When Su Xuan and Li Guanqi arrived in the backyard, Su Xuan picked up a brush and sat behind a table. Li Guanqi instinctively took off his top and sat with his back facing Su Xuan.
Su Xuan said softly, “This will be our last time. Bear with me.”
Li Guanqi grinned. “Just do it, Grandfather. It’s not my first time doing this, anyway. I can take it.”
With a smile and paternal affection, Su Xuan lightly slapped Li Guanqi’s head. “You brat.”
Using the brush, he started to paint mysterious patterns on Li Guanqi’s back. Li Guanqi stayed as still as a boulder while the tip of the brush slid across his back. However, cold sweat sprouted from his forehead, and he occasionally let out a deep groan.
Li Guanqi endured the inhuman agony mostly in silence, though sometimes he could not help but groan in pain. If the medicinal bath was like needles piercing into his body, this was like having his flesh cut out from his bones. The sharp pain was a hundred times worse than the medicinal bath.
Two hours later, Su Xuan finally retracted the brush from Li Guanqi’s back. The patterns were finally connected, glowing with a strange blood-red light beneath the moonlight.
Seeing this, Su Xuan broke into a smile of relief and blurted, “It’s finally done! You brat, weren’t you afraid I was going to hurt you? You trusted me that much?”
Li Guanqi remained silent for quite a while, recovering from the agony he had endured. Then, he turned and grinned at Su Xuan. “Grandfather, if you wanted to hurt me, you would not have gone into the mountains to gather spiritual herbs for me all these years. You would have just left me to freeze in that street eight years ago...”
As Li Guanqi put his clothes back on, he hung his head and said, “Grandfather...”
“Are you getting ready to leave?”
Su Xuan didn’t answer.
“Will we meet again?”
Packing up the things on the table, Su Xuan replied wistfully, “That depends on whether you can cultivate fast enough...” Su Xuan’s eyes reddened, and he looked up. Then, he turned around, and with a wave of his hand, an object taller than Li Guanqi appeared.
Looking at the teenager who had been calling him “Grandfather” for the past eight years, Su Xuan patiently advised, “The journey of cultivation is long. Always be wary of those who treat you overly well for no apparent reason!”
He continued, “Some ancient monsters have been cultivating for thousands of years but cannot progress further. Desperate for a breakthrough, they will pull all sorts of evil tricks just to catch you!”
Although Li Guanqi had heard this advice countless times, he nodded solemnly.
Su Xuan said, “I am leaving because I have no choice. It will be very dangerous, so I cannot take you with me. Tomorrow, you may descend the mountain.”
He glanced at the object and continued, “This sword coffin will be the most important gift I’ll give you. This sword coffin shall not leave your side, ever. Guard it well!”
Li Guanqi peered curiously at the sword coffin, which was made of pitch-black stone with countless mysterious patterns carved on it.
He knew what a sword box was, but what was a sword coffin?
It was about four chi tall, a whole head taller than him. Su Xuan did not tell him anything about the coffin; he only instructed him to carry it on his back.
Li Guanqi tried to carry it. It was precisely five hundred jin[1]! His eyes reddened from the strain of lifting it, and he finally understood that his grandfather’s previous teachings were all for this moment.
From this day onward, a swordsman with a sword coffin on his back was born.
The next morning, Li Guanqi stared at the dishes on the table, dumbfounded.
“Grandfather... I can see you’ve prepared six dishes, but couldn’t you have made at least one of them a warm dish?”
Everything on the table was a cold dish.
Su Xuan gave a slight smile. He waved, and two beautiful jade wine cups appeared on the table.
Li Guanqi took a sip, smiled, and asked, “Grandfather, does this mean you’re letting me drink wine?”
Su Xuan smiled and replied softly, “You’re going down the mountain tomorrow. How will you survive if you don’t know how to drink?”
Li Guanqi grinned and downed the cup of wine. The pungent wine burned his throat so much that he scrambled for water. It felt like a line of fire flowing down his throat.
Su Xuan burst into laughter and said hurriedly, “Slow down, brat. Don’t drink so fast. This is a good wine that will make you a man.”
“Cough cough... Cough... I didn’t think it would be so spicy!”
After a long time, Li Guanqi finally regained his breath. He quickly picked up two mouthfuls of food before asking, “Grandfather, what should I do after I go down the mountain?”
Su Xuan rapped Li Guanqi’s head with his chopsticks and chuckled. “You have already reached the peak of the Body Tempering Realm. The next step is to guide the Spirit Qi of Heaven and Earth into your body to reach the Qi Refining Realm. When that happens, your heart’s eye will function just like a normal pair of eyes.”
Li Guanqi’s white eyes darted around as he grinned excitedly.
Su Xuan continued, “You’re already fourteen years old. That’s the age at which you should enter a sect. It is time for you to go down the mountain.”
Li Guanqi had always dreamed of cultivating. From a young age, he dreamed of being an immortal who could fly through the skies on a sword. However, he also lived a very happy life with Su Xuan during the past eight years. He didn’t think they’d split up so quickly.
Li Guanqi picked some vegetables up with his chopsticks and asked in a low voice, “There are countless sects in this world. Putting the Daxia Territory aside, the Azure Cloud Continent has countless powerful sects. Which one should I join?”
He thought Su Xuan would think about it for a while.
Yet, to his surprise, Su Xuan blurted, “The Daxia Sword Sect!”
