Chapter 74: Mysterious Heaven and Earth

  "What is this place?" Everything in front of him almost jumped out of Lu Qing's cognition, as if it was a miniature world. The sky was filled with countless twinkling stars, and the original daytime suddenly turned into night after entering here. What surprised Lu Qing the most was that there was not a single snowflake on the ground, but instead, nearly a hundred long swords were stuck in the ground. These swords were all wrapped in a layer of cyan-colored sword energy, making it impossible to see their true appearance.

  "Could this be the Sword Pool?" Duan Qingyun suddenly exclaimed on one side.

  "Jian Chi!" At this time, Lu Qing was also shocked, but after he released his divine sense, the hundred or so long swords suddenly flashed with a burst of cyan light, and at the same time, more than a hundred sharp cyan sword auras shot towards the empty space above Lu Qing.

  In an instant, Lu Qing's face turned pale, his body retreated two steps back, and a mouthful of bright red blood was spat out.

  "What's wrong with you?" Duan Qingyun was startled to see Lu Qing spit out blood on the side, after all, it was because of his curiosity that he had dragged Lu Qing into this situation.

  "I was careless, this sword energy is indeed the Xun Wind Sword Energy, but it can disperse my externally released divine sense." Lu Qing sat down, operating the Soul Refining Technique to quickly repair his injured divine sense. The ancient sword cultivator's leftover sword core technique, although only a remnant, almost surpassed the current countless sword core techniques in terms of divine sense usage and cultivation. As soon as it started operating, Lu Qing felt that in his divine court sea of consciousness, the originally fragmented divine sense energy was gradually recombining, slowly returning to its original state before being externally released.

  Half a time later, Lu Qing woke up from his meditation and felt that the scattered divine consciousness had recondensed, even surpassing its previous state. Duan Qingyun stood guard in front of him, her eyes vigilant as she stared at the hundred or so long swords in front of her, with Lie Huo Jian held protectively in front of her chest.

  When he saw Lu Qing open his eyes, Duan Qingyun let out a deep breath and said: "How's the injury?" Although he still can't project his spiritual sense outside, after immersing himself in the sword path for many years, he also knew that spiritual sense injuries were serious and not easily recoverable.

  "It's almost done," Lu Qing replied, if he said it was completely fine, it might raise suspicions, after all, he had made the Sword God Oath and couldn't let out that he had cultivated the Sword Soul Scripture.

  "This is not Jianchi," Lu Qing said aloud.

  "What?" Duan Qingyun was taken aback upon hearing this.

  "The heaven and earth aura here is not dense, but instead has been absorbed by these sword instruments one after another. If this were a sword pool, we wouldn't be able to absorb even a hint of the heaven and earth aura." Lu Qing's expression was solemn, although his divine sense had just been dispersed, he still discovered some abnormalities in that instant.

  Duan Qingyun was taken aback by the words, and his expression turned solemn. Without the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi to restore their cultivation, relying solely on their own operation of the Sword Origin Technique to recover would require at least twice the amount of time. In this eerie sword array, that would mean losing many opportunities.

  The situation was strange, and neither of them stepped forward. Lu Qing said, "Since this is not the Sword Pond, it definitely won't be the Sword Tomb either."

  Nodding, Duan Qingyun knew that whether it was Jianchi or Jiantai, they would be filled with the most refined and pure heavenly energy, otherwise the big competition half a year later wouldn't be competing for just twenty spots.

  At this time, looking around, everything was unchanged, and no sound could be heard. Duan Qingyun shouted loudly several times, as if on a mountain peak, her voice producing multiple echoes, but still there was no one to answer.

  "It seems they can't hear." Lu Qing stopped Duan Qingyun's action.

  "You're still quite calm, your temperament isn't bad."

  "What a person!" Duan Qingyun was shocked, his massive body suddenly turned around, the sword energy of the fierce fire sword surrounded him, and his eyes stared intently at a spot in front of him where there seemed to be nothing. The voice appeared to have come from that very place.

  The voice was cold as frost, but it could be discerned that it was a woman's voice, and her age should not have exceeded thirty.

  "We are from the Zixia Sect's Chaoyang Palace, and we've been tracking a pack of wolves that led us to this place. If we have disturbed your quiet cultivation, please forgive us. We hope you can let us leave."

