At the Courtyard of Holy Light, the white marble surface that was previously calm suddenly vibrated gently. The pillars of light surrounding the giant lotus emitted a low and sharp humming sound, a frequency that could only be produced by the vibration of celestial metal.

  Sage Qing Xuan, who was originally sitting in meditation with closed eyes, instantly opened his eyelids. The wise golden light in his eyes radiated genuine shock. He stood up, his robe of light fluttering even though no wind blew in the courtyard.

  "Sword Intent that transcends form," Sage Qing Xuan whispered, his voice containing admiration mixed with disbelief.

  Before them, the large mirror reflecting the conditions of the Sacred Heaven Secret Realm began to churn. The shadows of other participants who were also gaining enlightenment—Mu Chen who was forming a Storm Painting or Yan Fenghuang who was holding the Spear of Karma Lightning—suddenly blurred and dimmed. Instead, the mirror surface centered on a single point, displaying the silhouette of a young man standing in the middle of a silent expanse of light flower petals.

  The Elder of the Xing Luo Empire stepped forward, his breath caught in his throat. He saw that Zhi Xuan's silhouette in the mirror no longer looked like an ordinary human. The silhouette radiated an aura so sharp that the jade mirror surface before them began to show fine cracks, as if Zhi Xuan's shadow inside was capable of wounding the outside world just by its existence.

  "This is not just an enlightenment of sword techniques," the Imperial Elder muttered, his wrinkled hand trembling beneath his gray sleeve. "He is no longer holding a sword. He has given his soul to the blade, and let the blade reshape his body. Man-Sword Unity... at such a young age?"

  The Elder from the Feng Mie Plains narrowed his sunken eyes. His face, which was originally full of arrogance, now hardened. He felt a cold chill creep down his spine as he saw how Zhi Xuan's silhouette in the mirror seemed to become the axis of all the chaos in the Secret Realm.

  "How could a cultivator from the lowlands possess such a silent Dao Heart?" the Feng Mie Elder hissed. "His sword intent carries no anger, carries no ambition. It is an intent born of deep sorrow and a quiet acceptance."

  Zhu Yanghai and Hua Tianming, standing in the back row, also felt the pressure. Hua Tianming, as a genius sword user from the Ancient Hua Clan, felt the sword within his Sea of Consciousness respond to that sword will—a reaction of a weapon toward a newly awakened body.

  "Man-Sword Unity," Hua Tianming said flatly, yet his eyes radiated a burning flame of hope. "Twenty years in there, and he has stepped into that stage. The Xing Luo Plains have hope."

  Inside the mirror, Zhi Xuan's silhouette slowly raised its head. Although his face was not clearly visible, the silver aura surrounding his eyes seemed to pierce through dimensions, as if he were staring back at the Elders watching him from the outside.

  Suddenly, a deafening metallic clang echoed from within the mirror, forcing the Five Element cultivators to take several steps back. A giant, transparent illusory sword appeared above Zhi Xuan's silhouette, splitting the red clouds in the Secret Realm with one calm yet unstoppable sweep.

  "This world is a sword, and this sword is a world," Zhi Xuan's voice was heard traveling through the ripples of the mirror's energy, hoarse yet full of the authority of natural law.

  The echo of the voice slowly faded, leaving an oppressive silence at the Courtyard of Holy Light. Sage Qing Xuan stroked his white beard, his hand still feeling the vibration of the law just released by Zhi Xuan. However, behind the stunning enlightenment, something else began to churn, something that even escaped the Elders' observation.

  There, Zhi Xuan slowly returned to his form. His waist-length silver hair fluttered gently, and his black robe with red silk became clear again. His sapphire pupils stared at the reflection of his face on the dark blade of the Heavenly Sword. Man-Sword Unity had granted him an innate technique manifested from the Five Element realm.

  Zhi Xuan immediately dropped himself onto the field of flowers, sitting cross-legged and pulling the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron back into his palm. There, a small light glided out, and Mei Hua, who was still fast asleep, lay back in Zhi Xuan's lap. Zhi Xuan immediately took a cloth, delicately wrapping Mei Hua back to his chest, letting the girl remain asleep while hugging Lulu.

