Plundering the Heavens - Chapter 328

Chapter 328: A Sword For Linyun II

Translator: Myriea_ActiasLuna  Editor: Nou

How valuable were the Sword Embryos inside the Sword Mound? Even the prince of a country or the young master of an influential sect could only receive a chance of a summons from the Huangfu clan to enter the Sword Mound, and such a summons only allowed them a pick from the ordinary Sword Embryos. Until now, Xu Linyun had never imagined she’d have the chance to enter the Sword Mound, yet today Fang Xing was actually saying he’d gift her a Sword Embryo—one of the immortals’ Sword Embryos, no less—as casually as drinking water or eating food. This was simply too shocking, and even the calm and usually mild Xu Linyun was so stunned she couldn’t find words to reply.

The blue-clothed bandit chuckled at this. “The little bandit is being generous, so you should just accept it. These five Sword Embryos are indeed the embryos of the immortals’ swords and one of the best opportunities within this entire Mysterious Domain. With it, won’t you progress by leaps and bounds in the future?”

Fang Xing squinted at the blue-clothed bandit. “Don’t badmouth me; I can hear you, you know. Since we’re in an alliance and you helped me look after Shijie Linyun, I wanted to give one to you as well, but now that you’ve angered me—your grandpa—I won’t give it to you anymore!”

The blue-clothed bandit laughed. “I can guarantee you will definitely give one to me!”

Fang Xing immediately continued, “Not only are you not sucking up to me, but you’re threatening me instead? I’m really not going to give it to you anymore!” He wanted to save a Sword Embryo anyway, so not giving the bandit one was just fine by him.

Quarrels aside, Fang Xing did know there wasn’t much time before the other cultivators broke through the Sword Mound’s formation, so he quickly had both Xu Linyun and the golden crow fuse with the remaining two Sword Embryos. It was here that the blue-clothed bandit explained there was no difference in quality between the five Sword Embryos, and the maximum potential of any single one of these Sword Embryos had the power of a true immortal. The hypotheses Fang Xing and the golden crow had come up with earlier had been completely unnecessary.

Fang Xing was initially worried the golden crow and Xu Linyun’s innate talents weren’t good enough to successfully fuse with the remaining Sword Embryos, but after the blue-clothed bandit’s explanations, he realized this wasn’t a problem at all. The five Sword Embryos were all spiritual beings, but their current state left them half awake and half asleep without true intelligence. They usually acted completely on their instincts, and their only purpose right now was to wait for a cultivator to wake them up and be chosen.

The Sword Embryos had two selection criteria: talent and frame of mind. Only a cultivator with exceptional talent and a mindset that was similar to that particular Sword Embryo would be chosen by the Sword Embryo and fused. “Talent” was a reference to the innate talent a person was born with, without importance placed on their current cultivation level that depended upon their upbringing. As for the mindset, the Sword Embryos would determine this by forcibly reading the memories of the cultivator, as memories couldn’t be falsified.

The golden crow was full of confidence and bluntly declared his innate talent wouldn’t be a problem at all, which Fang Xing completely believed. This guy was supposedly the descendant of the Three-Legged Golden Crow, and considering how he grew a third leg similar to that of a human despite being just a bird, he certainly wasn’t just some ordinary crow. Furthermore, after obtaining several special opportunities within the Mysterious Domain, his body was tyrannically sturdy and his talent was even more difficult to ascertain.

As for Xu Linyun, her innate talent also wasn’t bad at all; why else would Qin’nyao salvage her from the piles of dead people to bring her back to the Qing-Yun Sect after discovering her? Her foundation was currently an upper-red foundation, but this wasn’t due to innate talent and had more to do with a lack of resources during her Spirit Stage, preventing her from uncovering her full potential when the foundation was being formed. Resources were the most important thing in the realm of cultivation and severely impacted the results and accomplishments of their cultivation.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a huge problem even if her innate talent wasn’t enough. The three leaders had owned four Immortal’s Blood Pellets that would temporarily deceive the immortals’ Sword Embryos and cause them to fuse into the body. These four drops of blood had originally been for the three of them and Lei Jiu to prepare for anything unexpected, but Lei Jiu had been killed by Fang Xing and the three other leaders had swallowed one each, leaving one behind—perfect for Xu Linyun. With this, she could fuse with the Sword Embryo and any problems that might arise could be dealt with in the future rather than the present.

Furthermore, based on what the blue-clothed bandit said, the Sword Embryos didn’t only choose a cultivator based upon innate talent and mindset—the most important element was “destiny”. It went without saying that all cultivators who made their way in front of these Sword Embryos had been destined to do so, and those who arrived earlier naturally had a stronger connection while those who arrived later had a weaker one. If a person were to arrive after the Sword Embryo had already chosen their master, that person would have no connection at all.

Xu Linyun and the golden crow became the first honest and genuine living beings to fuse with these Sword Embryos, so it could be considered part of their destiny. This was far more important than innate talent and mindset, so it wasn’t difficult at all for them to fuse with the Sword Embryos.

‘I was the one to come first and my talent isn’t bad at all, so why did all five of the Sword Embryos reject me? The hell, is my frame of mind really that bad?’ As Fang Xing thought about that, he couldn’t help but to ponder upon the black sword that had forced itself into him. What the hell was that thing, anyway?

