When Tianyi opened his eyes once more, his pupils were like a black hole, seemingly able to absorb all things within sight. When he blinked, his pupils returned to normal, void-like pupils with countless motes of light shimmering by and flashes of lightning.
Inside his body, his five Nascent Souls had slightly changed. Before, they still seemed quite solid, but now they appeared translucent with slight murkiness within. Tianyi inwardly nodded at the progress; when one’s Nascent Soul was first formed, it holds many impurities incompatible with itself. As one progressed, they shed away the impurity and turn the Nascent Soul into a transparent, glass-like body, known as the Glass Nascent Soul Stage. Only at this stage, the mid-Nascent Soul Stage, was the cultivator able to influence the outer world with his soul alone. The early Nascent Soul Realm -the Translucent Nascent Soul Stage- not even mentioning leaving the body, influencing the external world took strenuous effort.
Aside from continually refining the Nascent Soul, the other way of increasing the speed of one’s cultivation at this realm was to improve one’s mastery of the Dao. Although Tianyi hasn’t reached the point of mastering a Dao, his experience with the Eight Strokes Word Arts has strengthened his foundation, which resulted in a deeper understanding towards the Dao.
Tianyi’s eyes contained a trace of happiness, finally finding a way to increase his cultivation speed. Not only that, the Eight Strokes Word Arts combined many masteries such as formations, alchemy, forging, refinement, calligraphy, painting, etcetera. Tianyi felt as if he found a line thought to improve the Xiyi Talismans.
He shook his head. Now wasn’t the time for such things. Right now, it was better to strike the iron was hot and increase his mastery of the Eight Strokes Word Art as much as possible. He felt it was supremely suited for his current self.
Sitting down on the chair, Tianyi closed his eyes and began to ponder on the Eight Strokes Word Art and continually tested it within his own mind. Sometimes he would form his hand into a claw shape with a word appearing on his palm and lash out. Other times he would suddenly stand up and unleash his Nine Strokes Sword Art. As time passed, whenever Tianyi slashed his sword, the faint mirage of a brush would layer over his sword.
Like this, Tianyi continually honed himself for an unknown amount of time. It was like endless possibilities had been awoken inside. What he lacked were imagination and time. By the time Tianyi stopped, his Nascent Souls had become even clearer, the impurities within them becoming wispier. He had already reached his limit, turning the theoretical knowledge of the Eight Strokes Word Art into a useful tool for himself.
Having accomplished his goal, Tianyi stepped out of the room but not before bowing towards the scroll and giving his thanks once more.
Tianyi walked down the stairs towards the lower floors. Since he learned the Eight Strokes Word Arts, Tianyi was no longer restricted by the pagoda and was able to freely access every floor. But to his surprise, Tianyi didn’t see anyone from the seventh to the sixth floor.
“Sister Su, Brother San,”
Tianyi said when he saw the two of them reading through the manuals. As Immortal Ironword preferred books to jade slips, he personally wrote many of the manuals in his pagoda. Jade slips were easier to create and use, but the books produced by Ironword also contained more information and his own insights into the arts.
“Junior Brother Xi/Brother Xi.”
The two greeted him as well.
“…you’ve already reached the eighth floor?” Su Wanyu asked, her tone slightly off.
Tianyi nodded. “Yes, I’ve learned the Eight Strokes Word Arts. Luckily I had some foundation for it since the principles behind it are similar to my Nine Strokes Sword Art.”
“Haha, Brother Xi is quite lucky.” San Jiuling said, but the seriousness in his eyes sharpened tremendously. He had thought that Tianyi only was a level higher than them. He did not think that he was any worse than Tianyi except for not having an Immortal Emperor level parent.
San Jiuling prided himself in his superior soul that allowed him to learn and cultivate faster than his peers. But now, San Jiuling discovered that Tianyi’s ability to learn exceeded his expectation, igniting his competitiveness. Su Wanyu already felt uncomfortable that San Jiuling was keeping up with her despite his lower realm. But now that she learned that Tianyi already learned the Eight Strokes Word Art with only a small head start, she focused even more on the manual before her.
Seeing as the two were focused on the trial, Tianyi bid them farewell. When he entered the fourth floor, Tianyi discovered many more people, such as Ji Muyang and He Luoli. However, Ji Muyang’s facial expression was dark and almost ominous. On the third floor, Tianyi discovered Hun Jusang, Jian Muyan, and Su Bojing. However, Tianyi was surprised to discover Hun Jusang on the third floor. After contemplating the situation a bit, he accepted it.
After all, some people were suited to learning a wide variety of things, while others had talent in one subject. Perhaps Hun Jusang was one of the latter. In actuality, the latter was preferable for attaining Immortality.
“Why are there so many people here?” Tianyi asked. The sheer number of people seriously learning greatly surprised him.
