This Sword Cultivator is Somewhat Dependable

By the Cold Pond, the motionless Lu Qingshan suddenly blinked and cast his gaze toward the distant fork in the road.

"Something is coming," Lu Qingshan said in surprise.

With a swooshing sound, a golden-furred rhino appeared at the fork.

This rhino possessed a divine bloodline, stood four to five zhang tall, and had a large horn on its forehead that flickered with electric light.

It was an exceedingly rare Thunder Attribute Monster Beast.

There was no other cover on the square, and looking from the fork leading to the square, the Cold Pond, the Great King Rat undergoing the inheritance, and the Primordial Spirit Pearl were all in plain sight.

The large eyes of the gold-furred rhino were full of fervor, but its pace hesitated when its gaze fell on the man standing erect by the Cold Pond.

The beast's keen instincts made it sense an extremely dangerous aura emanating from this man.

However, the temptation of the Demon Spirit inheritance prevented it from easily retreating, so the gold-furred rhino adopted a cautious posture, slowly approaching the man.

The more casual and lax this man looked, the more cautious it became, not daring to act rashly.

The gold-furred rhino circled Lu Qingshan twice, unable to withstand the impatience any longer and not wanting to waste time further. It feigned an attack, its horn sparking with electricity, and lunged at Lu Qingshan.

But just as it started its move, the man acted.

A crimson sword appeared in the man's hands.

The moment the sword appeared, an incredibly chilling aura surged forth, causing the beast's movements to falter and its body to tremble slightly, as if some terrifying existence was releasing an aura that suppressed it.

"Dragon Breath": Passive: The dragon, the leader of scaled creatures, the noble of the four spirits.

This sword inherently carries the dragon breath, exerting a corresponding suppressive force on all demon beasts depending on their grade.

The Dragon Sparrow Sword possesses an innate restraining force against demon beasts.

With Lu Qingshan's current level of cultivation, the Dragon Sparrow Sword's Dragon Breath Divine Skill could weaken the combat power of a Second Grade demon beast by nearly thirty percent.

Under the oppressive force of the Dragon Breath, the gold-furred rhino felt as though it were trapped in a marsh, its movements and thoughts considerably slowed.

The next instant, a shimmering crimson streak flashed across its eyes.

Immediately afterward, in its line of sight, a massive headless body flew out.

"Why does this body look so familiar..."

The next moment, the gold-furred rhino suddenly realized, wasn't this its own body? But where was the head?

As it thought this, full of confusion, it hadn't figured it out when it plunged into endless darkness, never to regain consciousness.

With one decapitative strike, the movement was so swift that the gold-furred rhino's body, due to inertia, continued to fly straight forward for more than ten zhang before it crashed to the ground, blood gushing outward.

And its enormous head was left behind on the ground.

"The young master's sword technique is also very remarkable," Qin Yitian, who witnessed the strike, mumbled with her eyes sparkling.

She couldn't help asking, "Young master, what is this sword technique?"

Lu Qingshan sheathed his sword and explained, "The Falling Bright Sword Technique, though I've made some modifications to it myself, so it might look a bit unrecognizable."

He had mastered the Falling Bright Sword Technique to max level a long time ago.

The power of this sword technique now clearly couldn't keep up with his pace of growth.

Therefore, Lu Qingshan had made some improvements and enhancements to the Falling Bright Sword Technique, and with his nearly unmatched talent in swordsmanship as an aid, his progress in modifying the Falling Bright Sword Technique was unexpectedly smooth.

The biggest change was that Lu Qingshan had intentionally integrated some techniques from the Secret Sword Wind Slash into the Falling Bright Sword Technique, transforming it from a control-oriented to a fast sword technique.

The sword struck like the wind, fierce and swift.

"Why did a demon beast enter the tomb so quickly?" Lu Qingshan wondered.

However, just as this question emerged in his mind, he sensed another unusual surge from the passage.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—
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Intense wind sounds swirled, dust roiled.

A fierce bird with enormous claws landed heavily on the ground, appearing at the passage.

The fierce bird was pitch black, its green eyes filled with murderous intent, fixated on the Spiritual Light emitting Primordial Spirit Pearl.

