Just as the entire continent waited with bated breath.
The golden light on the Sky Screen slowly faded.
Then, accompanied by a low hum, three new names appeared on the Sky Screen in succession.
[New Explorer: Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Sword Douluo, Chen Xin.] [New Explorer: Clear Sky Sect, Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao.] [New Explorer: Shrek Academy, Evil Fire Phoenix, Ma Hongjun.]
As soon as the names appeared.
Some rejoiced, while others worried.
On Shrek Academy's training grounds.
Ma Hongjun froze completely.
His mouth hung open as he pointed at his own nose, unable to come back to his senses for a long while.
"I... I really got chosen?"
Ma Hongjun had just been praying to be selected, but now that he saw his name, his legs began to go weak on their own.
He recalled the desiccated corpse covered in green fur and the Demon God dragging a great blade of white bone.
"Fatty, you hit the jackpot."
Oscar walked over and patted Ma Hongjun's shoulder. His face carried both gloating amusement and envy.
Dai Mubai and Tang San also watched him with complicated expressions.
Meanwhile, in some remote little tavern on the continent.
A slovenly man in a tattered black robe, reeking of alcohol, was sprawled across a table, snoring loudly.
Hearing the cries of surprise outside.
The man slowly raised his head.
Beneath his tangled hair were a pair of bloodshot eyes, sharp as an eagle's.
Tang Hao glanced at his name on the Sky Screen.
He casually tossed aside the cheap wine bottle in his hand, grabbed the enormous iron hammer beside the table, and curled his lips into a wild smile.
"An interesting world."
Tang Hao rose to his feet, and the air of decadence around him vanished without a trace.
"Perfect. These old bones of mine are about to rust anyway. Going somewhere higher for a stroll wouldn't be bad."
Inside the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Ning Fengzhi looked at the names on the Sky Screen and drew in a sharp breath.
Uncle Sword had been selected!
Sword Douluo Chen Xin, standing beside him, had already closed his eyes.
His silver hair stirred despite the absence of wind.
The Sword Intent around him was rising frantically.
It was a thirst for an unknown sword path, as well as intense battle intent toward the Yankang Imperial Preceptor, the "number one beneath the gods."
"Fengzhi, this old man is leaving."
Chen Xin opened his eyes and left behind those calm yet resolute words.
The next moment, a brilliant pillar of light descended from the Sky Screen.
The light pierced through the roof of the hall and directly enveloped the three chosen men.
The world spun and the stars shifted.
The sensation of space being torn apart vanished in an instant.
The Sky Screen lit up once more.
This time, the image did not return to the perilous Crippled Old Village in the Great Ruins.
Instead, it appeared within an incomparably prosperous human city.
This was the capital of Yankang Kingdom.
Along a broad, level avenue paved with bluestone, people streamed back and forth.
Amid a faint ripple in space.
Sword Douluo Chen Xin, dressed in white with snow-white hair, landed steadily in a corner of the street.
The instant he landed, his brows furrowed slightly.
The air here.
Was too heavy.
There was none of Douluo Continent's light and ethereal Soul Power. In its place was a dense, viscous, and vitality-filled spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Chen Xin took a deep breath.
He felt the bottleneck at level ninety-six, which had remained stagnant for many years, show the faintest sign of loosening beneath the washing of this spiritual energy.
"What a cultivation treasure land."
Chen Xin secretly praised it in his heart.
He restrained his aura, held the Seven Kill Sword in his hand, and slowly walked forward along the street.
Shops lined both sides of the road in neat rows.
Restaurants, inns, blacksmith shops, cloth stores.
They looked no different from the cities of Douluo Continent.
Yet when Chen Xin carefully observed the pedestrians on the street, his heart still thumped violently twice.
At a meat stall not far ahead.
A bare-chested butcher with a full beard was chopping ribs with a Butcher Knife.
He did not rely on brute force. Instead, he merely flicked his wrist lightly.
A faint layer of azure sword qi actually appeared along the blade.
The sword qi slipped through the gaps between the bones. Without making the slightest sound, the entire rack of ribs was neatly cut into small pieces.
"Using sword qi to carve an ox?"
Chen Xin stopped walking, his eyes fixed tightly upon the butcher.
That butcher was merely an ordinary commoner, with only a trace of weak spiritual energy within him.
Yet the technique behind that strike contained a thread of extremely rudimentary, but utterly genuine, sword dao true intent.
Chen Xin swallowed and continued onward.
Outside a carpenter's workshop on the street corner.
An apprentice held a plane and pushed it across a piece of wood.
