Hermit in the Mountains

Gu Changsheng gently stroked the sword with his left hand, his fingers resting on the tip, his middle finger lightly flicking the sword, and a clear "ding" sound rang out.

He touched the two ancient seal characters engraved on the sword, "From today onwards, you shall be called - the Sword of Withering and Flourishing."

The Withered Glory Sword was just an ordinary magic weapon. Gu Changsheng seemed to be talking to himself, but the sword did not react at all.

Gu Changsheng got up and went outside. He released the Ku Rong Sword with his right hand, letting it hover in mid-air. He then pinched the sword fingers with his right hand and placed the Ku Rong Sword flat at his feet, with the Ku Rong Sword lying flat ten centimeters off the ground.

He channeled his divine sense into the control center of the Withering and Flourishing Sword, activating the individual runes within the weapon.

"Big, big, big..."

With a thought, the Withering and Flourishing Sword instantly grew larger, reaching a width of thirty centimeters and a length of two meters.

A suction force was generated around the sword, drawing in the surrounding wind energy and drawing it into the sword's interior.

Gu Changsheng lifted his right foot and stepped onto the 30-centimeter-wide blade of the sword. He pressed down slightly with his right foot, but the sword did not budge. Only then did he lift his left foot and place it behind his right foot.

When he stepped off the ground onto the sword, his body swayed from side to side. He quickly spread his arms to steady himself. After regaining his balance, he swayed his body from side to side to familiarize himself with how to maintain his center of gravity while suspended in the air.

He found his balance point, and suddenly stepped forward with his left foot, placing it in front of his right foot. He then lifted his left foot and took another step, moving forward and backward to familiarize himself with the changes in his center of gravity.

At the same time, he was calculating the efficiency of the spiritual energy supply from the spirit-gathering artifact pattern within the Withering and Flourishing Sword, as well as the rate at which his own mana and spiritual power were consumed, so that he could have a clear understanding of the situation.

Three minutes passed in a flash. Gu Changsheng had mastered his balance on the flying sword, the sword's spirit-gathering effect, and the speed at which his own mana and spiritual energy were consumed.

On his first time flying on a sword, Gu Changsheng spread his arms wide to maintain his balance. With a thought, the Kuru Sword lifted him up slowly into the air, hovering ten meters above the ground.

Gu Changsheng used his divine sense to move the flying sword forward. The flying sword accelerated instantly, like a car starting up and generating a push-back feeling. His body suddenly leaned back, and he took a small step back with his left foot to stabilize himself.

Gu Changsheng flew around in the sky, sometimes moving forward, sometimes turning, and sometimes increasing his altitude.

He flew for ten minutes, dividing the speed of his flying sword into different flight levels: ten meters per second, twenty meters per second... one hundred meters per second... and the limit of two hundred meters per second.

The amount of spiritual energy, mana, and spiritual power consumed by a flying sword varies depending on its flight speed. The higher the flight altitude, the more energy is consumed, and the heavier the flying sword is, the more energy is consumed.

Gu Changsheng used two-thirds of his magic power to make the flying sword fall back to the ground. When he stepped back onto the ground, he exhaled and the Ku Rong Sword flew up automatically. His right hand instantly gripped the hilt of the sword.

He carried the Kuru Sword into the living room, sat cross-legged on the cushion, placed the Kuru Sword horizontally on his knees, and pressed his hands on the blade of the Kuru Sword.

Gu Changsheng closed his eyes slightly, and soon a suction force was generated around him, drawing in the surrounding wood spiritual energy. His Dao root was absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to restore his magic power.

He recalled the results of the sword flight experiment in his mind. The most suitable flight speed was between 50 and 100 meters per second (180-360 kilometers per hour) and the flight altitude was between 20 and 30 meters, which could improve the endurance.

