member of the Li family to confuse the public."

"After all, there are only nine Foundation Establishment families in the country. Now there is the Li family with two Foundation Establishment members. It is not hard to understand why some people are restless."

The old man paused slightly, pondered for a moment, and then a shadow of gloom crossed his face.

"Report this to the main line of command, and then you don't need to worry about it anymore."

Upon hearing this, the young man said with resentment, "Did those two cousins ​​die in vain?"

The old man shook his head slightly.

"The main branch will provide compensation... Recently, some Foundation Establishment families in the junior high school have been acting unruly, and the main branch is just looking for a pretext to kill someone."

"Even if it's a fabricated charge, it still needs to be made to look convincing so that no one can find any fault with it... The two corpses of the Chen clan members are convincing enough."

...

Five days later, late at night, Jiang Peng hurriedly returned to the Cangshan Sect.

They returned to Azure Mist Peak without making a sound.

First, he met with the disciples of the Pill Hall who were refining pills on Biwu Peak. After inquiring, he learned that nothing had happened in the past half month.

Afterwards, Jiang Peng plunged into her own courtyard.

At this point, he was finally able to relax.

"Although there were some ups and downs, the goal has been achieved, and the result is quite good."

Jiang Peng took out the four treasures left behind by the Heavenly Crippled Taoist one by one.

First and foremost is the magic sword forged from Tianchen steel.

Although the magic sword was made of extraordinary materials, it was ultimately only a first-tier magic sword. Jiang Peng immediately used the Purple Gold Cauldron to begin refining and decomposing it.

He felt the progress of the refining process and the consumption of his own spiritual power.

"The consumption of refining magic weapons of the same level is easily bearable, but this magic sword forged from Tianchen Steel is indeed extraordinary. It would probably take more than half a month to refine a magic weapon of the same level."

The time required to refine the magic sword slightly exceeded Jiang Peng's expectations.

But thinking of the extraordinary properties of Tianchen Steel, he patiently waited.

I took advantage of this time to study the "Heavenly Chen Sword Cultivation Technique" in detail, especially the part about sword forging.

Jiang Peng obtained the weapon-forging experience and insights from the Heavenly Crippled Daoist. Although the memories he received were only at the third level, they were enough for him to forge his own unique magic sword.

Jiang Peng took out the second-tier alchemy furnace, the Earth Dragon Furnace, played with it for a while, and then put it away.

"A second-tier alchemy furnace is still a bit too conspicuous. With my current alchemy skills, the original Xuan Tie furnace is more than enough, so there's no need to expose the Earth Dragon Furnace."

The origin of this item is difficult to explain, and Jiang Peng did not want to complicate matters.

However, the meditation cushion, because it looked inconspicuous, was placed directly in the cultivation room by Jiang Peng.

"Before the Heavenly Steel is fully refined, let's stabilize our cultivation first."

During her journey back to the sect these past few days, Jiang Peng noticed that her spiritual energy was somewhat unstable. This was due to the surge in her cultivation caused by absorbing a large amount of pure spiritual energy purified by the poisonous gas from the poison jars.

Since it concerned his own foundation, and he was about to reach the late stage of Qi Refining, Jiang Peng naturally couldn't ignore it and let his cultivation become unstable.

So he immediately sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion.

As soon as she sat down, Jiang Peng felt a sudden clarity in her mind.

"As expected of a second-tier top-grade magic artifact." Jiang Peng's eyes lit up as she immediately felt the wonder of this meditation cushion.

......

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

A sense of wonder washed over him, and a piece of black metal, about the size of two fists, appeared in front of Jiang Peng.

Jiang Peng had long anticipated that the decomposition would be completed and had been waiting for it.

Upon seeing the metal, he immediately reached out and touched it.

[Tianchen Steel: Rare Treasures, Refining Materials, and the Containment of All Things]

Seeing the golden characters before him, Jiang Peng breathed a sigh of relief.

"After all this trouble, I can finally start practicing this sword-nurturing technique."

In the past two weeks, he has thoroughly mastered the weapon-refining chapter of the "Heavenly Chen Sword Cultivation Technique".

They even prepared many materials for forging the magic sword well in advance.

Now, the time has finally come for the fruit to ripen and fall.

Jiang Peng closed her eyes slightly, and the image of the Purple Gold Cauldron appeared in her mind.

"Let me see if this sword-nurturing technique, which is valued by Nascent Soul cultivators, is really as powerful as the legends say."