Chapter 4: Sword Qi — Is It Really That Rare?

Three days in a row.

The hundred-plus people who had entered alongside Lin Xiao were all immersed in cultivation.

During that time, they had also attempted to tend to the Sword Tombs, but every effort ended in failure.

Their current level of Spiritual Energy simply wasn't enough.

Lin Xiao, on the other hand, had touched over twenty swords and mastered nearly ten different sword arts.

He had also accumulated more than twenty strands of considerable Sword Qi within his body.

But the greatest gains weren't those — they were the breadth of sword art experience and his growing understanding of this world.

The cultivation realms of this fantasy world were divided into the Qi Refinement Realm, the Spirit Gathering Realm, the Wheel Sea Realm, and the Revolving Pill Realm.

Each realm had nine stages.

As for Sword Demon Sect, the highest cultivation level among its members was that of Revolving Pill Realm experts.

Lin Xiao had also come to understand his own situation.

After his very first day of cultivation, he had already entered the ranks of cultivators, reaching the first stage of the Qi Refinement Realm.

Entering the ranks in a single day.

That kind of cultivation speed would normally be classified as genius-level.

To be precise, Lin Xiao had cultivated for less than one hour.

So what did entering the ranks in under an hour make him?!

What puzzled Lin Xiao was this…

His aptitude was clearly quite good — so why had the aptitude test that day branded him as a worthless waste?

Could it be because he was a Transmigrator who had taken over someone else's body?!

Once he confirmed he had entered the ranks in a single day, Lin Xiao stopped cultivating.

He was worried that if his cultivation produced too much of a stir — if he advanced too quickly — it would invite trouble.

Better to keep a low profile.

This was Sword Demon Sect. Anything could happen here.

On this particular day, Lin Xiao went to the Sword Pavilion and asked how one could apply for the monthly outing privilege.

He was told that one had to complete that month's Sword Tomb tending assignment — specifically, tending to ten Sword Tombs — before being permitted to leave for a few days.

The monthly tending assignment was trivially easy for Lin Xiao at this point.

But the others hadn't managed to tend even a single Sword Tomb successfully.

If he went ahead and completed all ten on his own, wouldn't that be a little too conspicuous?

Forget it, forget it.

Better to keep absorbing Sword Qi and reflecting on life for now.

In the days that followed, Lin Xiao's daily routine consisted of touching swords, reflecting on life, practicing swordsmanship, and deepening his comprehension of sword arts.

The Sword Qi stored within him grew more and more plentiful.

His understanding of the sword deepened with each passing day.

It wasn't until he had accumulated a hundred strands of Sword Qi that Lin Xiao realized he had reached his limit.

Or rather, at the first stage of the Qi Refinement Realm, he could only hold a hundred strands of Sword Qi.

Not a single strand more.

It seemed he would need to focus on advancing his cultivation as soon as possible.

Finally, one afternoon, among the hundred-plus people, someone managed to enter the ranks through the Qi Nourishing Art and successfully tended a Sword Tomb for the first time.

This drew a mixture of envy and jealousy from the others.

An ordinary Sword Demon Sect disciple typically took about three days to enter the ranks.

This person had taken nine days — which said quite a bit about their aptitude.

However, before the others had even finished envying that person, the following day at noon, they heard a piece of shocking news.

Among their group, a young man named Lin Xiao had apparently completed that month's Sword Tomb tending assignment that very morning.

"Holy shit, who is this Lin Xiao? I've never even heard of him."

"He's that lone wolf — the most antisocial one in the group. I think he goes by Lin Xiao."

"Oh, him. He must have entered the ranks two days before Old Zhao, so he finished the Sword Tomb assignment this fast."

"Word is he's already applied for his outing privilege and left."

"You don't think this Lin Xiao is trying to run away, do you?"

"Impossible. Sword Demon Sect is packed with powerful cultivators. You probably wouldn't make it a few steps before being cut down on the spot."

While everyone was busy discussing this, Lin Xiao had already left Pyre Heaven Sword Tomb, dressed in the grey robes of a Servant Disciple.

He didn't wander aimlessly.

Instead, he headed straight down the mountain toward the outer perimeter of the nearby Demonic Beast Forest.

Lin Xiao had no intention of running away. He simply wanted to find a quiet place to cultivate properly.

After holding back for so many days, he could finally cultivate to his heart's content.

