The Third Sword

The final traces of lightning had faded from the sky above U Minh Mountain, leaving behind layers of black cloud that were slowly separating after the violent heavenly tribulation.

Wind began to move through the cliffs, carrying stone dust and long ribbons of gray mist into the distance, while the ground beneath Hao Nhien’s feet was still hot from the lightning that had struck only moments before.

He stood in the middle of a shattered stretch of rock.

Almost nothing remained of his clothing intact.

Wounds ran from his shoulders down both arms. Blood dripped from his fingertips onto the ground, while several patches of flesh had been scorched black after enduring the force of heavenly lightning directly.

And yet Hao Nhien could feel something strange beneath all that damage.

His body was badly injured.

His soul had just endured a shock that had nearly exceeded the limit of what it could bear.

But deep within his dantian, a new source of power was slowly circulating.

The weakness left by the tribulation had not disappeared, yet beneath it existed a stability unlike anything he had ever possessed before.

The Golden Core that had only just formed was rotating at the center of his dantian.

It was not large.

Its surface did not shine with the brilliant golden radiance so often described in stories about this realm.

But each time True Qi flowed through it, Hao Nhien could clearly feel the difference.

Purity.

Convergence.

And a far stronger connection between the different currents of power moving throughout his body.

He was just about to examine the changes more carefully when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him suddenly began to move.

At first, there were only faint fluctuations coming from the nearby ravines.

Then, before long, streams of spiritual energy began gathering continuously toward the place where he stood.

The mist around the mountainside was pulled along with it.

Spiritual energy from above began pouring downward as well, forming an invisible vortex with Hao Nhien’s body at its center.

He lifted his head slightly.

A trace of surprise appeared in his eyes.

This time, he had not deliberately drawn spiritual energy into his body.

The Soul Art had not been pushed to its highest level either.

The convergence seemed to be part of some natural law that followed the end of heavenly tribulation, when a newly formed realm began taking in spiritual energy to complete the transformations that had not yet finished.

Hao Nhien understood quickly.

He had survived the Golden Core tribulation.

But the transformation of his body and the stabilization of his new realm were not yet complete.

Spiritual energy poured into his meridians, passed through the Golden Core, and emerged transformed into True Qi far purer than before.

Part of that power continued circulating throughout his body, helping close the wounds left by the lightning.

Small cracks in his meridians slowly repaired themselves.

Damaged muscles began recovering.

The blackened layers of burned flesh peeled away, revealing new tissue beneath.

Even his bones gave off faint vibrations.

Not because the damage was worsening, but because their load-bearing structure was continuing to adapt to the realm he had just entered.

Hao Nhien closed his eyes and allowed the Body-Soul Fist Art to coordinate with the recovery already underway.

At Foundation Establishment layer nine, his body, True Qi, and soul had already reached a certain degree of synchronization.

Now that balance was being readjusted upon the foundation of Golden Core.

The Soul Art circulated steadily, helping stabilize the soul that had just endured the final lightning trial, while the newly refined True Qi continuously replenished what he had lost.

If he could maintain this state for a while longer, Hao Nhien believed he would quickly establish a firm footing in early Golden Core.

But the moment that thought appeared, the speed at which spiritual energy was gathering suddenly began to decrease.

Hao Nhien opened his eyes.

From the mountainside ahead, a layer of Yin energy was slowly spreading outward.

It was not strong enough to completely block the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

But it was enough to throw the converging currents into disorder.

Some were pushed off course.

Others were severed and dispersed between the cracks in the stone.

Hao Nhien immediately realized this was not a natural phenomenon.

A figure stepped out from the darkness behind the concealment formation that had been broken by the heavenly tribulation.

It was a man in loose black robes.

His body was thin and slightly hunched.

His complexion was pale, like someone who had not seen sunlight in many years.

There was no violently oppressive aura around him.

But the Yin energy flowing through his body was extraordinarily stable.

With each step he took, the fluctuations in the surrounding area gradually began to fall under his influence.

Hao Nhien narrowed his eyes slightly.

Golden Core.

He could not yet determine the man’s full strength.

But from the aura before him, he could tell that this was not someone who far surpassed the realm Hao Nhien had only just entered.

If he had been given time to complete his recovery, Hao Nhien might not have needed to fear him.

Unfortunately, the other man clearly had no intention of giving him that chance.

The black-robed man stopped some distance away.

