Cultivation: Fortune by Lots

In the legends, flying swords that could take the enemy's life from a thousand, even ten thousand miles away—like immortals descending from the heavens!

All along, the world widely acknowledged that, among the current lineages' Taoist inheritances, those with the longest attack range were the Confucian Divine Archery and the Daoist Outer Elixir Flying Swords.

The two not only attacked from afar, but each also possessed a certain degree of mystical ability to identify distant targets.

So, to other cultivators, they sometimes might even have to face attacks that came from beyond the reach of their sight or senses.

The source of this peril was precisely the Confucian Divine Archery and the Daoist flying swords.

Luckily, other sects had their own ingenious methods; otherwise, Confucian Divine Archery and Daoist flying swords would have been hits every single time. Even when they struck, who could say if the effects would meet expectations?

Still, everyone simply had to stay on guard against practitioners from the Confucian Divine Archery Lineage and Daoist Artifact Refining Sect who cultivated above the Sixth Heavenly Layer.

At this moment, Lei Jun, looking north into the distance, saw the scene: up ahead, Mount Shu Sect's Upper Three Heavens masters were displaying the true essence of the Taoist Sword Control Technique.

And not just one of them.

Lei Jun saw two brilliant, majestic sword lights shoot for the sky, one after the other, both rushing off simultaneously into the distance.

Such all-out sword strikes invested the cultivator's essence, energy, and spirit; naturally they could not be unleashed repeatedly or with divided attention.

These were two Great Sword Cultivators from Mount Shu, erupting together in full force after long preparation.

Lei Jun tried to distinguish the direction.

The place where the sword lights rose seemed to be north of Yushan, another spiritual land of Shu—a place called…

Mount Huanglong.

But as for where the sword lights landed, Lei Jun, given the extreme distance, could not pinpoint exactly.

From Yushan looking northward, the sword lights seemed to rise from the edge of the sky, soar across the heavens, then fall at the far horizon again.

He could only generally tell that they moved right to left, from east to west.

Lei Jun guessed the target was none other than the Ancestral Courtyard of the Mount Shu Sect: Qingcheng Summit.

Internal conflict within Mount Shu Sect had finally erupted in full.

No wonder there were warnings that Mount Huanglong in the north was dangerous.… Lei Jun recalled the words of the worst lot, and understood.

There, at least two Upper Three Heavens Elders of Mount Shu were holding down the fort, constructing what amounted to a "cannon battery" or "missile silo" to strike at their own Ancestral Court.

Judging from the form of those two sword lights, it was clear that the preparations had been extremely thorough—this was not something put together overnight.

The worst lot's phrase about "exposing hidden matters and inviting calamity" plainly meant that if he rashly went to Mount Huanglong, he might discover something suspicious.

The other side already had no choice but to release the arrow once it was notched.

If Lei Jun crashed headlong into that, the best he could hope for would be getting captured and detained.

Based on that lot, the chance he would be silenced forever seemed even higher.

The identity of a true inheritor from Dragon Tiger Mountain would not be a talisman; on the contrary, it might just push the other side to kill him.

As for visiting Mount Shu's Ancestral Courtyard at Qingcheng Summit, there was really nothing more to say.

Troops in danger, a battle in deadly peril.

They were literally tearing the place apart over there…

Lei Jun watched as the sword light blazed through the sky and struck earth.

The distance was so great that even with a Divine Eye Mirror Stone, he could not see what was happening at Qingcheng Summit from Yushan.

Still, it seemed unlikely that the attackers would rely solely on long-range strikes from Mount Huanglong.

Qingcheng Summit must have been assaulted at the same time; more likely, things kicked off there first, and just as the fight hit its fever pitch, Mount Huanglong lobbed in long-distance "artillery" and a sneak attack.

If Lei Jun had gone to Qingcheng Summit at Mount Shu's Ancestral Courtyard, just as the lot predicted, he might have gotten lucky exploiting the chaos and obtained a Seventh-Grade fortune—maybe even more.

But in such an environment, the far likelier outcome would be that he'd die before he could spend any gains.

This kind of thing, Master Lei was not signing up for.

Although he did feel some curiosity: Had He Dongxing, Ji Dongquan, Ji Chuan, and the others gotten involved?

As a branch lineage of Mount Shu Sect, Yushan Temple would be following this sudden upheaval even closer than Lei Jun, and feeling even more anxious.

