Chapter 22: The Prodigal Lord and the Devil Sword

Composing himself, Xiao Yifeng ran a finger along the cold, dark blade of Zhan Xian.

A thousand years ago, this sword possessed only a flicker of spirituality. But after an eternity of slaughter, drinking the blood and souls of countless enemies, it had birthed a Sword Spirit. It was ancient, yet in its current state, undeniably weak.

In his previous life, Xiao Yifeng had only learned the truth from Zhan Xian herself much later. The spirit had been born over three hundred years ago, long before he acquired it. However, because the sword had recognized Mo Tianqing as its master, the spirit remained trapped, unable to break free of his control. Had it not been bound by the laws of ownership, it would have devoured Mo Tianqing’s soul long ago.

Zhan Xian was an inauspicious blade—a master-eater. That nature had never changed since its forging.

Despite being the master, Mo Tianqing had never been able to possess the sword with his soul to escape the Wentian Sect. The Sword Spirit resisted him violently, and the blade itself naturally corroded soul bodies.

When Mo Tianqing’s physical body first died, he had attempted to possess Zhan Xian. The result? The sword devoured the majority of his soul. That failed attempt was the reason for his extreme weakness and why he hadn’t dared to try again for a thousand years. Unable to seize the bodies of his spirit pets due to incompatibility between species, Mo Tianqing had withered in the darkness, waiting for a human vessel.

Waiting for Xiao Yifeng.

Understanding this history, Xiao Yifeng wasted no time. He immediately used his essence blood to awaken the Sword Spirit, feeding it the soul-nourishing medicine he had painstakingly scraped together from his healing supplies.

He knew Zhan Xian well. He knew that for a spirit that had yearned to consume Mo Tianqing for centuries, the opportunity to finally be free of him was irresistible.

Xiao Yifeng tapped the flat of the blade and smiled. “Stop playing dead. Come out. You just devoured Mo Tianqing; you can’t be asleep already.”

As the words left his lips, the sword suddenly vibrated and leaped from his hand, hovering in mid-air.

A hazy mist coalesced before the blade, slowly forming into the figure of a young girl, perhaps twelve or thirteen years old.

She wore a dress as red as fresh blood. Her eyes were a faint, glowing crimson. She floated barefoot, looking down at Xiao Yifeng with an expression of imperious curiosity.

“Like Mo Tianqing, I am very curious about who you really are,” she said, her voice like chiming bells, yet cold as ice. “You seem to know me very well, and you replaced his soul imprint effortlessly. Are you Mo Tianqing? No… he couldn’t remember, and he never split his soul. Except for the parts I ate.”

She paused, licking her lips. On a normal child, the gesture might have been innocent. On her, it was purely predatory.

Xiao Yifeng stared at her, momentarily stunned. This form… it was different from the one he had seen in his past life. He quickly recovered and shrugged.

“Does it matter who I am? I am the benefactor who brought you into the light. I am your new master. Is that not enough?”

The girl giggled. “Fair point. You helped me eat that old fool, so technically, you are my benefactor. However… our contract seems one-sided. I bear your imprint, but you do not bear mine.”

She looked him up and down, her lip curling in disdain. “Besides, look at you. Mixed spiritual roots? Your aptitude is trash. Are you worthy of wielding me?”

Xiao Yifeng spread his hands and pointed to the fresh grave in the corner of the cave.

“What good are spiritual roots? Look at him. The victor becomes king, the loser becomes a bandit.”

His voice grew firmer, echoing in the damp cave. “What of Heavenly Spiritual Roots? In the end, they rot into yellow earth just the same. Roots do not determine destiny; a heart that seeks power does. Besides, if you only care about raw strength, wasn’t Mo Tianqing more suitable? Why did you help me kill him?”

The girl’s smile widened, revealing sharp canines. “Hehe… you are certainly more interesting than him. As for Mo Tianqing? I hated him. He was ugly, dull, and utterly boring.”

Her expression suddenly twisted into a scowl. “And he used me to chop wood! He used a divine sword to carve through mountains of rock! The indignity!”

Xiao Yifeng stiffened, suddenly feeling a prick of guilt. He rubbed his nose awkwardly.

Uh… surely using you to light fires and as a laundry pole in my past life wasn’t that big of a deal, right? You didn’t complain back then…

Seeing Xiao Yifeng fall silent, the girl stretched her arms overhead and yawned theatrically. “I’m sleepy. I will follow you for now. Next time I wake up, I’ll decide whether you’re worthy of a true contract.”

She dissolved into a streak of crimson light, merging back into the steel. Zhan Xian drifted down from the air, and Xiao Yifeng caught it gently, stowing it away in his Storage Ring.

