Chapter 193: Supreme Great Elder

Jiuyou followed the four auras, soon arriving among the snowy peaks of a wasteland. He stopped on a mountain ridge to watch the distant battlefield.

It was a sweeping expanse of ice where wind and snow swirled between four mountain peaks, seemingly drawn by an unseen force. Four figures were scattered across the plain, facing off in pairs through the driving snow.

Jiuyou recognized the two Daoyang Sect elders; both were junior brothers he had crossed paths with on occasion. Their two opponents wore Guiming Sect robes—one tall, one short, and both emanating steady auras. They were clearly both experts at the Nascent Soul Early Stage.

At first, the Daoyang Sect duo held the upper hand. One wielded a green-bladed longsword with fierce momentum, forcing his opponent back several steps. The other activated a crimson disc that transformed into several fire wheels, sealing off the enemy's path completely.

The two Guiming Sect cultivators fought a retreating battle, appearing to struggle against the onslaught.

The two Daoyang Sect elders hesitated briefly before giving chase, but they only pursued for a dozen li before stopping simultaneously at the mouth of a gorge. Although eager for victory, they were not reckless; pushing too deep risked an ambush.

But it was already too late.

Beams of light simultaneously lit up from the four peaks. Spiritual light wove into a massive net that closed in from all directions, trapping the two within.

It was a grand trapping array of considerable grade, clearly set up in advance.

Two more figures walked out of the wind and snow, stopping on the left and right just outside the array.

On the left stood a Shape-shifting magical beast, towering in stature with eerie green eyes. On the right stood a staff-wielding old man in Guiming Sect robes, his cultivation a layer deeper than the other two.

Jiuyou continued to observe with an unchanged expression, not rushing to act. His gaze paused on the grand array for a moment before shifting away.

The two trapped elders attempted to break the array several times, only to be repelled. The Shape-shifting beast and the Guiming Sect old man took turns attacking, coordinating flawlessly from outside the formation to firmly suppress the Daoyang Sect duo.

One elder took a palm strike to the shoulder, while the other had consumed over half his spiritual energy. Both were already starting to consider whether to abandon their physical bodies and flee with their Nascent Souls.

Just as they were about to make their decision, a streak of golden sword light swept in from afar. It was like a blazing sun suddenly rising in the dead of winter, illuminating the entire snowy plain. The sword light struck the grand array, and the formation that had trapped the two elders for so long tore open down the middle like paper. It shattered inch by inch, scattering spiritual light before dissolving into a shower of dust.

Everyone on the battlefield froze.

They all turned to look toward the source of the golden light. The wind and snow were still blowing, but a figure had already landed steadily in front of the array.

Jiuyou did not give them time to react. He swept his longsword horizontally, and a crescent of sword qi hundreds of zhang wide slashed out, cleaving the entire battlefield at waist height. Where the sword qi passed, the ice cracked and snow mist surged, as if someone had drawn a curtain across heaven and earth.

One of the Guiming Sect cultivators did not even have time to scream before being swallowed by the sword qi, his figure entirely dissipating into the golden light. The Shape-shifting beast beside him was also caught in the blast; half its body vanished, and its ruined corpse fell to the ground, twitching twice before going still.

The surviving man and beast scrambled to retreat in terror, but Jiuyou casually followed up with two precise strikes. One severed a head; the other cleaved a waist. The kills were crisp and clean, as if he had calculated the exact landing points long before he ever swung his blade.

He collected the two beast spirits and swept all four storage pouches into his sleeve. As for the Nascent Souls, he did not spare them a second glance, letting them dissipate on their own in the aftershocks of the sword qi.

The two Daoyang Sect elders stood amidst the shattered array core, taking quite a while to recover their wits. When they recognized the figure, the terror on their faces slowly morphed into the relief of surviving a disaster. Before they could step forward to thank him, Jiuyou had already nodded at them, turned around, and walked into the wind and snow. His back was quickly obscured by the snow mist, as if he had never been there.

After returning to the sect, they reported the matter truthfully, placing special emphasis on the scene of the array being broken with a single sword strike. As the news spread, no one in the sect harbored the slightest doubt about Jiuyou's sword Dao cultivation. Several elders who had originally held a wait-and-see attitude also began to re-evaluate the true weight of this Sixth Elder.

However, no one knew that this seemingly coincidental rescue had actually been under Jiuyou's observation from beginning to end. He had waited there for a long time, as if waiting for the perfect moment to bring down that sword light.

In the second month after the incident, Jiuyou visited the Body Refinement Peak. He kept his true foundation hidden, merely citing a bottleneck in his physical cultivation to seek guidance from the Nascent Soul elder there.

Hearing that the Sixth Elder had come in person, the elder was incredibly forthcoming. He straightforwardly remarked that Senior Brother Qing was being entirely too modest—with the ability to split the heavens with a single sword strike, why bother caring about body refinement? Nevertheless, he meticulously shared all the physical cultivation insights he had accumulated over the years, even gifting Jiuyou several cultivation manuals and personal notes. Having obtained what he came for, Jiuyou did not linger. He returned to Ember Sword Peak to carefully study them.

While leafing through the notes, he experienced a moment of sudden enlightenment, finally realizing the exact flaw in the Heavenly Flame Body Tempering Art. As the name implied, Heavenly Flame Body Tempering required drawing upon earth fire to temper the body if one wished to break through the eighth layer and step into the realm of a Nascent Soul physical cultivator.

But here in Southern Frost, buried under eternal snow, active volcanoes were a rarity to begin with. The few that did exist were either completely sealed by millennia-old ice or had long since been claimed by great beasts as their lairs. If he wanted to progress further, he would likely have to make a trip back to the Northern Plains. The volcanoes scattered across its barren deserts were both plentiful and ideal.

There was no rush on this matter.

A few days later, Zhou Chengshan came knocking again. However, this time it was not for his own business. Instead, the Eldest Senior Brother—who had yet to show his face—wanted to see him.

'It's finally time,' Jiuyou thought calmly, his expression completely undisturbed.

It was impossible for the other party to ignore a Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator. Coupled with the formidable reputation Jiuyou had built within the sect over the years, this had likely set the Eldest Senior Brother much more at ease. As for the Supreme Great Elder, his prolonged absence suggested he was orchestrating something massive. Calling for Jiuyou now was undoubtedly a sign of approval—a signal that he was deemed qualified to know of this matter. Moving forward, this would also make his operations within the sect much smoother.

Jiuyou set out with Zhou Chengshan, traveling straight south for thousands of li. The ambient spiritual energy gradually thinned out, and they eventually came to a halt above a seemingly ordinary gorge.

After passing through an extremely concealed barrier, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth abruptly spiked, as if they had crossed into another realm. Even the core of Tianyuan Mountain could not compare to this place; just breathing in a single mouthful of air left the mind entirely clear.

The density of the spiritual energy was almost bizarre, as if it had been forcibly gathered here. A small stream flowed beneath their feet, its waters crystal clear, yet comprised entirely of liquefied spiritual energy. And all of this energy was slowly surging down into the depths of the earth.

He slowed his pace, his gaze calmly sweeping across the surroundings.

The valley seemed peaceful on the surface, but underneath, it felt as though a breathing leviathan lay hidden. There was no telling how long it had been asleep, nor when it would wake.