Chapter 4 Ji Ning's Path of the Sword

Ji Ning quickly said, “I ask the two seniors to help me, tell my follower Su Youji not to worry, and to wait for me in peace.”

“Alright, leave it to me.” The formation-spirit girl smiled. “Just watch here. When you want to leave the Ten Thousand Gods Palace, tell me, and I’ll teleport you and Su Youji out together. By the way, that World God of the Boundless Dragon is also with you, right? If he goes out alone, he might also be ambushed.”

“Mm.” Ji Ning nodded. “After Su Youji and I have been out for ten years, let the World God of the Boundless Dragon go out.”

He himself would definitely wait until he became a World-level cultivator before going out. By then, even if the World God of the Boundless Dragon went with him, he wouldn’t be of much help.

After giving his instructions, Ji Ning walked toward the walls of the great hall. On the walls were enormous carvings, each depicting a different cultivator.

“Truly wondrous.” Ji Ning marveled as he looked.

“This carving art is inconceivable.”

Each carving had a unique aura of the sword, completely different from the others.

It was like the ‘Fire-attribute Statue’ he had obtained earlier. That statue contained eight different concepts and even a powerful technique. These five thousand-plus carvings each contained a sword-intent, though without any explicit technique. But to a sword expert like Ji Ning, every stroke on those giant carvings was a sword technique.

“Violent, domineering.”

Ji Ning looked at a carving before him. This carving was likely formed from tens of thousands of strokes, some crude at first but gradually becoming profound. It was clearly the process of the Ten Thousand Gods Daoist observing cultivators’ sword techniques, a continuous process of learning and comprehension.

“Icy.”

“Ethereal.”

“Strange.”

“Shadowy.”

Ji Ning looked at the carvings around him. Each carving’s sword technique gave a different feeling.

Ji Ning did not rush to comprehend. Instead, he walked step by step, carefully observing.

This was an ocean of sword techniques!

Each statue was a unique sword technique, and every single one was extremely profound. Ji Ning had a keen eye—these five thousand-plus sword techniques had all reached the ‘World-level Perfection’ stage of the sword. The reason the Ten Thousand Gods Daoist had spent several chaos cycles was mainly because finding over five thousand cultivators who had reached World-level Perfection in the sword took a long time. When he found the five-thousand-somethingth, he himself broke through in the sword, reaching the ‘Daolord of Life and Death’ level. If he hadn’t broken through, he would have continued searching.

Once he broke through and found his own path, he understood roughly how far he could go in the sword.

…

Outside the Ten Thousand Gods Palace.

High in the sky, three figures sat cross-legged on clouds, their divine senses completely covering this chaos world. Even a bug entering would not escape their detection.

These three were the blood-robed youth A Loyi, the bone-armored World God, and the golden-robed Fu Kai.

They had arrived early outside the Ten Thousand Gods Palace. When they first met, Fu Kai wanted to fight A Loyi, but A Loyi cursed, “Idiot, I came out before you. If I had the Eternal Divine Blood, would I be waiting here? I would have left long ago. I didn’t get it. If you don’t believe me, I’ll swear a lifeblood oath, alright?”

A Loyi also took a step back because he needed Fu Kai’s strength.

“That monstrous Ancestral God got the Eternal Divine Blood. If he’s careful enough, he might stay in the Ten Thousand Gods Palace and cultivate until he becomes a World-level cultivator before coming out.”

“His strength before could rival a World-level Perfection cultivator. Once he breaks through to World-level, his power might be comparable to mine. Then, Fu Kai, you and I will need to join forces to suppress him.”

“Don’t worry, A Loyi. If we don’t get the Eternal Divine Blood, we all die. And you’re overestimating that monstrous Ancestral God. Even if he becomes a World-level cultivator, his sword technique is far inferior to yours. Even with heaven-defying divine abilities and secret arts, I guess he’ll at most reach the peak of World Gods.”

“Don’t underestimate him. We can’t afford to lose.”

“Mm.”

The three sat cross-legged in the sky, maintaining their divine sense detection at all times.