  After ensuring Mei Hua was safe near him, he formed a cultivation mudra and immediately withdrew the Heavenly Sword into his Sea of Consciousness. The scenery changed to a calmer one, where the sky was orange with a beautiful nebula. Near the Demon Tree of Life, Ruo Xianxue sat on a tree branch as usual, looking at her slender fingernails.

  Under the lush shade of the Demon Tree of Life's leaves that radiated a silvery glow, Ruo Xianxue no longer showed remnants of her annoyance from the meeting with Zhan Xianwang. She appeared calm, yet the gaze of her eyes, colored like the Sun and Moon, never left the figure of Zhi Xuan who had just appeared in the Sea of Consciousness.

  "Twenty years to realize that you are a steel blade that possesses a soul," Ruo Xianxue's voice flowed like a zither plucked in the silence of the night. "Not bad for a young man who usually only relies on blood and artifacts."

  Zhi Xuan stepped closer, each of his footsteps on the ground of consciousness now leaving ripples of a sword that purified the mists of doubt. "I did not just realize it, Great Saint. I felt what it was like to be an inanimate object that only knows how to cleave, and what it was like to be a life that carries the weight of celestial metal."

  Ruo Xianxue jumped down from the tree branch with the grace of an ancient fox. Her robe of darkness swept the floor of consciousness, creating a sharp contrast with the golden glow of the Xuan-Huang Energy that also resided there. She stopped right in front of Zhi Xuan, her cold fingers rising to touch the youth's forehead, exactly above the Slaughter Pillar.

  "Man-Sword Unity gives birth to innate techniques," Ruo Xianxue began, her double pupils of the Sun and Moon staring sharply. "Although this unity is a rare thing to be mastered by those who use the Sword, you have given birth to two innate techniques of the Heavenly Sword."

  Zhi Xuan fell silent, feeling a foreign pulse within his soul that now felt as sharp as a knife's edge. In the silence of his Sea of Consciousness, he could see two new energy vortexes glowing and circling around the Heavenly Sword which now resided in the center of his soul's nebula.

  "What do you mean by a rare thing?" Zhi Xuan asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked at Ruo Xianxue with curiosity. "I mean, was this enlightenment not just to give birth to innate techniques for the artifact and make the soul and the sword within me become one?"

  Ruo Xianxue withdrew her hand, crossing her arms in front of her chest while her dark tails moved slowly, parting the nebula mist surrounding them. She gave a smile that was more like a thin smirk full of ancient knowledge. "Many sword cultivators spend decades just to touch Man-Sword Unity, not just you."

  She stared at the Heavenly Samsara Wheel turning slowly, her Sun and Moon pupils radiating boredom. "However, it is very rare for cultivators who use the Sword, as you know. Yet here you are, uniting an Eternal Artifact with your body. Man-Sword Unity is an evolution of Sword Intent that is so pure. However, you do not possess Sword Intent."

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "You possess Slaughter Intent that does not require a Sword," Ruo Xianxue continued, her voice now lowering, "yet you forced that Slaughter Intent to flow into the path of the Heavenly Sword. The result? Two innate techniques from your enlightenment."

  Zhi Xuan was stunned. He closed his eyes, diving deeper into the center of his soul. There, beside the Heavenly Sword which was now pulsing in rhythm with his breath, two ancient characters began to form from silver and blood-red light. The rune characters were not still; they continued to spin, radiating a different aura from one another.

  "I mean, is this not Sword Intent?" Zhi Xuan murmured, opening his eyes again with a bit of annoyance. "This is Sword Intent, not my Slaughter Intent."

  Ruo Xianxue chuckled, the sound of her laughter like silver bells breaking the silence of the nebula. She stepped around Zhi Xuan, her dark tails sweeping the air, creating small vortexes that revealed the two rune characters that had just formed.

  "Foolish boy," Ruo Xianxue mocked, but her tone no longer contained insult, rather a deep sense of amusement. "Sword Intent is about sharpness, about speed, or about cleaving mountains. But look at what you have created. You do not cleave with your sword; you cleave with your slaughtering will to which you have given a vessel in the form of a blade."

