Stepping down from the mountain path, merely a few dozen paces brought the three of them back inside the (Flipping Cloud Carriage).

The downpour outside was growing more violent, the storm raging so fiercely that even the spirit array woven into the carriage could no longer fully stabilize its frame.

Yet, a profound serenity had replaced the gloom on Yin Yang’s face; his gaze and movements radiated a clear-sighted acceptance of whatever came next.

Zong Shou stepped down from where he had been resting on Chu Xue’s shoulders and stood at the carriage door, feeling as if every bone and sinew in his body was close to shattering. A deep, pervasive fatigue washed over him in waves. Still, he forced himself to endure, not rushing inside to rest. Instead, he turned to Yin Yang and asked, “Uncle Yin, are you truly without regret? Once we leave Dan Ling Mountain, there will be no turning back.”

Yin Yang had offered a similar assurance on the mountain path earlier. Zong Shou simply turned the words back on him, and Yin Yang met the query without hesitation, raising a skeptical eyebrow. “If the Young Lord does not fear death, what is there for Yin Yang to fear? Even if it is the road to the ghostly abyss, what harm is there in walking that path with the Young Lord?”

Zong Shou let out a dry chuckle, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and turned instead toward Chu Xue with a knowing smile. “Xue’er, it seems I truly underestimated you. What happened to you in Qian Tian Mountain these past three years? Zong Yu aside, why is even Zong Ling looking at you with such affection?”

Chu Xue’s face instantly flushed crimson, as if steam were rising from her head. She stammered, trying to explain, but Zong Shou, grinning, pinched her cheek. “Never mind! My Xue’er was destined to be universally adored—a flower blooming for every eye to see. Heh heh! Let that Zong Ling fellow stew in his jealousy until he dies. But mark my words, Young Master has taken note of that promise: ‘Never to leave or abandon!’”

The opening remarks had been lighthearted banter, but when he spoke the words never to leave or abandon, his tone became impossibly serious.

Chu Xue paused slightly, startled by the shift. By the time she collected herself, Zong Shou had already stepped across the threshold into the carriage.

As soon as he was inside the compartment, Zong Shou slumped, collapsing into a spread-eagled posture on the floor. His meridians and muscles spasmed uncontrollably.

The pain was even more intense than after his previous battles against Zong Yu and the fierce swordsman Uvey. However, perhaps because he was becoming more acclimated to this body, he managed to avoid immediate unconsciousness, unlike last time.

“With this level of physical conditioning, if I were to fight with my full strength, I doubt I could last even a quarter of an hour!”

He forced a bitter smile, enduring the excruciating pain and exhaustion to slowly sit up again. He assumed the posture of the Five Points Facing Heaven—knees, hands, and head touching the ground—seeking communion with heaven and earth before turning his awareness inward to his Dantian.

In a mere instant, Zong Shou gasped, drawing in a sharp breath. His state of mind almost fractured, his complexion shifting rapidly between pale green and white, a mixture of shock and elation.

“Those frigid currents from before… they really were this thing—”

Within his Qi Sea’s Fetal Wheel, eighteen sword-shaped strands of energy were now visible, coursing and flowing through the parallel channels of his wheel (veins/channels).

They should have been foreign, heterogenous True Qi, yet they mingled seamlessly with the Qi masses already residing in his native channels, perfectly integrated as one, indistinguishable.

Moreover, his will could exert a minor degree of control over them, though strictly limited to the interior of his own channels; he could not compel them outward.

A subtle thread of intent was also hidden within them—fierce and overbearing, yet simultaneously utterly contained, giving off no perceptible sharpness.

And Zong Shou was intimately familiar with the aura that subtly radiated from these sword energies.

“These sword energies must be the (Shocking Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent) passed down by Patriarch Lingyun. There is no doubt about it. That legend, then, is true!”

Contained within him were the eighteen Seed-Spirits of Sword Intent that encapsulated nearly every secret of the (Lingyun Sect)’s secret art, the (Shocking Cloud Absolute Sword): sword-force, sword-energy, sword-qi, sword-radiance, sword-rhyme, sword-momentum, sword-intent, sword-spirit, sword-soul—every secret and method of application was preserved, embedded within as 'seeds.'

