Once again arriving at the lofty volcano in the Sword Mound, Zhang Ruochen stepped into into the formation and entered the world of the Qiankun Divine Wood Diagram’s scrolls.
The Heaven Receiving Divine Wood stood at the centre of the entire world, holding up heaven and earth and releasing a constant stream of heaven and earth aura.
Zhang Ruochen sat underneath the Divine Wood and began to comprehend the rules of the Dao of the Sword contained in the first move of the Nine Lives Sword Technique, the “Taixu Splitting Light”.
In order to break the sword, one must first understand the sword.
Sword Dao cultivation was one attack, one defence, one enlightenment, one practice, continuous accumulation, continuous enlightenment, and only then would it be possible to become a supreme Sword Saint in the world.
“The Nine Lives Sword Technique contains a total of nine moves, each of which is divided into nine stances, each of which has nine variations, and each of which is made up of nine arrangements of Sword Dao rules. It seems like there are only nine moves, but in reality, there are a thousand variations.”
The first move, “Taixu Splitting Light”, had a total of eighty-one variations and seven hundred and twenty-nine Sword Dao rules arranged together.
“Wow…”
A wisp of white Saint Qi flew out from Zhang Ruochen’s body, and in front of him, it condensed into a faint silhouette.
The silhouette held a sword, his feet opening and closing, his right arm bending and bowing as he performed one of the sword stance variations.
Immediately after, the silhouette dissipated and turned into white smoke.
Not long after, another holy qi flew out, splitting into two and transforming into two silhouettes, each performing two different sword moves.
……
The process of sword enlightenment was extremely arduous and not that smooth.
There were times when Zhang Ruochen would stop and think for a long time before he could comprehend the rules of the sword dao of a certain style.
Half a month later, a steady stream of holy qi flew out from Zhang Ruochen’s body, while dozens of silhouettes appeared, standing in various different directions and executing various different sword strokes.
Some of the silhouettes dissipated, and immediately after, new ones would coalesce.
This state of affairs lasted for three whole days, and in the end, it formed a scene of eighty-one silhouettes coexisting side by side, and from afar, it appeared extremely shocking.
Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes wide and said to himself, “A first glimpse of the doorway.”
“Puffing.”
As Zhang Ruochen stood up, all eighty-one silhouettes dissipated, turning into eighty-one strands of holy qi that flew back to his brow and merged into his Qi Sea.
Zhang Ruochen stretched out his hands, and then, a powerful sword intent surged out from his palms.
Above him, a swish-swish sound resounded as 999 leaves of the Heaven Receiving Divine Wood, controlled by the sword intent, flew down and condensed into a giant sword of leaves.
“Taixu Splitting Light.”
The tree leaf giant sword flew out in a hurry, impacting the void to the point that it bulged outwards, and kept flying out for a distance of more than ten miles. Suddenly, all the leaves, all of them disintegrated and turned into nine hundred and ninety-nine light shuttles, rushing towards the ground at three times the speed.
“Rumble.”?Every leaf that struck the ground would leave behind a huge crater five metres in diameter.
Just a single sword, yet it struck that piece of earth with a thousand holes.
Zhang Ruochen frowned slightly and said, “Compared to Ling Fei Yu, there really is still a huge gap.”?When Ling Fei Yu executed this move, the leaves separated and could explode ten times faster, enough to threaten a Ninth Order Half-Saint.
The same move, when Zhang Ruochen executed it, could only explode three times its speed. The power of the sword move was also greatly reduced.
Zhang Ruochen was not discouraged, if, a Sacred Art level sword move was really that good to learn, would it still be called a Sacred Art?
In the beginning, Ling Fei Yu had also spent three years to cultivate it to its grand completion, and Zhang Ruochen was now only getting a glimpse of it, so of course, he was unable to compare with her.
“Since I have already comprehended the rules of the sword dao of this move, I can also start, trying to crack this move.”
Spending two days in a row, Zhang Ruochen tried various methods, only to realise that with his current Sword Dao realm, he was simply unable to crack a Sacred Art level sword move.
The Nine Lives Sword Technique was too subtle and contained too many variables, even a gifted sword cultivator who studied it for a lifetime might not be able to comprehend it thoroughly.
Zhang Ruochen was only getting a glimpse of it now, and wanting to crack the Nine Lives Sword Technique would undoubtedly be as difficult as climbing into the sky.
“Perhaps …… can go and consult the Ancestors, they are all Sword Saints, and their understanding of the Sword Dao has reached the peak, so they might be able to crack this move.”
Thinking of this, Zhang Ruochen immediately stepped out of the Scroll World and travelled towards the graveyard of the successive Ancestors of the Monstrous Sword Lineage.
The graveyard was located on top of an eight thousand metre high snowy mountain, all cliffs and cliffs, and an invisible force that shrouded the snowy mountain.
Any cultivator that came to this place would have to climb the mountain on foot.
Zhang Ruochen stepped on the stone ladder and climbed up the mountain, and when he reached the halfway point, he saw a ten feet high circular altar.
On each of the four sides of the altar, there stood a magnificent stone statue, sixteen in total.
Some of the stone statues, appeared to be mighty and strong, giving people a feeling of vajra fury; some of the stone statues, were short and stooped, appearing extraordinarily old. There were also stone statues that were dressed in a Confucian manner, like a teacher.
“Nan Xu Sheng, Sikong Qingyu, Qian Calculator ……”
Sixteen names, arranged on top of the altar, some of them, Zhang Ruochen had heard of eight hundred years ago, were the mighty Sword Saint.