  "But is this not Man-Sword Unity?" Zhi Xuan hissed. He still could not accept it if the Sword Intent forged here was put into the thick Slaughter Intent related to the Heavenly-Blood Body Law.

  Ruo Xianxue stopped her steps, standing directly behind Zhi Xuan, letting the cold scent of hell and the faint fragrance of peach blossoms envelop the youth. She leaned her body forward, whispering right into Zhi Xuan's ear with a voice that shook the foundation of consciousness.

  "You are too fixated on names, Zhi Xuan," Ruo Xianxue sighed with a breath that made Zhi Xuan shiver. "Know this, a sword is just a piece of cold metal until you give it a heartbeat. And the heartbeat you gave it is the Slaughter Intent that you have purified in twenty years of silence."

  Zhi Xuan shuddered and instinctively jumped to distance himself from Ruo Xianxue, his neck turning red. "Hey, do not whisper too close!"

  Ruo Xianxue laughed out loud, a rare sight for a ruler of the nine hells who usually only showed a cynical smile. She covered her lips with her wide robe sleeve, while her eyes, sparkling with mischief, continued to follow Zhi Xuan's awkward movements.

  "Look at you," Ruo Xianxue teased, her voice returning to calm yet still containing a dangerous allure. "You are able to stand tall under the rain of thousands of celestial swords without blinking, yet you tremble just from a bit of breath from this Great Saint? Your courage is truly selective, young man."

  Zhi Xuan cleared his throat loudly, trying to neutralize the rumbling in his chest that did not come from a sword technique, but from the unexpected closeness of the demonic entity. He shifted his gaze back to his soul's nebula, focusing on the two rune characters still spinning near the Heavenly Sword.

  "So," Zhi Xuan began again with a heavier voice, trying to regain authority over the conversation. "These two innate techniques..."

  Ruo Xianxue dampened her laughter, her face becoming serious again although a playful glint still remained in the corner of her eyes. She pointed to the first character which was pale silver, radiating an aura so silent that it seemed to absorb the sounds around it.

  "Yin-Yang Heavenly Dragon," Ruo Xianxue said. "Six Heavenly Dragons, worshipping Reincarnation. You questioned reincarnation, questioned Life and Death when you united them in Man-Sword Unity."

  Zhi Xuan was transfixed, then memories of the past re-entered his mind. "Is this not like the symbol of the Formation when we were previously at the Eternal Jade School? You called the Six Dragons Governing Reincarnation trash, because they were not even worthy of imitating the Six Paths of Reincarnation."

  Ruo Xianxue fell silent for a moment, her gaze wandering through the layers of the nebula as if she were looking back thousands of years ago when the sky was still intact and celestial dragons truly ruled the horizon.

  "It is true," Ruo Xianxue replied, her voice now carrying a heavy burden of history as well as annoyance. "Previously I called it trash because that formation was only a crude imitation of the eternal law. If it is trash, I say it is trash."

  Ruo Xianxue flicked her hand, as if throwing away the remnants of bitter memories about the imitation formation she had once cursed in the past. "Yin-Yang Heavenly Dragon: Cruel Heaven. You consider Heaven to be heartless, so you think Heaven is Cruel. This technique will summon Six Dragons that shake the depths of the Dao heart, as if their souls age after gazing upon these Six Dragons."

  "This attack carries the burden of Extreme Lightning and Fire, a manifestation of your Five Element realm," Ruo Xianxue continued, her voice low and calm. "With this, even an early-stage Soul Transformation would have difficulty fighting this attack that strikes the soul."

  Zhi Xuan stared at the silver rune character in awe. Inside it, he seemed to hear the roar of a dragon that did not come from the sky, but from the depths of a silent abyss. He imagined how the six dragons would manifest—not as majestic celestial protectors, but as executors bringing the wrath of a human who had been disappointed by fate.

  "Cruel Heaven," Zhi Xuan murmured, repeating the word with a bitter tone. "If even an early-stage Soul Transformation would have difficulty as you stated, then this technique is perfect for me."

