Chapter 208: Heavenly Sword Tomb
All of the Core Formation cultivators turned to inspect the underside of the fourth Origin Defying Stone Sword upon hearing this, and they were greeted by a peculiar sight.
A small line of text had appeared on the underside of the sword, and it read: "The number one sword cultivator of Heavenly South was here". [1]
It appeared that someone had forcibly engraved this line of text onto the surface of the sword, and every single stroke resembled a sharp sword in itself.
"What happened? I don't think this line of text was there before..."
"Could it be that one of the inner sect elders who just undertook the trial did this?"
"That's impossible! Deputy Dao Lord Xiong once said that these Origin Defying Stone Swords don't have any offensive power, but they're as hard as immortal treasures!"
"Then who could've done this?"
"It doesn't matter, just remember to never speak of this to anyone and pretend as if you saw nothing here. If Deputy Dao Lord Xiong finds out about this, all of us will be in huge trouble!"
"Of course."
"You're right, we have to keep this a secret."
"By the way, what kind of place is Heavenly South?"
"Who knows? Probably some insignificant place in the middle of nowhere..."
The chatter continued as the group of Core Formation cultivators carried the fourth Origin Defying Stone Sword away from the plaza.
……
Meanwhile, Xiong Shan and the others had descended to the foot of the Heavenly Sword Peak, where they were hovering in the air in front of a golden mountain face.
With a rustle of his sleeves, four streaks of golden sword qi were released by Xiong Shan, and they circled around momentarily in the air before vanishing into a certain section of the mountain face up ahead.
Initially, the mountain face remained completely unmoved, and it was as if the two streaks of golden sword qi had simply vanished. However, in the next instant, bright golden light began to radiate from the surface of the mountain face, and countless golden runes sprang forth, intertwining in mid-air to form a strange diagram that resembled a sword array.
The section of the mountain face encompassed within the golden light gradually turned semi-transparent, and Mo Xie chuckled, "So this is the entrance of your vastly renowned Heavenly Sword Tomb. What an eye-opening sight this is."
Xiong Shan wore a solemn expression, and he offered no reply to Mo Xie as he swept his sleeves through the air while chanting an incantation, and more streaks of golden sword 1i flew out of his sleeve before vanishing into the sword array, making it become clearer and clearer.
Han Li was inspecting the sword array before him with an intrigued expression, and through it, he could see a black passageway slowly taking shape on the mountain face.
Meanwhile, a hint of excitement had appeared on Qi Liang's face.
"You seem very excited, Brother Qi," Han Li remarked through voice transmission.
"You've only recently joined our sect, so it's no surprise that you haven't heard of the Heavenly Sword Tomb. Deputy Dao Lord Xiong is a renowned sword collector in our sect, and it's said that he's collected countless powerful swords in this Heavenly Sword Tomb, making it an extremely renowned place.
“However, it's also an extremely mysterious place, and barely anyone in the sect has had a chance to see it. I never thought that he would take us into the Heavenly Sword Tomb today. It looks like he must be intending to refine a treasure in there," Qi Liang explained.
"I see," Han Li replied with a contemplative nod, and he was also becoming rather intrigued.
At this point, Xiong Shan had already reached the final stage of his incantation, and the golden light radiating from the mountain face was growing even brighter, gradually forming a thick golden light barrier with countless runes shimmering on its surface.
A string of dull thumps rang out, and seven indentations appeared on the golden light barrier in a circular formation.
Xiong Shan abruptly ceased his chanting as he swept a sleeve through the air, releasing seven balls of white light that contained seven golden crescent-shaped talisman-like objects.
The seven golden talismans flew through the air before fitting seamlessly into the indentations on the light barrier at his behest.
Countless runes began to surge out of the golden light barrier, which gradually became thinner as the flow of runes continued, and the light barrier finally completely vanished after a full 15 minutes had passed.
A black passageway was revealed, and it was unclear where it led to. It was also impossible to examine what laid beyond the entrance with one's spiritual sense as some type of sensory restriction present.
"Come in," Xiong Shan said before leading the way into the passageway, followed closely by Mo Xie and everyone else.
Once everyone had entered the passageway, a burst of golden light surged over the mountain face, and the entrance of the passageway was closed again.
The dark passageway was quite long, and everyone only reached the conclusion after walking for a full 15 minutes. At the end of the passageway was a giant azure stone gate that was quite antiquated in appearance with countless runes engraved onto its surface.
Xiong Shan pulled out a badge before gently waving it at the azure stone gate, and a layer of azure light instantly appeared over the surface of the gate, as if it had awakened after a long slumber.
