Chapter 60 Lost in the Forest

So many doubts and unanswered questions, why am I so annoyed? Along this entire journey, I'm either getting beaten up or on the way to getting beaten up. I want to become strong, I desperately want to become strong, but becoming strong—how easy is that to say? There are tens of thousands of people smarter than me and more talented than me. My pathetic life is still in the hands of that person inside the tower; how can this ever be easy!

Yufan held this dust-laden scroll, lamenting when he would ever make something of himself, to rule over his own destiny like a bird and fly freely. But what use is lamenting? We are all prisoners trapped in a cage.

Yufan closed the dusty scroll. For him, anxiety now dominated his mind; his consciousness yearned solely for strength. Yet, the essence of achieving strength and various other issues all required his own exploration. A bird's ability to fly relies on its flexible wings, and he too should rely on his own diligence—on his own hard-working hands.

Yufan slowly stood up and tucked the scroll into his robe. He looked ahead, believing that dusty scrolls were more useful than clean ones. He deduced that other disciples probably avoided complex scrolls, yet complexity often expounded what was truly useful. The scrolls here were clean, likely because they were frequently handled.

Yufan walked around, the doubts in his heart driving his desires.

He reached the very end of the scroll repository, where the scrolls were covered in thick layers of dust, as if no one had visited in a very long time.

He stood beside a row of shelves and gently blew a breath. The dust drifted away, floating in the direction opposite Yufan's eyes.

"Mmh—" Yufan straightened his back and muttered softly, "Not bad, this is the place."

Yufan slowly picked up the first scroll before him. It was caked in dust and had a certain heft to it.

He gently lifted the scroll and blew a soft gust of wind across its surface. The wind moved slowly over the scroll, lingered in the air for a moment, and then slowly drifted downward.

Inside the scroll—Heaven and earth are filled with dust; the so-called qi of the six meridians flows through the legs, arms, abdomen, and head. Gathering qi into the six meridians unleashes the maximum potential, allowing one to leap across realms to fight!

First meridian qi—descends to the Underworld.
Second meridian qi—descends to the North Pavilion Peak.
Third meridian qi—descends to the Alien Realm.
Fourth meridian qi—Southern Realm—slays the Vermilion Bird, attaching its power to the fourth meridian qi.
Fifth meridian qi—Northern Realm—slays the Black Tortoise, attaching its power to the fifth meridian qi.
Sixth meridian qi—Western Realm—slays the White Tiger, attaching its power to the sixth meridian qi.

Gathering all six meridians allows one to withstand battles that span across realms.

"These are all ancient divine beasts; how could anyone ever win against them? Isn't this just setting me up for failure?" Yufan muttered softly.

He turned to the next section.

The Tai Chi Art!

All things give birth to Tai Chi, and Tai Chi differentiates into the two modes of Yin and Yang. The two modes generate the four images: lesser yang, greater yang, lesser yin, and greater yin.
Gathering the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth—
Gold belongs to the Sea Desert.
Wood belongs to the Myriad Forest Island.
Water belongs to the Lake Domain.
Earth belongs to the Myriad Sage Nation.

The interaction of the five elements forms the momentum of the six harmonies, which in turn nurtures the seven stellar mansions. The arrangement and combination of the seven stellar mansions form the Eight Trigrams diagram, which establishes the order between heaven and earth.

The six harmonies further nurture the seven stars, which respectively represent the stellar mansions of Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang.
The seven stars are: Tianshu (Greedy Wolf), Tianxuan (Giant Gate), Tianji (Luan Preservation), Tianquan (Literature Qu), Yuheng (Corrupt Integrity), Kaiyang (Military Qu), and Yaoguang (Broken Army).

One can possess infinite divine power, using the power of heaven to slay the world.

"What, infinite divine power!" Yufan cried out in astonishment.

Yufan flipped to the next page, only to find the prerequisite: one's own realm must be extremely high to withstand such immense power.

Compared to the previous one, this was even more difficult.

Just as Yufan slowly lowered that scroll and reached out to grab another, he seemed to trigger something.

