Chapter 114 Encountering a Sword Immortal in a Celestial Dimension, the Decay Debuff Breaks the Spell

Before the samples of star core steel were even finished being packaged, the cross-dimensional monitoring panel on Ghost's side lit up again.

This time, it wasn't an alarm or an invitation. The Immortal Cultivation World had opened the entrance to the cross-universe channel itself. It opened silently, without any system announcements or diplomatic statements from a World BOSS. It simply appeared in Lin Ye's cross-dimensional management interface: a new entrance icon adorned with golden cloud patterns, labeled with four characters—Spirit Vein Treasure Land.

Ghost stared at the backend logs for a moment and said that this channel hadn't been forced open, nor had it been automatically unlocked by the system. The trigger was that someone within the Immortal Cultivation World had used some kind of energy key to actively unlock the cross-dimensional access permissions from the inside. The encryption method for this key was unlike the Magic Creator God's astrology or the Interstellar Behemoth's energy core; it was a third, completely independent cross-dimensional communication protocol. It was more like a passive sensor-based door mechanism—someone had buried the mechanism deep within the Spirit Vein Treasure Land, and the Decay energy fluctuations generated when Lin Ye stepped into the Interstellar Warframe had been sensed by this mechanism, automatically triggering the door to open.

"The Creator God of the Immortal Cultivation World is waiting for him. Just like the Magic Creator God, they've been forced by the Abyss Council to start calling for backup." Ghost pulled up the open beta data for the Immortal Cultivation World and scanned it quickly, her brows furrowing tighter. "The strongest wild World BOSS in the Immortal Cultivation World is called Sword Venerable Qingming. He is set as a Tribulation Transcendence stage Sword Immortal who controls the Spirit Vein Treasure Land and wields a flying sword capable of slicing through space. This BOSS has never been killed in the Immortal Cultivation World. It's not that players can't defeat him; it's that he simply refuses to fight them. Every player who enters the Spirit Vein Treasure Land is blocked by a sword qi barrier. Those who approach are knocked away, and those who draw their swords are knocked even further. People on the forums have calculated that since the server opened, not a single person has managed to even touch the hem of his robe."

Beside them, Su Qinghan laid out the data for the Magic Era, Interstellar Warframe, and Immortal Cultivation World side by side on the table. After a moment, she offered her assessment: "The Shadow Demon Dragon was an active invitation, the Interstellar Behemoth was a passively triggered alarm, and Sword Venerable Qingming likely buried a sensor mechanism in advance to wait for Lin Ye to arrive on his own. The methods of the three Creator Gods across the three planes are different, but the pace is becoming increasingly urgent. The expansion speed of the Abyss Council might be faster than they anticipated."

Lin Ye stood up, zipped his jacket up to his chest, and walked over to the game pod to open the hatch. Before sitting down, he paused and turned back to ask Ghost: "Can an energy detector for the Immortal Cultivation World be brought inside?"

Ghost said it was possible, but the detection frequency band needed to be calibrated to the spiritual power wavelength of the Immortal Cultivation World, which would take a few minutes. Su Qinghan had already pulled up the equipment compatibility checklist for the Immortal Cultivation World on her tablet and was checking the item lists in their three backpacks one by one. Without looking up, she added, "I'm going this time too. If Sword Venerable Qingming really doesn't actively harm people as the rumors say, then his sword qi barrier is most likely a threshold test for a gatekeeper rather than a malicious defense. Threshold tests require healing and support, not just DPS."

Fatty Wang quickly unplugged the vacuum packaging machine, stacked the packaged star core steel samples in the corner, brushed the metal shavings off his hands, and followed them.

When the three of them entered the Immortal Cultivation World, they landed on an ancient stone platform floating above a sea of clouds. The surface of the platform was paved with bluestone slabs that had been carved as smooth as a mirror by sword qi, and glowing spirit herbs grew in every crevice between the stones. In the distance, amidst the rolling sea of clouds, a golden pillar of light connecting heaven and earth was faintly visible. The pillar was surrounded by countless minute, flowing runes, resembling inscriptions carved into the air. Beneath the pillar of light was a lone peak, and on its summit stood thousands of swords—some rusty, others still sharp and bright. All the sword tips were pointing in the same direction, as if worshipping something.

Fatty Wang stood at the edge of the stone platform and looked down; beneath his feet was a bottomless sea of clouds, and above his head was a brilliant galaxy so close he could almost touch it. He took a deep breath and remarked that the art team for this plane must not be getting paid and didn't sleep, as this was just too ethereal.

