The epicenter of this excitement was naturally Murong Huangfu.

Oh, and there was Yue Nvqing. Yue Nvqing was beautiful and pure, possessed formidable power, and came from a mysterious background. Rumor had it that a massive hidden treasure trove—the Yue Nv Treasure—lay behind her. Countless people vied for her affection; successfully courting Yue Nvqing was a matter of immense prestige. To win her meant reaping both beauty and fortune. Thus, during their cultivation breaks, many sought after Yue Nvqing.

In the Library Pavilion, everyone naturally gravitated toward the absolute top-tier collection.

Lu Yuan’s life, however, remained solitary and quiet.

The first floor of the Sword Dao Chamber, two parallel tracks.

In truth, Lu Yuan had inadvertently generated a few sizzling topics of conversation.

The first topic: The Peerless Geniuses. Everyone present was a genius, yet only a select few qualified as Peerless Geniuses. Murong Huangfu was one. Yue Nvqing was considered half a measure. Lu Yuan was accounted as one.

The second topic: A Peerless Genius ranked second. Murong Huangfu stood firm at number one, Yue Nvqing at fifteenth, and Lu Yuan trailed significantly at number two hundred.

The third topic: The Peerless Genius, Lu Yuan, was stuck on the first floor of the Sword Dao Chamber, unable to breach the second.

But topics were just topics. People were merely curious, unlike Murong Huangfu, who shone like the sun in the heavens.

Consequently, Lu Yuan’s life these days was quiet and cold.

Lu Yuan was surprisingly accustomed to this solitude.

The sharp edge of a fine sword is tempered by grinding; the fragrance of plum blossoms springs from the bitter cold.

How could one achieve success without a sustained period of rigorous practice and refinement?

Back when he was at Mount Hua, his competitors were relatively underwhelming.

Now, however, the geniuses from seven nations were gathered together.

Furthermore, despite the ascetic nature of his days, Lu Yuan was utterly immersed in a state of ecstatic absorption, barely noticing the austerity. Even under normal circumstances, given Lu Yuan’s nature, he could endure the hardest life provided he had wine. Without wine, however, it was absolutely impossible.

Wine serves as a confidant, the cup as a friend.

So, on this particular day, Lu Yuan was practicing his sword forms again on the first floor of the Sword Dao Chamber.

He executed a move from the Mountain Stream Sword Style called, “White Clouds Soar Above the Mountain Stream.” The execution was flawless, the artistic conception utterly perfect. Anyone witnessing it would surely gasp in amazement. What a perfect strike! Within that single sword movement, one could seemingly perceive the rushing mountain stream and the drifting wisps of white clouds—so many layers of sword intent interwoven that the scene almost materialized anew.

It seemed one was witnessing not a sword, but a peerless masterpiece of painting.

After unleashing this move, Lu Yuan felt an avalanche of thoughts and intents surge within his mind.

Too many intentions, too many ideas flooded his consciousness.

The first vision that materialized was an incomparably beautiful scene.

It was late spring, May, when birds darted and grass grew lush. Several exquisite young women were joyfully flying kites under the May sun. The slightly older aristocratic ladies, tiring after a short while, sat on the grass, producing pre-prepared pastries and biscuits. They chatted while nibbling sweets, while a few small children happily chased grasshoppers in the thickets.

What is the Sword Intent of Grass?

Innumerable images eventually coalesced into the image of grass—vibrantly, relentlessly growing upward!

Vitality! Yes, vitality!

Between heaven and earth, the most vital element is not the tree, but the grass.

No matter how tiny, no matter how deeply buried underground, a blade of grass will ceaselessly strive upward, pushing, striving to break the surface and release its vital energy. Even if suppressed by massive stones, the fragile grass will shove the stone aside and emerge. Even if scorched by fierce fire, it will surely regenerate the following year.

This is the nature of grass! It exhausts all restraint merely to unleash life force.

The so-called Sword Intent of Grass is thus the intent to release vitality; that intensely powerful conviction forms the core of the Grass Sword Intent.

Countless realizations dawned in Lu Yuan’s mind. He understood now that he had comprehended the Sword Intent of Grass—his twenty-ninth Sword Intent. Having grasped this, Lu Yuan did not cease; he continued to delve into the understanding of other intents. This time, he sought different concepts.

...

What is the Sword Intent of Mud?

His eyes seemed to gaze upon an endless mire, perhaps a swamp in an ancient forest, yet in a blink, it morphed into the sludge beneath a great river. He perceived endless soil, fallen leaves sinking into the muck, decomposing into rich nutrients, then absorbed by the mud itself.

Mud! Compared to simple earth, the nutrient potential it held was far richer.

Infusing vitality into the mud, thereby providing greater sustenance for the growth of plants—this was the fundamental meaning of the Sword Intent of Mud.

In that instant, profound wisdom flooded his mind. He had grasped another Sword Intent.

...

Endless wind and sand swept over, nearly blinding his eyes. The grit was lifted from the earth, and Lu Yuan felt as if he were standing in an infinite desert. The scorching wind carried ceaseless sand, and any life stepping into it would have its existence instantly stripped away.

