[Volume 2] Chapter 5: The Sword Immortal and Sainquartz

“Hey, Finn.”

A man called out to Finn. He wore a sharply tailored black suit and had a handsome face, a wicked gleam in his eyes, and the faintest suggestive curl to his lips.

“Tadokoro. Long time no see. Filming anything lately?” Finn asked as they shook hands.

“Unfortunately, too many young punks have been coming after me. All I want is a quiet life, so I’ve gone into hiding for now. Haven’t filmed a thing.” Tadokoro smiled.

Tadokoro was a mid-stage Ethereal Realm (Tier 4) cultivator. He had started his career as a gay adult-video (GV) actor before becoming an international movie star. A brilliant actor with fans across the globe, he now appeared regularly in Hollywood blockbusters.

“Oh, right,” Tadokoro said. “A few days ago, I recommended you to S1 and Brazzers. I told them you were exceptionally gifted and perfect for the industry. Did you accept their offers?”

“Give me a break. I have no interest in making those kinds of movies.” Finn shook his head.

Tadokoro sighed, his face full of genuine regret. “What a waste. With your natural endowments, you’d become an overnight sensation worldwide!”

Then he spotted Jimmy. “This young man looks promising. He’s got what it takes to make movies. Care to introduce us?”

“This is Jimmy, Perseverance Realm (Tier 1),” Finn said. “Jimmy, this is Tadokoro, mid-stage Ethereal Realm (Tier 4).”

Bewildered, Jimmy shook Tadokoro’s hand. “Hello, I’m Jimmy. I just joined the Spacetime Destruction Bureau.”

Beaming, Tadokoro conjured a fine bone china teacup in one hand and a red clay, crane-spout teapot in the other. He poured Jimmy a full cup of warm black tea and handed it to him.

“Young man, I can tell you’ve filled out very nicely. You’ve definitely got what it takes to make movies. Here, try some of our Nittoh Black Tea.”

Still confused, Jimmy accepted the cup and cradled it in his hands.

Tadokoro’s eyes flickered. In just 0.0001 seconds, he produced a small paper packet, tore it open, poured white powder into the tea, then stuck a finger into the cup and stirred until it dissolved.

With Jimmy’s pitiful cultivation, he noticed none of it and raised the cup to his lips.

“Hold it.”

Finn snatched the cup away and handed it back to Tadokoro.

“The rookie’s too frail for your games. Let him go.”

“Fine.” Tadokoro sighed again, his voice laden with regret.

He tilted his head back and drained the tea, then wiped his lips and gave Jimmy a suggestive smile.

“When I’ve got some free time, big bro will come find you so we can make a movie together, okay?”

With that, he walked away.

Jimmy stood frozen to the spot, still having no idea what had just happened.

“Bro, he said I’ve got what it takes to make movies. You think he meant it?” Jimmy watched Tadokoro’s departing figure, a glimmer of hope still in his eyes.

“Oh my God.” Finn covered his face with one hand. “If you actually believe him, your ass won’t survive intact. Take my advice and stick to posting street-dance videos on YooToob. The movie business isn’t for you.”

“Got it, bro!”

Jimmy vaguely realized he might have just dodged a bullet and immediately dropped the subject.

Outside the skyscraper’s floor-to-ceiling windows, an enormous sword came sweeping through space.

Its edge gleamed with an icy light. The weapon was a thousand kilometers long, fifty kilometers wide, and twenty kilometers thick.

It flew through the void like a streak of silver cleaving the dark-red universe in two.

A handsome man stood atop its broad blade with his hands clasped behind his back, riding the sword through space.

He had sharp brows, bright eyes, and striking features, but his expression was like ice that had remained frozen since the dawn of time—cold, distant, and utterly unapproachable.

The enormous sword stopped beside the skyscraper’s ninety-ninth floor. The handsome man smashed through the floor-to-ceiling window and stepped into the opulent hall.

This was Sword Immortal Wei, a mid-stage Saint Realm (Tier 7) cultivator and an undisputed top-tier powerhouse.

His surname was Wei, and he had chosen “Sword Immortal” as his given name. Considering his strength, the title was hardly an exaggeration.

