Black Broken Sword

Raw Stone Town, the Zhou Family.

Beneath the blazing sun, dozens of teenage boys and girls were practicing in the square, shouting as they trained. Every one of them was drenched in sweat and suffering miserably. A middle-aged man walked among them with his hands clasped behind his back, occasionally snorting and berating any boy who slacked off.

On a large rock at the edge of the square sat a handsome young man with sword-straight brows and bright eyes. He looked around seventeen or eighteen, with a tall, slender build and striking good looks.

It was already mid-September, when the autumn heat was at its fiercest. Under the scorching sunlight, the rock was hot enough to boil an egg. Though the handsome youth's brows kept twitching, he never stood up. Sweat streamed down, soaking his temples.

His name was Zhou Heng, and he was practicing the Zhou Family's secret Blazing Sun Art.

Martial artists cultivated by refining the food they ate, extracting the energy their bodies could absorb and turning it into their own True Essence Power, which was stored in their cells. The Blazing Sun Art let them draw on the sun's power to speed up the absorption of food and improve the efficiency of its conversion.

The more intense the sunlight, the higher the conversion rate. But how many people could withstand such scorching heat? At most, they could train for ten or twenty minutes, perhaps half an hour, before running into the shade to cool off.

Yet Zhou Heng had begun cultivating at sunrise and had kept at it for three hours already!

And not just for a day or two, but day after day for years!

The pity was that Zhou Heng's body was utterly useless. Even after all this bitter training, he was still at the early stage of Body Refining First Layer, barely any different from someone who had never practiced.

Martial artists were divided into twelve steps according to their cultivation, known as the Twelfth Layer of Body Refining. Once they reached the Twelfth Layer of Body Refining, they could attempt to break through to a higher level. It was said that success would let them ascend to the heavens in a single bound! Yet in the past hundred years, not one member of the Zhou Family had ever set foot on the Ascension Path.

The Twelfth Layer of Body Refining could be divided into four realms. The first three layers were the Skin Refining Realm, the fourth through sixth were the Flesh Refining Realm, the seventh through ninth were the Bone Refining Realm, and the tenth through twelfth were the Blood Refining Realm.

The True Essence Power cultivated by martial artists was stored in the body's cells. This was a gradual process: first the skin, then the muscles, then the bones, and finally the blood.

That was why the four realms were divided as they were.

The gap in strength between realms was enormous. A Flesh Refining Realm martial artist facing a Bone Refining Realm martial artist would basically be killed in an instant! But within the same realm, say, between someone at the Fourth Layer of Body Refining and someone at the Sixth Layer of Body Refining, both of whom were in the Flesh Refining Realm, the latter would certainly have the advantage—but it would not be an overwhelming one.

The path of martial arts was hard, and the higher one climbed, the rougher the road became. After reaching the Blood Refining Realm, a martial artist might go more than ten years without advancing even one layer!

The Skin Refining Realm, however, was relatively easy to break through. Generally speaking, as long as one had enough food and trained diligently, one could reach the peak of Body Refining First Layer in half a year. Completing the entire Skin Refining Realm took only three years.

Zhou Heng had begun practicing the Blazing Sun Art at eight. Nearly ten years had passed, yet his cultivation was still at the early stage of Body Refining First Layer. It was an astonishing mystery. The family had brought in countless physicians to examine him, but none had found anything wrong. They could only conclude that Zhou Heng's aptitude was too poor, that he had been born unsuited to cultivation!

A stubborn stone, through and through!

What made it even harder to understand was that Zhou Heng's father, Zhou Dinghai, was a genius—a true genius. He had completed Skin Refining in half a year, Flesh Refining in another two years, and Bone Refining in five more. Now only forty-one, he had already reached the Tenth Layer of Body Refining, the Blood Refining Realm!

Before him, the fastest member of the Zhou Family to reach the Blood Refining Realm had been sixty-three. That showed just how terrifying Zhou Dinghai's talent was!

A genius like him undoubtedly had what it took to attempt the Ascension Path!

A tiger father, a dog son!

That was how the Zhou Family judged Zhou Heng, and that was the polite version. Plenty of people called him trash behind his back. If Zhou Dinghai weren't one of the family's six elders, they would have hurled those insults right to his face.

"That trash still refuses to give up?"

"Hmph, what difference does it make if he doesn't? How many physicians have examined him? Every one of them said there's nothing wrong with him. He can't cultivate because his aptitude is too poor!"

"Good thing the family still has us. Otherwise, if demonic beasts attacked, we'd all just have to wait to die!"

"He's clearly useless, but he eats more than anyone. What a glutton!"

"I think he's just putting on an act, sitting there on purpose. He isn't cultivating at all!"

The boys and girls in the square paused for a brief rest. A few of them gathered to gossip, speaking loudly enough for Zhou Heng to hear every word.

"Silence!" The middle-aged man overseeing them immediately barked. His name was Zhou Yuanyang, and by blood he was barely Zhou Heng's paternal cousin. He put on a stern face. "Putting on an act? Then every one of you can go put on an act too! Whoever can sit on that big rock for an hour will be excused from the rest of today's training!"

The boys and girls fell silent at once.