With his current magical power and the spirit-gathering function of his flying sword, he can maintain a speed of 360 kilometers per hour for twenty minutes. That means he can fly about 120 kilometers in twenty minutes, which is comparable to the speed of a high-speed train. Isn't that amazing?

He can reach speeds of 720 kilometers per hour when escaping, but can only maintain that speed for two minutes, during which he can run 24 kilometers away.

High-speed trains typically travel at 300 kilometers per hour. His maximum flight speed is 2.4 times that of a high-speed train, comparable to the takeoff speed of an airplane. Although it's a two-minute real man, it's already pushing the limits of flight.

Comparing the speed of flying on a sword with that of modern transportation, Gu Changsheng realized that he seemed to have gained a little bit of self-defense ability.

UI.

Gu Changsheng silently noted down a new task on his cultivation task list: to deduce a life-saving escape technique.

When Gu Changsheng mentioned life-saving escape techniques, he thought of "earth energy," which led him to the legendary supernatural power "shrinking the earth to an inch."

The "Root of Heaven and Earth" supernatural power can perceive the earth's veins and guide the earth's energy, which should meet the prerequisite for using the "Shrinking the Earth to an Inch" supernatural power. Although it cannot travel a thousand miles in one step at present, as long as one comprehends even a little bit of it, traveling dozens of miles in one step can be considered a heaven-defying life-saving supernatural power.

Gu Changsheng suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind and postponed the matter of deducing the "Shrinking Earth to an Inch" supernatural power. He focused on his cultivation, which had already entered the fruition stage. In about ten days to half a month, he would enter a new cycle of growth and decay.

Over the next few days, Gu Changsheng focused on cultivation, taking some time each day to perfect the "Green Ox Carrying Mountain Visualization Method." During this time, he also crafted a spirit-gathering array and set it up within the water-gathering array on the mountain.

Meanwhile, two teams are building houses on both sides of the valley entrance three kilometers outside Changsheng Peak.

Shen Qingxu and Shi Yideng paid with nine pills and a prescription, and they finally got their wish to move Qingxu Temple and Shouxin Temple to Xiahe Village.

Inside the Jingxin Courtyard, Zhang Yuanfu, Yang Mancang, Shen Qingxu, Shi Yideng, Li Jianguo, and Fang Shouchang gathered together once again.

At the tea table, Shen Qingxu and Shi Yideng smiled broadly, their anxiety from half a month ago gone.

The two of them finally put their minds at ease. The day before, they packed their belongings and moved directly to Li Jianguo's courtyard in Xiaohe. They didn't wait for their new house to be built before they went to Xiaohe.

Shen Qingxu and Shi Yideng packed their things and ran away, fearing that someone might have ulterior motives and cause trouble along the way.

Shen Qingxu had no disciples to begin with. He packed up the valuables in the temple and left, returning the temple to the state. What the higher authorities did with it was none of his business.

Shouxin Temple was not large and did not have many valuables. Shi Yideng and his young disciples packed up the valuables and ran away.

They had no choice but to flee, because they had gathered intelligence about incidents at temples; many people in various temples had died unexpectedly or gone missing.

They didn't even need to think to guess that someone had started using violent means to collect cultivation techniques, ancient books, elixirs, and cultivation resources.

As more and more people learn about the resurgence of spiritual energy, the birth of spiritual energy in the world, and the ability to absorb spiritual energy for cultivation, undercurrents begin to surge within various countries of Blue Star. The most frequent accidents occur in small Taoist temples, Buddhist temples, and martial arts families.

Who wouldn't want to fly on a sword, cultivate to become an immortal, live forever, and master extraordinary power?

The most primal desires in people's hearts began to break through their own moral constraints and liberate their primal animalistic nature.

People will risk their lives for money, secretly disregarding the law and human life; how much more so when faced with the temptation of immortality or superhuman abilities? Their bottom line will only be lower, and their methods more violent...

(Preparing to enter the second stage of spiritual energy recovery, the spiritual energy concentration doubles.)