Volume One: The Emperor’s Sword Chapter 73: What Comes Free Is the Most Expensive

On the stone gate, two mouths kept twitching, as if tangled in some internal struggle. Elder Gatekeeper had no answer for a moment.

Yun Que grew more curious, refraining from urging, and waited quietly.

“There are indeed a few body-refining techniques, but most are quite ordinary, hardly worth mentioning—they’re good for strengthening the body, nothing more. When faced with a flying sword, you’d still have to dodge,” Elder Gatekeeper muttered to himself, making Yun Que feel as though he was about to be swindled.

It was akin to being stopped by a street vendor selling fake goods: first disparaging others’ wares for their poor quality, then turning around to brag about his own shoddy merchandise.

“I happen to have a body-refining technique here, a peerless martial art! Master it and you’ll be invulnerable to blades and spears, immune to water and fire! Not only artifacts, even treasures won’t harm you! Well, what do you think? Want to try it?” Elder Gatekeeper finished his pitch and Yun Que pressed his forehead, utterly helpless.

Well, it was exactly the same routine as selling counterfeit goods—not a bit off.

Despite his exasperation, Yun Que caught a subtle difference in Elder Gatekeeper’s words. Judging by his tone, this so-called peerless martial art wasn’t something belonging to the Sword Palace, but rather a personal possession.

A mountain spirit, a stone monster—could he have a hobby of collecting body-refining techniques?

“What kind of technique is it? Let me see,” Yun Que said.

Elder Gatekeeper replied, “Just a moment,” and his mouth vanished.

This time, Yun Que waited longer—about the time it took to eat a meal—before the mouth reappeared on the stone gate.

A peculiar stone book dropped into Yun Que’s hands.

Each page was made of thin stone slates, densely inscribed with annotations and diagrams of meridian flows, enough to make one dizzy. The main text, in contrast, was scant—less than a hundred words, obscure and hard to decipher.

The name of the technique was impressive: “Supreme Azure Six Armored Black Tortoise Divine Art,” commonly called Six Armored Divine Art.

Yun Que frowned slightly.

It wasn’t the authenticity of the technique that troubled him, but its origin—it looked as if it had just been carved.

He flipped the stone book over and shook it, causing a pile of stone debris to fall to the ground.

Indeed, it was freshly made! If it had been written with ink, the ink would still be wet.

“Is this really a miraculous body-refining art?” Yun Que asked suspiciously.

“Authentic, guaranteed!” Elder Gatekeeper assured him, then began to ramble.

“The Supreme Azure Six Armored Black Tortoise Divine Art comes from the Six Armored Heavenly Tome—a body-refining technique from ancient times, long lost. It has six levels; each level mastered allows you to withstand attacks from a corresponding realm.”

“For example, after mastering the first level, attacks from the Qi Refining Realm won’t affect you. The second level lets you endure attacks from the Foundation Establishment Realm with ease! The third level—if a Golden Core enemy attacks you, let him try all he wants, you won’t even retaliate, it’ll just be like an itch. And so on.”

“The essence of Six Armored Divine Art is to forge six layers of invisible armor within oneself, each more solid and mysterious than the last. If perfected, nothing in the world could harm your body.”

“Its greatest strength lies in its extraordinary defensive power, letting you stand undefeated. But it doesn’t significantly enhance your strength or speed. If you face an opponent with defensive artifacts or treasures, it could easily turn into a prolonged battle—unless you have powerful offensive means, you’ll probably end up in a stalemate with strong foes.”

Elder Gatekeeper clicked his tongue repeatedly, as if regretting the limitations of the Six Armored Divine Art.

Most body-refining techniques offered comprehensive enhancements—in strength, speed, and durability. But the Six Armored Divine Art was different; its focus was defense, like a tortoise shell.

Learning of this drawback, Yun Que didn’t mind.

He was a sword cultivator, not a pugilist. In battle, it was all about striking or being struck. If he could ignore blades and swords, he’d be free to strike at will.

How exhilarating!

After Elder Gatekeeper’s explanation, Yun Que examined the stone book carefully.

To be honest, it didn’t seem fake.

The annotations were too detailed; if it were fabricated, there’d be no need for such meticulous arrangement.

