Chapter 60: Purple Star
After listening to his master’s lesson, Yu Nianzhen left Yang Mountain.
He flew on his sword and headed to the inner sect.
Along the way, he removed a communication token from his robe sleeve.
He injected a strand of qi, and soon after, a voice came from within.
"Azhen?"
"Where?"
"Third mountain."
"Busy?"
"Meet at the foot?"
"Good."
After that, the communication token turned dull, and Jiang Yue’s voice could no longer be heard.
Yu Nianzhen returned the token to his robe sleeve, and his body shimmered with a silver qi for a moment.
The silver qi collected at his feet and spread out to cover the entire sword.
As if stimulated, the flying sword increased its flying speed and whizzed faster than the wind.
Soon after, Yu Nianzhen arrived at the foot of the third mountain and found Jiang Yue already waiting.
He flew in front of the other, jumped down, and waved his hand to put away the sword.
"You broke through again." Jiang Yue commented as soon as he saw Yu Nianzhen.
When they last met, Yu Nianzhen was in the sixth level of the origin forging realm.
Since then, less than a month had passed, and Yu Nianzhen had broken through again.
Although this speed was only comparable to ordinary geniuses in the sect, Jiang Yue knew that it wasn’t because Yu Nianzhen was ordinary.
It was because he spent most of his time practising the sword instead of cultivating.
"Half a month ago."
"Did you cultivate a secret technique?"
Although Jiang Yue had a higher realm than Yu Nianzhen, he could feel some pressure from the other.
He had felt this kind of pressure before.
However, he had only felt it from cultivators or beasts that were more powerful than himself.
Since this was not caused by cultivation realm, it could only be caused by a powerful technique.
"Not a secret technique, sword intent."
Yu Nianzhen did not hide anything, and he immediately explained.
"I have heard about sword intent."
Jiang Yue turned a little solemn and recalled everything he knew about sword intent.
In the Cangxing world, the sword was the most commonly used weapon.
However, few sword users could be called swordsmen.
This is because one of two qualifications had to be met for a sword wielder to be known as a swordsman.
The first qualification was having a sword origin.
For those with a sword origin, the way of the sword was the most optimal.
Because of this, those with sword origins would have extraordinary achievements in the way of the sword.
The second qualification was sword intent.
Even if a cultivator did not have a sword origin, they could be called swordsmen as long as they comprehended sword intent.
However, comprehending sword intent wasn’t easy, especially for those without a sword origin.
From what Jiang Yue knew, even the sword sect did not have many swordsmen.
"What about you? What have you been up to?"
Jiang Yue turned a little solemn when he heard the question.
"Let’s talk along the way."
He released his treasure boat, and the two jumped on.
After they settled down, Yu Nianzhen turned to the other.
"I have been thinking a lot lately."
"About what?"
"My cultivation direction mostly."
"Have you made a decision?"
Jiang Yue had already spoken to Yu Nianzhen about the situation with his cultivation technique.
However, Yu Nianzhen couldn’t make the decision for him.
In the end, whether to use his master’s qi or the blue monarch butterfly to stimulate his qi transformation was a decision only Jiang Yue could make.
The only thing that Yu Nianzhen could do was to support whatever choice he made.
"I have."
Jiang Yue looked at the other, and his eyes were full of determination.
Yu Nianzhen recognised it and immediately knew Jiang Yue’s decision.
"Are you sure?"
"I am."
Jiang Yue reached for Yu Nianzhen’s right hand and held it in his own.
His thumb caressed a purple star imprinted on the other’s wrist, and his resolve hardened further.
After Yu Nianzhen broke through to the origin forging realm, there was no blue star anomaly.
Instead, he experienced a tribulation, and a purple star appeared on his right wrist.
"Although we still don’t know what a purple star means, I am sure it is better than the blue star."
Jiang Yue looked at the blue star on his own wrist and sighed.
He didn’t despise it, but he wanted to walk beside Yu Nianzhen rather than behind him.
