Chapter 177: The scene from 270,000 years ago

Inside the cave, sword qi crisscrossed; every few steps forward, the pressure grew a little, and those complicated emotions drilled straight into his mind.

If one deliberately tries to comprehend it, one will walk very slowly, almost only seven or eight steps in half a day.

But people like A Su and Ma Yong, heedless, just charge inward according to their physical limits, so they don't need to worry and can move very fast!

Over four days, Ma Yong, A Su, A Shui and their group had already reached a place deep in the cave where they could no longer be seen.

The remaining group of low-level people walked unevenly, scattered everywhere.

The cave was utterly silent.

Only Ma Yong's persistent taunting occasionally came through: "Murong De, outsider, I've walked another ten-odd steps? I've walked over a hundred steps!"

Heng Xian couldn't be bothered to respond.

He remained seated at the cave entrance, unmoving, because he realized that without grasping the complicated thoughts within the sword qi, charging forward would be useless.

At dusk on the fourth day, Ma Yong's voice again came from the depths: "Outsider, I've walked a hundred thirty steps; the inside is truly beautiful!"

Aunt Su snapped impatiently: "You're so annoying, you're crazy!"

"I'm happy, I'm glad!" Ma Yong continued shouting: "I've walked a hundred thirty-one steps; the sword qi is too rich, outsider you can never experience this joy, hahaha!"

Heng Xian frowned slightly, gazing into the cave's depths; the magical traces contained in the sword qi were mainly sword techniques, but also included palms, staffs, blades, and the emotions were merely anger and sorrow.

Anger? Sorrow?

Thinking this, he rose and walked inward.

After walking about a hundred steps, the sword qi here grew denser, yet it posed no threat to him; on the contrary, after his Sword Saint True Body adapted, it quickly merged with the sword qi here—aside from that pressure and complicated emotions, the sword qi felt to him like a fish in water!

At this point, the cave ahead widened considerably, but a crack appeared in the middle of the floor.

This fissure, to Heng Xian who persistently practices tens of thousands of swords each day, was all too familiar—a sword mark!

Heng Xian immediately crouched, lightly touched it, and found it went very deep; the tail of the sword mark resembled a heaven-and-earth cleaving strike, terrifying.

The deeper into the cave he went, the larger the sword mark became!

He suspected that the cave existed because a master had used the whole mountain to conceal this sword mark from 270,000 years ago!

At the cave's break point, the width was great, and the sword mark had exaggerated to two zhang wide, bottomless, like an abyss; the sword qi below curled upward in threads, dense enough to make one's hair stand on end!

And the spirit stones formed by the sword qi looked like clusters of flowers, groups and sheets surrounding the sword mark, extending into its abyss—indeed, very beautiful.

At that moment, Ma Yong, A Su, and about twenty others sat cross-legged in the corner to the right of the sword mark, struggling to resist the dense sword qi, heads drenched in cold sweat, bodies slightly trembling, even their minds found it hard to focus.

Ma Yong sat a bit forward, turned his head, and looked worriedly at A Su: "Are you still okay?"

A Su couldn't be bothered to answer him.

"Why won't you answer me? I think you're like this because you saved him and have developed feelings over time!" Ma Yong shouted angrily.

A Su retorted indignantly: "Why do you keep thinking about these things?"

Ma Yong gritted his teeth: "He's good-looking, better-looking than us; if I were a woman, I'd be moved too!"

A Su sighed: "Ah Yong, stop thinking about these things, okay? Each person can enter the Sword Cave only three times in a lifetime; we're already on our third entry. In past years we only grasped superficialities; this time we won't grasp anything either, so coming in now is useless!"

Having said that, he trudged forward two steps, then collapsed into a sitting position, drenched in cold sweat.

Ma Yong gritted his teeth, also rose and walked a few steps, then plopped onto the ground, desperately panting, unable to lift his head.

Behind them, A Shui was even worse, lying flat on the ground, chuckling dryly: "What the hell is this comprehension? I can't comprehend anything; I just feel awful all over, like carrying three thousand jin of grain..."

He hadn't finished speaking when he froze: "Something just whooshed past beside me!"

Ma Yong strained to prop himself up with both hands: "Nonsense!"

