399: Chapter 399 Sword Soul Hall

Gao Feng turned around and looked at the door.

The bluestone path behind the door was dyed dark gold by the twilight, and the distant main peak loomed indistinctly amidst the clouds.

He walked toward the door, his steps not fast, but without hesitation. Behind him, Situ Lan supported Lin Jingyu, Chu Lan pulled Tianxin, Su Ning held Luo Li's music score, and Yaoguang carried one of Lin Yue's arms over her shoulder, supporting him as they followed step by step.

With every step, a sword light on the stone steps beneath their feet would tremble slightly, as if ancient Sword Intent was making way for them.

The entrance to the eighth trial was higher up the main peak; at the end of the stone steps was a simple stone hall. Three characters were carved above the hall door—Sword Soul Hall. The door was not closed, and the inside was pitch black, making it impossible to see clearly. Elder Li stopped outside the door, with no intention of entering.

"This is the test before the final trial. Within the Sword Soul Hall sleep the sword souls of ancient Sword Cultivators; you need to gain the recognition of at least one sword soul." He paused, "After entering, do not offend the sword souls. Their cultivation during their lifetime was at least at the Nascent Soul Stage. The standards for recognition are determined by them. The method of recognition is determined by them. You can only accept it."

He didn't mention whether the Conservatives would tamper with things. But this sentence itself was a warning.

Gao Feng crossed the threshold and stepped into the Sword Soul Hall.

The interior of the hall was much larger than it appeared from the outside. The dome was immeasurably high, and dozens of stone platforms stood on both sides, each with a ball of light floating upon it. The colors of the light varied—silver-white, blue-gray, dark gold, and crimson. Those were the sleeping forms of the ancient sword souls, each ball of light containing extremely profound Sword Intent.

As soon as the nine of them stepped in, those lights flickered simultaneously.

The next moment, a wave of hostility surged from all directions. Those sword souls sensed the presence of living beings; it wasn't curiosity or scrutiny, but rejection. Sword Intent surged like a tide, purer and denser than the Sword Qi in the Sword Domain, seeping in from every direction and every crack.

"Something's not right," Su Ning's voice rang out in the silent hall. She wasn't describing a result but stating a judgment.

She closed her eyes and sent out her spiritual sense, using space techniques to perceive the spatial fluctuations around them. After a moment, she opened her eyes: "A Formation has been set up in the hall, a Soul-Bewildering Formation, specifically to make these sword souls hostile toward outsiders. It wasn't set up recently; the Formation patterns have existed for at least several days."

No one asked who did it. The answer was self-evident.

Tianxin took several Delusion-Breaking Talismans from her sleeve. The Talismans burned at her fingertips, turning into a wisp of green smoke that drifted in all directions. The green smoke outlined the patterns of the Formation in the void—dense lines interwoven into a large net covering the entire hall, every line glowing slightly like blood vessels. Those were the nodes of the Soul-Bewildering Formation.

Chu Lan crouched on the ground, her palm pressed against the floor. Spiritual power spread along the earth veins, investigating the direction of the Formation patterns and the positions of the Formation bases.

"The core of the Soul-Bewildering Formation is in the center of the hall, with the Formation base buried three feet underground. The Formation patterns cover the entire hall; all patterns must be severed for the Formation to fail." Chu Lan's spiritual sense swept over the nodes revealed by the Delusion-Breaking Talismans, a plan already formed in her mind.

Lin Yue stood behind the others, his hands forming Seals as the Rock Demon Phantom condensed once more. The phantom's arms spread wide, isolating a portion of the hall's Formation patterns from their energy supply. Deprived of spiritual power, those patterns gradually dimmed.

But Lin Yue alone could not sever all the patterns. Su Ning used Space Cutting to peel the dimmed patterns away from the main Formation, while Chu Lan sealed the peeled patterns one by one to prevent them from reconnecting.

Tianxin's Delusion-Breaking Talismans revealed more and more nodes. With every pattern severed, the hostility of those sword souls lessened by a degree. Initially, the Sword Intent had surged like a tide, almost suffocating them; but as the patterns were broken one by one, the Sword Intent gradually withdrew.

When the last Formation base was sealed by Chu Lan, the entire hall trembled slightly. The light emitted by those sword souls turned from dim to bright, their hostility completely vanishing, replaced by a calm scrutiny.

The silver-white ball of light in the center of the hall rose slowly, leaving the stone platform. The light condensed into a humanoid phantom in the air—a middle-aged man dressed in white, with a lean face and a peaceful gaze, an ancient-styled longsword hanging at his waist.

Gao Feng recognized his attire—a Disciple of the Seven Star Sword God. There was a portrait of him in the ancient records of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

"Thank you." The phantom spoke, his voice not loud but echoing in the empty hall. "We have been trapped by this Formation for many days, and the hostility we felt toward you was not our intention. Since you have broken the Formation, I shall fulfill my duty as a guardian."

His gaze fell on Gao Feng: "You, step forward."

Gao Feng walked to the center of the hall and stood before the phantom, cupping his fists in greeting. The phantom did not return the gesture, but simply looked at him for a long time.

"What is the Dao of the Sword?" the phantom asked.

Gao Feng was silent for a moment. He didn't use flowery language or quote classics; he simply said: "To protect those I love."

