God Emperor

Returning to the high volcano in Sword Tomb, Zhang Ruochen stepped into Battle Formation and entered the Scroll World of the Universe Spiritual Map.

Divine Sky-Connecting Tree was at the center of the whole world, lifting the sky from the earth and spreading Spiritual Qi with no stop.

Zhang Ruochen sat at the base of Divine Sky-Connecting Tree with his legs crossed, and began to comprehend the Rule of Sword Way contained in the first move of Nine-Life Sword Technique, Splitting Light in Great Void.

To crack a sword move, one must understand it first.

The exercise of Way of Sword was in its essence, defense and attack, comprehension and practice, accumulating constantly, understanding constantly, and finally being able to become an incomparable Sword Saint who could be free of everything.

“There are nine moves in Nine-Life Sword Technique, and each move could be divided into nine plays, each play nine changes. Each change is arranged by nine lines of Rule of Sword Way. It looks like only nine moves, but thousands of changes are contained within it.”

The first move, “Splitting Light in Great Void,” had 81 types of changes, and was arranged by 729 Lines of Rule of Sword Way.

Zoom!

A strand of white Holy Qi flew out from Zhang Ruochen’s body and condensed into a blurring human shadow.

The human shadow held a sword in his hands and curved his arm to display a change of a sword move.

Right after, the human shadow resolved into white smoke and disappeared.

Not long after, another strand of white Holy Qi flew out to divide into two human shadows, and displayed two different changes of a sword move.

…

The process of comprehending sword moves was very difficult and didn’t go well.

Sometimes Zhang Ruochen had to stop and think for a long time to understand the Rule of Sword way of a certain play.

After a half month, Holy Qi could fly out of Zhang Ruochen’s body constantly and turn into dozens of human shadows to stand in different directions to display all kinds of sword moves.

After some of the human shadows dispersed, new shadows would be condensed after them.

The situation lasted for three days. At the end, it made a scene of 81 human shadows standing together, which was quite shocking if looked at from afar.

Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes suddenly, and said to himself, “Found the basic method.”

Whistle.

As Zhang Ruochen stood up, 81 human shadows dispersed into 81 strands of Holy Qi and flew into his brow, then merged into his lower abodemen.

Zhang Ruochen reached out his hands, a strong strand of Sword Intent gushing from his palms.

Another whistling noise was heard from above. 999 leaves of Divine Sky-Connecting Tree fell down and condensed into a Giant Leaf Sword under the control of Sword Intent.

“Splitting Light in Great Void.”

The Giant Leaf Sword rushed out for several kilometers while protruding through the Void outwards. All of a sudden, all leaves were divided and changed into 999 lines of light shuttle, and rushed to the ground with the speed three times that from before.

Boom.

With each leaf hitting the ground, a giant pit five meters in diameter would be made.

With only one strike, the ground was heavily destroyed.

Zhang Ruochen frowned a bit. “Still couldn’t compare a bit with Ling Feiyu.”

When Ling Feiyu displayed this move, the splitting leaves would be accelerated to a speed ten times that of before, threatening the life of a Ninth Level Half-Saint.

The same move displayed by Zhang Ruochen could only have a speed three times that of before, so the power of it was largely cut down.

Zhang Ruochen didn’t lose heart. If Sword Technique at the level of Saint Spell could be learned easily, it shouldn’t be called a Saint Spell.

It took Ling Feiyu three years to exercise it to its utmost. Zhang Ruochen had only just discovered its secret, so naturally he couldn’t compete with her.

“Now that I’ve comprehended the Rule of Sword Way of this move, I may begin to try to crack it.”

In the next two days, Zhang Ruochen tried every method, only to find that he couldn’t crack the sword move at the level of Saint Spell with his current cultivation.

Nine-Life Sword Technique was too complex and the changes contained in it were too much for the most talented sword monk to comprehend completely in a lifetime.

Zhang Ruochen only found the basic way of it now, and it would be extremely difficult for him to crack Nine-Life Sword Technique.

“Maybe…I should go to my Patriarchs. Each of them is a Sword Saint who has comprehended Way of Sword to the utmost. Maybe they know how to crack it.”

With the thought, Zhang Ruochen stepped out of the Scroll World, and went to the crypt of the Taotian Sword’s line of Patriarchs.

The crypt was on top of a 8,000-meter-tall snow mountain, which was covered by cliffs. An invisible power surrounded the snow mountain.

Any monk would have to climb up with bare feet.

Zhang Ruochen stepped on the stone ladder, and climbed up. Halfway to the top, he saw a round altar which was about 30 meters tall.

Towering stone statues were placed in the four directions of the altar, and together there were 16 of them.

