Chapter 13: Falling into Hands

Falling into Hands

Amidst the chaos, there was no color, no substance, no lightness, no weight, no black, and no white. There was only a stretch of pure, formless, and shapeless void. Within this void, there was originally no beginning and no end, but the very moment consciousness perceived this void, the causality that was bound together erupted within the chaos like the most infinitesimal change.

In an instant, the chaos became transparent, and countless wondrous objects bloomed, appearing and vanishing within the chaos. Amidst this creation and destruction, a wisp of clear Qi gradually condensed. The clear Qi rose, the turbid Qi sank, and both fell into the gully at the tip of the sword. This sword was connected to the universe; the patterns on its body were like an abyss, and its base shimmered with starlight. Ruan Ci stood at the tip of the sword, looking down at the blade. In a trance, she saw a divine sword nailed into this world, piercing through yin and yang, anchoring the cosmos. With the galaxy as its tassel and the sun and moon as its pendants, it defined the mysteries of creation and concealed the secrets of all living things. She reached out her hand in a daze, but in the next second, she fell to the ground. It didn't hurt, but when she opened her eyes, she felt a sense of loss. She couldn't help but look around, still unable to recover from that heavy and profound feeling.

"How is it? What did you see?" Wang Panpan didn't know when she had already crawled onto the large rock beside her. "Do you feel like you saw a lot, but have forgotten it all and can't put it into words?"

Ruan Ci nodded and said, "It seems I saw a sword, in the universe... I don't know anything more. As I speak, I feel like I'm forgetting more and more."

"Hmph, that is only to be expected. This is because you possess a Sword Soul. The Donghua Sword contains the memories of the creation of this universe. How could such a foundation be easily sensed by a minor cultivator? If you didn't have a Sword Soul and rashly sensed the sword intent, you would likely be lost in the chaos of the primordial creation, never to return." Wang Panpan said as if she were very knowledgeable. "Even for a Sword Seed, not everyone can pass this hurdle. Some Sword Seeds carefully cultivated by sects wake up as fools after their first time sensing the sword intent, or they enter meditation for decades, only to wake up like you, having seen something but forgetting it all before they can speak. Such people are considered wasted. In the first few decades, no matter how diligently one senses the sword intent, it is very difficult to comprehend anything extraordinary from the Donghua Sword. At most, one can only wield it as one wishes, but cannot yet manifest its changes. However, cultivators in the Approaching Dao or Entering Dao realms only have lifespans of a few decades or a few hundred years. If they waste decades sensing the Donghua Sword with no progress in their cultivation base and their physical essence exhausted, it is almost impossible for them to raise their realm again."

Ruan Ci couldn't help but ask curiously, "What kind of people would get lost in it? Is there no method that can be taught?"

"A method? Every generation of Donghua Sword Envoy views other Sword Seeds as life-and-death enemies. The emergence of a Donghua Sword Envoy is a great calamity for other Sword Seeds. Even if there were a method, why would a Sword Envoy share it?" Wang Panpan sneered. "Besides, precious techniques are not easily passed on. For a cosmic spiritual treasure like the Donghua Sword, if one does not have the corresponding cultivation base, one cannot teach certain methods to others even if one wanted to. Even if one understands it in their heart, they cannot put it into words. However, my Master did say that the first time one enters the sword, whether one can hold onto oneself might be the key to whether one can return on time. You people of Song Guo have practiced self-restraint since childhood; perhaps because of this, you are still able to enter and exit, which is also some kind of affinity."

She taught Ruan Ci to practice boxing every day and to visualize the weight and appearance of the Donghua Sword, imprinting this sword in her heart as if she could draw the shape of the Donghua Sword in her mind at any time. In fact, Ruan Ci had always had a good memory, and after this encounter, her memory became even better. Theoretically, it was just the appearance of a sword, and she should have been able to figure it out in a few days, but she found it very difficult to memorize the appearance of the Donghua Sword. She was always stumbling; she would remember it today and forget it tomorrow. After every visualization, she would be exhausted, feeling as if her spirit was drained, and from time to time, she would fall into the sword intent, seeing some things, only to forget them quickly after waking from meditation, unable to describe them to Wang Panpan.

