There are ten Great Grotto-Heavens and thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens.

Many years ago, an elite among the eighth generation of Huashan disciples journeyed to the Central Celestial Dynasty. Within the Central Celestial Dynasty, they encountered the opening of a Great Grotto-Heaven, known as Biluotian. It was said that Biluotian was once one of the Thirty-Three Heavens of the Celestial Court, but after the Celestial Court’s reconstruction, Biluotian suffered a great battle, losing much of its spiritual essence, causing it to fall to the mortal realm and become one of the ten Great Grotto-Heavens.

After descending, Biluotian remained sealed for many years before finally opening.

At that time, Yan Cangtian, Chu Duan, Zhou Qingxuan, Zhuo Budang, and others ventured into Biluotian. Yan Cangtian achieved a miraculous record of battles there, obtaining a Heavenly Sword! That sword was the finest treasure in Biluotian at the time, but as the Heavenly Sword was tied to Samsara, and Yan Cangtian ascended, the Heavenly Sword naturally had to vanish.

Chu Duan acquired the Zhou Tian Yi in those years. The Zhou Tian Yi was an object of incredibly powerful calculation capabilities, possessing myriad uses.

What Zhou Qingxuan obtained was the Zhuan Tian Lun. The function of the Zhuan Tian Lun surpassed that of the Zhou Tian Yi; it contained numerous time-based arcane arts. By expending vast quantities of spirit stones, one could stretch time. For instance, under the effect of the Zhuan Tian Lun, ten days might pass internally while only a single day elapsed outside.

What Zhou Qingxuan held in his hand now was a strange magical artifact. Its exterior possessed a peculiar shape, and within it rolled a sphere. With a flick of his hand, Zhou Qingxuan produced a High-Grade Spirit Stone. This stone was the size of a palm, perfectly transparent and crystalline, devoid of even the slightest impurity.

Beautiful. Pure. Potent.

This was a High-Grade Spirit Stone.

High-Grade Spirit Stones were immensely valuable. Lu Yuan’s current net worth amounted to only about forty Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, and it took ten thousand Mid-Grade Spirit Stones to equal one High-Grade Stone.

Zhou Qingxuan tossed a High-Grade Spirit Stone in without a second thought.

To employ the time-altering arcane arts of the Zhuan Tian Lun required a substantial input of spirit stones.

Meanwhile, Lu Yuan ceaselessly practiced the first technique of the foundational sword styles: the Stab.

Stab!

A single character, Stab, actually held such profound mystery.

To truly master the genuine Stabbing Sword Technique, one had to completely forget every previous move related to the stab.

However, mastering a technique is simple; forgetting a technique is far more difficult. Lu Yuan had completely lost track of how long he had been in this place, unable to truly erase his former moves. He failed again and again. Forget it, he thought, I'll rest for a while. Lu Yuan ceased his sword practice; practicing further yielded no result. He would rest, perhaps have a drink, relax his mind, and then resume.

Crack! A figure crashed heavily right beside him.

Lu Yuan looked over and saw an extremely short, thin man whose entire body was laced with spreading black lines. This person was clearly disoriented. After a moment, he regained clarity and roared furiously, “Who dares to abduct Elder Dian and bring him here!” He yelled, but then suddenly spotted a white-haired old man.

Elder Dian was, without question, one of the Ten Great Elders of the Demon Clan. His original form was a Dianzhao (Electric Hawk/Bird), which, after countless ages, cultivated into a demon. He possessed the cultivation level of the Tenth Layer of Longevity, with considerable magical power. Furthermore, among the Ten Great Elders, he possessed the fastest speed, hence his title, Elder Dian.

He had been fiercely attacking Huashan, harboring intense hatred for the Immortal Path Elders. Just as he was enjoying the fray, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, and he was captured and brought here. I am at least at the Tenth Layer of Longevity; how could I be captured in a single move? Upon seeing the snow-haired old man, he was utterly shocked. This old man, with hair and robes of white, possessed an imposing aura that rivaled that of the Demon Holy Emperor, instantly towering in his eyes and mind like a colossal mountain.

“Use him to practice your technique of forgetting,” Zhou Qingxuan said calmly. “Furthermore, Elder Dian, is it? If you can defeat this junior of mine, I will spare your life.”

A test for myself? Lu Yuan mused inwardly.

Elder Dian, having initially seen the white-haired old man’s terrifyingly immense aura—an aura comparable to the Demon Holy Emperor’s—believed death was inevitable. Now, faced with a chance of survival, he naturally accepted the challenge with enthusiasm.

Elder Dian flipped his hand and drew an Emei Thorn. This weapon was peculiar; its greatest feature was its needle-like tip, capable of slicing through air at maximum velocity. Elder Dian’s original form was a Dianzhao; he cared nothing for prescribed movements, instead launching his attack with sheer speed. The Emei Thorn moved like lightning.

With Lu Yuan’s skill, dealing with Elder Dian’s assault should not have been difficult. However, before this battle, Zhou Qingxuan had decreed that Lu Yuan could only employ the technique of the Stab; he could not use any other basic sword forms. He was restricted only to the Stab; foundational sword movements like Parry, Block, Cloud, etc., were all forbidden. This restriction made the confrontation far more challenging.

Consequently, Lu Yuan was exceedingly awkward in the initial exchanges. The Stab is an offensive stance; attempting to defend against an opponent's thrusts using only the Stab was incredibly difficult.