  Ruo Xianxue shifted her gaze to the second rune character which was a deep blood-red, pulsing with a rhythm that was slower yet much heavier, as if each pulse squeezed the space around it.

  "And this one," Ruo Xianxue said, her face becoming very serious, "is the most dangerous. You do not need a Sword to use this technique. Because this is a Black Hole."

  The blood-red aura from the second character seemed to begin swallowing the nebula light around it. Zhi Xuan felt a different coldness creeping up his spine; this was not the coldness of ice, but a hollow coldness, as if his own existence was being pulled toward a point of bottomless nothingness.

  "Eternal Star: Everything Returns To Origin," Ruo Xianxue mentioned the name in a tone that almost resembled a whisper of worship. "Born from the silence after you accepted slaughter without denial, when your Dao Heart was holed with doubt about Reincarnation, when your cultivation slowed down due to the Xuan-Huang pressure and the Heavenly-Blood Body Law. From that, the hole in your Dao heart brought forth a dark vortex that swallows everything."

  Zhi Xuan stepped closer to the blood-red rune. The closer he stepped, the more silent his Sea of Consciousness became. The rustling of the Demon Tree of Life's leaves disappeared, and even the pulse of the Heavenly Samsara Wheel seemed silenced.

  Zhi Xuan reached out his hand, trying to touch the slowly pulsing blood-red rune. However, before his fingers actually made contact, the space at the tip of his fingers seemed to be pulled, elongating and sucked into the dark red vortex. There was no pain, only a void that pulled his entire consciousness, as if everything in his soul body begged to shatter and unite with that darkness.

  "My Dao Heart formed a hole?" Zhi Xuan murmured, staring vacantly at the blood-red rune. "My doubt brought a burden to my cultivation."

  Ruo Xianxue did not answer with harsh words as usual. She only looked at Zhi Xuan's back, which appeared sturdier yet held an invisible gap. She stepped slowly, her robe of darkness sweeping the nebula until she stood right beside Zhi Xuan, staring together at the terrifying blood-red rune.

  "Every practitioner seeks perfection, Zhi Xuan. They seek a Dao Heart that is round, unshakable like a mountain," Ruo Xianxue's voice sounded soft, almost like the whisper of a mother calming her frightened child. "But you... you are different. You did not try to patch that hole with lies to comfort yourself. You instead let that hole open, letting it see the honesty about the Bitterness of the Dao."

  Zhi Xuan clenched his hand, feeling the pulse of the Eternal Star resonate with his own heartbeat in the real world. "Everything returns to origin... If everything ends in this darkness, then what is the use of me continuing to walk? Does that not mean in the end, I will only become that nothingness itself?"

  Ruo Xianxue touched Zhi Xuan's shoulder, a physical contact that surprised the youth, but this time he did not move away. The Great Saint's hand felt very real, providing warmth that contrasted with the coldness of the Sea of Consciousness.

  "That black hole is not just about destruction, Zhi Xuan. Within nothingness, there are infinite possibilities. Your future is not yet written or is even blank," Ruo Xianxue looked into Zhi Xuan's sapphire eyes which were now mixed with silver and red. "This technique is a strongest technique in an equivalent realm."

  Zhi Xuan took a deep breath, trying to stabilize the turmoil in his soul. He felt Mei Hua's weight on his chest in the real world, a weight that gave him an anchor not to truly be sucked into his own Eternal Star technique.

  "Two techniques... one to destroy the soul with cruel celestial dragons, and one to swallow the body and law into nothingness," Zhi Xuan murmured. He then turned toward Ruo Xianxue, his face now calmer. "Thank you, Great Saint. Your explanation... although a bit threatening to my sanity, greatly helped me understand what happened to my body."

  Ruo Xianxue withdrew her hand, her nine tails fluttering and she gave a thin smile. "Well, this is still a technique. If your opponent is also in the Five Element realm, it will be very difficult to fight this Black Hole."

  "Because it will devour all attacks, even making everything drawn toward you and then exploding from within," Ruo Xianxue continued, her voice now more eager. "Look at your palm, feel it as part of your soul. Then, you will see what the form of the Black Hole inside your Dao Heart looks like."