Chapter 295: Advancing by Leaps and Bounds

[Ten thousand swords trembled with unease, and the female Sword Cultivator at the Core Formation Stage finally realized something was deeply wrong. Even the natal flying sword inside her dantian was slipping out of her control, as if it might break free of her body at any moment and bow in submission along with the myriad other blades.]

[How could this be? A Sword Cultivator's natal flying sword was refined with their own painstaking effort and heart's blood. By all rights, the bond should be even tighter than a dharma cultivator's connection to their natal magic treasure.]

[If a natal flying sword suffered heavy damage, the Sword Cultivator would suffer a backlash alongside it.]

[What difference was there between seizing control of a Sword Cultivator's natal flying sword and seizing control of the Sword Cultivator themselves?]

[The female Sword Cultivator at the Core Formation Stage felt her legs go weak, trembling almost as badly as the natal flying swords around her.]

[You paid her no mind, instead sizing up the natal flying swords blocking the Stone Sword with keen interest.]

[Nearly twenty years had passed in this simulation. Aside from spending the very first year in the Artifact Forging Valley, you had spent almost all your time in desolate, uninhabited hinterlands, avoiding any contact with human cultivators. Whenever boredom struck, you simply went out to hunt down a Fourth Tier Beast King.]

[You had never come into contact with other Sword Cultivators in the Human Realm, let alone their natal flying swords.]

[Now that you had arrived at Myriad Sword Mountain and felt each of these natal flying swords, a faint sense of mastery rose within you.]

[Every Sword Cultivator in the world was suppressed by you.]

[And all the myriad swords between heaven and earth revered and feared you.]

["The number one Sword Dao talent in the Human Realm..."]

[You marveled inwardly. Before today, you knew that the number one talent in the Sword Dao manifested in two ways.]

[On one hand, there was the Sword Bone Jade Marrow.]

[It was the pinnacle constitution of the Sword Dao.]

[On the other hand, there was the Sword Heart and Sword Intent.]

[You were born with a natural sword heart. Even while sleeping and resting, you naturally comprehended countless truths of the Sword Dao.]

[You did not seek the Dao; the Dao came to you of its own accord.]

[When you were only a few years old, you created a brand-new Sword Dao inheritance tailored completely to yourself. Aside from the vast collection of Sword Dao scriptures and inheritances in your memories, you relied primarily on that single sword heart. Even without those scriptures for reference, you still would have created your current inheritance—it merely would have taken a little longer.]

[As for sword intent? You had been nurturing sword intent since the day you were born. Backed by its power, the might of your every strike surged dramatically.]

[During the Foundation Establishment Stage, you easily slew Core Formation Stage demon beasts. At the Core Formation Stage Peak, you severed both the physical body and the demon core of a Rank 4 Mid Stage Beast King with a single sword strike.]

[Aside from the boost of the golden talent "Surpassing Oneself by Half a Move", that feat relied on your own sword intent and the fact that the Sword Dao inheritance you created excelled at offense from the very beginning.]

[Almost every other Sword Cultivator only began nurturing their own sword intent upon reaching the Nascent Soul Stage. Yet you had already begun nurturing yours in your mother's womb, and the sword intent you cultivated was boundless, peerless, and utterly unprecedented.]

[And now, you discovered that your innate Sword Dao talent also held the power to suppress Sword Cultivators and command ten thousand swords.]

[With a slight stir of your thoughts, the Stone Sword still resting in the hands of the Core Formation Stage female Sword Cultivator flew straight back to its place on your back.]

[Then you raised your right hand. One after another, the natal flying swords that had been embedded in Myriad Sword Mountain for ten thousand, a hundred thousand, even a million years rose at your gesture, moving wherever you pointed like docile kittens.]

[If a flying sword still had a living master, influencing and controlling it would take a bit of effort. However, the masters of these natal flying swords had died ages ago; to you, subduing them took no more than a single thought.]

[The ancient era had spanned far more than a hundred thousand years—was it a million years? Ten million? Or even longer? There was no way to verify it.]

[During those ages, although the Sword Dao was only one of the three thousand heterodox paths, it had still given birth to one Nascent Soul Stage Sword Cultivator after another, and Late Nascent Soul Stage Sword Cultivators were hardly rare. Most of their natal flying swords had been left planted across Myriad Sword Mountain. Though the peak was called Myriad Sword Mountain, the natal flying swords left behind by generations of Sword Cultivator true monarchs numbered far more than ten thousand.]