Still, he wanted to clarify the origin of this Six Armored Divine Art.

“Where did it come from?” Yun Que shook the stone book and asked.

“Found it long ago—got lucky, very lucky,” Elder Gatekeeper replied.

“Have you cultivated it yourself?” Yun Que pressed.

“Tried it for fun, just for fun,” Elder Gatekeeper answered.

“How do we trade?” Yun Que asked.

“I’ll give it to you for free!” Elder Gatekeeper declared.

Hearing “free,” Yun Que’s guard shot up, knowing that what was free was often most costly.

Elder Gatekeeper seemed to sense Yun Que’s suspicion and quickly explained:

“This is just the first layer of the Six Armored Divine Art. Master, you can try cultivating it. If you’re satisfied with the results, you can come to me for the second layer. Of course, the second layer won’t be free—it’ll require something special in exchange.”

Yun Que sneered inwardly; the fox’s tail was showing at last.

“What do you want for the second layer?” Yun Que asked.

“One part of my body—any part will do. Hands, feet, head, whatever,” Elder Gatekeeper replied casually, but it sounded quite terrifying. He continued, “To tell you the truth, I died terribly—dismembered alive! Those damned scoundrels made me into a treasure vault gate, stationed in Sword Palace vaults everywhere. My only wish is to have my body restored—do you think that’s unreasonable?”

Yun Que was speechless.

Wanting a complete corpse wasn’t unreasonable, but the absurd part was that even after being dismembered, he was still thinking about restoration.

This wasn’t a ghost story!

“In other Sword Palaces across different kingdoms, are parts of your body present too?” Yun Que asked.

“Of course! I’m such excellent material—how could they waste it? Naturally, they made vaults—safe, sturdy, and with automatic alarms. So convenient!” Elder Gatekeeper replied with a strange tone.

“What are you, anyway—human or monster?” Yun Que asked.

“Me? Naturally, I’m a stone demon! My whole family are stone demons!” Elder Gatekeeper’s voice took on an odd pitch.

Since he refused to reveal the truth, Yun Que knew further questions would be pointless.

“I’ll keep the Six Armored Divine Art for now. If I find it effective, I’ll consider cultivating the second layer.”

Yun Que put away the stone book and took out two soul stones, tossing them to the mouth on the stone gate, which swallowed them whole.

One soul stone for a storage ring; one soul stone for three hundred flying swords.

The transaction was complete.

“Come again, Master!” Elder Gatekeeper’s sly voice echoed underground, and Yun Que left the vault.

Back at his residence, he first took stock of the transaction.

A storage ring worth at least two thousand spirit stones, three hundred mid-grade flying swords valued at over ten thousand spirit stones, plus an ancient body-refining technique of uncertain authenticity—the Six Armored Divine Art.

All for just two soul stones.

He’d traded two thousand spirit stones for over ten thousand in value.

Not counting the technique, Yun Que had made a killing!

If the Six Armored Divine Art was genuine, its worth would exceed both the storage ring and the flying swords.

Flying swords had a price, but some lost ancient techniques were priceless.

He transferred everything from his old storage pouch to the ring, then put the porcelain bottle containing the blind snake into the ring’s spirit beast space.

He’d previously had to carry the bottle by hand—now it was much easier.

Lastly, he prepared to store the corpse-eating bugs in the ring as well.

He tried taking a few from the old pouch and found that, in the spirit beast space, the bugs didn’t crawl about but stayed put, just as they did in the pouch.

So the spirit beast space could restrain living creatures.

Using spiritual energy, Yun Que manipulated the bugs, moving them around as he pleased—they were as docile as building blocks.

This made things far more convenient.

With a spirit beast space larger than a courtyard, he could store many living creatures without worrying about them fighting.

But there was a condition.

When storing living creatures, he had to activate the storage space’s internal restrictions, or else the bugs would roam freely inside.

Yun Que held the stone book, studying it for a long time, his brow furrowed.

He truly couldn’t tell if the technique was genuine.

If it was real, there’d be great benefit in cultivating it.

But if it was fake, rashly practicing it could be a trap, putting him in danger.

What to do… Ah!

A flash of inspiration—Yun Que focused his mind, sinking into his sea of consciousness, intending to consult Uncle Wang.