Spirit Sword Square outside Hong Meng Hall had turned the color of glazed crystal. Three thousand new sword cultivators sat cross-legged beneath the Old Scholar Tree, their spirit swords floating above their knees, their scabbards carved with Dao patterns ranging from "First Sprout" to "Defy Fate." Chu Mo stood upon the viewing platform, watching the Blacksmith Boy grip the Hammer Sword's hilt and unleash its first form. The hammerhead scraped against the air and actually kindled golden sparks—an omen of Chaos Power resonating with the Dao of craftsmanship.
"The eighth batch of Dao seekers comes from the Thunder Domain." Yun Che handed over a jade slip etched with thundercloud patterns. When her fingertips brushed across the back of his hand, they left behind the coolness of the morning sword practice in the land where chaos had first opened. "Their elder said that after the Thunder Cloud Sword Tassel came into contact with the Endless Sword Manual, it actually began to nurture intelligence."
Before her words had faded, the sky abruptly darkened. A muffled boom came from the distant Void Sea, as though some colossal thing were battering against the boundary between chaos and laws. Chu Mo's Twin Pupils suddenly contracted. He saw space in the direction of the Void Sea boiling, countless tentacles formed of Void Power piercing through the fog wall. Wherever they passed, corrosive black blotches spread across the glazed ground of Spirit Sword Square.
"It's the Void Race!" Azurewood Domain Lord, one of the Eight Great Domain Guardian Envoys, cried out. The World Tree Phantom within his sleeve swayed madly. "They can actually break through the barriers of the myriad worlds!"
Chu Mo finally recalled the records in the Sword Master's incomplete scrolls. Beyond Hong Meng, in the Void Sea, existed the Void Race, which lived by the Devouring Law. Their bodies were made from the impurities produced when chaos first opened, making them the nemesis of every civilization of laws. The Void Race vanguard attacking now was seeping into the divine domain in mist form, every droplet of fog absorbing the sword intent in the air.
"Protect the new sword cultivators!" Yun Che's soft sword transformed into an ice-crystal barrier, only for her to discover that the void mist droplets expanded into even more tentacles upon touching the ice element. The Blacksmith Boy's Hammer Sword suddenly let out a mournful cry. The craftsmanship patterns on its scabbard were being devoured by the mist droplets.
Chu Mo's Twin Life Swords flew from their sheaths on their own. At last, he understood why the masked man had mentioned the Seed of Finality—the Void Race's nature was precisely what the Sword Master's lineage feared most. When his sword tip swept across the Void Tentacles, it could not inflict any tangible damage. Instead, the tentacles absorbed part of his Chaos Power and became even more solid.
"Chu Mo, use our original aspirations as the guide!" Yun Che suddenly seized his wrist and connected their spiritual veins once more. In an instant, the fragrance of the Old Scholar Tree, the scorching heat of Godfall Island's lava, the clear chime of the sword tombs on Mount Guiji—all their shared memories became a tangible net of light, shrouding the collapsing fog wall. The Void Tentacles shrieked the moment they touched the light net, and scenes of terror they had seen within the cocoon of light surfaced across the mist droplets.
"So the Void Race doesn't devour power. It devours..." Gold and violet flashed through Chu Mo's pupils. "It devours every living being's obsession with their Dao heart." Enlightenment suddenly struck him. He plunged the Twin Life Swords into the ground and activated the Illuminating Break Style of the Endless Sword Manual. "Yun Che, channel the flowing light of the Light Orb Race into the sword manual!"
The Old Scholar Tree at the center of the square trembled in response. Tens of thousands of light butterflies flew from its canopy, every one carrying the memory of some sword cultivator's original aspiration: the excitement of a child gripping a wooden sword for the first time, the tears of an ordinary person picking up a reborn spirit sword amid the ruins of Mount Guiji, and Zi Lin's resolute determination as she carved bloody words upon Godfall Island. As these memory-light butterflies merged into the sword manual's net of light, the Void Tentacles began to tremble violently, and the fearful scenes on the mist droplets were purified one by one.
An enraged roar rose from the depths of the Void Sea. A gigantic figure condensed from Void Power strode through the mist. Its body was translucent, impurities from the first opening of chaos roiling within it. Crystals of laws plundered from other divine domains were embedded in its seven orifices, and among them was a diamond-shaped fragment engraved with the words "Sword Master."
"Host of the Chaos Sword Body..." The Void Race Lord's voice rasped like sandpaper. "Do you think these fragile memories can stop us? Thirty thousand years ago, the Sword Master built a wall with his Dao heart, yet in the end, was he not trapped to death within his own cage?"
