Immortal Soul

Using a tortoise shell to test a sharp blade.

Sword hums whistled through the small Cloud-Marsh World, accompanied by the Old Tortoise's wails echoing time and again.

Having finished testing the Sword Control Art,

Xu Xian held The Living Flora and attempted to activate the tenth sword of the Green Lotus Sword Song, 【Endless Vitality】.

The waters rippled and space distorted as lotuses bloomed out of thin air, transforming into thousands of sword intents that surged toward the Old Tortoise.

The sword momentum soared to the heavens.

He succeeded on his first try.

Xu Xian was overjoyed.

He sheathed his sword.

The Old Tortoise was still huddled inside its shell, howling incessantly. Xu Xian kicked it impatiently. "Alright, stop acting. It's over..."

The Old Tortoise poked its head out and met the youth's gaze. It let out a long breath of turbid qi and wiped sweat from its short limbs. "Phew... that was close. I almost died."

Xu Xian rolled his eyes and snapped, "Quit pretending. Those few strikes of mine weren't even enough to scratch an itch for you."

The Old Tortoise choked on its words; that was actually the truth.

Indeed, it didn't hurt at all.

However, it still chuckled and flattered him, "Not at all, it hurt a lot. Brother Bai's swordsmanship is unparalleled in the world. To be able to strike with Celestial Sword Intent at such a young age, you will surely become a sword immortal—no, a god... in time, the position of the Cangming Sword Master will surely be yours."

Xu Xian wasn't stupid.

He could naturally tell it was nothing but empty flattery.

But.

That was just how people were. Pleasant words, even if they were sycophantic, were soothing to the ear. Otherwise, how would history have so many foolish monarchs?

Xu Xian was naturally no exception.

"Alright, you performed well enough. Go back."

With a flick of Xu Xian's sleeve, the Old Tortoise and the stone stele vanished without a trace.

Above the Divine Sword Pool.

The Old Tortoise lay on the ground, baring its teeth, its breathing heavy.

"Dammit, it actually hurt this time..."

Within the watery small world, thanks to the feedback from The Living Flora and breaking through to the great ascension stage, Xu Xian was in excellent condition and still in a state of excitement.

Though he had used the Old Tortoise to test his blade, he still felt unsatisfied.

He was itching for more.

"I'm a bit too excited..."

The Little Book spirit wanted to laugh at the sight and said for no reason, "Master, why don't you take out that book and look at the materials needed for the fifth floor of the Sword Tower? You'll calm down immediately. If you don't believe me, give it a try..."

If it hadn't mentioned it, it would have been fine, but the moment it did, Xu Xian's excitement instantly vanished.

His smile froze, and his expression darkened.

He glanced at the Little Book spirit with a look that was hard to decipher.

He really didn't like looking at that thing. It could ruin a perfectly good mood in an instant.

The tiny Little Book spirit spread its hands helplessly. "You have to look at it eventually, don't you?"

That was the truth.

Xu Xian pondered for a moment. "Fine, let's look at it."

He withdrew all his swords and sat down cross-legged. With a thought, the book emerged from his sea of consciousness and floated before his forehead.

The youth flipped through the pages with one hand.

Page one: Heaven-Burning Sparrow.

Page two: Yellow Spring Burial.

Page three: Nishui Han.

Page four: The Living Flora.

However, Xu Xian noticed that this time, these pages seemed different from before. On the pages where the four divine swords resided, the words 【Three-Character Swords】 were marked.

Xu Xian was surprised and asked.

"Three-Character Swords? What does that mean?"

He thought it couldn't possibly be because their names were all three characters long, right?

"They all have three characters, so they're called Three-Character Swords," the Little Book spirit said.

Xu Xian froze. "..." So it really was that?

Xu Xian swallowed hard. "Is it really that perfunctory?"

The Little Book spirit rubbed its chin and explained slowly, "Mhm, I seem to remember now. The twelve swords of the Sword Tower are all divine swords, but they are also ranked by strength into upper, middle, and lower tiers."

"The lower four floors are the Three-Character Swords, which are the four currently unsealed."

"The middle four floors are called the Two-Character Swords. There are also four of them, and their names all consist of two characters."

"The top four floors are called the One-Character Swords, and there are four of those as well..."

Xu Xian cut in, "And their names are all one character?"

The Little Book spirit nodded with a smile. "That's right!"

