Chapter 174: Heavenly Treasure Vault

He had fought his way here, cutting down foes with his blade, a combat style that clearly defined his future path.

Li Baxian nodded. "Weapon cultivators are a large faction, and among them, sword cultivators are paramount. It's said that the sword is the king of all weapons, and sword cultivators' lethality is the strongest among weapon cultivators. Since you wish to become a weapon cultivator, do you intend to cultivate the sword?"

"I use a saber, Senior Brother."

"I know. But I've seen your previous saber; it's quite similar to a sword. If you're willing to cultivate the sword, I can teach you and help you avoid many detours."

Lu Ye considered seriously, then slowly shook his head. "I don't seem to have good compatibility with swords. I tried using a sword initially, but it never felt right."

Li Baxian earnestly persuaded, "You can gradually adapt to such things. You'll get used to it with practice."

Lu Ye insisted, "No need, Fourth Senior Brother. I'm still used to using a saber."

Li Baxian's eye twitched; his persuasion had failed. He sighed. "In that case, go prepare a suitable weapon. Starting tomorrow, I will teach you some things – some very practical things!"

A slow smile spread across his lips, and Lu Ye suddenly had a bad feeling.

His original long saber had been completely shattered on Golden Light Peak. Fortunately, it was just the lowest-grade Spirit Artifact, so its destruction wasn't regrettable.

Finding a suitable weapon now wouldn't be easy. He had killed many people on Golden Light Peak previously and seized numerous storage bags. Initially, he collected these bags himself, and no one from the Ten Thousand Devil Ridge side prevented him.

Later, when Senior Sister saw how exhausted he was, she started collecting them for him after each battle, and then no one dared to stop her.

A few days ago, Second Senior Sister had indeed handed over his spoils of war. The restrictions on those storage bags had been opened, but their previous owners didn't have many good things. Lu Ye's biggest gains from them were Spirit Stones, Spirit Pills, and Spirit Talismans.

As if noticing Lu Ye's dilemma, Li Baxian advised, "Go look at the jade slip I gave you. You'll understand what to do."

"Oh."

Lu Ye returned to his dwelling, took out the jade slip, and examined it carefully. The jade slip contained a wealth of information, perfect for someone like Lu Ye, who only had a rudimentary understanding of the cultivation world. It seemed Fourth Senior Brother had already considered this. The more Lu Ye examined it, the more he felt the profound mystery of the so-called Heaven's Mystery.

One could say that although he had spent half a year in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, his understanding of this world was still just the tip of the iceberg.

An hour later, he put down the jade slip, slowly processing the various pieces of information in his mind.

After a long while, he finally got up and went to the Heaven's Mystery Hall. Through the Heaven's Mystery Pillar, he entered the Spirit Creek Battlefield.

When he reappeared, he was already inside the Heaven's Mystery Hall at the Crimson Blood Sect's outpost.

He activated his battlefield mark to connect with the Heaven's Mystery Pillar before him. Following the instructions in Fourth Senior Brother's jade slip, he silently chanted, "Low-grade Spirit Artifact!"

As soon as the words left his lips, a vortex immediately appeared before him. An irresistible force emanated from it, pulling Lu Ye inside before he could react.

When he regained his senses, he was standing in an incomparably vast hall. Rows upon rows of weapon racks stretched as far as the eye could see, containing every conceivable type of weapon, and every single one was a Spirit Artifact.

This was Lu Ye's first time experiencing something like this, and he found it novel. He silently sensed his surroundings and realized he could still feel his physical body in the Crimson Blood Sect's Heaven's Mystery Hall, yet his consciousness had entered this place.

The Heaven's Mystery Vault—this was the miraculous place Fourth Senior Brother had mentioned in the jade slip.

In Kyushu, on the Spirit Creek Battlefield, any cultivator with merit points could engage in transactions with Heaven's Mystery. Li Baxian summoning the Heaven's Mystery Contract was one such transaction, and Lu Ye previously summoning the Pet Contract was another.

Therefore, if one wanted to buy something, transacting with Heaven's Mystery was the most convenient method, as everything was available here. The only drawback was that transactions with Heaven's Mystery could only be conducted using merit points.

This differed from transactions with the Heaven's Mystery Alliance, where Spirit Stones could be used. However, transacting directly with Heaven's Mystery itself was the fastest, because as long as one had enough merit points, any ownerless treasure existing in this world could be purchased.

Lu Ye wanted to find a suitable long saber quickly, and coming here to transact with Heaven's Mystery was undoubtedly the best choice.

No one knew what exactly the Heaven's Mystery Vault was, just as cultivators in Kyushu had never been able to locate the exact position of the Spirit Creek Battlefield. Therefore, even if someone had designs on the treasures within the Heaven's Mystery Vault, there was no way to act on them.

According to current knowledge, there was some connection between the Heaven's Mystery Alliance and the Heaven's Mystery Vault, as it had been discovered that some treasures appearing in the Vault would be sold by the Alliance, and items acquired by the Alliance would also appear in the Vault.

Lu Ye was merely here to find a long saber and wasn't interested in exploring these secrets.

However, gazing at the endless, countless weapon racks, he felt a headache coming on. Sometimes, too many options could be overwhelming.

So he spoke aloud, "Long sabers!"

