Chapter 145: Breaking Free (End of Volume One)

Could it be that the bones of my right arm have been reshaped by the myriads of sword auras emanating from the Divine Hidden-Edge Stone?

With this thought in mind, Liang Yan raised his head once again to look at the divine stone suspended in mid-air.

The stone, which had turned into an ash-gray color, was now floating quietly in the air, completely devoid of any remaining spiritual energy.

He stepped forward and gently touched the divine stone with his hand.

Crack, crack, crack!

Countless fissures instantly spread across the surface of the divine stone, followed by a ceaseless cascading shower of fine gray powder.

After a few breaths, this very Divine Hidden-Edge Stone—which had once driven the Taoist dog into a frenzy of greed—ultimately transformed into a pile of pale dust.

Seeing this, Liang Yan gave a bitter smile and murmured, "It seems the Divine Hidden-Edge Stone no longer exists."

He glanced at his right arm and muttered to himself, "From now on, I shall call you the Black Lotus Sword Bone! Never did I expect that, failing to obtain the senior's Black Lotus Sword Classic, I would forge the Black Lotus Sword Bone within my own right arm by a twist of fate. I wonder if this can be considered another form of inheritance."

He pondered for a moment, suddenly recalled something, and turned to search the area once again.

A short while later, Liang Yan picked up a small white jade bottle from beneath a pile of rubble.

On the body of the small bottle was pasted a yellow talisman, and its two soybean-like eyes were currently looking at him with an expression full of grievance.

Seeing this, Liang Yan smiled faintly and said, "It seems that Taoist dog sealed you away. No wonder I couldn't reach you earlier."

With these words, he reached out and peeled off the yellow talisman from the bottle. Freed at last, the jade bottle rubbed affectionately against his hand before leaping back into the folds of his tunic.

Seeing that Little Jiu was safe and sound, Liang Yan felt somewhat reassured. Although he did not yet fully understand this bottle, its quality was undoubtedly extraordinary. Once his cultivation reached a higher level in the future, it might well unleash even greater wondrous uses.

"I just wonder what miraculous properties this Black Lotus Sword Bone possesses."

With this thought, Liang Yan suddenly raised his right hand, a brilliant golden light bursting forth from his palm as he unleashed the "One-Fist Form" directly at the nearby wall.

This Black Lotus Sword Bone was clearly related to the path of sword cultivation. However, since he had not even stepped into the Sword Embryo stage and could not yet be considered a true sword cultivator, he could only test the power of the Black Lotus Sword Bone using this most primitive method.

Rumble!

As Liang Yan's fist struck the wall, the sword bone in his right arm suddenly trembled slightly, emitting a faint, clear chime like that of a drawn blade. Following this, a surging torrent of sword qi erupted from his right arm, pouring through his palm and driving straight into the stone wall.

Swish, swish, swish!

Countless streams of sword qi burst forth, crisscrossing within the walls of the cavern like a sharp blade cutting through vegetables, instantly pulverizing the interior to dust.

Moreover, the remaining momentum of these sword auras did not cease, continuing to surge deep into the heart of the stone wall.

Rumble!

This underground cavern had already been battered several times over, and now, struck once more by Liang Yan's attack, it actually began to sway slightly.

Seeing this, Liang Yan hurriedly withdrew his right arm and stepped back a few paces.

"That was close! If I had allowed the sword qi to keep surging and shaking the foundations of this cavern, I might have been buried alive right here!"

Liang Yan said with lingering fear, yet as he looked down at his right hand, a smile touched the corner of his mouth once more.

"I never imagined that combining the 'One-Fist Form' of the Ruffian Skill with a strike from this Black Lotus Sword Bone would possess such terrifying might! If someone were to take this punch at close range, even a cultivator in the initial stage of Foundation Establishment would find it hard to easily block."

Of course, he also understood that this merely meant he had the ability to threaten an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator with a single strike, not that he could genuinely slay one.

After all, in a battle between two opponents, many other factors came into play.

Nevertheless, Liang Yan was already thoroughly satisfied with his harvest from this trip to the Mount Siming Palace. He cast his gaze around the surroundings and suddenly mused, "The last of the four lines of small characters that originally appeared on the Divine Hidden-Edge Stone stated: 'Forge the sword with the stone, and gain release in a hundred days!' Now that the Divine Hidden-Edge Stone has been destroyed, obtaining the Black Lotus Sword Classic is utterly impossible. Having forged this Black Lotus Sword Bone, I wonder if it will help me break free after a hundred days..."

With this thought, he carefully inspected every corner of the cavern once again, yet found no hidden paths or teleportation arrays whatsoever, ultimately forcing him to abandon the idea with a helpless sigh.

"Forget it; pondering is useless. When the hundred days are up, the truth will reveal itself!"

