Cynthia Parker collected many magical artifacts, but their quality was generally poor. Only three truly pleased Brian White. One of them was the Cuiyan Cloud she used for flight and escape. This treasure was an exclusive magical artifact of the Baiyun Sect, one of the four great talisman schools. A Baiyun Sect disciple, bewitched by Cynthia Parker, secretly taught her the method to refine this treasure. Cynthia Parker spent considerable effort gathering the materials and begged someone to forge it for her. She was extremely fond of it and rarely parted with it. Because a bit of ten-thousand-year-old Cuiying was added during its refinement, its color was a vibrant green, making it very beautiful. Cynthia Parker treated it as her signature item and kept it with her at all times. Another item was a set of seventy-two small banners, likely a gift from some lover. Brian White couldn’t identify it for the moment, nor did he know how to use it, so he decided to set it aside for now. These two items brought Brian White only mild joy and were not enough to make him overjoyed. What truly delighted him was a pair of excellent flying swords found in Cynthia Parker’s magical pouch.

In "Shushan 2," Brian White had never worried about lacking flying swords. With his swordsmanship and status, what kind of flying sword couldn’t he obtain? But after transmigrating into David Stone’s body, he had only a single, extremely poor-quality flying sword—so fragile that he had to be extremely careful not to have its sword light shattered by others. Although among the seven magical artifacts of the Five Lustful Lords there was the Wuguang Black Fiend Hook, a type of unorthodox sword weapon, Brian White was not accustomed to using hook-type weapons. As for the set of Yimu flying swords, their material was so brittle that, aside from their quantity, many sword techniques couldn’t be performed with them. Brian White couldn’t even be bothered to give them a second glance. Thus, finding a high-quality flying sword became the top concern on Brian White’s mind.

That Cynthia Parker’s magical pouch actually contained such a fine pair of flying swords made him extremely happy—far more than obtaining the Seven Treasures of the Five Lustful Lords. After all, in "Shushan 2," he was famous for his swordsmanship. In this world of immortals, not having a good sword at his side left him feeling empty.

This pair of flying swords was completely sealed within a piece of jadeite. The jadeite was a translucent green, and inside were two sword lights like silver dragons—seeming to swim and soar, clearly motionless yet appearing to change endlessly, vivid and lively. Even if they weren’t immortal treasures, just their appearance alone would make them priceless luxury items on Earth.

Brian White, having inherited David Stone’s memories, knew that the cultivation methods of the immortal sects in the Southern Toad Continent differed, so their magical artifacts couldn’t be used interchangeably. Each required a unique incantation to unleash its full power. For example, magical artifacts refined by the Chicheng Immortal Sect could only be activated by their exclusive methods; the techniques of the Xuanming Sect or Baiyun Sect wouldn’t work. Likewise, disciples of the Chicheng Immortal Sect couldn’t use artifacts refined by the Xuanming Sect. If the Five Lustful Lords hadn’t carried a copy of the "Nineteen Xuanming Chapters," Brian White would have been helpless with the seven magical artifact embryos refined by Xuanming Sect methods.

There were only three ways to use another sect’s magical artifact. One was to imprint it with your own true energy, but this could only unleash a fraction of the artifact’s power and couldn’t add your own cultivation to it, making it easy for others to seize. The second was to reforge the artifact, altering the method by which it was activated. The flying sword originally used by David Stone had been reforged by Chicheng Patriarch Zhu Shang, allowing it to be activated by the Chicheng method. Reforging a flying sword required immense power and was nearly as difficult as forging a new one, except it spared the trouble of gathering materials and tempering the artifact embryo—something only those with profound cultivation could accomplish. The last method was to learn the other sect’s techniques, which was even harder than reforging. Although it didn’t necessarily require abandoning one’s original cultivation, starting from scratch was unavoidable. Moreover, each sect’s methods were guarded as precious treasures—even their own disciples might not learn them, let alone outsiders.

Chapter Twelve: Seizing the Clouds

Brian White had some hope for the Daoist book left by Cynthia Parker, but after carefully reading it, he found only a few scattered notes about the pair of flying swords sealed in the jadeite, with no related refining incantations.

It turned out that Cynthia Parker had stumbled upon these two flying swords by chance while wandering. One night, she stayed on a desolate mountain and suddenly saw a brilliant light shooting up from within a mountain’s belly. Curious, she went to investigate and found a cave inside the nameless mountain, where she discovered the two flying swords. The set of seventy-two small banners was originally used to guard the cave, but since there was no master to activate them, she easily took them, along with the jadeite that sealed the two flying swords.

Cynthia Parker not only recorded the acquisition of these treasures in her Daoist book, but also drew a map marking the location of the desolate mountain.

However, she didn’t know the incantations to activate the seventy-two banners or the advanced sword-refining techniques, so she was never able to use these two treasures. She also didn’t dare to remove the restriction on the two flying swords, fearing they would transform and fly away, leaving her empty-handed.