After returning to Qingluo Peak, Ling Yunpo told Senior Sister An what happened:
"...In short, it is because the sect's treasure was stolen and the Shura Dao has been constantly killing our Shushan disciples recently. The higher-ups are planning to organize Jindan Zhenren to eliminate the Demon Guardians and make this the official content of the Dragon Boat Festival Competition."
"If you ask me, although it was our Shushan who initiated this incident, the responsibility lies entirely with the Shura Dao. It was clearly our own fault for not taking good care of the sect's treasure, so how can we blame our Shushan Sword Immortal?"
"Maybe the person who picked it up originally wanted to return it to the original owner, but after seeing you being so unreasonable, he changed his mind and decided not to return it!"
"Junior brother, you are absolutely right." An Zhisu said absentmindedly, his thoughts obviously all on the competition.
Shark people again? Great, I'll kill ten of them!
Ling Yunpo naturally knew what Senior Sister An was thinking. In fact, Senior Sister An and Junior Sister Xu had many similarities, but also different points.
The similarity is that both of them have strong personalities. In the world of cultivation, if a female cultivator does not have a strong personality, it is often difficult for her to become one of the strongest among her peers.
The difference is that Xu Yinglian just doesn't want to lose. Losing to others would make her feel humiliated - unless she really can't win.
But if there is no one ahead of her, she will not force herself to compete with others.
But An Zhisu is completely different. After all, she was led astray by her father Su Jian since she was a child. What she desires is not just victory, but the hearty victory after violently crushing the enemy.
Junior Sister Xu is competitive, while Senior Sister An is aggressive. The latter is a very common character of Shushan swordsmen, and is also the source of the outside world's contemptuous nickname "Shushan roughnecks".
Seeing that An Zhisu was full of fighting spirit, Ling Yunpo knew that there was no need to say more, Senior Sister An would definitely accompany him to the competition.
Speaking of forming a pill, the Qi-refining technique of the Qingluo Peak lineage, Su Jian was originally only able to reach the highest level of the Huafu stage, without even the method to form a pill, let alone the Jindan stage.
Fortunately, the two of them obtained the "Taishang Sun and Moon Hunyuan Sutra" in the Baiyujing secret realm, so there was no obstacle in their improvement of cultivation.
However, Su Jian's Seven Killing Sword Technique also only passed on to An Zhisu the sword moves up to the Huafu level.
As for the swordsmanship of the Jindan realm... Even though Su Jian left behind a book on swordsmanship, learning swordsmanship from the book is as unreliable as learning to build a nuclear bomb by watching a video. There will be huge errors in the details.
After all, in this era where Taoism is regarded as life, no one would write down the key secrets in detail so that others can steal the Taoist tradition just by reading the scriptures.
Therefore, the two newly promoted Jindan sword immortals could only learn from each other and hone each other's swordsmanship.
To give an example, it is like a country that has not completed military mechanization and has to develop a cavalry corps, which is essentially a last resort.
Taking this into consideration, Ling Yunpo strongly invited Senior Sister An to participate in the Dragon Boat Festival Expedition, which actually also included this consideration:
As the Shura Road in Tiecheng Mountain is close to Shu Mountain and has no natural barriers to protect it, its swordsmanship level is second to none, otherwise it would have been destroyed by the Shu Mountain ruffians long ago.
If one could obtain the Golden Core Realm swordsmanship of Shura Dao, even if it was incompatible with the Seven Killing Swordsmanship of Qingluo Peak, at least one could practice it while keeping the level here.
If all else fails, Wei Dongliu can only step forward and learn a magic sword technique from the Jindan realm, and then disguise it as battlefield spoils - Kunlun, Penglai and Shushan have too close a relationship, and stealing their sword techniques would easily lead to mistakes, which would be difficult to explain.
Fortunately, An Zhisu has always been obedient to this junior brother. As long as Ling Yunpo makes up a barely acceptable excuse and shows that "I hope senior sister will do this", An Zhisu will naturally agree. The degree of domestication has reached the maximum.