Lu Qingshan gripped the Dragon Sparrow Sword tightly in his hand, carefully watching the fierce bird.

The gold-furred rhino was just a Second Grade demon beast, and with the power of the Dragon Sparrow Sword, slaying it was like chopping melons and cutting vegetables.

But this time was different.

Because the aura emanating from this fierce bird was unmistakably that of a Third Grade demon beast.

Huff!

Confident in its own strength, the fierce bird disdainfully glanced at Lu Qingshan, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, and without any hesitation, it rushed forward swiftly. Its wings flickered with radiance, sharp as curved sabers, slashing towards Lu Qingshan.

Because of the flying restriction, the fierce bird couldn't use its fastest speed and had to run on its feet, but it didn't care.

What trouble could a Foundation Establishment Cultivator pose?

However, as it approached within fifteen meters of Lu Qingshan, it suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure emanating from the man ahead, causing its movements to deform and slow down.

"What's happening?" The fierce bird found its speed further reduced by twenty percent under this pressure and shivered in its mind.

Hiss, hiss, hiss!

A surge of flames suddenly rolled out, blazing brilliantly and fiercely flickering, sweeping towards the fierce bird.

The fierce bird's eyes widened.

It was that female cultivator, whom it hadn't been paying much attention to, who made her move.

Lu Qingshan was also slightly surprised; this was actually the first time he had seen Qin Yitian put forth her full strength.

Screech—

The wave of flames in the air astonishingly took on the shape of a Fire Phoenix, emitting a very anthropomorphic cry.

Phoenixes, the reverent subjects of all birds.

As the supreme among bird-kind, the phoenix exerted more pressure on the fierce bird than even the Dragon Breath.

This was an innate bloodline suppression.

It couldn't understand why a spell-formed Fire Phoenix seemed like a living creature, but it could only suppress the fear from its bloodline instinct, raising its wings and crossing them in front of its body to meet the fiery wave formed by the Fire Phoenix.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

The pitch-black wings, like a thick shield, intercepted the Fire Phoenix. Sparks flew wildly in an instant, scattering around, and the Radiance on the fierce bird's wings also rapidly melted away.

Under the strong impact, the fierce bird's body retreated dozens of meters before stabilizing.

But the fierce bird's tightly clenched heart suddenly relaxed.

The Fire Phoenix coming head-on had indeed exerted immense pressure on it, but its actual power was entirely manageable, possibly because the person casting the spell was too weak in cultivation.

Just as it had just caught its breath, it spread its wings, but suddenly, a dazzling red light appeared in its eyes, mixed within the exploding rain of fire, only noticeable at that moment.

Lu Qingshan's sword followed right behind the Fire Phoenix, slashing towards the fierce bird's neck.

A layer of demonic power emerged and covered the fierce bird's neck area.

Clang!

The sword struck the fierce bird's body but was blocked by it.

Lu Qingshan, with his extremely rich combat experience, having seized the initiative, naturally didn't stop there.

The Dragon Sparrow Sword continuously thrust forward, the sword body shimmering with Sword Qi and rolling waves of flames.

Within a range of several meters, cold light was everywhere.

The fierce bird defended and retreated, continually moving backward.

Fear gradually appeared in its eyes.

The Sword Cultivator before it, both in terms of the depth and purity of Spiritual Power, seemed no different from a Golden Core Cultivator.

And his mastery of sword techniques surpassed that of a typical Golden Core Sword Cultivator by a lot.

What made it most helpless was the long sword that flickered with waves of flames.

The flames seemed to continuously flow from the sword, each strike as if boosted by a fire-based spell cast by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, combined with the inherent power of the sword techniques themselves, made it dare not be the slightest negligent, weary from the defense.

Moreover, the fiercer the battle, the weaker its momentum became, while the Sword Cultivator's momentum grew stronger.

How could this possibly be a Foundation Establishment Sword Cultivator?

The fierce bird felt both unwilling and extremely frustrated.

Rip!

Finally, due to a slight misstep, Lu Qingshan's sword swept across its stomach, almost completely slashing open its chest.

The fierce bird let out a mournful cry, its body limply collapsed to the ground.

It had been drenched in blood for a while, barely surviving until now.