The first sword-light from the Pure Yang Sword Diagram was shattered outright, blocked by the resistance of the Sumeru Dao Tablet.
But the sword diagram suddenly trembled, and once again unleashed a slash of sword-light.
This second strike was noticeably stronger than the first, carrying an aura far more profound, and within it, the inheritance it bore was of even higher grade.
The Pure Yang Sword Diagram was showing its true sincerity.
Yet the Sumeru Dao Tablet remained unmoved.
The second sword-light, too, was smashed apart before it could enter Jing Qian's sea of consciousness.
Jing Qian could not help but feel a sense of déjà vu.
Back when he had only just stepped onto the path of cultivation, an unknown black veil had blocked his way to the Sea of Destiny, forcing him to accept the fates it carried out for him.
At that time, the Sumeru Dao Tablet had battled the black veil for ages, only to forcibly seize the fate it desired, lifting Azure Wing and replacing it with Golden Root.
Now, he did not know what inheritance the Pure Yang Sword Diagram sought to bestow upon him, but judging from the Dao Tablet's obstinate interference, there was no doubt this was something truly precious.
Excitement flickered in Jing Qian's chest.
His "Tablet Brother" had never let him down before; it never acted lightly, but when it did, he always came away with a hidden treasure!
...
Meanwhile, elsewhere within the cave-heaven, Shang Xi had finished settling matters and was preparing to enact the next step of his plan.
The arrival of Jing Qian had rekindled his dormant will to survive.
Now, within his heart, a vast chessboard was being laid out, each piece tied to his very life and death. There was no choice but to play with everything he had.
Casting one last glance at Jing Qian, still absorbed in observing the Pure Yang Sword Diagram, Shang Xi turned away.
Instead, he took hold of Lingling's pale hand, the little zombie girl with one eye still streaming tears, and pulled her out of the Pure Yang Cave-Heaven.
His life-bound Great Wei Sword, which she had once held cradled in her hands, now pierced straight through her chest. Scalding hot blood spilled down from her heart, marking their path in red.
Three thousand years had passed. Now, with the Mother Yaksha seeing the light of day once more, both Shang Xi and Lingling found themselves drawn into a brand-new contest.
But the re-emergence of such a great demon, no matter how quietly done, could not help but stir the attention of hidden onlookers.
Down by the mountain's foot, the Old White Ox, sensing something amiss, turned into a streak of light and rushed upward in alarm.
Yet before it could speak, Shang Xi raised a hand and said first:
"Old Ox, my new disciple, is wild in his ways. I mean to gamble one last time. You rest easy and don't meddle in our affairs.
"If this attempt succeeds, I'll mend your shattered Fate Star.
"If it fails, you may collect my corpse."
At these words, the old ox shuddered, torn between dread and hope. It had accompanied Shang Xi for millennia; it could not bear the thought of seeing him perish.
Shang Xi, meanwhile, dragged Lingling down from Ruinsword Mountain, arriving at a cavern at the mountain's base.
This tunnel led straight into the Earth's core. It was the sealed prison of Wu Zhiqi.
As they descended, Shang Xi spoke coldly to Lingling:
"I'll give Wu Zhiqi to you. You can go to the Immortal Mountain, devour his Fate Stele, and repair your own. With it strengthened, your Fate Stele will rise higher.
"This way, if I fail to advance, I'll not be able to drag you with me. You'll be free to oppose me with your full strength. Think of this as our final duel.
"But before that, his body brims with Heaven-River Yuan Immortal Qi. You'll drain it first for me to use."
Lingling sneered, her tone laced with thorns:
"Brother Shang Xi, your courage truly knows no bounds. You could have chosen to walk the Dao at my side, yet insist on this reckless path.
"But rest assured, even if you fail, Lingling will fish you out and raise you upon the Immortal Mountain.
"A human prodigy holding seven great fates as my burden-bearer, my reverse-anchor upon the stele, what prestige that would bring me!"
Having lost one eye, Lingling's childish demeanor had faded. Her words now carried a hidden edge of malice.
