Sucking up to the five Sword Embryos might sound funny, but it was the conclusion Fang Xing came to only after careful thought. It was not possible for the altar to be opened from the outside, which meant the five Sword Embryos had to come outside on their own—cultivators who wanted to obtain one had to entice them until they came out willingly.

　　It sounded rather surreal, but it was more reasonable when one considered these so-called Sword Embryos were in fact intelligent beings born from the weapon. The Sword Embryos had their own sentience and even thoughts to the point they could be considered a spiritual being, and as spiritual beings, it was possible to communicate with them. As for why these altars were like this, it was simple: to prevent cultivators from taking the swords using outside power. If a cultivator wanted the Sword Embryo, they’d first have to communicate with it and convince them of this.

　　The golden crow’s eyes lit up when he heard Fang Xing’s explanation. “What are you waiting for, then? Hurry and go test it out….” After being blasted away earlier, he didn’t dare try so himself and instead started egging Fang Xing on.

　　Fang Xing creased his brows. “Try we shall, but if the Sword Embryo does move, it’ll enter our body, allowing it to connect to and grow with our own spirit. There won’t be a second chance to choose another, and since there are five Sword Embryos here, there must be a difference in their qualities. If we choose a bad one by chance, wouldn’t that be a huge loss? It’s best we consider this before choosing the most suitable one!”

　　“What is there to consider? Blue, red, white, gold, and purple; purple must be the most powerful! The best Sword Embryo must be the purple one!”

　　Fang Xing smirked at this. “I’m not trying to be mean, but you’re being seriously dense right now. Think about it, comparing the Refined Iron Sword Embryos outside to the bronze copper Sword Embryos in here, which ones look better? You have to know that one pound of Refined Iron is enough to trade for over ten thousand pounds of bronze copper! Yet these Sword Embryos are all made of bronze copper, making them exactly the opposite of common sense. I’d say this is true for these Sword Embryos as well!” He pointed to the five differently colored altars and proclaimed, “The most powerful Sword Embryo is either the purple one or the blue one. These two are the only possible choices!”

　　The golden crow began to hesitate and look blankly at the altars without replying. After a long while, the golden crow finally asked, “Can we determine which Sword Embryo is more valuable?”

　　Fang Xing sighed and shook his head. “We cannot….” In truth, he’d been trying to do exactly that for a while now to no avail. He wasn’t even able to use the Book of Revelation to determine the difference in quality between these five Sword Embryos.

　　“In that case, the only thing we can do is draw straws!” the golden crow declared after a moment of speechlessness.

　　Fang Xing sighed. “Good idea. Let’s do it!”

　　The two of them took out two pellets—one blue, one purple—and placed them in an empty storage sack before pulling out one apiece. Fang Xing drew the blue one and the crow got the purple—deciding the issue—and both straightforwardly accepted this without saying anything further. Fang Xing simply had the golden crow step to the side before he walked up in front of the blue altar and pushed his hands out into the air in front of him.

　　Since Fang Xing needed to suck up to the Sword Embryo, it was necessary to first connect spirit senses. Fang Xing focused his mind and let out his spirit sense before slowly guiding it to touch the altar, and although the surface of the altar was filled with restrictive spells that blocked all aggressive powers, it didn’t stop the spirit sense from entering. Fang Xing’s spirit sense soon successfully entered inside and began to steadily move towards the Sword Embryo….

　　BOOM ….

　　Changes suddenly began to occur. Just as Fang Xing’s spirit sense entered inside, all five altars let out a splendid mist, as though Fang Xing’s spirit sense entering the blue altar had triggered a reaction from all of them. At the same time, Fang Xing felt as though his spirit sense was being torn apart as some kind of force within the altar began to forcibly read through all his past history….

　　After what felt like an eternity but took only moments, Fang Xing’s memories were all forcibly read. Fang Xing was extremely terrified but was unable to resist; he could sense the powers within these five altars were simply too strong. Furthermore, these five altars didn’t hold any hostility towards him—if they had wanted to kill him, it would have been done in an instant.

　　After Fang Xing’s memories were read, a vague wave of force began to move between the five altars, as though the Sword Embryos were communicating with each other in their own language. As for the final result, it seemed Fang Xing wasn’t too successful, because it didn’t take long before the blue altar released a strand of spirit sense that shook the entire grand hall. It was a very simple message, and although it didn’t use any language or words, it managed to effectively convey its disposition all the same.

