Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 44 Accumulation Part 2

Chapter 44: Chapter 44 Accumulation Part 2

In the following days, he visited the Formation Hall Law Transmission Forest every day to seek guidance from the old lady.

As he asked more and more questions, his grasp of basic formation talismans became increasingly proficient. After all, with a skill that could perfectly replicate a success upon one trial, even if he didn’t understand it at first, he could quickly grasp the key points by repeating the skill several times.

His progress in the formation path was also by leaps and bounds.

Before long, he managed to successfully activate the Luminous Fire Formation by chance.

Thus, it was only logical that he overcame the obstacle of the Luminous Fire Formation. From start to finish, it took him less than six days.

Lin Xin took the opportunity to miniaturize the Luminous Fire Formation and bought a new broad-bladed longsword, scribbling hundreds of sets of runes onto it in one go. Any more, and the material of the longsword would struggle to endure.

Unlike the small Solar Yang Formation, the Luminous Fire Formation needed to store a part of special fire energy within the material it was inscribed on. A longsword could hold one hundred and twelve sets of runes without issue, but after a hundred sets, the whole Luminous Fire Formation would start to become extremely unstable. It looked as if the slightest bump could set it off to explode. The power of one set of the formation was roughly a third of that of the Solar Yang Talisman Sword in full state.

Lin Xin simply limited the Luminous Fire Formation to a hundred sets to ensure stability.

Due to the explosive nature of the Luminous Fire Formation, this talisman sword was essentially a disposable item. He named it the Luminous Talisman Sword.

After spending two days, Lin Xin crafted three Luminous Talisman Swords, wrapping them tightly in thick strips of cloth and carrying them on his back, while the Solar Yang Talisman Sword was placed in the most accessible position.

At the same time, he also made several pieces of Luminous Fire Stones, a disposable type of thrown explosive.

The second formation was the Concealment Formation, which, with the experience gained from the Luminous Fire Formation, was also quickly perfected. He fashioned it into an array plate that he carried with him, which could maintain its effect for several hours with just a trace of inner qi, making it very practical.

For Flameless Swordsmanship, he would go deep into the forest every morning to seek advice from his fellow Hua Lin on cultivating the Flameless Swordsmanship. The required Red Flame Powder was also easily concocted.

Although the Flameless Swordsmanship was difficult and powerful, there were still a significant number of practitioners within the sect. The path of immortal cultivation had no shortage of people with determination and perseverance.

With the aid of his special ability, it took him only two weeks to learn the main two sword techniques of the Flameless Swordsmanship.

Lin Xin had quickly mastered the sword techniques using his skill, but as for applying them flexibly, that would require further rigorous practice.

In any case, it was enough to conceal the power of his Solar Yang Talisman Sword.

Having readied the maintenance oil for the array instruments obtained from Cheng Ruofei, and having finished crafting the Luminous Talisman Swords, Lin Xin was fully prepared and ready to switch his stone house.

It was the perfect opportunity to test the power of the newly acquired Flameless Swordsmanship.

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

Standing at the boundary between the Postnatal and Innate living quarters, Lin Xin was dressed in a light yellow Taoist robe, carrying four longswords on his back, each sword tightly wrapped in thick black cloth, concealing their designs.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the stone house he had chosen.

There was a steady flow of people behind him, with several who figured out his intentions stopping to watch the excitement. In no time, a dozen or so onlookers had gathered behind him.

"Outer area number one hundred forty-three," Lin Xin read out the stone house’s number. "Zheng Xiuqin. Are you there?"

His voice was neither too loud nor too low, just loud enough to be heard by the person inside.

His expression was calm, as he quietly waited in front of the stone house.

When he first arrived here, he, Wang Chong, and Xiao Lingling had their food snatched away by the owner of this stone house. Although he didn’t hold much resentment towards the person’s actions, debts of gratitude and revenge must be settled. This matter had to be repaid.

