In the end, the human and the beast stopped at the same time. The majestic spiritual energy instantly dissipated with a loud boom, and the water and shattered ice blanketing the sky fell back into the pool together. The entire world finally returned to tranquility.
Deep within the clouds, those vertical pupils had been staring intently at Ye Ling. Seeing that the sparring had ended, the figure concealed its presence and silently retreated into the depths of the distant mountains. From beginning to end, no one knew that a third party had been watching the battle.
By the edge of the pool, Ye Ling stepped back slightly and sat down cross-legged. Her face was slightly pale, and her aura was somewhat unstable.
Sword Controlling Ten Thousand Waters could manifest hundreds of flowing water swords, and its power was unparalleled. However, the spiritual energy it consumed was far greater than that of Sword Blanketing a Thousand Mountains. A brief clash had drained more than half of the spiritual energy in her body.
Before Ye Ling could finish adjusting her breathing, the praise of the Lantern-Bone Giant Fish rang out from the center of the pool, its voice filled with shock.
“Ye Ling, your Sword Controlling Ten Thousand Waters stance is truly exquisite, exquisite to the absolute limit!”
“I never expected that after only sparring with me a few times, you would actually comprehend a water-attribute sword stance unique to yourself.”
“These hundreds of flowing water swords are condensed and solid. With your Sword Force attached, their sharpness even surpasses the ice blades I condensed with my demonic energy.”
“To comprehend a new sword stance from scratch in less than a month... your sword Dao talent is truly terrifying.”
Changing the subject, the giant fish grew puzzled and could not help but ask, “There is just one thing I do not understand. Since you can control ten thousand waters to forge swords, why not condense the water into ice and use ice swords to face your enemies?”
“If they were ice swords, their destructive power would only be stronger.”
Hearing this, Ye Ling sighed softly. A hint of helplessness appeared on her face as she spoke slowly. “Senior Giant Fish, I also want to condense them into ice swords. It is just that my current understanding of the Dao of water is still shallow. I can only manipulate flowing water to take shape, and have not yet comprehended the method to control water and freeze it into ice.”
The Lantern-Bone Giant Fish slowly nodded its massive head. It realized that it had been too impatient just now.
Ye Ling had only comprehended this sword stance yesterday. To be able to achieve this level was already earth-shattering. Expecting her to freeze the water into ice was indeed asking too much.
It looked at the slightly breathless young girl on the shore and sighed with genuine admiration. “No matter. Your comprehension is extraordinary. You only need to settle down and polish it more. In the future, you will surely perfect this move and evolve it into a cold ice sword flow, and its power will definitely reach the next level.”
Ye Ling nodded slightly. After a moment of adjusting her breathing, her condition improved significantly, and she took the initiative to bid farewell. “Senior Giant Fish, the Qingyun Grand Tournament is approaching. Today, I officially bid you farewell.”
“Thank you, Senior, for your assistance in sparring with me throughout this secret realm training.”
“If not for you repeatedly sparring with me with all your strength to hone my skills, I would never have been able to break through to the water-attribute sword Dao, let alone comprehend my self-created sword stance, Sword Controlling Ten Thousand Waters.”
The Lantern-Bone Giant Fish gently swung its massive tail on the water's surface, rippling outward in fine layers. Its tone was free and easy, yet filled with sighing emotion. “It is fine, it is fine.”
“To witness the rise of a monstrous genius like you with my own eyes, and to be able to help even a little, is already a blessing for this seat.”
With a hearty laugh, it joked, “In the future, when your name spreads across the Eastern Territory and resounds throughout the entire cultivation world, this seat will also have a past to brag about. After all, I personally sparred with a future sword Dao giant.”
“Hahaha!” Thinking of this, the Lantern-Bone Giant Fish could not help but laugh heartily.
Ye Ling raised her eyes, her gaze firm as she said solemnly, “There will be such a day.”
“Then I shall take my leave now, Senior Giant Fish.”
As her voice fell, she said no more. Her figure suddenly leapt up lightly, transforming into a sharp, dust-transcending green sword glow that sped away, vanishing into the edge of the mountain forest in the blink of an eye.
Above the pool, the smile on the Lantern-Bone Giant Fish's face slowly faded.
Its pair of massive, lantern-like eyes quietly gazed in the direction of Ye Ling's departure, the depths of its eyes filled with profound emotion.
