Unreliable Sword Immortal.

And so, Lu Chaoding established the Kaopu Sword Sect in the Shushan Sword Domain. The sect was located on Kaopu Mountain, controlled a high-quality jade mine, and recruited two new miner disciples.

"Sect Leader!" Lou Jialan bowed to Lu Chao and said, "You don't have to give me the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box, but please make sure they don't fall into the hands of the four sect leaders. Those four old fogies are birds of a feather, and their strength is exceptionally powerful. Once the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box fall into their hands, they will be difficult to retrieve!"

Lu Chao walked ahead of Lou Jialan and Li Yanlong, searching for the mine entrance, essentially leading the way. Hearing Lou Jialan's words, he casually nodded and said, "Sure, no problem!"

Lou Jialan continued, "If I'm not mistaken, those four old geezers should have already located Kaopu Mountain. Given their nature, they've probably already sent their men to demand it. They're not afraid of ordinary people; with your abilities, Sect Leader, you can easily sweep them away. The real problem is that those four old guys might come together. If that happens, you and I might be able to put up a fight if we join forces."

"Is this why you joined my faction?" Lu Chao stopped and carefully examined Lou Jialan, trying to understand her logic.

Lou Jialan nodded and said, "That's right, Sect Leader, your strength is not weak, but if those four old guys join forces, you may not be able to handle them. With me by your side, it's much safer. In short, we can't let those four old guys get any more fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box."

Lu Chao retorted, "Do you have a grudge against the leaders of the four sects?"

"That's right!" Lou Jialan's face showed a resentful expression. "My master, Daojun Hongchen, was killed by them, and I was imprisoned by them for three thousand years. My hatred for those four old guys is irreconcilable. It's just a pity that with my current strength, I am not enough to kill them."

Lu Chaoding continued forward, and asked curiously, "Could you elaborate? This sect leader is very interested in your master, as well as those four old guys and the four major sword sects."

Li Yanlong raised her hand and said, "I know a little about this."

She glanced at Lou Jialan and continued, "My master is the sole successor of Daoist Hongchen. Daoist Hongchen is my grandmaster. He is the guardian of the Hongchen Ancient Path, possessing the most fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box, thus gaining authority and acting on behalf of Heaven, hence the title Daoist. The leaders of the four major sword sects in the Shushan Sword Domain, those four original sects—more precisely, they should be the second-generation leaders of the Hongchen Sword Sect, the Daluo Sword Sect, the Tianmo Sword Sect, and the Qinglian Sword Sect—had their masters as the first-generation leaders of the four sects, all of whom were progenitors of the Hunyuan Realm. These four progenitors were incredibly powerful, but suddenly one day, they all disappeared!"

"After the four progenitors disappeared, the four sects were leaderless and went through a period of chaos. Hongchen Daojun, who acted on behalf of Heaven, became almost the number one person in the Sword Realm. He reorganized the four sects, commanded the Sword Realm, and launched a dimensional war, intending to collect all the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box. Those four old guys were the second-generation leaders of the four major sword sects appointed by him. They were his generals, specializing in collecting the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box..."

Li Yanlong shook her head and continued, "My advisor was rather cunning and probably didn't know how to win people over. He wasn't very quick-witted either. Anyway, one day, the second-generation leaders of the four sects that he had personally helped to take over suddenly betrayed him and killed him. These four probably knew some secrets about the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box, but obviously not much. After the death of Hongchen Daojun, all the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box disappeared into the void. Each of them only got one piece. In order to obtain the secrets of the Hongchen Dao Box, they joined forces and captured my master. They threatened, bribed, and tortured her. In short, they tormented her for a period of time. My master also developed a grudge against them. Later, my master was imprisoned by them and pressed under the Five Finger Mountain here. They put a suppression talisman on the top of the mountain. I went to the top of the mountain to remove the talisman and helped her escape. She then took me as her disciple and promoted me to the Azure Mist Sword Saint."

"Is that so? Others uncover talismans to accept disciples, but you uncover talismans to recognize a master?"

Lu Chao frowned. He was now absolutely certain that the Hongchen Dao Box was an extremely important item, and perhaps by collecting more fragments, he could glimpse its mysteries.

In addition, Lu Chaoding was also quite curious about the four major sword sects, which were the top forces in the Hongchen Sword Realm and had a very rich storyline.

Li Yanlong glanced at Lu Chaoding, chuckled, and said, "I know what you're thinking. Are you curious about what happened to the four great sword sects of Hongchen afterward, and why those four old guys came here?"

