Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Sword Light Realm—Edge Is Born

Zhao Chun fought until her blood sang. When she finally broke out of the stone forest, the tablet beneath the pine tree immediately displayed:

Zhao Chun, mid Qi Refining Stage—half a ke!

The disciples resting nearby were stunned. They stared at the unfamiliar young woman—calm-faced, steady-breathed—then stared back at the clear words on the stone.

Half a ke.

Who was this, and why did she look so unfamiliar?

Zhao Chun only frowned. After reaching the sixth level, she could already achieve half a ke. If she wanted to improve again, she would likely have to refine Serpent-Form Step further.

Another thought rose instead. Speed might not climb much in the short term. But swordsmanship—there was room there.

The Threefold Stone Forest offered more than the Forest-Piercing Trial. There was another method as well: the Killing Run Trial, where one honed killing technique under a fixed time limit.

Zhao Chun returned to the pavilion, paid her Cui Stones again, and told Tu An, “Killing Run Trial.”

Tu An saw that she’d hit the same half a ke as last time and understood she needed a new approach. He recorded it without hesitation and directed her to the east of the Forest-Piercing Trial entrance—the two methods used different entry points.

The Killing Run Trial area was far less crowded.

That made sense. Forest-Piercing Trial was already dangerous; countless disciples emerged bloodied from it. Killing Run Trial was even more brutal. Without preparation, one would be forced out in a miserable state.

The sect seemed to acknowledge the danger. Although the time limit was one incense stick, a small array was set within the forest. If a disciple could not endure, they could retreat through the array—but their score would be void, and their twenty Cui Stones would not be refunded.

It was Zhao Chun’s first time attempting it. Before entering, she gathered her qi and shifted into an aggressive, killing-ready state.

The moment she stepped in, a black shadow flickered. She slashed without hesitation.

A Shadow Monkey gave her only half a breath before it attacked again. She killed one—two arrived. She killed two—three and four surged in.

Her Sword Light Realm glittered. Each time her blade landed, a Shadow Monkey burst apart.

The more she killed, the more poured in. Zhao Chun had to keep herself safe while cutting them down—footwork swift, strikes decisive, strength overwhelming.

She had no idea how many she slew. She didn’t dare spare focus to count. She only knew that after the ordinary Shadow Monkeys came stranger ones—bodies more condensed, speed and strength far greater. Cutting their bodies did nothing. Only a severed head ended them.

Once the ordinary Shadow Monkeys were gone, the strange ones multiplied. Zhao Chun forced herself to stay calm, ensuring her edge fell at the neck every time. The focus required was punishing.

When the incense burned down, Zhao Chun was expelled from the forest. She still held her sword in a ready stance, senses sharp, guarding her surroundings.

The tablet beneath the old pine showed:

Zhao Chun, mid Qi Refining Stage—318!

Only after reading the score did she sheathe her sword and steady her breathing.

Killing Run Trial was vastly harder. The later Shadow Monkeys had speed and strength that matched a sixth-level Qi Refining cultivator, and they fought with tactics—flanking, feints, lures. They were vicious.

And precisely because they were vicious, Zhao Chun felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time: pure exhilaration. In that fight, she’d used every sword move she knew. Compared to Forest-Piercing Trial, it was even more intoxicating.

This was a path for the sword.

Back when she first entered the cultivation world from a Small World, Zhao Chun had known almost nothing. She’d read until her understanding caught up.

Among cultivators—besides alchemists, artifact smiths, and talisman cultivators—there existed another kind: sword cultivators. Their basic cultivation was no different from anyone else’s, but they devoted themselves to the sword. Over time, that devotion carved out a great Dao of its own: the Sword Dao.

Sword masters were born for slaughter. Those who walked the Sword Dao naturally excelled in combat beyond most others.

Zhao Chun carried a Metal-Fire Spirit Root within her—violent, fierce, and ill-suited to softness. The Sword Dao fit.

More than that, the sword cultivator’s single-minded pursuit stirred something deep in her. Zhao Chun did not cultivate for wealth, for power, or even for long life. She wanted only to push herself to the limit and walk the road that reached the heavens.

The Sword Dao was the path she chose. Everything else was support. Only the sword in her hand was the straight road forward.

Back in her Small World, she had learned swordsmanship early. After coming here, her blade had begun to shine. When she first broke through to the fourth level of the Qi Refining Stage, she had already entered the Sword Light Realm. That alone proved the path suited her.

Sword cultivators had five realms: Sword Light Realm, Sword Radiance Realm, Sword Qi Realm, Sword Aura Realm, and Sword Intent. Zhao Chun had naturally drawn out Sword Light Realm during her cultivation, entering the first realm. If others knew, they would marvel at her talent.

Ordinary sword cultivators tempered the sword body in the Qi Refining Stage to enter Sword Light Realm. In the Foundation Establishment Stage, brilliance gathered at the sword tip, and Sword Radiance Realm was born.

Someone like Qiu Silhouette only achieved Sword Qi Realm—the third realm—after reaching the Essence Condensation Stage, and that was enough to make her shine at the Hundred Sects Assembly. As for those who manifested Sword Radiance Realm in the Qi Refining Stage and reached Sword Qi Realm by the Foundation Establishment Stage, they were innate sword cultivators—rare even in the Heng Yun world.

The higher the realm, the steeper the climb. Zhao Chun did not fear it. With her heart fixed on the sword, she could cut through any barrier.

After Sword Light Realm came Sword Radiance Realm. Brilliance condensed into a single point—into edge.

If Sword Light Realm was a sword’s sharpness, then Sword Radiance Realm was the sword’s direction.

Not power.

Precision.

That was exactly what Killing Run Trial demanded.

The strange Shadow Monkeys could only be killed by severing the head—forcing cultivators to strike vital points. Zhao Chun pressed her lips together. Others aimed for the neck. She would go further. She would strike between the brows, refining accuracy until it became absolute.

She returned to the pavilion and paid a hundred Cui Stones at once. Tu An understood immediately—she was going to bury herself in practice again.

After watching her obsession for months, he wasn’t surprised. But those around them stared.

On her second run, she managed only a little over a hundred kills. She didn’t rush. She entered again and again. When her attempts ran out, she paid several hundred Cui Stones in one go. The onlookers could only gape.

Her sixth run matched her first—320.

Her ninth run—500.

Her seventeenth—over a thousand.

Her forty-fifth—3,855.

Zhao Chun became a notorious oddity of the Threefold Stone Forest. She did not speak to anyone. From morning until night, she existed only for cultivation.

More frightening still, the mid Qi Refining Stage leaderboard for Killing Run Trial had once ended at 1,620. Zhao Chun had surpassed it long ago. With 3,855, she vaulted straight to sixty-third place.

She knew. She simply did not care. Her Sword Light Realm was compressing, hardening, gathering toward her sword tip. The moment of breakthrough was close. How could she afford distraction?

A month slipped by.

Even the strange Shadow Monkeys could no longer trap her. Then a new kind appeared—red-tailed Shadow Monkeys, no weaker than late Qi Refining opponents.

At last, as Zhao Chun drove her blade cleanly into a red-tailed Shadow Monkey’s brow, Sword Light surged through her. At the sword tip, a sharp edge flared into being—bright, fierce, undeniable.

At the sixth level of the Qi Refining Stage, Zhao Chun broke into the second realm of the Sword Dao—

Sword Radiance Realm!

This time she killed exactly 7,300.

Nineteenth place.

In two thousand years of the Ling Zhen Sect’s history, she had entered the top twenty of the mid Qi Refining Stage Killing Run Trial.