Chapter 3: Swordsmanship Bottleneck

  The weather is getting hotter now, but Mingyuetan remains calm and peaceful. The gentle breeze blows across the lake, creating ripples on its surface.

  But on the water surface where the waterfall fell, it was a splash of water flowers, white and foamy bubbles surging up. On the originally smooth and hard black stone under the waterfall, which had been polished for countless years, a boy with an upright body sat quietly.

  His body had no aura at all, as if he was a stone statue that had been sitting for many years, allowing the nearly hundred-meter-high waterfall to wash and strike him without any movement.

  In front of the massive black stone, a nearly six-foot-long deep blue giant sword was quietly inserted into the pool water, with only two feet above the hilt exposed. On this sword, silver-white light spots appeared and disappeared from time to time, causing the aura on the body of the great sword to undergo a change that was difficult for people to understand.

  Recite

  Suddenly, this big sword suddenly emitted a burst of sword hum, and the entire sword body inserted in the pool bottom violently trembled.

  Sigh——

  Almost at the same time, the boy sitting on the disc and the great sword moved simultaneously. One of them grabbed the bouncing great sword in his hand, and the boy's feet tapped urgently on the surface of the pond. With each step, his footprints sank into the surface of the pond by an inch or so. Then a flash of blue-purple light flickered, and the boy suddenly flew up several meters high, as if he were a spider treading water. The boy's entire body transformed into a series of residual shadows that jumped and fell onto the empty ground at the edge of the pond.

  With a swift backflip and one step, he stamped out a clear footprint on the hard bluestone ground, and an overwhelmingly powerful aura suddenly rose from the young man's body.

  Woooo...

  A circle of dust waves spread out around him, leaving the clear and visible stone texture on the bluestone ground beneath his feet. The youth's aura continued to rise, his cyan-gray martial attire gradually billowing up, his shoulder-length black hair automatically fluttering without wind, that large sword held high aloft, while the youth's two feet slightly shifted into an irregular eight-trigram shape, his hands grasping the hilt thick and powerful.

  A streak of purple light brewed in the boy's eyes, and suddenly a layer of sharp purple sword energy burst forth from his hands. The sword energy was entwined with threads of tiny purple lightning, and the air around it churned violently, emitting a loud whooshing sound. As the boy's gaze intensified, the dense sword energy on his hands continued to surge towards the great sword.

  Hmph!

  On the tip of the great sword, an eight-foot-long purple-blue sword energy extended, and at the same time, the entire body of the great sword was wrapped in a swirling purple-blue sword energy. Amazingly, it quickly condensed into an eight-foot-long lightning-shaped slash, with the hilt as its axis, in the boy's hand, as if what he was holding was not a great sword, but a thunderbolt that rewards good and punishes evil. Around the lightning-shaped sword energy, purple electricity crackled, and the whirlwind transformed into a sharp green dragon vortex wrapped around the sword energy.

  His eyes suddenly opened wide, at this moment, the aura on the young man's body reached its peak, and the bluestone ground within a few feet around him instantly cracked and shattered, with fragments of stone floating up, his gaze fixed on the black stone in the pond, the young man's great sword slowly chopped down.

  Although it was a slow slash, the gaze saw a clear and lingering afterimage. This large sword that looked incredibly heavy seemed to be as light as nothing in the young man's hand, swinging freely.

  Boom!

  A dark purple lightning sword energy burst out, splitting the pool water into a ten-zhang gorge. The sand and rocks at the bottom of the pool were clearly visible, while along this gorge, swirling purple electricity and cyan dragon whirlwind sword energy fiercely chopped onto the black stone.

  Hūn

  Shattered stones flew everywhere, in an instant, a stone cave of several inches deep and tens of centimeters wide opened up on the black rock in front of the young man. At the same time, the residual waves of sword energy stirred up a circle of white waves several meters high around the surrounding pond.

  Then, almost in an instant, the giant sword in the young man's hand condensed into a massive lightning bolt once again. This time, he didn't shatter the air with his sword energy, but instead wielded this gigantic sword energy lightning to perform his sword technique. The fragmented rocks on the ground were swept up by the sword energy as the young man's shadow continuously shifted positions within the thirty-odd square meters of bluestone floor.

  Whether it was the mountain rocks or the surrounding trees, as long as they were swept by the lightning condensed in the boy's hands, they all shattered and opened up, leaving behind a deep gully on the ground, and even the felled trees ignited into a raging red fire, with waves of black smoke swirling upwards.

  After the fragrance of incense, the young man's figure stopped at the edge of the pool, the sword energy on the big sword dissipated, looking at the fiercely burning tree on one side, the young man was not worried at all. The big sword quickly inserted into the pool water, and a strong aura suddenly emanated from his body. His foot stepped heavily on the ground, and the entire earth suddenly emitted a dull roar. The hand holding the big sword turned upside down and swept upwards, instantly stirring up a wide stream of water, pouring it onto the burning tree trunk.

