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

That very night, after Lei Yang swallowed the two pills, a violent retching sound came from the neighboring courtyard.

Zhou Lingxuan leaned against the headboard without moving.

He heard the boy rolling on the steps, suppressing his cries of pain, and finally vomiting a large pool of foul-smelling black blood before stumbling back into the house.

For the next three days, the abandoned hall was unusually quiet.

Lei Yang stayed quietly in that drafty, dilapidated house, meditating and recuperating without even leaving the room.

Zhou Lingxuan ignored him and, as usual, carried his shovel to the fire pit at the bottom of the valley to deal with the mountain of waste.

During the day, the bottom of the abandoned valley is sweltering with heat.

Dark red flames spewed from the crater, and the surrounding air was distorted and deformed by the high temperature.

Zhou Lingxuan, shirtless, dumped boxes of waste slag, contaminated with toxins and residual spiritual energy, into the pit.

The firelight cast flickering light on his gaunt face.

As he worked, he pondered the situation of the boy next door.

Those two pills were extracted by him from the discarded pills in Xue Yi's exploding furnace using a small purple jade hammer. He knew exactly how potent they were.

Lei Yang's body had been relentlessly overdrawn over the past five years of pursuit, leaving his meridians riddled with fine cracks and his internal injuries deeply embedded in his bone marrow.

Those two pills can at most help him expel the toxins accumulated in his body and barely stabilize his injuries so they don't worsen.

It's impossible to fully restore one's Qi and blood without a year or two of meticulous conditioning.

"It's already a miracle that you're alive."

Zhou Lingxuan planted the shovel in the ground and dusted off his hands.

On the morning of the fourth day.

Zhou Lingxuan had just pushed open the door of the wooden house, preparing to wash his face by the water vat.

A sharp cracking sound suddenly came from the neighboring yard.

He turned his head, his gaze passing over the half-collapsed earthen wall.

Lei Yang was chopping firewood in the yard.

The boy was carrying a rusty, broken axe, and in front of him was an extremely hard lump of ironwood.

With a casual wave of his hand, the axe fell.

He didn't use any internal energy; he relied solely on the power of his physical body.

The ironwood, which even ordinary outer disciples would have to work hard to split, was directly split in two from the middle, with a cut so smooth that there was no fault in it.

Zhou Lingxuan's hand, which was holding the basin of water, froze in mid-air.

He stared at Lei Yang for a long time.

The boy's gray shirt, worn stiff from washing, was open, and his once thin, scarred chest now showed a distinct outline of muscle.

The most outrageous thing was his expression.

The deathly pallor that had threatened to kill her three days ago had completely vanished, replaced by an extremely vibrant, almost uncontrollable, rosy glow.

This doesn't look like a sickly person who hasn't recovered from a serious injury.

This is clearly a calf that has just eaten and drunk its fill and is bursting with energy!

Zhou Lingxuan put down the basin of water and strolled over slowly.

"You chopped the firewood quite well."

Zhou Lingxuan stood by the low wall and casually made a comment.

Lei Yang stopped what he was doing, wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, and turned his head away.

"Those two candies you gave me were pretty strong."

The boy's tone was less guarded and more filled with awkward gratitude.

"I slept for three days, and when I woke up I felt like I had inexhaustible energy. The tightness and pain in my chest that I used to feel when I couldn't breathe was completely gone."

Zhou Lingxuan didn't reply, but walked around the earthen wall and into the courtyard.

He approached Lei Yang, suddenly reached out, and grabbed the boy's wrist.

Lei Yang instinctively tried to break free, but the old blacksmith's fingers were like iron clamps, firmly gripping his pulse point.

"Don't move."

Zhou Lingxuan uttered two words.

A faint trace of true energy silently entered Lei Yang's body through his fingertips.

The moment his true energy entered, Zhou Lingxuan cursed inwardly.

empty.

The immense medicinal power contained in those two top-grade pills was completely destroyed, leaving not even a trace!

Everything was swallowed up and wiped clean by this body.

What made Zhou Lingxuan's scalp tingle even more was Lei Yang's meridians.

Those meridians that were originally full of cracks and almost broken into several pieces have now been completely reconnected and are twice as wide as those of ordinary cultivators!

The inner walls of the meridians exude a wild, resilient growth, as if, given enough nutrients, they could expand indefinitely.

This is not due to any elixir.

The pills only provided a trigger; what truly unleashed the power was this kid's abnormally strong physical recovery ability!

Zhou Lingxuan released his grip and took a half-step back without making a sound.

"The recovery is passable."

He gave a perfunctory reply and turned to leave.

"Hey, when can I start practicing swordsmanship?" Lei Yang called out from behind.

"What's the rush? Let it rest for a couple more days."

Zhou Lingxuan didn't even turn his head; he walked straight out of the courtyard.

Return to the fire pit at the bottom of the valley.

Zhou Lingxuan pulled over the broken wooden stool with the missing leg and plopped down on it.

The fire in the pit roared upwards, scorching his entire body, yet his mind remained unusually clear.

This kid's body is a bottomless pit.

Zhou Lingxuan went through all the events of the past few days in his mind, along with Lei Yang's background.

The Lei family of the Northern Region is a first-rate family of sword cultivators.

Their entire family was wiped out five years ago.

The enemy was ruthless, not even sparing collateral relatives who lived in remote border towns and had never even entered the main family's gate.