Before Lu Chaoding could recover, Li Yanlong continued, "According to the plot I know, one day after Daoist Hongchen died, the Hongchen Ancient Path suddenly opened, and the four missing sect founders and other founders returned simultaneously. After the four founders returned, the four sword sects returned to orthodoxy, and the second-generation sect leader was thrown into the void turbulence by the four founders, which is how he came to this place. Later, the four founders disappeared again, and after an unknown number of years, for unknown reasons, the four sects, which were once closely allied, suddenly became discordant. The Daluo, Qinglian, and Hongchen sects joined forces to attack the Tianmo Sword Sect. In short, after a great battle, the Tianmo Sword Sect was destroyed, and only three of the four sword sects remained. Now, the sect leaders of the three sword sects outside are probably the sixth generation."

"Oh, is that so!" Lu Chao nodded, having already spotted the mine entrance. "Chatting time's over, let's get to work. You two go dig!"

Li Yanlong said, "Sect Leader, let my master go mining. There are only three of us in our sect now, which is too few people. Let my master go mining, and I'll go outside to recruit disciples. The more disciples we have, the more efficient the mining will be, right?"

"You're quite considerate of the sect!"

"Then please grant me the title of elder, and I'll go recruit disciples. I'll recruit as many as I can; I won't come back until I do!"

"Haha, you're the elder, but where's your master?"

"Each to their own business. Even if you make her a menial disciple, I have no objection. I'll just focus on recruiting disciples!"

Lu Chao thought for a moment and said, "I suspect you don't want to mine and are just making excuses to run away! How about this, you and your master mine here for a week, and I, the sect leader, will personally recruit disciples!"

Li Yanlong's face immediately turned bitter.

Lou Jialan then said, "No, Sect Leader, we cannot be separated. We must ensure that we can join forces at any time. Do not forget that our enemies are the leaders of the four sects."

"So you just need to stay in a team?"

Lu Chao wondered how he had suddenly become enemies with the four most powerful sects in the Shushan Sword Domain. However, this was not necessarily a bad thing. With the blessing of luck, he was invincible here. Fighting big bosses would not be bad either.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Chao sent a team invitation to Lou Jialan.

"Ding! Sword Saint Lou Jialan has accepted your invitation!"

"Ding! Sword Saint Lou Jialan has joined your party!"

"Ding! Affected by the Azure Mist Sword Intent, the current team members (maximum of four) have gained the Sword Heart Counterattack state. While in the combat space, under the influence of this state, team members can actively counterattack once when they are attacked. This counterattack does not affect the action range. Please explore for details."

"Hmm? An extra buff!"

Lu Chaoding was startled. He hadn't expected that the Azure Lotus Sword Saint Lou Jialan would have such a team-up effect, and that the effect would be so powerful.

"This Lou Jialan is the third one I've encountered with a team-up effect. She's really impressive; no wonder she's a level 120 super expert. If I, Ye Longxing, Xiang Ruyan, and she formed a team, wouldn't that be incredibly awesome!"

Lu Chaoding thought it wouldn't be bad to bring Lou Jialan into the sect, so he said, "How about this, Lou Jialan, I'll recognize you as my junior sister and give you the status of a mining elder. Li Yanlong, you'll be a mining disciple for now, and we'll promote you based on your performance. The higher the position, the higher the salary, the better the benefits, and the more jade resources you can obtain in the future. Do your best!"

After saying that, Lu Chao strode towards the entrance of the mine.

He also wanted to visit the mine and do some mining, which wouldn't hurt. Besides, being in the mine would allow him to stay in a team with Lou Jialan, so they wouldn't be afraid if any of the four factions' NPCs came knocking.

A moment later, Lu Chaoding witnessed the scene inside the high-grade jade mine.

The mine has mining tools and mining locations. The mining tool is a pickaxe. Using it to mine is like digging the ground. Whether or not you make a ore is a matter of probability, and it depends entirely on luck. There is no skill or experience involved.

Mining locations are fixed sites; only by standing on them and digging can one potentially collect jade resources. There is a limit to the number of mining locations; for example, the Lu Chaoding vein only has 100 mining sites.

"Mining is so boring!"

After only swinging his pickaxe a few times at the mining site, Lu Chaoding found it too tedious. He persisted for a while, swinging the pickaxe about a hundred times, and with a clang, Lu Chaoding finally obtained his first rock tool.

It was a jade imbued with sword intent, which had automatically flown into a treasure chest in the sect's main hall.

"This efficiency is alright, you two, stop standing around like idiots and come mine!"

Lu Chao greeted him.

