1124 Nine Swords Trial

"S-Surely, you're jesting with us…" Tian Yanyu mumbled in a trembling voice.

"No, not at all. Take it. I have no need for a Divine-grade sword since I already have a much  better one." Yuan calmly shook his head.

"..."

After a moment of silence, Tian Suyin spoke with a deep frown on her face, "Okay, what do you want from us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you telling me that you're going to hand over a Divine-grade treasure for free? I don't believe it. Sounds too good to be true."

Yuan shrugged, "Then I will leave it there and whoever is lucky enough will get it."

When she heard such words, Tian Suyin immediately rushed to pick up the sword before throwing it into her spatial ring.

"I guess I'm the fortunate one," she said with a stiff expression.

"Mother…" Tian Yanyu was left speechless by her actions.

"What are you looking at? He's the one who said he'd leave it there for anyone to pick up."

"Since you want it that badly, you can have it." Yuan smiled.

Tian Suyin cleared her throat but didn't say anything.

'I'm glad I stayed behind…' she smiled inwardly.

"What are you going to do now?" Tian Yanyu asked him. "Are you going to participate in the next treasure hunt as well?"

"No, I came here mostly just to make sure you were fine. Now that's done, I think I am going to do some exploring myself."

"I see…"

Tian Yanyu pondered for a brief second before opening her mouth again, "Do you mind if I followed you for a little?"

"Yanyu! You don't even know what kind of dangerous place he's going to! You're just going to be a burden!" Tian Suyin quickly rejected her request.

"I know, which is why I will only follow him until he leaves the outer area."

The Nameless Emperor's Tomb is split into three sections by the people; the outer area where it's the least dangerous; the inner area where only geniuses dare to enter; last but not least, the core area, a hellish area where most people that enter will never return.

"If it's just the outer area…" Tian Suyin felt a little more at ease after hearing this.

Furthermore, she wasn't completely opposed to following Yuan, as he was definitely powerful enough to protect them— even doing a much better job than the entirety of the Jade Sword Manor by himself.

Yuan began wandering the Nameless Emperor's Tomb shortly after while Tian Yanyu and Tian Suyin followed him from behind.

"There are actually a few places that I want to visit. In no particular order, the Sword Temple, Nine Swords Trial, and the Sword Pagoda." Yuan mumbled out loud as they moved.

"I've been to the Sword Pagoda once, but I was only able to make it to the third floor before getting kicked out." Tian Suyin sighed as she recalled her memories.

"What's the Sword Pagoda, again? I know I heard it before." Tian Yanyu asked.

"The Sword Pagoda is a place where you must climb seven floors by defeating the opponent on each floor. The higher floor you reach, the greater the reward. However, this place is immensely difficult. The highest anyone has ever climbed is only 5 floors."

"You managed to reach the third floor, right? What kind of treasure did you acquire?" Yuan asked out of curiosity.

"My cultivation increased by three levels in an instant, and I received a Heaven-rank movement technique."

"What?! One can increase their cultivation by three levels after clearing just a single floor?! That alone is already super good, not to mention the Heaven-rank technique!" Tian Yanyu was brimming with excitement.

"Perhaps, but 70 percent of participants cannot even pass the first floor, much less the second floor. About 10 percent of all participants can clear the second floor, but less than one percent will be able to clear the third. As for the fourth and fifth floor, less than 10 people have made it there."

"What kind of enemies did you fight?" Tian Yanyu continued to ask.

"A masked cultivator."

"Like the Nameless Emperor?" Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"No, they didn't have the same aura as the Nameless Emperor. Also, the masks they wore were different. You'll understand what I mean once you go there and face them yourself."

Yuan nodded.

The Nine Swords Trial was the nearest to their current location, so Yuan decided to go there first.

After three days of traveling nonstop, they finally arrived at their destination.

"So this is the Nine Swords Trial, huh…" Yuan mumbled as he stared at the large platform in the distance.

This platform was not as large as one would expect. It was about 5 meters in length and diameter, and there was a large statue standing not far away from it.

This statue was of a man wearing a mask, and he was holding the handle of a sword with both hands in front of him with the blade of the sword pointing directly horizontally at the sky.

Currently, this platform was surrounded by at least a hundred people, and there was even a single person standing on the platform.

However, the person standing on the platform  appeared to be in dismay. His body was dripping with blood, and his expression looked as though he was on the verge of collapsing, but his gaze remained fixated at the statue before him.

The next moment, Yuan watched as an illusionary blade appeared in the sky before descending upon the man on the platform.

BOOM!

The attack caused the surrounding land to tremble while the people around the platform  were pushed back by the force.

Once the dust settled, one could see that the man on the platform  had been cleanly sliced in half.

However, nobody there seemed to be surprised, almost as though it was a common sight.

A few more moments later, the corpse and blood on the platform  vaporized into the air, leaving not even a trace behind.