A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Sword-Forging Servant and Ascending to Immorta

Chen Baichuan shouted a sentence, giving Zhou Lingxuan no time to react at all.

He grabbed Zhou Lingxuan's arm, and with his other hand he lifted the back of Lei Yang's collar, who was still in a daze, and strode out of the workshop.

"Elder, those few who committed the crime..."

A steward from the equipment hall quickly stepped forward to ask for instructions.

"Lock it up! Throw it at the entrance of the abandoned hall for now! I'll deal with it when I return!"

Without turning his head, Chen Baichuan roared, and with a wave of his right hand in front of him, a palm-sized model of a flying boat appeared out of thin air.

He infused it with spiritual power, and the flying boat expanded in the wind, transforming in the blink of an eye into a small flying boat that could accommodate seven or eight people, hovering steadily in mid-air above the courtyard.

"Everyone, come up here!"

Chen Baichuan, carrying Lei Yang, lightly touched the ground with his toes and leaped into the air, directly onto the flying boat.

Zhou Lingxuan was pulled up by his brute force and floated up as well.

This was Lei Yang's first time riding in such a flying magical artifact. As soon as he stood still, he clung to the ship's side and looked down.

The courtyard of the abandoned hall shrank rapidly in his eyes, and the servants who were bound by the spirit-suppressing lock and slumped on the ground like dead dogs became no bigger than ants.

The frustration he felt at being suppressed by a Qi Refining Stage 3 cultivator suddenly dissipated.

"What are you looking at? You're so pathetic!" Chen Baichuan said irritably, pulling Lei Yang back from the ship's side and tossing him onto the deck. "Hold on tight!"

The flying boat suddenly shuddered, transforming into a streak of light that shot into the sky.

A strong wind rushed towards us.

Lei Yang was blown off balance by the wind and quickly hugged the Wind and Thunder Sword tightly to the cabin, his face showing both excitement and nervousness.

He secretly glanced around.

Below the airship, the rolling mountains and scattered buildings rushed past.

Occasionally, they could see other cultivators riding flying swords, passing by them, but they were quickly left far behind.

Is this the inner gate?

The spiritual energy here was many times richer than in the abandoned hall, and even the air smelled sweet.

Lei Yang was secretly alarmed, then turned to look at Zhou Lingxuan.

Zhou Lingxuan, however, seemed to be used to all of this. As soon as he boarded the flying boat, he found a corner to sit down, closed his eyes, and hunched over, as if he were asleep.

No matter how the airship rocked or how the wind howled, he remained as steady as a rock, not even the hem of his clothes twitching.

Lei Yang secretly admired him.

Old Zhou is indeed Old Zhou; he remains unmoved even if Mount Tai collapses before him.

……

Sect Affairs Office.

This is one of the liveliest places outside the entire Heavenly Sword Pavilion.

Collecting monthly stipends, registering for tasks, changing identity jade tokens... hundreds and thousands of disciples come and go here every day.

At the entrance of the main hall, a long queue stretched from inside the hall all the way to the square.

Just then, a high-speed flying boat, almost grazing overhead, landed rudely on the open ground in front of the main hall with a sharp whistling sound.

"Who is it! So inconsiderate!"

"Are you in a hurry to be reincarnated? You almost hit me!"

The disciples in line were thrown about by the blast wave, and they all raised their heads while cursing.

The next second, all the cursing stopped abruptly.

Chen Baichuan leaped off the flying boat, not even glancing at the surrounding crowd, and immediately unleashed a terrifying pressure befitting a Golden Core stage elder.

boom!

The air seemed to freeze.

The entire square fell silent instantly.

Those disciples who were complaining earlier turned pale, their legs went weak, and they didn't even dare to breathe.

"What are you all standing here for? Get out of my way!"

Chen Baichuan roared.

The crowd erupted like boiling water, then quickly dispersed to both sides, creating a wide passageway leading to the main hall in the crowded square.

Chen Baichuan nodded in satisfaction and turned to shout something to the flying boat.

"Get down!"

Zhou Lingxuan opened his eyes, slowly stood up, and helped Lei Yang, whose legs were also weak, down the gangway.

An old man and a young man, one with weakened health and the other covered in blood, followed behind the menacing Chen Baichuan. This combination looked strange no matter how you looked at it.

The disciples around him whispered among themselves.

"Isn't that Elder Chen from the Weaponry Hall? What's he doing in the administration office?"

"My God, is Elder Chen really that short-tempered? That last bit almost scared the crap out of me."

"The key question is, who are those two people following him? One looks like he's about to die, and the other looks like he was just pulled out of a pool of blood. They don't look like inner disciples at all."

"I don't know, but someone who can be personally escorted by Elder Chen must be no ordinary person."

Chen Baichuan ignored the surrounding discussions.

He walked with his hands behind his back, swaggering down the passageway that had been cleared for him, and barged straight into the main hall of the administrative office.

