Chapter 1: Refining Heart Temple, Visiting King Dan

  A cold smile in his heart, Lu Qing didn't put them in his heart. In his view, these two people, apart from their cultivation and appearance, lacked the most basic respect for others, without any refinement, only knowing how to bully the weak, they were not worthy of Lu Qing considering them as opponents.

  He stepped onto the Yangtai, looking at the five Protectors in front of him, including Xuan Qing. Lu Qing found that two of them were unfamiliar to him, while the other three were those who had attended the Grand Competition back then. However, the chief Protector, Longmei, was not among them.

  "Lu Qing Ting Feng —" Xuan Qing's eyes slowly opened, his tone calm.

  Lu Qing bowed his head in response.

  "In view of your outstanding performance at Wolf Tooth Mountain, saving the sect from danger, after discussion with the Sect Master and others, it is now decided to grant you the position of Guardian of the Faith ahead of schedule. The Guardian of the Faith guards the peak and defends the sect's law, upholds great principles, and knows great righteousness; you may achieve this."

  "Disciple, you can." Lu Qing's eyes were firm and determined.

  "Good!" A faint smile appeared on Xuán Qīng's face, and then his expression turned solemn: "Offer sacrifices to the ancestors and the heavenly spirits, light incense! All disciples, kneel down and pay respects!"

  "Ancestor worship and heavenly spirits——"

  On the square, all outer disciples and inner sect disciples knelt down and kowtowed in the direction of the incense table, and the entire square was filled with a solemn and majestic atmosphere.

  Light the incense on the censer, Lu Qing clasped his hands together in a sword-like gesture and bowed nine times towards the empty space above the incense burner before inserting the incense into the ash inside the furnace.

  A faint wisp of blue smoke rose up, and at this moment the square was devoid of even a hint of breeze, allowing the smoke to swirl and twirl as it pleased.

  "The ceremony is complete. Everyone rise." Xuan Qing spoke next, his voice was not loud but clearly spread to every corner of the square.

  Looking at Lu Qing in front of him, Xuan Qing pondered for a moment before speaking: "In my Sun Yang Peak, there are now eleven generations of guardians. You, Lu Qing, have just entered the position of guardian and will be ranked twelfth. I grant you the Guardian Silver Sword Seal, a separate courtyard that you can choose yourself, as well as the annual stipend for guardians from Sun Yang Peak, all sword yuan skills and profound sword techniques from Wu Ge, and qualification to use the thirty closed caves in the back of Sun Yang Cave. Do you have any other requests? You may speak now."

  "The disciple has no other requirements." Lu Qing said without hesitation, in his opinion, these conditions were already very generous, and if he made any more demands, it would be somewhat excessive.

  Xuan Qing nodded in satisfaction, and the five guardians beside him also showed a hint of a smile. Then, Xuan Qing waved his hand to let the gathered disciples disperse, and introduced the five guardians to Lu Qing one by one. Lu Qing also paid respects to each person separately.

  Unlike before, Lu Qing is also a protector now. Except for the peak masters, sect masters and sword masters who possess the Golden Sword Seal, he only needs to show respect to other protectors of the same level, while his former fellow disciples will have to show him respect from now on, this is the difference in status.

  In the inner sect, the change of status is from an inner sect disciple to a steward who holds a bronze sword token, and above the steward is a guardian who holds a silver sword token. There are also the Sword Master Zhen Dajun and the castle owners of each main city who hold golden sword tokens. Such promotions all change with strength and have become the lifelong pursuit of many inner sect disciples.

  Half a month later.

  In the courtyard next to Zizhu Yard, in a yard called Lianxin Yard, Lu Qing sat quietly in the midst of the bamboo forest. This Lianxin Yard was originally an abandoned bamboo yard next to Zizhu Yard, which was renovated and rebuilt by Lu Qing, who also renamed it Lianxin.

  At this moment, Lu Qing was holding a delicate purple jade bottle in his hand. The purple jade bottle was about the size of a palm, and it was sealed with high-quality sandalwood. When he opened the jade bottle, Lu Qing poured out a thumb-sized green dan pill from it. Upon careful sniffing, the dan pill emitted a faint fragrance of ginseng, seemingly mixed with some other medicinal materials. However, Lu Qing was not well-versed in this area and couldn't distinguish them.

  This Dan pill is called San Wang Dan, it was sent by the outer door disciple of Xuan Qing Sect this morning. There is also a book "Dan Medicine Shallow Talk", which records something that surprised Lu Qing, that is, alchemy.

  According to the records of this Dan medicine, Lu Qing knew that the so-called Dan medicine was actually a method of refining and extracting the essence of medicinal materials. For sword cultivators, if they simply took precious Yuan-supplementing medicinal materials, it would indeed be possible to strengthen their internal Yuan, thereby achieving the goal of improving their cultivation. However, since these medicinal materials grew in the heavens and earth, there would inevitably be impurities present. If taken for a long time, they would form medicine poison, affecting the progress of their cultivation and even causing regression.

