Last full moon, although Xu Taiping didn’t say anything, his weakened, near-death state couldn’t escape Baiyu’s eyes.

“Yes.” Xu Taiping nodded.

“Is there no way for me and Taiping to enter that blade realm together?” Baiyu asked, his eyes full of concern.

“At the moment, there’s no way.” Xu Taiping shook his head.

If it were possible, he would have liked Baiyu and Taiping to help him, but the blade realm was entirely under the control of the Demon Blade, and he couldn’t bring them in.

“Don’t worry, I’ve prepared for nearly a month this time. It won’t be as embarrassing as last time.”

Seeing the worry in Baiyu’s eyes, Xu Taiping smiled and comforted him.

“Maybe this Demonic Severing Blade will give that Demon Blade a surprise.”

He then placed his hand on the hilt of his blade and gave it a shake.

Seeing Xu Taiping’s calm demeanor, Baiyu felt a bit ashamed for some reason.

“Just be careful. I’ll keep watch for you tonight.”

Baiyu left these words, then flapped his wings and flew out, calling out to Taiping outside the courtyard, “Little Taiping, let’s go catch bugs for the spirit herbs!”

“Okay, but you better not eat them!”

“You cheeky monkey, who ate them!”

Listening to the noise outside the courtyard, Xu Taiping inexplicably felt a sense of peace.

“Even if I can’t win, I won’t let my soul collapse. There’s still so much I need to do.”

He stretched lazily and then walked towards Fan Tower again.

It was time to practice the Danxia Technique.

…

Actually, Xu Taiping had a relatively peaceful month.

The merit points and elixirs promised by the Sixth Peak had all been credited to his name.

Combined with the merit points he exchanged for the weapons he picked up in the ruins, he now had over five hundred thousand merit points.

But these merits came and went quickly.

After purchasing a month’s worth of materials for the Eight Treasures Powder, Qi Preserving Pill, Aperture Opening Soup, and Gathering Qi Pills, he only had a hundred thousand merit points left.

This Ghost-Sealing Talisman was practically a bottomless pit.

However, with the help of the Grass Returning Elixir, his true essence had more than doubled in growth over the past month, and his energy core had expanded by a full size. At this rate, he would reach the middle stage of the Gazing Abyss Realm in at most a month.

Because of this, the Ghost-Sealing Talisman’s consumption of his blood and qi had also significantly slowed.

This reduced his pressure considerably, allowing him to focus on his cultivation.

Additionally, he still went to Moon Scooping Lake to practice his sword before dawn every day.

As before, Elder Sansan still didn’t show up in person, only leaving words on the wooden board to guide him.

However, due to his progress, Elder Sansan found fewer and fewer mistakes to point out.

Of course, even so, Xu Taiping didn’t slack off in the slightest, still meticulously controlling his sword to carve each word.

But because his speed in carving words had improved, he had more time left.

So every time he finished practicing his sword, he would return to Qi Yue Pavilion to help Baiyu and Taiping tend to the herb garden, have a meal together, and then spend an hour or two reading the new techniques he had obtained, “Gazing Abyss” and “Green Bull Saint Fist,” before consolidating his knowledge of the “Red Crow Golden Flame Technique” and the cloning spell.

The Tai Xuan Sect’s secret techniques “Gazing Abyss” and “Green Bull Saint Fist” were even more obscure and difficult to understand than the Demonic Severing Blade, so Xu Taiping didn’t rush to practice them, planning to read through them first.

Among these techniques, his progress with the Red Crow Golden Flame Technique was the fastest, already able to condense a ball of Red Crow Golden Flame within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, and the quality of the flame had also improved significantly.

For him, the Red Crow Golden Flame Technique could now truly be used as a trump card.

Besides these, Xu Taiping spent the most time practicing the Demonic Severing Blade.

Unlike his previous superficial reading, he had spent the past month delving deeply into the first move of the Demonic Severing Blade, “Cicada’s Cry.”

The performance he showed when sparring with Baiyu in the courtyard was the result of his month’s effort.

But Xu Taiping wasn’t very satisfied with it.

In his view, his “Cicada’s Cry” had form but no spirit, needing at least another three to six months of refinement to be ready to face the Demon Blade.

But the full moon had arrived, and he had no choice but to go through with it.

“Actually, according to Fairy Lingyue, fighting the Demon Blade in the blade realm is the best way to refine my blade technique, but each strike comes with the pain of being sliced to death. The cost and risk are just too high.”

Xu Taiping smiled bitterly.

Even today, his limbs and internal organs still occasionally experienced phantom pain, showing how terrifying the Demon Blade’s torture was that night.

“Don’t think too much, just focus on getting through tonight’s full moon.”

Xu Taiping stood up from the meditation cushion, then slapped his cheeks to clear his mind.

At this moment, he had already circulated the Danxia Technique through several major cycles, his energy core filled with true qi, and his blood and qi were no longer as weak as they were last time, thanks to the improvement in his true essence and the timely consumption of elixirs.

Overall, his condition tonight was far better than a month ago.

“The time is almost here.”

Xu Taiping first glanced at the moonlight outside the window, then looked at the Ghost-Sealing Talisman that had automatically appeared in his palm, and murmured to himself.

Just like last time, waves of killing intent began to seep from the Ghost-Sealing Talisman in his palm, gradually filling the stone chamber.

But compared to last time, Xu Taiping was much calmer tonight.

He ignored the killing intent spreading from the Ghost-Sealing Talisman and opened the iron gourd, taking out the Spring Tiger saber.

“Shing!”

Just as Xu Taiping picked up the Spring Tiger saber and was about to hang it at his waist, a green light shot out from the gourd and struck his chest with a “bang.”

Xu Taiping looked down and found that it was actually the Severing Water blade given to him by Senior Duan Tianya.

“Senior Severing Water, do you also want to help me deal with the Demon Blade?”

He tentatively asked the Severing Water blade.

But Severing Water didn’t respond, just quietly lying in his hand.

Xu Taiping tried to draw the blade, but as before, he couldn’t pull it out.

The last time he didn’t bring the Severing Water blade was because he couldn’t draw it.

“Forget it, I’ll bring it along.”

Xu Taiping didn’t think much of it and just fastened the Severing Water blade to his other side.

“Kid, we meet again at last!”

As that familiar old voice rang out, the scene around Xu Taiping began to be replaced by a blood-red landscape.

“Yes, we meet again.”

Xu Taiping smiled and looked straight ahead at the Red-Haired Demon Blade.

Tonight, he was much more composed than before.