Chapter 434: Sword Resolution
"What kind of bamboo is this? It's so resilient!" Lu Yuqing asked with a surprised expression.
"It should be a type of Purple Essence Bamboo, one of the hardest types of trees in existence," Han Li replied.
He continued onward while speaking, making his way up the steps in front of the bamboo cabin before stepping through the entrance.
The cabin was barely furnished, with only a woven bamboo eight immortals table coupled with four long benches in the outer room, and seven bamboo beds in the inner room.
"These beds are so small and narrow... It feels like they're meant for children," Lu Yuqing mused with slightly furrowed brows.
"It's said that the Boundless Sword Sect was extremely strict in its recruitment of disciples. There was never any large intake of disciples. Instead, existing disciples were sent out to search for children with supreme swordsmanship attitude, and these children were nurtured from a young age. This is most likely some of those disciples stayed in their youth," Han Li speculated.
"I see. I've read some records about this sect by chance in an ancient scripture, and I recall that the sect had extremely few members, all of whom very rarely left the sect, so it was a very mysterious entity, but I don't know any more beyond that," Lu Yuqing said.
"If disciples of this sect wanted to leave as sect disciples, then they had to reach the Golden Immortal Stage first. Otherwise, they would have to stay in the sect until the day they died. During its heyday, there was once a story about the sect having seven Golden Immortals traveling the world together, but not many people know of this story nowadays," Han Li said.
"How do you know about this, Brother Han?" Lu Yuqing asked with a curious expression.
"Technically, I'm a swordsman myself, so I keep an eye out for things like this in my reading. There are many more legends surrounding the Boundless Sword Sect, and the most renowned one pertains to the Boundless Sword Sea in its inner sect," Han Li continued.
"What's that?" Lu Yuqing asked with an intrigued expression.
Han Li began to make his way out of the bamboo cabin as he explained, "It's said that the founder of the Boundless Sword Sect, the Boundless Daoist, had a hobby of collecting swords. Regardless of whether it's a battle of life and death or just a casual spar, he would always take the flying swords of the opponents that he defeated to be kept in the sect's sword pond.
“All of the disciples that he took under his wing adopted the same tradition as well, and whenever they left the sect to explore the world, they would search for swords to bring back to the sect, and over time, the Boundless Sword Pond turned into the Boundless Sword Sea."
After emerging from the bamboo forest, the two of them continued up the winding mountain path, arriving at a stone staircase that extended all the way up into the clouds halfway up the mountain.
To the left of the stone staircase stood a giant black rock, upon which were inscribed the words "Sword Resolution Stone" in antiquated characters.
Han Li strode over to the giant rock, and upon close inspection, he discovered that there were two small lines of white text beneath the words "Sword Resolution Stone".
"True Immortals shall not take flight here, all swords of this world must bow their heads"
Every single character was giving off an indescribable aura of sharpness, as if each and every stroke was comprised of a streak of sword qi. It was clear that the inscription had been made by the same person as the one who had made the "Boundless Sword Sect" inscription on the plaque at the entrance.
"I can understand the first line alluding to how even True Immortals are unable to fly here, but what does the second line mean?" Lu Yuqing murmured to herself.
"The Boundless Sword Sea of the Boundless Sword Sect contains countless swords, and there's no larger collection of swords in this world. That's most likely what it means for all swords to have to bow their heads. However, what I'm struggling to understand is what this Sword Resolution Stone is supposed to be," Han Li mused.
As soon as his voice trailed off, a burst of thunderous rumbling suddenly rang out from the cloud above, and a burst of golden light emerged before spreading in all directions.
Han Li immediately looked to see what was happening overhead, while Lu Yuqing hurriedly asked, "What's happening, Brother Han?"
"Some type of restrictions seems to have been activated above the clouds. My spiritual connection with my bonded flying swords have been severed again," Han Li replied with tightly furrowed brows.
Immediately thereafter, he turned and strode onto the first stone step before launching himself diagonally upward, scaling several hundred steps with just a single leap.
Lu Yuqing immediately followed along in the same fashion, and the closer they drew to the mountain summit, the more humid the air became.
By the time they had reached an altitude of several thousand feet, they found themselves enshrouded in a cloud of misty water vapor.
As they traversed through the sea of mist, their visibility was severely hampered, and their spiritual sense was also significantly restricted.
"Something's not right with this mist... I can't see through it with my spirit eye ability, so be careful," Han Li cautioned as he conjured up a layer of protective spiritual light over his body and accelerated up the staircase.
