The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

Chen Siyao spent nearly half an hour on the second floor by herself, recording all the sword manuals she could photograph with the image crystal.

She tried out the starting stances of several sword techniques on the spot, and the angle of wrist rotation and the trajectory of body weight movement were completely different from what she had learned before.

It's from a different system.

"Yaoyao!" Yang Wanqing's voice came from the third floor, "Come up! There's something good here!"

Chen Siyao went up to the third floor.

There is only one thing on the third floor.

A wall.

The entire wall was polished into a mirror surface, not a jade mirror, but a mirror surface made of some kind of dark metal.

Standing three feet in front of the mirror, one can vaguely feel a sense of oppression emanating from it.

"Sword Intent Polishing the Mirror." Chen Siyao approached and saw a line of small characters embedded below the mirror.

"Stand before the mirror, sword in hand. A myriad of sword intents are reflected in the mirror. If you can withstand them, the sword intents are yours. If you cannot..."

The words at the end are worn away and illegible.

Yang Wanqing took two steps back. "What will happen if you can't handle it?"

"I don't know. The words are gone." Chen Siyao stared at the mirror for a few seconds, then stepped back. "Let's not try it today. Let's see the whole Golden Palace first."

"Okay, okay." Yang Wanqing nodded vigorously, she had an instinctive wariness towards this mirror.

After exiting the Sword Pavilion, the second facility is the Sword Practice Platform.

It is similar in principle to the Martial Arts Hall of the Jade Void Palace, but smaller in scale and only for sword cultivators.

There are traces of illusion array left on the stage. It should have been able to simulate opponents in the past, allowing disciples to practice sword moves in the array.

Then. The third one. The fourth one.

There were many places to practice swordsmanship, each with a different function.

There is a narrow passage specifically for practicing speed, with only one person and one sword able to pass through between the two walls, and the walls are covered with trap holes.

There is a stone array specifically for training strength, with twelve stone pillars arranged in a circle. The indentations on the pillars indicate that they used to rotate at high speeds.

"This entire palace complex... is essentially a giant sword cultivator training base," Chen Siyao concluded, standing at the entrance of the fifth facility.

Yang Wanqing nodded vigorously beside him. "Now I believe that everyone in this sect practices swordsmanship."

It had been most of the day since they finished walking through the training area. Chen Siyao led Yang Wanqing towards the rear section, the living and office area.

In the private study of Chang Geng Tianzun, Chen Siyao found more crucial information.

A document records data from the Golden Cloud Sect's heyday... It had 189 disciples, including two Dao Tribulation Realm cultivators.

two.

It's one less than the Beichen Immortal Sect.

Yang Wanqing leaned closer to look: "Only two saints?"

"Two is already a lot," Chen Siyao said.

"The entire Jade Void Sacred Palace has only about twenty sects in total, averaging less than three per sect. The Northern Star Immortal Sect actually has more than three."

"Who are those two from the Golden Palace Cloud Sect?"

Chen Siyao turned to the next page. "One of Chang Geng Tianzun's disciples is his eldest disciple, named 'Qingfeng,' at the seventh level of the Dao Tribulation. The other is a female sword immortal named 'Ling Han.'"

"The seventh level of the Dao Tribulation is already quite impressive, isn't it? It's two levels higher than Chang'e's fifth level of the Dao Tribulation."

「对

This Golden Cloud Sect... its combat strength on paper is no weaker than that of the Northern Star Immortal Sect.

The Celestial Venerable's cultivation level is on par with that of the Purple Star Celestial Venerable. His eldest disciple's Dao Tribulation Realm level is even higher than that of the Three Saints of the Northern Star.

"Yaoyao!" Yang Wanqing discovered something on the other side of the study. "Come look at this!"

A small stone tablet is embedded in the side wall of the study. The characters on the tablet are filled with gold lines, and every stroke is gold.

Chen Siyao walked over to take a closer look.

The inscription is short. It tells only one story.

