The stone man approached, examined Su Yuan, and then spoke: "I am the Guardian Stone Spirit of Primordial Isle. You've come to seek apprenticeship, I presume!"
"Uh, yes!" Su Yuan immediately nodded.
The stone man nodded in return, then asked curiously: "Why are you alone?"
Su Yuan shrugged: "The others are probably in the other two passages."
The stone man said indifferently: "No matter, it's all the same. Those who actually get the chance to enter the inner regions of Primordial Isle were never numerous to begin with!"
Su Yuan fell silent for a moment. This was somewhat different from what he had initially imagined. This place wasn't some secret realm after all, but actually the dwelling of a mighty expert?
An existence that could casually bestow such fruits must be truly extraordinary.
The stone man then said: "Passing my test is simple - defeat me, or find the highest quality sword among these countless sword artifacts. If you can find it, that sword will belong to you."
Hearing this, Su Yuan glanced toward the distant mountain forest where countless sword artifacts were planted in the ground, some even buried in the soil. Finding the best quality sword among so many seemed like a simple choice, but Su Yuan felt it definitely wouldn't be that straightforward.
He looked back at the stone man and asked: "Honorable Guardian Stone Spirit, what level is your strength?""I am at the peak Mixed-origin golden immortal realm. You can battle me - just need to last one day and night. You get three attempts!" the stone man stated.
Su Yuan nodded in understanding, then said: "Very well, I'll go find the sword!"
The stone man's mouth curved upward as he stood on the stone wall, waiting to see Su Yuan make a fool of himself.
On the other side.
At the celestial realm's landing point.
There was no mountain forest filled with sword artifacts, nor any stone guardian presiding.
The group scattered immediately upon setting foot on the island, beginning their search through the island's mountain forests.
Sword Immortal Wine had regained his composure. After separating from those two fellows, he ventured alone through Primordial Isle.
Primordial Isle contained numerous rare treasures, and he needed to find sufficiently valuable treasures to proceed to deeper regions.
Seeing the occasional broken sword artifacts in the mountain forest, Sword Immortal Wine showed thoughtful expression: "I heard Primordial Isle used to be full of garbage sword artifacts, and taking even one would get you teleported away. Fortunately, a senior cleared out all the sword artifacts, which eventually allowed many natural treasures to gradually emerge."
He paid no attention to these broken sword artifacts, continuing his search for treasures instead.
What he didn't know was that the first layer of Primordial Isle's trial and opportunity actually lay precisely in these seemingly insignificant sword artifacts.
Of this, Sword Immortal Wine remained completely unaware, his attention still focused on searching for treasures.
Netherworld.
Primordial Isle entrance portal.
Four figures materialized out of thin air.
Two of them possessed restrained, mysterious auras that reached unimaginable levels.
Any mighty expert seeing these two would certainly be greatly astonished.
Because these two were respectively the current Lord of the Celestial Realm and Lord of the Demon Realm, both having reached the Primordial Supreme Great Luo Golden Immortal level.
It's just that these mighty experts hadn't appeared in the world for many years, leading people to believe that Zhuyuan Great Emperor was the Celestial Realm's ruler, and so on.
Behind them stood two "young men" with incredibly solid and powerful auras.
"Teacher, why must we come in such haste?" one youth asked.
The Lord of the Celestial Realm gazed at the stone gate, saying slowly: "This portal isn't simple to pass through. There are hidden mighty experts sending their descendants into Primordial Isle. Under these circumstances, variables may emerge. You should enter now!"
The Lord of the Celestial Realm looked toward the Lord of the Demon Realm.
The hostility between them was extremely apparent, but before the stone gate, both exercised restraint.
"Let's begin!"
The two mighty experts each executed numerous Daoist techniques hand seals. After quite some time, the stone gate slowly opened.
With a wave of their hands, the two young men rushed into the portal.
In the sword energy passage.
Two cultivators advanced at full speed.
They sized each other up, both showing eager expressions in their eyes.
"Zhuge Tao, I never expected you to be the protégé disciple nurtured by the Lord of the Celestial Realm! You've hidden quite deeply!"
"Hehe, Sima Nan, you're no different! Superficially just an ordinary sect master in the Demon Realm, but your true identity was hidden just as profoundly!"
Both cultivators appeared to be utterly ordinary figures in their respective realms, yet unexpectedly, each was the protégé disciple of their realm's ruler. Both had comprehended complete laws but hadn't broken through to the Mixed-origin realm.
Their speed was extremely fast, and they soon passed through the passage, setting foot on Primordial Isle.
However, nothing appeared above their heads - no opportunities descended upon them.
Zhuge Tao scanned the area but didn't see the person who had entered earlier, frowning slightly.
At this moment, the stone man on the stone wall manifested once again.
He approached the two and said: "I am the Guardian Stone Spirit. Have you come to seek apprenticeship?"
"Yes!"
They answered in unison.
"Good. Two choices: defeat me or find the most precious sword artifact! Choose one!"
Zhuge Tao's eyes flashed as he said: "Dare I ask, honored stone guardian, what level is your strength?"
"Peak Mixed-origin golden immortal!" the stone man said indifferently.
Zhuge Tao immediately said: "I choose combat!"
