Ye Guan blinked. Inwardly, he asked, “Why?”
The little pagoda fell silent.
Big brother, if you keep mentioning this, I fear my bones will not even remain.
But it could not tell him that.
It was done for.
The pagoda sighed inwardly. It was digging its own grave.
What a sin.
The pagoda wailed inside.
Ye Guan also fell silent. He felt that this Tower Master was definitely hiding something major from him.
At that moment, Qin Feng suddenly laughed. “Brother Ye, let us set off.”
He pointed to a distant teleportation array.
Ye Guan gathered his thoughts. He cupped his fists towards Qin Feng. “Brother Qin, thank you.”
Qin Feng smiled. “A small matter.”
Ye Guan nodded slightly. Without saying more, he stepped into the array. It activated, and soon he vanished from the spot.
After Ye Guan disappeared, Qin Feng murmured, “I must hold tight to this thigh.”
He chuckled. “When this fellow becomes a Sword Sovereign, I will have a Sword Sovereign brother. Then in the Immortal Treasures Pavilion, let us see if those bastards still dare to bully me.”
…
The Mysterious Realm.
In a certain valley, countless teleportation arrays filled the space, hundreds of thousands of them.
At that moment, one array trembled slightly. Then a man in a black robe appeared upon it.
It was Ye Guan.
Ye Guan straightened his clothes and stepped down from the array. He looked up. At the end of the valley, a towering structure was faintly visible.
The Mysterious Tower.
Ye Guan was about to fly on his sword when a nearby array suddenly trembled. Soon, with a flash of white light, a man stepped out.
The man wore luxurious brocade robes. At his waist hung a palm-sized jade pendant that shimmered faintly, clearly no ordinary item. On each finger of both hands, he wore a storage ring, as if afraid others would not know he was wealthy.
Extravagant.
Overwhelmingly aristocratic.
That was the impression the man gave Ye Guan.
The man glanced at Ye Guan and smiled. “How should I address you?”
Ye Guan replied calmly, “Ye Guan.”
The man nodded slightly. “This king has just arrived here and is unfamiliar with the place. I lack a few bodyguards. Are you interested?”
Ye Guan paused. “Bodyguard?”
The man smiled. “Ten thousand gold crystals a day.”
Ye Guan looked at him, then asked, “Are you here for trials?”
The man laughed heartily. “Yes.”
Ye Guan was puzzled. “If you are here for trials, why hire bodyguards?”
The man smiled. “I fear common folk might harm this king.”
Ye Guan fell silent.
Was this fellow one of those from the Guanxuan Universe here to show off?
The man suddenly asked again, “Interested?”
Ye Guan shook his head. “I am going to train.”
With that, he flew on his sword and vanished into the distant horizon in the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, the man froze. “Damn? He is actually a Sword Immortal. This king misjudged.”
…
Ye Guan arrived at the Mysterious Tower. It was truly enormous, towering ten thousand zhang into the clouds, and covering dozens of li on the ground.
A colossal structure.
Ye Guan reached the entrance where an old man sat.
The elder stared at Ye Guan without speaking.
Ye Guan said, “Practical combat trials.”
The elder replied calmly, “Practical trials are divided into six levels: Human, Earth, Heaven, Imperial, Immortal, and Sovereign.”
Ye Guan thought for a moment, then asked, “Which level suits me?”
The elder glanced at him and said irritably, “You ask me, but who do I ask?”
Ye Guan gave an embarrassed smile, then said, “Let us start with the Heaven level.”
The elder said calmly, “One day inside costs fifty thousand gold crystals.”
Fifty thousand.
Ye Guan’s expression changed instantly. “Fifty thousand for one day?”
The elder nodded.
Ye Guan looked at him and said inwardly, “Heavens, Tower Master, the Immortal Treasures Pavilion is too profitable. I am tempted to rob it.”
The pagoda was speechless.
The elder said calmly, “Too expensive?”
Ye Guan nodded.
The elder glanced at him. “It seems you are a rogue cultivator.”
Ye Guan was puzzled. “Rogue cultivator?”
The elder said indifferently, “One with no background, no backing, relying only on oneself. That is a rogue cultivator. Understand?”
Ye Guan looked at the elder, then handed over a storage ring.
Inside were exactly fifty thousand gold crystals.
The elder stared at him. “You plan to stay only one day?”
Ye Guan nodded.
The elder shook his head. “Young man, do not take offence at my blunt words. Listen to this old man. This place is not for you to afford. It is designed for the wealthy. Coming here will only drain your savings and your family’s. You might even leave your parents in debt. It is not worth it.”
The pagoda: “…”
Ye Guan smiled faintly. “Thank you for the advice, senior. However, I do have some savings.”
The elder glanced at him, then accepted the ring. He placed a sheet of paper before Ye Guan.
A life-and-death contract.
The elder looked at him. “Once you sign this, anything that happens inside is your own responsibility. Clear?”
Ye Guan nodded. “Clear.”
The elder said, “A drop of blood.”
Ye Guan nodded slightly, then pointed with his finger. A drop of blood fell onto the contract. However, as soon as it touched, the paper vanished without a trace.
The elder froze.
Ye Guan also stood stunned.
What did this mean?
The elder looked at him. Ye Guan appeared innocent. “Is there a problem with your paper?”
