2026-09-11 22:49:17
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In the middle of the stone debris, a bronze token fell to the ground. Tang.Zilong picked it up. The second token. The moment the token touched his palm, a thin light appeared for an instant before vanishing.“Master!” Tianyi’s voice was full of excitement. “Two tokens!”“Not yet.”“Not yet.” That flat answer immediately made Tianyi snort. “Master can never just be happy.”“We haven’t even met other participants yet.”“Oh… that’s true.”Zilong stored the token in his spatial ring. He had just been about to walk when Tianyi suddenly stopped speaking. The silence felt strange.“Tianyi?”Several breaths passed. Then Tianyi’s voice came very quietly. “There are humans.”Zilong’s gaze instantly sharpened. “How many?”“Three. About two hundred paces away. They’re walking together.”Without wasting time, Zilong suppressed his aura until it nearly vanished. He leapt lightly onto a large moss-covered rock, his body blending into the shadows of the mist.A few seconds later, three figures appea
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White mist still danced among the thousands of swords thrust into the earth. A mountain wind blew gently, yet every gust carried the nearly inaudible sound of metal, as if countless blades were clashing deep within the valley.Qing Zilong did not step forward immediately. He stood upright in the middle of the stone path, allowing all his senses to adjust to this foreign place. Silent. Yet it was not a peaceful silence it was a silence filled with pressure.His gaze slowly swept across the valley. Every sword that stood in the ground pointed in a different direction, as if thousands of swordsmen had once stood here and fallen without ever drawing their weapons free again. Zilong crouched slowly. His fingertips touched a long crack on the surface of the freezing stone.In an instant, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Not from fear, but because an understanding suddenly formed in his mind.“This crack… was not made by an ordinary cultivator.”The sword mark still retained s
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The creature vanished with startling speed. The stone sword appeared right in front of Zilong’s face.CLANG!Zilong tilted his body half a step. The slash merely grazed the tip of his hair, while the sword wind struck the rock behind him and split it cleanly in two.The Sword Puppet gave him no chance. It spun, and the stone sword came again from the side. Zilong stepped back one pace. The second attack passed, the third followed, then the fourth and fifth. Slash after slash cleaved the air without pause. Yet every time the blade was about to strike his body, Zilong was already no longer in the same place. His steps were extremely small, extremely economical, as if he already knew the direction of every slash even before the Sword Puppet moved.“Master!” Tianyi sounded anxious. “Why aren’t you attacking?”“Because I’m not finished watching.”“Watching what?”Zilong dodged another thrust as the stone sword slammed into the ground. “The pattern.” He turned lightly. “Look at its left foo
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White light swallowed Qing Zilong’s entire field of vision. There was no sound, no sensation of falling only silence that lasted a few seconds, until finally…Tap.The sole of his foot touched the ground. A cold wind immediately swept across his face, carrying a faint scent of iron mixed with damp earth. Zilong slowly opened his eyes. White mist hung low, covering most of the valley until visibility was limited to only a few dozen paces.He did not move. His gaze swept the surroundings first.The ground beneath his feet was no ordinary earth; its surface was covered in straight cracks like the marks of a thousand sword strikes, while the large rocks in the distance were split cleanly, as if once severed by a single, extremely sharp slash.The wind blew again.Shiiing… The faint sound of metal scraping against metal echoed, even though no one was nearby.“Sword aura,” Zilong thought. “Still lingering even after so many years.”Zilong raised his eyes. The mist drifted slowly, revealing
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Zilong’s spiritual perception carefully spread around him. It was true. There was a residual Qi wave hidden so neatly that it nearly blended perfectly with the shadows of the stone buildings.Concealing aura extremely well, Tianyi remarked inwardly. Not an ordinary participant. But… I don’t sense any killing intent. He’s only watching.Zilong exhaled a thin breath. Thankfully. I’m too lazy to start the morning by facing an enemy.Tianyi snorted lightly in his mind. Master is truly strange. An enemy comes and you call it troublesome.Because it is troublesome.Just keep watch. As long as he doesn’t disturb me, I have no problem.Alright.On the rooftop of a distant building, a figure in a pitch-black robe slowly took one step back. A pair of eyes remained locked on Qing Zilong’s back without making the slightest sound.The air in the courtyard suddenly grew heavy.WUUUNG!A pressing wave of Qi descended from the sky, causing all the participants to look up spontaneously. An elderly man
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The morning sun had just touched the peaks of the Heavenly Sword Mountains, piercing through the white mist that flowed slowly between the steep cliffs. At the same time, the nine giant bells in the main hall of the Heavenly Sword Sect rang in unison.DOOONG!DOOONG!DOOONG!The metallic vibrations shook the entire sect grounds. Spiritual birds scattered from the tree branches, while thousands of selection participants began moving closer toward the main courtyard, their heartbeats racing against time.Today, the second stage of the selection officially began, and only those who could survive in the Illusion Sword Valley would earn the right to step through the gates of greatness.Qing Zilong walked calmly along the stone path. His black robe fluttered gently in the mountain wind; his steps were light and without hesitation, as if he were simply walking toward his own courtyard rather than a selection arena that would decide the life and death of thousands of young cultivators.Behind
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