Chapter 434: Sword Unsheathing

"What kind of bamboo is this, so tough?" Lu Yuqing asked, somewhat surprised.

"It should be a type of purple essence bamboo, one of the toughest among all woody plants in the world," Han Li said thoughtfully.

As he spoke, he continued walking, stepped onto the bamboo house's porch, pushed open the bamboo door, and entered.

The interior of the bamboo house was very simple. The outer room had only a bamboo-woven octagonal table surrounded by four long benches, while the inner room had seven single bamboo beds.

"Brother Han, look, these beds are so narrow and small. They look like they're for children," Lu Yuqing said, furrowing her delicate brows after looking around.

"Legend has it that the No-Life Sword Sect was extremely strict in recruiting disciples. They never opened their gates wide for mass recruitment. Instead, disciples from the mountain would travel down to search the world for the finest sword cultivator seedlings, bring them back to the mountain, and train them from childhood. Everything depended on fate; nothing was forced. This place is likely where those disciples practiced basic skills as children," Han Li said after a moment's thought.

"I see. I once happened to read about this sect in an ancient text. It said the sect had very few members and rarely ventured outside, making it very mysterious. That's all I know," Lu Yuqing said thoughtfully.

"Disciples of this sect could only travel down the mountain as sect members if they had cultivated to the Golden Immortal level. Otherwise, they would spend their entire lives and die within the sect. At its peak, there was a beautiful tale spread across the world: 'Seven Golden Immortals in one sect, descending the mountain to travel together.' But times have changed, and few people know these things now," Han Li said slowly, glancing at the green-purple bamboo grove outside the bamboo building, covered with mottled sword scars.

"Brother Han, how do you know all this?" Lu Yuqing blinked, somewhat puzzled.

"I am also a sword cultivator, so I naturally pay attention to these things when reading ancient texts. There are many legends about the No-Life Sword Sect, and the most striking one is about their No-Life Sword Sea," Han Li continued.

"No-Life Sword Sea... What is that?" Lu Yuqing asked, showing interest.

Han Li's eyes flickered as he walked out of the bamboo building and said:

"It is said that the founding patriarch of the No-Life Sword Sect, No-Life Daoist, had a fetish for collecting swords. Whether in life-or-death battles or duels to determine superiority, after winning, he would take the opponent's flying sword and bring it back to the sect's sword pool for preservation. Later, when he took disciples and the sect flourished, they inherited this tradition. When disciples and descendants traveled the Immortal Domain, they would also search the world for precious swords and bring them back to the sect. Over time, the No-Life Sword Pool became the No-Life Sword Sea..."

After leaving this bamboo grove, the two continued walking along the winding mountain path and finally stopped before a towering stone staircase.

The stone staircase was pure white, with its top lost in the clouds above the mountainside.

To the left of its entrance stood a black boulder inscribed with three ancient seal-script characters: "Sword Unsheathing Stone."

Han Li stepped forward and examined it closely, noticing two lines of small white characters below the three characters:

"True Immortals bow and cannot fly; all swords in the world lower their heads."

Each character carried an indescribable sharpness, as if every stroke was formed by a sword aura, ready to break free from the stone, fully displaying its edge. It was clearly from the same hand as the "No-Life Sword Sect" inscription at the gate.

"The first line means that even True Immortals cannot fly here—I understand that. But what does the second line mean? It confuses me," Lu Yuqing murmured to herself.

"The No-Life Sword Sect is a sacred place for sword cultivators. How many immortal swords are stored in their sword sea? How many swords in the world can compare to those here? 'Lower their heads' probably means that. But this Sword Unsheathing Stone... unsheathing swords..." Han Li pondered for a moment and said.

As soon as he finished speaking, a great rumble came from the sea of clouds above. A golden halo rippled out from the clouds, spreading in all directions.

Hearing this, Han Li's gaze sharpened, and he looked up toward the peak.

"What's wrong, Brother Han?" Lu Yuqing, sensing something amiss, quickly asked.

"It seems some restriction has been activated above this sea of clouds. My connection with my life-bound flying sword has been severed again..." Han Li frowned and said quietly.

With that, he turned his body, lightly stepped on the first stone step with his toes, and shot upward almost hugging the slope of the staircase, crossing hundreds of steps in one go.

Seeing this, Lu Yuqing followed suit and leaped up after him.

The higher the stone staircase went, the heavier the moisture became. After they ascended several hundred zhang, the dense moisture had condensed into a mist, enveloping everything around them.

