Chapter 489 - 330: 3 Years

Chapter 489: Chapter 330: 3 Years

"Inspect everything. Starting tomorrow, the Inner City... will be sealed! Any disciples who break the rules will be thrown out!" Su Xue’s voice was heavy with exhaustion as she looked at Shangguan Yutong. "Be prepared for the city to remain sealed for three years!"

A hint of hesitation appeared in Shangguan Yutong’s eyes. She asked, "What about recruiting new disciples...?"

"We’ll recruit. Why wouldn’t we? We’ll follow the rules Ling Xiao set! Priority to the children of commoners!" Su Xue’s words were chilling as she spoke in a cold voice. "Yutong, listen to me. We will lie low for three years! As for the Zhe Family... I will personally annihilate them sooner or later!"

Shangguan Yutong gazed at Su Xue for a moment, then said softly, "Then we’ll listen to Elder Su. When he left, he said that if anything came up, you had the final say."

Su Xue nodded heavily, then said to Thirteenth Master and Fourteenth Master, "The task of finding talented children from poor families... I’ll have to trouble you two Elders with that!"

Thirteenth Master and Fourteenth Master replied with solemn expressions, "Grand Elder, you speak too gravely! We brothers guarantee we will complete the mission!"

Su Xue glanced at Quefeng, who said, "Grand Elder, rest assured. The Ice Crystal Celestial Silkworms will be supplied in sufficient quantity!"

Su Xue nodded. Her body swayed slightly, a sign of excessive blood loss. Then she said, "You can’t build the new without destroying the old. Don’t be heartbroken. Leave the compensation work to Ling Wu and the others. Elder Yutong, Elders Thirteen and Fourteen, in the days to come, we will need to work together to lay a solid foundation for Sect Leader Ling Xiao!"

"What about me?"

Tiger, who had gradually calmed down, walked over and asked Su Xue in a low voice. To him, this woman had practically given him a new life, and he had long since come to see her as a mother. Seeing Su Xue’s injuries, Tiger’s heart seethed with hatred.

"You? You just need to cultivate! Tiger, in three years, I want to see a Tiger who has become a Tier Four Sword Emperor!"

"Tiger will definitely work hard!"

Shangguan Yutong glanced back at the Mist Array and asked, "Those two Sword Emperors from the Jingwu Family..."

"Trap them until they die!"

Su Xue’s gaze was icy as she spoke with hatred in her voice.

...

Ling Xiao was currently lying on a massive cliff. A fierce wind blew across the weathered stones, letting out a sharp, whistling shriek as it passed over his head.

Ling Xiao was leaning against a huge boulder on its leeward side. His hair was a mess, his clothes were tattered and torn, and some spots were still stained with blood. A wry smile hung on his lips, and the light in his eyes was unfocused. Who could have imagined that this rising star—the one who made the Lanyue Empire’s Royal Family tremble in fear and countless hidden families and sects jump in fright—could ever be in such a sorry state?

Ling Xiao pulled a piece of long-since cold roasted meat from his ring and began to gnaw on it. The meat was cold, hard, and awful to eat, but Ling Xiao devoured it with relish. A normal person probably wouldn’t touch it, but for Ling Xiao, it was an excellent food for recovering True Essence!

This was the meat of a Tier Seven Magical Beast, a Thunderstorm Tiger!

This Tier Seven Magical Beast had a body similar to a tiger, but it was several times larger than an ordinary one. A row of sharp, protruding spikes grew from its back! Its tail was like a steel whip, and its skull was as hard as refined steel! Its offensive power was utterly terrifying.

Moreover, this creature was naturally able to release powerful bolts of lightning. Given that he was smitten to ash by a Celestial Tribulation in his past life, Ling Xiao had an inexplicable fear of lightning itself.

His current injuries were mostly from that beast. He had only been able to identify it thanks to the *Continental Bestiary* and *Continental Flora* that Yisha had given him, which were stored in his ring. While not necessarily comprehensive, they did contain entries for the vast majority of species.

For a High-Tier Magical Beast, not only is the Crystal Core a treasure, but its blood, flesh, sinews, bones, and hide are all valuable materials!

Just like the meat of this Thunderstorm Tiger. Although the texture wasn’t great, it contained a huge amount of energy. After eating it, his True Essence recovered very quickly!

Besides, Ling Xiao also wanted to overcome his fear of lightning by eating its meat! ’Against a Tier Seven Magical Beast, I shouldn’t have ended up in such a sorry state!’

Ling Xiao gave a wry smile, remembering that at the bottom of the two-thousand-meter-deep cliff below, there was a Tier Eight Thunderstorm Tiger!

Perhaps it was because he had killed its young, and the elder had come seeking revenge. In any case, that battle had left Ling Xiao in a wretched state. It must have been a Tier Eight Peak Thunderstorm Tiger.

Ling Xiao could clearly see the grief and fury in its eyes. Its frenzied roars seemed to be trying to tell him something. Unfortunately, unless they reached the peak of Tier Nine and gained the ability to shapeshift, they could never speak human languages. The occasional Tier Eight Magical Beast that could speak human words was, in human terms, an absolute rarity—a genius of stunning talent.

The devastating lightning, which seemed to make the very heavens and earth change color, had chased Ling Xiao relentlessly, nearly blasting his soul to smithereens once again. In the end, he had been forced to bring out the Urgently Cold Treasure Cauldron and the Cold Iron Sword Array. Seeing that it couldn’t kill Ling Xiao, the Tier Eight Thunderstorm Tiger finally left, filled with hatred.

’Good thing that beast can’t fly!’ Ling Xiao thought with a touch of boredom as he leaned against the boulder.

Just now, a sudden premonition had washed over him. Shushan Disciples might not be masters of the Path of Divination, but they could still sense things that were closely related to them.