"Really, really." A Shui argued, "It even seemed to touch me!"

A Su panted heavily, chuckling lightly: "This Sword Cave is pressed down by over seventy layers of ancestral seals; no demonic or spiritual beasts dare approach, so what could there be..."

She didn't finish her sentence, because she also heard a light footstep echoing softly in the cavern.

About twenty people all lifted their heads to look ahead; upon seeing, they collectively stared blankly.

That "outsider," Murong De, who was helping the master inspect the cave, brushed past everyone and strolled leisurely along the edge of the sword mark's abyss, heading inward.

This...

"Have I seen a ghost?" A Shui desperately rubbed his eyes.

"Impossible, it must be an illusion!" Ma Yong shook his head desperately.

Yet upon looking again, that "Murong De" continued walking unhurriedly ahead, as if all the sword qi and pressure had no effect on him.

This sight falling before everyone's eyes was truly indescribably eerie and terrifying!

"What's happening?" The already exhausted Ma Yong appeared lost and dispirited.

A Su also turned pale, shouting hoarsely: "Hey? Murong De!"

Heng Xian paid no heed, walking step by step until he reached the cave's end, then stopped, turned his head, and said: "To be precise, the cave is a total of three hundred sixty-one steps!"

"Uh..."

A Su, A Shui, and their group were like they'd seen a ghost, staring fixedly at him while desperately gasping for breath.

Ma Yong shouted angrily: "How did you manage that?"

"None of your business how I did it!" Heng Xian walked back, stood at the widest part of the sword mark, and looked downward.

After thinking, he looked at Ma Yong: "Right! Native kid, I went back and forth, no limit, still easy—you mad?"

Ma Yong's face went from white to red to blue.

Heng Xian smiled, hands behind his back: "I was born unafraid of sword qi; let alone this sword cave, even if it were longer by thousands of steps, I'd reach the end as easily as playing—can you understand this joy?"

"Pfft—" Ma Yong's blood surged upward, and he involuntarily spat out a mouthful of stagnant blood.

"Ah Yong." The group gasped in shock.

Heng Xian lost interest, sat cross-legged beside the sword mark, and said blandly: "You're a warrior about to fight desperately with other valleys; stop these childish provocations—they're boring!"

Having said that, he could no longer be bothered to pay attention to the group.

Ma Yong wiped the corner of his mouth, speechless.

Asu and the others stared blankly at Heng Xian's back, suddenly feeling that this guy, rescued from outside, the same age as them and unable to cultivate, suddenly became... unfathomable!

Just then, Heng Xian suddenly stood up again, slightly furrowed his brows, and made a move that shocked everyone—

He leapt into the Sword Scar Abyss!

"Ah—" the timid couldn't help but cry out.

Asu, A Shui and several others also covered their mouths.

"He must be crazy!" Ma Yong's face turned pale as he crawled back bit by bit, "Let's head back first—it's been almost five days; let's see if Valley Master and the others come to rescue him!"

Everyone followed him back.

At the bottom of the Sword Scar Abyss, it wasn't pitch black; those sword Qi spirit stones emitted a blue glow.

But the end of the Sword Scar formed a V-shaped terrain, so Heng Xian could only stand with his legs split.

Upon arriving here, sword Qi, anger, sorrow and various strange emotions surged like a flood.

Heng Xian stubbornly endured the pressure, trying to comprehend and understand.

After a full half hour passed with no effect, he had no choice but to open the "Mysterious Yellow Heavenly Hexagram": "No clues, give me a hint!"

The hexagram displayed: 【Because of the ancient age, the sword art remnants here are also covered by many other emotions, making them extremely hard to comprehend; however, there is a method that can be tried, requiring the host to firmly guard the mind gate, not lose their true nature, using the Sitting Forgetfulness Method to enter the residual illusion from 270,000 years ago and observe the scene of a half breath at that time!】

"This works too?" Heng Xian exclaimed in surprise.

Let's go see what happened here 270,000 years ago?

The hexagram displayed: 【Go south three zhang, left three chi, perform the Sitting Forgetfulness Method, immerse in sorrow, use anger as a guide, and the divine consciousness can enter the residual illusion of this place from 270,000 years ago for a half breath.】

(End of chapter)