345: Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin

"What a pity, what a great pity!"

Xu Fu shook his head and said, his heart filled with extreme dread. Such a fellow as Wuming truly deserved to die. If he lived long, where would there be any room for others in the world?

At the same time, far away in the desolate and cold northern lands, at the old site of the Sword Sect.

A biting cold wind howled, stirring up thousands of piles of snow.

Two figures trudged through the thick snow, arriving with difficulty before a massive stone gate sealed by ice.

It was precisely Pojun and Yan Ying.

Pojun's face was rugged, his eyes fierce, tinged with an impatient greed.

Beside him, Yan Ying, though nearing forty, still possessed peerless grace, but her brows and eyes carried a hint of weariness and resentment, honed by years and experiences.

She was originally Nie Renwang's wife and Wind's mother. Later, she followed Overlord, and after being abandoned by Overlord, she was rescued by Pojun and followed him. Then, Pojun gave her to Jue Wushen in exchange for the Sha Po Lang martial art.

This time, Jue Wushen crossed eastward into the Central Plains, bringing his entire family, young and old, only to be struck down by Lu Jiuyuan's palm, all perishing in the belly of fish.

Pojun and Yan Ying, due to both their strength and luck, escaped this calamity.

Their purpose for this trip was to return to the Sword Sect and obtain the legendary strongest martial art of the Sword Sect, the Secret Manual of Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin.

Pojun looked at the massive ice-sealed stone gate, his eyes bursting with frightening brilliance:

"This is it! The Old Man was foolish. If he had given me the Secret Manual of Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin directly back then, I would have defeated Wuming long ago. And I wouldn't have had to endure this twenty years of frustration!"

He channeled all his power and punched the stone gate!

"Boom!"

Ice shattered, and the stone gate opened, revealing a deep, cold cave within, along with several unfortunate figures frozen inside.

"Who are they?" Yan Ying looked at the lifelike frozen figures in the cave, somewhat curious.

"Sword Emperor, Dugu Yifang, the Old Man Jianhui, and another unlucky fellow!" Pojun said:

"In the battle with Wuming back then, I was slightly at a disadvantage. The Old Man felt disgraced and feared the outcome of the duel would leak, making others say he was biased. So, he used the Heaven-Returning Ice Art to keep them all here!

He's also brainless!"

Pojun tapped his father's ice shell, then took out half a key from his In my arms, and then another half key.

"Back then, Wuming and I each had half of this key! Only when combined could we find the hidden location of the Secret Manual." Pojun pressed the two keys together, forming a swastika shape, and held it high.

"Is this Wuming's?"

"No, it's a fake I had someone make! Not being able to deal with Wuming doesn't mean I can't deal with the problem!"

"Fake?" Yan Ying was somewhat stunned.

"Of course, this is my father's item. How could I not know what it looks like!" Pojun proudly shook the complete key in his hand.

He stopped talking nonsense and, following the faint sensation from the key, strode deep into the ice cave. Yan Ying followed closely, looking at the frozen figures around her, feeling a chill in her heart.

Soon, they arrived at the deepest part of the cave, before an ice wall as smooth as a mirror. The sensation from the key was strongest here.

"This is it!" The greed in Pojun's eyes intensified as he pressed the swastika key into a seemingly natural indentation on the ice wall.

It fit perfectly!

The moment the key embedded, a low sound of gears turning came from inside the ice wall.

Immediately after, the ice wall slowly split open in the middle, sliding apart to reveal an opening just wide enough for one person, with a faint light emanating from within.

Pojun eagerly squeezed in, and Yan Ying hesitated for a moment before following him.

The inside of the cave was not large. In the center was a stone platform, on which lay a simple, ancient stone box. In stark contrast to the frozen scene outside, there was no trace of frost around this stone box; instead, it emitted a faint warmth.

On the surface of the stone box, four characters were carved in a vigorous, dragon-like and phoenix-like script, imbued with Sword Qi—Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin!

"Hahaha! I found it! It truly is Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin!"

Pojun was overjoyed and snatched the stone box into his hand. This time, the stone box felt warm to the touch, and the lid had no mechanism or lock.

He took a deep breath, filled with immense anticipation and a hint of trepidation, and slowly lifted the lid.

Inside the box was still an ordinary-looking thin booklet. The cover bore the familiar four characters.

Pojun's hands trembled as he picked up the booklet and quickly flipped it open.

The first page, the general outline: "All Qi generates itself, Sword Qi rushes through the empty meridians; returning to the origin of martial arts, the sect's power is long-lasting."

His heart tightened, and he hastily flipped to the back.

On the following pages, there appeared various moves, but they were quite simple, looking more like introductory sword techniques than supreme ultimate skills.

"This... is this Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin! Is this Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin, damn it?!"

The ecstasy on Pojun's face instantly froze, turning into fury.

He quickly flipped through the pages, faster and faster, his expression growing uglier and uglier.

"To hell with your Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin!"

But overall, it was simply a basic Sword Qi manual, far from the supreme sword technique he had imagined, capable of unleashing ten thousand swords with a wave of a hand and destroying heaven and earth!

"Bastard! You're messing with me! You're messing with me again!!"

Pojun trembled with rage, threw the booklet to the ground, and stomped on it furiously.