Traveling the World with a Sword

[Age 16: The three moves you taught Zhu Zhanshan caused a great uproar in the army. More than ten generals at the Innate Realm broke through to the Grandmaster Realm as a result, and the overall strength of the Great Ming army continued to grow. Zhu Di considered you a reclusive expert and believed you would surely look down on worldly goods, so he had Zhu Zhanshan give you a copy of the Great Nine Heavens Hand. It was the signature ultimate technique of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Great Ming dynasty, and one of the Ming Cult's treasured ultimate arts, a peerless Grandmaster Realm Cultivation Method!]

[Age 17: You discovered that cultivation at the Innate Realm consisted of opening the twelve regular meridians. Because your Innate Sword Qi was not pure, your cultivation progressed at a snail's pace, leaving you deeply dissatisfied!]

[Age 18: You recalled your cultivation journey. You had used the Great Nine Heavens Hand to open two meridians, switched to the Pure Yang Limitless Art and opened four, switched to the Heavenly Book of Forgotten Emotions to increase the vitality of your True Qi, switched to Two Forms Sword Qi and opened the conception vessel, then switched to the True Martial Seven-Section Formation and opened the governing vessel. Along the way, you had also made all sorts of attempts to study various martial arts. Your True Qi had long since become hopelessly impure, and you began considering how to remove the impurities!]

[Age 20: Drawing on the Sixth-Transformation Pill Refining Technique, you made an Immaculate Golden Pill capable of holding True Qi, then used the high temperature of a Pill Furnace to temper the True Qi inside it. The purity of your True Qi surpassed ninety-nine percent!]

[Age 21: You contributed the Immaculate Golden Pill to Wudang's treasure vault. Wudang's current sect leader, Zhang Songxi, received it as though he had found a priceless treasure and, for the sake of the Great Ming imperial family, made an exception and promoted you to True Disciple!]

[Age 22: True Disciples could choose a Cultivation Method surpassing the Innate Realm from the Scripture Pavilion. In the end, you chose the Grandmaster Realm Two Forms Swordsmanship!]

[Age 23: You discovered that although the purity of your True Qi was infinitely close to one hundred percent, it was still not one hundred percent. A miss by a hair's breadth could lead one a thousand miles astray, and you were deeply dissatisfied. After careful consideration, you decided to imitate the Wedding Dress Divine Art: to use its sharpness, first blunt its edge!]

[Age 24: Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor of Ming, passed away, and Zhu Zhanshan needed to return to the Capital to pay his respects. On the eve of Zhu Zhanshan's departure from Mount Wudang, you passed all the True Qi in your body to him, leaving only the final gateway of heaven and earth unopened among his eight extraordinary meridians. Zhu Gaochi, the Hongxi Emperor of Ming, succeeded to the throne, and Zhu Zhanshan's status rose considerably as the fifth prince. Zhu Zhanshan received an imperially bestowed thousand-year-old ginseng plant and used its medicinal effects to open the gateway of heaven and earth, becoming the youngest Innate expert in the history of the Great Ming imperial family!]

[Age 25: Grateful to you for passing on your cultivation, Zhu Zhanshan gave you countless treasures of gold, silver, and jewels. You thought Zhu Zhanshan was a good child who repaid kindness, so you refined an Immaculate Golden Pill for him and helped him increase the purity of his True Qi, allowing him to go a little farther in the future!]

[Age 28: You finally recovered all your strength. Because your True Qi had been pure Two Forms Sword Qi from beginning to end, and because your eight extraordinary meridians had long since been opened, you did not have to suffer countless setbacks in the process of opening them. Thus, the edge of your Innate Sword Qi was laid bare. You could confidently declare that a single strand of your Innate Sword Qi was now worth three strands of your former Innate Sword Qi!]

[Age 30: You worried that your Innate Sword Qi would suffer setbacks as you opened the twelve regular meridians, losing the threefold strength of its exposed edge. You therefore did not rush to increase your strength and began considering how to preserve the qualities of your Innate Sword Qi!]

[Age 33: You discovered that if a swordsman without Sword Intent suffered a severe setback, the power of his Sword Qi would decline considerably, while a swordsman with Sword Intent would grow stronger with every setback. You began trying every possible way to comprehend Sword Intent!]

