Ninefold Heavenly Wind Tempers the Sword Dao, Burning Its Tail to Ride the Clouds Through the Dragon Gate

Fu Xiangfeng was looking out from the first floor when he saw the youth run downstairs. "Third Brother, why are you here? Returning books, or have you run into some cultivation difficulties?"

"I'll return the books later. I plan to borrow another Sword Canon."

The two entered the library and took their seats as host and guest.

Heng Hua picked up the cold tea on the table and poured him a cup.

"A Sword Canon? The Wind-Riding Sword Art? I happened to prepare one in advance—"

"So bitter!"

Heng Hua was interrupted by Xiang Feng. Sticking out his tongue, he pointed at the tea on the table.

"What is this? Today's tea—cough, cough—why did you put Five-Flavored Lotus and Bitter-God Herb in it?"

Bitter-God Herb, true to its name, was an extremely bitter medicinal herb. Brewed into tea or soup, it doubled the bitterness.

"Good medicine tastes bitter. I've had too much inner fire lately, so I'm drinking bitter tea to put it out." As he spoke, Heng Hua drank another cup.

The cool, bitter tea entered his mouth and suppressed the negative emotions brought about by the Heart Ape.

"Too much inner fire?" Xiang Feng thought for a moment. "Right, you seem to have gone to the Dragon-Transformation Pool again. What, did Grandfather torment you over the Dragon Transformation opportunity again?"

"Ten times. I failed every one."

"Then success is impossible, after all—"

"After all what?"

Heng Hua asked casually, but then he suddenly saw Xiang Feng's expression change and sensed that something was wrong.

"There's a problem in the Dragon-Transformation Pool?"

Xiang Feng's gaze drifted. "N-no, it's nothing. I just think there haven't been many successful examples over the years, so don't waste your efforts."

These past few days, he had been accompanying Fu Danwei and naturally knew how Fu Danwei had been putting Heng Hua through the wringer in the Dragon-Transformation Pool.

Heng Hua stared straight at Xiang Feng. "Third Brother, you aren't good at lying. Did the old man tamper with the Dragon-Transformation Pool?"

Fu Xiangfeng was an honest gentleman. Seeing that he could not hide it, he truthfully admitted Fu Danwei's targeting of Fu Henghua within the Dragon-Transformation Pool.

"My Dragon Transformation trial is different from everyone else's?"

"From what the old man said, he seemed to be taking the chance to increase the difficulty, so you could gain more experience fighting aquatic creatures."

Fine!

Wicked fire surged through Heng Hua's heart.

I honestly carried out the trial without resorting to crooked schemes or taking some unorthodox side path. Yet you old man started playing tricks first?

After repeatedly suffering setbacks at the Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate trial, Heng Hua had once entertained a thought: I'm good at deducing cultivation arts. Why not recalculate a Dragon Transformation Secret Method suited to myself within the Dragon-Transformation Pool? That way, I could gain an advantage and break through the Dragon Gate.

But Heng Hua had felt that would be too much of a bully's move. Think about it: every other trial participant, including his father, had followed the Grand Mystery Jade Dragon Formula to defeat aquatic creatures, pass through the Dragon Gate, and obtain True Dragon Aura.

Using a higher-level Dragon Transformation method to cheat would be far too shameful.

But since Grandfather had done the first day of the lunar month, he could not blame Heng Hua for doing the fifteenth.

Seeing his expression shift between light and dark, Xiang Feng hurriedly said, "Don't think the old man is cheating you out of your merit points. According to him, he took the merit points you spent on the trial and used them elsewhere. It's to prepare things for your cultivation."

Heng Hua raised a brow and smiled knowingly. "I'm afraid Grandfather exchanged cultivation resources for me, intending to leave them to me as inheritance after he dies."

Years ago, Fu Danwei had invited the Great Elder over to divide up the inheritance he would leave behind. Fu Henghua's share was greater than those of his other brothers and sisters.

Heng Hua knew this perfectly well.

Thinking about it now, aside from the favor bestowed by his father, Grandfather had likely exchanged all those supposedly wasted merit points for cultivation resources and kept them for him.

With that thought, Heng Hua mused, So whenever I used Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate, Grandfather had secretly been going easy on me? It hadn't consumed merit points at all?

But Fu Danwei's painstaking efforts only made Heng Hua feel more urgency.

He had to help Grandfather recover his spirits as soon as possible, lest he sink into ruin and decay.

"Third Brother, you'll be leaving the island in a few days, right?"

"Yes. I came today to find another sword art. After studying it for a few days, I'll bid farewell to the family and go garrison Windgate Island."

"When the time comes, I'll leave the island with you."

"You? You're going out?"