Before Lin Ye could speak, a very light breeze suddenly blew from behind him. The breeze carried a faint scent of green grass, and as it swept across the stone platform, everything around them suddenly went quiet, and even the faint glow on the spirit herbs stopped flickering. A figure drifted over from the direction of the golden pillar of light; though it looked like drifting, it was more like a flash of sword light that arrived before them in an instant.

The person who arrived was wearing a green shirt, with his long hair tied back using only a simple hair ribbon, and a sword without a scabbard hanging at his waist. The sword blade was as thin as a transparent sheet of ice, and it constantly changed colors as it reflected the light of the galaxy. His features were cold to the point of being almost bland, but his eyes revealed a sense of vicissitudes completely at odds with his appearance, as if he had lived for a very, very long time.

Sword Venerable Qingming.

He stopped three steps away from Lin Ye, his gaze resting on Lin Ye for a moment before he nodded slightly. When he spoke, his voice was not loud, but every word felt like it had been soaked in a thousand years of frost and snow: "The Chaos Core and the Decay Domain coexist within you. You are indeed the person the Demon Dragon spoke of." He paused for a moment and swept a glance at the galaxy behind Lin Ye. "The Abyss Council has already initiated the final anchoring sequence for the descent channel in the prime plane. The flow of time in your real world is different from ours; you should still have time on your side, but not much."

Lin Ye didn't bother with pleasantries: "Your Creator Gods have also left someone in the Immortal Cultivation World to negotiate with me. The Magic Creator God gave a shadow crystal, the Creator God of Interstellar left star core steel; what do you intend to give?"

Sword Venerable Qingming did not answer, but instead raised his hand and drew the unsheathed longsword at his waist. The moment the sword left its sheath, the brilliance of a billion stars dimmed for an instant, as if the brightness of the entire galaxy had been partially absorbed by this sword. He held the sword horizontally in front of him, tapped the sword tip lightly downwards, and a circle of extremely fine ripples spread out across the bluestone slabs of the platform from the point where the sword tip touched. Each ripple emitted a metallic hum as it sliced through the air.

"Take one strike from me. After this strike, whether you can withstand it or not, the spirit vein crystal will be yours." He slowly raised the sword and pointed it at Lin Ye. Lines of flowing golden runes began to appear on the sword blade, and with each rune that lit up, a layer of the surrounding sea of clouds was sliced away. "The spirit vein crystal is the source energy crystal of the Immortal Cultivation World, purer than both the shadow crystal and star core steel. The energy shell of the Abyss Council has a natural resistance to spiritual power, but equipment forged from spirit vein crystals can penetrate that resistance. You need it."

Lin Ye glanced at the runes still lighting up on the tip of the sword, pulled his hand out of his pocket, took two steps forward, and stood less than an arm's length directly in front of the sword tip. His tone was calmer than ever: "Come."

Sword Venerable Qingming did not hold back. He thrust the tip of his sword forward, and the millions of swords stuck on the lone peak behind him simultaneously emitted sharp sword cries. Countless streams of sword qi converged from all directions onto the stone platform, condensing in mid-air into a sword energy aura that was almost tangible. The breadth of this sword aura sliced the brilliance of the entire galaxy in half. Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin—the highest-level sword technique in the Immortal Cultivation World, which ordinary players, even in a full hundred-person raid group, could not withstand a single strike of.

Lin Ye did not block. He pushed his Cross-dimensional Decay Domain to maximum power. The moment the edge of the domain made contact with the sword aura, the spiritual power contained within the aura dissolved rapidly like ice and snow poured into boiling water. Millions of streams of sword qi decayed layer by layer within the Decay Domain, transforming from sword aura to sword light, from sword light to sword shadow, and finally, by the time they landed on Lin Ye's shoulder, only a cool, light breeze remained, failing to even cut the fabric of his jacket. When the main body of Sword Venerable Qingming's sword, thin as an ice sheet, pierced into the core range of the Decay Domain, the golden runes on the blade began to flicker frantically, as if desperately resisting some irreversible erosion. He looked down at his sword; the spiritual light that had flowed on the blade for a thousand years was fading at a rate visible to the naked eye, and the blade was slowly turning from a brilliant silver-white into an ordinary iron-grey.

Lin Ye did not counterattack; he simply stood quietly in front of the sword tip, waiting for him to retract it himself.