With a soft sigh, Liang Yan sat cross-legged on the spot, retrieved a blue ancient text from his storage pouch, and looked at the flowing, dragon-like calligraphy inscribed upon the cover: Minor Three-Talents Sword Manual.

He had no desire to waste these hundred days, intending instead to begin practicing the sword manual right here.

Opening the cover of the sword manual, the very first page boldly read:

The Three Talents are Heaven, Earth, and Man. Using the foundation of the Three Talents, exhaust the wondrous transformations of Heaven and Earth to achieve the might of my sword...

Glancing roughly over the general outline, Liang Yan realized that the so-called Minor Three-Talents Sword Manual had been created by a Confucian sword cultivator.

It contained three distinct transformations: Heavenly Mystery Shift, Earthly Hidden Genesis, and the Mortal Path, achieving a balance between offense and defense. It was a relatively well-rounded and versatile sword technique.

Setting aside all distracting thoughts, Liang Yan devoted himself heart and soul to practicing this sword manual.

............

Time passes imperceptibly in cultivation, and the hundred days slipped by in the blink of an eye.

On this particular day, within a lush and verdant forest on Mount Siming, two monkeys were scratching their ears and playfully chasing each other in the branches of a large tree.

Suddenly, however, a beam of white light materialized out of thin air, followed by a thunderous explosion that sent the nearby birds and beasts scrambling in all directions in terror.

When the white light finally dissipated, it revealed a gray-robed youth whose hair was unkempt and whose clothes were tattered, lending him a rather disheveled appearance.

"I never expected the Black Lotus Sword Bone to successfully fool the trial, but this method of teleportation is far too overbearing."

The gray-robed youth laughed with helpless resignation.

This person was naturally none other than Liang Yan, who had just broken free from confinement.

Half an incense stick of time ago, he was still practicing within the underground cavern. Through the baptism of the myriad sword auras, Liang Yan discovered that his comprehension of the path of the sword had suddenly unlocked. In the span of a mere hundred days, he had already achieved minor success.

If Li Huayang were to ever learn of this, he would likely be so enraged that he would rise from the dead!

One had to know that after obtaining the sword manual, Li Huayang had bitterly cultivated for over a month without even entering the threshold. Afterward, he had the misfortune of running into the dog uncle and was forcibly dragged to the Mount Siming Palace just to make up numbers. Yet Liang Yan had achieved minor success in a mere hundred days, vastly surpassing the likes of Li Huayang.

However, just as Liang Yan was immersed in his cultivation, the portrait on the wall suddenly rolled its eyes, shooting forth a beam of blue light that struck Liang Yan without giving him a chance to react.

"What! Could the hundred-day limit be up?"

Before Liang Yan could even respond, that blue spiritual light had already swept back and forth across his body as if inspecting something.

A chill ran through Liang Yan's heart, and he silently channeled his spiritual power to the sword bone in his right arm. A clear, resonant clanging sound echoed, as if the black sword qi within his right arm were eager to burst forth.

Having seemingly confirmed something at last, the portrait on the wall triggered a blinding flash of white light, and Liang Yan's entire figure vanished completely from the cavern.

This teleportation was the most brutal Liang Yan had ever experienced; it tumbled him about so violently that even his internal organs felt as though they had been dislodged. When he finally managed to steady himself and stand firm, he realized he had arrived somewhere within the forests of Mount Siming.

Yet, being able to breathe the fresh air of the outside world once more put Liang Yan in an exceptionally fine mood.

He turned to survey his surroundings and saw fresh spring buds breaking through the soil, brimming with vitality. Although the deep mountains still retained a hint of chill, the scenery was already unmistakably spring-like.

"When I first entered the Mount Siming Palace, it was the dead of winter, and the mountains were blanketed in snow. I never imagined that upon regaining my freedom, it would already be the spring equinox of March."

Liang Yan smiled slightly and looked down at the treasured sword at his waist.

Now, he had successfully stepped onto the path of sword cultivation. Although he had practiced the sword for less than a hundred days, with his numerous trump cards, he was confident he could firmly suppress talented disciples like Zhuo Bufuan should they ever cross paths.

It could be said that cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage could no longer pose any significant threat to him.

"It's a pity my cultivation realm is still too low! I am now at the peak of the seventh layer of Qi Condensation; my most urgent task is to figure out a way to cross this second threshold of Qi Condensation and step into the eighth layer!"

With this thought, he turned his gaze toward the southern part of Mount Siming.

"Calculating the time, my half-year agreement with Li Xiran is also drawing near."

Liang Yan murmured to himself, "She said the reward for the 'Luo River Dueling Tournament' is precisely the Spirit-Refining Pill... Ah, it seems it is time to set off..."