Li Guanqi frowned. After living with Su Xuan for so long, he’d learned many secrets of the cultivation world. However, he had never heard Su Xuan mention the Daxia Sword Sect before.
Su Xuan saw through Li Guanqi’s confusion and said, “No, you have not heard of them before. Although it’s not a major faction, it is a sect with upright values and culture!”
They happily chatted away in the backyard while enjoying their wine.
However, Li Guanqi’s alcohol tolerance was too low, so he collapsed after just two cups. He even muttered, “What’s so good about... this damn thing...”
Su Xuan smiled as he gazed at Li Guanqi, who had fallen asleep. “Young man, you’ll come to appreciate wine when you’re older.”
He took off his outer robe and draped it over Li Guanqi. Then, he waved and shot three rays of spirit light into the black sword coffin.
After taking a long look at it, he turned and left. In a single step, he teleported through space, compressing millions of zhang into mere inches beneath him.
Li Guanqi groggily stirred from his slumber, unsurprised to find Su Xuan gone.
Looking at the map Su Xuan left on the table, tears flowed from his eyes. He picked up the map and said bitterly, “Grandfather... you could have left me some money!”
Left with no other choice, he packed up all the edible food in the house. He carried the gigantic sword coffin on his back and a large bundle of personal belongings in his arms.
Li Guanqi closed the main door carefully, hesitating there in silence for quite a while. Then, he left to go down the mountain. He initially wanted to visit the girl in Auntie Li’s house, but he found the Meng family home’s door tightly shut and did not even attempt to knock.
He scratched his head and lamented, “Damn it. They didn’t tell me.”
Along the way, Li Guanqi passed through multiple villages and towns, where he heard many rumors about the Daxia Sword Sect. Most people talked about how good the sect was, as the thousand-li radius around it was managed so well that there were rarely any disasters.
“It looks like the Daxia Sword Sect is as good as Grandfather said. The sect does have upright values and culture.”
Three days later, Li Guanqi arrived at the foot of the mountain that housed the Daxia Sword Sect. Countless groans and complaints could be heard among the crowd—they had to climb the sect’s infamous Heaven Stairs.
There were a total of three thousand three hundred and thirty-three steps.
At the bottom, an administrator of the sect set up a sign that said:
Candidates must ascend the Heaven Stairs on their own. Using any items for assistance is strictly forbidden!
Li Guanqi wove through the noisy crowd like a fish. With a smile on his face, he began to ascend.
His ascent caught the eyes of many people.
A youth in luxurious robes frowned. “Who’s that guy? He’s climbing so quickly, even with such a large coffin on his back! He’s strong!”
Some people thought it was a stunt to earn the crowd’s favor. They believed that Li Guanqi would become fatigued very soon.
Despite these negative opinions, Li Guanqi’s behavior also triggered a sense of competitiveness in many candidates.
But... in just five minutes, Li Guanqi was already far ahead of them.
He still did not know that he had officially begun the Daxia Sword Sect’s entry examination. He felt nothing but excitement at the prospect of entering the sect his grandfather had talked about so highly.
Many eyes had been fixed on Li Guanqi from the moment he took his first step. He showed no signs of fatigue despite the large stone coffin on his back, and the black strip of cloth around his eyes was also intriguing.
The administrator, who had been silent since the beginning, suddenly turned to look at the youth on the steps. He estimated the stone coffin to weigh at least two hundred jin[2], yet the youth’s breathing remained steady. Li Guanqi showed no signs of struggle.
The administrator’s eyes flashed as he muttered, “Such a fit physique... He’s as strong as a peak Body Tempering cultivator!”
Hearing something approaching, Li Guanqi frowned and leaped one chi sideways.
Li Guanqi bowed to the administrator, who had appeared next to him. “Uh... Senior, may I ask what you were about to do?”
When the administrator saw the youth’s agility, his smile widened.
“Child, do not be afraid. This is just a talisman for keeping time.”
Li Guanqi scratched his head awkwardly upon hearing what had shot toward him earlier.
The administrator spun his finger, and the yellow talisman spun once around Li Guanqi before pasting itself on Li Guanqi’s chest.
The administrator smiled and said, “Go on. Time is of the essence. The earlier you get up there, the better.”
Li Guanqi smiled and bowed to him again. “Thank you, Administrator. I shall go, then.”
The administrator opened his mouth to say something, but Li Guanqi took a deep breath, braced himself, and then shot up the steps like a panther.
“Hiss... Such a strong physique! I was just about to ask him to take that thing off his back.”
Li Guanqi rushed forward, passing people in a blur. He looked down at the talisman on his chest, which was disappearing slowly. Based on its rate of disappearance, he calculated how much time he had.
“I have four hours... I can’t even see the end of this staircase; there must be a few thousand steps. This is no simple feat.”
He turned around to glance at the foot of the mountain and lamented, “There are just too many people...”
He did a rough estimation and concluded that there were at least thirty to forty thousand people at the foot of the mountain. Almost ten thousand of them were girls and boys aged between twelve and fourteen. The remaining people were their relatives and servants.
“It looks like entering a sect isn’t as simple as I thought it would be... I heard that eighteen thousand people attempted to join the Daxia Sword Sect last year, but only about a hundred were successful.”
While Li Guanqi was immersed in his thoughts, another thin youth kept pace with him.