Begin Cultivation!

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Boom!

Zhou Heng's whole body went slack, and he immediately passed out.

He had no idea how long had passed before he slowly woke up. Every muscle in his body ached and groaned, yet he also felt an indescribable comfort—like bathing in cold water in winter: after enduring the initial bone-chilling cold, one was left feeling warm and wonderfully at ease all over.

Grrrrumble. His stomach immediately began protesting.

Zhou Heng looked up at the sky and saw that the moon was already high overhead. It was probably around nine or ten at night. He had only eaten lunch, so naturally, he was famished.

Too lazy to start a fire and cook, he simply took out some dry rations and made do.

"Something seems different!"

Zhou Heng felt that something had changed in his body, but when asked what exactly had changed, he could not put it into words. It was an extremely strange feeling.

"Right, cultivation!"

This was where all his hopes lay. At the thought, he sat down cross-legged on the spot and circulated the Blazing Sun Art. The food in his stomach was immediately refined by the cultivation method, transforming into countless strands of free energy, which were then converted into True Essence Power and flowed through his body.

When the True Essence Power reached the area around his Dantian, Zhou Heng could not help but grow tense.

Success or failure would be decided at this very moment!

The True Essence Power surged past, yet the Black Broken Sword did not react in the slightest!

It had... worked!

A surge of wild joy suddenly rose in Zhou Heng's heart! This was what he had always hoped for, but now that it had truly happened, he could scarcely believe it. He feared that this was merely a dream and that he would wake up at any moment.

"This isn't a dream!" he emphasized to himself, his gaze turning sharp.

The Blazing Sun Art continued to circulate. His skin cells greedily absorbed the True Essence Power, storing it one by one and raising his cultivation.

This feeling was wonderful!

Zhou Heng was so excited he wanted to cry! He could finally cultivate!

For others, it was something taken for granted. But for Zhou Heng, it had been a dream he had longed for for nearly ten years. It left him thrilled, exhilarated, and filled with a whirlpool of emotions too complicated to express in words.

Tirelessly, he circulated the Blazing Sun Art again and again, constantly raising his cultivation. Though the progress was minute, even the slightest improvement filled him with excitement.

Less than two hours later, Zhou Heng stopped.

It was not because he could not endure the dullness of cultivation or no longer wished to continue, but because all the food he had eaten had already been completely refined.

Dry rations could not compare with meat, after all. The energy they contained was extremely limited.

Zhou Heng felt no sleepiness at all. He immediately ate another meal and continued his first true journey of cultivation.

Time slipped by quietly, and before long, the moon hung high in the sky as midnight arrived.

Buzz. The Black Broken Sword, which had shown no movement until now, suddenly trembled!

Zhou Heng jumped in fright. Could this master have gone back on its word and decided to steal his True Essence Power again?

Just then, an incomparably immense flood of free energy burst out from the Black Broken Sword and filled Zhou Heng's entire body!

What!

Zhou Heng was greatly startled. This super robber had actually found it in its heart to be kind? Not only had it not stolen his True Essence Power, it had even returned a vast amount of free energy for him to absorb?

Had the sun risen in the west?

Questions were questions, but Zhou Heng did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately circulated the Blazing Sun Art and gulped down the free energy like a whale swallowing the sea—this robber had stolen ten years from him, so it was only right that it gave a little back.

What pure free energy!

A trace of shock appeared on Zhou Heng's face, and he nearly stopped circulating the Blazing Sun Art.

On the road of cultivation, what was the hardest part?

Naturally, it was converting the food one ate into free energy. That process consumed more than ninety percent of the time. The reason people still chose a cultivation method as painful as the Blazing Sun Art was that it could draw upon sunlight to shorten the time needed to convert free energy.

But what the Black Broken Sword had released was free energy that could be directly absorbed. How much time would that save Zhou Heng?

Moreover, this free energy was incomparably pure. Every strand of it was equivalent to ten strands Zhou Heng had converted in the past!

Zhou Heng was overjoyed. Afraid that the Black Sword might regret it, he hurriedly absorbed the energy with all his might, continuously converting it into his own True Essence Power and storing it in his skin cells one by one.

Half an hour later, the free energy released by the Black Broken Sword had been absorbed completely.

"Just this half hour is worth a month of my past bitter cultivation!" Zhou Heng fell into utter shock, almost unable to believe it!

His cultivation had now surpassed the initial stage of the Body Refining First Layer!

Although the lower one's realm, the easier it was to cultivate, ordinarily it would still take around half a year to advance from the initial stage of the Body Refining First Layer to its peak. Yet Zhou Heng had gained more than a month's worth of ordinary people's bitter cultivation in just half an hour. What kind of miracle was this!

If this could continue, then after six more times, he could charge straight into the peak of the Body Refining First Layer!

"Haha, hahahaha!" Zhou Heng could not help but laugh aloud. When misfortune reached its extreme, fortune would come. The Black Broken Sword had stolen the power of his ten years of cultivation, but now he had finally lived to see the clouds part and the moon shine through!

