Chapter 390: The Realm

The Heavenly Realm, late at night at the Divine Sword Sect’s Ancestral Hall. It had been four days since Yan Liqiang entered the Sword Cavern…

During the ceremony, the Ancestral Hall was extremely lively and it was a splendid sight. After the ceremony, this spacious hall which enshrined the memorial tablets was indeed an eerie place, especially in the dead of the night.

Outside the Ancestral Hall tonight, it was snowing heavily and the chilly wind howled. The sound of the strong, biting cold wind blowing through the trees and rocks on Tiankui Peak and the upturned roof and eaves of the Ancestral Hall was akin to the wails of ghosts and the howls of wolves. However, it was silent in the Ancestral Hall. Only the oil lamps before the rows of memorial tablets were still lit, faintly illuminating the interior of the dark grand hall. The dim light shone eerily on the memorial tablets, revealing the names of those who had deceased in crimson.

Two disciples of the sect dressed in purple robes were guarding the grand hall together. They both were sitting on the meditation cushions before the memorial tablets with their eyes wide open. They were watching the main entrance with their longswords on their knees.

On a slow and long night like this, both of them couldn’t fall asleep as they were on guard duty in the Ancestral Hall. Therefore, they could only keep watch and chat the long night away. Their conversation started with the calamity that befell the Imperial Capital before it unconsciously led up to Yan Liqiang.

……

“Brother Luo, do you think Yan Liqiang will be able to obtain an amazing secret manual in the Sword Cavern?” One of the disciples on night duty was in his thirties while the other was in his twenties. Hence, the younger of the two addressed the other as ‘Brother Luo’.

“He definitely will! The Sect Lord can’t possibly be wrong about him! Even if we don’t believe in Yan Liqiang, we have to believe that the Sect Lord wasn’t mistaken about him!” Brother Luo nodded.

“That Yan Liqiang is really too lucky to be chosen by the Sect Lord…!” the younger disciple said enviously.

Both of them chatted but didn’t even realize that among the several rows of oil lamps placed before the memorial tablets, the flame of the leftmost oil lamp slightly swayed due to a draft. That oil lamp was about twenty meters away from them, so the disciples didn’t notice. Their spiritual perception had not reached the point which would enable them to do so.

“How can someone who got chosen by the Sect Lord possibly possess only luck!” Brother Luo laughed, then lowered his voice. “Junior Martial Brother Qin, I bet in just less than a few years time after Yan Liqiang comes out from the Sword Cavern, we will have to address him as Senior Martial Brother whenever we see him!”

“Ah, Senior Martial Brother Luo sure thinks highly of Yan Liqiang. Could it be that you feel that Yan Liqiang has the potential to be on par with our other senior martial brothers like the Meteor Sword?”

Just when the senior of the two was about to share some of Yan Liqiang’s deeds that he’d heard from a junior martial brother at the Four Seas Escort Agency, a dark sword tip suddenly protruded from Junior Martial Brother Qin’s and his forehead almost at the same time before it vanished with lightning speed.

Both of their expressions hadn’t changed and they didn’t make any sound either. There was no blood. They were still sitting, but lifelessly with a slit on their foreheads that resembled a vertical eye.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a man holding a black longsword stood behind them like a dark shadow. He was dressed in loose black robes, a black hood, and he wore a veil that revealed only his icy scarlet eyes.

The man cast a glance at the dead disciples before his dark figure flashed and arrived at the Sword Cavern’s entrance in the Ancestral Hall. He skillfully pressed the relief sculpture on the wall next to the metal doors a few times. The entrance doors that were originally tightly shut then slowly opened. Without waiting for them to fully open, the man entered the Sword Cavern. The huge doors then slowly shut behind him…

As soon as the black figure entered the Sword Cavern, he immediately rushed deeper into the cavern with lightning speed, just like a black shadow.

When the black figure rushed to the place where Yan Liqiang saw a stone table a few days ago, a gleaming longsword came striking down toward him like a bolt of lightning. It gleamed like the specks of lights that filled the Sword Cavern’s ceiling like blue fireflies.

“WHO?” A voice boomed in the silent cavern. A powerful Divine Sword Sect expert in his sixties, who guarded the Sword Cavern, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swung his sword at the black figure.

The black figure seemed to have already expected an ambush here. When the gleaming sword appeared, his scarlet eyes turned frosty before he leaped up. In mid-air, his figure seemed to have gained another shadow as it suddenly split into two. The black longsword in his hand also turned into two black sword gleams that fused together to become a huge net, enveloping the sword gleam that came down from the air like a bolt of lightning…

“THAT’S…!” The attendant who dropped from the air was only able to cry out in surprise before he was shrouded by the black sword net.