With every push and pull, his breathing followed a unique rhythm.
As he breathed, wood shavings fluttered through the air, and a thin layer of true qi clung to the plane blade. The wood's surface instantly became smooth as a mirror.
On the second floor of a restaurant, a waiter carried several large plates of steaming dishes.
He did not take the stairs. Instead, he lightly tapped the second-floor railing with the tip of his foot.
His body floated like a nimble swallow. Using some rudimentary lightness technique, he landed steadily in the first-floor hall without spilling even a drop of soup.
Vegetable-selling aunties.
Laborers carrying loads.
Street performers.
Chen Xin walked past them all.
He discovered that every corner of this city seemed filled with traces of cultivation.
The commoners here.
Had truly integrated those lofty divine abilities and cultivation arts into their daily lives of food, clothing, and ordinary necessities.
"The people's daily lives are the Dao..."
Chen Xin recalled the words he had heard in a tavern in Bianlong City.
At the time, he had only thought them grand but empty.
Yet after witnessing this scene with his own eyes, he finally understood just how terrifying the power contained within those words was.
An empire where everyone cultivated.
A nation that used divine abilities as tools to transform daily life.
The hand gripping Chen Xin's Seven Kill Sword was faintly sweating.
He raised his head and looked along the broad street toward the center of the capital.
There stood a magnificent structure that towered into the clouds.
At its summit, a fierce Sword Intent faintly radiated, making Chen Xin's heart pound.
That Sword Intent shot straight into the heavens, as though it intended to pierce the very sky.
An old man on the street saw Chen Xin looking in that direction and cheerfully approached him.
"Brother, you're from out of town, aren't you?"
The old man pointed at the magnificent building, his tone brimming with pride.
"That's our Yankang Kingdom's Imperial Academy."
"The National Preceptor happens to be lecturing on the sword at the Imperial Academy today."
"The National Preceptor is lecturing on the sword?"
The moment Chen Xin heard those words, waves surged through his tranquil heart.
Throughout his life, aside from protecting the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, his only obsession had been the sword dao.
On Douluo Continent, he was honored as Sword Dao Chen Xin.
With the Seven Kill Sword in hand, his attack power was number one beneath the heavens. That pride had been earned through countless battles on the brink of life and death.
But in this strange nation where everyone could cultivate, faced with a peerless sword cultivator who dared call himself the "number one beneath the gods."
For the first time, a thread of timidity arose within Chen Xin's lofty pride.
"Thank you for the directions, elder brother."
Chen Xin cupped his hands and forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart.
Following the crowded flow of people, he walked step by step toward the gates of the Imperial Academy.
The closer he came to that magnificent structure.
The clearer the ever-present Sword Intent in the air became.
This Sword Intent was not fierce.
It did not possess the exposed sharpness or murderous aura that sought to pierce people through.
It was like the sky overhead: vast, profound, and all-embracing, yet it instinctively made one feel small.
Chen Xin arrived at the entrance of the Imperial Academy.
To his surprise.
A place comparable to Spirit Hall's highest academy on Douluo Continent did not even have guards stationed outside.
The two vermilion gates stood wide open.
Whether they were nobles dressed in luxurious brocade or porters with towels draped over their shoulders.
As long as they wished to listen, they could simply cross the threshold and enter.
No one stopped them, and no one checked their identities.
Chen Xin blended into the crowd and stepped into the Imperial Academy's spacious plaza.
The plaza was packed with people, more than ten thousand in total.
Everyone sat cross-legged in silent meditation.
Even the usually noisy market vendors were holding their breath, not daring to make so much as a cough.
At the very front of the plaza stood a lecture platform three zhang high.
There were no ornate seats upon it, nor any formations to set the scene.
There was only an ordinary meditation cushion.
Sitting cross-legged upon it was a middle-aged scholar in a green robe.
He was thin and refined, with slightly graying temples.
He held a scroll in his hand and carried no sword at his waist. He looked like nothing more than an ordinary teacher at a private school.
But the instant Chen Xin's gaze fell upon the middle-aged scholar.
A deafening boom rang through his mind.
The Seven Kill Sword Martial Soul he had always been proud of began to tremble violently beyond his control.
This trembling was not born of excitement.
It came from the instinctive terror and submission of his Martial Soul.
"He is... the Yankang Imperial Preceptor."
Chen Xin swallowed, his mouth dry.
He found an empty spot near the back and imitated the people around him, sitting down cross-legged.
Upon the lecture platform.
The Yankang Imperial Preceptor set down the scroll in his hand.
His gaze slowly swept across the faces of the ten thousand people below.
