Shen Yi walked forward. Beside that long, slender dark sword sat a jade slip. He took it into his palm, closed his eyes, and poured divine sense into it. A moment later, a line of text appeared on the panel.

【Spirit-Transformation (Rare) · Divine-Empyrean True-Thunder Sword Art: Not Yet Begun】

Shen Yi opened his eyes and handed the jade slip to Aqing.

"..."

Aqing curiously poured in divine sense, then her face changed again and again, as though gripping a scalding branding iron, and she instinctively tossed the jade slip up into the air.

Xu Wanyun, having heard earlier that the sword came from Wutong Mountain, had already grown minded to shrink back. Now she caught the jade slip in one grab, her expression sinking slightly. "What is it?"

Aqing's little face turned bitter, and she said tremblingly, "Nie Jun..."

She'd actually, quite by accident, viewed Wutong Mountain's supreme treasured technique, and had no idea whether it was still too late to gouge out her own eyes.

"The Mysterious Sword Perfected Master died at the Zheng family?"

Xu Wanyun widened her eyes and looked at that dark sword. "That's not right — this sword is thin and narrow, unlike what the books record. It looks more like something prepared for a girl."

"A girl... perhaps his disciple?"

Aqing responded falteringly. Generally speaking, Wutong Mountain took no disciples at all, but there were exceptions — for instance, should one of the twelve Perfected Masters meet a junior they admired, they could privately register that one. A registered disciple didn't belong to Wutong Mountain, could only call themselves the pupil of some Perfected Master, and certainly couldn't go running around with Wutong Mountain's techniques. Likely only Nie Jun would hand such a Rare method straight to a disciple — after all, short of going mad, who would go and rob his pupil's things?

"Had the Zheng family eaten too much and grown bored?"

Xu Wanyun swallowed. For cultivators, killing someone wasn't reckoned any great matter. But surely there had to be a reason? Slay someone and seize the treasure? This technique had…