Mysterious Tadpoles

"What's going on?"

Fang Chen had no idea why so many runes had suddenly appeared on Stone, or why it was giving off such powerful Sword Intent.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he swung the Floating Immortal Sword at the boulder again.

Clang!

The Floating Immortal Sword left a long sword mark on the boulder.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

The Floating Immortal Sword shook violently. A current fiercer than the last surged from its hilt into Fang Chen's palm, then swept through his body. Veins bulged beneath his skin. When the current entered his dantian, his body jolted and his belly swelled. His dantian felt ready to burst. When it reached his mind, a roar shook his head, as though someone had smashed it with Stone. The pain was unbearable; his skull felt as if it would split open.

"Ah..."

Fang Chen could not hold back a scream. He had not expected the Spiritual Power coming from the Floating Immortal Sword to grow so much stronger in an instant. Fortunately, his body had toughened considerably over the past month. Otherwise, that surge alone might have burst him apart.

He immediately pushed the Glazed Qi Refining Art to its limit. The vortex of true qi in his dantian spun rapidly, drawing the surrounding Spiritual Power into his body in a frenzy.

Only after ten full breaths did Fang Chen finish refining that surge of Spiritual Power. The true qi in his dantian had grown much fuller.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

The runes on the boulder's surface kept flashing. Spiritual Qi gathered around it and was absorbed into the stone.

Fang Chen did not know why the boulder had changed, but he knew this chance was rare. That single strike had brought him more than the hundreds he had made yesterday. He could not let the opportunity slip away.

He swung at the boulder again, and the fierce current poured into him once more. This time, the pain was not as bad as the first, though it was still far from pleasant. Gritting his teeth, he drove his cultivation art with all his might and refined the current as quickly as he could. Only when he had absorbed it completely did he dare swing again. Otherwise, his body would surely burst.

Each surge stretched Fang Chen's dantian until it felt ready to explode. Under the repeated impacts, it gradually grew larger.

The change astonished Fang Chen.

Ordinarily, the dantian transformed and expanded only when a cultivator crossed a major realm: from the Qi Refining Realm to the Foundation Establishment Realm, from the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Golden Core Realm, or from the Golden Core Realm to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Yet Fang Chen had not reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, and his dantian was still growing.

He knew it had to be the fierce current flowing into him from the Floating Immortal Sword. Each time it entered his body, it swelled his dantian until it seemed about to tear open.

Under those repeated impacts of Spiritual Qi, his dantian kept expanding.

As it grew, the true qi inside it also continued to increase.

Three hours later.

The Spirit Gathering Arrays atop the main peaks of both the inner and outer sects of Azure Cloud Peak shut down. The azure runes on the huge Stone at the summit of Dog Head Ridge dimmed at once, and its powerful Sword Intent vanished.

Fang Chen struck Stone with his sword and found that the Spiritual Power coming from the Floating Immortal Sword had weakened considerably. It was back to yesterday's level.

"What a shame!"

Fang Chen sighed. Over those three hours, his true qi had increased greatly, and the diameter of his dantian had expanded by nearly a third. He could faintly sense that he was close to the threshold of the Second Layer of Qi Refining.

If he could have kept going at that pace, it would not have taken long to break through. But the runes on Stone had disappeared.

Although the Spiritual Power coming from the Floating Immortal Sword had weakened, Fang Chen did not stop. Striking Stone still helped him absorb Spiritual Qi from his surroundings faster.

Clang!

Sparks flew.

Crack...

A fissure appeared where the Floating Immortal Sword had struck. It spread rapidly, and a trace of azure light seeped through.

Buzz!

The Floating Immortal Sword shook violently. An unprecedentedly fierce current surged into Fang Chen and rushed along his meridians straight toward his head.

Boom!

A roar filled Fang Chen's skull. It felt as though someone had smashed his head with Stone. His ears rang, stars flashed before his eyes, and his skull seemed ready to split apart.

Only after ten full breaths did the swelling pain in his head fade.

Just as Fang Chen prepared to swing again, he saw little azure tadpoles crawling out of the crack he had cut with the Floating Immortal Sword. They darted across Stone.

The azure tadpoles seemed to be formed from mysterious runes. They radiated sharp Sword Intent, and a tiny sword lay at the heart of each one. They chased one another across Stone, frolicking to their hearts' content.

Fang Chen was stunned by the sight. He had never imagined that a crack he had cut in the stone would release a group of such wondrous tadpoles.

He stood quietly before Stone and did not swing again, afraid of startling the adorable little creatures.

After chasing one another across Stone for a while, the tadpoles seemed to tire. They scattered, crawled among the words on Stone, and stopped.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

The light on the tadpoles flickered, sending out waves of sharp Sword Intent. Even the words carved into Stone began to glow faintly azure.

Fang Chen carefully read the words on Stone again, pausing briefly whenever he came to a tadpole.

Before this, he had had no idea how to cultivate the art inscribed on Stone. Now, with the tadpoles' help, everything became clear at once.

"So that's how it works!"

Fang Chen's eyes lit up. At last, he knew how to cultivate the Flowing Cloud Sword Art.

The light on the tadpoles gradually dimmed, and their bodies disappeared along with it.

Once they had vanished, Fang Chen swung his sword at the fissure again.

Clang!

The Floating Immortal Sword shook violently. An even fiercer force entered Fang Chen's body and rushed straight to his head.

Fang Chen trembled slightly. He felt invigorated, his thoughts suddenly racing as the Flowing Cloud Sword Art flashed through his mind again and again.

He kept striking Stone. Under the fierce current's influence, he grew more and more alert.

Half an hour later, Fang Chen's body trembled slightly. The space around him seemed to darken, and the Stone before him suddenly turned transparent. The words carved into it blazed with dazzling light. Their radiance gathered together and formed an azure longsword.

Then the surrounding Spiritual Qi swiftly converged, forming an illusory figure. He wore a white robe and had white hair and a white beard, but his face was ruddy. An azure mark flickered between his brows, radiating a strange aura of the Dao. He slowly reached out, and the azure longsword flew into his hand.