Innate Dao Body
An incense stick later.
Lin Tian returned to the courtyard.
His clothes had been washed clean, and he had evaporated the water with Spiritual Qi.
Perhaps because Lin Tian had not washed them very carefully.
A faint red tinge still lingered on his white robes.
The woman had already tidied a room for Lin Tian.
Lin Tian saw wisps of smoke rising from the kitchen, and the aroma of meat kept wafting toward him.
Before long, the woman brought out the cooked meat and set it on the stone table in the courtyard.
Lin Tian sat at the table, though he was already ravenous.
He still did not begin eating.
"You eat first."
His voice was indifferent, carrying an authority that brooked no defiance.
The woman looked somewhat uneasy, but she still picked up a piece of meat and put it in her mouth.
Only then did Lin Tian nod and pick up a piece of meat, examining it repeatedly for a long time.
This was demon boar meat, the most common kind of ferocious beast meat.
Lin Tian had eaten it before.
But that was a very distant memory.
Demon boar meat was ferocious beast meat, after all.
Among the younger generation of the Lin household, only the children of the clan elders and Lin Luo's son, Lin Ming, could eat it.
Xiaolian had been driven out merely for trying to steal a plate of chicken drumsticks for Lin Tian.
After examining it for a long time, Lin Tian began feasting.
As he ate, Lin Tian began asking questions.
"What is your name?"
"Ling Qiuzi."
"Were you captured and brought here by Li Musheng too?"
"Yes."
"Where are you from?"
"The Joyous Immortal Sect."
Ling Qiuzi's expression dimmed.
Yet Lin Tian could see suppressed hatred in her eyes.
Earlier, when Lin Tian first arrived in town, the ways many people addressed Li Musheng had been particularly telling.
Some called him senior brother, while others called him master.
"What does Li Musheng want by capturing us and bringing us here?"
Lin Tian continued questioning her.
Ling Qiuzi sat opposite Lin Tian, bitterness showing in her eyes, but in the end, she shook her head.
"I don't know."
She had already changed her clothes.
She wore a spotless red outfit.
Her cultivation was not high, only at the Qi Training Ninth Layer.
Two months ago, Li Musheng had tricked her into coming here while taking her out on a sect mission.
The Moon God Pill's pill poison flared up once every month.
Only a subsidiary pill could alleviate it.
Last month, Ling Qiuzi had known her cultivation was far too low to qualify to compete for one.
This month was still the same.
Now, obvious black spots had already appeared on Ling Qiuzi's neck and arms.
She probably could not hold on for many more days.
"What realm is Li Musheng in?"
"He seems to be in the Soul Palace Realm. Li Musheng, he..."
Ling Qiuzi gritted her teeth, her voice trembling.
"He is one of the Joyous Immortal Sect's ten great inner disciples, and the son of a supreme elder."
Lin Tian nodded and stuffed a piece of beast meat into his mouth.
His appetite was much larger than before.
It was probably because his cultivation realm had advanced.
Afterward, Ling Qiuzi told Lin Tian about the powerful cultivators in town worth watching out for.
Two men and one woman, all powerful cultivators in the Void Penetration Realm.
One of the men had already survived here for five years.
Every month, Li Musheng brought some martial artists and threw them into the town.
Over the years, he had reportedly brought in tens of thousands of people.
Yet even now.
The town's population had consistently remained below one thousand.
The reason went without saying.
The depths of Lin Tian's eyes were already filled with killing intent.
He swallowed a few mouthfuls of meat and stood up.
His hand closed around his sword hilt, and his gaze turned toward Ling Qiuzi.
Ling Qiuzi instantly startled, a trace of fear appearing in her eyes as she looked at Lin Tian.
"I won't kill you, because there is no enmity between us."
Lin Tian spoke indifferently.
Only after he left did Ling Qiuzi slowly breathe a sigh of relief.
Her delicate body trembled, and the thought of escape arose in her mind.
She walked to the entrance, but stopped there.
She walked back.
In her current circumstances, where could she possibly escape to?
Inside the room.
Seated on the bed.
Lin Tian laid the Heavenly Sword across his thighs and began cultivating.
Previously, Lin Tian had also cultivated another art.
However, that art was only middle-grade yellow-tier.
