"No!"
Xiaoqi seemed to see right through what he was thinking and let out a light snort. "The Path of the Path-Seeker is fraught with thorns. For a Path-Seeker of any clan, achieving the Path is never an easy task."
Lin Hao said, "Alright, alright, alright... Then what kind of heritage can we Path-Seekers of the Rakshasa God Clan obtain?"
In the mirror, Xiaoqi pointed backward. "See those divine weapons and precious blades? That is the heritage of the Rakshasa God. The deeper the divine weapon, the more terrifying its power. Furthermore, once you acquire any divine weapon, you also obtain a cultivation manual or martial art, allowing you to surpass other prodigies on your path of cultivation and leave them all far behind."
"However!"
Here, Xiaoqi changed her tune, a hint of warning laced in her words. "The deeper you go, the harder it is to enter. Trying to force your way through will only reduce you to ashes and dust."
Lin Hao: "......"
"I knew it wouldn't be that simple."
Xiaoqi said, "Given your current cultivation and state of mind, if you ask me, you can only take that sword of the Path-Seeker. As for the rest, you'll just have to wait until you get stronger."
Lin Hao: "The sword of the Path-Seeker?"
Xiaoqi nodded. "That wooden sword right there."
Lin Hao: "......"
You're fobbing me off with a beat-up wooden sword, and then expecting me to evade the pursuit of the Asura God Clan's Path-Seekers?
Isn't this a bit too unfair?!
No wonder the Rakshasa God Clan only has seven Path-Seekers left.
"Forget it, I have already reached the realm of swordless-ness. Weapons are no longer what I depend on."
"Still, the cultivation manual and martial art are worth looking forward to."
Lin Hao walked straight toward the wooden sword standing upright in the ice.
Yet he had barely taken a few steps when his expression changed drastically.
The spatial gravity right before him was pressing down so hard that the skin on his body felt as though it was about to split open.
Moreover, with every single step forward, this spatial pressure multiplied...
Now he finally understood what Xiaoqi's warning meant.
Seeing that all of Lin Hao's robes had been shredded, every inch of his flesh beginning to crack and bleed, yet he still forged ahead toward the sword of the Path-Seeker with unyielding resilience, Xiaoqi kindly reminded him, "The notion that the swordless state surpasses having a sword is merely the ignorant view of mortals. Therefore, mortals remain mortals after all."
This!
Lin Hao stiffened and looked back in utter disbelief.
The idea that the swordless state surpasses having a sword came from the depths of his memories, a teaching of the Upper Realm.
Are everyone in the Upper Realm mortals?
Then where are the extraordinary ones...
Xiaoqi's words were truly abstruse and difficult to comprehend, but Lin Hao could not afford to worry about that now.
He was burning with impatience to obtain the heritage of that sword of the Path-Seeker.
The sword itself didn't matter.
It was primarily the cultivation manual or martial art within it; as the heritage of the Rakshasa God, he believed it would surely bring him no small surprise.
***
In the outside world, heaven and earth were as still as a painting, and even that huge energy sphere was frozen right in front of Lin Hao.
It was as if some mysterious law had suddenly descended upon this realm, bringing everything between heaven and earth to a complete standstill.
Even time had stopped flowing.
This calm, eerie atmosphere lasted for who knows how long before things suddenly returned to normal.
The expressions of terror on people's faces began to shift once more.
Tang Chen, Old Ghost, and the Mei Shiyun sisters were all waiting to watch Lin Hao's demise.
In a single instant!
A wooden sword inexplicably appeared in Lin Hao's hand!
As he executed a lightning-fast sword strike...
A colorless sword intent abruptly slashed across the firmament!
The seemingly world-destroying energy sphere was instantly cleaved in two!!!
Accompanied by the two halves of the energy sphere collapsing outward like foam and gradually dissolving into spiritual light and dust until they vanished, the onlookers were left utterly dumbfounded.
The scene fell into a dead silence.
A terrifying silence.
A moment later, Old Ghost practically bristled with fright, letting out a startled cry, "He! He, he, he..."
"He just—just cleaved it open like that???"