After becoming a World God, the soul and divine power combine, and the detection wave is called ‘divine sense’. For chaos immortals, it’s called ‘immortal sense’. The difference is not great. Relatively speaking, if one’s heartforce breaks through to the sixth level, heartforce detection is truly formidable and impossible to guard against. These three were all powerful. The Dao Ancestors of the Three Realms could scan the entire Three Realms with a thought, so these three World Gods could easily scan an entire world. They even solidified the space around the Ten Thousand Gods Palace, preventing spatial teleportation.

“As long as he comes out, he dies!” A Loyi’s eyes were filled with an endless sea of blood.

“Kill.” Fu Kai’s face was also icy.

If Ji Ning didn’t die,

they would die! They had no choice!

…

Days passed, but Ji Ning never came out. The three waited like the most patient hunters, neither anxious nor impatient.

…

Inside the palace, in the Sword Hall.

Ji Ning walked slowly, observing the statues one by one.

Over five thousand sword techniques.

Sword techniques of different cultivators!

Ji Ning was dazzled, as if wandering in an ocean of swords. It was overwhelming. He had seen many sword techniques created by the World God Beixiu before, but none had been as stunning as this.

Because one cultivator creating multiple sword techniques

was completely different from over five thousand cultivators creating over five thousand different sword techniques.

A single cultivator’s understanding of the Dao was fixed; his self-created sword techniques ultimately belonged to one series. But over five thousand cultivators were completely different—different experiences, different thoughts, different sword techniques. That was true inclusiveness.

“A long, long time ago…”

“There was no such weapon as the sword. A living being invented the weapon ‘sword’.”

“Gradually, some mysteries of using the sword emerged.”

“Gradually, various sword techniques began to form, some even worthy of being called ‘Sword Dao’…”

“Countless years passed, countless cultivators across endless territories, generation after generation of inheritance. The Sword Dao grew more and more vast. One Daolord of Life and Death after another found their own path, and even in the depths of the endless chaos, a ‘Sword Source’ appeared.”

“But in the end, everything originated from that seemingly ordinary weapon—the sword.”

Ever since Ji Ning’s perspective changed,

the world of the sword before him had also changed.

In these five thousand-plus sword techniques, Ji Ning saw the development process of different sword techniques, all evolving from simple to profound.

The strokes left by the Ten Thousand Gods Daoist in his carvings happened to be the process of his learning the sword, from crude to profound, making it easier for Ji Ning to analyze.

“So the tip of the sword can be used like this. My ‘Blood Drop Style’ can have so many more variations.”

“So my ‘Shadowless Style’ is still not shadowless enough. This is true shadowlessness.”

Ji Ning observed one sword technique after another.

As the saying goes, mastery lies in specialization. Some sword techniques had indeed reached the extreme in certain aspects, beyond Ji Ning’s imagination. His Blood Drop Style was already extremely fierce and sinister, but among these five thousand-plus sword techniques, he saw at least a hundred that were like meteors from beyond the heavens, truly stunning.

…

Analyzing each sword technique from its roots, Ji Ning’s understanding of the sword soared. The bottleneck that had trapped him in the third stance of the Nameless Sword Technique—the ‘Luo Heaven Style’—naturally broke as his sword cultivation greatly improved. He could completely break through to the World level.

But Ji Ning did not!

Because he was now immersed in the ocean of swords and did not want to be distracted.

Analyzing one sword technique after another.

In Ji Ning’s mind, a great tree gradually took shape—the ‘essence of the sword’. This tree began to have over five thousand branches, each representing a sword technique.

As Ji Ning comprehended, some branches began to merge, growing on the same trunk.

…

This was an extremely rare opportunity.

For Ji Ning, it was even more valuable than the Eternal Divine Blood. The Eternal Divine Blood was ultimately an external force. But these five thousand-plus statues, especially the crude strokes on them—because the Ten Thousand Gods Daoist was just learning those sword techniques, they were simple, and simplicity made it easier for Ji Ning to analyze. If they were all profound, he wouldn’t be able to analyze them at all.

The great tree of ‘Sword Dao’ in Ji Ning’s mind grew more robust. Gradually, more and more branches converged onto a single trunk. The number of branches on this Sword Dao tree decreased, from hundreds to a hundred, then to dozens…

Ji Ning’s sword cultivation unknowingly and continuously improved.

…

…