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In Gu Han's heart, there had always been a huge question: who were his ancestors? Based on the three sets of legendary sword techniques passed down through generations, his ancestors might have been a Sword Emperor, standing at the pinnacle of swordsmen, leading the entire human world.
However, if his ancestors were truly Sword Emperors, how could he have grown up in the Hive Tower, with his parents unable to live in the core area, enjoying the safest living environment? Even the descendants of the Sword Emperor who betrayed humanity for immortality, the Yin Sword Emperor, lost their privileges but were still permanently settled in the core area, enjoying a safe life.
Gu Han couldn't figure it out, so he searched through countless historical records but found no Sword Emperor surnamed Gu. Even if his ancestors had changed their surname later, there should have been records of a Sword Emperor with no descendants.
However, all the Sword Emperors had left clear family trees in the records, meaning they all had direct bloodlines, and none of them were related to Gu Han.
In the end, Gu Han concluded that either the message passed down by his ancestors was a lie, just a way to embellish their lineage, and there was no Sword Emperor ancestor at all, and these three secret manuals were just picked up; or his ancestors had committed an even worse mistake than the Yin Sword Emperor, and all records of them had been completely erased from human history.
All of this was Gu Han's speculation. He had never found any clues about his ancestors, but now he had found one, right in his hands: the ancient book with "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" written on its cover.
Indeed, the ancient book the old Taoist used to hit him was one of the three secret manuals passed down in Gu Han's family, the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword."
Flipping through the manual confirmed this, as the first page was densely filled with the general principles of the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword," exactly the same as the one passed down in Gu Han's family...
"The secret manual I'm so proud of is actually just openly placed in a game dungeon, where any player can see it... Does this mean that the 'Nine Heavens Mystic Sword' isn't my ancestor's exclusive secret technique, but something common and easily accessible?" Thinking about this, Gu Han suddenly felt very bad. Anyone who discovered that something they treasured was casually placed in a dungeon for players to read would feel their entire life was falling apart, feeling like a fool.
"No! No!" Gu Han immediately noticed something was off. "If the 'Nine Heavens Mystic Sword' is so common and players can read it freely, why can't I find any mention of it on the forums? This is impossible!"
Thinking this, Gu Han's trembling hand flipped to the second page, and he was stunned again... The second page was blank. Gu Han quickly flipped through the rest of the book and finally confirmed that, apart from the general principles on the first page, the rest of the book was just blank pages.
The most important nine sword techniques and cultivation methods of the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" were not recorded. A single page of general principles would be meaningless and worthless to players and sword masters alike, like gibberish. No wonder, after more than two hundred years of the dungeon being open, no player had mentioned the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" on the forums. They probably thought it was just a piece of junk made up by the system to amuse players, not realizing it was the general principles of a legendary sword technique.
So, a new question arose: why was his family's ancestral sword technique, the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword," only recorded as a general outline in this "Wudang Summit" dungeon?
ββ
On the way back to Chao Tian Palace with the unconscious old Taoist; after leaving the old Taoist in Ruru's care; while King Yue and the other three sword maidens were fighting the invading Yuan monsters outside Chao Tian Palace, Gu Han was like a soulless person, silently pondering the relationship between the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" and the dungeon. It took him a full hour to come up with a hypothesis he thought was 80% plausible.
First, when BAT designed the game dungeon, they would actively collect all kinds of information from the internet or physical documents. With BAT's supercomputing power, the amount of information collected would be tens of thousands of times more than what Gu Han could gather. It was not surprising that they found information about the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" in some obscure corner.
In other words, there must have been a document that recorded the existence of the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" manual in the Wudang Sect's scripture hall on Wudang Mountain, and that document also provided the general principles of the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword"... but only the general principles.
The "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" was a martial arts secret manual from the Middle Ages. Wudang Mountain had been the leader of the martial arts world for over six hundred years before the Great Cataclysm, and the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" was likely collected in the scripture hall during that period.
Gu Han learned from Ruru that for two hundred years after the Great Cataclysm, Wudang Mountain remained isolated from the world, and the scripture hall was not damaged or looted. This meant that the information BAT obtained was from after the Dark Dragon King battle, when the survivors of Wudang Mountain went to the Yanjing Base City.
