Three Steps

Emperor Xuanyuan had definitely gone easy on him.

Although Lin Feng did not know why Emperor Xuanyuan had done so, he knew Emperor Xuanyuan had helped him. Emperor Xuanyuan must have hoped that he would truly obtain the Xuanyuan Divine Sword.

Naturally, he did not want to disappoint Emperor Xuanyuan.

But could he truly gain the Xuanyuan Divine Sword's recognition?

He did not know, but he would certainly give it everything he had.

Besides, since the system had sent him in to undergo the Xuanyuan Divine Sword's trial, there had to be a reason for it. Lin Feng believed his chances were still quite high.

But would things truly go as he expected?

After steadying his mind, Lin Feng drew a deep breath, slowly lifted his foot, and approached the Xuanyuan Divine Sword one step at a time.

There were only three steps.

As long as he crossed those three steps, he could touch the Xuanyuan Divine Sword.

Lin Feng's gaze sharpened, and he took a step forward.

"Damn... what the hell!"

The instant he stepped onto the first stair, he cried out. His leg was pressed directly into a bend, cracking loudly as though it were about to break.

An incomparably heavy force suddenly crashed down on him, making his entire body tremble. It felt as if he were carrying ten thousand tons on his back.

"No wonder everything before this had been smooth sailing. So the trial had been waiting for me here."

"Heh, mere pressure thinks it can stop this Sect Master?"

Lin Feng muttered a couple of lines, then prepared to circulate the spiritual energy within his Qi Sea and unleash Chaos Pressure against it.

But in the next second, he was dumbfounded.

All his spiritual energy had vanished, and Chaos Pressure seemed as though he had never possessed it at all.

"Hiss—"

Lin Feng's heart tightened. Just as he was about to ask the system what was happening, he discovered that the system had malfunctioned. No matter how he tried to communicate with it, there was no response.

"This..."

Lin Feng sucked in a cold breath. "What's going on?"

At that moment, he realized that every support he had relied upon was gone, and in an instant, he had returned to the days before liberation.

But no one answered him.

Moreover, the force of ten thousand tons did not lessen in the slightest. Instead, it grew even stronger.

At this moment, without spiritual energy and without the system, he found that he was nothing more than an ant.

"Heh, I don't fucking believe that without Butcher Zhang, we can't eat pork!"

"This Sect Master is going to lock horns with you today."

Lin Feng shouted, spread his legs sharply apart, gritted his steel teeth, gathered his strength to withstand the ten-thousand-ton force, and took another step.

The second stair.

At that moment, his entire body could not help but bend.

The pressure of the second step had already surpassed his imagination. This was no force of ten thousand tons—it was clearly as though a mountain had been pressed onto his spine.

His heart suddenly lurched, and a suffocating sensation arose. He spat out a mouthful of blood.

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans streamed down from his forehead.

His fists clenched tightly, veins throbbed across his face, and even his features twisted out of shape.

Yet Lin Feng did not give up.

He forcibly suppressed the blood surging into his throat. Amid the cracking of his bones, he slowly raised his right foot.

He wanted to step onto the third stair.

He knew his situation well. He could not hold on much longer and had to reach the third stair as soon as possible. Otherwise, he truly would be crushed to death alive.

Just then, he discovered that the air around him had suddenly become heavy, as though it were about to freeze him solid.

No matter what, his raised foot would not come down.

Yet at that moment, he could clearly feel that the Xuanyuan Divine Sword atop the altar was calling to him.

At that very moment, Lin Feng was frozen in place.

In his eyes, there was only that utterly unremarkable ancient sword in all heaven and earth.

"The Xuanyuan Divine Sword may be the foremost sword of offense, but it is not a sword of slaughter. It is a symbol of courage, wisdom, benevolence, and justice."

"Everything embodied by the Xuanyuan Divine Sword is this: Brave and Fearless! Benevolent and Invincible!"

At that moment, Emperor Xuanyuan's voice suddenly rang out.

"Benevolent and Invincible... what is Benevolent and Invincible..."

"Brave and Fearless... what is Brave and Fearless..."

Staring motionlessly at the simple, unadorned Xuanyuan Divine Sword, Lin Feng's brows furrowed deeply. As if possessed, he kept murmuring those questions to himself.

Brave and Fearless!

Benevolent and Invincible!

Anyone could understand the literal meaning of those eight words, yet at this moment, Lin Feng did not understand them at all. He only felt that those eight words carried the weight of mountains, the depth of oceans, as if they contained every truth between heaven and earth.

"Correct, it is Brave and Fearless! It is Benevolent and Invincible!"

As though Emperor Xuanyuan knew what Lin Feng was thinking, he declared those words with resounding force.

"Ignore everything outside. Use all your heart and mind to comprehend it. Perhaps then you will understand what Brave and Fearless means, and you will be able to take the final step."

"And if you wish to gain the Xuanyuan Divine Sword's recognition, you must open your heart and mind and sense its true profundity. Then you will understand what Benevolent and Invincible means."

"At that time, you may be able to draw it from its sheath. As long as you draw the sword, you will become Xuanyuan's new master."

He instructed him earnestly, his tone filled with encouragement and blessings.

"Ignore everything?"

"How could I ignore everything?"

Lin Feng murmured softly.

He had been frozen solid and could not even move. Even if he wanted to be valiant, he could not be valiant. He wanted to ignore it, but that mountain-like pressure was still gradually intensifying...

Suddenly, Lin Feng's eyes lit up. He seemed to have thought of something.

He instantly withdrew all the strength from his body and faced the mountain-crushing force head-on. To his delight, that invisible, intangible pressure vanished at the same time.

Moreover, his frozen body suddenly regained its freedom.

Lin Feng easily stepped onto the third stair and arrived before the Xuanyuan Divine Sword.

"Haha, so that's how it is!"

"Courage is not the bravery of a reckless man, nor is it the courage to pull up mountains and overpower rivers."

"Only when one stands like a cliff a thousand fathoms high, firm through freedom from desire, can it be called courage."

"Fearlessness is not merely the bold spirit of not fearing to be smashed to pieces. More importantly, it is a powerful heart that can smile and dismiss Mount Tai crashing down overhead."

"With an incomparably powerful heart, one will naturally be unstoppable in courage, regarding mountains of blades and seas of fire as nothing."

"This is what Brave and Fearless truly means!"

Lin Feng laughed.

At that moment, he clearly felt that his state of mind had undergone a subtle change.

At the same time, Lin Feng understood that Emperor Xuanyuan's words just now had been guiding him out of confusion. Otherwise, he would never have comprehended their true meaning.

Very soon, Lin Feng composed himself. He stared solemnly at the ancient sword before him.

The thick, long hilt was covered in unfamiliar runes. The entire sword gave off no energy fluctuations whatsoever, seeming even inferior to an ordinary mortal weapon.

Yet for some reason, the closer he came to the sword, the faster Lin Feng's heart beat beyond his control.

Perhaps it was because, just as Emperor Xuanyuan had said, he had only one chance. Success or failure would be decided in this single move.

Lin Feng drew a deep breath, gathered all the strength in his body into his hands, slowly reached out, and gripped the hilt.

Boom—

Before he could even draw the sword, a thunderous explosion erupted in Lin Feng's mind.

Immediately after...