Steadily becoming a saint, the immortal officials hired me to tend the horses

```

Sword Transmission?

Gu An instinctively resisted.

He had already mastered the Taicang Divine-Shocking Sword, Wood Spirit Sword Technique, and even had the Hateful Heaven Divine Sword in his panel, thus, there was no need to waste time and life span on practicing other sword techniques.

After all, he could rely on life span to deduce and upgrade his swordsmanship, so why learn so many?

Making an excuse, Gu An said, "Senior, I'm not interested in the Sword Dao, to put it precisely, I'm not interested in any methods of combat. I rarely even cultivate on normal days; my true passion lies in plants and flowers."

Han Ming was taken aback, then furrowed his brows.

Gu An pretended to be anxious and explained, "Senior, it's not that I'm resisting you. You can go and ask around; all the disciples in the Valley know my character. My spirit root qualification is limited, so instead of spending my limited life span on the elusive pursuit of immortality, I'd rather live freely and enjoy a brief two hundred years."

Han Ming looked at him, silent.

Gu An didn't say more either.

It's not like he could beg Han Ming not to teach him, right?

After quite a while, Han Ming said with emotion, "I finally understand why you easily attain enlightenment. Your state of mind has surpassed most cultivators. Letting go of obsession and experiencing the myriad states of the Mortal World might indeed make it easier to perceive the True Meaning of Heaven and Earth."

The two continued to discuss Path Enlightenment, and Han Ming no longer insisted on teaching swordsmanship.

After chatting for a whole day and night, Han Ming finally left.

He planned to visit the Supreme Sect and look for a suitable inheritor.

Gu An recommended someone, Zuo Lin.

As it happened, Han Ming also knew Zuo Yijian, so he agreed to consider Zuo Lin.

After he left, Gu An began to patrol the Third Medicine Valley.

Elder Tian caught up to him and asked curiously, "Valley Master, the cultivator from earlier seemed extraordinary, but his clothes clearly came from the Great Yu Dynasty. What did he want with you?"

"He wanted to take me as a disciple and teach me the Sword Dao."

"So, did you accept?"

"How could I? If I had accepted, wouldn't that be tantamount to betraying the Supreme Sect? Though I'm not strong, I have a loyal heart towards the Supreme Sect."

Gu An casually refuted, and the more casually he spoke, the more genuine Elder Tian felt he was.

Elder Tian didn't think Gu An was putting on an act. Having been at the Medicine Valley for many years, Gu An was serious about everything he did, and treated the servant disciples properly; aside from not loving cultivation, Elder Tian really couldn't find any faults with him.

Elder Tian began to accompany Gu An on his patrols, checking the medicinal herbs along the way, and they chatted intermittently.

During this time, Gu An asked Elder Tian for his views on the mentor-disciple relationship.

Elder Tian, who had lived for over seven hundred years, had life insights that Gu An was very interested in. While he did not necessarily plan to emulate them, listening to them was always beneficial.

At the same time.

The news about Mad Swordsman Han Ming challenging Sword Venerable Fudao rapidly spread throughout the cities of the Supreme Sect. Everyone who heard the news was filled with anticipation.

Han Ming was a world-renowned sword cultivator, and Sword Venerable Fudao was currently the most famous cultivator of the Supreme Sect. Who wouldn't want to watch a sword competition between the two?

Most importantly, disciples of the Supreme Sect also wanted to see Sword Venerable Fudao's true face and witness his elegance.

Half a month later, when Gu An arrived at Tianya Valley, he heard that Luo Hun and Yi Liuyun were also discussing this matter.

This made Gu An start to waver.

Initially, he didn't want to accept the challenge, confident that the Supreme Sect, teeming with experts, wouldn't let Han Ming disrupt the Heavenly Repair Platform.

But with the situation blowing up so much, if he didn't go, wouldn't that be a blow to his reputation?

That won't do.

He had to hasten his progress in becoming stronger!

Han Ming was a genius who could kill across realms. With his Unification Realm level one cultivation, he could control swords from a distance. What if he took a fall?

He had to reach level nine of the Unification Realm in advance!

Gu An saw that Han Ming was a decent person and decided to give him a vigorous defeat. What if Han Ming had another epiphany after his loss?

...

Late at night, Gu An continuously teleported through the forest, covering a hundred miles with each step, using the Infinite Traceless Mystic Heaven Step to quickly move away from the Supreme Sect.

Constantly drawing on the Spiritual Energy of the Supreme Sect, he felt a bit guilty, so this time he decided to break through in a place rarely touched by humans.

He was determined to reach level nine of the Unification Realm in one go!

Oh, how unpredictable the world is, always someone disrupting his plans and rhythm of becoming stronger.

After traversing nearly twenty thousand miles, Gu An finally stopped. He was deep in the mountains, and the forest was filled with a thick aura of demon energy and ghostly energy.

Gu An sat down under a tree and immediately initiated the Life Span Barrier.

He could not go any further; who knew where further wandering would lead.

Gu An began to invest a thousand years of his life span into his cultivation level, successfully reaching the second layer of the Unification Realm, as Earth Spirit Energy began to flow towards him.

Afterward, he continued to invest another thousand years of his life span.

A thousand years followed another thousand years.

Until he reached level nine of the Unification Realm, he had altogether invested eighteen thousand years of his life span. After level five of the Unification Realm, each level required three thousand years of life span to break through, related to the Spiritual Energy of the environment he was in.

That was acceptable to him, after all, just progressing from level nine of the Void Crossing Realm to level one of the Unification Realm had consumed more than twelve thousand years of his life span.

Seeing that he still had over two hundred thousand years of life span left, Gu An felt quite pleased and began to enjoy the elevation of his realm.

The forest shook, and gusts of wind came from all directions, while green waves of energy surged beneath Gu An.

"Roar—"

A deafening roar echoed from afar. It was a demon beast howling.

