One Step to Heaven, the Mysterious Woman

The Old Daoist looked at Dongfang Nishang before him and asked, "What's going on with my disciple?"

Dongfang Nishang sighed softly. "I don't know either. Perhaps he is undergoing the Heavenly Book's trial."

Crushed so badly by an overwhelming pressure that he could barely breathe, Wang Xian could not help letting out a roar!

Yet the mist gradually spreading across the stone steps swallowed that roar, leaving Dongfang Nishang unable to hear his call any longer.

A beam of golden light burst from Wang Xian's body, like Sword Qi soaring into the heavens as it slashed toward the sky above the stone steps!

"Buzz!"

All of a sudden, just as Wang Xian raised his head.

A five-colored auspicious cloud drifted down the endless stone steps.

Before Wang Xian could understand what was happening, he suddenly took another step upward, then vanished upon the long stone staircase...

In the Old Daoist's eyes, his disciple had suddenly quieted down.

Dongfang Nishang sighed. "Your disciple has truly surprised me. I fear he will sleep here for three days and three nights!"

The Old Daoist froze at her words. "Was it the same for you back then, Junior Sister?"

Dongfang Nishang smiled faintly. "Guess."

Without another word, the Old Daoist brought over Wang Xian's blanket, just as before.

He laid him down to sleep before the Three Pure Ones, with his head resting on the Dao Scripture, the Heavenly Book placed beside it, and an animal-hide blanket covering him.

Then he sat down to brew tea. After thinking for a moment, he said, "This boy actually plunged headfirst into Junior Sister's Heavenly Book. Having taken this step, I fear he is about to defy heaven itself!"

Dongfang Nishang smiled. "I want to see what miracle he can bring me as well."

At this moment, Wang Xian had already collapsed onto the summit of a snow mountain, with clouds and mist swirling before his eyes.

A mass of five-colored divine radiance had sent him one step into heaven.

Wang Xian had the illusion that someone was slowly approaching through the clouded mist suffused with divine light before him.

He took a deep breath and muttered, "Martial Aunt, did you summon me to the mountaintop?"

"Buzz..."

Within the golden light, specks of starlight fell, gathering before him into the face of a woman.

A woman Wang Xian had never seen before appeared in front of him, dressed in green robes, even more dignified and beautiful than Dongfang Nishang.

The woman smiled faintly. "Your sword light awakened me."

Wang Xian was dumbstruck upon hearing this.

The woman gently placed her jade-like hand upon his head, then froze for a moment. "I never expected that you had actually refined the Coiling Dragon Divine Sword. This has truly given me a surprise."

Wang Xian shook his head. "Senior, I have only just begun copying the Dao Scripture. Master has not even taught me swordsmanship yet!"

The woman shook her head. "That is right. For now, you need only copy the Dao Scripture properly. The sword is already hidden within your Divine Sea..."

"A Divine Sword? On me? Where would I get a Divine Sea?" Wang Xian was stunned.

"Because you are too weak."

The woman smiled faintly. "Since the Divine Sword has chosen you, I will lend you a hand. It may hurt, so you must endure it!"

Wang Xian sat cross-legged on the ground and softly recited the Dao Scripture.

"Thus being and nonbeing give birth to each other, difficult and easy complete each other, long and short reveal each other, high and low incline toward each other..."

The woman said solemnly, "When shadow vanishes, form is forgotten; when form is forgotten, spirit responds... Endure the pain!"

Wang Xian nodded.

Then—"Ah..." Before he could cry out, a branch was stuffed into his mouth. Wang Xian could only clamp down on it with all his strength and desperately endure the agonizing pain.

In that instant, Wang Xian felt as though a Divine Sword fallen from heaven had cleaved open his mind in a single stroke...

A pair of peerless jade hands tore open his mind and kneaded it forcefully...

As pain wracked him until he wished he were dead and yet could not die, a wisp of Chaotic Qi descended from the sky.

