Qin Yun and Yi Xiao searched carefully in the garden.
“Oh?” Soon, Qin Yun discovered that a stone wall seemed amiss. With a light push, the stone door was immediately pushed open.
“There’s a stone chamber in here?” Yi Xiao observed carefully as well.
Qin Yun nodded and walked into the stone chamber. It was rather spacious and there was text engraved on a stone wall: “Do you want to leave? Solve the challenges of the three stone chambers, and not only would you be able to exit, you would receive all I have accumulated over the years. If not, die of age together with me in here.”
“This Elder Sword is so unfeeling. If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have let him be buried.” Yi Xiao was instantly maddened when she saw it.
“He’s already dead so there’s no need to spite him. Also, let’s see what the challenges of the three stone chambers are.” Qin Yun discovered a book inside the stone chamber at a glance.
He directly walked forward and there was a stone in front. The rock which the book laid on had the words engraved, “Beam Transformation Art is an escape art I created independently. If you are able to reach the seventh level, you will be able to open the seal to the second stone chamber. It is the easiest of the three stone chambers, so don’t you get stuck here for a decade.”
Yi Xiao touched the stone door and there was an array formation seal within it. “Qin Yun, this seal is very powerful.”
“Make way,” requested Qin Yun.
Yi Xiao immediately retreated to Qin Yun’s side.
“Go.”
Without any hesitation, Qin Yun struck out with his Bright Moon Over River flying sword art. His Intrinsic Flying Sword transformed into a moon-like sword beam that stabbed the stone door’s array formation seal. As for the Heavy Sand Sword, he kept it close to him to prevent any mishaps.
“Boom!” Light from the door’s seal burgeoned, as the remaining shockwaves swept through the stone chamber, causing countless rubble in the room to fly wantonly.
Qin Yun commanded with his mind. “Hold.”
Immediately, all the rubble and dust was left suspended in midair before they rapidly plummeted to the ground, leaving no dust floating in the air.
“It didn’t even twitch.” Qin Yun shook his head. Although Elder Sword had an eccentric personality and was ruthless towards strangers, his array formation arts are indeed impressive.”
As Qin Yun spoke, he flipped through the book.
The ‘Beam Transformation Art’ was a flying escape art. The most common flying method sword immortals used was Sword Kinesis Flight. If one had a profound enough realm, sword intent could permeate their entire bodies, and with their bodies as swords, they could similarly use extremely powerful flying arts!
“Interesting. The Beam Transformation Art that Elder Sword created is indeed very unique.” Qin Yun fell into rumination when he read it.
The theory being the Beam Transformation Art was to use Dharmic powers to constitute an array formation on one’s outer body. Once it was activated, and powered by Dharmic powers, the entire person would be like a flying sword. The speed at which the caster could fly… was almost no different from the true speed at which flying swords could go at.
The Beam Transformation Art was a flying escape art created by Elder Sword, a peerless sword immortal of a generation complemented with his accomplishments in array formations. There were a total of nine levels.
As Elder Sword put it, as long as he achieved the seventh level, he would be able to resolve the seal on the second stone door.
“What a powerful flying escape art.” Qin Yun handed the manual to Yi Xiao. “Yi Xiao, you can take a look too.”
“You want me to look at it too?” Yi Xiao hesitated.
After Qin Yun read it once, the text on the manual had lightened. After all, the more heaven-defying the Dharmic formulation was, the more it succumbed to heaven’s envy. Typical manuals had limited reads!
“There’s only the two of us anyway. I imagine that this manual can be read about five or six times,” said Qin Yun with a smile.
Yi Xiao took it and read it once before nodding. “Impressive. This Beam Transformation Art is indeed extraordinary. However, compared to my Divine Firmament Lightning Dharma’s ‘Lightning Manifestation,’ it is still slightly inferior.”
Qin Yun laughed. “Lightning is naturally faster than a flying sword.”
“However, the seventh level is very difficult,” said Yi Xiao immediately. “It feels like it’s an extremely complicated sword art.”
“Yea, to infuse sword intent into an array formation. That is Elder Sword,” said Qin Yun. “Yi Xiao, have a rest. I’ll try cultivating it.”
“Alright.” Yi Xiao nodded.
Qin Yun immediately sat cross-legged in a corner and calmed his mind to meditate. The cultivation formulations of the Beam Transformation Art began to suffuse in his mind.
Qin Yun did not understand array formations but he knew sword arts!
The Beam Transformation Art was, in essence, an array formation sword art. It had to be cast instantly, transforming one’s body into a beam that could streak through the sky.
…
Qin Yun completely immersed himself in the cultivation.
Yi Xiao waited silently by the side. As she watched Qin Yun cultivate seriously with his eyes closed, she could not help but smile. She continued watching the cross-legged Qin Yun.
