Chapter 60

The Big Black Fish didn’t say anything further after hearing these words.

The fish would shudder from time to time. Gu Qingshan and Leng Tianxing could see how much pain it was suffering.

This was like a slow death. Even a demonic beast would find it hard to endure such a punishment.

The boatman noticed that the two men’s expressions had become grim and said, “Don’t feel any pity for it.”

“But why?” asked Leng Tianxing.

“Hoho, you two can’t tell, eh? This demonic fish has already reached the Later stage of Soul Transformation and is going to reach Sanctification soon,” replied the boatman with a laugh.

The two of them were even more surprised.

How could a demonic beast that was on the verge of Sanctification be put through such torture?

“But why did it—” Leng Tianxing couldn’t help but ask.

“Because it couldn’t control its appetite and swallowed five islands in one night. Every living thing on the islands was eaten by this fish, and he ate nearly 100,000 humans alone.” The boatman cut Leng Tianxing off and said this with a hollow laugh.

The boatman used a small knife to cut the fish meat into small pieces and continued. “Her Supremacy caught it in anger and sealed its cultivation level. So now it must go through this slow torture 10,000 times before it is allowed to die and reincarnate.”

The last piece of fish meat was sliced off. The entire fish was left with only its head and its glittering and translucent skeleton.

The boatman wiped his hands and said, “Today is only the 7,351st time, so it’s still a long way more to 10,000.”

With that, he stretched his arms out and flung the fish back into the river.

The fish skeleton writhed on the surface of the water for a while, then slowly sank into the water quietly.

Leng Tianxing felt his heart tremble and he complimented, “As expected of the Floral Supremacy.”

The boatman cracked a smile and said, “Stop trying to butter up to Her Supremacy. What do you want from the Floral List? You can tell me now.”

Leng Tianxing thought about it for a while before replying, “I’d like something about ancient weapons.”

The boatman clapped once and said, “Excellent. That’s something that’s suitable for you. You can get off the boat now.”

“Get off the boat?”

Leng Tianxing looked around him. Besides the small boat, the rest was moving water.

The boatman squatted down and pulled out a floating willow tree branch spinning in the water. He placed it in Leng Tianxing’s hand.

“This place is a water body left behind from ancient of days.”

“Ten thousand years ago, during the Primitive Times, the Mountain Deity and Water Deity fought here, and they both perished here.”

“This willow branch will keep you safe. Go down and find some real artifacts from the Primitive Times.”

Leng Tianxing then accepted the branch and pushed his Spirit Power into it hard.

The branch unfurled, and it gave off a gentle and bright light that surrounded Leng Tianxing.

A whirlpool suddenly appeared on the calm surface of the water. A large hand reached out from within the whirlpool. It held Leng Tianxing up and slowly shrank back into the water.

“Your turn.” The boatman turned to Gu Qingshan. “What about you?”

Gu Qingshan clasped his hands and said, “I would like something about swords.”

The boatman looked Gu Qingshan up and down and said, “But you don’t even have a sword…”

Gu Qingshan replied with a bitter smile, “It shattered in a battle.”

“Oh? Shattered? What became of it?” asked the boatman.

“Besides the sword handle, the rest became blade fragments,” replied Gu Qingshan honestly.

“Oh, that means that you’re not just a pretty boy.” The boatman’s eyes lit up.

He turned and rowed the boat quickly to the front.

“Wait a while. It will take us some time to get to the swords area. I see that you’re covered in wounds, so why not take this time to rest?” said the boatman.

“Many thanks.”

Gu Qingshan sat down on the wooden boat and quietly waited while resting.

He tried his best to recalibrate his body and gather Spirit Power so that the fatigue he felt would disappear.

His success at the Floral List would decide whether he could save Gongsun Zhi and Ning Yuechan or not.

Gu Qingshan started thinking about the strange legends of Floral Fairy and the things she did before, and he was still speechless about it.

