Elder Dan said, "Little Song, what do you think?"
Song Yan pondered for a moment and said, "Senior Sister is right, to hear the Tao at dawn, one can die at sunset. Since the heavens have granted me such talent, then... I don’t want to have lived in vain. Regardless of what the future holds..."
Facing Elder Dan, he bowed deeply and said, "Elder, I want to learn swordsmanship."
Elder Dan stroked his wild beard and nodded, saying, "This is the true sword cultivator.
In that case, I keep my word, saying I will find six mentors for you, then it shall be six. If you don’t give up, neither will I."
Immediately, he turned around and laughed heartily, saying, "Even if you were to die tomorrow, seek the Way today, Song Yan, do not let me down."
...
...
A month later...
Pole Sword Platform.
Ning Yunmiao and Song Yan stood quietly in front of the platform.
Today was the day when the sect had arranged Song Yan’s first mentor.
Elder Dan felt that since the first path Song Yan lit up was the "Hungry Ghost Dao," the first mentor should also be a sword cultivator with a "Hungry Ghost Dao" talisman character in the sect.
While waiting, the air suddenly turned cold.
Song Yan turned his head, only to see a tall, thin man with skeletal features, bluish-gray skin, and a sunken abdomen approaching with a long sword.
Ning Yunmiao suddenly frowned and said, "How could Elder Dan arrange for him to be your mentor?"
The tall, thin man seemed to have heard her words. He snorted coldly, then looked at Song Yan and said, "Kid, and you?"
Song Yan saluted and said, "I wish to train under the teacher."
The tall, thin man fixed his gaze on Ning Yunmiao and said in a deep voice, "Alright, Fellow Daoist Yunmiao, I know this kid is from your Ning Family, I won’t snatch him, moreover... with him like this, who would want to snatch him?"
Ning Yunmiao put on a protective stance like a mother leopard and said, "Wang Youquan, my understanding of you is limited to you swallowing fellow disciples, I don’t even know why you haven’t atoned for it, instead, you are able to come out of that Imprisonment Palace."
The master known as Wang Youquan paused, but did not respond, instead, he came to the side of Song Yan and said, "Let’s go, follow me to the Pole Sword Platform."
Song Yan followed him.
The two stepped from the "Taiyin Sword Platform" onward, continuing forward to the Chain Bridge at the boundary of Taiyin and Taiyang.
He closed his eyes and focused, activating the ’Ten Thousand Stars Melting Furnace Art’, and immediately felt two weak strands of peculiar fire flowing downwards, infiltrating his body, making his body, divine soul, and thoughts feel as if they were being tempered by fire.
But soon, he realized it wasn’t so.
Because his body and thoughts didn’t react at all, only his divine soul felt as if it were slightly improving.
At this moment, Song Yan suddenly opened his eyes, feeling that a demon had begun approaching him, so he followed Wang Youquan’s words and started operating the "Freedom" talisman character.
Given the power of the talisman, it immediately stripped the soul thought of the approaching demon, transforming it into a stream of light, permeating the light shield, and attaching to his body, but soon it clashed with the existing body, thus with a "snap", it fell into the light shield.
Song Yan’s "Freedom" could change bodies and divine thoughts at will, but it could not train or merge with existing bodies and divine thoughts...
For the first time, Wang Youquan turned around, swept a glance at the demon that fell to the ground, and asked, "Cannot devour?"
Song Yan said, "Reporting to Teacher Wang, this talisman character is a ’phantom.’ Phantom yet real, so it can seize the body, seize the thought, but only seize, it cannot merge."
Wang Youquan was stunned for a while, stopped as if wanting to say something like "how can there be such a useless Hungry Ghost Dao talisman character" but feared discouraging Song Yan, so he swallowed it down, suddenly opening his mouth to take a deep breath.
It was as if a void appeared in the magma, causing the surrounding demons without intelligence to instinctively sense danger, then frantically trying to escape.
But as they moved, the fleeing demons shattered into pieces, dissolved into ashes, and transformed into pure power entering Wang Youquan’s mouth, making his sunken abdomen bulge a little.

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