A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Sword-Forging Servant and Ascending to Immorta

Zhou Lingxuan looked at Old Qin's extremely strange face and his heart skipped a beat.

"Not one of Zhang Qian's men?"

The thought sent a chill down his spine.

If it's not Zhang Qian, then who could it be?

An assassin who had no grudge against him sneaked into the abandoned hall in the pouring rain, just to take the life of an old handyman.

"How did you figure that out?" Zhou Lingxuan asked in a low voice.

Old Qin didn't speak, but walked to the corpse nailed to the wall, stretched out two withered fingers, and skillfully tore open the killer's soaked black clothes.

On the assassin's inner lining, near his heart, there was an embroidered totem the size of a fingernail.

The totem pattern is strange, resembling a wolf howling towards the sky, with a hexagonal snowflake adorning its forehead.

"This thing is called the 'Frostwolf' totem."

Old Qin pointed to the embroidery, his tone somewhat solemn.

"The symbol of a not-so-famous assassin organization in the Northern Region."

Northern Territory?

Zhou Lingxuan's brows furrowed instantly.

The Heavenly Sword Pavilion is located in the Southern Region, which is separated from the Northern Region in the far north by tens of millions of miles, and is also separated by the Hundred Thousand Mountains where monsters roam.

How did an assassin from the Northern Region end up here?

Old Qin's hands didn't stop; he rummaged around the assassin's waist again and untied a palm-sized leather pouch.

The material of the leather bag is very special; it feels cool to the touch, and even in the damp environment of the abandoned hall, not a single drop of moisture condensed on its surface.

"The hide of the Northern Iron Rhinoceros can only be found in the extremely cold regions of the North."

Old Qin threw the leather bag on the ground, then pried open the assassin's mouth and picked out a black poison needle thinner than a hair from between his teeth.

"It's coated with the venom of the Ice Soul Scorpion, so potent that it kills instantly upon contact with blood, freezing a person's blood into ice shards in a flash. This is a common tactic used by assassins in the Northern Region."

Old Qin straightened up, patted the blood off his hands, and looked back at Zhou Lingxuan.

"This guy is a purebred from the Northern Region, inside and out, top to bottom. His methods are completely different from those of cultivators from the Southern Region."

The sound of rain in the yard seemed to have subsided a bit.

The atmosphere inside the room was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

The two looked at each other, both seeing a hint of unease in each other's eyes.

Although Zhang Qian was arrogant, he was ultimately just an inner disciple. No matter how far his influence reached, it couldn't extend to the Northern Region.

This assassin was definitely not sent by Zhang Qian.

"That's strange." Old Qin stroked his chin, pacing back and forth in the room. "A spy from the Northern Region came to our Heavenly Sword Pavilion's abandoned hall to kill someone. What was he after?"

Old Qin stopped and looked at Zhou Linghan.

"Brother Zhou, besides Zhang Qian, who else have you offended recently?"

Zhou Lingxuan shook his head.

He was an old man burning trash in an abandoned hall, living a monotonous life, with no one to talk to except Qin Zhaoyun and Xue Yi. Where could he possibly offend anyone?

"Could it be..." Old Qin narrowed his eyes, "that this assassin wasn't after you?"

Zhou Lingxuan's heart sank.

Abandoned hall.

This corner, forgotten by the entire Heavenly Sword Pavilion, appears dilapidated, but in reality, it is a place where hidden talents reside.

Qin Zhaoyun, once ranked second on the Sword Ranking, and Qin Lao, an unfathomable Golden Core stage servant.

Now there's another assassin from the Northern Region whose origins are unknown.

This place was far more complicated than he had imagined.

"This matter must be reported." After a moment of contemplation, Elder Qin made a decision. "The spies from the Northern Region have already infiltrated the ruined hall. This is no small matter. The sect must be informed."

Zhou Lingxuan shook his head without even thinking.

"Cannot be reported."

Elder Qin was taken aback: "Why? This is incriminating evidence against spies from other regions. The sect might even offer a reward."

"What should we say if we report it?" Zhou Lingxuan walked to the wall, looked at the corpse with its eyes wide open, and spoke in a calm tone as if he were talking about someone else's business.