His gaze first swept across the charred corpse near the shattered formation.

Then he looked toward the ruined mountain and the two Foundation Establishment cultivators still alive in the distance.

Finally, his eyes settled on Hao Nhien.

“Quan Hao Nhien.”

The man was silent for a moment.

“The one who killed Mac Ta and destroyed our Trieu Thi Formation?”

Hao Nhien did not deny it.

The black-robed man’s eyes gradually turned cold.

“And now you bring heavenly tribulation to U Minh Mountain and destroy the concealment formation we maintained for years.”

“Looks like what happened before was no coincidence.”

Hao Nhien watched him without responding to the provocation.

“Are you the leader of the Yin Soul Sect?”

The corner of the other man’s mouth twitched, as though he had just heard something amusing.

“You are not qualified to meet Him.”

Hao Nhien noted the way he spoke.

The man before him clearly held no low position within U Minh Mountain.

Yet when referring to the true Sect Leader, his tone carried something close to reverence.

That meant the person who truly stood at the top of the Yin Soul Sect had not appeared.

Perhaps he was not even here.

Hao Nhien was still considering that when the black-robed man raised one hand.

There was no complicated seal.

Only several streams of Yin energy drifted from his fingertips and sank into the ground.

Hidden formation lines beneath the stone immediately lit up.

Cracking sounds spread across the mountainside.

A fissure opened near Hao Nhien’s feet.

From below, a pale skeletal hand slowly emerged.

Its fingers hooked around the edge of the stone, then pulled a decayed body up from beneath the ground.

More hands appeared immediately afterward.

Not only skeletons stripped of all flesh.

There were dried corpses as well.

Bodies that had not fully rotted.

And figures that had once been human but now possessed nothing more than the instinct to obey commands.

Yin corpses.

Hao Nhien looked toward the formation that had been broken open.

Through the crack beneath it, numerous black-robed cultivators were moving through corridors and stone steps underground.

Some planted formation flags at predetermined positions.

Others placed gray objects on the ground before beginning to chant.

Streams of Yin energy were pulled upward from deep within the mountain and transmitted through the formation lines toward the newly opened fissures.

This was not some improvised response from a handful of guards.

The Yin Soul Sect had already built a complete corpse-summoning system beneath U Minh Mountain.

And the Golden Core cultivator before him was now using that entire system to prevent Hao Nhien from stabilizing his new realm.

The black-robed man watched as more Yin corpses crawled from the ground.

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His voice carried a cold edge.

“You enjoy destroying our formations so much.”

“Then go ahead.”

“Try destroying all of these.”

He lowered his hand.

Dozens of Yin corpses charged at once.

Hao Nhien did not retreat.

He stepped directly into them.

One punch shattered three skeletons in front of him.

He twisted his waist and swept his leg outward, breaking two corpses approaching from the side cleanly across the middle.

When a dried body lunged toward him, he shifted his center of gravity, broke its attack with his shoulder, then drove an elbow straight through its skull.

The movements flowed continuously.

There were no spectacular techniques.

But every release of force showed how much the coordination between his muscles, bones, and True Qi had changed after entering Golden Core.

Hao Nhien fought while observing himself.

The injuries left by heavenly tribulation still prevented him from using his full strength.

But his body had already surpassed what it had been at Foundation Establishment.

Some attacks that would once have required True Qi to destroy Yin corpses could now achieve the same result through explosive physical strength alone.

One Yin corpse suddenly bit down on his arm.

Hao Nhien twisted his wrist and followed the movement with a palm strike directly into its head.

Its skull burst apart.

Before he could withdraw his hand, several more corpses were already attacking from behind.

He used a short burst of movement to avoid being surrounded.

But the number of Yin corpses continued increasing.

More importantly, the cultivators deeper within the mountain showed no sign of stopping the ritual.

Hao Nhien glanced toward the Golden Core cultivator standing outside the battle.

The other man had no intention of entering personally.

He merely kept the Yin energy spreading, preventing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from gathering properly around Hao Nhien.

Hao Nhien quickly understood the plan.

The Yin corpses did not need to kill him.

They only needed to keep forcing him to fight.

That would make him spend the True Qi newly transformed after core formation on breaking through the encirclement and healing his injuries.

At the same time, the Yin energy flowing from the formations would disrupt the replenishment that should have followed heavenly tribulation.

The stabilization of his Golden Core would be prolonged.

