I Have a Sword

"A noble from ancient times?" Ye Guan asked, frowning. "What does that even mean?"

The towering blood corpse shook his head again and said, "I don't know. Back then, we were insignificant figures, completely ignorant of our civilization's core secrets."

Ye Guan was somewhat surprised. "All of you were just insignificant figures back then?"

The towering blood corpse nodded. "During the battle against the Tianxing Flame, our civilization's supreme elites were almost wiped out. We're just talented individuals who managed to survive this long thanks to the Immortal Dao Tree and the protection of that ancient character."

Ye Guan's curiosity was piqued. "How many Path Creation Realm cultivators did your civilization have back then? I'm talking about the real ones."

"Five, and the ruler of our civilization at that time was a Half-step Path Creation Realm expert. Unfortunately, we are still too weak before the Tianxing Flame."

Five Path Creation Realm cultivators, and their ruler was just half a step away from the Path Creation Realm... Ye Guan now had a rough understanding of a Tier Four Civilization's strength.

"Where did that Star-Devouring Beast come from? I'm talking about the demonic beast beyond the so-called Heaven Gate that the mysterious figure had opened earlier."

"It's from the Sky Demon World, a subsidiary world of our Arcanist Civilization. They managed to escape the tragedy back then, as they were incredibly far away from us. The majority of our experts are no more along with our civilization, so it is no longer willing to obey us."

"Young Master Ye, are you really not from the Tianxing Civilization?"

"No."

"Then, the Tianxing Flame…"

"Oh, the Tianxing Flame?" Ye Guan smiled and explained, "The Tianxing Flame was sent over to my civilization, too, but my aunt suppressed it."

Suppressed? The towering blood corpse was stunned, and the remaining blood corpses had the same reaction. The Tianxing Flame was suppressed? Is this real life?

Yi Nian wasn't surprised, as she had already deduced it in her heart.

Ye Guan was too weak to suppress the Tianxing Flame. Only the lady in the plain skirt and the white-robed swordsman could achieve such a feat.

The towering blood corpse mumbled, "It seems that our Arcanist Civilization has been a frog in a well all this while..."

"Let's talk about the origins of that ancient character. What else do you know about it?"

The towering blood corpse replied, "We don't know much about it. If you want to learn more, you should go to the ruins where we found it."

"It still exists?"

"It should still exist. We were even protecting that place. Even if it was discovered by other civilizations, they wouldn't be able to enter."

"Where is it?"

The towering blood corpse opened its palm, and a beam of light appeared. It melted into Ye Guan's forehead, and a set of coordinates appeared in Ye Guan's sea of consciousness.

Ye Guan's expression darkened. "It's very far."

The towering blood corpse nodded. "Yes. If Young Master Ye wants to go, it will take—"

"It's fine," Ye Guan interrupted with a smile. "As long as I have the coordinates, it's all going to be fine."

The Qingxuan Sword was capable of ignoring distance. He just needed the coordinates, and he could use them to instantly reach his destination.

Ye Guan stared at the towering blood corpses and said, "Now, all of you should train well here. It'd be great if all of you ended up reaching the Path Creation Realm."

The towering blood corpse smiled bitterly at that and replied, "Reaching the true Path Creation Realm is an impossible task. However, it shouldn't be an issue for us to reach the pseudo-Path Creation Realm."

"How does the strength of a pseudo-Path Creation Realm cultivator compare to a 'true' Path Creation Realm cultivator?"

"It is an insult to compare a 'true' Path Creation Realm expert to a pseudo one."

"I understand."

"However, true Path Creation Realm cultivators are extremely rare in the entire universe."

"I see." Ye Guan nodded and said, "I have another question about the cultivation realms,"

"Young Lord Ye, there is no need to be so polite. Ask away, and we'll respond so long as we know the answer."

The towering blood corpse's respect for Ye Guan was genuine, especially after learning that his aunt had subdued the Tianxing Flame. The towering blood corpse already thought of Ye Guan as a member of a Tier Five Civilization.

Ye Guan asked, "Many people train until they reach a hundred percent divinity and then go straight to Opening a Unique Path. Has anyone cultivated their humanity or tried to use their humanity to suppress their divinity?"

The towering blood corpse was slightly surprised. "How does Young Master Ye know about the Dao of Humanity?"

"Does the Arcanist Civilization have experts who have cultivated their humanity?"

"The ruler of our civilization was cultivating his humanity. Upon reaching the Path Creation Realm, he attempted to cultivate humanity to suppress his divinity. We noticed his strength improving greatly in a short period of time, so I assume it's because he was about to succeed. Unfortunately, the Tianxing Flame arrived..." the towering blood corpse remarked. A tinge of regret flashed in his eyes. If it hadn't been for the Tianxing Flame, the ruler of the Arcanist Civilization would have been able to become even stronger, and perhaps their end would have been a bit different.