Three thousand years of karmic entanglement between the two had always been a matter of life and death. This clash had long been inevitable.
Shang Xi had set the board. Lingling had no choice but to play her part.
She stepped alone into the cavern, striding toward Wu Zhiqi's prison.
Shang Xi, meanwhile, drew forth his iron sword and stabbed it into the rocky body of Ruinsword Mountain.
Then, turning, he sat himself before Grindstone Cliff, closing his eyes in meditation.
As his cultivation circulated, the mountain itself, the transformed body of the Two-Yi Extinction Sword, shrank by a full foot.
He was beginning the process of refining his master's bequeathed Spiritual Construct, slowly drawing its essence into his own sword casket.
For three thousand years, the last Pure Yang Son had been without his life-bound sword. More than half his combat strength had been stripped away.
Now, if he meant to gamble for his very life, the first step was obvious: he needed a blade worthy of his hand.
...
Jing Qian watched as his master and mistress departed. He made no move to follow, still lingering on the terrifying presence he had just witnessed through the Three-Life Eye.
Through that divine vision, the illusory image of a delicate young girl was torn away, revealing the true essence of a second-grade great demon: a monstrous corpse spirit ten zhang tall, covered in blood-red skin and matted white hair.
And yet his master had managed to subdue such a creature, bending it to his will. Truly, only his teacher could accomplish something so impossible.
By now, the fifth day of keeping the Three-Life Eye open was nearly at its end. His lifespan was draining at a frightening pace.
But the Pure Yang Sword Diagram was one of the most stubborn things he had ever encountered. It had already been slapped aside by the Sumeru Dao Tablet thousands of times, and yet it refused to relent, persistently flashing its broken patterns before the tablet as if to say, "Look again!"
Around Jing Qian, the shattered sword auras piled together, forming a luminous ring of spiritual power that locked him in place.
Even broken, each fragment still contained pieces of the Pure Yang sword inheritance. Though most of the information had been scattered when the Dao Tablet crushed them, the fragments slowly meshed together, complementing one another, until faint outlines of sword arts began to reemerge.
Jing Qian, however, refused to touch them. He had no intention of interfering with the contest between the Sumeru Dao Tablet and the Pure Yang Sword Diagram.
Instead, he poured all his effort into using the Three-Life Eye to trace the diagram's lines, stroke by stroke, attempting to carve its every detail into his mind.
But this was no simple drawing. Though it appeared to be nothing more than a bronze longsword, some strange power within the diagram resisted all attempts to replicate it.
Thus Jing Qian persisted, trying and failing, over and over again.
The fifth day ended without victory. On the sixth day, another seven years of lifespan burned away in an instant.
He no longer cared. As long as a breath remained in him, he would struggle against the Pure Yang Sword Diagram to the bitter end.
This was, after all, the highest-grade artifact he had yet encountered, its rank second only to the Sumeru Dao Tablet itself.
That day, as he alternated between tracing the diagram and using the Three-Life Eye to survey his own cultivation, he made a startling discovery.
His entire system, his methods, his inheritances, even his memories, were swept clean and organized under the divine gaze. All the rough edges and disharmonies were smoothed away.
He thought this stalemate would continue for much longer. But then, without warning, change struck.
The "Child of Sumeru" title within his soul abruptly advanced, transforming into a mid-grade title.
"Master of Myriad Manifestations, Lord of Sumeru!"
In that instant, a torrent of Dao-rhyme descended from the heavens and fell upon the Sumeru Dao Tablet. The ancient runes engraved upon its surface deepened, growing more intricate.
The Sumeru Life Pattern blazed in his sea of consciousness, and all of Jing Qian's space-related divine powers surged in strength.
The Dao Tablet itself shifted as well, releasing a unique resonance that flowed straight into the Three-Life Eye.
And then he looked upon the Pure Yang Sword Diagram again.
This time, his divine sense pierced straight into the dimension within.
