Chapter 8

In the dark room, Ai Hui, who was sitting against the wall with his sword in his arms, slowly opened his eyes.

The moment his eyes, deeper than the night, opened, it seemed as if a cold flash of light swept through the dark room. This sharp, cold light flashed and disappeared, and Ai Hui returned to his harmless appearance.

It had been some time since he left the wilderness, and he still wasn't used to sleeping in a bed.

He checked the sword embryo seed that had been nurtured in his body for three years, and found no changes.

He put down the grass sword he was holding, and the感应 of the sword embryo in his body disappeared. For a while, he had been overly dependent on the sword embryo, always keeping his sword at hand. Later, he realized that this could make him lose his vigilance, so he forced himself to only touch his sword during battles and night watches.

Ai Hui had his own unique strengths that allowed him to survive intact in the wilderness. The seed of the sword embryo was his greatest reliance.

On the third day of entering the wilderness, he almost lost his life. From that moment on, he began to pursue power with a mad passion. Only by having power could he survive in the cold wilderness. He had no one to turn to for help, and the yuan cultivators never showed any kindness to laborers. Ai Hui was not the kind of person who could be clever and ingratiating.

When beasts are cornered, they often burst with more powerful strength than usual, and the same goes for humans.

Ai Hui was like a drowning man, desperately trying to grab any straw he could.

For example, the sword canons in his mind. The disappearance of spiritual energy had caused the collapse of the cultivation world, and the era of cultivators was gone forever. However, the accumulation of a million years was profound, and the development of the cultivation system was far beyond what people today could imagine.

Body cultivation, array formations, alchemy, the five elements, necromancy, and so on, all kinds of bizarre and varied practices. Abundant and easily usable spiritual energy, combined with human imagination, gave birth to the most brilliant, magnificent, and vast cultivation system in history.

But even such a brilliant and complex cultivation system, sword cultivators were always the most dazzling pearls. In any era of the cultivation world, the most powerful experts always included sword cultivators.

In those days, the appearance of a significant sword canon would often trigger a storm of blood and rain. Now, they are buried in piles of old papers and garbage, worthless.

Sword cultivators were the largest group of cultivators, and naturally, there were many strange and bizarre things.

Sword canons that required spiritual energy were the first to be excluded by Ai Hui. These canons were often from major sects and orthodox schools, and in the era of abundant spiritual energy, how to use spiritual energy more effectively was the main path. Then, he excluded the canons he couldn't understand. There were countless obscure and difficult canons, and although Ai Hui had read an astonishing number of sword canons and could be considered a half-expert, there were still many he couldn't understand. Some were deliberately obscure, and some were too ancient.

After multiple layers of screening, there were still some sword canons.

If placed in the cultivation era, these canons would all be considered heretical and would be denounced by a straightforward orthodox expert as demonic.

Even though he had read them before, Ai Hui was still terrified. These canons were bizarre and unpredictable, completely beyond the limits of normal human imagination. For example, one canon used the seven emotions and six desires of the cultivator to enter the sword, ultimately cutting off emotions and desires to achieve the supreme sword path. Another was the Nightmare Demon Sword Canon, where the cultivator used secret techniques to sleep in a large coffin, refining the sword in nightmares. When fully cultivated, the sword would return from the virtual to the real, possessing its own divine power.

Before, reading these canons was just for entertainment, and he didn't have much feeling. Now, the thought of cultivating these canons made him shudder.

Finally, Ai Hui found a canon that didn't seem too bizarre or heretical. This canon had no name, was incomplete, and only talked about how to plant a sword embryo.

After careful study, Ai Hui roughly understood the meaning of the sword embryo path. It was actually quite simple: the physical body has a limit, but the spirit, energy, and mind have no limits. However, the spirit, energy, and mind are intangible and scattered like mist, with no killing power. The founder of this canon proposed an extremely interesting idea: the physical body is like a scabbard, and the spirit, energy, and mind are the true sword.

And how to condense the intangible spirit, energy, and mind into a sword? The canon provided a very unique idea: since the spirit, energy, and mind are hard to condense, use them as soil to nurture the seed of the sword embryo.

Compared to other canons, this one seemed much more normal.

Without hesitation, Ai Hui began to cultivate according to the canon and successfully planted the seed of the sword embryo.

If he were in a sword cultivator's training ground, he would never take such a risk. But in the wilderness, what was there to hesitate about? Every day, people fell, and he didn't know if he could survive the next day. The so-called risks were not worth mentioning. He was more concerned about whether the sword embryo was useful.

Surviving was the most important thing.

Three years passed, and he survived the wilderness and entered the induction field.

The seed of the sword embryo was still a seed, with no movement or change.

Ai Hui was quite calm and composed about this. Being able to help him survive the wilderness was worth it, and he had no unrealistic expectations for the sword embryo. The canon was incomplete, and there were no words about how to cultivate further.

In the cultivation era, canons emphasized the convergence of all streams, and no matter how bizarre or heretical a canon was, it would eventually return to the concept of spiritual energy. He estimated that the subsequent cultivation would also be inseparable from spiritual energy.

