A Sword Cleaves Mountains, a Sword Fills the Sea

Resting easy by the southern mountains, with a green lamp and yellowed scrolls, day after day, he had finally broken through.

After crossing into this world, he had barely set foot upon the path of Cultivation. He had stumbled along for a hundred years, and at the brink of dying of old age, his Heaven-Defying Comprehension had awakened. Thus began his Cultivation of "hearing the Dao in the morning, dying without regret that evening."

Over the next several years, he attained Enlightenment countless times and finally reached the peerless realm spoken of by the world—the Ninth Restriction!

Looking back on the past, Lin Jiufeng could not help but sigh with emotion.

"The Ninth Restriction is to bathe in the Great Dao, where every movement is a process of freely wielding the Great Dao." Lin Jiufeng carefully contemplated the mysteries of the Ninth Restriction and reached this conclusion.

After entering the Ninth Restriction, every Dao he had comprehended transformed into its own beautiful sea.

One Great Dao was one sea.

Lin Jiufeng held countless seas within his heart, so he did not follow the tide.

The first to sense Lin Jiufeng's breakthrough was Bai Yunfei. He flew over in excitement and landed at the Scripture Pavilion, yet afraid of disturbing Lin Jiufeng, he could only pace back and forth outside the study.

White Fox grew irritated by his pacing and snapped, "Sect Master, can you calm down?"

Bai Yunfei stopped and sighed. "You have no idea. These past few days, dealing with those stubborn old men has drained me dry. If Senior Brother doesn't come out soon, I really won't be able to hold them off."

At that moment, Lin Jiufeng opened the study door and walked out.

Bai Yunfei and White Fox immediately looked at Lin Jiufeng. As if by prior agreement, their eyes both lit up sharply.

Though Lin Jiufeng's appearance remained unchanged after breaking through to the Ninth Restriction, his aura had become ethereal. Like an Immortal amid the clouds, he looked increasingly unlike one of the Human World.

"Senior Brother, you finally came out..." Bai Yunfei immediately stepped forward, wanting to pour out his troubles.

But Lin Jiufeng raised a hand to stop him. "I know you're anxious, but don't be anxious yet."

"Gather all the Feather Transformation Sect's disciples. Have them watch from the square before the Golden Summit Great Hall. This can count as an opportunity for them as well," Lin Jiufeng instructed.

"Senior Brother, what are you going to do?" Bai Yunfei asked curiously.

"You'll find out soon enough." Lin Jiufeng smiled without explaining.

Bai Yunfei could only go gather the three hundred disciples at the Golden Summit Great Hall.

Only Lin Jiufeng and White Fox remained in the Scripture Pavilion.

White Fox leaped straight into Lin Jiufeng's arms and asked curiously, "What are you planning to do?"

With a light tap of his toes, Lin Jiufeng rose into the air and arrived atop the Scripture Pavilion. Gazing at the distant mountains shrouded in mist, where clouds gathered and rolled across the horizon in breathtaking splendor, he said, "I cannot simply hand over the hundred methods of breaking through the Ninth Restriction that I obtained from your memories. They need to face a trial."

"What trial?" White Fox stared at Lin Jiufeng with her watery eyes, curiosity brimming within them.

"Sword Dao Heart Cultivation!" Lin Jiufeng said solemnly.

"Sword Dao Heart Cultivation?" White Fox repeated, still failing to understand.

Lin Jiufeng did not explain. He set her down and said, "Watch carefully too."

White Fox immediately grew serious. She went to stand on a nearby eave and watched Lin Jiufeng's every move with rapt attention.

Lin Jiufeng turned his gaze toward the Golden Summit Great Hall, where the Feather Transformation Sect's three hundred disciples had already gathered.

It was time.

Lin Jiufeng drew a deep breath, then stepped into empty air. Yet he did not fall; white clouds gathered beneath him and bore him aloft.

His black-and-white Daoist robe and Immortal-like, otherworldly bearing drew countless gazes as he rode the white clouds into the sky.

"It's Martial Uncle."

"Wasn't Martial Uncle living in seclusion at the Scripture Pavilion? What is he doing?"

"I heard Martial Uncle is even stronger than Master?"

"I heard that too. The strongest person in our Feather Transformation Sect is Martial Uncle."

"You heard right. Martial Uncle truly is the strongest in the Feather Transformation Sect."

The three hundred disciples buzzed with discussion, debating whether Bai Yunfei or Lin Jiufeng was stronger.

