Zhang Ruochen’s expression was serious as he said, “I’m even more curious to know if Sword One’s ten layers of Great Perfection is already her full strength? Could it be that the strength Qi Fayu is displaying now is just the tip of the iceberg of her true strength?”
Just as Zhang Ruochen and Gai Tianjiao were discussing with each other, a pleasant and melodious woman’s voice came from the direction behind them, “Eldest Sister, Senior Brother Lin Yue, you guys are going to the Sword Pavilion as well?”
Zhang Ruochen and Gai Tianjiao stopped their steps at the same time and glanced at each other, then, turned around and stared towards Qi Fayu who was not far away.
Just after mentioning her, she showed up, it really was a bit of a coincidence.
Zhang Ruochen smiled, “Senior Sister Qi, how have you been?”
Qi Fayu’s steps were light as she chased after her from behind, a faint fragrance emanating from her body as a light smile appeared on her clear face, saying, “Starting from today, I’m going to enter the Sword Pavilion for closed-door cultivation, and make every effort to comprehend Sword Two. On the ninth day of the ninth month of September, perhaps, I will represent the Two Yi Sect to participate in the Sword Discussion Conference.”
Qi Fei Yu was originally one of the seeds initially selected by the Two Element Sect, and now that she had displayed the strength of the Sword Dao of the First Perfection of the Sword, it was only natural that she would be focussed on cultivation.
Gai Tianjiao never mentioned the matter of the Moon Worshipping Demon Sect and said without changing her face, “In that case, let’s go on the road together!”
The three of them arrived at the Sword Pavilion together.
This time, the person Zhang Ruochen met was not the Burying Moon Sword Saint, but the sixth sword bearer of the Sword Pavilion, Qi Hong.
Qi Hong appeared to be a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a plain cloth coat, and although he was a Half-Saint of honourable status, there was a little bit of the majesty that a Half-Saint should have on his body, instead, he looked like a teaching teacher with a softer character.
Qi Hong’s gaze, landed on Zhang Ruochen and Qi Fayu, and smiled, “Not bad, really not bad. Both of you have already cultivated Sword One to the tenth level of great perfection, and you are destined to become famous at the time of the Sword Discussion Conference.”
“However, the two of you are burdened with the great mission of defending the Sword Pavilion. Thus, just the ten-layer great perfection realm of Sword One is still far from enough.”
“My mission is to help you cross the threshold of Sword Two at the fastest speed possible, and reach the first layer of the Sword Two realm, ‘Alternation of Yin and Yang’. Now, I’m going to interpret to you, what is the alternation of yin and yang? At the same time, I will also tell you how to incorporate this one sense into the Sword Dao.”
Zhang Ruochen and Qi Fayu were seated down below, both of their faces showing a look of concentration.
As for Gai Tianjiao, because of her own physique, it was difficult for her to cultivate Sword II successfully, thus, she was not here to listen to the lesson.
Qi Hong said, “The alternation of yin and yang can be understood as the power of the yin attribute and the power of the yang attribute changing with each other, for example, the change of day and night, every day’s dusk and early morning are the moments when yin and yang alternate ……”
Qi Hong explained for two whole hours.
What he had said was still quite similar to what the Buried Moon Sword Saint had written on the Sword Two Notes, only that some of the contents had been explained in detail again, becoming even more plain and easy to understand.
According to Qi Hong’s explanation, if one wanted to cultivate to the realm of “alternating yin and yang”, one had to feel the true meaning of it first, and then incorporate this feeling into one’s own Sword Dao.
The deeper the perception, the stronger the sword Dao would naturally be.
“For the next month, you can either cultivate on the ground floor of the Sword Pavilion or head to the first floor of the Sword Pavilion. Whoever is able to reach the ‘alternating yin and yang’ realm ahead of time, this seat will reward him or her with a piece of Sword Soul Ice Spirit.”Qi Hong laughed.
The Sword Soul Ice Pillar was a supreme treasure only found in the Sword Pavilion, and by taking it, it could enhance the sword cultivator’s sword dao realm.
Zhang Ruochen naturally understood the preciousness of the Sword Soul Ice Pillar, and if he could obtain it, he would be able to raise his Sword Dao Realm to the peak of Sword Mind Enlightenment more quickly. At the same time, the Sword Soul Ice Spirit would also be extremely helpful in the cultivation of Sword II.
A bright light appeared in Qi Fayu’s eyes as she glanced towards Zhang Ruochen and gave a shallow smile, “Senior Brother Lin Yue, from now on, we are competitors. Within a month, I will definitely be able to cultivate Sword II to the first level of the realm.”
In fact, Qi Fei Yu had already reached the first level of Sword 2, “Alternation of Yin and Yang”, it was just that at that time, she didn’t want to participate in the Sword Discussion Conference, that’s why she only showed the eighth level of Sword 1 to the outside world.
Now, she had already decided to participate in the Sword Festival, and at the same time, she also had to suppress Lin Yue, so naturally, she no longer hid her cultivation.
When she directly displayed the first layer of the Sword Two realm a month later, she would naturally be able to seize the Sword Soul Ice Spirit. With the help of the Sword Soul Ice Spirit, she even had a chance to cultivate to the second layer of the Sword Two realm before the Sword Discussion Conference.
It was because Qi Fayu had already reached the first layer of the Sword Two realm, therefore, she knew better than anyone how difficult it was to cultivate Sword Two.
She would never believe that Lin Yue had used only one month to reach the first layer of the Sword Two realm.
This competition, it hadn’t even started yet, and she had already achieved victory.
“One month should be enough time.”
Zhang Ruochen looked at Qi Fayu’s flawless and beautiful face and also gave a harsh word.