This was where the benefit of the boxing set Wang Panpan taught showed. Ruan Ci's ancestors for several generations had grown up by gathering crystals and consuming Qi, so there were no impurities in her body. Her progress in this boxing set could be said to be a thousand miles a day. By the tenth day, she only felt a warmth in her body and had already produced what martial artists call internal strength. From then on, her physical strength was better than before; she could go without food or drink for days, leap like an ape, and run like a horse. An ordinary person would likely be no match for her, even if five or six of them came at once. Only with such increasing strength could she support her daily sensing and visualization; otherwise, with the consumption of this visualization, it would be good if Ruan Ci could visualize once a month.

It is also interesting to say that when Xie Yan first lent her the sword, the Donghua Sword was as light as nothing, but now, the more she visualized, the heavier the Donghua Sword became. Wang Panpan said she wanted to take her to travel through Chen Guo, but Ruan Ci was unable to carry the Donghua Sword for long. After walking ten miles, she was panting, and Wang Panpan had to abandon the plan, going to several countries to hunt many spiritual beasts and dig up some spiritual minerals to nourish her body.

By the third month, the Donghua Sword had become so heavy that Ruan Ci could not stand up. Wang Panpan felt it was very tricky and said, "This is bad, this is bad. My Master never said there would be such a period when one first obtains the Donghua Sword. Could it be that Qing Jun doesn't like you? But that shouldn't be... You just obtained the Donghua Sword and made it change size, which clearly shows you are extremely compatible with this sword. How could it be like this?"

Ruan Ci lay on the rock, the sword hanging behind her like a giant boulder, fused with the ground and sticking to her back. She couldn't even take the sword off to stand up. She hadn't been able to move for three days, but her spirit was very vigorous. She comforted Wang Panpan, "Maybe it will get better on its own. Let's wait a few more days. If it doesn't work, dying here is nothing. Besides, didn't you always say I wouldn't live long enough to return the sword?"

Wang Panpan was about to cry, her tail pressing against the ground and wagging non-stop, her ears pressed against her face, making her head look round at first glance. She said, "How can you die at the very beginning? No, why did my Master never mention this? It made me think that refining the Donghua Sword was a very simple matter. She waited for you for seven hundred years; what is there that she didn't plan for? If there were such a dangerous hurdle, she should have made arrangements in advance."

"Perhaps this is the mystery that cannot be put into words? Isn't that what you said? There are many methods for the Donghua Sword that one understands in their heart but cannot tell others, just like the things I saw when I sensed the Donghua Sword. The level is too high; even if I see it, I cannot bear or digest it, and even if I understand it myself, I cannot teach it to others." Ruan Ci had already figured it out in her heart. "Perhaps this is a hurdle that all Donghua Sword Envoys must pass. Those who can finally emerge and be known to everyone are those who have passed this hurdle. If they cannot pass this hurdle, they die silently."

"But it can't be now! My Master killed all the Sword Seeds in the world for you. If you die too, and the Donghua Sword has no master, what will happen to the Langhuan Zhou Tian?" Wang Panpan was so anxious she was about to cry. "Heaven knows when the next Sword Envoy will appear; it might be too late!"

Too late for what?

Ruan Ci couldn't help but feel a stir in her heart, but Wang Panpan didn't explain, so she didn't ask further. She just closed her eyes and said, "Panpan, don't disturb me. Let me try again. I think, is it because I cannot sense the Dao rhyme and so far only have internal cultivation, that the speed of my visualization cannot keep up with the speed at which the Donghua Sword becomes heavy? Xie Jie and the others are naturally intelligent and have famous teachers to protect them, so they must visualize much faster than me."

