Secrets of the Scripture Repository

The Soaring Cloud Sword Sect's Scripture Repository stood deep within the clouds and mist. Thousand-year-old sword vines coiled around the seven-story bronze tower, every leaf glimmering with frigid sword intent. Chu Mo stood before the entrance with an Outer Sect Disciple waist token in hand, the broken sword at his waist trembling faintly—ever since absorbing the Fire Feather Eagle's Law of Flame yesterday, his sword body had become increasingly sensitive to sword intent.

"Outer Sect Disciples are limited to the first three floors." The Scripture Pavilion Elder glanced at Chu Mo's waist token, then his murky gaze suddenly settled on the broken sword at Chu Mo's waist. His pupils contracted sharply. "This sword... did it come from the Back Mountain Sword Tomb?"

Chu Mo's heart jolted, but his expression remained unchanged. "Elder, you jest. I am merely an ordinary disciple of the Ye family." He deliberately restrained his Chaos Aura, yet the broken sword trembled even more violently. The sword intent on the sword vines actually began converging toward him.

The Scripture Pavilion Elder frowned, but ultimately said nothing more. Chu Mo stepped into the first floor, where the Sword Qi rushing toward him nearly prevented him from opening his eyes. Jade slips were arranged neatly upon bronze shelves, their labels bearing names such as "Azure Mist Sword Art" and "Three Forms of Blazing Sun," basic cultivation techniques with no record whatsoever of "Chaos" or "Primordial Chaos."

"The third floor should have more profound sword arts." Chu Mo followed the spiral staircase upward. With every floor he passed, the sword intent grew several degrees denser. When he pushed open the wooden door to the third floor, countless sword shadows suddenly appeared before him—projections of sword intent left behind by generations of Sword Sect disciples, the weakest of whom possessed Core Formation Realm cultivation.

"Courting death!" A streak of sword light suddenly slashed toward him. Chu Mo instinctively swung his broken sword. The instant Chaos Sword Qi collided with the sword shadow, the jade slips across the entire wall suddenly lit up. One of them exploded with a bang, revealing incomplete ancient words within: When chaos first opened, the sword divided yin and yang...

"Who goes there?!" The Scripture Pavilion Elder's voice came from downstairs. Chu Mo hurriedly picked up the jade-slip fragments, only to discover that the broken sword was madly absorbing the surrounding sword intent. The sword shadows on the third floor actually began to blur.

"Stop at once!" The Scripture Pavilion Elder rushed upstairs, only to see Seven-Colored Sword Qi circling Chu Mo's body—the seven types of sword intent he had just absorbed. He suddenly recalled the records of the sect's forbidden grounds: the Chaos Sword Body could devour ten thousand swords and fuse laws, the Ultimate Sword Dao Physique.

"You are... the Chaos Sword Body?" The elder's voice trembled as his hand pressed against the hilt at his waist. "The Sword Sect has decreed that the Chaos Sword Body must..."

"Elder!" Yun Che's voice came from downstairs. The girl burst in carrying a stack of jade slips. "Brother Chu Mo is helping me look for a cultivation method to treat Cold Poison..."

The Scripture Pavilion Elder's gaze moved between the two of them before finally landing on the jade pendant at Yun Che's waist. When he saw the Heaven Suppressing Seal Markings upon it, his pupils shrank violently. "Heaven Suppressing Bloodline... You two..."

"Shh—" Yun Che suddenly pressed down the elder's hand, pleading flashing through her eyes. "My mother once said that if I encountered an Elder Chen from the Sword Sect, I should say, 'The promise at the Sword Tomb must, in the end, be fulfilled.'"

The elder's entire body shook, and in an instant he seemed to age ten years. Trembling, he retreated half a step and waved away the sword-intent barrier on the third floor. "Go. On the fourth floor, the third bookshelf from the left contains the 'Primordial Chaos Sword Canon Remnant'... But remember, you must leave before sunset."

Chu Mo and Yun Che exchanged a glance and hurried up to the fourth floor. Sure enough, on a dust-covered shelf, they found an ancient scroll with its cover peeling away. On its first page were Chaos Runes identical to those on the broken sword.

"The World Annihilation Scroll has nine forms. You have currently comprehended the first three..." Yun Che read softly, her gaze falling upon the annotation at the end of the scroll. "The World Creation Scroll requires emotions as sacrifice, and the sacrifice requires the power of the Heaven Suppressing Bloodline..."

Noisy footsteps suddenly rang out from below. Just as Chu Mo was about to put away the ancient scroll, more than ten figures had already burst onto the fourth floor. At their head stood Xiao Yichen, followed by four Inner Disciples, each with a mid-grade spiritual artifact hanging at their waist.

"What a bold Outer Sect Disciple, daring to trespass into the forbidden pavilion!" Xiao Yichen sneered as he unfolded the folding fan in his hand. The landscape painting upon it glimmered faintly. "According to sect rules, anyone who trespasses onto the fourth floor shall have their cultivation crippled and be imprisoned in the Sword Prison."

Chu Mo stuffed the ancient scroll into Yun Che's arms, his broken sword already drawn. He could sense that the four people Xiao Yichen had brought were all in the middle stage of the Core Formation Realm. Combined with his Sound Sword Domain, this had clearly been premeditated.

"Attack!" Xiao Yichen's jade flute rang softly, and space suddenly twisted. Countless illusions appeared before Chu Mo: the Ye family's training grounds, his mother's corpse, Yun Che falling from a cliff... Every scene carried bone-piercing sword intent, stabbing directly into his Sea of Consciousness.

