Breaking Through to the Martial Arts Myth Realm

Chen Du withdrew his pressure.

The Yun Family experts filling the hall breathed a collective sigh of relief. Some gasped for breath, some pulled themselves up against the walls, and even more remained on their knees, still unable to recover.

Yun Xiaotian braced himself on the Ancestral Sword and slowly straightened. His grizzled beard trembled slightly, but his sword hand remained steady.

"Your Highness," Yun Xiaotian said gravely, "our Yun Family's Xiantian supreme art is the foundation of our eight-hundred-year legacy. None but members of the Yun Family may read it. That rule cannot be broken.

"But since Your Highness has come here today, an outright refusal from this old man would make the Yun Family seem ungracious."

He slowly drew the Ancestral Sword. The bronze scabbard fell to the ground, and the instant the blade emerged, an incomparably fierce sword intent soared into the sky...

It was genuine Xiantian sword intent: the sword intent of Yun Potian from eight hundred years ago, Yun Zhonghe from five hundred years ago, and Yun Wuhen from three hundred years ago.

Three generations of Xiantian ancestors had poured their lifelong sword intent into this sword before their deaths, and now it all awoke.

The sword intent rattled the roof tiles of the council hall, and fine sword marks appeared across its beams and pillars.

The Yun Family disciples retreated one after another, yet even after falling back several zhang, they still felt as though knives were slicing their faces.

"If Your Highness can emerge unscathed beneath the Ancestral Sword's sword intent, the Yun Family will offer its Xiantian supreme art with both hands."

Chen Du nodded. "It's a deal."

Yun Xiaotian took a deep breath, raised the sword in both hands, and brought it down in a single slash, his hair and beard bristling.

The three strands of sword intent merged into one, becoming a white sword aura visible to the naked eye. Wherever the sword aura passed,

The bluestone floor tiles silently split open, leaving a bottomless chasm. The entire council hall was cleaved in two down the middle, and roof tiles rained down overhead.

This single strike contained the lifelong power of three generations of the Yun Family's Xiantian experts. Killing a Xiantian expert with it would have been no trouble at all.

Chen Du stood where he was, without even using the Flying Bird Body-Flicker Technique.

He watched the world-destroying sword aura cleave toward his face and merely raised his right hand, spreading his five fingers.

Xiantian Peak aura gathered in his palm, and a phantom of the Immovable Wisdom King flashed into and out of existence. There was no golden light filling the sky, no heaven-shaking Buddhist chants, only aura of utter purity.

The earth-shattering sword aura struck his palm and shattered without a sound.

The sword qi filling the air dissipated completely, leaving only a few lingering strands of sword intent drifting away.

The last few broken tiles fell from the roof beams, striking the bluestone floor with crisp sounds.

The Ancestral Sword in Yun Xiaotian's hand dropped to the ground, and the light that had flowed across its blade for eight hundred years dimmed for the first time.

Yun Family disciples knelt all over the ground. Yun Mubai looked up at the moon-white figure and murmured, "This is impossible..."

Chen Du lowered his hand and said evenly, "Even among Xiantian experts, there are differences in strength."

He cupped his hands to Yun Xiaotian. "May I read the scripture now?"

Yun Mubai personally brought over a sandalwood box. Inside was a yellowed silk scroll, embroidered along the edges with gold thread and warm and smooth to the touch.

This was the foundation of the Yun Family's eight-hundred-year legacy... the "Cloud Sea Heart Sutra."

Yun Xiaotian presented it with both hands, offering no further excuses.

Chen Du unrolled the silk and read it carefully from beginning to end.

He had read thousands of martial arts manuals in Qianchuan Hall, covering everything from third-rate arts to the pinnacle of Houtian.

But compared with the silk scroll before him, those books were like oil lamps held up against the bright moon.

Houtian martial arts concerned the circulation of true qi and variations in moves, whereas Xiantian martial arts involved resonance with heaven and earth and the melding of one's own intent.

Every word contained its writer's understanding of the Dao of heaven and earth. Every line of the mnemonic told him that at the end of martial arts lay not technique, but the Dao.

He became absorbed in reading.

The Yun Family members dared not disturb him and could only stand at a distance.

They watched the young prince hold their family's supreme art, the foundation of their clan, frowning at times, nodding at others, and occasionally showing a look of sudden understanding.

Before long, more than ten days had passed.

Chen Du rolled up the silk, and deep within his consciousness, the long-silent text appeared once more:

[You read the Xiantian martial arts manual "Cloud Sea Heart Sutra." Drawing upon your previous accumulation in Martial Arts Creation, your heaven-defying comprehension has been triggered. You have comprehended the Martial Arts Myth-level martial art "Cloud Sea Heavenly Scripture"!]

[Cloud Sea Heavenly Scripture: a Martial Arts Myth-level martial art. Take heaven and earth as the furnace and the sea of clouds as the foundation, and gather them within one's body. Upon reaching major mastery, a single thought stirs wind and clouds, and a single palm overturns the vast sea.

Transform the body into a sea of clouds, without form or substance, able to gather or disperse. Wherever the cloud qi reaches, all is one's Domain; within the Domain, no art can penetrate. Note: this martial art has surpassed the category of Xiantian martial arts. Its grade cannot be measured.]

Chen Du slowly exhaled. Martial Arts Myth-level—this was the highest-grade martial art he had created in the Xuanye Realm.

He now had a point of comparison. The "Wisdom King Vajra Art" had been derived from a peak Houtian art, with an upper limit of Half-Step Xiantian. Only after he broke through that limit had it reached the Xiantian level.

The foundation of the "Cloud Sea Heavenly Scripture," however, was a Xiantian martial art, and its upper limit reached all the way to the Myth level!