　　Rejection!

　　After reading Fang Xing’s memories, the blue altar had given him the answer. The blue Sword Embryo had refused to become Fang Xing’s!

　　At the same time, the other four altars all simultaneously sent out their own short yet powerful spirit sense messages.

　　Rejection!

　　Rejection!

　　Rejection!

　　Rejection!

　　Fang Xing’s spirit sense was so powerful he was able to feel some of the more complex emotions and reasons behind the Sword Embryos’ rejections.

　　The blue altar had rejected him because his conduct and methods were too immoral and he couldn’t be a dependable person!

　　The red altar had rejected him because of all the disasters he’d caused and the uncertainty in his future!

　　The white altar had rejected him because of his poor background and the danger he’d face on his path of Dao because of it!

　　The gold altar had rejected him because his memories were scattered and incomplete, leaving too many unknowns!

　　As for the purple altar, all the other altars had rejected Fang Xing, so it did as well….

　　It took only a moment for all five altars and the Sword Embryos to express their rejection towards Fang Xing, and a great mist began to form in preparation of flicking Fang Xing outside.

　　Fang Xing himself was immersed in shock and was uncertain how to react. What were these five Sword Embryos? How dare they all reject their little grandpa? Since when had he become so unlucky? In the end, however, he didn’t actually have a choice in the matter. Fang Xing had enough battle prowess to do as he pleased within the entirety of the Mysterious Domain, but no matter how bitter it was to admit, his abilities weren’t enough to protect himself from these altars.

　　Suddenly, a strange and peculiar force rose up amidst the five altars’ power. In the center of the grand hall and surrounded by the five altars was an immeasurably deep crevice where a dark and chilling aura escaped.

　　Although the five colored altars had all rejected Fang Xing after forcibly reading his memories, there seemed to be an existence within the crack that felt a sudden and extreme degree of interest. An aura filled with madness was released, and it quickly suppressed the other five to prevent Fang Xing from being tossed out while Fang Xing himself looked behind the altars with shock.

　　Bzzzz ….

　　A demonic sword filled with evil and wickedness slowly flew up from the crack….

　　The sword was a pitch black color and three times longer and thicker than what an ordinary longsword would be. The sword’s blade was completely covered in dark red stains of blood as though it had never been wiped clean after killing its enemies, and it was even to the point the stains had become akin to a type of rust that spread out and formed the image of a demonic mountain. The strange aura had been released from this particular sword, and its aura had locked onto Fang Xing from the moment it rose into the air.

　　“How lucky!” the golden crow cried out in joy when he saw this. “Another sword has taken a liking to you; hurry and go take it in?” He could be considered quite knowledgeable and experienced, so he could tell something had gone wrong when Fang Xing was rejected by the Sword Embryos earlier. Unexpectedly, however, there was actually a sixth Sword Embryo in this five-altared grand hall, and from the looks of things, its strange aura didn’t seem to be any weaker than any of the other colored Sword Embryos.

　　The black Sword Embryo demonstrated a clear desire to fuse with Fang Xing, and Fang Xing simply needed to relax his guard and use his spirit sense to guide it along so it could enter. Yet, Fang Xing seemed to be pondering something while looking to the other five Sword Embryos, then back at this black Sword Embryo, then the others again…. His brows creased more and more, all while he prevented the black Sword Embryo from getting any closer.

　　The golden crow began to grow anxious and he yelled out from the side, “What are you waiting for! This is one of the biggest opportunities within all the Mysterious Domain!”

　　“But…” Fang Xing sighed, “that sword is just too ugly!”

　　Such words left the golden crow utterly speechless and nearly caused him to stumble to the ground.

　　The black sword began to buzz even louder, as though it had understood Fang Xing’s words and been angered by them. It suppressed the entire atmosphere with a rumble and flew out from the center of the five altars, thrusting right towards Fang Xing.

　　Fang Xing flinched at this and let out a loud groan before attempting to flee, but the black sword was incredibly fast and managed to arrive in front of Fang Xing in the blink of an eye while letting out a black shine.

　　There was no way for Fang Xing to react to this. The black shine pierced the point between Fang Xing’s eyebrows and disappeared, while the black sword itself pierced the ground at an angle in front of Fang Xing and began to vibrate uncontrollably….

　　This had all happened in such a short period of time that Fang Xing was left completely dumbstruck, and it took a very long time for him to realize what had happened.