Because of this, he wanted to take the risk and use the blue monarch butterfly to stimulate his qi transformation.
He didn’t know if something good would happen, but he didn’t want to have any regrets.
"Don’t be anxious, we will find a way."
Yu Nianzhen rubbed Jiang Yue’s hair, and a determined look appeared in his eyes.
In his mind, it didn’t matter what star Jiang Yue had.
In future, they would advance and retreat together.
If Jiang Yue couldn’t walk past a certain point, Yu Nianzhen would carry him forward.
If he couldn’t carry him, then he would also stop at that point.
This decision was obvious to him, and he didn’t want his lover to feel any pressure.
However, he also understood Jiang Yue.
Because of this, he didn’t plan to hinder his decision.
When the time came, he would be there to make sure that nothing went wrong.
"Azhen..."
"Don’t worry, we will always be together."
Jiang Yue smiled when he heard the reassurance and his mood was a little better.
"I want to learn formations." He said.
"Good."
"Good?"
"Formations are compatible with illusions. Learning formations is a wise decision."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Do you plan to learn any other arts?"
Yu Nianzhen was quiet for a moment.
At the moment, his only interest was the sword.
Although he liked reading all kinds of books, he didn’t want to practice other arts.
Without saying this, Jiang Yue already understood, and his smile broadened.
"I remember that I once came across a martial arts script in our previous life. One of the characters in the script was a master who practised one kick for all his life."
"..."
"He could only use that one kick, but it was enough to dominate the world."
Yu Nianzhen smiled, and his mood relaxed.
"By the way, where are we going?"
At this moment, Jiang Yue realised he was flying the treasure boat, but he had no idea where they were going.
"Resource hall and the martial arts hall."
Jiang Yue shivered when he heard that.
He turned a suspicious look at the other and raised an eyebrow in question.
"I need to redeem more sword arts, and we need to prepare for the secret realm."
"How many sword arts? What grade?"
"One hundred low-grade silver rank sword arts, and ten mid-grade silver rank sword arts."
Jiang Yue felt a chill down his spine.
At a rough estimate, Yu Nianzhen needed at least one hundred thousand contribution points for the low-grade sword arts.
As for the mid-grade sword arts, he would need another one hundred thousand contribution points.
"We don’t have that many contribution points." Jiang Yue was immediately worried.
After five years, he had less than one hundred thousand contribution points from missions.
Even if they added what they earned from the war, their combined points were still less than one hundred thousand.
"Don’t worry, master loaned me some contribution points?"
"Loaned?"
"Master had conditions." This was said through gritted teeth, and Jiang Yue looked at the other in sympathy.
"What conditions?"
"He said that I don’t need to return the contribution points, he wants me to brew him a pot of wine."
"That doesn’t sound bad." Jiang Yue was relieved when he heard that.
However, this relief turned to depression when Yu Nianzhen handed over a wine recipe.
"Dragon scale fruit, ten thousand years bamboo dew, purple grass, ..."
As he read the ingredients, his brows wrinkled, and his voice grew smaller.
The list of ingredients had one hundred and eight items.
However, Jiang Yue had only heard of less than ten.
Even the ten were extremely rare and very difficult to acquire.
"How many contribution points did you borrow?"
"Ten million."
Jiang Yue could only be sympathetic when he heard that.
No matter the ingredient, any one was worth more than one hundred thousand contribution points if exchanged with the sect.
He even suspected that some would be worth millions of contribution points.
If this was the case, this business was a loss for Yu Nianzhen.
"What is the time limit?"
"No time limit."
"Another limitless debt." Jiang Yue sighed.
At this time, he remembered old man Cang.
A year ago, Jiang Yue had once again tried to buy information about the old man’s enemy.
However, the result was the same.
His realm was too low, and the cost of information was too high.
"What’s one more debt." He finally said and tapped Yu Nianzhen on the shoulder to console him.
