Ten days passed, and one hundred thousand skeletons were refined.
The Second Floor Sword Tower was complete. Just like six years ago when the first floor was built, the door to the Second Floor Sword Tower slowly opened.
Blood-red light leaked out, turning the world crimson.
Xu Xian did not hesitate and stepped into the Sword Tower.
Blood-red before his eyes. Darkness before his eyes. A flash of white light, and he had entered the sword pool.
Unlike his previous visit to the Divine Sword Pool, it was night, so the sky above the Divine Sword Pool was also dark.
The galaxy was brilliant, and the bright moon was sly.
Above the sword pool, eleven ancient swords stood quietly. Countless cold chains swayed in the wind, playing a unique tune of desolation.
Of the eleven swords, the second from the end vibrated faintly, surrounded by baleful qi.
Yellow Spring Burial, a sword of absolute slaughter.
The Little Book spirit urged from the side, "Master, pull it out quickly. I sense that something has happened in Demon-Slaying City."
Xu Xian glanced sideways, his brows furrowing slightly. He didn't ask further but stepped into the sword pool and gripped the sword.
At that moment, the chains across the pool rattled loudly as endless baleful qi flooded into his body.
Xu Xian's face contorted in pain as the world before him shifted.
The noise grew denser, louder than the clashing of cold iron. It was a world of dull grey—grey sky, grey earth, grey river, grey mountains...
Everything was grey.
Xu Xian seemed to be standing on a mountain peak, looking down at countless creatures fleeing in madness. They wailed, cried out, and sobbed in despair...
He saw a person, the only speck of dark red in that grey world.
He held a sword and was engaged in wanton slaughter.
He watched him swing the sword numbly; he watched creatures fall in swaths. Death surged endlessly in this place.
The scenes shifted, time accelerating—ten years in a breath, a hundred years in an instant, a thousand years in a blink. Xu Xian witnessed that man and sword slaughter an entire world.
The grey world turned into a land of death.
Only Xu Xian and the blood-soaked swordsman remained in the world.
The swordsman seemed to sense Xu Xian's gaze and slowly turned his head from the sea of blood and mountain of corpses. Blood-red eyes looked across space, and a chillingly eerie smile curved his lips. He was smiling at Xu Xian.
The youth's heart raced, his thoughts in chaos. At this moment, it felt as if he were being stared down by death itself.
In the next second, the swordsman slowly raised the sword to his neck and calmly slit his own throat.
Blood flowed out. He stood there with his sword, hot blood dripping from the blade. Then he closed his eyes, released the sword, and knelt. His body remained upright, but his head slumped, and the sword fell.
The world fell silent.
Then came spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Day, moon, stars, wind, flowers, snow.
A hundred years of growth and decay, a thousand years of cycles. Sand buried the bones, and time interred all. Between heaven and earth, only a rusted sword remained, lying quietly, corroded by wind and sand.
Time flew, and the world changed. Until one day, much later, a figure entered Xu Xian's vision.
He came from beyond the heavens; Xu Xian couldn't see his face. He knelt down and gripped the rusted sword.
Xu Xian heard Him say, "Slaughtering an entire realm, born from the death of your master... I shall call you... Yellow Spring Burial!"
The sword was named, and blood-qi permeated the world. Xu Xian snapped awake.
His fingers tightened, suddenly snapping all the chains.
Xu Xian pulled the sword out and sent the Yellow Spring Burial into the Sword Tower.
As the sword entered the tower, the sword intent fed back into the youth. His cultivation, which had stagnated for six years, was jolted.
Then, his energy surged like a rainbow, breaking shackles and filling chasms. His sea of qi expanded, his soul strengthened, and his cultivation increased.
Nascent soul middle stage...
nascent soul late stage...
nascent soul peak...
soul transformation early stage.
In a residence in Demon-Slaying City, Xu Xian, who had been sitting for fifteen days, opened his eyes. He felt the change in his cultivation and stared at his palms, momentarily dazed.
Outside, Wen Qingxue suddenly looked back. Her divine sense pierced through the doors and windows to land on Xu Xian. Her eyes were filled with disbelief, as if she had been frightened. The teacup in her hand slipped and shattered on the ground.
She muttered, "The... the sixth stage."
Because it wasn't peaceful outside Demon-Slaying City, her sense had been on him. She planned to take him away the moment he woke up. But in the time it took to lift a teacup, the youth had reached the sixth stage in a single breath.
Such a thing was unheard of.
She wondered if he practiced demonic techniques, but no matter how she racked her brain, she couldn't think of any technique that could be so fast.
Strange! Shocking! Illogical.
In the Wendao Sword Sect thousands of miles away, the Sword Mound reacted again after six years.
Another abrupt sword intent leaked from the Sky Gate of the Sword Mound.
It was autumn again. But this time, the intent wasn't crimson flames but a blood-colored surge that reached the sky, accompanied by endless baleful qi that swept through the peaks. Within the sword cry, the wails of ghosts and infants could faintly be heard.
This scene naturally attracted the disciples. They looked up in shock and fear.
The cold was biting, the baleful qi overwhelming. The blood-red sword intent felt like an ill omen. Unlike last time, everyone felt a sense of impending doom.
Coupled with the recent movements in the Demon Suppression Abyss and rumors of an auspicious beast, and since the sect's experts were away, the remaining weak disciples were overcome with panic.
"What's happening?"
"That blood-red sword qi has such heavy killing intent."
"What's with the baleful qi?"
"Six years ago, the crimson sword intent was called an auspicious sign. Is today's blood-red sword intent good or bad?"
"The auspicious beast has descended upon the East Desolation, and this blood-red sword intent comes from our Sword Mound. Does this mean our Wendao Sword Sect is about to face a disaster?"
"Don't talk nonsense. Rumors can be dangerous."
"But this..."
On the Ancestral Peak, the five Patriarchs were also startled. They didn't rush to the gate this time, knowing it was useless from past experience. However, the repeated reactions of the Sword Mound made them uneasy, especially with the beast in the Demon Suppression Abyss.
Yun Zheng gazed at the sky under the moon as the other four appeared behind him.
"Senior Brother!"
"Senior Brother..."
Yun Zheng looked back, his gaze slowly scanning them as he asked softly, "Why have you all come?"
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