The phantom neither nodded nor shook his head. He looked at Gao Feng for another moment, then extended a finger and made a stroke in the void. A silver-white sword light shot from his fingertip and entered the space between Gao Feng's eyebrows. The moment the sword light entered his body, Gao Feng felt an extremely pure Sword Intent surge into his Sea of Consciousness, resonating with the first five forms of the Nine Styles of Heavenly Sword taught by Jian Chen.

The sixth form—Sky Breaking Slash.

"This form has no fixed moves, only a single strand of Sword Intent. How and when to use it depends on the swordsman's own judgment. If you understand it, you understand it; if not, memorizing countless mantras will be useless. You have gained my recognition." The phantom withdrew his finger, his figure gradually fading and turning back into a silver-white ball of light, returning to the stone platform.

Gao Feng stepped back a few paces to his teammates' side, saying nothing.

With the recognition of the first sword soul, the rest became much easier.

In front of Tianxin was a blue-gray ball of light. The light condensed into a phantom in the air—an old man holding a Talisman sword, his gaze sharp like a hawk's. He stared at Tianxin for a moment, his gaze falling on the corner of a Talisman peeking out from her sleeve. "Dual Cultivation of Talismans and Swords?"

Tianxin nodded.

"Draw a Talisman." The phantom seemed to be testing a Disciple.

Tianxin took a blank Talisman paper and a Talisman brush from her sleeve, dipped the tip in cinnabar, and drew a Talisman pattern she had never shown before—it was the Sword Heart Talisman she had developed through repeated deductions alone in her Immortal Cave after her revenge in the Shadow Realm. The moment the pattern was finished, a faint sword hum emanated from the paper.

The phantom reached out, and the Talisman paper flew from the ground into his hand. He examined it for a moment before returning it to Tianxin: "You have gained my recognition."

In front of Luo Li was a crimson ball of light. The light condensed into a phantom—a woman in a red dress, holding a seven-stringed ancient zither in her arms. She glanced at Luo Li: "Play a piece."

Luo Li sat cross-legged with the flowing sound zither across her knees. Her ten fingers touched the strings, and she played a melody no one had heard before. Within the piece was the moonlight of Tianyin Pavilion, the sound of the wind in Meteor Valley, the waves of the Star Sea, and the sword hums from the trials in the Heavenly Sword Sect these past days. She integrated all her experiences along the way into this piece. When the music ended, the woman's phantom nodded: "Though it is not the Dao cultivated by sword souls, there is Sword Intent in your melody; it will do." She extended a finger and plucked the air. An invisible sound wave entered Luo Li's forehead; it was also a sword move, using sound as a sword.

In front of Lin Jingyu was a dark gold ball of light; the phantom was a one-armed Sword Cultivator with a cold face and a gaze like a blade. He didn't ask Lin Jingyu any questions, but simply said: "Strike with your sword." Lin Jingyu drew his sword and thrust.

The sword was fast. Faster than when he was in the Sword Tablet Forest, faster than when he sparred with Situ Lan before the gates of the Heavenly Sword Sect. This strike contained not only the speed of the Heaven Breaking Nine Swords but also the ancient Sword Intent he had comprehended from the thirty-six stone tablets in the Sword Tablet Forest, as well as the ten-thousand-year heritage of the Dao of the Sword he had felt in the Heavenly Sword Sect these days. The one-armed Sword Cultivator phantom watched the strike, his gaze shifting slightly. After a long time, he said: "Fast enough. You pass."

The sword soul before Situ Lan was the last one.

She was a phantom condensed from blue light, a middle-aged woman with a gentle temperament, yet an indiscernible trace of fortitude between her brows. When Situ Lan saw her, her body trembled imperceptibly. She recognized this phantom—a Senior recorded in the annals of the Heavenly Sword Sect, the creator of the Aurora Sword Art, and also the Grandmaster of Situ Lan's lineage. The phantom looked at Situ Lan, her gaze lingering for a moment on the azure phoenix sword at her waist.

"You practice the Aurora Sword Art?"

"Yes."

"The Heavenly Sword Sect does not recognize this sword technique; why do you still practice it?"

Situ Lan was silent for a long time. The hall was very quiet; even the breathing of the sword souls could not be heard. Finally, she spoke: "Because I have seen someone's sword that does not seek to be the fastest or the strongest, but only to protect those around them. Such a sword will also grow brighter and brighter. My sword technique is not fast enough, so I will make it faster. Not to prove anything, but just to be able to keep up with their footsteps."

The phantom looked at her, the expression in her eyes changing from scrutiny to softness, and finally to relief. "The Aurora Sword Art was meant to be like this," she said. A blue light flew from the phantom's palm and entered Situ Lan's forehead. It wasn't a sword move, but a higher-level Mind-Cultivation Technique of the Aurora Sword Art. No one in the Heavenly Sword Sect could teach it anymore; only she, the creator, still possessed it.

The sword souls in the hall returned to silence, no longer communicating with them. The nine of them stood in the center of the hall for a moment, and after confirming there were no other tests, they turned to walk toward the hall door.

Gao Feng walked at the front and stopped at the hall door. He didn't look back, but said: "Su Ning, if not for your Space Retrospection, we might not have made it here."

Su Ning walked behind him and was slightly stunned upon hearing this. She looked up at Gao Feng's back, then at her teammates. Her gaze was very light, like a sigh, yet also like a weight being lifted. She rarely showed a slight smile, the curve of her lips small, but everyone saw it. "I only did what I should have done." After saying this, she walked past Gao Feng and stepped into the twilight outside the hall.