The two moved through the sea of clouds and mist, with very limited visibility, and their spiritual sense seemed greatly hindered.

"This mist is unusual. Even my spiritual eyes can't see through it. Be careful," Han Li warned, releasing a layer of protective green light around his body and accelerating upward.

Lu Yuqing followed closely behind, her eyes shimmering with a deep light. Suddenly, her expression changed, and she shouted a warning: "Brother Han, watch out..."

But before she finished speaking, two golden sword lights interweaved from the thick mist above Han Li's head, falling like scissors.

Han Li's gaze focused, and he saw that the owners of the sword lights were two tall wooden puppets with slender limbs.

With a lightning-fast thought, instead of retreating, he advanced, slipping through the gap between the two sword lights at the critical moment and darting past.

After steadying himself, he spun around, brought his five fingers together, and swung forward. A layer of green light surged from his palm, striking at the puppets like a green long blade.

The two puppets remained motionless, but their heads suddenly turned 180 degrees backward, facing Han Li eerily.

At the same time, the joints of their sword-wielding hands also turned. One puppet's long sword clanged as it blocked Han Li's hand blade, while the other thrust its sword straight at his heart.

Han Li touched the ground with his toes and quickly retreated up the stone staircase, inwardly somewhat surprised.

These two puppets had no aura at all, making it impossible to gauge their level, but the long swords in their hands were extremely formidable. The layer of golden light on them shattered the green light blade on his hand with a single strike.

Then, several more sword lights appeared above his head, interweaving into a golden sword net and falling toward him.

Han Li raised a fist and punched upward.

A green light burst from his fist, colliding with the golden sword net. The green light shadow was directly cut apart.

Han Li's mind stirred, and he waved his hand again.

A black light whirled out from his sleeve, spun around, and came to hover above his head.

The spinning black light suddenly flared, expanding into a black true wheel about a zhang in diameter, like a millstone blocking above his head.

The golden sword net fell, seemingly imposing, but when it touched the black light of the Heavy Water True Wheel, it instantly melted like snow in fire.

At that moment, five sword lights flashed around Han Li, and five more wooden puppets identical to the previous ones appeared out of thin air.

As soon as these five puppets appeared, the two from before caught up from behind, thrusting their long swords straight at Han Li.

But before their sword tips could reach him, two green cyclones rose from below, enveloping the two puppets and dragging them downward.

Han Li looked over and saw Lu Yuqing holding a green feather fan radiating spiritual light, waving it to stir up gusts of green wind that trapped them.

His eyes flickered, and he waved his hand forward.

The Heavy Water True Wheel above his head immediately roared loudly, spinning and crashing toward the puppet directly ahead.

That puppet reacted quickly, forming a sword seal with one hand while thrusting its long sword downward with the other.

Golden light blazed from its sword tip, and a huge golden sword shadow burst forth, slamming heavily into the Heavy Water True Wheel.

With a thunderous roar!

The golden sword shadow had no room to turn and directly disintegrated into golden dust, while the puppet's body was swallowed by the black light rebounding from the Heavy Water True Wheel and crushed to powder.

After absorbing the second layer of heavy water, the Heavy Water True Wheel's power was now incomparable to before.

Seeing this, the remaining four sword-wielding puppets stiffly turned their heads toward Han Li. A strange rune on their foreheads simultaneously lit up with golden light. They formed a peculiar sword seal with one hand and pointed their sword tips sharply toward the sky.

Han Li frowned and looked up, sensing something amiss.

Sure enough, above the mist enveloping them, blurry lights flickered, like the sky before a thunderstorm when thunder rolls.

"Miss Lu, come here quickly..." he called out hastily.

Hearing this, Lu Yuqing did not hesitate. She waved her feather fan, sending two cyclones to separate the two puppets, and flashed to Han Li's side.

No sooner had she entered the area under the Heavy Water True Wheel than a deafening roar came from the mist.

A dazzling golden light pressed down from the depths of the mist, carrying dense golden sword lights identical to those Han Li had encountered when flying up the mountain.

If the sword formation in the sea of clouds at the foot of the mountain was meant to suppress all directions and prevent True Immortals from forcibly flying, then this golden sword formation here was purely for killing enemies. Hence, the sharpness of the sword lights here far exceeded the previous ones.

Moreover, the falling sword lights now seemed to contain faint fluctuations of metal-attribute law power, which was why Han Li did not take them lightly and called Lu Yuqing back in advance.