Chapter 473: What a Coincidence

Upon hearing this, Li Huo Sword Venerable let out an interested "Oh?" and said, "As far as I know, it’s been many years since anyone ascended from my former world."

After a moment, he looked at his beloved disciple. "What is her cultivation?"

Lie Rufeng answered, "Earth Immortal."

He paused before adding, "If she really did ascend, then she most likely just arrived."

This piqued Li Huo Sword Venerable’s interest even more. "Tsk. Could it be that world has had some new stroke of fortune?"

"Interesting... I left an inheritance there back in the day. If she really did ascend from that world, I’d quite like to ask her a few things."

As he spoke, Li Huo Sword Venerable pressed, "What’s her name? Did you get a way to contact her?"

This put Lie Rufeng in a somewhat difficult position.

He had promised Lu Sangjiu to keep her secret. He’d only mentioned her to his master out of curiosity about the Spirit-killing Water.

Now that his master was pressing for details, how was he supposed to respond?

After a moment’s hesitation, Lie Rufeng chose his words carefully. "Master, I didn’t get a way to contact her, nor do I know where she is now."

Hearing this, Li Huo Sword Venerable couldn’t help but look disappointed. "The Immortal Spirit Realm is so vast. It’s unlikely we’ll ever meet her again."

He paused, as if recalling something, and asked again, "What’s her name?"

Lie Rufeng couldn’t tell his master the fake name Lu Sangjiu had used, but it wouldn’t be right to reveal her real name either. So he compromised, "Her surname is Lu. She’s a young Female Cultivator."

’Surname Lu?’

Li Huo Sword Venerable’s brow twitched, and he couldn’t help but recall some rather unpleasant memories.

Seeing his master’s expression darken, Lie Rufeng found it strange. "Master, what’s wrong?"

Li Huo Sword Venerable waved his hand dismissively. "It’s nothing... It’s just that when I left my inheritance in the Lower Realm, I also left behind a wisp of my Divine Thought."

"When that Divine Thought eventually dissipated, it sent its final memories back to me. Back then... a few juniors offended me. One of them was a Female Cultivator with the surname Lu."

Lie Rufeng froze for a second. ’It couldn’t be such a coincidence, could it?’

Though he thought it was impossible, he had a strange, powerful intuition... ’Maybe it really is that much of a coincidence!’

After a moment of silence, Lie Rufeng couldn’t help but ask, "That person... her name was Lu...?"

Li Huo Sword Venerable had an excellent memory and answered without hesitation, spitting out two words: "Lu Sangjiu."

Lie Rufeng: "..."

Even though Lu Sangjiu had given him a fake name at the time, Lie Rufeng later learned she was the one being hunted by Ji Li’s warrant, so of course he found out her real name.

’And it just had to be Lu Sangjiu.’

He hadn’t interacted with her much, and for a long time, she had just been putting on an act.

But from her subsequent actions, it wasn’t hard to see that she was a defiant person.

It was no surprise that someone like her would offend people.

Lie Rufeng himself actually had a rather good impression of Lu Sangjiu. Hearing his master speak this way about her left him feeling deeply conflicted.

So, despite normally not caring much about anything, he couldn’t help but press, "How... did she offend you, Master?"

Recalling the memories sent back by his wisp of Divine Thought, Li Huo Sword Venerable’s expression became somewhat awkward.

Although it was his Divine Thought, a wisp of Divine Thought doesn’t usually have the exact same personality as the main body. Instead, it tends to amplify one of their character traits.

The wisp of Divine Thought he’d left behind back then was one that had amplified his arrogance and conceit.

So, even though it was his own Divine Thought, when Li Huo Sword Venerable saw the things it had done and the words it had said, he found it too embarrassing to even think about...

In all fairness, the unpleasantness back then couldn’t be blamed entirely on Lu Sangjiu and her companions.

His own Divine Thought had acted despicably, fanning the flames and inciting fellow sect members to kill one another.

Of course, Lu Sangjiu wasn’t entirely innocent either. If she and the others hadn’t had the idea of taking his things in the first place, none of the subsequent events would have occurred.

In short, Li Huo Sword Venerable still felt that if he ever saw her again, he ought to teach her a lesson.

However, his current mindset was different from that of his Divine Thought. "Teaching her a lesson" just meant scaring her a little and making her suffer a bit; he wouldn’t go so far as to get truly serious with a junior.

These matters and his feelings on them were rather nuanced and a hassle to explain. Besides, Li Huo Sword Venerable didn’t want to lose face in front of his own disciple.

So he just replied vaguely, "It’s nothing. It’s all in the distant past anyway. That Female Cultivator... even if she were to ascend, it would probably take another few hundred years. That’s a long way off."

Lie Rufeng’s expression grew even more awkward, but he didn’t dare press the matter further, or his master would surely realize something was amiss.

Torn between his loyalty to his master and his own principles, Lie Rufeng struggled for a moment before finally offering a tactful reminder.

"I heard that the Chixiao Sect’s Cold Jade Immortal King recently went to great expense to issue a warrant throughout the entire Immortal Spirit Realm. He’s hunting a mere Earth Immortal, which is rather strange."

Unfortunately, Li Huo Sword Venerable had no interest in the matter whatsoever. He just sneered and said, "The feuds of their Beidie Palace are none of our business. You’d best not get involved either."

Lie Rufeng: "...Yes."

’Master, I’ve given you all the hints I can. Don’t go blaming your disciple for being unfilial later.’

Lu Sangjiu, of course, knew nothing of these events in the outside world. She remained immersed in her cultivation, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.

In order to grow as quickly as possible, she had pushed herself incredibly hard over the past year. She mastered all the new techniques she needed to learn, then frantically consumed Spirit Stones to fuel her cultivation.

However, this time she wasn’t recultivating from a higher level, nor did she have any luck boosting her progress. Her cultivation speed was naturally nowhere near as fast as it had been in the Lower Realm.

A year passed. After consuming half of her top-grade spiritual stones and the three bottles of Immortal Liquid she’d obtained, she finally reached the Mid-stage Earth Immortal realm.

This made her realize that if she wanted to grow quickly, she would have to rely on fortuitous encounters... Hard work alone would never be enough.

That was why she ended her secluded cultivation after only a year.

’I’m out of Immortal Liquid. If I rely only on Spirit Stones, I’m afraid I’ll have to stay in seclusion for a century or more to reach the Heavenly Immortal Stage. That’s way too slow!’

After coming out of seclusion, Lu Sangjiu headed straight for a general store. She bought some commonly used Elixir Pills and talismans, then sold off the excess materials she had gathered a year ago.

By doing this, she earned another large sum of Spirit Stones. In total, she now had eight thousand top-grade spiritual stones and twenty Immortal Stones.

It seemed like a fortune, but having experienced how quickly her cultivation now burned through Spirit Stones, Lu Sangjiu knew this amount was practically nothing to her.

’Looks like I still need to make more money!’

Lu Sangjiu collected her things and turned to leave, but the shop owner suddenly called out to her. "Fellow Daoist, there’s a grand auction in Giant Shark City in three months. Would you be interested?"

As he spoke, he handed her a flyer. "It lists some of the main auction items. Have a look. If you’re interested, you can go check it out!"