"Senior Brother, do you know about the Chenbing Sword?"
As soon as the message jade slip connected, Leng Zhuxin asked impatiently.
"The Chenbing Sword? Where did you hear about that?" Gu Wangchen did not answer immediately, asking back instinctively with a slight frown, as if he were reluctant to speak of it.
Naturally, Leng Zhuxin could not tell the truth. Fortunately, she had already thought of an explanation before connecting the jade slip: "I saw it in the books and jade slips you prepared for me, Senior Brother. It says there that the Chenbing Sword is an ice-attribute spirit sword, perfectly suited for someone with an ice spiritual root."
"That must have been recorded in the unofficial history of the Qingxuan Sect that I gave you. That book was meant for you to read and relax with during your cultivation breaks. It should have mentioned in there, shouldn't it? The Chenbing Sword is an immortal-grade ice-attribute spirit sword. Cultivators of non-matching spiritual roots can also use it after claiming it as their master, though it won't be quite as effective as it is for an ice spiritual root. Not only is its power immense, but the wounds inflicted by it are also extremely difficult to heal. It lies right within the Tongtian Tower secret realm of our Qingxuan Sect. Several elders in our sect, including Master, have tried to claim it, but none have succeeded. Immortal Lord Changheng in particular still goes to try once every fifty years. Some new disciples have tried as well, and they were injured even more severely. Two hundred years ago, a disciple with an ice spiritual root went to try; not only did he fail to claim the sword, but he was severely wounded by it. His spiritual roots were shattered, his divine sense was damaged, and he even bred inner demons, failing to cross the threshold of the Nascent Soul Stage and being struck to death under the heavenly lightning. Ever since then, whenever the Tongtian Tower secret realm opens, the elders all instruct their disciples not to rashly attempt to claim the Chenbing Sword."
Gu Wangchen shared everything he knew about the Chenbing Sword. As for its origins, he had no idea; or rather, no one in the Qingxuan Sect—nor across the entire Xuanling Continent—knew. The Chenbing Sword had appeared within Qingxuan Mountain alongside the Tongtian Tower secret realm. No one knew who the master of the secret realm was, and they could only surmise from the treasures and spiritual herbs inside that it belonged to a mighty figure who had already ascended.
Upon hearing this, Leng Zhuxin understood why she only felt as though she had heard the name of the Chenbing Sword before: in the original plot, the original owner had entered the Tongtian Tower secret realm after placing first in the inner sect grand tournament. However, Immortal Lord Changheng, who was the original owner's master, had never mentioned anything to her about the Chenbing Sword. She had only heard about it once from accompanying disciples after entering the secret realm, which was why her impression of it was not deep.
The Tongtian Tower secret realm opened once every fifty years, and only cultivators above the Golden Core Stage and below the Deity Transformation Stage could enter, with a quota of one thousand people each time. Because it lay within the territory governed by the Qingxuan Sect, the Qingxuan Sect claimed five hundred spots, and the remaining five hundred were distributed among other sects. The next opening would be in five years.
Gu Wangchen did not believe that Leng Zhuxin could enter the Golden Core Stage within five years. Even Shangguan Heng, Immortal Lord Changheng, who had once been hailed as the number one prodigy of the Xuanling Continent, had taken a full fifty years from Qi Guidance to stepping into the Golden Core Stage. As for Gu Wangchen himself—the contemporary prodigy who followed Immortal Lord Changheng—it had taken him a full sixty-five years. He possessed a heavenly fire spiritual root, which, although slightly inferior to his junior sister's mutated heavenly ice spiritual root, had taken first place in the Heaven-Stepping Stairs trial when he first entered the sect, and the time he took had remained unsurpassed for a century. Generally speaking, the higher one's ranking in the Heaven-Stepping Stairs trial, the better one's comprehension. In his view, it would take his junior sister at least sixty years to break through to the Golden Core Stage.