Chu Mo noticed that the "Sword Master fragment" inside its body was absorbing his Twin Life Force. It was a remnant that the First Generation Sword Master had accidentally dropped into the Void Sea when he shattered the Chaos Sword Body all those years ago. "So the Void Race has been using fragments of the Sword Master's lineage to crack the laws of the myriad worlds." This discovery caused his sword momentum to change abruptly. He no longer sought to kill; instead, he precisely struck at the point connecting the fragment to the Void Race Lord.
"Watch out! It wants to seize your Chaos Sword Body!" Yun Che's Ice Clan Fate Pearl suddenly exploded, transforming into twelve ice dragons that coiled around the Void Race Lord's tentacles. Chu Mo saw the Zi Lin Curse Mark in her hair fading. It was the final power Zi Lin had left behind to protect her Dao with her life.
"Yun Che!" Amid Chu Mo's furious roar, the Twin Life Swords erupted with unprecedented radiance. At last, he grasped the ultimate truth of the Endless Sword Manual—what it meant to illuminate and shatter ten thousand calamities was not to crush all with power, but to make every life's original aspiration into the sharpest blade. When the net of light completely enveloped the Void Race Lord, the law crystals within its body shattered one after another, revealing that curled up at its core was a child of the Light Orb Race, polluted by Void Power.
"So you have been plundering the souls of newborn worlds all along!" Chu Mo's sword tip halted an inch before the child's brow. "The Sword Master's lineage fragments are the keys you use to open the myriad worlds." He activated his Twin Life Force and drew the Void Power from the child's body, only to discover that the child's chest bore a star-map brand identical to the one in the sword tombs of Mount Guiji. Before the Void Race Lord dissipated, it let out a shrill laugh. "Kill us, and still more Void Race members will pour forth from the Void Sea. Host of the Chaos Sword Body, do you think you are some savior? You are merely another of the Sword Master's lineage..." Before it could finish, the net of light shredded it into nothingness, leaving only the fragment engraved with "Sword Master" to fall into Chu Mo's palm.
When the crisis on the square was resolved, the new sword cultivators gathered around them. The Blacksmith Boy picked up the Hammer Sword and discovered that the craftsmanship patterns on its scabbard had not vanished. Instead, they had fused with the chaotic impurities of the Void Race, forming unique Quenching Patterns. "Great Master, my sword... can forge void!" Excited light sparkled in his eyes.
Chu Mo looked at the sword in the boy's hands and suddenly understood: the Void Race's invasion had instead allowed the Endless Sword Dao to evolve. When Chaos Power collided with void impurities, it had actually nurtured a new law capable of embracing all things—"The Path of No End had always grown amid destruction and reconstruction."
Yun Che's hand suddenly covered the palm holding the fragment. Her warmth made the fragment emit a faint glow. At the same time, they saw an image within it: when the First Generation Sword Master shattered the Chaos Sword Body, he had deliberately sent one fragment into the Void Sea. Upon it were carved a small line of words: "Should you encounter the Void Race, teach them that chaos's sharpest sword is one's original aspiration."
The waves of the Void Sea gradually calmed. Among the branches and leaves of the Old Scholar Tree, several spirit birds purified from void mist droplets had appeared at some unknown time. Their feathers were translucent, and when they chirped, the sounds of different sword cultivators practicing their swords rang out. Chu Mo knew this was the myriad worlds' gift to the Endless Sword Dao—the most dangerous enemy had ultimately become nourishment for the lineage's growth.
"Chu Mo, look!" Yun Che pointed toward the sky. The fog wall in the direction of the Void Sea had actually revealed a brand-new star map. Beside the dark star representing the Void Race, a new star made of light butterflies had appeared. "This is the star that belongs to all those with original aspirations."
When the first ray of sunlight from chaos's first opening fell once more, waves of sword cries rose from Spirit Sword Square. This time, the cries were no longer perfectly uniform. Some sounded like hammering in a blacksmith's forge, some like a clear spring flowing over a stony beach, and others like the leaves and branches of the Old Scholar Tree whispering to one another—this was the most beautiful sound of the Endless Sword Dao, with no predetermined rhythm, only the truest echo of every life's Dao heart.
Chu Mo gazed toward distant Mount Guiji. There, the new sword tombs were erupting with golden sword light. Within that light, the phantoms of Zi Lin and Wuyin stood shoulder to shoulder, gently nodding at him. He knew that the cycle of thirty thousand years and the Void Race's invasion were only the prologue to the Endless Sword Dao. The true challenge was to let this seed of Dao lineage nurtured by original aspirations grow into an evergreen tree reaching the heavens amid the chaos and laws of the myriad worlds.
And he and Yun Che would hold the Twin Life Swords and stand at the tree's roots, guarding every life's right to wield a sword—whether that sword was an iron-forged hammer or butterfly wings condensed from light, so long as the heart held flickering light and darkness, it would be the most dazzling radiance of the Endless Sword Dao.
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