His eyes were gentle, without the slightest hint of condescension.
"Today, I will speak of the sword."
The National Preceptor spoke.
His voice was not loud, yet it reached every person in the plaza with perfect clarity.
"A few years ago, I went to see the sword techniques practiced by those juniors of the Lijiang Sect."
The National Preceptor shook his head lightly, his tone carrying a hint of regret.
"Flashy and frivolous, neglecting the fundamentals."
"One move of Layered Wave contains a full thirty-six useless variations."
"It looks impenetrable, but in truth, it is riddled with flaws."
"If they encountered a true master, a single branch would be enough to break their sword heart."
These words reached Douluo Continent beyond the Sky Screen.
Inside the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Ning Fengzhi and Bone Douluo exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with shock.
They had personally witnessed the Lijiang Sect's swordsmanship in a tavern.
That sword qi could easily cut through jade. On Douluo Continent, it absolutely counted as a top-tier Self-Created Soul Skill.
Yet in the mouth of this Yankang Imperial Preceptor.
It had actually become flashy trickery?
Within the Sky Screen.
The plaza of the Imperial Academy was deathly silent.
The Yankang Imperial Preceptor extended a slender finger and casually traced through the air.
"To cultivate the sword, you must first understand what a sword is."
"Many people believe that a sword is a weapon for killing, and practicing swordsmanship is simply about splitting people in two."
The National Preceptor smiled faintly, carrying the clarity of one who had seen through the ways of the world.
"If you remain at that stage, then your swordsmanship will go no further for the rest of your life."
Upon hearing this, Chen Xin, who sat cross-legged in the back row, suddenly stiffened.
Seven Kill Sword!
The Seven Kill Sword drew its name from the path of "killing."
He had practiced the sword for his entire life, pursuing ultimate offense and ultimate slaughter.
He had always believed that swords existed to kill. Once the sword was drawn, there could be no regrets; it would cut down every enemy before him.
But now, the greatest sword cultivator in the world had poured a basin of cold water directly over his head.
"National Preceptor, then what exactly is a sword?"
A young student in the front row gathered his courage and called out loudly.
The National Preceptor looked at the student, a trace of approval appearing in his eyes.
"A sword is a ruler."
"A ruler used to measure heaven and earth, to measure all things."
As he spoke, the National Preceptor slowly rose to his feet.
He did not draw a sword. Instead, he casually snapped off a withered yellow branch from the old tree beside the lecture platform.
"When you buy cloth, you use a ruler to measure its length."
"When you farm the land, you use your steps to measure its width."
"The flow of vital energy between heaven and earth, the rise and fall of the stars, the rushing of rivers."
"All of it follows its own rules and paths."
After saying that, the National Preceptor held the dead branch and slowly thrust it forward like a sword.
This thrust was extraordinarily slow.
Even a three-year-old child could clearly see the path of his movement.
There was no sword light, no fierce wind.
There was not even the slightest fluctuation of vital energy.
Yet at the instant that thrust was made.
Chen Xin's eyes suddenly widened, and several bloodshot veins even burst in his eyes from the strain.
In his eyes, what the National Preceptor had thrust forth was not a mere tree branch at all.
This sword avoided every trace of resistance in the air.
This sword followed the direction in which the wind blew.
This sword seemed to divide the space before it into incomparably precise little squares.
"Did you understand?"
The National Preceptor put away the branch and sat back down on his meditation cushion.
"The fundamentals of swordsmanship are nothing more than thrusting, chopping, lifting, and hooking."
"Combine those most basic movements with Arithmetic, and with the laws between heaven and earth."
"When you thrust out your sword."
"You must not only calculate your enemy's weakness, but also the wind speed, the light and shadows, even the direction of every wisp of vital energy within a hundred feet."
"When your sword can measure all things in the world."
"Then there will no longer be anything beneath heaven that can block a single strike from you."
As the National Preceptor's words fell.
A burst of fervent discussion erupted across the Imperial Academy's plaza.
Many commoners and students lowered their heads, gesturing with their fingers as though calculating something.
However, Chen Xin, seated in the back row, had become like a lifeless statue.
Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and struck the bluestone slabs.
His weathered old face was filled with realization.
"Arithmetic, space, laws..."
Chen Xin's lips trembled violently.
He closed his eyes, frantically deducing the Seven Kill Swordsmanship he had always taken pride in.
First Soul Skill, Long Sword Sharp Edge.
Second Soul Skill, Spirit Sword Protection.
Ninth Soul Skill, God and Demon Slash!
Before you continue