Perhaps even distorted.

If this continued, the advantage he had only just gained from entering a new realm would gradually disappear.

Hao Nhien immediately decided to break through the mass of corpses and reach the formation area.

But the moment he changed direction, the two surviving Foundation Establishment cultivators moved at the same time.

One appeared on his left.

The other circled around to the right.

They formed a coordinated position meant to seal his path forward.

Neither attacked immediately with a weapon.

Instead, both bit the tips of their tongues, spat out a mouthful of blood essence, and formed hand seals.

Yin energy erupted around them.

Behind each man, a demonic figure rapidly condensed.

One had arms so long they reached below its knees, with sharp claws extending from its fingers.

The other was hunched like a beast, its head low, its forelimbs abnormally massive.

Hao Nhien recognized the technique immediately.

Blood-Soul Demon Body.

He had faced a similar power when fighting Mac Ta.

He knew the figures were not simple illusions formed from Yin energy.

The Demon Body could coordinate directly with the cultivator using it, amplifying offensive power and endurance for a period of time while forcing the enemy to deal with attack angles that were extremely difficult to predict.

The auras of the two Foundation Establishment cultivators rapidly increased, approaching the limit of their realm.

The Golden Core man watched for a moment.

Then he raised his hand as well.

One finger cut across his wrist.

Drops of blood slowly emerged.

Instead of falling to the ground, they hovered in the air and were drawn by Yin energy into dark red patterns.

At that instant, all the Yin energy surrounding U Minh Mountain shook at once.

Hao Nhien’s expression changed.

Behind the black-robed man, an enormous shadow slowly rose.

This time, it was no vague figure like those created by the two Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Its structure was nearly complete.

Broad shoulders.

Blood-red eyes.

Long claws covered in layers of densely condensed Yin energy.

The cultivator stood within the body of the demon, both hands maintaining the seal while stream after stream of Yin energy traveled from the formation into that massive figure.

A Blood-Soul Demon Body created by a Golden Core cultivator.

The pressure alone was far beyond what Mac Ta had once been able to produce.

Hao Nhien barely had time to adjust his stance before the Demon Body charged.

Its speed far exceeded what its massive appearance suggested.

Hao Nhien could only raise both arms before his chest as the fist came down.

BOOM!

The ground beneath his feet exploded.

Hao Nhien was driven backward more than ten zhang.

Both arms went numb.

Part of the force penetrated his defense and shook his chest violently.

Wounds that had only just begun to close tore painfully open again.

Before he could stabilize himself, the long-armed Demon Body on the left had already closed in.

Its claws swept across his shoulder.

Hao Nhien twisted aside and avoided most of the strike, but three bloody cuts still appeared across his flesh.

At the same moment, the second Foundation Establishment cultivator attacked from the right, striking directly toward his ribs.

Hao Nhien twisted sideways and used a short burst of Spirit Wings to escape the pincer.

But the instant he appeared several zhang away, the Golden Core Demon Body was already waiting.

A fist descended.

This time Hao Nhien only managed to turn his shoulder.

The strike still caught part of his chest and smashed him into the stone ground.

Dust and broken rock erupted around him.

Even the spiritual energy gathering toward his body was repeatedly disrupted by the constant impacts.

Hao Nhien planted the Fire Spirit Sword against the ground and slowly forced himself upright.

Three opponents.

Three Blood-Soul Demon Bodies.

Hundreds of Yin corpses.

And an entire formation system still operating continuously.

Most importantly, the process of stabilizing his Golden Core had been repeatedly interrupted.

Each time spiritual energy entered his body, he was almost immediately forced to spend it healing injuries or replenishing the True Qi consumed in battle.

The wounds across his shoulders would begin closing only to be torn open again.

Meridians that had barely settled would be shaken once more.

The transformation that should have followed heavenly tribulation could not complete itself naturally.

Without the continuous replenishment from the surrounding spiritual energy, Hao Nhien might not have been able to last this long.

But merely surviving longer was not enough.

The three Demon Bodies began closing in again.

Hao Nhien tightened his grip around the sword and looked toward the mist above U Minh Mountain.

The heavenly tribulation had dispersed.

But traces of lightning force still remained scattered through the environment.

He had already used external lightning many times before in combination with his sword techniques.

Now, after entering Golden Core, his ability to perceive and guide external forces had increased significantly.

Drawing upon the traces of lightning still scattered throughout the mountain was far clearer than it had ever been before.

