Chapter 142: The Human Sovereign Jiang Who Excels in Sword Dao
There were few cultivators in the Nine Provinces who didn’t know the name of the Sword Sovereign.
The Sword Sovereign was a Tribulation Stage cultivator and the Reviving Patriarch of the Sword Pavilion. At that time, the Sword Pavilion was in decline, talent scarce, and many sects sought to annex it. Even the imperial dynasty where the pavilion resided wanted to bring it under its rule. Just then, the Sword Sovereign emerged out of nowhere.
He had a Sword Spiritual Root so rare it stood out even among single spiritual roots.
Behind the Sword Pavilion was a stone wall on a cliff, engraved by the Pavilion’s elders and sect leaders through the generations. Sword Pavilion disciples could come there to comprehend the Sword Dao. However, the pavilion forbade disciples from staying at the rear cliff for more than forty-nine days.
The sword intent there was too intense—disciples couldn’t endure it for long.
Yet, without even fasting, the Sword Sovereign secretly meditated in front of that stone wall for eighty-one days straight. He was covered in a layer of dust, barely holding on through sheer willpower. The elders were horrified and quickly carried his near-dead body out.
Who would have thought, cradled in an elder’s arms, the Sword Sovereign raised his trembling hand, and with his finger as a sword, wielded countless sword intents with ease.
The elders were shaken—his sword talent far exceeded their expectations.
From then on, his cultivation progressed at lightning speed. He eventually reached the Tribulation Stage and restored the Sword Pavilion to glory.
Then one day, he vanished without a trace, leaving only the mysterious Sword Tomb behind.
Some say he entered eternal meditation, leaving behind a legacy within the tomb, waiting for the fated one to unlock it.
That was four thousand years ago.
Bai Hongtu, who bore the title of Sword Immortal, once lamented that the Sword Sovereign’s disappearance was a pity. Without a second in swordsmanship like the Sword Sovereign, how could his position as number one be highlighted?
Five hundred years ago, Jiang Li, who was still in the Golden Core Stage, had no idea what kind of sword talent he possessed.
Coincidentally, he heard the Sword Tomb of the Great Sui Dynasty was about to open, so he went in to explore. There, he met Bai Hongtu, who wasn’t even a Dao Sect Envoy yet.
In the Sword Tomb, Jiang Li discovered his swordsmanship was a complete mess. He only managed to learn one move—Heart Sword—which left him deeply frustrated.
“The Sword Sovereign’s soul is in the Sword Tomb?” Jiang Li discovered a key piece of information from a system task.
A soul is different from a remnant soul or lingering will—the system is especially precise with such terminology and wouldn’t make a mistake.
If it’s a soul, it means the three souls and seven spirits are intact.
“Looks like the Sword Sovereign didn’t just disappear—he had a cultivation mishap that caused his soul to leave his body.” Jiang Li was surprised. The Sword Sovereign had been gone for four thousand years; he’d assumed he was already dead.
But soul departure and death are two different things. A soul leaving the body means it’s still alive—it can return to its original body or even seize another.
Death, on the other hand, means the soul has entered the Underworld and begun reincarnation, with no chance of possession.
“If the Sword Sovereign’s soul is still around, then all he needs is a body to come back to life.” Jiang Li murmured to himself.
There weren’t many Tribulation Stage cultivators in the Nine Provinces—saving even one was a win.
“Looks like the system also knows my talent in swordsmanship is lacking, so it activated the Source Point Comprehension function.” Jiang Li skimmed through the system’s introduction to the feature.
The Source Point Comprehension function, as the name suggests, allows one to spend source points to increase insight into a certain Dao—like Sword Dao, Alchemy Dao, or even the Dao of Time…
Since this feature was temporarily activated, it could only be used to comprehend the Sword Dao for now.
It would fully unlock after completing related tasks.
But Jiang Li had no intention of using it, whether for swordsmanship or time Dao.
Comprehension is tied to a cultivator’s heart and soul—using the system to artificially boost it would be like letting the system alter his very spirit.
The system’s origins were mysterious, and Jiang Li had always been wary. There was no way he’d let it mess with something so core to his being.
He was fine using external items—but anything involving heart or soul was off-limits to the system!
In fact, the system had already shown signs of this earlier. Back in the apocalypse world, it had still foolishly released tasks based on a preset timeline.
At the time, it issued a task that caught Jiang Li’s attention. The task content wasn’t important—what mattered was the reward.
[Task Reward: Increased Alchemy Talent]
That was terrifying. A cultivator’s talent is determined at birth, tied to the soul. If the system could offer this reward, did it mean it could freely alter a soul?
Could it tamper with things during that process?
If his soul changed, would he even be himself anymore?
All those concerns led Jiang Li to abandon that task.
……
Jiang Li sat at a tea stall drinking cheap tea, waiting for the Sword Tomb to open, when he accidentally overheard two young cultivators talking about him.
“Did you hear? The Sword Tomb is opening again.”
“Sword Tomb? You mean the one where the Human Sovereign Jiang rose to fame?”
“Of course, what other Sword Tomb could it be?”
The more Jiang Li listened, the more off it sounded. Since when did he rise to fame from the Sword Tomb?
He had studied at the Great Zhou Imperial Academy, then trained in the Dao Sect—there was no way the Sword Tomb was where he made his name.
“Excuse me, may I ask,” Jiang Li tapped the two cultivators, “why do you say the Human Sovereign Jiang rose to fame in the Sword Tomb?”
“You don’t know?” The two were stunned. “Everyone knows Jiang the Human Sovereign gained insight into the Sword Dao there. Three thousand sword spirits bowed before him while he was only in the Golden Core Stage. After that, he soared to the heavens, killing anyone in his path, gods and men alike. With a single point at the sky, a downpour of swords blotted out the sun, their gleaming tips aimed downward—just looking at it would terrify anyone.”
“???”
Jiang Li was full of question marks.
Are we talking about the same person?
“From what I know, the Human Sovereign Jiang is mediocre at swordsmanship. He only knows one move—Heart Sword?”
The two cultivators exchanged glances and burst out laughing, drawing stares from passersby.
“No way, how could someone like the Human Sovereign Jiang only know one sword move? You actually believe that kind of rumor?”
“I stopped believing that stuff when I was five.”
“Tea master, this fellow Daoist’s tea is on me.” One of them declared boldly. “Bring another pot of tea and two plates of snacks.”
This cultivator was itching with excitement. It was rare to meet someone who knew nothing about the Human Sovereign Jiang. He was eager to talk.
“Have you ever heard of the Human Sovereign Jiang using any other sword techniques?”
One of them pushed the snacks toward Jiang Li, inviting him to eat while he explained, “When the Human Sovereign Jiang draws his sword, how could anyone survive? Everyone who’s seen him do it is dead.”
“Like a hundred years ago, when he wiped out the Demon Lair with just one sword. No one saw it happen, but afterward, investigators found that not a single demon survived. The entire lair was destroyed—space shattered, sword energy rampant. If that doesn’t prove it, what does?”
“…Is it possible—not saying it is—but possible, that Jiang Li broke the space, and the sword energy was from the demons?”
“Absolutely not!”
The other one chimed in, “The Human Sovereign Jiang isn’t just a genius in swordsmanship—he’s unmatched in alchemy. Even Su Wei of the Dao Sect’s Pill Refining Peak can’t compare.”
“Right, right, I heard the Human Sovereign Jiang can use heaven and earth as his furnace, all living beings as fuel, yin and yang as flame, and refine the Eight Ascension Visions.”
At this rate, these wild rumors are going to make it really hard for me to ask Su Wei for pills in the future.