The old Temple Master had not left Yushan.

On the contrary, he restrained the disciples under his command, calmed their fears, and repeatedly warned everyone to maintain composure, ignore outside affairs, and remain within the mountain.

From Lei Jun's observation, the elder seemed to be keeping a relatively neutral stance.

Within Mount Shu's Ancestral Court, it was hard not to get dragged under by the swirling maelstrom.

As a branch, under the Temple Master's strong rule, Yushan Temple could still manage to stay standing for the time being.

But who knew if he could keep holding out…

Although the Daoists from the temple's Outer Elixir Artifact Refining Lineage kept tacitly quiet with Lei Jun about recent events, from the private undercurrents and rumors he gathered, Lei Jun still pieced together some knowledge of this internal strife.

The current word was that, inside Mount Shu, a conservative faction had at last lost all patience and forced the Sect Leader's hand, triggering a near-rebellious insurrection of juniors overruling superiors.

The two factions tore away all pretense at the Ancestral Court's Qingcheng Summit, and a great war broke out.

Quite a few neutrals were drawn in against their will, switching sides as the storm grew ever more violent.

Substantial casualties had already occurred, with more likely to come.

…The most chilling whispers said that one of Mount Shu's Upper Three Heavens Elders fell in battle on that very first night.

*Although many had seen it coming, the bloody reality in the end shocked almost everyone.*

The disasters that Dragon Tiger Mountain's Celestial Master Mansion once weathered were now playing out atop Shu Mountain's Summit.

Good thing I didn't go to Mount Shu's Ancestral Court, or Mount Huanglong.

*In a way, maybe disaster always runs just one step ahead of me…* Lei Jun smirked at himself in thought.

The fault lines inside Mount Shu had built up for years, only growing sharper. That things finally exploded now was almost foreordained.

*At present, all I could do was wait it out in patience, and watch for the curtain to fall on this war and see how things settled.*

He quickly calmed himself, staying in his cottage atop Yushan, continuing his own cultivation, unperturbed by the world outside.

The cultivation practices of the Outer Elixir Artifact Refining Sect gave Lei Jun some interesting points of reference and analogy.

Inside his cottage, Lei Jun sat cross-legged, one hand pressing a mudra at his chest, the other stretched in front of him, five fingers splayed.

He had polished several dart-like projectiles from metal.

At present, these darts floated midair.

Lei Jun's outstretched hand, with spread fingers, seemed to be connected to the darts by unseen strings.

Under his control, the darts weaved and spun through the air around him.

The room rang with the "zzzt-zzzt" of electricity.

Lei Jun was not holding up these darts with formless mana, but generating fine currents of lightning to control them with electrical power.

Dark Five-Thunder Orthodox Talisman.

Yin Metal Thunder.

This was the result Lei Jun gained after reaching the Original Talisman realm, refining and elevating his life-bound Five-Thunder Talisman into the Dark Five-Thunder Orthodox Talisman.

He also worked on the other four yin thunders: Yi Wood, Ding Fire, Ji Earth, and Gui Water.

But his current experiment was precisely with the Yin Metal Thunder.

At close quarters, tiny objects like these could be seized with raw mana power alone.

But without specifically refining them, although he could make the darts orbit and dance, they lacked a certain nimbleness.

And they could not reach far.

The magic artifact refinement practice of the Outer Elixir line went far deeper, yielding unique results.

Yet if Lei Jun blindly copied them, not only would the mismatch between schools mean twice the effort for half the effect—with poorer results—but his time and focus would be wasted.

So now, he tried manipulating these metal darts with his own Yin Metal Thunder.

The result was seamless—he could command them as if with his own arm, and they moved nimbly.

For now, this was only a small-scale test.

Later, Lei Jun considered trying it out with larger objects and over greater distance.

This was groundwork for his bigger future experiments and ambitions.

As for Thunder Method, the marvels of lightning's power, Lei Jun had far more plans—which would directly feed into the Second and Third Laws of his cultivation for the Middle Three Heavens realm.

After picking for the First Law the steady, versatile Star-stepping Spell, for the Second and Third Laws, Master Lei was prepared to really let himself go wild…

"Hmm?"

Just as Lei Jun finished his exercises and stepped out for a stroll in the mountains, something stirred within him.

In his senses, he felt a presence somewhere in the forest.

Out of the corner of his eye, it seemed he glimpsed a huge shadow flicker through the trees.