"A friend invited me out for a walk. But I haven't left the island in ten years, so I'll need Third Brother to look after me on the way."

"Easy, easy."

Fu Xiangfeng would have loved nothing more than for Heng Hua to leave the island and get some fresh air.

But on second thought, he became puzzled.

"A friend? Where did a kid like you get a friend?"

Going back from his ten years of staying at home, over the span of thirty years, could the number of times this boy had gone out even fill one hand?

"A pen pal. We exchange letters."

Was that really a thing?

Fu Xiangfeng muttered to himself.

But his younger brother having a friend was a joyous event worthy of laying out a feast in celebration!

"I'll go back and prepare immediately. I'll also tell Mother and have her prepare what you'll need to leave the island."

"No need to trouble Second Mother." Heng Hua quickly stopped Xiang Feng, soothing him with much persuasion before finally calming him down.

His plan for leaving the island was to bring Fu Heyi along, trick Fu Xiangfeng into serving as a bodyguard, then go to Turtle-Burial Reef to complete Foundation Establishment and deduce a cultivation art for Grandfather.

If he alerted Second Aunt, Grandfather himself would learn of it as well, and Fu Heyi's matter would not remain hidden either.

Heng Hua thought, First, I'll trick Third Brother into leaving. Then I'll explain it to him on the road.

After stopping Xiang Feng, Heng Hua selected a sword art for Fu Xiangfeng.

"This is the Ninefold Heavenly Wind Sword Art. Hmm... it's an advanced, incomplete sword art that I repaired. It emphasizes refining Sword Qi through nine transformations to take on the aspect of Heavenly Wind. Third Brother, it will be more than enough for your cultivation in the True Flame Realm."

Fu Xiangfeng picked up the sword art and carefully read through it.

Aside from a set of sword techniques and three spirit-art sword moves, it also contained a peculiar qi-circulation method called "Ninefold Sword Cry."

"According to my deductions, this was originally an Earth Grade Sword Canon. Later, after the canon was damaged, it fell into the hands of the Eastern Sea Sword Sect. They tried to repair it themselves, but they altered away its most essential part—the Ninefold Sword Cry Method. After obtaining it, I separated out the Eastern Sea Sword Sect's sword-art principles on one hand and attempted restoration on the other. But unfortunately..."

Heng Hua shook his head.

Those people from the Eastern Sea Sword Sect had blindly messed about. It had clearly been a Sword Canon that used Sword Dao to unfold the Divine Wind of the Nine Heavens, yet they had forcibly changed it into a union of wind and water, using raging winds to drive ocean tides.

Heng Hua had spent several months merely restoring a tiny fraction of its original appearance.

Yet because of that, he came to understand the Eastern Sea Sword Sect's sword-cultivation principles inside and out. Only then did he realize that the Wei Family's cultivation method and the Eastern Sea Sword Sect had gone to two opposite extremes, allowing him to deceive the Wei Family's sword-cultivation genius.

After explaining how to cultivate it to Fu Xiangfeng, Fu Xiangfeng took his leave. Heng Hua headed straight for the study on the third floor and dug a wooden-carved Divine Dragon out of a wooden chest.

The Divine Dragon's acupoints and meridians were all present, displaying a peculiar Dragon Transformation Secret Method. He had analyzed and repaired it based on the Grand Mystery Jade Dragon Formula.

The reason he had chosen a koi in the Dragon-Transformation Pool was because he had discovered the mysteries of the Grand Mystery Jade Dragon Formula. The aquatic race that had created this Dragon Transformation art should have belonged to the koi lineage. Thus, cultivating the Dragon Transformation art with a koi form gave one an advantage over other fish.

Standing on the shoulders of those who came before, Heng Hua had not only deduced the Black Grade Grand Mystery Jade Dragon Formula to completion, but also repaired several flaws within it.

"Before, I felt that ignoring the Dragon-Transformation Pool's rules and cheating with a higher-level Dragon Transformation Formula was somewhat against Dao Virtue... But since the old man is making trouble and deliberately competing with me in methods, then let him see how I cross the Dragon Gate."

After reconsidering it from start to finish, Heng Hua charged back into the Dragon-Transformation Pool.

When Fu Danwei saw him return, he activated hard mode once more.

But this time, Fu Henghua's standard was completely different.

At the start of its growth, the little fish fry swiftly devoured the surrounding fry. Even turtles and water snakes were defeated while it was still in its juvenile form.

"How is that possible? At the little fish stage, it should be impossible to defeat those two kinds of aquatic creatures. Wait, why is this koi's Dragon Aura so pure?"

While Fu Danwei was still astonished, the koi had already eaten over a hundred aquatic creatures. Before the other creatures could mature, it smoothly transformed into a dragonfish.