"An illusion?" Chu Mo bit through his tongue, and Chaos Sword Qi exploded within his Sea of Consciousness. The broken sword suddenly gave a clear cry, actually rebounding Xiao Yichen's sonic sword intent back at him. The four Inner Disciples clutched their heads and screamed at once, blood pouring from all seven orifices.

"You..." Xiao Yichen discovered in shock that his domain had absolutely no effect on Chu Mo. Instead, the Chaos Sword Body had devoured part of its laws. Just as he was about to retreat, Chu Mo's broken sword was already pressed against his dantian.

"What does Senior Brother Xiao mean by this?" Yun Che promptly brought out the waist token given by the Scripture Pavilion Elder. "Elder Chen specially permitted us to search for texts. Could it be that Inner Disciples may casually frame Outer Sect Disciples?"

Xiao Yichen's face turned from green to white. He saw the Scripture Pavilion Elder standing at the stairway, watching him with a warning gaze—one of the Sword Sect's last remaining Soul Transformation Realm elders. Even Xiao Yichen's master had to yield him three parts of respect.

"I will report today's matter to my master." Xiao Yichen flicked his sleeve and departed. Before leaving, he gave Chu Mo a deep look. Within that gaze, beyond hatred, was a trace of greed too subtle to detect.

Late that night, Chu Mo cultivated the fourth form of the Primordial Sword Art in the bamboo grove. Every time the broken sword slashed out Sword Qi, it absorbed the spiritual energy around it, leaving intricate Chaos Markings upon the ground. Yun Che sat on a stone bench, studying the remnant brought from the Scripture Repository, when she suddenly noticed that the resonance between her jade pendant and the broken sword was growing stronger and stronger.

"Brother Chu Mo, the remnant says that the Chaos Sword Body and the Heaven Suppressing Bloodline live and perish together." Yun Che looked up, concern flashing through her eyes. "Back then, your mother and my mother may have died because of this..."

Chu Mo's hand gripping the sword froze. He recalled his mother's bones in the Sword Tomb and the jade pendant left behind by Yun Che's mother. Suddenly, he realized that the deaths of the two mothers might be connected to the secret of the Source of the Myriad Realms—Chaos and Heaven Suppression had originally been the two poles when heaven and earth first opened, while they were the present-day vessels of those two poles.

"No matter what lies ahead, I will protect you." Chu Mo walked to Yun Che's side, his fingertip lightly brushing the Heaven Suppressing Seal mark between her brows. "Just as you protected me in the Sword Tomb back then."

Yun Che lowered her head with a blush, only to suddenly hear an unusual sound from deep within the bamboo grove. Dozens of shadows surrounded them from every direction, each holding a bloodstained dagger—the symbol of the Blood Demon Sect, the Blood Lotus Dagger.

"Kill!" The black-clad man at the front attacked first. The Blood Demon Qi on his dagger actually condensed into a tangible lotus. Chu Mo swept his broken sword horizontally, and Chaos Sword Qi directly shredded the blood lotus, its remaining force unceasing as it severed the man's arm.

"The Chaos Sword Body is here, and you ants still dare come to deliver yourselves to death?" Chu Mo gave a sharp cry, Sword Qi erupting around his body. The twelve Blood Demon Sect assassins retreated one after another beneath the Chaos Sword Qi. To their horror, they discovered that their Blood Demon Qi was being devoured by their opponent, while their wounds could not heal at all.

The last assassin dropped to his knees and begged for mercy. Just as Chu Mo was about to question him, poisonous mist suddenly spewed from the man's mouth as he lunged at Yun Che.

"Watch out!" Chu Mo had no time to think and threw himself directly toward Yun Che. The poisonous mist grazed his shoulder, leaving behind a charred patch, while his broken sword pierced through the assassin's heart.

"Brother Chu Mo!" Yun Che hurriedly supported him. The power of the Heaven Suppressing Bloodline flowed into his body, rapidly repairing his wounds. Their eyes met, and both could feel the violent pounding of the other's heart—not because of the battle, but because of that nearly skin-to-skin embrace.

In the distance, Xiao Yichen stood atop a mountain peak, watching the battle below with a cold smile curling across his lips. He held a jade slip in his hand, which clearly recorded Chu Mo's discovery in the Scripture Repository: the Chaos Sword Body required the Heaven Suppressing Bloodline as its guide before its complete power could awaken...

"Heaven Suppressing Bloodline... Chaos Sword Body..." Xiao Yichen murmured softly. "Master was right. These two things are precisely the keys to opening the Primordial Sword Domain."

He looked northward, toward the Mysterious Yellow Divine Dynasty. Legend had it that the Primordial Sword Domain concealed the Source of the Myriad Realms, and only one who possessed both the power of Chaos and Heaven Suppression could enter it.

"Chu Mo, Yun Che..." Xiao Yichen put away the jade slip, malice flashing in his eyes. "Your road ends here."

The mountain wind swept through the bamboo grove. Seeing the worry in Yun Che's eyes, Chu Mo suddenly smiled. He knew the road ahead was perilous, but so long as she stood by his side, no enemy, no matter how powerful, and no scheme, no matter how deep, would be anything more than dust beneath his sword.

The broken sword shimmered faintly beneath the moonlight, and the runes upon its blade brightened a little more. Chu Mo understood that the legend belonging to the Chaos Sword Sovereign was gradually unfolding its magnificent chapter with every battle and every realization. And he would carry the conviction and attachment in his heart, cut down every obstacle, and reign supreme over the myriad realms.