Unreliable Sword Immortal.

Chapter 247 The Ancient Path of the Primordial Dust

Lu Chao killed the leaders of four sects and obtained the title of the Lord of Shu Mountain. A top-grade mineral vein was sent to Kaopu Mountain, causing the mountain to rise rapidly before stabilizing an hour later.

After the transformation, Kaopu Mountain could now rival the four great mountains of the Shu Mountain Sword Domain. Many new buildings appeared on it, such as the "Hall of Mental Cultivation," the "Sword Washing Pool," the "Floating Shadow Hall," and the "Purple Cloud Pavilion," among others. These buildings were all properties of the Kaopu Sword Sect, with exquisite interior decorations scattered throughout, waiting for people to move in. The Kaopu Sword Sect's small courtyard at the top of Kaopu Mountain had also been transformed into a huge palace complex, magnificent and imposing, far surpassing its original grandeur.

Standing atop the mountain, Lu Chao looked out into the distance, surveying all the surrounding peaks below, and felt a sense of exhilaration.

Soon enough, before he could even go to the headquarters of the four major sword sects to assume the position of sect leader, NPCs came to pay their respects and offer their congratulations.

The first person to come and offer congratulations was Ling Daozi, the head of the Tushan Sword Sect. He also brought two disciples. The three of them bowed respectfully to Lu Chaoding, showing great deference.

Lu Chaoding chatted with him casually for a few minutes, but he didn't expect that the sect leader of the Tushan Sword Sect's visit to offer congratulations was a pretense; his real purpose was to join a reliable sword sect.

"Sect Leader Lu, to be honest, my sect in Tushan is a small and insignificant sect. We are often bullied. Although we control a small mine, the harvest is very limited. We have to use jade to maintain relationships from time to time. I am not comfortable being the sect leader. So today I have dared to come to your door because I want to seek your help and beg you to take me in!"

Ling Daozi spoke respectfully, while his two disciples knelt down behind him.

Lu Chao thought to himself, "Isn't this just a godsend?" His reliable sword sect was exactly lacking disciples. He chuckled and said, "Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome! I, the sect leader, will accept you all. Ling Daozi, I hereby appoint you as Elder of Tushan. Take your disciples and choose a palace in the mountains as your residence. Once the sect is stable, we will calculate your salaries."

Ling Daozi was flattered and quickly waved his hand, "I dare not, I am too weak to be an elder. The sect leader has already been too kind of him to give me the position of steward."

"Elder Lingdaozi, you're too kind. Please follow my arrangements!"

Lu Chao thought to himself that this Ling Daozi was at least a level 90 sword immortal. If he were in one of the twelve states of the Hongchen Sword Realm, he would be a senior elder of a second-rate sect.

Ling Daozi happily withdrew, and then more NPCs came to offer their congratulations.

Some of these NPCs genuinely came to offer their congratulations and brought gifts, while most, like Ling Daozi, came to seek refuge with him.

Lu Chao was fearless, accepting all gifts and taking all the people. Before he knew it, a day later, he had twelve elders from a reliable sword sect and more than three hundred disciples.

With these elders, the entire sect began to operate automatically without Lu Chao's direct management. The twelve sect leaders divided the work among themselves: some were responsible for jade mining, some for recruiting disciples, some for distributing jade, and some for enforcing sect laws...

In short, Kaopu Mountain quickly became lively, while Lu Chaoding, as the sect leader, became increasingly idle after delegating the sect's management authority.

Three days later, no more NPCs came to pay their respects. Lu Chaoding saw that Lou Jialan was still in seclusion, so he rode a tiger and flew on his sword alone, embarking on his journey through Mount Shu.

For some time afterward, Lu Chaoding spent his time traveling and enjoying the scenery. The Shu Mountain Sword Domain was full of mountains, and Lu Chaoding thought that as the master of the Sword Domain, he should travel all over the mountains, just to inspect his territory and take care of the things he wanted to take care of, living a carefree life.

Thus, half a month later, Lu Chaoding arrived at the Great Luo Sword Sect's headquarters at Mount Da Luo.

Mount Daluo is one of the five highest peaks in the Shu Mountain Sword Domain. It has numerous buildings, tens of thousands of disciples, and one top-grade mineral vein, three high-grade mineral veins, and twelve mid-grade mineral veins. However, due to the killing of the sect leader and several powerful elders, the sect is now leaderless, and the disciples are filled with fear, which has led to chaos throughout Mount Daluo.

With the token of the Great Luo Sword Sect leader in hand, Lu Chaoding easily became the sect leader and took over the entire sect.

He had little interest in sect management. After randomly selecting an NPC who looked agreeable as the current sect leader, he became a hands-off manager and focused on opening the treasure vault of the Great Luo Sword Sect.

As one of the most powerful sects in the Shu Mountain Sword Domain, the Daluo Sword Sect has a very rich foundation and a vast treasure trove, including not only jade items but also various rare materials and other cultivation resources.

