The Sword Spirit was extremely generous in lavishing praise and compliments on the phoenixes. He went on incessantly for close to ten minutes and was actually not done yet…“…In conclusion, the phoenix’s elegance, mercifulness, magnanimity and uprightness has caused it to be on opposing stands with the Dragon race. Therefore, in order to restrain the Dragon race’s wickedness, wherever the phoenix is, the Crystal Spirit Spring, which is capable of cleansing and purifying the world and dispelling illusion poison, will naturally exist!”

The Sword Spirit exhaled heavily and said, “Thus, if the Evil Illusion Jade Crystal and Evil Spirit Illusionary Spring can both be found in the place of Dragon and Phoenix Bringing Prosperity, the Obscure Heavenly Crystal and Crystal Spirit Spring will definitely also be there!”

“Therefore, if you can obtain the seventh fragment of the Nine Tribulations Sword this time, you’ll be able to get your hands on two of the Nine Great Herbal Medicines at the same time too!”

Chu Yang felt a little dizzy for a moment there. He became even more certain that the Sword Spirit must definitely have something to do with the Dragon and Phoenix races now!

Otherwise, he would never be this worked up!

At the same time, Chu Yang felt as if something huge had just fallen from the sky into his lap! This enormous surprise overwhelmed him with giddiness.

Two of the Nine Great Herbal Medicines at once!

Accompanied by two great fascinating types of spring water.

And the Nine Tribulations Sword!

And the remains of a dragon and a phoenix!

If this wasn’t something huge falling from the sky into his lap, what was?

But of course, he would need to pocket them first before they could be considered his.

“The Crystal Spirit Spring, if mixed with your current Spiritual Spring Water, would turn into ‘Saintly Spiritual Spring Water’, which is of a higher grade than Spiritual Spring Water. With this, when you obtain the Fairy seeds and catalyze the Life Force Spring, the quality of the Life Force Spring will reach the acme of perfection instantly. In fact, even exceed it!”

The Sword Spirit said, “When that happens, you shall own in your possession an amazing treasure that’s one of a kind in this whole world!”

Chu Yang’s eyes shone brightly. “In that case… This land of Dragon and Phoenix Bringing Prosperity is actually this amazing…”

The Sword Spirit replied, “This is the true land of the Dragon and Phoenix. However, it is not ‘bringing prosperity’… Instead, the truth is that when the world was destroyed, the leaders of the Dragon and Phoenix races had no choice but to join hands to stand against that ultimate expert who folded the Nine Heavens, yet they had failed at that place! That’s why there is… such a fascinating phenomenon.”

The Sword Spirit said, “Dying together with a dragon is seriously the most unbearable thing to a phoenix!”

Chu Yang was rendered speechless by this.

“Evil and wicked dragon! Allowing it to die together with a phoenix practically sullies the phoenix!” declared the Sword Spirit hatefully.

“Err, by the way. If it weren’t for this, I really wouldn’t have recalled this.” The Sword Spirit said, “Speaking of wickedness, take a look at your Nine Tribulations brothers — Ao Xieyun is from the Dragon race. See? You can tell that he can’t perform well just from his name alone; the character ‘Xie'[1] is right in his name. Rui Butong, on the other hand, is different. He straight up called himself Butong[2], how humble is that! Humility is the greatest virtue!”

Chu Yang wanted to faint.

It… it can actually be explained like that?

It’s not like their names were given to them by themselves, right? Besides… After interacting with them for so long, how is it that I can’t see even an ounce of humility in Rui Butong?

All I see is how arrogant and domineering that fellow is.

Besides, even though there’s a ‘Xie’ character in Ao Xieyun’s name, he’s not evil at all, other than just being a little stingy… But this sort of stinginess is also relative. Toward his brothers, he’s not stingy at all.

The Sword Spirit’s words were clearly biased.

During Chu Yang’s conversation with the Sword Spirit, Mo Tianji and the others had already arrived and gathered a long time ago.

What they saw was that Chu Yang’s head was lowered, as if he had entered a state of deep contemplation. None of them dared to disturb him, standing by the side quietly and waiting instead.

“What’s Boss doing?” Ji Mo muttered softly.

