Be the Hardest Working Demon Cultivator!

Tan Shuchang waved his hand, signaling the young man to leave, and as soon as he had gone, he began to ponder deeply.

"The cultivation tradition of the Jiawu Realm has been around for at least a few thousand years. Although it’s very difficult to ascend beyond the cultivation realm to the Immortal Realm, over these thousands of years, there should have been a few individuals of exceptional talent who took a step beyond the pinnacle and approached the divine. But now..."

Tan Shuchang couldn’t help but reveal a look of surprise, "In this vast Jiawu Realm, not only is there just the cultivation realm, but even the rumors about the Immortal Realm are few and far between that have been passed down."

And with this thought, Tan Shuchang inevitably recalled his own mother, the image of her departure.

Her aura was overwhelming, exceedingly fierce, and the look she gave from the void, sharp as a blade that seemed to sever the mortal world. That was definitely not something a cultivator of the cultivation realm could achieve!

Therefore, his mother was certainly of the Immortal Realm, and probably not an ordinary Immortal Realm cultivator.

"Nine Sons’ Mother Ghost..."

Without realizing it, Tan Shuchang recalled this demonic technique.

Instantly, he felt a bit unsettled at the bottom of his heart.

Consequently, Tan Shuchang quietly composed his thoughts, suppressing these messy ideas.

Right away, he raised his hand and waved his sleeve, and a round bead rolled out from his cuff.

This bead appeared to have nothing special about it.

Besides being round, it was somewhat black.

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However, after Tan Shuchang entered the Magical Treasure Pavilion, this bead not only rolled over on its own but also directly burrowed into his sleeve.

Such liveliness was nearly sentient!

Just based on this, one could tell that this bead was far from ordinary. What was strange, though, was that the bead reacted to him, but Tan Shuchang couldn’t even foster a spirit within it.

When a cultivator refines a magic artifact, they foster a spirit within the artifact.

Once the spirit has been successfully nurtured, one can wield the artifact like an extension of their arm.

The staff modified by the shadow, that superior-grade magic artifact, Tan Shuchang had refined in this manner.

However, this was the most basic form of refinement. Should the magic artifact be taken by someone who also happened to know a special technique, they could erase the spirit within it.

Therefore, more sophisticated techniques for fostering spirits were developed.

It is said that in places like the Sword Cultivators’ Holy Land, Mount Sword, and Heavenly Sword Mansion, the method of imbuing flying swords with spirit could transform the spirit in the swords into Sword Dao spirit seals.

And each Sword Dao spirit seal embedded a part of that sword cultivator’s previous cultivation experiences.

This meant that, unless one could replicate that sword cultivator’s cultivation experiences, they wouldn’t be able to wield that flying sword, even if they forcefully fostered a spirit within it.

Now, Tan Shuchang took out this bead to try and see if he could foster a spirit within it.

After all, such a lively artifact could be a sentient magic artifact, couldn’t it?

Tan Shuchang, having sensed the power of a superior-grade magic artifact, was now extremely covetous of sentient magic artifacts. Previously, when he went to the Magical Treasure Pavilion to collect magical treasures, even as a third-rank Sword Command Daoist General, he could only receive lower-grade magic artifacts.

However, unlike the pavilion stewards, he could directly take three lower-grade magic artifacts.

Strength, law, and artifice, one of each.

The magic artifact representing the imposing force of strength is called the Qimen Seal, a seal-like object no larger than a palm when idle. When imbued with power, it can slowly enlarge until it becomes the size of an Eight Immortals Table, then it’s heavily smashed down!

Without a doubt, its method of demonstrating power is similar to that of the staff, but it lacks the staff’s ability to lock onto targets, so it greatly tests the cultivator’s ability to anticipate and the accuracy of their throw.

The artifact embodying the Authority of the Law is a golden hoop, which, once falling upon someone’s head, can immobilize their form and even lock down tightly to crush their body.

This artifact pairs well with the Qimen Seal.

The last artifact, representing the forbidden power of artifices, is rather rare. Normally, artifacts of the artifice category are either array flags or Array Plates, as these can most quickly display the sealing and binding powers of artifices.

However, the artifact Tan Shuchang received was neither an array flag nor an Array Plate but rather a painting.

Unfurled in space and spurred on by power, it can swell with the wind and then merge into the landscape. Any creature passing by, not having detected it in advance, will be captured within the painting.

Yet, there is no inner world within the painting, so any creature entering the painting will instantaneously turn into a bloody blur.

These three artifacts are all quite good.

But no matter how good they are, they’re merely inferior artifacts. How could they be as appealing as spirit-communicating artifacts?

Unfortunately for Tan Shuchang, even after nurturing the spirit of the bead for a whole night, he was unable to evoke any response from it.

Tan Shuchang had initially decided to continue nurturing it, but at that moment, Qiu Junlin came looking for him.

"What are you here for?" the invariably inhospitable Tan Shuchang bluntly expressed his attitude upon facing Qiu Junlin.

"That miss from the Dong family sent you a letter, didn’t she? May I have a look? Of course, it’s okay if you refuse, but you can’t tell her that I wanted to see that letter," Qiu Junlin said curiously, but as he spoke, he suddenly seemed somewhat guilty.

"You know who sent that letter?" Tan Shuchang was surprised.

"Of course I know. That little miss from the Dong family thinks she’s disguised it well, but in fact, many people know it’s her. They just don’t want to get on her bad side, so they pretend to be oblivious. Her disguise is as good as none," Qiu Junlin sneered.

Tan Shuchang nodded, then asked, "Who exactly is this little miss from the Dong family you’re talking about?"

In fact, he already had an idea of who it was, but he still felt somewhat uncertain.

"Isn’t she the one who slashed at you several times with a sword in your diary?" Qiu Junlin looked at Tan Shuchang in surprise.

"..."

Although the answer was certain, Tan Shuchang still felt a bit uncomfortable about Qiu Junlin’s response.

At the same time, it confirmed for him that she was indeed the one who had stolen his diary and made thousands of copies—the dreaded little thief!

Originally, he had only suspected as much.

Now it could be said to be confirmed.

Seeing that Tan Shuchang remained silent, Qiu Junlin chuckled, "Don’t say, what you wrote is actually quite interesting. Oh, by the way, do you know about her so-called childhood betrothal? It started when she was five or six and had heard too many of those stories. She felt she ought to have one too, so she pestered her parents and others in her household until they got annoyed.

Finally, a young sword cultivator casually pointed her out to get her off his back."

"Believing it, she even attempted to elope with him at the age of ten, having heard too many such tales. Naturally, this scared the young man terribly. He recounted the matter to the Dong family, promptly packed up his things, and fled with his family that very night."

"So this is the reason she was sent off to train in the Heavenly Sword Mansion at Yuezhou’s Jianxia Sect?" Right now, Tan Shuchang felt an urge to scoff.