After some time, there was a thick fog on the river.

Something flew toward the boat and stabbed itself into the part of the boat in front of Gu Qingshan.

Gu Qingshan opened his eyes.

A sword was right in front of him.

The boatman was slowly covered in fog and couldn’t be seen anymore.

“Pick up the sword. The test is about to begin,” the boatman’s voice spoke.

“Got it.” Gu Qingshan took the sword and stood up.

“I will keep my cultivation level at Interim Foundation Building,” continued the boatman. “If you can find me in this fog, then you can pick a sword task from the Floral List.”

“The test earlier didn’t count?” asked Gu Qingshan.

“It does, but the criteria to pick a sword task is higher. It involves sword technique after all, and we can’t let just anybody pick a sword task.”

“All right, then.” Gu Qingshan sighed.

“Let’s start!” declared the boatman.

The boatman’s entire presence and breathing completely disappeared.

It was an amazing sort of Concealment Art!

Gu Qingshan was amazed. He lifted his hands and looked at the sword.

This was an ordinary-looking long sword, made completely from wrought iron, but it felt quite comfortable in his hands.

Weapons were split into a few levels, the lowest being Sharp Weapon, then Precious Weapon, Spiritual Weapon, Magical Weapon, and finally Path Weapon.

There were more levels above this, but those weapons were usually too rare for most people to find.

This long sword in Gu Qingshan’s hand was only at Sharp Weapon level.

This sword was technically useable, but if he ran into a real enemy, then he would have to be careful that the enemy didn’t break his sword.

“Senior, you’ve made a mistake,” Gu Qingshan laughed quietly.

Nobody responded.

Gu Qingshan slowly explained, “You shouldn’t have given me a sword.”

The long sword in his hand started moving.

The sword swung about and looked like a hundred swords in an instant.

Gu Qingshan’s sword stance was like a gentle wind blowing.

It was gentle, agile, and irresistible.

“Wind Slash!” he yelled out.

All the sword doubles spread out and slashed the wooden boat to pieces.

The wooden boat was completely smashed in no time, and the pieces followed the rush of Spirit Power from the sword to become wind, blowing away in the thick fog.

After just one move of the sword, the entire wooden boat disappeared.

There was only one piece of wood left where Gu Qingshan was standing, and it continued to support him on the surface of the water.

There was the sound of water being stepped on from afar.

As long as an Interim Foundation Building cultivator didn’t have Wind Spiritual Root, he wouldn’t be able to fly.

Gu Qingshan held his sword and pointed it toward where the sound was coming from.

“Senior, I’ve found you.”

The long sword trembled, then a rush of wind swooshed over.

DANG! DANG! DANG! DANG! DANG!

The sound of someone defending himself rang out.

The good part about Wind Slash was that it was a very quick technique. The moment Gu Qingshan’s sword moved, the Spirit Power of the sword immediately covered that area it was pointed at, and there wasn’t any time for the other party to even hide.

There was silence for a while.

After a long time, there was a voice from the thick fog that sounded pleased.

“Such a smart boy. I like you very much.”

After these words were said, suddenly, huge waves of Spirit Power exploded from that place.

It was a forceful Spirit Suppression that kept going up in pressure.

Peak Foundation Building, Golden Core, Peak Golden Core… the pressure rose until it hit Nascent Soul before slowly stabilizing.

The boatman flew over and grabbed Gu Qingshan’s shoulder. “You’ve passed the test. You can come with me to the Floral Palace.”

He stretched his other hand out and made a hand sign.

“Blossoming Flowers!” the boatman yelled.

Countless runes appeared from nowhere.

Gu Qingshan looked at them and was shocked in his heart.

This sort of ability to set up a Teleportation Formation in mid-air instantly without the need of a formation disk was something that even Gongsun Zhi couldn’t do.

Gu Qingshan naturally knew exactly who this person in front of him was, but he kept his mouth tightly shut and didn’t dare to utter a single word.