“What a fine sword! The entire blade is forged from Taiyi refined gold, and even the hilt is made from over a hundred-year-old zitan wood core!” James Clark exclaimed.

You should know that this zitan wood core has a powerful restraining effect on vengeful spirits and ghosts. When made into wooden swords or tokens, it’s even better than peachwood over a hundred years old. But that’s not all—the Taiyi refined gold is a rare treasure. Out of five hundred jin of top-quality steel, after tempering with Samadhi True Fire, you’re lucky to get just one gram. Normally, when forging a flying sword, just adding a tael or two will double its quality. These two treasured swords are each about two feet long and together must weigh over ten jin—imagine how much steel that takes! Especially since only experts at the “Qi Refining to Spirit Transformation” stage can produce Samadhi True Fire.

In Daoist cultivation, there are four stages: “Guiding Qi into the Body,” “Qi Refining to Spirit Transformation,” “Spirit Transformation to Void,” and “Void Merging with the Dao.” Ultimately, one attains the rank of Great Luo Golden Immortal, indestructible through countless tribulations, eternal and unending.

The difference between each stage is immense. Cultivators at the “Guiding Qi into the Body” stage draw the primordial energy of heaven and earth to temper their bodies, becoming as light as a swallow, able to split stones and crack monuments. In the later phase, they can even control flying swords, traveling a thousand miles in a day.

“Qi Refining to Spirit Transformation” is different. Using one’s own divine sense as a guide and the body as a medium, without relying on any magical tools, one can manipulate all kinds of energies in the universe, unleashing thunder and lightning, or Samadhi True Fire, with a mere gesture.

At the “Spirit Transformation to Void” stage, one can achieve immortality and escape the cycle of reincarnation.

“Void Merging with the Dao” is even more incredible—moving mountains and filling seas, traversing the world in the blink of an eye. Each breakthrough is no less miraculous than Jingwei filling the sea or Yu Gong moving mountains.

“The Shushan Sword Sect truly is as wealthy as a nation! Thousands of years of accumulation is no joke—even the imitation Ziqing Twin Swords are incredibly powerful. If these were the real Ziying Sword and Qingsuo Sword, even experts at the ‘Spirit Transformation to Void’ stage would have a hard time contending with them! No wonder even the ten-thousand-year-old Blood Demon met his end under the combined might of the twin swords. Do all Shushan disciples use such fine flying swords? No wonder that old ghost David died without injustice. Hmph! Snatching two top-quality flying swords and a secret manual, my strength has soared—it’s as good as avenging old ghost David.”

At this point, James Clark was mistaken. Even though these are imitations, there are only a handful in the entire Shushan Sect. After all, Taiyi refined gold is not easy to come by; even a thousand years of accumulation yields only a few dozen jin. Only disciples with outstanding cultivation can obtain them. Moreover, the fathers of Brian Cooper and that junior sister wield great power and wealth in the mortal world, and the elders of Shushan are especially fond of the two, so they were granted the swords. Otherwise, with their mid-stage “Guiding Qi into the Body” cultivation, how could they have seriously injured a white python with two hundred years of Daoist practice? Once a demon forms a demon core, it has late-stage “Guiding Qi” strength. One mid-stage, one late-stage—the difference in cultivation is more than threefold.

“Sword Qi Soaring Through the Sky Technique”—flipping open this stolen, old-style thread-bound book, even with James Clark’s exceptional composure, he was still shocked. This is a profound cultivation method for sword immortals! Using the sword as a medium to connect with heaven and earth, absorbing energy—the better the sword, the faster the absorption, much faster than with the body alone. No wonder ancient sword immortals were so formidable! “No wonder those two kids reached mid-stage ‘Guiding Qi’ in just over a decade!”

A stream of energy surged as he drew the Qingsuo Sword into his body. The Ziying Sword was meant for women, and James Clark wasn’t foolish enough to take it as well. Although he was determined not to waste anything, with his current cultivation, he had no way to erase the formations on it and reforge it, so he had to set it aside.

For the next few days, James Clark didn’t step outside, hiding at home and diligently cultivating the “Sword Qi Soaring Through the Sky Technique” with the Qingsuo Sword. The materials from that impure flying sword were also refined into a four-inch-square seal. Among the ancient treasures recorded in the General Principles of Artifact Refining, the one James Clark was most interested in was the Fantian Seal of Guangchengzi, the Great Sage of Kongtong. It could be large or small—at its largest, it could cover a thousand li, at its smallest, it was like a mustard seed. With a single strike, even immortals at the “Spirit Transformation to Void” stage would be destroyed beneath it. It truly had the power to destroy heaven and earth.

This seal, named Little Fantian, aside from the issue of materials, with James Clark’s early-stage “Guiding Qi” cultivation, more than half of the true essence he converted from heaven and earth’s spiritual energy to temper his body was used up, and the remaining small portion was just enough to barely carve a Sumeru Mustard Seed Formation on it, allowing the seal to change size. Unfortunately, even with James Clark’s full effort, it could only expand from four inches square to about one meter. That’s nowhere near covering a thousand li. The few pieces of jade he’d seized were also of excellent quality, and one piece, taken from that junior sister, turned out to be black jade—an ideal material for crafting invisibility talismans, which James Clark certainly wouldn’t waste.

A gentle river breeze blew, and the afterglow of the setting sun cast flecks of golden light across the water. James Clark was filled with emotion, reflecting on his five years of cultivation—every step taken with utmost caution, truly like treading on thin ice. James Clark knew well that this world of cultivators was one where strength reigned supreme; secular laws meant little more than waste paper in the eyes of cultivators. There were even those so powerful that, at the slightest disagreement, they would kill in broad daylight. After all, they could come and go without a trace—how could the police ever catch them?