The stone man said with great satisfaction: "Acceptable. It's been quite some time since I've stretched my limbs."
Beside them, Sima Nan clicked his tongue regretfully - his words had come a beat too slow, letting Zhuge Tao take the initiative.
He glanced at the distant mountain forest, having no intention whatsoever of searching for sword artifacts. The sheer number of sword artifacts made finding the most precious one seem nearly impossible.
Moreover, what standard defined "most precious"? The stone man hadn't specified. Searching like this, they might never find it even given endless time.
Zhuge Tao and the stone man soon began fighting.
Zhuge Tao displayed astonishing combat power. His complete comprehension of Mixed-origin golden immortal laws allowed his attacks to reach unimaginable levels of potency.
But the stone man was also incredibly powerful, with peerless defense.
Moreover, the environment and terrain here were equally extremely sturdy, fully accommodating their battle needs.
The commotion didn't appear particularly massive.
At least Su Yuan, who was searching for swords, didn't notice it.
"What truly constitutes the best sword?"
Su Yuan moved through the sword artifacts that covered the mountains and plains.
As an artifact smith, Su Yuan's standard for evaluating sword artifacts was grade - the higher the grade, the better the quality naturally. But if that were the case, this trial would seem overly simple. Wouldn't one just need to survey the entire area to identify the sword artifact?
Su Yuan glanced at the surrounding garbage sword artifacts, falling into deep thought.
"Should I give it a try?"
Su Yuan gazed into the distance and quickly found a sword that appeared to be of the highest quality.
It had reached middle-grade Postnatal Spiritual Treasure level.
Such a sword artifact would absolutely count as a rare precious sword in the outside world.
But here within Primordial Isle, it was truly just garbage.
When Su Yuan passed through the mountain forest earlier, he had even found some precious materials, including treasures at the Mixed-origin Great Luo level. So compared to those, a middle-grade Postnatal Spiritual Treasure sword was practically indistinguishable from trash.
Su Yuan pulled out that sword.
In the next instant, powerful Spatial Law enveloped Su Yuan's body.
In a flash, his figure vanished from Primordial Isle.
When he reappeared, he was already on some insignificant small hill in the Netherworld.
Su Yuan looked utterly bewildered, holding the sword in his hand as he said speechlessly: "I actually failed? As expected, it's not simple!"
He wasn't particularly surprised by this outcome.
He casually stored the longsword.
Then he activated the entries [Mind Echo] and [World Traveler].
Using [Mind Echo], he left a mental coordinate on Primordial Isle.
Then using [World Traveler], he initiated spatial teleportation.
In the next instant, he returned to Primordial Isle.
He looked up at the sky where countless sword energies showed no intention of descending to punish him, which immediately made Su Yuan's expression relax.
"So I can create save points! Well, that's fine then!"
Su Yuan said with a cheerful laugh.
"The quality of sword artifacts here all seems too poor, inferior even to my lifebound sword artifact! Since that's the case..."
Su Yuan narrowed his eyes.
With a beckoning gesture, a lifebound sword artifact that had reached high-grade Postnatal Spiritual Treasure level appeared in Su Yuan's clone hand.
Su Yuan then attempted to insert his lifebound sword artifact into the ground.
Clink!
To Su Yuan's astonishment, the ground was hard as iron - he couldn't even insert the sword artifact into the earth!
Though he hadn't used much force, he was still a Great Luo Golden Immortal, and the sword was a high-grade Postnatal Spiritual Treasure, for heaven's sake.
Feeling speechless, Su Yuan found the spot where he had pulled out the sword earlier, located the hole, and placed his lifebound sword artifact into it.
After waiting a moment, Su Yuan pulled it out again.
"Well? What now?"
Su Yuan looked up at the sky, but nothing happened.
"Alright, I was being simplistic!"
Su Yuan's expression gradually turned serious.
Then, with a casual pull, he extracted another sword artifact from the ground.
In the next instant, he vanished again.
Another breath later, Su Yuan returned once more and pulled out another sword.
"I refuse to believe that if I pull them out one by one, I still won't find that so-called most precious sword artifact!" Su Yuan said fiercely.
Two days later.
Large sections of the mountain forest had become pockmarked with sword holes, but Su Yuan still hadn't found that supposedly most precious sword artifact.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Zhuge Tao and Sima Nan had both successfully passed the stone man's trial and entered deeper into Primordial Isle.
And Su Yuan, who had entered earlier, was still struggling with the sword artifacts.
The stone man had just sent Sima Nan away. Coming to his senses, he began searching for Su Yuan's location.
But after crossing one mountain, the stone man suddenly froze.
He rubbed his eyes in confusion, then his jaw dropped in shock. The entire mountainside was covered with pockmarked sword holes - not a single sword artifact remained.
These sword artifacts might seem low-grade, but each had been nurtured on Primordial Isle for countless years, each containing one or more strands of immortal sword energy. Their value was certainly not low, but now, it seemed someone was nearly done pulling them all out.
He hurriedly crossed several mountain peaks before finally spotting Su Yuan's figure.
The stone man roared: "You damnable scoundrel! How dare you do this? How could you possibly do such a thing? This is utterly insane! Isn't it just about passing the trial? I'll let you pass! Just stop this right now!"