The surrounding scenery subtly warped, and the entire vault abruptly shrank. Though it still appeared vast, he could at least see its end now.

The Spirit Artifacts on the racks were all long sabers, just as Lu Ye had requested.

Many of the long sabers were similar to his previous one.

He casually picked one up, activating his spiritual power to examine it, and found that it was no better than his old long saber. He put it down and picked up another to examine, with the same result.

He thought for a moment, then spoke again, "Nine restrictions..." He quickly added, "Focused on strengthening the blade!"

The quality of a Spirit Artifact depended, firstly, on the materials used to forge it, and secondly, on the number of restrictions imprinted within it. Nine restrictions were the limit for a low-grade Spirit Artifact; anything over nine indicated a mid-grade Spirit Artifact. This was information Fourth Senior Brother had provided in the jade slip.

Spirit Artifacts weren't simply "the higher the quality, the better." Their suitability also depended on the user. Restrictions required spiritual power to activate, and the more restrictions there were, the greater the consumption during activation. If one's cultivation was too low, they wouldn't even be able to activate the restrictions within a high-grade Spirit Artifact.

With Lu Ye's current fifth-layer cultivation, a low-grade Spirit Artifact with nine restrictions was sufficient for a considerable period.

As for focusing on strengthening the blade, it was naturally because he didn't need the Spirit Artifact to be exceptionally sharp; his Sharpness Spiritual Mark could satisfy that demand.

The Heaven's Mystery Vault changed again. The number of Spirit Artifacts that appeared was significantly reduced, now only a dozen or so rows remained.

Lu Ye began walking among them, examining each one.

Soon, he found a suitable long saber. This Spirit Artifact saber was similar to his previous one, but significantly heavier. However, for Lu Ye, this was undoubtedly more comfortable to use, as his current strength far surpassed what it was when he left Green Cloud Mountain.

He examined the saber's interior and found nine spiritual marks imprinted within, connected by a miraculous technique. Seven of these nine spiritual marks were for strengthening the blade, and two were for increasing the Spirit Artifact's lethality. These two spiritual marks had a high degree of similarity to his Sharpness.

Spiritual marks could be connected like this? Doubt arose in Lu Ye's mind.

Ultimately, his understanding of spiritual marks was limited to those he had obtained from the Talent Tree. He could freely use those three spiritual marks, but he knew nothing about others.

Suppressing the urge to investigate further, Lu Ye was undoubtedly pleased with this long saber.

Perhaps for other cultivators, this Spirit Artifact's offensive power wouldn't be strong enough, but for Lu Ye, that wasn't an issue. With a single Sharpness Spiritual Mark applied, he could cut through anything.

The price was also marked, glowing faintly in numbers on the saber's blade.

One hundred thirty-eight!

In other words, if Lu Ye chose to take this long saber out of the Heaven's Mystery Vault, one hundred thirty-eight merit points would be deducted.

He didn't know if this price was expensive or cheap, but compared to the price of the Pet Contract, it certainly wasn't cheap.

He stopped looking further. The differences among low-grade Spirit Artifacts weren't significant, and finding one like this so smoothly was already quite good. With a thought from Lu Ye, the surrounding scenery suddenly dissipated.

When he came to his senses, he was already standing in the Heaven's Mystery Hall.

His mind felt slightly fatigued...

This was the cost of communicating with the Heaven's Mystery Vault and searching for items within it. One could say that the longer he stayed in the Heaven's Mystery Vault, the more fatigued his mind became.

He had originally intended to search for something else in the Heaven's Mystery Vault, but now he could only give up on that idea.

He looked down and saw the long saber he had purchased for one hundred thirty-eight merit points in his hand. Lu Ye drew the saber from its sheath; the blade's gleam didn't feel particularly sharp, but rather heavy and substantial.

Only then did he notice two small characters on the saber's hilt. He carefully distinguished them and recognized them as "Panshan."

In other words, this was a named saber, though he didn't know who had forged it.

He casually swung it a few times and found that it felt no different from when he tested it in the Heaven's Mystery Vault; in fact, it felt even more comfortable.

Returning the saber to its sheath, he stepped out of the Heaven's Mystery Hall, heading towards another location within the outpost as guided by Fourth Senior Brother's jade slip.

Not long after he left, a young cultivator hurried over. He tidied his appearance outside the Heaven's Mystery Hall, then stepped inside. A quick glance revealed no sign of Lu Ye. For a moment, he looked bewildered, turning to the other cultivator who had followed him. "Didn't you say Lu Ye came here?"

"I just saw him here a moment ago," the accompanying cultivator explained.

"He went back again?" The young man was somewhat annoyed. He had rushed over as soon as he received news of Lu Ye's reappearance, but it seemed he was still a step too late.

After a moment's thought, he instructed the accompanying person, "You wait here. When he comes again, notify me immediately. If possible, please ask him to wait for me for a moment."

The man quickly agreed.

At this very moment, Lu Ye had arrived at another location: a cluster of small buildings. This was considered the Crimson Blood Sect disciples' cultivation rooms, where idle disciples could seclude themselves for practice. Every sect's outpost had such areas, arranged in quiet places, not exclusive to the Crimson Blood Sect.

However, because the Crimson Blood Sect hadn't recruited disciples for several decades, the area was overgrown with weeds and desolate.