After briefly touring the spacious and quiet courtyard and familiarizing himself with the surroundings, Qin bathed and washed up in his own quarters before retiring to the bedroom in the pavilion for a full day's sleep.

It had been a long time since he had savored the taste of lying in a soft bed. Although he had slept deep beneath the Ten Thousand Withered Peaks for three years, the constant, taut nerves of that life-and-death ordeal had allowed him no moment of true relaxation.

Here, at Qingdan Peak, the headquarters of the Azure Elixir Sect, he could finally enjoy tranquility.

He slept soundly until the sun reached his bedside the following morning, waking him up.

The Sect Leader had been too busy these past few days to meet him, which afforded him the perfect opportunity to attend to his own affairs.

Ye Qin sorted through his belongings. In his storage pouch, besides several fine spiritual artifacts like the Bat King Wings, he had eight magical artifacts: the Dark Yin Sword, the Soul-Seizing Bell, the Violet Saber, the Red Gourd, the Immortal Binding Rope, a small green sword, the Profound Fire Sword, and a flying hammer artifact. Additionally, there were several books, a piece of ancient violet jade slip, a small elixir bottle containing Rock Fire Worms, and a small chunk of fire-elemental mineral crystal.

This small piece of fire-elemental crystal was something he had dug up again just before leaving the lava cave of the Ten Thousand Withered Peaks. Since this material could be used to forge fire-elemental flying swords, he naturally needed to keep one piece.

Ye Qin had intended to mine a few more chunks of the fire crystal for backup. However, over the past three years, he had no idea how many high-level cultivators at or above the Foundation Establishment stage had visited the lava river. They had already excavated all the purple crystals there, leaving scarcely any of the lower-quality red ones behind.

The small piece he held was found only after much difficulty hidden within a small crevice where he had concealed himself.

Furthermore, Ye Qin still possessed some low-grade spirit stones, the remainder from when he refined the Foundation Establishment Pills, amounting to several hundred pieces. This should be enough for his current elixir refinement needs; his demand for spirit stones was not excessive.

Given Ye Qin’s current status, the eight thousand Qi Refining disciples of the Azure Elixir Sect dared not provoke him. Only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage or higher posed any potential threat. Yet, most Foundation Establishment cultivators within the sect were in seclusion, rarely venturing out unless necessary.

Naturally, he no longer needed to be as cautious as before when he lacked a Foundation Establishment, hiding carefully and never daring to casually display his elixirs for sale for fear of being targeted by fellow disciples. Even now, if he were to exchange elixirs for spirit stones with Qi Refining disciples, no one would dare gossip.

Of course, Ye Qin’s objective was to advance his own cultivation and strength, not to amass wealth and become a truly rich cultivator.

He had spent four or five years in Zhuqi County, and nearly six years in Immortal Fate City and with the Azure Elixir Sect, making him someone who had mingled in the Jianghu and the cultivation world for quite some time. There was one simple, fundamental principle he understood: one was only qualified to possess wealth commensurate with one's strength. Otherwise, excessive riches would only invite jealousy and lead to disaster—one might die without even knowing how.

Even if someone offered him a vast fortune now, he absolutely would not accept it, lest he be constantly coveted.

He would only display a level of wealth appropriate for a cultivator at the first layer of Foundation Establishment. Several hundred low-grade spirit stones would suffice for a long time. When his cultivation improved, exchanging elixirs for spirit stones would be a simple matter later on.

Ye Qin glanced at the items on the table and opened the small bottle containing the Rock Fire Worms.

He hadn't checked on the worms for over ten days and wondered if they had perished.

There were no Rock Fire Worms inside the bottle, only a palm-sized rock sphere. The lava had long since cooled, making it incredibly hard, dull gray, and completely motionless.

Ye Qin smiled, picking up the rock sphere to examine it. He sensed a faint trace of fire spiritual energy within, suggesting it was indeed a Rock Fire Worm.