This was not impossible. Wang Panpan hurriedly said, "Then visualize quickly, visualize quickly. If you continue at this speed, your internal Qi will not be able to bear this weight within a few days, and your muscles, bones, and tendons will begin to suffer. If it continues to damage your internal organs, you won't even be able to focus your mind, and then there will be only one dead end."

Ruan Ci also knew that this was a major matter. She closed her eyes, settled her mind, and entered meditation, using the skin on her back to sense the weight, patterns, and shape of the Donghua Sword. Her talent was not bad by any means. After visualizing for several months, her five senses and six consciousnesses had become extremely keen, and her mind was extremely focused, as steady as a needle, without any wandering thoughts. She gradually entered a state of meditation, as if she could sense the violent, sky-piercing spiritual energy from the scabbard of the Donghua Sword.

As soon as Ruan Ci's mind immersed itself, it seemed to be stung by boundless sharpness. Previously, she had always been very careful and avoided the sword Qi, only sensing the shape of the Donghua Sword as Wang Panpan had taught her. Today, however, she thought, "Is my sensing of the sword body so difficult because this sword Qi is always destroying my visualization image in an invisible way? Or should the complete visualization image also include the spiritual energy in this scabbard—if there is no spiritual energy, wouldn't the area below the hilt be empty, and how could it be called a sword?"

The image she visualized in her mind changed immediately according to her thoughts. Boundless and sharp sword intent seemed to shoot out from the elegant long sword. It was as if a small sun was hidden within the sword. Ruan Ci suddenly remembered a scene she had seen during one of her visualizations: in the chaos, the first thought was the first change in eternity, and this change was the emergence of all vitality. Just like now, her thoughts lit up the dull visualization image, and the long sword, which hid the sun, moon, and galaxy as its pendants, gradually became brighter and brighter. The sword intent was like the chaotic void ignited by her thoughts, boiling as if being cooked, piercing from her sea of consciousness—which she didn't know where it existed in her body—into her limbs and bones, bringing sharp pain. It was too late for Ruan Ci to withdraw her mind, and she watched in horror as the sword intent submerged her extraordinary meridians.

She had experienced many changes and was not a weak girl from a wealthy family. When she was crawling in the earth veins of Song Guo, the stone walls were narrow, and she was covered in abrasions, her palms crawled until they were bloody and mangled. Ruan Ci didn't even frown. But the excruciating pain of this sword intent entering her bones made her unable to even scream. She only felt that every inch of her flesh and blood was being pricked by small swords, drilling from her skin and flesh into her bones, and then reversing up to her brain. The pain was so great that Ruan Ci couldn't even think. She didn't know how much time had passed, but there was a force somewhere in the darkness that supported her so she wouldn't faint. But precisely because of this force, she couldn't escape from the pain and could only stay awake and suffer in this agony.

Ruan Ci didn't know what to do in her heart, but a realization gradually arose: as long as she destroyed the visualization image, she could immediately escape from the pain. She felt that she had already been skinned alive several times, but her consciousness remained clear. She thought, "Once this image is destroyed, I won't be able to control the Donghua Sword with ease, so I will always have to do it again in the future. If I don't succeed this time, I will have to endure the same pain next time, and it's even possible that after the visualization image is destroyed, I will never be able to sense the Donghua Sword again, and won't even be able to visualize it at all."

She was young, and her personality had not yet fully formed. In the dangerous environment of Song Guo, what she sought was merely survival, and she could only be arranged by her elders for the rest of her life. Her days were spent in a daze. Even if she was clever, her spiritual platform was like it was covered in dust, and she had no clear ambition. After a series of changes, she had many things on her mind: she wanted to see the world, she wanted to resolve the causality of the Ruan family, and she wanted to return the Donghua Sword to Xie Yan, letting her know that mortals also have the promises of mortals. But these were all things that should be done and could be done. Until this moment, suffering in the sword intent, the pain reached its extreme, which instead stimulated a ruthless streak in her, giving her the first idea of her life. She thought viciously, "Even if you boil me to death here today, or kill me, if I pass this hurdle, once I achieve success in my cultivation in the future, I will definitely destroy this sword of yours!"

