Chu Xuan raised a brow.

Hadn't the rumors insisted that Wan Wuying was dead? Supposedly, three Golden Core experts from the Shengang Sect and Jinlong Temple had joined forces to slay him. How was he suddenly alive in Liu Zhenxiong's mouth?

"Fellow Daoist," Liu Zhenxiong urged, his voice tight with grief and indignation. "The outside world thinks my Master is dead, but the truth is far worse. The Shengang Sect captured him. They're using him as a 'Sword-Testing Stone'! It's a thoroughly disgraceful affair, so those hypocrites lied to the public."

Chu Xuan's interest was instantly piqued. A *Sword-Testing Stone*?

If Wan Wuying was truly alive, this presented a massive opportunity. Having a Golden Core Patriarch as a backer changed everything. Furthermore, if Chu Xuan ever wanted to break through to the Golden Core realm himself, he would need the corresponding Cultivation techniques. A guide wouldn't hurt either.

"Explain," Chu Xuan demanded.

"This isn't the place," Liu Zhenxiong said, glancing around nervously. "Fellow Daoist, please follow me."

Chu Xuan weighed the risks for a split second before trailing after him.

A short trek later, they slipped into a concealed cave. Chu Xuan's gaze swept the dim interior. He spotted Xu Ming, Chen Ge, Wei Hua, and Bai Feng huddled together. An unconscious Wu Teng lay sprawled on the stone floor. There was no one else. The rest of the Qi Condensation disciples were either dead or scattered to the winds.

Seeing a strange, bald cultivator enter, Xu Ming and the other three instantly tensed, hands dropping to their weapons.

Liu Zhenxiong quickly murmured an explanation. Their hostility melted into profound relief and gratitude. If not for this stranger, Liu Zhenxiong would be a corpse, and without him leading their pathetic, battered group, they would have been captured or killed in a matter of days.

Liu Zhenxiong turned back to him, bowing respectfully. "Fellow Daoist, may I ask which Patriarch you study under? I recognize at least seventy percent of the Wuji Sect's Foundation Establishment disciples, yet your face is completely unfamiliar."

"Chu Xuan." He saw no further need for deception.

Liu Zhenxiong froze. "Chu Xuan?"

Xu Ming and the others echoed the name, their eyes widening in disbelief. "Chu Xuan?!"

Reaching up, Chu Xuan wiped a hand across his face. The Disguise Technique dissolved, stripping away the bald, unremarkable visage to reveal his true features—handsome, cold, and ruthlessly sharp.

It was exactly the Chu Xuan from their memories.

Yet, the man standing before them radiated a suffocating, heavy aura. This was no mere Qi Condensation disciple.

Liu Zhenxiong stared, utterly aghast. "You... you reached Foundation Establishment? When did this happen? Weren't you just at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation a few days ago?"

Chu Xuan offered a faint, dismissive smile. "Ouyang Hao happened to have a Foundation Establishment Pill on him. I took it and broke through. Call it a Fated Chance."

Liu Zhenxiong was dumbfounded. He clicked his tongue in sheer amazement. "Succeeding with just a single pill! Junior Brother Chu, your aptitude and luck are monstrous!"

He had already seamlessly transitioned to calling him *Junior Brother*, fully acknowledging Chu Xuan's new status.

"Junior Brother Chu," Liu Zhenxiong continued, unable to hide his awe, "you must be under forty, right?"

"Twenty-nine this year," Chu Xuan replied calmly.

It was the truth. He had entered the Wuji Sect at ten, slaved away as a menial disciple for years, finally drawn Qi into his body at twenty, and crawled to the fourth layer of Qi Condensation by twenty-eight. By the calendar of the Cangxuan Continent, he was exactly twenty-nine.

Liu Zhenxiong sighed, his voice thick with emotion. "Foundation Establishment before thirty! If the Wuji Sect hadn't fallen, with your aptitude... I wager even a Nascent Soul Patriarch would have personally taken you as a direct disciple."

Chen Ge, Wei Hua, and Bai Feng stared at him with a mix of feverish excitement and deep envy. "U-Uncle-Master Chu!" they stammered, bowing hastily.

Xu Ming's expression was far more complicated. A bitter pang of jealousy gnawed at his gut. "Greetings, Uncle-Master Chu," he muttered, forcing his head down.

It had barely been half a month since they parted ways. Xu Ming was still stuck at the fifth layer of Qi Condensation. Meanwhile, Chu Xuan had ascended to the heavens in a single bound.