Like a thief, Lu Chaoding looted the treasure trove clean, and then happily embarked on his travels again.

A month later, Lu Chaoding arrived at Qinglian Mountain, the headquarters of the Qinglian Sword Sect. Just like arriving at Daluo Mountain, he smoothly became the sect leader of the Qinglian Sword Sect and then collected all the treasures in the Qinglian Sword Sect.

In the following two months, Lu Chaoding arrived at Hongchen Mountain and Tianmo Mountain one after another, and successfully took office as the sect leader. He also emptied the treasure troves of both Hongchen and Tianmo sects.

Two months later, Lu Chaoding achieved his small goal: to traverse all the mountains of the Shushan Sword Domain. At this moment, he stood on a mountain peak called "Hundred Battles," gazing in the direction of Kaopu Mountain.

"Unbeknownst to me, I've been in the Shu Mountain Sword Domain for almost half a year now. I wonder what the situation is like in the Twelve Provinces of the Sword Realm now, whether the national war storyline has ended, whether the interdimensional war has started, what the Hongchen Seven Realms Mountain is like now, and whether the Heavenly Demon Sword Sect has taken over the Pegasus Empire... "

Lu Chaoding felt it was time to return to Kaopu Mountain. The jade and artifacts he had collected were enough for his own use. If Lou Jialan finished his seclusion, he could open the Hongchen Ancient Path through the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box and then leave, which would be quite good.

After making the decision, Lu Chaoding's journey officially came to an end, and he embarked on his journey back to Kaopu Mountain.

In the past few months, relying on the various resources collected from the treasure vaults of the four major sword sects, Lu Chaoding has now reached level 120, and has upgraded his four main combat skills, namely [Greatly Outrageous Splitting Light and Shadow Sword], [Extraordinary Greatsword Technique], [Gaze Sword Technique], and [Sword Immortal Twelve Hatreds], to their current top level, which is LV23.

The LV23 [Great Absurd Splitting Sword Shadow] can split into 3000 sword shadows, each with 65% attack power.

Lu Chaoding's current attack power cap is 1000 billion, which is the threshold of his realm. Judging from past battles, the maximum damage he can deal with a single attack seems to be limited to 1000 billion, no more. Even the [Great Absurd Splitting Light Sword Shadow] cannot break this limit. Therefore, if Lu Chaoding is attacking a single target, it doesn't make much difference whether he uses the [Great Absurd Splitting Light Sword Shadow] or not. However, when attacking a group of targets, he can use the sword shadow and the Sun Heavenly Power to achieve a group kill.

The LV23 [Superior Greatsword Technique] is similar. When Lu Chaoding uses this skill, he can summon a 23-zhang-long greatsword, but he cannot increase the greatsword's attack power by 23 times. When using it to attack buildings, he cannot deal more than 1000 billion damage per hit.

However, the LV23 [Gaze Sword Technique] is quite sharp. Now, Lu Chaoding locks onto his target with his gaze, causing the target to lose 8388608 points of maximum health per second!

Lu Chao could kill most monsters with a single glance; he estimated that few players these days could withstand his gaze.

Even those powerful bosses with over 100 million HP were rendered useless by Lu Chao after just a few glances.

As for the "Sword Immortal's Twelve Hatreds", the actual effect of this skill is no longer consistent with its name. It is now called "Sword Immortal's Twenty-Three Hatreds". It consumes 23 points of battle spirit to use and can unleash twenty-three swords each time. After the twelve swords, the sword moves are nameless. Each attack can add a total skill damage after the attack, but the total damage caused by the attack and the additional attack cannot exceed the realm threshold.

Therefore, if Lu Chao uses the "Twelve Hatreds of the Sword Immortal" once, and the target does not have any special damage reduction ability, he can deal up to 23000 trillion damage.

Two days later, Lu Chaoding returned to Kaopu Mountain. He went straight to the top of the mountain and found Lou Jialan still sitting cross-legged on the ground with her eyes closed, as if she hadn't moved for the past six months.

"Junior sister, are you even capable? I'm already invincible here! I'm counting on you to unlock the new map! If you can't unlock that so-called Hongchen Ancient Path, then give me back all the fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box!"

Lu Chaoding said something to Lou Jialan, trying to wake her up.

But Lou Jialan seemed not to hear his voice at all.

Lu Chaoding was somewhat helpless. After waiting for about half a month, Lou Jialan finally opened her eyes. She pointed to the sky, and six fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box flew out. Then, thunderclaps appeared in the sky, and lightning struck the six fragments. However, the six fragments were like divine iron and were not damaged at all. Instead, they became even brighter and more dazzling under the bombardment of lightning.

"What happened?!"

"Why did lightning strike from the sky?!"

"Could it be that a foreign enemy has invaded?"

"The sect leader and deputy sect leader are both at the mountaintop!"

"Oh no! Quickly, go and support the sect leader!"

"To the top of the mountain! Hurry to the top of the mountain!"