In just a flash, the Divine Sword Sect’s old expert who guarded the Sword Cavern was reduced into a rain of blood that sprinkled down.

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Before the blood rain even reached the ground, the black figure had already dashed away. In just less than two minutes, he reached the crystal pagoda.

The figure circled the crystal pagoda, then went straight to the Death door. He took out a palm-sized spiritual talisman that was glowing strangely and placed it against the word ‘Death’ on the door. A few seconds later, a glowing ‘Death’ word appeared on the spirit talisman. The Death door that was tightly shut slowly opened up and the figured dashed inside.

…

Yan Liqiang had been staying on the ninth floor of the crystal pagoda for a few consecutive days, reading the two secret manuals as though he was obsessed with them.

When Yan Liqiang read the ‘Fusion Sword Technique’ and ‘Taiyi Talisman Manual’ for the first time, he recorded all the contents in his brain. Even so, Yan Liqiang was still so absorbed when he reread the ‘Taiyi Talisman Manual’ more carefully on the crystal pagoda’s ninth floor. He totally lost track of time and never left the Heavenly Realm.

When hunger kicked in, he just took one of those Inedia Pills and then continued immersing himself in the ‘Taiyi Talisman Manual’, reading about the various talismans that used different rare beast core crystals in them with rapt attention…

The ‘Fusion Sword Technique’ indeed lived up to its reputation as the Divine Sword Sect’s ultimate technique. Those who cultivated the Fusion Sword Technique would be able to truly turn anything into a sword. When trained to the peak, their palms, fists, fingers, legs, eyes, grass, flowers, wind, rain — Everything in the world could be turned into a powerful sword….

Yan Liqiang was beyond elated and excited from being able to obtain the two secret manuals at the same time from the Sword Cavern’s crystal pagoda. Without a doubt, these were the greatest rewards he had ever obtained since he entered the Heavenly Realm.

For the past two days, Yan Liqiang devoted himself to studying the ‘Taiyi Talisman Manual’. The greatest achievement he made was finally understanding the relationship between those rare beast core crystals and the talismans. To put it simply, the rare beast core crystals were like batteries for those talismans. The talismans were tools to make use of the energy contained in the batteries. They were akin to multifunctional integrated circuits or electrical appliances.

When the talisman was in the process of drawing energy from the rare beast core crystals, the energy in it would have to maintain a certain balance and circulation. The balance and circulation evolved from the mathematical principle behind magic squares. That was the main reason why the trial on the seventh floor was a magic square of order nine.

This time, Yan Liqiang crammed the entire ‘Taiyi Talisman Manual’ on his own without relying on any expert guidance or enhancements from Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing. After reading the entire secret manual, he had a feeling that this manual had been waiting for him to come and open it all this while.

He was simply too happy and excited.

Yan Liqiang was immersed in ‘Taiyi Talisman Manual’ when he suddenly detected some movement around him. He immediately turned his head around and saw a person who was exuding an overwhelmingly sinister aura. Unbeknownst to him, the figure covered in black robes was already standing at the entrance on the ninth floor of the crystal pagoda. He was wielding a black longsword and looking at Yan Liqiang in a strange way.

Yan Liqiang felt a sudden chill in his heart. He immediately gripped the ‘Taiyi Talisman Manual’ and ‘Fusion Sword Technique’ tightly in his hand. “Who are you…?!”

The person cast a cold glance at the two secret manuals in Yan Liqiang’s hand, then spoke with a hoarse voice. “You have truly exceeded my expectations. I have to thank you for this time. To show you my gratitude, I shall give you a quick death…!”

Yan Liqiang thought that the voice sounded a little familiar. Before he could even recall who it was, he felt pressure as immense as Mount Tai on him in the very next second. It completely restrained him, causing every muscle in his body to turn stiff at this very moment.

This was the smell of death. The last time Yan Liqiang smelled this was when he was still in Pingxi City back then…

Yan Liqiang let out an angry bellow and drew his sword. Every ounce of energy in his body was bursting out from him.

Even so, it was still the black longsword with an overwhelming aura that came into his view…

The strength disparity between the two parties was simply too great…

Everything in the crystal pagoda froze. Time, space, the smallest particle of matter, and even Yan Liqiang’s thoughts were frozen.

BOOOOOM…!!

The Heavenly Realm shattered…