He continued circulating the Blazing Sun Art, trying to lure the Black Broken Sword into releasing more free energy. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, the Black Broken Sword remained completely unresponsive.

Zhou Heng could not help feeling disappointed, but the Nine Sword Diagrams appeared in his mind.

"Though that Black Sword cheated me for ten years, there's no denying that it's absolutely a treasure! Otherwise, it could never have remained in my Dantian for ten years. Those Nine Sword Styles must be extraordinary!"

He took a wooden sword from the house, stood in the courtyard, and slowly closed his eyes, calming his mind.

The first sword style immediately emerged in his mind. Before his eyes appeared a starry sky, with nothing left but a pitch-black longsword dancing through it, stirring the river of stars, its might boundless as the waves.

That Black Sword should have been the same Black Broken Sword within his body, only it had not yet broken then. Who knew how many years ago that had been?

Zhou Heng repeatedly recalled this sword style. He did not know how much time had passed before he slowly began to move, the wooden sword in his hand tracing a mysterious trajectory beyond description.

So heavy!

Zhou Heng felt as though the wooden sword bore ten thousand jin of weight. It was so heavy that he could barely hold the hilt. After swinging out only a few sword shadows, he could no longer continue.

"It feels as though heaven and earth itself are opposing me. Every movement pushes the sky a fraction and turns the earth an inch. The difficulties are endless!"

"Is it because I have not grasped the essence of this sword style that heaven and earth reject me?"

"Conversely, if I can successfully master these Nine Sword Styles, will I then be moving in harmony with heaven and earth?"

"Hiss, what kind of swordsmanship is this?"

His character was resolute. The more difficulties he encountered, the less willing he was to retreat. Otherwise, after being tormented by the Black Sword for ten years, he would have given up long ago!

Such miraculous swordsmanship completely ignited his interest, filling him with fighting spirit and a powerful desire to conquer it.

He would definitely master these Nine Sword Styles!

Again and again, Zhou Heng tirelessly practiced the first sword style, completely forgetting the passage of time. He only felt that this sword style seemed to contain the supreme truths of the Great Dao. Every time he practiced it, he gained a profound realization, as though he could see the workings of all heaven and earth—the sun rising, the moon sinking, everything under his control.

Whether swordsmanship or blade techniques, they were all called martial skills and were distinct from cultivation methods.

However, martial skills were never merely empty forms. They had to be matched with corresponding formulas in order to maximize their power; otherwise, their might would be greatly diminished. Yet these Nine Sword Styles were truly strange. After the nine diagrams in his mind transformed into fragmented shadows, they seemed to merge with his body!

No formula was needed, because it was already within his body. He only needed to continue comprehending it!

The first ray of morning sunlight fell upon him, and Zhou Heng stopped.

Though he had not slept all night and his spirit remained high, he was still flesh and blood. Coupled with the pain he had endured before, Zhou Heng felt deeply exhausted. He returned to the house, took a cold bath, ate something carelessly, then fell asleep the moment his head touched the bed.

When he woke again, it was already afternoon. Zhou Heng properly cooked himself a meal, wolfed it down, then began cultivating the Blazing Sun Art.

Though that mysterious swordsmanship might possess power far beyond his imagination, he still needed sufficient strength to wield it. He was only at the Body Refining First Layer now; honestly raising his realm was the proper business at hand.

As he practiced under the blazing sun and felt the agonizingly slow speed at which True Essence Power was refined, Zhou Heng could not help sighing.

It was like someone who had never eaten meat in his life and thus thought nothing of it—but after tasting meat once, being forced to eat nothing but vegetables at every meal would be unbearable to anyone!

Compared to the free energy released by the Black Broken Sword, this cultivation speed was simply infuriatingly slow!

Though he felt somewhat disappointed, when he thought of how all the True Essence Power he had cultivated before had been devoured by the Black Broken Sword, the difference was like heaven and hell. Zhou Heng did not take it to heart and continued cultivating patiently.

Day passed, and night fell. Zhou Heng continued cultivating until deep into the night with no intention of stopping. Having gone from a "good-for-nothing" to finally being able to cultivate, he wished he could cultivate without pause for all twenty-four hours of the day.

Buzz!

When the moon rose high overhead, the Black Broken Sword suddenly trembled. A flood of incomparably abundant free energy immediately erupted and filled Zhou Heng's entire body.

It came again!

Zhou Heng could not help revealing a delighted expression. For the moment, he had no time to think about anything else, only continuously absorbing the free energy and converting it into his own True Essence Power for storage.

Half an hour later, the free energy was completely absorbed once more, and after that, the Black Broken Sword did not react in the slightest.

He was only a little short of reaching the middle stage of the Body Refining First Layer!

Zhou Heng clenched his fist. With a thought, True Essence Power burst from his skin cells and gathered within his fist. Whoosh! He threw a punch, his fist tearing through the air with a sharp howl.

Both times, the Black Broken Sword had released free energy around midnight. Could that be a pattern?

If it truly was, then he could spend all his remaining time studying the Nine Sword Styles, using only that half hour at night to cultivate and optimize the allocation of his time.

Whether it was or not, he would know tomorrow night!