When the disciples in charge of the main hall saw Chen Baichuan, they immediately bowed and paid their respects, not daring to ask a single question.

Chen Baichuan ignored them completely, walked through the bustling outer hall, and kicked open the door to the inner hall.

"You, surnamed Li! Get out here right now!"

Inside the hall, an elder with white hair and beard, who was meditating with his eyes closed, was startled by the loud noise and his eyelids twitched.

He opened his eyes and saw that the person who came was Chen Baichuan. His brows immediately furrowed into a knot.

"Chen Baichuan, what's gotten into you again? This is the administration office, not your blacksmith shop!"

This Elder Li is the powerful elder in charge of all affairs of the outer disciples.

"Enough with the nonsense!" Chen Baichuan pulled Zhou Lingxuan out from behind and shoved him in front of Elder Li. "Get him an identity and make him a steward of the abolition hall."

Elder Li's gaze fell on Zhou Lingxuan.

He looked him up and down, then scanned him with his divine sense, his brows furrowing even deeper.

With no fluctuations in cultivation, depleted qi and blood, blocked meridians, and little lifespan remaining.

Isn't he just an ordinary old man through and through?

"Chen Baichuan, what kind of joke are you talking about?"

Elder Li's face darkened.

"Although the position of steward of the abandoned hall is a sinecure, it is still an official stewardship position within the sect. According to the rules, it must be held by an inner disciple at the Qi Refining stage or above. You're letting an old mortal take it? This violates the sect's rules!"

"Clan rules, clan rules, all you know is clan rules!"

Chen Baichuan exploded on the spot, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

He slammed his hand on the mahogany table next to him.

boom!

The entire table shattered instantly, turning into a pile of broken wood.

"I'm putting my words right here!"

Chen Baichuan pointed to his nose, spitting almost onto Elder Li's face.

"I, Chen Baichuan of the Weapon Hall, as an elder, vouch for him!"

"This useless hall manager is definitely going to be in charge today!"

"If you dare utter a single word of dissent, from now on, all the disciples in your affairs office will have to find their own magical artifacts and tokens!"

Elder Li's face instantly turned a deep liver color.

Threat!

This is a blatant threat!

Everyone in the Heavenly Sword Pavilion knows that over 90% of the sect's standard magical artifacts and identity tokens come from the Weapon Hall.

If Chen Baichuan, this weapon-forging fanatic, is truly determined to strangle him, his position as the affairs elder will be replaced within three days.

But rules are rules. If he agrees to this, how will he manage the tens of thousands of outer disciples in the future?

Elder Li's chest heaved with anger as he stared intently at Chen Baichuan, then glanced at Zhou Lingxuan, who had remained silent throughout, seemingly terrified.

A thankless job that nobody wants to do.

A weapon-forging fanatic who dares not offend anyone.

This is a very simple matter to calculate.

Elder Li took a deep breath, like a deflated balloon, and slowly leaned back in his chair, waving his hand.

"Never mind, never mind."

"Fine, I'm afraid of you."

He took out a blank bronze jade tablet and a register from his storage bag.

"Name."

"Zhou Lingxuan," Zhou Lingxuan replied in a hoarse voice at the opportune moment.

Elder Li picked up his pen and wrote his name on the register. He then placed the jade tablet on a specially made array plate, made a hand seal with his fingertips, and sent a ray of spiritual light into it.

hum-

The bronze jade plaque trembled slightly, revealing the words "Abandoned Hall" on the front and "Manager Zhou Lingxuan" on the back.

"Take it."

Elder Li pushed the jade tablet and the register over, his tone sounding somewhat listless.

"From today onwards, you are the steward of the Abandoned Hall. All matters concerning the Abandoned Hall will be decided by you alone."

"Thank you, Elder Li. Thank you, Elder Chen."

Zhou Lingxuan, hunched over, accepted the jade token with trembling hands, displaying an expression of overwhelming gratitude and surprise, perfectly portraying the image of an incompetent old man who rose to power through connections.

Seeing this, Chen Baichuan snorted with satisfaction, giving Elder Li a way out.

With the matter settled, Zhou Lingxuan prepared to take his leave.

He bowed to the two elders and turned to walk towards the entrance of the inner hall.

However, just as he turned around, with one foot about to step out of the inner hall threshold...

Deep within his consciousness, the pure sword intent, forged from countless sword intents, trembled slightly without warning.

Zhou Lingxuan paused almost imperceptibly for half a second.

He didn't turn around, and his expression didn't change at all; he still looked old and frail.

But in that instant, his powerful spiritual sense, far surpassing that of other cultivators of the same level, silently penetrated the inner hall's screen like mercury spilling onto the ground, instantly enveloping the noisy main hall outside.

His intuition pinpointed precisely to a shadowy spot in the far corner of the hall.

There, a gaze was fixed upon them.

A gaze, extremely cold and sticky, like the hiss of a venomous snake, was fixed on his back.