The sword had absorbed a massive amount of soul power and needed to digest it. Xiao Yifeng knew the next time she woke, she would be stronger—and harder to control. But that was a problem for the future.

With the immediate threat of the sword neutralized, Xiao Yifeng scanned the cave one last time. Satisfied he had left no traces, he retrieved his broken array flags from the ground. A pang of heartache struck him. It had taken him months to save the materials to refine those flags.

Sigh. The cost of doing business.

He cleaned the scene with practiced efficiency, then scaled the cliff wall. He sprinted back to his quarters, ignoring the protest of his healing injuries. Fortunately, the return trip was uneventful; the shadows of the sect concealed his movements perfectly.

Back in his room, Xiao Yifeng collapsed onto his bed, clutching his ribs. The adrenaline faded, replaced by the throbbing ache of bone and the swelling pressure in his mind from Mo Tianqing’s residual soul power.

He sank into a deep, comatose sleep.

The next day, Xiao Yifeng woke with a splitting headache.

He immediately sat cross-legged, closing his eyes to organize the chaotic storm in his mind. The memories he had absorbed were fragmented and jumbled. Fortunately, Mo Tianqing had already severed his own useless memories over the centuries to prevent insanity, so what remained was mostly high-value knowledge.

Some memories merged seamlessly with his own. Others were alien. Xiao Yifeng sifted through them rapidly, absorbing the cultivation insights and ruthless experiences while mercilessly severing anything he deemed trivial.

The act of mentally severing memories was excruciating, sending tremors through his body, but he gritted his teeth and endured.

It took several days to fully catalogue the library of information now stored in his brain. The harvest was bountiful. His understanding of cultivation techniques, arcane secrets, and the geography of the cultivation world had expanded tenfold.

He smirked. The ancients were right: Murder and arson earn golden belts, while those who repair bridges leave no corpses.

With his mind settled, Xiao Yifeng finally turned his attention to the physical loot—Mo Tianqing’s Storage Ring. This had been his secondary objective, but a vital one.

The ring didn’t contain many artifacts, but it held a fortune in currency: several hundred Top Grade Spirit Stones.

Xiao Yifeng’s eyes glittered. This was exactly what he needed. This cache was the reason he had risked a life-and-death battle with Mo Tianqing so early, rather than waiting to grow stronger.

Time waited for no one. One step slow meant every step was slow.

He needed power, and he needed it yesterday. Without these Spirit Stones, his cultivation speed would be a crawl. If he progressed as slowly as he had in his previous life, he would inevitably fall under someone’s control again.

He rummaged further. The ring contained some pills, though many natural treasures had disintegrated into dust over the millennium. The Magical Artifacts were mostly scrap metal, damaged beyond repair during the ancient battle that had trapped Mo Tianqing here. Only Zhan Xian had survived intact.

The healing pills were gone, consumed by the desperate soul long ago. The remaining bottles contained breakthrough pills, useless for Xiao Yifeng’s current low realm. As for spirit beasts… the cages were full of bones.

He did find a massive eggshell, likely from the giant snake he had killed. It must have been a rare breed for Mo Tianqing to preserve it, but now it was just trash.

After sorting everything, Xiao Yifeng felt a brief flash of frustration. Despite the ring’s high-level origin, there was very little he could use right now. Just the Spirit Stones and some raw materials.

No, don’t be greedy, he chided himself. The objective was the stones.

And there was one pleasant surprise: among the surviving materials were most of the ingredients required for the Foundation Establishment breakthrough.

At least I won’t have to scour the earth for those when the time comes.

Time loses its meaning in the mountains.

Secure in his windfall, Xiao Yifeng began to cultivate with reckless abandon.

He knew that relying on the ambient Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth was a fool’s errand. With his mediocre aptitude and the terrifying resource drain of his “Three Teachings Parallel” foundation, standard cultivation would take an eternity—until the Monkey Year and the Horse Month.

He had to burn money.

Using Top Grade Spirit Stones for Qi Refining was the height of extravagance. It was pure waste. A cultivator at his level could only absorb about a third of the energy contained in such high-quality stones; the rest dissipated into the air.

In the cultivation world, this was called “Baijia”—prodigal ruin. Only the spoiled scions of colossal clans would dare burn wealth like this. Geniuses like Su Miaoqing didn’t need to; the heavens practically spoon-fed them Qi.

But Xiao Yifeng was no genius. He was a man with a deadline.

Day after day, he sat amidst a pile of glowing stones, draining them until they turned to grey dust. His cultivation speed soared, moving ten times faster than before. It was exhilarating.

It was also horrifyingly expensive.