Not wanting to deflate his junior sister's spirits, Gu Wangchen kept these thoughts to himself and only said: "You just focus on your cultivation. Once you break through to the Golden Core Stage, you will have the chance to enter the Tongtian Tower secret realm. There are countless spirit swords in the Sword Tomb, and you will surely find one suited for you. Our Qingxuan Sect also has a Sword Tomb; although it is not as large as the one in the Tongtian secret realm, I think the Yinchen sword inside would suit you very well. It was the personal sword of an old ancestor of our Qingxuan Sect before he broke through to the Soul Formation Stage, and the ice-attribute cultivation technique you will study in the future was also left behind by that same ancestor. You can start out using Yinchen just like that ancestor did, and later gather materials yourself to forge your own destiny-bound sword—it won't necessarily be any worse than Chenbing."
"Understood, Senior Brother. Thank you, Senior Brother, for clearing my doubts."
Leng Zhuxin gave a well-behaved expression of gratitude, her long eyelashes casting a crow-feather shadow beneath her eyes. She looked as though she had heeded Gu Wangchen's advice, but in truth, her heart was already set on the Chenbing sword.
With the notion of breaking through to the Golden Core Stage within five years to enter the Tongtian Tower and claim the spirit sword firmly planted in her mind, Leng Zhuxin's face took on a somewhat preoccupied look.
Noticing her poor mood and assuming she had been affected by talk of the Chenbing Sword, and remembering that she had just entered the sect and had not yet practiced Bigu, Gu Wangchen thought of taking her around the sect to clear her mind, while also dropping by the dining hall for a meal. It had been quite a while since he last ate the dining hall's roasted spirit pork.
And so he said: "Junior Sister, change into your personal disciple attire and wait for me at your cave dwelling. I'll pick you up to tour the various peaks. Our sect does not restrict disciples to specializing in just a single discipline; you can also go and see if there is anything you'd like to learn—alchemy, talismans, swords, artifacts, or medicine—and feel free to seek guidance and instruction from the elders of the various peaks. Our master is the sect leader, so the peak masters all have to give him a bit of face. If you wish to practice alchemy, I can help you rent a private alchemy room on Dan Peak for a long period. Since you don't have a fire spiritual root and lack a spiritual fire, you will still need earthly fire to practice alchemy."
...
Gu Wangchen arrived at the entrance shortly, and Leng Zhuxin had already changed into a set of personal disciple attire.
The personal disciple attire of the Qingxuan Sect was primarily light cyan, embroidered with gold and silver threads in cloud patterns along the cuffs, collars, lapels, and hems. Embedded within each cloud pattern was a cyan-green gemstone. Male disciples had the sect emblem embroidered on the left side of their chests, while female disciples wore it on the right. Both men and women wore top-grade spirit jade belts around their waists and top-grade spirit jade crowns upon their heads, the only difference being that the female disciples' jade crowns featured two extra, oversized Eastern pearls that swayed slightly with every step, adding a touch of vivacity.
The difference between inner disciple attire and personal disciple attire lay solely in the spirit jade and gemstones: their cloud patterns lacked gemstones, and the spirit jade used for their belts and crowns was only of middle grade. The attire for elders' outer disciples was roughly the same as that of inner disciples, except the fabric color was darker and lacked the cloud patterns, shifting from a clear, light cyan to a solid cyan.
Further down were the outer disciples, who uniformly wore cyan disciple attire without cloud patterns, utilizing lower-grade spirit jade. Menial disciples wore dark cyan disciple attire with no cloud patterns, their belts and crowns made of ordinary jade.
From the personal disciple attire down to the menial disciple attire, the only constant was the Qingxuan Sect emblem on the chest—embroidered with golden silkworm thread—along with the names of the respective peaks embroidered beneath the emblem.
Because of the distinct differences in the disciple attire, other disciples could easily recognize the identity of the person before them. After descending the Sect Leader Peak, people greeted Leng Zhuxin as "Senior Sister" from time to time. Some of them were even elderly men with white hair and beards, which made Leng Zhuxin feel rather unaccustomed to it.