  Although Lu Qing suspected that the woman was the one who played the flute to tame the wolf, he also did not rule out the possibility of a senior expert hiding in seclusion here. After all, there were still many masters in this world who single-mindedly pursued the way of the sword and refused to reveal their names, thus hiding in the mountains or among ordinary people, just like Seasoned Old Man whom Lu Qing had met before.

  "Let you go, sorry, this is not my arrangement, and I don't know how to leave either. Since you've come in, then you're on your own luck. Under the gate of Chaoyang Palace, under the gate of Chaoyang Palace——” At this point, the woman let out a extremely unrestrained laugh, the laughter echoing throughout the sword array, with a gradually rising trend, the majestic sound waves reverberating in the air.

  Lu Qing and the other person couldn't help but sit down cross-legged, quickly circulating the Xu Ri Xin Jing to seal off their hearing. However, that sound seemed to have a powerful penetrating power. Although both of them could no longer hear any sounds, they were still shocked in their hearts, and their internal organs felt like they were going to jump out of their bodies. Lu Qing was okay, as after entering the Sword Guest stage, his body had been tempered by the heavenly yuan energy, strengthening both his flesh and internal organs. With the deep sword yuan of the Sword Guest stage, he could resist it.

  However, Duan Qingyun was only at the peak of the Tianyi Realm among sword cultivators. Although he was close to breaking through, he still couldn't withstand it and soon his face turned crimson, his blood surging upwards as if he was about to spit out blood.

  Lu Qing's expression changed, and he stretched out one hand to stick close to Duan Qingyun's back. A sword-like energy emerged from his dantian and entered Duan Qingyun's body, forming a circle of air membrane in his skin layer to block the shockwave of the sound wave. Lu Qing gritted his teeth and barely held on, but he was shocked in his heart. What kind of profound cultivation would it take to emit such a powerful sound wave? Was it the Sword Master or that top-level existence above?

  But obviously this was not the time to think about these things, that laughter did not stop for a moment, like the endless water of the Yangtze River, wave after wave hitting Lu Qing's mind and body.

  After half a stick of incense, Duan Qingyun was the first to lose consciousness, while Lu Qing, who had entered the realm of Xiantian Sword Guest, also couldn't hold on for too long and lost consciousness about half an hour later.

  At this moment, outside the sword formation, Yu and Hua's three people frowned tightly, the ground around them seemed to have experienced a disaster, sinking several inches, revealing the damp soil inside. The mountains and forests on both sides were also like this, as if they had just suffered from thunderstorms and wind, with charred trees lying down dozens of times.

  "What to do?" Yu Ji's face revealed a look of helplessness, "Although I once read in the classics at Cangshu Pavilion that sword arrays can be broken through with brute force, but now it seems that this sword array's endurance far exceeds our expectations."

  Nie Qingtian and Zhao Qianye stood with swords in hand, their breathing slightly disordered, clearly the result of their joint efforts. With furrowed brows, Nie Qingtian's expression was extremely solemn as he said, "Don't delay any further, call over everyone else and gather all our strength to try once more. If that doesn't work, we'll have no choice but to send someone back for reinforcements. This matter is not simple."

  Indeed, such a strange sword formation appeared in the desolate mountains on the outskirts of this beast ruins, which is indeed a thought-provoking thing. Even if there are hidden world masters setting up here, just now hearing their movements and sounds, they should have shown up already. Now that it has been a long time without a response, it's clear that they are not friendly.

  Nie Qing Tian paused for a moment, then let out a long howl towards the sky. The sound was like thunder, shaking the surrounding trees and causing them to rustle loudly. The voice shot straight up into the clouds, quickly spreading throughout the entire Wolf's Fang Mountain.

  A moment later, the five Luoxin Yuans also arrived here. After listening to Yu and Hua's account, they were all solemn and no one noticed that a hint of ferocity flashed in Lie Feng's eyes.

  The eight people joined forces again, and the powerful sword style and sword energy struck that void, but it was still like a water droplet falling into a lake, only causing a slight ripple before disappearing without a sound. The crowd didn't dare to touch that void either, for in the face of the unknown, people always start to feel fear after a brief moment of curiosity, because all of this was beyond their control.

  Afterwards, the eight of them discussed and decided that Nie Qing Tian, who possessed the Xun Wind Sword Qi and was relatively the fastest, would head to the nearby Lu Ri Cheng to seek help. The others would stay behind to guard against any changes and also to keep an eye on Lang Ya Mountain, after all, it seemed like everything was hiding a shocking conspiracy.