When Xu Qing heard this, he lifted his head and looked at the blurry world in the distance.
"Little Qing, the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar is the weapon of the Nanyue Ghost Emperor. Many people in the Yinghuang Province know about this but according to the information in the Alliance, this weapon seemed to have been thrown out by the Ghost Emperor before he died."
"Therefore, there have always been rumors that the Ghost Emperor used his weapon to suppress a certain mystery back then."
"In reality, in the past few years, the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar shook many times. Some people speculate that it's caused by the thing that was suppressed, while others speculate that the Ghost Emperor is about to revive. When I saw the Sword Holding Court attacking Three Spirits Suppression Mountain, I think there's a high chance that the latter is true."
Xu Qing fell into deep thought.
"Eldest Senior Brother, did the Sword Holding Court chose their base in the Yinghuang Province to be here to suppress this weapon?"
"That's right. After all, that Ghost Emperor… is too powerful. The Sword Holding Court naturally attaches great importance to him. However, this has nothing to do with us at the moment. What we need to think about now is becoming Sword Holders." The captain's expression was filled with anticipation.
"The date of this Sword Holder Selection is about to arrive. I've already inquired properly. Any human below the age of 25 can participate, irrespective of their cultivation base."
"After we reach the range of the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar, we don't have to hide our identities anymore. The Sword Holding Court has a rule that nonhumans are forbidden from entering the range of the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar. Also, we can spar with the humans here but we can't kill them."
Xu Qing nodded.
"As for the process of the assessment, I went through many dossiers in the Alliance and have a thorough understanding of them. In the past, the assessment was divided into two stages."
"The first stage is to obtain a spot to participate in the Sword Holder trial. This spot needs to be obtained through competition. Generally speaking, only 10% of the total number of people will be given a spot, so the competition is very intense.
"The second stage is the true Sword Holder trial. The number of Sword Holder recruited each time will not exceed ten when there are more qualified candidates, and only three to five when there are fewer.
"Therefore, none of the Sword Holders is simple."
"So little?" Xu Qing was a little surprised. Back then, on Three Spirits Suppression Mountain, he had seen many Sword Holders. He originally thought that there would be many people who passed the assessment every time.
As though he had guessed what Xu Qing was thinking, the captain explained.
"More than half of the Sword Holders are actually from other provinces. Only a portion of them are native cultivators. This is the rule of the Sword Holders."
"If we succeed in the assessment and become Sword Holders, we will also have to face the possibility of being transferred to another province. However, this is a little far away. This is because every new Sword Holder has to head to the Sword Holder Palace in Fenghai County within the specified time to obtain the secret arts and inheritances of the Sword Holders."
"In the end, according to the Sword Holder's own situation, they will compete for the posts. Moreover, as a Sword Holder, they have the right to take the human race's ferry."
"The seven counties of the human race are separated by many large regions. Other than powerful cultivators, ordinary people won't be able to finish traveling them in their entire lives. They can only rely on the super ferry to travel between those regions."
"Very few sect disciples have the qualifications."
Xu Qing listened attentively. He felt that becoming a Sword Holder would be very helpful to him when he went out in the future.
Yanyan was the same. She also wanted to become a Sword Holder because this way, she could always stay by Brother Xu Qing's side.
A month passed.
While the captain continued to explain various things, their magic warship continued to fly north, getting closer and closer to the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar.
During this month, Xu Qing finally figured out the abilities of the shadow and the Diamond Sect's ancestor after they advanced.
The Diamond Sect's ancestor's ability had an all-round increase. Overall, it had already reached the level of a Golden Core with a Heavenly Palace.
This was because his advancement hadn't been completed. Xu Qing felt that after the other party slowly transformed into an artifact soul, he should be more powerful.
At the same time, the Diamond Sect's ancestor's grasp of lightning was also very different from before. The lightning he emitted and his speed had advanced by leaps and bounds. In addition, he also had another trump card.
That was the red lightning of the heavenly tribulation.
There was an intent of extermination and domineeringness in this lightning that could kill someone of a higher stage with just one strike.
As for the shadow, with the Diamond Sect's ancestor's translation, Xu Qing smoothly understood everything.
Other than being the secret technique to transform Xu Qing into a pure body cultivator, the shadow still had its previous ability to devour other people's shadows to control them. Moreover, the speed of devouring was even faster.
Other than that, its eyes also had new abilities.
This ability was crushing destruction.
In reality, the shadow in the past also had this ability but its strength was too weak, so Xu Qing didn't care. Now that it had advanced, the might of this crushing destruction technique had increased greatly, so it became obvious.
The shadow could form a crushing destructive force through the blinking of its countless eyes. When it erupted with all its might, even Xu Qing was a little solemn.
All of this allowed him to clearly realize that his current combat strength was already worlds apart from before. Moreover, he had many more methods of fighting than before.
This allowed him to form more battle tactics and face more complicated situations and even more cunning and bizarre enemies.
