Imperial Cultivation

By the time they awoke, they found the environment around them had drastically changed.

They were already inside a dim cave.

They hurriedly operated their cultivation to check if their bodies were injured.

Immediately, their expressions turned grim.

Their entire cultivation had disappeared without a trace, leaving their meridians empty with not a sliver of True Yuan.

However, being venerable, although their cultivation was gone, their physical quality remained.

Their eyes were far sharper than ordinary people’s, allowing them to see clearly around even in dim light.

This was a vast and flat cave, a circular cave with a diameter of about a hundred meters, resembling a small plaza.

Overhead was a circular dome, carved with various bizarre patterns and designs.

Flowers, stars, strange beasts, and figures.

Vaguely, it seemed to depict a hulking and robust man riding a strange beast, galloping exuberantly through a field of blooming flowers.

Overhead, the stars shone down.

This dome was too high, exceeding thirty meters, becoming darker as it went up, making it difficult to see clearly.

They quickly discovered that the dim space was illuminated by faint light because the stones on the ground emitted a slight glow.

The stones on the ground, smooth and resilient, felt like mutton fat jade.

Yet, mutton fat jade wouldn’t emit light in the dark.

"Wow!"

As they examined their surroundings, another sound rang in their ears.

Then their vision blurred violently, turning white, and their minds again slipped into stagnation.

Thoughtless and unfettered.

When they awoke again, they found themselves in a different place.

Still a vast cave, yet the cave had become a small chamber, only ten meters in diameter, with a ceiling only five or six meters high, above which were carved some strange patterns.

Their meridians remained empty, with not a sliver of True Yuan.

Their faces were grim.

"What on earth is this?" Luo Yun said: "We have no means of resistance."

"At least we’re not dead." Meng Xianda chuckled.

Luo Yun smiled bitterly: "Old Meng, you can still laugh!"

"Laugh or no laugh, if destined to die, we die, if not, we don’t." Meng Xianda chuckled: "We’re not the ones calling the shots anyway!"

His greatest realization now was that this was not a place where one could gain a fortuitous encounter through strength, but rather one relying on luck.

With bad luck, one could die without knowing how.

With good luck, no matter the odds, one would survive.

"Not necessarily." Luo Yun said: "We still have..."

He turned to Huang Zhengyang: "Brother Huang, the flying knife?"

"Still here." Huang Zhengyang stretched out his hand.

The transparent flying knife was attached to his left palm, firmly adhered, as if afraid of being thrown away.

"Brother Huang, can you still operate cultivation?" Luo Yun marveled: "Am I the only one who lost my cultivation?"

Huang Zhengyang shook his head: "I also lost my cultivation."

"Then why..." Luo Yun looked at the flying knife firmly adhered to his palm.

If not held by operating cultivation, this flying knife wouldn’t adhere so securely to the palm.

Huang Zhengyang said: "It adhered to my palm on its own."

"It’s wondrous." Luo Yun exclaimed.

Zheng Zhenxing said: "With this flying knife, I feel somewhat reassured."

Meng Xianda joked: "If it weren’t here, we’d really be left to fate... But what did it hit just now?"

As they spoke, they examined their surroundings.

The ground was still made of a crystalline, gentle jade material, yet it emitted a faint glow.

With this subtle glow, they could see the surroundings clearly.

The walls were also smooth and gentle, obviously the same material as the ground.

But they did not emit light.

"Where on earth is this place?" Zheng Zhenxing frowned and looked around.

Inside the cave, there was neither an exit nor an entrance, as if a grotto naturally formed inside a massive jade stone.

They were sent into this grotto without knowing how they got in or how to get out.

Meng Xianda reached out, but Luo Yun quickly tugged him back: "Old Meng, don’t mess around!"

Meng Xianda said: "I want to feel what material this is made of, it seems quite hard, no idea if it can be chiseled."

Luo Yun said: "Try it with the sword first."

"Makes sense." Meng Xianda nodded.

Zheng Zhenxing already thrust a sword.

