When Xu Zhenguan heard a slightly familiar voice, he froze for a moment. Then, upon turning and seeing Gu Fangchen's face, his expression brightened immediately.
"Not Daoist!"
At first, he was delighted that his benefactor had suddenly appeared here, but then his expression turned grave as he quickly warned,
"Daoist, be careful! This man is an old monster with Fourth Stage cultivation! He's been living in this underground palace for who knows how many years!"
Gu Fangchen thought to himself, Would I not know that?
He had fought this monster in the Grand Dao Sword Palace dungeon at least a hundred and eighty times.
As a large-scale dungeon, it was absolutely impossible for players to clear it all in one go. Normally, they had to wait for the Sword Pavilion disciples to gradually advance layer by layer, unlocking each section.
The terrain inside was complex, divided into six layers, and the monsters were too numerous and far too strong.
Later, the Sword Pavilion even opened the dungeon's first three levels to disciples from other sects to assist in exploration, rewarding them with partial loot.
Eventually, someone triggered a hidden side quest and discovered a shortcut, an incredibly simple and low-risk way to speedrun the dungeon.
With it, players could reach roughly the second layer early on.
The only two difficulties were: first, one had to possess the identity of a disciple of the Grand Dao Sword Palace and have learned the Yijian Method; second, one needed to wield a sword of sufficiently high quality.
The second requirement wasn't particularly hard. If a player had connections with the Sword Pavilion, obtaining a high-quality sword was easy.
The real challenge was the first condition.
The so-called "Yijian Method" was a unique technique of the Grand Dao Sword Palace, and also a special hidden rule of the dungeon.
Unlike modern sects of Great Wei, those ancient sects were far stranger in nature.
The Grand Dao Sword Palace had earned its name precisely because it once intercepted a fragment of the Grand Dao from some unknown source.
Its founder refined that fragment, twisted the Dao resonance within it, and used it to envelop the entire Sword Palace. Every disciple of the Palace could comprehend a part of that resonance.
That Dao resonance was the Yijian Method.
Within the area covered by that Dao resonance, all sword-type weapons would develop sentience to some extent.
Once the Yijian Method was used, lower-grade swords would be compelled to bow before higher-grade swords, and naturally, the same went for their wielders.
Put simply, one's status within the sect was entirely determined by the quality of their sword.
That was the twisted doctrine of the Grand Dao Sword Palace.
Within the dungeon, as long as one obtained a Sword Palace disciple's identity and learned the Yijian Method, they could easily defeat all enemies whose weapons were of lower grade, without a single fight.
Outside the dungeon, the Yijian Method's effect would be greatly weakened.
But it could still suppress an opponent's sword, making it impossible for them to even draw their weapon.
Thus, while the Grand Dao Sword Palace's name sounded righteous, it had long been regarded as a demonic sect in truth.
A sect that determined rank solely by sword quality was, by its nature, one of ruthless competition and predation. Its destruction was hardly a loss to the world.
If anything, those who had invaded and annihilated the Palace were likely far more righteous than its own disciples.
The moment Gu Fangchen saw the red-eyed elder before him, he remembered his name.
Spiritblood Venerable Hu Wenxin.
The final boss of the Grand Dao Sword Palace's third layer.
That meant this place must be right at the entrance to the fourth layer.
As expected of the Adversity Bodhisattva, Xu Zhenguan had soared once again through hardship. In just five days, he had fought his way to the entrance of the later layers all on his own.
Gu Fangchen couldn't help but suspect that if he hadn't shown up, Xu Zhenguan might have managed to solo-clear the entire Grand Dao Sword Palace...
Though, realistically speaking, that was unlikely.
Cultivation didn't increase out of thin air. Reaching this point and only drawing out Hu Wenxin was already a miracle. If a few more high-level monsters had appeared, Xu Zhenguan would have been done for.
Fortunately, the fourth layer was just ahead.
Which meant Gu Fangchen could save himself quite a bit of effort.
"I know. So, "
Without another word, he grabbed Xu Zhenguan by the arm and shouted,
"Run!"
Gu Fangchen threw a handful of consumables behind him to obscure Hu Wenxin's vision, then slammed his fist into the nearby wall.
The Flame of Annihilation within his spiritual power erupted violently in a chain of explosions, blowing open several dozen meters of wall as he sped forward.
Behind that wall lay the buried ruins of the fourth layer of the Sword Palace.
Every shortcut in this dungeon came down to cliffs or hidden corners.
In the game, players had to glitch their way in. Now, it was much simpler, one punch was all it took.
Of course, the reason such a glitch had existed in the game was because this very wall had been corroded, hollow in many places.
Now Gu Fangchen could break through it directly.
The passage sloped downward, and once it was breached, the two of them plunged straight down.
Behind them came Hu Wenxin's cold, mocking laugh.
"So that's all your skill amounts to, merely a Sixth Stage brat! Cheap tricks! Once I catch you two, I'll drain every drop of your blood and refine it into my artifact!"
His blood-red eyes gleamed with greed as he stared at Gu Fangchen.
"Especially you! The scent of your blood, it's the finest material imaginable!"
Gu Fangchen ignored him completely. As the space below opened up, he saw a grand hall unfolding beneath them. Aiming carefully, he hurled Xu Zhenguan upward, hooking him onto the corridor's rooftop.
As for himself, he descended straight toward a corpse impaled by a long spear before the main hall.
Hu Wenxin was known as the Spiritblood Venerable precisely because he specialized in blood-based techniques and artifacts. Gu Fangchen's own blood was a potent toxin, even he found it troublesome. For Hu Wenxin, it was the ultimate temptation.
Squinting his eyes, Gu Fangchen sliced open his palm midair, chanting an incantation and inscribing a formation.
Seconds later,
He landed heroically before the corpse, slammed his bloodied hand onto the ground, and commanded,
"Rise!"
Blood surged outward from his palm, forming a strange array that enveloped the corpse.
This body had once belonged to a Sword Palace elder, a cultivator of the Fourth Stage.
Gu Fangchen flicked his fingers, and two golden needles appeared.
They were none other than the Tri-Evil Needles once used by the Qingman tribes to ambush Great Wei's army on Autumn Peace Road.
He had retrieved them afterward when commanding the troops.
The Corpse-Evil Method might not be righteous, but it was certainly useful.
Gu Fangchen drove the two needles into the corpse's temples. With a single thought, the body trembled, then slowly stood up.
Above, the once-snarling Spiritblood Venerable froze in shock.
That Seventh Stage youth had seemed so upright and honest, he had assumed any rescuer would surely be a righteous cultivator as well.
To think he'd run into a kindred spirit instead?!
Gu Fangchen smirked and cheerfully smeared more of his own blood onto the corpse's body, wasting not a drop.
It was true that he lacked the identity of a Grand Dao Sword Palace disciple.
But that didn't matter, he could simply steal one.
The reason one needed the disciple identity to use the Yijian Method was that only disciples could comprehend the Dao resonance the sect had stolen from the Grand Dao itself.
Now that nearly all the Sword Palace disciples were dead, and the few who weren't wouldn't take him as a student, Gu Fangchen had no choice but to steal it himself.
These corpses, buried in this lightless underground palace for countless years, had long been stripped of all possessions.
The only thing left to steal... was the lingering thread of Dao resonance within them.