When she used to regard the Donghua Sword as a divine sword, she could never visualize it successfully, but at this moment, she regarded the divine sword as an enemy that was torturing her, and she was visualizing the appearance of an enemy. It was indeed accomplished in one go, smooth and incomparable. The appearance of a brilliant, starlight-shining divine sword had already appeared in her mind. It flickered for a moment before slowly dimming, returning to the appearance of a simple, unadorned long sword with a brown scabbard. The sword intent that had penetrated her body also slowly dissolved. Ruan Ci escaped from the extreme pain, and her spirit was exhausted to the extreme. With a sigh of relief, she rolled her eyes and fainted.

She didn't know how much time had passed before she gradually woke up. She still felt weak and thirsty, and the Donghua Sword behind her was still as heavy as a mountain, only a sliver lighter than before she entered meditation. Ruan Ci naturally had an understanding in her heart, knowing that she only needed to visualize that complete sword intent image step by step, and the sword body would gradually become light. However, this was a slow process of grinding, and it was impossible to complete it in a day or two.

Just as she was about to ask Wang Panpan for help, her thoughts shifted, and she sensed the situation outside. She saw that the large rock she was lying on was covered in mud, and it seemed that many days had passed. Wang Panpan didn't know where she had gone, and a group of black-robed cultivators surrounded her, looking down at her. One of them said, "Is this the girl the Chan Guang Sect asked us to find?"

"We've made a huge profit this time. The Chan Guang Sect values this girl extremely highly, even going so far as to send out their ancestor, killing the spiritual beast guarding her, and issuing a reward. Who would have thought that we would have such luck to run into her!"

As he was speaking, he reached out his hand toward her. It was strange to say that the Donghua Sword on Ruan Ci's back was as heavy as a mountain, but in his hands, it seemed to have no weight at all. The black-robed man picked her up gently.

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Hello everyone, sorry for the wait. I'll send out a red envelope for this chapter in a moment.

Q&A time: 1. Why does everyone say Ruan Ci has good aptitude, even though she has no spiritual roots?

This is the same as a top-tier mobile phone that has a different system and can't install cultivation apps, or a top-tier computer that can't be used because the plug doesn't fit. It's the same principle. Just because she can't use it doesn't mean she isn't top-tier. Other cultivation methods like artifact cultivation are just about finding an adapter.

2. Is there a male lead?

I don't know what you are expecting with this question. Obviously, this article is not the kind of story with romance as the main plot. The style is closer to a male-oriented novel, but it's not like a male-oriented novel that has no romance at all. There will be romance, but it's not the main plot. The main plot is Ruan Ci's experience in the cultivation world, and the worldview and many settings are also a very important part.

What else was there? I read the comments yesterday and only remembered these two questions.

Today at noon, I ordered Yu Jiao Bullfrog from a restaurant! The bullfrog is really delicious in the restaurant! I'm looking forward to it, I'm going to eat now!

. Thanks to the little angels who cast overlord votes or irrigated nutrient solution for me between 2020-07-04 12:08:12 and 2020-07-05 12:05:26~

Thanks to the little angels who cast grenades: Li Zhi who had their account stolen, Urging you to update, Yu Wanyao (1 each);

Thanks to the little angels who cast landmines: Zhen (2), Qi Ran, Li Heping (1 each);

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: Gu Gu (14 bottles), Wenry (6 bottles), Sidewalker, Dandan, Dying of Laughter (5 bottles each), You Wu, Cheng Bi, Deng Huo Lan Shan, 26466546, Qing Qing Gu Meng, 21699986 (1 bottle each);

Thank you all very much for your support, I will continue to work hard! ===== CHAPTER 15 =====