Chapter 141: The Land of Inheritance
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As Uncle Gou sealed the black Slippery Ghost inside the jar, the pale-blue screens of light blocking outsiders from entering at the four forks not far away immediately began to tremble, their color gradually fading.
Uncle Gou glanced at them from the corner of his eye and nodded in satisfaction.
He placed the jar into his storage pouch, then took out an Eight Trigrams treasure mirror.
The mirror shone brilliantly. At Uncle Gou’s prompting, a bowl-thick beam of ocher light shot from its surface and struck the blue screen covering the entrance to the Sword Trial Path.
The blue barrier, which had originally appeared impossible to pass through, had dimmed considerably after the Slippery Ghost was sealed. Under the treasure mirror’s illumination, it slowly tore open a narrow crack.
Uncle Gou’s eyes lit up. He immediately stooped and arched his back, then pushed off with his feet, transforming into a streak of ocher light that shot straight through the blue barrier.
He landed securely on the inner side of the screen. Then, with a backward beckoning gesture, he summoned the Eight Trigrams treasure mirror. It came whistling toward him and barely passed through just as the blue barrier sealed itself again, returning to his hand.
The man’s figure flashed, and he vanished completely into the entrance of the Sword Trial Path.
…………
Liang Yan naturally knew nothing of what was happening outside.
He was walking through the passage of the Sword Trial Path. Though the road was long, all he encountered along the way were ordinary stone walls. There were no traps or restrictions whatsoever, so the journey was quite easy.
After walking for roughly the time it takes half an incense stick to burn, the passage suddenly opened up.
Before him lay an underground cavern several dozen yards high. From the darkness not far away came a constant stream of strange sounds.
Though the place was dim, there were no restrictions present. Liang Yan raised his hand and cast a spell, instantly illuminating the darkness around him.
Only then, as he gazed ahead, did he realize in surprise that the source of the sound was a black boulder standing thirty feet high and large enough for five people to encircle with their arms.
At the center of the boulder was an unfamiliar character. It flickered in and out, emitting an extremely faint radiance.
“Could that be the sound of a sword ringing?”
With Liang Yan’s experience, he naturally could not understand how a stone could produce the ringing of a sword. Yet no matter how foolish he might be, he understood that the inheritance here must be connected to this enormous rock.
Suppressing the many thoughts in his mind, Liang Yan continued toward the black boulder. When he drew near, he discovered that it stood with its back against the cavern wall, and carved into that wall was the image of a man some seventy feet tall.
The man bore a treasured sword on his back and sat cross-legged. His left hand was raised before his chest, palm upright, while his right hand formed a strange Daoist seal.
Though it was merely a mural, the man’s eyes possessed an imposing majesty even without anger. Liang Yan’s heart jolted when he looked at them, and he could not help feeling awe.
“It is the tomb owner’s likeness. He is the same person as the old man carved in the hall earlier!”
“Yet the statue before looked spirited and vigorous, full of lofty ambition. This mural, on the other hand, depicts him as noticeably haggard. But why?”
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As Liang Yan pondered in silence, his gaze swept across the stone wall. Only then did he notice that on either side of the mural, the stone had been split and carved with two lines of large, flamboyant writing.
He had been so shaken by the gaze of the figure in the mural that he had not noticed them at first. Now he looked up carefully and saw that the left side read:
“One art passed to four; divergent paths may yet converge.
Mystic power emerges from the Daoist Canon; my teaching shall win renown!”
On the right, it said:
“Born beneath a baleful star, one cannot escape the tribulations of fate.
I passed into stillness in the Southern Reach, suppressing calamity for a thousand years!”
Looking at the words carved into the wall, Liang Yan thought to himself, “The master of this place must have been forced to pass into stillness in the Southern Reach for some reason. The first lines are easy enough to understand. But what does the last phrase mean—suppressing calamity for a thousand years?”
