Lin Mu nodded, satisfied with the consumption of Immortal qi.
"Itâs drawing qi from me... but itâs manageable," he muttered.
In fact, the rate at which the Divine Sheath absorbed his Immortal Qi was
far slower
than his passive absorption rate from the environment. With his current foundation and physique, Lin Mu replenished his reserves faster than they were being consumed.
He wasnât even breaking a sweat.
Wanting to be cautious, he posed a silent question to the Sheath through his sense.
"Do you need additional materials?"
But the Sheath gave no response. No pulse. No image. Nothing but quiet harmony.
He understood the silenceâit didnât
need
anything else.
It already had what it required.
Perhaps the materials it had absorbed earlier from the nurturing box, or maybe even the lingering essence of the two swords themselves, were sufficient. The Divine Sheath didnât need to be told what to do. It had chosen Afternoon Pine and Ocean Raker as its own. The swords had
leapt
into it willingly, as if they had found their true home.
Lin Mu inhaled deeply, the wind from the open courtyard brushing across his face.
He turned his gaze toward the stars, their silver light filtering through the trees around the Jade Echo Retreat.
"A year or two," he murmured to himself. "Thatâs all itâll take."
Yes, that was the impression he received.
No longer would he need to manually guide the swords toward their evolution. The Divine Sheath would refine them constantly, nurturing their sword spirits, tempering their cores, and pushing them toward Peak Grade Immortal status with unwavering focus.
And in the meantime... Lin Mu could train, travel, or even fight freely. At most, all he had to do was ensure his qi reserves remained fullâwhich, for him, was effortless.
"All I need to do is live," he smiled faintly. "The Sheath will do the rest."
For a cultivator like Lin Muâwho had long known the pain of carrying burdens aloneâthis was more than a supportive tool.
It was a companion.
A quiet guardian, constantly working in the background, helping his legacy grow even stronger.
He stood there in the courtyard for a few more minutes, simply basking in the quiet satisfaction of the moment. Knowing that with each passing day, Afternoon Pine and Ocean Raker would be walking closer to their final evolution.
And when the day came that they reached Peak Grade... he knew the battles ahead would be met with blades worthy of a Sovereign.
Despite all this though, Lin Muâs curiosity hadnât faded, not even after discovering the miraculous nurturing power of the
Sword Cradle Divine Sheath
.
On the contrary, the more he learned, the more questions arose in his mind.
The sheathâs purpose seemed clearâit nurtured swords. But Lin Mu wondered just how strict that definition was.
Was it
only
swords?
Could it accept
other
bladed weapons?
After all, sabers and daggers shared some similarities with swords.
Their forms were different, yes, but their essence as cutting tools and weapons wasnât too far removed.
"What about sabers?" Lin Mu mused, reaching into his spatial ring.
He retrieved a
low-grade immortal saber
âa curved blade, broader and slightly heavier than a standard sword. It was a spare he had picked up from some corpse he didnât even remember, barely used and largely forgotten until now.
Without hesitation, he approached the sheath on his back.
The moment he brought the saber close, the
Sword Cradle Divine Sheath
released a deep, humming vibrationâa sound that Lin Mu instinctively recognized as rejection.
Clink!
The saber was struck by a sudden invisible force,
shattering into fragments
mid-air. Lin Mu narrowed his eyes, watching as pieces of the metal scattered across the courtyard floor, the once-glinting blade now reduced to nothing but scrap.
"Definitely a no," he muttered, surprised at the intensity of the reaction.
For the sheath to shatter an immortal weapon, even if low grade like that, was stunning. A testament to its power.
Still not satisfied, he pulled out a
dagger
nextâa slender, sharp weapon typically used for swift, lethal strikes. It had once belonged to an assassin heâd defeated and had been languishing in his collection ever since.
Again, he attempted to bring it close to the sheath.
The reaction was
instantaneous
. A forceâcolder and sharper than beforeâlashed out from the sheath.
Crack!
The dagger didnât even resist. It
crumbled into dust
, collapsing into a pile of dull metal shavings that shimmered briefly before fading into stillness.
Lin Mu let out a soft sigh and scratched his head.
"So... swords only. Strictly swords."
He crouched beside the remains of the shattered saber and dagger, intending to clean them upâwhen something unusual happened.
The
Sword Cradle Divine Sheath
released a soft
pulse
âa thrum of powerâand the air rippled. The fragments on the ground began to shake.
Thenâlike water drawn into a drainâthey were
sucked into the sheath
in a seamless spiral of metallic dust.
Fwoooosh.
Gone.
Lin Mu blinked.
"It...
took them in
?"
But this time, it hadnât rejected them with the intent to destroy. It had
accepted
themâbut not as swords, nor as weapons to be nurtured.
He focused his
Immortal Sense
into the sheath and immediately sensed the change.
"It didnât absorb them for improvement," he murmured, "it used them... as fuel."
That single realization made Lin Mu pause.
He scanned the internal space of the sheath and could feel a slight increase in its passive warmthâalmost like someone had just stoked a forge. It wasnât much, but it was tangible.
"So it
doesnât
accept non-swords as companions... but it
will
devour them to empower itself."
That changed everything.
In his journey as a cultivator, Lin Mu had amassed countless weaponsâsome gained from slain foes, others as rewards, and many more simply found along the way. Most of them werenât worth selling or keeping, and up until now, they had served no purpose other than taking up space in his spatial ring.
But now?
"Iâve been sitting on a stockpile of fuel all along," he said with a smile.