Cultivating Immortality, Starting from Childhood Sweethearts

Chapter 227

“Drip, drip.”

In the depths of an unknown cave within Sanshi Peak, droplets of water fell one by one from the stalactites hanging high above. The stalactites were so far up that the water drops shattered into countless tiny fragments upon hitting the ground.

On the cold, damp ground, Xu Xue Nuo’s brows twitched slightly. Her long, curved lashes quivered as she slowly regained consciousness. Despite the hard surface beneath her, it felt oddly like she was lying on something warm and human.

As her awareness returned, Xu Xue Nuo suddenly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Xu Ming’s face. She quickly realized that she was lying on top of him.

Startled, she sat up slightly and nervously checked for Xu Ming’s breathing. Feeling the faint warmth of his breath against her fingertips, she let out a sigh of relief, the weight in her heart finally easing.

“Wake up. Hey, Xu Ming, wake up,” Xu Xue Nuo said, gently patting his cheeks in an attempt to rouse him.

After several moments, Xu Ming’s brow furrowed slightly, and Xu Xue Nuo’s eyes lit up with delight.

When Xu Ming slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a girl looking down at him, her expression filled with pure joy, as if she had narrowly avoided losing him forever.

“You’re finally awake! I thought you were dead!” Xu Xue Nuo blurted out, her words blunt and inauspicious despite her relief.

Xu Ming chuckled faintly. “Dying isn’t that easy. But, Miss Jiang, could you perhaps get off me?”

“Ah?”

Only then did Xu Xue Nuo realize she was still lying on top of Xu Ming. Flustered, she quickly scrambled off him.

Xu Ming sat up, supporting himself with one hand while shaking his head slightly to clear it. He glanced around at their surroundings.

The cave wasn’t pitch black—everything around them was faintly visible. Yet, oddly enough, the source of the light couldn’t be discerned.

“What is this place?” Xu Xue Nuo asked, her voice uncertain. It was a question that bordered on rhetorical.

“Who knows?” Xu Ming replied out of politeness. “What about your life-bound flying sword? Does it sense anything?”

Xu Xue Nuo had mentioned before that her life-bound flying sword could sense certain presences. It was what had led them to this place in the first place.

Shaking her head, she replied, “It’s completely silent. I tried calling for it earlier, but it feels like it’s… asleep or something.”

Xu Ming frowned thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. Then, standing up, he said, “Let’s move. Since we don’t know where this is, we might as well look around.”

Xu Xue Nuo nodded and followed closely behind him.

The two walked aimlessly forward. The cave was vast, resembling a small plain. It was easy to get lost, though, for Xu Ming and Xu Xue Nuo, being lost didn’t matter since they had no idea where they were heading in the first place.

The silence was unnerving. Aside from the occasional sound of water droplets hitting the ground, there was no other noise. The eerie stillness made it easy to imagine something lurking, ready to leap out of the shadows.

“Roar!”

Xu Ming and Xu Xue Nuo froze, unsure how long they had been walking when they suddenly heard a beast’s roar ahead of them.

Their hearts trembled.

Another roar quickly followed, this one overlapping with the first.

The roars were chaotic and disordered, like the sounds of a mixed group of magical beasts. Accompanying the roars were the noises of stones shattering and violent impacts.

Exchanging a glance, Xu Ming and Xu Xue Nuo silently reached an unspoken agreement: they would go and investigate.

With their swords in hand, the two cautiously advanced step by step toward the source of the commotion.

Soon, in the vast area ahead, they saw a giant scorpion covered in sharp spikes battling a massive red dog with three heads. Nearby, a giant serpent with skin like rock was fighting a towering three-meter-tall chicken.

A beast that resembled a water buffalo but had the trunk of an elephant was being devoured by a swarm of green ants. Within just ten breaths, the swarm stripped the buffalo, starting with its outer skin, down to its flesh, until nothing was left but a stark white skeleton.

All around, bizarre, unnameable magical beasts were locked in relentless combat.

If one pair of battling beasts accidentally got too close to another pair, the conflict would escalate, dragging all four into a chaotic melee.

In short, the scene ahead was utter pandemonium.

Even Xu Ming couldn’t tell what these beasts were fighting over. From what his eyes could see, there were no signs of any heavenly treasures or rare artifacts.