According to historical records, in the real Dark Dragon King battle on Wudang Mountain, the survivors suffered heavy casualties. When the Immortal Sword-level swordsmen from Yanjing City arrived to fight and defeat the Dark Dragon King, only about 300 of the 700 survivors on Wudang Mountain remained. The clue to the "Nine Heavens Mystic Sword" must have been among the scriptures sent to Yanjing City, and then passed down to his ancestors, becoming the Gu family's heirloom!
Gu Han decided that once this mission was over, he would immediately search online for information about the Wudang Mountain scripture hall or the 300 survivors. Perhaps they left some records or told their descendants who ended up with the scriptures in the hall.
By the time Gu Han finally sorted out these matters, over an hour had passed. Feeling much better, Gu Han stepped out of Chao Tian Palace to observe the battle outside and found that the new wave of Yuan monsters had been completely killed.
However, apart from King Yue, who was still excited and full of fighting spirit, the other three sword maidens showed signs of fatigue. Especially Tianxing, whose swordswoman, the old lady, was too old and senile to provide any sword essence support. She had been relying on the sword essence she obtained from the old lady when she awakened, and after such a long battle, her sword essence was almost depleted.
The old lady, Tianxing's swordswoman, was completely confused, so it was impossible to expect her to actively provide sword essence. The sword maidens could not actively draw sword essence from their swordswomen, so the only option was to have Tianxing withdraw from the battle to conserve her remaining sword essence.
So, Gu Han immediately told Tianxing to withdraw and conserve her sword essence.
Tianxing hesitated for a moment and glanced at her swordswoman, who was curled up on the ground. Gu Han was not her swordswoman, and giving her orders was a very impolite act. Tianxing could have ignored Gu Han's command, but in the end, she silently withdrew from the battlefield, as her sword essence was indeed running low.
"Why can Tianxing withdraw, but we have to keep fighting? This is unfair..." Shuihan, seeing Tianxing withdraw, immediately protested. If not for Yuan Kong holding her back, Shuihan might have followed Tianxing out of the battle.
"I'll take over Tianxing's defensive area! Is that okay?" Gu Han unsheathed his Qingpin Sword. Throughout the dungeon, it had mostly been King Yue fighting, and he was feeling itchy to join in.
"Ha, what can a human do? You're just here to cause trouble, thinking you're great just because you have a famous sword maiden..." Shuihan's words were cut off by a long sword pressing against her throat.
"Say that again and see what happens..." Shuihan's words didn't affect Gu Han, but they directly enraged King Yue!
"I... I'm wrong... I'm wrong..." Faced with the blade of a famous sword maiden, Shuihan immediately conceded, feeling wronged. King Yue coldly snorted, guarding the Yue Goujian Sword, and coldly said, "The next wave of Yuan monsters is probably coming. Guard your area well. The rest is our admiral's responsibility."
The conflict was temporarily suppressed, and soon, another wave of Yuan monsters arrived. This time, there were ten ghost-faced spiders. King Yue led the charge, blocking two of them.
Another ghost-faced spider rushed into the defensive areas of Shuihan and Yue Ling. These ghost-faced spiders had weak attacks but could spray toxic webs. Once caught in the web, the target would be paralyzed and unable to move, leaving them at the mercy of the spiders.
Even one ghost-faced spider was a headache for Shuihan. She was only a Ninth Rank sword maiden and could only use the basic skill "Cold Strike." The other skills, advanced and ultimate, would unlock at Seventh, Fourth, and First Rank.
Before her sword could touch the ghost-faced spider, she was covered in a sticky, white, toxic web, rendering her immobile. She was then bitten several times by the spider.
When the web's effect wore off, Shuihan prepared to attack fiercely to vent her frustration, but another web paralyzed her for five seconds.
After a great effort and using up most of her shield energy, Shuihan finally killed the ghost-faced spider. She took a deep breath, feeling relieved, and then remembered the six ghost-faced spiders surrounding that show-off human.
With the strong personal shield of a famous sword maiden, the human wouldn't die easily, but he was probably bound like a mummy and being ruthlessly trampled and humiliated by the six spiders. This was a good opportunity to mock the arrogant swordswoman and tell him to hide in Chao Tian Palace and not cause trouble.
"Hey, where are the spiders?" Shuihan looked around and saw the human standing calmly, watching the setting sun. The six ghost-faced spiders that had surrounded him were nowhere to be found.
"Hmph, the famous sword must have saved her master... Useless human, always causing trouble for your sword maiden!" Shuihan thought confidently.