```

Gu An secretly felt a shock in his heart; the aura of this demon beast was no less than that of the Divinity Transformation Realm. Such terrifying creatures were actually hidden in this area.

Fortunately, when he had his breakthrough earlier, he didn't venture this far. Otherwise, if he were eaten by a demon, that would be incredibly unlucky.

Then, more beasts began to roar, one after another, the sounds becoming more numerous and joining together as if to overturn the night sky.

The clouds in the night sky churned, obscuring the stars and moon, making it hard to tell whether they were clouds or demon energy.

At this moment, Gu An felt as if he was trapped in a realm of demons, surrounded by the shrieks and wails of demons from all directions—terrifying and horrific.

The forest ahead shook violently as if the trees were about to uproot themselves at any moment.

In the darkness behind the woods, the massive mountains began to move. With Gu An's vision, he could see clearly that it was a giant demon at least three hundred yards tall, in the shape of a tortoise, carrying a mountain on its back. As it moved forward, dust filled the air.

Gu An saw many lost souls and ghosts circling around the mountain, like an entourage following an army.

No wonder the Great Yu Dynasty, despite having cultivators, couldn't exterminate all the demons, ghosts, and fiends in the world. On his way here, Gu An's divine sense had picked up the voices of villagers in the mountains, letting him know he had not yet left the Great Yu Dynasty.

The Great Yu Dynasty was vast, Gu An felt it was even bigger than Earth from his previous life, and this vast land was teeming with countless demons and ghosts.

The other eight dynasties probably weren't much smaller than the Great Yu Dynasty, but according to what Shen Zhen had said, the combined territory of the nine dynasties was just a tiny corner of this continent.

This world was truly boundless!

The endless Earth Spirit Energy flowed into Gu An's body, causing his cultivation level to grow constantly.

No wonder it took eighteen thousand years of his lifespan to go from the first layer to the ninth layer of the Unification Realm. The amount of Spiritual Energy required was enormous. Gu An suspected that this commotion would affect tens of thousands of miles around and might even reach the Supreme Sect.

