In the White Space, two youths faced each other.
The Green-robed Youth spoke.
"Senior, I lost."
Chen Qinglin looked a little disappointed, but quickly steadied himself.
Losing to a Sword Dao Senior like this was nothing to be ashamed of. He might be inferior now, but that didn't mean he would be in the future.
He reaffirmed his resolve, and his gaze grew clearer.
Yun Tianqing looked at the boy before him. He had actually lost to him at the same realm. Whether it was the boy's use of intent or the fact that he had protected himself with a higher level of cultivation, both spoke to how astonishing he was.
Perhaps Yun Tianqing had entered the Inner Qi Realm at a younger age than him. At the boy's age, he had already reached the pinnacle of the True Essence Condensation Realm, or even the Origin Embracing Realm.
But there was no denying that the boy had far surpassed his younger self in the Inner Qi Realm. His only shortcoming was a lack of talent.
Still, he could make up for that. Though he couldn't match the few people at the very peak of this world, his talent was still decent. He was only a genius, after all.
Geniuses in this world were as plentiful as carp crossing a river. How far one could go depended on one's own fortunes.
"No, you didn't lose." Yun Tianqing shook his head.
"With your final sword, I had to use a realm beyond your cultivation. You passed." As if he would let this boy slip away.
If he missed this chance, he might never meet someone so suitable again.
"However, your combat skills still need honing. As a Sword Cultivator, the most important thing is sword intent. There's still a lot you need to learn. I'll teach you all of it, little by little..."
Yun Tianqing said this to keep Chen Qinglin from becoming conceited.
Understanding what those words meant, Chen Qinglin immediately bowed. "Master!"
On the True Spirit Continent, one wasn't limited to having just one master. If Chen Qinglin went further in the future, beyond the bounds of Qingfeng Mountain, Fu Shenxing would also advise him to take another master who could guide him onward.
"Good! You're a promising student."
Yun Tianqing looked at Chen Qinglin with satisfaction, then produced two pills.
"These are the most precious things your master obtained in his early years after killing a great enemy. They're wondrous pills from another world."
"The Bone-Transforming Pill and the Soul-Nourishing Pill!"
Yun Tianqing went on to explain their effects.
"The first can raise your talent to the genius level, while the second can improve the essence of your soul and make it stronger."
"A person's comprehension is actually linked to the essence of their soul. Advancing in the martial path also strengthens that essence."
"The stronger a person's soul is by nature, the greater the benefits they gain when advancing in realm."
"Even your master has only one of these rare pills left."
"Each person can take each kind of pill only once in their lifetime. Taking one again won't have any effect..."
Outside.
Seeing the two disappear, Jiang Qingyue understood that they had probably gone to that White Space trial ground.
When they still hadn't returned after a long while, she knew her guess had been right.
After an unknown length of time, someone else arrived at the great hall.
Xie Jingyun walked all the way to the central hall without coming across any traps or anything of the sort.
She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and entered the hall.
There, she found a young woman already inside.
Unable to sense the girl's realm, she immediately realized that the girl was stronger than her and grew wary.
When Jiang Qingyue saw someone enter—and a woman, at that—she remembered Chen Qinglin mentioning that his senior sister had entered with him. She immediately understood who this woman was.
The one who would influence the future Divine Wind Sword Emperor and keep him in the Eastern Ridge Domain was said to be his senior sister, but no one knew which of his senior sisters she was.
Could it be this woman?
Seeing that the woman didn't approach, Jiang Qingyue knew she was on guard.
She took the initiative to speak.
"A young man named Chen Qinglin came here earlier. Are you his senior sister?"
Seeing that the Black-robed Woman knew Junior Brother Chen, Xie Jingyun relaxed a little and replied, "Qinglin is my junior brother..."
When Chen Qinglin reappeared alone in the great hall, he found the two women chatting amiably.
He was a little bewildered and had no idea what had happened or how the two had struck up a conversation.
"Senior Sister."
"Junior Brother, how did you suddenly appear here?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you all about it when we get back!"
After speaking, he looked at the young woman wrapped in a black robe, unsure what to call her.
"My surname is Jiang. You can call me Qingyue." Jiang Qingyue introduced herself.
"So you're Miss Jiang. My senior sister and I are going to study the sword techniques in the palace. Would you like to come?"
As soon as he said the last part, Chen Qinglin felt it might have been inappropriate. After all, he and his senior sister didn't know this girl or where she came from, so inviting her so casually was a little presumptuous.
"Sure!" Jiang Qingyue had been wondering how to get acquainted with Chen Qinglin, so she agreed at once.
"..." She was a little too familiar. Perhaps it was because people treated beautiful things differently, but Chen Qinglin didn't really mind.
In any case, this girl was only at the mid-stage of the Inner Qi Realm. If she dared to harbor any crooked thoughts, his sword would leave one more corpse behind.
After taking Rain Sword Emperor Yun Tianqing as his master and absorbing the two pills with Yun Tianqing's help, Chen Qinglin now felt the world around him more clearly, and many new ideas about his sword techniques had come to him.
Yun Tianqing had told him that the secret realm would remain open for three days and then close.
After the Rain Curtain Secret Realm closed, it would vanish into the void.
From then on, only he would be able to enter through the Heart of the Secret Realm.
The Heart of the Secret Realm was the core formed by the secret realm Rain Sword Emperor had opened.
It was also one of Rain Sword Emperor's true legacies, already fused with the void within his body.
It was inside him, yet not inside him.
Only someone who had bonded with the Heart of the Secret Realm could sense its presence.
He had no intention of revealing these secrets. Right now, he was like a child carrying a gold brick. If this got out, it would bring trouble to him and those around him.
Somewhere in the True Spirit Continent, within a void secret realm.
A heroic man dressed in white stood atop a mountain in the secret realm, his gaze seeming to pierce the void and fall upon the Eastern Ridge Domain.
He murmured to himself.
"The Rain Curtain Secret Realm has appeared. I hope Senior Yun can find a suitable successor this time!"
"Wushuang, is the Rain Curtain Secret Realm the work of Senior Rain Sword Emperor?" asked a stunning woman in an ornate palace dress.
"Yes."
"But according to our calculations, the Rain Curtain Secret Realm shouldn't appear for another five years," the woman said.
"Tianji! If we blindly trusted Tianji's predictions, how could we ever have driven those people from other worlds out of the True Spirit Continent?"
The man in white didn't answer directly. His words carried another meaning.
Inwardly, he recalled what had happened a year ago.
A year ago...
Who knew what the Demonic Realm and the True Demon Realm had offered, but the Heavenly Evolution Realm had spared no expense in using its supreme treasure.
It had divined a glimpse of the True Spirit Realm's future, placed it inside a strange soul, and tried to secretly send that soul into the True Spirit Realm.
If he hadn't suddenly felt a premonition and happened upon it, the True Spirit Realm might have been thrown into chaos.
The True Spirit Realm was his home ground. Even if the Devil Master and the Heavenly Demon joined forces, they still couldn't do anything to him.
With the help of the world's will, he had ultimately come out on top.
That strange soul had been destroyed on the spot, but the glimpse of the True Spirit Realm's future divined by the Heavenly Evolution Realm's supreme treasure had vanished, falling into the True Spirit Realm.
The Rain Curtain Secret Realm's opening this time was probably one of the changes it had brought.
Still, it didn't matter who got a bite of the meat, so long as it came from within the True Spirit Realm.
The revival of martial arts in the True Spirit Realm was simply too slow. He hoped this glimpse of the future would bring some change to the world.
The man in white gazed through the endless void, as though he could see a scene beyond the world.
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