Hao Nhien adjusted the external pathways.

He allowed part of that lightning force to gather around the sword through a structure of Wind and Fire without keeping any of it inside his meridians.

The Fire Spirit Sword trembled violently.

He turned.

One horizontal slash.

“One Sword Breaks Ten Thousand Arts!”

Sword-light expanded outward.

The structure of force he had just formed moved with it and struck directly toward the three Demon Bodies charging at him.

A massive explosion shook the mountainside.

The two Foundation Establishment Demon Bodies were thrown backward.

Their forms rippled violently.

The Golden Core Demon Body immediately crossed both arms before its chest, creating a thick layer of Yin energy to resist the attack.

The sword-light cut deeply into the barrier.

The enormous figure was forced back several steps.

But in the end, the defense did not completely break.

Hao Nhien watched the result.

His eyes darkened slightly.

Not enough.

That sword had already demonstrated how much stronger he had become after entering Golden Core.

But his opponents were not weak either.

The Blood-Soul Demon Body was being maintained through the mountain’s formation system and continuously replenished with Yin energy from U Minh.

Its endurance exceeded what a normal strike could destroy.

The two Foundation Establishment cultivators quickly stabilized their Demon Bodies.

More Yin corpses crawled out of the fissures behind them.

Hao Nhien looked deeper into the formation area.

Some people were erecting additional bone pillars.

Several others were dragging a relatively fresh corpse toward the center.

Formation lines across the ground lit up one after another.

The corpse-summoning ritual was preparing to enter another stage.

If he kept fighting them one at a time, sooner or later the sea of Yin corpses would pin him down.

But leaving was not simple either.

The three Demon Bodies had already positioned themselves to control the easiest escape routes.

Flying sword and Spirit Wings could provide bursts of speed, but creating enough distance would be difficult while all three opponents were waiting specifically for him to move.

Hao Nhien rapidly considered what options remained.

Then something came to mind.

The Tieu Dao Sword Manual.

Ever since obtaining this inheritance, new sections had gradually opened only when his cultivation foundation and comprehension reached the required level.

He had mastered the first two sword techniques.

But the next section had always remained beyond his reach.

Now he had entered Golden Core.

Hao Nhien immediately divided off part of his awareness and sent his intent into the sea of consciousness.

The Tieu Dao Sword Manual appeared within his perception.

The lines that had once been blurred in the next section gradually became clear.

The instant his intent touched them, streams of information entered his soul.

A completely new method of circulation.

A completely new sword intent.

Hao Nhien only had time to scan through it once.

But his eyes had already changed.

This technique did not concentrate all its power into a single sword strike.

Instead, it used the soul to link multiple sword energies together, allowing them to move under one intent and coordinate as a sword formation.

The wider the range.

The greater the number of sword energies.

The more terrifying the requirements on True Qi and control became.

Most importantly, the user could not simply create hundreds of sword energies and control each one independently.

For the sword formation to truly exist, every sword had to obey the same structure and rhythm.

Hao Nhien immediately understood why this section of the inheritance had only opened after Golden Core.

An ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator might barely possess enough True Qi to create many sword energies.

But maintaining the soul-level linkage required to make them cooperate would be almost impossible.

He had only just entered Golden Core.

He had never practiced this technique.

He had no idea how well it suited him.

If it failed in the middle of battle, the consequences might be even worse than continuing to endure the encirclement.

Hao Nhien opened his eyes.

He looked toward the Yin corpses appearing without end.

Then toward the formation flags deeper within the mountain.

In the current situation, this was exactly the kind of sword technique he needed.

He did not need to defeat every opponent separately.

He needed to destroy the entire system allowing the Yin Soul Sect to maintain pressure on him.

The Golden Core cultivator noticed the change in Hao Nhien’s gaze.

He did not know what Hao Nhien had just comprehended.

But after witnessing Hao Nhien create one unexpected development after another, he had no intention of waiting any longer.

“Kill him!”

All three Demon Bodies charged at once.

Hao Nhien drew in a deep breath.

He had already calculated the price.

Berserk could force the remaining potential within his body to erupt for a short period, pushing his combat strength far beyond its normal limit.

But once the state ended, the resulting weakness would last at least three days.

During that period, his ability to circulate True Qi and fight would be severely impaired.

He had used this state before in dangerous situations.