  Hiss——

  A large cluster of white water vapor rose, and the flames were extinguished in an instant. The water vapor continued to rise until it reached a height similar to that of a waterfall, where it was blown away by the mountain wind, leaving behind only charred wood fragments that still crackled with residual sounds.

  The young man quietly looked at everything in front of him, his expression calm and without a ripple.

  This young man was Lu Qing, who had been contemplating the Purple Thunder Sword by the Bright Moon Lake for eight days. After these eight days, he finally grasped the sixth form of the Purple Thunder Sword, which was equivalent to his original Thirty-six Grand Slams. However, the difficulty of practicing and displaying this transformed sword technique was much greater. Lu Qing now had confidence in displaying the Thirty-six Grand Slams up to the tenth slam, but the transformed Purple Thunder Sword could only be displayed up to the sixth form, that is, the Wind and Thunder Slash he just displayed.

  From the seventh move onwards, he always felt that there was something missing in his understanding, and when he practiced, his energy and blood surged, his sword moves were chaotic, and even his body was almost injured. It has been four days now, and he hasn't rested for four days and four nights, only eating a few snow fish when he was tired, then meditating for a moment before continuing to contemplate.

  However, as time passed and no results appeared, his understanding was still stuck in the same state as four days ago without any progress. Moreover, due to the prolonged lack of results, his mental energy consumption was also very large. After all, he had not yet reached the Sword Soul Realm, nor did he have the extraordinary endurance of a sword master who could abstain from worldly desires and sleep for days and nights.

  Although the Lianhun Jue was constantly rotating, the huge consumption of heart power over the past four days was not something that the Lianhun Jue could make up for. Lu Qing also tried to ask Ye Lao, but he didn't get any response. The Ye Lao in the Lianxin Sword seemed to have disappeared, and if it weren't for the fact that he could still feel the aura of the Tuxing Stone being absorbed into the sword, he would have thought that Ye Lao was already gone.

  Looking at the calm surface of the pond in front of him and the turbulent waterfalls below, Lu Qing smiled wryly. Yes, he might be too reliant on Ye Lao. Although he hadn't spent much time with Ye Lao, Ye Lao's strength and mysteriousness had made him unconsciously think of seeking help when faced with difficulties. In his mind, it seemed that there was nothing that Ye Lao couldn't handle even until now.

  So many times, he has already forgotten to rely on his own thinking, although he also works hard, but it is only a simple physical one.

  It seems that it's time for him to change, Lu Qing thought to himself. Ye Lao won't be following him his whole life, he believed that Ye Lao would definitely find a way to recover his physical body, of course, this was also what he hoped for, if everything had to be asked for help with, then the meaning of struggling would be lost.

  A swordsman seeks his way on the path of swordsmanship, relying only on himself; others' paths may not necessarily be suitable.

  At this moment, Lu Qing seemed to understand something. His originally tense heart suddenly relaxed and he sat down on the spot, without even circulating his sword energy or practicing meditation, simply sitting there in stillness.

  The next morning, Lu Qing opened his eyes and after a night's rest, he finally recovered from the mental exhaustion. He felt much lighter than before, stood up, and prepared to go to the second floor of the library to browse through some sword manuals to see if he could gain any insight. He remembered what Yu Jihua had said: "When one is impoverished, change occurs; when change occurs, there is connection; when there is connection, there is longevity." Perhaps this would allow him to find a thread of enlightenment.

  Back at the Chaoyang Palace, it was now time for morning practice. As a guardian, he no longer needed to participate in morning exercises. Watching the inner sect disciples practicing the Chaoyang Seven Forms on the square, Lu Qing suddenly felt a faint sense of detachment. However, this feeling was quickly cast aside by him. With changes in cultivation and status, one would inevitably gain or lose something. Lu Qing believed he could hold onto his original heart.

  At this moment, there are not many inner sect disciples on the square, probably less than thirty people. The top twenty disciples have almost all not participated in morning practice, and several disciples who are close to the top twenty have also not arrived. It is clear that they are all currently conducting individual cultivation, either contemplating sword techniques or attempting a breakthrough in seclusion, because if there are no accidents, this time those who enter the Sword Pool will emerge from among them.

  After a brief pause, Lu Qing found that in the past half year, many people had made great progress. Compared to when he first arrived at Chaoyang Peak, many people here had made significant breakthroughs, and nearly ten people had broken through to the Heavenly Rank.

  It's no wonder that although Chaoyang Peak has few disciples, the master Xuan Qing Ning is strict and doesn't accept anyone casually. Although there are very few inner sect disciples, these fifty people are undoubtedly exceptional elite disciples, and they are on par with the top fifty disciples of the other four peaks.

  Everyone was so absorbed that no one noticed Lu Qing watching from a distance, and Lu Qing didn't intend to go forward to disturb them either. He bypassed the square and arrived at the library.