Sword Venerable Qingming was silent for a long time, then slowly returned his sword to its sheath. The action of sheathing the sword was very slow, as if he were saying goodbye to an old friend. The moment the blade was fully sheathed, the sword qi barrier on the stone platform completely dissipated, a warm breeze brushed past again, and the faint glow of the spirit herbs began to flicker once more. He lowered his head and took a fist-sized crystal from his robes, placing it in Lin Ye's palm. The crystal had a pale golden, transparent texture, and inside it was sealed a liquid stream of light as thin as a hair, which swam slowly within the crystal like a living, miniature galaxy. This was the spirit vein crystal.

"Your Talent is not invincible. The Decay Domain is essentially a process of exchanging energy for energy; when facing opponents with a higher energy level than yours, the Decay rate will decrease. The power of the Lord of the Abyss spans three plane levels; it is difficult to suppress it head-on relying solely on the current Decay Domain." After placing the spirit vein crystal into Lin Ye's hand, he stepped back two paces and returned to being that cold and bland Sword Immortal. "The source energies of the three major planes—the shadow crystal, star core steel, and spirit vein crystal—can facilitate Talent evolution when fused together. This is a conclusion that the three Creator Gods deduced together a long time ago, but they were wary of each other and never managed to join forces. Now, the invasion of the Abyss Council has made them put aside their prejudices, but you are the only vessel that can truly achieve this fusion."

Lin Ye gripped the spirit vein crystal tightly, feeling the stream of light inside the crystal become instantly active when it touched the Decay energy in his palm, swimming faster like a fish being awakened. He put it into his backpack and told Sword Venerable Qingming that he would look into the matter of Talent evolution. Then he glanced at the sea of clouds behind him and asked a more practical question—was there anyone near the Spirit Vein Treasure Land from whom he could collect protection fees?

Sword Venerable Qingming was silent for a moment, as if still digesting the meaning of the word "protection fee," then pointed toward the faint, sprawling complex of immortal sect buildings visible beneath the sea of clouds: "The concentration of spiritual energy around the Spirit Vein Treasure Land is more than three times that of ordinary areas in the Immortal Cultivation World. Rogue cultivators and small-to-medium sects come to the vicinity of the treasure land every month to collect spirit vein crystals. The top sects of the Immortal Cultivation World have monopolized the distribution rights of spirit vein crystals for nearly a thousand years; rogue cultivators have dared not speak out against this for nearly a thousand years."

Lin Ye smiled and said that meant there were. He had Ghost post an announcement on the Immortal Cultivation World's server-wide channel that was identical to the ones in the Magic and Interstellar planes—any individual or sect collecting spirit vein crystals within the Spirit Vein Treasure Land must pay monthly spirit vein crystals or equivalent immortal cultivation techniques to obtain a safe collection permit; those who do not pay can go and discuss it with Sword Venerable Qingming's sword qi barrier themselves.

Ghost translated the announcement into the in-game format of the Immortal Cultivation World and sent it out. Within moments of it being pinned, the server-wide chat channel of the Immortal Cultivation World was flooded with countless scrolling messages. People from various major sects asked, "How did this Que De Studio fight its way from the Magic Era to the Immortal Cultivation World?" Others shouted, "Our sect hasn't even beaten that Sword Immortal in thousands of years, and this guy is actually using him as a toll gate!" There were also rogue cultivators who directly shouted in the channel: "Finally, someone is dealing with these monopolizing sects; I'll pay the protection fee."

Lin Ye left the subsequent follow-up matters to Fatty Wang and Su Qinghan, while he walked to the edge of the stone platform and stood facing the sea of clouds for a long time. Sword Venerable Qingming stood not far behind him, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke: "When you took my strike earlier, I sensed an energy frequency in the aftermath of your Decay energy that did not belong to you. The frequency characteristics were identical to the power waveform of the Chaos Core within you, but the source was not the Chaos Core itself. It had an autonomous reaction trajectory, as if responding to a summons from a specific coordinate in the outside world."

Lin Ye withdrew his gaze from the sea of clouds, his voice very low: "I know. Last time, deep in the mineral layers beneath the mining station on the Interstellar plane, Su Qinghan also scanned a similar signal with a portable detector. The signal frequency was highly close to the resonance frequency of the Chaos Core when it was activated on the Shadow plane." He paused, then added, "There might be more than one Chaos Core."