With a heavy sound, the door of the scroll repository slammed shut.

Stumbling, Yufan scrambled to his feet and ran to the door, pounding on it again and again, but it seemed completely useless.

The door and the walls were seamless; people outside could notice nothing, and the sounds of the person inside could not get out.

When Yufan grew too exhausted to knock anymore, he turned back to the shelf, groping for a hidden switch. He gently reached out and slid the switch to the right. Instantly, behind him came the grinding sound of stone scraping against stone. Yufan slowly turned around to watch the wall gradually slide open, finally revealing the entrance of a dark tunnel. Peering inside, he saw only pitch-black darkness.

Unable to suppress his inner desire to explore the mysteries, Yufan slowly descended the stone steps.

Yufan extended his palm, igniting his true qi to illuminate the path ahead.

"Why is it so dark here, and why does it smell so foul?" Yufan muttered, looking around as he moved forward.

Walking down the stairs, he found himself before a pitch-black, cavernous open space. Groping along the surrounding walls, he managed to unleash four streams of true qi to ignite four lamps.

Presented before Yufan was a broken sword. He marveled that such a vast, empty space held nothing more than a single shattered blade.

Yufan advanced slowly, holding out his palm to continue lighting his way. As far as Yufan was concerned, it didn't matter anymore; what's the worst that could happen? Getting beaten up by someone infinitely stronger than him? And as for death—to Yufan, didn't it just mean living a few years less?

He reached the back of the broken sword, where some kind of totem seemed to be carved. In front of the sword were two stone steps; Yufan walked up them and examined the totem closely.

It seemed to depict a group of people who had lived here for generations, dwelling in this place until one day—
A group of immortal cultivators arrived and drove them out. The totem was marked with a cloud motif.

Yufan pondered over it carefully, trying to decipher its meaning. It seemed to represent the recovery of spiritual qi. "Yes, exactly, the spiritual qi recovery!" Yufan exclaimed with great excitement.

The general meaning was that this place was once a site where spiritual qi recovered, convenient for cultivators to absorb the essence of heaven and earth to elevate their realms. Unfortunately, those who had lived here for generations—

Yufan slowly traced his gaze along the wall. Further along, a group of people were depicted taking up swords to resist, but in the end, they could not overcome their foes. Yufan crouched down to look closer: it appeared to be a bloody battle between numerous immortals and tens of thousands of sword-wielding mortals, ending in a sea of blood!

Yufan walked further along the wall, where a figure was depicted standing atop a stone, shouting to the tens of thousands of swordsmen, who cheered as if victorious.

Further along, the wall bore a name—Jianxuan.

Later generations commemorated him and buried him here.

Yufan slowly walked up to the broken sword, reached out, and gently touched it. But the sword seemed to spring to life, instantly slicing Yufan's finger.

The sword came alive, soaring rapidly into the air before returning to hover right in front of Yufan. Seeing the blade floating in mid-air, Yufan reached out to grasp the broken sword.

In an instant, he was sucked inside. Within the sword was a pavilion where a man sat drinking tea. Yufan stepped forward slowly and said, "Junior Yufan apologizes profusely for intruding upon this place."

"Yufan, not bad. You succeeded in awakening me with your blood," said the figure, resembling Jianxuan, with a gentle tone.

"Name whatever you desire, and I shall grant it. Speak!" said Jianxuan.

"You are senior Jianxuan, the first Sword Sovereign in the mortal realm? This junior dares not ask for anything; I merely stumbled upon this place by accident and wish only to return," Yufan said, looking at the man before him with a sigh of awe.

"You—truly want nothing at all?" Jianxuan asked.

"Nothing," Yufan replied firmly, his gaze resolute.

"Very well! Come, have some tea," Jianxuan said.

"Haha, how could I dare?" Yufan declined politely.

"I said come over, so come over. So much useless chatter," Jianxuan said, sounding slightly irritated.

"Very well then," Yufan said, slowly approaching the pavilion to take a seat.