The entire Kaopu Mountain trembled from the thunder at the summit, and a large number of NPCs spontaneously headed towards the top, with the twelve elders being the most enthusiastic.

Soon, the NPCs reached the mountaintop, which was now shrouded in golden light. In mid-air, the six fragments of the Hongchen Dao Box resembled six small suns, arranged in a circle and slowly rotating. Within the circle, light and mist surged, and suddenly a thick, bright beam of light was projected onto the ground.

"The Ancient Path of Primordial Dust has opened!"

A voice rang out; it was Lou Jialan's apprentice, player Li Yanlong.

Not long after Lu Chaoding left Kaopu Mountain, this guy stopped mining. She lived a leisurely life as Lou Jialan's apprentice, and could receive a lot of jade items every day. To this day, her level is still 60, but almost all the skills on her equipment have been upgraded to the maximum level.

If there is anyone more eager to leave the Shushan Sword Domain than Lu Chaoding, it is Li Yanlong.

Upon discovering the unusual phenomenon atop Kaopu Mountain, she rushed up, her expression excited. Pointing to the pillar of light projected into the sky, she exclaimed, "That must be a teleportation pillar! We can finally leave! Master, Senior Uncle, let's go!"

Li Yanlong called out and, without waiting for Lu Chaoding and Lou Jialan to reply, was the first to run towards the bright passage.

Neither Lu Chaoding nor Lou Jialan stopped her, allowing her to enter the pillar of light and then disappear.

"Junior sister, is this passage reliable?"

Lu Chao asked a question.

Lou Jialan nodded and said, "This is my ability setting, there shouldn't be any problem."

"Shall we set off now?"

"Please go first, senior brother!"

"good!"

Lu Chao responded, then looked at the crowd around him and said, "Everyone, I, the sect leader, am going on a long journey. I'm leaving the Reliable Sword Sect and the Shu Mountain Sword Domain in your care!"

Having said that, he waved his hand, summoning Ling Daozi to his side. He then took out the sect leader tokens of the four sects—Daluo, Qinglian, Hongchen, and Tianmo—and handed them to him, saying, "Ling Daozi, I am now passing on the identity of a reliable sword sect leader to you. Perhaps we will meet again someday!"

Lu Chaoding smiled slightly, then turned around, leaving Ling Daozi and a group of NPCs with bewildered expressions, and strode towards the pillar of light.

As soon as Lu Chao stepped into the pillar of light, he felt the scenery before his eyes flicker, and two breaths later, he was already in another place.

"Ding! You have arrived at the special secret realm, Hongchen Ancient Path. In this secret realm, you cannot use system functions such as flying sword message transmission, Heavenly Journey Sword Tournament, and world map. Please explore on your own!"

"Ding! A special event has been triggered. You have discovered a huge staircase leading to the void. After careful consideration, you have decided to step onto the staircase and explore the void."

"Ding! Automatically receive the opportunity quest. Step onto the steps of the Ancient Path of Primordial Dust. For every ten steps you ascend, you will be rewarded with 100 lottery tickets and 1 Primordial Crystal!"

"Ding! The Occasionally Unreliable System has activated, updating the tracking mission with altered content: Step onto the steps of the Ancient Path of Primordial Dust. For each step you take, you will be rewarded with 1 Unreliable Lottery Ticket and 100 Primordial Crystals!"

"Hmm? Primordial crystallization..."

Lu Chao looked ahead with curiosity. What came into his view was a huge golden staircase. Each step was estimated to be ten zhang high, as if it were built for giants, towering into the clouds and out of sight.

To be precise, he was standing on the first step of this enormous staircase, unable to see the end of the staircase above and only seeing emptiness below.

"This unreliable system is actually quite generous this time; the reward for climbing stairs is a thousand times that of an ordinary person..."

With a thought, Lu Chaoding saw the Great Xuan Ship appear beneath his feet. Just as he was about to fly to the second level of the stairs on his sword, a golden light flashed beside him, and Lou Jialan was also teleported over.

The AI ​​player, beaming with joy, exclaimed, "The Ancient Path of Primordial Dust! This is the Ancient Path of Primordial Dust! Haha, the opportunity to step into the Primordial Chaos Realm lies right here!"

"Junior sister, what do you know? Tell your senior brother!"

Lu Chao looked at Lou Jialan with curiosity. Lou Jialan actually nodded and said, "In my memory, Hunyuan Crystal is an important item for advancing to the Hunyuan Realm. As long as you can climb the 1201st step, you can accumulate enough Hunyuan Crystal to break through the bottleneck and enter the Hunyuan Realm!"

"Yeah?"

Lu Chao's heart skipped a beat. An ordinary person climbing 1201 steps would only obtain about 120 Chaos Origin Crystals, while he would receive 100 Chaos Origin Crystals for each step he took. If 120 Chaos Origin Crystals could break through a bottleneck and advance to the Chaos Origin Realm, wouldn't he only need to climb two more steps to advance to the Chaos Origin Realm?

(End of this chapter)