Lin Yun and the others chatted briefly before they sat down and circulated their cultivation techniques. It had been two days since the outbreak of the beast tide. During this time, no one had rested well as they faced an endless slaughter.
Even Lin Yun was exhausted. It wasn’t physical exhaustion, but mental exhaustion. After all, no one could endure killing for so long.
The forest was quiet as Lin Yun sat on the ground with an Iris Flower blooming beneath him. Basking in the ancient aura, Lin Yun looked like a saint.
Long Hao secretly peeked at Lin Yun as he could see the runes on the petals glowing like fireflies. He was surprised because the glow around Lin Yun was a lot stronger than when he cultivated on top of the corpse pile, “He became stronger…”
Can someone really cultivate their sword intent through slaughter? How exactly did Lin Yun manage to do this? Long Hao was shocked inwardly as slaughter was normally used to temper one’s strength. How exactly could someone possibly temper their sword intent with slaughter?
If that was the case, then many people would have comprehended xiantian sword intent just by hunting demonic cultivators. Clearly, this was an impossible thing.
However, Lin Yun was training his heart and Long Hao could sense a peculiar aura on Lin Yun. Lin Yun was also training his ‘qi’ that was completely different from spiritual energy or origin energy. Like sword intent, it couldn’t be seen and one wouldn’t be able to notice it if their comprehension wasn’t high enough.
Lin Yun’s current state was similar to the great figures Long Hao had seen in the Sword Alliance. Thinking about that, Long Hao couldn’t help being startled by his own thoughts, “Could it be that he can really comprehend the spiritual sword intent?”
How is this possible? He had never heard of anyone grasping the spiritual sword intent before the Heavenly Soul Realm. So much so that the number of those grasping the spiritual sword intent could be counted with the fingers on one hand.
The sky lit up four hours later and everyone woke up with less exhaustion on their faces. However, there wasn’t much time, so they still hadn’t recovered to their top state.
As for Long Hao, he didn’t sleep at all and his state was the worst among the four of them.
Lin Yun slowly opened his eyes and a light flashed across his pupils. The bottleneck in his cultivation had loosened up and it seemed like he would be able to reach the greater Yin-Yang stage at any time. It was a surprise as he had just consolidated his cultivation at the lesser Yin-Yang stage not too long ago. He honestly didn’t expect that he would make a breakthrough again so quickly.
“Lin Yun, Feng Ye and I won’t be heading to Swordmire City. Let us meet again at the Great Qin Empire,” said Zuo Yun.
This was so sudden that Lin Yun said, “A beast tide of this scale is rare and it’s a huge opportunity for us. My bottleneck has loosened up in just two days. You can’t let such a good opportunity go.”
Upon hearing that, Zuo Yun and Feng Ye were both surprised, especially Feng Ye who looked at Lin Yun unnaturally. Long Hao didn’t have much change on his face as he wasn’t surprised. After all, Lin Yun had fought the Mountainshaking Demonic Ape.
On the other hand, Zuo Yun and Feng Ye could barely protect themselves in Inkwater City, not to mention Swordmire City. After all, they couldn’t depend on Lin Yun all the time.
Zuo Yun glared at Feng Ye and said, “No need.”
“That’s right. You don’t have to worry about us.” Feng Ye recovered and smiled, “We’ll wait for you at the Great Qin Empire. At that time, we’ll head to the Draconic Banquet together. I might be cannon fodder, but I can still watch you shine brightly on the stage and stomp everyone into the ground!”
Lin Yun had some guesses and looked at Zuo Yun, “Then wait for me at the Sword Firmament Pavilion. Just say my name and they should welcome you.”
“Alright. I’ll wait for you at the pavilion.” Zuo Yun revealed a rare smile.
After the two left, Long Hao held onto his chin and smiled, “Your friends are pretty interesting. They know that they will be of trouble to you, so they chose to leave.”
“No,” replied Lin Yun as he continued, “I wanted them to stay behind to take care of them on purpose. But they weren’t willing.”
Their words were roughly the same, but Long Hao made Lin Yun sound like the unwilling party. On the contrary, Lin Yun was the willing party as he wanted his friends to become stronger through the beast tide.
Long Hao smiled awkwardly. Seeing that Lin Yun had left, he chased after him.
“Are you really not interested in our Sword Alliance? With your talent, it’s a pity if you don’t join us. The Sword Alliance isn’t that simple and only the Indigomoon Elysium can be compared to us throughout the entire Ancient Southern Domain.” Long Hao wasn’t willing to let Lin Yun go and continued, “You don’t have to withdraw from your sect. One day, even after you leave the Ancient Southern Domain, the Sword Alliance can still be your guiding light.”
“Is the Sword Alliance really comparable to the Indigomoon Elysium?” asked Lin Yun.