It could not compare with the heaven-tier "Sword Heart Body Refining Art," so Lin Tian naturally discarded it outright.
"Sword Heart!"
Lin Tian's voice was low.
Even though Lin Tian had not practiced the sword before, he had still heard of it.
In this world, sword cultivators reigned supreme over all.
Sword moves, sword techniques, Sword Heart, Sword Momentum, Sword Intent, Sword Domain.
These were the six great realms of sword cultivation.
Every realm concerned a sword cultivator's understanding of the Dao of the sword.
Among them, Sword Momentum, Sword Intent, and Sword Domain.
Were actually one kind of realm.
Sword Intent arose from Sword Momentum and advanced into Sword Domain.
Among the other three realms.
Sword techniques were an evolution of sword moves.
Sword moves were merely routines formed by linking actions such as thrusts, slashes, flicks, and cleaves.
Sword techniques were formed by incorporating the laws of heaven and earth into sword moves.
With a single stroke, the laws joined the heavens.
Among these six realms.
Sword Heart alone was independent.
Since ancient times, very few sword cultivators had possessed a Sword Heart.
With a Sword Heart, one's ability to comprehend the path of the sword would improve greatly.
A martial artist tempered the sword with the heart and transformed the heart through the sword.
With clear understanding of the sword in hand, untempted by external things, one shattered all ill omens with a single stroke.
Comprehending a Sword Heart might be as difficult as crossing a heavenly chasm for other sword cultivators.
But for Lin Tian...
Hum!
A clear metallic ringing abruptly resounded.
Dazzling sword light suddenly blossomed throughout the dim room.
Wisps of Sword Qi surged, leaped, and wandered around Lin Tian.
In an instant, azure light flashed.
Boom, boom, boom!
Explosions rang out, stirring up countless motes of dust.
"Ah!"
In the courtyard, Ling Qiuzi, who was cleaning up, let out a soft cry at the scene before her.
Intense shock appeared on her face.
She had not suffered the slightest injury.
But that supremely sharp presence felt like countless keen swords slashing through her mind.
Sword! Sword! Sword!
At that moment, Ling Qiuzi seemed to see a sword spanning heaven and earth slash downward.
It was terrifying to the extreme.
Only then did she firmly suppress some of the dark thoughts she harbored toward Lin Tian.
In this world.
Sword cultivators were exceedingly terrifying.
They stood high above, viewing the world's powerful cultivators as ants.
Precisely because sword cultivators all walked their own paths, their numbers were not particularly great.
Ling Qiuzi also practiced the sword.
But she did not count as a sword cultivator.
She had merely learned a sword art for self-defense.
At the same time.
Around the courtyard where Lin Tian stayed.
Quite a few people suddenly froze in shock.
They looked toward his location in utter astonishment, each harboring their own thoughts.
"He actually comprehended a Sword Heart. What a pity that bastard captured him and brought him here."
"No matter how great a heaven's chosen you are, coming here means nothing but death in the end."
"I've already lost the fighting spirit in my heart. Otherwise, I would have to fight this person."
"I saw him today. He seemed to be a handsome young fellow. Rather tempting."
They murmured, committing the newcomer, Lin Tian, to memory.
At the same time.
Behind Purple Sword Mountain in the Joyous Immortal Sect.
Several immortal cranes flew proudly over the clouds, and everything here resembled an immortal paradise in the mortal world.
At a glance, overlapping mountain ranges towered into the clouds.
It was the hour when sun and moon shone together, and purple Qi rose ten thousand fathoms into the sky along the horizon.
Beneath their radiance, ten thousand mountains vied for supremacy.
Purple Sword Mountain alone towered into the clouds, its peerless summit standing quietly as it gazed at the bright moon.
Clouds emerging from the mountain hollows drifted into the light of sun and moon, stirring the imagination.
An incomparably beautiful figure stood in midair.
She wore a long white dress and seemed to bathe in a sacred radiance beneath the dappled sunlight.
Yet her eyes, her brows, her nose and lips... every feature gave an impression of allure that seeped into the marrow.
Even if she had never once glanced at you, you would still feel that soul-stirring power.
Suddenly, the woman's willow brows furrowed, and she looked behind her.
"Why are you alone? Where is Lin Tian?"
The newcomer was none other than Li Musheng.