"So, he really did come for Zheng Xiuqin. Now this will be a spectacle."

"What exactly happened?"

"I heard that this guy was robbed by Zheng Xiuqin before, and now he’s back for a rematch."

"And who is Zheng Xiuqin?"

"That’s the Qingyan brute."

"Ah, her. She’s considered quite ruthless in the outer area."

The crowd of onlookers grew larger, and the noise became increasingly raucous.

Lin Xin felt that something was off. Zheng Xiuqin was just a disciple ranked over a hundred, so why was she attracting such a crowd of spectators?

For this fight, he had only planned to use the strength of the Second Layer of inner qi. Directly deploying the Third Layer would be too shocking and out of the ordinary since he had entered the sect not long ago. Although many people knew about the use of Yin Blood to enhance strength, and the higher-ups turned a blind eye, openly displaying such a capability would be rather arrogant since it was a prohibited act.

"It hasn’t even started yet? Why is it like this?" As he saw more and more spectators gathering around, he was somewhat baffled.

Soon, a few looking quite fierce broke through the crowd and came rushing in.

"Someone actually dares to challenge Sister Xiu? Seems like they’re tired of living, huh?"

"As soon as I heard, I hurried right over. I didn’t expect to really see someone so fearless? Heh~~"

Three or four people approached Lin Xin together, their faces bearing thick sneers.

"This guy must have consumed some spiritual medicine outside, to be able to improve from the First Layer to the Second Layer in such a short time and still be so stable," said someone in the crowd who seemed insightful. "Your Qingyan Gang better not be careless and end up capsizing the ship."

"Thank you for the heads up, Young Master Xu." One of the group who wielded dual swords responded with a smile and a bow.

"You’re too kind, Brother Lu."

This man named Lu turned back, his eyes fixated firmly on Lin Xin.

"You’ve got guts to challenge big sister when you’re only at the Second Layer. Speaking of which, I do admire you for that. Even I wouldn’t dare to challenge an Innate expert at your stage."

"Innate?" Lin Xin’s heart stirred slightly, Zheng Xiuqin had already reached the Innate level, which caught him off guard. However, with the Luminous Talisman Sword, he wasn’t afraid of Innate experts, but now he’d have to reveal his trump card to win, which wasn’t what he wanted.

He also began to understand why there were so many onlookers around. After all, this was the outer area, not the inner area where Innate experts clustered. A Postnatal inner practitioner wanting to challenge an Innate expert who had just advanced was rare anywhere.

"Too bad big sister is out on a mission and didn’t have time to switch stone houses, or she would’ve personally crushed you to death." The man surnamed Lu said coldly, "Although I can’t compare to big sister, killing a brat like you who doesn’t know how high the sky is, is still easy... enough!!"

Before the word "enough" had even faded, he had already raised his dual swords, and both his left and right hands simultaneously executed the same Pine Forest Sword Technique Solar Needle!

Six points of white light rapidly drifted toward Lin Xin’s chest, like six light, fluttering pieces of paper.

Whoosh!

Only now did the sound of the blade cleaving the air spread around.

In that instant, Lin Xin’s hand suddenly held a longsword, just an ordinary treasured sword he had bought at will, forged from fine steel, which cost him thirteen pieces of Jade Money, and was considered good weaponry in the eyes of ordinary people.

The blade, infused with the power of his Second Layer Inner Qi, met head-on with the six points of Solar Needle white light.

"Three Suns Sword." Lin Xin quietly chanted, and the blade suddenly surged with a rolling heat flow all around it, scorching currents of Inner Qi exploding out in all directions. His sword seemed to redden in an instant, glowing with red light.

A fifth of his Inner Qi inside his body passed through the blade in an instant.

Clang!

The reddish blade, as if a red-hot iron, had just collided with Lu Qingquan’s dual swords when it burst into a large mass of even hotter Inner Qi current, harshly brushing over Lu Qingquan’s face.

