Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 337 - 330 Challenge Four

Chapter 337: Chapter 330 Challenge Four

"Where is this...?" Lin Xin carefully sensed his surroundings, a white tiger lazily sprawled out in a sea of flowers in the distance, glancing casually in his direction.

On another side, a few small deer hopped and skipped, running off in other directions.

The harmonious coexistence of the tiger and the deer was quite unusual here.

He retracted his gaze as his Demon Body quickly vanished, reverting to normal.

Walking briskly for a distance through the sea of flowers, he entered a dense forest to the side and found a spot in the shade to sit down cross-legged.

Lin Xin took a small delicate bottle out of his Storage Bag, from which he poured out a cherry-sized, crimson pill and swallowed it in one gulp.

After closing his eyes and regulating his breathing for the duration of a cup of tea, his complexion gradually returned to normal.

"That Taoist Intent, it doesn’t feel like a sword, it’s really as Luo Xin’er had said, it appears to be a sword, but Zheng Yunzhen is actually a bladesman. And what’s more, it’s Flying Daggers."

He carefully recalled the situation from their previous exchange, his mind filled with thoughts.

"There are countless bladesmen in Central Prefecture, but there isn’t a single one who has achieved anything in the Sword Dao in the Heavenly List, and who knows how many in Yuan Jing. I wonder why that is."

Thinking of this, he felt somewhat puzzled.

Dao Seeking is, after all, a cultivation of the heart. The Flowing Cloud Sword might as well be called the Flowing Cloud Knife, its strength is no small feat, but in the end, it had shown mercy, presumably to avoid deep enmity with me.

Thus, even the injuries were not critical, affecting only non-vital areas. Such injuries, which looked severe but in reality were just muscle and bone, could be quickly healed by an average Demonic Cultivator.

After swallowing the pill, the silvery-white Sword Qi inside him was rapidly expelled, and Lin Xin carefully adjusted his state once more.

However, he discovered a force that he had not noticed before.

It was a somewhat chilly, pitch-black sphere of energy, concentrated inside his liver and faintly forming a miniature black vortex.

The energy sphere faintly carried that same trace of eerie aura that had been on Wusheng’s Flying Dagger.

"This... must be the force from the Black Death Demon Body of Wusheng’s Flying Dagger that I absorbed earlier."

He remembered reading in the Yuan Dou Demonic Technique that Demonic Arts could devour each other, but how to use this force, he had not yet decided.

The characteristics of the Black Death Demon Body were not quite as good as the Primitive Demon Body, but it was a Demon Body nonetheless.

After hesitating slightly, Lin Xin’s consciousness gently probed into the energy sphere, and he stirred it lightly as though absorbing normal Spiritual Energy.

Poof!

The black energy sphere suddenly exploded, dispersing from the liver into countless streams that slowly merged into the skin, muscles, and bones throughout his body.

Lin Xin faintly felt some changes occurring within his body.

He quickly checked his current status. His Constitution had increased from 20 points to 21 points.

’Attack—57, Defense—17, Evasion—3, Constitution—21’

"Absorbing a Demon Body for a single point in Constitution, and after all that hard fighting."

He knew his rate of improvement was so fast that normal cultivation couldn’t keep up with the speed at which he was enhancing himself with the Demon Talisman Seed, which made it seem like simple cultivation was ineffective.

But that was just an illusion, merely because the effect of plain cultivation paled in comparison to the boosts from the Demon Talisman Seed.

Just as he was about to exit the status panel, Lin Xin’s peripheral vision caught something else.

"Huh?"

He looked again in surprise, thinking he had seen it wrong.

After checking again carefully, he confirmed he had not made a mistake. The Yuan Dou Demonic Technique had just reached the First Layer and required seeking out places with Demonic Qi and Nether Qi to devour in order to progress.

As for where to obtain Demonic Qi and Nether Qi, no one had told him.

His eldest senior sister and second senior sister had not mentioned this, and in the Cultivation Techniques left to him, there was only the phrase "you’ll naturally come to know."

Now, he indeed naturally came to know.

"Not for nothing is it one of the top Demon Bodies of the Demon Path; it turns out that slaying other Demon Bodies is required to acquire the Demonic Qi necessary for practice."

He exhaled deeply.

In his status panel, in addition to new changes in his attributes,

there was a change in his level of Yuan Dou Demonic Technique.

’Yuan Dou Demonic Technique—First Layer, Primitive Demon Body (37%)’

From just starting and not even showing a percentage, to suddenly jumping to 37%, this was after absorbing only the Demon Body of Wusheng’s Flying Dagger.

"It’s just unclear whether it’s because I killed the Demon Body, or if it’s the cultivation increase naturally bestowed by being a son of the Nether Mansion."

Dismissing his thoughts, he opened his eyes.

The sky had darkened, and without realizing, more than half a day had passed.

He sat cross-legged in the forest, the Red Flower Sword resting on his knees. Just as he thought to summon Yin Mantuo, the response from within the sword was incredibly weak. Clearly, using the Qilin consecutively had caused it to not yet recover from its substantial loss of Elemental Energy.

If Lin Xin himself didn’t have a large stash of Spiritual Energy stored in his Demon Body, he would at best be barely recovered in terms of Spiritual Energy.

Fortunately, his former practice of the Qingyao Wandu Technique had accumulated too much blood energy, which converted into enough Spiritual Energy to support him in several continuous actual combats.

Getting up, he casually flicked his wrist, and a sword Qi shot out abruptly, piercing a big blue-green python on a branch next to him.