Inside that space, an immense bronze longsword loomed between heaven and earth, suspended in the depths of time and space.
The instant Jing Qian's spirit entered, the sword shuddered as if violently offended and lashed out at him with a single slash!
His spiritual body was obliterated in a flash.
But that slash carried exactly what the Sumeru Dao Tablet had been waiting for: the sword inheritance itself.
Chasing after Jing Qian's collapsing spirit, the sword-light burst from the diagram and was captured, drawn neatly into his sea of consciousness. Once inside, it melted seamlessly into him, never to escape again.
In that moment, a piercing sword-cry rang out within his mind. His consciousness overloaded, drowned beneath the flood of information, and went still.
With his last scrap of clarity, he summoned the Qingping Sword Casket, swallowing up all the Pure Yang sword aura fragments that had been circling him.
Then he sat cross-legged before the Sword Diagram, silent as stone, the Three-Life Eye slowly closing.
Upon the Pure Yang Sword Diagram itself, beneath Shang Xi's Dao title, a new name suddenly appeared:
"Chixiao."
Three thousand years had passed, and at long last, Shang Xi had cultivated a disciple of the Chizi generation in Pure Yang Heaven, one who could engrave his Dao-title upon the Pure Yang Sword Diagram.
From this day forth, Jing Qian bore a new Dao-name: Chixiao. With this, he finally completed the initiation rites of Pure Yang Heaven.
Compared to three millennia ago, the process was pitifully simple, nearly all self-driven. Yet the resources Pure Yang Heaven allotted to him were by no means diminished.
On the contrary, being the sole successor aside from Shang Xi himself, Jing Qian enjoyed privileges that no disciple of the past had ever known. Within this cave-heaven, nearly everything was his to command or squander.
A day later, having fully digested the inheritance he had received, Jing Qian finally awoke.
Two full days of gazing at the Pure Yang Sword Diagram with the Three-Life Eye had cost him more than ten years of lifespan, but he had won the recognition of the Sumeru Dao Tablet, and with it, a genuine sword inheritance:
The Pure Yang Scripture of Refining Immortal Swords (Chunyang Lianxian Jiandao Shu).
This scripture contained countless methods of tempering Life Patterns and spiritual constructs, along with sword-nurturing and sword-wielding secret arts. But all of them converged toward one purpose
to refine a supreme sword, one perfectly matched to its master, a treasure of the second grade or beyond.
The Scripture of Refining Immortal Swords represented the highest limit of the Sword Diagram's power: the sole inheritance that revealed a glimpse of the realm above second rank.
After a day of careful study, Jing Qian had already grasped its basics.
This was a method he could begin practicing immediately, yet one profound enough to sustain him all the way through his cultivation to the second grade and beyond.
Without hesitation, he followed the scripture's instructions.
At once, strands of Dao-rhyme were drawn out from every one of his spiritual constructs: the Qingping Sword Casket, the Yanfu Heaven, the Xili Divine Seal, the Fate Locking Needle, even the Six-Path Reincarnation Three-Life Eye.
Each thread transformed into golden filament, weaving together within his sea of consciousness until they formed a tiny golden sword.
Then, from each of his Life Patterns, further threads extended, joining the weave, tightening and refining the little golden sword until it became whole.
Thus, a unique new spiritual construct took shape:
[Spiritual Construct: Immortal Sword Embryo]
Category: Root of Seeking the Self
Grade: Second Rank
Lifespan Burden: None
Jing Qian studied the sword embryo carefully, comparing it against the scripture's teachings.
Next, he tested it by unwinding the golden threads drawn from the Three-Life Eye. Instantly, the sword embryo's grade plummeted to the fifth rank, its power collapsing.
He unwound more threads, and its aura diminished step by step. Then he rewove them back in, and the sword embryo rose once more to second rank.
This scripture was unlike anything else capable of extracting every element of a cultivator's path, refining them into golden threads, and weaving them together into a sword.
The strength of that sword depended directly on the power woven into it.
For the weak, it would be no more than a trinket. For the strong, it could become a heaven-defying divine weapon.
