The Reforging of the Thousandbull Sword

“Let me finish speaking.” The yellow-furred bear continued. “I wouldn’t be so petty as to make off with a mere two Immortal-ranked treasures. When I served my master, the treasures I laid eyes upon outnumbered those you’ve even heard of.”

Ji Ning blinked.

“After Celestial Immortal Juhua died, he left behind these three Immortal-ranked treasures. He passed away just as the Fiendgod Era was ending. The long, countless eons since then have been unbearably dull. I didn’t dare casually tamper with the treasures left by my master, but the treasures left behind by Celestial Immortal Juhua… I took them and reforged them.”

“Reforged them?” Ji Ning was astonished.

“The Thousandbull Sword, the Su River Scroll, and the Nineshield Seal were all decent, but none of them could be considered top-grade. None of them were truly powerful.” The yellow-furred bear said. “The Nineshield Seal in particular was crafted the most poorly; it was a complete waste of countless rare materials just to cobble together that hunk of metal. So I completely melted down the Nineshield Seal, took only its true essence, and slowly, over the course of three hundred and sixty million years, I completely fused it into the Thousandbull Sword. This painstaking, water-grinding long-term effort gave the Thousandbull Sword a qualitative transformation without diminishing its original power.”

Ji Ning blinked again.

Three hundred and sixty million years? Not even a Celestial Immortal would dare to throw time around like that.

“And then I realized the Su River Scroll was also pretty shoddy.” The yellow-furred bear shook his head. “An ancient Su River, a primordial river of legend, and all it was used for was to refine into a mere pocket dimension. Trapping an enemy inside that dimension for battle… what a terrible concept. I directly destroyed the Su River Scroll, extracted the Su River itself, and then refined the Su River into a sword-diagram, fusing it into the Thousandbull Sword as well.”

The yellow-furred bear looked immensely proud. “Now that is a real treasure!”

“The Thousandbull Sword is a sword, a weapon. Naturally, it ought to be incomparably sharp. After adding the essence of the Nineshield Seal, its power was greatly enhanced. It is now a top-grade Immortal-ranked treasure.”

“And after incorporating the Su River Sword Diagram, the Thousandbull Sword is complete. Once the sword is drawn, an ancient Su River appears within ten thousand li. With the Su River’s support, my combat power is directly multiplied! The original Su River Scroll needed to trap the enemy inside its dimension, but the current Thousandbull Sword doesn’t need that at all. The moment the blade leaves the sheath, a ten-thousand-li Su River manifests.” The yellow-furred bear said smugly, “Tsk, tsk. Look at the Pure Yang Immortal Swords wielded by the true powers of the Three Realms. Which of their swords lacks a sword-diagram? A sword without a sword-diagram… is that even a sword?”

Ji Ning was dumbfounded.

“The three Immortal-ranked treasures are now united as one. When the current Thousandbull Sword strikes, the Su River Sword Diagram manifests… its sword-light stretches ten thousand li in every direction, unstoppable.” The yellow-furred bear was immensely pleased with himself. “It is truly the pinnacle of Immortal-ranked treasures. The three original treasures before my reforging were worth less than half of it combined. I spent several hundred million years on this project; I won’t quibble with you over the cost.”

“Thousandbull Sword!” The yellow-furred bear called out.

“Coming, coming.” The black ox responded immediately. From atop the hundred-zhang-tall treasure mountain, a black flying sword flew out. As soon as the sword appeared, a rumbling sound like flowing water filled the air, as if an ancient river were moving. The faint, hazy phantom of a river appeared around it.

The instant the river’s shadow appeared, space itself seemed to freeze. Even Ji Ning felt a wave of pressure.

The seemingly plain black flying sword caused the entire treasure mountain beside it to be eclipsed.

“Swoosh.” The black ox immediately transformed into a stream of light, drilling directly into the black flying sword.

“Ji Ning, check me out! Pretty impressive, right?” The black flying sword hovered in the air, the ox’s voice echoing through the hall.