Without dodging at all, the dragonfish rammed forward recklessly, continuing to devour aquatic creatures as it grew into a fish dragon, then charged into the Dragon Gate in the body of a flood dragon.

The Dragon Gate was a damaged spiritual artifact Fu Danwei had acquired in his youth. It was said to have been left behind by a great aquatic demon who cultivated immortal arts. After making minor modifications, Fu Danwei used it to suppress the Dragon-Transformation Pool.

In his previous trials, Heng Hua had rarely entered the Dragon Gate itself. This time, having entered with an entirely new Dragon Transformation art, he sensed a resonance between the Grand Mystery Jade Dragon Aura within his body and the Dragon Gate.

There was an inheritance within the Dragon Gate!

Rumble—

Vast golden waves surged from the Dragon Gate. Heng Hua's flood-dragon consciousness was blocked by it and could only keep crashing against the Dragon Gate like a koi swimming upstream against the current.

No one knew how long passed, but this attempt to leap through the Dragon Gate still ended in failure.

Yet Heng Hua summarized his improved Dragon Transformation art. He immediately began another trial, transforming from a koi anew.

Fu Danwei suppressed the distracting thoughts in his heart and focused on observing the koi's cultivation in the pool.

"How strange. Why does this brat's koi Dragon Transformation art differ from what the Dragon Gate imparts?"

His Dragon Transformation progress was faster than that of the other aquatic creatures in the pool. While those turtles and water snakes were transforming toward dragonkind, Heng Hua's koi had already shed its form and become a fish dragon.

He slaughtered in all directions through the water, devoured the aquatic creatures, then charged into the Dragon Gate once again.

This time, Heng Hua focused on using the Dragon Aura refined by his improved Dragon Formula to sense the Dragon Gate.

At last, amid layer upon layer of waves, he saw a brilliantly colored swimming route.

A flash of inspiration came to him, and Heng Hua swam upstream along that route. Though the giant waves pouring from the Dragon Gate grew ever stronger, he felt a strange Dragon Aura within that route protecting him and guiding him toward the Dragon Gate.

"This should be a route for successfully transforming into a dragon. Did the Dragon Gate's owner leave it behind? No—it's the route he followed when he successfully transformed into a dragon back then."

With a thought, Heng Hua leaped up. The flood dragon plunged into the Dragon Gate as heavenly lightning and Divine Fire descended together, igniting its tail.

Heng Hua was wracked with pain. Enduring the agony of a burning tail, he fled into the Dragon Gate.

Boundless golden clouds spread before him. He shed the flood-dragon body and transformed into the manifestation of a True Dragon.

Seeing a charred tail fall from the Dragon Gate, Fu Danwei's expression changed.

"This brat actually got in?"

When fish leapt through the Dragon Gate and transformed into dragons, lightning burned their tails, turning them into True Dragons.

Burning the tail was the final step in shedding the fish body and becoming dragonkind.

Seeing his grandson enter the Dragon Gate, Fu Danwei could no longer sit still and personally rushed to the Dragon-Transformation Pool.

He saw Heng Hua sitting atop a lotus leaf in meditation, cross-legged with his eyes tightly shut. A brilliant golden Dragon Gate appeared above his head. Through the hazy mist, a multicolored Jade Dragon swam among misty clouds and auspicious vapors.

Jade Dragons were one branch of dragonkind. But they were not true Celestial Dragons that swallowed clouds, spat mist, and soared through the Nine Heavens, only a wild-dragon offshoot of the Dragon Clan.

Because they possessed dragon pearls, they counted as legitimate dragonkind. Yet in the Dragon Clan's ranking of species, they were among the lowest of the twenty-eight kinds of wild dragons.

But for this Dragon-Transformation Pool, the moment one became a Jade Dragon, it meant the Dragon Transformation opportunity had been completed.

"Could this brat, like his father, be about to obtain that opportunity?"

Over the past several hundred years, very few Fu Family members had truly completed the Dragon Transformation opportunity. According to what Fu Henghua's father had said back then, the Dragon Gate concealed the inheritance of a Soul Formation great cultivator.

Supplement:

The Dragon-Raising Scripture said: Dragonkind possessed methods of evolution; lower dragons could leap into higher ranks and attain the potential of Dragon Kings.

It also said: The dragons of the world were divided into upper and lower ranks. Azure Dragons, White Dragons, Red Dragons, and other innate dragonkind were upper rank, twelve types in all, also called the Twelve Branches of Celestial Dragons. Those transformed from fish and snakes, formed from shrimp and crabs, or changed from hui and flood dragons were all lower rank, twenty-eight types in total.