Chapter 101: 101, [Like Smoke, Like Fog, Also Like a Sword] (Big chapter!)
Translator: 549690339
Sword Qi converged on Lu Xun’s fingertips, coalescing into a solid form, infinitely stronger than when it was at level 4.
Simultaneously, his Sword Qi was no longer as fine and short as before, it had grown more than twofold!
His current posture truly gave off the impression of a forming sword from condensed Qi!
Lu Xun swung his Sword Qi from bottom to top, drawing a perfect arc. His movements were incredibly quick, and in a short moment, his Sword Qi collided with nine Magical Swords one after the other.
“Thump—Thump—!”
Every time his Sword Qi hit a Magical Sword, it would weaken slightly, but Lu Xun was unstoppable. At this moment, it was crucial to drive a sword to the hilt because he didn’t have time to launch a second attack!
All nine Magical Swords were knocked away, and the Sword Qi on Lu Xun’s fingertips dissipated cleanly.
He did not turn around, continued forward, he was pressed for time, climbing the ladder of ranking was the top priority.
If one were to observe these nine Magical Swords right now, it would not be difficult to find that the first one that collided with Sword Qi had a tiny notch on its blade.
“The second challenge is harder than I thought.” Lu Xun thought to himself.
If he hadn’t upgraded the Sword Cultivating Technique to level 2 and increased the power of his Sword Qi, completing this challenge effortlessly would have been impossible.
He was unaware that most trial-goers failed to pass the second challenge. Now that he had completed it, he could be ranked among the top twenty.
After leaving the second Stone Forest, he was again enveloped in light. When he opened his eyes, there wasn’t another Stone Forest, but eleven swords. Each sword was perfectly upright in the ground, divided into three areas.
The first area had a single sword.
The second area side by side had three swords.
The third area contained seven.
However, the distribution of the seven swords in the third area was peculiar and did not line up like the previous three.
Lu Xun was no novice in cultivation, he immediately recognized this.
—Those were Sword Arrays!
Before entering Turtle’s Longevity, Lu Xun had checked the leaderboard.
Of the hundred wooden name plaques, only the second senior sister’s plaque had the two characters —Success— written next to her name.
This meant that even Xiao Ran, who stood second in ranking, had used up all his attempts and had not made it past the third challenge.
“Was he defeated by the final Sword Array?” Lu Xun speculated. Oh, I almost forgot, Xiao Ran doesn’t practice the sword, but the double-headed axe!
A petite figure, a gentle appearance coupled with thin green garments, wielding two axes, however one thought, it seemed bizarre!
Most miraculously, there were actual axes in Turtle’s Longevity.
All these axes coming at her must have been sensational, right?
So, if Xiao Ran really managed to break into the final area, what she would face is… an Axe Array?
I’m really tempted to mock this, what the heck is going on?
While thinking, Lu Xun took a step forward. In the first area, the lone Long Sword rose from the ground, aiming straight at him!
Superior Yellow Weapon, augmented with super speed, it was an impressive sight!
Normally, the small Sword in the Sword Heart should be able to knock a Superior Yellow Weapon away, but for some reason, it did not knock this sword away, it only weakened its attack.
Lu Xun’s Sword Qi sharply intercepted it, blowing it away with one hit.
Entering the second area, facing three swords, Lu Xun did not underestimate this challenge.
Taking a step forward, the three Magical Swords rose from the ground, attacking him from the left, right, and above!
Lu Xun had to either retreat or grit his teeth and soldier on!
He was not afraid of the three Superior Magical Swords because he was not limited to using just one Sword Qi at a time!
He brought together the index and middle fingers of both hands, and as his hands danced in the air, Sword Qi after Sword Qi shot out from his fingertips, the small Sword in his Sword Heart also demonstrating its maximum effect.
“Thump !” The continuous Sword Qi hit the three Flying Swords, they could not get anywhere near Lu Xun.
Swish , the three Magical Swords landed as commanded and plunged into the ground again.
“Only the final Sword Array is left.” Lu Xun took a deep breath and took another step forward.
The seven Flying Swords levitated in an instant, but they did not rush to attack Lu Xun, seemingly offering him time to prepare himself.
On careful observation, Lu Xun noticed the core information.
[Sword Array: Seven Savages, Attack+21%, AgilitY+6%].
“This is going to be the death of me, it really is a Sword Array, and the attribute enhancement is quite high!”
“This is troublesome.”
Lu Xun gave a bitter smile, then an idea popped into his head:
“When I return to Demon Sect, I can learn some Sword Arrays too, construct arrays with Sword Qi, the effect should be similar, right? It’s better than randomly lashing out, isn’t it?”
The seven Magical Swords did not give Lu Xun time to engage in divergent thinking, moving swiftly, they launched their simultaneous attack – in the form of a Sword Array!
Lu Xun was fully aware that his Sword Qi was not enough, but that didn’t mean he was without a trump card.
Let’s not forget the day outside Qingling City when he improved his Swordsmanship Aptitude to level 3.
Although he was a long way from complete clarity, he had already comprehended the Sword Intent! From the beginning, he hadn’t used it.
Now is the time!
Outside the Stone Door, Elder E in the pond made a sudden movement.
“Sword Intent!”
“This little fellow has grasped the concept of sword intent at this level of cultivation!?”