"Crack!"

He crushed the rock sphere with one hand, and a small, crystalline red worm dropped out.

It seemed startled awake from a deep sleep. After crawling frantically on the ground a few times, it realized Ye Qin was merely teasing it. It couldn't help but angrily raise its head and hiss "Tu-tu!"—spitting out several half-inch-long wisps of flame as a threat.

Ye Qin snorted and released a wave of spiritual pressure.

The Rock Fire Worm seemed to sense the immense power of the spiritual pressure exerted by a Foundation Establishment cultivator. It immediately lowered its head, scurried in panic toward the rock fragments, spat out small flames, and gradually melted the fragments into a slurry of magma, rolling within it.

The thin magma slurry slowly dried, solidifying on the body of the Rock Fire Worm.

Then it rolled in the magma again, and it solidified once more.

After several hours, it had coughed up fire until it was nearly exhausted, drooping with fatigue. Only then did it re-envelope itself in a layer of fine, dense stone armor, and its body grew slightly larger. After being encased in the stone armor, the flames it spat out were noticeably larger.

Ye Qin watched this scene, utterly astonished.

He smashed the stone armor off again and directly released his Innate True Fire, melting the surrounding magma.

The Rock Fire Worm, smelling the scent of the flames, became invigorated and once again rolled diligently in the magma. After several more hours, it reclothed itself in stone armor. If one looked closely, one could see extremely fine pores on the armor, smaller than a strand of hair. The flames the Rock Fire Worm spat out originated from these pores, where they then expanded.

Ye Qin pondered thoughtfully.

This lava was merely melted from ordinary fire-elemental ore. The key lay in those minute pores. This first-tier Rock Fire Worm could create such a peculiar stone armor to amplify its power. The flame it spat out itself held little destructive force, but when expelled through the small pores of the stone armor, it was amplified. If the Rock Fire Worm’s stone armor were ten zhang thick, a small puff of flame could potentially be amplified to rival a mid-tier spell, transforming into a Blazing Phantom Beast.

The Rock Fire Worm's unique ability was truly marvelous. Perhaps even high-tier demonic beasts could not withstand a Rock Fire Worm clad in thick armor.

However, the speed at which the Rock Fire Worm generated the Blazing Stone Armor was too slow. In half a day, it had only managed to encase itself in a thin, light layer of armor that could be shattered with a mere pinch of a finger.

"Without ten years of rolling in magma day and night, it could never re-forge a massive armor one zhang thick. A ten zhang suit of armor would probably take a century."

Having understood the nature of the Rock Fire Worm, Ye Qin murmured to himself for a long time before finally shaking his head and placing the worm back into the bottle. He planned to find some fire-elemental ores to feed it and nurture it until it was larger, perhaps using it to burn the furnace for elixir refinement—that might be quite convenient, saving him the trouble of refining the pills himself.

However, domesticating it might not be easy. He was not a disciple of the Beast Spirit Sect and knew nothing about raising insects.

What Ye Qin valued most was the piece of ancient violet jade slip, an item obtained from a purple-robed cultivator of the Ancient Artifact Sect. While in the mine tunnels of the Ten Thousand Withered Peaks, he had tried to investigate the slip but was unable to discern its secrets due to insufficient spiritual sense. This clearly indicated it was an ancient slip meant to be opened only by Foundation Establishment cultivators.

As for what was contained within the violet jade slip, Ye Qin remained utterly clueless.

Now that he had achieved Foundation Establishment, his spiritual sense had greatly enhanced, and he had ample time to settle down and explore the mysteries of this violet jade slip.

Ye Qin sat cross-legged on his cushion, eyes closed. He placed the violet jade slip before him. After regulating his breath for half an hour, ensuring his spiritual sense was at its peak, he allowed it to seep into the ancient slip.

The interior of the violet jade slip resembled a vast, sprawling labyrinth.

