Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

“What a pity.”

“This God Platform Stone Bamboo Shoot Array isn’t the legendary formation specifically designed for supreme body tempering. Although the effects are similar, I’ve already reached the limit of what it can provide.”

Inside the ruins, Gu Xiu stepped down from the array, a trace of regret on his face.

He had endured the torment of the “Thousand Hammers and Ten Thousand Strikes”—tens of thousands of blows raining down on his flesh—to temper his body.

The results were significant.

Gu Xiu’s physical strength now rivaled that of a Second-Order Demon Beast.

This was no small feat. The human race was naturally frail compared to other species. Even powerful cultivators, whose bodies strengthened passively as they advanced in realm, rarely focused on pure physical might. A Golden Core or even a Nascent Soul powerhouse, stripped of their spiritual energy and forced into a brawl, would almost certainly be torn apart by a Second-Order Demon Beast.

Gu Xiu’s harvest was immense.

And yet…

“It’s still not enough.”

Gu Xiu was not satisfied.

He had spent five hundred years in that terrifying Forbidden Realm. He knew all too well that compared to the monsters lurking in that abyss, his current physique was still as fragile as parchment.

However, he pushed the dissatisfaction aside.

“Body tempering can wait. The priority now is breaking through to Foundation Establishment and advancing toward the Golden Core.”

On this path of re-cultivation, Gu Xiu had a meticulous plan. Realm and cultivation base were the roots; body refining was merely the bark.

“Is this the legendary forging god platform?”

Gu Xiu walked forward, stopping before a radiant structure bathed in starlight.

From a distance, the forging platform appeared as colossal as a mountain range, dominating the horizon. But up close, the illusion faded. It was the size of a standard anvil, the massive projection merely a manifestation of its power.

Yet, upon its surface, the light of ten thousand stars shimmered, and streams of liquid energy flowed like rivers of mercury.

Standing beside it, Gu Xiu felt a profound sensation—as if divine weapons could be forged here with a wave of a hand, and even Immortal Artifacts could be tempered into existence.

This object was the true prize of the ruins.

The Star Shattering Forging Platform!

Legend spoke of three Great Divine Artifacts in the path of smithing: the Frost God Hammer, the Immortal-Burning God Furnace, and the Star Shattering Forging Platform.

It was said that a Celestial Being had plucked a star from the heavens, crushed it into dust, and forged this very platform.

Its greatest claim to fame? It could forge Immortal Artifacts.

Whether the legend was true or false didn’t matter. The mere possibility was enough to drive countless master smiths into madness. Immortal Artifacts were not meant for mortal hands; their scarcity was an absolute law of the cultivation world. A tool that could break that law was heaven-defying.

Many believed it to be a myth fabricated by ancients. Gu Xiu had been a skeptic too.

But in his prophetic dream—that glance spanning ten thousand years—he had seen Jiang Xun accumulate endless resources and use this very platform to fully repair the Shadow Chasing Sword.

At the very least, Gu Xiu knew he could use it to restore his own blade.

“In the dream, Jiang Xun obtained this platform by relying on the Heaven-Bestowed Ruyi,” Gu Xiu mused, uncertainty flickering in his eyes. “I don’t have the Ruyi. Can I still claim it?”

In that vision of the future, Jiang Xun had tried everything—exhausting his ingenuity, racking his brains, using every trick in the book—and failed miserably until the Heaven-Bestowed Ruyi intervened. Without it, he had even suffered a backlash.

Gu Xiu didn’t have the cheat item.

“But I’m already here. I have to try.”

Gu Xiu extended his left hand. With a swift motion of his right sword-finger, he sliced open the skin. A drop of essence blood welled up and fell toward the starlit surface.

It was the simplest, crudest form of blood-binding.

He held no hope. He was already preparing to use the “All” character talisman to suppress the artifact, just as he had done with the finger bone.

Drip.

The blood landed.

Suddenly, the Star Shattering Forging Platform reacted like a traveler dying of thirst in a desert encountering sweet rain. In the blink of an eye, it absorbed the blood completely.

Gu Xiu blinked.

To be honest, he was a little bewildered.

The platform erupted with blinding radiance. An instant connection snapped into place between Gu Xiu’s soul and the artifact. He could feel a wave of intense affinity radiating from the cold stone.

That… that’s it?

It accepted me as master?

Gu Xiu stood there, stunned. In his vision, Jiang Xun had nearly died trying to tame this thing. He had assumed it would be a battle of wills.

Instead, it felt like the platform had been waiting for him.

Before he could process the absurdity, a voice—slightly aged but brimming with energy—rang in his ears.

“Young lad, what are you standing there for? Hurry up! Give me a couple of hammer blows!”

Huh?

Gu Xiu looked left and right, then stared at the platform.

An Artifact Spirit?