He sensed that something had happened at the sect. It had been perilous for a time, but later, the danger had passed.

Ling Xiao lowered his head in thought for a moment, then whispered, "’I can protect you for a time, but not for a lifetime. I hope this lesson helps you all mature! Hold on, and wait for me!’"

Ling Xiao’s current cultivation trip into these thousands of miles of primordial mountain forests wasn’t just to seek peace and quiet. Now that the Shushan Sword Sect was established, Ling Xiao naturally had to plan for its future. It wasn’t that he couldn’t stay at the sect to cultivate, but over time, the others would surely develop a dependence on him.

If one day he really did enter the Holy Sanctuary, or simply cultivated to the Mahayana Ascension by Raising the Clouds and left his sect behind, what would become of it?

You can never kill all your enemies; High Priest Su Xue was the best example of this! The best way to make others afraid to provoke you was to possess power that made them tremble.

’If you kill one of mine, I will slaughter your entire clan!’

Therefore, on one hand, Ling Xiao hoped that during his absence, they could truly mature and learn to support the entire sect themselves. On the other hand, the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in Ling Xiao’s Spatial Container were all top-grade treasures, but this created another problem.

These Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures could only be used to refine high-level Elixirs! As for the ingredients for the series of Elixirs that Shushan Sect disciples needed for their initiation—like the Foundation Establishment Pill, Nourishing Pill, and Calming Pill—Ling Xiao had none on hand. Although he was already trying to acquire them through the Ling Auction House, many of the herbs were so obscure that even Ling Xiao himself would need a long time to identify them, let alone those who knew nothing about the medicinal herbs of the Cultivation Realm. For them, it was like blind men trying to describe an elephant.

Through his own searching, Ling Xiao had already found many of the ingredients, and his ring was starting to fill up. Before he left, he had given Shangguan Yutong a few Spirit Talismans. Ling Xiao was proficient in many things, such as mechanisms, Arrays, Alchemy, and Artifact Refining, but when it came to the art of creating Talismans, he could only be considered a beginner, far from an expert. In his past life in the Cultivation Realm, Ling Xiao had only dabbled in books on the subject. In his opinion, using Talismans was clearly not as satisfying as killing with his Sword Control Skill. Besides, a person’s energy is finite, and there would always be areas beyond his reach.

Therefore, he had expended great effort to create three for Shangguan Yutong, just in case they locked him out or found themselves in a crisis where they could be used as a last resort. Ling Xiao had imprinted his Divine Sense on every Spirit Talisman.

So, when Shangguan Yutong used one of them, Ling Xiao had sensed it immediately.

But at the same time, his divination told him that while there would be danger, they would ultimately be safe. Thus, Ling Xiao abandoned the idea of going back. They needed time to develop and cultivate, and so did he!

He stood up, watching the enormous sun as it sank halfway below the horizon. Ling Xiao dusted himself off, then suddenly let out a cry, spread his arms, and like an eagle soaring through the nine heavens, he freely leaped from the cliff and flew downwards!

From below, a furious roar echoed up...

...

「Imperial Calendar, Year 1458, Autumn.」

Penzes New City was now more commonly known as Shushan City. City Lord Mo Qing and Vice City Lord Li Fu had also finally done away with the name that had been used for over a thousand years.

From now on, there was no Penzes in the south. There was... only Shushan.

Three years had passed since Ling Xiao’s departure. From the initial unease to the current acceptance, it seemed everyone had grown accustomed to life without him.

But deep inside, in the very depths of their souls, a name was engraved—a name they would never forget, even in death.

The commoners, merchants, and soldiers of Shushan City all looked forward to their Lord’s return. What would he be like when he came back, after not being seen for three years?

The disciples of the Shushan Sword Sect, however, were curious. What did their Sect Leader—that legendary figure who had never shown himself—actually look like? Would he be like the legends said, twelve feet tall with an eight-foot waist? Or would he have three heads and six arms, as terrifying as a Demon King from ancient mythology?

Three years. It wasn’t a long time, but it wasn’t short either.

For the children of the Shushan Sword Sect, it was a matter of three winters. For many, it was two winters, and for some, it was only one.

All the disciples in the Shushan Sword Sect were also very different from before. Ninety percent of them came from commoner families with no foundation whatsoever! The parents of these children were, for the most part, the kind of people who would consider it a great source of pride if their village produced even a single Sword Attendant!

Therefore, for their children to be able to enter the Shushan Sword Sect felt like a pie had fallen from the sky and hit them. The feeling was surreal. Of course, after taking a bite of a bright, shiny Gold Coin, that surreal feeling vanished.

’Gold Coins! So great!’

[Thank you to all the reader friends who have stuck with me and kept subscribing during this low period for Xiaodao. You are the sole source of motivation that keeps me desperately holding on! I sincerely thank you for your quiet, continuous support. Xiaodao is readjusting and I believe I’ll be back in form soon! A deep bow of thanks!

To those friends who have spared no effort to attack Xiaodao, I’m sorry to have disappointed you. Although the plot has been in a bit of a slump lately, my subscription numbers are actually still normal. So, for those friends who never subscribe to Xiaodao, there’s no need for you to worry about this book’s performance.

And to those who have been directly "greeting" Xiaodao’s family members—your shameless faces have instantly shown me the quality of at least two generations of your family. I really don’t know how you’ve survived this long. Yes, for those who "greeted" my family, I return the sentiment in your own words.]

Also, let me recommend a book by a new friend: *Immortal Sword Body*, Book ID 1507716. It’s over 100,000 characters long, so if you’re suffering from a book shortage, you can go check it out. To be honest, Xiaodao hasn’t read it, but the author is working hard, so it should be good! (To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please log in to www.qidian.com. There are more Chapters, and you can support the author and read the legitimate version!)