Some of the stone statues were grand and sturdy, looking like angry guardian warriors. Some looked short and stooped, also extremely old. And some even dressed scholarly like school teachers.

“Nan Xukong, Sikong Qingyu, Qian Suanzi…”

16 names were placed on the altar. Some of the names were famous Sword Saints Zhang Ruochen had heard about 800 years ago.

And some names looked unfamiliar, for they were too old.

Zhang Ruochen stood at the foot of the altar in the snow. He could hear the whistling sound of the cold wind and sword sounds given by the shaking ancient swords on the snow mountain.

“Apprentice here to call on all Patriarchs.”

Zhang Ruochen held his hands to bow respectfully to his 16 patriarchs.

The 16 patriarchs had all given their lives to guard the Pluto Sword Tomb, and some of them had even died fighting for it.

Their contributions had saved numerous lives. Therefore, whether being an heir of theirs or not, Zhang Ruochen thought he should bow to them respectfully.

The altar shook a bit, and dark shadows all flew out from its center and merged with the 16 stone statues.

All 16 stone statues was alive, as if all 16 Sword Saints had shown themselves.

A scholarly stone statue raised an arm lightly. “Save the bow, rise up!”

Another stone statue couldn’t wait to ask right after him, “Zhang Ruochen, have you worked out why you should be defeated by the keeper of Zangtian Sword these days?”

The spirit of this stone statue was the Patriarch who had come to the body of Zhang Ruochen and fought with Ling Feiyu that day.

Zhang Ruochen gave a thought to it, and said, “Regarding the state of my Way of Sword, although I could reach human sword, my comprehension of Way of Sword was still very far from that of the keeper of Zangtian Sword. And her sword moves were also very fascinating. To be honest, I couldn’t follow the rapid changes of her sword moves.”

Although Zhang Ruochen had worked out a way to crack it the second day after their fight, he succeeded under the condition that the sword move was only displayed by Ling Feiyu with half strength.

Once Ling Feiyu gave a full strike, Zhang Ruochen knew he could never deal with it.

The stone statue nodded. “The gap between states can’t be compensated in a short time. But if you work hard, you could try to narrow it down in a short time.”

Zhang Ruochen said immediately, “Not long before, I had another fight with the keeper of the Zangtian Sword. But I failed to resist one of her strikes.”

“Recently I have been thinking about how I should crack her move. But her move was too complex and quick; even if I could understand its Way of Sword, I couldn’t work it out yet.”

His words intrigued the interest of all 16 Patriarchs of the Taotian Sword’s line.

One of the Patriarchs looked very excited and asked, “What did she use? Show us quickly.”

“Yes.”

Zhang Ruochen gave a look to the fallen snow, then swiped it with his leg and rolled up the snowflakes.

Under the control of Holy Qi, the snowflakes turned into a white sword and flew to the far off cliff.

Boom.

Getting close to the cliff, the sword made of snowflakes resolved and hit the cliff, leaving deep scars on it.

Seeing this, all patriarchs fell into silence.

The scholarlike patriarch said, “This is the first move of Nine-Life Sword Technique, Splitting Light in Great Void…no, it couldn’t be.”

Zhang Ruochen asked, “Why couldn’t it?”

“You just said, you had the fight with the keeper of Zangtian Sword not long before. How could you comprehend the Rule of Sword Way in the first move so completely in such a short time?”

The other patriarch shared a similar doubt. “The Splitting Light in Great Void was about 30% of the strength of it, which means you should have learned the bases of it. Even the inhuman like Sword Emperor Xue Hongchen couldn’t learn so fast when he was young.”

Zhang Ruochen hesitated for a while and said, “To be honest with you, I got a time and space treasure. As long as I practice inside it, I have nine times extra the amount of time for practice.”

All 16 patriarchs had passed away and only their 16 spirits remained in the world. Therefore, Zhang Ruochen wouldn’t have to hide it from them.

“That’s why.”

All 16 patriarchs showed the expression of understanding and delight for Zhang Ruochen.

After all, a time and space treasure could help Zhang Ruochen excell past his peers, and even catch up with his elders.

“Haha! Fabulous! Now that you have a time and space treasure, it will only be a matter of time for you to catch up with the keeper of the Zangtian Sword.”

“As soon as you get there, make sure you teach the girl a bad lesson.”

“You shouldn’t be rude to a woman. From my view, you should marry her. The best way to win a woman is to win her heart,” said an amorous and good-looking patriarch.

It was not hard to guess that this patriarch must have been a womanizer when he was young.

Zhang Ruochen stood at their feet, and didn’t interrupt their discussion out of courtesy.

But some of his patriarchs’ words did make his lips twitch.