"Ding..."

The tip of the sword sprang high, the hilt left his right hand, shooting upwards.

The sword tassel traced an arc in the air, then flew to another wall, then flew up high again.

"Ding ding ding ding..."

The treasure sword flew back and forth, rebounding everywhere, always unable to land.

"Dodge!"

"Move!"

"Quick!"

...

The four of them stared wide-eyed, tracking it intently, constantly shifting, running to dodge the sword.

This was Zheng Zhenxing’s treasured sword, sharp enough to slash hair, cut through iron like mud.

In their current state, a single strike would definitely make them bleed, at worst a cut, at worst a stab wound.

Luo Yun shouted while dodging: "Old Zheng, can’t you control it?"

The four, being quite experienced, spread out instead of gathering in one spot.

Each took a position, either shifting sideways, crouching, or leaping.

Fortunately, their bodies were strong, without cultivation, their strength and speed still far exceeded ordinary people, enabling them to dodge.

In no time, they were in a sorry state.

The ground was smooth and supple like mutton fat jade, pristine, with them rolling back and forth without soiling their clothes.

Zheng Zhenxing said with frustration: "Without cultivation, how can I control it?"

"Focus your mind to control it!"

"I’m not that strong, my mind can’t control it!"

"Alas..." Luo Yun shook his head and sighed: "When will this end!"

They looked again towards Huang Zhengyang.

Huang Zhengyang drew his sword.

"Brother Huang, wait!" Luo Yun quickly said: "Don’t draw your sword!"

Seeing that the sword was becoming faster and harder to dodge, it was clear the walls contained a strong force.

Huang Zhengyang might not be able to withstand the sword now.

If his sword got knocked flying too, then it would become two swords.

One sword had already thrown them into a sorry state, proving more difficult; another sword, and they’d certainly be wounded.

In such an uncertain environment, who knows what bleeding might attract, what consequences could follow.

Possibly a fierce beast watching in secret, the scent of blood might trigger its ferocity.

"Brother Huang, no choice, flying knife it is!" Luo Yun sighed.

"We must use the flying knife!" Meng Xianda conceded: "We’re truly powerless!"

Using the flying knife every time made their own inadequacy more evident.

If Mr. Chu were here, wielding the flying knife personally, they’d have no words, only respect.

Without Mr. Chu, just one of his flying knives rendered the four of them together inferior.

"Alas..." Huang Zhengyang shook his head, saying: "Brother Chu said the knife’s power is limited, each use diminishes it, who knows if it can last this time."

"Mr. Chu didn’t say how many times it could be used?" Luo Yun hurriedly asked.

"He didn’t say." Huang Zhengyang replied: "Each use draws different power, hard to tell how many times."

"Ten or eight times should be fine?" Luo Yun asked.

Huang Zhengyang shook his head.

Zheng Zhenxing rolled clumsily, narrowly avoiding his sword: "Regardless, now’s the time to use it."

"Just fear it may not work." Huang Zhengyang commented.

Luo Yun said: "We trust Mr. Chu more, hurry Brother Huang!"

He nearly failed to dodge the oncoming sword.

"Swipe!"

"Ding..."

"Ding ding ding ding..."

The flying knife accurately struck the longsword’s hilt, then the tip, then the middle of the sword body.

The swift longsword first veered, then spun, and finally halted.

Ultimately, it floated suspended in the air.

Zheng Zhenxing rushed forward, grasped the hilt, sheathed the sword, and heaved a long sigh of relief.

The flying knife had already returned to Huang Zhengyang’s left palm, tightly adhered to his palm.

"What a good knife!"

The three of them marveled in unison.

"I wish Mr. Chu were here!" Luo Yun shook his head: "I feel, even stepping into Spirit Venerable, I couldn’t achieve this."

Huang Zhengyang nodded.

The Spirit Venerables he had seen indeed hadn’t reached this level.

Just as there’s a vast difference among Venerables, so too are Spirit Venerables distinct from one another.