If it were just one or two of these beasts, Xu Ming and Xu Xue Nuo were confident they could take them down. But with so many gathered together, they worried that even a minor disturbance might provoke the horde and get them trampled to death.

Yet, Xu Ming was reluctant to turn back.

A place as abnormal as this surely held some secret, something worth uncovering. Or perhaps, if they managed to cross this beast-filled area, they would find whatever it was the beasts were drawn to. These creatures couldn’t have gathered here without reason.

“Hold my hand,” Xu Xue Nuo suddenly said to Xu Ming.

“What?” Xu Ming thought he might have misheard.

Xu Xue Nuo shot him a glare. “You want to get through, don’t you? Hold my hand—I have a way.”

Xu Ming glanced at the girl’s soft, delicate hand, feeling somewhat hesitant. But after a moment’s thought, he reasoned, If she’s not concerned, why should I, as a grown man, hesitate? With that, he extended his hand and grasped hers.

Her hand was smooth and supple, though Xu Ming could feel faint calluses in her palm—likely the result of years of sword practice.

Xu Xue Nuo, feeling Xu Ming’s grip, took a deep breath to steady herself. Channeling her spiritual energy into her sword, she swung it forcefully forward.

In an instant, violent sword energy surged ahead of them.

Xu Ming’s heart skipped a beat.

Wait, what? Swinging a sword at this horde of beasts? Isn’t that just asking to get them all to charge at us? This is your so-called plan? Xu Ming already felt a pang of regret for trusting her.

But the next moment, he realized he was wrong.

The girl’s sword energy wasn’t aimed at the beasts at all.

Instead, the energy slashed through the space in front of them, tearing it apart. The sword energy didn’t dissipate; it churned violently, like a trapped storm raging within a sealed bottle.

“Boom!”

The space ahead of Xu Ming shattered into chaos.

Xu Xue Nuo grabbed Xu Ming’s hand and stepped forward.

Xu Ming felt his body becoming faint and insubstantial, as though he were transitioning into another dimension. It was an inexplicably profound sensation, like stepping into an entirely different realm.

Soon, Xu Ming realized his feeling was accurate.

They had indeed entered another space.

Here, the sky and ground were seamlessly connected, and everything around them was a vast expanse of white. It felt as though nothing existed in this space—pure and pristine, like freshly fallen snow.

Sword Domain!

The phrase suddenly sprang to Xu Ming’s mind.

Sword cultivators possessed life-bound flying swords, each with unique abilities.

Some life-bound swords could resonate with plants and flowers.

Others could condense ice from sword energy, freezing entire regions for hundreds of miles.

It seemed this space was one such manifestation of a life-bound sword’s extraordinary power.

Some life-bound swords are like marbles, capable of shattering into hundreds of fragments. Each time the sword cultivator flicks their finger, a piece of the sword would shoot out like a long blade, dealing devastating damage.

When a life-bound sword awakens its divine ability, the next step for the cultivator is to deepen their understanding of sword energy, sword intent, and the way of the sword. Gradually, they form their own Sword Domain.

A Sword Domain is the culmination of a sword cultivator’s understanding of sword energy, sword intent, and the way of the sword—a complete manifestation of their comprehension of the “sword.”

Most Sword Domains extend outward, dragging enemies into the cultivator’s domain to engage in battle. This is the most standard use of a Sword Domain.

The appearance of a Sword Domain is closely tied to the abilities of the life-bound sword.

However!

This girl’s Sword Domain was internal!

Her Sword Domain had formed an entire small world of its own!

This was something Xu Ming had never heard of before.

Xu Xue Nuo continued to hold Xu Ming’s hand as they walked forward. Xu Ming felt as though he were drifting between the edges of her Sword Domain and the real world.

None of the beasts noticed their presence.

At that moment, Xu Ming understood how this girl had managed to enter this place. It was likely by using a similar method.

She must have first created a crack in the formation, and with just that gap, she could slip into the rift between two worlds, making herself exist yet not exist. From there, she navigated the formation and entered Sanshi Peak.

This wasn’t something that any ordinary sword technique could accomplish.

Xu Ming couldn’t think of a single sword technique capable of this.

It had to be due to her life-bound sword.

The sword she used to kill the black bear earlier must have been an application of her life-bound sword’s divine ability.

It seemed her life-bound sword had a talent related to spatial manipulation.