In the eyes of a profound monster like Elder E, Sword Intent was not unusual. However, Lu Xun’s cultivation base was still too shallow, merely at the 8th level of Qi Consumption Technique. To grasp the concept of sword intent at this level of cultivation was a whole different matter.
In his estimation, even those talented in the Sword Dao in One Sword
Mountain and Ten Thousand Sword Mountain could never achieve such a feat!
In fact, since the public testing of “Heavenly Dust,” no player had ever been able to reach the 3rd rank of swordsmanship aptitude at level 8.
In Elder E’s recollection, only one person had ever achieved this feat!
Yan Li!
And only the people of legend could reach such a realm!
Natural Sword Embryo!
“This kid is actually a Natural Sword Embryo!?”
“Indeed he’s a Natural Sword Embryo, I absolutely cannot be mistaken!” “Unexpectedly, the Demon Sect has another Natural Sword Embryo after Yan
Since Lu Xun started his challenges, he’d brought Elder E a large number of surprises. However, due to his limited time in cultivation, Elder E believed Li Xun’s understanding of swordmanship wasn’t deep enough to break through the Sword Array. It wasn’t too bad even if he had to stop here. After all, he was not far behind that girl from the Luotian Sect.
But now with the unexpected Sword Intent and the fact that Lu Xun was a Natural Sword Embryo with a keen sense towards swords, the outcomes became unpredictable!
In [Turtle’s Longevity], Lu Xun had condensed a Sword Qi with Sword Intent at his fingertips.
Different from the previous Sword Qi, this one which carried Sword Intent appeared a bit peculiar.
It was not as solid, nor as dazzling, and even seemed somewhat illusory.
If it was to be called Sword Qi, it actually seemed more like a slightly distorted fog.
A bit hazy, a bit unreal.
At the same time, it had a hint of indescribable rhyme
His level was still too low to fully support the Sword Intent.
Lu Xun had a serious look on his face. This was his current kill move, success or failure depended on this!
The fog-like Sword Qi moved quickly, yet it looked like it was moving leisurely, resembling the slow exhalation of smoke by a man.
And it was this fog-like Qi, which broke through several swords in one breath!
The first sword!
The second sword!
The third sword!
It was all done fluently!
By the time it reached the fourth sword, the Sword Qi had been entirely consumed by the Sword Array.
The remaining three Magical Swords stung at Lu Xun but stopped at a very close distance. A ray of light enveloped Lu Xun and teleported him away.
When he opened his eyes, he was already outside of the first Stone Forest, and had been sent back to the starting point.
“It really felt like a matter of life and death just now.” Lu Xun thought to himself.
He now had the choice to either use up another opportunity to continue his challenge or choose to push open the Stone Door and leave [Turtle’s Longevity] first.
Lu Xun didn’t move. He just stood there, neither moving forward nor backward, seemingly in a daze.
To be precise, he was now looking over the various prompts that had popped up before his eyes.
“[Ding! Instance: Turtle’s Longevity, first checkpoint cleared, received 1000 Experience Points.]”
The first checkpoint was relatively simple, so the reward was lesser experience points.
“[Ding! Instance: Turtle’s Longevity, second checkpoint cleared, received 5000 Experience Points.]”
The second checkpoint was more difficult, hence the rapidly increased experience points!
Following these two promts, was another.
“[Ding! Due to your impressive performance, you are currently ranked 4th in the Turtle’s Longevity leaderboard, reward of 10000 Experience Points.]”
Lu Xun accepted all the prompts. 16000 Experience Points was instantly credited to his account.
For such instance dungeons, each checkpoint’s reward can only be received once. That is to say, it’s pointless for Lu Xun to try and clear the first and second checkpoints again.
However, [Turtle’s Longevity] is generally divided into two modes, before and after level 10, so you can actually receive the experience twice.
And the experience reward for the post-level 10 mode is even more generous!
However, the leaderboard takes both modes into account and doesn’t separate them.
After all, the instance dungeon [Turtle’s Longevity] is “very intelligent”. Just
like how Qi Consumption Technique at the eighth level for Lu Xun and the
fourth level for Ji Li faced different powers. So, the two modes of [Turtle’s
Longevity] are further divided into 20 different power levels, so the difficulty
everyone faces is basically the same.
What’s really tested is everyone’s comprehension, for example, Lu Xun’s understanding of swords is being faced with the way of the sword.
“Only ranking fourth, huh?” Lu Xun sat down cross-legged on the spot, mused to himself.
The name that was written in third place was unknown to Lu Xun, [Demon Cult’s Bai Que]. Xiao Ran was even better, ranking second, truly deserving of being one of the future main characters.
“I wonder to what extent did Xiao Ran achieve?” Lu Xun thought to himself.
Outside the Stone Door, Elder E originally thought Lu Xun would first sit cross-legged to meditate, digest a bit before undergoing the second challenge. He didn’t expect Lu Xun to immediately open his eyes, no longer sitting cross-legged, but standing up.
Elder E couldn’t help but widen his eyes, a bit disbelieving.
“He broke through the stage! The kid unexpectedly broke through the stage!”
Yes, that’s right, just a moment ago, Lu Xun without a second thought, silently clicked to level up!
(ps: This is a large chapter, based on everyone thinking that one chapter is too short, in the future we’ll try to make all the chapters this extended version. This way, two daily updates are equivalent to three updates from others, additional updates will be considered separately!
This time I continued writing until four in the morning, please vote for the monthly ticket! )