["What is going on?"]

[Atop the summit of Myriad Sword Mountain, one Sword Cultivator true monarch after another looked on in shock.]

[Whenever a Nascent Soul Stage Sword Cultivator's cultivation stagnated, they would come to take up permanent residence on Myriad Sword Mountain, carving their sword intent into the mountain rock to guide future generations of Sword Cultivators.]

[The summit was where the Sword Cultivator true monarchs ordinarily resided.]

[Right now, every last natal flying sword planted across Myriad Sword Mountain had flown free, naturally drawing the attention of the many Sword Cultivator true monarchs at the peak.]

["What happened?"]

[The leading Sword Cultivator true monarch was True Monarch Tianshuang. He possessed Late Nascent Soul Stage Peak cultivation, and right now, his heart was in turmoil.]

[Although the Sword Cultivator lineage had yet to produce a Deity Transformation Stage Sword Cultivator Heavenly Monarch, in terms of pure offensive might, they were not much weaker than dharma cultivation or body cultivation practitioners. Yet at this moment, True Monarch Tianshuang felt the natal flying sword within his own dantian trembling with unease, its spirituality radiating anxious restlessness.]

["At the foot of the mountain."]

[One of the Sword Cultivator true monarchs hesitated. True Monarch Tianshuang took a deep breath, knowing that no matter how bizarre the situation was, he had to go meet it head-on. He rose at once and headed down toward the foot of the mountain.]

[Whoosh!]

[Before long, the Sword Cultivator true monarchs from the summit arrived at the base of the mountain.]

[And there, they witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.]

[Countless natal flying swords that had weathered vast stretches of time were hovering before a youth carrying a Stone Sword on his back, as docile as kittens.]

[True Monarch Tianshuang and the other Sword Cultivator true monarchs fell completely silent.]

[They knew full well just how proud and untamable the natal flying swords planted across Myriad Sword Mountain were. Flying swords possessed spirituality; aside from their original masters, they rarely showed closeness to any other Sword Cultivator. As for the natal flying swords left behind by Late Nascent Soul Stage Peak Sword Cultivators, they barely deigned to acknowledge even True Monarch Tianshuang.]

[Yet now? A dense sea of blades—every single natal flying sword on Myriad Sword Mountain—was bowing before a young boy in near-fawning obedience.]

[True Monarch Tianshuang felt his understanding of the world crack apart, and the other Sword Cultivator true monarchs behind him fared little better.]

["All right, go on back."]

[Growing tired of the game, you gave a casual wave of your hand.]

[Swish, swish, swish!]

[The natal flying swords reacted as though they had received an imperial decree.]

[One after another, they darted back to their original spots and plunged once more into the slopes of Myriad Sword Mountain.]

[Looking over at the dazed True Monarch Tianshuang and the other Sword Cultivator true monarchs not far away, you walked up to them and said with a smile, "I intend to borrow your mountain for a time to comprehend the sword intents left behind by past generations of Sword Cultivators. How about it?"]

[Hearing this, True Monarch Tianshuang snapped out of his daze and hurriedly said, "Please come right this way, fellow Daoist! Right this way."]

[True Monarch Tianshuang could not understand why you were able to command the natal flying swords left behind by past generations of true monarchs, nor why even the natal flying sword inside his own dantian was affected.]

[Yet he was certain of one thing: you too were a Sword Cultivator—an unprecedented Sword Cultivator the likes of which had never appeared since the dawn of time.]

[True Monarch Tianshuang could faintly sense the reverence coming from the natal flying sword inside his dantian. It was the awe one felt before the high heavens themselves—like an ant gazing up at the bright moon, or a mayfly looking up at the vast sky.]

["Mm."]

[You gave a slight nod and walked straight toward the summit of Myriad Sword Mountain.]

[True Monarch Tianshuang and the group of Sword Cultivator true monarchs immediately followed behind you.]

[The female Sword Cultivator at the Core Formation Stage stood frozen on the spot, only breathing a small sigh of relief once you were far in the distance.]

[From then on, you took up permanent residence atop the summit of Myriad Sword Mountain.]

[As for True Monarch Tianshuang and the other Sword Cultivators, they subconsciously obeyed your every command.]