[Creation of a Martial Arts Myth-level martial art detected. Realm barrier loosened!]

[Attempt a breakthrough to the Martial Arts Myth Realm?]

"Yes!"

The words on the silk scroll slowly settled in his mind, and Chen Du closed his eyes.

The essence of the Cloud Sea Heart Sutra lay not in its moves, but in its intent: clouds had no constant form, and the sea welcomed a hundred rivers.

With his heaven-defying comprehension, he had derived this Xiantian martial art to the Myth level. During that process,

The Xiantian aura in his dantian began to circulate on its own, surging through his meridians along the Cloud Sea Heavenly Scripture's entirely new route.

In his sea of consciousness, his Spiritual Power, once like a stream, suddenly swelled.

For three years, he had tempered his Spiritual Power with his Xiantian Peak cultivation, bringing it to a level ordinary Xiantian experts could scarcely reach.

Atop Yandang Mountain, the wind and clouds abruptly changed.

The clouds in the night sky began to rotate slowly, forming an enormous vortex.

The center of the vortex stood directly over the Yun Family Manor. Cloud qi from hundreds of li around surged in like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, pouring into the moon-white figure in the council hall.

Yun Xiaotian and the others were forced back again and again by this tide of spiritual qi. Only after retreating into the courtyard did they barely manage to steady themselves.

They looked up to see the sea of clouds churning, the moonlight shattered by the vortex into countless silver scales that drifted down among the mountains.

Chen Du opened his eyes. The sea of clouds filling the sky was reflected in his pupils, and wherever his gaze fell, the withered yellow moss between the courtyard's bluestone slabs turned green again at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the corner by the wall, an old plum tree that had been dead for years suddenly put forth a new shoot.

His Spiritual Power was spilling out unconsciously, stirring the vitality of the surrounding heaven and earth.

Martial Arts Myth!

A realm that had existed only in legend in the Xuanye Realm for hundreds of years had now become reality in him.

Chen Du looked down at his hands... Was this the Martial Arts Myth Realm? It was a leap in the level of life itself.

He still stood in the Yun Family's council hall, but his perception had already spread over the whole of Yandang Mountain.

Only after breaking through to the Martial Arts Myth Realm did Chen Du truly understand why this realm had existed only in legend for hundreds of years.

It was not an accumulation of quantity, but a leap in quality. At Xiantian Peak, he had been a divine weapon forged of steel refined a hundred times. Now he was the person wielding the blade, the blade itself, and, beyond that, the heaven and earth toward which its edge pointed. In mortal eyes, such power was already close to divine.

But he was not complacent.

The Xiantian expert in the imperial palace who had never shown himself remained like a thorn lodged in his heart.

He had been unable to detect the other person when he entered Xiantian, and still unable to detect him at Xiantian Peak. Now that he had stepped into the Myth Realm, he did not know whether he could detect him.

But there was no hurry.

Once he obtained the other two Xiantian supreme arts and comprehended two more Martial Arts Myth-level martial arts, bringing his total to three, perhaps they could help him break through to an even higher realm.

Then he could return to the imperial capital. Whether a dragon or a flood dragon lurked at the bottom of that pool, he would have the confidence to put a question to him face-to-face.

After leaving Yandang Mountain, he did not turn back toward the Central Plains, but continued west.

The cloud qi of the Cloud Sea Heavenly Scripture supported him. With every step, a cloud pattern appeared beneath his feet out of thin air, carrying him a hundred zhang away.

Behind him, the clouds and mist of Yandang Mountain slowly closed as though seeing him off, hiding the martial arts family that had endured for eight hundred years.

The Western Regions, a sheer cliff ten thousand ren high.

The Hanging Temple was set into the cliffside, its plank walkways suspended in the air and clouds and mist winding around it. Bells echoed through the gorge.

Chen Du arrived on clouds and landed outside the temple gates. Two novice monks sweeping the ground looked up and saw him, but showed no alarm. They put down their brooms and greeted him with palms pressed together.

"Benefactor, the abbot invites you in."

Chen Du raised an eyebrow slightly.

He had traveled west without ever announcing his name, yet the two novice monks seemed to have expected him.

He asked no further questions and followed the monk guiding him across the suspended walkway, through the Hall of Heavenly Kings, and into the Mahavira Hall.

Incense smoke curled through the hall. The golden statue of Shakyamuni gazed downward, and beneath it, an elderly monk with white hair and eyebrows sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, slowly turning a strand of red sandalwood prayer beads in his hand as he smiled at Chen Du.

"Benefactor, you have finally come," the old abbot said gently and unhurriedly. "This old monk has waited seven days for you."

Chen Du pressed his palms together in return. "Abbot, you knew I was coming?"

The old abbot smiled. "This old monk did not know who you were, Benefactor, but there was an instruction within the temple: today, a person with a deep affinity for Buddha would come seeking a martial art, and it must be shown to him."

As he spoke, he took a scripture from his sleeve. Five characters were written on its cover in gold lacquer... "Mahavairocana True Scripture."

The scripture was old and its pages yellowed, but it had been preserved in excellent condition.

Holding it in both hands, he offered it to Chen Du. "This is the Hanging Temple's treasured possession, a Xiantian martial art. Benefactor, you have an affinity with Buddha. There is no need for further words; simply take it and read."

Chen Du accepted the scripture but did not rush to open it. "Abbot, you give me this treasure so readily. Aren't you afraid the monks of the temple will object?"

The old abbot turned his prayer beads, his smile deepening. "You will understand in time, Benefactor. Buddha saves those with an affinity, asking neither where they came from nor where they are going."

Even Chen Du himself had not expected to obtain a Xiantian-level martial art so easily.