Even without the Three-Life Eye, Jing Qian could weave a fifth-rank sword. But with it, the embryo surged straight into the second rank, its might exploding.
The price, however, was steep. To wield this sword embryo, one needed to expend at least a single strand of second-rank immortal essence, equal to one hundred thousand Azure Wing Life Essences.
Jing Qian emptied every resource he had, scraping together just over seven thousand. And yet, the gap did not feel insurmountable.
As long as he continued to advance, he would always have a sword at his side whose power far outstripped his peers.
The sword bore no burden on his lifespan, and it would grow as he grew. When he reached the second rank, it might even unify all his foundations and ascend to a level beyond.
This was indeed a treasure worthy of the Dao Tablet's approval, a first-class inheritance!
Its philosophy echoed that of the Sword Casket and the Golden Eye: inclusive, unifying, drawing all aspects of cultivation into harmony.
Every Life Pattern, every spiritual construct he strengthened would feed directly into the sword, making it stronger in turn.
It was, in truth, a self-growing divine weapon.
Jing Qian felt no regret for joining Pure Yang Heaven. In just a few short days, he had gained opportunities and treasures capable of reshaping his entire Dao-path.
He felt almost lightheaded, dizzy with fortune.
So this… this is the heritage of a true top-tier sect!
With a thought, the Immortal Sword Embryo sank into the Qingping Sword Casket, to be nourished by its sword aura.
Though he could not yet wield it, its presence within the casket still bolstered his fundamental sword aura immeasurably.
Since arriving at the sect's gates, his foundation had already doubled. He had gained a devastating divine eye and now a peerless sword. He could no longer even gauge his own strength.
He would need to calm himself and find a proper sparring target to test his newfound power.
Then his attention shifted to the second inheritance, born from the Pure Yang Sword Qi his Sword Casket had devoured.
This one, too, had been filtered by both the Sword Diagram and the Dao Tablet, leaving only what was most compatible with him:
The Carved Sword Array (Ke Jian Zhenfa).
This method allowed him to combine Life Patterns and spiritual constructs into various sword formations.
It too was a unifying path, integrating all his cultivation into greater killing strength.
Had he not obtained the Scripture of Refining Immortal Swords, this alone would have been a first-class inheritance.
But formations could never truly break past the second rank. Compared to the great sword, they were one step lower.
Still, what Jing Qian valued was not the array's raw might, but its compatibility with the Sword Casket.
The Carved Sword Array could be engraved into the casket itself, amplifying its power. The casket would serve as the formation's blueprint, making its deployment faster and its strikes deadlier.
From Life Pattern to sword casket, from sword arrays to the great sword, the entire system of Pure Yang sword cultivation was ingenious, harmonious, and deeply captivating.
Jing Qian was thoroughly satisfied. His new Dao-name, Chixiao, was well-earned.
Now, with no obstacles left in his path, he could finally unleash himself fully and attempt to ascend to his next realm!
Before the Pure Yang Sword Diagram, Jing Qian slowly opened his eyes. A razor-sharp gleam of sword qi shot forth from his gaze.
Then, at the center of his brow, the Three-Life Eye once again unfurled on this seventh day of opening, another seven years of lifespan burned away.
This day, he devoted entirely to deducing his Path of Dharma-Manifestation.
With both the Yanfu Dao and Pure Yang Heaven inheritances now in hand, countless secret methods and mysteries flowed directly into his heart.
In the span of a single day, he simulated two hundred and seventeen possible paths to form a Dharma-Manifestation. At last, he carved out the perfect route, one leading to a flawless Supreme Manifestation, the absolute limit of his current accumulation.
With the path confirmed, there was no longer any hesitation. He immediately began the process of ascension, following the course he had already seen through the eye of fate.
Now, as the temporary bearer of the Yanfu mantle, a half-step Pure Yang successor, the Lord of Sumeru, the True Saint, and the Great Daoist Chixiao, he was finally about to forge the very foundation of his Dao.