Sigh~~~

Such was the burden of having extraordinary talent.

After venturing half an hour into the outer perimeter and confirming there was no one around, Lin Xiao found a secluded spot beside a large tree and sat down cross-legged.

His personal version of the Qi Nourishing Art began running at full power.

In an instant, the surrounding Spiritual Qi seemed to find an outlet, rushing toward him at increasing speed from all directions.

Faster and faster it came.

With his eyes closed, Lin Xiao seemed to "see" the ambient Spiritual Qi drifting through the surroundings — countless as the stars in the sky, too many to count.

Instinctively, he drew them into his body.

Gradually, a Spiritual Qi vortex several times larger than before took shape and continued to expand outward.

Just half an hour later, Lin Xiao's body gave a faint tremor.

Second stage of the Qi Refinement Realm.

One hour later.

Third stage of the Qi Refinement Realm.

Lin Xiao could feel the Spiritual Energy and Sword Qi within him circulating and expanding continuously.

For someone with Max-Level Comprehension like him, the bottlenecks between minor stages simply did not exist.

The barriers between each minor stage were shattered by Lin Xiao one after another.

As a complete novice to cultivation, he didn't yet know that a Spiritual Qi vortex of this kind typically only appeared under two circumstances.

The first was when a cultivator broke through a realm — the Spiritual Qi vortex would appear briefly.

The second was when a rare heavenly treasure emerged.

His vortex, however, lingered above his head without dispersing, and since his cultivation was still low, it produced no oppressive aura whatsoever.

This made it look almost identical to the vortex that appeared when a heavenly treasure surfaced.

After Lin Xiao had been cultivating for over two hours, a massive azure serpent — a demonic beast — slowly crept toward him.

Its gaze as it fixed on Lin Xiao was cold, greedy, and faintly puzzled.

Why is it a human? I thought it was a heavenly treasure?

At the same moment, Lin Xiao seemed to sense something.

His eyes snapped open and he turned to look.

His pupils contracted sharply.

An Azure Demon Python — a mid-tier demonic beast with power equivalent to a human cultivator at the Spirit Gathering Realm, above the Qi Refinement Realm.

And at the mid-stage of the Spirit Gathering Realm, no less.

Highly venomous, with ferocious attack power.

An Azure Demon Python like this could achieve an overwhelming victory even against several human cultivators of the same tier.

To say nothing of a Qi Refinement Realm cultivator.

Before it, such a person was nothing more than prey — food!

The Azure Demon Python flicked its black forked tongue, eyes locked onto the human before it.

Human or heavenly treasure, it doesn't matter. Just swallow it whole and be done with it.

But what puzzled the Azure Demon Python was this: the Qi Refinement Realm cultivator standing before it had indeed shown fear at first glance — but by the second glance, he had already composed himself.

And now he was wearing an expression that looked almost… eager.

Azure Demon Python: "???"

Has this person been scared witless?

No matter.

Time to eat!!

The Azure Demon Python let out a roar, opened its massive jaws, and lunged straight at Lin Xiao.

When the two were barely two meters apart—

"Slash!"

Lin Xiao let out a cold snort and flicked two fingers of his right hand forward.

Whoosh!

A tremendous surge of Sword Qi swept outward in reverse.

Like a river of stars stretching across the sky, it instantly tore up the ground beneath it!

Terror flashed in the Azure Demon Python's eyes.

This Sword Qi… was an unstoppable force.

It immediately whipped its head around and tried to flee in a frenzy.

But the Sword Qi was too fast.

The moment it thought to retreat, the Sword Qi had already arrived.

Boom!!

The Azure Demon Python's body froze in place.

A line of blood extended from its head all the way to its tail, and its life force vanished in a fleeting moment.

With a loud crash, its corpse split into two halves and collapsed to the ground.

"Not bad at all!" Lin Xiao smiled and muttered to himself.

He had casually drawn out just one strand of Sword Qi from within himself, and the power had been this staggering.

He'd started with a hundred strands of Sword Qi; now ninety-nine remained.

Still, Lin Xiao felt no particular regret. The Sword Tombs held what seemed like an inexhaustible supply of Sword Qi — he could replenish as much as he wanted.

Using one measly strand of Sword Qi was nothing.

Even if he used all hundred strands, a quick trip back to absorb more would set him right.

After giving the Azure Demon Python's corpse a simple once-over, Lin Xiao sat back down and resumed his cultivation.