Chapter 115: Challenge(2)
“Schlink!” The rapiers that were supposed to skewer Ling Tian was blocked by two swords. One would have thought that Ling Tian managed to move his arms quickly.
But these swords were actually moving by themselves.
Prince Orwell smiled when he saw Ling Tian making his move. His countenance then paled when he saw 98 more swords floating in the air.
Prince Orwell leapt back, putting himself 5 meters away from Ling Tian. He carefully observed Ling Tian, who was now protected by 100 swords.
These swords were all at the at the Second Level. All of them revolved around Ling Tian, acting as a barrier. This makeshift defense made it impossible for Prince Orwell to appear beside Ling Tian.
But Prince Orwell also knew that with Ling Tian still under his spell, he can only use his swords to attack. He was confident that he can dodge Ling Tian’s attacks. He was after all, a sky dao practitioner.
If Ling Tian had known what Prince Orwell had been thinking now, he would have laughed in disdain. Even if Prince Orwell can fly freely, he cannot escape Ling Tian’s swords.
All 100 swords clustered together, forming a large sword. They seem to be united as one, emanating a fierce aura. This sword represented Ling Tian’s feelings.
This was the First Stance of his 9 Stance Sword Arts.
“Slash! My Sword is my Heart!”
The 9 Stance Sword Arts consisted of 9 different sword stances that Ling Tian used on his sword formation. Each stance was represented by life experiences that he learned on his cultivation path.
For each stage that he steps on, he manages to comprehend a stance. In his past life, because he only reached the Fifth Stage, he managed to only comprehend 5 stances before he died. As for the Sixth to the Ninth Stance, he had to step on the Sixth to the Ninth Stages to comprehend them.
Ling Tian used his first encounter with a sword cultivator as the foundation of his First Stance.
................................
At his past life, Ling Tian was an orphaned boy. Nobody knew who his real parents were. He was only found in crying inside a basket in front of the orphanage. The orphanage owners of course had no choice but to take him in and raise him as a part of the orphanage.
Ling Tian spent 16 years as a resident of the orphanage. Then one day, news came out that some small sects nearby will visit the orphanage to look for some possible cultivators.
The naïve Ling Tian at that time was of course excited, since he like other children, wanted to soar the skies and be powerful.
But it seems like the heavens did not favor Ling Tian at that time.
When his aptitude for cultivation was tested, Ling Tian found out that he had the worst aptitude for the Immortal Cultivation or even the Godly Ascension.
This was abnormal, since everyone born in a cultivation planet has the aptitude to be a practitioner. The worst that could happen was to be born with a very low quality practitioner aptitude. This people were the most numerous in the planet.
They can still cultivate, it will be just extremely difficult. As such, most of them chose to not cultivate at all, and live what was commonly known as the ‘mortal life'”
Ling Tian was one of them, and this meant that he was doomed in the practitioner world. He will live as a mortal and die as a mortal.
This brought Ling Tian to the depths of despair. He can still clearly remember the gloating looks on the faces of the orphans who had been brought away by the cultivators. He was angry at his fate, angry against the heavens.
He even thought to himself,
“Maybe the reason my parents threw me away was because I am a waste?”
After a month of extreme depression, Ling Tian decided that he could not take it anymore. He decided to kill himself to free himself from his disappointment.
He chose the highest cliff just an hour away from the orphanage. Ling Tian looked down from the edge as he saw the jagged rocks below. He gulped as he stepped forward, ready to do his death plunge.
But before he could move forward, he felt his foot being grabbed by someone. He looked down, and he saw a dirty, wounded man on the ground. He gave a toothy grin at Ling Tian as he said,
“Can you spare this man with some coin?”
“Here.” Ling Tian reached deep on his pocket as he felt a bronze coin in it. He gave it to the dirty man.
After giving the coin, Ling Tian started to move forward again, clearly wanting to finish what he was supposed to do earlier.
“Are you trying to kill yourself, young lad?” Surprisingly, a deep voice emanated from the dirty man’s throat.
Ling Tian’s foot paused in the air as he contemplated on what the man said.
“Yes I want to kill myself, so what?”
“So what? Hahaha, why don’t you tell me your problem first? Maybe I can help you.”
Ling Tian looked doubtfully at the dirty man. But then he thought that since he was going to die, why not entertain this poor man?
Ling Tian then narrated his woes to the dirty man. He told him of his frustrations and disappointments.
Once he heard this, the dirty man let out a boisterous laugh. This laugh may seem happy at the start, but Ling Tian could feel grief and anger layered on it.
“Silly boy, just because of that, you want to give up! You really deserve to die!”
“Wha-?”
“Listen to me, boy. This is the first time I am teaching someone, so be honored!” The dirty man’s aura changed from mediocre to domineering.
