It took barely the time of one and a half sticks of incense to shatter all fifty Fire element characters.

Next, Lu Yuan had to contend with the Wind element characters. While these characters posed no inherent threat to him, he couldn't entirely suppress them either, so dealing with them consumed some additional time.

Floating in the sky, the Wind characters bore inscriptions such as "Slash!", "Rend!", "Speed!", "Swift!"—these were incredibly fast, making them difficult to strike accurately. Lu Yuan was not in a rush this time. He decided to test the Heart Sword, recalling how Yan Cangtian had once mentioned using it against the cultivators of the Ancient Immortal Civilization.

At that time, Yan Cangtian had given a rudimentary explanation of what the Heart Sword entailed. Lu Yuan had certainly not mastered it, but now he attempted the very first stage.

Closing his eyes while wielding the sword.

Many people who employ the "sword without sight" technique rely on their sense of hearing. However, the Heart Sword is different; it forbids both auditory and visual input. One must perceive entirely with the heart.

Lu Yuan now endeavored to capture the Wind characters using only his inner sense. It felt as if, deep within his core, there was a placid lake surface; a breeze blew across it—excellent—and a sword stroke was delivered. Lu Yuan’s connection to the sword was exquisitely pure. With that single thrust, he pierced a Wind character. Without opening his eyes, he continued to strike, (Baidu Huashan Xianmen Ba update). Sword stroke after sword stroke extended outward, using his heart as the eye. One by one, the Wind characters fell beneath Lu Yuan’s blade, each one pierced and destroyed.

The second-tier characters possessed a certain degree of hardness. During the Chaos Vortex Realm, it was almost impossible to pierce them; when they manifested, few could withstand them, and in the Great Dao Realm, it was unthinkable to even attempt a breach. This was why, when Lu Yuan was in the Great Dao Realm, his piercing of the Medicine Civilization’s second-tier characters had caused such shock.

However, upon reaching the World Realm, particularly around the fifth layer of the World Realm, one could manage to shatter second-tier characters.

As for the avatars of the Initial Characters, those were beyond his current ability to sever. Regarding the Initial Characters themselves, if one were to appear now, it could suppress all directions; generally, Initial Characters are mastered only at the Civilization level, and cultivators in the World Realm rarely possess them.

The fifty second-tier Wind characters were now shattered by Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes. The most rudimentary use of the Heart Eye proved effective. He wondered how profound Yan Cangtian's ultimate Heart Eye ability could be. Yan Cangtian had always been a figure of unparalleled genius, and Lu Yuan increasingly looked forward to his appearance in the Central Celestial Dynasty. Heh, glancing at the time, he realized nearly two sticks of incense were almost up.

Not good, no time left!

Lu Yuan wasn't overly panicked. There was no need to rush excessively. Following this were the Gold, Wood, Water, and Earth element characters, culminating with the Thunder characters—even if he took a bit more time, they could still be dealt with.

Shining brilliantly in the sky were numerous golden characters—the Gold element characters, bearing inscriptions like "Slay!", "Pierce!", "Sharp!" Each possessed an incredibly keen edge. A flash occurred above Lu Yuan's head, and in an instant, all fifty second-tier Gold characters coiled toward the Golden Dragon, attempting resistance, but they were swallowed whole in one gulp.

The fifty Gold characters were concluded.

Next, Lu Yuan aimed for the Wood element characters. They emitted a pale green light in the sky: "Tree!", "Grass!", "Branch!" This time, Lu Yuan did not summon the Wood-Swallowing Dragon outwardly. Instead, he secretly activated it, and streams of verdant energy were drawn into him. (Baidu Huashan Xianmen Ba update). These emissions were invisible; what was visible outside was Lu Yuan executing a perfect sword technique, the Divine Line of the Heavens. This technique instantly cleaved all fifty second-tier Wood characters in half according to their inherent patterns. Once their core essence was lost, it was natural for each of the fifty characters to be split a hundred ways.

The fifty Wood characters were finished.

Next on his target list were the Water element characters, shimmering with colorless light in the sky: "Snow!", "Soft!", "Slow!" This was the first time Lu Yuan deployed the Water-Swallowing Dragon. Its power was immense; it completely drained the essence from the fifty Water characters. Then, Lu Yuan struck out with a single sword cut, obliterating all fifty Water characters entirely.

The fifty second-tier Water characters were concluded.

Following that were the Earth element characters, bearing inscriptions like "Rock!", "Stone!", "Thick!", "Heavy!" The Earth characters were inherently imposing and weighty, serving a great purpose. But after the essence was absorbed by the Earth-Swallowing Dragon, Lu Yuan swept them away cleanly with another single stroke.

The fifty second-tier Earth characters were finished.

Oh, the two-stick incense time limit is drawing very close.

Fortunately, only the final fifty Thunder characters remained. Lightning flashed along Lu Yuan’s blade. In a flash, the Thunder-Swallowing Dragon absorbed the essence secretly. In an instant, the essence of fifty Thunder-Swallowing Dragons was drawn out, and at that moment, Lu Yuan delivered the final strike required to claim the Sword Scroll.

