The ancient bronze sword hanging on the wall is time-worn, its surface cloaked in green rust, even the blade and the scabbard are entirely enveloped by rust.
Rather than an ancient sword, it might be more accurate to describe it as a rusty bronze stick. But this unremarkable old sword is, in Shen Yuan's eyes, the source of all the Yin Cold Qi that pervades the mansion.
In the sword hilt area covered by rust, beneath the mottled rust spots, one can vaguely see a pattern entirely different from the rest of the sword, a majestic Divine Dragon sketched out with just a few strokes.
This legless Divine Dragon is coiled above the sword hilt, its eyes closed as if it were slumbering. With each inhale and exhale, it spewed out a vast amount of Yin Cold Qi.
The Yin Cold Qi persistently corroded the surrounding space, covering the entire mansion within its domain.
And it seemed that Old Master Fu's current withered state could be attributed to this Bronze Ancient Sword.
Shen Yuan's eyebrows furrowed, about to reach out and take down the Bronze Ancient Sword. But before his palm could touch the sword, a clear hum emanated from the rust-covered sheath.
An invisible sword light accompanied by the hum abruptly dispersed from the Bronze Ancient Sword. Shen Yuan barely had time to mobilize the Elemental Qi refining method to summon his Essence Element in defense. The sword light effortlessly shattered Shen Yuan's defense, leaving a scar on his palm.
"What a fierce sword!" expression of seriousness surfaced on Shen Yuan's face.
Shen Yuan retracted his extended right hand, his Essence Element circled around making the scar healed rapidly, not even a drop of blood overflowed.
Even so, Shen Yuan began to be leery of the Bronze Ancient Sword.
With the Spirit Energy Tidal Surge just having returned, even if some Hidden Sects have preserved valuable magical treasures, the current world environment is difficult for these treasures to showcase their power.
Yet, this Bronze Ancient Sword could swallow the scant Spirit Energy of this realm, creating a domain of Yin Cold Qi that enveloped the entire mansion. And when Shen Yuan actively reached out to touch it, the sword even counterattacked. This was proof of its extraordinary power.
"If it can maintain such power even after three thousand years of Spirit Energy depletion, I suppose I wouldn't even have the privilege to approach this sword during its Peak Stage."
"Magical treasure? Spirit treasure? Or even the superior Taoist artifact?"
Shen Yuan couldn't help but become curious about the Bronze Ancient Sword's origin.
In the diaries that Shen Yuan obtained from the Falling Clouds Grotto Heavens, someone mentioned the Cultivation World's division of magical treasures' quality ten thousand years ago, from low to high were magic artifacts, magical treasures, spirit treasures, Taoist artifacts, and Immortal magical treasures in legend.
Ordinary cultivators could only grasp the limit of magic artifacts, while magical treasures and spirit treasures were in the hands of superior cultivators in the world.
Even the Falling Clouds Sect, which birthed an Almighty Earth Immortal ten thousand years ago, its Sect's treasure was nothing more than the Mysterious Microcosm Metaphysics Furnace that had been worshipped for thousands of years.
The Bronze Ancient Sword before him managed to survive the era of Spirit Energy depletion with such power preserved, its quality is undoubtedly extraordinary.
During Shen Yuan's futile attempt to take down the Bronze Ancient Sword, the people from the Fu Family gradually recovered from their shock and hurried up to the second-floor room one after another.
Having learned his lesson, Fu Jian refrained from offending Shen Yuan again and turned his head to gesture Fu Hua to negotiate with Shen Yuan.
Fu Hua walked to Shen Yuan's side and carefully started, "Teacher Shen, about my father's illness..."
Shen Yuan interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.
"Old Master Fu is not ill. It's caused by this Bronze Ancient Sword hanging on the wall."
"Bronze Ancient Sword?"
Fu Hua couldn't help but pause, following Shen Yuan's gaze towards the wall.
"The Bronze Ancient Sword you're referring to. Isn't it in this room?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, a crease formed between Shen Yuan's eyebrows, an ominous premonition rising in his heart.
"You all can't see the ancient sword hanging on the wall?"
Fu Hua blankly shook his head, and the other Fu Family members standing behind him also looked at the wall with puzzled expressions.
Shen Yuan's stern rebuke just now made them realize Shen Yuan's exceptional abilities, so they didn't harbor any suspicion towards Shen Yuan.
However, in their line of sight, there were no decorations on the wall, let alone the Bronze Ancient Sword mentioned by Shen Yuan.
"Things seem to be getting interesting."
Shen Yuan gave the Bronze Ancient Sword on the wall a meaningful glance before turning his gaze towards the people of the Fu family.
This Bronze Ancient Sword, despite its profundity, was severely damaged and certainly did not have the ability to appear in this room out of thin air. It must have been intentionally brought here by someone.
In the recent test, even Shen Yuan who had entered the middle-stage of Essence Refining was unable to take down this Bronze Ancient Sword, let alone an ordinary person touching it.
Therefore, the person who brought the Bronze Ancient Sword must possess some kind of method to bypass the damage inflicted by the ancient sword, and is even capable of controlling the ancient sword to a certain extent.
Shen Yuan's gaze was like a sharp sword piercing into people's hearts. Any small intentions seemed to have nowhere to hide under Shen Yuan's gaze. Everyone where his gaze swept subconsciously lowered their heads, daring not to meet his eyes.
Among the crowd, one person was trying hard to regulate their breathing, but their accelerating heartbeat betrayed them.
Everyone held their breath and concentrated, waiting for Shen Yuan's response.
Unexpectedly, after Shen Yuan scanned the crowd, he walked toward Old Master Fu's bed.
Bringing his index finger together, he gently tapped on the forehead of the unconscious Old Master Fu. After a brief examination, Shen Yuan said in an indifferent tone,
"It's unsafe in this room. Get ready to move Old Master Fu out first. You Fu family, should have other residences in Wenn City, right?"
"Yes, yes, we do!"
Fu Hua promptly responded, then called everyone to prepare to move Old Master Fu out of the room.
However, just as everyone was preparing to help the unconscious Old Master Fu leave, Old Master Fu lying on the sickbed suddenly opened his eyes weakly.
"What... What are you trying to do?"
The old voice sounded from his throat, like a broken wooden door constantly making a grating sound, piercing, and filled with a sense of decay.
"Teacher Shen came to see you, and even found the cause of your illness. Everything will be solved as long as you move from here."
Fu Hua explained patiently.
"Leave?" Old Master Fu's voice instantly became sharper, a hint of ferocity showing on his aged face.
"No! I won't leave here, I can already feel my illness starting to improve."
Old Master Fu's refusal was unusually resolute, Fu Hua looked awkwardly at Shen Yuan.
"Teacher Shen, can we stay here?"
Shen Yuan nodded with a smile, but the next moment he suddenly stretched out his right hand, grabbed Old Master Fu's head on the sickbed, and smashed it hard against the solid wooden bed head.
A large hole was smashed into the solid wood bed, the huge noise shook the entire room. Then, the horrified voices of the Fu family rang out.
"Stop!"
"What are you doing?"
"Let go of Old Master Fu!"
Shen Yuan didn't move, he only looked at the head buried in the shattered wood and asked with a smile,
"How long are you going to keep pretending?"