Chapter 171: The True Two Forms Sword Qi!

The night was deep, and all sounds fell silent.

Outside Wulong Fucheng, in a hidden mountain cave.

Chen Mu sat cross-legged, holding a Martial Comprehension Card in his hand, his focus concentrated on the incomplete content of the "Two Forms Sword Qi."

"Begin the deduction!"

At the thought, the first Martial Comprehension Card dissolved into countless fine specks of light that merged into his consciousness.

In an instant, Chen Mu felt his thought speed surge explosively; his comprehension of the "Two Forms Sword Qi" began to skyrocket, countless inspirations bursting forth, attempting to fill in the missing threads.

However, the power level involved in the "Two Forms Sword Qi" was too high, especially regarding the transformation and balance of yin and yang forces—profoundly abstruse.

Half a shichen passed, and the assistance of the Martial Comprehension Card was exhausted. Though Chen Mu had gained quite a bit and completed some qi circulation routes, he was still extremely far from truly entering the door.

The deduced content was fragmented and disconnected, lacking any systematic structure.

Without hesitation, he immediately activated the second Martial Comprehension Card.

His thoughts accelerated once more; Chen Mu's entire being seemed to be placed within a chaotic world composed of yin and yang energies, striving to capture that faint trace of law in the unseen.

How does sword qi divide into yin and yang?

How do yin and yang aid and generate each other?

Countless difficult problems lingered in his mind.

Half a shichen ended, and the deduced content increased, but it remained chaotic—like piled-up building blocks, lacking a core framework to link and integrate them.

Again!

Again!

……

Another half shichen later, Chen Mu took a deep breath and used the last Martial Comprehension Card.

This time, he no longer rushed for quick results, but carefully sorted through all the fragmented insights deduced earlier, attempting to find the inner connections between them.

Time slipped away bit by bit; the assistance brought by the Martial Comprehension Card was about to be exhausted, and that critical layer of window paper seemed right before his eyes, yet he could never break through it.

When the last bit of light dissipated, darkness returned to the mountain cave.

Chen Mu opened his eyes, brows tightly furrowed. All Martial Comprehension Cards were used up; he had indeed obtained nearly half the content of the "Two Forms Sword Qi," but this knowledge was like scattered pearls, lacking a main thread to string them into a complete necklace—its power reduced to less than one-tenth.

"Again!"

Chen Mu remained impassive and took out the Comprehension Card he had always treasured and never used!

This card could allow one to enter a state of sudden enlightenment that comes but once in a lifetime, capturing a flash of inspiration within chaos.

"Now!"

Chen Mu used the Comprehension Card without the slightest hesitation.

Hmmm~~~

A cool, vast breath instantly surged into his sea of consciousness, as if a timely rain nourishing the parched!

Chen Mu's thoughts had never been as clear and active as at this moment; all the various difficult problems in martial learning from before were resolved one after another, and those fragmented insights about the "Two Forms Sword Qi" began to spontaneously rotate, collide, and combine!

He was completely immersed in this mysterious state, forgetting time, forgetting everything.

Outside the mountain cave, the night gradually faded, and a barely perceptible fish-belly white appeared on the eastern horizon.

It was the darkest moment before dawn, and also the moment when light was about to arrive!

At the instant when night and day alternated, when yin and yang transformed—

Chen Mu's heart was touched by fortune!

He captured that faint thread of opportunity in the unseen!

Yin and yang are not absolutely opposed, but mutually dependent and mutually transforming.

Within utter darkness, a glimmer of light is nurtured; within utmost yang, true yin is contained.

"I understand!"

A dazzling glint of light suddenly burst forth in Chen Mu's eyes.

Keeping his body still, the true qi within him suddenly circulated along an incomparably mysterious route—no longer any of those deduced before, but a new path spontaneously formed after complete mastery and integration.

Circling, condensing, tumbling, tempering, shooting forth!

Hiss~!

A sword qi so fine it was almost imperceptible quietly shot out from his fingertip.

This sword qi was formless! Colorless! Without substance!

The naked eye could not see its existence at all; even the sound of breaking air was so faint it could be ignored.

Yet it truly existed; only with highly concentrated spiritual power could one vaguely perceive an extremely obscure, bone-chillingly cold trajectory!

It seemed not to belong to this world, drifting forward lightly, yet its speed surpassed thought itself!

In an instant, it struck the stone wall opposite the mountain cave.

There was no great roar, no dust.

On the stone wall, a tiny hole silently appeared, bottomless in depth.

The edge of the hole was smooth as a mirror, without the slightest crack, as if that hard rock itself had never existed in that area.

This sword qi ignored the physical defense of the rock, or rather, in a manner akin to "law," it directly "erased" the obstacles in its path.

"Yin Sword... this is the Yin Sword within the 'Two Forms Sword Qi'!"

A great surge of joy welled up in Chen Mu's heart.

The Yin Sword is the Dark Sword!

Formless, colorless, without substance or shadow; it specifically breaks true qi and protective qi; its speed is unmatched, impossible to guard against!

This is simply a peerless killing sword art born for assassination, for victory in the blink of an eye!

Although Chen Mu had only comprehended the "Yin Sword" within the "Sword of Yin and Yang," and still had a long way to go before the complete "Two Forms Sword Qi," this was undoubtedly a tremendous breakthrough.

This Comprehension Card was well worth using!

The only downside was that the formal version of *Two Aspects Sword Qi* required time to activate.

At Chen Mu's current cultivation, it took three to five minutes to form.

However, he could condense it ahead of time and hide it in his dantian!

Thinking of this.

Chen Mu exhaled, silently circulating this immensely powerful martial technique, condensing it into form, and storing it in his dantian.

……

The sky brightened.

Chen Mu finished his cultivation, walked out of the cave, and felt the three strands of cold, yin-attribute sword qi in his dantian — distinct from Duan Tianhe's true qi — as the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward.

Three Dark (Yin) Swords!

It wasn't that Chen Mu didn't want to condense more; once he exceeded three, the Dark Swords and Duan Tianhe's true qi would be unable to balance each other and would repel one another.

Under such circumstances, hiding them in the dantian would be a joke.

Once his cultivation rose further and his control over true qi advanced another step, the number of Dark Swords hidden in his dantian could increase accordingly.

For now, three Dark Swords were barely enough!

……

……

At the Fang family residence, the lamps had burned all night.

Fang Hongyi, Fang Hongtu, and others led elite guards on patrol all night, nerves taut, yet the anticipated attack never came.

As daylight broke fully, the panic within the residence eased somewhat.

"That assassin didn't come?"

Fang Hongtu gripped his blade, his face showing not the slightest joy but instead looking even uglier.

The assassin not coming meant their lure-the-enemy plan had been seen through — the other side was more cunning than they had imagined.

Fang Hongyi rubbed his throbbing temples, his voice low, "Not coming isn't necessarily a good thing. How is the situation inside the residence?"

"R-reporting… reporting to the Family Head."

A steward reported trembling, "Last night… last night another thirty-odd servants ran off, along with over a dozen guards… the kitchen… the kitchen has no one left to cook…"

"Useless! All of them useless!" Fang Hongtu raged, cursing openly.

Fang Hongdao, by contrast, was relatively calm. He sighed, "Such is the tide. You can't force them to stay. Let them go."

Fang Ronghe, seated at the center, slowly opened his eyes. Ancient well, no ripples within — as if he had long foreseen it. "This fiend's aim is to slay the heart, to throw our formation into disarray. He…"

"Family Head! N-no… this is bad!"