Shocking the Nine Heavens With My Sword

Zhou Heng continued to advance deeper into the cave.

The entrance of the cave was extremely narrow, but the further he went inside, the more spacious it became. Of course, it was not spacious enough for one to walk sideways, but it could probably accommodate three people walking abreast.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, there still wasn't any sign of reaching the end. Zhou Heng was not one to admit defeat easily. Once his stubbornness kicked in, he decided to take on the cave, determined to reach its depths!

It was pitch-black outside; needless to say, it was even darker inside the cave. He couldn't even see his hand in front of his face, but fortunately, there were no side paths in this cave. It was just a straight path extending forward, so there was no need to worry about getting lost.

Zhou Heng occasionally used his long sword to chop at the cave walls, using the sparks created by the friction to briefly illuminate the surroundings.

Another half an hour passed, and he still had not reached the bottom of the cave.

If it were someone else, they would have turned back long ago, but Zhou Heng was stubborn. Having made up his mind to get to the end, he definitely wouldn't give up halfway—not when he had persisted for ten years under the test of the Black Sword!

As long as it wasn't a maze, one would eventually reach the end.

An hour later, a faint light suddenly appeared ahead. Though weak, it was like a beacon to someone who had been in darkness for so long. Zhou Heng felt a surge of joy, but his guard was up more than ever, and he gripped the long sword in his right hand tighter.

A few more steps forward, and the light grew brighter, revealing an exit in the cave.

When he stepped out, his view suddenly opened up, and he saw a moonlit and sparsely-starred sky—an enchanting secluded valley lay before him.

Zhou Heng looked up at the sky only to realize that the heavy rain had stopped at some unspecified time. The valley was covered in grass wet with droplets, looking even more lush and vibrant, exuding an aura of thriving life.

The valley wasn't large, about a hundred meters in diameter, surrounded by mountains on all sides—it was a dead valley. The cliffs were steep, possibly too difficult even for swift monkeys to climb to the top.

There was a small pond at the base of the western mountain, and beside it stood a large tree, its canopy covering the entire pond. The tree leaves rustled gently in the night breeze, making a soft hissing sound.

When his gaze swept under the large tree, Zhou Heng's eyes involuntarily narrowed.

A dead body!

It was leaning against the tree with its head, neck, and hands already turned to white bone. The rest of the body was hidden beneath a crimson brocade robe, keeping the grisly sight of bones from being fully exposed. Yet, the sight of a single skull head was enough to strike terror.

Only then did Zhou Heng remember that he had just killed a person not long ago!

What shocked him was that he felt no discomfort; it was as if he hadn't killed a person, but had merely butchered a chicken or a dog.

"On the path of martial arts, killing cannot be avoided, it seems I've already prematurely adjusted to it!"

"However, I have no intention of becoming a murderous fiend... My bottom line is, don't provoke me!"

With a resolute gaze, Zhou Heng set aside the killing and strode to the base of the tree.

The bones in the corpse's head and neck were intact. Zhou Heng picked open the robe and saw that there were three broken ribs at the chest, the broken bones scattered on the ground, shimmering with a crystal clear color, pure white.

"This person must have suffered a blunt trauma before his death, injuring his internal organs, then escaped here, and died from the grievous injuries!"

"This can be confirmed by the intact robe he wears. If he had been pierced by a sharp weapon, there wouldn't be a hole in the garment! And if his enemies had pursued him here, he wouldn't have been able to maintain that position before his death!"

"Judging from the shape of the bone injuries, this is clearly the result of being shattered by a punch!"

Zhou Heng picked up a piece of broken bone and tried to snap it, but the bone was surprisingly tough and didn't budge. He summoned all his True Yuan Force and tried again, but the bone remained intact, harder than iron!

"With the strength of my hands, I should definitely be able to exert more than a thousand jin, and these bones, having weathered decades of wind and rain, should no longer be as robust as before. How could they still possess such strength?"

"Some years ago, a tomb raider exhumed the grave of an Old Ancestor who had passed away decades ago. When someone accidentally stepped on the bones during the reburial, they immediately broke apart!"

"That Old Ancestor had been an expert in the Blood Refinement Realm during his life!"

Comparing the two, Zhou Heng could only arrive at a conclusion that left him tremendously shocked.

The Ascension Path!

The corpse before him had walked the Ascension Path, achieving a level unfathomable!

In Zhou Heng's view, martial artists who had crossed the Ascension Path were equivalent to the legendary Immortals, yet such an Immortal had been beaten to death with bare fists and died a pitiful death in this place!

There are always stronger beings, even those who have crossed the Ascension Path were not immortals or indestructible.

Zhou Heng searched the corpse carefully and found a book and a token near the hipbone.

The book should have originally been hidden in the person's chest, kept close to the body, but as the body decayed, it had fallen down to where it lay beside the hipbone now.

However, it was unknown what material the book was made of, as it had survived the decay of the corpse without being destroyed! Moreover, after such a long period of time, the book had not changed at all. It was incredibly soft to the touch, feeling not like paper, but like human skin.

This was no ordinary item!

