The rising sun had just broken over the horizon, gilding the world in ten thousand rays.
At the summit of Woodcutter's Peak, Zhang Yang sat cross-legged, a sword laid flat across his thighs.
This was not the sword he had newly forged, but Li Hanqiu's sword, Autumn Water—a Profound-grade weapon, and an exceptionally formidable one.
Although sword cultivators had always upheld the tradition that where the sword remained, its wielder remained, and when its wielder died, the sword died as well,
Zhang Yang had still asked Li Hanqiu for this extremely precious sword. With a Profound-grade sword in hand, he even dared cut down ordinary Golden Core Stage cultivators one by one.
The only issue was that Autumn Water needed to be tempered with him for a while first.
Thus, every morning, Zhang Yang faced east and used his Natal Spiritual Qi, the Heaven and Earth Dao Rhyme, and the Mountain River Sword Intent to wear away at the sword for an hour, both softly and forcefully.
And the results were actually pretty good.
Behind Zhang Yang, thirty-four newly advanced Combat Sword Cultivators also sat cross-legged like him, sensing the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and trying to refine a wisp of Natal Spiritual Qi.
But it was extremely difficult. They needed about ten days to condense a single wisp of Natal Spiritual Qi. Among cultivators, they were practically a disgrace to the entire profession!
The reason Zhang Yang still had not given up on them was that, to date, all forty-four of these old fellows had comprehended the Mountain River Sword Intent!
Each of them had gone to Dissolution Palace only once, and then comprehended it so easily and cheerfully.
Most likely, they had spent their entire lives traveling far and wide, having long since crossed countless mountains and