Xu Xian's mouth twitched. The naming was truly casual; it felt like it had no sense of grandeur or sophistication at all.

Three-Character Swords?

Two-Character Swords?

One-Character Swords?

"Tsk tsk, Ye Wujiang was quite the character."

The Little Book spirit laughed. "It's quite good, actually. The Great Dao is simple..."

"Since you've remembered this much, do you remember the names of the remaining eight swords?" Xu Xian asked casually.

The Little Book spirit thought hard but eventually shook its head.

"I don't remember."

It paused and quickly added, "However, the Two-Character Swords of the middle four floors are stronger than the Three-Character Swords of the lower four. The One-Character Swords of the top four floors are legendary Extreme Path divine weapons. They are the highest-ranked divine weapons known in Cangming, enough to rival chaos divine artifacts."

Hearing this, Xu Xian couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation.

What were the middle four swords?

And what were the top four?

But the prerequisite was that he had to build the Sword Tower.

Xu Xian proactively ended the topic and flipped to the newest page. His gaze swept over it, and everything was as before.

The upper half read:

Fourth floor is real, eighth floor is illusory.

The lower half,

It listed the conditions. Unlike the fourth page, this time, just like the first three pages, there were only a few lines.

Requirements for constructing the fifth floor of the Sword Tower:

First: A certain amount of spirit stones.

Second: Immortal Soul.

Third: Five Elements Saint Soul (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth).

Staring at the three lines of text, the space between Xu Xian's brows narrowed, his face full of distress. He didn't know what to say...

The Little Book spirit leaned in to look and couldn't help but complain, "Tsk tsk, this is asking for your life. An Immortal Soul? Where are you going to find that? Wait for someone to become an immortal?"

Xu Xian asked even though he already knew the answer, "A demon immortal won't work?"

The Little Book spirit explained, "This 'immortal' isn't that kind of 'immortal.' Demon immortals are just titles they give themselves. Their strength is only at the peak of the Beast God stage, no different from a saint. Calling themselves demon immortals is just because they live a bit longer."

Xu Xian's frown deepened.

The Little Book spirit continued, "In your human race, people in the eighth stage already dare to call themselves immortals. Do you think they are?"

Xu Xian feigned calmness. "So you're saying it has to be a true immortal, right?"

"Mhm."

"Where do I find one?"

The Little Book spirit looked up at the sky and remained silent.

After a brief moment of silence, Xu Xian cursed.

"Damn!"

"What a scam!"

The Little Book spirit hesitated, its eyes darting around.

"Spit it out," Xu Xian said.

The Little Book spirit explained weakly, "Even if there really are immortals, these Saint Souls and Immortal Souls aren't exactly easy to get."

"How so?"

The Little Book spirit patiently explained, "When a person dies, their light goes out, and their soul enters reincarnation to be reborn. For a Saint Soul or a Celestial Soul to be preserved, the original person must be willing to forgo reincarnation before they pass away so their soul can be kept."

"Even though,"

"Dead is dead."

"But if you try to take it by force, others definitely won't be willing."

"Forcing it,"

"Definitely won't work."

Xu Xian understood, and the pain in his heart doubled. He maintained a straight face. "And so?"

The Little Book spirit gave an irrelevant answer, "In the upper realm of Cangming, these things aren't hard to get. Many great experts, when they are about to pass, will choose to cut off their own reincarnation to leave their souls behind to ensure the peace of their bloodline or sect, or for their descendants to use to break through cultivation bottlenecks. Unfortunately, this is Fanzhou, so it's hard to get!"

The Little Book spirit spread its hands, indicating it was also helpless.

Xu Xian rolled his eyes. "Everything you said was redundant."

The Little Book spirit pouted.

Xu Xian sighed. "Sigh..." He closed the book.

He forced a smile. "It's fine. It's within expectations."

"What does Master plan to do?"

Xu Xian's mind began to work. "Do you think the souls of the Old Tortoise and Lu Yuan count as Immortal Souls?"

The Little Book spirit thought for a moment. "Mhm... Lu Yuan's probably won't work. It has lived a second life, so it's not pure anymore. The Old Tortoise's definitely would."

Xu Xian asked tentatively, "Then what if..."

The Little Book spirit interrupted, "I don't think it would happen."

Xu Xian raised an eyebrow. "True. We'll see later..."