*Comparing oneself to others truly invites despair.*

He remembered the old Chu Xuan—a man with mediocre talent whose Cultivation speed rivaled a crippled snail. How was it that after the Sect's annihilation, Chu Xuan's progress had suddenly strapped itself to a Golden Core expert's flying sword? It was outrageously fast!

A sudden thought struck Liu Zhenxiong. "When Sun Shi was hunting me down, he screamed that I had killed several of his Junior Brothers. Could it be..."

Chu Xuan didn't bother with false modesty. He gave a curt nod. "I killed them."

Liu Zhenxiong's eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. "You just broke through, yet you can effortlessly crush Shengang Sect cultivators who entered Foundation Establishment years ago? Formidable! Truly formidable!"

Xu Ming and the others listened in stunned silence. *Too monstrous.* Was this really the same Chu Xuan who had been stuck at the fourth layer of Qi Condensation?

Chu Xuan cut through the flattery, his tone turning businesslike. "Senior Brother Liu, back to what you said earlier. What exactly does it mean that Patriarch Wan is being used as a Sword-Testing Stone?"

Liu Zhenxiong's jaw tightened, his eyes flashing with raw hatred. "Those hypocritical dogs from the Shengang Sect... You know they cultivate Sword Qi. Qi Condensation disciples practice Heavenly Gang Sword Qi, Foundation Establishment practices Pure Gang Sword Qi, Golden Core practices True Gang Sword Qi, and Nascent Soul practices Divine Gang Sword Qi."

He spat on the ground. "Their Sect Leader has been stuck at the peak of the ninth layer of the Golden Core realm for years. His Sword Qi lacks a final sliver of perfection to break through. And the absolute best way to temper True Gang Sword Qi? Slaughtering vengeful spirits, evil miasmas, fierce ghosts, and Yin Corpses."

Liu Zhenxiong's fists trembled. "My Master possesses a unique constitution. His blood is a supreme tonic for ghostly creatures. So, that bastard Sect Leader trapped the Patriarch inside a massive Formation. Every so often, he bleeds my Master to nourish a horde of fierce ghosts. Then, he slaughters those very ghosts to test his sword and refine his True Gang Sword Qi."

"It's a sickening, parasitic cycle," Liu Zhenxiong snarled. "But because it's so utterly depraved, the Shengang Sect—the supposed shining leader of the five righteous sects—couldn't dare let the truth slip. So, they fed the world a lie about his death."

Chu Xuan let out a cold, cynical sneer.

*The righteous path. The demonic path. What was the difference?*

In the end, there was only the Great Dao of Cultivation. As long as it brought power and longevity, a righteous cultivator would slaughter innocents, and a demonic cultivator would play the saint. It all hinged on a single thought. The Shengang Sect Leader's little blood-farming operation was indistinguishable from the very "demonic acts" his sect publicly condemned.

"Where did you get this intelligence?" Chu Xuan asked, his voice flat.

Liu Zhenxiong pointed at the unconscious man on the floor. "Brother Wu gathered it. He even tracked down the exact location of Master's prison. It's at Cloud Mist Manor, just north of the Cloud Mist Mountain Range."

Liu Zhenxiong's eyes burned with a desperate, fervent light. "Junior Brother Chu, we have to join forces. We can rescue Master! With him to shield us from the wind and rain, it won't matter if we have to flee Tongzhou or even the State of Yu. With a Golden Core Patriarch leading us, we will eventually find a place to reopen the Wuji Sect's mountain gates!"

Chu Xuan frowned, his mind instantly calculating the brutal mathematics of the situation.

*Rely on this ragtag group of cripples to break out a Golden Core Patriarch?* The odds weren't just bad; they were suicidal.

Seeing Chu Xuan's hesitation, Liu Zhenxiong quickly added, "Wu Teng already scouted the perimeter. Cloud Mist Manor is usually only guarded by four Foundation Establishment cultivators. They're the personal hounds of the Shengang Sect Leader, Mo Huanshan. Mo Huanshan himself only visits once a month. He doesn't want to drain Master's blood too frequently, lest he accidentally kill his prize."

Chu Xuan's eyes narrowed in thought.

*If that's true... it might actually be worth the risk.*

"Let's look at our assets," Chu Xuan said coolly, stripping away the emotion. "How many Foundation Establishment cultivators do we have? Including Wu Teng, that makes three of us. Three against four. Add in the absolute certainty that the manor is fortified with defensive Formations..."

He shook his head slowly. "The probability of a successful rescue is abysmally low."

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