But in the next instant, all their eyes widened as they stared in disbelief.

Before everyone's eyes, Lin Jiufeng stood suspended in the air, formed sword fingers, and slashed toward the land beyond the Feather Transformation Sect's borders.

BOOM!!!!

A streak of sword qi hundreds of li long crashed down outside the Feather Transformation Sect. In an instant, mountains crumbled and the earth split, shattered rocks pierced the clouds, and the land shook as if an earthquake had struck. Sword qi crisscrossed across hundreds of li, carving out a vast riverbed hundreds of li wide.

The might of a single sword left everyone tongue-tied.

Yet what shocked them even more was that before Lin Jiufeng's first sword had fully ended, a second sword came.

But this sword was not sword qi spanning hundreds of li. It was the surging sea within his heart.

Lin Jiufeng poured every sea formed from all his insights into this sword.

Thus, as the sword emerged, endless sword qi raged forth, transforming into roaring seawater that surged through the riverbed he had just carved and filled it in an instant.

The three hundred disciples stood there dumbly. Even seeing it with their own eyes, they could scarcely believe them.

A sword cleaved mountains, a sword filled the sea.

From that day onward, a "sea" hundreds of li long lay before the Feather Transformation Sect's gates.

Looking again at Lin Jiufeng, who had cleaved mountains with one sword and filled the sea with another, the Feather Transformation disciples' hearts surged like the tide, and they were overcome with excitement.

Among them, those gifted in the Sword Dao attained Enlightenment on the spot, becoming delirious with ecstasy.

Others with extraordinary talent saw the descending sea and comprehended a Dao that belonged to them alone.

For a time, the Feather Transformation disciples all fell silent, contemplating their own Dao.

But while they fell quiet, the persistent old men outside the Feather Transformation Sect erupted into an uproar.

A sword cleaved mountains, a sword filled the sea—could this be the method hidden within the Feather Transformation Sect for breaking through the Ninth Restriction?

In an instant, they could hardly wait to rush into the Feather Transformation Sect, find Bai Yunfei, and question him closely.

Yet when they tried to cross the sea stretching hundreds of li, the rolling waves directly swept them away, leaving them utterly unable to resist.

Only then did they discover that every single drop of water in this sea was a unique strand of sword qi, each containing the full force of Lin Jiufeng's strike.

Anyone who tried to cross the sea and enter the Feather Transformation Sect would be attacked by this sword qi.

Only by entering through the main gates of the Feather Transformation Sect could one avoid being affected.

For a time, the elders of the Eighth Restriction, who had been sent flying by the sword qi, looked at one another in dismay. They felt aggrieved, yet became even more convinced that the Feather Transformation Sect possessed a method for breaking through the Ninth Restriction.

Before they could act, an ancient and majestic voice rang in their ears.

"Ten years reveal the coming of spring and the passing of autumn; a hundred years bear witness to birth, aging, sickness, and death; a thousand years lament the rise and fall of dynasties; ten thousand years discern the turning of stars and shifting of constellations."

"Your time is short. You are indeed pitiable. Today, I shall leave behind this Sword Sea. You may challenge the sword. If you pass through the Sword Sea, you may obtain a method to break through the Ninth Restriction. If you cannot cross the sea, return by the way you came."

"Furthermore, any who make trouble here will be killed on the spot without exception!"

Once his words fell, Lin Jiufeng returned to the Scripture Pavilion.

White Fox followed him and asked curiously, "Anyone who successfully crosses the sea can obtain a method to break through the Ninth Restriction. But if they break through and become enemies of the Feather Transformation Sect, what will you do? Isn't that raising a tiger to invite disaster?"

Lin Jiufeng stopped walking and looked seriously at White Fox. "I once thought as you do—that methods for breaking through the Ninth Restriction should not be handed over lightly. But after my breakthrough, I realized just how narrow-minded that thinking was."

"Narrow-minded?" White Fox did not understand what Lin Jiufeng meant.

Lin Jiufeng looked outside the Scripture Pavilion and said, "At the moment of my breakthrough, I sensed many cracks between heaven and earth. Boundless fresh spiritual qi is pouring into the Human World through those cracks. Before long, the spiritual qi of this Human World will multiply several times over. When that time comes, what will the Ninth Restriction amount to?"

"A Cultivation Golden Age lies right before our eyes!"

"So why fuss over methods of breaking through the Ninth Restriction? Before long, they will be everywhere."