While the golden crow and Xu Linyun were in the process of fusing with the Sword Embryos, Fang Xing and the blue-clothed bandit didn’t disturb them and instead guarded the entrance to the hall. They looked out into the empty graveyard in front of them, until the blue-clothed bandit glanced towards Fang Xing with glistening eyes beneath his mask. “You’ve taken all the other Sword Embryos?”

Fang Xing gave it some thought and smirked. “It’s good enough that I’m giving you an immortal’s Sword Embryo. What, you want to split these as well?”

“You are such a narrow-minded person. When did I say I wanted your immortal’s Sword Embryo?”

Fang Xing’s eyes gleamed. “You don’t want it?” He’d been considering giving one of the five immortal’s Sword Embryos to the blue-clothed bandit since he no longer had a use for them himself. Although it hadn’t been willing, the black Sword Embryo had already fused with him and he could no longer pick another Sword Embryo, and he also had many ordinary Sword Embryos he needed to deal with. His current situation wasn’t the best and having a powerful ally would be a great help, so he’d decided to give one to the blue-clothed bandit to further solidify their alliance. When he heard the blue-clothed bandit didn’t actually want one, however, his heart was filled with joy; such a thing was possible?

The blue-clothed bandit couldn’t help but to extinguish Fang Xing’s joy after seeing how happy he was. “I don’t need it because I already have a Sword Embryo I’m currently nurturing, but you will still have to give me one of the immortals’ Sword Embryos. I need to bring it to someone!”

Fang Xing sent a look of surprise towards the blue-clothed bandit. Sword Embryos were said to be completely extinct within the entire land of Tianyuan, so how could this bandit already be nurturing one? Regardless, there had always been a great level of mutual understanding between the pair where if one of them didn’t volunteer information, the other wouldn’t ask; after waiting for some time and seeing the bandit didn’t seem to have any intention of explaining it, Fang Xing didn’t ask further. “Whether it’s for yourself or as a gift, you still want it in the end…” he sorrowfully replied.

“I am going to pass it on to another person on your behalf!” the blue-clothed bandit revealed with a smile, causing Fang Xing to be surprised once more. The bandit was about to say something else, but he sighed and looked up towards the front. “We’ll talk about this later. Seems you won’t be able to leave before all those cultivators get here, so it’s best you think of a way to deal with these angry cultivators first!”

After the bandit brought it up, Fang Xing looked up noticed it as well right before two shadows flew out from the cover of the thick fog and headed towards him at an extraordinary speed. One was riding atop a Dragon horse and wearing a long cape, with an extremely awe-inspiring presence filled with murderous intent. There was little doubt even upon first glance that this was one of the top four elites of the western deserts: the son of the Han clan, Han Ying. Next to him was another person who seemed to be racing with him, and judging from the ghostly Qi around him, it was obvious it was none other than the Ghost Prince Li Ying.

“Fang Xing you bastard, I was wondering why I couldn’t find even your shadow within that black smog while we were attacking the formation; you’d already snuck inside! You’ve let down everyone who came with you to attack the Sword Mound! You’d cheat even your allies; this prince is completely and utterly disgusted with you! Wayaya, hurry and reveal the Sword Embryos or I’m going to be taking you first!” Li Ying shouted while flying closer, his expression completely twisted in rage. This outburst of anger was quite understandable, of course; just about anyone would likely want to chop Fang Xing into pieces if they’d been put in the same position.

It was this little bastard who’d “snatched the flag” in the first place and declared everyone would attack the Sword Mound together to split the Sword Embryos, yet he’d actually used everyone else as a distraction so he could sneak his way inside through a different entrance. Wasn’t this clearly planning to have others fight the battle for him only to receive nothing in return? It was like trying to get water from a well using a bamboo-weave basket and having it leak out every time. It was so infuriating even a ghost wouldn’t be able to bear it!

The western deserts’ Han Ying didn’t speak from atop his horse, but the malice surrounding him made it obvious he wasn’t exactly pleased, either.

These two had much greater battle prowess than the others and were able to combine their strength to crack through the formation ahead of everyone else. They’d passed the guardian disciples of the three tribes and entered the depths of the Sword Mound a step ahead of the other cultivators with thoughts of having the highest-quality Sword Embryos for themselves, only to be welcomed by desolate emptiness without a single Sword Embryo to be found. They could hardly be faulted for their anger, and their murderous intent had even started to rise.

The two of them were both top elites within their lands, and Fang Xing would have a difficult time defeating them even at his peak, to say nothing of right now when he was in an extremely weakened state. It was painfully obvious he wasn’t able to defeat them in their enraged state, and the blue-clothed bandit smirked and moved to the side when he noticed this. “This problem you brought on yourself isn’t small at all; even I would have difficulty sorting the two of them out on my own. It’ll be up to you whether you have any ways to resolve this!” From the looks of things, it seemed he purposefully didn’t intend to help and instead wanted to see what Fang Xing would do.

Fang Xing looked at the blue-clothed bandit fully aware of what he was thinking, and contempt began to fill Fang Xing’s heart; this blue-clothed bastard was really looking down on him to use something like this to test him. As he thought on it, he decided there wasn’t any need to retreat from the infuriated Li Ying and the son of the Han clan, so he simply approached their fury head on and yelled from a dozen feet away, “Why’d it take so long for you two bastards to arrive?”