“Probably thinking about something.” Rui Butong was all puffed up with self-importance. To be honest, he really couldn’t be blamed for this. Rui Butong was filled to the brim with smugness right now.

He had originally been the weakest among the brothers. But now, his cultivation level was the highest among them. Even Gu Duxing’s cultivation was lower than his now…

How could this not drive Rui Butong wild with joy?

If not for Chu Yang summoning them here for something, Rui Butong probably would have issued him a challenge long ago. In fact, he had even thought of how he would say it —”Second Brother Gu, come, come, let me teach you a lesson or two and beat you in Second Softie Gu! …”

Ao Xieyun asked, “Is he thinking about something else? Boss is sad about something?”

Rui Butong chuckled sneakily. “Boss is wondering why Xie Danqiong is a rabbit but Ao Xieyun isn’t?” Ever since this fellow got wind of what had happened that time, he had been going on and on about rabbits non-stop, practically turning into a warmonger. He had already gotten into a few fights with Xie Danqiong while on the way here. And now, he went from bad to worse, actually even dragging Ao Xieyun into it.

Furthermore, for some reason, the moment he uttered those words to degrade Ao Xieyun, Rui Butong suddenly felt extremely pleased. He had a ‘slaves who have been freed belting out songs’ kind of feeling, as if the clouds had been dispelled and he could now see the sun.

This felt too awesome!

This was a kind of extreme satisfaction that originated in the soul and traveled to his spirit before being reflected in his body!

Under the influence of such thoughts, Rui Butong added another line. “Who’s to say whether Ao Xieyun has already become a rabbit a long time ago… He and Meng Luo were together for such a long time back then. As everyone knows, Meng Luo is a pervert… Maybe Ao Xieyun has long already been…”

Ao Xieyun was infuriated!

He erupted right away!

All at once, he charged right up to him. This was exactly what Rui Butong had been waiting for. He let out a loud shout. “Watch me beat up the rabbit!” Somersaulting outwards, the two of them got into a huge and loud scuffle right away.

Ao Xieyun was only a third-grade elementary-level Supreme Martial Artist right now, while Rui Butong was already a fifth-grade Supreme Martial Artist. With such an absolute difference in their abilities, it wasn’t long before Ao Xieyun was pummeled into the ground.

By the time Chu Yang opened his eyes, Young Master Ao was already all swollen and bruised.

It was only when Chu Yang opened his eyes that he realized the shocking happenings taking place right beside him. When he turned to look, he couldn’t help but believe the Sword Spirit’s words a notch more. Wasn’t this a dragon and a phoenix fighting it out next to him right now?

Truth spoke louder than words.

But this was just a one-sided argument from the Sword Spirit after all. Moreover, it was heavily biased toward one party. Thus, the ultimate outcome still remained to be seen after investigating the land of Dragon and Phoenix Bringing Prosperity.

Hobbling forward, Ao Xieyun caught hold of Chu Yang and, as if he wanted to cry, said, “Boss… You must help me… I also want to be a fifth-grade Supreme Martial Artist…”

Chu Yang was stupefied in response, tears almost streaming down his cheeks. “Dear Xieyun, it’s not just you, Boss himself… also wants to be a fifth-grade Supreme Martial Artist…”

“Hahaha…” The few of them burst into deafening laughter.

“Alright, stop messing around for now. Bring out all your weapons and tell me your requests.” Chu Yang said in a deep voice, “A great war is imminent. Let’s settle all the hardware issues first.”

The first one was Gu Duxing, of course.

With a flip of his hand, the Black Dragon Sword appeared in his palm. “Boss, I don’t need it to be sharper. I only want it to be sturdier, so that my Black Dragon won’t get damaged easily. Its length and thickness don’t need to be changed. It’s fine if the sword body is a little heavier; preferably about 12 to 13 kilograms heavier would suffice.”

Chu Yang’s eyes focused on the Black Dragon Sword. The sword gleamed and glittered all over, a sense of joy and gratitude seemingly permeating lightly from it.

The first request Gu Duxing made wasn’t to kill enemies but to take care of his sword. This caused the Black Dragon Sword, which was already starting to cultivate a spirit, to naturally react. A wave of joy and thankfulness — an emotion akin to a willingness to die for a bosom friend — filled the sword immediately.