Sword cultivation was outdated, and the basis for cultivation was a worthless canon. He was not a boss, obsessed with canons, and didn't think sword cultivation was great.

He didn't even think about the subsequent cultivation of the sword embryo.

Although the canon said that sitting in meditation with a sword could nourish the seed of the sword embryo, the more important thing was that holding a sword in meditation was beneficial for night vigilance.

The sword embryo was very mysterious. When he had a sword in his hand, the sword embryo would be activated. When the sword embryo was activated, his senses would become abnormally sharp, and he would be aware of any slight movement around him. Later, many yuan cultivators knew he was good at vigilance, and night watch became one of his main tasks.

This was also the reason he could get some of the spoils, even if they were just scraps.

Holding a sword in meditation replaced sleep, and he persisted for three years.

At that time, he shivered in the cold wind and mud, and now he spent the night in a warm and safe room.

He was very content and felt very happy.

Today was the first day of classes, and he was full of anticipation. After receiving 50,000 yuan, he didn't go out for the next two days.

The sky outside the window was dark, and the faint light was cold, with some time before dawn.

Ai Hui jumped out of bed with great agility, his bare feet stepping on the carpet. He moved like a sensitive feline, each action silent. The carpet was made of rough and hard palm grass, which was a bit prickly, but Ai Hui didn't notice. He didn't turn on the light, and the faint light from the window allowed him to see everything clearly in the room.

Borrowing the faint light, he began to wash and brush his teeth in the dark room.

He had already gotten used to the darkness, a gift from the wilderness. In the perilous wilderness, any tiny light could put him in danger.

He skillfully disarmed the simple trap behind the door, pushed open the wooden door, and the cold air filled his lungs, invigorating him.

In the faint light, the quiet training ground made him feel as if he had returned to the sword cultivator's training ground. A familiar feeling spread through his body, and the cold air seemed to become sweet. His stiff, angular face softened, and a long-lost warm smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

He began to draw water and mop the floor, his movements light and quick.

His body's memory was quickly awakened, and his movements quickly became smooth and proficient.

The sun had not yet risen, and Ai Hui had already finished cleaning. He didn't even wipe the sweat, and looking at the spotless training ground, he felt genuine satisfaction and joy.

Looking at the clean training ground, he was reluctant to step on it.

In the three years in the wilderness, he had crawled and rolled in swamps, mud, decaying leaves, and dead branches. Encountering rotten monster corpses was a common occurrence, and his clothes were stained with blood, which over time turned into dark brown spots, whether from beasts or himself.

Stepping on the clean wooden floor, the familiar feeling returned.

The spotless, quiet training ground was like a dream deep in his heart.

After the first two days of adjustment, Ai Hui began to slowly like this life. If he could continue living like this, it would be nice, and he even had such thoughts.

Realizing his naivety, Ai Hui smiled, turned back to the room to pack his things, and his schedule was tight.

The seed of the sword embryo helped him survive the wilderness, but that was not worth mentioning. In the cultivation of yuan energy, he was far behind others and faced much more pressure.

The rules of the induction field were very strict. If one did not open their innate yuan palace within a year or achieve minor perfection within five years, they would be expelled from the induction field. If the student was from the Five Elements Heaven, their parents would be held responsible for poor education. If the student was from the Old Earth, they would lose the qualification to enter the Five Elements Heaven and be sent back to the Old Earth.

Achieving minor perfection also required leaving the induction field, as it meant you were qualified to become a registered yuan cultivator.

Five years was the longest time the induction field could offer. In fact, Ai Hui only had four years. The induction field had another rule: all students must leave once they turned twenty.

Time was running out, and if he wanted to control his fate, he had to work harder.

If you are too lowly, then try to stand on your tiptoes.

The sun on the horizon dyed the sky with a cold blue, reflecting in the air. He packed his things, chewed on a blade of grass, slung an old cloth bag over his shoulder, and walked out of the training ground gate, bathed in the morning clouds and blue sky.

The morning street was quiet, without the noise of the day or the lights of the night. It had not yet awakened. The first ray of sunlight, crossing mountains and rivers, penetrated the roof and cast the first light spot on the street.

Ai Hui liked the sunlight.

In the wilderness, the time before dawn was the most dangerous. Ambushes often happened at that time, the time of the most intense death and blood.

But when the sunlight passed through the dew on the grass, the wild beasts and savages would retreat like a tide, and the savage wilderness would return to peace and tranquility.

The school was not too far from the training ground, but it was not close either.

As he got closer to the school, the students became more numerous. The bustling crowd was very unfamiliar to Ai Hui. Their young faces were full of vitality and hope, and Ai Hui envied them. Their faces showed no signs of the blood-soaked沧桑 or the instinctive vigilance that came from experiencing slaughter.

They were pure and flawless, their youth beautiful.

Ai Hui felt out of place, and he chewed the grass harder, letting the bitterness and grassy smell spread in his mouth.

For them, the induction field was a school, but for him, it was a new battlefield.

He told himself that survival was more important than beauty.

He took a step forward and walked into the school.

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