The four characters—Wine, Sword, Lazy, Right—if he could make just one of them emit a white light, his strength would advance significantly.
If he could make all four characters shine with white light, he estimated his combat power would reach the absolute pinnacle below the Civilization Realm.
To make these four characters emit white light was to make them radiate a chaotic hue; once they all shone with that chaotic light, he would immediately step into the realm of a Civilization Vice-Lord.
However, currently, all four characters were a dull, ashen grey, and his current combat power ranked only twenty-something among the Heavenly Ranking Titans.
First, he would practice the sword!
Lu Yuan gently stroked the Yangwu Immortal Sword in his hand.
The Yangwu Immortal Sword rested on his knee, radiating a subtle warmth and brilliance.
As Lu Yuan gazed upon the sword, his spiritual sense swept past a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers, gazing into the Sword Realm suspended in the void. Within that realm lay countless swords, infinite immortal swords, appearing one by one. Each immortal sword claimed a territory; it was a world purely of the sword.
Lu Yuan searched within this world of swords, seeking the sword.
Sword, sword, sword, sword, sword, sword, sword.
Why did the Sword in his spiritual sense show no sign of brightening or emitting white light? Why was this? Lu Yuan sought the answer.
It took a long while before he finally understood: the swords in the Sword Realm belonged to the Sword Realm; they were the swords of others.
His sword was his sword.
Lu Yuan retracted his spiritual sense, looking clearly at the Yangwu Immortal Sword in his hand, then turned his gaze to his Meteor Immortal Sword.
In truth, none of these represented the essence of his sword.
A sword is a sword. The deepest truth of the sword possesses neither righteousness nor speed.
A sword is just a sword; the sword is merely the sword.
Lu Yuan stood up and walked within the Kunpeng World. Lu Yuan moved with an air of unhurried detachment.
Lu Yuan walked calmly; as he walked, both the Yangwu Immortal Sword and the Meteor Immortal Sword were sheathed. Simultaneously, with a casual gesture in the void, he drew forth an immortal sword! This sword could not be described by any characteristic, because it possessed no inherent qualities; the sword was simply the sword—the most primordial sword—and thus inherently lacked traits, though this blade was still somewhat indistinct.
Lu Yuan arrived at a place where mountains, water, wind, and clouds converged—a spot beneath a towering cliff where surging water crashed down, striking a pool and transforming into a thousand silver serpents.
This was the place. He set down the book in his hand, driving away all nearby birds and fish, ensuring that for the time being, he would not be spied upon by the Kunpeng King.
Lu Yuan stamped his foot onto a large boulder.
The boulder lay beneath the waterfall.
Lu Yuan sat upon the large stone.
To wash the sword!
He allowed the cascading water of the waterfall to cleanse the most primordial sword, the one devoid of characteristics, held in his hands. This time, it was not washed with wine, nor with blood, nor with any perceived emotion; it was washed with water.
Clear streams can wash one’s feet!
Pure water can cleanse a sword!
Lu Yuan gazed silently at the endless flow rushing down from above, impacting his sword.
In reality, what cleansed the sword was not the pure water, but his own heart!
Only a pure heart could truly wash the sword!
And that true, primordial sword, devoid of characteristics, grew clearer and more defined. During this process of 'sword-washing,' Lu Yuan discovered that his swordsmanship was continuously improving. He had always been skilled with the blade, but much of it rested on a vague feeling; this process of Yan Jian (Sword Evolution/Refinement) had washed away that blurriness, and now his swordsmanship grew ever stronger.
The sword remains, the heart remains, the person remains.
The sword light became completely clear, and precisely as this sword light achieved perfect clarity, Lu Yuan realized that the Sword character in his spiritual sense had begun to emit a white light. He had taken an extremely firm step toward the Dao of Civilization.
The Sword character seemed fully cultivated; next should be the Wine character.
For the Wine character, Lu Yuan’s chosen cultivation method was drinking wine.
Never mind the specifics; he would start by drinking.
Lu Yuan truly had a massive stockpile of wine on hand—currently storing tens of thousands of jin at once, encompassing all manner of vintages.
For example, there was the Three-Sun Wine here, crafted by a famous distiller: the mash was steeped in clear pools, layered with silver, mixed with stone dust, and aged. He had purchased this Three-Sun Wine when he acquired it, finding its flavor exquisite, and bought a substantial amount—a thousand jin at once. Drinking it now brought deep pleasure. Then there was Lansheng Wine, a brew with a faint floral scent; sharing this Lansheng Wine, with one less companion in reflection, was a wine suited for the pure camaraderie of gentlemen, subtle as water, noble as the orchid. As Lu Yuan sipped the Lansheng Wine, he savored that delicate quality.
Of course, the outstanding one was Piaolao Wine, praised in poetry: “Shunning the bamboo leaves of the Divine Land, surpassing Piaolao in the splendid capital.” The poem Jiu Lu noted: “The red counter rises several feet high, quite suiting a secluded man’s heart. Fire kindles the scent of Piaolao, the ashes hold the winter’s chill.” Drinking this Piaolao Wine, Lu Yuan felt a touch of intoxicated bliss.
Huishalang Wine. It earned its name from being brewed with superior Langquan water; upon tasting, the sauce fragrance was rich, delicate yet elegant, the body full, the aftertaste long, leaving fragrance even in an empty cup.