Having dealt with the large snake, Lin Xin removed its viscera, found a small stream nearby, and after cleaning it thoroughly, he started a fire and took out a pot from his storage bag to slow-cook a python soup.

The broth bubbled, and the chopped python meat within released an incomparable delicious aroma.

In one go, he ate up the entire python which was more than four meters long, at best considering it a snack.

He simply set up a simple warning formation on a nearby tree branch and then sat cross-legged on the tree, falling asleep.

The next day, bright and early, with the sky just lighting up, he woke up with the precision of an alarm clock.

After eating dried food and drinking fresh water for breakfast, he began to carefully recall the previous encounter with Zheng Yunzhen.

This time he hadn’t brought any subordinates, opting instead to travel alone in disguise.

It was to train by himself, without relying on the influence of the Yuan Dou Demon Sect to pressure others. Only in this way would his opponents give their all, instead of cowering.

"Zheng Yunzhen’s Flowing Clouds Blade Intent must follow the path of ’Clouds Without Fixed Form’, ever-changing. If Taoist Intent is said to be a special power carrying a strong personal will, then how is this kind of Flowing Clouds Blade Intent formed?"

He carefully recalled the situation when they crossed swords.

"My Red Flower Sword Intent was conceived by chance due to Lingling’s death, belonging to a self-enlightened Sword Intent." He suddenly remembered that Zheng Yunzhen seemed to be very surprised that his Sword Intent was self-enlightened.

"Could it be related to that set of blade techniques? An impressive cultivation technique, once practiced to a certain stage, could naturally activate a certain inherent fixed Taoist Intent. Could Zheng Yunzhen have done the same?"

He meticulously reconsidered the techniques Zheng Yunzhen used and had a nagging feeling that something was off.

"His swordsmanship and blade techniques, and the Taoist Intent, do not seem to match."

He quickly remembered his past study of the Nine Morning Melody, which after surpassing the Fire Life stage, was followed by a stage that would naturally condense Taoist Intent. The power of such cultivation techniques with inherent Taoist Intent was immense once condensed.

Because the Taoist Intents selected for transmission as cultivation techniques were generally extremely practical types.

Self-enlightened Taoist Intent often carried a great deal of randomness.

"Flowing Cloud..."

Looking up at the sky, Lin Xin attempted to emulate the techniques used by Zheng Yunzhen.

He possessed the ability to manifest skills, meaning that if he successfully performed a technique once, he could solidify the move and then guarantee success every subsequent time.

With this thought, he let go of his concerns and repeatedly tried to mimic Zheng Yunzhen’s Taoist Intent with spiritual energy.

Taoist Intent in plain terms is a special influence that causes extremely complex and multiple changes in spiritual energy and spiritual pressure due to one’s will. It is not without trace.

That’s why many cultivation techniques capable of producing Taoist Intent have been passed down to the present. These are the teachings of those who have fully understood the way, compiled into textbooks, allowing the following generations to achieve to the corresponding Taoist Intent if they follow the standards step by step.

If someone can compile textbooks, then it’s natural for others to achieve enlightenment as well; the only difference is the level of difficulty.

After groping and combining efforts for several hours, time flew by rapidly, and he was still utterly clueless.

Lin Xin simply sat cross-legged and recovered the large amount of spiritual energy he had depleted during his exploration.

On the third day, early in the morning, he took to the air and flew straight toward the mountaintop where Cloud Soar Sword Sect was situated.

************************

Inside a quiet room at the Cloud Soar Sword Sect’s mountain gate.

Zheng Yunzhen and an elder in a yellow robe were facing each other, savoring scented tea, casually talking about some interesting events that had recently occurred nearby.

"Ancestor! Ancestor, there’s trouble!"

Suddenly, an old man stumbled and rushed in, shouting loudly.

"What’s the matter? You’re making a fuss over nothing?" Zheng Yunzhen was in the middle of a conversation and frowned at being interrupted.

The old man who had barged in was a nominal disciple that he had accepted many years ago, always quiet and steady—why was he so flustered all of a sudden?

"That... that Red Flower Loose Cultivator has come knocking again!" The old man panted heavily, evidently having flown here at full speed to report the situation.

"Again?!" Zheng Yunzhen was momentarily stunned. "It’s only been such a short time; he’s come back again? You couldn’t have mistaken him, could you?"

"Absolutely certain!" the old man declared decisively.

The other elder in yellow showed slight astonishment.

"Old friend, is it the person you mentioned before?"

"Indeed. Let’s go check it out," Zheng Yunzhen invited.

The group left the quiet room, passed through the main hall, and walked to the open space in front of the mountain gate.

This time nearly all the sect’s disciples had come, gathered around the open area, looking over from a distance.

That girl in the red dress was among them. Mixed in with a group of chattering disciples, she was saying something to the Red Flower.

"You’ve already been defeated by my grandfather. What are you doing here again after being injured last time?"

"The difference in strength can’t be bridged by just a few challenges!"

"I advise you to go back and practice for a few more years; repeating the battle so soon is just a waste of time."

The girl spoke loudly, trying to dissuade him.

She hadn’t been cultivating for long, only three or four decades, and according to her great grandfather, the Red Flower Loose Cultivator seemed to be of a similar age. So, she felt they were peers.

Even though they were of the same age, he was so much further ahead, and deep down, she was somewhat unconvinced, feeling an inexplicable irritation upon seeing the Red Flower walk onto the platform silently waiting; she couldn’t help but speak out in mockery.