There were also some characters whose names were too old and seemed rather unfamiliar.
In the wind and snow, Zhang Ruochen stood at the bottom of the altar, and in his ears was the sound of the cold wind whistling, as well as the sword chirps of the thousands of ancient swords shaking on the snowy mountains.
“Disciple pays my respects to the Ancestors.”
Zhang Ruochen clasped his hands with great respect and bowed to the sixteen Ancestors.
The sixteen Ancestors, throughout their lives, had also guarded the Underworld Sword Mound, and some of them had even died in battle at this place.
The contributions they had made had saved the lives of an unknown number of people, and their merits were immeasurable, so regardless of whether Zhang Ruochen was their descendant heir or not, he deserved to pay his respects.
The altar shook, and a dark shadow, flying out from the centre, merged with the sixteen stone statues.
All the stone statues, all of them came to life, as if sixteen Sword Saints had appeared at the same time.
A very elegant stone statue stretched out an arm and raised it slightly, saying, “No need to be polite, get up!”
Immediately after, another stone statue, couldn’t wait to say, “Zhang Ruochen, in the past few days, have you thought clearly about why you lost to that one sword wielder of the Burial Heavenly Sword?”
The Yin Spirit of this stone statue was the same Ancestor who had possessed Zhang Ruochen’s body and fought with Ling Fei Yu that day.
Zhang Ruochen pondered slightly and said, “Although my disciple’s Sword Dao realm has reached the unity of the human sword, my understanding of the Sword Dao is a hundred thousand miles away from the Sword Bearer of the Burial Heavenly Sword. Not only that, the other party’s sword strokes are also exquisite, and honestly speaking, disciple can’t keep up with the speed of change of her sword strokes.”
Although, the day after Zhang Ruochen fought Ling Fei Yu, he had figured out a way to crack it. However, that was only under the circumstance where Ling Fei Yu had only used fifty percent of her power, and Zhang Ruochen was able to crack it.
Once Ling Fei Yu had exerted ten percent of his power, Zhang Ruochen would not be able to cope with it with the eye in his heart.
The stone statue nodded and said, “The gap in realms cannot be bridged overnight. However, as long as you are willing to work hard and cultivate diligently, it is possible to narrow that gap within a short period of time.”
Zhang Ruochen immediately said, “Not long ago, disciple had another encounter with the Burial Heavenly Sword’s Sword Bearer, but unfortunately, disciple was unable to block one of her swords.”
“Recently, disciple has been thinking about how to crack that sword of hers. However, that sword of hers is just too arcane and too fast, and even though disciple has already realised the rules of the sword dao in it, I still couldn’t crack it.”?Hearing this, all sixteen Ancestors of the Monstrous Heavenly Sword lineage came to be interested.
One of the Ancestors, looking quite excited, asked, “What sword move is she using? Quickly cast it out and let us take a look.”
“Yes.”?Zhang Ruochen’s gaze, glanced towards the thick snow on the ground, and then, with a sweep of his horizontal foot, he swept up a large snowflake.
Under the control of the Saint Qi, those snowflakes, condensed into a white sword and flew out towards the distant cliff wall.
“Rumble.”
As it neared the cliff wall, the sword that the snowflakes had condensed into directly disintegrated and crashed into the top of the cliff wall, leaving a deep sword mark.
Seeing this sword, all of the Ancestors fell into silence.
That one Ancestor, who appeared rather elegant, said, “This is the first move of the Nine Lives Sword Technique, the Taixu Splitting Light ……, it’s not right, it’s not right.”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “What’s wrong with it?”
“Just now, you said that you fought with the Burial Heavenly Sword’s sword bearer only a short while ago. How could you possibly have comprehended the sword dao rules of this sword move in such a short period of time?”
Another Ancestor had the same doubts and said, “The Taixu Splitting Light that you just executed had at least three points of fire, so it should have been the first glimpse of the path. Even for the Sword Emperor, Snow Red Dust, who can be called a demon, he couldn’t have learnt it so quickly when he was young.”
Zhang Ruochen hesitated slightly, but still spoke up, saying, “Truth be told, my disciple has obtained a temporal treasure, and as long as he enters it, he can obtain ten times the cultivation time.”
The sixteen Ancestors had long since passed away, and only sixteen Yin Spirits, remained in the world, thus, Zhang Ruochen had nothing to hide from them.
“So that’s how it is.”?All of the sixteen Ancestors revealed a look of dawning realisation, and at the same time, they were all happy for Zhang Ruochen.
After all, possessing a temporal treasure was enough to allow Zhang Ruochen to go ahead of his contemporaries, and even, to catch up with the figures of the older generation.
“Haha! It’s really too good to be true, since you possess a temporal treasure, it’s only a matter of time before you catch up with the Sky Burying Sword’s sword bearer.”
“As long as we catch up with her, we must teach that girl a hard lesson for us.”?”How can you be so rude to a woman? In my opinion, it’s better to marry her. The most superior means to conquer a woman is to conquer her heart.”A rather flamboyant and handsome looking Ancestor said.
There was no need to guess that this Ancestor, in his younger days, must have been a flirtatious man who had compassion for women.
Zhang Ruochen stood below and did not interrupt them out of politeness.
Only, the remarks made by some of the Ancestral Masters still caused the corners of Zhang Ruochen’s mouth to twitch incessantly.
