Gradually, the light on the Sword Spirit Tower climbed to the thirty-sixth floor and stopped.
The next instant, a figure was thrown backward out of the tower. He staggered three steps after landing before steadying himself.
This was the challenger who had just made the attempt. He was a solemn middle-aged sword cultivator, his clothing nearly intact and a long sword in his hand. Its blade gleamed, and a formidable aura radiated from his body.
He still seemed caught within some mysterious state of mind.
Seeing that the other swordsmen were still meditating before the Sword-Shadow Walls, Xu Ziqing said, “Since we’re here, why not try it first?”
Though he cultivated the demonic path, Tu Jin merely snorted. “Then go ahead.”
Yin Xiu and Xun Liang also said, “After you, Fellow Daoist Yun.”
The three had reached this place thanks to the good fortune of these two Dao companions and had no intention of competing for the honor of the first attempt.
Xu Ziqing felt reassured.
It would be best if everyone in their party could continue to get along here.
As expected, his senior brothers had chosen wisely. They would never have recommended arrogant, shallow, hypocritical people with whom to share the Sword God Token.
He turned toward his senior brother.
Yun Lie said nothing. In a flash, he was standing before the Sword Spirit Tower.
The tower guardian opened his eyes a fraction. “Challenging the tower?”
Yun Lie replied, “Yes.”
The guardian said, “One hundred divine stones, or one hundred upper-grade spirit stones.”
Yun Lie’s expression did not change. With a sweep of his sleeve, gleaming spirit stones floated in front of him, their abundant energy making the surrounding air seem to come alive.
The guardian waved his own sleeve and collected every stone. Only then did he step aside. “Enter.”
He closed his eyes again and said nothing more.
Yun Lie looked up at the Sword Spirit Tower and entered with steady steps.
At the same time, Xu Ziqing and the other three fixed their eyes upon the glow at the corner of the first floor, watching without blinking.
All of them were deeply concerned about the outcome.
When Yun Lie stepped into the Sword Spirit Tower, his first stride brought him into a sealed chamber.
Everything was pitch-black until, three breaths later, the room became brilliantly illuminated.
He noted that those three breaths were probably the time allowed for anyone entering the tower to prepare.
Now the real test would begin.
As expected, once the room brightened, Yun Lie saw that it was empty. Both the floor and walls were smooth and polished, resembling the mirrorlike Sword-Shadow Walls outside.
Within the mirror directly opposite him, a human figure swiftly appeared.
The figure looked exactly like Yun Lie. Not only its face and bearing but even its sword Dao aura was indistinguishable from his.
Suddenly the figure stepped out of the mirror!
It lunged at him!
In its hand was a black-and-gold longsword!
Yun Lie’s eyes chilled slightly. He was about to summon his sword intent with a thought.
But his sea of consciousness swelled, as though something were breaking through his forehead to emerge!
The sensation… was much like when his soul or primordial spirit had left his body in the past.
Yun Lie seemed both fully conscious and somewhere high above the heavens, looking down upon the scene.
He could observe everything in the chamber with his sea of consciousness, just as he could inspect his inner world. He saw a black-and-gold ball of light burst out from between his brows. On touching the ground, it became an illusory figure identical to himself, armed with a black-and-gold sword, and confronted the mirror image!
Meanwhile, at the edge of the room sat a real, white-robed man with his legs crossed and eyes closed, as though meditating.
The situation was almost as if Yun Lie himself were watching two other ‘Yun Lies’ fight.
Suddenly he understood. His sword soul had left his body.
His true self’s awareness could direct the sword soul while also residing within his physical body to observe the battle.
It seemed divided between two forms, yet remained one consciousness.
Once he understood this, his sword soul’s movements became far more nimble. Rather than responding mostly by instinct, it acted with full intention, making the mirror image seem clumsy by comparison.
Yun Lie felt as though he himself were facing the image. Every action arose from his own convictions.
His countless insights into the sword Dao poured out like flowing water.
With a single upward turn of his longsword, he cleaved the opposing figure in two.
His sword soul immediately returned to his forehead. His body grew light, and he was transported to the second floor.
As on the first floor, the moment he entered he sensed his sword soul about to leave his body. Three breaths later, another figure stepped out of the mirrorlike wall. This one was substantially stronger than the first, with a sharper, more imposing aura.
Yun Lie remained calm. His sword soul immediately emerged and faced the figure.
In an instant, they were locked in combat!
Outside, Xu Ziqing watched the lights at the tower’s corners, feeling somewhat nervous.
Almost no time passed before the light moved from the first floor to the second. It had remained on the first for only four or five breaths, then took only another few breaths to reach the third.
The pattern continued. He reached the tenth floor without spending even the time needed to burn one stick of incense on any floor.
He remained slightly longer on the eleventh floor.
But it was only a little longer. Soon the light rose to the twelfth.
Then the three sword cultivators who had been watching in silence spoke.
Yin Xiu said, “He’s already at the first refinement of sword soul.”
Xun Liang looked solemn. “The younger generation is formidable.”
Even Tu Jin offered a rare comment. “Let’s see what happens next.”
As they spoke, the light left the twelfth floor and rose to the thirteenth.
Yun Lie had spent roughly one ke, about fifteen minutes, on the twelfth floor.
The thirteenth was much the same, as were the fourteenth and fifteenth and every floor up to the twenty-first.
But on the twenty-second floor, the light remained stationary. Half a shichen passed without anyone noticing.