“What are you looking at?” the voice demanded impatiently. “Quick! Quick! Hammer me!”

For the first time in a long time, the ever-stoic Gu Xiu felt his composure crack.

An Artifact Spirit!

This Star Shattering Forging Platform had actually nurtured a living soul!

For any Magical Artifact, possessing a spirit changed everything. It transformed a dead tool into a living partner, doubling its power at a minimum. But spirits were incredibly rare, and usually, newborn spirits were fragile, possessing the intelligence of a toddler.

But this one…

“Hurry up! Faster! Do you know how long I’ve been itching? Hammer me! Just hit me, okay?”

“I’m begging you!”

“HAMMER ME!!!”

The stream of consciousness was fluent, eager, and undeniably sentient. It spoke like a grumpy old man who had been stuck in solitary confinement for an eon.

Gu Xiu was speechless.

Then again, it was a forging platform. Its purpose was to be struck. Perhaps… this was normal?

“Don’t just stand there!” the spirit wailed.

Gu Xiu grabbed a nearby forging hammer. “As you wish.”

He swung the hammer down.

It was a light test tap. But the moment the hammer connected, the platform’s internal formations flared. The strike landed with the weight of a falling mountain.

CLANG!

The platform shuddered.

“Ohhh! Yes! Refreshing! So satisfying!” the spirit groaned in ecstasy. “How many years has it been? How many years since I’ve been properly hammered? More! Again!”

“Use more force! Don’t hold back! I, Star Shatterer, can take it all!”

Gu Xiu’s lips twitched. The request was simple enough.

He tightened his grip, channeling his spiritual Qi into the hammer. He swung again, this time with intent.

CLANG!

The sound was deep, heavy, and resonant. It wasn’t just noise; it carried a strange, rhythmic power that stirred the blood. It was a sound designed to boost a smith’s morale.

With the strike, the starlight on the platform intensified. The Star Shatterer spirit howled in delight.

Gu Xiu abandoned his hesitation. He settled into a rhythm, swinging the hammer again and again.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

He wanted to test the platform’s limits. With every strike, the starlight grew brighter, blinding and pure.

“Hahahaha!” the spirit cheered. “I knew I didn’t misjudge you! Comfortable! Too comfortable!”

“I, Star Shatterer, am a platform of my word! You make me feel good, I won’t let you work for nothing!”

“Take it! My accumulation from tens of thousands of years! It’s yours!”

As the spirit’s voice echoed, the boundless starlight detached from the platform and drifted toward Gu Xiu. It swirled around him like a galaxy before pouring into his Dantian Qi Sea.

The energy didn’t disperse. It converged.

In moments, a magnificent structure began to rise from the chaos of his Dantian.

A Dao Platform shimmering with the light of ten thousand stars!

This was the power of the Star Shattering Forging Platform. It was using its ancient accumulation of Artifact Dao to help Gu Xiu construct his foundation.

It was building a Ten Thousand Star Forging Platform!

Sensing the transformation, Gu Xiu wasted no time. He sat down cross-legged, sinking his consciousness into his Qi Sea to guide the breakthrough.

Meanwhile, on the distant stone cliff platform.

Yu Xueqing and the other Azure Wave disciples were growing anxious.

“What’s happening? Why did he disappear?”

“There wasn’t an accident, was there?”

They couldn’t see the interior of the trial. The moment Gu Xiu had finished the bamboo shoot array, the platform’s light had concealed him from the outside world. They didn’t know if he had succeeded, failed, or died.

Just as panic began to set in, a disciple hurried over from the entrance.

“Senior Sister Yu! The Junior Uncle from the Azure Mystic Sacred Land is here! He says he’s entering to help the Sect Leader retrieve the Mystic Yin Soul Protecting Pill. The Deputy Sect Leader ordered us to keep his presence a secret!”

The news struck like a thunderclap from a clear sky.

Yu Xueqing was stunned. “Azure Mystic is here?”

“You all wait here. I need to see this!”

Without hesitation, Yu Xueqing rushed toward the ruins’ entrance. The arrival of someone from Azure Mystic was too unexpected. She needed to warn Gu Xiu.

She sprinted all the way back to the cavern mouth.

At a glance, she saw him.

A figure dressed in white, wearing a black cloak that obscured his features, standing confidently before the stone statues.

“Although I am only at the Golden Core realm, my special constitution allows me to bypass the restrictions of this place,” Jiang Xun declared loudly to Leng Mingshu. “I will not be attacked by the guardians. If you don’t believe me, Sect Leader Leng, watch closely.”

Jiang Xun stepped forward.

He didn’t waste words. He began circulating his cultivation technique, preparing to walk past the statues to prove his “unique physique.”

But just as he activated his technique…

Inside the tunnel, Yu Xueqing noticed something odd.

Two drops of water, previously resting quietly in front of the stone statues, suddenly began to float upward.