He understood very well that if the enemy still had enough strength to retaliate after Berserk ended, he himself would immediately fall into an extremely dangerous position.

Hao Nhien looked at the three Demon Bodies closing in.

Then at the corpse formation behind them.

This time, simply forcing them back would not be enough.

He needed to destroy the entire corpse-summoning system.

And before Berserk ended, he needed to deal with every opponent still capable of threatening him.

If he failed, the consequences would be difficult to predict.

But he had no better choice.

“Berserk.”

The Hoa Ky Jade erupted immediately.

A violent force surged through Hao Nhien’s body.

His aura, still not completely stabilized at early Golden Core, suddenly soared.

Every reserve that could be used for a short period was forced open.

The explosive power of his muscles.

The speed at which True Qi could circulate.

The endurance of his meridians.

Hao Nhien remained at early Golden Core.

But in that instant, his combat strength surged far beyond what he could normally sustain.

The pressure from the three Demon Bodies immediately lessened.

The Golden Core cultivator charging toward him suddenly faltered.

For the first time, clear shock appeared on his face.

Hao Nhien did not look at him.

The Tieu Dao Sword appeared in his hand.

He raised it.

Then he began following the method he had only just received from the Tieu Dao Sword Manual.

True Qi driven by Berserk poured continuously into the sword.

Then it split.

Small currents of sword energy spread outward in every direction.

At first, only several appeared before him.

Then the number began rising rapidly.

One sword energy after another floated in the air.

They formed around Hao Nhien and continued spreading toward the ravines and mountain slopes.

None of the sword energies were especially large.

Yet every single one carried a portion of True Qi condensed at the Golden Core realm.

They appeared at different positions.

Gradually covering the battlefield.

The Yin corpses.

The formation flags.

Even the areas deeper within the mountain where the ritual was being maintained.

The Yin Soul Sect cultivators below began noticing that something was wrong.

Several stopped what they were doing and looked upward at the sword energies continuing to appear across the mountainside.

The formation master immediately shouted orders, urging everyone else to accelerate the corpse-summoning ritual.

Hao Nhien no longer cared what they were doing.

He was facing a different problem.

The greater the number of sword energies became, the faster True Qi was being drained from his body.

Berserk continued forcing his circulation to move at an extreme rate.

But his Golden Core had only just formed.

Already it was being placed under pressure far beyond anything required during normal stabilization.

Hao Nhien clenched his teeth and reviewed the method from the sword manual once more.

The sword energies had formed.

But the sword formation had not.

If he merely created large numbers of sword energies and sent them all forward at once, the result would be nothing more than a scattered mass attack.

To unleash the true power of the third technique, he had to link all of them through a single intent.

Each sword had to find its own place within the larger structure.

That demanded soul control far beyond controlling one flying sword.

Hao Nhien closed his eyes for a brief instant.

The Soul Art began circulating.

His soul, newly tempered by heavenly tribulation, rapidly steadied the fluctuations created by the enormous amount of True Qi moving through him.

He did not attempt to control each sword individually.

Instead, all his intent concentrated upon one purpose.

Break.

Break the Demon Bodies blocking his path.

Break the formation sustaining the sea of Yin corpses.

Break the entire system hidden beneath U Minh Mountain.

That intent entered the structure of the sword formation.

Then split into countless smaller branches.

Each branch linked to a different sword energy according to its position and assigned target.

Hao Nhien felt the change almost immediately.

The sword energies that had previously fluctuated independently suddenly became stable.

Each began maintaining a precise distance and rhythm in relation to those around it.

They did not need to face the same direction.

They did not need to attack the same target.

Yet every single one had become a different component within one unified structure.

For a moment, the entire mountainside seemed to grow heavier.

The three Blood-Soul Demon Bodies charging toward him slowed almost simultaneously.

The fluctuations in the surrounding sword energy had changed enough that even the battle instincts of those controlling them could sense danger.

Hao Nhien opened his eyes.

He knew he had only grasped the most basic form of the third technique.

Deploying it across such a wide area relied almost entirely on the forced power of Berserk.

Whether the sword formation was truly stable remained impossible to verify.

But there was no time left to refine it.

The Tieu Dao Sword slowly descended.

“Tieu Dao Sword Formation.”

His gaze swept across the entire mountainside now lying within the sword energies’ range.

Then he sent the final intent into the structure he had only just completed.

“Break Ten Thousand Armies!”