As Ye Qin's spiritual sense first seeped in, it was absorbed as if sinking into a sponge. His expression shifted slightly, but having already anticipated the situation, he remained calm and continued to press his spiritual sense inward.

The labyrinth inside the slip was divided into five main branching paths, emitting distinct lights of gold, green, blue, red, and yellow. Each path branched out into countless smaller forks, and probing any path required the expenditure of spiritual sense.

Ye Qin pondered briefly. He had no idea what lay in these five paths; any one would serve him equally well for now. He concentrated his spiritual sense, chose one path at random, and poured his full power into it.

It took the duration of one stick of incense.

Ye Qin’s spiritual sense had just barely managed to reach the terminus of the red-lit path, and his sense was nearly exhausted, causing him to immediately withdraw from the violet jade slip. In that instant he touched the end, he had acquired the information recorded within.

It was a sword art called the Violet Sword Art.

The introduction stated that the Violet Sword Art was created ten thousand years ago by a Nascent Soul stage cultivator named the Violet Sword Divine Monarch from the Spirit Mist Mountain Range.

This sword art comprised an Upper Scroll and a Lower Scroll. The Upper Scroll had five layers, requiring the cultivation of five ancient sword artifacts, which Foundation Establishment cultivators could practice. The Lower Scroll had three layers, involving three ancient sword artifacts, reserved for Core Formation stage cultivators.

This Violet Sword Divine Monarch, whose origins or background were unknown, made grand claims, stating that once the Upper Scroll of the Violet Sword Art was fully mastered, the cultivator would be virtually invincible within the Foundation Establishment realm. Mastering the final three layers of the Lower Scroll would render one basically invincible in the Core Formation realm.

Ye Qin’s spirit immediately lifted upon reading this.

Anything left behind by a Nascent Soul cultivator must be extraordinary. Despite staying at the Azure Elixir Sect for so long, he had never heard anything about any Nascent Soul cultivators from his own sect.

For some reason, it seemed as if the Azure Elixir Sect had never produced a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Yet, for such an ancient sect spanning ten thousand years, which must have produced hundreds of Core Formation cultivators, how could it be that not a single Nascent Soul cultivator had ever emerged?

This confusion was something Ye Qin could not resolve for the moment.

His interest in the Violet Sword Art recorded within the violet jade slip surged. Having finally discovered an item left by a Nascent Soul cultivator, he was determined to study it thoroughly.

However, as Ye Qin read further, he realized something was amiss.

The requirements for cultivating this sword art were exceedingly high. Cultivating each layer of the sword art demanded a flying sword artifact of the corresponding attribute; otherwise, cultivation was impossible.

The five layers of the Upper Scroll corresponded to the Gold Sword, Wood Sword, Water Sword, Fire Sword, and Earth Sword.

The three layers of the Lower Scroll corresponded to the Wind Sword, Ice Sword, and Thunder Sword.

Each layer was cultivated independently; the Gold Sword, Wood Sword, Water Sword, Fire Sword, and Earth Sword held no hierarchy over one another. One could start cultivating with the Gold Sword or the Fire Sword. Each layer’s sword art could be used individually.

But with each added layer, the effects would stack, accumulating power.

The five flying sword artifacts—Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—could ultimately form a sword formation called the "Great Five Elements Sword Array." The three flying sword artifacts—Wind, Ice, Thunder—could form the "Three Wonders Sword Array."

Most astonishingly:

The "Great Five Elements Sword Array" and the "Lesser Three Wonders Sword Array" could be used separately, or they could be combined to form the "Eight Trigrams Sword Array." When unleashed by a cultivator at the late Core Formation stage, the power of this array was said to be capable of contending even with a low-level Nascent Soul master. Once the Eight Trigrams Sword Array was deployed, even Nascent Soul cultivators would dare not challenge its edge, preferring to retreat several paces.

However, the true power of the Violet Sword Art was directly linked to the grade of the flying sword artifacts.