"Even without using poison and shadow secret technique, I can kill anyone below the five palaces"
"After using the shadow secret art, I can suppress those below six palaces."
"If I use poison, even if it's six palaces… I can still fight them. Although the difference between one palace is extremely huge in the Golden Core realm and I'll definitely be heavily injured, the enemy will definitely die under my poison!"
"If all my secrets are used…" Xu Qing fell silent. He didn't wish for that to happen because this meant that the enemy was extremely powerful.
While Xu Qing was weighing his combat strength, the snowstorm that had lasted for a month finally ended. The distant world became clear. The light from the sky scattered down and the ground looked like it was paved with bright crystals.
This place was no longer just snow. There were icy plains and snow mountains.
The undulating snow mountains were reflected in Xu Qing's eyes. He could vaguely see some black embellishments on the mountain occasionally. They were protruding rocky mountains.
The wind became even colder and blew onto Xu Qing's outstretched hand, as though it wanted to freeze his flesh and blood.
This place no longer had mortal countries. With such a harsh climate, other than cultivators who could resist it, mortals would instantly freeze to death here.
"Comfortable." The captain's shout rang out.
Xu Qing looked over.
The captain stood at the bow of the ship and his body was outside the ship's barrier. He faced the cold wind and stretched out his arms in the wind. His face was filled with comfort, as though the cold here was nothing to him.
All of his spells emitted an icy intent, and here, his abilities would clearly be enhanced even better.
"Little Qing, I've wanted to come here for a long time. This place is much more comfortable than the sect."
The captain laughed loudly. Just as he had a satisfied expression, his eyes suddenly narrowed as he turned his head to look at the sky in another direction.
At the same time, Xu Qing also sensed it and turned his head to stare.
Yanyan didn't notice anything but she instinctively looked over. However, in her eyes, there was nothing in the distant sky. In Xu Qing and the captain's eyes, though, there were dozens of huge flying ships whistling over from afar.
These flying ships looked like willow leaves. They were slender and at the same time, the bow and stern of the ship were curved upward. They looked very strange. Moreover, their entire bodies were made of crystal and spirit stones that shone brightly under the sunlight.
They seemed to be guarding a ship in the center.
This ship was blue in color and stood out from the crowd. There was a long streamer on it, like a flag in the wind. It was very conspicuous and the words 'Grand Affairs' were embroidered on it.
Xu Qing and the captain had seen such ships on the Immortal Enrichment River before. It was none other than the ships of the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect.
There were figures in white standing on these dozens of ships of various sizes. There were men and women among them, and all of them exuded an otherworldly aura. This was especially so for the clouds rising under their ships, making them look like immortals.
On the blue flying ship, there was also a person standing.
This person was a youth. He wore a blue robe that was different from the others, reflecting his slender body like a pine tree.
His fair skin was like jade and his brows were sharp like peaks.
He stood at the bow of the blue ship with his hands behind his back. His expression was indifferent, as though his noble status and peerless aptitude already put him at the peak of the life.
Hence, there were naturally not many things in this world that could move him. Their flying ships whistled past Xu Qing's magic warship without pausing at all.
This was because they represented the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect. This was because the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect was the number one force in the Yinghuang Province other than the Sword Holding Court which was the orthodox force of the human race.
As such, other forces naturally had to give way to the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect.
As they flew over, the airwaves created by this group of flying ships spread in all directions, impacting Xu Qing's magic warship, causing it to sway and have no choice but to move aside.
Xu Qing and the captain narrowed their eyes.
The disciples of the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect didn't even turn their heads to look at them. As the whistling sound echoed, they flew further and further away.
Their target was clearly the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar.
"How impressive!" The captain raised his brows and looked at the flying ships that were already far away.
"I'll go and find some information later and see what good things the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect has."
The captain was clearly a little dissatisfied with these people's domineeringness.
"That person is strong," Xu Qing slowly said. He was talking about the youth in the blue Daoist robe. When he glanced over earlier, he could faintly sense the fluctuations of a life lantern on the other party.
This was the second person he had seen who seemed to have a life lantern other than Saintly Star.
"Zhang Siyun, the Dao Child of the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect. Back then, this person was a figure who firmly suppressed Saintly Star in the Yinghuang Province. He can be considered the number one heaven's chosen among the current generation of disciples in the entire Yinghuang Province.
When he was in the Foundation Building realm, he left Saintly Star far behind. After he reached the Golden Core realm, he left Saintly Star in the dust."
"It's said that not only does he have a life lantern, but he also has an emperor-level cultivation art. He even mastered nine strikes of the Extreme Heaven Saber and cultivated it to an emperor-level seed."
"According to the Alliance's information, although he has four Heavenly Palaces, his combat strength should have reached the level of six palaces or even higher."
"Little Qing, have you taken a liking to his life lantern? Why don't we find an opportunity to kill him?"
Xu Qing shook his head. The captain blinked and chuckled.
"However, he's not like Saintly Star. If he dies, the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect will definitely be extremely furious. The old man probably won't be able to withstand it."
