Profound Grotto.
When Sect Master Zhao Qian saw the sword light rising from within the Demon-Suppressing Coffin and shooting straight into the clouds, the hand holding his Spirit Mirror suddenly began to tremble violently.
Behind the Bronze Gate, Lü Daoxuan could not see the images in the Spirit Mirror, so he immediately asked Zhao Qian in a somewhat tense voice:
"Zhao Qian, I heard a sword cry. Who drew their sword?"
Lü Daoxuan asked again:
"Could a Sword Cultivator have come to help?"
Zhao Qian let out a long breath as though a great burden had been lifted. He immediately gripped the other Spirit Mirror in his hand, refined everything he had just seen into a Divine Soul Mark, and sent it into the mirror. Then he passed that Spirit Mirror through the gap beneath the Bronze Gate to Lü Daoxuan.
Only after doing all this did he speak:
"Junior Martial Uncle, the one who just drew his sword was Taiping."
Lü Daoxuan had been about to press his hand against the Spirit Mirror. At those words, he first froze, then his eyes lit up, and he murmured with some excitement:
"Even when all signs of life were gone, the sword qi still endured... He did it! Taiping has mastered the Hidden Sword Art!"
On the other side of the Bronze Gate, Zhao Qian smiled and nodded repeatedly upon hearing this:
"I remember you once said, Junior Martial Uncle, that the secret to the Hidden Sword Art's final strike was for the sword intent to endure after death, for the sword intent to endure."
"At the time, I could not understand how one could possibly make sword intent endure after death."
"Today, Taiping taught me a lesson."
"It seems my aptitude for swordsmanship falls far short of Taiping's."
Behind the