[Age 35: You were very familiar with the power of sunlight. Your original body had used it to form a Three-Legged Golden Crow and had also mastered the immensely powerful Divine Ability of transforming the Three-Legged Golden Crow into a great sun spanning the sky. Drawing upon that knowledge, you quickly comprehended Great Sun Sword Intent!]

[Age 40: You were very familiar with the power of moonlight. Your original body had once used it to form a Supreme Yin Moon Rabbit, later transformed the Supreme Yin Moon Rabbit into a sarira, and finally transformed the sarira into the three flowers atop your head. Drawing upon that knowledge, you quickly comprehended Supreme Yin Sword Intent!]

[Age 45: Because your two kinds of Sword Intent were too strong and your Two Forms Swordsmanship too weak, you had long been unable to bring yin and yang together to form Two-Yi Sword Intent. You felt somewhat restless and impatient!]

[Age 49: In the Tumu Crisis, Zhu Qizhen, the Great Ming's god of war, threw away the five hundred thousand elite troops of the Chief Military Commission of the Five Armies' military nobility, and the Great Ming dynasty lost the absolute power with which it had suppressed all within the four seas. The Sun Moon Holy Cult was the first to carve out territory and rule as a king, establishing itself as a regional power. The Great Ming dynasty launched three campaigns against it, all ending in crushing defeat. Learning that the Great Ming dynasty had become a paper tiger, the various sects and schools of the martial world followed the Sun Moon Holy Cult's example and expanded their territories, dealing a severe blow to the Great Ming dynasty's rule. Many martial sects colluded with great Aristocratic Clans, outwardly obeying court officials while defying them in secret. In some remote regions, county magistrates who refused to become puppets of martial sects would inexplicably slip and fall into the water. There was even a case of three successive county magistrates dying within a single year!]

[Age 50: Countless bloody clashes broke out every day as the various sects and schools of the martial world fought for territory. As a sacred site honored by the Great Ming imperial family, Mount Wudang had no choice but to step forward and uphold the dynasty's rule. In the process, it made countless enemies, and Wudang disciples met violent deaths every few days. Since Zhu Zhanshan had sent you gifts every few days over the years, you truly could not stand by and do nothing, so you decided to travel the world with your sword!]

[Age 55: Grandmaster Realm experts generally had extensive families and enterprises to protect. They dared not use their superior strength to bully someone weaker by attacking you, for fear of being blacklisted by the imperial court and suppressed by Mount Wudang. Your travels through the martial world could hardly have gone more smoothly. Ever since you began your travels, your Great Sun Sword Intent had killed everyone it struck in an instant, while no one could break your Supreme Yin Sword Intent. Equipped for both attack and defense, you won every battle and earned the martial-world nickname Sword Saint!]

[Age 60: During your travels through the martial world, you comprehended the mystery of breaking ten thousand techniques with one sword and accumulated an invincible sword force that could sweep across the world unhindered. At last, you fused your Great Sun Sword Intent and Supreme Yin Sword Intent, awakening the Two-Yi Sword Domain. A single moment of enlightenment surpassed a hundred years of bitter cultivation: your twelve regular meridians were all easily forced open like dry weeds crushed and rotten wood smashed, and you reached the Grandmaster Realm!]

[Age 65: While traveling through the martial world, you chanced upon Zhang Sanfeng, who was wandering the world. Zhang Sanfeng had nothing but praise for your Two-Yi Sword Domain and taught you the Taiji Sword, an ultimate art of the Celestial Person Realm!]

[Age 70: Because your original body had once used the power of yin, yang, and the five elements to form the Buddha's Golden Wheel, your comprehension of taiji and the two forms was profound. You transformed your Two-Yi Sword Domain into the Taiji Sword Domain!]

[Age 75: You had already touched the threshold of the Celestial Person Realm, but you did not want to advance rashly. You felt there was still room for improvement at the Grandmaster Realm, so you decided to consolidate your foundation and build up your reserves!]

[Age 78: Zhu Zhanshan was gravely ill and bedridden. Knowing his days were numbered, you went to see him off on his final journey. Because half the True Qi in Zhu Zhanshan's body had come from your gift, you clearly sensed his passage from life to death. You gained a profound understanding of life and death and comprehended Life and Death Sword Intent!]