  And this alchemy was initially conducted with the purpose of eliminating impurities and preserving essence, later through the meticulous research and accumulation of countless pharmacists, it finally formed the way of alchemy.

  Like the bottle of Renwang Dan in Lu Qing's hand, according to his identification based on the book's description, it is made from hundred-year-old Renwang as the main ingredient, combined with dozens of years of nourishing medicinal materials, and has the effect of enhancing the sword energy cultivation of the sword masters below the sword master, and also has the effect of consolidating the foundation and cultivating the origin.

  Lu Qing believed that if such a bottle of Xuan Wang Dan fell into the market at the foot of the peak, it would cause a great commotion. It could be said that this Xuan Wang Dan was the ultimate treasure for prolonging life for those who practiced the art of the sword. How many people could resist such temptation?

  But Lu Qing shook his head again, this was impossible. This bottle of twelve-participation Dan was only enough for a year's worth, showing just how precious it was. Only by becoming a protector would one have such benefits. With over a hundred years' worth of medicinal materials, only the sect could possibly collect and refine them. How could such a rare and precious elixir be allowed to flow out? No one was that foolish.

  And this elixir is also distinguished, among which the worst of the unranked elixirs below 100 years can only be used by swordsmen who have not yet built their foundation. Those between 100 and 500 years are considered lower-grade and are suitable for swordsmen below the level of Sword Master to take. After that, those from 500 to 1,000 years are extremely rare and belong to the middle grade, which is most suitable for Sword Masters to improve their cultivation. As long as the realm and physical body can support it, even lower-level swordsmen can rapidly advance their sword yuan.

  The last is the priceless treasure of the top-grade elixir, which is refined with the lowest thousand-year-old spiritual medicine. The thousand-year-old spiritual medicine, except for some inherited cultivation in a few tens of thousands of years old sects, is now very difficult to find in the ten-thousand-mile mountains.

  It's also because of this that its effect is astonishing, and it can almost be used by Sword Soul Realm swordsmen to increase their cultivation. If the physical body of a Sword Origin Realm swordsman is strong enough to withstand it, they can even directly advance one heavenly rank.

  Upon reaching the Jueyuan boundary, except for a small number of exceptionally talented and gifted swordsmen, advancing one heavenly rank usually takes more than two years. This single high-quality elixir has saved two years' worth of time, showing just how precious it is.

  To conclude this introduction, the author also makes a guess that even top-grade elixirs are unlikely to be possessed by Gold Heaven level sects. Probably only in large and powerful White Spirit level sects with thousands of years of heritage would there be some.

  At the end of this book, there are records of some Dan medicines, but most of them are lower-grade and ungraded, with only a few dozen middle-grade ones. As for top-grade Dan medicines, it is possible that the author has never actually seen them, so they were not recorded.

  He put the book aside and returned the Sanwang Dan to the purple jade bottle. For him now, it was not yet time to take the Sanwang Dan. His cultivation had been advanced prematurely in Luoshui City, and he needed half a year to consolidate his physical body and the surge of sword energy. Taking it now would not only fail to enhance his cultivation but also prolong his consolidation period, or even cause harm to his body.

  However, Lu Qing immediately picked up the two slightly larger purple jade bottles beside him. One of them was Wu Pin's Nourishing Body Pill, which was the same kind that Li Jingxuan had given him to heal his injuries back then, and it had a very good effect on ordinary internal injuries. The other one was Gu Yuan Dan, which had the effect of nourishing the meridians, bones, and flesh, and consolidating the sword yuan, which was exactly what Lu Qing needed at present.

  And these two bottles of Wú Pǐn Dān medicine are a bit more in quantity, with about twenty pellets per bottle. Due to the sword cultivator's pursuit of the Supreme Sword Dao, most of the medicinal pellets that appear are those that enhance cultivation, and ones like this with such effects are relatively rare. There aren't even any low-grade ones, let alone top-grade ones; the low-grade ones already belong to the pinnacle.

  Put a Yuan Dan pill in the mouth, once it comes into contact with water, this Yuan Dan pill dissolves into a clear stream that slides down the throat, and immediately quickly disperses into countless small streams, either drilling into bones and flesh or attaching to the meridians.

  The next moment, this coolness suddenly became scorching hot, as if he had soaked in a mountain stream hot spring, his whole body warm and cozy. Lu Qing also clearly felt that his body had relaxed slightly, and the wide meridians, which were originally somewhat painful due to the sudden surge of sword energy, also felt much more comfortable.

  At the same time, Lu Qing also activated the first layer of Zihuang Sword Body Technique, absorbing a thread of Blood Slasher Sword Essence to nourish his physical meridians, without converting it into sword essence for cultivation.

  Time passed day by day, and the atmosphere of the entire Chaoyang Peak became tense. Almost every day, you could hear the sound of swords breaking through the air, as well as the sound of swords being drawn from their scabbards. The annual grand competition was approaching, and this time's competition was particularly important for the inner sect disciples. Whether or not they could obtain qualifications to enter that sacred sword pool for cultivation depended on this one competition.

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