Lou Jialan and Li Yanlong were somewhat helpless, and had no choice but to swing their pickaxes with a clanging sound.

An hour later, Lu Chao checked the results. The three of them had worked hard and obtained a total of 30 jade items, including ten jade of inheritance, twelve jade of proof, five jade of enlightenment, and three jade of sword intent.

"This profit is already quite good. If the number of miners reaches one hundred, it will be even more exciting. I especially need Sword Intent Jade right now..."

As Lu Chao was pondering this, he suddenly received a system notification: "Ding, warning: someone has entered the sect gate without permission. Please return to the sect's main hall as soon as possible. If the sect's main hall is destroyed, the sect will be deemed to have fallen, and the sect's territory will be canceled and the right to mine the mineral vein will be lost."

"Someone's come looking for trouble! Is it one of the Four Great Sword Sects?"

Lu Chao immediately dropped his pickaxe and called to the Azure Lotus Sword Saint Lou Jialan and her disciple Li Yanlong, saying, "The enemy has invaded; follow me out of the cave to fight!"

"It's those four old bastards! Kill them!"

Lou Jialan, eager for battle, immediately ran towards the mine exit. Li Yanlong said, "Sect Leader, Master, you go fight. I'll stay here and mine. I'll work very hard."

Lu Chaoding didn't bother to ask about the female player, nor did he expect her to provide any combat power. He flew out of the mine on his sword and soon saw the so-called invading enemies. There were four of them, two men and two women. Lu Chaoding could see their attribute information. They were the entry-level disciples of the four major sword sects, with an average level of no more than 50. They looked dull and stupid, with limited intelligence.

"They sent four pieces of trash?"

Lu Chao's fighting spirit immediately diminished by more than half. He shouted at the four men, "I am the Supreme Heavenly Demon! You have entered my sect, committing a grave offense. According to the law, you should be executed. However, I, the sect leader, have a benevolent heart and will give you a chance to join my sect as miners, with food and lodging provided!"

The four NPCs were completely taken aback. When they saw the Azure Sky Sword Saint Lou Jialan standing next to Lu Chao, they immediately knelt down and said, "My lord, spare our lives! We will never dare to do it again!"

Lou Jialan said coldly, "Hmm! You all know what's good for you. Now, this elder will accept you into a reliable sword sect. You'd better work hard mining in the mines and don't slack off!"

"Thank you, sir, for sparing my life!"

"We are willing to follow your arrangements..."

The four NPCs were terrified and extremely wary of Lou Jialan. After a short while, Lou Jialan actually took them into a reliable sword sect and sent them to mine in the mine.

"Wow, my junior sister seems pretty intimidating. Those NPCs are really afraid of her!"

Lu Chao was overjoyed and quickly said to Lou Jialan, "Junior Sister, we are short of miners right now. Could you please go and recruit some?"

"A shortage of miners! What does that mean?"

Li Jialan's reaction was somewhat slow. Lu Chaoding explained to her for a while, only to find that it was like talking to a brick wall. She didn't understand what the lack of miners meant at all, let alone how to recruit miners. After being confused, she just kept telling Lu Chaoding about the necessity of joining forces to fight against the four major sword sects.

A moment later, four more NPCs suddenly appeared and attacked the mountain.

These four NPCs are one from each of the four major sword sects. Their average level has increased to 60. They were arrogant when they saw Lu Chao, but knelt down and begged for mercy when they saw Lou Jialan.

They clearly recognized Lou Jialan and were quite wary of him.

Lou Jialan once again accepted them as disciples of a reliable sword sect and assigned them to work in the mines.

Less than half an hour later, the third group of invaders arrived, this time consisting of four level 70 NPCs.

Upon seeing Lou Jialan, they too knelt and begged for mercy, not daring to even try to escape. In the end, they abandoned their evil ways and joined the reliable sword sect, becoming glorious miners.

Lu Chao was secretly pleased, thinking to himself, "The four major sword sects are really thoughtful. Did they come specifically to deliver the miners?"

A moment later, four level 80 NPCs came to attack the mountain. This time they did not surrender. Lu Chaoding and Lou Jialan teamed up and easily killed them.

To Lu Chao's surprise, the four NPCs actually dropped thirty-six pieces of jade material.

Using the sword intent jade, Lu Chaoding upgraded his [Gaze Sword Technique] by one level. Now, when he locks onto a target with his gaze, the target's maximum health will decrease by 32 points per second!

"Excellent, excellent, keep going!" Lu Chao was in high spirits, eager for more NPCs from the four factions to come and attack him. (End of Chapter)