Under the mysterious woman's personal guidance, a Divine Sea that should only have evolved in the Spirit Transformation Realm appeared within Wang Xian, who was merely in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Moreover, above Wang Xian's Divine Sea floated a faint, almost imperceptible wisp of Chaotic Qi.

This way, when he one day broke through from the Golden Core Realm into the Nascent Soul Realm, he would have a sliver of a chance to condense the legendary Chaotic Divine Nascent Soul!

When chaos first opened, clear Qi rose and turbid Qi sank, and only then did heaven and earth come into being.

The mysterious woman kneaded a speck of Five-Colored Divine Soil into Wang Xian's pounding chest, while a wisp of Chaotic Qi descended into his Divine Sea.

With a wave of her hand, she forged the Chaotic Divine Nascent Soul that would one day shock All Under Heaven.

No one knew whether one day had passed, or two...

When Wang Xian opened his eyes and looked inward, he was instantly dumbfounded.

For the first time, he saw a sea.

Startled, he asked, "Senior, why do I see a sea?"

Only after the woman explained the matters of primordial chaos, heaven and earth, and the Five-Colored Divine Soil to Wang Xian did he twitch the corner of his mouth fiercely.

Wang Xian let out a deep sigh. "Senior, I want to grow stronger and learn swordsmanship from Master."

The woman handed him three scrolls, three divine talismans, and a jade box.

"The scrolls can teleport you several hundred li away and are for preserving your life; the three divine talismans are also for preserving your life. As for the spirit pills in this jade box, do not use them lightly unless it is a matter of life and death..."

Wang Xian was overjoyed upon hearing this and kowtowed three times. "Thank you, Senior!"

The woman sighed. "Very well. Cultivate here for ten years. At the very least, temper your physical realm properly."

"The Five Physical Realms are Tendon Refinement, Bone Tempering, Blood Transformation, Aperture Opening, and Spirit Gathering... I hope you can spend ten years forging the Five Physical Realms to minor completion."

"As for practicing the sword... you should finish copying the Dao Scripture first. I will leave three sword techniques in your Divine Sea. When your sword Dao reaches fruition, they will awaken on their own..."

Wang Xian was stunned when he heard this.

So the Divine Sword his Martial Aunt had come to demand from his master was actually hidden within his own body.

Thinking of the pressure upon the stone steps, Wang Xian could not help asking, "Senior, there is something strange about these stone steps!"

The woman sighed and said, "Legend says that the Dao Ancestor left behind three thousand Great Daos. These three thousand stone steps bear the imprints of the laws of the Great Dao. Cultivate your body while comprehending the Great Dao."

Wang Xian jumped in fright. "Three thousand Great Daos..."

The woman smiled. "I fear no cultivator in All Under Heaven would ever imagine that before you have even begun practicing the sword, you have already begun comprehending the laws of the Great Dao!"

At this, heroic spirit surged within Wang Xian.

Patting his chest, he said, "Senior, I want to learn!"

After saying this, the woman swept up a streak of golden light and sent Wang Xian back to the eighth stone step.

As Wang Xian climbed step by step, he felt as though needles beneath his feet were piercing toward his Divine Sea.

Greatly startled, he cried blankly, "Senior, these stone steps have needles too!"

The woman smiled calmly. "Perfect. Temper your body while broadening your Divine Sea!"

"Oh!"

Wang Xian drew a breath and tried taking another step upward.

A mysterious power gave Wang Xian ten years to temper his body and his Divine Sea.

He could also comprehend the three thousand Great Daos.

At this moment, not only did he have to endure pressure more than ten times greater than that between heaven and earth, he also had to withstand the needle-like pain in his Divine Sea.

And all of this was because Dongfang Nishang had allowed him to take one look at the Heavenly Book.

Yet the woman atop the snow mountain stared blankly at Wang Xian on the stone steps.

She could never have imagined that the Coiling Dragon Divine Sword, which had vanished from the Upper Realm for a thousand years, would appear upon a youth in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

And Wang Xian did not disappoint her. He began ten years of bitter cultivation.

Thinking of this, she could not help murmuring, "Ten years, five realms... can you give me a surprise?"