May 15, 2017
Caring for a mount is truly not an easy job.
Especially when the mount has a rather low intelligence quotient... Even taking an IQ test could worsen its back pain. Even with Wang Jiu's vast experience, he had to admit that this time it opened his eyes.
However, taking care of a mount can also be an interesting experience. In the decades when he was born as a human, he focused on cultivation without distractions, and in his sight, besides a long sword, he could see nothing else. After being reborn as a Divine Sword, he was accompanied by top figures like the Jiu Immortal Venerables. Whether in cultivation or life, he didn't need others' care—instead, the Celestial Divine Sword, unfamiliar with worldly matters, often needed someone to watch over it.
Now, being able to care for a lightly retarded human girl, Wang Jiu found it quite interesting, and it could reluctantly be considered a part of enjoying life.
"However, considering I'm not familiar with the physiological structure of female humans, to ensure the efficiency of my care, I suggest using a Master-Servant Contract to gain a deeper understanding of you. Would you mind..."
"Get lost, get lost, get lost!"
"Alright then, I'll use a more universal method, starting with drinking more hot water..."
"Get out, get out!"
——
After ending a pointless dispute, Wang Jiu saw Li Qingming had fallen into a deep sleep. With nothing else to do, he began adding a few decorative items within the Sword World.
Dragon's Chant Flower, Hundred-Lock Vine.
Unlike the previous Shape Manipulation Array and Gentle Breeze, which were lifeless, these two decorations were living things with a certain degree of vitality. The Hundred-Lock Vine could capture extremely tiny fluctuations from the outside world, while the Dragon's Chant Flower was its companion, capable of analyzing and restoring the fluctuations captured by the vine into their original sound. These two plants could greatly enhance the Celestial Divine Sword's perception of the external world, yet their self-consumption was minimal, making them the top priority for cultivation for a blank state sword.
The materials needed to cultivate these plants, naturally, came from the mount's high-grade pure Qi blood… since she's just lying there anyway.
After spending about a morning and a noon, Wang Jiu finally completed the project within the Sword World. He watched as a green vine, hundreds of feet long, rose from underfoot, climbing the invisible ladder to the gray sky above, blooming like a network in the air, with tendrils extending outwards. On the ground, a few Dragon's Chant Flowers of different colors bloomed, transmitting the outside world's sounds through the long vine, gathering at one point.
And just as the vine and flowers were suffused with Qi blood and fully formed, Wang Jiu faintly heard a sound coming from the underground.
The sound wasn't human, more like a natural fluctuation of some Heavenly and Earthly Treasure, very faint, but since he was very close, Wang Jiu could barely hear it.
This discovery immediately piqued the sword spirit's immense curiosity.
This penniless mount actually buried Heavenly and Earthly Treasures under her own ground? Oh no, it's probably not Li Qingming who buried it, but rather a treasure left to her by her deceased mother.
The fluctuation's origin came from under the kitchen. With continuous locking by the vine and flower, Wang Jiu quickly found the mechanism. He used the Shape Manipulation Array to move an old brick under the stove, revealing a pitch-black entrance beneath the rumbling ground.
Below was a narrow passage not too long, ending in a room about ten feet square, with a long-lit lamp on the ceiling powered by high-grade spirit stones, providing almost inexhaustible energy. In the center of the chamber were a few old wooden boxes, and the fluctuation Wang Jiu heard from above came from the one in the middle.
As he approached the wooden box, Wang Jiu suddenly heard a startled and even panicked voice.
"Hey, who are you?"
The next moment, Wang Jiu saw a tall woman's phantom appear in front of the treasure chest.
It was a Guardian Spirit.
Wang Jiu saw through the essence of the phantom at a glance. Above the Rain Cover Realm, a Great Cultivator could split a part of their Primordial Spirit, combined with True Essence and specific techniques, to leave behind a Guardian Spirit resembling a clone.
The strength of a Guardian Spirit depended on the cultivator's technique level and the strength of the split Primordial Spirit, but it would gradually weaken over time. So, it's usually injected into an array, remaining dormant and awakened only under specific conditions to save spiritual power consumption.
And right now, he had triggered the array, awakening this Guardian Spirit.
Although its form was unstable, and the image was blurry, the woman's incredible beauty was still recognizable, even more shocking was her facial features' high resemblance to Li Qingming.
Considering her physique and age, the place, and the timing of her appearance, through strict logical deduction, her identity was clear at a glance.
"Shen Yue'e?"
Being a spirit body as well, the woman directly heard Wang Jiu's voice, eyes widened in surprise, "Yes, that's right. May I ask who you are?"
"I am the Celestial Divine Sword Spirit, blood-sacrificed to form during the Jiuzhou Immortal Demon War by the Jiu Immortal Venerables, awakened by the call of their descendant Li Qingming, now serving as her master engaged in the Sword World reconstruction and Shen Garden exploration mission."
"Ha? What…"
It took Shen Yue'e half an incense stick's time to recover from the shock. After the initial shock, the woman lowered her head gently, contemplating with a solemn expression, muttering to herself.
"Jiuzhou Immortal Demon War, Jiu Immortal Venerables, Celestial Divine Sword… all are unheard-of concepts. If it's not the sword spirit gone rogue, with intelligence collapsed... actually, it faintly resonates with historical fragments from the Primordial Era. But could there really be such a coincidence, encountering a relic from the Primordial Era in Shen Garden's kitchen basement, and it just happens to sign a contract with Qingming? No, considering both the Li Family and Shen Family possibly went through the Primordial Era, perhaps this object coincidentally has a connection with the ancestors. But why did it awaken just now? No, one should consider it differently—up until now, the awakening times of Primordial relics have been entirely unpredictable, so its awakening beside Qingming is reasonable. Even the faint spiritual power fluctuations could be explained as the dissipation of power over a long slumber..."