Give them a break! The rock was hot enough to boil an egg. Who could sit on it for an hour? Forget an hour; even ten minutes would be brutal! Only a few who practiced the Blazing Sun Art could convert the heat—but not everyone in the Zhou Family practiced it!

Zhou Yuanyang walked over to Zhou Heng and sighed inwardly. He had watched the boy's efforts, but the heavens were blind to have made him incapable of cultivating from birth.

"Don't take it to heart," he could only say to comfort Zhou Heng.

"Thank you, Uncle," Zhou Heng replied with a sincere, brilliant smile as bright as the sun.

"Don't push yourself too hard, either. You need to take care of your health," Zhou Yuanyang advised.

Even he could not keep cultivating for long while sitting on that rock. How much less could Zhou Heng, who had not even reached the early stage of Body Refining First Layer?

"I understand." Zhou Heng nodded, but showed no sign of getting up.

Zhou Yuanyang sighed again, his regret deepening. If only the boy had inherited his father's talent. With such diligence as well, his future would surely be even brighter!

He turned to look at the boys and girls resting under the trees, and a flare of anger rose in him. "Break time is over. Back to training!"

"Seriously? We haven't even rested for five minutes!"

"Exactly! We haven't even had time to catch our breath!"

"It's all that trash's fault. He got us in trouble!"

The boys and girls straggled back to the training ground. Every one of them glared at Zhou Heng with hostility, blaming him for everything.

Zhou Heng saw their looks but paid them no mind. He kept circulating the Blazing Sun Art, drawing on the sunlight to refine the food in his body and convert it into his own True Essence Power.

Inside him, the food was continuously refined by the sunlight and the art, forming countless wisps of wandering energy. As the Blazing Sun Art circulated, they became streams of True Essence Power that flowed through his body.

Everything went normally up to that point. But when the True Essence Power reached his lower abdomen, it suddenly veered off course, plunged into his Dantian, and never came out again!

True Essence Power had to be stored in the cells before it could be unleashed when needed. Skin, muscle, bone, and blood filled the entire body. But what was the Dantian for? There were rumors that it was important too, that it was connected to the ethereal Ascension Path. But Zhou Heng had not even laid a solid foundation yet. How could he think about the Ascension Path?

Only Zhou Heng knew why he could not cultivate. The problem lay in his Dantian!

More precisely, it lay in the broken sword inside his Dantian!

Zhou Heng had a secret that no one else knew. When he began cultivating at eight, it was as if his consciousness could take shape and flow freely through his body, letting him see every detail inside himself.

That was when he saw a broken sword floating in his Dantian.

It was over a foot long, pitch-black from tip to hilt. Though broken, it radiated a majestic, overwhelming force, as if it had existed since the creation of heaven and earth, endured the ages, and would remain forever!

Another child would probably have been scared into tears by the sight!

But Zhou Heng had always been a very strong-minded child, and he managed to keep the secret.

He did not want to become a freak in everyone's eyes!

The first time a physician examined him, Zhou Heng had been nervous. But that physician hadn't sensed the broken sword at all. Nor had any of the other physicians Zhou Dinghai invited. It was as if the Black Broken Sword existed only in Zhou Heng's imagination!

If no one else even knew the Black Broken Sword existed, how could they remove it?

As time passed, he did not become a freak, but he did become an acknowledged good-for-nothing. But no one knew he was not incapable of practicing martial arts. It was just that all the True Essence Power he painstakingly cultivated was being "eaten" by the Black Broken Sword!

The thief was already squatting in his body as if it were its lair. And now it had sucked every last drop of his True Essence Power!

But if Zhou Heng knew the Black Sword was a bandit, why did he keep cultivating?

Because he still had a glimmer of hope: sooner or later, the Black Broken Sword would be fed its fill!

Then he would be able to use the True Essence Power he cultivated for himself!

His aptitude was not poor. His appetite proved it, because for a martial artist, food was the same as True Essence Power. He ate more every day than any of his peers, which meant the True Essence Power he cultivated each day far exceeded theirs!

Fueled by that glimmer of hope, he calmly faced one contemptuous gaze after another, one sneering face after another! He firmly believed that once the Black Broken Sword stopped dragging him down, he would make something of himself!

That day was drawing closer and closer!

He could feel the Black Broken Sword changing all the time, though the process was painfully slow. But even dripping water could wear through stone. Ten years had passed, and the time for a qualitative change was finally at hand!

In just a few days!

That hope helped him endure the blazing sun and the heat hot enough to roast his backside, as well as the mind-numbing meditation. All the while, he kept cultivating, cultivating, cultivating, feeding the Black Broken Sword's enormous appetite in his Dantian.

Apart from eating, Zhou Heng sat on the rock and cultivated nonstop. If he hadn't been practicing the Blazing Sun Art, which let him convert the heat, he would have been roasted into a dried corpse long ago!

Several more hours passed. At last, the sun set. Zhou Heng rose unsteadily and headed toward his lodgings.

"Trying to leave? Crawl under me first!" A youth suddenly stepped in Zhou Heng's way, arms folded across his chest and a haughty smile on his face. Four other boys stood nearby, ready to watch the show.