Standing still, silent for a while, Wu Tao's expression suddenly moved, as if he had thought of something.
He turned and walked out, returning to the bloody banquet hall of the Zhang family.
Immediately, Wu Tao searched repeatedly through the piles of blood and scattered corpses, looking for something.
After hours of searching, Wu Tao finally found a uniquely shaped, peculiar groove in an extremely hidden spot.
After a moment of thought, Wu Tao discovered a clue.
He easily inserted the top-tier artifact, Old Master Zhang's dragon-headed walking stick, into the groove mechanism, and the two perfectly fitted together.
Instantly, the rumbling sound of mechanical gears echoed through the hall.
...
This was the sound of an advanced mundane mechanism being activated.
The sound lasted for a moment, then stopped.
Directly above the table, a large white marble slab slowly shifted, revealing a five-foot square hole behind it.
The hole was not very deep, visible at a glance. A layer of dim gray curtain covered it, appearing hazy, like an ossuary.
"Hmm?"
"Interesting?"
Seeing the hole and the curtain above it, Wu Tao's eyebrows rose, greatly intrigued.
The hole appeared conspicuously before him.
However, when Wu Tao sensed it with his divine consciousness, he still couldn't detect anything unusual, as if it were just an ordinary wall.
...
This unremarkable dim gray curtain was actually an extremely valuable spirit-blocking veil in the cultivation world.
"Strange, strange!"
"What is stored inside?"
Taking a deep breath, suppressing the tremor in his heart, Wu Tao focused his gaze. In the center of the hole, a malt-shaped object, about the size of a thumb, was placed.
"Is this the legendary sword sprout of ancient sword cultivators?!"
Wu Tao's heart surged with joy as he carefully examined this legendary item.
The "Record of Myriad Treasures of Heaven and Earth" in the Taiyi Immortal Sect's cursive script contained a detailed description of this sword sprout.
The sword sprout, also known as a sword seed, was said to be the condensed essence of a sword cultivator's life, more precious than life itself. It would only be passed on to the next inheritor upon the death of the sword cultivator.
The next inheritor could, by virtue of the sword sprout, grow rapidly and become a world-overpowering, peerless sword cultivator.
As for the deeper secrets contained within this sword sprout, they were beyond the knowledge of Wu Tao, an outer disciple of the Taiyi Immortal Sect.
...
Wu Tao thought for a moment and decided that after finishing his business here, he would find an opportunity to spend some contribution points at the "Hall of Strange Myriad Things Scripture Repository" to investigate thoroughly.
This sword sprout was yellowish-white, with a bone-like texture and a jade-like luster.
Mysterious runes covered its entire body, appearing like a divine artifact of immortality, dazzling and exceptionally beautiful.
...
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Now without the spirit-blocking veil, an extremely sharp and supremely powerful aura surged upwards.
The aura emanating from the sword sprout was that of an unparalleled overlord, the emperor of swords, the origin of the sword path, a sharpness that nothing could withstand.
The majestic aura of having the world in one's hand and being able to break anything was directly imprinted upon Wu Tao's soul.
The cultivation methods of the ancient sword cultivator lineage, let alone compared to the various divine methods of the current era, were entirely different even in the ancient era of flourishing cultivation, where countless prodigies contended and myriad flowers bloomed.
They did not cultivate spiritual power but instead condensed sword essence.
Sword cultivators, taking the sword as their own body, condensed golden cores, forged nascent souls, formed purple mansions, and achieved deification.
With supreme dao heart, they urged their wisdom swords to destroy everything in this world, including all things and beings.
Truly, their lives were solely for the sword, unattached to external objects. As long as the sword existed, so did the person; when the sword perished, so did the person.
From the very beginning of their cultivation, sword cultivators would choose a sword sprout as their token, slowly refining it with their minds and cleansing it with spiritual energy. When the sword sprout became an immortal sword, their cultivation would reach completion, and they would become a legendary, invincible sword immortal!
Honestly, Wu Tao was moved at this moment. However, to pursue this ancient sword cultivator inheritance and risk his life to venture into the Sea of Ten Thousand Swords was not possible for him now.
...
Because, although Wu Tao's aptitude was mediocre, after so many years of hard work, he still had hope of breaking through to the Golden Core stage and touching the great dao.
But if it was free, why not take it? A fool would be one who doesn't take advantage of a good opportunity. As long as he lived, he would always have a chance to obtain this ancient sword cultivator inheritance in the future.
