You could not blame Gu Fangchen for being cowardly.
The Sword Pavilion Matriarch had been a half-step Eternal long before, a peerless great power renowned across the world a thousand years ago.
Both the story records and the Sword Pavilion's generational transmission said that she had failed her tribulation and died resentful, unable to ascend.
Gu Fangchen had always known that plot text could not be fully trusted, but Shi Qingguang's corpse lay in that stone coffin, a concrete piece of evidence. Could that be faked?
Yet now, for reasons unknown, she had somehow returned to life.
From what Gu Fangchen knew, outside the Eternal Realm, even reviving an ordinary person was impossible. Not merely unlikely, but entirely without possibility.
Or if it did happen, it would be like scooping the moon from the water, an illusion.
Now Shi Qingguang could come back from death. Who knew what realm she had reached?
Moreover, Gu Fangchen could not perceive her before because his realm had been too low. But what about the Emperor of Eternal Peace? What about the Sage? Both were First Rank, yet this female spirit had entered the Prince's residence and neither of them gave any reaction.
That was the most terrifying part.
Even if she were not First Rank, she was certainly half-step First Rank.
Controlling a small Sixth Rank was truly like handling an ant.
Compared to one's life and family, what did a nearly First Rank weapon amount to?
Gu Fangchen held the sword carefully and took step by step toward the corner of the room.
He stared unblinkingly at the Matriarch's clear, beautiful face, afraid that like a certain ghost he had seen, she might draw closer as soon as he looked away.
That would be horrifying.
And from the moment he had simply glanced at her in the mirror to the moment he looked at her in reality and she opened her eyes and moved a step, that possibility had indeed been real.
Gu Fangchen approached the Matriarch and said solemnly, "What happened that day was to lift the siege of the Sword Pavilion. To put it plainly, I borrowed your item to protect your legacy. I ask the senior not to be angry."
He had no hesitation and offered the sword with both hands.
The Matriarch regarded him indifferently, as if studying him, or as if seeing something beyond him.
Her gaze dropped to the peerless sword, forged with the ley lines, and after a moment of silence she reached out her fair, flawless hand.
Gu Fangchen breathed out a long sigh of relief.
It seemed his guess had been correct.
Shi Qingguang had come for this sword; if he returned it, there should be no problem.
That suggested the reason she had hidden her corpse using supreme sword intent at the edge of the Nine Nether Yellow Springs on top of the ley line was not merely to test later generations. Perhaps it was connected to her current revival.
Gu Fangchen followed the clue and recalled the layout of the Sword Pavilion's Seventy-Two Peaks.
One had to look not only at the current lake-center floating island part, but combine that with the portion once at Dragon Hollow Lake.
The present Sword Pavilion had long since moved from its original position.
The root cause was the internal strife of the Pavilion. Ning Songjun's single sword had cut袍断义, severing the land that connected Zhengrong Mountain and Cuiwei Mountain.
That had pushed the Seventy-Two Peaks into the center of the lake.
Looking only at the current Seventy-Two Peaks revealed little.
But if you recombined both sides, with Gu Fangchen's expertise in formation paths he immediately realized..
These sword columns were, damn it, actually a formation.
Because they had been separated, later generations would not easily conceive of that original design unless they had been given the initial direction.
Gu Fangchen cursed inwardly.
Uncle, you really made things hard for me.
If the entire Seventy-Two Peaks formed a large-scale formation, it must be tied to the ley lines and the stone coffin on the Yellow Springs boundary.
Perhaps that was the key to the Matriarch's revival.
And he had pried the sword away together with the ley line.
If he had known this key information earlier, he would have taken a different approach, proceeding more gradually. Damn this nagging feeling of familiarity, some game planner is still chasing me!
Gu Fangchen cursed that possibly nonexistent game designer in his heart, and could only be thankful that even as a ghost the Matriarch seemed reasonably considerate.
It appeared she wanted only the sword, not his life.
If she took the sword, she probably would not follow him.
Gu Fangchen watched with hopeful eyes as the Matriarch's fingertips drew near the blade.
Suddenly, a faint phantom of a small dragon appeared on the sword.
Hum-
The little dragon emitted a long cry. Light flowed across the Sky-Piercing Sword of the Seventy-Two Peaks, and the dense, surging breath of the ley line reappeared.
Then it opened its maw toward the approaching jade hand and its owner and snorted angrily. Its scales cracked open.
This quasi-Supreme-Grade Sword, the seventy-two-in-one, indeed had extraordinary power.
It actually bounced the Matriarch's hand back an inch, preventing her from touching it.
More absurdly, after snorting it immediately turned and clambered onto Gu Fangchen's forearm, rubbing against him affectionately as if seeking praise.
The Matriarch: "..."
Gu Fangchen: "..."
For real, you little bastard!
What the hell is wrong with this stupid dragon?
Why is it snorting at its maker?!
It's one thing to be hostile, but why does it act like we're close? If Gu Fangchen remembered correctly, he had had the sword for less than ten days.
"Matriarch! I swear, I am really not familiar with this sword!"
Gu Fangchen felt chilled and immediately put on a solemn face and raised his hand in oath.
At the same time he pushed the sword forward again.
The Matriarch glanced at him slowly and then continued to extend her hand.
"Ha-"
The little dragon repeated its snort and bounced her hand back again.
"No! This really is a misunderstanding! You stupid dragon, go away!"
"Ha-!!!"
The Matriarch: "..."
She also looked puzzled, tilting her head and showing a trace of annoyance.
Gu Fangchen was stunned, but finally noticed that the Matriarch before him did not seem to possess much intelligence.
That phrasing sounded odd, but it seemed the Matriarch's soul was not whole. She appeared to be a fragment of a program or an obsession.
She did want the sword, certainly. The problem was:
The sword did not want her to take it.
The Matriarch thought for two seconds, found nothing, then lifted her head and looked at Gu Fangchen, identifying the one who had prevented her as the man in front of her who pretended to obey.
If Gu Fangchen had known, he would have loudly cried injustice.
He really was being compliant, but the Haki dragon on his arm kept snorting.
The beautiful face remained expressionless, but a flash of killing intent crossed her eyes. Her raised finger no longer aimed at the sword but pointed directly at Gu Fangchen's throat.
Gu Fangchen's pupils constricted. A bone-chilling cold pressed at his throat and the hairs on his body stood up.
At that moment he saw golden light flicker overhead.
After fifteen days, his profession finally refreshed.
Gu Fangchen rejoiced inwardly and looked up. The previous title Thief had been replaced by two, technically three, new words:
[Night Warden (30 days)]