The azure light warped momentarily before forming an array that was even more complex than the one on the mountain face outside.
Immediately thereafter, Xiong Shan swept a sleeve through the air, and nine small azure swords came flying out one after another before plunging themselves into nine different parts of the stone gate.
The array on the surface of the stone gate flashed momentarily before gradually fading, and the gate slowly swung open.
Right at this moment, an incredibly bright burst of light erupted out from within, and the eruption of light had come so abruptly that everyone outside reflexively closed their eyes.
As the burst of dazzling light enveloped everyone, they instantly vanished from within the passageway, and by the time Han Li reopened his eyes, he could hear the sound of howling wind blowing past his ears.
It was as if the entire space were filled with countless bursts of powerful sword intent that were surging toward him from all directions.
After taking a moment to gather himself, he inspected his surroundings to find that he was standing on a vast grassland.
The grassland was riddled with dome-shaped graves, each of which had a flying sword plunged into it, and there were over 1,000 flying swords present.
Dispersed between the countless graves were 10 massive black stone pillars, each of which was separated by hundreds of kilometers, splitting up the entire Heavenly Sword Tomb into 10 sections.
Furthermore, there were three teams of cultivators stationed in each section, with each team consisting of a Grand Ascension Stage leader and nine Body Integration cultivators, amounting to a total of 300 cultivators.
Han Li swept his gaze over the grassland, and there was only a hint of surprise on his face, but in reality, he was astonished by what he was seeing.
Among the flying swords plunged into the graves, some were as slender as willow branches, some were as wide as palace gates, some were giving off glacial qi that had frozen all of the grass in a radius of several hundred feet, and some were burning with scorching flames that scorched the earth around them...
Every single one of the flying swords was swaying slightly from side to side while emitting a faint ringing sound, and astonishing sword qi was surging straight into the heavens, slicing all of the clouds up above into thin ribbons.
There were also some flying swords that would occasionally begin trembling violently while giving off a piercing screech as they attempted to pull themselves out of their graves. Whenever this happened, the cultivators stationed nearby would immediately make a string of hand seals to quell the unrest.
However, there were so many flying swords on the grassland that as soon as one flying sword was restrained, another one would begin struggling, with some even managing to pull themselves out of their graves altogether, so the cultivators present were constantly kept on their toes.
However, these cultivators seemed to have already grown accustomed to this, and they were able to perform their duties in a calm and orderly fashion.
Every single one of these flying swords was an exceptional treasure that a Body Integration or even a Grand Ascension cultivator would've sacrificed all of their belongings to acquire, and some of the premium flying swords in this tomb would've been extremely alluring even to True Immortal cultivators.
Such an astonishing collection of flying swords gathered in a single place would've been enough to shock anyone as this was no longer something that could've been acquired through wealth alone.
All of the True Immortal cultivators present had flying swords as their bonded treasures and were extremely proficient in the art of sword manipulation, so they were even more astonished by this extraordinary sight.
Zhu Feng reluctantly withdrew his gaze from the vast array of flying swords around him as he turned to Xiong Shan with an admiring expression and praised, "I had always heard that Deputy Dao Lord Xiong's Heavenly Sword Tomb was an extraordinary place, but even all of the rumors I've heard fail to do this place justice. I am truly humbled by what I have been shown today..."
There was some element of flattery to his words, but no one else found it to be overly sycophantic as they were thinking the same thing.
"I spent a great deal of time and effort over the past tens of thousands of years to gather these swords, and I must say, it was no easy task collecting the 1,080 flying swords required to form this sword array," Xiong Shan replied as a hint of pride flashed through his eyes.
However, Han Li wasn't listening to this conversation at all as his gaze was focused intently on the northwestern direction of the Heavenly Sword Tomb.
This was because there were 72 graves in that area, plunged into each of which was an azure flying sword. All of the azure flying swords were trembling incessantly as thin arcs of golden lightning flashed over them, as if they were trying to struggle free from their graves.
These 72 azure flying swords were none other than the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords that Han Li was searching for!
The flying swords seemed to have detected Han Li's presence, and they began to struggle even more violently, releasing dazzling arcs of lightning as they did so.
Han Li's pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this, and his first instinct was naturally to take back his flying swords.
However, there was no way that he could simply ask for them from Xiong Shan, and attempting to take them by force would've been no different from committing suicide.
With that in mind, he immediately suppressed his burning desire to recover his flying swords as he cut off the spiritual connection between himself and the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.
1. Heavenly South is a continent in the Mortal Realm that Han Li came from. For more information, check out https://a-record-of-a-mortal-is-journey-to-immortality.fandom.com/wiki/Heavenly_South ☜
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