He had not been born with that name. After losing both parents and becoming an orphan as a child, he had renamed himself Sword Immortal.

Anyone who refused to call him by that name was killed.

Anyone who disliked the name and came looking for trouble was also killed.

He had grown amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood, honing his swordsmanship as he roamed the myriad worlds. After mastering every sword art across the Endless Worlds, he had ultimately become a true Sword Immortal.

Sword Immortal Wei believed in the martial principle that, when it came to melee weapons, an inch longer meant an inch stronger. He had therefore forged himself a peerless treasure sword.

And yes, its name was literally “Peerless Treasure Sword.”

It was the same thousand-kilometer-long, fifty-kilometer-wide, twenty-kilometer-thick blade currently hovering in space.

Sword Immortal Wei was aloof and cold by nature. He never spoke to anyone whose cultivation realm was lower than his own. In his view, communicating with weaker people would drag down his strength.

Never speak to anyone beneath his realm.

That was the iron rule by which he lived.

Whenever he went shopping or handled other mundane affairs, he communicated with ordinary people exclusively through sign language.

Sword Immortal Wei was the master of a Sword Pavilion in another world. Even with his subordinates, he communicated only through hand gestures and subtle facial expressions. As a result, every one of them had become an expert in sign language and reading microexpressions.

His disciples never worried about unemployment. If they couldn’t find work elsewhere, they could always apply to a school for the deaf and teach swordsmanship.

Sword Immortal Wei stood silently in the hall, as cold and imposing as a frost-covered blade. He made no attempt to speak with anyone.

Very few people were worthy of a single word from him. Everyone knew his strange temper, so they naturally gave him a wide berth.

When Finn and Jimmy passed in front of him, Sword Immortal Wei saw Finn and quickly made a hand gesture.

Finn stared blankly, having no idea what he meant.

Then Sword Immortal Wei caught sight of Jimmy.

His cold, haughty face twisted as his brows knitted in utter disgust. He pressed his lips together and firmly shut his eyes.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Jimmy asked, completely baffled.

“The very sight of you offends him,” Finn explained. “If we weren’t inside the Spacetime Destruction Bureau, he’d have swung the Peerless Treasure Sword and killed you already.”

“What did that gesture mean?” Finn asked Sword Immortal Wei.

He wasn’t expecting the man to deign to answer aloud. Repeating the gesture would have been enough.

But faced with Finn’s question, Sword Immortal Wei kept his eyes shut and ignored him completely.

“He said your self-created sword art, the ‘Chivalric Eightfold Whack,’ is quite impressive and gave him a great deal of inspiration.”

A gentle, lilting voice came from nearby.

“Sainquartz. I didn’t know you understood sign language.” Finn smiled in greeting.

Sainquartz was a genderless member of the gemstone race: a piece of Saint Quartz that had awakened to sentience. Their hair shimmered with every color of the rainbow, while their delicate, pale face and entire body had the translucent texture of crystal.

Sainquartz had a rather unusual profession: they were a summoner whose power allowed them to summon characters by spending money on gacha pulls.

Sainquartz could wield the summoned characters’ weapons, use their abilities, and command them in battle.

As everyone knew, gacha pulls cost money—lots of it.

Fortunately, as a gemstone being, Sainquartz possessed a natural ability that allowed them to grow rare mineral crystals within their own body.

Those precious crystals could be sold for money or spent directly on character pulls. Sainquartz could also use the currencies of various nations to pay for their pulls.

As a result, Sainquartz’s combat power fluctuated wildly, ranging anywhere from Calamity Realm (Tier 2) to God Realm (Tier 9).

Their personal strength was only around high-stage Calamity Realm (Tier 2), but the characters summoned from the gacha pool depended entirely on luck. On a good day, they might pull a supreme being at God Realm (Tier 9).

On a bad day, all they would get was some worthless character at low-stage Perseverance Realm (Tier 1).

This made their combat strength notoriously erratic and unreliable.

Because of that, Sainquartz could occasionally beat an Immortal Realm (Tier 8) powerhouse into the ground.

More often, however, they ended up getting pummeled and sent rolling across the floor by someone in the Venerable Realm (Tier 3).