"So cultivators who have used their humanity to suppress their divinity before opening a unique path are much stronger than those who simply reached full divinity before opening a unique path..." Ye Guan muttered with a grave look.

"That should be the case," Little Pagoda chimed in, "Sister Zhen and the Clan Leader of the Past Clan are clearly stronger than the other cultivators you've encountered so far with unique paths. Remember, the Clan Leader of the Past Clan could even sever the Qingxuan Sword's connection, but the cultivators you've met so far—who are supposedly in the same cultivation realm as her—couldn't do what she had done."

Ye Guan nodded slightly and agreed, "That's true."

Ye Guan was confident that he could take on those with unique paths with the Qingxuan Sword in hand, but his scalp went numb at the thought of fighting the Clan Leader of the Past Clan.

The Clan Leader of the Past Clan wasn't afraid of the Qingxuan Sword, after all.

Just then, Ye Guan received a message from Xin Yu, so he turned around to leave and find her.

Meanwhile, the towering blood corpse felt a complicated mixture of emotions. However, he was more shocked than anything. The plain-skirt lady had actually subdued the Tianxing Flame?! It was simply unbelievable.

It seemed that the Arcanist Civilization had truly brought about its own destruction, and it deserved its destruction.

A blood corpse suddenly said, "The Arcanist Civilization has been destroyed, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing for us. If we follow him, we should be able to reach new heights."

The remaining blood corpses thought over it and nodded. Indeed, their future was bound to be brighter by riding on Ye Guan's coattails.

With that in mind, they no longer felt frustrated and sorrowful over the destruction of their civilization.

***

Ye Guan met up with Xin Yu and found that she was busy working on the signal source along with her team.

Ye Guan walked up to Xin Yu and asked, "How's it going?"

Xin Yu stared at the signal source and said, "We've decoded some information."

"What information?" Ye Guan asked.

Xin Yu waved her right hand gently, causing the space in front of them to tremble slightly.

The words "Shui Clan" appeared before them.

"Shui Clan?" Ye Guan said with a frown. "This signal source is from the Shui Clan?"

Xin Yu nodded. "Yes, and they are related to the mysterious ancient character that you possess."

Xin Yu tapped on the signal source, and a mysterious symbol appeared before them. Upon closer inspection, the symbol resembled a character with a similar shape to the ancient character in Ye Guan's hands.

"It seems that the Shui Clan sensed the ancient character through the beacon that the mysterious figure had blasted to the vast expanse," Ye Guan deduced in a serious tone of voice.

Xin Yu nodded. "We think so, too."

"Is that all?"

"We also discovered that the signal source's content is quite complex. We haven't been able to decode it, but we can say for sure that this Shui Clan isn't hostile to us. Otherwise, they would have dispatched their experts here rather than just send a signal source. Of course, there's a chance that they're just wary, as they still have no idea just how strong we are."

Ye Guan opened his palm, and the ancient character appeared. It had no spiritual energy fluctuations and appeared to be completely inanimate.

Clearly, it had been severely damaged by the Tianxing Flame.

Ye Guan suddenly missed Little White. If Little White were around, she'd easily revive this ancient character.

Although he had many Ancestral Veins at his disposal, he was reluctant to feed them to the ancient character. Those Ancestral Veins were for the Guanxuan Civilization, after all.

"I remember the mysterious figure saying that the Arcanist Civilization rose to power because of this ancient character. In other words, this character is from…" Xin Yu trailed off.

Ye Guan continued, "A Tier Five civilization?"

Xin Yu's was grim as she replied, "I don't know."

Tier Five civilizations were extremely powerful, and the only known Tier Five civilization to them was the Tianxing Civilization.

Ye Guan looked at the ancient character in his hand and said, "I'm planning to visit the ruins where they discovered this ancient character."

"Right now?" Xin Yu asked.

Ye Guan nodded.

Xin Yu said, "I would like to go with you, but there are too many matters to attend to within the Asura Civilization. I also need to coordinate with your sister, Little Ai, and this signal source is complex and massive. In other words, you have to go there by yourself."

"I understand."

"Do you want us to send a reply?"

"Is that possible?"

"Yes, but it's going to take some time. We're not as strong as the mysterious figure, and it seems that he used a secret technique to send out that beacon…"

"Then, let's not reply. I'll explore the ruins first, and then we'll talk about it later."

"All right."

"Goodbye."

With that, Xin Yu and her team left the tiny pagoda.

Ye Guan then transformed into a ray of sword light that vanished into thin air.