“Can’t you see by now that I’m a newly ascended cultivator? In terms of seniority, you’re actually my elder. Just now, I took advantage of his carelessness and used sword intent to drive my blade. He assumed I was highly skilled in martial arts and fled. But once he calms down and recalls that the technique I used was a sword art, he’ll realize the truth. If we don’t leave now, once he figures it out, we might not escape death.” Brian Sutton explained in detail.

Jason Sutton’s expression shifted several times—first suspicious, then unconvinced, then anxious. He suddenly grabbed Brian Sutton’s arm and darted forward at high speed. The two found a nearby mountain peak, dug out a hollow in the mountainside, and hid themselves inside. Trees concealed the entrance, making it impossible to spot from outside. They hid there, suppressing all their energy, motionless as they watched the opposite side.

Sure enough, moments later, Jason returned, his furious shouts echoing through the air. He quickly searched the area back and forth, but found nothing. Perhaps out of rage, he paused in midair, and from beneath his right purple sleeve, a glowing orb shot out like thunder, blasting the mountain where Brian Sutton had previously hidden. With a boom, the entire peak exploded into a cloud of smoke before their eyes. When the wind cleared it away, the towering mountain was dozens of meters shorter.

After searching the area for a long while, Jason finally left, unwillingly.

“Jason Sutton, and that brat—if I ever catch you two, I’ll tear you both to pieces. You’d better stay alive. Hmph!” The valley still echoed with Jason’s vicious threat as he departed.

Chapter 7: Divine Domain

Even after Jason had been gone for a long time, the two still didn’t dare come out, fearing a trick. Only when night fell did they finally leave their hiding place.

“Brother Sutton, may I ask if you can handle the beasts here?” Brian Sutton asked.

“There shouldn’t be a problem. I ascended two hundred thousand years ago and have followed my master, Tianyun Evil Sword, for a long time. Dealing with these beasts is no issue. But outside the human-inhabited domains, those demons are beyond my ability to handle.” On the mountaintop, Jason Sutton cleared a patch of ground with his sword, gathered some dry branches, and with a flick of his right hand, a spark appeared at his fingertip. Seeing this, Brian Sutton realized this man cultivated extremely yang inner power and had reached a certain level of mastery.

With this brief respite, Jason Sutton had recovered more than half his strength. With no one around, the two exchanged names and sat by the fire, chatting.

“Brother Sutton, I’m newly ascended and there’s much I don’t understand. May I ask you some questions?”

“Go ahead. I’ll answer whatever I know.”

“I noticed that Jason seemed to be after your Xuanming Art. As far as I know, the Sacred Hall contains over a hundred million martial arts. Surely there are arts stronger than the Xuanming Art. Why don’t you all seek martial arts in the Sacred Hall instead of fighting over this Xuanming scroll?”

A strange light flashed in Jason Sutton’s eyes. “Are you really unaware, or just pretending?”

Seeing Brian Sutton nod, he continued, “It seems you haven’t been ascended for long, or you’d know. The martial arts in the Sacred Hall atop the Holy Mountain—never mind that the conditions for entering are extremely strict, and one can enter no more than five times in a lifetime. As you said, there are over a hundred million arts, and just choosing among them takes immense time and effort. More importantly, most of the Sacred Hall’s arts are ordinary. There are a few top-tier ones, but they’re extremely hard to master, and only those with extraordinary talent can succeed. Some are written by today’s renowned experts—do you think they’d truly leave all their skills in the Sacred Hall? Most of the top-tier arts you see there are incomplete, just fragments, with only a fraction of the original power. Some eccentric martial artists even left behind arts they only imagined and never practiced themselves. These are extremely dangerous and can easily lead to going astray.”

“I see.” Hearing Jason Sutton’s words, Brian Sutton felt a faint worry. All his own skills—the Ninefold Life-and-Death Profound Art and the Sword-Body Mind Technique—came from the Sacred Hall. Could there be problems with them?

“So the Sacred Mountain’s martial arts have so many flaws!”

“Though there are flaws, the vast majority of techniques are complete. If you master them to the limit, you can still rival high-level demons. And if you’re lucky, you might find a complete top-tier technique, though the odds are slim.”

“May I ask if the martial arts you possess originally came from the Sacred Hall?” Seeing Jason Sutton nod, Brian Sutton continued, “One more thing. I always thought that once you obtained a technique, you should just master it as quickly as possible. In the past, when apprenticing, I only sought superior techniques. Why, after ascending, do you still need to take a master, Brother Sutton?”