An hour later.
“Whew!”
Qin Yun’s body instantly transformed into a stream of light, coruscating twice in the stone chamber. He circled the garden outside once before returning inside the stone chamber before he continued sitting there cross-legged.
“What happened?” asked Yi Xiao.
“I encountered some trouble in the beginning,” Qin Yun opened his eyes and said with a smile. “Having fully figured it out, it’s still early. I just cultivated to the third level. I’ll continue cultivating.”
“You are already at the third level?” Yi Xiao was astonished.
Qin Yun continued in his immersion.
There was no day or night underground. The beads that were on the garden’s ceiling was the only source of light.
Yi Xiao waited a long while. She took out teacups from her Cosmic Bag and cast a tiny Dharma spell. Immediately, water condensed and flowed into a teacup. With a cup of water, Yi Xiao drank it and looked at the nearby Qin Yun. “I wonder how long we will stay in this underground place. Qin Yun got trapped in here because of me.”
Finally, Qin Yun opened his eyes once again.
“How was the cultivation?” asked Yi Xiao immediately.
“It’s a very powerful flying escape art. I immersed myself without even realizing it,” said Qin Yun with a smile. “However, my sword intent is still lacking. All I did was cultivate to the eighth level! To cultivate to the ninth level? It will probably require the Sword Intent Paramount realm.”
“Already the eighth level?” Yi Xiao was amazed. “I read it. It felt very difficult.”
“It’s not difficult if you understand the concepts,” said Qin Yun with a smile. “In essence, it’s a unique sword art, another implementation of sword arts. It was a little tough grasping the basics, but it wasn’t much once I understood it.”
“And that’s only for you,” said Yi Xiao with a smile. “According to the manual, in Elder Sword’s words, those with ordinary talent would not be able to grasp the basics. Extremely talented ones would take three years to grasp the basics. Only a rare Sword Dao genius would take a day or two to grasp the basics. As for cultivating to a profound realm, it would be more difficult. Elder Sword had to be extremely careful in who to hand down his Dharmic formulations. Unless it was someone with top talent, they would not be taught. As for you, you grasped the basics in an hour and cultivated to the eighth level in a day.”
Qin Yun smiled. “All sword arts have sword intent as their fundamentals. The others are just superficial. Let’s go. Let’s see what challenges lie ahead in the second stone chamber.”
“Alright.” Yi Xiao was also greatly looking forward to it.
The two came in front of the sealed stone door.
Qin Yun understood at a glance. In order to activate the array formation’s seal, a ‘catalyst’ was needed. The Beam Transformation Art’s seventh level’s sword array graph was such a catalyst.
Qin Yun directed with his mind.
Shoo!
The sword immortal Dharmic power flew out and instantly produced the Beam Transformation Art’s seventh level sword array graph on the seal. The array formation’s seal vibrated gently before dissipating on its own accord.
“Bam.” Qin Yun gently pushed and the stone door opened. Beyond that was the second stone chamber.
In it, there was a stone table. Seven books were placed on it as though they were manuals carved from jade.
Qin Yun and Yi Xiao walked up to it and saw that the stone table had words engraved on it.
“The foundation of my Sword Dao stems from these seven sword intents! Learn my sword art and grasp the seven sword intents, and you will gain entry to the third stone chamber. This is also the second challenge.”
The text caused Qin Yun’s expression to change slightly.
Yi Xiao could not help but say, “Grasp seven sword intents? Why is he so ruthless? Even legendary peerless sword immortals would spend a great deal of time on one sword intent. How long will it take to grasp seven different sword intents? To think you gave him a tombstone.”
Qin Yun was helpless as well.
He was confident when it came to sword arts, but to grasp seven different sword intents…
“Yi Xiao,” Qin Yun looked at Yi Xiao. “The seven sword intents, ignoring the third challenge that lies ahead, just these seven sword intents… will definitely not be something that can be cracked in a short amount of time. From the looks of it, we will have to stay here for an extended period of time.”
Yi Xiao looked at Qin Yun. When she thought how they would be living together for an extended period of time, with no one disturbing them, she suddenly felt that it wasn’t a bad thing either.
“But you will have no choice of meeting Uncle and Auntie,” said Yi Xiao immediately.
“There’s my brother to take care of them. Furthermore, I got Brother Hong to help,” Qin Yun said with a smile. “His strength and the means that are available to him should be sufficient.”
Hong Lingtong had treasures, including the Golden Core Outer Pills. With his abilities to avert crises and infer the future, Qin Yun was still rather assured.
“Alright.” Yi Xiao nodded. “Thankfully, the both of us have entered the Connate realm. Even if we were to consume the wind and imbibe dew, we would not starve to death.”