“Not really. The Indigomoon Elysium is a little mysterious as it appeared right after the Sword Sect was annihilated. We have some background, but the Sword Alliance isn’t a sect so there’s nothing to be compared with. Even if you join the Indigomoon Elysium, it has nothing to do with you joining the Sword Alliance,” said Long Hao, seeing that Lin Yun showed interest in the Sword Alliance.
“Not interested.” Lin Yun was just using this as an excuse to probe the Indigomoon Elysium.
“Lin Yun, this beast tide is a rare opportunity and many of our Sword Alliance’s geniuses will be gathered. Are you interested in the gathering?” Long Hao continued to persuade Lin Yun, but he wasn’t able to get any response from Lin Yun.
Refusing to believe that Lin Yun’s heart was made of stone, Long Hao continued to try and catch Lin Yun’s interest, “Lin Yun, do you know the arrival of a new era?”
“Yeah, I do.” Lin Yun nodded his head.
“…” Long Hao suddenly became speechless, which made Lin Yun feel weird because Long Hao suddenly became silent all of a sudden.
“Haha, it’s good that you know about it.” Long Hao smiled awkwardly. When they exited the forest, they saw that many cities had been destroyed. It was like purgatory. Lin Yun could see souls being sucked into the demonic clouds in the sky. Now that his sword intent had improved, he could see the phenomenon clearer than before.
Halfway to Swordmire City, the group ran into a beast tide again as a bunch of Yin-Yang stage demonic beasts charged over.
Facing the demonic beasts, Lin Yun had no change on his face as he drew his sword, “Thunderbolt Slash!”
All of the demonic beasts felt threatened by Lin Yun’s attack, but it was already too late for them to escape. When Lin Yun’s sword flashed, ten Yin-Yang stage demonic beasts were instantly killed.
Long Hao’s eyes lit up at this scene and asked, “What is that sword technique? I saw you use it against the Mountainshaking Demonic Ape.”
“It’s the Overlord Sword. But when I face ordinary demonic beasts, I’m only using the Aquaselenic Sword.” Lin Yun was annoyed with Long Hao’s incessant questions, but he still answered him honestly.
Upon hearing that, Long Hao’s eyes flickered as he smiled, “This sword technique seems to be the same as one of the Sword Sect’s strongest techniques.”
“Perhaps.” Lin Yun replied ambiguously. He didn’t tell Long Hao that it was indeed, one of the Sword Sect’s strongest techniques. Even the Heavenly Sword Sect, who claimed that they inherited Sword Sect’s legacy, didn't have this sword technique.
The journey to Swordmire City wasn’t a peaceful one, which made Lin Yun worry for Feng Ye and Zuo Yun. But knowing that they were determined to leave, they shouldn’t encounter much trouble.
Five days later, the beast tide got even more ferocious as all the surrounding cities were already taken down by the beast tide. Swordmire City was a majestic city that was covered in boundless sword intent. If one looked from afar, Swordmire City looked like a gigantic sword that was stabbed into the ground.
Just like its name, this was a city born for swords as countless swordsmen were gathered here. Violet Palace Realm cultivators could be seen everywhere on the road along with Heavenly Soul Realm cultivators. Many geniuses and experts from the other main cities were gathered here to assist against the beast tide. At the same time, this was also their opportunity.
“The Phoenixplume City’s geniuses are here!”
“The Highsun City’s geniuses are also here.”
“So is the Moonriver City.”
“…”
“Weird, almost all the geniuses from the seven cities are here. It’s fine that the geniuses from the Thunder Prefectural City aren’t here, but where are the geniuses from Skymound City?”
“They were all killed. It would be surprising if we saw them.”
“What? How is that possible?” Almost all the geniuses from the seven main cities were gathered, aside from Skymound City. After all, the news of all seven of them being slaughtered by Lin Yun still hadn’t spread out. When the cultivators in Swordmire City learned the truth, they couldn’t help being dumbfounded.
Five hundred miles away from the city, Long Hao still had no idea that Lin Yun’s reputation had already started to spread throughout Swordmire City even before he arrived.
“Are you not really going to meet the geniuses of our Swordmire Sect? The Swordmire City is the headquarters for our Sword Alliance. You won’t be disappointed if you come,” said Long Hao with his eyes flickering.
“No thanks,” replied Lin Yun. It was unavoidable for there to be a conflict if so many geniuses were put together and he still couldn’t control his quasi-spiritual sword intent well. He knew how terrifying it was and it would be terrible if he crippled all of them accidentally.
“What a pity.” Long Hao looked at Lin Yun deeply. He had a feeling that Lin Yun was underestimating the Sword Alliance and wanted to take this opportunity to give Lin Yun some pressure. But it was a pity that Lin Yun just wouldn’t fall for it.