[Even when you did nothing at all, your mere presence influenced every other Sword Cultivator around you.]

[In the twentieth year, you were twenty years old.]

[Cultivation in the Nascent Soul Stage was much slower than in the Core Formation Stage. On top of that, you spent most of your time perfecting the "Deity Transformation Chapter" of your own Sword Dao inheritance.]

[Or to be precise, the "Deity Transformation Early Stage" chapter.]

["The sword intent left behind by the Wine Sword Monarch sixteen thousand years ago... Drunken Sword Intent? Interesting..."]

[At the same time, you browsed through the myriad sword intents left across Myriad Sword Mountain. All of them had been carved by Sword Cultivators at the true monarch level. Whether they were strong or weak made no difference to you, since none of them could compare to your own sword intent anyway. Your goal was simply to draw inspiration from experiencing them and speed up the perfection of your own Sword Dao.]

[In the twenty-fifth year, you were twenty-five years old.]

[You smoothly cultivated to the Peak Early Nascent Soul Stage, entered secluded meditation for a few days, and stepped into the Mid Nascent Soul Stage.]

[After reaching the Mid Nascent Soul Stage, the sword intent nurtured within your body grew even deeper and more terrifying. Every single moment, your Sword Dao Nascent Soul radiated a razor-sharp aura that seemed capable of severing anything in the world. You felt that your frontal combat strength now stood completely above the Nascent Soul Stage—far surpassing even legendary Grand Cultivators. Back when you were only in the Early Nascent Soul Stage, legendary Grand Cultivators were already no match for you. And now that you were at the Mid Nascent Soul Stage, with your sword intent elevated even further?]

[Even you did not know just how strong you had become, though you were likely still no match for a Deity Transformation Stage Heavenly Monarch.]

[In the thirtieth year, you were thirty years old.]

[Sitting cross-legged atop the summit of Myriad Sword Mountain, you carefully sensed a very peculiar strand of sword intent.]

[Just then, True Monarch Tianshuang arrived not far away and waited respectfully.]

[You looked over at True Monarch Tianshuang.]

[True Monarch Tianshuang immediately stepped forward. "Sword Lord."]

[After you had stayed on Myriad Sword Mountain for more than ten years, all the Sword Cultivator true monarchs had taken to addressing you as "Sword Lord".]

[You had never instructed them to use this title; it had risen naturally from the deepest convictions of every Sword Cultivator true monarch.]

[From the moment you appeared on Myriad Sword Mountain, you were the lord of the Sword Dao in this world—the undisputed number one Sword Cultivator across the heavens and earth of the Human Realm.]

["How is your cultivation going?"]

[You looked at True Monarch Tianshuang and asked.]

[Shortly after settling on Myriad Sword Mountain, you had refined and improved the Sword Dao inheritance techniques practiced by True Monarch Tianshuang and the other Sword Cultivator true monarchs.]

[The Sword Dao inheritances of this era paled in comparison to those of the recent ancient era. In the ancient era, before the emergence of the Sword Lord, the lethal offensive power that Sword Cultivators excelled at was actually inferior to orthodox dharma cultivation and body cultivation lineages.]

["Sword Lord, I feel my Sword Dao mana has grown vastly purer. Both its might and every other aspect are far stronger than before," True Monarch Tianshuang said in high spirits, the gaze he turned on you growing ever more reverent.]

[Even though the Sword Dao was only one of the three thousand heterodox paths, its inheritances had been passed down across vast ages, and the technique True Monarch Tianshuang practiced was no exception. Modifying such a technique lightly carried far too high a risk of qi deviation.]

[Yet with just a casual adjustment from you, True Monarch Tianshuang could feel his very foundation being elevated. Such means were unimaginable and utterly unprecedented.]

["Mm."]

[You nodded slightly. To you, the Sword Dao technique True Monarch Tianshuang currently practiced could not have been simpler.]

[You did not mind giving True Monarch Tianshuang a few pointers; after all, as a Sword Cultivator, the stronger he became, the more useful he would be to you.]

["What is the reaction in the outside world?"]

[You asked.]

["Aside from us Sword Cultivators, the factions of the outside world know nothing of the Sword Lord. When the Sword Lord first arrived here, no other cultivators noticed..." True Monarch Tianshuang answered at once.]