"The Chang Geng Immortal Sword. Forged from the combined essence of heaven and earth's spiritual iron and the sun and moon, it took thirteen thousand six hundred years to complete. It can cut down all things, both tangible and intangible. One of the two great ancient divine swords."

Chen Siyao's gaze was fixed on the last sentence.

"One of the two ancient divine swords?" Yang Wanqing leaned closer. "And what about the other one?"

There was another line of smaller characters after the inscription. Chen Siyao bent down and deciphered it for a few seconds.

"The Chang Geng Immortal Sword is ranked first among the two great divine swords, on par with the Zhu Xian Sword."

The Immortal-Slaying Sword.

Yang Wanqing gasped.

"The Immortal Execution Sword?! That Immortal Execution Sword?"

"It's most likely what you're thinking of." Chen Siyao straightened up.

The Immortal Execution Sword is one of the most frequently appearing divine weapons in fantasy novels and myths on Earth. Legend has it that it was the sword of the Tongtian Sect Leader, capable of slaying immortals and destroying saints.

And the Chang Geng Immortal Sword is as famous as it.

The live chat exploded with comments.

"The Chang Geng Immortal Sword is as famous as the Zhu Xian Sword!!!"

"Two ancient divine swords! One is in the Chan Sect (Golden Cloud Sect), and the other is in the Jie Sect?"

"Isn't the Zhuxian Sword the sword of the Tongtian Sect Leader? So the Chang Geng Immortal Sword is a counterpart to the Zhuxian Sword?"

"Chang Geng Tianzun = the strongest swordsman on the Chan Sect's side. Tongtian Jiaozhu = the strongest swordsman on the Jie Sect's side. Their swords are equally renowned. This is an incredibly grand scale."

"So, perhaps the great battle between the Chan and Jie swords back then was the ultimate showdown between these two swords?"

Chen Siyao did not respond to these speculations. That's all the information the inscription can provide.

Is the Chang Geng Immortal Sword still in the Golden Palace? She wasn't sure, after all, a Celestial Venerable wouldn't leave behind their natal weapon when they retreated.

"This sword should have already been taken away by Chang Geng Tianzun," Chen Siyao said.

"What a pity." Yang Wanqing touched the stone tablet regretfully. "If only I could see it."

Chen Siyao didn't reply. She came out of the study and continued walking towards the back.

The private space of Chang Geng Tianzun is located at the deepest part of the Golden Palace. It is a separate courtyard with walls made of bluestone. There is no plaque at the entrance, only a simple sword-shaped symbol carved on the door frame.

Push the door open and go inside.

There is only one tree in the yard.

A dead ancient tree, its trunk so thick that it would take three people to encircle it.

The tree trunk was covered with sword marks... not from attacks, but from sword practice.

The same spot has been repeatedly chopped thousands of times, and the wood fibers have long since been shattered, but the trunk still stands tall and upright.

This tree itself is a tree that has undergone cultivation. Even if it withers and dies, it will not fall.

There was a flat stone platform under the tree. There was nothing on the stone platform.

"The sword should be here." Chen Siyao pointed to the stone platform. "Chang Geng Tianzun took it with him when he left."

"The traces are still there." Yang Wanqing squatted down to examine the surface of the stone platform. In the center was a shallow groove, perfectly shaped like a long sword. "He's really gone."

Chen Siyao walked around the yard but found nothing else.

Chang Geng Tianzun took all the important things with him... unlike Chang'e.

Chang'e left behind her cultivation notes and documents, while all that remains of Chang Geng Tianzun's place are the building itself and those training facilities.

For a swordsman—the sword is everything. Once the sword is gone, nothing else matters.

"Let's go back and look at the murals in front," Chen Siyao said.

"What mural?"

"The long corridor next to the entrance plaza of the Golden Palace. I just glanced at it; there was a large mural, but I didn't have time to look at it closely."

The two returned to the square. The wall at the end of the corridor... Chen Siyao had noticed it before but hadn't stopped.

Now she stood directly in front of the mural.