121 Island

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Pang Yue’s heart stirred slightly, and he immediately guessed at Cao Jingzong and Murong Shao’s intentions.

First, they wished to win him over by offering him certain benefits.

Second, they wanted to test his courage, daring, and ability.

The island was an excellent place, but it was not without danger. Without absolute confidence and sufficient ability, it could instead become a source of calamity.

Pang Yue chuckled inwardly. Rising to his feet, he said, “Then I thank you both, Senior Brothers. I shall accept the island.”

A look of approval flashed through Cao Jingzong’s eyes. He smiled and said, “That day, when you used the Big Dipper Seven-Kill Formation to slay the Golden Core great demon, you acted cleanly and decisively, without the slightest hesitation. I knew then that your sword was like your character. Your conduct is the same—direct and resolute.”

Murong Shao also smiled as he took out a jade pendant and handed it to Pang Yue. “The island’s exact location is contained within. Though the sect has already protected it with a grand formation, you will still need to make considerable improvements once you arrive.”

Pang Yue thanked them both once more.

He had already made plans for how to use the island.

The spirit flowers, spirit fruits, and spirit rice required for Enlightenment Jade Dew Spirit Wine could not be obtained through purchasing alone. He needed another stable source of supply…

After the banquet, someone proposed a friendly sword competition, and Murong Shao readily agreed.

Everyone left the main hall and came to the high jade platform outside. Two men seemed to have arranged it beforehand; they flew into the air above the platform at the same time, sword light flashing in all directions as they clashed.

Both men were quite formidable. In terms of swordsmanship, they even surpassed Pei Luanjing.

Once the victor had been decided, Murong Shao smiled and offered a few words of commentary, pointing out the flaws in their sword cultivation. The two men gained tremendously from his advice.

Afterward, another person rose into the air and challenged the others.

A streak of sword light shot from the crowd, and the two began sparring.

Pang Yue watched with little interest.

Friendly sword contests between fellow disciples were the most boring of all.

They did not fight to the death, nor was there any wager. What meaning could that possibly have?

More importantly, when fellow disciples sparred, they could not fight with all their strength or unleash themselves without restraint. It was utterly dull.

Unless one was a peerlessly beautiful woman like Pei Luanjing—watching her swordplay was a pleasure in itself. That was naturally another matter.

After several bouts, someone suddenly rose into the air and called out, “Geng Yan of Flying Peak requests instruction from Junior Brother Chen Mo of Cloudfirmament Peak.”

Geng Yan, like Pang Yue, had reached the seventh level of Dao Foundation cultivation.

Perhaps displeased by the close relationship between Pang Yue and Murong Shao and Cao Jingzong, he had issued the challenge.

Pang Yue smiled indifferently and stepped into the sky. In a deep voice, he said, “Please proceed, Senior Brother Geng.”

Geng Yan nodded at him. With a point of his finger, a green sword beam, shaped like a swimming dragon, shot forth.

A trace of impatience flashed through Pang Yue’s eyes. With a sweep of his sleeve, he summoned an octagonal square mirror.

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The mirror’s radiance flashed, and the green sword light was instantly fixed in midair.

A flying sword of emerald bamboo trembled lightly, emitting a humming sword cry.

Geng Yan was startled. He hurriedly altered his sword formula, intending to urge the flying sword into battle.

But the octagonal square mirror turned slightly, and its radiance fell upon Geng Yan.

The instant the light struck him, the transformations of his spiritual power were forcibly frozen.

In the next moment, a brilliant snow-white sword light swept across Geng Yan’s body at astonishing speed.

The protective spiritual radiance of a seventh-level Dao Foundation cultivator was as fragile as paper before that sword light.

A moment later, Geng Yan’s spiritual power finally broke free of the mirror’s restraints.

He stared at Pang Yue with lingering fear, his eyes filled with disbelief.

That snow-white sword light had, in the space of an instant, shattered his protective radiance and passed within a hair’s breadth of his robes.

Although the sword light had not injured him, the overwhelming killing intent contained within it had struck his sea of consciousness with brutal force.

Geng Yan opened his mouth, intending to speak.

But Pang Yue did not even spare him a glance. He simply withdrew the sword light and the Profound-Fixing Mirror, then cupped his fists toward Murong Shao and the others.

“Senior Brothers, I still have matters to attend to. I shall take my leave first.”

With that, his figure blurred and transformed into a slender streak of sword light, which vanished across the sky.

On the high platform, Geng Yan stood speechless.

