This Sword Cultivator is Somewhat Dependable-Chapter 639 - 97: The Strongest Fourth Realm

Chapter 639 -97: The Strongest Fourth Realm

In the Central Heavenly Realm’s Heavenly Secret Pavillion, within the ingeniously constructed Heavenly Secret Tower.

Lin Yao and Spirit Moon, who were in charge of the Yellow List, stared blankly at the urgent Spirit Message that had just arrived from Zhenjiang in the Southern Territory.

After a long silence.

“The strongest of the Fourth Realm?” Spirit Moon asked.

“Let’s ask Master and the others…” Lin Yao, still somewhat in a daze, pursed her lips and spoke softly, “Although Master and the others have entrusted us with naming the rankings, the title ‘The strongest of the Fourth Realm’ still requires their opinion.”

“Okay,” Spirit Moon replied.

“Young Master Lu…” Lin Yao sighed, her tone filled with endless admiration.

It was time for another update of the rankings.

Since the four lists were updated in a timely manner, and the messages covered the entire Human Race’s Seven Domains, involving top-level events equal to changes in the world’s major trends, they were like a regular “program” with great entertainment value for many cultivators, a pastime for leisure moments.

Therefore, every time the four lists were updated, many cultivators would gather to watch, with even many large families and sects deliberately sending people to record the latest rankings for their perusal.

This time was no exception.

At the site of the four lists’ jade stone screen wall in White Horse City of the Western Domain.

As the time for the list to be updated neared, the square was already filled with many cultivators who had gathered early, casually discussing the highlights of the last update.

“Lu Qingshan, although he cannot yet be called the strongest of the Fourth Realm, is definitely the strongest Yellow List number one of the past few centuries!”

“Defeating Yellow List cultivators is as easy for him as eating and drinking. Who, if not him, could be a Nascent Soul Cultivator?”

“But I estimate that Lu Qingshan’s reign over the Yellow List won’t last too long. Not long ago, our Western Domain’s Yan Fei just broke through to become a Void Refining Cultivator, leaving the Yellow List.”

“With Lu Qingshan’s talent, where else could he stay in the Nascent Soul Realm for too long?”

“Makes sense…”

Just then, ripples began to shimmer on the jade stone screen wall.

“It’s out,” someone said loudly.

“What changes will there be in the four lists this time?” someone said in anticipation, their gaze wandering over the lists.

A moment later, he suddenly became as dumbfounded as a wooden chicken, “This… this…”

“The strongest of the Fourth Realm?!” After a moment of stupefaction, his tone suddenly rose, instantly drawing the attention of everyone there.

All eyes turned to the top of the Yellow List, where they saw that the name at the top had not changed, but in the column for achievements there was now a line of seemingly inconspicuous small print:

Name: Lu Qingshan

Ranking: First place

…..

Achievements: …..; Reversed the outcome against a Sixth Realm Sword Cultivator in Zhenjiang.

Title: Sword Absolutist, The strongest of the Fourth Realm

…….

“Reversed the outcome against a Sixth Realm Sword Cultivator in Zhenjiang.”

These nine characters, like nine spring thunders, left all the cultivators present with buzzing minds, dazed and confused.

No additional description of the ferocity of the battle was needed, no need to elaborate on the specific process.

Just these nine simple, lightly mentioned words, made everyone fall silent.

“Is this really possible?” someone muttered softly, breaking the nearly solidifying silence.

For how many years now, since the Heavenly Secret Pavillion had been establishing the four rankings, there had only been the title of “The strongest of the Seventh Realm” for Xia Daoyun till today.

Finally, this day, the Fourth Realm also had its so-called strongest.

That was a Sixth Realm cultivator!

Someone capable of founding a sect, a top-notch cultivator of an entire region.

Such a person was actually overthrown by a Nascent Soul Cultivator?

If it were not for the reputation of the always credible Heavenly Secret Pavillion issuing these achievements, not one of the cultivators present would dare believe such seemingly absurd and exaggerated tales.

In the face of such achievements, not one person disputed the title of Lu Qingshan as “The strongest of the Fourth Realm.”

“Lu Qingshan reverses battle outcome against a Sixth Realm Sword Cultivator”—this message quickly spread among all the major forces.

For many powerful cultivators, if Lu Qingshan was merely a junior worth attention before, then after today, he has become a person to be wary of.

They had a feeling… it wouldn’t be long before Lu Qingshan would possess the strength to threaten them.

That is, if he didn’t die in his prime.

…

As early winter arrived, with the warm sun hanging low, the wild grass rustled, and a breeze carried with it a hint of cold.

Lu Qingshan’s long hair was secured with a dark wood hairpin, preventing it from being disheveled by the wind, and his complexion was ruddy, showing no sign of paleness.

A month had passed since the battle at Mihe Peak.

Even with an abundance of pills and the healing from the Azure Fall Sword, it still took him a month to recuperate before he recovered from his injuries.

However, despite the recovery from his wounds, some things that were lost could never be regained.

That was his lifespan, his very life essence.

While there were many ways to repair the damage to one’s life essence, such as how the Qingqiu Mountain Master used his Immortal Primordial to successfully treat Mimi’s injuries, Lu Qingshan’s case was different.

Mimi’s situation back then was like it was supposed to live until eighty, but due to excessive extraction of essence blood, its body deteriorated, and it could only live up to fifty years.

The Immortal Primordial was like a panacea, bringing its body back to a healthy state.