The higher the grade of the flying sword artifact, the greater the power exerted.

If one were merely to use ordinary, low-grade flying sword artifacts, one shouldn't even dream of success. A Nascent Soul cultivator could shatter the flying swords with a single finger, let alone form any grand arrays.

Therefore, behind every layer of the Violet Sword Art, there was specifically appended a set of refining materials and the corresponding tempering technique. One could gather the raw materials listed to forge the absolute finest flying sword artifacts. These were the optimal flying sword formulas that the Violet Sword Divine Monarch had spent countless efforts summarizing and collecting throughout his life.

After reading this introduction, Ye Qin was left speechless.

The raw materials for just these eight flying swords alone were extraordinarily difficult to refine.

It was no wonder the Violet Sword Divine Monarch dared to boast that his Violet Sword Art made him invincible among Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators. The materials for these eight flying sword artifacts were rare to the point of being staggering.

How many people could possibly gather all these materials?

Once refined using these materials, each sword would surely be a top-tier magical artifact of immense power. Even without the Violet Sword Art, relying solely on these flying sword artifacts, they would be monstrously formidable, beyond the reach of ordinary cultivators.

It seemed the true might of the Violet Sword Art relied heavily on the inherent power of the flying sword artifacts themselves. Without top-tier artifacts, this sword art alone might not be that impressive.

Ye Qin felt a mix of speechlessness and disdain after reading the descriptions.

Nevertheless, out of respect and admiration for a Nascent Soul cultivator, he diligently read through the Fire Sword Art he had obtained.

Ye Qin had entered the red-lit path, meaning he had acquired the Fire Sword Art from the Upper Scroll of the "Great Five Elements Sword Array."

In fact, this violet jade slip only contained the five colored light paths, each corresponding to one of the five types of flying swords, clearly recording only the sword arts for the Great Five Elements Sword Array, and not the arts for the Lesser Three Wonders Sword Array.

The Fire Sword Art itself was unremarkable; its true power would only be understood after cultivation.

What Ye Qin focused on was the raw material listed after the Fire Sword Art for the corresponding flying sword.

South Bright Severing Fire Sword: Raw materials require fire-elemental mineral crystal that has endured terrestrial fire for a thousand years (the deeper purple is better), tempered with Samadhi True Fire, supplemented by a trace of Primordial Essence. Requires refining techniques and sword skills for eighty-one days, nine times nine, to completion.

This South Bright Severing Fire Sword was praised by the Violet Sword Divine Monarch as the supreme fire-elemental flying sword, perfectly suited for composing the Great Five Elements Sword Array.

Ye Qin grew increasingly worried as he read on, feeling both elation and distress.

If he used an ordinary fire-elemental flying sword made from common materials, the power exerted would naturally be ordinary. If he used the South Bright Severing Fire Sword recorded by the Violet Sword Divine Monarch, it would naturally be the best outcome.

He did possess a small chunk of purple fire-elemental crystal.

But where on earth could he find Samadhi True Fire? This was a flame that only Core Formation cultivators could unleash; he could, at most, release the Innate True Fire of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. The nine Core Formation Ancestors of the Azure Elixir Sect would certainly not have the leisure to forge a sword for him.

These were manageable issues; at least he knew what fire-elemental crystals and Samadhi True Fire were.

What made him truly want to laugh or cry was that he had never even heard of the 'Primordial Essence.'

Where was he supposed to acquire that?

Ye Qin shook his head helplessly. He suddenly felt a strong urge to see what the other four paths in the violet jade slip—gold, green, blue, and yellow light—recorded, to see what exquisite flying swords were documented there and what terrifying raw materials were required.

However, his spiritual sense was completely depleted, requiring at least a day's rest to recover. He had to put aside this enticing thought for the time being. (To be continued. For the rest of the story, please log in to m for more chapters and to support the author and legitimate reading!) First published.