Li Musheng's presence was weak, his eyes lifeless, and a hint of panic showed on his face as he said:
"Holy Maiden, when Lin Tian and I were returning, we encountered people from the Azure Cloud Sect."
"Their leader was Yu Li'an of the Azure Cloud Sect."
"I killed Yu Li'an and the others, but Lin Tian's whereabouts are unknown."
After Li Musheng finished speaking, the woman's willow brows knitted tightly.
Terrifying fury rose on her exquisitely beautiful face.
Whoosh!
A purple blast of wind instantly swept up and hurtled toward Li Musheng.
"Holy Maiden, spare my life!"
Li Musheng was startled. He had not expected the woman to be so angry.
"Do you know how many years I have spent searching for an innate Dao body since I began cultivating?"
"And you actually managed to lose him."
As the woman spoke, that blast of wind slashed straight into Li Musheng.
Whoosh!
Li Musheng's right arm was severed outright.
Agonizing pain struck, and Li Musheng curled up on the ground, howling in pain.
He had never expected that Lin Tian would have an innate Dao body.
An inborn Dao physique was a type of pseudo-saint physique.
Although it was not as precious as a saint physique,
it was still a darling of heaven and earth.
If such a treasured physique were used as a cultivation furnace, it would surely bring tremendous advances to Mu Yanwan's cultivation-the Holy Maiden of the Joyous Immortal Sect.
She might even directly seize the spirit of the Dao physique.
Despite practicing dual cultivation all this time, she had preserved her virgin essence.
Presumably, she had been waiting for a Dao physique.
Li Musheng trembled all over, yet inwardly he was wildly delighted.
An inborn Dao physique, and he could even attain the Dao through killing.
Such a heaven's chosen had actually fallen into his hands.
It simply couldn't get any better!
As he thought this, Li Musheng stiffened, sensing Mu Yanwan's killing intent.
"Holy... Maiden, you can't kill me. My father..."
Li Musheng spoke, and Mu Yanwan stopped in her tracks.
She narrowed her eyes, revealing a cold, stern killing aura.
"You may leave."
Mu Yanwan suddenly smiled, and her killing intent vanished in an instant.
It was as though nothing had happened.
"I was indeed a little too heavy-handed just now."
Mu Yanwan smiled sweetly, radiating brilliant, flawless charm, splendid yet pure.
She approached Li Musheng and extended a fair, delicate hand to help him up.
"It's... it's fine."
Apprehension lurked in Li Musheng's eyes as he hurriedly stood.
"Holy Maiden, I'll take my leave."
As Li Musheng spoke, he saw Mu Yanwan nod with a soft smile, then fled the place as though escaping.
After he left, traces of coldness surfaced in Mu Yanwan's eyes.
"I've already revealed the secret that Lin Tian has an innate Dao body. This should be enough to save his life, shouldn't it?"
At the same time, a graceful red figure flew over from afar.
The woman wore red, and her dignified appearance held an indescribable allure.
Her dark hair fell loose, tied only with a pink ribbon.
"Holy Maiden, I saw Li Musheng take Lin Tian out of the Lin Lineage, but I lost track of them afterward. Li Musheng seemed to have used a higher-grade flying spiritual artifact."
Her face full of guilt, the red-robed woman stood beside Mu Yanwan with her head lowered.
"Zheshan, this isn't your fault. Li Musheng must have noticed your presence long ago. With the sect leader and his father behind him, it's only natural that we can't contend with him."
Mu Yanwan spoke softly, her gaze calm and free of the slightest worry.
"You don't blame me, Holy Maiden?"
The red-robed woman named Su Zheshan looked at the stunning woman before her, her eyes filled with admiration.
Mu Yanwan shook her head slightly, looked at the surrounding immortal mountain scenery, and said slowly:
"In this vast Joyous Immortal Sect, you're the only person I can trust, Zheshan. How could I blame you?"
Her crimson lips parted slightly as she looked at the woman beside her, whose cheeks had flushed scarlet, and said:
"As for you, the contest to become the head of your Su Clan will be taking place soon. Since my true body cannot go, I'll condense a Dao body over the next few days and accompany you."
Su Zheshan froze briefly, then a hint of moisture appeared in her beautiful eyes.
"Thank you, Holy Maiden."