“I came from a powerful sword sect. I was the prime disciple there, and my peers and elder adored me. I have a lovely wife, and three cute children. Such life was a bliss.” The dirty man had a contented smile on his face as he reminisced the past.
But then, his expression change to pure grief.
“Then one day, I managed to discover a heaven-defying treasure. That treasure was a fragment of a Universe Artifact! Of course, I knew the danger brought by such precious artifact. So, I brought it back to the sect and hid it inside our treasury. I do not dare to keep it for myself, since I knew I am not strong enough to control it. To keep my sect safe, I also did not tell anyone else about it.
Ling Tian felt that the man was struggling to contain his rage. But it seemed to be futile as he roared,
“Then that damned man came! He demanded my sect to hand over that fragment of the Universe Artifact! Because I did not tell anyone about it, they had no idea about the Universe Artifact. They then denied such treasure was in the sect.”
“That man was then pissed. He said he knew that the treasure was in the sect since he had all the other fragments collected already. The fragment inside the sect was the only fragment missing to complete the Universe Artifact. The fragments he collected all pointed towards my sect!”
“The man then said that if we will not give the fragment, he will take it by force! The whole sect was angry of course. Some disciples attacked the man, but it was as if he did not take any damage at all. That man then smiled as he said it was his turn to attack.”
“He raised his right palm, and brought it crashing down! All of us were horrified when we saw that his attack was as powerful as an attack of a Ninth Stage Practitioner! The strongest practitioner in our Sect only reached the Eight Stage. As a result, everyone aside from me..... died from that attack.”
“My friends! My wife! My family! All killed because of my foolishness!” Tears streamed down the man’s face as he continued.
“I survived the attack, but my cultivation was crippled. I have to restart my cultivation in order to be strong again. As for that cursed bastard, he took away the final fragment with him. He was happy as he left the ruins of a once happy sect.”
“......” Upon hearing this, Ling Tian felt that his sadness was inconsequential compared to the man’s misery.
“I can cultivate right now, but what is the use of it? Everyone I love were all dead. All dead.....”
Ling Tian then hesitatingly said,
“Our orphanage owner once said, ‘Your body might be destroyed, your heart may be in pain and your mind may be in shambles. But as long as one still has determination and will, such obstacles will be your stepping stones.'”.
“...........”
“...........”
“Hahahaha, well said!” Thunder and lightning crackled in the sky as the dirty man transformed in front of Ling Tian. He changed from looking like a beggar to a dignified practitioner. A sword hung from his back as he stared at Ling Tian gratefully.
“Thank you for what you said, boy. I talked to you since I want to save you. But it seems like you are the one who saved me! You made me realize what my goal should be now!”
“Ah well, congratulations.”
“As a thanks for what you did, I therefore advice you to embark on the cultivation path.”
“But I have a very bad disposition to cultivate....”
“Oh that, sorry but I cannot help you on that.”
“Then how can I cultivate!”
“Well, since I am the only remaining member of my sect, I suppose I can take you as my first disciple.”
The man waved his hand as a scroll appeared on it. He gave it to Ling Tian, who touched it gingerly.
“That’s the holy sword scripture of the Sword Sovereign Sect. Train on it well, and you can reach the peak as long as you have that determination and will you were talking about. Bye then!” The man swaggered away, ignoring the dumbfounded Ling Tian.
“This is mine now, right?”
That moment started Ling Tian’s rise as a practitioner. He created the 9 Stance Sword Arts from the holy sword scripture.
As for his cultivation, he was extremely lucky in his past life. He managed to find natural treasures everywhere he went that improved his cultivation disposition. He was so lucky that before his death, his cultivation talent was comparable to that of an absolute genius! (Plot Armor)
As for that man who urged him to cultivate, he never found him again.
That lesson about determination that he discussed with the dirty man served as the core of his First Stance.
It was his determination and his will that embarked him into the path of cultivation. It was fitting that his sword was to represent such concept.
.............................
Ling Tian had no qualms on using this attack now, since his famous attacks were the Third-Fifth Stances. Using the First and Second Stances were perfectly fine, as long as his opponents in his past life will not see it personally.
Prince Orwell tried to escape, but before he knew it, the sword slash was in front of him already! He had no choice but to use another one of his Daoist spell.
“Path Reversal!”
Prince Orwell expected the attack to move backwards, but to his surprise, the swords moved on, ignoring the spell he just used.
“Bang!”
Prince Orwell spat large amounts of blood as the attack hit him. He crashed towards the ground, as the Skydome Family entourage shouted anxiously.
“Young Master!”
But Prince Orwell just lay there, unable to even lift his finger.
“Che.” Wang Hao said disgruntledly. “He won with just one attack. One attack! How overpowered must he be? This is cheating!”
“Hearing you say that sounds really weird.” Eleanor muttered beside him.
“..............”
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