But Lu Qingshan’s current situation involved his life wheel directly churning for six hundred cycles, causing him to lose six hundred years of his lifespan during the three swords.

He was still twenty-one years old, that hadn’t changed.

But his lifespan limit had dropped from a thousand years to four hundred years.

Immortal Primordial could repair and restore the life essence, but it couldn’t create something out of nothing.

This was a tangible loss.

“Might I be the shortest-lived Nascent Soul Cultivator in history?” The thought suddenly flashed through Lu Qingshan’s mind.

As for gains, there were some indeed.

His Slaughter Sword Intent successfully advanced to Destruction True Intent after that battle.

It was as if he had traded six hundred years of lifespan for a strand of Destruction True Intent.

Was this trade-off profitable?

Lu Qingshan didn’t know himself.

But he chose not to dwell on the matter.

Let bygones be bygones.

People must look forward.

…

“We’ve arrived,” Lu Yuan, who was guiding the way, interrupted Lu Qingshan’s deep thoughts.

In front of them was a meticulously tended grave, with a newly erected tombstone.

“That day happened to be the Great Elder’s burial, so all the members of the family came to attend his funeral,” Lu Yuan, the Family Head of the Lu Family, said with a complex expression as he looked at the exceptionally young man before him. “That’s why the ancestral land was precisely empty.”

“That day” referred to the day when Yuan Cang ambushed Lu Qingshan at Mihe Peak.

“In his lifetime, the Great Elder devoted himself to the Lu Family. Even in death, he still protects us,” Lu Yuan sighed.

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To prevent any news from leaking, Yuan Cang had already slaughtered all the Lu Family cultivators present at Mihe Peak by the time Lu Qingshan appeared.

The small blessing amid the misfortune was that because people were attending the burial ceremony of Lu Zhou, and due to the move to a new family residence, the already quite desolate Mihe Peak was even emptier that day, with only two or three Lu family cultivators present.

So the loss to the Lu Family was not great.

Lu Qingshan looked at the tombstone and fell silent for a moment.

Nine truths and one falsehood were enough to convince others.

Though the Spirit Message supposedly sent by the Netherworld was a sham, the content within it wasn’t entirely fabricated.

The Great Elder, Lu Zhou, had in fact reached the end of his life half a year earlier.

“The Great Elder said that birth, aging, sickness, and death are the natural order of things and there is no need to make a fuss as if it were some serious matter. He wanted to leave quietly and instructed us not to inform you … so …” Lu Yuan explained.

“Moreover, not just you, Lu Bei, who is cultivating abroad, also doesn’t know about the Great Elder’s passing,” the Family Head expressed another lament.

Lu Qingshan had rushed back to see Lu Zhou one last time but ultimately didn’t make it.

The open-minded elder had always asked for so little.

“I apologize for what happened at the Lu Family ancestral land,” Lu Qingshan spoke up.

After he unleashed the Power of the Mountains and Seas, Mihe Peak had become a wasteland, beyond the possibility of recovery.

This mountain peak, where the Lu Family had thrived for a hundred years, had become history.

Moreover, if it hadn’t been for him, the Lu Family cultivators at Mihe Peak would not have been massacred by Yuan Cang.

“It’s good that you’re still here. Land is inanimate, but people are alive. The Lu Family would consider your life worth more than a hundred ancestral lands and wouldn’t regret the exchange,” Lu Yuan said calmly. “As for the rest, like the Great Elder, all of us in the Lu Family have always taken pride in you, Lu Qingshan.”

…

After standing together for a while, Lu Yuan left, giving Lu Qingshan some space.

Lu Qingshan wasn’t surprised by the Great Elder’s death.

This was something he was to experience even more in the future, including not only his elders but also his friends.

The path of cultivation is the cruelest in that it’s a long march where people constantly fall behind, including enemies, but… also friends.

No one can guarantee they’ll reach the end… not even Lu Qingshan himself.

But what of it?

One just needs to keep going. Why worry about where it ends?

Success isn’t only defined by reaching the end. The very process of moving forward has its own significance.

Lu Qingshan took a deep look at the Great Elder’s tombstone, then at the distant new residence of the Lu Family. He turned, controlled his sword into flight, and in an instant, he was gone in a burst of Sword Light.

In the sky, Lu Qingshan looked relaxed, exuding a transcendent and otherworldly charm.

“The starting point of the cultivation path is causality, and so is the end, without a doubt.

However, it’s not just the end that is the result, every step of the journey is also a result…”

“Thus, as beings of this world, we are surrounded by causality at every turn. Why then must we tirelessly seek it out?”

In the next moment, the True Intent of Causality emerged in his heart.

With a loud bang, a phantom sound exploded in Lu Qingshan’s mind.

His spirit suddenly spread, breaking through some barrier.

Insight is connected to one’s thoughts, temperament, and serendipity, so it advances and elevates at varying speeds and in different ways, defying comparisons.

Some even achieve a breakthrough in insight while engaged in mundane tasks like eating or sleeping.

Last time, it was amidst the life-and-death situation that he grasped the Destruction True Intent.

This time, however, he felt an indescribable match between his path of cultivation, his intent, and his inner temperament seemingly by accident.

“So this is the True Intent of Causality…” A light of sudden realization shone in Lu Qingshan’s eyes.

The True Intent of Causality he had long sought, in this moment of perfect harmony, had unknowingly reached Perfection.