They even went so far as to use extremely precious bloodline tracking techniques.

Why?

Zhou Lingxuan had never been able to understand this problem before.

To powerful forces capable of annihilating first-rate families, a half-crippled old man and a ten-year-old child are not even ants.

Is it worth going to such great lengths to hunt him down?

Unless, what they fear is not retaliation from the main branch of the Lei family at all.

What they fear is something hidden in the Lei family's bloodline.

There's an old saying that's been circulating in the cultivation world for a long time.

Some ancient families have a history spanning thousands of years, and their ancestors once produced exceptionally talented individuals.

After a powerful being ascends or perishes, their formidable physique and talent will be imprinted in their bloodline in an extremely subtle way.

You can't usually tell the difference from this.

It may have been passed down for dozens or even hundreds of generations, and they were all mediocre.

However, as long as the population is large enough, one day, the phenomenon of "atavism" will appear in some inconspicuous offspring.

This is what is known as "bloodline inheritance".

Zhou Lingxuan looked at the flickering flames and suddenly slapped his thigh.

Everything matches perfectly!

Lei Yang fled at the age of ten, carrying an extremely heavy Thunder Pattern Sword.

There were no techniques or instructions.

He practiced for five years, relying solely on a few fragmented movements from his memory.

This kind of reckless, unorthodox approach would have caused any genius to perish long ago.

But Lei Yang was not only lively and energetic, he also managed to modify that incomplete sword technique into a style that suited him, and even touched the threshold of the Wind and Thunder Sword Intent!

This is not a miracle at all.

This was his body, which had awakened its "bloodline inheritance," making an instinctive attempt to save itself when faced with a life-or-death crisis!

The enemy went to great lengths to purge the collateral branches of the family, precisely to nip this one-in-a-million monster in the bud.

The results of it?

The biggest threat not only survived, but also escaped all the way to the Southern Region and hid in the abandoned hall of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion.

Now, this monster is sitting next to him chopping wood.

Zhou Lingxuan grinned and laughed silently.

No wonder Elder Chen said that the biggest challenge in forging a famous sword, which draws upon the energy of heaven and earth, is that the physical body cannot withstand such violent power.

They possess the Heaven-Forging Hammer, which can devour and transform.

Lei Yang, on the other hand, is a born monster who can withstand extreme forces!

This physical body is simply perfect material for blacksmithing and sword forging.

"God really knows how to throw people in."

Zhou Lingxuan stood up, picked up a shovel, and dumped the last box of waste into the fire pit.

In a good mood.

Two more days passed.

Lei Yang's injuries have completely healed, and he is as energetic as a newly sharpened knife.

He just couldn't stay idle.

Early in the morning, Lei Yang spent a long time rummaging through the pile of broken copper and scrap iron in the abandoned hall, and finally pulled out an ordinary iron sword that had rusted.

The sword is very light, unlike the exaggerated weight of the Thunder Pattern Sword.

He grabbed his iron sword and excitedly ran into the courtyard, where he struck a pose.

Zhou Lingxuan was squatting on the doorstep, slurping a bowl of brown rice porridge.

"Old man, I'm healed!"

Lei Yang brandished the iron sword in his hand, eager to try it out.

"You told me to practice haphazardly and forget all the Lei family's moves. I'll start now!"

Zhou Lingxuan swallowed a mouthful of porridge and nodded.

"Practice. Remember, just go with the flow, don't worry about any power techniques, swing however you want."

Lei Yang took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes, trying to clear the Lei family sword techniques that he had been engraving in his mind for five years.

Forget about the wind.

Forget about Lei Yin.

Forget about that downward force.

A moment later, Lei Yang suddenly opened his eyes, gripped his iron sword tightly in his right hand, and slashed at the air in front of him.

The moment he drew his sword.

His right leg instinctively stepped out half a step, his waist muscles tensed instantly, and his shoulders habitually slumped down.

This is a power exertion movement that he has deeply ingrained in his bones over the past five years in order to work with the Thunder Pattern Sword.

But now, he was holding a light iron sword.

The immense weight was no longer pressing down on them.

Lei Yang's instinctive twist of his waist and slump of his shoulder caused Lei Yang to completely lose his balance.

"Holy crap!"

Lei Yang exclaimed in surprise.

His sword, which he swung out, took an eerie turn in mid-air, and because he exerted too much force, his upper body tumbled forward.

His feet tripped on the ground, and like a duck learning to walk, he stumbled several steps before finally plunging headfirst into a haystack in the corner of the yard.

The iron sword flew out of his hand and clattered to the ground.

Zhou Lingxuan, holding his bowl of porridge, watched with amusement.

Lei Yang climbed out of the haystack, spat out the dry grass in his mouth, and his face turned bright red.

He doesn't believe in superstitions.

He ran over, picked up the iron sword, and stood up straight again.

"Again!"

This time, he stared intently at his wrist, forcibly suppressing the urge to twist his waist.

Draw your sword!

The movements weren't distorted, but the sword strike was weak and feeble, unable to kill even a fly.

Lei Yang felt extremely uncomfortable all over.

He felt as if his hands and feet no longer belonged to him.

The moment he picks up a sword, his body protests wildly, every muscle screaming to return to the way he used to exert force.

Let him forget the tricks and let things take their course.

This is even more painful than having his flesh cut with a knife!