This secret realm had existed for an unknowable length of time. Naturally, Liang Yan, a junior who had only reached the Qi Refining stage, could not comprehend words left behind a thousand years ago. After pondering for a moment, he let the matter go and turned his attention back to the black boulder.
The surface of the boulder was covered in countless scratches, some shallow and some deep. They crisscrossed one another, and whenever air brushed over them, they produced one ringing sword note after another.
Liang Yan looked up and stared at the strange symbol at the boulder’s center. The symbol seemed to be staring back at him.
After a moment, it suddenly trembled. Then, like water, it melted away, finally transforming into four lines of ancient seal script.
Liang Yan gazed at the four lines and murmured:
“The sword art bears a name: Black Lotus.
The divine stone bears a name: Hidden Edge.
Strike the stone three times to receive my inheritance.
Train your sword upon the stone, and escape after a hundred days.”
“Strike the stone three times… Does that mean I have to attack this boulder three times? And ‘escape after a hundred days’… Could it mean that after cultivating the sword art for a hundred days, I will naturally be able to leave?”
Liang Yan was not foolish. After a brief consideration, he understood.
“I suppose striking the stone three times is the final test the senior left to assess the successor’s aptitude.”
With that thought, Liang Yan inhaled deeply and gathered all his spiritual power into his right hand. With a thunderous shout, a blue pillar of light shot rapidly toward the black boulder.
Boom!
After the tremendous crash, the black boulder did not react in the slightest.
Liang Yan’s expression gradually grew solemn. Golden light flared from his right hand, and this time he unleashed the Fist Aspect of the Hazy Hazy Art, smashing it toward the black boulder.
Boom!
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The black boulder still showed not the slightest movement, as though it were calmly waiting for a fish to take the bait.
“This is bad! I never expected the final trial to be so troublesome!”
Liang Yan’s heart sank. His thoughts raced, and then he suddenly slapped his forehead.
“This is an inheritance for sword cultivators. Could it be that I am supposed to use the Fixed Light Sword?”
With that, he immediately slapped his storage pouch and drew out a treasured sword radiating moonlight.
Holding the Fixed Light Sword, Liang Yan once again sent his spiritual power surging madly through his body and slashed at the black boulder.
Boom!
As his sword struck the boulder, the stone suddenly began to tremble violently.
A sword ring that resounded throughout the entire cavern broke out. Liang Yan’s pupils rapidly widened, for a black sword aura had burst through the stone and was slashing toward him at terrifying speed.
The change had completely exceeded his expectations. The sword aura in midair could not be avoided. Just as Liang Yan was about to die on the spot, a flash of white light suddenly burst from his waist. It swept him up, and in an instant, both he and the light vanished.
The black sword aura came howling through, slicing across the place where Liang Yan had stood moments earlier before striking the ground behind him and erupting with a thunderous crash that shook the earth and mountains.
When the roar subsided, all that remained was a narrow rift three feet wide and so deep its bottom could not be seen. It stretched far ahead, cleaving the entire cavern behind him in two.
Beneath an inconspicuous stone somewhere in the cavern, a small white jade bottle now lay on its side. The bottle was utterly ordinary, except for the two bean-sized eyes on its body, which spun about restlessly.
“That was close!”
Looking at the white space around him, Liang Yan felt as though he had narrowly escaped death.
“I never knew, Little Nine, that you could pull me into the bottle. If you hadn’t reacted so quickly, I, Liang Yan, would have died here.”
He spoke with lingering fear.
The two eyes outside the jade bottle blinked several times, seeming rather pleased with themselves.
“I simply never expected that this senior’s temperament would be so cold-blooded. Once he discovered that the chosen successor lacked sufficient aptitude, he not only refused to bestow the cultivation method, but instead struck out without mercy to kill him…”
Liang Yan shook his head and seemed about to say more when his ears suddenly twitched. His expression turned wary.
“Someone is coming!”
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