Xu Ziqing understood that Yun Lie had achieved the first refinement of his sword soul even before Xu Ziqing formed his Nascent Soul. For more than twenty years afterward, he had tempered himself continuously. At the Sword Discussion Assembly, he exchanged blows with Jiwen Jing and discussed swords with many others, discovering insights he had previously lacked. His understanding deepened, and his sword domain became more complete. His sword soul naturally grew stronger and more refined through those experiences.
Yet achieving another breakthrough through those efforts alone would probably have required a special opportunity. Had that opportunity not arrived now, with the Sword God Token and the Sword Spirit Tower?
Xu Ziqing therefore had not worried about the first eleven floors. He knew his senior brother would clear them smoothly. He paid closer attention from the twelfth onward, until Yun Lie reached the decisive threshold: the twenty-second floor.
No wonder Senior Brother had remained there for so long. He must be doing everything in his power to break through.
But what exactly was he experiencing inside?
In the sealed chamber, black-and-gold radiance erupted from Yun Lie’s sword soul’s palm, becoming countless fine threads that swept through the room.
These threads coiled around him, formed from sword intent.
Strictly speaking, because his sword intent had already been refined together with his primordial spirit, separating it out should not have produced ordinary sword intent. But in this place, where his sword soul had left his body and taken physical form, he could use such methods.
In truth, his sword soul could not yet do this under ordinary circumstances.
The experience was showing him a possible way forward. Perhaps one day his sword soul would possess many such powers even while remaining inside his body.
Opposite Yun Lie stood two figures.
Indeed, ever since the twelfth floor, each mirror had produced two illusory opponents, both with exactly the same attainment in the sword Dao.
For Yun Lie, the pressure had immediately doubled.
Under that pressure, he brought his swordsmanship to its utmost. His killing intent nearly became tangible. The black-and-gold sword in his hand sometimes gathered into a single blade and sometimes divided into several, forming an impenetrable defense that flowed without interruption, sometimes as smoothly as a stream and sometimes with the fury of surging waves.
He easily cut his attackers into fragments!
Somewhat unexpectedly, the chamber allowed no means of combat other than the sword soul.
He could not summon the sword domain Minor Cosmos that he ordinarily used in battle.
His true essence seemed inexhaustible. So long as he possessed a breath of life, he could withstand attack after attack.
The sword soul wielded countless techniques, as if rehearsing every sword art he had studied and refining them all anew, gaining deeper and clearer insight. He could even use techniques he had never personally trained before. A moment’s consideration revealed that they were approaches he had learned in discussions with other sword cultivators or seen during their sparring. Now all of them became methods belonging to Yun Lie himself.
The techniques grew more familiar, yet somehow their separate outlines grew less distinct. Countless sword arts fused into a single whole, like iron filings hammered into one block, then subjected to endless blows until the block became a sword.
This process repeated. On the twenty-second floor, Yun Lie kept swinging and changing techniques as time slipped by like water.
Meanwhile, his sword soul appeared to grow slightly more distinct.
Only by the faintest trace, perhaps, but there was no mistaking its increasing clarity.
Yun Lie seemed incapable of tiring. His countless sword insights became a mighty current, laying the foundations of his own sword Dao and strengthening his sword soul.
More and more understanding flowed into the sword soul, and his sword heart grew clearer.
But the two mirror images facing him seemed to fade a little.
It was as though their power was declining as his rose.
Yun Lie was advancing, relentlessly advancing.
His extraordinary comprehension continued to refine him as his understanding of the sword grew.
At last, the slender threads in the air formed two thin swords that descended from above, one on the left and the other on the right.
They pierced both illusions straight through the Baihui points at the crowns of their heads!
The figures vanished. Yun Lie’s sword soul became black light and sank into his physical body. An instant later, that body disappeared and entered the twenty-third floor.
Here, three mirrored figures awaited him.
The longer Xu Ziqing waited outside, the more anxious he became.
More than one shichen had passed, and the twenty-second floor was still shining brightly.
Would Senior Brother succeed in breaking through?
Xu Ziqing knew Yun Lie was gifted and his foundations complete, but the battle had dragged on so long that he could not help worrying.
Waiting now was almost unbearable.
The other three sword cultivators also watched the tower with grave expressions.
Despite their unwillingness to admit it, they knew Yun Lie had the highest sword attainment among them. How far he advanced in the tower would shape their understanding of the challenges and determine whether their own sword cultivation truly could break through here.
They were full of hope, their thoughts turning in a hundred directions.
Just as Xu Ziqing circulated his cultivation art to calm himself, the twenty-third floor suddenly lit up!
His heart leaped with joy. This meant…
Senior Brother had succeeded! He had achieved the second refinement of sword soul!
The others also seemed to exhale in relief. The light remained on the twenty-third floor for a little under half a shichen, then flickered and went out.
At the same time, a white-robed figure flew from the tower and landed in front of Xu Ziqing.
Yun Lie had emerged.
Xu Ziqing hurried forward and examined him carefully.
The other three rushed over as well.
Yun Lie looked perfectly composed, no different from when he entered, even his expression unchanged.
Xu Ziqing alone could detect a trace of fatigue in his senior brother. This was natural; after so long inside, he must have expended a great deal of effort.
After waiting a moment, the three swordsmen finally asked the question on their minds.
Xun Liang spoke. “Fellow Daoist Yun, what did you encounter inside the Sword Spirit Tower?”