"You're saying I, a meddlesome old handyman who's ostensibly at the second level of Body Tempering, broke a mid-grade magic weapon with my bare hands and killed a mid-stage Qi Refining assassin from the Northern Region in one move?"

Old Qin's expression froze.

Zhou Lingxuan continued, "When the time comes, the people from the Enforcement Hall will arrive, and the people from the Weaponry Hall will also have to come. They won't care who sent this assassin; they'll only be curious about how a cripple like me, who's about to die, could have such abilities."

"They'll investigate me thoroughly, inside and out. Will I still be able to hide the secrets hidden in my mind?"

Zhou Lingxuan turned around and looked at Old Qin.

"Once my true nature is exposed, the people I attract might not be those at the Qi Refining stage anymore."

Old Qin fell silent.

He looked at Zhou Lingxuan for a long while before letting out a long sigh.

"You little rascal... you've thought of everything even more thoroughly than I have."

Old Qin walked to the corpse, reached out and grasped the broken sword that was half embedded in the wall, and pulled it out with force.

"Alright, I'll listen to you." Old Qin threw the broken sword on the ground. "We're not getting involved in this mess. There's no way to prove it now, so let's just pretend this person was never here."

The two reached an understanding.

Zhou Lingxuan found a rag and wiped the bloodstains off the ground.

Old Qin was in charge of disposing of the body. He looted everything from the assassin, including the broken sword and the leather bag on the ground, and packed it into a package using the assassin's own black clothes.

"Let's go." Old Qin grabbed the corpse by the ankle with one hand and dragged it out like a dead dog.

Zhou Lingxuan picked up the package and followed behind.

Under the cover of night, the two left the courtyard quietly, one after the other, heading straight for the fire pit at the bottom of the valley.

The rain has stopped.

At the edge of the fire pit, flames burned quietly at the bottom, casting flickering light on the surrounding rock walls.

Without wasting words, Old Qin swung his arm and threw the corpse he was holding down.

puff.

The corpse fell into the fire pit without making a sound, and was instantly engulfed by the eerie blue flames.

A burnt smell filled the air.

Zhou Lingxuan, expressionless, threw the package in as well.

Broken swords, leather bags, poison needles... everything related to assassins melted and vaporized rapidly at extremely high temperatures, eventually turning into nothingness.

The blazing fire illuminated the wrinkles on the faces of the two old people clearly.

Watching everything in the fire pit turn to ashes, Zhou Lingxuan patted the ash off his hands.

"Troublesome things should be burned clean."

Old Qin nodded and turned to walk back.

"Get some rest, you still have work to do tomorrow."

This cross-domain assassination, which was enough to cause a huge uproar in the Heavenly Sword Pavilion, was completely erased by the two old men of the abandoned hall in the simplest and most brutal way.

No one was alerted.

Like a pebble thrown into the ocean, it didn't even create a ripple.

Back in the dilapidated wooden house, Zhou Lingxuan was wide awake.

He propped up the broken table, pieced it together with difficulty, and then sat on the edge of the bed.

Tonight's battle, though narrowly avoidable, served as a wake-up call for him.

With a cultivation level of one level of Qi Refining and an abnormal physical body, dealing with a mid-stage Qi Refining assassin would be relatively easy.

But what if someone in the late Qi Refining stage, or even the Foundation Establishment stage, comes?

Can he defeat his enemy in one move like he did tonight?

Zhou Lingxuan took out the yellowed booklet that Elder Chen had given him from his pocket and placed it on the table.

The dim moonlight shone through the broken window and fell directly on the cover of the booklet.

"To become a blacksmith..."

As Zhou Lingxuan looked at the words, he recalled the moment he held the magic weapon sword between two fingers tonight.

The strength is still not enough.

He needs more power, a harder punch.

Zhou Lingxuan stood up, paced back and forth in the room a couple of times, and finally stopped in front of the simple forging tools in the corner.

He looked at the hammer that had been used for nearly a hundred years, then at the booklet on the table, his eyes gleaming.

"Since I can't sleep..."

Zhou Lingxuan muttered to himself.

"How about we try forging a sword?"