Lu Yuqing was following along close on his heels with her ocular ability activated, and all of a sudden, she yelled, "Look out, Brother Han!"
As soon as her voice trailed off, two streaks of golden sword light came flying out of the dense mist above Han Li's head before hurtling down with one crossed over the other.
Han Li looked up to find that the two streaks of swordlight had been unleashed by a pair of tall wooden puppets with long and slender limbs.
Instead of retreating in the face of the attack, Han Li lunged forward instead, flying straight under the two streaks of swordlight.
As soon as he steadied himself, he instantly swiveled around, and a layer of azure light surfaced over his palm as he swung it toward the puppets in a chopping motion.
The two puppets remained completely still, but their heads suddenly swiveled around 180 degrees to face Han Li in a rather unsettling fashion.
At the same time, the joints of their sword-wielding hands also swiveled around, and one of the puppets parried Han Li's palm attack with its sword, while the other pierced its sword straight at Han Li's chest.
Han Li hurriedly sprang back in retreat to evade the attack, and he was feeling quite surprised.
The two puppets weren't giving off any aura at all, making it impossible to gauge their power level, but the swords that they were wielding were extremely formidable, as evidenced by the fact that it was able to slice through the azure light around his hand with ease.
Immediately thereafter, several more streaks of swordlight appeared above his head, then intertwined to form a golden sword net that swooped down upon him.
Han Li raised a fist before throwing a punch upward, releasing an azure fist projection, which was instantly sliced apart upon contact with the golden sword net.
Han Li swept a palm through the air once again, and this time, his Heavy Water True Axis flew out of his sleeve before rising upward like a revolving millstone.
The golden sword net appeared to be quite formidable, but upon coming into contact with the black light emanating from the Heavy Water True Axis, it instantly melted away like snow tossed into a fire.
Right at this moment, five more streaks of swordlight flashed through the air, and five additional wooden puppets appeared around Han Li without any warning.
As soon as these five puppets appeared, they were joined by the previous two puppets, which were charging at Han Li from behind with their swords aimed at the back of his chest.
However, before they had a chance to stride, two gusts of fierce azure wind rose up from down below, enveloping the pair of puppets before dragging them downward.
Han Li looked down to find Lu Yuqing wielding an azure feather fan that was radiating dazzling spiritual light, and with each wave, it was generating gusts of azure wind that trapped the wooden puppets inside.
Han Li made a beckoning motion with one hand, then thrust it forward, and the Heavy Water True Axis above his head instantly hurtled directly toward the puppet directly in front of him.
The puppet reacted quite quickly, making a hand seal with one hand while thrusting its longsword downward with the other.
A burst of golden light appeared on the tip of the longsword, and a massive golden sword projection erupted forth, crashing heavily into the Heavy Water True Axis.
An earth-shattering boom rang out, and the golden sword projection was instantly vanquished, while the sword-wielding puppet's body was also inundated and pulverized by the black light surging out of the Heavy Water True Axis.
After absorbing so much second level heavy water, the Heavy Water True Axis had become far more formidable than before.
The other four sword-wielding puppets swiveled their heads around to lock their eyes on Han Li, and at the same time, a peculiar rune on each of their glabellas began to radiate golden light as they thrust the tips of their swords toward the heavens.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he cast his gaze upward, and a sense of foreboding instantly welled up in his heart.
Sure enough, the faint glimmers of light began to appear above the mist that enshrouded the entire area, and the sky quickly began to rumble as if a thunderstorm were approaching.
"Come to me, Fellow Daoist Lu!" he hurriedly yelled.
Lu Yuqing immediately swept her fan through the air without any hesitation, releasing two fierce gusts of wind that blew the pair of puppets aside, then flew over to Han Li's side in a flash.
She had only just gotten under the Heavy Water True Axis when a burst of deafening rumbling began to ring out overhead, and a vast expanse of golden radiance descended from the heavens.
It was a mass of countless streaks of golden swordlight identical to the ones that Han Li had to contend with while attempting to fly to the mountain summit.
Those streaks of swordlight had only been present to prevent people from taking flight, whereas this golden sword array was purely designed to kill its target, so the swordlight within it was far more formidable than before.
Not only that, but the descending streaks of swordlight were also imbued with faint hints of metal law fluctuations, and that was why Han Li had called Lu Yuqing to his side so urgently.
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