An earthshaking roar rang out as the many golden swords reunited into a single enormous golden blade.
It rose as high as drifting clouds, surged like an ocean, thundered with power, and bore the weight of a solitary mountain!
Its sharpness seemed capable of splitting heaven and earth. Under a single strike, a hundred swords might break!
The thunder wyrm and raging tornadoes were swallowed by dazzling golden light, vanishing without the slightest chance to fight back.
In their frantic anger, the two sword venerables had exposed openings everywhere. How could sword intent born from such a flawed mental state remain in harmony with the Sword Dao?
Defeat was the only outcome.
Before the furious eyes of the Wind God and Thunder Dragon Sword Venerables, their sword intent collapsed like falling mountains, reaching its end.
At that same moment, Xu Ziqing had just plucked the final Sword Dao Fruit.
All nine clusters of branches were bare, as though mocking the two venerables.
Yun Lie naturally saw what the sword venerables saw.
He moved to Xu Ziqing’s side in a flash, gathered him into his arms, and swiftly climbed toward a still higher place.
The ninth tier of branches!
With a thought from Xu Ziqing, the forest of enormous vines vanished. Dozens of narrow tendrils withdrew into their master’s body, leaving the eighth tier even emptier than before.
The two sword venerables drew deep breaths, their faces cold, and immediately followed.
Yun Lie was enveloped in sword intent. As though sensing something, he suddenly said, “Take out a Sword Dao Fruit.”
Xu Ziqing obeyed. An iron-gray fruit appeared in his palm, its surface crisscrossed by sharp energy. It was indeed a supreme treasure of the Sword Dao.
Yun Lie said no more. The two climbed rapidly, and this time encountered no obstruction at all.
Or perhaps it was not quite true that there was no obstruction.
The Wind God and Thunder Dragon Sword Venerables pursued with startling speed. Their fury was so intense that the flaws that had appeared in their states of mind were barely patched over.
That repair was unstable, but it served well enough to drive their pursuit of the martial brothers.
Almost as soon as Yun Lie reached the ninth tier, the two venerables touched its outer edge.
But…
An invisible force rebounded them.
More astonishing still, the force was vast and overwhelming, carrying the pressure of heaven and earth itself. The two sword venerables could hardly move their fingers!
What sort of extraordinary object was this Sword-Shaped Wood, to possess such might?
The sword venerables were even more unwilling to give up, yet could only watch the martial brothers vanish among the ninth-tier branches.
Being experienced, they immediately understood. Yun Lie and Xu Ziqing could enter the ninth tier because they had obtained Sword Dao Fruits. But neither venerable possessed even one, and so the ninth tier was beyond their reach.
If such an extraordinary treasure as the Sword Dao Fruit had appeared on the eighth tier, what incomparable marvel might await on the ninth?
Unfortunately, they were destined never to see it.
Yun Lie and Xu Ziqing finally reached the very top of the Sword-Shaped Wood. The moment they stepped upon it, they sensed how different it was.
Here countless fine branches and leaves formed a partly enclosed canopy. Compared with the open tiers below, the space felt much more sheltered.
But the canopy was not the strangest thing.
It was… Xu Ziqing stared, extending his palm. A substance like liquid mercury was gathering there. It flowed and changed shape at a touch yet remained remarkably stable. Whenever it rolled, it formed perfect little spheres like silver pearls.
Surprised, Xu Ziqing turned toward his senior brother.
Yun Lie’s sleeve stirred, and he had already sat cross-legged. Above him, liquid was trickling from the leaves, drop after drop, falling directly upon his body.
“…Senior Brother?” Xu Ziqing asked in astonishment.
He could see clearly that as the droplets landed, they entered directly through the crown of Yun Lie’s head. Those falling on his arms, neck, or anywhere else on his body likewise seeped inside without wasting a trace.
Xu Ziqing looked down at his own hand. The silver pearls remained there without entering his body.
Could this liquid benefit only those who had comprehended sword intent?
He considered it several times and became convinced his guess was right.
Without hesitating, he approached and offered the Sword Dao Fruit still in his other hand. “Senior Brother, since this ‘sweet rain’ is so useful here, why not use one of the fruits first?”
Yun Lie accepted it and nodded slightly.
Xu Ziqing went aside and sat quietly, standing guard over him.
He thought that once his senior brother completed this period of cultivation, another breakthrough would surely follow.
As for the feelings he could neither surrender nor stop worrying over, he thought they were best left unspoken and pushed them deep into his heart.
He dared not dwell on them.
An abundance of the ‘sweet rain’ fell from the canopy, bathing Yun Lie. Soon he entered deep meditation.
Seeing how solemnly Yun Lie immersed himself in his Sword Dao, Xu Ziqing grew still more cautious, unwilling to disturb him in the slightest.
The ‘sweet rain’ did not fall only where Yun Lie sat, though it was thickest there.
As droplets struck Xu Ziqing, an idea occurred to him.
If he simply let them fall, it would be wasteful. Better to collect them. If his senior brother needed them later, he could use them. If not, someone else surely would. Nothing need go to waste.