The talent of human cultivators was already naturally endowed and far exceeded that of ordinary demon beasts. Yet, Ye Ling's aptitude was a top-tier monstrosity, one in ten thousand even among the human race where geniuses emerged in multitudes.
Although it had only joked casually just now, deep down, it had already made up its mind.
In the future, this girl would surely ascend to the Eastern Territory and become famous throughout the world. This was by no means an exaggeration!
The thought flashed by, and a long-lost sense of joy and relaxation instantly surged in the Lantern-Bone Giant Fish's heart.
After enduring for so many days, being dragged to spar by Ye Ling every single day, now that Ye Ling was gone, it could finally sleep a peaceful, deep sleep!
It did not even bother to tidy up the messy battlefield on the shore. With a slight swing of its massive body, it dove straight into the deep, dark bottom of the pool with a whoosh.
On the other side, Ye Ling, who was speeding through the mountain forest, was in no hurry to leave the Bailing Secret Realm.
Days of high-intensity sparring with the Lantern-Bone Giant Fish and the insights from creating her own sword techniques twice had already brought her cultivation accumulation to a critical point.
She could clearly sense that the spiritual energy in her dantian was dense and abundant. She was only one final step away from the late-stage Xiantian Realm and could break through at any moment.
Soon, Ye Ling returned to the secluded cliff cave where she had previously secluded herself. She set up a simple formation to isolate her aura and sat down cross-legged.
She raised her hand to brush open her storage bag, her gaze sweeping over it.
The hundreds of mid-grade spirit stones she had when she first entered the secret realm were now down to less than two hundred after her days of high-intensity cultivation.
The spiritual energy of mid-grade spirit stones was pure and majestic, far incomparable to the miscellaneous spiritual energy drifting in the world. Absorbing it for cultivation yielded twice the result with half the effort, and her progress could be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.
However, the drawback was also extremely obvious: the consumption rate was terrifyingly fast.
Ye Ling knew in her heart that the remaining mid-grade spirit stones in her hands were limited, and she could not afford to squander them for long.
Having experienced the cultivation speed of mid-grade spirit stones, Ye Ling no longer wanted to cultivate with low-grade spirit stones. She would have to look for more mid-grade spirit stones later.
Suppressing the stray thoughts in her mind, Ye Ling spread her palm and held several warm, translucent mid-grade spirit stones.
The cold stones pressed against the skin of her palm, and pure, majestic spiritual energy surged out continuously in thin threads along her palm meridians, flowing gently yet overbearingly into her limbs, bones, dantian, and meridians.
The Qinglan Sword Canon quietly circulated through her body, repeatedly refining, purifying, and digesting the massive amount of spiritual energy from the spirit stones.
During this secret realm training, Ye Ling had not neglected her cultivation method either. She had already cultivated it to the seventh layer. Her spiritual energy was even more pure, and her spiritual energy reserves were increasingly abundant.
The pure and majestic spiritual energy flowed continuously along her meridians into her dantian. Under Ye Ling's deliberate guidance, it transformed into streams of clear, warm spiritual currents, flowing and surging along the pathways of her dantian.
Previously, her mid-stage Xiantian Realm dantian spiritual energy was merely a thin, long stream of limited volume.
But as pure spiritual energy was continuously poured in and accumulated layer by layer, this spiritual stream expanded and widened at every moment.
The surface of the stream constantly stretched, and the originally thin and fragile spiritual flow was rapidly growing stronger, washing through her entire body's meridians.
The accumulation built up over time exploded completely. The spiritual stream was no longer cramped and narrow, expanding wantonly, and finally transforming into a wide, abundant small river of spiritual energy, taking residence in the depths of her dantian.
Like water flowing where a channel is formed, Ye Ling successfully broke through to the late-stage Xiantian Realm.
Within her dantian, the wide river of spiritual energy became increasingly stable and vast, its waters filling her entire sea of qi.
Every thread of spiritual energy had been refined by the Qinglan Sword Canon, pure, condensed, and full of deep foundation.
Having successfully broke through to the late-stage Xiantian Realm, Ye Ling was in no hurry to end her seclusion. Instead, she sat quietly and cross-legged in the cliff cave.
Spending more than half an hour carefully sorting through her body's spiritual energy, she stabilized her newly broken-through realm.
Even though she had stepped into the late-stage Xiantian Realm, she still did not dare to slacken.
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