This was a precipice of life. No grass, no wood, no animals, no people—this was the desert, a place where vitality perished. So, what precisely was the Sword Intent of Sand? Endless thoughts raced through his mind, and Lu Yuan finally understood: the Sword Intent of Sand is the intent to devour everything without vitality, while ceaselessly expanding. This was an intent divorced from Mother Earth, yet diametrically opposed to the soil—it was his thirty-first Sword Intent.

...

Having comprehended three Sword Intents in a single moment, various other ideas still bubbled up within Lu Yuan’s mind. These stemmed from the thoughts of a genius, the accumulated foundation from his time in the Jin Kingdom, the introspection derived from studying hundreds of sword manuals recently, the derivation of intents within the Library Pavilion, and the austerity of his current life.

Before, he had been accumulating; now, he was expending that accumulation.

And it wasn’t just these three. Lu Yuan immediately grasped several more Sword Intents. Among them was the terrifying Sword Intent of Thunder, capable of annihilating monumental power with lightning strikes. The Thunder Intent was far more formidable than the preceding ones. Thunder destroys everything, clears everything away, shatters everything—that is Thunder! The Sword Intent of Thunder possessed an offensive power significantly higher than the Sword Intent of Fire. Within Lu Yuan’s mind, boundless bolts of lightning flashed; these immense, colossal discharges were terrifying in the extreme. This breakthrough in the Thunder Intent was partly due to the numerous lightning strikes he witnessed while crossing the Tribulation of the Grand Dao Realm.

In addition to this, there were the Sword Intent of Wrath, the Sword Intent of Gentleness, and the Sword Intent of Thought.

Only then did the overwhelming surge of thought in his mind—which had been as vast as the ocean—finally subside.

With the mental torrent stilled, Lu Yuan awoke from his state of absorption, finally becoming clear-headed. Upon returning to lucidity, Lu Yuan felt an ineffable joy.

Six Sword Intents!

He had previously mastered twenty-eight Sword Intents, and now, in a single burst, he had added six more—an astonishing, almost ridiculous feat. He had never imagined gaining six intents simultaneously. Previously, grasping a single intent was an agonizingly complex process, achieved one by one with immense difficulty. But now, he was suddenly rich, having played a grand game and grasped six concepts at once.

One must not underestimate six Sword Intents. Even experts like Fang Ru had yet to grasp six, and Venerable Yuanyuan only hovered slightly above ten.

The Sword Intent of Grass! The Sword Intent of Mud! The Sword Intent of Sand! The Sword Intent of Thunder! The Sword Intent of Gentleness! The Sword Intent of Thought!

To grasp these six simultaneously, if word reached the outside world, even among the assembled geniuses and super-geniuses, it would cause absolute shock and chaos.

And that wasn't all; there was still more.

His existing Five Element Sword Intents—setting aside the supreme Royal Sword Dao which he had mastered—the Metal element now totaled six intents: the Sword Intent of Metal, the Sword Intent of Speed, the Sword Intent of Slowness, the Sword Intent of Autumn, the Sword Intent of Melancholy, and the Sword Intent of Solemnity.

The Wood element: the Sword Intent of Wood, the Sword Intent of Wind, the Sword Intent of Thunder, the Sword Intent of Gentleness, the Sword Intent of Wrath, and the Sword Intent of Grass—six in total.

The Earth element: the Sword Intent of Earth, the Sword Intent of Mountain, the Sword Intent of Defense, the Sword Intent of Stone, the Sword Intent of Sand, and the Sword Intent of Mud—also six.

Lu Yuan now understood that the so-called Five Imperial Sword Dao did not necessarily need to be rigidly fixed at ten intents, as Patriarch Yan had established. If one mastered several more intents within the same element and could discern the underlying patterns linking them, the Imperial Sword Dao could be realized. Based on Lu Yuan's observation, having six intents per element was nearly sufficient to unlock the opportunity to comprehend an Imperial Sword Dao.

This meant he had basically gathered enough Sword Intents to cultivate the Sword Dao of Reincarnation. With a timely stroke of fate, he could achieve the Imperial Sword Dao and attain Reincarnation.

Exhilarating!

The Five Emperors and Five Imperials Reincarnation Sword Dao—Patriarch Yan had imparted this to him. At the time, hearing it required as many as fifty Sword Intents, Lu Yuan had been terrified. How long would it take to master that many? Achieving the requisite number of intents seemed impossibly distant. Yet, unexpectedly, he realized now that he had essentially collected all the necessary intents for the Reincarnation Sword Dao.

Now, only the final comprehension was needed to learn Reincarnation!

While Reincarnation remained a distant promise for now, Lu Yuan felt closer to that promise than ever before.

The Reincarnation Sword Dao—the Emperor among Sword Daos.

The very thought sent a thrill through him.

On the path of the Sword Dao, he sensed he could ascend another level.

Indeed, he now commanded thirty-four Sword Intents in total. Cultivators of comparable magical power were generally less than ten.

Lu Yuan stepped out of the Library Pavilion in high spirits. This retreat for Sword Dao cultivation had reached its conclusion. He glanced at the rankings, pleased to see his name still gloriously affixed at the second position. Good. In a while, he would begin his push for the top spot.

After all, he also needed the Enlightenment Treasure Pavilion to boost his magical power.

Magical Power and Sword Dao—these two formed the fundamental pillars of his strength.

Neither could be neglected.

As for the “empty fame” of the second rank, Lu Yuan was utterly unconcerned.

(Second update delivered. There will be one more update tonight.)RA