There was also Kunlun Shang, which required extremely meticulous water sourcing, resulting in a remarkably unique wine.
Naturally, there were also those that paid no heed to such refinements; the most outstanding representatives were Shaodaozi and Laobaigan. Never mind the flavor; these wines needed only two characteristics: one, spiciness, and two, inferiority. All other qualities were irrelevant. These were inherently low-grade liquors, favored by those of unrestrained character.
Besides these, Lu Yuan’s cellar held countless other varieties: Zhuyeqing, Jiannanchun, Xifeng Liquor, Maotai Shao, Qujiu, Qingjiu, Sanhua Liquor, and so on and so forth.
Lu Yuan drank with unparalleled gusto.
Bottle after bottle was tossed into the spring water—truly a picture of freedom and ease. Wine is wine; whether fine or poor, so long as the drinking is unrestrained, it suffices. And Lu Yuan discovered that as he continuously drank, the Wine character in his spiritual sense began to emit a faint glow. It seemed this approach was genuinely effective. He had to commend it: this method of enhancing strength through drinking was something he had never conceived of before. In his first life, being a drunkard apparently had tremendous benefits.
Lu Yuan drank to his heart’s content. He saw the Wine character in his spiritual sense about to release its complete white light, but then he realized: the wine was gone.
That’s right—the entire stockpile of tens of thousands of jin had been consumed by him. He truly was an unparalleled drunkard.
Now he needed to find more wine. Ah, yes, among the Heavenly Ranking Titans, the one ranked in the teens or so was also a master of the Dao of Wine.
The individual ranked seventeenth among the Heavenly Ranking Titans styled himself the Wine Immortal. He was a figure who was neither entirely righteous nor entirely wicked. He called himself the Wine Immortal, and no one knew his real name, but his cultivation was profoundly unfathomable. The Wine Immortal rarely suffered setbacks, but he once endured a significant one. It happened when a strong craving for wine struck him, and a small household nearby was selling liquor. Given his nature, which was neither wholly good nor wholly evil, the Wine Immortal immediately seized all several hundred jin of the household’s wine. This was a devastating loss for the small family, but the Wine Immortal did not care about such matters, consistent with his character.
It turned out that the Civilization Vice-Lord of the Confucian Path intervened at that time, punishing the Wine Immortal and ordering him to repay the cost of the wine to the small household.
The Wine Immortal had never suffered such humiliation. He was not naturally generous, so he harbored a deep grudge against the Confucian Path’s Civilization Vice-Lord. Of course, given his unpredictable nature, he wouldn't harm the small family, but he resented the Confucian Civilization. Thus, when he heard that a new Titan, Li Taishi, had emerged among the Fifty Titans, the Wine Immortal became exceptionally displeased.
“If I get the chance, I will definitely teach that Li Taishi a good lesson,” the Wine Immortal remarked atop the Heyang Tower.
The Heyang Tower was, in fact, a famous structure built upon a celestial crane.
The Kunpeng World consisted of either birds or fish.
However, a significant number of the birds and fish here possessed intelligence. On the land, there were many avian cities, and beneath the waters, numerous piscine kingdoms—quite marvelous. The Heyang Tower was a prominent structure in Tianhe City, one of the bird metropolises within the Kunpeng World. This city was inhabited by many bird demons who had long developed sentience and showed great respect to the Heavenly Ranking Titans.
The overall style of the Heyang Tower leaned toward the ancient and rustic; it was a renowned structure perched on a celestial crane. Feathers wove the main body of the tower, and although feathers might easily collapse, the ones used here were magically reinforced, making the structure similar to a conventional famous building. The varied colors of the feathers, however, were assembled so beautifully that it surpassed ordinary external towers many times over.
On either side of the Heyang Tower were couplets:
“The crane travels freely between heaven and earth, boundless sky and vastness are mine to roam,” and the central horizontal scroll read, “A Single Flight Soaring to the Heavens.”
“The scenery here is quite fine.”
The Wine Immortal appeared with long, flowing white hair and an air of immortal detachment, yet his skin was ruddy, showing not a single wrinkle. Accompanying the Wine Immortal was Fei Wei, ranked nineteenth. Fei Wei happened to have a slight acquaintance with the Wine Immortal; the two were taking a temporary rest here. Lu Yuan was missing, while the major confrontations involving the top ten experts were primarily centered around the Son of the Wilds. Fei Wei (nineteenth) and the Wine Immortal (seventeenth) couldn't interfere in those high-level battles, so they settled down at the Heyang Tower to relax. They planned to resume the hunt for the Son of the Wilds later, or perhaps seek good fortune by encountering Lu Yuan, who seemed significantly easier to deal with than the Son of the Wilds.
It was at this moment that the Wine Immortal uttered the line about teaching Li Taishi a lesson.
“The Confucian Path’s Civilization Vice-Lord defeated me in three moves back then, and even gave me a severe reprimand. Now that the Confucian Path’s Civilization Vice-Lord is practically finished, I shouldn't bully the junior. If I happen upon Li Taishi, if he can withstand ten moves under my hand, I’ll consider him capable and won't trouble him further. If he can’t even last ten moves, hehe, then I’ll show the Confucian Civilization what it means to lose face.” In truth, the Confucian Path’s Civilization Vice-Lord hadn't been overly harsh on the Wine Immortal back then, but the Wine Immortal’s petty nature meant he insisted on revenge, seeking methods that would exceed those of the Vice-Lord by several times.