He only needed to study, nurture, and cultivate them daily to truly master them and effortlessly achieve proficiency in this secret sword technique of the Lingyun Sect in the future.

It was rumored that when Yan Feibai, the rising star of the Lingyun Sect, first debuted, he had already grasped a portion of the Shocking Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent, making him invincible across the Eastern Lin Cloud Continent. Even those peak Heavenly Rank experts were forced to yield three steps away from this junior who had only reached the Earth Wheel Realm.

Many speculated how he had learned this profound martial concept that so far exceeded his personal cultivation level. Some guessed it came from the Ancestral Hall of the Lingyun Sect, that sacred site of martial arts. Others hypothesized it was the first generation of the eighteen Sword Puppets Yan Feibai personally shattered on the Bright Sword Platform. The evidence cited was that every Lingyun Sect disciple across the Five Directions Continent and the Four Cloud Islands who had ever broken the (Lesser Celestial Sword Array) had, to varying degrees, mastered parts of the Shocking Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent.

This speculation, however, had never been verified.

Yet, as he considered this, Zong Shou’s first thought was not surprise, but a sigh of resignation.

The Bright Sword Platforms of the Lingyun Sect were not confined to just Dan Ling Mountain. All garrisons on the Five Directions Continent and the Four Islands possessed identical Lesser Celestial Sword Arrays. Even the twelve Divine Stone Steles were exactly the same. The situation on the Eastern Lin Cloud Continent was similar: after ten thousand years, none had been broken.

However, starting with Yan Feibai just two years later, in a mere decade, the puppet steles across the Five Continents and Four Islands were either forcibly broken or successfully replicated. Within the Lingyun Sect, dozens of prodigious talents subsequently rose to prominence, shining like a constellation.

Across the entire Cloud Realm, heroes were emerging, the situation was surging, and the strong gathered like clouds. The martial cultivation accumulation of nearly ten millennia in the Cloud Realm experienced a sudden explosion just before the true advent of the Spirit Energy Tide. The era of the Divine Emperor would truly become an age belonging to supreme experts.

Today, his breaking of the array and inscription of the symbols was, in the eyes of others, akin to a myth, utterly unbelievable. But decades hence, few would be surprised by such a feat. Because by then, the number of people capable of it would be vast. True geniuses then would be as countless as the sands of the Ganges.

After sighing, Zong Shou began to assess the benefits and drawbacks of these eighteen strands of Shocking Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent for his own body.

Using his past life’s experience, he repeatedly probed them with his will. It took an hour before he could ascertain, with about eighty percent certainty, that Patriarch Lingyun had not placed any traps within these Sword Intent Seed-Spirits. The reason for only eighty percent certainty was that there were more thorough and comprehensive means of investigation Zong Shou could not employ; he could not yet reach the deeper layers of these sword-shaped Qi strands.

Once his mind relaxed, a flash of wild ecstasy crossed Zong Shou’s face.

He did not care about the Shocking Cloud Absolute Sword itself; even these eighteen strands of Shocking Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent, originating from the Patriarch of Lingyun, were merely at a level that could ‘catch his eye.’ However, at this moment, these Sword Intent Seed-Spirits were like rain in a drought for him.

Controlling them with his will, he sent all the sword-shaped Qi strands surging throughout every acupoint in his two parallel Fetal Breath meridians.

As expected, wherever they flowed, nearly all the heterogenous True Qi and impurities were actively shattered by these eighteen Sword Intent Seed-Spirits, assimilated effortlessly, or expelled from the body.

The only troublesome aspect was that these sword-qi seeds were absorbing and assimilating the purest portion of his True Qi almost constantly.

This development, naturally, was something he had anticipated. If his deduction was correct, the Shocking Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent would display even greater power when he attempts to push his Qi through the meridians!

“If the puppets of the Lesser Celestial Sword Array are eighteen strands of Shocking Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent, then perhaps the warm currents within those steles are the Heavenly Talisman Seed-Spirits?”

Zong Shou redirected his intent back to the depths of his Soul Sea and saw that his nascent Sea of Consciousness was indeed being encircled by twelve runes. Upon identification, they were precisely the twelve Heavenly Talismans: Qian, Kun, Yin, Yang, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Xun, Thunder, and Luck.

PS: A new week begins. Please don't stint on your collection and recommendations to help this fledgling work climb the New Book Charts. C