Ji Ning suddenly cried out, “Wait! How are you able to move? How is a magic treasure capable of moving on its own?”

A magic treasure is a dead object. Without a master controlling it, how could it possibly move?

Even for an Immortal-ranked treasure that had birthed an artifact spirit, it shouldn’t be able to move. The ‘Greenflame Incense Lamp’ from earlier hadn’t been able to move at all; it could only command its flames to resist Xue Hongyi’s assault, and was ultimately stolen by force.

“Who says a magic treasure can’t move?” The yellow-furred bear beside him said, “Pure Yang treasures can soar through the heavens and dive into the earth.”

Pure Yang treasures?

That was a tier higher than Immortal-ranked treasures—far too distant.

“As far as I know, Immortal-ranked treasures cannot move on their own.” Ji Ning said. “I’ve read about this in books. And as I said before, after killing Xue Hongyi at the Wu Jiang Immortal Estate, I acquired an Immortal-ranked treasure as well.”

“Are you talking about that Greenflame Incense Lamp?” The yellow-furred bear shook his head dismissively. “That’s just a low-grade Immortal-ranked treasure. It’s true that almost no Immortal-ranked treasures can move on their own. Even among top-grade Immortal treasures, very few can. But the Thousandbull Sword is the absolute pinnacle of top-grade Immortal treasures. Its spiritual nature and power are comparable to a weaker Pure Yang treasure. With such a strong spirit and such pure essence, it is naturally capable of independent movement. However, without a master controlling it, the power it can actually unleash is quite limited. If your Primaltwin goes all-out, it should be able to suppress it.”

Ji Ning was inwardly shocked.

His Primaltwin was at the late Primal stage. If it used the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation, combining it with the ‘Domain of the Dao’ and the complete ‘Dao of Rainwater’, it could completely match a Loose Immortal! A full-powered Loose Immortal… and that would only be enough to suppress an ownerless Immortal treasure. The Greenflame Incense Lamp earlier had been suppressed by someone of Xue Hongyi’s caliber.

“Ji Ning, train hard. Once you become an Earth Immortal, I’ll be able to go out and wreak havoc everywhere, hahaha… I, Thousandbull, will be able to stride across the world once more!” The black flying sword descended, and the black ox walked out from within the sword. The ox spoke with incomparable excitement, but then his voice trailed off with loss. “It’s a pity that Juhua is no longer here.”

Magic treasures always have a special attachment to their first master. Their first master is like a parent or an elder brother.

“Perhaps Senior Juhua has been reincarnated.” Ji Ning could sense the black ox’s dejection.

“Don’t try to console me. Juhua has been dead for billions of years. Even if he reincarnated, who knows how many cycles he’s gone through by now.” The black ox sighed.

Ji Ning was in no hurry to leave Anchan Commandery. After all, the Immortal Fortune Conference was still three years away. Instead, he began to cultivate quietly within the aquatic palace.

After all, he had recently reached the ‘Domain of the Dao’ level and had mastered a complete Dao—the ‘Dao of Rainwater’. He needed to rapidly convert all of this into practical combat power, to make himself even stronger.

Time flowed on. In the blink of an eye, over a year had passed.

It was winter.

Within the Starry Hall of the aquatic palace. The Starry Hall was a self-contained space, vast and boundless.

Ji Ning could be seen walking through mid-air. Whoosh. He vanished. Moments later, ripples in space appeared over a dozen li away, and Ji Ning reappeared.

Shk. Shk. Shk.

Ji Ning flickered in and out of existence, appearing and vanishing in a series of spatial shifts, moving further and further with each teleportation.

“He did it! He did it!” The black ox, who had been lying outside the thatched cottage, stood up in delight and called out, “Ji Ning, you finally comprehended the method of short-distance teleportation!”

“It took me over a year to figure it out.” Ji Ning, who was far away, flickered and appeared right at the door of the thatched cottage as he continued, “It’s truly embarrassing.”