Gu Duxing himself didn’t expect that his simple request right now had actually allowed his divine weapon to fully become one with himself!

Gu Duxing couldn’t sense it, but Chu Yang, whose divine sense was now merged with the Sword Spirit, could sense it fully.

The Sword Spirit sighed. “Yet another true divine weapon has emerged into the world today!”

As a sword spirit, it went without saying that he could understand what the fluctuation of emotions from the Black Dragon Sword at this moment symbolized.

When a sword possessed a spirit, it would have a heart. With a heart, it would have a soul. With a soul, it would need a sense of belonging and attachment to something!

The Black Dragon Sword, an ancient divine weapon that had gone through an unknown number of owners, had finally truly, completely and fully acknowledged Gu Duxing in this instant!

From this moment on, only Gu Duxing alone would be able to wield the Black Dragon Sword in this world!

An inauspicious way of saying this would be — Should Gu Duxing die one day, this Black Dragon Sword would inevitably also explode and crumble at the same time!

This was a true spiritual sword!

The second one was Ji Mo. “I would also like my sword to be reinforced. It’s best that the weight doesn’t change. If it can become even sharper by a few dozen times, that would of course be the best…”

Chu Yang rolled his eyes at him. “Leave the sword and scram to the side and wait.”

Completely disregarding his lack of courtesy, Ji Mo placed his sword down and went enthusiastically to the side. Then, he sighed and lamented, “Aobo hasn’t abused me for so long…”

He actually looked as if he missed being abused very much…

All the brothers were speechless at once.

Dong Wushang stepped forward. “My Dark Saber… feels a little light recently. It would be best if it can be heavier and sturdier.”

Chu Yang raised his eyebrows. The others also looked absolutely mystified.

It’s already 285 kilograms and you still think it’s too light?

“How heavy do you want it to be?” asked Chu Yang.

“750 kilograms… should be the most ideal. Of course, when I reach eighth to ninth-grade Supreme Martial Artist, if it stays the same size, it would be the most perfect if it can be 1,500 kilograms,” answered Dong Wushang proudly.

All the brothers were astounded!

1,500 kilograms!

This fellow was truly daring in saying it.

Chu Yang agreed to his request without hesitation. “Alright, 750 kilograms and no change to its appearance. I’ll get it done for you!”

Dong Wushang was overjoyed. “Thank you very much, Boss!”

Next, Luo Kedi’s request was a sword. Ao Xieyun also asked for a sword.

Meanwhile, Rui Butong’s request was —”I don’t need an improvement in quality. I still want the same thing, that kind of short sword that’s a bit flawed in the center. You can give me another thousand or so of them.”

Ao Xieyun said viciously, “What do you want so many for? Sticking them in your ass to form a goddamn phoenix tail?”

Chu Yang and the others burst into loud laughter.

Ao Xieyun’s words were seriously a stroke of genius!

Xie Danqiong naturally wanted to construct viburnum flowers again. The Viburnum Flower Young Master made a request —”Can you make viburnum flowers that are of different colors and different weights for me… Eight to ten sets of them?”

Chu Yang agreed readily.

Mo Tianji said, “It’s best that Danqiong’s viburnum flowers catch people by surprise, so I suggest that you also carry a sword as cover. In addition, the sword cannot be too inferior in quality.”

Xie Danqiong felt that his suggestion made a lot of sense. He was full of praises for Mo Tianji, saying that he was a devious man of a generation, sinister and vicious indeed.

The last one was naturally Mo Tianji. “I would like my fan to be refined again. It’s best that you can get me a good Purple Jade Flute too, one that I can use as a weapon. I want a sword too; my request is that it has to be sharp, the sharper the better. It must also be light, preferably if it doesn’t even weigh 50 grams… Lastly, I also want two concealed sleeve daggers, two boot daggers, a soft sword for the waist, a springback blade for the back and two trigger swords for the chest…”

His series of requests filled the brothers with admiration for him, to the point of prostrating.

A devious man was a devious man indeed! I just cannot compare!

[1] The character means ‘evil’

[2] The name means ‘unable to understand’