Murong Shao nodded and remarked, “Jingzong, your judgment is excellent. Although he used only a single sword strike just now, the principles hidden within it were profound. If his sword formula and spiritual power were not inferior to ours, he might already be close to standing shoulder to shoulder with you and me.”

Cao Jingzong smiled. “In swordsmanship alone, he is certainly no weaker than I am. His only shortcoming is that he has cultivated for too few years, and his sword formula is slightly inferior. I truly wonder how Yang Su managed to nurture such a talent.”

“Yang Su suffered a narrow defeat at Wei Rui’s hands back then and failed to enter the ranks of the Ten Great True Disciples. Before he had accumulated enough foundation, he went on to attempt the Golden Core breakthrough. His future path… What a pity.”

Murong Shao shook his head and sighed.

Even after occupying a place among the Ten Great True Disciples for thirty years, he still felt that he was far from having established a true foundation for the Great Dao.

As for people like Pang Yue’s true self and Ye Xue, they had received decades of wisdom and research from the Ice Demon Palace Master, cleverly practiced dual cultivation through the merging of their registers, and solved the cultivation difficulties of the Ten Directions Frozen Demon Dao.

Only with the aid of a heavenly treasure such as ten-thousand-year ice marrow could they rival disciples of the caliber of the Ten Great True Disciples of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

The Ten Directions Frozen Demon Dao was itself an exalted path to the Primordial Spirit. Its Ice-Po soul radiance had astounded the ages, making it one of the finest foundations for the Great Dao.

The resources granted by the Heavenly Sword Sect to its Ten Great True Disciples were much like the resources Pang Yue’s true self and Ye Xue had received while cultivating with the ten-thousand-year ice marrow.

The difference was that the Heavenly Sword Sect could continuously nurture disciples of this caliber.

The Demon Talisman Sect, however, had only been able to produce Ye Xue and Pang Yue through a series of extraordinary coincidences.

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The Ten Directions Frozen Demon Dao, the ten-thousand-year ice marrow, and the Ice Demon Palace Master’s decades of painstaking research—none of these three elements could be missing.

That was why the Demon Talisman Sect was inferior to the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Throughout the history of the Demon Talisman Sect, every great Primordial Spirit cultivator had achieved his or her path only after encountering additional fortuitous opportunities elsewhere.

The Heavenly Sword Sect, by contrast, had always possessed Primordial Spirit cultivators to guard its legacy. Their succession had never been broken.

…

Ten days later.

High above the sea, three hundred thousand miles from the ancestral grounds of the Heavenly Sword Sect, a streak of escaping light drifted leisurely across the sky.

Within it, a man and a woman walked hand in hand, their manner intimate.

They were Pang Yue and Pei Luanjing, who had just departed from the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Between sea and sky, white clouds drifted lazily beneath the radiant sun, filling the heart with joy.

Not far away, an island shaped like a green spiral shell came clearly into view.

For thousands of miles around it, the seawater was clear and jade-green. Though there was no wind in the sky, the waves churned vigorously below, sending spray dancing through the air.

As they approached, they saw that the island was nearly circular, its edges rising high on all sides while the center sank like a basin. Lush green grass and trees covered the island, reflecting the light of heaven and the shadows of the clouds to create a landscape of rare and tranquil beauty.

Holding the jade pendant Murong Shao had given them, the two opened the island’s formation restrictions and entered.

A dense and abundant spiritual energy rushed toward them. It was scarcely inferior to that of Cloudfirmament Peak in the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Delighted, the two immediately began to organize and develop the island.

Pang Yue first deployed a defensive grand formation purchased from the Heavenly Sword Market. The formation connected with the island’s spiritual veins and possessed considerable power, enough to withstand demonic beasts below the Golden Core realm.

Afterward, the two felled trees for building materials and constructed a wooden house on the level ground at the center of the island.

Inside the small building, Pang Yue refined more than ten qi-devouring puppets known as Five-Element Strongmen. With their help, he reclaimed the central plain into fertile spiritual fields.

Pei Luanjing then directed the puppets to plant the spirit fruit, spirit flower, and spirit rice seeds they had purchased.

Afterward, the two cast spells and tended the spiritual fields with great care, bringing a pastoral charm to the island.

During the intervals between cultivation, Pang Yue also slipped into the depths of the sea beside the island and laid down a formation on the seabed, placing two Cold Serpent eggs inside it to hatch.

And as time passed, the first vat of Enlightenment Jade Dew was finally brewed.