Despite this, Lu Yuan’s swordsmanship was supreme. He weaved, evaded, and then counter-thrust, aiming his sword at Elder Dian’s throat. This thrust was exquisitely subtle. Elder Dian had to hurriedly evade, completely unprepared for Lu Yuan’s refined move. He dodged sideways, creating an opening. Lu Yuan spotted this flaw and instinctively wanted to press the attack. With Lu Yuan’s skill, a relentless series of thrusts could easily seal Elder Dian’s fate, but the problem remained: he couldn't unleash any true sword techniques, only variations of the Stab. The sword moves associated with the Stab were too limited to press the advantage, forcing him to reluctantly abandon the pursuit.

Seeing that Lu Yuan did not follow up, Elder Dian naturally counter-attacked. The Emei Thorn struck with terrifying speed. He had heard the old man whose aura rivaled the Eastern Demon say that victory over Lu Yuan meant survival. Lu Yuan hastily moved to counter.

In reality, Lu Yuan’s inherent strength surpassed Elder Dian’s.

But the greatest obstacle was that Lu Yuan was limited solely to the Stab technique.

Gradually, Elder Dian gained the upper hand, and upon realizing Lu Yuan’s constraint, he fought with even greater ferocity.

Lu Yuan fell further behind.

The more Elder Dian fought, the smoother his movements became. He launched a series of relentless attacks, intending to end Lu Yuan’s life within this barrage. Lu Yuan flashed and weaved, but could not evade everything. The final thrust came. Elder Dian gathered all his focus and spirit, lunging toward Lu Yuan. This stab was lightning-fast; Elder Dian was confident it would finish Lu Yuan. Every avenue of escape for Lu Yuan had been sealed; this was the final blow.

Lu Yuan watched the final thrust approaching, understanding the intent behind it. In that crucial moment, he genuinely wished to employ other sword forms—perhaps a Block or a Intercept—but at the critical juncture, everything in his mind vanished. There was no thought, no deliberation. In that instant, the entire sequence of stabbing techniques in his mind dissolved rapidly.

Finally, every previous technique related to the Stab was purged clean from his memory.

The attack from Elder Dian arrived, clearly intending to kill Lu Yuan, yet at that very moment, Lu Yuan’s sword moved in a reverse arc, thrusting out—a stab that cleaved the void.

So fast!

Elder Dian, being a Dianzhao famed for speed, possessed an exceedingly rapid basic thrust, but he had never witnessed an attack of this velocity. He couldn't react at all. The Yangwu Spiritual Sword in Lu Yuan’s hand pierced through his neck, ending his life.

Success! After slaying Elder Dian with a single sword stroke, Lu Yuan looked up toward the sky. He had finally mastered the technique of the Stab.

With the beginning achieved, the rest became simpler.

Zhou Qingxuan stepped forward. “Not bad. You have finally mastered it. Take Elder Dian’s resources.”

“Yes.” Lu Yuan immediately began collecting the resources from Elder Dian’s spatial artifact. There were considerable resources within: twenty-one colossal spirit beasts, eleven Mid-Grade Spirit Stones—as expected of one of the Ten Great Elders—and a few magical artifacts of minor use. However, Lu Yuan generally disliked using artifacts and merely packed them away casually.

Next, naturally, was the practice of the other foundational sword movements.

The second to be practiced was the movement known as the Block. The Block is purely defensive, but never assume blocking sword forms are useless. If he had been able to use the Block technique just now, Lu Yuan would not have been forced to the brink of death by Elder Dian. Lu Yuan focused intently, executing the ‘Block’ movements over and over.

At this moment, Lu Yuan’s expression was intensely serious. Blocking left, blocking right, blocking front, blocking back, blocking up, blocking down, blocking center—countless forms of the Block technique manifested in his hands. After a significant period, he finally managed to forget the essence of the Block, and subsequently, mastered the Block technique itself.

Gaining the technique by forgetting the technique.

Next were Cleave, Chop, Collapse, Lash, Parry, Wash, Intercept, Coil, Press, Hang, and Cloud. For every item practiced, he had to completely erase all related sword forms before executing the corresponding foundational stance. Training this way took an unknown amount of time, but during his sword practice, Lu Yuan completely forgot that Huashan was under attack. This was one of Lu Yuan’s defining traits: once immersed in sword practice, he forgot everything else.

Finally, he completed the practice of all the most basic sword movements, forgetting every associated technique.

At this moment, his foundation was forged deeper and more stable than ever before.

A ten-thousand-foot tower is built from the ground up, and Lu Yuan had finally set his roots firmly. He could now advance toward higher realms of the Sword Dao.

Simultaneously, at this juncture, Lu Yuan achieved the true realm of the Sword King.

His previous Sword King realm was indeed recognized as such, but it had been too crude. Now, it was finally scoured clean of its coarseness.

“Your current foundation in the Sword Dao is decent, but you are still far from entering the Myriad Swords Samsara,” Zhou Qingxuan stated. “Wait a little longer.”

Initially, Zhou Qingxuan held little regard for Lu Yuan, viewing him as someone who reached his current level purely on innate talent without a solid foundation. But after this period, he recognized Lu Yuan’s virtues.

Diligence. Obsession.

It turned out that when this young man, Lu Yuan, became serious, he became utterly engrossed. For such an extended period, not a single moment of distraction occurred. This level of focus was something only Senior Brother Yan among the geniuses of the eighth generation could achieve. Truly worthy of being Senior Brother Yan’s chosen successor.