Li Tianming brushed aside the silt.
Where the silt flowed away, a tiny sword barely half a meter long appeared. Mud rolled over its surface; without a close look, one would have thought it was merely an ordinary stone.
But!
Once the mud slid away, Lin Xiaogui clearly saw the graceful silhouette of a long-haired woman engraved upon the blade.
Lin Xiaogui had seen this portrait from Lin Clan mythology countless times.
"It's her... This is the dormant state of an ancestral sword stele! You actually found it?"
Lin Xiaogui was dumbfounded.
Ancestral sword steles had two states: dormant and awakened.
Most of the time, they remained dormant.
In that state, they were mere specks of dust in the underground world. It was practically impossible for Lin Clan disciples to find them.
Only when they awakened, enlarged, and transformed into sword steles as enormous as islands did it mean sword dao had emerged into the world, giving Lin Clan disciples a chance.
Precisely because most sword steles slumbered for long periods, ancestral sword steles in Sword Soul Purgatory were relatively rare, and not many appeared at once.
In truth, the total number of ancestral sword steles left behind by so many generations of powerful experts was extremely vast.
"I remember that throughout history, there have been very few records of anyone finding a sword stele in its dormant state."
Even now, Lin Xiaogui's gaze trembled with disbelief.
"What happens then? I don't need to pick a lock—ah, no, comprehend the sword! I can get the sword art without comprehending the sword?"
Li Tianming asked.
"Not really. The moment you touch it, it will awaken and turn into the form of that 'time-lapse photography' sword stele. You'll still need to comprehend the sword before you can possibly obtain it," Lin Xiaogui