If the ninth layer of the Unification Realm was already causing such a stir, what would happen when he aimed for an even higher realm? Would it alarm the entire dynasty?

The main issue was the compression of eighteen thousand years' worth of Spiritual Energy into a short period. The amount of Spiritual Energy drawn was immense, and once the energy in this area was exhausted, he would have to draw from other places as the world also needed time to replenish its Spiritual Energy.

No matter!

He'd focus on breaking through first!

Nobody could stop him from becoming stronger!

Gu An simply closed his eyes, refusing to look at the commotion around him.

…

In the spacious cave, the firelight violently flickered, casting long shadows of a large pot.

It was a giant iron pot with a diameter of ten yards, sitting over a roaring fire. The soup inside was boiling, with bones surfacing and sinking.

Tied up in front of the cave wall were two human children, a boy and a girl, both appearing to be around twelve or thirteen years old.

The boy was rubbing the hemp rope around his wrists against a protrusion on the wall. Even though his wrists were bloody, he didn't frown, and his motion got even faster, revealing the white bone of his wrist joint.

Next to him, the girl sat kneeling on the ground, nervously watching the cave entrance, as if afraid of something.

The cave shook violently, and a terrifying demonic wind blew in from outside, carrying the wailing of numerous demons, making one's scalp tingle.

Extreme terror turned the children's lips white, causing their bodies to shake uncontrollably.

Finally, the boy broke the hemp rope around his wrists. He quickly removed the ropes from his body and proceeded to untie the girl.

However, the ropes around the girl were tied too tightly, and he, lacking the strength, couldn't untie them.

"Uh-huh—"

A deep, breathy sound came from outside the cave, resembling the croaking of toads, causing the boy to pause and a look of despair to appear in his eyes.

He looked towards the twisted path ahead and saw a massive, corpulent figure appear on the cave wall. Both children's faces instantly grew pale.

Suddenly!

As if something had yanked the corpulent figure away, it disappeared in an instant.

Following that, crisp and loud chewing sounds echoed from outside the cave. The boy leaned against the wall, hastily covering his mouth to avoid making a sound.

The girl who was still tied up closed her eyes, not daring to look towards the cave entrance.

…

The Earth Spirit Energy receded, causing the demons to flee in all directions. This night was destined to be restless.

Two ancient hours later, Gu An's cultivation level had only reached the sixth layer of the Unification Realm. He predicted that he would need to wait until daylight to reach the ninth layer of the Unification Realm.

Compared to his previous breakthroughs, he was now consuming Spiritual Energy several times faster, yet the time required to break through had lengthened.

Normal Unification Realm cultivators wouldn't cause such a stir during their breakthroughs because they accumulated slowly, rather than devouring the Spiritual Energy needed for hundreds or even thousands of years of cultivation in a short time.

Gu An waited patiently.

Time flew rapidly.

Dawn arrived, and the first rays of morning light cut across the sky. The sky was covered with demonic clouds, and the woods were surrounded by demon energy, as if engulfed in a flowing fog.

Gu An was sitting under a tree, and suddenly opened his eyes.

Unification Realm, ninth layer, achieved!

Upon reaching this level, he distinctly felt his divine sense and senses greatly enhanced. He even felt his heart condensing Spiritual Power, as if something was about to grow out of it.

The speed at which he devoured Earth Spirit Energy began to slow down. Gu An felt he was more than a hundred times stronger than before.

The ninth layer of the Unification Realm was nothing like the first layer!

Gu An didn't believe any cultivator at the first layer of the Unification Realm could kill him across realms!

As soon as this thought emerged, he broke out in a cold sweat.

He had almost damaged his Daoist Heart!

He shouldn't think this way; those who had been slain across realms probably had the same mentality!

He couldn't look down on anyone and had to be prepared to be slain at any moment. Only then could he give his all!