Qi Hong was an Elder Ancestor of the Qi Clan, and of course, he knew Qi Fayu’s attainments in the Dao of the Sword.
In Qi Hong’s opinion, in a month’s time, even if Lin Yue had the aid of the Sword Pavilion’s large amount of resources, it would be impossible for him to achieve much above the Second Sword, let alone reach the first level of the Second Sword realm.
After all, with his Half-Saint realm and decades of hard cultivation, he had only managed to cultivate Sword Two to the fourth layer of the realm by now.
The reason why he took out the “Sword Soul Ice Spirit” as a reward was in fact a disguised way of handing it over to Qi Fayu.
……
After listening to Qi Hong’s lecture, Qi Fei Yu headed to the second level of the Sword Pavilion.
The time ratio of the first floor of the Sword Pavilion was three times that of the outside world, and the time ratio of the ground floor of the Sword Pavilion was twice that of the outside world, so of course, entering the first floor to cultivate would be more advantageous.
Zhang Ruochen, however, remained on the first level of the Sword Pavilion, borrowed two more Sword Second Notes, and came to Room 18 of the Xuan Character.
The Xuan Character Room No. 18 was further divided into thirty-six small rooms. The doors of five of the small rooms were closed, obviously there were sword cultivators in there for closed-door cultivation.
Zhang Ruochen casually picked a room near the corner position and walked in, activating the formation in the room and closing the door.
Inside the small room was a completely independent small space, ten feet in length and width, roughly the size of two basketball courts. The door and walls of the small room were inscribed with formation inscriptions, and even with spiritual power, it could not penetrate through.
“Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen punched out with all his might, striking above the left wall, and instantly, a circle of energy ripples were stirred up. The formation on the wall quickly dissolved his punch completely.
“What a powerful defence, I’m afraid that even a Half Saint wouldn’t be able to pierce through the formations in the Retreat House.”
Zhang Ruochen was completely relieved and took out the two Sword II notes, sat down on the ground and started flipping through them.
These two notebooks, compiled by the Xuan Gui Sword Saint and the Jiu Yu Sword Saint respectively, had a lot in common with the Burial Moon Sword Saint’s notebooks, as well as some of the two Sword Saints’ own insights.
After reading these two notes, Zhang Ruochen went to borrow six more Sword II notes compiled by six genius Half-Saints to continue studying and analysing them.
The Sword Two Notes compiled by the Sword Saints were naturally profound. However, the Sword II Notes compiled by the Genius Half-Saints definitely had many redeeming qualities as well.
Zhang Ruochen was not in a hurry to start cultivating Sword 2 immediately, nor did he want to follow the gourd and grab a random Sword 2 Notebook and cultivate according to its contents.
He wanted to read more, learn more, and ultimately, summarise his own sword path from the notes of the seniors.
After a month passed, Zhang Ruochen finally finished reading all six Sword 2 Notes, and then, he sat down inside the retreat house, entering a meditative state and began to collate and summarise.
The flow of time in the first level of the Sword Pavilion was twice as slow, and even after a month had passed, only half a month had passed in the outside world.
Because he stayed inside the retreat house, no one noticed that Zhang Ruochen had turned into his original appearance.
Qi Fayu stood outside Zhang Ruochen’s retreat house, a puzzled look appearing in her eyes that were more beautiful than the stars, saying, “Half the time has already passed, and he’s actually stayed inside the retreat house the entire time, just watching the Sword II notes written by others?”
“That’s right.”
A ball of holy qi, coalesced out from the side and manifested into Qi Hong’s body.
Qi Hong laughed, “It is already enough to read one Sword Two Notebook, in this way, one’s thoughts will be clear, and one will have a clear direction. If you read too much, it will instead make you feel disorganised, and if it’s more serious, that huge knowledge of the sword dao might drive you crazy. Right now, Lin Yue is probably on the verge of going insane, right?”
Qi Fayu nodded, quite agreeing with Qi Hong.
The Wordless Sword Spectrum was originally a sword dao that simplified complexity into simplicity, taking the thousands of sword techniques under the sun and fusing them into a single move, dividing them into Sword 1, Sword 2, and Sword 3 ……
Lin Yue was just being smart, seeing the notes of those legendary figures, he wanted to flip through them, he wanted to learn, but instead, he was taking something simple and making it complicated.
Trying to learn everything, you end up learning nothing.
“It seems like I really overestimated him.”
Qi Fayu pursed her red lips, she was quite disappointed in Lin Yue, she had thought that he was a good opponent, but she hadn’t thought that he would waste himself on his own.
Qi Hong said, “Without him to compete with you, the Sword Soul Ice Spirit will naturally belong to you. With the aid of this treasure, you still have a good chance of cultivating to the second level of the Sword II realm before the Sword Discourse Conference.”
“Wow!”
Ahead, the light of the formation on the door of the retreat house gradually dispersed.
Zhang Ruochen opened the door and stepped out from inside, and when he saw Qi Fayu and Qi Hong standing outside, he instantly revealed a hint of a smile and said, “Senior Qi Hong, Senior Sister Qi, you’re also going into seclusion?”
Ignoring their astonished looks, Zhang Ruochen held the six Sword II Notes, returned them all to the bookshelf, and walked straight out of the Sword Pavilion.
Qi Fayu clearly saw that Zhang Ruochen’s spirit was very full, and his Sword Dao realm seemed to have improved again, with no sign of going off the deep end at all.
Her two long diaphanous eyebrows were slightly furrowed as she said, ”His Sword Dao Realm, has refined a lot more, it’s really strange! I’ll follow up and see, what exactly is he up to?”
Qi Fayu turned into a residual shadow, chasing after Zhang Ruochen and rushing out of the Sword Pavilion.