Spacetime Shifting was the most fundamental, most basic application of the ‘Grand Dao of Qiankun’.

The Grand Dao of Qiankun could also be called the ‘Grand Dao of Space’.

A Skygreen Serpent, due to its natural talent, was capable of ‘Void Shifting’ even at the Xiantian level. Void Shifting was essentially Spacetime Shifting. For a normal Immortal cultivator to grasp ‘Spacetime Shifting’, however, was incredibly difficult. This was, after all, the entry point into a Grand Dao. Thus, the vast majority of Wanxiang Adepts purchased a ‘Minor Teleportation Talisman’ to keep on their person.

Generally speaking, Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals could almost all perform Spacetime Shifting.

This was because Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals had usually already mastered a complete Dao. Once one mastered a complete Dao, one could control a region of Heaven and Earth. With a thought, the Dao’s power would descend, and that region of Heaven and Earth would come under their control. In that state of absolute control over a region of Heaven and Earth, an Immortal cultivator would have a very clear and direct perception of the ‘Grand Dao of Qiankun’. Their insight into space would become increasingly clear, and naturally, given enough time, they would be able to comprehend Spacetime Shifting.

Thus, regardless of which complete Dao they had mastered, almost all Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals could eventually grasp ‘Spacetime Shifting’. The only difference was the time it took—some longer, some shorter.

“Whoosh.” The yellow-furred bear appeared beside them.

“Ji Ning.” The yellow-furred bear said.

“Senior.” Ji Ning responded.

The yellow-furred bear nodded with satisfaction. The past year of solitary training, combined with the invisible pressure from the Shaoyan clan, had indeed forced Ji Ning to make enormous progress.

“You have completely integrated the Dao of Rainwater into your sword-art. For a cultivator at your current stage, your swordsmanship is already near perfection.” The yellow-furred bear said. “However, an Immortal cultivator cannot become a Celestial Immortal by training in seclusion alone. Your Dao of Raging Fire and your Dao of Gale Wind have been stuck, unable to break through that bottleneck, unable to be fully comprehended. This is precisely because you have spent all your time training behind closed doors without venturing out to temper yourself. It’s time for you to go out.”

Ji Ning nodded gently.

He, too, had recently felt a craving within his heart—a longing for the outside world, a longing for battle, a longing for tempering through life-or-death trials.

The depth of winter. It was noon, but the sky was dark and overcast, and goose-feather snowflakes were drifting down.

Whoosh.

On Brightheart Island, a youth dressed in fur suddenly appeared. He turned his head, looking around. Everything was desolate and ruined. The place had been watched by Immortal cultivators sent by the Shaoyan clan. Even Shaoyan Nong’s biological father had personally come. Unable to attack the Ten Thousand Swords City, he had vented his rage by destroying every structure on Yi Serpent Lake’s Brightheart Island.

“When the day comes, I will rebuild Brightheart Island,” Ji Ning said softly.

“Ji Ning, time to go. Immortal cultivators from the Shaoyan clan will be out on patrol soon.” A voice sounded in Ji Ning’s mind. It was the spirit of the aquatic palace. The palace was now being carried on Ji Ning’s person.

“Right.” Ji Ning nodded.

He looked up at the sky.

Snowflakes were dancing in the air.

“I remember the last time I left the Yan Mountains to head for Anchan Commandery, it was also the depths of winter. And this time, it is winter once more,” Ji Ning said with a faint shake of his head. Then, he took a single step and vanished directly from Brightheart Island.

A short while later.

Whoosh!

A flying warship howled past overhead, crushing the air in its wake. Armed cultivator-soldiers stood at attention on its deck. The Shaoyan clan had sent Primal Daoists, as well as a number of ordinary soldiers, to maintain surveillance over the region of Yi Serpent Lake. The Primal Daoists would periodically sweep the area with their divine sense. To guard against the possibility that some formations might interfere with their perception, they also supplemented this with direct visual patrols by the soldiers, ensuring not a single detail was missed.