"Flameless Sword Technique?!!" Lu Qingquan’s face showed shock for a moment, his eyes assaulted by the heat flow, which prevented him from keeping them open, and he felt the sword hilt in his hands rapidly heating up, unbearably hot.

"Let go!"

With a light shout from the opposite side, he involuntarily loosened his grip on the hilt, and the Solar Needle immediately lost its Inner Strength, dissipating on the spot.

The dual swords were also twisted apart by the reddish blade and thrown out, hissing as they landed upside down in the soft muddy ground.

Lu Qingquan covered his face with both hands, his face and hands scorched red with large and small yellow blisters quickly swelling up.

He immediately broke into wails, daring not to touch his face again.

"Brother Lu!" "Disciple Lu!!"

The several people who had come with him hurried over to support him.

Most of the surrounding onlookers began to make a commotion.

The Flameless Sword Technique was notoriously difficult to practice, but those who succeeded often had the ability to fight above their level, because that pervasive, scorching heat flow was just too hard to defend against. Aside from the Wind-Riding Sect having Martial Arts to counter it, there weren’t many sword techniques within the inner practitioners that could easily handle the Flameless Sword Technique.

"Is that all you’ve got?" Lin Xin retracted his longsword, its tip pointing to the ground.

The power of the Flameless Sword Technique was indeed formidable. The opponent’s double Solar Needle, a level of Inner Strength that had already reached the Third Layer Realm, was still defeated by this Three Suns Sword. And this was with him using his Second Layer Inner Qi to drive the sword technique.

As for being difficult to practice, for him, as long as he succeeded once, he could completely solidify the masterstroke, and the term "difficult to practice" simply didn’t exist.

The few people were angry but didn’t dare to speak out. The Flameless Sword Technique was beyond their ability to cope with, and even if they attacked together, they weren’t necessarily a match for him.

"Leave your name, and you will be repaid in the future!" Lu Qingquan, supported by others, said fiercely.

"Lin Xin." Lin Xin took one last look at the stone house. With such performance from his underlings, if she still didn’t come out, it was clear that Zheng Xiuqin really hadn’t returned.

He sheathed his longsword, letting it hang at his waist, and simply turned and left.

His goal was to occupy a new stone house, so he simply stood in front of a stone house on the side, ready to challenge. Unfortunately, there was no one inside.

He frowned and continued to walk along the side, the closer he got to the river, the higher the rankings became.

Soon he chose a stone house near the Ming Shui River, ranked ninety-nine. Just as he was about to approach and knock on the door to challenge.

"Why don’t you come to mine?" Unexpectedly, a gentle man came out from the next door, looking at him with a smile.

"You are?" The man was older than him, and his tone was gentle, so Lin Xin politely inquired with respect.

About a dozen people followed him to watch the excitement, and before the man could answer, someone came up to Lin Xin to introduce him.

"Ranked ninety-eight, Kun Si Lang, like you, he is a master who practices Flameless Swordsmanship!"

Lin Xin glanced sideways at the person speaking. It was a young man with lively eyes, who seemed to be no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, his lip fuzz not yet fully grown.

"Big brother, you need to be careful. This Kun Si Lang may seem gentle, but he never leaves survivors when he makes his move, and his personality is particularly twisted. He especially likes to find handsome young men to play fun games with in the middle of the night..." The young man whispered an introduction behind Lin Xin.

Lin Xin’s mouth twitched. Seeing that Kun Si Lang’s gaze did indeed slide over his body like a snake, he instantly got goosebumps.

"Since you’ve spoken up, then I’ll choose yours." He drew his longsword and walked straight over to Kun Si Lang.

Kun Si Lang appeared to be close to thirty years old, with a gentle and scholarly exterior. If one didn’t look closely, it would be hard to tell this man’s true nature.

He smiled faintly, stepped out of the courtyard of his stone house, and stood facing Lin Xin.