Artisanship Commission, independent delve.
Most of the vines that had spread like spiderwebs everywhere had withered, and the various plants in the courtyard ceased their frenzied growth.
Only ordinary and medium-level Mara-struck Ingenia, Abundance Spirit Beasts, and Mara-struck soldiers remained within the Commission. These monsters could be handled perfectly well by ordinary Cloud Knight squads.
The artisans trapped within were being rescued one after another.
In an inconspicuous corner, away from the teams heading toward the Artisanship Commission's main gate, a solitary, cold figure moved against the flow. She stepped over broken bricks and tiles, treading across the ground littered with shattered Ingenium wreckage, heading deeper inside. Her snow-white long hair swayed in the wind behind her.
A 'Qiuniu' Mara-struck Ingenium, used for moving heavy objects, discovered the woman. Its massive bronze beast head reared up, its mechanical pupils locking onto her position.
Red energy gathered in its throat, exploding outward like churning lava. The scarlet flame lunged at the white-haired woman like a dragon.
"The objects of the Artisanship Commission have become quite interesting over these years."
The woman merely turned her body slightly, dodging the crimson energy beam.
The instant her boots touched the ground, frost spread from beneath her feet. Ice crystals climbed up the Qiuniu's body.
The Qiuniu emitted ear-piercing sounds of metal friction, attempting to break free with brute force, but the ice crystals had already seeped into its core gears, freezing it into an ice sculpture in an instant.
It wasn't just the Qiuniu; the Mara-struck and Abundance Spirit Beasts that were successively attracted to attack the woman suffered the same fate.
However, upon approaching within a fifty-meter radius centered on the woman, it was as if they had stepped into a freezing hell of ice and snow.
Amidst the spreading frost, they all turned into solid ice sculptures, refracting a cold, faint light.
Wherever the white-haired beauty walked, it was as if that place was frozen in a tranquility where all things were sealed in ice, devoid of all life.
She finally stopped before the fragmented, scorched remains of a machine.
The cross-section, smooth as a mirror, reflected the half-mask on the beauty's face and the black veil fluttering in the wind.
"How sharp..."
Fingers cold and white as millennial crystal ice brushed over the smooth cross-section, yet Jingliu's heart was not calm.
Returning to the Xianzhou this time, Jingliu had many things to do.
One of them was to meet up with her old friends one by one and relive old times...
Jing Yuan, who was the easiest to find and meet, was placed last by Jingliu. She had previously discovered the traces of another old friend.
Yingxing... no, it was more appropriate to call him Blade now.
While tracking Blade's traces, Jingliu had encountered an interesting little brother. His sword danced across the vast sky, the trajectory of his blade humming with a somewhat familiar shadow.
Only after making contact did she discover that the child was actually Jing Yuan's apprentice.
In terms of seniority, he counted as her grand-disciple.
Jingliu traveled briefly with Yanqing. On one hand, she wanted to get Blade's whereabouts from Yanqing, who was chasing him; on the other hand... she wanted to get to know this... little brother.
The child's sword was full of high spirits, too sharp-edged, unaware of how to hide its point, and lacking a measure of maturity.
However, given Yanqing's age, it was barely passable.
Jingliu played a little game of slaying abominations and testing sword art with the child, offering Yanqing some pointers on Jing Yuan's behalf.
Jing Yuan had taught the little guy how to slay abominations, but he hadn't taught him how to deal with Xianzhou people who had fallen into the Mara-struck state.
Before parting ways, Jingliu thought that for her first meeting with her grand-disciple, she, as the grandmaster, couldn't just leave without giving a gift.
But she had no possessions on her person, and giving ordinary trinkets would be meaningless.
In the end, Jingliu decided to give the little brother a sword strike.
Not a precious sword, but a strike that nearly froze Yanqing into an ice sculpture, a strike with killing intent chilling to the bone!
How much he could comprehend depended on himself.
After parting with the child, Jingliu headed straight and swiftly in a certain direction.
She had sensed it—a sword of extreme sharpness, descending from the heavens!
Jingliu's identity on the Luofu made movement inconvenient, and the Artisanship Commission delve was under strict lockdown. Although various problems couldn't stop Jingliu, they still slowed her down.
By the time she arrived, she found that the battle was already over.
"A sword capable of severing all things in the world? Does such a sword really exist?"
Gazing at the position where the Tablet-Carrying Bixi and the gravity unit had been split and destroyed, Jingliu murmured in astonishment.
Even at this moment, she seemed to still hear the shrill wailing of space being cut by that sword.
Following the battle traces left by that sword which cut nothing if not everything, Jingliu made her way to the depths of the Artisanship Commission.
Mara-struck and Abundance Spirit Beasts surrounded her, but Jingliu turned a blind eye, simply looking up at the split bronze furnace.
"One sword severed the Creation Furnace and the Ambrosial Arbor's roots..."
"Roar~!"
A wolf-type Abundance Spirit Beast launched a pounce. Just as it approached Jingliu, a sword light flashed past.
The pale wolf landed midway, a thin ice-blue line appearing on its throat.
Gurgle.
The wolf's head rolled onto the ground, the neck that should have sprayed blood sealed by ice.
Jingliu walked toward where the Ambrosial Arbor's roots were. The Mara-struck and alien beasts besieging her turned into headless corpses or became ice sculptures, sleeping there forever.
Thud... thud...
Two more corpses fell. Jingliu did not walk past the bodies as she had before. Instead, she abruptly turned her head to look at the dilapidated building behind her.
"It seems these Spirit Beasts can't even serve as a warm-up for Little Sister Jingliu."