And in Xu Ming’s experience of reading countless novels, watching anime, and films in his previous life, any power capable of manipulating space was always ridiculously overpowered!

But even that wasn’t the most shocking part for Xu Ming.

Normally, a sword cultivator capable of forming their own Sword Domain would need to be at least at the Nascent Soul stage.

Yet this girl appeared to only be at the Dragon Gate stage.

A cultivator in the Dragon Gate stage manifesting a Sword Domain? What kind of unparalleled genius was this?

‘Wait a second…’

Suddenly, an image of a young girl from Xu Ming’s memories surfaced in his mind.

If there were a swordsmanship prodigy, it had to be her.

Even though it had been nearly a decade since he last saw her, he often heard stories about her achievements.

‘Could she be…?’

Xu Ming glanced at the girl’s profile, filled with doubt.

But he also thought it unlikely.

If she truly was Xu Xue Nuo, why wouldn’t she tell him her real name? After so many years apart, wouldn’t it make more sense for her to be excited to see him?

Even if she weren’t overjoyed, why would she go so far as to make up a name and deceive him?

If she truly was Xue Nuo, Xu Ming couldn’t fathom why she would lie to him.

As Xu Ming speculated about her identity, he noticed the girl’s steps becoming increasingly unsteady.

Sweat was forming on her forehead, and her breathing grew heavier with every step.

What’s more, their bodies could no longer consistently remain in the ethereal, in-between state. Once, they even fully exited the spatial rift and landed directly beneath the massive, fur-covered foot of an elephant-like beast.

If not for the girl quickly activating her Sword Domain again, they would have been noticed by the elephant-like beast.

Xu Ming guessed that maintaining this technique was draining her stamina and spiritual energy immensely, and bringing him along was doubling the consumption.

Not to mention, the area where the beasts were battling was vast.

Xu Ming felt like they had walked nearly two miles, yet the chaotic beast battles were still ongoing.

“Are you running out of energy? Let go of me and leave this place. I’ll find a way,” Xu Ming said to Xu Xue Nuo.

“No!” Xu Xue Nuo immediately rejected Xu Ming’s suggestion. “If you stay here, those beasts will definitely notice you, and you’ll be dead for sure. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. I can handle it.”

“This won’t work, the two of us—”

“Poof!” Before Xu Ming could finish his sentence, Xu Xue Nuo spat out a mouthful of blood.

This was the side effect of Xu Xue Nuo overexerting her spiritual energy.

She could no longer maintain her Sword Domain.

In an instant, the spell that had enveloped them both disappeared completely.

Xu Ming and Xu Xue Nuo found themselves right in the middle of the beast horde.

A massive wolf, surrounded by black flames, immediately noticed the two intruders and charged toward them.

Xu Ming initially planned to kill the fiery wolf with a single sword strike, but fearing the bloodshed might attract more beasts, he knocked the wolf unconscious instead.

However, no matter how carefully Xu Ming tried to minimize the noise, the commotion was still significant.

More and more beasts began to notice them.

Normally, even if beasts noticed an outsider, they wouldn’t rush into battle immediately. They would observe for a while, especially with so many beasts already fighting amongst themselves.

But these beasts acted as if they had seen a red flag waved before a bull, all of them charging at Xu Ming without hesitation.

Xu Ming could no longer hold back. With a swing of his sword, he cleaved a massive stone snake in half. Then, he swiftly picked up Xu Xue Nuo and began running forward!

Beast after beast tried to block Xu Ming’s path, but he didn’t linger for a fight. If he could kill, he killed; if he couldn’t, he pushed them back. If that didn’t work, he dodged.

The goal was simple: avoid being overwhelmed by the beast tide.

Besides, Xu Ming didn’t believe these beasts would chase him forever!

But the beasts were too many.

The commotion Xu Ming caused attracted even more beasts from ahead, who quickly positioned themselves to intercept him.

“Get out of my way!”

Xu Ming sheathed his sword and threw a massive punch forward.

The immense force shattered the beasts in front of him, tearing them to pieces. The scene turned into a brutal bloodbath.

Some beasts began devouring the corpses of the ones Xu Ming had killed.

But most of the beasts were undeterred. They only wanted to kill Xu Ming!

“You’re carrying me. We won’t make it out of here!” Xu Xue Nuo weakly said from Xu Ming’s back. “Put me down!”