Perfect Xiantian

"The immaculate sword body is truly peculiar."

Li Gan felt his body faintly resonating with the heaven and earth origin qi with every breath he took.

This was a sign of the immaculate sword body absorbing and exhaling heaven and earth origin qi.

As long as he was willing, he could break through the barrier between the postnatal realm and the xiantian realm right now and step into the xiantian realm.

Under normal circumstances, there are three ways for a martial artist at the postnatal limit to step into the xiantian realm.

The first is to use internal qi at the perfection level to open the tianling acupoint at the crown of the head, forming a heaven-human channel. This allows heaven and earth origin qi to be absorbed into the body, where it fuses with postnatal origin qi and eventually transforms into true qi.

However, the risk is very high.

The slightest carelessness could damage the brain, and there is a certain failure rate.

Unless one's innate talent and bone structure are sufficiently high, the breakthrough is relatively simple.

The second way is to comprehend martial intent before entering the xiantian realm. Using martial intent as a medium to guide the internal qi to open the tianling acupoint carries very little risk and almost never fails.

This requires sufficiently high comprehension.

Otherwise, it is very difficult to comprehend martial intent in advance.

The third way is to consume a xiantian pill to forcibly open the tianling acupoint. However, the drawbacks are obvious; it is said that it is very difficult to improve one's cultivation realm further, and one's future is limited. This is also known as half-step xiantian.

Those who use the third method are often postnatal limit martial artists with average bone structure, aptitude, and comprehension.

For many postnatal martial artists, being able to achieve the xiantian realm, even if it is only half-step xiantian, is already satisfying enough.

Moreover, the xiantian pill itself is very precious.

Without sufficient financial resources and connections, one might not even be able to buy one.

But now, after Li Gan had cultivated the immaculate sword body, it was as if his body could naturally absorb heaven and earth origin qi.

This was absurd.

Furthermore, his entire body could absorb heaven and earth origin qi, and the efficiency was countless times higher than that of an ordinary xiantian expert.

Even without having achieved the xiantian realm yet, Li Gan already understood why it was called perfect xiantian.

And this might only be one of its advantages.

"Then, let's break through."

Li Gan raised his eyes to look at the sky.

A full moon hung high, casting silver radiance and shrouding the world in a hazy glow.

He took a deep breath and immediately began to circulate the heartless sword art for the first time.

Ever since reaching the perfection of the postnatal realm, he had not practiced the heartless sword art at all.

At most, he had only practiced the five elements sword technique.

Even after such a long time without practicing the heartless sword art, he felt no sense of stagnation when he began to circulate his internal qi.

No, it felt even smoother than it ever had before.

He could only describe it with one word.

Silky.

"As expected, after achieving the immaculate sword body, circulating the heartless sword art has become even smoother."

Li Gan was very satisfied.

As he finished one cycle of the heartless sword art, the potent internal qi within his body completed a grand heavenly cycle through his immaculate sword body. The heaven and earth origin qi that had been swirling around him seemed to break through a barrier, surging wildly into his body through every acupuncture point.

A strange glow gradually emerged on his skin.

It was a halo created by the intense concentration of heaven and earth origin qi under the illumination of the moonlight.

As the heaven and earth origin qi entered his body, it was influenced by the immaculate sword body and fused with his postnatal internal qi, forming an entirely new power.

True qi.

Or rather, xiantian true qi.

This xiantian true qi, resembling silvery-white threads, rapidly sprouted throughout the meridians of his entire body.

Meanwhile, in a wooden hut several hundred meters away from the bell tower.

Zhou Buping was attempting to cultivate.

Although his injuries had mostly healed, his damaged sea of qi was not so easy to restore.

The same was even more true for his sword intent.

It was already a fact that his cultivation had regressed and his sword intent had waned.

"Sigh, it's still not working."

Zhou Buping opened his eyes and let out a sigh.

The xiantian true qi in his sea of qi was far too difficult to mobilize.

Forcing it to move would cause unspeakable pain.

Using heartless sword intent was the same.

His life-bound intent sword had already collapsed.

His current level of sword intent was equivalent to a virtual image at best. It was even worse than that, actually, because he couldn't even manage to mobilize his sword intent.

Suddenly, his expression shifted slightly, and he looked up toward the direction of the bell tower.

Although he could not mobilize his sword intent or xiantian true qi, as a veteran expert of the xiantian realm, he was extremely sensitive to heaven and earth origin qi.

At this moment, he could sense a dense gathering of heaven and earth origin qi in the direction of the bell tower.

"What is this?"

It seemed he had realized something. He hurried out of the wooden hut, forgetting even to put on his boots, running barefoot.

Soon, he reached a high point about a hundred meters from the bell tower, where he could clearly see the chenzhong terrace shrouded under the moonlight.

At this moment, the moonlight was faintly converging over the chenzhong terrace, forming a dim, strange sea of light, as if the moonlight itself were flowing.

"This is the sign of a xiantian breakthrough."

Zhou Buping muttered to himself, "Could it be that he has successfully cultivated the immaculate sword body?"

All this time, he had never asked Li Gan about the progress of the immaculate sword body, simply because he did not want to put pressure on him.

There was another possibility, however: that Li Gan could no longer suppress his cultivation and was forced to break through to the xiantian realm.

If it were the latter, it would mean that the perfect xiantian had failed.

Filled with a trace of apprehension, Zhou Buping did not approach, choosing instead to watch from afar.

One must not be disturbed when breaking through to the xiantian realm.

When disciples of the divine sword sect broke through to the xiantian realm, they were usually guarded by their elders.

After a long while, the strange xiantian phenomenon gradually vanished, and the intense fluctuations of heaven and earth origin qi completely subsided.

Only then did Zhou Buping walk toward the bell tower.

"Master."

Li Gan's voice drifted down from the top of the bell tower.

A figure followed, drifting down to land in front of Zhou Buping.

"How did you suddenly break through to the xiantian realm?"

Zhou Buping asked impatiently.

"Master, I suddenly cultivated the immaculate sword body. I tried to break through, and I didn't expect it to just happen like that."

Li Gan spoke hurriedly.

"What? You really cultivated the immaculate sword body?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Buping's voice trembled slightly.

How much time had passed since Li Gan comprehended the immaculate sword body in the sword grinding cave?

It should have been five years and one month.

"Yes."

Li Gan nodded.

In truth, he was quite emotional himself.

It had taken a full five years for him to cultivate the immaculate sword body to perfection.

Unknowingly, he was already twenty-five years old.

And he had been transmigrated into this world for over nine years now.

From a menial disciple with zero cultivation, he had cultivated step by step, finally achieving the perfect xiantian.

It truly hadn't been easy!

"Good, good, good."

Zhou Buping said "good" three times in a row. "Li Gan, you must never let a third person know about your perfect xiantian, do you understand?"

"Master, why is that?"

Li Gan asked curiously.

Even if his master hadn't said anything, he wouldn't have exposed the fact that he had achieved the perfect xiantian.

He was just curious about what his master was so afraid of.

"I have told you before that those with a perfect xiantian are destined to reach the realm of a martial saint in the future. This rumor doesn't just exist within our divine sword sect; it exists in other countries of Dachang as well. Once news of you achieving the perfect xiantian spreads, you will certainly become a target for everyone. No faction will tolerate the existence of a perfect xiantian within my divine sword sect."

Zhou Buping sighed and said.

In truth, there was more he hadn't said—even within the divine sword sect itself, there might be people who harbored such thoughts.