At the Eighth Rank [Dragon-Elephant Realm], cultivators must use their Life Patterns to condense a Dharma-Manifestation uniquely their own.
Even within the same lineage, two disciples with the same Life Patterns would end up with completely different Dharma-Manifestations.
The strength or weakness of this manifestation, whether it fully realizes one's innate potential, would profoundly shape all future cultivation.
That is why the Dharma-Manifestation was known as the very root of the Dao, the cornerstone of enlightenment.
...
The Dharma-Manifestations Jing Qian had encountered so far, such as the Soul-Weaving Spider Mother, the Snow Maiden, or the Zashiki-Warashi, were all lower-grade.
Even if such beings appeared in their true forms, they would barely reach the level of Star-Seizer and fall short of Heaven-Mending.
With such manifestations, one's path would at most peak at Star-Seizer. To reach even that was considered an outstanding fortune.
By contrast, mid-grade manifestations such as the Tamamo-no-Mae or the Divine Roc corresponded to true bodies of the Third Rank and above. Cultivators who condensed them were almost certain to step into Star-Seizer, and even had real hope of ascending to Heaven-Mending.
As for supreme-grade manifestations, the one Jing Qian remembered best was Luo Tian of the Furnace King Hall, who condensed the Furnace King Manifestation.
At that level, simply cultivating steadily was enough to virtually guarantee ascension into the upper three ranks.
A Dharma-Manifestation was the goal a cultivator set for their Dao, the grand vision of enlightenment. To the Buddhist sects, it was like making a Great Vow.
If one's goal was set too low, then one sealed one's own ceiling forever.
But to set it high, only a rare few could manage it.
In the Yingfu Realm, among all those who bound their Life Patterns to the Dao, only one in ten could even condense a Dharma-Manifestation at all.
Of those, over ninety percent formed only lower-grade Manifestations, effectively dooming their path.
Only the true disciples of the great lineages, inheritors of core teachings, had the qualifications to condense mid-grade or above.
And as for those like the Pure Yang Heir, the Yanfu Heir, or the Scion of the Ying Clan peerless prodigies who dominated the realm, what they pursued was naturally nothing less than the perfect, supreme Dharma-Manifestation.
Jing Qian had waited so long at this gate. If he failed to attain perfection, it would be a waste of his entire life. He might as well send the Sumeru Dao Tablet back to Earth and let another try.
But after a full day of deductions with the Three-Life Eye, he was utterly confident.
From his brow, the divine eye stretched out threads of causality, Entwining Karma and Effect, magnified through the eye's divine might.
One strand in particular extended from Good Corn of the Void World, reaching into the endless void.
Following this thread of causality, Jing Qian's sight leapt across barriers of space-time, from the Northern Heavens to the Western Heavens, until it fell upon his chosen target.
There, within a Buddhist realm, sat a one-eyed figure upon the corpse of a Tathāgata, idly turning a golden Buddha's eye in his hand.
Beside him, True Corn spread countless roots like a net, conducting a methodical sweep. Whatever it found, it devoured life, resources, all of it.
Suddenly, both the seated Eyeless One and the working True Corn turned their gazes upon a patch of empty ground.
A causal thread had appeared, knotting into a small bundle before shaping itself into a puppet with three eyes.
This puppet moved as if alive. Bowing with perfect formality, it addressed the two Second-Rank beings:
"Disciple Jing Qian, intruding from within the realm. I come seeking instruction from the honored ancestors. Please forgive my presumption."
When it finished speaking, the puppet fell silent, only lifting its head to meet the gaze of the Eyeless One. For a moment, the air thickened with tension as four eyes locked.
The Eyeless One examined him with his brow-eye, ignoring the words entirely. Instead, he drew a long rectangular jade box from his robes and said:
"So… you've forged a Pure Yang Golden Eye. Not bad at all. Quite flavorful."
"I happen to have here a casket of eyes, most of them of the Second Rank."
"Choose a few. In return, hand me the eye you've just refined."
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