As time entered May, the conflict between Shushan and Shura Dao had become increasingly intense.
A large number of Shushan Jindan Sword Immortals, led by the Yuanying elders, split into small groups and headed towards the western plateau.
The reason for breaking the whole into parts is, on the one hand, to maximize the Shushan Sword Immortal's ability to fight alone, and on the other hand, it shows that the purpose is just to severely damage Shura Dao, not to destroy it.
If it were the demon clan in the Eastern Emperor Realm, they would dispatch several divisions of troops at any time to directly destroy the enemy clan and exterminate their species. The forms of war on both sides are completely different.
Arriving near the Hengduan Mountains, the Yuanying elder leading the Shushan team began to assign tasks:
"Then there are three directions."
"One team will follow me to the north to intercept the pursuers heading south from Tiecheng Mountain."
"Team Two continues westward to annihilate the main force of the Shura Dao demons on the plateau."
"Team three will turn south and move along the mountain valleys to wipe out the remaining evildoers!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at the Yuanying Elder eagerly.
The reason is very simple: Team One has to fight their way to the vicinity of Tiecheng Mountain, which is the most dangerous and they will encounter the strongest enemies. They might even get involved in a fight between gods... Of course, don't forget that this is a big competition, and when the enemy kills are counted, Team One has the highest probability of coming out on top, and they will also be able to get subsequent rewards from the Shushan Shangqing Sect.
The second team must fight their way from here to the north of Tanggula Mountain. This area is a high-incidence area for Shura Dao monks' activities (it was here that Lingyun broke through the tribulation in the past). However, since the connection with Tiecheng Mountain was cut off by Shushan Team One, the quality of the enemies encountered by Team Two is likely to be inferior to that of Team One.
Although the probability of winning the competition is not high, the biggest benefit is not the sect’s reward, but the enemy’s spoils after the battle - when it comes to fighting, the Shushan Sword Immortal has almost absolute confidence.
As for the third team, although they were going to blockade the mountains and valleys on the southern edge of the plateau, the monks who chose to flee southward from the plateau were originally just some weak trash.
In addition, the terrain is quite complex, with snow-capped mountains and rainforests at times. It is good for travel and adventure, but to hunt down enemies... it is unrealistic.
Unlike everyone else who were vying to be assigned to a team, Ling Yunpo was watching coldly from the side, sneering in his heart.
It would be best to fight near Tiecheng Mountain, but the prerequisite is to be led by the elders of the sect. For example, if the other party sends out Nascent Soul enemies, your own Nascent Soul elders can go up to intercept them. In this way, the Jindan Zhenren can fight with ease.
But for Ling Yunpo of Qingluo Peak, going to Tiecheng Mountain with Senior Sister An was like delivering food to his door: the Shushan Second-Rank Golden Core Master without the protection of his elders is here! Come on, shark!
If this Yuanying elder really assigned the two of them to the same team, Ling Yunpo would have no choice but to discuss with his senior sister how to find a place to hide and survive the competition.
Fortunately, no matter how much the Shushan high-level officials discriminated against the Wenqing School, they were not so cruel as to push the younger generation of the second-grade golden elixir out to die.
The other party simply said, "You people from Qingluo Peak follow Team Three," and didn't give any further instructions.
Ling Yunpo secretly breathed a sigh of relief, while An Zhisu's expression was obviously a little regretful, knowing that he could not kill to his heart's content.
After the team division was completed, the Shushan Sword Immortal team was divided into three.
Team two has the largest number of people, but team one is the strongest. Team three not only has a smaller number of people, but is also relatively weaker, and most of them are newly promoted Jindan Zhenren.
If it were Team One or Team Two, everyone would still be interested in sticking together, but now that they were sent to the edge of the plateau, they didn't even have the interest to chat, and soon they all dispersed in their own directions to search for the enemy.
Ling Yunpo followed An Zhisu and headed westward along the mountain range for several days, and as expected, he did not encounter a single enemy.
Speaking of which, if we continue moving forward, we will enter the territory of Kunlun, right?
Senior Sister An will never meet Junior Sister Xu, hahaha.