Chapter 491: Sword Intent, Fifth Layer of Heaven!

This time, Chen Mu no longer merely watched from afar, but walked slowly closer.

Ten steps. Five steps. Three steps.

When Chen Mu stood three feet before the sword scar, the sword intent had grown so intense it nearly solidified.

Chen Mu felt surrounded entirely by sword intent, as if countless invisible blades pointed at every vital point on his body.

But in his eyes, there was only excitement.

He took a deep breath and sat down cross-legged slowly.

He closed his eyes and began releasing his own sword intent.

The third-tier sword intent, like a gentle stream, surged from within him and slowly extended toward the sword scar.

The instant the two sword intents touched, Chen Mu felt a thunderous shock in his mind.

Countless images flooded in like a tidal wave.

Chen Mu saw an old man in white robes standing in this cave, holding a simple longsword, swinging it again and again.

Ten thousand times. One hundred thousand times. One million times.

The old man's sword strokes grew faster, sharper, and purer with each repetition.

In the end, every swing he made resonated with heaven and earth, harmonizing with the Dao.

Until one day, the old man stood before the stone wall and delivered his final strike.

That strike had no earth-shattering force, no dazzling brilliance.

It was merely a simple, straight thrust.

Yet the moment the sword tip touched the stone wall, a sword intent surged skyward, enduring beyond sun and moon.

The vision faded.

Chen Mu opened his eyes, his gaze gleaming with sharp light.

Then he closed his eyes again and began to contemplate.

Hum~

The void trembled.

Chen Mu's own sword intent resonated with the thousand-year-old sword scar across the space, like two invisible currents slowly probing and entwining.

At first, it was only probing.

Chen Mu's third-tier sword intent crept cautiously toward the vast, ocean-like sword intent.

Each contact was a fleeting touch, then withdrawal, like a cub testing its mother's warmth.

The thousand-year sword intent neither rejected nor accepted—it simply existed, like a silent mountain.

Chen Mu was not in a hurry.

He knew that contemplating a master's sword intent most feared haste.

It was the crystallized lifetime of sword insights from a Myriad Phenomena Realm expert, possessing its own pride and temperament.

Forcibly taking it would only result in backlash, even harming oneself.

Chen Mu kept his sword intent calm, approaching again and again, retreating again and again.

Once. Ten times. A hundred times.

After an unknown length of time, the thousand-year sword intent finally responded.

A faint, almost imperceptible ripple emerged from the scar, gently touching Chen Mu's sword intent.

It felt like the first thaw of ice, like a spring sprout breaking through soil—so soft it was nearly undetectable.

Chen Mu's heart leapt with joy, yet he dared not divert his attention even slightly.

He kept his sword intent at the same frequency, slowly resonating with the ripple.

Probing became formal contact.

Contact became communication.

The two sword intents, like two streams, began to merge slowly.

Chen Mu's sword intent, though weak, was extremely pure.

The thousand-year sword intent, though vast, exerted no pressure whatsoever.

They simply merged quietly, like old friends reunited after years apart.

Chen Mu was lost within it.

Then he "saw" more images—

Every instant of the white-robed old man's sword swings, every angle, every force, every spirit of each strike.

Those images were no longer fragmented—they flowed into a complete sword Dao trajectory, replaying again and again in Chen Mu's mind.

Chen Mu "felt" the old man's obsession with the sword, his pursuit of the Dao, his understanding of heaven, earth, and all things.

Those insights flowed like gentle streams from the scar into Chen Mu's consciousness, merging with his sword intent.

Time lost meaning.

After an unknown length of time—

Perhaps days, perhaps weeks.

Chen Mu's sword intent began to change.

What had been a gentle stream of third-tier sword intent gradually thickened, like a stream merging into a river.

Something new entered the sword intent.

It was the essence gleaned from the thousand-year scar, a deeper understanding of the sword Dao.

At one moment, Chen Mu felt a thunderous shock in his mind.

The sword intent shattered some invisible barrier and surged violently!

The once gentle stream became a raging river. The faint glow transformed into brilliant radiance!

Fourth Stage!

Sword Intent broke through.

Chen Mu opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing within them.

He looked down at his hands; faint sword blades flickered at his fingertips—the sign of Sword Intent solidifying into substance.

But soon, Chen Mu noticed the problem.

The Sword Intent on the sword scar began to drift away from him.

Not rejection, but a calm detachment after a task completed.

As if saying: You have learned what you needed to learn. You may leave now.

Chen Mu frowned slightly.

He knew this was normal.

Comprehending the Sword Intent left by a predecessor and breaking through to One Stage was already a great fortune.

Pressing further would only backfire.

But Chen Mu was unwilling to give up.

Though the Fourth Stage Sword Intent was powerful, it was not what he wanted.

Within the scar, there clearly lay deeper truths of the Sword Dao—only he could not reach them.

Without hesitation, Chen Mu took out the Insight Card he had stored.

Hum—

A cool energy surged instantly into his mind, like nectar pouring into the brain, like awakening the spirit.

Chen Mu felt his thoughts clearer than ever before; once-fuzzy insights became crystal clear, once-inaccessible mysteries now within reach.

He closed his eyes again and released his Sword Intent.

This time, Chen Mu's Sword Intent was no longer tentative—it actively met the thousand-year Sword Intent.

With the Insight Card's enhancement, he "saw" more—

Chen Mu saw the white-robed elder's every sword strike drawing power from heaven and earth.

He saw the elder's Sword Intent resonating with heaven and earth, harmonizing with the Dao.

He saw that in the elder's final strike, the Sword Intent contained not merely the Way of the Sword, but an understanding of the entire world.

Life and death. Yin and yang. Hard and soft. Movement and stillness.

The sword was him. He was the sword.

Chen Mu's Sword Intent merged again with the thousand-year Sword Intent—this time deeper, more perfect.

No longer learning, but resonating.

No longer accepting, but understanding.

Time slowly passed.

Until one moment…

Boom!

Chen Mu's Sword Intent surged again.

His Sword Intent leapt violently from the Fourth Stage, like a river flowing into the sea, becoming an endless ocean.

Fifth Stage Sword Intent was more than twice as strong as the Fourth Stage; its sharpness even slightly warped the surrounding air.

Sword Intent solidified into substance, forming an invisible blade that shot upward from Chen Mu's body!

The blade pierced through the cave, through the passage, through the stone gate, stabbing straight into the heavens and earth beyond.

…

Outside the cave.

Five months had passed.

Xu Qingyin came daily to the mouth of the cave passage, stood quietly for a while, then left in silence.

She did not know how Chen Mu's comprehension was progressing, but she could feel the fluctuations of Sword Intent from deep within the cave growing stronger each day.

At first it was faint, then gradually clear, and later, even she—a Heaven Palace cultivator—felt its pressure.

Today, she came as usual to the passage entrance.

No sooner had she stopped than an utterly terrifying Sword Intent erupted from deep within the cave!