Tang Chen's teeth were chattering as he stared fixedly in the direction of Lin Hao, as if he were looking at something utterly unthinkable.
So this was the peerless prodigy of the Northern Wasteland.
Why hadn't that stupid woman Mei Shiyun ever told him before that Lin Hao was this terrifying?
What Lin Hao held in his hand was nothing more than a wooden sword.
Clearly not some divine weapon or sharp blade.
Yet he had used a mere wooden sword to cleave apart Old Ghost's strongest strike delivered with all his might. Who would dare believe such a thing if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes?!
"So this is the sword of the Path-Seeker."
Grasping the wooden sword in his hand, Lin Hao waved it through the air a couple of times.
The balance felt good.
True to being the sword of the Path-Seeker.
Faced with the gazes cast upon him from all around, Lin Hao sneered and suddenly raised the sword of the Path-Seeker high above his head.
At this moment.
His body seemed to merge completely with the sword.
The sword was the person...
The person was the sword!
"Look at that, what is it!"
Someone below shrieked in alarm.
Across the vast expanse of heaven and earth, dense layers of sword shadows covered the entire sky.
Billions of sword shadows, resembling a sea of stars, gleamed brilliantly in the direct sunlight, breathtakingly magnificent.
With a scene of utter shock, they cleaved apart the distance between heaven and earth!
Giving birth to an entirely new scenery!
Mei Shiyun's mouth hung half open, too stunned to utter a single word.
This bastard Lin Hao.
Just how many secrets were still hidden inside him...
***
Lin Hao raised his eyes indifferently, like a deity pronouncing judgment upon Old Ghost: "Gentlemen, listen to the sword singing!"
It startled Old Ghost so much that he couldn't help shivering.
In an instant, billions of sword cries resounded across the sky!
The piercing sound nearly frightened the wits out of everyone, including Old Ghost, who instinctively clutched his ears in agony.
That wrinkled, profoundly suffering old face grew paler by the second.
"What is this!"
"I can't take it!"
"How can there be such a terrifying sword art in this world!"
"I feel like my ears are going to burst. Stop, stop right now! Help us, please!!!"
On the plaza, people rolled back and forth on the ground, suffering excruciating agony.
Men and women collided into a chaotic tangle.
The scene was absolute utter chaos.
Yet Ye Ling gradually grew accustomed to the sound of the sword cries. Standing alone amidst the chaotic crowd, she saw that even her father had dropped to his knees, and hurried over to support him.
Suddenly!
Those dense sword shadows, numbering like a sea of stars, began to surge in the same direction like a rushing tide.
Before long, they condensed into a towering phantom of a giant sword standing ten thousand zhang tall, carrying an ancient and mysterious aura as it abruptly appeared within everyone's line of sight.
This colossal sword phantom possessed a vast sword momentum that exerted pressure over heaven and earth!
A rolling wave of sword intent swept outward, making life miserable for everyone present!
"Go."
As Lin Hao pointed the wooden sword in his hand toward Old Ghost.
That giant sword phantom transformed into a streak of azure light with a "whoosh," piercing right through heaven and earth.
With a soft "puff," it completely blasted Old Ghost's figure into powder!
"No—"
Seeing even Old Ghost struck down and killed, Tang Chen clutched his head in despair and dropped to his knees in mid-air.
This sword strike was too fast!
So fast that Old Ghost hadn't even been able to make the slightest reaction throughout the entire process!
As an azure lotus slowly blossomed from the deep mountains where the sword Qi had landed, Lin Hao casually stowed his sword back at his waist, his handsome and extraordinary face also revealing a hint of satisfaction.
One sword opens the heavens, the azure lotus blooms.
This was the terrifying sword art he had obtained within the sword of the Path-Seeker.
The Azure! Lotus! Sword! Art!
***
"My, my two guardians..."
"Both dead?"
"Heh, heh-heh-heh, I must be dreaming. Right, this is a dream, it has to be a dream..."
Acting like a fool, Tang Chen gave himself a slap across the face with a loud smack.
It hurt...
Not a dream?!
Then just what kind of background does Lin Hao have anyway?!