The elder stared at him. “This paper bears the rules of the local Heavenly Dao. Signing it means acknowledging those rules. Do you think the paper could be faulty?”
Ye Guan thought, then said, “Try again?”
The elder glanced at him and produced another contract.
Ye Guan pointed again. A drop of blood fell. As before, the contract vanished the moment the blood touched it.
Seeing this, the elder’s brows furrowed deeply.
Ye Guan looked at him, full of innocence.
The elder produced yet another contract. “Come.”
Ye Guan nodded slightly, pointed, and the blood fell.
The elder watched intently. Soon, the contract vanished without a trace.
The elder’s expression grew grave.
The Heavenly Dao rules within the contract could not withstand this drop of blood?
The elder looked at Ye Guan. “Who exactly are you?”
Ye Guan replied calmly, “An ordinary person.”
The elder said angrily, “An ordinary person could make these Heavenly Dao rules unable to bear it?”
Ye Guan said helplessly, “I truly am just an ordinary person.”
The elder stared at him for a long while, then asked, “What about your father? What is his name?”
Ye Guan shook his head. “I do not know.”
The elder frowned slightly. “You do not know?”
Ye Guan nodded.
The elder asked again, “What does he do?”
Ye Guan hesitated, then said, “My Tower Master says he lives off a wo…”
“Damn it.”
The pagoda’s voice suddenly rang out. “Little one, actually, your father is a good person, truly.”
Ye Guan blinked. “Really?”
The pagoda was about to say more when the mysterious voice suddenly spoke. “Idiot, he is deliberately provoking you.”
Hearing this, the pagoda jolted awake.
Damn it.
It had nearly fallen for this bastard’s trick.
Ye Guan quickly asked, “Tower Master?”
The pagoda fell silent.
Ye Guan was speechless.
He had wanted to pry something from the pagoda, but it had seen through him.
However, this only confirmed one thing: the pagoda was definitely hiding much about his father.
At that moment, the elder asked again, “What does your father do?”
Ye Guan gathered his thoughts and said calmly, “Senior, since blood does not work, let us sign with a pen.”
He had answered earlier to bait the pagoda. Now that it was silent, he naturally said no more.
The elder frowned slightly, wanting to ask more, when Ye Guan suddenly said, “Senior, I truly do not know what my father does. But when I was young, he often told me one thing.”
The elder grew curious. “What?”
Ye Guan said earnestly, “He told me to cultivate well, for in the future, this entire Guanxuan Universe would depend on me.”
The elder froze.
The pagoda: “…”
Ye Guan sighed softly. “Later, as I grew up, I gradually understood. My father was not only my father, but the father of the entire Guanxuan Universe.”
With that, he took a pen, signed the contract, and walked into the tower.
The pagoda: “…”
Left behind, the elder stood dumbfounded. Moments later, he looked towards the tower and said angrily, “Damn it, spouting nonsense here. Do you think your father is the Human Sword Master? Young people these days learn nothing good, just love to boast. Truly.”
Inside the tower.
The pagoda suddenly said, “You… those words just now…”
Ye Guan chuckled. “Tower Master, I was just boasting a little. Otherwise, I feared he would keep pressing me.”
The pagoda fell silent.
You are fiercer than your father. Your father sometimes boasted blindly, but yours sounded utterly convincing.
No.
It was convincing.
The pagoda was left speechless.
At that moment, the mysterious voice said, “Little pagoda, I advise you to be more cautious. This young man appears honest, but he has plenty of cunning.”
The pagoda fell silent.
It had noticed too.
Many of his casual remarks were traps.
Thinking of this, the pagoda felt a headache.
Why was no one in the Yang family simple-minded?
Alas.
The pagoda sighed inwardly. Hiding this young man’s identity was becoming increasingly difficult.
But it absolutely could not let him know now. Without that sense of crisis, it would harm his cultivation.
After all, the little master had once faltered in breaking his inner god due to lacking that crisis.
Why had the old master been invincible?
Because facing Destiny, the despair he experienced was something the little master had never known.
Especially seeing even the Free and Unfettered Sword Cultivator helpless against Destiny, that despair was indescribable.
Break the fear in the heart, shatter the god within.
The old master had achieved it.
He had fought his way to the end. His Dao heart was as steady as bedrock, unshakable even by Destiny.
The little master had lacked that Dao heart, though fortunately he later awakened.
Hiding the truth from Ye Guan now was not to torment him, but to let him walk the paths of this world and see them all.
This was also the Human Sword Master’s wish, his father.
Only rising from the bottom could one discover the issues with the Guanxuan Academy and Immortal Treasures Pavilion. If he became academy dean now, everyone would unite to deceive him.
After tens of millions of years, both needed reform.
And this time, Ye Guan would be the sword wielder.
At that moment, the mysterious voice suddenly said, “Little pagoda, do you think anyone will compete for the position of Guanxuan Academy dean?”
“Damn it, who would dare?”
The pagoda sneered. “In thirty million years, who has dared to sit in that seat? Who the hell would dare?”
The mysterious voice fell silent.
The pagoda continued, “Even those peerless figures with overwhelming power dare not entertain the slightest thought about that position.”
The mysterious voice said softly, “What if the academy nominates someone else?”
The pagoda replied calmly, “Then is there any need for the academy to exist?”
The mysterious voice fell silent.
…