To use such a precious material for the pages of a book, what kind of information could it possibly hold? And having come from a possibly Ascension Path-crossed extraordinary expert, what kind of priceless knowledge would they keep so close to them?

There was no writing on the cover, and unable to restrain his curiosity any longer, Zhou Heng opened the book.

"Moonshadow Heart Jue!"

The first page had only four characters, written with powerful, dynamic strokes, exuding an aura of grandeur.

A single character for 'jue' (technique) explained that this was fundamentally a cultivation technique, yet could this "Moonshadow Heart Jue" be the reason why that expert perished, and if so, why was it of such significant concern?

Zhou Heng couldn't resist continuing to flip through it, reading the technique from start to finish.

Indeed, it was a cultivation technique, a mere four thousand or so words, slightly obscure, yet Zhou Heng, pausing and pondering from time to time, could understand it without much effort in a mere few seconds.

His comprehension had been continuously enhanced through the process of cultivating the Sky-soaring Nine Forms, and although he hadn't fully mastered the first of the Nine Forms of swordsmanship, comprehending Moonshadow Heart Jue was effortless.

"I must try out the effects of this technique!"

Zhou Heng sat down cross-legged, using the method of the Moonshadow Heart Jue to refine the food within his body, extracting the stray energy, and then converting it into his own True Yuan Force.

"Hmm!"

After circulating the Moonshadow Heart Jue through his body for one complete cycle, Zhou Heng involuntarily stopped, his face showing a hint of shock.

Efficiency!

The efficiency of the Moonshadow Heart Jue in converting True Yuan Force was more than twice that of the Fierce Sun Jue!

According to the description of the Moonshadow Heart Jue, cultivating under the moonlight could enhance its effect by thirty percent, but the Fierce Sun Jue could also increase the speed by twenty percent when cultivated under the sunlight. No matter how you look at it, the Moonshadow Heart Jue was far more powerful than the Fierce Sun Jue!

Even at twice the speed, this meant that to reach the Bone Refinement Realm, if it would take ten years with the Fierce Sun Jue, then with the Moonshadow Heart Jue it would only take five years!

No wonder this person encountered a lethal calamity!

You must know, on the path of cultivation, time is definitely the greatest enemy!

Take the Flesh Refinement Realm, for example, if one couldn't break through before the age of twenty, then the possibility would greatly diminish, essentially leaving no hope—that's why the Zhou Family had a rule that one must not cultivate if they couldn't reach the Flesh Refinement Realm before eighteen.

Although the technique only increased the speed of accumulating True Yuan Force, being able to save half of the time on this allowed for more time to be spent on breaking through the great realms.

Moreover, as one's realm increased, the time required to accumulate True Yuan Force grew longer; after reaching the Blood Refinement Realm, breakthroughs within the minor realms were measured in decades! If one could reach the peak of the Body Refining Twelfth Layer within fifteen years, then naturally, there would be more time to strive for the ascent to heaven.

Life is fleeting, a hundred years pass in the blink of an eye; how many decades can one afford to waste?

Zhou Heng, although able to obtain stray energy from the Black Sword, the Moonshadow Heart Jue currently didn't have much use for him, but who could say how long this ultra-ability from the Black Sword would last?

Perhaps it would end after returning to him the fruits of his decade of arduous cultivation!

Moreover, this technique could also be passed on to Zhou Dinghai.

Zhou Dinghai had already delayed many years of cultivation time for his sake, but if he switched to cultivating the Moonshadow Heart Jue, then with Zhou Dinghai's talent, it would take at most five years to reach the Body Refining Twelfth Layer!

Zhou Heng put away the technique; his father would surely return at the New Year.

There was about an hour left until midnight, and taking advantage of this time, Zhou Heng dug a hole and buried the corpse, hoping to bring peace to the deceased by burying him, since he had obtained an exceptional cultivation technique from the man's body—it was the least he could do.

Also laid to rest with the deceased was that token, one side inscribed with the words "Nine Spirits," the other with "Su," made from a material that gave it a purple hue all over.

Zhou Heng believed it to be the deceased's identity token, so he buried it along with the body.

Finishing all this, it was almost the early morning hours. He sat down cross-legged, silently waiting for the Black Sword to release energy.

Hum!

At the very moment of midnight, the Black Sword trembled slightly, and a tremendous force surged forth, instantly filling Zhou Heng's entire body. He quickly unfolded the Moonshadow Heart Jue, frantically absorbing and refining the stray energy.

In less than twenty minutes, all the energy had been refined by him, and Zhou Heng opened his eyes only to be taken aback!

Upon the rocky cliff above the pond, a figure had unexpectedly appeared, moving continuously!

Someone? Who is it!

Zhou Heng quickly sprang up, his sword ringing out of the scabbard as he assumed a defensive stance.

He looked up at the sky, and although the bright moon hung high, it was impossible for someone to stand on the sheer cliff face above, so the shadow must not have been cast from up there.

Could it be reflected from beneath the water's surface?

A sense of the unthinkable crept over Zhou Heng. The motions of swimming and walking underwater are entirely different; the figure was definitely walking, not swimming!

Who could stroll beneath the water's surface?

A water ghost?