Xu Ziqing opened his palm, producing a jade bottle.
Carved from spiritual jade, the bottle was an excellent storage treasure, but could contain only special substances such as spiritual liquids and pills, not ordinary implements or crafting materials.
With his current power restricted, Xu Ziqing could not simply form a treasure-collecting seal. He uncorked the bottle and held it upright.
The droplets fell inside, spreading a shallow silver layer across its bottom. Light seemed to flow through the liquid. Here it resembled water rather than the rounded pearls it had formed in his palm.
The jade bottle had ample space. Scattered droplets accumulated without filling it.
Xu Ziqing simply sat cross-legged with the bottle raised, collecting the rain slowly.
Meanwhile, cold and merciless killing intent began spreading outward from Yun Lie in all directions.
His eyes were closed, but the fissure between his brows gradually opened into a narrow slit.
The slit was razor-sharp, as though carved by a sword. One could vaguely sense a terrifying danger concealed within.
Soon an invisible domain seemed to form out of empty space!
Within it was nothing but void, except countless invisible sharp swords thrusting toward the sky, howling as if to pierce the heavens!
This was Yun Lie’s embryonic Minor Cosmos!
When the embryonic Minor Cosmos appeared, Xu Ziqing’s attention shifted to his senior brother, although he still held the bottle.
He could still see the countless swords, but knew they were merely illusory. Each should ultimately embody a strand of sword intent. For now, however, their interiors remained empty.
No. Wait.
Xu Ziqing suddenly thought of something and studied his senior brother even more attentively.
Under ordinary circumstances, obtaining so many different sword intentions would be nearly impossible. But here on the Sword-Shaped Wood, perhaps such an opportunity existed!
He remembered the innumerable sword-shaped leaves they had collected while climbing. Every leaf contained a kind of sword intent!
If Senior Brother could make use of those leaves, would that not be a heaven-sent opportunity?
What occurred to Xu Ziqing naturally also occurred to Yun Lie, who commanded the embryonic Minor Cosmos.
Instinctively, he knew what he needed to do.
Yun Lie swept his sleeve. Thousands of sword-shaped leaves shot out and circled in midair.
An invisible stroke of sword intent flashed past, splitting every leaf in two and releasing thousands of different sword intentions!
To anyone besieged by so many sword intentions, it would be a nightmare.
But for Yun Lie, whose sword intent had reached great perfection, it was another matter.
He opened his eyes abruptly. They were pitch-black, his demonic impulses gathering.
At the same time, his embryonic Minor Cosmos changed. It seemed to open a door.
Instantly, those thousands of sword intentions plunged inside!
Before the naked eye, thousands of the swords within the embryonic Minor Cosmos suddenly lit up with extraordinary radiance.
The illusory swords had absorbed the killing energy within the sword intentions and condensed into solid manifestations bearing different artistic conceptions. Those intentions did not originate with Yun Lie himself, but with innumerable sword cultivators across the great world.
Yet Yun Lie’s own sword intent was pure murderous will. Once those foreign intentions entered his embryonic Minor Cosmos, they came under his command and would eventually establish a cosmos of swords!
Yun Lie repeated the process. With each sweep of his sleeve, thousands or tens of thousands of sword-shaped leaves floated up. He cut them open with sword intent and absorbed what they released.
Time and again, an equal number of illusory swords gained substance. The countless blades within the embryonic Minor Cosmos became clearer and more real.
Xu Ziqing watched in astonishment, his emotions surging.
Senior Brother’s embryonic Minor Cosmos is truly formidable!
At that moment, he gained a faint understanding.
His senior brother cultivated the Sword Dao and comprehended sword intent. Within his embryonic Minor Cosmos, the Sword Dao formed the foundation, while pure killing intent suppressed all directions, creating a true sword domain before which ten thousand swords would bow.
What of himself?
Senior Brother’s heart was upright, and he killed to prevent further killing.
Then… what was Xu Ziqing’s own path?
Xu Ziqing practiced the Great Heart-Seed Art of Myriad Woods, with Rong Jin as his foundation and the myriad Woods as his subordinates. His path was naturally the Dao of Wood.
But Wood was an exceedingly broad Dao. Just as Yun Lie’s Sword Dao was the Ruthless Slaughter Sword Dao, Xu Ziqing needed to comprehend a Wood Dao uniquely his own.
That Dao would be bound to his cultivation art, temperament, intentions, and innermost nature.
He had already reached the peak of late Essence Transformation. Without finding his direction and condensing a Dao seed, forming a Golden Core would be immensely difficult. Even if he did manage it without obtaining a Dao seed, his foundation would be hollow and he would be far inferior to others of the same realm.
He would have to contemplate the matter carefully.
With that thought, Xu Ziqing focused once more upon his senior brother.
Yun Lie had now brought a Sword Dao Fruit forth, leaving it hovering directly before him.
His expression was cold. Joining two fingers like a sword, he slashed downward.
In an instant, he split the Sword Dao Fruit in two!