Pale blue silk ribbons fluttered in the wind. Moonscar sat smiling on the broken section of the terrace, her slender, beautiful legs crossed and tilted.
"Sushang... Big Sister."
Jingliu's willow-leaf brows raised slightly.
The familiar voice and appearance were almost exactly the same, but the ethereal and melodious temperament, like a Sword Immortal, was distinctively different from the Sushang she had met before.
As expected!
As a swordsman who had returned to simplicity and truth, the accuracy of her inner intuition was far higher than the judgment brought by her five senses.
Jingliu was quite certain that the silly Sushang she met before and the person before her were not the same individual.
Moreover, their appearances were not entirely identical; this Sushang's bosom was more fully developed.
"Why is Big Sister Sushang here?"
A strange smile lifted the corner of Jingliu's mouth.
"Could it be you came specifically to find me?"
"That's right, I came specifically to find you."
Moonscar's figure leaped lightly from the roof, landing on the ground like a falling snowflake, facing Jingliu from ten meters away.
"That is truly wonderful."
The smile grew gradually frantic. A blade condensed from glacial ice appeared in Jingliu's hand, the cold air around her becoming even sharper than before.
Thanks to Caelus, her Mara-struck state had been suppressed to a considerable degree. Her current condition was enough for her to have a match with Sushang with full force.
It had been a long time since Jingliu had enjoyed a hearty sword duel with an opponent of the same realm!
"Don't be in such a hurry. Since I've come, I certainly won't run away."
Moonscar smiled lightly and waved her hand.
She could sense the emotions of the other consciousness within her body. Li Sushang was also quite looking forward to competing with the former Sword Champion of the Xianzhou and witnessing a powerful swordsman from a different spacetime.
"However, I have one more matter to discuss with you."
"What is it?"
Jingliu raised her eyes, those scarlet pupils looking exceptionally bewitching under the cold moonlight.
However, in the next second, the crimson eyes were filled with bewilderment and astonishment.
"Do you want to worship me as your master?"
The brown-haired girl clasped her fair hands behind her slender waist, pacing leisurely as she spoke in a lovely voice.
"?"
[?]
Jingliu, who was full of anticipation for the upcoming contest, and Li Sushang simultaneously typed a question mark.
Even with Jingliu's cold temperament, she was almost amused by these words.
No, after Caelus's treatment, Jingliu, whose emotions had gradually become active, couldn't help but let the corners of her mouth lift.
"What can Big Sister Sushang teach me?"
Although Jingliu was not yet clear about this Big Sister Sushang's background, accepting her—a Sword Champion who had practiced the sword for hundreds of years—as an apprentice was the funniest joke she had heard in recent days.
Able to clearly hear the subtle amusement contained in these words, Moonscar didn't mind at all and chuckled lightly:
"Taixu Sword Art. Saying it this way, you might not have much of a concept, so let me put it another way. If you can cultivate the Taixu Sword Heart and master Taixu, perhaps you can cut away the Mara-struck state yourself and never be troubled by Mara again from then on."
"What did you say... cut away the Mara-struck state?"
The hand gripping the ice sword paused. Jingliu raised her eyebrows, as if hearing some fantasy story, clearly not believing it.
"Yes, cut away the Mara-struck state."
Moonscar repeated it word by word.
The "Taixu Sword Art" created by Fu Hua had five aggregates: Heart, Shape, Intent, Soul, and Spirit. Among them, the Shape and Soul aggregates were sword moves, while the Intent aggregate was related to Divine Keys and was useless to Jingliu.
But the Heart aggregate and Spirit aggregate were essentially about shaping, extending, and using energy and state of mind.
Energy, not Honkai energy. Moreover, Honkai energy itself was a type of Imaginary energy, which people in the Galaxy Universe could also cultivate.
Especially after Moonscar touched the 'Honkai Impact 2' version of the Power of Taixu while Li Sushang was fully driving the Taixu Sword Intent, her understanding of Taixu in a certain dimension was even deeper than Li Sushang's.
Those who cultivated the Taixu Sword Heart achieved an inconceivable level of control over themselves.
One could try using the Taixu Sword God on the Mara emotions within one's body to directly cut them away.
Just like certain special techniques in Xianxia novels that could cut away inner demons.
"How about it? I see your bone structure is amazing; you are a rare sword-practicing genius one in ten thousand, which is why I was moved to take you as an apprentice."
"My Grandmaster—Immortal Chiyuan—can also be considered a long-life species. Unlike the Xianzhou people, she has already lived for over fifty thousand years."
Moonscar dragged Brother Fu out to raise her prestige.
"Over fifty thousand years..."
Jingliu's expression changed. She recalled that when she was drinking and talking with Caelus earlier, the other party had said he knew a few fifty-thousand-year-old monsters.
Could it be that Sushang's Grandmaster was one of them?
In that case, what was the relationship between Sushang and Caelus?
"How about it? Do you want to consider it?"
While Li Sushang was frantically roasting her in the mental channel, Moonscar maintained a calm and breezy appearance on the surface.
Jingliu fell silent.
Although longevity was good, she had no obsession with living a long life. Compared to obtaining a long lifespan, she wanted to assassinate a God even more.
"You might not believe it if I say it, but if you completely master Taixu, perhaps you can influence battles at the Aeon level."
Taixu, which interfered with causality and probability. The Will of the Abyss, which had been hammered by the Honkai Impact 2 Immortal with her fists, was only a clone; its main body was not necessarily weaker than an Aeon.
"Impossible!" Jingliu said decisively.
To interfere in an Aeon-level battle with a human body... how could such a cultivation method exist in the world!
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