Su Bojing looked at Tianyi and replied. “Senior Brother, this here is a treasure trove! The amount of manuals here is not any weaker than a third-rate sect. Back in the sect, we would like to pay a high price to learn these techniques. Unlike now, where it’s practically free for the taking! I heard that on the seventh floor, there are even Immortal level manuals! Senior Brother, are you giving up?”
In Su Bojing’s eyes, although Tianyi was coming down, he shouldn’t have learned the Eight Strokes Word Art yet. No matter how monstrous Tianyi was, he was still less than thirty years of age, and his accumulation should not be deep enough to learn all these techniques.
Tianyi accepted the answer. In the Buzhou Immortal Sect, he was able to freely access the fourth floor of the Immortal Scripture Repository. He had thought that it was expected, but now with Su Bojing’s words, perhaps only he had such treatment. As for Su Bojing’s question.
“I’ve already learned.” Tianyi left Su Bojing with a bewildered expression on his face. The edge of Tianyi’s lips twitched as if wanting to quirk upward. He didn’t bother Su Bojing anymore and instead went towards Jian Wuyan. After giving her a few pointers to facilitate her learning speed, Tianyi directly walked out of the pagoda. The moment he did, he froze.
When he first entered the grotto created by Immortal Ironwood, the spiritual qi was dense, and the land was picturesque. But now, it was as if a war had torn through the land. The formerly almost mountain-like hills were flattened, the rivers dried out, the grassy plains became a barren desert, and much more.
Tianyi was speechless, unable to even articulate his feelings. Did he actually spend over ten years in the eighth room or something?
Barely stamping down his impatience, Tianyi spread out his spiritual sense as far as possible. Spread thin, he couldn’t detect everything accurately, but he could still detect the intense fluctuations of battle. Tianyi soared through the air to find the source of the battle. Upon arriving, Tianyi saw several disciples battling against Longwei. Of which, the Buzhou Immortal Sect and Bright Ascension Sect numbered the highest.
“Longwei, you white-eyed wolf! The saintess brought you here out of the goodness of her heart, and this is how you repay her!?” A Bright Ascension Sect disciple cried out as he unleashed an attack towards Longwei.
“Hmpf, after we deal with this bastard, don’t think you’ll be able to leave unscathed after pushing all the blame on him!” A Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples said as he glared at the Bright Ascension Sect disciple.
Obviously, Longwei did something to turn all of these disciples against him. Tianyi caught a disciple who was blown away from Longwei’s latest attack. Stuffing a pill into the lethally injured Buzhou Immortal Sect disciple, Tianyi received the general backstory after he healed.
Longwei was overbearing to the point of wanting to swallow up all the resources in Ironword’s inheritance grotto. It didn’t matter if someone had already snatched it. Longwei would directly beat them up and steal it. Funnily enough, Longwei even seized the treasure that Ji Muyang was eyeing, causing her to leave in anger.
Against this person who ignored the underlying rules, all the disciples grew unable to stomach their anger any longer. Unable to tolerate him any further, they allied and encircled him with the intent of teaching him a lesson and handing over the resources he stole. But Longwei was always capable of running away with his party at the critical time, so some people eventually decided it wasn’t worth it and gave up. Hence the people at the pagoda.
The situation remained in such a stalemate, Longwei grabbing the treasures from other people and the people unable to stop him at all. Then he killed a Buzhou Immortal Sect disciple. Not only did this not cause Longwei to rein in his actions, but it only served to aggravate the situation even further. It was as if Longwei shed all pretenses and began to attack even more wantonly, killing even more disciples.
When Tianyi asked why he didn’t call the True Immortals from the outside, the disciple said that Longwei had used an Artifact to seal the entrance into the inheritance grotto.
Tianyi looked over and indeed saw something sealing the entrance.
The stronger disciples such as Su Wanyu, San Jiuling, and Hun Jusang had already taken the treasures they wanted and were undergoing Immortal Ironword’s trials. The people here did want to call them for help, but they didn’t have the ability to pass the pagoda’s trials and reach them in time.
After this, Longwei killed a few more disciples. Coincidence or not, most of the disciples who died were from the Buzhou Immortal Sect. And right now, more and more disciples were being injured from Longwei’s saber strikes.
Tianyi flew a fair distance closer, without incurring Longwei’s notice. Raising his hand up, power began to congregate on it. First, lightning coated his right hand, the thunderous crackling growing louder and louder with each passing moment. As Tianyi imbued more of his true qi of chaos, the lightning began to take on a black shine as the concentrated power further evolved. Then using the Eight Strokes Word Arts, Tianyi began to ingrain the lightning with the power of dragon slaying.
When Tianyi aimed his attack at Longwei, Longwei’s eyes locked with Tianyi’s. Tianyi gave a slight smile before he waved his hand towards Longwei and unleashed the attack.
It was like heaven and earth had lost all their shine and dulled into a reality without any color. The very world seemed to have been silenced.
“BANG!”
The world within Ironword’s inheritance grotto was filled with white.