Wu Tao extended his left hand and made a distant beckoning gesture. Spiritual energy converged into two giant palms, which reached out to grasp the sword sprout and the spirit-blocking veil, respectively.
This sword sprout was naturally a good thing, and the spirit-blocking veil was also an extraordinary item. Both of these could not have been possessed by a small immortal family like the Zhang family.
They must have come from the Sea of Ten Thousand Swords within the ancient sword cultivator's inherited cave dwelling.
...
After carefully storing the sword sprout and the spirit-blocking veil, Wu Tao looked around. After emptying the Zhang family's treasury, he also thoroughly searched all the storage bags of everyone in the Zhang family.
With a scan of his divine sense, confirming that there was nothing else of value, Wu Tao turned and walked straight out the door.
After sealing off the passage leading to the Sea of Ten Thousand Swords with earth-attribute spells, Wu Tao prepared to leave.
Before leaving, Wu Tao set a great fire, reducing the ancestral home that the Zhang family had spent decades building into a scorched plain.
Having done all this, he moved his body, turning into a streak of light, and soared across the sky above the small town.
This time, by eliminating all the cultivators of the Zhang family and plundering over six thousand spirit stones, hundreds of low-grade five-element talismans, some Qi Condensation realm pills, healing pills, and dozens of low to mid-grade magic artifacts, he had indeed made a fortune.
...
The small town now, just three hours after his arrival, had changed vastly.
Within a radius of tens of miles, the once bustling small town was now dead silent.
Numerous mortals, with their families in tow, fled towards the distance, chattering noisily, as if endless fear brewed within their hearts.
...
Looking down from the sky, one could clearly see a large group of Zhang family mortal men, carrying the old and weak, with cooking utensils, pots, pans, and large bags, driving ox carts and horse carts, rushing out of the small town one after another.
Like ants swarming out under a natural disaster, fleeing famine, they were dense.
As soon as they left the small town, they immediately scattered in all directions.
These mortals, to some extent, had connections with the Zhang family in the cultivation world. Fifty percent were family disciples, thirty percent were relatives by marriage, and twenty percent were distant relatives; all had some connection.
By this time, the events in the core area of the Zhang family had spread throughout the small town. They naturally had to make plans early, as they were merely mortals without the strength to even restrain a chicken and without any self-preservation abilities.
Since the main line of the Zhang family's cultivators had been annihilated, they, as affiliated clansmen, had lost their protection.
Originally, although they were often bullied by core disciples and suffered some injustices, they could at least survive and keep their families safe.
At the very least, they did not have the heavy taxes and levies under mortal dynasties, nor did they have to serve in the military or perform corvée labor.
Their departure today made it difficult to say whether they would have peaceful and happy lives in the future.
Thinking of this, and looking at the thousands of mortals carrying their families, struggling to walk, lamenting everywhere, Wu Tao felt a pang of sadness for reasons unknown.
Wu Tao gave a wry smile and shook his head.
He understood that no matter what one did, whether it was right or wrong, it would inevitably hurt some people inadvertently. This was unavoidable.
If one was too concerned and thought too much, what could be done, what could be achieved?
How could one become a supreme being!
To live long in the cultivation world, one must fight, one must kill, one must seize. At this moment, his thoughts were merely fleeting compassion in his heart.
The brief moment Wu Tao lingered in the air was also noticed by many mortals hurrying away below.
A woman even ran out and covered the mouth of a child who was shouting at the sky.
Then, a burly man, with this woman and child, ran madly towards the distance.
"Alas, have I truly become a devil who kills without batting an eye and eradicates entire clans?"
Wu Tao felt helpless but had no intention of killing these mortals. Strictly speaking, although they were all considered Zhang family descendants, there was no need to trouble them.
...
After all, there were strict rules in the cultivation world! One of them was that matters of the cultivation world were unrelated to mortals.
Immediately, Wu Tao stopped lingering and, drawing a line of light across the sky above the small town, vanished into the distance.
The moment he left, with Wu Tao's excellent hearing, he could still clearly hear the unified sighs of relief from the mortals below.
Clearly, his departure had put the faces of those mortals at ease.
The speed of Wu Tao's flight was incredibly fast. These sounds had only just entered his ears, and he had already disappeared into the horizon.
After a while, Wu Tao looked back.
In his eyes, the vast small town gradually shrank to the size of a fist, and then disappeared from view.
...
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