[Hearing this, your mind settled.]

[In this simulation, you were holding fast to the same principle you had followed in the previous seven simulations.]

[Namely, before possessing sufficient strength, keep as low a profile as possible.]

[That was why you had avoided all contact with human cultivators before the age of eighteen.]

[As for hunting down Tier 3 and Tier 4 demon beasts... Demon beasts were different from human cultivators. Most demon beasts lived solitary lives, and even those with clans tended to gather in one place, allowing you to cut weeds and eliminate roots without leaving any trouble behind.]

[Human cultivators, on the other hand? Who knew what kind of backing they might have, or whether striking down the old would draw out the young—or vice versa? Naturally, you had no intention of inviting that kind of trouble.]

[Even though you were already invincible beneath the Deity Transformation Stage the moment you stepped into the Nascent Soul Stage, if a Deity Transformation Heavenly Monarch were to make a move, you would still be forced to flee in a sorry state.]

["There is something I need you to handle."]

[Looking at True Monarch Tianshuang, you spoke up.]

["Please give your orders, Sword Lord."]

[True Monarch Tianshuang's spirits stirred, and he answered immediately.]

[No matter how difficult the task entrusted to him by the Sword Lord might be, he would never refuse.]

["Thirty years ago... in the Eastern Wilderness Domain... the Artifact Forging Valley..."]

[You briefly recounted how the Artifact Forging Valley had been wiped out. "I want to know which true monarch laid hands on the Artifact Forging Valley, and which faction they belong to."]

[Your entire mind and energy were immersed in cultivation and comprehending the Sword Dao; you had no time to waste slowly investigating which true monarch had carried out the attack.]

[Trivial matters like this could simply be left to the Sword Cultivators of Myriad Sword Mountain.]

[Myriad Sword Mountain was still one of the three thousand heterodox paths. Even if it could not compare to a Deity Transformation Grade faction, it wielded considerable influence, especially among Sword Cultivators.]

["Understood."]

[True Monarch Tianshuang's expression turned solemn. He did not ask what kind of faction the Artifact Forging Valley was, nor why you wanted it investigated.]

[All he knew was that this was the very first task the Sword Lord had entrusted to him, and no matter the cost, he had to carry it out flawlessly.]

["You may go."]

[You waved a hand.]

[True Monarch Tianshuang respectfully withdrew.]

[Once more, you immersed yourself in sensing and observing the myriad sword intents while continuing your cultivation.]

[This Myriad Sword Mountain was not only a sacred land of the Sword Dao; beneath the surface of the sea lay a Quasi-Tier-5 spiritual vein.]

[In the ancient era, resources were abundant, and Quasi-Tier-5 spiritual veins were far more common than in the recent ancient era.]

[In the fortieth year, you were forty years old.]

[You began imparting numerous Sword Dao inheritances. You had created these inheritances in your spare time, and they were seamlessly suited to the heaven and earth environment of the ancient era.]

[Nurturing sufficiently powerful Sword Cultivators would allow them to serve you all the better.]

[In the fiftieth year, you were fifty years old.]

[You cultivated to the Nascent Soul Middle Stage Peak.]

[You immediately began your breakthrough, and several days later, you stepped into the Late Nascent Soul Stage.]

[Your breakthrough did not cause much of a stir, mainly because there were already so many Sword Cultivator true monarchs gathered atop Myriad Sword Mountain.]

[Aside from those Sword Cultivator true monarchs—who knew it was you who had broken through from the Early Nascent Soul Stage to the Mid Stage, and then from the Mid Stage to the Late Stage—the cultivators of the outside world simply assumed two different Sword Cultivator true monarchs had made breakthroughs.]

[And since the Sword Cultivator true monarchs obeyed your every command, no matter how shocked and incredulous they were, not one of them breathed a word of it to the outside world.]

[Cultivating from the Early Nascent Soul Stage to the Late Nascent Soul Stage in a mere twenty-two years—throughout the entire history of the Human Realm, not even the most peerless prodigy could have pulled off such a feat. Did one truly take cultivation breakthroughs to be as easy as eating and drinking water?]

["Late Nascent Soul Stage..."]

[You raised your right hand. Wisps of sword qi curled around your fingertips, and beneath those fine threads of sword qi, the very space of the Human Realm shattered inch by inch.]