This final strike utilized the move "Sudden Change of Wind and Cloud" from the 108 Swords of Wind and Cloud. It had been a long time since he used the 108 Swords of Wind and Cloud, but he felt a sudden urge to employ it now.

As the technique "Sudden Change of Wind and Cloud" concluded, the momentum of the sword peaked, and all fifty Thunder characters were cleaved into two halves, resulting in a total of one hundred fragments.

Finished!

It was finally over!

Lu Yuan let out a long breath.

By now, the Sword Scroll should belong to him.

Lu Yuan smiled faintly. "I did prepare some means and magical treasures, after all." Of course, Lu Yuan hadn't actually prepared any external treasures; this statement carried a subtle intent.

The time was now nearing two sticks of incense.

Simultaneously, over at the Swordsman's location, the Swordsman realized his control over the Sharp Character Avatar had deepened considerably. He felt that with just six more sticks of incense of familiarization, he would certainly obtain the Sword Scroll. Hahaha, Lu Yuan, this time I will ensure your utter defeat at my hands, the Swordsman mused inwardly, only to hear a sharp crack. He found that all the surrounding second-tier characters had completely vanished, leaving no trace.

What happened?

Could it be that the Vice Lord of the Halberd Civilization had embedded some extraordinary hidden mechanism within the Sharp Character Avatar? Had the avatar finally unleashed its power? If so, it meant the Vice Lord of the Halberd Civilization had left a final contingency, and the Swordsman needed to remain extremely wary of him. The Swordsman never trusted anyone, least of all the Vice Lord of the Halberd Civilization. He checked once more and discovered it wasn't the avatar's power manifesting.

If that wasn't the case, there was only one possibility: Lu Yuan had already broken through all three hundred and fifty characters and completely seized the Sword Scroll. If the Scroll was taken, then naturally no more characters would appear for him. But that was impossible! He was facing this situation even with the Sharp Character Avatar, which, remember, represented a full three-tenths of the original's power.

An avatar inherits more of the main body's abilities the stronger it is. However, standard character avatars, without some special fortuitous encounter, rarely exceed thirty percent. With such a formidable avatar, how could he possibly lose?

The Swordsman found it hard to believe, but after a moment, the void remained stubbornly empty, offering no notification of his success in claiming the Scroll. Could it be that he had truly failed, and Lu Yuan had secured the Scroll? "Damn it!" The Swordsman struck the ground heavily. He had never imagined such a devastating failure. He was the Son of the Sword Dao, destined to be the strongest and luckiest among all figures of the Sword Dao. How could he have lost twice now to Lu Yuan? He, the Sixth Child of Destiny, while Lu Yuan was barely the Eighth Child of Destiny—by rights, the Sixth Child should be stronger than the Eighth! How could he have lost?

The Swordsman could not accept it, yet the facts lay before him, undeniable.

And at that moment, the crowd gathered below Mount Jianji was utterly dumbfounded!

What on earth had just happened? They hadn't grasped anything that occurred!

Naturally, this referred to Lu Yuan's side, not the Swordsman's. Initially, Lu Yuan spent one and a half sticks of incense solving the fifty Fire characters. (Baidu Huashan Xianmen Ba update). Everyone acknowledged that Lu Yuan was indeed powerful—to manage fifty Fire characters in that short timeframe purely through technique was admirable! But no matter how impressive, the time simply didn't add up; there was no way he could clear three hundred and fifty characters within two sticks of incense.

Then, Lu Yuan immediately astonished everyone!

They had estimated that dealing with the Wind characters would take at least another stick and a half of incense, similar to the Fire elements. Who knew that Lu Yuan only needed close to half a stick of incense to resolve all fifty Wind characters? This left everyone utterly bewildered, unable to fathom how he achieved it.

However, by this point, the two-stick incense limit was nearly reached. Lu Yuan had only cleared one hundred characters, leaving two hundred and fifty remaining. It seemed he was destined to fail.

But the outcome unfolded in direct contradiction to everyone's expectations.

Lu Yuan actually summoned a Golden Dragon! What was that creature? It immediately absorbed all fifty Gold characters in one sweep, leaving none behind! Lu Yuan had used practically no time on those fifty characters.

Following that, Lu Yuan unleashed four consecutive sword strikes.

The first strike shattered fifty Wood characters; the second shattered fifty Water characters; the third shattered fifty Earth characters; and the fourth shattered fifty Thunder characters.

By this time, the clock was still nearing the two-stick incense mark, not yet past it.

Therefore, Lu Yuan succeeded!

He succeeded in a way that left everyone utterly confused. They couldn't comprehend how he managed to break through three hundred and fifty characters within the specified time, especially the latter two hundred and fifty, which seemed inexplicably resolved, defying any logical explanation for the rapid shift.

A wave of discussion erupted. Each person held their own speculation and interpretation.

(Second update delivered.)